saved by sustenance.

moments with friends become all the more precious the more fragile your foundation is.

i have been allowed to sit silently, forget what i just said, change the topic, mumble inexplicably, and everything and anything that can be expected from someone barely solid.

most importantly i have eaten with friends.

sharing a meal is an intimate gesture, a kindness that requires very little but nourishes by filling whatever gaping holes require a fix for another day. sometimes that little makes a tremendous difference.

even before i uttered words of finalization to anyone, my somber being was unquestionably welcomed at communal tables. after it all poured out, i was handed a piece of bread to nibble to sooth me.

one of the people who has always cleared a place for me in her table is hanna. we do not know each other well enough to be in tune with whatever goes on in either of our lives, but there's warmth and caring extended in our sporadic catchup meetings.

in addition to a glowing presence, hanna loves her food passionately. talking about it, sharing it, getting excited about it, talking about it a little more.

now she has shared her passion in a book written with her husband. approachable, easygoing and flavorful recipes – just like the people behind them.

shared. chanterelle and aubergine pasta at maxill. 

alone. avocado pasta at my new home.

safkaa is out and available in bookstores and online.

sugar rush.

a long-awaited friday night with dearly missed friends demanded some special attention. it seems our lives get overwhelmed by work so easily, and the time we find for each other diminishes inconspicuously.

or life just happens.

although i'd say we're naturally inclined to effortless entertaining – meaning showing up at the door with a bottle of wine would be totally acceptable – there were lengthy and rambling facebook and email threads dedicated to planning the menu and the evening.

my contribution was sweet.

and it was good.

chocolate hazelnut pie in a jar.

dreamscape.

i am absolutely in love with these videos. kinfolk are a group of artists who have combined their talent to produce work inspired by their love of small gatherings.

sure, they are a little too dreamy and perfect and at the wrong moments aggravate more than soothe. sometimes – ok sure, much of the time – life seems to consist of just managing between piles of laundry, dirty dishes, dustballs, hurry and short, snappy words to those around us.

but at most times, the serenity in these little clips draws me close and reminds me of the really important things: food, friends, and the details that make the moments we share so precious.

sit back, relax and enjoy. and if you feel the urge to write thank you notes by hand or quit your job to bake bread, do not blame me...



and there are more on their vimeo page. but remember i warned you.

have a beautiful weekend.

chef-d'oeuvre.

when el bulli closed its doors last july, i was amongst the innumerable people who regretted the fact that we never took the proper steps to secure a seat at one of the extravaganza of servings they offered for the 24 years chef adrià was in charge of the kitchen.

as i read around twenty articles about the last meal served to a special crowd of invitees, my feelings fluctuated from grief to bitter rage. why did i not just once do something i intensely wanted instead of putting it off indefinitely?

sigh.

there are spots around the world where the talent can still be experienced – such as tickets in barcelona – , but it is a tepid consolation for missing out on the grand spectacle of the original.

sigh.

if i were talented in the kitchen, i could always try the cookbook. for voluntary and utter mortification, there probably isn't a better source, unless i wanted to venture to the most passé of things and got myself a molecular gastronomy kit: not sure if playing a chemist for the sake of a circus was arrogant or just plain stupid. it's as if i forced my family to endure a set of opera arias after two weeks of singing lessons...

sigh.

phaidon's newsletter around the same time as el bulli was closing intrigued me. they announced a new cookbook from adrià: the family meal. it was to be a collection of recipes the staff enjoyed at the restaurant.

i placed a pre-order without hesitation, but when the book finally arrived about a month ago, my expectations were surpassed intensely and manyfold.

it was as if adrià had realized that those of us who never got to enjoy the art of his kitchen could not attain consummation from attending copycats of molecular gastronomy, but needed gentle, warm comforting to ease our distress.

thus, he built a book of 31 meals worthy of the regular home kitchen, a great cookbook in the detailed instructions it provides and something that unassumingly reassures someone like me that "no, the fact that you had no idea how to cook caramel does not mean you're not worthy of enjoying the best cooking and dining experience."

the amount of pictures, the lists of essentials in both utensils and ingredients, and the basic recipes provide a solid foundation for anyone wanting to know the basics of cooking. the meal recipe ingredients divided into buy fresh / in the pantry / in the fridge and a timeline for organizing the menu come together as an experience only the best mannered company can provide: effortless and cordial.

i will enjoy one of the meals – perhaps #5: polenta and parmesan gratin, sesame sardines with carrot salad and mango with white chocolate yogurt –  watching the el bulli movie with the regret a procrastinator only is capable of.

and then i'll just move on, just that much wiser.

fall barlotto.

