Chorizo Salad

Chorizo Salad

Happy fathers' day you all out there. This delicious and masculine salad made our celebration a little bit better. Perfect avec for any beef!

Salad for four

Cucumber, half

Tomatoes, 100 gr

Red onion, 1

Salad leaves, one hand full

Basil, one hand full

Chick peas, 250 gr

Capers, 3 tbs

Chorizo, 100 gr

Feta cheese, 100 gr

Sun flower seeds, 3 tbs

Sauce

Olive oil, 5 tbs

Apple vinegar, 2 tbs

Honey, 1 tbs

Salt

Pepper

Good Morning Cake

Good morning you - yes you indeed! 

A piece of this "healthy" cake will make you smile like a cheese. Somehow this cake for me is almost a breakfast cake - brunch for sure. The crispy taste comes form fresh lemons, lemon curd and spelt flours. Try out!  

Thanks to this recipe goes to Mari Moilanen (www.somethingtasty.fi).  

Ingredients

200 g butter

4.5 dl sugar

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

Pinch of salt

6 dl semi rough spelt flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla powder

2.5 dl cream

3 tbsp lemon curd

2 tbsp lemon juice

Filling and frosting

900 g unflavoured cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 tbsp lemon curd

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1.5 dl powdered sugar

Couple of caps of yellow caramel colouring

Instructions

1. Beat the room temperature butter and sugar until foamy. Add egg yolks one at a time. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff.
2. Mix baking powder and vanilla powder with flours and add flour mixture alternately with cream to butter/egg mixture. Mix gently by lifting the mass. Add 3 heaped tablespoons of lemon curd. Last, gently fold egg whites into batter until blended.
3. Pour batter into two cake tins, 18-20 cm in diameter. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until cakes are done. Bake for first 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200°C and for remaining time at 175°C on the lowest rack.
4. Test with toothpick before you remove cakes from oven. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. However, do not overcook cakes for they are wonderfully juicy and moist when perfectly done. While cakes are cooling, prepare filling.
5. Colour white cream cheese chicken yellow with caramel colouring. Whisk all filling ingredients together.
6. Cut cooled cakes in half lengthwise and spread lemon/cream cheese mixture on each layer of the cake. Save some of the filling for frosting and spread it evenly on the top of the cake with knife. This cake does not need to be moistened; it is juicy as it is.

Salmon Frittata - celebration of Eggs Press

Thanks to organic eggs my mind is full of excellent egg recipes. Here is one - the Frittata twisted with salmon. You can easily replace salmon with bacon or ham. This is really an everyday meal that you can create from just about everything. The four must's are: organic eggs, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. 

Recipe for 6

8 organic eggs

6 potatoes

2 onions

2 tomatoes

150 gr cold smoked salmon

4-6 tbs of fresh cream cheese (Koskenlaskija)

4 tbs of sparkling water (Vichy)

1 dl cream

salt

pepper

olive oil

basil

Slice and chop all vegetables.  Cook and fry the potatoes 10 minutes in a pan with olive oil, add onions and cook couple of minutes more. Mix eggs with cream and Vichy and add salt and pepper. Add tomatoes and salmon and pour the eggs on top of everything. Cook in medium until the Frittata is solid. Add 4-6 table spoons of cheese at the end of cooking. Serve with fresh herbs. 

Redcurrant Sorbet

This sorbet will blow your mind. It is not only tasty, but also beautiful - and pink! The recipe is simple, but you need an ice cream maker to do this. Take your time with this as well: cooling the hot berry sauce takes a while. The recipe is applicable with any other berry as well.

Recipe

1 litre of berries

3 dl water

3 dl sugar (can be adjusted)

2 egg whites

Mix the berries, water and sugar in a casserole and cook them a while (10 minutes). Strain off the seeds and let the sauce cool as cold as possible. Whisk the egg whites to a foam. Mix the foam with the berry sauce and pour all to the ice cream maker. Remember to put the machine spinning before pouring the cold stuff in. Let it spin 45 minutes. Tip: if the sorbet is not solid enough after 45 min, pour it to mugs and put them to the freezer for a while. I served these beauties the next day from the freezer and it worked well. Enjoy! 

Apple-Cinnamon Jam

I have heard many times people saying that apple jams are the best of all jams. Can't argue. Here is the simplest recipe, twisted with cinnamon. This jam is also perfect during christmas time with rice porridge - if you manage to spare one jar until then. Good luck! 

