Milk Kissel - Finnish Panna Cotta

In the olden days, when money and food were tight, you had to use everything to the last drop. Milk kissel was served as dessert, and to use milk that was getting old but not spoiled yet. You can use milk that is not spoiled, discoloured or smelly, even it's a few days old. Actually there are cake recipes where soured milk or cream is preferred, and slightly sour milk is also good for pancakes, bread and sweetbread. But I digress - the main point of this post is milk kissel, the Finnish version of panna cotta.

Milk kissel is not even very heavy treat. You can use semi-skinned milk and keep sugar to the minimum. Instead of jams or sauces, you can use fresh berries or diced fruit. Use a kettle with a thick base or a non-stick coated kettle. Original recipe here (in Finnish). You can also use potato starch for thickening (1 dl for 1 L milk). If you want the lighter version follow the instructions and leave white chocolate out. Makes a light dessert for 2-3 or a bowl of comfort food for 1 person.

Original recipe (measures slightly adjusted):

• 3 dl milk (semi-skimmed, whole or mix of milk and cream)
• 2 tbsp cornstarch (Maizena)
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• Pinch of icing sugar 

To add a wee twist I also used:

• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 60gr white chocolate 

1. Put milk in a kettle with cornstarch, caster sugar and vanilla powder. Whisk properly and bring to lightly boil. Keep whisking and let it boil for 2 mins or until it thickend, then remove from heat.







2. Add white choc or icing sugar into the milk, mix and let melt.









3. Fill a sink with cold water and place the kettle in the cold water. Let cool whisking occasionally to avoid film forming on the surface.

Raspberry sauce

This is a recipe I picked up in a book, orginally meant to be served with pavlova swiss roll. You dont need anything complicated with milk kissel, but this adds a little bit more glam to the dessert.

• 200gr raspberries
• 2 tbsp rum (or juice; orange, apple, etc.)
• 1 tsp flour sugar

1. Put raspberries, rum and sugar in a bowl.









2. Mix with spoon (or use a food processor) and crush the berries. Mix until an even mass.








3. (optional) Put the raspberries into a kettle and boil for 2 mins. Sometimes imported frozen raspberries have been known to cause food poisoning epidemics, so to be on safe side it's best to heat them. If you have berries from a safe source, just skip this step.





4. Check for sugar. Milk kissel with white chocolate is rather sweet, so you can leave the berries a bit bitter to form a nice contrast.

Put some kissel in a glass

Add some raspberry sauce

Add more milk kissel on top and a teaspoonful of raspberry jam. Enjoy!

DIY Burger

I like burgers. The first McDonalds appeared in Helsinki in the mid-80's and I took to burgers immediately. I still remember the first visit there with my English class, and I think I had a Big Mac with chocolate milk shake. These days I don't set my foot in McDonalds unless it's a dire emergency but they served as inspiration to make burgers at home.

Burgers are notorious for being unhealthy food but they can be better than their reputation. One part are the side dishes, french fries and soft drinks that contain very much useless energy - if you are calorie conscious, consider replacing them with salad, oven baked fries and water or juice. I usually have mine without any sides.  Burger itself is not that bad (if you don't have them every day), provided you use good quality meat, vegetables generously and mayonnaise containing dressings sparingly. Ketchup itself is healthy stuff (provided it's low-sugar) because it contains lycopene, which is good for your heart. Lycopene you can get especially from processed tomato.

Making your burger at home puts you in control of what you have in it, plus it's easy, and even fun! You can get high fibre bread rolls for it, use more vegetables, low-sugar ketchup, low-fat mayo and so and so forth. Burger is very modifiable, you can leave stuff out, try adding different things, such as varying types of cheese, meat, vegetable steaks or sauces and dressings. This basic instruction makes for one.

• Beef mince (10% or less fat) 150-200 gr per person
• Bread roll
• Salad (iceberg, lettuce, whatever you like), 1-3 leaves
• Pickled cucumber, 3-5 slices
• Tomato, medium, sliced
• Onion, finely sliced
• Low-sugar ketchup, 2-3 tbsp
• Dressing or mayo, 1-2 tbsp
• Cheddar, 1-2 slices
• Oil for frying, salt, pepper

1. Pat the meat into a burger steak and let it warm up a little in room temperature.

2. Meanwhile slice vegetables and have everything at ready.









3. Fry the steak until it's well done - brown from each side and meat juices begin to seep through.








4. Sprinkle some salt and freshly ground pepper over the steak.









5. Place a slice of cheese over the steak and take off heat, put aside.









6. Halve the bread roll and toast it for a few minutes on mild heat, it needs to become warm, not brown.








7. Place the lower half of the bread roll on a plate and put ketchup and half of the dressing on it.








8. Place the salad on top.









9. Then the pickled cucumber slices and some more dressing.









10. Add tomato slices. Press gently with a spatula. (add another slice of cheese if you like on top)

10. Put the steak on top and then onions on it, add extra tomato slices if there's some left.






11. Add the top half of the bread roll and press lightly. It's ready!

Urban Hike: No Sausage, But Blueberries And Frog!

