Jästa pannkakor / Yeast leavened pancakes

I figured I’d throw up an English translation of a recipe I found on Wikibooks for southern Swedish (Scanian?) yeast leavened pancakes.

These take a while to make, mostly due to the time it takes for the batter to rise, but they’re by far the best pancakes I’ve ever made or eaten. They end up a lot fluffier than American style pancakes that use baking soda or baking powder as the raising agent.

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Bakeries in Taipei

When I moved to Taiwan over a decade ago, finding good bread was hard. The first loaf of bread I bought was in a supermarket and although it looked quite normal, it ended up being filled with rousong, which is an experience you might not want to have. As such. I’ve thrown together a list of bakeries that are worth shopping at that have more western style breads. There are a lot more bakeries in Taipei and in the past couple of years, there are also a ton of patisseries and let’s not forget Japanese style cheese tarts and cheese cake shops.

Rise makes what you’d call western type breads, with very few localised products. The selection is fairly limited, but they make an excellent sourdough loaf. They also have things like croissants, focaccia (not quite the real deal, but close), scones, baguettes and Pain au Lait. They also sell things like cinnamon rolls, hazelnut croissants and various other sweet treats. It’s well worth a visit if you’re in the area, or even a detour, just because.

While on the topic of croissants, we have MyCroissant by Guillaume, which as the name implies, mainly makes various types of croissants. They’re possible the best croissants you’ll get in Taiwan and they offer a wide range of varieties. There’s also some bread on offer here and some other French style sweet baked goods. I highly recommend the yuzu filled croissants, when available, as they make your tastes buds tingle of joy.

Paul was as far as I’m aware the first French bakery chain to open up in Taiwan. Although several others followed, most of them failed, but Paul is still around, even though they have fewer locations now than they did at their peak. Be warned though, it’s expensive. Their strawberry millefeuille used to be very nice, although I haven’t been here in a few years, so I can’t say what it’s like now. Note that his is a big international chain, so don’t expect anything really standout here.

Mr. Mark is an old school “western” bakery in Taiwan and has been around since 1998. Most breads are very localized, but they have some plain rye and oat based breads that aren’t terrible. I would steer clear from anything that looks like cake here, as healthy is apparently this bakeries middle name. They also sell some other food items, like jam, yoghurt, nuts and some other things.

Oma’s German Bakery is another bakery that’s been around for quite some time and it’s focus is on German style baked goods. They have a few branches and also some restaurants that sell their bread. They have a pretty decent selection of bread, although as with Mr. Mark, the focus is on a lot of healthy bread. However, they do also sell a selection of decent cakes and other sweet treats. Pricing tend to be pretty reasonable for what they sell. Keep in mind that they have limited stock and do sell out. They also sell some other food items online.

Wendel’s German Bakery & Bistro was the most famous German bakery when I moved to Taiwan, but at the time they only had a location in Tienmu and I have still not ventured there. They have since opened a location near the Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall which is much more convenient to get to. Personally I’m not a huge fan of their bread or their food, but they make excellent and affordable cake slices.

Gontran Cherrier Bakery is another French style bakery that obviously offers croissants, but also has an excellent French country bread. A lot of their products are quite local and they have some odd items on offer too. Their main location is near the Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall.

Lugar was one of the early French/Italian style bakeries that I’m aware of. I haven’t been for years, as after expanding a lot, something seemingly went wrong and all their outlets closed and they moved to a peculiar location. They used to have very decent bread and cakes though, but I can’t really say what it’s like now.

GinoPasco is a Japanese/Taiwanese bakery that has some decent bread, especially a kind of very pale, but fluffy white bread. These days they only have five locations, of which one is in Taoyuan.

Hogan Bakery is another local bakery with a dozen locations in northern Taiwan that has som decent bread. They have a very light coloured bread they call soft French parcel which is very nice if you want some really soft bread, that is’t sweet. Their crown milk toast is the best toast I’ve found in Taiwan, even though the slices are a bit on the thick side, but it toasts up really nice.

Flavor Field is another local bakery that you would find in the Fuxing Sogo. They have a decent rye bread and some better quality toast, as well as a lot of local items.

Saison Du Soleil is another local chain bakery that you’ll find in some of the malls. They have some decent bread by western standards.