the best purchase of this fall has without a doubt been our vegetable dryer.

yellowfeet + trumpets of death. gotta love the names of these delicious little fungi.

with limited freezer space, a flourishing garden and a shared love of mushroom picking, our stocks are overflowing. drying shrooms and veggies feels almost like cheating: vast piles shrink into diminutive heaps that promise a year long pleasure.

all dried out: mushrooms and leek.

since we had not dried anything previously, i had to make sure everything turned out all right. hence, i took a bag of organic barley – local, nutricious and much smaller in both carbon and water footprint than rice – and simmered it with dried leek and mushrooms until a creamy "barlotto" decorated my plate.

barley, veggie stock, leek, mushrooms, butter, salt and pepper. that's it.

simple and delicious.

eezy chiiz.

last year was definitely a food centered one for me.

although food has, for years, played an important part in my life, i was not raised in a foodie family. the sad truth may unveil itself more clearly if i told you that my elder brother asked me last year what the green grassy stuff i brought to the table was. he has not ventured far from our childhood days and did not recognize basic basil pesto...

bluntly put, my introduction to the fineries of nutrition came gradually and later in life. to be exact, my infatuation with food began with ethical questions and only afterwards moved on to culinary considerations.

on a daily basis i am easily pleased: bread and cheese keeps me going for a surprisingly long time. days, to be completely honest.

moreover, i am not picky nor do i expect the best, and i have been known to nibble on leftovers until they actually run out. i still cannot throw food away – a remnant of the frugal lifestyle of our family.

nonetheless, i appreciate and cherish every meal that is prepared with care, and although i have an inbuilt hostility towards routine, i have rediscovered the fascination of taking the time to plan and execute meals myself.

with our garden cottage, i've discovered the joys of seeing my food grow from minuscule seeds and have, i kid you not, experienced mothering tendencies with my plants. seriously, there is nothing maternal about me otherwise.

my latest pursuit goes towards creating items i would normally buy readymade: tortillas (which did not turn out but resembled little corn blinis instead... but i ain't givin' up.) and cheese.

stir stir...

the simplest recipe is curdled with eggs and sour milk or creme fraiche, and is as easy to prepare as a plain soup – it just requires careful heating and stirring... and some more stirring...

take 3 parts (full) milk, 1 part sour milk or creme fraiche and add 1 egg per regular milk litre. heat the milk carefully to boil, mix the sour milk and eggs in another bowl. add salt and spices (such as cumin) to taste.

remove the milk from the heat and add the egg and sour milk mixture. reheat carefully, stirring constantly until the first bursts of boiling appear. remove from heat and pour carefully into a colander or a cheese mold. gently push down and add a weight on top. let cool in the fridge.

voila, you've got yourself a hefty glob of fresh, milky cheese.

final product.

pics are from the garden cottage, a day before new year. old kitchen stove works for cheesemaking, too.

choked without the sun.

late fall is the time of delicious roots. they have quietly taken their time to develop within a similar darkness that we'll all live in soon.

although jerusalem artichokes are supposed to be unearthed after the first frost, we dug them out already well over a week ago. such is life divided between the country and the city.

the beautiful yellow flowers decorated a field of greenery – sunchokes are quite prolific and have taken over a large patch behind the cherry and apple trees.



we dug the clumsily knobby roots into a bucket and continued to the time-consuming project of washing and peeling them.



but what delicacy were we in for. having little sister over for sunchoke purée and fried baltic herring was one culinary bliss with the added bonus of catching up.

for the purée you'll need a saucepan full of peeled jerusalem artichokes. you can boil them in vegetable stock or water, however you prefer. boil until soft, pour stock out of saucepan (leave a tablespoon), mash with a fork or a blender, add butter and a little full fat milk, salt and white pepper to taste.



with the same recipe, but by keeping a tad more of the vegetable stock and instead of butter and milk add a few spoons of cream and some cheese (i prefer koskenlaskija, a processed cheese which despite the name is less processed than most cream cheeses on the market, go figure...), you'll get a rich, flavorful soup.

i know it sounds strange, but i prefer cream in my soup and milk in my mash. dunno. up to you, really.

heaven on a plate, i promise.

passion for the night.

photo by miika saksi.

friday night i attended two book launches: miika saksi's by night and sara la fountain's passion for food.

miika's book is a recording of a bubble of helsinki nightlife from 2004 till last year. the multitalented illustrator and photographer has carried his camera religiously at parties and shot people having fun, helsinki style. the location of choice is most likely erottaja bar (r.i.p.) which you'll recognize as the turquoise background of most shots, but the streets, private residences and some other bars provide additional scenery.

