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!