What can me have?

Winter soup – Borscht

2012-02-01T21:05:00.000+01:00

When A and I met, there were many foods he wouldn't eat: beetroots, cabbage, boiled potatoes, french cheeses, olives, capers... Most of those misconceptions have been cured, and it makes me particularly happy that he now appreciates both beetroots and cabbage – delicious, cheap and healthy as they are. As it happens, our weekly delivery of local vegetables in winter often comes with the exact ingredients for Russian borscht soup: beetroot, cabbage and carrot. It's simple to make, after a bit of peeling and chopping it practically makes itself, and with a dollop of sour cream it's a hearty winter soup. Thank goodness A agrees!

Perfect vegetarian borscht soup (4 large portions)
Organic olive oil
2 onions
2-3 organic garlic cloves, crushed
3 beetroots
500g cabbage, shredded or sliced
3-5 carrots, thickly sliced
4-5 potatoes, cubed
(50g dried mushrooms – optional, we had some and they add depth to the flavour)
1.5l water
2 organic vegetable stock cubes
(100ml white wine – optional, but I had some leftovers to use up)
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp dried thyme
10 black peppercorns
Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with a generous dollop of Russian "smetana" or full-fat organic sour cream.

Peel and prepare the vegetables. Fry the chopped onion, crushed garlic cloves and the shredded cabbage in olive oil for about five minutes. Add all ingredients but the potatoes and let simmer quietly for about an hour – add the potatoes about 20 minutes before the end so that they will be done but not over-cooked. If the flavour is flat, adjust with white wine vinegar and salt.

Caramel goodness: St. Louis gooey butter cake

2012-01-16T23:38:00.001+01:00

The first time I baked this was in 2010, for Silvia's and Basil's house warming party on Oderberger Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg. The cake is like a soft fudge topping on a cake base, it's like candy and biscuit and cake, all in one – the guests at the party couldn't believe I made it myself. I'm still not sure if it was a compliment or an insult. I've made the gooey butter cake often, by now, and each time I think it's a lot of work but each time I'm dying to make it again. Since it takes a while to make – because of the yeast and the rising process – it might be useful to know that the cake keeps well for a day or two, so making it a day ahead is no problem!

The last piece...

St. Louis gooey butter cake (16 to 20 servings)

Adapted to suit the metric kitchen from Smitten Kitchen

CAKE

1. Combine 90g butter, room temperature + 3 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp salt – cream ingredients by using an electric mixer, when light and smooth, beat in the egg

1 egg

------

2. Combine 3 tbsp milk, room temperature + 1 3/4 tsp active dry yeast – mix together until slightly foamy

------

3. 250ml wheat flour – alternately add flours and yeast liquid to the creamed butter mixture while still mixing. Beat the dough for roughly another 10 minutes, until it forms a smooth mass that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (Mine was still quite sticky.)

------

Butter an approximately 32.5 x 23-centimeter baking dish (glass or ceramic so as not to burn the cake). Press and nudge the dough to form an even layer. Cover the dish and let the cake rise in a warm place for 2.5-3h before you add the topping.

TOPPING
Turn oven on 200°C

------

1. Combine 3 tbsp molasses (home made molasses: 50ml dark sugar + 2tbsp hot water = sticky syrup) + 2 tsp vanilla sugar + 2 tbsp water – mix together in a small bowl

------

2. Combine 180g butter, room temperature + 350ml sugar + 1/2 tsp salt – as above: cream ingredients by using an electric mixer, when light and smooth, beat in the egg
1 egg

------
3. 250ml wheat flour – as above: alternately add flours and molasses water to the creamed butter while still mixing. Keep beating for another 5-7 minutes.

------

Scoop the topping onto the risen cake and gently spread the gooey topping over the cake using a spatula. Bake for around 30 minutes. Cake will rise and fall in waves. When the top is golden brown the cake is done – and hopefully still gooey in the centre. Allow to cool properly before sprinkling with confectioners’ sugar for serving.

Thai style pumpkin soup

2011-12-05T15:49:00.001+01:00

This autumn our organic vegetable delivery brought us three pumpkins within two weeks. Thank god they keep well, and the cute little hokkaidos decorated our windowsill for weeks. Finally they became fodder for my coconut milk soup experiments, and I finally came up with a wintery recipe for a sweet, sour and spicy soup that I'm delighted with! Despite the long list of components, the soup is easy to make, the measures are rough and the ingredients are exchangeable according to taste and availability.

Thai style pumpkin soup (serves 4-6)
2 small onions
1 garlic clove
1 piece of ginger (roughly the size of a thumb)
1 fresh chili (according to preference and availability)
800ml vegetable stock
---
1 small hokkaido pumpkin (replaceable with 1/2 butternut squash)
200 ml chopped savoy cabbage (or greens like spinach or leek)
---
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 lime
1 tbsp brown sugar
---
1 tomato
1/2-1 can organic coconut milk
---
rice noodles (optional)
fresh basil and/or coriander for garnish

Chop the onion, garlic, ginger, and chili and give them a quick fry before you add the stock into the pot and bring it to a boil. Add the cubed pumpkin and the cabbage – if you use spinach, add it in last with the coconut milk. Gently boil the vegetables for 5-7 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. While the soup is cooking, add the spices while stirring with each addition. If you want to serve the soup with rice noodles, now's the time to boil them in a separate pot for 4-5 minutes, then pour them into a sieve and rinse them with cold water. When the pumpkin is soft, reduce heat to low and stir in the coconut milk (start with 1/2 can and add more if it's too spicy or if you prefer it creamy) and add the tomato wedges. Place rice noodles at the bottom of each bowl and ladle soup on top. Garnish with fresh herbs.

Lentil stew – cupboard gourmet

2011-11-27T20:59:00.001+01:00

I try to make sure that we always have some basic supplies in our cupboards: chopped tomatoes, tomato passata, coconut milk, onions, garlic, beans and lentils. So that we always have the ingredients to some sort of a basic meal at hand. And ever since we subscribed to a weekly delivery of a regional fruit and veg box we haven't been following recipes in the kitchen anyway, just spontaneously cooking with what we've gotten and what's in the pantry. This lentil stew came about when I was waiting for Andy to come home from a sound engineering gig and I wanted to have dinner ready when he got home. The end result was so rich and delicious that it has become an instant classic in our household. The stew can boil and mind its own business while you are waiting for your dinner companion to arrive or while you're watching a film - it doesn't get much more convenient than that.

Easy lentil stew
(Serves 4-6)
800ml water
200ml organic red lentils, rinsed
2-3 cloves of organic garlic, sliced
400g (1 tin) organic chopped tomatoes
1 handful of dried mushrooms (ca 100ml)
1 handful of dry sun dried tomatoes (ca 50ml)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Pick out any dirt and bad lentils before you rinse them. Boil the lentils in 800ml of water for 10 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and seasonings. Let the concoction boil down for at least a half hour so that some water evaporates and the dried ingredients soften and tastes develop. The stew can be served with or without a side dish (try bulgur, potatoes or spaghetti squash).

Crowd pleasing lemon tart

2011-09-18T15:12:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we visited Mikael, Maria, Jonas and newborn little Emil – probably for the last time in Berlin, because they are moving to Dresden next month. They wanted to make us dinner: they need to clear their freezer. It's somehow very sad even if we don't see them so often, because we've lived in the same city with them ever since we were flatmates in Dublin, in 2006. It's the end of an era. To not come empty handed, I offered to bring dessert.

This lemon pie was served as lemon squares at our Easter brunch (double batch, baked in a square pan) and gathered a lot of praise. Once again last night it was devoured down to the last little crumb. Little Jonas ate three pieces! It's an easy dessert to make because you don't need expensive or hard-to-find ingredients.

Lemon tart

Pie crust:
100g organic butter, cold
4 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
225ml organic wheat flour

Turn the oven to 175°C. Mix the flour and sugar, pinch in the butter until the pastry dough is even. Butter your pie dish to prevent the pie from sticking. Using your fingers, press the dough evenly to fill the dish – make sure to have a tight rim and a bit of pastry around the edge – the first time I made this dish the lemon filling was able to slip in under the crust and it made for a terrible mess! Bake for about 20 minutes, until barely golden. Let it cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling:
2-3 organic lemons = 150ml lemon juice and 1 tbsp grated lemon peel
250ml fair trade sugar – I replaced 100ml of the white sugar with raw cane sugar
3 tbsp organic wheat flour
3 organic eggs

Wash the lemons, grate the peel and squeeze the juice through a sieve. In a bowl, combine lemons, sugar, then add the eggs and flour – mix gently to not make the eggs foam: that will leave a foamy surface on the tart. Pour the mixture over the pre-baked crust and bake the pie in 175°C for another 20 minutes, until the filling is stale. Let the pie cool before serving and sprinkle it with icing sugar.

