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11 March 2006

Skal!

Scandinavia holds an allure...Maybe it's photographs of fjords and inlets, maybe it's the bluer than blue skies, maybe it's the men. I don't know, but for several years Sweden, Finland and Norway have made it to the top of my travel list.

Unfortunately time and money are issues, so I've made do with culinary travels. PBS has a lovely cooking series called New Scandinavian Cooking--I try and catch it when I can. Several months ago I found the companion cookbook, Kitchen of Light, in one of our large and schlock-filled national bookshop and picked it up.

All it did was make me want to travel even more.

Oh well.

The book is filled with wonderful recipes--soups, lamb, mackerel, various berries and of course, certain libations. Apart from aquavit, there's a section on snaps--flavoured vodkas--which traditionally blurred the lines between medicine and alcohol. Medicine/drink...within appropriate dosages, it's a very yummy thing.

Making your own snaps is probably the easiest thing you can do. The trick it so get a good and neutral-flavoured vodka and infuse it with with flowers, herbs, spices or citrus that you like. The alcohol draws out their flavour and occasionally colour. Sample it every day or two until it's ready by your palate and then, if you wish, you can remove the flavouring agents or just keep them in the bottle.

This recipe is taken from Kitchen of Light by Andreas Viestad. All you have to do is leave the spices in the bottle for as long as you wish.

Snaps with Cinnamon and Cardamom

Ingredients
1L bottle of good, neutrally flavoured grain vodka
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods.


Skal!
jasmine

tags:

Timmys count: 31 coffees; 2 free coffees
at

4 comments:

  1. Erin S.11 March, 2006 23:04

    Sounds yummy--and shockingly easy. Any recommendations on how to drink? Alone on the rocks? Or mixed with something? Hmmmm....

    ReplyDelete
  2. jasmine13 March, 2006 22:19

    Hi Erin

    Hmmm...I like my vodkas without ice...you know...I'm thinking this might be really good mixed with a coffee or tea...

    A really potent chai...

    hmmm....

    j

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous05 April, 2006 22:09

    Tak! (I think that's thank you in Swedish ...)

    Do you know when this show is on Jasmine? I was so delighted. I was looking through your archives and found this and realized that I was reading about this show somewhere else.

    I've never seen it so that's why I'm asking.

    ReplyDelete
  4. jasmine05 April, 2006 22:35

    Hi Ivonne

    If you get WNED-TV (Buffalo PBS), it's on Saturday mornings (I think some time between 10:30am and 1pm)..I want to say 11...but I'm not 100% sure.

    j

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by.

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