Easy Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce

Today I was going to buy some chili sauce at the supermarket. Then I took a look at the list of ingredients of the brand available in my grocery shop and at the price. Guess what? 2€ for a smallish bottle of something that consisted mainly of water and sugar!

I left the bottle on the shelf and decided to try to make my own chili sauce.

It was super easy - and the ingredients cost next to nothing (my estimate is around 30 cents). Another good thing is, you can regulate the amount of chili yourself!

This recipe is based on three different recipes that I found with a quick Google search for “homemade chili sauce”. There were around 13 million results, so I guess there are a lot of people doing chili sauce at home :D

This is what you need:

• 100ml sugar


• 50ml rice or white wine vinegar


• 50ml + 2 Tbsp water


• 1/3 tsp salt


• 1 espresso spoon of chili flakes


• 1 Tbsp tomato paste


• 2 garlic cloves, crushed


• 2/3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

And this is how to do it:

Combine all ingredients except for the flour and 2 Tbsp water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and let simmer 2-3 minutes. Now mix well the flour in the remaining water, pour in the pan and whisk energetically. Let simmer over a low heat until the sauce thickens, or about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool – and voilà! Your homemade chili sauce is ready to be used!

My bet is that this stuff keeps well quite long in the fridge. And even if it doesn’t, there’s way too much chili for you to taste any difference :D

Lemon Vanilla Cheesecake with Blueberry Cassis Coulis

Cheesecake is a divine invention: tasty crust, yummy creamy filling, and berries to boost the whole thing into a blissful combination of textures and flavors!

Too bad it always contains so much lactose that even a tiny little bit gets my stomach upset.

Oops, did I just write always?

Then I made a mistake! Namely, if you use vegan cream cheese instead of a dairy one, even people like me can enjoy cheesecake without a tummy ache.

This is what you need for about 8 servings:

For the crust:

• 120g vegan margarine


• 80g gingerbread cookies


• 80g ground almonds


• 5 Tbsp rolled oats

For the filling:

• 675g vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti, the only brand available in Finland)


• 100ml vegan natural yoghurt


• 100g confectioner’s sugar


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon

For the coulis:

• 200g frozen blueberries


• 50g sugar


• 50ml crème de cassis liquor

Start with the blueberries: combine the berries and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Let simmer uncovered over a medium heat until most of the liquid is gone. (Don’t worry, I didn’t forget the crème de cassis liquor. It will come later in the picture!)

In the meantime, prepare the crust. Using a bread knife, crush the gingerbread cookies into fine crumbs. Combine the crumbs, almond meal, and rolled oats in a baking bowl, then add the softened margarine and work with your fingers until the mixture is homogenous. Take a round form (mine has a diameter of 26cm) and press the dough evenly on its bottom. Chill while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling, combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Pour the filling on the crust and chill for about one hour in the freezer. The cheesecake should be really cold but not frozen!

Now back to the coulis. When the blueberry jam is thick enough, remove it from heat and let cool a bit. At the time of the serving, it should be still warm to create a perfect contrast with the chilled cake. Just before serving, combine crème de cassis liquor and the blueberry jam in a cup and spoon over the cheesecake.

Enjoy with a good coffee!

Cashew Cheese with Garlic and Herbs

This post is dedicated to a dear friend of mine, who happens to dislike cheese beyond measure!

She had dinner at my place last Sunday and looked at me incredulously when I offered her a slice of sourdough with garlic-herb “cheese”. Of course, I would never serve her real cheese – just this mock  cheese made with cashew nuts.

But the texture and taste of this nut cheese are very close to those of the real stuff – it takes a true cheese hater to tell the difference ;)

For a perfect result, soak the cashews overnight, make the “cheese” mixture in the morning, and serve your cheese in the evening. It can be served immediately as well, but the flavours and the texture are optimal if you can wait a couple of hours.

This is what you need:

• 200g cashews, soaked overnight


• 70ml water


• 1 tsp salt


• pepper to taste


• 1 small garlic clove


• a generous handful of 4 herbs of your liking (parsley, basil, chives, thyme, arugula…)

Drain the cashews and place them with the cold water, salt, pepper, and garlic clove in a bowl. Pulse with a hand mixer (or in your food processor) until creamy. Add some more water if needed. The mixture should be firm enough so that you can easily form it into small balls with your hands. If the mixture is too liquid, don’t worry: when you wait a couple of hours, it will be firmer; and if not, you can add some almond meal.

Place the cheese-to-be in the fridge for a couple of hours. Just before serving, roll the mixture into small balls (about 1 heaped teaspoon per ball), which you coat generously with chopped herbs. Serve with good bread or crackers!

P.S. Inspiration for this recipe came from Nicola Graimes’ awesome vegetarian cookbook, “The New Vegetarian Kitchen”. A must-have in every self-respecting kitchen!

Mushroom Risotto with Parsley and Lemon

I've got a friend who's an excellent cook, but he confessed he never makes risotto because it's so difficult to make it perfect. It's either under- or overcooked, too dry, too wet - or, worst of all, tasteless! But that's not the case with this garlicky mushroom risotto with lemon-parsley sauce: it's an explosion of tastes.

And it's 100% vegan as well.