Recipe borrowed and modified from the Finnish blog Otetaan ensin puoli kiloa voita...

Chocolate cake in five minutes

2011-08-29T14:30:00.002+02:00

I try. I really try. To not eat much sugar and to be healthy. But then I find out about things like Five Minute Chocolate Cake and I can't resist having just a little quick dessert after dinner. The consistency can be a bit dense, but hey: it's a five minute cake!

Five minute chocolate cake (serves 1-2)
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Fair Trade cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 organic egg
3 tbsp organic milk
3 tbsp melted organic butter or oil

Combine the dry ingredients in a microwave safe mug or dessert bowl. Whisk in an egg and add milk and butter – mix well. Put the mug in the micro wave oven, blast for three minutes on full power (about 1000 watt). Wait until the cake stops rising and sets, then tip the cake over to a plate and enjoy!

You might need to try a few times to find out the perfect time with your specific microwave oven settings. Also, don't skimp on the sugar, you really need to have four table spoons, even if it sounds crazy to have the same amount of flour and sugar in a cake. If you use oil instead of butter this is a one pot wonder, so to speak, but the taste won't be as nice – up to you!

Simple tomato soup - pappa al pomodoro

2011-08-17T22:00:00.002+02:00

One of my oldest friends moved to Berlin at the end of June and lived with us on and off for a few months until her own apartment became available. On Monday she moved out. It felt a little empty, even if there are some nice aspects to having the place to ourselves, too. I invited her over for dinner today, so that she wouldn't have to eat alone too much. The day-old piece of bread from the bakery reminded me of the perfect way to make use of stale bread, specially this time of the year when tomatoes are dark read, juicy and cheap. Pappa al pomodoro! All three of us agreed that this casserole was fantastic and I even tried to convince Andy that we should eat nothing else all next week...

Pappa al pomodoro (2-3 portions)
50ml organic, high quality olive oil
1 organic onion
2-3 organic garlic cloves
750g-1kg ripe, soft tomatoes
1 tbsp fair trade sugar (or more, depending on how ripe the tomatoes are)
1 tbsp sea salt
Ground organic black pepper
approx. 150-200g dried or day-old white or whole grain bread
Fresh basil leaves

Chop onions and crush the garlic cloves, cube the tomatoes. Heat up the oil on medium heat in a big pot, and fry the onions and garlic until translucent in half of the amount of olive oil, add the tomatoes (and their juices!) and more olive oil and let boil at a low temperature for about 10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the hot plate, add salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Throw in the bread cubes and let the casserole sit for about 15 minutes so that the bread softens and dissolves properly. Mix in the shredded basil and garnish with grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Recipe pretty much directly copied from the blog Voisilmäpeliä.

Summer soup

2011-06-12T20:07:00.006+02:00

Today we made the first pot of summer soup of the summer! It has been my favourite dish ever since I was a kid. In Swedish it's called "stingy soup" because it's so cheap to make, and in Finnish it has the more flattering name "summer soup". It's healthy, practically non-fat and it's affordable. This time we bought all the ingredients fresh from the market, so it tasted extra good. We always make a huge pot so there's some for the next day too (and for me to secretly eat before I go to bed). Today we ate all of our meals outdoors, and dinner was no exception, it was served on the balcony with napkins and all!

Summer soup (serves four)
1 l water + stock cube
1 onion, chopped
6 skinny, fresh carrots, sliced
5 medium potatoes, cubed
1/2 cauliflower head
100 ml chopped green beans or frozen peas
500 ml full fat milk
Salt, ground white pepper
Garnish with scallions, dill, parsley, spinach, or any yummy greens you find.

Boil the water with a vegetable stock cube, toss in onion and carrot coins and the potato cubes. Let them boil for about 5-10 minutes, until the veggies are half-done. Add the cauliflower florets and the green beans, then pour in milk. Bring the soup to a boil and let it simmer for another ten minutes. If you are using frozen peas, you can toss them in last with the herbs so they don't over cook. Add salt generously and use white pepper to taste, garnish with herbs. My friend suggested to add blue cheese, which I'm sure would taste great, but sort of ruins how healthy this soup is...

A wholesome snack: Roasted chickpeas

2011-05-14T19:14:00.000+02:00

When spring comes around a pang of guilt comes with every piece of chocolate or bag of pop corn: this is what I ate all winter, and look what happened!

But I just can't resist, I love snacking! Like every other spring, I'm trying to be good again, and I haven't bought any chocolates or Haribos in weeks. (Or at least what feels like weeks.) When I went through our cupboards looking for a little something I spotted a batch of frozen chick peas in the freezer. I was delighted to remember an old recipe for a healthy(ish) snack – roasted chickpeas! The fun part with these is to experiment with different spices – today I used an arrabiata spice mix, and added lemon juice. Another favourite is wasabi powder.

Roasted chickpeas
1 tin / 240g organic chickpeas (if dried, then soak and boil first)
2 tbsp organic vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
approx. 1 tbsp spices, depending on what you pick. For example: arrabiata mix, chili, paprika, curry, wasabi powder or garlic powder. I also added 1 tbsp of lemon juice.

Rinse the chickpeas and drain them well, pat dry with a tea towel. In a bowl mix the chickpeas with oil, salt and spices. Let the flavours marinate for a few minutes. Scatter the peas on a baking tray covered with non-stick baking paper and roast at 200°C for 20-30 minutes.

Brunch hit: Texas egg salad

2011-04-25T19:39:00.001+02:00

After our super-lovely Easter Sunday brunch yesterday I got asked for two recipes in particular: the lemon squares and the egg salad. The lemon squares were a bit of a nightmare to make, since I messed up at several stages... But the egg salad with coriander and chili I loved and will make again every chance I get! We served it with bread and salads, but it would also be great in a sandwich or as a dip. The photo was the only one I was able to snap before it was all gone – I should have made a double batch!

Egg salad with coriander and chili
6 hard-boiled organic eggs
1 jalapeno (I used green chili), seeds and stems removed, diced
1 spring onion, green part only, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped coriander (aka cilantro)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp organic lemon juice
Salt, black pepper and cayenne to taste

Plop the (room temperature) eggs into boiling water for about 7 minutes. Cool the eggs with cold water and peel them, then roughly chop them or mash the eggs with a fork in a bowl. Gently stir in the jalapeño/chili, coriander, spring onion, ground cumin, mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice. Add salt, black pepper and cayenne to taste. I added more lemon juice and coriander, too, because they are really what makes this salad so special!

Recipe from the Homesick Texan blog.

Easter Sunday brunch

2011-04-25T19:25:00.002+02:00

Brunch menu: As savoury dishes we made cheese crackers, bulgur salad, cole slaw, tomato and asparagus quiche, mac'n'cheese, roasted potato halves with cumin and sea salt and an egg salad with coriander and chili. As sweet treats we served c hocolate biscotti, lemon squares and fruit salad. We also had some carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and pickles. Then our guests contributed with a rhubarb pie, mini choc muffins, Turkish deli pastes and a home made tapenade.

As a spring cocktail we served mimosas: we drank altogether eight bottles of sparkling wine with nine litres of orange juice! In fairness there was about 20 of us.

Biscotti for brunch

2011-04-23T19:55:00.001+02:00

The sun is shining outside, it's +22°C in Berlin, and I'm listening to Nouvelle Vague and baking :)

I've been planning our (possibly soon traditional) Easter Sunday brunch for a few weeks – I love going through recipes and deciding what recipes to try. I get most excited about simple, delicious savoury recipes, but I know most people will eat more cake than anything else. So I got my excuse to try this slightly time consuming, but simple, chocolate biscotti recipe.

Chocolate pistachio biscotti (makes about 35)
500ml organic wheat flour
4 tbsp dark Fair Trade cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda + 1 teaspoon salt
OR 2 tsp baking powder (soda is hard to find in the shops here, or I'm looking in the wrong places...)
200g Fair Trade dark chocolate, chopped; half finely, half chunky
200-300ml peeled pistachios, chopped
4 eggs
350ml granulated sugar
+1 egg white

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, pistachios and the finely chopped half of the chocolate together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they're light and fluffy: when ready, the whisk should leave a trail on the surface for a few seconds when lifted. Add the other ingredients, also the chunky chocolate, and beat until they're properly combined – try not to overwork the dough.

