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!

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!