Flippin' Burgers

Stockholm finally has its very own really good burger joint. Flippin' Burgers opened a little while ago, and quickly got super-hyped, and super-swamped - no reservations, so be prepared to wait. Or come early, they open at 5 pm and we got a table right away.



Flippin' Burgers is owned by Jon who felt that we should get some really good burgers in Sweden. Where to get inspiration? The US, of course. So he went on a long road trip, and ate 64 burgers over 38 days, all to find perfection. He came home, decided to open a restaurant, and used crowd funding to get some money for it. Impressive story! And - much more important - impressive burgers.



The menu is simple. Burgers. Fries. Milkshakes. Get all three. I chose a Cricket burger with cream cheese, pickled onions and jalapeños (which I gave to Per, I'm not a fan), and Per went for the classic double burger. We were both really happy. The meat was freshly ground, seasoned and cooked just right. The burgers were really juicy, and super-flavorful. We had to try the shakes, made from Ben & Jerry's ice cream - amazing. The fries are not made from scratch, but were hot, crispy and good. Oh, and there's a delicious herby, vinegar-y mayo in bottles on the table, perfect for dipping the fries. Don't miss it.



I hope Flippin' Burgers will expand, and start serving takeaway as well - I'd love to get my order and take it to a nearby park, rather than wait an hour or two for a table. (Yes, it's that popular.) But for now, try to get there early. You'll find it at Kungsholms strand 157, and they're closed on Sundays.

Halloumi & Broccoli Salad

Here's a very tasty little dish. It can be a standalone vegetarian dish, perfect for a buffet, or as a side dish with something else. I honestly can't remember what else we ate with it, because it was certainly the star of the dinner. The salty halloumi goes really well with the broccoli, and the crunchy nuts provide interesting texture. Do try to find unsalted, toasted cashews - I used salted but they made the final dish very salty. 

Halloumi & Broccoli Salad

serves 4, as part of a larger meal

250 g halloumi cheese

500 g broccoli (2 heads)

100 g toasted cashews (ideally unsalted)

2 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

1-2 tsp runny honey

black pepper

cayenne pepper

salt (if you have unsalted nuts) 

olive oil for frying

Cut the halloumi into fairly thin pieces and fry in olive oil until crispy. Cut the broccoli into florets and boil in lightly salted water for three minutes. Immediately plunge into cold water so that the cooking stops - this helps the broccoli retain it's brilliant green color and crispness. Drain. 

Mix halloumi, broccoli and cashews in a salad bowl. 

Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey. Season with pepper, cayenne pepper and possibly a little salt, but the halloumi is very salty so go easy. Toss with the salad, and check to see if you want more seasonings. 

Recipe in Swedish: 

Halloumi och Broccolisallad

Lunch!

Excellent lunch sandwich - coarse rye bread, with cream cheese, avocado and pesto. Highly recommended!

Happy mothers day!

Today is mother's day in Sweden! I got a beautiful bouquet from my wonderful little boys. I hope all mums are having a great day, and I'm sending a special thought to those of you who long to be mothers. Two of my close friends are celebrating their first mothers day this year - extra hugs to you, Dagmar and Jisan.

Tonight's dinner

Honey lime chicken - an old recipe - over egg noodles and mixed veggies. Delicious!

Frozen Daim Cake

Here's the cake I made for Titus birthday the other day! (Well, almost two weeks ago - where does the time go? I can't believe how fast it moves right now. It's pretty scary!) 

He's not big on traditional cake, so I figured I'd make something resembling ice cream, but without serving just ice cream. Daim is a candy bar, similar to Heath or Skor - basically crisp almond toffee covered in milk chocolate. Feel free to substitute as you see fit! 

This was a big hit with Titus, as well with us adults. It'll keep for a few days in the freezer too, if you happen to have leftovers. (But don't count on it.) 

We served the cake with some strawberries that were marinated in a few spoons of sugar and some lime zest. Delicious!