The original recipe suggests you turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface to divide it into three equally sized pieces and shape them into logs. I found that there was no way I could work the sticky, gooey dough into anything, so I spooned the dough to the shape of logs onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. It really doesn't have to be that pretty – just not too flat, since the dough will melt in the oven. Brush the logs with egg white and sprinkle with sugar, if you like.

The Latin origin of the name 'biscotti' means "twice baked", so these biscuits literally are baked twice. First round for about 20 minutes, or until the logs are just firm to the touch. Take the logs out of the oven and let cool for another 20 minutes. When cooled off, cut the logs into 2 centimetre thick slices. Arrange the slices, laying down, on the a baking tray and bake them for another 10-12 minuter, until the biscotti are firm and dry, then let them cool off again.

Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the biscotti will keep for about a week.

Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker, who borrowed it from Martha Stewart.

Polly wants a cracker: Cheese crackers

2011-04-22T16:28:00.004+02:00

I have often stared at a lump of parmesan cheese sitting in the fridge, getting staler by the day. I have wondered if I could simply turn it into parmesan crackers by grating it and adding a little flour? I'm one step closer, having found a simple cheese cracker recipe from my favourite food blog, Smitten Kitchen (original recipe here). I made a few adjustments according to Berliner supermarket supply, but also because I converted the measurements to European ones. These goat cheese and rosemary crackers turned out great. If we don't eat them before Sunday (they are addictive!), they will be served at our big Easter brunch!

Cheese crackers (About 80 crackers)
200g (400ml) coarsely grated goat's cheese, cheddar or similar
4 tbs organic butter
100ml organic whole wheat flour
100ml organic wheat flour
2 tsp tomato puree
1 tsp dried, finely cut rosemary
A pinch of sea salt

Preheat your oven to 175°C. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and knead together until it's a solid lump. If the dough is very soft, chill it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes to make it easier to roll out and cut into shapes.

Flour the surface lightly where you will roll out the dough, also dust some flour on the rolling pin. Roll the dough so it's a few millimetres thick. Use a cookie cutter to make cute shapes, or improvise and use the rim of a glass or even the cap of a thyme jar, like I did. (For a rolling pin I used a bottle of prosecco that I washed clean. After all this moving around we seem to not need as many gadgets to get by!)

Transfer the crackers to a baking tray lined with non-stick parchment and bake for 12-15 minutes on the middle rack or until they are barely browned.

Easy dessert

2011-02-13T20:56:00.002+01:00

Last week we invited R and S for a fish and lactose free "see-you-soon-again dinner". For a starter we served a warm goat's cheese salad, for a main course A stirred together a delicious mushroom risotto and for dessert... oh, that was difficult. So the previous evening I dug out this recipe for a warm fruit salad from my bookmarks folder. It has a little bit of lactose, but R assured us that that would be ok. Our guests were impressed, and so were we! Now I will find it difficult to ever want to make any other dessert again.

Warm fruit salad with white chocolate (four portions)
200 ml raspberries (frozen are fine)
2 bananas
2 kiwi fruits
2 passion fruits (optional)
100g white chocolate

Chop the fruit and layer it into oven proof bowls (most bowls are). I would not leave the bananas on top, they turn nasty and brown in the oven. I would also not mix up the fruits: if the raspberries jumble around too much, everything will turn a reddish brown colour. I put a few on the bottom and a few on top. If you want to use passion fruit, chop them in half and spoon out the seeds. Grate or chop the chocolate and top each bowl with it. If your oven has a grill setting, then use it and if it doesn't, then pop the fruit salads in the oven at 225°C for about 10 minutes, or until the chocolate melts.

Recipe from Peruspöperöä, who found it in Glorian Ruoka&Viini 1/2010.

A homemade chocolate gift

2010-11-24T22:11:00.002+01:00

Today we were at the birthday party for Jonas, who is now three years old. With us we had a little train carrier cart for his wooden train set, that carried a cool little red car. Since Jonas probably doesn't care for flowers, I made a half batch of these chocolate treats for him instead. Super easy and quick to make, and in the right container they could make for a cute little Christmas gift, too! (Recipe idea from Chocochili, in Finnish.)

Chocolate and oat treats (makes about 30)

100g organic butter
100ml icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
4 tbsp Fair Trade cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla sugar
300ml oat flakes
1 tsp water
100g Fair Trade, organic dark or milk chocolate

Icing sugar and cocoa powder for decoration

Combine sugar and butter in a bowl and mix to an even paste. Add cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla sugar and oat flakes (and a teaspoon of water if it seems too dry), and mix again. Melt the chocolate carefully using a water bath. I don't have a layered pot, so I boiled water in a regular pot, put the chocolate in a cup and placed the cup in the water. Because chocolate burns easily, a water bath an easy way to melt it. Pour the chocolate in with the rest of the ingredients, make sure the mixture is even. Let it cool in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Prepare two bowls; one with icing sugar and one with cocoa powder. Roll (the amount of a heaped teaspoon) of chocolate dough in the palm of your hands into balls, drop them into one of the smaller bowls to then coat them in icing sugar or cocoa powder. Store the treats in fridge if you don't eat them right away.

Delicious, crunchy cabbage

2010-10-25T20:56:00.000+02:00

I'm lucky to have two weekly farmer's markets in my area, it leaves me no excuse not to eat fresh and seasonal produce. Last Saturday we were on the lookout for green cabbage (because I spotted this simple shredded cabbage recipe) but by accident we bought a huge, organic pointed cabbage instead. Other than for it's pointy, unicorn-esque looks, the pointed cabbage can apparently be used just as plain green cabbage, and the taste can even be a bit sweeter. This was the best side salad I have made in ages; simple, juicy, crunchy... healthy. Which is lucky, because even if I made a cabbage casserole today, I still have more than two kilos of cabbage in the fridge.

Shredded cabbage
500g green cabbage
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
ground black pepper to taste

Slice the cabbage into thin strips and put it in a big bowl. Add salt and massage and turn the cabbage around in the bowl for a few minutes to break the texture a bit and to make the cabbage softer and moister. Finish with olive oil, lemon juice and ground black pepper.

Fancy apple pie

2010-10-11T21:19:00.004+02:00

I like autumn and the crisp, clean days before it gets cold and ugly. The scent of apples in cold night air frames many memories of my friends and I walking home from our local bar: tired, happy and young.

I've never made apple pie before. This is also the first baked goods that turned out perfect in our fidgety old gas oven – which was lucky because we had invited three dinner guests over. This recipe has more stages than the average apple pie or cake recipe, but is also better and definitively not dry!

Apple crumble pie

1. Crust
300 ml wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
75g cold butter cut into pieces
3-5 tbsp cold water

2. Filling:
200 ml sour cream
2 eggs
200 ml raw cane sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp grounded cinnamon
700 ml apples, diced (I used two huge Jonagold apples)

3. Crumble on top:
100 ml wheat flour
100 ml sugar
100 ml oat flakes
1/4 tsp salt
70g melted butter

1. Prepare the pie crust by pinching the flour and salt with the cold butter into a crumbly, even mass. Add water until dough is just moistened enough to hold together. Form it into a firm lump, wrap it in cling film and let it cool in the fridge for about an hour.

2. Mix sour creme, eggs, sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Peel your apples, remove the centres if you want, then cut them into small cubes and add them to the sour cream filling.

Turn your oven on and set it to 190°C. Place your dough on a floured surface and roll it out using a rolling pin – try to form a circle wider than your pie plate so that the crust will fold up and cover the sides. (Best result with a standard 23cm wide pie plate.) Using the rolling pin, carefully move the crust to your greased pie plate and gently press it into place. Pour the sour cream and apple filling into the pie.

3. Melt 70g butter for the topping. Combine all the dry ingredients, then pour in the butter and mix until it's even. Sprinkle the crumble on top of the pie and bake the whole thing for 20-30 minutes – until the filling is set. Cover the pie with tin foil if the edges brown too fast.

Let the pie cool properly before cutting into it.

Original recipe from here. Translated into Finnish here.

Summer – simple tomato soup

2010-09-12T19:00:00.003+02:00

The whole summer I felt uninspired (intimidated) by our new kitchen and our strange gas cooker, so there has been nothing exciting happening there for months. Not to say we haven't eaten well: we have tried countless restaurants in our new neighbourhood. It's time to start saving money again, and to plan our meals a bit better. This tomato soup recipe originates from the Finnish Vegemisiä blog, and because it's so easy and has very few ingredients, we've been making it regularly for a few winters now. It's also the first recipe I ever used whole tinned tomatoes in. Today it was a stunning +25°C and not really a soup day, but I'm sure this Indian summer will pass as quickly as it arrived...