Serve this risotto on pretty plates, pour some of your favourite Chianti in your glass, put some Irene Grandi music on - and you couldn't have it better off in any Italian restaurant :)

For 3 people you need:

• 1 medium-sized onion


• 4 Tbsp olive oil (divided)


• 250ml risotto rice


• 600ml vegetable broth


• 350g fresh mushrooms


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• salt and pepper to taste

For the parsley dressing:

• 1 tsp grated lemon zest


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice


• 5 Tbsp olive oil


• a generous handful of fresh parsley

 

Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan. Chop the onion and sauté over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. Add the rice and stir another 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the broth (previously heated, preferably) and let simmer over a low heat, partially covered. Let cook until the rice is al dente, or about 18 minutes. Once in a while, check that there's enough liquid - if not, add more!

While the rice is cooking, it's time to prepare the mushrooms and the lemon-parsley sauce.

Chop the mushrooms and sauté them in a large (iron) pan with no oil on it, stirring constantly, until the mushrooms have lost most of their liquid. Then add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil and the crushed garlic cloves and stir and fry 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.

For the sauce, just combine all ingredients in a jar and mix with a hand mixer until smooth. If you don't have one, chop the parsley with a pair of scissors as fine as you can, the add the rest and stir.

Now you should have all the three elements ready. Check once more that the rice is not too dry - if it is, you can still add more hot broth or water! Divide the rice on three plates, then sprinkle with those garlicky mushrooms and drizzle 1-2 tsp of the sauce on top. Serve immediately! And wipe any rests with a piece of baguette ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Baguette, or French for Bread

Don’t even think of baking a baguette if you haven’t got a masonry oven at your disposal.

Unless you’re as stubborn as I am and want to try it anyway.

In which case you should read this post, because I’ve discovered an easy and foolproof way of baking delicious baguettes, even in an electric oven.

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of baking baguettes in a masonry oven. The oven hadn’t been used in the past 25 years or so, but it was in a perfect condition to provide me with the most perfect bread ever.

Only, I was a perfect analphabet with masonry ovens!

My first attempt resulted in a charred baguette in less than 5 minutes in the oven.

My second attempt resulted in a pale loaf although it had been 40 minutes in the oven. Still, it looked and tasted awesome, resembling nothing you can bake in a normal oven.

And then the weekend was over, and I had to return to my own kitchen and my electric oven. Maybe next time, I’ll learn to master that old masonry oven where my grandmother used to bake her bread for about four decades..

In the meantime, I’ve now learned to bake decent baguettes even in my electric oven. You just need to make a few special arrangements.

If you have a pizza stone, use it. If you’re like me and don’t possess one, use a normal oven tray but heat it in the oven for about 10 minutes so that it’s piping hot when you place your baguettes on top of it! That way, the baguettes keep their form and the oven spring is spectacular.

This recipe is based on Sébastien Boudet’s recipe. It’s baked with pre-ferment, so that the baguette doesn’t taste like yeast nor like sourdough starter (nothing wrong with the latter but somehow it doesn’t fit to baguette, in my opinion), and with an excellent crust and inner structure.

Here’s what you need to make two long baguettes or three shorter ones:

Pre-ferment:

• 500ml cold water


• 500ml all-purpose flour (do try replacing about 1/5 of the flour by rye flour, for an extra tasty baguette)


• 1g yeast


• 1tsp stiff sourdough starter

For the final dough:

• all of the pre-ferment


• about 300ml all-purpose flour


• 14g salt (about 2 tsp)

Combine water, starter, and yeast in a baking bowl. Stir, then add the flour and stir until you get a dough almost like a thick pancake batter. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let stand for about 12 hours in room temperature.

Next day, the pre-ferment should be bubbling nicely and smell…delicious! If not, something went wrong (too cold? too much draft?) and you have to start over. (This never happened to me, so it’s very unlikely it will happen to you, either!)

Now, add the salt and the rest of the flour. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until you get a smooth and elastic dough. Cover it with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment for about 8-10 hours more (I do this overnight). In the morning, the dough will have at least doubled in size. Now it’s time to set your oven to 300C and start shaping your baguettes. (In case you’re baking in a masonry oven, you have to start heating the oven a couple of hours earlier, of course!)

Pour the dough onto a floured baking surface. Beat the air out, then divide the dough into three parts, and let them rest for about 5-10 minutes. Now, place the pizza stone or your oven tray in the oven so that it will be ready to receive your baguettes.

Then roll each part out into a rectangle as long as you want your baguette to be, and roll it into a tight roll, a bit like when you’re making cinnamon rolls! This is of course not the only way to shape a baguette, but that’s the one that works the best for a beginner as myself: it's the easy way to get an evenly-shaped baguette that holds its form!

Bake your baguettes on the pre-heated oven tray in 275C for about 20 minutes, or until well baked but not burned.

Let cool on a rack and serve with lots of salty butter or good olive oil!

And start planning how to get a masonry oven of your own ;)

Spätzle with Chestnut and Mushroom Ragout

Spätzle is the king of all home-made quick dishes: after you've got 3 liters of water boiling, it only takes one minute for you to have a plate full of these German noodles on your plate!

Traditionally, the batter consists of special spätzle flour, salt, water, and eggs, but this time, I wanted to try it 100% vegan.

Again, no weird substitutes needed: I just left the eggs out and used more water. Spätzle flour is not available in Finland, so I used Italian durum wheat flour instead. I couldn't really tell any difference - only that the durum flour is yellow, so even without eggs, the spätzle had exactly the same appearance.

