I'm sitting in the kitchen, waiting for my tofu poppers to be done. I'm drinking coffee and stressing about the incompetence of a few idiots at my work (I'm only 20 years old, just started the job 2 weeks ago, and already /facepalming at the veterans' stupidity.) So what do I do to destress? Listen to music!
I was going to make a post about the elusive vegan pannkakor (seriously! If you have a good recipe, let me know. All 5 recipes I have tried failed miserably). But then I realized I was listening to Swedish music (which isn't that uncommon. Swedish indie-pop = win). So I've decided to write about Karin Dreijer.
Many know her from The Knife. The best known song is Heartbeats. It's a good song, quite catchy with the thick eurotrash synths opening the song. José Gonzalez, another famous Swede, did an acoustic version of the song which is what brought The Knife closer to the mainstream. This video is NOT heartbeats, but a song I like better. It's called Pass This On.
Then Karin decided to go off and do a solo career under the pseudonym Fever Ray. I fell in love with this project right now. It's the type of music that changes how you feel inside and makes you think. There's something so primal about this music. The first single was when I grow up. I highly suggest you look it up. This song is one that I can listen to nonstop and never get sick of it. Keep The Streets Empty For Me
The latest project is by the Knife. An opera about Darwin called Tomorrow, in a Year. They don't sing in it, but they created the music. I don't have much to say about it, as I haven't had too much time to sit down and listen to it fully. But here is the best quality song on youtube that I could find.
One last video. This is actually Röyksopp, a Norwegian electro band (you Americans might remember them when they had a song in a Geico caveman commercial: Doesn't Remind Me.) They asked Karin to sing the vocals of this song and it came out superb. This is What Else is There. Make sure you watch the video, it's pretty intense.
What do you think?
Pancakes are tricky, are you doing them US style (super thick) or flimsy Swedish super thin ones? Because thin ones, vegan and non vegan always fail seriously without the right pan, heat, lunar phase and practice blah blah.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how your vegan baking skills are,so sorry if this is patronising but to replace egg you can always curdle soy milk with some apple cider vinegar that has roughly the same result, so maybe if you adapt a simple vegan cake batter recipe by adding maybe more soymilk and fry it pancake style, it could work? I sense a project for me this weekend.
Otherwise this recipe has good reviews: http://www.pannkakor.se/veganpannkakor
lycka till!
I've tried that recipe. It failed. It had the best results, but still gooey in the middle and crispy on the outside (in the bad ways).
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try that idea. Or if you get to it before me, let me know. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this recipe. I miss svenskapannkakor saa mycket (work computer can't do the aa symbol)
the Knife is so great, as is Fever Ray
ReplyDeleteI could write for ages about swedish music (most all my favourite bands are from sweden)
for such a small country (population wise) they're actually the worlds 3rd largest exporter of music. cool, no?
That sounds like it could be a pan and batter problem! Maybe a smaller pan and less batter, and a slightly lower heat to cook it more evenly. I hate cooking non-American pancakes. One thing I have noticed about (non vegan) Swedish pancakes is that they use a lot more egg than traditional British recipes. I shall, however, let you know as soon as I experiment!
ReplyDelete@uomodo I didn't know that. That's a really fun fact. You'll probably learn that I'm full with lots of really random and unimportant facts. I was going to write a longer post about Karin's music, but work problems ensued. All I could do was post the videos.
ReplyDelete@iamrhian Maybe. My boyfriend and I have our parts in the kitchen. I'm much better at preparing food than I am with the cooking part. At least stove-top cooking. I'm an excellent baker. My problem is that I love pancakes, but hate American style. They feel like they take forever going down and get stuck in my throat. I'm a bit of a texture snob. I also hate tomatoes that haven't been processed into a sauce and had their flavor lessened.