Simple tomato soup with mozzarella (three to four portions)
2 onions
3 garlic cloves
Oil for frying
2 tbs wheat flour
800 ml vegetable stock (or 800 ml water and 2 organic stock cubes)
2 tins (800g) of whole, peeled tomatoes
1 tbs tomato paste
A dash of sambal oelek or a pinch of chili powder (I used 1/2 tsp of hot, Hungarian paprika powder)
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
A dash of lemon juice (The need for salt and lemon depends on the acidity of the tomatoes, so it can vary a lot.)
Mozzarella (I used one bag, i.e. one lump of mozzarella)
Basil

Peel and chop the onions and garlic. Fry them in oil, in a two or three litre pot, until they become soft and translucent. Sprinkle the flours over the onions while stirring well, and gradually top it off with vegetable stock. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf and spices. Bring the soup to a boil and let it simmer for ten more minutes. Taste and add lemon juice, salt or pepper if needed. Tear pieces of mozzarella into the soup and let it settle for a few minutes. Garnish with fresh basil and serve.

Still here

2010-09-09T16:45:00.000+02:00

I've not stopped cooking, I'm still here. I'll post a recipe by next week, for sure!

We moved house at the beginning of summer and I have still not figured out the new kitchen completely – but at least now we have more than three plates and a frying pan, unlike after the move. I've slowly started to feel more comfortable in my new surroundings, even if cooking and baking with gas are still a bit of a mystery to me. There have been a lot of bitter failures to teach me better: my most painful food memory from the recent months are the raspberry muffins I baked for our landlady, because she was coming over for coffee. The muffins never rose in the oven, despite my muffin baking tray, and were dense, moist, grey and pretty disgusting... And I had to watch Frau Fäder eat one. Painful.

A touch of Africa

2010-06-15T23:07:00.013+02:00

My friend Anna made us this kidney bean sauce with rice when we were visiting her in Lisbon, maybe four years ago. It's fast, cheap and delicious. Anna told me she got the recipe from an African woman who worked in the same market hall as she did in Turku, Finland. We eat this pretty often, and I always think of Anna and of Africa – even if I have no idea if this is typical African food or not. This dish has become our "emergency food", because the main ingredients are dry or tinned and we can keep them around so that when we think there's no food in the house, we realise we can make this yummy sauce!

Anna's African kidney beans
1 onion
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp oil for frying
1 tin kidney beans
1 tin coconut milk
500 passata (sieved, pureed tomatoes)
1-2 tsp salt
Pinch of sugar
Chili, white pepper and pepper to taste

Serve with bulgur: 100 ml dry bulgur / person.
(Bulgur is healthier and more ecological than rice).

Dice an onion and crush the garlic clove so the flavours will be released. Warm up a pot (big enough to hold all the ingredients) to medium heat. Add the oil, throw in the onion and garlic and fry them gently until they turn slightly transparent and soft. Rinse the kidney beans, then add the beans and passata in the pot and let it all simmer for about five minutes. Boil the bulgur according to instructions on the package or count one part water to one part bulgur and boil the grains until the water has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk to the sauce last, heat it up but don't let it boil anymore. Season the dish to your preference, but a little heat is definitively nice here.

Our favourite lazy pasta

2010-06-11T20:54:00.008+02:00

We are poor. We are moving at the end of the month (but haven't found an apartment yet, yikes!) and are trying to be prudent to make sure we have enough to cover the costs of moving; a new rent deposit, some furniture, a fridge (apartments in Berlin are rented out completely empty!) and of course the new rent. This pasta dish is very cheap, fast and easy – and all the ingredients can be bought in Lidl :)

Quick cherry tomato pasta (Two servings)
250g cherry tomatoes, halved (44 cent, on sale)
1 ball of mozzarella (59 cent)
2 garlic cloves, sliced
Olive oil (of high quality)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt, pepper
Fresh basil
Organic spaghetti (probably didn't cost much, either)

Boil water for the spaghetti and toss in the pasta as soon as you can. Heat a pan to medium heat and pour in olive oil generously. Add the sliced garlic and let it fry for a minute or so before tossing in the halved cherry tomatoes. Let them soften a little, then add the balsamic vinegar and let everything reduce a little, then add salt and pepper to taste – and maybe a pinch of sugar, if the reduction tastes sour. When the spaghetti is done, drain it and drop it back into the pot; pour a few table spoons of olive oil and some salt over it, stir, and then plate the pasta. Tear pieces of the mozzarella on top of the portions by hand, top with the cherry tomatoes and vinegar broth and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Sweet 'n' sour

2010-05-13T16:47:00.000+02:00

To me rhubarb tastes like childhood, like nostalgia, like a childhood garden. I guess being abroad makes me love the flavours that I know from growing up even more. I spotted an easy recipe for rhubarb juice and to my great surprise, the recipe didn’t mention what to do with the boiled, sived rhubarb mush. It took two minutes to make a delicious rhubarb sauce, sweetend with some dark sugar – and just a little longer to make pancakes to go with it.

Rhubarb juice (Makes about a litre of juice and jar of rhubarb sauce)
 1.5 litre chopped rhubarb, the reddest ones you find (roughly 10 skinnier stalks of rhubarb)
1.5 litre water
½ lemon
about 150 ml Fairtrade raw cane sugar

Rinse the rhubarb stalks well. Don’t peel them, just chop to small pieces. Measure the water into a pot, bring to a boil, then toss in the rhubarb and let simmer for 30 minutes. Sieve the juice and pour it back in the pot. (Spoon the soft, sieved rhubarbs into a bowl, purée them if you want, and add sugar to taste – voilá; home made rhubarb sauce!) Pour the sugar into the pot and let it dissolve before you lift the pot to the side, stir in the lemon juice and let the concoction cool. I added a bit of water to the juice later, as it can be quite strong. Chill and serve!

Cheesy cookies

2010-05-06T19:22:00.006+02:00

I love small, savoury pieces of food, but I had never imagined savoury cookies until I found this recipe for "blue cheese scallion drop biscuits" a few weeks ago. The recipe is great because it's easy to adjust; instead of using blue cheese and scallions it could be cheddar and sun-dried tomato – or gouda and olives. I converted the American measurements to European ones and left out baking soda, because I never have any at home anyway.

We belatedly celebrated Maria's hen party last night and to not show up empty handed I decided to try to make cheese biscuits. These pieces of crunchy, slightly chewy goodness were super-easy to make and proved to be perfect party food – I even got asked for the recipe!

Savoury cheese cookies (25-30 cookies)
550 ml organic wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp fair trade raw cane sugar
1 tsp sea salt
80g cold butter
350 ml crumbled blue cheese, or other grated cheese (about 200g)
4 scallions, finely chopped
250 ml buttermilk, well shaken

Turn the oven on to 225°C. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into cubes and pinch it in the flour mixture by hand until it looks like coarse meal. Add the other ingredients in the order listed and mix well. Cover a baking tray with non-stick baking paper and drop tablespoon sized lumps of dough on it – I fit nine cookies per tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Lunch-in-a-box

2010-05-04T19:41:00.004+02:00

It's a pain to try to think of simple work lunches! On the other hand, it annoys me to spend a lot of money on buying lunches. Usually bought lunches end up being unhealthy crap, because by the time I go to the shop, I'm starving and craving salt, fat and sugar. I often buy a couscous salad from one of the Turkish bakeries: €1,50 for a small plastic box of spiced couscous, tomato and scallions – not too bad. Recently I realised that I can make it myself, make it healthier and make it cheaper! So here goes, my favourite lunch de jour:

Turkish style lunch salad (makes 2-3 lunch servings)
200 ml organic bulgur, coarse
300 ml water
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 organic tomatoes, finely chopped
1/3 organic cucumber, finely chopped
Scallions (spring onions), finely chopped
Flat leaf parsley
Salt, pepper
(Optional: 50g cubed feta cheese)
(Optional: 1/2 red chili pepper, finely chopped)

Bring the water to a boil. Rinse the bulgur until the water doesn't turn cloudy anymore, then boil for 10 minutes (or follow the instructions on the bag) – you shouldn't need to drain the bulgur, the water should have all been soaked up or evaporated. Add olive oil, tomato paste, lemon juice, salt and pepper in to the pot, mix well and let the bulgur cool off. Chop your vegetables and when the bulgur has reached around room temperature, mix everything else in with the bulgur. Divide the salad in lunch boxes and refrigerate.

