The Red Hot Chili Swedes

Yesterday was one of those days where it was good to catch up on things around my house, do a bit of work I'd brought home with me, have a long walk with the dog and some cooking. In short a pretty chilled out day. I needed a day like that though as the week had seen two rather challenging and busy meetings in connection with the charity I am president of this year, much rewarding work in the day job, a lunchtime drink with two good friends and a meal out at the end of the week with my parents who had finally returned from a month at sea.

On the media player today was an album that had arrived that morning; it was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's sophomore effort from 1967 "Absolutely Free". Zappa's music both with the Mothers and solo takes in almost every genre of music in Zappa's own idiosyncratic way. Some might argue with good reason that he was his own genre.

The first course of my tea last night saw me attempting to make Swede interesting. It has never been one my favourite vegetables being tough to prepare due to its tough skin making it difficult to peel and it's taste is not as pleasant as parsnip or carrot. When in doubt as to how to make a foodstuff more flavoursome I use spices. In this case I decided to use cumin, chili and honey.

Before these spices came into play I first took half a swede, peeled it and then cubed the flesh. I next added it to a pan of boiling water and boiled the swede flesh for around twenty minutes. I then drained the pan and fried the swede flesh in olive oil in my wok with a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of chili powder.

After frying and mixing the cumin and chili powder for around five minutes I added to the wok five teaspoons of honey and on a medium heat on the hob I fried the swede cubes vigorously until they took on a glazed appearance and once the surplus honey had been fried away the pieces were ready to serve as a delicious starter to my mains- a starter I call glazed swedes in chili spice.

The honey added a sweet edge to the swede's often bitter taste, a taste that for some reason always reminds me of dreary winter Sunday dinners when I was a child,  while the chili and cumin added a warmth and flavour that lifted this dish above the ordinary.

Golden glaze- this dish is one way to make the experience of eating swede a lot more pleasant.