Rhubarb Tarte Tatin

I’m really blessed to live close to an organic farm, and I do most of my grocery shopping there. Everything they have is premium quality, seasonal (how else?), and the service one gets is amazingly friendly.

Sometimes, like yesterday, even too much so. Let me explain. I asked if they’ve got rhubarb yet. “Well, only in the garden, but let’s go and fetch some for you!” We went together to the garden, and the poor rhubarb plants were just tiny little babies! But they insisted in giving me as much as I wanted. I actually wanted to tell them I didn’t want any - just let the poor babies grow! - but didn’t find a polite way to protest. So I left the farm with about half of their rhubarb crop and one thing on my mind: these rhubarbs have to end up into something really, really, special.

And they did. I used them to bake this rhubarb tarte Tatin, and made some orange and white chocolate ice cream to go with. A match made in heaven.

Here’s what you need for the tarte Tatin:

For the dough:

• 100g butter


• 190g whole-grain spelt flour


• a pinch of salt


• a pinch of sugar


• 3 Tbps cold water

For the syrup:

• 120g sugar


• 3 Tbsp water

And:

• 350g rhubarb


• 30g butter, sliced

First, make the dough. Cut the butter in small cubes, add flour, sugar and a pinch of salt, if using non-salted butter. Work with your fingertips until the texture is like fine crumbles, then add water and work the dough into a ball. Place the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the caramel. Place sugar and water in a heavy pan. Heat, stirring from time to time, until sugar has melted and turned into golden brown caramel. Attention! This burns easily! Remove from heat and pour the caramel in a round cake tin (mine has a diameter of 26cm).

Now, wash and trim the rhubarbs. Cut them into sticks about 4-5 cm long. Arrange them nicely in the form. Place thef butter slices on the rhubarbs. Roll the dough out into a circle just slightly bigger than the form and place on top of the rhubarbs. Bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until the dough is golden brown and you see some juice bubbling on the sides.

Once out of the oven, let the Tatin cool about 5 minutes. Then flip it around on a serving plate – remember to wear oven gloves, it's still hot!

Serve warm with a dollop of ice cream – preferably Orange White Chocolate Ice Cream, the recipe of which will follow tomorrow.

P.S. You can use all-purpose wheat flour as well. Actually, I think it would be even better. But my family protested, saying it was so good exactly because of the spelt flour!

Orange Drink, Swedish Style

On normal days, I only serve water at the mealtimes – and between. But there are special days, and for those, one needs special drinks as well. This fresh and not too sweet orange drink definitely is one of my favourites! The idea comes from Flickorna Lundgren, the most unique coffee shop experience I’ve had the pleasure to have!

I drastically reduced the amount of sugar, though, and left the additional citric acid away. Citric acid is used to improve the taste and make the drink last longer – but if it already tastes perfect and is consumed within 3-4 days anyway, why use it? ;)

What you need for about 1 liter:

• 1kg organic oranges (this time, I used blood oranges)


• 500g sugar


• 500ml water

First, boil water and dissolve sugar in it. Let cool. Wash the oranges and remove their zest with a potato peeler. Squeeze the juice of the oranges. Set the zest, juice, and water-sugar-mixture in a bowl and cover. Place in a cool place and let stand for 1-2 days.

In the meantime, make sure no one in your family throws away your drink-to-be! Wouldn’t be the first time ;)

Then, run the drink through a sieve to remove the zests. Bottle the syrup and keep chilled. To serve, use 1 part orange drink, 2-3 parts water. Or how about a glass of prosecco with a splash of orange taste?

When Melon Died and Went to Heaven, or the Best Melon Sorbet Ever

When at an Italian ice-cream shop, I always choose the same flavour: melon. Melon with hazelnut, melon with raspberry, melon with chocolate… And most of the time, I’m slightly disappointed. It could have been just a bit better.

Last weekend, I brought a Cantaloupe melon from Italy, and was wondering what to do with it. To cut it and serve with prosciutto to my still very much carnivore kids? To serve it as a part of a fruit salad? Luckily I didn’t do any of those, but instead, used it to make the best melon sorbet I’ve ever had. It just could NOT have been better. And it’s simple as well! Here’s how it goes:

In a pan, heat up 100ml water and dissolve 100g sugar in it. Let cool. Prepare a large Cantaloupe melon, cut it into cubes and puree with a hand mixer. You should have about 600g of puree. Pour the syrup into the melon puree and cool well. If only served to adults, add 2 Tbsp melon liquor, meloncello (for a vegan version, leave this out, it has cream in it).

When the mixture is cold enough, prepare the sorbet according to the instructions of your ice-cream maker – and serve immediately!

Creamy Risotto with Asparagus and Lemon

For a couple of years, I used to make asparagus risotto with shrimps at least once every spring. Then we decided to reduce our meat and fish consumption to a minimum, so I needed to come up with a new version of that great dish. Suddenly I remembered a creamy lemon risotto a friend of mine used to make, and a new dish was born: creamy risotto that combines the flavours of lemon, basil, asparagus, and the best Parmesan cheese you can find. I guarantee – this just can’t go wrong! For a vegan version, either leave out the cream or substitute it with a vegan alternative, and use vegan cheese instead. My favourite is No-Moo Piquant.

For 4 hungry people you need:

• 1 bunch of green asparagus


• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped


• 3 Tbsp olive oil


• 400 ml Arborio rice


• 800 ml vegetable broth


• salt and pepper to taste


• the grated zest of 1 organic lemon


• 150ml double cream (or a non-dairy cream)


• basil leaves


• freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or No-Moo Piquant)

Wash the asparagus and cut off the hard ends, if necessary. Bring enough water to boil in an asparagus cooker, or, if you don’t have one, in a large kettle. When the water is boiling, add a bit of salt and the asparagus. Let cook for 8 minutes, then remove and cool quickly either in ice bath or cold water. (This will stop the cooking.) Once the asparagus has cooled, cut it into about 3cm long pieces, but keep a couple of spears for decoration.