Carrot cake for friends

2010-04-29T16:58:00.009+02:00

I'm not a fan of traditional carrot cake, but this recipe has traveled with me a few years now. Good memories go with this cake – we've always made it for someone special. The first time we made it when we lived in Dublin and had invited our friend, Anna, who is allergic to eggs, for dinner. We topped it with cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon icing and it was a success. The next time we baked this cake in London when visiting Henry and Catherine – Henry, too, is allergic to eggs. Yesterday we baked a carrot cake, iced by mixing powdered sugar, lemon and water, for Kathryn, who just moved in to her new apartment in Wedding. And we remembered how good this cake is and that we should make it more often!

My favourite carrot cake
250 ml organic wheat flour
200 ml fair trade raw cane sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom (Spices are optional and exchangeable)
1/2 tsp salt
300 ml finely grated carrot
150 ml soy cream (can be swapped for regular cream)
The juice of a 1/2 lemon

Turn the oven to 180°C. Mix the ingredients in a bowl, grease a baking tin and line it with bread crumbs. Pour in the batter and bake for about 30-40 minutes. The cake is small, so I used a ceramic lasagna dish as a cake tin and got 16 bite size pieces of cake, like I wanted. Double the recipe if you want to make a bigger cake.

Asparagus pasta

2010-04-27T19:09:00.008+02:00

Spring seems to be a rapid thing here in Berlin. I'm afraid asparagus season will be over before I know it. I have already seen new potatoes on a restaurant menu, peas in the organic shop across the street and watermelons and strawberries outside the fruit and veg shops are now a part of the daily street scenery.

I spotted this asparagus pasta recipe in the Finnish Avaruusasema blogi (in Finnish), and couldn't resist the short list of ingredients and the short preparation time promised. I think we will permanently have to cook our asparagus two ways, even if I always swore by this recipe – the pasta really was simple and delicious!

Asparagus pasta (two generous servings)
Olive oil
3 cloves of organic garlic
6 green (organic) asparagus spears
200 ml real cream
Chopped fresh herbs: basil, parsley, oregano
Salt, pepper

Tagliatelle pasta (we've swapped the white pasta for organic spelt pasta, it's even better!)

Put on water for the pasta. Heat up a frying pan. Slice the garlic and fry gently in olive oil, until soft. Rinse the asparagus. Cut off the pink, hard part (about 2 cm) at the bottom and cut off the tips, they go in the sauce last. Cut the asparagus' in even pieces, about 2 centimetres long. Toss them in with the garlic and add cream. Let the asparagus simmer for about 10 minutes or until it's done; don't over cook! Boil the pasta now, it should be done simultaneously with the sauce. A few minutes before serving, add the fresh herbs, the asparagus tips and season the sauce. Serve topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese, if you have some.

Easiest way to chop herbs!

Asparagus season!

2010-04-01T17:46:00.011+02:00

Yum, guess what we're having for dinner today?

Every spring for the past few years we have been excited about the short but sweet asparagus season. Last spring my mom was visiting us in Ireland and we served her monkfish with asparagus cooked like this, with nothing but olive oil, salt, lemon and parmesan, all fresh from the farmer’s market. I still remember that meal. This super simple recipe is from a Finnish blog, Pastanjauhantaa, and I wouldn't prepare my asparagus any other way now. (Well, maybe wrapped in smoked salmon? But that's more work!)

Roasted asparagus
Green asparagus
Olive oil, good quality
Sea salt
Organic lemon
Handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Rinse the asparagus and chop off the woody, pinkish bit of the stalk, about 1-2 cm. Line them up in a neat row, in one layer, in an oven-proof dish. (If you don’t have one, you can use aluminum foil to fold yourself one.) Sprinkle the asparagus with olive oil and sea salt, then roast them for about 15 minutes. The tips will get colour, but watch out so they don’t burn. Move the asparagus to a plate, sprinkle lemon juice generously and top with grated parmesan cheese.

Our spring time dinner: asparagus, egg, salmon, potato and sprouts with a joghurt dressing.

A versatile potato salad

2010-03-27T13:40:00.010+01:00

We had two days of full on summer here in Berlin, and to make the most of it, we had a our dinner as a picnic yesterday. We already tried this simple, great salad recipe a few weeks ago, and decided it's a keeper. The idea is from the Finnish blog Chez Jasu, who in turn was inspired by Jamie Oliver. I simplified the salad, so it's truly "fast food". It's also versatile and it works as lunch, dinner or even picnic food :)

Potato salmon salad
(Makes two big servings)

5 medium sized potatoes, pick a waxy variety (as opposed to a mealy variety)
2 large, pickled cucumbers
150g cherry tomatoes
2 scallions (=spring onions)
200g smoked salmon
Olive oil

Dressing:
200ml organic, natural yoghurt
1 tsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cucumber, finely grated
(1-1/2 cloves pressed garlic)
Salt, pepper and white pepper to taste

Chop the potatoes to small cubes and boil them in salted water for about 5 minutes. Don't over cook them, then they'll fall apart in the salad. Drain them and let them cool a little. Drizzle the potatoes with a few table spoons of a good olive oil. Chop the vegetables and salmon to a desired size and mix them with the potatoes. Top the salad with dressing and serve warm or cold.

Bruschetta against a cold

2010-03-20T23:24:00.003+01:00

I can't wait for salad season and juicy, sweet tomatoes again! In a pinch, these bruschettas can be done with bland winter tomatoes, too, because the garlic gives you plenty of taste – and good health!

Tomato bruschetta
3 ripe tomatoes, or equivalent in cherry tomatoes
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, pressed
Plenty of fresh or frozen parsley
2-3 table spoons of high quality olive oil
A dash of balsamico or lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Bread (Brush the sliced bread lightly with olive oil if you want, then toast in 225°C for a few minutes until they are a golden colour.)

Chop and mix the ingredients, toast the bread slices and top them with the tomato salad. Easy as pie!

Fast, with extra cheese

2010-03-03T20:29:00.016+01:00

We often end up making our own fast food; burgers, pizzas or melted cheese sandwiches are usually faster, tastier and healthier when you make them yourself. (We do make exceptions for the occasional late night falafels or lazy day sushi take aways.) If you're going to eat over priced food, you might as well enjoy it, right? Now we have one more reason to pig out at home instead: quesadillas! They are ridiculously easy to make and only a little unhealthy, depending on how much cheese you use. You don't really need more than tortilla bread and cheese to get started, everything else you throw in there is a bonus. We're so inspired that A even mentioned making his own tortilla bread...

Quesadillas
Tortilla bread (the size that fits your frying pan!)
Grated cheese (mild Gouda, for instance)
Leek, thoroughly rinsed and finely sliced
Tomato, finely sliced (deseeded so the quesadilla doesn't get too wet)
Avocado

Heat the frying pan to medium/hot and place a tortilla on the bottom of the dry pan. You are toasting the tortilla, so if it gets burned, turn the heat down. Sprinkle cheese on half of the bread, followed by sparsely scattered toppings and finish with more cheese. (If you fill the quesadilla too much it won't heat in the middle and you won't be able to close it properly.) Try to not get any on the pan, or it will start to burn. When the bread starts to fill with air pockets, it's time to fold over the dry half of the tortilla. Press lightly. Move your quesadilla to a plate and start making the next, even more delicious one!

You can fill the quesadillas with pretty much anything, as long as it doesn't become too wet or too big. I have to say though: you really only need cheese and leek to make it yummy. Serve with sour cream, guacamole and a salad, but only if you're not too lazy – it's fast food, after all!

I found guidence from Simply Recipes.

Tea time nostalgia

2010-02-24T12:12:00.004+01:00

I took A for tea to a cute English tea room in the Mitte district of Berlin about a month ago, to have him try their cool, smokey house tea. At the counter I spotted a tray of scones and I couldn't resist it, I had to have some. When we lived in Ireland I had scones maybe twice or trice in three years, because I simply didn't know what to do with them: are they breakfast? lunch? dessert? Well, now I know. You have scones with tea or with coffee, ANY time of the day! I became obsessed with finding a perfect recipe for scones that tasted like they did in Ireland. I tried out recipes for a month, mostly based on this one from Allrecipes.com. Now, after my sixth batch of scones, I am proud to say: they're easy to make and they're damned good!

