6.12. Finland's Independence Day

Today is a big day. It is Finland's Independence Day and 100th Birthday. Finland became independent 6.12.1917. Traditionally Independence Day here in Finland is filled with Christmas preparations and festive programs on television. From my childhood I remember that we had Christmassy treats on the table and most of the decor was on it's place. Crafting Christmas cards has also been one of my Independence Day traditions. Like every year the most popular program on television today is the President's Independence Day Reception where one can see glamorous dresses. Usually I spend Independence Day at home relaxing, cooking and decorating but this year I am attending to two events. Now that it is centenary year there are more events than usual which I think is wonderful. I would love to see more social events also in the future because it makes the celebration feel even more festive.

This year I wanted to decorate gingerbreads with the colors of the Finland's flag, blue and white. 

You will need:

Gingerbreads

Icing sugar

Sugar fondant

Food colouring

Small candies

Icing bags

Flower forms

How to:

Step 1. Color half of the sugar fondant blue. Roll white and blue fondants and press flowers with the flower form. Let the flowers dry a little bit.

Step 2. Mix some icing sugar and few drops of water to get sugar icing. Put the icing to an icing bag.

Step 3. Decorate the gingerbreads with sugar icing and press flowers and candies to the icing.

Happy Finland's Independence Day! Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää! 

Autumn Story: Dinner with Poets

Today I let the pictures do the talking and share two great recipes with you. This Autumn Story is inspired by poets and melancholy of the season. Autumn is the season of contrasts, warm buttery pie crusts and cold winds. It is the best time of the year to gather friends together and organize a bohemian style evening party. Usually letter shaped cookie cutters are used when making sugar ornaments or other sweet treats. You can experiment with the cutters and cut sliced veggies or decorate a savory cabbage pie with pastry letters. Choose your favorite verses and surprise your friends with a creative way. Fun idea would also be to decorate each one's plate with one word and then combine the words to a poem in a group. 

I am sharing two recipes to add to the evening menu. Traditional Finnish Cabbage Pie is a must for the Autumn season when new white cabbages come to the stores. Butter and quark in the crust make this dish super tasty and fulfilling. Fresh bulgur wheat salad gets it's character from lemon and lemon pesto. Letters cut from beetroots or carrots fit in perfectly. Just let the beetroot letters rest for little while before adding to the mix. Otherwise you will have red salad instead of pretty green and yellow. All recipes are relatively easy. Cutting letters is the task that takes most time. You can begin by cutting the veggie letters you need and keep the letters moist in cold temperature before serving. Lets get cooking, baking and crafting!

Poem on the pie: 

Läpi yön käy yrttien henki 

ja kuuma huokaus maan. 

Nocturne by Kaarlo Sarkia.

Poem on the salad:

Turhaan, oi turhaan

     tartun ma hetkehen kiini;

riemua ei suo

     rattoisa seura ei viini.

Elegia by Eino Leino

Traditional Finnish Cabbage Pie

To the crust

250 g butter

250 g quark

4 dl wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling

one small cabbage

3 carrots

2 onions

water

0,75 dl broken barley

3 tbsp dark syrup

veg. oil

2 tsp apple vinegar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp marjoram

salt

black pepper

Step 1. Mix together flour and baking powder. Add butter in cubes. Mix flour and butter with fingers.

Step 2. Add quark and mix properly.

Step 3. Cover the pastry with cling film and let it rest in the fridge.

Step 4. Prepare the filling. Mince onion and cabbage, grate carrots. Sweat the onion in oil on a big kettle. Add little bit of water and small part of the cabbage. When the cabbage becomes slightly softer add more cabbage and grated carrots. Cook barley in a separate kettle.

Step 5. When the veggies are soft mix together barley, syrup and spices.

Step 6. Take half of the pastry and roll it to the bottom. Spread the filling on top. Roll the other half of the pastry on top. Cut off extras and secure the seams.

Step 7. Use the extra pastry to the letters. Attach the letters with a little bit of water. Use fork or barbecue stick to make small holes to the pie's surface. Egg the surface and bake the pie in 200 Celsius degrees preheated over for about 30 minutes.

Bulgur Wheat Salad with Lemon Pesto and Letters

Bulgur Wheat

Lemon Pesto

Lemon juice

Lemon peel

Plum tomatoes

Paprika

Courgette

Veg. oil

Kalamata olives

Salad cheese

Beetroot/ Carrot

Cavolo Nero sprouts / other green salad or herb

Step 1. Peel and slice beetroot/ carrot. Cut letters with cookie cutters. 

Step 2. Cook bulgur wheat. Mince courgette and sweat in veg. oil. Mince paprika, olives and tomatoes. Wash and grate lemon peel. Wash cavolo nero.

