The Swedish chef strikes again...

September 2, 2009 5:58 AM

What can I cook with delicious Swedish glögg? I am looking for something that is really going to bring out and enhance the awesome flavor.

For those of you who might not be fortunate enough to have this lovely treat available, glögg is a mixture of red wine and brandy or vodka (and sometimes fruit juice), boiled up with raisins and almonds and cloves and cardamom and sugar. Think a mildly sweet but also just slightly dry, heavily spiced, fruity red wine with that extra dark kick from the liquor.

I have a bottle of lättglögg (non-alcoholic glögg) that I have greatly been enjoying, but I can't stop thinking about how wonderful it would be to cook something with it! What can I make, either savory or sweet, that would be just dynamite with the addition of glögg?

There are a few restrictions:
- It needs to be fairly simple, as I am a student and my kitchen is not terribly well equipped.
- Please, no super-exotic or expensive ingredients.
- The ingredients need to be available in Sweden (don't worry too much, I can get almost everything here, but no salsa, peanut butter, marshmallows or other really American-y foods.)

My tastebuds thank you!

posted by WidgetAlley to food & drink (13 comments total)

I understand that you're posting for a recipe(s). But why cook with it? It's made to be drunk warm from a glass, in front of a fire, with maybe some biscuits/cookies.... ahh... scandinavian winters.....
posted by alchemist at 6:11 AM on September 2

alchemist, I knew that question was going to come up! :D And it is fabulous warm, or room temperature with dark chocolate.

The answer, however, is that I'm in Sweden for five months, so a lack of glögg to sample isn't a problem. So if I want to indulge my cooking curiosity, why not? I'm lucky enough to be able to walk across the street and buy another bottle if I fancy!
posted by WidgetAlley at 6:20 AM on September 2

A lot of liquers are really good on fruit or cake with whipped cream.
posted by electroboy at 6:20 AM on September 2

I can get almost everything here, but no salsa, peanut butter, marshmallows ...

Eh, what obscure part of Sweden is this?

(And isn't it a bit too hot outside to play with Glögg? And way too much daylight? :-)

(No idea about cooking with it, sorry. A quick googling mostly brings up various "sockerkaka" (sponge cake) recipes. But I prefer it old-style: Serve with candle light, gingerbread, and ideally some freshly baked saffron bread. And don't boil it with raisins and almonds; that should be added when you serve it. If you end up getting plenty of snow, you can also try "O'boyleys" - hot cocoa with Swedish Punsch (a sweet arrack-flavoured liqueur). Best served from a "termos" vacuum flask out in the middle of nowhere, after a good snowball fight or other exercise.)
posted by effbot at 6:30 AM on September 2

since it's the non alcoholic version, boil some down into a syrup, and put it on, anything.

also, mix some into rice pudding, oatmeal, etc.

Maybe use it instead of kirsh in a fondue.
posted by Jon_Evil at 6:32 AM on September 2

Just improvising here. I would discourage using Glögg, especially lättglögg, for cooking BUT you can certainly use the ingredients you mention in a hearty autumn meat stew.

Get yourself a nice chunk of beef (I prefer leg slices for stew, but yesterday I made a successful batch of pörkölt using something else. If you can't cube the meat properly at home, buy chunks, "grytbitar").
Buy cloves, whole black pepper, bay leaves, cardamom, perhaps even ground cinnamon, paprika powder and a bottle of dry red wine.
Use onions in the stew plus any kind of carrots, celery or bell peppers that you like, plus tomatoes (or some chopped tomatoes from the can).
Prepare everything as in: chopping and dicing according to your preferences.
Take at least half as many onions as meat, don't worry about chopping too fine, they'll dissolve.

Build the stew by heating up some olive oil (at least 3 tablespoons, no matter how much meat, likely more), putting in the onions and the meat together, stirring and searing on high heat until everything begins to bubble, reduce the heat to a bare simmer, cover and let bubble for a good long time, like 1 1/2 hours or so.
Now add salt to taste (careful first, can always be corrected); 2 or 3 whole cloves, slightly mashed with a knife handle; half a teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground; 2 bay leaves; max 1/4 tsp ground cardamom; less than half of that amount ground cinnamon; and, according to taste, up to a tablespoon paprika. Add veggies, tomatoes and a satisfying dash of the wine (one glass at least).
Simmer for at least 2 more hours. Uncover, taste. You'll want to adjust saltiness again, but do this after adding a teaspoon or more of sugar and after reducing the sauce on high until the desired consistency.

Now, I guess that if you don't want to buy the spices separately, you could just pour some Glögg into the stew after 2 hours and be done with it, but I' pretty sure that it would make the thing too sweet. A little sweetness, as suggested above, is only good in stews like that...
posted by Namlit at 6:43 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

A google search for glöggmarinerad brings out a bunch of recipes (all in swedish though).

You should be able to substitute madeira with glögg so look for tasty recipes requiring madeira or some other sweet wine.

I would totally experiment making a steak or brisket with glögg-gravy.
posted by uandt at 7:14 AM on September 2

Here's a more off-the-wall idea: make a glögg version of red wine gelatin, using unflavored gelatin. Substitute glogg for the fruit juices in this recipe for fruit flavored gelatin. (It would be horrible if you used a pre-flavored gelatin mix instead of unflavored gelatin.)
posted by Ery at 8:20 AM on September 2

Try pears poached in red wine and glögg. Serve with sliced almonds, whipped cream and wine/glögg syrup.
posted by iviken at 8:39 AM on September 2

Do you read swedish or have somone who can translate recipes for you?

ICA have a lot of recipes on their website.

As well as drinks and deserts they have paté, chutney and some other stuff.
posted by Iteki at 9:07 AM on September 2

If you go down the syrup route, try it over ice cream. Especially home made ice cream.
posted by Solomon at 9:52 AM on September 2

Make some white rice

core out some apples

Take sliced almonds and dried cranberries....mix with rice

Stuff rice mixture into cored apples

liberally pour glogg onto rice stuffed apple

bake at 350 for an hour.
posted by ian1977 at 11:16 AM on September 2

In Denmark, the usual dish with Glöck is Æbleskiver. A very traditional dish, but you need a special pan for it. Thin pancakes would probably do to.
posted by KimG at 6:58 AM on September 4