No, we didn't eat the frog. It just happened bounce about amongst the blueberry twigs while I was picking. So I took a picture.

I guess it's best I start from the beginning. The other day, we decided to go to a lake side campfire spot and and torch some sausage, pick blueberries, spy for new mushrooms and have a good healthy dose of fresh air. Many cities here have established campfire or barbeque sites for citizens to use and often the city council provides wood for the fire. As Finnish cities are small and practically next to nature, it's very popular summer pastime, to go hiking and eat in the wild. So we bought sausages, filled water bottles and I prepared some vegetables to roast in the fire: cut them in pieces, add some spices, oil and wrap in tin foil. Then we set out.

Weather wasn't ideal but you cannot always choose. It was good enough (not raining constantly). After stumbling on a work site with explosives (due the map that was not updated properly) we finally found the right path and begun wading through undergrowth, mud and midgies. The path meandered between swamps and forest, and to my delight I saw arctic cloudberries, blueberries and wild strawberries, some of them already ripe.

Arctic cloudberry

Blueberry

Finally we reached the campfire site. It was next to a small lake and heavily populated with insects.
To our dismay, there was no wood to burn. The forest was wet because it had been raining heavily, so no hopes of finding dry wood to burn from there. We sat a while, listened the never-ending "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" of midgies, drank some water and begun our journey back home. After all, you can always roast your sausages in an oven too.

No wood, no fire

On our way back home we picked some blueberries and a few occasional wild strawberries. And got bitten here, there and everywhere. Picking berries is not that hard a job, but trying to stay calm in midst of a cloud of midgies is another thing. Midgies are not dangerous but when there's a plutoon of them trying to land on your fingers and feed on you, it tends to get bit annoying. The bites itch quite a bit. There are many ways to try to avoid them incuding poisons, clothing, ignoring them and staying inside. The most hardy people up north, where midgies are weather (not insects), say that you should just ignore them and get about on your business. Your body will adapt to the bites, and them and bites bother you less. I guess I've been away long enough to become soft and squealy. Midgies are one reason why I rather pick mushrooms, or rather their absence. In the autumn, midgies are gone for the most part, and it's more calm in the forest. Excluding of course, an occasional bear or wolf. (just kidding, it's quite rare to run into those two in the wilderness, they tend to avoid people)

That's a midgie bite. Luckily I am not as juicy as my friend.

When we got back home, we stuffed vegetables and sausages in the oven. It was good but I do miss proper fire burned sausage. Not often but it belongs to summer fun. Traditionally, mustard goes with sausage. I especially like dijon with honey, though I am not a big fan of mustard. Finnish mustard that is know as the Finnish mustard, is Turun sinappi, though it's not manufactured in Finland anymore but in Poland. Ah well, that's the global market for you.

That's all folks! I have a lot going on in my life the following few weeks so I might post a little more infrequently but I'll be around. Have a nice weekend everyone!

And here's what we did with the blueberries - ice cream with bluberries and cherry sabayon

Mediterranean Patties

Before I move on the recipe, I do have to declare the mushroom picking season hereby opened! I found these little beauties on my way to the shop. They are chanterelles and one of my favourite mushrooms (but not number one though). So far this summer, the fresh chanterelles sold in Finland have been from Estonia but soon we can go pick our own. Half the fun is finding and picking them, it's like treasure hunting!


And now onwards with the recipe.

Years back, to my great astonishment I had lovely-tasting mediterranean meatballs at one of the canteens of Oulu University. I say "to my astonishment" as taste of food in that kind of canteens tends to be rather mediocre and even bland. In a way it's undestandable as they have to produce food for masses of students and do it cheap. Though I have to say for Julinia that their deli-line served a bit more special meals for very, very nice price/quality ratio.Yummy! Anyways. that time I was truly surprised by the taste of those mediterranean meatballs. I liked them so much, to the point I wanted to replicate the taste. I have done a few attempts, and here's the most successful so far.