Now, prepare the risotto: sauté chopped onion in a large pan with olive oil. Then add the rice and stir for 1-2 minutes. Add hot broth, salt, pepper, and the lemon zest. Let boil over a low heat until most of the liquid has absorbed, or about 15 minutes. The rice should now be al dente - if not, cook a bit more! Add more broth if needed. Now, whip the cream until soft peaks form and pour onto the risotto. Stir gently. Then add the cut asparagus and stir again.

Remove from heat and decorate with grated Parmesan, basil leaves, asparagus spears, and lemon. Sprinkle some more salt and pepper – and enjoy with a glass of chilled white wine!

Aubergine Rolls with Gorgonzola

We spent last weekend in Italy, on the breathtakingly beautiful Lake Como. The mountains around still had snow on their peaks, the water in the lake was deep greenish blue, and it was sunny the whole time. Yet – sadly? – the highlight of my weekend was grocery shopping at the local supermarket! Even looking at those beautifully displayed delicious vegetables, fruit, cheeses, and so on, made my head buzz with new ideas… which I’ve been busy trying out this week!

This is one of them: Involtini di melanzane al gorgonzola, also known as aubergine rolls filled with Italian blue cheese, baked in the oven with tomato sauce.

This portion was supposed to be for two, but I was tempted to eat it all by myself – yesterday was, after all, the international no-diet day!

This is what you need for 2 people (or one very hungry ;) )

•  1 large aubergine, about 400g


• 100g gorgonzola

For the tomato sauce:

•  1 medium-sized onion


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• olive oil


• 400g canned (cherry) tomatoes


• 1 tsp sugar


• fresh herbs (I used rosemary, marjoram, sage, and basil)


• salt and pepper to taste

First, prepare the tomato sauce: in a large pan, sauté onions with some olive oil. Then add garlic, stir, and add the canned tomatoes, a bit of water, sugar, salt, pepper, and herbs. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes - the longer, the better! Once in a while, check if more water is needed.

Now, wash the aubergine and cut the stem off. Cut the rest into long, thin slices. Fry them on a frying pan on both sides (no oil needed) until light brown and soft. Let cool some 5 minutes. Then divide gorgonzola in as many pieces as you’ve got aubergine slices (I had eleven). Place a piece of gorgonzola at one end of each aubergine slice and roll them tight. Arrange in an oven dish, cover with tomato sauce, and bake in a preheated oven (180 C) some 30 minutes.

Serve with a slice of good bread and some green salad!

Rhubarb Sorbet with Rosemary

It’s double my favourite time of the year again! Both the rhubarb and the ice cream season have started - at least if you live in the right place ;) Here’s a recipe that will impress adults as well as kids, the latter provided you don’t exaggerate with the rosemary. “Tastes like Gummibärchen!” “Criminally good!” Just guess which comment was from my husband and which from my son…! I couldn’t help but admire the beautiful shade of pink – how can those mostly green stalks give this sorbet such a dazzling colour? A miracle…

Here’s what you need for 4-5 smallish portions:

• 400g rhubarb


• 1 twig of rosemary (a tiny one if served to kids)


• 500ml fresh water


• 100g sugar

Wash the rhubarb and, using kitchen scissors, cut into pieces (about 2,5cm long). Place in a pan with the rosemary twig and the water. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the rhubarb is tender, about 10 minutes. Drain through a sieve (you don’t have to press, just let drain) into a smaller pan. Now add sugar and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Place in a jar or a plastic recipient with a lid and let cool to room temperature first, then refrigerate until cold (this took me about 6 hours in total).

Once cold, prepare the sorbet according to the instructions of your ice cream maker. With mine, it’s oh so practical: I put the ice cream maker to work just before I serve the main course, and by the time we’ve finished, the ice-cream/sorbet is ready! How convenient indeed!

Decorate with mint and serve right away.

Finnish Rye Bread

It looks greenish and disgusting, feels like concrete in your hands and stinks like something you just might want to feed to your worst enemy. But here’s the miracle: when you bake it, it turns out to be one of most delicious breads in the world. And also the healthiest. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you – the Finnish rye bread!

As you might have guessed, I bake my rye bread with sourdough starter, without any additional yeast. My starter is based on all-purpose wheat flour, but about 12 hours before I want to make the rye bread dough, I take 60g of the starter, place in a clean jar, and refresh with 60g water and 60g rye flour. That way, there is only a tiny little bit wheat in the final bread (less than 5%). I’ve also tried to maintain a rye-only-starter, but it has always turned bad after a couple of days…

This is what you need for one loaf:

• 150g sourdough starter, refreshed 10-12 hours before


• 350g fresh water


• 450g rye flour – whole-grain, if possible


• 10g salt

Combine 300g water and the flour in a baking bowl. Stir with a fork until all the flour is moist. Add the rest of water if needed. (Some flours are thirstier than others ;) ) Let stand for about 20 to 40 minutes. Then add the starter and salt. Knead for about 10-15 minutes, or until you can no more – unless you’re using a machine, in which case 10 minutes should be enough.

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment at room temperature for about 6-8 hours. Then fold the dough a couple of times and place in a floured proofing basket. Let ferment 1-2 hours more. Preheat your oven to 250 C and bake the loaf about 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 225 C (or even 200 C) and bake until thoroughly cooked, or some 30 minutes more.

Let cool - and eat with lots of butter ;) This bread keeps very well, at least one week.

P.S. If you don’t have a proofing basket yet, do buy one! Before I had one, I never managed my breads to grow so beautifully…