Irish scones
(makes about 8)
400 ml organic wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
100 ml (fair trade raw cane) sugar
A pinch of salt
50g cold butter
100 ml cold milk
50 ml cold natural yogurt

Measure the dry ingredients to a bowl. Toss in the lump of butter and pinch it into the flour mixture, until the texture is crumbly. Pour in the cold milk and the yogurt and stir a little, then work the dough by hand until it's one lump. Be careful so you don't over work the dough, that will make your scones yucky. Shape the dough to balls, lay them on a baking tray covered with non-sick baking paper, and pat the scones down. They should be about 5-7 centimetres across. I have silicone cup cake cases that work really well for the scones, too, for when I don't want to get my hands dirty. Bake at 200°C for 15 minutes.

Serve at tea time with butter and strawberry jam, maybe some whipped cream, too, if you like.

A pesto fit for a party

2010-01-20T17:11:00.007+01:00

We had a party last weekend, and I sometimes get a little stressed about the menu and about timing, so we wanted to make something simple and easy. Andy has been baking bread lately, so we thought bread and dips would be nice. We already had good recipes for guacamole and baba ganoush, but you know: three's the charm. In winter you can't get good tomatoes here in Northern Europe, but we wanted something red and spicy. Red pesto? Red pesto! I almost completely copied a brilliant recipe from Imafoodblog.com, I just converted the measures and used a little less oil. Next time I would consider making only half a batch – this one made about 400 ml, which is too much to eat in one go!

Sun dried tomato pesto
150ml fresh basil leaves, pressed together
50g almonds, whole or flakes
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp coarse salt
200g sun-dried tomatoes in oil
200ml freshly grated Parmesan cheese
200ml good olive oil

Drain your sun dried tomatoes, lightly rinse them, and then pat them dry with a paper towel. Toast your almonds in a dry, hot pan; it takes 4-10 minutes, depending on if you use whole or flaked ones. You will see and smell when they are done. Using a food processor or a hand held stick blender, combine the basil, toasted almonds, garlic, lemon zest, and salt. Process until coarsely chopped. Add the tomatoes and Parmesan and process until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped. Now stream in the olive oil slowly and process until the pesto comes together. Serve immediately or store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

Funny chocolate cookies

2010-01-18T16:24:00.010+01:00

The other day I was blog surfing and came across a picture of funny looking chocolate cookies: they look like miniature Finnish sour dough bread! We had plans to invite friends over on the weekend, so for once I had an excuse to bake. The cookies were easy to make and really, really tasty, so the recipe is a keeper. I baked two trays for the party, then saved the rest of the dough and we had another tray of cookies just for ourselves today!

Chocolate crinkles
makes about 45 cookies

125g fairtrade dark chocolate (I used 100g dark and 25g milk chocolate)
150g organic butter
500 ml organic flour
400 ml raw cane granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
Icing sugar (aka confectioner's sugar)

Turn the oven on. Measure and mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Melt the butter and chocolate in a small pot at a very low temperature, so they don't burn. Take the pot off the heat when everything has melted to a smooth consistency, then pour it, too, in the bowl. Stir a little, then add the eggs. Whisk with an electrical mixer or by hand until the dough is even. Chill the dough in a cool place for a few hours so it hardens. Pour icing sugar on a plate and start rolling small balls of dough between your hands that you then roll in the sugar. Cover the dough in a layer of sugar, so thick you can't see through it. Don't place them too close to each other on the baking tray: you don't want them to melt into each other.

Bake for about 8 minutes in 190°C.

Recipe from the blog Haaveena kahvila

Friendly lentil soup

2010-01-14T14:52:00.010+01:00

Ten years ago, my friend (who never used to cook) sent me this recipe for lentil soup. I had never eaten lentils before, I think, but I wanted to be open minded since my friend was so excited. Ever since, we have been making this soup regularly and I have shared it with almost everyone I know who likes cooking. It's easy even if it looks like it has many ingredients and steps, and it's also healthy and filling.

Our favourite lentil soup
(Almost four portions)
200 ml red lentils + 1 l water
2 onions, chopped
1 big garlic clove, minced
1-2 tbsp oil for frying
1 small piece of whole cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 bay leaf
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp curry powder
1 tin chopped tomatoes
150 g frozen spinach (prefer fresh spinach if you can find it)
Parsley
Lemon

Measure the lentils and cleanse them by picking out grime and then rinsing them well. Boil the lentils for 30-40 minutes in a litre of water with the lid on – make sure they are properly soft, they should boil to a mush.

While the lentils are boiling, measure all the spices. Heat up the oil in a big frying pan that will fit the chopped tomato. Fry the onion and garlic until the onion gets some colour, but doesn't get burned. Add the spices and mix rapidly; the spices easily burn to the bottom of the pan. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and let the mixture cook for about 15 minutes. Then add the spinach (if it's frozen let it melt) and take the pan of the heat.

Pour the tomato sauce to the pot with the water and lentils, stir and add some salt if you wish. Add the chopped parsley, more is better.

Serve piping hot, with a slice of lemon for each diner to squeeze in to their soup – this will also reduce the need for salt.

Health buzz food

2010-01-08T14:28:00.010+01:00

It is traditional in the new year to pretend you will only eat healthy things and loose weight and become the perfect you. I too want to pretend. Mostly, of course, this is because we have been eating too much during the holidays, they felt endless this year. We were visiting Finland for three weeks, and were in very little control of what we ate during that time. So on to a new year and healthy, happy foods! (So we can eat all the left over Christmas chocolates with an appeased conscience!)

Roasted aubergines with a healthy topping
2 aubergines, medium size
2 cloves of garlic
3 small shallots
150g cherry tomatoes (this time of the year regular tomatoes are useless...)
100ml chopped parsley
1 red bell pepper
Lemon juice
(Olive oil, optional)
Salt, pepper

Heat your oven to 225°C. Prepare a baking tray by covering it with non-stick oven proof paper. Wash your aubergines well and cut the greens off the tops. Slice them lengthwise in about four slices. Place the slices on the tray and, if you want, brush them lightly with olive oil. Bake them for about 25 minutes, or until they are properly soft. You don't need to do the whole salt-the-aubergines-to-make-them-sweat; the varieties used today are not bitter and don't need to be salted first – except maybe for flavours :) Chop the other ingredients finely and mix them together. Add plenty of salt, pepper and lemon juice, also a splash of olive oil, if you like – taste to see what you prefer. When the aubergines are done, plate the slices and use the salad as a topping. Yum!

Inspired by this recipe from Helsingin Sanomat

Chocolate experiment

2009-12-09T15:32:00.003+01:00

When my dad was visiting Berlin, he wished to see where we live. He suggested we have dinner at our apartment one evening. I was a little nervous about how we would seat and feed six people in our little home, where the kitchen only fits two diners. At the same time, I saw my opportunity to try out this exciting chocolate cake recipe I had just found. Maybe it's not the best idea to try a new recipe when you have guests with high expectations? The cakes didn't turn out quite like they should have: they are should have a liquid filling, but mine were baked through. The texture resembled a chocolate truffle, rich and smooth, so I was still happy with them. The rosemary and olive oil flavours were subtle, the oil almost undetectable, so maybe next time I'll add just a wee bit more – and a tiny, tiny pinch of salt.

Chocolate cakes with rosemary and olive oil (makes 6)
150g dark chocolate
6 tbsp olive oil
75g butter
30 rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3 tbsp sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
3 tsp flour

I used 6 silicone muffin cases, to make it easier to lift the delicate cakes out when they are done. They are intended to have a thin, crispy shell that holds the liquid chocolate filling.

Preheat the oven to 240°C. Butter the cases well, then dust them with a sprinkling of flour. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar by hand until the mixture becomes thick and fair in colour. With an electric whisk too much air might be whisked in and make the cakes rise so much in the oven that they crack. Melt and stir together the butter, olive oil, rosemary and chocolate at a low temperature in a small pot, be careful so it doesn't burn. Slowly pour the chocolate to the whisked foam and stir gently. Carefully fold in the flour. Use a spoon for help to fill the muffin cases. Bake the cakes for about 6 minutes, or until the surface becomes crispy.After you take the cakes out, let them rest for about a minute. When you lift them out of the cases, it's easiest to take a tea towel in your left hand, hold the cup cake in it and gently tip it out into your right hand. Place the cakes on plates and sprinkle with dark cocoa powder.

Recipe is borrowed from Effilee magazine.

Sweet as chips

2009-12-07T21:26:00.022+01:00

I looooove potato. I might have mentioned that before :) When I was a kid (and still) one of my favourite foods was my mom's home made potato wedges. I still make them regularly, and always just a little bit more than we need so that I get to nibble on them all night, too. When I stumbled upon a recipe for sweet potato fries (in the fantastic Chocochili blog), I knew I had to have some. They tasted absolutely gorgeous, but didn't become crispy at all, which didn't really bother me. We had them with guacamole, as suggested in the recipe I read, but I think an aioli-style dip or simple creme fraiche would have suited better. Guacamole went great with our old fashioned home fries, though.