Notes: Don't add salt, capers and olives contain enough already. Use meat that contains at least 10% fat, the skinnier ones tend to dry too much. This recipe makes for 2, use 400gr meat if you have hungry dinner company,  and add a tad more of the other ingredients.

• 300 gr beef mince, or mix of pork and beef mince (20/80) 
• Onion (medium)
• 2 tsp small capers
• 2 tbsp black kalamata olives
• Black pepper
• 0,5 tsp fresh thyme (or to taste)
• Oil or butter for frying

1. Dice onion quite finely and chop capers and olives into tiny bits. I use a heavy knife to chop but it's ok to put them into a blender for a few twists, too.






2. Put onions and capers into a bowl with the meat, thyme and grind some black pepper over. Mix thoroughly.

3. Pat the meat into small patties (3-4 cm). I roll them in a meatball with my hands and then press slightly to flatten.








4. Fry the patties on a well warmed-up pan over good (but not too hot) heat.




 



4. Fry on other side, then when you see red meat juices start to prickle on the surface of the patty, turn them over and fry the other side until you see the juice prickle again (here I let the juice come through well for the sake of the picture, less is enough usually). Remove from heat.






5. Serve with garlic yoghurt (scroll down for recipe) and oven roasted vegetables or a nice salad.

Steak Tartare

Steak tartare surely divides opinions. Some are totally abhorred at the thought, such as Mr. Bean who goes to great lengths to hide it, and then there are people like me who absolutely love it. Personally, I think it's closest to umami you can get.

There are several ways to prepare steak tartare. It is most often made of beef or horse. Pork is not advised because of the risk of trichinosis and I would hesitate eating chicken tartare too. Here's a link to a story discussing safety concerns and a recipe for lamb tartare, too. I think I have to try that, I like lamb meat so much! To me, the most classic steak tartare (one version here) is with an egg yolk in the middle, served with finely hacked onion and pickled cucumber. I've seen versions where pickled vegetables and onion were mixed into the meat and then patted into steaks, and also vegetables served separatedly. As with some other raw foods, schnapps can be served with tartare. 

Eating raw beef is no health concern if the meat you use is safe, properly stored and processed, otherwise I do suggest you fry your steak. Be especially careful, if you have a condition that weakens your immune system. This being said, I am lucky to live in Finland, as the food handling chains are very thoroughly supervised and tested. Oh yes, and it's cold for the most part of the year so no heat wave problems here usually. I am so lucky, counting my blessings here ... Anyways, I've eaten raw mince all my life, and it's always been good. The same goes for raw eggs: salmonella in Finnish poultry is  rare. Though my English pronunciation teacher claimed that it's not true, but not even English gents know everything. It's perfectly safe to eat a whole, fresh egg, even raw, in Finland.

So go to a good quality butcher, and have them make you mince from well cleaned beef meat (roast) that has not been vacuum ripened or conditioned.  Obviously you can use finer meats too, like sirloin or tenderloin (fillet). If you want the true state of the art version, use fillet and scrape it ever so finely with a sharp knife into a mass. Have it minced or scraped, prepared and eaten the same day. If the weather is really hot, be extra careful with handling and hygiene, or even postpone until it's cooler, after all, it's raw stuff and it doesn't keep well.

For steak tartare a la Minna you need (for 3-4 meat lovers):

Small shallot onion finely sliced
2 tsp capers
600 gr best quality tartare mince
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamico vinegar
Black pepper, salt

1. Pat the meat on the plate and put some capers over. Sprinkle sparingly/moderately with salt.








2. Put the onion slices over and grind some black pepper onto the steak. Mix oil and vinegar.








3. Spoon the vinegar-oil mix over and press gently with a fork so  that capers and onion slightly sink in. Let sit for 20-30 mins in the fridge.

Things to serve with a steak tartare

Think of pickles, vinegar and crunchy vegetables. The taste of raw meat is mild and mellow with soft texture, so you need to accompany it with something that gives structure and backbone. Pickled stuffs like cucumber, artichoke, onion, pumpkin and capers, raw onion (chopped), marinated vegetables are good choices to accompany steak tartare. You may like try sour and bitter sauces with it, like Worchester, tabasco or good quality mustard. I like to have dijonnaise, mixture of mayonnaise and dijon mustard, with my steak.

I did Promise myself a Herb Garden

As my friends may have noticed, I don't have plants in the house. I've killed so many flowers and what-nots that I gave up indoor plants ages ago. I better not go into what happened with bonsai. I think it's partly because I see many flowers too much fuss for nothing but to grow something you can eat - definately worth the trouble. So, I've always wanted my own kitchen garden. To be able to grow exactly the type of beetroots I want! To have my herbs fresh from the garden!

