Time for the hidden treasures!

It's beyond autumn. Never mix the two concepts autumn and November in Sweden.

The first one, lovely! Colorful nature, a high, blue sky and a cold, vague sun trying its best to stay in place, leaving as much warmth it's capable of.

November. Dark, wet, slippery (the first blizzard of the season occured today) and, well boredom. The good thing about November; it's a great time for indoor activities like cooking, reading, watching all of those tv-shows you put on hold for a rainy day. Congrats. The rainy days are here, indulge yourself with the freedom that comes with house arrest.

Root-crops. I love them! Buried deep in the earth, ready to pop up when the axis of the earth is drawn away from the lifegiving sun, towards the great mystery of the universe.... Oh yeah, the crops! =)

Soups, roasted, raw... Well, not all of them raw but some. And of course the classical Swedish we-take-the-leftovers-and-fry-it-course "pyttipanna" which could include pretty much anything and everything. I usualy take root-crops, some beans I might have stored in the freezer or in cans and, well, what's available.

This time I used potatos (that one's a must), parsnips, swedish turnips, white beans, onion and tofu.

First out; cut the tofu into small cubes and marinate them in a mixture of 1/2 dl canola-oil, 3-4 tbls soy-sauce, 1-2 tbls (dijon)mustard, salt and pepper. Let it marinate while you make the rest.

Please, take my measurements with a grain of salt... Try and taste, you're the one who'll eat it, not me so feel free to add or subtract according to your own taste.

Chop! All the ingredients into small cubes, the size about one*one*one centimeter. Start with frying the onion in a couple of tbls oil, don't burn it! Taste awful, onion (especially garlic) burns very fast.

Then start frying the potato, after about 10 minutes add the other ingredients except the beans and the marinating tofu. Stir, stir stir, let it fry for about 10 minutes more then sprinkle 1-2 tbls bouillon (I prefer the one which's a powder, not the ones in cubes) and about 1 dl water and let it boil into the crops.

Continue to stir until it's almost done, it takes about 10-15 minutes more and add the beans and the tofu towards the end. Pour the remaining marinade into the pan as well. Fry for another 5-10 minutes, by then it should be done. (If you have time and a spare pan you can fry the tofu by itself to give it a browning and then mix it with the rest, not necessary, but you could.)

Salt and pepper will of course be needed, which you'll notice when you're tasting the dish before served.

Beetroots are splendid with this dish, I'd use raw ones, peel them first and then I'd use the peeler to make thin garlands of the beautiful red root. Yep, your finger turns red as well, but it's ok. Just don't touch anything...

This time I peeled an apple as well to add more color to the plate and it's taste worked suprisingly well! The owl recommend you to do it as well.

Here we go

First of all a warning. Yes, you who´s not vegan or vegetarian may be inspired to actually make some of the recepies or gain inspiration by what I will present here, and belive it or not, it´s perfectly ok. My wish is to kill the idea that vegans are angry, starved and extreme. Well, ok, we might be a bit angry, a tad starved and might sometimes get extreme in one way or another, but that's not because of what we eat (or what we don't eat). It's actually just human nature that shows from time to time.

So, come and walk with me for a while! You could start with this, not the best photo, but just as an appetizer

On the big plate there's a cold salad made of butterbeans, cherry tomatoes, avocado, springleek, bellpepper and avocado. Chop into quite big pieces (too small and everything just turns mushy) and mix with a nice olive oil, balsamico, salt and pepper. If you don't have a grinder for the pepper, get it. Now. I'm serious. You'll be suprised how much flavor the pepper actually has, when it's not dried up in an old jar somewhere...

In the background there's a plate with asparagus and zuccini which was quickly fried in a pan with canola oil (the best oil to use in a frying pan) and some salt. Fried for what? About 4-5 minutes or so. It's nice when you have to use your teeth now and then.

What's hardly noticeable in the picture is the plate with roasted root crops. We had potato, parsnip and carrots all cut in sections and sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper (again, the grinder! See! Used twice already!) Left in the oven for about 40 minutes, a degree around 200 Celsius. Shovel around a couple of times so everything will be cooked even.

Yeah, that's right. I won't mention the olives in the front.

Enjoy!