Norwegian Kringla
August 20, 2009
Perhaps it’s because I feel such tremendous change on the horizon (hello LSAT!) but recently I’ve had this heightened interest in getting in touch with my roots. And, since when I say “roots” I really only mean “eating lots of food from places I’m from” I’ve been hankering to do some Norwegian baking!
This sudden interest in my heritage has the added bonus of meaning I get to eat lots of things that don’t have calories… since I’m sure it goes without saying that when you eat for educational and cultural enrichment purposes there aren’t really any calories involved.
So in honor of this new interest I decided to throw a little potluck party last weekend (co-hosted by Chris, of course!) where everybody had to cook and bring a food from where they’re from!
I put the invitation I sent out to the above right. The text spacing looks weird because I had to take my address out for this (obviously!)
So for the event I decided to use one of my new Norwegian cooking books (thanks mom!) and make Norwegian Kringla. “What’s kringla” you ask? Well after extensive Internet research I’m confident saying it seems to mean a lot of different things! In my case it’s a sweeter bread with anise seeds in it shaped like figure 8s. So I could see it being served sort of like a dessert but it really isn’t sweet enough to be a dessert that would be very satisfying to me at least! However, it would be great with a very thin layer of frosting on top. Almost just a sweet glaze. The danger of course is over powering the delicate anise flavoring and generally airy bread feel its got going on.
Anyway! To the recipe! (From a book you really should get)
Ingredients:
2 packages of active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (between 105 and 115 F) [don’t get too hot or you’ll kill the yeast!]
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter [though next time I’ll try not melting it, since Chris is convinced it’s better not to]
1 cup light cream [I used half and half]
1 tablespoon anise seeds crushed [I mostly crushed them but it really doesn’t matter either way. Though the aromatics produced by crushing make it worth your time!]
2 eggs, room temperature
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
melted butter to brush on top of finished (and delicious) kringla.
A few dashes of sugar to sprinkle on top of finished (and delicious) butter-glazed kringla
Official Directions:
In large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water. Add 1 Tablespoon of the sugar and let stand until yeast foams, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining sugar, butter, cream, anise seed, and eggs. Beat well. Stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well to keep mixture smooth and satiny. All of the flour should be moistened. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease lightly. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Cut it into pieces the size of large walnut. Roll out to strands about 8 inches long. Twist into figure-8s. Place on baking sheets. Let rise 1 hour until puffy. Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake for 15 minutes until golden. Brush baked kringla with melted butter. These are best served just out of the oven.
My slight changes to said directions/ suggestions for improvements:
- You must must must check on the kringla in the oven. In my case they only needed to be baked for 8 minutes. Any more and they most certainly would have burnt. Also, I personally think they’re more delicious if you make them a little bigger than the recipe suggests. Probably more delicious because you get more per serving!
- I’d really recommend (like I mentioned) whipping up a perhaps powdered sugar based glaze and trying it on top of a few. I think it’s really hit the spot!
- Next time I might add just a dash of vanilla and cardamom.
- Next time I’ll definitely make more. The minute I put them out on the table they were snached up! Some people didn’t even get one!
The party was a success (I’d say a party lasting from 6PM till about 1:30AM classifies as a success!) and I had a great opportunity to test out my hand at baking. Some of the highlights from the party include: Chris’ ceviche (with authentic Peruvian flavors thanks to our close proximity to the Mission), Eric’s "bangers and mash” (look, I didn’t name it!), and Esther’s fried rice (god I love fried rice with all the little goodies in it!) Oh! And Chris’ friends Casey and Jake brought some really yummy noodle dish that tasted more like apple pie.
Expect more cooking-apades in the future!
Restaurant Review: Donato Enoteca
June 27, 2009
I’ve decided that the time has come for me to embrace my first love, food, a bit more fully. More concretely, that means I’m going to start reviewing restaurants I go to and dishes I help make!
First up we have the very newly opened Donato Enoteca in Redwood City. Chris and I suffered through the Giro de Peninsula on Saturday (suffered because it was over 100 degrees for a significant portion of it - and 100 degrees when climbing is not fun) and decided that trying a brand spanking new restaurant would be a good way to treat ourselves. So I booked a reservation on OpenTable and we were on our way!
What we got (see whole dinner menu here)
Munchin’ Bread:
- The bread they bring out is totally yummy, though the spread most certainly had olives in it (which Chris didn’t mind but I did). The bread was certainly yummy enough to eat on its own, though. Very cool airy yet doughy with a firm darkened crust.
Appetizer:
Prosciutto e Pinzin (Traditional Emilia-Romagna dumplings with 18 month aged prosciutto) ($9)
This was sort of an uninspired beginning. The “dumplings” were, as Chris said, “like an empty thin crust empanada.” Or, for those of us who have never knowingly eaten a so called “empanada” it was just sort of dry puffed-out nada. Now, the prosciutto on top was delicious but what about the whole dish? The two pieces didn’t integrate for me at all. It was like a dry hollow puffy bread thing to the left and super yummy prosciutto to the right. I’d recommend you pass on that one.
Main Course:
Bigoli (small tube pasta with braised ox tail and asparagus tips) ($14)
- Portion size: too small (if you are hungry this will not be enough to make you happy)
- Other than the size of the dish it was quite tasty. Chris was totally digging the braised ox tail and its yummy juices flavored the dish nicely. The only complaint other than its size – not enough asparagus.
Tagliata di agnello (Lamb with balsamic reduction (I believe) and vegetables (brussels sprouts, carrots, green beans)) ($19)
- Portion size: lovely
- This was definitely the winner in my eyes (finally I choose well!) The lamb was seriously delicious, nicely cooked (perhaps just a hair overcooked on the sides). The only complaint has to do with the vegetables. The flavoring over them masks the taste of each (except the brussels sprouts, which Chris said were way too overpowering for the dish). I thought they were tasty and nice from a consistency/feel perspective but would have appreciated a little more of their natural flavors coming through. Just a little more! The sort of corn-o-meal pancake things were good for soaking up the little left over juices, too. Overall the lamb was quite delicious. I definitely would have eaten more!
Dessert:
Tiramisu ($9)
- I took two pictures because I was so surprised by this one! It was really a sort of tiramisu pudding. Still tasty but if you’re looking for (what I at least took to be classic tiramisu consistency) be prepared to be surprised.
Overall the meal was lovely and the price was much more reasonable than I thought it would be.
First food review: complete!