Assistant gardener watching out for birds

So far I've been living in a flat, most often not having even a balcony but now I got a veranda. Here comes the herb potter! The veranda is partially paved with stone tiles and covered with a wooden floor, so I begun practising with potted herbs and salad. After all, I think it's safer to practise with small scale cultivation than let me loose on a real garden.

At the moment, my best success appears to be salad. I bought some mizuna and wild rucola salads, used them for food and planted the rest. I must say mizuna proved to be hardy: I had it in the fridge for a week and it still sprung to a new flourish. I planted mizuna and rucola in the middle, and plain salad (from seed) around it. Finally I can get my fresh salad from the garden. It's always fresh and doesn't rot in the fridge as those ones bought from the shop sometimes do.

The rest in the big pots are cylindrical beet root and multi-coloured chard. Chard started out fine (from seed) and I am truly looking forward to using it for food. It can, for instance, be used instead of wine leaves in dolmades. Unfortunately I didn't plant enough beetroots, some of the seeds didn't germinate. A shame really, l love the sweet juiciness of cylindrical beetroot. Once you have tasted them, you don't want to go back to the watery round ones!

I've tried starting herbs from seeds with varying level of success. Chives, cilantro and melissa officinalis are thriving, or at least alive. Sage started strong but didn't survive re-potting. The one in the picture is from a plant bought from the grocery and potted. I have found potting plants from the supermarket most efficient, no fuss with seeds, germination or re-potting. Parsley is quite hardy, the first thyme and chives I got are still alive. When you are buying supermarket plants pay attention to roots. Roots need to be white, not black and brown. Cut the herb down (but leave some leaves to it for photosyntesis) and hey presto! You got a potted herb.

My thin-skinned drunkard basking in the sun. But only for a moment!

Basil is a wonderful plant to have in your kitchen. Love the scent, and how easy it is to pinch a leaf or two to salads, sauces and marinades. It's a fussy plant though. It needs plenty of water, very moderate amount of sun and no draft at all. It's also a bit problematic from the perspective of shopping and potting. You can pot it the first time but adding more basil in the same pot or repotting just tends to kill it.

Here are a few links for more expert advise:

• Yrttitarha (in Finnish)
• The Herb Gardener blog - a very extensive site for information and tips
• How to plant herbs in the same pot

Have a nice week everyone!

Chocolate SIG aka The Choc Club

Today im posting about something different for a change - a casual chocolate tasting club. If you are looking to start your own, here's a collection of articles to get the basics and more. Chocolate tasting is a nice way to spend good time with your fellow chocolate lovers and friends. Why not try this weekend? Anyways, have a nice weekend folks!

Samples from a session in 2011

Our Choc SIG (special interest group) was kicked off some 3,5 years ago by yours bluntly and 4 other chocolate enthusiasts working in the same office. Things change but we do meet every now and then, sit and chat, and eat chocolate.

This is how it works: everyone brings their own sample, we taste and discuss them together. It's not very formal, oftentimes discussion drifts to completely different matters. There are no statistics, spreadsheets, questionnaires or rating scales involved but we discuss the samples tasted and choose a winner per each meeting. Slow pace and dark choc work against gorging: you would be surprised to see how much of the choc is actually left over from the sessions! The Choc Club is indeed beneficial: reduced cravings for chocolate, drifting towards allegedly more healthy, dark chocolate and quality time spent in good company. What else could a girl want?

The Winner

Here's the winner of last session, Marabou Premium Dark chocolate and almond. The choc was praised for it's feel, and crunchy, balanced taste. Truly a nice dark almond chocolate.

Runner-ups

Black salt lakrits bar was well liked too, not for its chocolate but for salmiakki it contained. Yes, I know, a horrible acquired taste. The chocolate in the bar was your common, light Marabou quality, bit too sweet but the salmiakki used was really good. Maybe salmiakki needed some mild, non-spectacular chocolate to shine?



Fazer's strawberry chocolate divided opinions. Some of us liked the strawberry chunks and others considered it too bland or sweet.

Other Candidates

We had some other candidates in the session but they received not too many mentions. This beautiful French chocolate was visually pleasing but due its uneven structure there was no concensus on its taste. Dark Fazer blue is a classic, and won an earlier round but I guess we have eaten so much of it that it made no special impression. Nevertheless, chocolate is always good!

Beautiful chocolate souvenir from France

Darker version of a Finnish classic