This month has been quick. I've done a *lot* of going out, to Proms and theatres, and it has felt entirely wonderful. Now it's time for the new school year, it's conference season (I haven't done an in-person one since All This Gubbins, now I'm doing two in one month). And I'll be honest, despite a quiet patch at work as other people are absent so meetings are fewer, it hasn't exactly felt like a holiday month. I feel like I'm gearing up for another apocalypse, though this one is at least partly in the bank account. I've decided to repeat my menus challenge for 2023, reversing the order of the months/cuisines, but it feels like there's going to need to be even more root veg with interesting spices, and less reliance on premium anything.
So I'm glad I've had a summer Scandi-Baltic month before all that, because this isn't entirely a budget cuisine. It's also not a vegan cuisine, so my veg-forward was even more strained than usual. But it's been good for the hot weather, lots of smallish, coldish dishes and light eating. Mainly recipe books Scandikitchen, and the Baltic one Amber and Rye, for northern perspectives.
There have been salads:
A beetroot and apple one
A grains and artichoke one
Open sandwiches:
New potato with aioli on rye with chives
Egg and prawn
Chicken with basil, and white asparagus, on rye again
Diabolical fruit soup (singular, so boring I put cake decorations in to gee it up):
Pancakes with fruit instead of dinner:
Delicious fried things:
Salmon burgers with capers and other goodness, best served in pitta bread with dill yoghurt. I spared you a process photo in which you mix a few bits of salmon with mayo and seasoning to make a regrettable pink goo to glue the thing together.
Latkes with kielbasa and spinach
Fish fingers inna bun (with a dill-caper salsa, lest you doubt its Scandiness - it comes from Solo, a useful one person cookbook).
And a very autumnal month-end: duck breast with roast squash, with walnuts and redcurrants, and a few bits of fennel. This was excellent, dressed with paprika and maple syrup (or birch sap if you have some handy). Almost reconciled to the darker evenings.
Oh, and a strawberry-balsamic gastrique, because why the hell not? That's a heck of a summer-ender. If not noticeably baltic.
German, next month. Assuming I don't catch something terrible before I get to cook. People. At conference. With company. Who'd have thought?
Brilliant that you've been able to get out and do fun summer things. Smallish cold dinners during the hot weather sounds eminently sensible. I did a roast the other day and wondered what the hell was I thinking! Putting cake decorations in the dull fruit soup made me laugh - freestyling is that's what cooking is all about! You really can't go wrong with fish fingers in a bun. And that duck breast sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the conference, I hope it's not too full of people with lurgy!
BTW, I don't think the email letting people know there is a new post is going out any more. I only found this post because I was checking back to see if I'd already posted about a particular recipe I cooked last week-turned out I had. Just thought I'd flag. :)