How to make perfect Swedish meatballs

The trick to making moist, tasty Swedish meatballs is to use a mixture of beef and pork mince, usually it’s either a 70/30 or a 50/50 mix -this generally depends on where in Sweden you come from as it’s mixed differently in various parts of the country – as it’s pre-ground like that in the supermarket. In Taiwan you’d have to mix it yourself and I’d say 50/50 is to prefer here, at least if you’re using mince from Costco or Carrefour. Citysuper has leaner, finer ground mince and that would work with a 70/30 mix and it also makes for “smoother” textured meatballs, but it’s twice the price which kind of sucks.

So here’s what you need before you start:

1 large mixing bowl
A good, thick bottom frying pan, especially if you’re cooking on gas as you need to be able to simmer things in it, forget about the cheap Teflon pans, they won’t do as you’ll burn everything in them
A large, slightly wet chopping board
A whisk
Butter and a splash of olive oil for frying

Ingredients, for about 3-4 people you need:
500g of mince as per above
A large onion, finely chopped or grated, the latter if you don’t like onion chunks
An egg
Salt
Pepper
Ground allspice, this is very important as it adds the distinct flavour to the meatballs

Additionally you’ll need a few ingredients for the sauce:
Milk and/or cream
Water or vegetable stock
About a table spoon of plain flour
Gravy browning (optional)
Salt
Pepper
Ground allspice
Maybe some more butter

To serve with the meatballs you need some or all of the following:
Boiled potatoes or mash
Swedish Lingonberry jam, available in IKEA or sold as Preiselbeere jam by Austrian brand d’Arbo in Taiwan
Pickles
Peas, I use the small frozen ones from Carrefour, put them in a strainer and defrost by pouring boiling hot water on them
Other vegetables are optional

So how to make the meatballs?

Well, you simply mix the mince, onion, egg and spices together in a large bowl, don’t mix too hard though as the fat will render out of the mince and stick to the sides of the bowl. Try doing this with your hands, as you’ll be using them to roll the meatballs later on anyhow. Mix to a fairly smooth mixture, although the trick here is to get the beef and pork to blend as much as possible rather than anything else. It’s easier to do if the meat is at near room temperature rather than straight out of the fridge.

Now bring out the slightly wet chopping board, the reason for it to be wet is that the meatballs won’t stick to it. Roll balls somewhere around the size of a NT$10 or NT$50 coin, the smaller they are, the quicker they cook, but the longer they take to roll.

Once you’ve finished rolling the meatballs, don’t leave them sitting too long before you start frying them, as they’ll sink together and will be harder to fry.

Heat up a frying pan, but don’t go crazy here, especially if you have a gas cooker, as you don’t want the butter that you’ll fry the meatballs in to burn. Put a knob of butter and a splash of olive oil in the pan – the oil is to help prevent the butter form burning – let it melt, start putting in the meatballs, enough to cover about half the surface of the frying pan. I generally start with a circle around the sides and then add 3-4 meatballs to the middle of the circle. Check the heat so you don’t burn the meatballs, you want them to brown, but not crisp as such. Keep turning the meatballs so all “sides” are cooked, they’ll most likely not be the round kind you get in IKEA, but rather somewhat awkwardly shaped. Once all the sides are cooked, scoop them out and put them in a container while you cook the next batch. Once all the meatballs are cooked, keep them in the container, as next up is the sauce. If you’re planning on making the sauce, you don’t have to cook the meatballs all the way through, as they’ll end up simmering in the sauce, but more on that below.

If there’s enough fat in the frying pan from cooking the meatballs, no extra butter is needed at this stage, but if it’s dry, you need to add a knob or two of butter for the sauce. Whisk in about 1 table spoon of flour into the fat, it should make a fairly thick and hard paste. To this, we need to add liquid, depending on your preference you can use cream, milk or a combination of the two, as well as some water. Start with the cream/milk, about 100ml of cream and 250ml of milk, stirring in a little bit at the time into the fat/flour mixture. At first this will look like a mushy paste, but it’ll get thinner as you add more liquid. My granny always used to mix in water from her boiled potatoes and carrots (she always boiled peeled potatoes and carrots together), but regular drinking water is just fine and you need about 100ml or so. This help make the sauce more of a sauce than a creamy, gooey mess. Simmer the sauce and flavour with salt, pepper and allspice, add gravy browning for a browner sauce, only a drop or two tends to be enough.