Sweet potato fries with ginger
1 medium sized (about 650g) sweet potato
1 tbsp ginger, grated
Strong chili powder
Oil
Salt, pepper

Peel the sweet potato and cut it into chunky fries. Spread the fries on a baking tray covered with non-stick baking paper. Grate the ginger, put it in a bowl, mix in the oil and spices and then pour the mixture over the sweet potatoes. Mix them by hand to make sure the oil gets on everything. Bake at 225°C until they are soft.
Sweet potato recipe from Chocochili.

Simple potato wedges
1 kg potatoes
1-2 tbsp oil
Salt

Peel potatoes, cut them into wedges. Place them on a baking tray covered with non-stick baking paper and pour oil on the wedges, make sure by hand it's spread evenly. Bake at 200°C for about 30-40 minutes, or just until they start to get some colour. Salt the potatoes after you take them out, shuffle them around a little to spread the salt evenly.

Guacamole
2 avocados
1/2 tomato
1 tbsp minced onion
Pinch of pressed garlic
Lemon juice, to taste
Salt, pepper

Finely chop the tomato and onion. Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits; with a sharp knife, carefully hack into the avocado pit and when the knife is attached to the pit, just gently lift it out. Scoop the flesh from the avocados in to a bowl. Mash them to the consistency you like your guacamole – I like to leave it chunky. Add the other ingredients and mix well. Taste it and season according to your own preference.

A slice of Italy (or a taste of an Italian café in Dublin)

2009-11-23T14:39:00.007+01:00

I tried a slice of amaretto pie in an Italian café in Dublin. I became obsessed, I had to have more, more, more. I found a recipe online, from Linda Collister's book Chocolate, and it sounded like it could taste as good as in my café. I decided it would be worth the extra effort of separating eggs and all the whisking, but I did cut some corners by not melting the chocolate. The result is an amazingly fluffy and tasty cake. Be warned, this is a pain to make without an electric whisk and a springform cake tin. But worth it.

Amaretto pie
110g dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp Amaretto liqueur (I used almond oil)
110g butter, room temperature
125ml brown sugar
3 organic eggs, yolks and whites separated
60g crushed amaretti biscuits
100ml organic wheat flour

Heat oven to 180°C. Butter your cake tin.

Measure the butter and sugar into a bowl and whisk until it turns white and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Add the Amaretto liqueur (or almond oil), then carefully mix in the chopped chocolate and crushed biscuits. If you really like amaretto, you can add more to taste.

In a separate, clean bowl, whisk the egg whites, and a teaspoon of sugar to make it glossy, until it becomes a thick foam with stiff peaks. Carefully fold this meringue foam into the cake mixture in three batches.

Pour the batter in your tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Do the toothpick test if you are not sure when the pie is ready: stick a toothpick to the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, then release the tins bottom and let the pie cool off. Serve the pie warm or room temperature, with whipped cream and more crushed amaretti biscuits, ice cream or raspberries.

(Christmas) Party food

2009-11-16T18:42:00.010+01:00

I know it's still a little early for the C-word, so just think of parties in general instead. We just came back from Warsaw where we were visiting our friends for their housewarming party. As my contribution to the menu I offered to make these little sandwiches I made for our Christmas party last year. They are a success every time! Also, if you don't need a plate or a fork to eat it, it's great party food!

Salmon mousse appetizers
200g smoked salmon, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
300g smetana or crème fraîche
Dill, finely chopped

+ dense rye bread, for example German sunflower bread from Lidl

Chop and mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let the mousse gather flavour for at least an hour in the fridge. Cut about 50 bite size bread squares from the sliced rye bread and toast in the oven for a few minutes at 200°C. Let the bread cool, then top each piece of bread with about a teaspoon of salmon mousse, plate and serve. This is really easy to prepare the previous day, and then just plate before the party.

Special-occasion-quiche

2009-11-10T16:04:00.010+01:00

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall coming down. I had great plans, many plans. It was rainy, dark and cold, and instead of doing all the cool, memorable things I planned, I ended up inviting a few friends to watch the whole event on telly. With only three hours to clean up the apartment and myself, I decided to make the food as easy as I could. I baked a few of my favourite chocolate cookies with the cookie dough left over from last week, and I made super-fast quiche. You can not go wrong with puff pastry and cheese!

Cheaty cheese quiche
200g puff-pastry, to line the cake tin with
6 organic tomatoes, sliced
100ml sun dried tomatoes, chopped
200g goat cheese
200ml creme fraiche
2 organic eggs
2 tsp dried herbs, like basil and oregano
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Take the puff-pastry from the freezer beforehand to let it melt. Turn the oven to 200°C. Slice the tomatoes and goat cheese, chop the sun dried tomatoes. Use a springform cake tin – if you don’t have one, use a regular round cake tin and line it with non-stick baking paper. Pat out the puff-pastry on the bottom and the sides of the tin. Arrange the sliced tomato and cheese in alternating rows. Sprinkle the sun dried tomatoes in between. In a bowl, whisk together the crème fraiche, eggs, herbs, salt and pepper. Pour the mix evenly over the quiche. If the corners of the puff-pastry are sticking out, fold them down over the quiche. Bake for about 45 minutes.

Dip with the best name

2009-11-03T19:15:00.015+01:00

I don't know when I first heard about 'baba ganoush', but I have loved it ever since. Don't you just love saying that? It just rolls off your tongue! Oh, and tastes good! A friend of mine has been cooking with Lebanese recipes lately and shared her recipe stash. I've been thinking about making aubergine dip for a few weeks now, and yesterday I happened to see an organic aubergine in the shop (which I think I have never seen before). Fate? I think so. I modified the Lebanese recipe to suit what I like and had in the fridge, so my recipe is more inspired by baba ganoush than it is genuine Middle-Eastern food.

p.s. This recipe only makes about a dessert bowl full of dip, so don't want to waste energy by having the oven on half empty; double the ingredients or maybe roast some corn on the cob at the same time?

Aubergine dip / Baba ganoush
1 small aubergine (about 300g), organic if you can find one
2 organic garlic cloves
1/2 or 1/4 organic tomato, to taste
1 tsp organic lemon juice
1 tsp organic olive oil
A pinch of sea salt
Pepper

Cut the leafy top off the aubergine and slice them in half. Chop the garlic tips too (don't peel them, the peel keeps them from burning). Lay the aubergines and the garlic on a baking tray, pour olive oil evenly on top and roast at 200°C for about an hour. Let them cool for a few minutes before you continue. The flesh will come off the mushy aubergines easily, so scrape it into a bowl with a spoon. Use some of the charred flesh too, for extra smoky flavour. Add the roasted garlic cloves; squeeze them until the soft garlic plops out of the skins. Mash with a fork or purée the contents with a hand held blender. Chop half of a tomato finely, toss in the amount you want to use and then add the other ingredients. Taste carefully and add more lemon, salt and pepper to taste.

Simple cake

2009-10-28T14:52:00.012+01:00

For over a week now I have yearned for chocolate cake, brownies or muffins. At the moment we have a limited supply of kitchenware, I decided to make the easiest cake I know. It's simple and extra easy to make. My mom got the recipe from her sister, and I have been using it since I was 12. It's a family classic. For birthdays mom used to make this a double batch and add a layer of apricot jam to make a Sacher-cake-like creation. Usually I simply bake this cake in a fluted cake tin like this:

This time, because I wanted icing, I used a square pan like this:

Chocolate cake
300 ml brown sugar, unrefined
250 ml organic wheat meal, unrefined
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp vanilla sugar
4 tbsp Fair Trade dark cocoa powder
150 g melted organic butter
2 lightly whisked organic eggs
150 ml boiling water

Measure and mix the dry ingredients, then pour in the melted butter, the eggs and finally the water. Stir until even. Grease the cake tin or line a tray with non-stick baking paper, then pour the batter over. Bake at 180°C for about 40 minutes, less if you are using a flat tray.

Icing
75 g butter
150 g powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2-3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
2 tbsp cold water
(1 tsp whiskey)

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl – add ingredients to taste. I added a little more cocoa powder and a drop of whiskey to make the flavour more interesting. Spread the icing on the cake when it has cooled down, pop it in the fridge so it hardens a bit and then cut into squares.

