Chow Down to Euovision 2013 - Sweden

This year's Eurovision host country Sweden is the first cab off the rank in the final of Chow Down to Eurovision 2013. As hosts Sweden automatically qualifies for the final along with Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The remaining 20 spots in the final come down to your votes and will be announced tomorrow.

While I had a dish in my head to finish our journey to Malmö with I kept seeing requests for meatballs recipes on twitter from potential Eurovision party hosts. I was resisting doing meatballs as I didn't think I'd be able to get my hands on enough horsemeat, but I always like to give the Saucers what they want.

The twist is these are based on my memory of Swedish meatballs from my childhood when the grown ups had parties. I remember they came frozen in a large box of about a thousand dark brown pebbles that looked like something decorative from a garden shop, they tasted of  a shipload of pepper and had a distinctive bounce to them.

This version doesn't  have quite as much bounce and with the brown onion glaze will disappear quickly. I've also included in this post a Swedish cocktail to get you in the spirit, or possibly hospitalised if you play the Eurovision drinking game!

I had a very hard time picking the past Eurovision taster as Sweden has a smorgasbord of brilliant offerings so I thought I'd stick to one most personal.

There is something magical in the finding Eurovision in a non Eurovision setting whether it be Loreen's Euphoria in the final of My Kitchen Rules, the music in a shopping centre or an intimate stand up comedy routine with a Eurovision theme.

My most thrilling surprise Eurovision was during a 6am body pump class, yes not only awake at that time but out of the house and exercising! Around this same time I was body jam instructing so I was no stranger to the inside of a gym, I just didn't look it.

I was getting ready to lift the weights while day dreaming about being back in bed when I hear "never gonna run away" (what, no way) "I'm not gonna hide"(OMG can it really be!!!) "I know, just what I feel inside" and yes it was Carola from 2006 serenading the class with Invincible! It was like I was back in Athens.

The instructor was very accommodating as I sang at the top of my lungs and tried to wave the bar like a flag with 10kg weights on each end. Just like the backing singer in the semi final there may have been a well covered stumble that had the potential of doing one's self a mischief. (2.45 in the video)

Swedish meatballs with Onion Gravy
Ingredients

• 500g mince (lamb, beef, pork, or combination)
• 250g sausage mince
• 11/2 cups bread or a bread roll
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 brown onions, peeled quartered
• 3 spring onions roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp. pepper
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 2 brown onions peeled finely sliced
• Knob of butter
• 2 cups beef stock
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. corn flour
• Olive oil

Method

• In a food processer add 2 brown onions quartered, bread, milk, spring onions, garlic peeled, and processer for 30secs till chopped
• Add the meat, pepper, salt, process till combined, add more milk if needed
• Roll into approx. 25g balls or to the size you prefer
• Cook in batches in a frypan on medium heat with a good splash of olive oil
• Move the frypan in a circular motion to move the balls around so that all sides brown
• Cook for about 10 minutes till cooked through, alternatively brown in the frypan and finish in the oven for about 15-20 minutes on 180°C

• To make the glaze sweat down the onions with  butter in a saucepan over a medium heat, they should be transparent rather than brown
• Add the stock and vinegar
• Boil to reduce slightly
• To thicken make the cornflour into a paste as directed and stir through
• Serve hot with toothpicks, as a main with mash potato or in a butter bread roll

 

Swedish Polar Bear Cocktail
Ingredient

• 30ml vodka (I have reduced the vodka to 1 shot instead of 2 as it is a long night)
• 30ml blue Curacao
• Ice
• Lemonade

Method

• Add all ingredient to a glass
• If you are playing the drinking game you could get an advantage by just having lemonade and blue food colour, it is cheating but could avoid a messy time!
• And always drink responsibly, no one wants blue clean up. 

Robin Stjernberg will have the home crowd support with his song You, can Sweden win 2 in a row?

Lycka till!

 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Russia

Russia has only been in the contest since 1994 but when the first entry they sent had a dress that moved every which way but loose you knew they were a country to watch out for. Historically Russia has pulled out some great Eurovision moments, Alsou and her butch jazz ballet backing dancers, Parliament the anti boy band, Dima Bilan with his ballerina stuffed piano and Olympic ice skater. The over hyped controversy of Tatu did little for the contest apart some mild childish comedy. If you listen to the Russian song as though they were singing in English it sounds like "how many guys in your brassiere, He was my boy scouts" I never promised to be high brow.



However in 2012 they struck Eurovision gold, by sending the Bashuski, the grandmas. Who doesn't love a grandma? I think it was just that they had those little faces you just want to squeeze. I know I shouldn't have a favourite, but I think Natalie was everyone's favourite, she even made it to onto our Christmas tree.

 

The act even featured baking!

 

 



I have based this recipe around the Rum Baba in Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets by Linda Collister.

Don't you just want to eat that little face?