Frozen Daim Cake

serves 6-8

Rice Crispie cake layer: 

3 egg whites

140 g sugar

200 ml rice crispies

Beat the egg whites until fairly stiff. Add the sugar and keep beating into a glossy meringue. Add the rice crispies. Spread on a baking paper (teflon or silpat works very well) and bake at 125°C for about 75 minutes or until the meringue looks and feels dry. 

For the filling:

3 egg yolks

75 g sugar (ideally homemade vanilla sugar if you have it)

2 double Daim bars (56 g each, so you need 112 g in total)

300 ml cream (full-fat) 

Whisk yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Finely chop the Daim. Whisk the cream into soft peaks. Stir the cream into the eggs, and add the Daim. Spread on top of the completely cooled cake layer, and freeze for at least four hours. 

Decorate as you wish, I used some flaked milk chocolate. 

Recipe in Swedish: 

Fryst Daimtårta

A few mixed reviews

Microplane has yet another new, fun product that I was offered to try: a parmesan grater. Pretty handy, actually - it's easy to use, rather stylish and gives a good result. However, it did have a few cons, as well. Let's see.

It has very VERY sharp blades, so be careful - when you switch blades, it's pretty "rustic" and a little dangerous. And what I really didn't like, is a design flaw: the cheese takes up some space, obviously, so it doesn't neatly fit together like it does when empty. I hadn't really counted on that. Not sure what can be done about it, though.. but it kind of defeats the purpose of keeping it at hand in the fridge.

 We're definitely keeping this one despite the flaws mentioned above - it's so handy. Titus loved using it, and could do so easily enough.



Ben & Jerry's Core

Ben & Jerry's has recently released what they call über-premium flavors: two different ice creams in each pint, and a "core" of sauce. The three flavors are Karamel Sutra (smooth caramel ice cream and chocolate ice cream with chocolatey chunks, caramel core), Berry white (raspberry ice cream with raspberry pieces, white chocolate ice cream, chocolate core) and Dough-ble Whammy (vanilla ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate ice cream, chocolate core.)

I liked the Karamel Sutra  lot - no surprise as I'm a caramel fan. I hated Berry White, as did the rest of the family - we actually threw it away. The raspberry tasted really synthetic, the white chocolate was waxy and too sweet, and the core was bitter and really didn't go with the other flavors. Dough-ble Whammy was ok - I still really didn't like the core, but the ice cream was good.

However. Über-premium? No. I do like the concept of multipe flavors in one pint - I do. I didn't like the cores, with the exception of the caramel. But my main objection is the long ingredient list. I don't know why B&J can't use better stuff in their ice cream. The chocolate pieces don't even qualify as that, so they have to be called "chocolatey" instead. And really, if Häagen-Dazs can produce ice cream with just five ingredients, I don't see why other competing brands can't. I don't want stabilizers or other additives in my ice cream.



Starbucks. A favorite topic of mine. We have gotten two Starbucks shops in Sweden now - one at the Stockholm airport (sadly in departures, so you have to have a ticket...) and one in Gothenburg, at the central station. None in Stockholm. I'm sure there are many good reasons, but my frappuccino withdrawal is taking on epic proportions so I can't really think of any at the moment.

Anyway. Apparently the brand is looking to have a larger presence, because I just found these cold coffee drinks in my local supermarket: Starbucks Discoveries. I quickly grabbed one of each - a neutral latte, a caramel latte and a chocolate mocha latte. The regular one was great - very creamy and delicious. The caramel one as well. I didn't like the chocolate much, it was a bit bitter. All three were too sweet and could have done with some additional milk or an ice cube or two to dilute the flavors. And, sadly, all three are full of stuff that shouldn't need to be there, like thickeners. I might buy it again every now and then, but I'm pretty happy with my homemade iced lattes.



Titus liked the chocolate one.



And more coffee! Being a new mother of two, I do go through a bit of it at the moment... I was very grateful to get samples from Jamican Blue Mountain Coffee - this stuff is premium indeed, and while it's not something I'd serve every day (due to price and availability) it was fun to try it.