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Scandinavian recipe: how to make aquavit

November 20, 2012 3 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

I’m creating a meal to show off Ocado’s new Scandinavian range of foods. I’m going to have such fun using all the products, many of which can’t even be found at IKEA. I also want to serve Aquavit, a typical Swedish ‘eau de vie’ (the linguistic equivalent of Aquavit, water of life) which is drunk in shot glasses as a chaser after beer. (Not the other way round, that’s with tequila). Aquavit is rather hard to obtain in the UK but luckily it’s very easy to make your own.  This is a strong alcoholic spirit that aids the digestion of food, a bit like a ‘trou normande’ and, of course, gets you drunk. It matches well with fish such as pickled herring.
I used Absolut vodka, which is a good quality Swedish vodka.
Add 3 tablespoons of caraway seeds to a bottle. Within two days, incredibly quickly, the vodka takes on the distinctive caraway flavour of Aquavit.
Then strain out the seeds and drink in a chilled shot glass after a Scandinavian beer.
I also tried soaking fennel sprigs and slices of lemon in the vodka. I’ll leave it a few more days.
Another option, if you are a fan of salty liquorice, is to make a liquorice vodka ‘schnaps’ by adding salt liquorice sweets or even nicer, Turkish Peber sweets, which, like salty liquorice, contains ammonium chloride to give the distinctive ‘salty’ flavour.
I’ve been a fan of salty liquorice for two decades and plead with any Scandinavian visitors to bring me some so it’s good news that we can now buy it from Ocado. Some people say it’s bad for you and can make men impotent. I don’t care, I love it.

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Comments

  1. Victoria McNaught-Davis

    November 22, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    Lovely blog, great photos and fantastic recipes!

    Reply
  2. Professor

    August 25, 2015 at 5:49 pm

    I suggest giving the caraway seeds a quick toasting in a dry skillet, just until the seeds begin to show a little oil.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      August 26, 2015 at 3:03 pm

      Nice idea. Thank you professor.

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
My piece in the @hamandhigh about the 3 day @heat My piece in the @hamandhigh about the  3 day @heathostile training course. Incredibly interesting & challenging. Link: https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/things-to-do/hostile-environment-training-9037980 to read more #hostileenvironmenttraining
Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot eggs, cheeseboard, stracciatella & cucumber, tomato/strawberry/peashoot salad with real balsamic & spruce oil, home cured dill gravlax, smoked salmon, homemade sourdough crisp bread, potato salad with wild fennel & lots more! #supperclub #midsummer #eattherainbow (miss you @linnsoederstroem)
Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 years was great fun. I’m pleased with my food, the guests were lovely, it looked magical in the garden. But the weather! I even had to bring my duvets from the bedroom out. They looked like refugees. But this brought even more laughter! Next event September
My first supperclub in two years will take place t My first supperclub in two years will take place this Saturday 18th June starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £50 byo you can book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club there are still a few places left. Pescetarian menu. Scandi and botanical influences. #gettingbackonmyfeet #postpandemic #smallbusinesses #supperclub #london
I recently completed the 3 day @heathostile train I recently completed the 3 day  @heathostile training course. On the last day I was kidnapped by ex-special forces for a few hours & learnt how to deal with compliance training & a hostile environment. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. 3 intense days of combat first aid, navigation & how to survive in a war zone. I handled short, long guns, mortars, grenades, bullets, and tourniquet & bandaged an amputee. I learnt where to sit in a car, where to hide from a bullet, where to protect myself if in a car. It was brilliant. Highly recommended for any journalists, photographers, cameramen, charity workers, paramedics going into any difficult environment say a disaster or war. The stories from the tutors & the other participants were so interesting. My piece on it out soon. Book a course: https://hostile-environment.co.uk/  They also do jungle & desert training. I’d love to join the Antarctic expedition. Anyway that’s me hooded in the front. #adventures #het #hostileenvironmenttraining #experiences #travel
Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking o Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking on doors, going to libraries, searching through graveyards for my Irish forebears. It’s really hard to find information prior to 1850. I found this in last years trip to Arbroath in Scotland. Headstones wear out, records are lost or burnt in a fire, everybody has the same name and are known by nicknames, successive children have the same first name, that usually means they died and the next one is called by the same thing. Women did have children out of wedlock, and people remarried more often than you’d think, plus families fall out & never see each other again. I learnt that my Irish great grandfather michael went to Glasgow & met a woman who came from a similar place: somewhere wild & beautiful by the sea. Then they and their children came to london. Chasing the work & the money always. Politics and economics matter for they push people around from rural to city. And now we rodgers are Londoners. #ireland #scotland #family #travel #roots
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Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal, where my grea Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal,  where my great great grandfather john Rodgers was a postman, then a tailor, then a pawnbroker. #irishheritage #donegal #myancestry #irish #rodgers #travel
I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor timing considering what’s happened over the last 24 hours. Being British I’ve not grown up around guns. It’s interesting to be on this course and find out more about the reality of them, although my focus is learning the ‘golden triangle’ of first aid, communications and navigation. But at the same time It’s depressing how in America nothing will ever change regarding gun law. RIP.
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in June I’m having my first supper club in two y in June I’m having my first supper club in two years: here is the link to book: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club £50 18th June  Saturday night. Byo.
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