Recipe

1 kg apples (peeled 800 g)

2 dl water

500 g jam sugar

Cinnamon

Peel the apples and take the heart away. Chop apples into a small pieces and put them to the casserole. Pour the water along with apples and heat until the apples get soft. This takes 10-20 minutes depending the amount of apples you cook at once. Mash the apples if you want a smooth jam. Finally add the sugar and cinnamon and cook 10-15 minutes. 

In the meantime, prepare your jars by cleaning them with boiling water. Make sure that they are clean. Fill the jars and restore them in a cold place. 

My Precious - Old-fashioned Pickles

The fall is my favourite season and not least because of harvesting. These upcoming weeks can be stressful, but in the winter I will thank me, myself and I for the effort.

Here are my pickles - I make these every year. 

5 kg cucumber (kirby)

Dill (two hand fulls)

Mustard seeds (1/2 dl)

Black currant leaves (30 leaves)

Cloves (2 tablespoon)

Garlic (15 cloves)

Sauce: 

Vinegar 6 dl

Water 2 1/2 l

White sugar 400 g

Coarse salt 2 dl

Allspice, table spoon

Prepare the sauce first. Pour and add all ingredients to casserole and heat it up. Leave it to cool down. 

Prepare the needed jars. Wash the cucumbers and cut into slices or boats. Slice garlic. Start layer the cucumber slices to jars and add spicies as you wish. Finally pour the sauce and put the jars to fridge. After one week you can enjoy delicious cucumber pickles on top of sandwiches or part of a meal.

Potato Curry

If you love curry you'll love this potato curry - the kids love it too! Finnish new potatoes are best for this but oldies works as well. You can also spice this curry up with your favourite ingredients by replacing the shrimps with vegetables or even adding something. I made this out of left overs. The natural yogurt brings lovely sour to the meal and I immediately went back to Bangkok in my mind. If you prefer coco milk, you may use it to replace the yogurt. 

Recipe for 4

8 new potato

1-2 summer onion

2 cloves of garlic 

100  gr butter

2 tea spoon of strong curry paste 

2-3 cm bite of ginger

100 gr shrimps

3 dl vegetable bouillon

Chive and Thai basil

1-2 dl natural yogurt

Wash and cut potatoes. Cut onions and grate garlic. Add butter to the casserole and sweat the onions, add potatoes and curry. Add grated garlics and ginger. Fry 5 minutes. Add vegetable bouillon and cook 10 minutes under a lid. Add shrimps, chives and yogurt. Serve with bread. 

[Khoop khun khaa]

Dagen efter - Survival food after midsummer party

Best left over food ever - swedish potatoes and sausage with poached eggs! This masculine recipe is perfect for any kind of recovery. After weekend these ingredients are easy to find from fridge and revamp with small tricks. 

This is a traditional Finnish dish but comes originally from Sweden, I guess. My way to do this is the following: 

Swedish Sausage & Potatoes for 4

6-8 middle size potatoes

4-5 carrots

1-2 onions

300 gr sausage (spicy, but can be replaced with any meat basically)

Olive oil

Sea salt

Black pepper

Chives

Chop all vegetables. Fry the potatoes 5 minutes with some olive oil, add carrots after 5 min and keep frying for another 15 min. Add onion and fry few more minutes. Finally add the sausages, salt, pepper and a bit more olive oil. Taste and make sure that the potatoes are fully cooked. Add some chives and prepare the eggs. 

Poached eggs

1 litre water

0,5 dl vinegar

Eggs (one per each)

Heat up the water  "almost boiling" and add few drops of vinegar (0,5 dl of vinegar to 1 litre of water). Make a swirl to the water with a spoon. Drop the egg in the middle of the swirl, close to water. Let the egg boil 4 minutes. Lift the egg up with a spoon.  It is simple, trust me!

Sweet Brown Bread - "Saaristolaisleipä"

This has been my tradition for some years now: to make a sweet brown bread for midsummer fest and for christmas. Looking out from the window I would guess that I am making this for the latter fest. Unfortunately that is not the case: only 8 degrees outside. Hrrr... 

This sweet bread remains days and days - and only gets better and better. It is the perfect accompany for fish. 