the party was thrown at helsinki10, and what a suitable location it was. amongst the coolest gear were it-people sipping cocktails, djs playing tunes and miika's pictures projected onto a wall.

dj håkan tyg playing against the background of helsinki party kids.

later we joined sara whose party site of choice was the privacy of her home. the kitchen was filled with beautiful food and piles of her books were lying around the house for browsing.

her third cookbook is a journey through the different seasons, paying attention to each month with several recipes made of seasonal produce. her approach is true to traditions – seasonal celebrations play a major role in the book – and notorious of her sweet tooth, she included some amazing dessert concoctions for those of you who suffer from a continuous craving for sugar...



both books are highly recommendable. miika's is available at hki10 and stupido shop, sara's at bookstores nationwide. go get your copies!

if i believed in a soul, this is what i'd feed it.

the in-laws visited last night for dinner and, naturally, i did my best to keep them happy. they're foodies – a passion we share – but as you've probably gathered from my blog, the sweetie and i eat out quite a bit.

not that i cannot cook... i can. we just usually have simple salad meals at home, and when people show up, i'd rather serve them something slightly more purposeful than a salad topped with cheese and nuts.

i love to cook, but am impatient with preparing food. there are certain dishes i love to make when i have a room full of people, and when i started this blog, i wanted to share more of my favorite recipes. for some reason i failed to do so. better late than never, i guess.

here's a real crowd pleaser in the form of avocado and mint soup. works both hot and cold, it is a rich and creamy concoction that is incredibly easy to prepare. serves four as a light meal or six as a starter.

ingredients:

3 tbsp butter
6 spring onions sliced
1 garlic clove crushed
25g basic flour
6 dl vegetable stock
2 ripe avocados
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1,5 dl milk
1,5 dl (light) cream
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
salt + pepper
mint (and avocado oil) to garnish


1. melt the butter in a large saucepan, add spring onion and garlic, fry gently for a few minutes until soft. do not brown.
2. stir in flour and cook a couple of minutes. stir the vegetable stock in gradually and bring to the boil. let simmer 7-10 minutes.
3. add chopped avocado flesh, lemon juice, lemon rind, salt and pepper to the saucepan, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes until tender.
4. remove from heat, allow to cool for a while and smooth with a blender of your choice. stir in milk and cream and chopped mint, adjust seasoning.
5. chill or heat depending on your choice of serving temperature.
6. garnish with fresh mint and a few drops of avocado oil.



when you're asked to share the recipe every time you serve a dish, you're on to something. this is one of them. enjoy!

rhub, rhub, rhub.

last summer i found the hidden gardener in myself. let's make it clear that my minute internal green thumb truly is tiny and easily ignored, but can be woken up if necessary. i still am very much an urban being.

one of the perks of being finnish is the tradition of summer cottages. my sweetie and i share two summer houses: one by the sea and one with a green garden. we experiment with a variety of veggies at the latter in addition to always growing potatoes, onions, tomatoes, carrots and grapes.

most of early spring is spent waiting for sprouts and all sorts of development (of which i understand very little, i might add...), but there are culinary perks early in the spring, as well. anna wrote about all kinds of young wild leaves which i don't recognize, but there is something i definitely do: it is rhubarb time!

here's a recipe for a large, simple rhubarb cake, best enjoyed with vanilla cream, custard or ice-cream.

5dl all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
2 tsp vanilla sugar
125 g butter
2.5 dl sugar
2 eggs (room temp)
2.5 dl sourmilk, sour cream or yogurt
5-6 dl chopped rhubarb (remember to peel!)

crumble:

2.5 dl all purpose flour
1.75 dl brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
125 g butter cubed

preheat the ovet to 175 celcius.

mix dry ingredients. mix soft butter with sugar. add the eggs one by one and mix for about two minutes. add dry ingredients and sourmilk/sour cream/yogurt in three batches and mix quickly until smooth. pour the batter into a greased, loose based cake tin. add the rhubarb pieces on top, and press lightly into the batter.

prepare the crumble topping. mix the flour, brown sugar and butter until crumbly (about 2min). add on top of the rhubarb.

bake on the lowest level of the oven for 45-60min, until the middle rises and the cake feels solid when the tin is shaken lightly.

enjoy!