Spätzle can be eaten with grated (vegan) cheese on top - that's the fastest option. But if you're not in a hurry, do try this delicious ragout! The idea for it comes from the Vegan Love Story, but I changed it quite a bit (the only ingredients in common being chestnuts, red wine, and onion). The ragout combines chestnuts with shiitake mushrooms, carrots, onion, a lot of garlic, and red wine, and the result was exquisite. It made me think of boeuf bourguignon...

This recipe should be enough for four hungry eaters!

This is what you need for the spätzle:

• 400g spätzle or durum flour


• 440ml water (a bit more or less, the quantity really depends on the flour you use)


• 1 tsp salt

And for the ragout:

• 1 medium-sized onion


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• 2 medium-sized carrots


• 200g shiitake mushrooms


• 200g canned chestnuts


• 200ml red wine


• 500ml vegetable broth


• 3 Tbsp tomato paste


• salt and pepper to taste


• a handful of chopped parsley

Begin with the ragout: chop the onions, crush the garlic, slice the carrots, and quarter the mushrooms. Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy pan and sauté the onions first about 3-4 minutes, add the garlic and carrots, and sauté 3-4 minutes more. Then add the mushrooms, stir two more minutes, and add the chestnuts, wine, broth, salt, and pepper. Let boil over a medium heat partly covered until the carrots are tender. Add the tomato paste, stir, check the taste and add more salt if needed. Sprinkle generously with chopped parsley (or how about thyme?).

In the meantime, prepare the spätzle: Combine flour and salt in a baking bowl. Add the water - first a bit less, then gradually adding more if needed. Mix energetically with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth batter, almost like very dense pancake batter. The amount of water depends heavily on the type of flour you're using. Mine took 110ml water for each 100g of flour.

Bring 3L water to the boil in a big saucepan. Press the batter through a spätzle grater (spätzlehobel) into the boiling water. If you don't have one, try pressing the batter through the holes of a regular colander. The spätzle are done when they rise back to the surface, or in about one minute. Remove the cooked ones with a skimmer, and repeat until all of the spätzle is done.

Serve with the ragout!

P.S. I wasn't familiar with the etymology of the word ragout  - well, now I am! It comes from old French ragoûter, or to revive the taste. In this case, it's an appropriate name indeed  :)

 

 

Savoury Vegan Filo Rolls with Beetroots and Carrots

Didn’t I tell you my next posts would be about filo pastry? Well, this is going to be the last one for now – I used my last sheets to make these savoury rolls filled with beetroots and carrots. Again, a 100% vegan recipe.

Why vegan, you might ask. Well, I'm not taking part in Veganuary (to be honest, I only read about it yesterday - a great idea!). But I've got a vegan challenge of my own: my husband who after three years of vegetarianism told me he'd like to eat only vegan from now on - and gave me an inspiring cookbook, the Vegan Love Story.  And I am inspired :)

The filling combines carrots and beetroots with lots of garlic and herbs, plus nutmeg, cinnamon and ras el hanout, a mixture of spices used in Northern Africa. A total winner!

This is what you need to make 6 rolls, or just enough for 3 eaters served with an accompaniment or for 2 served just with a salad:

•  6 A4-sized sheets of filo pastry

For the filling:

• 1 large beetroot, finely chopped (or grated)


• 2 small carrots or 1 large, finely chopped


• 1 small onion, chopped


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• 3 Tbsp


• 1tsp ras el hanout


• 1 pinch of grated nutmeg


• 1 pinch of cinnamon


• salt and pepper to taste


• a handful of chopped parsley and mint (or other herbs of your liking)

For the brush:

• 20g vegan margarine


• 4 Tbsp olive oil


• 2 Tbsp almond cream


• 1 garlic clove, crushed


• salt and pepper to taste

Start with the filling: heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large pan. Add onion, garlic, carrots, and beetroots, and stir and fry for about 5 minutes. Then add the spices and the cream and a bit of water if needed. Cover and let simmer about 5 more minutes. If the vegetables are really finely chopped, they get tender very quickly. Remove from heat.

In the meantime, make the brush: just combine all ingredients in a saucepan and warm up until the margarine has melted.

To make these rolls, I cut each A4-sized filo pastry sheet in two. I brushed the half of the small sheets with the brushing mixture and placed about 2 Tbsp of filling in the middle of each brushed sheet. Then I folded carefully into a 7cm long, 4cm wide roll. Then I wrapped each roll into a non-brushed filo sheet. This way, the rolls held together perfectly!

Bake in a preheated oven (200C) for about 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

To go with, I served some quinoa with grated lemon zest and a lot of chopped herbs. Yum!

Orange and Almond Filo Rolls - a Perfect Vegan Dessert

I guess my next posts will be about filo pastry for a while, I'm in love with this stuff! It seems you can fill it with just about anything and it will taste gorgeous.

And to tell the truth - this filling isn't actually just anything: it combines so many flavours it just could not not taste perfect. Vanilla, orange, orange blossom water, almonds - and not to forget the Port glaze (no, I didn't accidentally spill some red wine on the plate - I'm considering to try white Port wine next time, because of the colour ;) ) And did I mention it's 100% vegan?

This portion was supposed to be for 5, but I ended up eating two right away.