Now the trick to make really tasty and moist meatballs is to put the meatballs back into the sauce and simmer them in the sauce for 10-15 minutes at a low heat. This will also impart flavour from the meatballs into the sauce, making the sauce that much nicer. And that’s it. Serve with some or all of the sides mentioned above.

If you don’t want to eat the meatballs in the traditional way, then just cook them so they’re cooked through to start with, but this generally produces a dryer end product.

Some people also add breadcrumbs or oats mixed with milk to make for a “cheaper” mixture for the meatballs, but I’m not a big fan of this.

Filmjölk – Active Lactic Culture

This isn’t a recipe as such, but if you like me have lived away from your home country for a long time, sometimes you get the urge for something special from back home. Well, I found something really great here, thanks to a fellow Swede who used to live here. You can actually buy little packets of Active Lactic Culture here, there are a few different kinds and make sure you don’t pay too much, as the going rate for a pack of 10 sachets is about NT$250. I’ve seen shops sell the same stuff for twice the price and some other brands for near enough four times the price. It’s kept in the refrigerator in health food stores here, so make sure you look in the right place. Also make sure you store it in your fridge. The Active Lactic Culture makes something that is very similar to Swedish Filmjölk, although it’s not quite as tangy. The only similar thing I know of in English is buttermilk, but it’s not the same, as buttermilk is very sour.

It’s really easy to make and doesn’t require any cooking skills at all.

What you need is:

  • 1 litre of milk
  • 1 sachet of the Active Lactic Culture powder
  • A clean container that fits the milk

You could actually put the powder into a milk carton or bottle, but it’s hard to check if it’s ready of you do this. I use a semi-clear drinking bottle with a wide opening. Pour the milk in, it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s cold or room temperature and there’s no need to bring it up a high heat as with yogurt. It might take a little bit longer if it’s cold, but that’s about it. Add the sachet of Active Lactic Culture powde, shake gently and leave outside in a warm (not hot) place for 12-16h, although the instructions say up to 24-36h if it’s cold, but I’ve never had to leave mine for more than about 16h. When finished, the top of the milk should be set, kind of like yogurt, now move the container carefully into the fridge, don’t shake it, as that seems to make it lumpy. Let it cool down for 2-3h and then you can shake it up. The texture should be like thick drinking yogurt and it should have a fresh smell. If it smells funky, then something went wrong in the process and I had this happen to me once. The good thing is that just as with yogurt, you can use what you’ve just made as a base for making more. Add 2-3 table spoons to 1 litre of milk for your next batch and repeat the rest of the steps above.

The package I bought looked like this and it’s made by this company Unfortunately they seem to have gone bust and I haven’t been able to find an alternative.

Gambas al Ajillo

Or prawns in garlic as it’s also known as it’s a traditional Spanish tapas dish and it’s one of my favourite tapas dishes. It’s also very easy to make and you can go more or less complicated depending on what your taste is and what you got at home. I suggest using pre-fired dry garlic (in Taiwan you can get in large plastic containers from RT-Mart), as it makes the dish a lot nicer than when you use fresh garlic. Another reason for this is that you get a nice crunchy garlic that doesn’t give you the bad garlic breath. It’s also worth noting that it’s very easy to burn garlic and it gets very bitter if you do this. There are a few different ways of cooking this, but here’s my take on it, which I by no means claim is authentic. The best place I’ve eaten this in this part of the world is a Tapas restaurant in the green belt in Manila, the Philippines.

So what do you need?

To serve four people as a tapas or two as a main course you need the following:

  • 500g of raw peeled, de-veined prawns, with or without tails
  • Good quality olive oil (as you’ll be dipping bread in it)
  • Chili to taste, preferably a Spanish kind, but most chili’s seem to work as long as they’re not too spicy
  • Garlic to taste (loads!), but as I said above, the pre-fried dry garlic makes for a much nicer dish
  • Fresh bread, either something like a baugette or pita bread

You got to options of cooking this, either in an oven safe container, preferably earthenware, or in a skillet/frying pan. Slice up the chili’s. Heat up the oil with the chili’s in it in your container of choice, either on top of your cooker or in the oven (about 200 degrees C is a good temperature), until it sizzles. Add the prawns and garlic, cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until the prawns are cooked through. Make sure you stir them them once or twice while they’re cooking and if you’re using the dry garlic, I’d add some more just before it’s done, as it stays nice and crispy that way. You can put some freshly chopped parsley on top when you serve and enjoy while it’s still hot.