Step 3. Mix together cooked bulgur, pesto, lemon juice, olives, minced veggies and salad cheese cubes. Decorate with lemon peel, cavolo nero and beetroot/ carrot letters.

Have a Great Last Week of September!

Sannu

Beetroot Rye Burger

Rye bread is essential part of Finnish food palette. When Finnish voted for national food rye bread got the first place. I tend to eat about 1-2 slices of rye bread every day and I seldom choose white bread from the store. It is just something I learned from home. One of my favorite evening snacks is rye bread with hummus, it keeps hunger and tastes great. Now that we are heading towards the colder days fulfilling foods like rye bread, roots and spices begin to feel like a good idea. Stores start to fill with colorful roots, berries and sweet apples. One eats with their eyes. I browsed Pinterest for Autumn home decor inspiration and saw quite a few pumpkin related displays, cups of tea and deep warm colors. I got hungry. I created a picture of myself sitting inside, under a blanket, reading a book, rain pouring towards the windows and some sweet pumpkin cake almost ready in the oven spreading it's rich spicy scent. Can not wait that pumpkins come to the stores! While having pumpkin orange dreams I turn to roots that offer equally as great opportunities for cooking and baking.

Sometimes we tend to see cooking too complicated when with great ingredients it is actually simple. Vegetarian patties and steaks can be made with very different methods. Today, because it is Monday, we are going to make the most simple version of vegetarian steaks. This means we just slice fresh beetroot, dip in egg and breadcrumbs, fry in oil and sprinkle little salt on top. Quite many veggies can be prepared this way to create simple and quick steaks. Sweet hummus and fennel add taste to this dish. Potatoes take care of them selves in the oven. Tasty Monday luxury in it's best. Because I think when ever there is a home cooked dinner made from healthy ingredients, it is luxury in this fast food filled world.

Beetroot steaks, paprika hummus, fried fennel, green salad, pickles and radish form a great burger between rye bread. Potato wedges make the dish complete. Actually, now I have to take a lunch break and reheat some leftovers from yesterday.. yummy!

***

Back to business. First we make the hummus because it can stay in the fridge when potatoes, steaks and fennel are prepared. 

Sweet Paprika Hummus:

230 g cooked chickpeas (one can when water is poured out))

1/2 paprika

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt

cayenne pepper

chili

Step 1. Mince and sweat onion and paprika in veg.oil.

Step 2. Put chickpeas, minced garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil and lemon juice to a bowl. Mash with hand mixer.

Step 3. Put in onion and paprika and stir with mixer (leave a bit rough). Mix in spices (salt, cayenne pepper and chili) according to taste. Put to fridge.

Potato Wedges:

potatoes

veg. oil

salt

Preheat oven for 200 Celsius degrees. Slice the potatoes. Massage potatoes with oil and salt. Bake in the oven until soft and a bit golden.

Fried Fennel:

fennel

veg. oil

salt

black pepper

Cut and open the fennel to get smaller pieces. Fry on a pan in veg. oil until it gets a bit color. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.  

Beetroot Steaks

beetroot

1 egg

breadcrumbs

salt

veg. oil

Peel and slice the beetroots. Dip one at the time to egg and then to breadcrumbs. Fry on a pan in veg. oil on both sides until the surface is golden brown. Sprinkle some salt on top. Beetroot steaks are supposed to be left al dente inside.

Make the burger:

Spread some hummus to the rye bread, put in salad, radish, pickles, fennel and beetroot steaks. Serve warm with potato wedges.

***

I bought a bag of beetroots so I am already thinking about making borscht from the rest. It is also great with rye bread. Although at the moment I don't remember any dish that would not benefit from rye bread :)

Have an inspiring start for the new week!

Sannu

Prepare a Finnish Style Breakfast

Hope you are enjoying the best Midsummer weekend! I tend to spend holiday weekends at home: I keep no shopping days, do crafts that need more concentrating and relaxed mind, read, watch DVDs and prepare good food. Yesterday I sew all day listening to top 100 Finnish favorites from the radio. These kind of slow floating days are perfect for mind. After a day or two practicing silent no fuss life I feel I have gathered so much energy and inspiration. Sometimes there can be too many activities and ideas. Slow days that give space for thoughts are essential for creativity and development of ideas. 

To celebrate long weekends and slow, yet creative, lifestyle I have gathered a luxurious breakfast table with the most simple ingredients and easy recipes. My inspiration comes from everyday Finnish breakfast but instead of just grabbing the most important meal of the day straight from the fridge I have put effort on display and preparing the dishes with care. There is a difference between microwaved and long cooked kettle porridge, you see. Tasty Finnish berries in a soup, oatmeal porridge and rye bread are classics. And as every luxurious breakfast this one too ends up with strong black coffee and sweet rhubarb pie. What a better way to start a good day!

