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:Scandinavia Vodka

Timmys count: 31 coffees; 2 free coffees