Vodka Babushka
Ingredients

• 60g black cherries (about 7)
• 1/2 cup of vodka
• 5 tablespoons of lukewarm milk
• 3 eggs
• 250g strong flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 table spoons caster sugar
• 7g dried yeast
• 100g soft unsalted butter room temperature

For the syrup

• 2 cups water
• syrup from the tin of black cherry
• 1 cup sugar
• Reserved vodka from the cherries

Method

• In a small bowl soak the whole black cherries in the vodka
• Into the bowl of a stand mixer add the milk, eggs, flour, salt, caster sugar and yeast.
• With a dough hook knead until smooth and elastic, scrap down the side to ensure that all the flour is mixed in. Should only take about a few minutes.
• Cover the bowl in cling wrap and let rise to almost double, about 1 hour. (I transferred into a glass bowl because I needed to use the mixer for something else)
• Grease and flour the babushka moulds or muffin tray. It is recommended that you chill the moulds after you grease them to stop the butter being absorbed into the batter. I didn't do it but it's a handy hint to know if you find things are sticking.
• Mash the butter with a fork to obtain a smooth consistency
• Beat the butter into the batter till it is incorporated and not showing through, no butter streaks.
• Drain the black cherries from the vodka, but reserve the liquid for the syrup.
• Finely chop the black cherries finely and stir through the batter.
• Fill the moulds half way, allowing room to rise. Less is more as they will grow, also spread the mixture out evenly so that you don't end up with a babushka with a bigger behind than the others, or have to deliver the terrible news that 1 babushka didn't make it.
• Let rise again for about 30mins till they have doubled.
• Bake at 200°C  for about 20 mins till they are golden and are a bit loose in the tin.
• When baked, remove from mould and let cool on a wire rack
• To make the syrup put the water, black cherry juice and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil for about 3 mins (it's a syrup, not a sauce so it's ok to boil on this occasion) Remove from the heat and add the reserved vodka.
• Soak each Babushka in the syrup before putting on a serving plate. You can give them a good soaking, I was frightened they would break up but it is amazing just how much vodka syrup one Babushka can hold.
• Serve with double cream and extra cherries

No Grandmothers this year but Dina Garipova will perform What If.

удача!

 

Shaken, Stirred and all over the bench!

I'm not a fan of alcohol.
There will be friends reading this who may have possibly choked at this statement.
What I mean to say is I'm not a fan of the taste of alcohol. I like a good red or white or beer, but when it comes to spirits I need a good dose of mixer. Call me Sir Mixalot.
It is strange really as I started drinking when I was quite young, I was 6. The drink of choice for the grown ups at the dinner table was Boronia (Marsala) and coke, mine was coke with a faked pour that wouldn't have amounted to 1ml. Saturday mornings would see me up early to watch the Smurfs while the family slept, which of course would be accompanied by a Boronia and coke. OK I need to be honest, the bar was closer to the TV than the fridge so there was no Coke. Drinking straight Marsala oh how I loved the Smurfs.

With Marsala at 6 it was time to move onto the hard stuff at 12. I remember having a sore throat that was so painful I couldn't sleep and was in tears from the agony. Being a caring parent, who would like to have got some sleep at 2am, my father gave me a tumbler of orange juice. He said to drink it all in one go, that because it was cold it would numb my throat and help me sleep. Being the obedient child I was I sculled it down in one, a tumbler of straight scotch! It was not cold it burnt, but I did sleep.
 
I thought the martini drinker to be the height of class and sophistication so I was devastated when I had my first one and loathed the taste, oh it was awful. So when I was offered an espresso martini I politely declined, till my friend said "it just tastes like coffee." OK I'll give it a burl.
She was right it was a delicious iced espresso with only the faintest taste of alcohol, 4 more, just to make sure and I was hooked.
That week I hit the liquor store and got all the equipment (when I say "hit the liquor store" to my overseas readers I mean "went to" not robbed)

 restaurant quality

 
 
 
I'll share the recipe I used but I reduced the vodka and Kahlua to 1oz each. Also just a quiet tip, don't double the recipe and make 2 in the one cocktail shaker, yes Miss Moneypenny, it ended up all over the kitchen bench. It is much more elegant to drink it from a martini glass than slurp it off the laminex.
 
Espresso Martini

• 1 oz  espresso
• 1 1/2 oz Absolut® vodka
• 1 1/2 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur
• 1 oz white creme de cacao
•  

Method

• Pour ingredients into shaker filled with ice, shake vigorously, and strain into chilled martini glass. It should be somewhat frothy.
• I used hot espresso straight from the machine rather than cold.
 

I would also advise to drink responsibly and it is not a good idea for 6 and 12 year olds to be drinking even with the Smurfs.  And please don't drink drive, not only is it illegal and dangerous, it's a laundry detergent and tastes vile.