For 5 big rolls you need:

• 5 A4-size sheets of filo pastry

For the filling:

• 150g silken tofu


• 75g soy-based cream-cheese


• 2 Tbsp agave syrup


• 2 Tbsp orange syrup (from home-made candied orange peel)


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 30g almond meal


• a handful of finely chopped candied orange peel (preferably home-made)

For the orange glaze:

• 3-4 Tbsp agave syrup


• 1 tsp orange blossom water

For the Port glaze:

• 200ml Port wine


• 2 cinnamon sticks

Preheat your oven to 200C. Combine all the ingredients of the filling in a bowl and stir until well combined. Place one filo sheet at a time on a working surface and place about 2 Tbsp of the filling at one corner, more or less the size you want the final product to be (leave a margin, though). Fold the pastry so that the result is a roll not dropping too much of the filling out :) This needs some getting-used-to. (One of mine broke quite badly, but I just wrapped it in one extra filo sheet.)

Place the rolls in an oven-proof dish and bake until golden brown and crispy. In the meantime, warm the agave syrup and the orange blossom water in a small saucepan and keep the glaze ready: as soon as the rolls come out of the oven, brush them with the syrup. Let cool a bit.

In the meantime, prepare the Port glaze: place the Port wine and the cinnamon sticks in a saucepan and let boil over high heat until the liquid has reduced to about 5 Tbsp. Now, place the rolls on a serving plate and pour 1 Tbsp over each. Decorate with a couple of mint leaves if you happen to have some.

Oh, and needless to say - serve your filo rolls with a glass of your favourite Port! Saúde!

 

 

Börek with Spinach and Chanterelles

I got acquainted with börek at a Turkish friend's place - she served me an unbelievably delicious dish called börek. Then I ate another, very different kind of Turkish dish made by another friend - and surprisingly enough, it was also called börek. So I suppose there are very different varieties of this iconic Turkish dish!

This is my first attempt to make börek. Most of the vegetarian recipes I found combine spinach and feta, but I wanted to try out a 100% vegan version. I initially thought of using tofu, but somehow it would have been too obvious - and then I found frozen chanterelles at the supermarket. Chanterelles are my favourite mushrooms by far. They are just incredibly tasty, and combine perfectly with spinach (oh well, is there anything spinach would not combine with?!).

To me, this is a perfect kind of vegan dish. It's extremely rich and tasty, and really doesn't feel like substitute to anything - it stands on its own. It's proudly vegan!

For four people you need:

• 4 large sheets of filo dough (about the size of a A3-sheet)

For the filling:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil


• 1/2 of a large onion or 1 small onion


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• 700g frozen spinach


• 200g frozen chanterelles


• 2 tsp grated lemon zest


• 3 Tbsp almond cream


• a pinch of grated nutmeg (or a bit more if you like!)


• salt and pepper to taste


• lots of chopped fresh parsley (or other herbs of your liking)

For the brushing:

• 50g vegan margarine


• 125ml olive oil


• 4 Tbsp almond cream


• 1-2 crushed garlic cloves


• salt and pepper to taste

Begin with the filling: heat the oil in a heavy pan and sauté the onion 3-4 minutes. Then add the garlic, stir 1-2 minutes, and then add the frozen spinach and mushrooms. Let melt and then simmer over a low heat for a couple of minutes. Add lemon zest, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and stir. Sprinkle with the chopped herbs and set aside.

Then make the liquid for the brushing: combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat until the margarine has melted. Set aside.

Now, place one sheet (I used double sheets...) of the filo dough on the bottom of a lasagne form. Brush it evenly with the brushing liquid. Spread 1/3 of the filling over the filo dough. Repeat twice. Place the 4th sheet on top of the last filling layer and brush it with the remaining brushing liquid. If there's not enough left, make quickly some more.

Bake your börek in the preheated oven (200C) until it's crispy and golden brown, or about 30 minutes. Serve either hot or at room temperature with a green salad, for example!

 

 

 

 

Vanilla Almond Pancakes

As far as pancakes are concerned, I used to have a strategy: whenever I was craving for them, I would send my little sister to ask our Dad to bake some - and he would never refuse. Had I asked directly, the answer would have been no, most of the time. (My sister was really thin as a kid, so I guess my parents were just over happy that she would spontaneously want to eat something...)

For about three years now, I've tried a new dairy-and-egg-free pancake recipe every now and then, and failed miserably every single time. They'd be sticky, impossible to fry; they'd taste like soy or some other unpleasant ingredient; their consistency would be like rubber; well, you get the picture.

Until Santa brought me a new vegan cookbook, the Vegan Love Story. A very recommendable book indeed! It features a pancake recipe that immediately caught my attention: no dairy-free-milks nor egg-substitutes needed, just basically water and flour. Simple and ingenious! I substituted part of the flour by almond flour, and the result was the best-ever vegan pancakes that even my son adored.

To make enough pancakes for 1 hungry or 2 moderately hungry breakfast eaters:

• 50g almond meal


• 125g flour


• 2 tsp sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• a pinch of salt


• 3/4 tsp baking powder


• 150ml water


• 1 Tbsp sunflower oil, plus some more for the frying

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and oil and beat energetically until you have a smooth batter. Let the batter stand for about 10 minutes - just enough time to make some coffee ;)

Fry your pancakes over a medium heat until both sides are golden brown. Make sure that they are well cooked from the inside as well - if not, reduce the heat.

Serve with your favourite accompaniment - I opened a jar of home-made wild raspberry jam for the occasion!

P.S. Who would invent a method to make even the first pancake turn out perfect?! Mine didn't, as you can see from the pic... it never does...