Recipe for two breads

1 litre sour milk (piimä)

75 g yeast (hiiva)

3 dl syrup (siirappia)

3 dl malt (olutmaltaita) 

3 dl wheat bran (vehnäleseitä)

3 dl rye flour (ruisjauhoja)

1 table spoon of salt

10 dl wheat flour

2 table spoon butter (for buttering the pans)

Syrup water  (for watering the bread)

1 1/2 dl water

1/2 dl syrup

Warm the sour milk in a casserole. Add the yeast and mix well. Add all the other ingredients: syrup, malt, wheat brans, rye flours, salt, and flour. Mix but don-t bake. Butter two pans or casseroles and divide the daugh into two. Let them rest covered 1 1/2 hours. Heat the oven to 175 and bake 2 hours. After 1 1/2 hours, pour the syrup water over the breads and continue baking another 30 minutes. The breads are best after few days., especially when stored in the refrigerator.  

Just Another Sunday Morning

I just love those lazy sunday mornings, when you can wake up slowly. Mind need something fresh in order to wake up, but body is too lazy to prepare anything. After a light smoothie, it is much easier to ask: what's for brunch honey? 

Sunday Smoothie for 4

Natural or vanilla yogurt 5 dl

Milk 4 dl

Oat flakes two hand fulls

Blueberries one hand full

Raspberries 3-4 hand fulls

Ice cubes (10-12 bits)

Put all ingredients to a blender and pour into big glasses - and enjoy a lazy morning!

Pre-Midsummer Party!

I came across with my sister yesterday and we decided to take a rehearsal for midsummer party. The pool was already warming so I just had to come up with something tasty to eat. 

My sister brought some baby potatoes from farmer's market and I prepared a crispy potato salad out of apples, russian cucumber and dill. It was so fresh, so I added only some pepper and olive oil and made a sauce from sour cream, dill and lime. Fresh and tasty!

Potatoe salad and dill just yelled after salmon, so it was almost obvious to grill some salmon. However my all time favourite with salmon is avocado and goat cheese, so I had to made an extra sauce.  If you have left overs, this sauce is perfect on top a bread the next day.

Recipes for 6

Crispy potatoe salad

2 litres of potatoes (new born)

3 russian cucumbers

3 apples

Dill

Olive oil

Black pepper

Sauce: sour cream, dill and lime, black pepper

Avocado-goat cheese paste

4 avocados

100 gr soft goat cheese

1/2 lime squeezed

Mash and mix all ingredients

Grilled salmon 

Whole salmon 1,5 kg (or 1 kg of fillet)

Sea salt

Decorate with chives

Sweet Friday of Mine

Better not wait too long. My food stories will become live from now on. What would possibly be the best way to offer you a sneak peak to my kitchen - the deserved friday dinner after a long week. Friday dinners are for recovery: easy, fast, but yet delicious. This friday I got inspired by strawberries and decided to give treat for my family.

The dinner consisted of a fresh mozzarella salad, which can never fail. The heart of the meal was a sweet chicken skewer marinaded with honey. This was for girls - for men I prepared pork ribs: cooked one hour before putting them into the grill. The taste was great! Ribs were marinaded with sweet and sour sauce - simple but good!

We don't usually eat deserts at fridays, but today was an exception. I got jealous to Hans Välimäki in yesterday's TV-show and decided to steal his recipe - and better yet - prepare it for friday.  Family was more than pleased. I bought a half litre of strawberries and made a fresh sauce, a melba one could say. I was happy to see myself remembering to leave some whole berries for decoration.

Recipes

Mozzarella salad

Fresh cherry tomatoes

Local cucumber (I got a one from Veikkola's garden)

Baby lettuce

Basil

Mozzarella di Bufala

Olive oil

White balsamico syrup

Chicken skewers for 2

Chicken breast 300g

Sea salt 

Black pepper

Honey

Wood sticks (water before filling)

Pork ribs for 2

800 g - 1 kg

Sea salt 

Black pepper

Vinegar (basically all types work well)

Sweet&Sour sauce

Cook 1 hour before grilling.

Add 0,2 dl sea salt, pepper and 0,5 dl vinegar to the boiling water. 

Coat with sauce during grilling, 30 minutes is enough.

White Chocolate Mousse with Strawberries

1,5 dl milk

Vanilla bean

200 g white chocolate

0,5 litre strawberries

2 dl cream

1 gelatine leaf

Warm the milk and add the vanilla bean. Put the gelatine to cold water. Take the almost boiling milk from hob and add the chocolate in pieces, mix. Rinse the gelatine in your hands and add to the hot mistura. Let it calm a bit. Whisk the cream a bit loose and pour it to the milk-chocolate mistura. Mash strawberries and mix all together. Pour into a nice glasses and let them congeal. Decorate with strawberries and left overs from the berry sauce.