(i made this yesterday for the family and will add a pic later once i have all my gear...)

food tweets.

microblogging's debatable usability has created some rather snarky commentaries like the mockumentary below:



i'm still not sure whether tweeting works for me since i seldom find anything worthy of posting and merely using twitter as a status updating device feels like throwing junkmail at my network. nevertheless, i continue to feel intrigued by twitter and this blog post in ny times reminds me that while new applications are beginning to be embraced they bring about ingenuity in some curious -- and often totally unnecessary -- forms.

tweeting your favorite recipe may provide a pleasant challenge for foodies; micro-recipes got a whole new meaning!

the scent of a holiday.

i like xmas mostly because it is the only precious time of year when my dispersed family spends time together under the same roof, but also because it is an excuse for having the scent of glorious spices around the house all the time. i am fond of warm spicy scents and the holiday season is my time to stock up on shower gels and body lotions for the rest of the year (and if i run out, there's always kiehl's and their coriander body wash).

***
start preparing for the season with some coffee flavored gingerbread to enjoy with an afternoon latte, and the basic, but always delicious carrot cake.

latte gingerbread

1,5 dl syrup
1,5 dl milk
2 tbsp instant espresso
2,5 dl sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp baking soda
100g butter
7,75 dl all purpose flour

1 egg white
around 2,5 dl icing sugar

1. briefly boil syrup, milk, coffee, cinnamon and sugar, remove from stove. add baking soda and butter in cubes.
2. let cool slightly and add flour.
3. let the dough cool for a few hours or overnight.
4. roll out the dough thinly and cut into shapes. bake at 200° until brown. let cool.
5. blend egg white and icing sugar until smooth and decorate.


carrot cake

5 dl all purpose flour
4 dl sugar
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 dl ground nuts
4 eggs
1,25 dl oil (sunflower)
6 dl finely grated carrots

100 g cream cheese
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla essence (or 1 tbsp lemon juice)
around 200g icing sugar

1. mix all the dry ingredients
2. break eggs, add oil and carrots. mix well.
3. add the dry ingredients into the carrot mix.
4. pour into a greased and crumbed tin, bake at 180° for about an hour. let cool completely.
5. mix cream cheese and butter until smooth, add flavoring.
6. mix with icing sugar until thick and smooth, pile on top of cake. decorate with nuts.

***
i don't do holiday decorations at home, but i do want a tree. i'd prefer a live one for the amazing scent, but being away for a fortnight to visit relatives does not a happy tree make. this year i also hauled my tree decorations to my parents' so that we could have a new look there without buying an extra set of ornaments.

therefore, we just got a teeny tiny (and slightly tacky) little tree and some new decorative balls: small black ones from ikea, beautiful muted colored ones from habitat and the outrageous goldfish with a feather tail from skanno.

molecular gastronomy.

yes yes, i am aware that molecular gastronomy is officially out, or has been out for such a long time it is officially back. foams and little weird droplets of unfathomable stuff appear on plates everywhere, and that's just not cool, right? ('that' referring to being everywhere, not the droplets themselves... english 101, where are you when i need you desperately?) well whatever, and good riddance of thinking cool, i say. i still want to get a reservation at el bulli and experience the art of cookery/chemistry by ferran adrià.

in the meanwhile, i intend to get a book of el bulli recipes and start my own experimental kitchen lab. therefore, i hope someone in or visiting the nyc area gets me this kit from dean & deluca. hint hint.

blizzard warmers.

when it's cold, i am very fond of ginger. the strong root works wonders as a natural warmth provider whether a spicy part (or end) of a meal or an ingredient of tea. it is known to ease an upset stomach and aid digestion, but also to calm the nerves.

here's my top 5 ginger products:

1. ginger yogi tea
2. yoghurt coated ginger
3. ginger snaps cookies (for a good recipe, go here.)
4. ginger and noodle soup
5. raw sugar coated ginger

and as an added bonus: ginger ale, preferably an organic one.

soup.

anu wrote about how the chilly fall weather creates a craving for hot, steamy soups and shared a couple of recipes. i promised i'd add some of my own and here's the noodle, mushroom and ginger soup. a great substitute with a twist for chicken noodle soup when you're feeling a little under the weather.

noodle, mushroom and ginger soup.

15g dried chinese mushrooms (or 125g fresh forest mushrooms)
1l vegetable stock
125g egg noodles
2 tsp sunflower oil
3 garlic cloves
2,5 cm ginger
1/2 tsp (mushroom) ketchup
1 tsp light soy sauce
125g beansprouts
fresh coriander to garnish

1. soak the mushrooms in 3dl of veggie stock for 30min. reserve the stock. remove stalks and discard. slice the mushroom hats.
2. cook the noodles for 2-3mins, drain, rinse and drain. set aside.
3. heat the oil in a wok, add garlic and ginger, then mushrooms. stir for 2 mins on high heat.
4. add the combined stock and bring to the boil. add ketchup and soy sauce. stir in beansprouts and cook until tender.
5. divide the noodles into serving bowls (4) and pour the soup over the noodles. add coriader and enjoy.