Bacon and Eggs, Vegan Style

When I was a kid, we used to have porridge for breakfast every single morning, except for Sundays, when we got bacon and eggs: one fried egg and two slices of bacon per person. It felt so special!

Maybe that nice memory of those special breakfast moments was the reason I was sure I'd never be able to become a vegetarian - I thought I just loved bacon too much.

But I was wrong - I haven't even thought of bacon for many years now. Until a couple of weeks ago a friend made breakfast pancakes with bacon - and I got an idea: why not use Liquid Smoke to create "bacon" out of thin aubergine slices?

Today I finally tried out that idea, and it worked much better than I'd never imagine! It looks like bacon, it smells like bacon, it tastes like bacon. But it ain't bacon ;)

I also tried to make "scrambled eggs" out of silken tofu and turmeric. It turned out really good as well - apart from the soy taste, of which I'm not a big fan.. (I know, at some point I'll get used to it.)

For 4 people you need:

• 1 large aubergine, cut in thin slices lengthwise


• 1/2 cup olive oil


• 2 Tbsp soy sauce


• Liquid Smoke to taste (I used 1/3 tsp)


• salt and pepper to taste


• 400g silken tofu


• 100g smoked firm tofu, cut in small cubes


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• 1/2 tsp turmeric


• salt and pepper to taste


• a handful of fresh parsley

Set your oven to 250C. Place the aubergine slices on a baking tray. Combine olive oil, soy sauce, liquid smoke, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Brush the aubergine slices with the oil mixture and bake in the oven until they start to get some colour. Be careful - they burn quite easily!

For the "eggs", use your hands to squeeze the silken tofu until its texture resembles scrambled eggs. Add the turmeric and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Then, heat the oil in a heavy pan. Fry the smoked tofu cubes until golden brown, or 2-3 minutes, then add the silken tofu, and fry until all of the silken tofu is hot. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and parsley - and serve right away with the "bacon"!

Risotto Milanese with Grilled Fennel and Herbs

My great-grandmother Olga was notorious for her elephant's memory: she would never forget, especially when she got bad service in a shop. If that happened, she would make a dramatic exit, declaring in her broad Karelian dialect: "I will never come to this place again." And she would indeed keep her word.

So do I.

This risotto recipe is dedicated to Coma, an Italian restaurant in Helsinki that boasts simple Italian dishes, made from scratch in their open kitchen. Me and my cousin had dinner there on Tuesday and were very disappointed with the risotto we both had as main dish. The only thing the waiter could answer to our very polite criticism was: "But this is the best risotto in Helsinki!" It turned out it had indeed been nominated as the best risotto in town - back in 2007. Anyway, de gustibus non est disputandum - but it's not acceptable not to take polite remarks seriously (or at least to fake to do so). And the dish was horribly expensive, too; 18 euros for a small plate.

So, I will never go to Coma again.

To recover from that awful risotto experience, I tried out a new risotto idea today, featuring saffron, garlic, grilled fennel, and herbs. For this big portion enough for 5 eaters I paid about 12 euros... and I happen to live in one of the most expensive places in the world - so the chances are, you'll pay even less :)

Here's what you need:

• 1 large onion, finely chopped


• 2 garlic cloves, crushed


• 5 Tbsp olive oil, divided


• 0,5g saffron


• salt and pepper to taste


• 150ml dry white wine


• about 1 liter hot vegetable stock


• 2 large fennel bulbs, sliced finely


• a handful of fresh basil and parsley leaves


• a handful of toasted pine nuts


• (and some grated Parmesan to serve, if you want)

First, set your oven to 250C. Place the fennel slices on a baking tray and sprinkle them generously with olive oil and salt. Once the oven is hot, grill the fennel slices until they start to get some colour, or about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, cook the risotto: Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large pan. Sauté the onions over a medium heat until they are translucent. Add the garlic and stir, then add the rice and fry 1-2 minutes more. Now, add the white wine, saffron, salt, and pepper, and about 1/3 of the vegetable stock. Let simmer over a medium heat. Add gradually the rest of the vegetable stock until the rice has cooked al dente. Your risotto should be rather liquid at this point, because it dries a lot before you get to serve it - even if you're very fast :)

Now, arrange the grilled fennel slices on top of the risotto. Sprinkle generously with basil, parsley, pine nuts ans some more pepper and salt if needed. Serve immediately with a glass of your favorite red wine!

Red Lentils with Green Curry and Coconut

The most important lesson I learned from my 5-day microwave experience was that a lot of things can be cooked in a very straight-forward way: just place all ingredients in a recipient and cook until done! That's the case of this highly addictive green curry with red lentils. Of course, you can do it the traditional way: sauté the spices in a bit of oil and so on, but if one is in a hurry, why bother?

I got the idea for this curry from here, as I was looking for ideas to combine lentils, bulgur, and coconut. Serve the curry with cooked rice, topped with fresh cilantro - or flat-leaf parsley, if you don't happen to like the taste of cilantro (surprisingly many don't).

 

For 4 portions you need:

• 1 cup red lentils, rinsed


• 1/2 cup bulgur, rinsed


• 3 Tbsp green curry paste


• 2 Tbsp tomato paste


• 300ml coconut milk


• 150ml hot water


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed


• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)


• 1 tsp turmeric


• 1 tsp ground cumin


• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger


• 30g fresh cilantro

It doesn't get easier than this: take a saucepan and place lentils, bulgur, coconut milk, and chopped ginger in it. In a large cup, stir together green curry paste, tomato paste, crushed garlic, water, oil, cumin, turmeric and salt. Add the spice mixture to the pan and bring everything to the boil. Let simmer over a low heat until the lentils are soft, or about 15 minutes. Add more water if needed.

Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top and serve immediately!

 

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Princess Cake with a Heart

Today, for once, we had a very late breakfast and a late lunch, so I'd thought we'd survive until dinner without having to eat any snack in between. How wrong I was! Around 4PM I started to crave something sweet, and inspired by our ladybird cake experience yesterday, I decided to bake a quick princess cake. Less than one hour later, we were devouring this raspberry-flavoured treat!

I'm not a big talent in cake decorating, but this one is really easy to make. And, as far as I'm concerned, it's more important how a cake tastes than what it looks like :)

This time, I wanted to try baking the cake with whole-grain flour, and it worked very well indeed. A small step towards a healthier treat...

For one cake you need:

• 4 eggs


• 100ml sugar


• 200ml whole-grain wheat flour


• 1tsp baking powder


• 75ml milk


• 75ml raspberry juice


• 100ml raspberry jam


• 200ml heavy cream


• 200g marzipan


• a few drops red food colouring


• 1 tsp powder sugar

This is how to do it:

Preheat the oven to 175C. Beat the eggs and sugar in a baking bowl and add sifted flour in which you’ve added the baking powder. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the flour is well combined with the rest. Pour the batter in a round cake form and bake until golden brown, or some 15 minutes.

In the meantime, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Take about half of the cream and mix it with the raspberry jam.

When the cake is well baked, remove it from the oven and let cool, then remove from the form and cut horizontally into two pieces either using a sharp knife or a string.

Place the bottom half on a serving plate. Moisten with half of the milk and half of the raspberry juice. Spread the cream-raspberry-filling on the bottom half, then place the upper half on top and moisten with the rest of the milk and raspberry juice. Spread the remaining cream evenly on top of the cake.

Roll the  marzipan between two layers of cling film into a disc just a bit bigger than the cake’s diameter. From one corner, take out a heart with a cookie cutter. Trim the rest of the marzipan if needed. Place the disc carefully on top of the cake and fold to cover the sides as well (I wasn't very careful enough today, and the marzipan broke in two places...). Sprinkle with powder sugar. Colour the heart with few drops of red colouring. Place the heart in the middle of the cake and enjoy!

 

 

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Ladybird Cake

One of the first baking books I ever got was called Tule mukaan (Come along!). Recently, as I was going through it I saw that I had marked some of the recipes with a mysterious "B" - and I suddenly remembered that it stood for Birthday - things I wanted to serve at my birthday party. (Which I never did - my Mom would always bake her traditional cream cake - not bad, either!)

Among the recipes marked with "B", there was this ladybird cake. Back in those days, there wasn't coloured marzipan available, so the recipe tells you how to colour marzipan with red food colour, only available at the pharmacy back then. Maybe that's one of the reasons I never actually baked the cake myself...

Now the same cake was the first thing my kids wanted to try out from that book. They don't like marzipan, so we opted for red sugar mass - but I'd definitely use marzipan if I was only baking for myself. The cake tasted surprisingly good: fresh and tasty. Too often, this kind of cakes are just too sweet to my taste, but not this one! As far as I know, ladybirds don't have tails, but we had to add one more lolly so that all the three kids would have a lolly of their own.

For one cake you need:

• 4 eggs


• 100ml sugar


• 150ml all-purpose flour ( I used 1/3 whole-grain)


• 1 tsp baking powder

 

For the filling:

• 100ml heavy cream


• 100ml apple sauce (not too sweet)


• 1tsp vanilla sugar

 

For the topping:

• 100ml apple sauce


• one package of red sugar mass (I didn't take the reference of how many grams that was...)


• 2 liquorice bars, cut in 1cm pieces


• 2 lollipops (we had to use 3 - see above)

 

• Plus about 150ml milk for the moistening of the cake

This is how to do it:

Preheat the oven to 175C. Beat the eggs and sugar in a baking bowl and add sifted flour in which you've added the baking powder. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the flour is well combined with the rest. Pour the batter in a round cake form and bake until golden brown, or some 15 minutes.

In the meantime, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Add vanilla sugar and the apple puree into the cream.

When the cake is well baked, remove it from the oven and let cool, then remove from the form and cut horizontally into two pieces either using a sharp knife or a string.

Place the bottom half on a serving plate. Moisten with about 75ml milk. Spread the cream-apple-filling on the bottom half, then place the upper half on top and moisten with the rest of the milk. Spread the 100ml apple puree on top.

Roll the sugar mass (or marzipan) between two layers of cling film into a disc just a bit bigger than the cake's diameter. Place the disc carefully on top of the cake and fold to cover the sides as well. Decorate your ladybird with the liquorice bar pieces (the dots) and lollies (the antennas).

I bet the cake gets even better if you let in stand in the fridge overnight. We had to eat it right away, though, so I can't tell for sure...!

P.S. In the original recipe, the middle part of the cake was cut out to make the ladybird oval instead of round. We didn't do that - we preferred to have a bigger cake ;)

 

Finnish Sweet Buns, or Pulla

A lot of things have happened in my kitchen since my last post.