Oatmeal porridge with Berry Soup

For the porridge

2 dl Oatmeal

2 tbsp Wheat bran

1/2 L Water

Seeds (pumpkin, sunflower..)

Put together oatmeal, whet bran, water and pressed seeds to a kettle. Cook until it starts to boil, stir properly. When boiling turn to milder temperature and let cook properly. The longer you cook on mild temperature the better the result. 

For the Berry Soup

1 L Water

400 g Berries (I used raspberry, strawberry, 

blackcurrant and redcurrant mix plus one rhubarb)

3 tbsp Potato flour

Sugar

Vanilla sugar 

Put water and berries to a kettle and cook. Mix together cold water and potato flour. When berries and water are boiling take the kettle off and pour in the potato flour mix and stir properly. You don´t have to use all potato flour in case the soup begins to look thick with less. You can also add more potato flour if needed. Be sure to mix in the flour when the soup is still hot. Mix in sugar and vanilla sugar according to taste.

Bread selection

Rye bread is very Finnish and one of the things most Finns miss when they are abroad. I also put crisp rye bread to the table as I love it and I always have it in my kitchen cabinets. For the white bread I chose oat bread rolls.

Because I don´t eat meat except fish and seafood, I chose vegetarian substitute for cold cuts and sausage. Other quite typical fillings for breakfast sandwich are cheese, cucumber, paprika, tomato and butter. I also boiled eggs that can be sliced to a bread or eat separately.

For drink I have got blueberry juice that is made of Finnish blueberries. What is special about Finnish berries is that when sun shines through the midsummer nights they grow in a relatively short time gaining exceptionally good and strong taste .

Then it is time for strong black coffee and rhubarb pie. Blueberry, lingonberry, strawberry and rhubarb pies are traditional in Finland. What is best is that they are super easy to make and you can vary the fillings according to the seasons. 

Rhubarb Pie

~5 Rhubarbs

150 g Butter

1 1/2 dl Sugar

3 1/2 dl Wheat flour

1 tsp Vanilla sugar

1 tsp Baking powder

1/2 dl Milk (you can use oatmilk)

1 Egg

Peel and chop the rhubarbs. Put rhubarbs and little bit of sugar to a bowl and cook in microwave oven for few minutes until the rhubarbs are a bit softer. Melt the butter.  Mix together sugar, flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar. Pour in the melted butter and mix properly. Separate about 1 1/2 dl of the pastry. To the rest of the pastry add milk and egg. Mix properly. Butter a pie mold and press the pastry to the bottom. Then spread the rhubarbs evenly on the top of the pastry. Sprinkle the separated pastry on top (makes nice crispy texture). Bake in preheated oven 180 Celsius degrees until the pie has gotten a bit of a golden brown color. Serve with cream, ice cream or vanilla sauce. 

Happy Saturday and Midsummer everyone! There is a little bit sunshine outdoors so I am heading for a walk :)

Sannu

Finnish Cuisine: Herring fillets with new potatoes

To celebrate the weekend and that I finally got my recipe page organized I share this simple and tasty summer dish. On my updated recipe page I have divided the recipes in two categories: Finnish cuisine and Global cuisine. In global cuisine I have listed all recipes from tortilla to barlotto and amaranth chickpea patties. Under the Finnish cuisine I have recipes that are traditional Finnish recipes or use ingredients that are typically Finnish. I have long wanted to extend the list of Finnish cuisine recipes on my blog and what could be better time to start this project than summer when the best veggies and berries are available. Finnish recipes are usually relatively simple, use just few ingredients per dish and follow the seasons to achieve the best quality.  Recipe that I am sharing today is real fast food! Beautiful herring fillets are prepared in few minutes and new potatoes need just a little bit of butter and spring onion to make a luxurious side dish.  

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Herring Fillets

Herring fillets

Egg

Breadcrumbs

Vegetarian oil

Salt

Dill

Lemon juice

Break the egg in to a bowl and whisk. Put breadcrumbs in to the second bowl. Dip a fillet to the egg bowl so that it is covered properly. Then roll the fillet in the breadcrumbs. Prepare the rest of the fillets similarly. 

Fry the fillets on a hot pan with vegetarian oil from both sides until golden brown. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on top. Serve with fresh lemon and dill.

New Potatoes in Butter

Potatoes
Spring onion
Butter

Wash potatoes thoroughly and cook. Pour off the water. Add butter and chopped spring onion when potatoes are still warm. Serve when butter has melted.

***

Friday luxury at it's best. Pure, tasty food from season's ingredients. It was wonderful to carry the plates to the balcony and enjoy good food on a sunny summer day. And you know, the leftover fillets are excellent on rye bread with a bit of butter on it.

Happy Weekend to you all!

Sannu