Bye bye baking...

Hello cooking and feasting with Scandinavian flair

Yep, change is afoot folks. I've been mulling over the remit of this blog and came to the conclusion that baking with Scandi flair has run its course. Much as I love whisking and folding in my Bloomsbury kitchen, certain baking tropes seem to have reprised themselves in past weeks - this month has seen several cinnamon loaves and two batches of very gooey brownies baked, and that's it. The oven in my flat is temperamental which precludes me from baking with any sort of flair at the moment and you really don't want a grumpy Scandinvian baker sharing her thoughts on her demented oven

So from now on Scandilicious will be broader in scope - I'll be foraging and featuring recipes inspired by the seasons and the outdoors. My Scandi roots lie in nature as we Johansens seek fresh air like junkies seek their next fix so I'll be fishing and hunting - though I am prone to clumsiness so hopefully won't shoot my foot off - and cooking Scandi favourites such as meatballs, venison stew and grilled crayfish whilst scoffing the occasional Scandi Kitchen hot dog for sustenance when lack of time mandates it :D

Channelling my nerdy love of fermentation I'll also be curing fish and experimenting with bacteria. Nothing untoward with bacteria of course - just making yogurt, cheese and other dairy treats. As my friends will tell you I'm an insufferable curd-nerd so expect to see more recipes featuring cheese here. There will of course be baking recipes, especially for bread and buns, but fewer recipes for cakes and other sweet things - scroll through the blog and you'll find 70 baking recipes from the past year

Needless to say the Scandi open sandwich will feature on occasion, an example of which you can see here:


And finally one of the things I loved most about training as a chef at Leiths and subsequently as a stagiere at the Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen was the honing of technique, so there will be more emphasis in future blog posts on the skill and technique involved in cookery. That may sound boring and tedious but real cooks will know what I'm on about - I'll be sharing tips and techniques I picked up from both my formal training and subsequent work in kitchens and as a freelance caterer. Cooking is what makes us human and as a food anthropologist I'm interested in the crafting of skills in cookery so expect some quasi-anthropological musings thrown in blog posts here and there

That's all for the time being, let me know what you think as suggestions and advice - however critical - are always welcome and I hope you like the new Scandilicious. If you are in London next week there is going to be a meatball dinner at Madsen, a Scandinavian restaurant in South Kensington and there are a few places left so do get in touch if you're curious about sampling true Scandi fare

As we say in Scandinavia, velbekomme!

Sig x