First of all, at about 7PM on Christmas Eve, just as I was baking some Christmas loaves, my oven and stove suddenly broke. I had to wait five days until we finally got them repaired! In the meantime, I did a lot of microwave cooking - I had no idea the device could be used for so many different purposes. I even baked a sourdough loaf in microwave oven... (I do NOT recommend it, though; but microwave bread is anyway better than no bread at all...). Anyway, I wasn't very convinced - and will continue to use my microwave oven mostly to melt butter and chocolate :)

Secondly, the warehouse where I've got a lot of my family's stuff stored is going to close next month. So I spent one entire day going through many things I haven't seen in years, thinking what to keep, what to give away or sell, and what to put straight to the garbage. One of the nicest surprises were my old cookbooks, from about 30 years ago! I was super happy to be able to give them to my kids.

It seems that those old recipe books have not lost their interest... During the two past days, my kitchen has been under the invasion of cute halflings dressed in aprons, baking the most delicious findings from those old books! Like these traditional Finnish sweet bun "boys" (pullapoika) from yesterday.

For the dough you need:

• 250ml hand-warm milk or water


• 25g fresh yeast


• 100ml sugar


• 1 tsp salt


• 1-2 tsp cardamom


• about 700ml all-purpose flour


• 100g softened butter (f0r a vegan version, use margarine)

To decorate:

• raisins


• almonds


• 1 egg (for a vegan version, use vegan milk for brushing)

The method:

Crumble the yeast and place in a baking bowl. Pour the hand-warm milk in the bowl and stir until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, and cardamom. Then, add flour gradually stirring with your hand until the dough is smooth but still sticky. Lastly, add the softened butter and knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. Add more flour if needed. (My halflings didn't knead the dough at all, yet their buns turned out perfect. Just telling you this in case you're feeling lazy ;) )

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let ferment until doubled in size, or about 1 hour.

Pour the dough onto a baking surface and beat the air out of it. Shape as you wish, decorate with raisins and almonds, and proof about 15 minutes. Brush with egg and bake in a preheated oven (200C) until your buns are golden brown.

Sweet buns are best eaten when they are still a bit warm - is there anything better in this world than warm home-made pulla?

The Last Stretch: Raspberry Truffles and Soft Toffee Candies

I bet a lot less sweets would be eaten if everyone made their own candy: first, it takes quite a lot of time, and second, you really get to see what goes in them! The amount of sugar and fat is just beyond imagination.

But hey, it's Christmas, so we don't really care! (Do we ever? ;) )

Anyway, today I made the last stretch to complete my reverse advent's calendar and prepared two different sweets. First, raspberry truffles that featured in the Finnish Elle magazine a few years ago, and second, soft toffee candies from a really old cookbook I've lost a long time ago. Luckily, a friend still has a copy and e-mailed me the recipe!

To make about 25 truffles you need:

• 300g semi-sweet dark chocolate (I used a 66% one)


• 25g butter


• 25ml heavy cream


• 100ml frozen or fresh raspberries


• 1 Tbsp sugar


• plus cocoa powder, for dusting

And this is how to proceed:

Place the chocolate, butter, and cream either in bain-marie or in a micro-wave-proof bowl. Heat the mixture so that the butter and chocolate melt. Stir well. In a small saucepan, bring the raspberries and the sugar to the boil. Let boil 2-3 minutes or until the liquid has almost disappeared (especially frozen raspberries contain lots of water!). Pour the raspberry mixture into the chocolate mixture, stir, and let cool in the fridge until it's hard enough to handle.

Then, take small teaspoons of the mixture and form into balls. Cover each truffle with cocoa powder ( I rolled them in a small bowl containing cocoa powder). Place your truffles on a plate and let cool again, either in a cool room temperature or in the fridge. Store in a tin box - but not for a long time! Truffles have to be eaten within 2-3 days ;)

And this is what you need to make about 50-60 small toffee candies:

• 100g butter


• 200ml molasses


• 200ml heavy cream


• 300ml sugar


• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder

This is how to proceed:

Melt the butter in a heavy pan. Add molasses, cream, sugar, and cocoa powder. Stir well and bring to the boil. Let simmer over medium heat for about 35 minutes. Stir once in a while - especially towards the end.

Pour the toffee-to-be on a large plate covered with a parchment paper. Let cool in room temperature until the toffee is hard enough to be cut in pieces. You can also cool it in the fridge to make things go faster - my fridge was full of Christmas food and my balcony full of snow, but I wasn't in a hurry. (I wrapped the gifts in the meantime!)

Toffee candies should be wrapped individually in small (tin) papers, because they are somewhat sticky.

Now my advent's calendar is accomplished, and I wish you all a merry Christmas!

Day 21: Sweet Christmas Bread, Finnish Style

You remember I wrote in my previous post about one almost never coming to think of recipes that wouldn't already exist? The following is the exception justifying the use of almost; at least I couldn't find anything similar with a quick Google research.

The first bread I ever baked from scratch was a Finnish Christmas loaf, and, if my memory is to be trusted, it turned out perfect. It was the classical recipe from the best-known traditional Finnish cookbook, Kotiruoka, or Home Cooking. It's baked with molasses, fennel, bitter orange peel, and caraway seeds - and lots of yeast. Which is the reason why I wanted to modify the recipe, to be baked with sourdough starter instead of yeast.

The result was the most delicious and moist loaf ever! (If you happen to like sweet bread and anise taste, that is. I'm the only one in my family who does! More bread for me......!)

