Ramen

Ramen, my favourite comfort food. Cheap, versatile, low-fat, quick and yummy. What else you could ask from your everyday grub? Basically a bowl of ramen consists of broth, veggies, meat (not necessarily tho) and noodles. Be careful when you choose noodles, some brands (most that are available in Finland) contain needless amounts of fat. Traditional recipes usually contain fish or seafood ingredients, so I have omitted those.


Cut the veggies so that they will become "aldente" in boiling water in 2-3 minutes. Veggies are not ment to be soft and soggy! On a lazy day, I dont bother to boil noodles separately but just put everything in and cook them together. For meat I usually choose pork or chicken (my first experiments with beef didnt turn out too well :D ). You can fry the meat separately and just add it to the bowl just before serving. I often buy larger quantities, dice, spice and freeze in portions, for quick everyday food.

Basic ingredients for the broth:

• Chicken stock
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Chilli
• Soy
• Dry sherry
• Salt
• Sugar
• Black pepper (ground)
• Sesam oil

For veggies I often use:

• Onion
• Celery
• Bell pepper
• Bamboo shoots

... also tomatos, button mushrooms, carrots and broccoli.

There are some things to watch for, such as overcooking the veggies, adding too much vegetables and amounts of spices. Personally, I tend to end up with too much vegetables, so especially if you are cooking for just one person, watch closely for quantities. Vegetables-meat-noodles-broth ratio must be kept such that it is still a soup, not a stew!

Welcome to Blunt Cook!

Hi there! Welcome to my food blog!

Greetings from sunny *cough cough* Finland. I begun this blog to share my experiences, keep a public food diary and maybe have discussions with other food lovers. Ah well, but most of all to spare my friends from the continous cavalcade of food pictures in Facebook.

I was practically brought up in a restaurant kitchen as my mom worked in catering and restaurant business, so food and experimenting with new ideas and foodstuffs have been with me from very young. Although I do something else for my living, I love cooking, trying out different things and feeding my friends. Ah, there's nothing better to see when your guests lick the plate clean when they've finished!

And I am blunt. Those who have had the bad fortune to cook with me, know that I can get very bossy and dish out orders. For some miraculous reason, I've been forgiven. I usually tend to get straight to the point and say things as they are. So there.

Generally, I prefer Asian and Italian foods. That is not to say that I won't present anything profoundly Finnish but usually I do something entirely different. Another preference is that I will not make anything that has fish or seafood, kiwi, avocado and gooseberry in it because of food allergies. That is one reason for working around traditional recipes. Thirdly, I am rather health conscious, so no exessive use of fat, cream and sugar here!

These are tenets of my food philosophy
1. I rarely use measures, except when I am baking. For the most part, I am tasting my way through cooking and sizing up proportions visually.
2. Learn to differentiate between real, valuable time savers and pure ignorance and laziness. For instance, for me it is ok to use sometimes premade red wine sauce but to use salsa from a can is totally unacceptable.
3. Avoid useless trickery, instead enhance what is genuine and natural.
4. Follow your own taste.
5. Develop your memory for tastes, this way you can unite flavours and have new ideas.
6. Have fun!