Change of scenery

Time flies without me hardly noticing, and we´re almost half-way through the summer now. Even my dad has started his holiday, since the buses in the city centre are on strike (good time for mum to force him to build a new deck outside the front door), so the customary voyage south will commence tomorrow morning (the earlier the better unfortunately for me who have problems with sleep). With dad driving (or me when I was still fit enough) its a rough 12 hour day door to door, but since he has opted for the MC, its mum who´s at the wheel, and although she´s been down to Denmark on average twice per year for 56 years, she still navigates as though we were on a gravelroad to rural Mongolia.

So for once we´re spending the night in Helsingborg, partly because gran always has wanted to go to the summer show at Fredriksdalsteatern, and since its mums birthday in july, dad decided to get some tickets. Not that I think there is much of a point to give presents when it has to motivate a row 3 times per day. Since dad still thinks it kosher to leave presents a surprise and mum can´t handle not planning every hour of the forseable future, she asks over and over exactly what we do and when (although she keeps saying she wants it to be a surprise), until dad gets annoyed and hence the row.
I´m so sick of sitting listening to my parents, this whole holiday is going to be one long argument (it always is). Dad not wanting to do work on the house and then saying that he don´t want to be in Denmark anyway cuz he doesn´t understand the language (but he does want to go to all sorts of countries where they don´t speak swedish either). Mum wanting to work and never stop to do anything else. They are so wrong together, and I hate having to spend more time with them than a normal 20 something mingle with their folks (about 2 weeks per year).
But I´m gonna stick by my hammock, my ample stash of podcasts and as many literate hide-aways as possible.

And ofcourse I´m not going anywhere without a clear path of stich and purl enterprises now after having been contaminated by the knitting bug. I´ve always felt a surprise to how few cardigans I`ve owned every time I open the wardrobe, even though its pretty much all I wear, so there we have first base right there. Total yield will be narrated upon return.

Last crack with the needles was an attempt to introduce myself to the art of lace knitting. And although I doubt I have a great adeptness for this counting and skipping sort of thing, I can understand the vocation some people develop for it.

Attempt on Mexican food

So yes, I don´t understand why us chocolate loving swedes don´t cook more with chocolate. I made this dish with chicken, and I actually ate it. U might not think that is so strange if u don´t know me, but if u do u know I have been a rather keen vegetarian for well over 10 years. I actually remember the last time I ate chicken before I gave it up. It was in 9th grade, so it would have been about 1995, and it was at luch in school.

But lately I´ve been so ill that I can´t really be bothered to keep a completely separate diet from the rest of the house. Luckily my family are all keen followers of organic produce, so the chicken was a big "KRAV" (organic) labled bugger, and this household rather have organic chicken once per month than mass produced broilers twice a week.
So it was chicken with mole then. Mole is normally in Mexico like a sauce you buy in a jar with all the spice mixes to add to your dish, but since we are far from any Mexican grocery shop I madey own makeshift mole.

Chicken with Mole

about 4 small fillets of chicken, or bits from all over

1 onion

3-4 cloves of garlic

500 ml of tinned tomatoes

1 cinnamon quill

1-2 chopped red chillies (more if u have the guts)

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp of ground coriander seeds

salt and some stock granules

40-50 g of good dark chocolate (70%)

Cut the chicken in bite size pieces and chopp the onion. Brown in a pan in some butter and oil. Add the garlic and the tomatoes. Stir in the spices and let it simmer about 20 mins. Taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in the chocolate. Serve with tortillas and a sallad.

Tortillas

2.5 dl spelt or wheat flour

0,5 dl natural yoghurt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

0,5 tsp baking powder

(tomato purée or mixed herbs)

Mix everything together and work the dough untill its elastic. Leave a few minutes. Divide into 4-6 pieces and flatten them out with a rolling pin till they are as thin as u can get them. Fry in a hot, dry frying pan about 2 minutes on each side, or untill they begin to get a bit of a colour. Serve immediately.

Well it certainly didn´t look very good, but it tasted at least half-Mexican. Bastante bien, estoy contento

All hail to the chocolate king!

I am a self confessed choco-holic, and I would probably raise a few eyebrows if some health guru would mound up all the chocolate I ate in a year on a table, TV style. But I only like the good stuff, preferrably of about 85% cocoa. No milk chocolate passes my lips, no no, in fact it stays away if it contains any milk at all.

Here I could march on at length on the origins of chocolate, because I am actually something of an expert on the subjectject. This comes from that during my second year in univeristy, studying to be an archaeologist, I studied at a Canadian university (Trent University), and there I took the best course I ever took, Mesoamerican archaeology. In short I can tell you that when the spaniards arrived in the Caribbean, and eventualy the rest of Central America, the native people of various names (Teotihuacanos, Olmecs, Mixtecs, Mayas, Aztecs etc), had used cocoa in numerous ways. The bean itself was often used as currency, and its consumption was reserved for the royals and other wealthy individuals. At that time the indigenous did not keep any form of beasts of burden, meaning they didn´t mix the cocoa with milk, nor did they cultivate sugar cane or beats. The classic recipe for their chocolate drink (refining it in to bars came much later), was to add water and chilli. It was then poured from a heigh height in to drinking vessels (which were highly decorated with said process), to produce a frothy head.

It might not sound very appealing, but I think that is mostly because we are so used to that chocolate has to be sweet. During my stay in the Americas I missed no opportunity to travel till my bank account begged me to stay in, and I spent an amazing few weeks travelling around Mexico during christmas and New Year. The culinary capital of Mexic se llama Oaxaca. There is just no end to what ur tastebuds can experience there. In a little café I remember a bowl made of coconut shell, filled with a mix of water, cocoa, sugar, and corn. It was strangely fulfilling actually. In one part of town was all the chocolate shops lined up, they were completely opened up to the street, sort of 3 walls and a roof. Inside were massive drums where the cocoa was milled, and others where it was mixed with other ingredients to make bars etc, and when u wanted to buy some you could decide exactly what you wanted your bars to contain and in what proportions. Just point sugar, cinnamon, almonds...

I could go on and on about Mexico, and I thank all higher powers that I got the opportunity to travel so much before I got this illness. Its a country that has everything. Loud crammed citys, amazing archaeology, beautiful people, great culture, foggy jungle, chilly mountains, sandy beaches... Think I´m gonna have to post a few more photos from that trip. Above is the main market in Oaxaca.

The Mayan site Palenque

Colourful crafts

Zocalo in central Oaxaca on christmas day

Fabulous beach in Zipolite, a middle of nowhere town on the Pacific coast

And our makeshift hotel in Zipolite. We arrived on New Years eve and all thy had left was a couple of hammocks

Temple of the Sun, Teotihuacan, about 30 minutes outside Mexico City

Ok, I had a reason for writing about chocolate, namely that I, in memory of Mexico, made chicken with mole. But I think this post is so bloody long already, that I´ll just put the food stuff in a new one