This is what you need for two loaves:

• 200g sourdough starter (on the stiffer side)


• 400g buttermilk


• 200g rye flour


• 200g spelt flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 12g salt


• 100ml molasses, divided


• 1tsp aniseed or fennel seeds (I couldn't FIND my fennel seeds, so I used aniseed instead)


• 1tsp bitter orange peel


• 1tsp caraway seeds


• plus some more fennel and caraway seeds for the topping

Combine starter, all three flours, and buttermilk in a baking bowl. Stir so that the flour gets moist and let stand about 20 minutes. In the meantime, combine 60ml of the molasses, the orange peel and slightly crushed fennel (or aniseed) and caraway seeds in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and remove from heat.

Now, add salt and the molasses mixture into the baking bowl. Knead about 10 minutes or until you have an elastic, smooth dough. I had to add some water because my flour was very thirsty (whole-grain rye and spelt flour tend to be...).

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment overnight, or about 8 hours.

After the fermentation, beat the dough about 2 minutes and divide it into two parts. Proof each loaf in a proofing basket about 1 hour.

Transfer the loaves on a baking tray and brush with the rest of the molasses (add about 1 Tbsp water to make it liquid enough for brushing) and sprinkle with some seeds.

Bake in 225C for about 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to about 180C and bake until thoroughly cooked, about 45 more minutes. This bread burns easily, so check every once in a while. If necessary, cover the loaves with a wet parchment paper.

Let cool and enjoy with lots of butter!

P.S. I baked this bread now twice with sourdough starter, and the oven spring with the first batch was incredible: first, the loaves didn't seem to rise at all, but suddenly they had turned into small "volcanoes"! The second batch didn't turn out that pretty - but just as delicious ;)

P.P.S. I baked these loaves yesterday but didn't have time to write the post. Today, I'm going to bake Linzer Schnitten - among my favourite Plätzchen! And then - two more days to go!!

 

 

Day 20: Christmas Jello Cubes

When I was a kid, my mom used to make jello cubes in different colours and flavours around the Christmas time. I remember how much fun it was to cut those colourful cubes and toss them in sugar - and get to taste quite a few at the same time! What made the whole thing so special was that back in the 80's, all those ingredients (agar, colouring agents, aromas) had to be bought at the pharmacy.

What wasn't fun was the horrible stench of cooking agar. I didn't want to be anywhere near our kitchen when the cooking part was done! Somehow this didn't seem to bother my mom. And funny enough, it didn't bother me now - one more sign that I'm not getting younger ;)

The other night, I was lying in my bed and couldn't sleep. Suddenly I remembered those jello cubes - and had an inspiration: what if I made ones with glögg, or a Christmas drink popular all over Scandinavia? I had to get up and check if someone had already come up with that idea - and, as (almost) always is the case, I found two recipes for glögg jello cubes. I tried this one, and the result is awesome!

For about 34 smallish jello cubes you need:

• 250 ml water


• 250 ml sugar


• 7,5g agar


• 100ml glögg concentrate (I used my favourite brand, Marli) - or any other syrup of your liking


• plus some extra sugar for tossing the cubes

This is how to do it:

Place water, sugar, and agar in a sauce pan. Bring to the boil and let simmer, constantly stirring it, until all of the agar has dissolved and the liquid thickens. According to the agar package I used, this should have taken 5-10 minutes. The recipe said 30 minutes. I cooked mine for about 20 minutes, but this was clearly too little - all of the agar hadn't dissolved yet.

Then add the glögg concentrate (or syrup) and stir. Remove from heat. Pour the mixture in a rectangular recipient (about 10cm times 20cm), the bottom of which you have covered with a piece of parchment paper. Let cool in the fridge or outside until completely set.

When the jello is set, reverse it on a working surface and remove the parchment paper. Cut the jello in cubes about 2cm times 2cm. Toss the cubes in sugar and place on a plate. Let dry for a few hours and store. If you can resist eating them before, that is!

Day 18: Stars, Moons, and One More Log

Today, I baked two of the most beloved Plätzchen: Vanillekipferl and Zimtsterne. Vanilla crescents and cinnamon stars, that is! For the stars I used the recipe from last year, but for the vanilla crescents I tried a traditional German recipe that I couldn't make work last year. Only this time, I was equipped with a special form for this kind of cookies, and that made all the difference; the cookies turned out impeccable!

So here's the recipe to try if you've got that Kipferl form at your disposal:

In a bowl, combine 100g ground almonds, 50g sugar, 150g all-purpose flour, 8g vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt (if the butter you're using is unsalted). Add 150g butter cut in small cubes, and rub the flour in the dry ingredients until you can form a ball with the dough! Take small amounts of the dough (about 12g) and form long sticks. Bend them to fit in the Kipferl form. Bake in a preheated oven (150C) about 20 minutes or until well cooked but not brown yet. Let the cookies cool a bit and very, very carefully transfer them on a serving plate. They break very easily at this point! Sprinkle some confectioner's sugar on top and enjoy one of the best things ever invented in Germany ;)



In addition, I felt confident enough to make one more Christmas log; the feedback this morning was overwhelmingly positive! This time, I added 1 Tbsp extra strong instant coffee in the butter icing - sublime! I also used potato starch in the batter instead of all-purpose flour (a bit less than half the amount) and the Swiss roll came out just the way it should. I was planning to freeze the log, but my kids convinced me to serve it tomorrow for their dad's birthday. Oh well, maybe I'll have to make a third one this year..