Suspicious but delicious

2009-10-22T14:14:00.009+02:00

I get happy when I realize some of my favourite foods are so cheap. Cabbage is dirt cheap and it reminds me of Finland. Both at school and at home we would eat cabbage soup, cabbage rolls, cabbage stew, cabbage bake... you name it. This recipe for a cabbage bake is maybe the most delicious cabbage food I have ever eaten. I have also learned that cabbage is super-duper healthy: it contains vitamins C and K, folate and the cancer-preventing compounds sulforaphane, isothiocyanate and indoles.

Cabbage bake
200 ml whole grain rice, Fair Trade and organic, if possible
2 organic onions
1 organic garlic clove
1 l vegetable stock
200 ml organic green puy lentils
700 g cabbage (about half of a big head of cabbage)
25o ml cream, low fat if you wish
Salt, whitepepper, marjoram

Chop onions, garlic and cabbage. Boil the rice and the lentils in the vegetable stock for 20 minutes. Add the chopped cabbage and boil for another 10 minutes. Finally, toss in the chopped onion and garlic, then the cream and spices. Pour this over to a greased, ovenproof dish, like a lasagna pan, and bake for about an hour in 170°C.

Anti-cold cocktail

2009-10-20T20:53:00.002+02:00

This autumn everyone's panicking over swine flu, which I'm not too fussed about, but still, I don't want to get it either. Like I have already written, my strategy this year is to eat a lot of nature's own medicines and to keep my resistance high. From all I've read, the most potent healing power is in garlic and ginger, not to forget about vitamin C. I wanted to try all of this in one concoction, and as a bonus this warm drink is the nicest thing you could imagine on a cold autumn's night!

The flu killer
100 ml cloudy apple juice, not made from concentrate, if you can find it
100 ml water
Fresh ginger, thinly sliced
Slice of garlic, optional
Honey (Manuka honey from New Zealand, if you can find some)
Lemon

You don't really need instructions for this, just boil, heat, slice, add and stir until it tastes perfect. Enjoy it while it's hot!

Super noodles

2009-10-16T12:06:00.002+02:00

It's been really cold and rainy lately and everyone around me seems to be sniveling and sneezing. Prevention of the flu is perhaps easier than the cure, so my anti-flu strategy is to eat a lot of natural antibiotics and vitamin C; ginger, garlic, honey, parsley, lemon, orange... And wash my hands more than ever! I have tried to think of different ways to incorporate this strategy into my day; adding raw ginger to my tea, eating fresh fruit as snacks and adding parsley and garlic to my cooking. I especially sought after recipes that use raw ginger and garlic, like this noodle salad. It's quick, easy, and a little exotic, too.

Noodle salad with halloumi
4 portions of noodles (preferably the thick, straight ones that I couldn't find)
3-4 carrots
1 Halloumi cheese
Dressing:
2 tbsp apple sauce
1 tbsp balsamico
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp ginger, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or pressed

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together in a small bowl. Peel and then slice the carrot with a peeler. Boil the noodles according to instruction label. When boiled, drain the noodles, put them back in the pot and add carrots and the dressing and stir. Slice the halloumi and fry it on medium-high heat until it is warm and has some colour. Serve the noodles hot or cold, the halloumi is best warm.

Chop in some coriander for extra Asian flavour. To make this simple dish more nutritious, try adding spring onions, fried onion strips, bell peppers or parsley.

Tip – a healthier butter

2009-10-06T00:51:00.001+02:00

I have been reading a lot about margarine lately. The mile long list of ingredients on a packet of margarine is alarming and includes colourings and preservatives. On the other hand butter is purer, but it's a lot fatter and the fat isn't the good "soft" kind. Margarines don't always have the right fats either, despite what the adverts say. One of the biggest disadvantages with margarines is that they tends to taste horrible! I have concidered useing no spreads on my bread, but I just can't get used to that. Then I found the answer. I almost fell off my chair when I read this somewhere on the world wide web: You can make your own margerine by mixing equal parts of butter, oil and water! We tried this immediately, since we were out of margarine again, and from now on we will keep doing it this way.

Home made margarine
250g organic butter
250ml organic olive oil, I prefer one with a strong olive taste
250ml water
1 teaspoon of sea salt

Let the butter get soft in room temperature for a few hours. Mix all the ingredients using a stick blender, in a suitable container. Pour over to a suitable butter container and store it in the fridge. You can experiment with the amount of salt and try other flavours, too.

Comfort courgette soup

2009-10-04T18:42:00.004+02:00

I might have mentioned I love potato. Potato soup? Yes, please! This simple soup is very starchy, which I love, and gets a nice texture from the courgettes, it's cheap and absolutely delicious. Whenever we have made this soup for someone, we have had to give them the recipe, too :)

Courgette soup
About 500g potato
About 500g courgette
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
1 litre water and organic stock cubes
Salt, white pepper
Herbs (thyme, parsley, basil or chives work really well)

Chop onion and garlic. Cube the potatoes and courgettes into small cubes. Sauté the onion and garlic in oil until transparent, then add the cubed potatoes and keep frying for about five minutes. Add the courgettes last, then top with water and stock cubes and bring to a boil. Let it simmer until the vegetables are soft enough to blend, about 15-20 minutes. Purée the soup with a stick blender, I like to leave some chunks, so it's not baby food. Add herbs, salt and pepper to taste.

Apple me this...

2009-09-19T20:48:00.000+02:00

We're still getting excited about apples – there's a huge supply of fresh, organic, local apples now. When I was a kid, we had a big apple tree and my parents made applesauce, and we had some in the freezer all year round. I got an amazing tip about putting ginger in the applesauce, and that was it: I had to try to make some. So hopefully there will be applesauce in our freezer this winter – if we don't eat it all first!

Applesauce
2,5 kg organic apples (or 11 big apples, or 3 litre chopped wedges)
200-300ml water
200ml organic raw cane sugar
Ginger, thinly sliced. We used about the size of a golf ball.

Fill a big pot, that will fit at least 5 litres, halfway with water and add a dash of lemon juice so the apples won't turn brown. Wash the apples, remove the cores with a core remover, peel them and make sure the bad spots are cut off, then cut them into wedges. Pop them in the water as you go along. When you're done, pour away the soaking water, measure 200-300 ml water into the pot. Add in the finely sliced ginger with the apples. Heat up on a high temperature and when it boils, lower the temperature quickly – stir to make sure the apples don't get burned. After a few minutes the apples are soft and you can pureé them with a stick blender – the ginger will blend in better than if you just mash it by hand. Add the sugar, but make sure you don't use too much, the required amount varies depending on which apples you use. Let the sauce putter for about 15 more minutes, then dose it in warm, clean glass containers that you close immidiately to create a vacuum and preserve the sauce better.

Our old flatmates came to visit just when the sauce had cooled enough and we made them an oven pancake with applesauce –my alltime favourite!

The most hated vegetable?

2009-09-19T14:33:00.001+02:00

For some reason brussel sprouts are not popular, even if they are cheap, healthy and, to my opinion, delicious. I guess they can taste a bit "blaah" if you overcook them, so I watch and poke them regularly when I prepare them. My first try with this vegetable was just boiled brussel sprouts with butter, and I fell in love. I found them in the shop again, I guess the season is upon us, so I wanted to try this really simple, but slightly more interesting recipe. It's an instant classic!

Roasted brussel sprouts
500g brussel sprouts
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt, pepper
Parmesan cheese

Cut the brussel sprouts in half, mix them in a bowl with a table spoon or two of olive oil. Roast them in the oven at 200°C for about 15 minutes – try to not overcook them. When they are done, spoon them back into the bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice, salt, pepper and some fresh parmesan shavings.

My favourite cookies

2009-09-10T21:06:00.002+02:00

I’m a cookie monster. I feel like I just might die if I don’t get something sweet after dinner. It can be almost anything, but you can never go wrong with cookies! This is my favourite cookie recipe, I’ve modified it to perfection by baking them embarrasingly often... Next time I will swap the spices and to try them with dark chocolate and a few drops of almond oil, I think.

Spiced chocolate chip cookies
250g soft butter 
300 ml dark, sticky sugar (like Muscovado) 
100 ml plain sugar  
2 eggs 
1 tsp salt
 1 tsp vanilla sugar 
1 tsp baking powder 
700 ml wheat flour
 250g coarsely chopped chocolate (preferably Fair Trade!)
 1 tsp ground cardamom 
2 tsp ground cinnamon  

Mix the butter and sugar well, then whisk in the eggs. Add the vanilla sugar, salt, baking powder and spices to the flour, then mix this with the butter mix. Lastly, stir in the chopped chocolate. Cover a baking tray with non-stick baking paper and dot tablespoon sized lumps of dough on it - they melt and spread in the oven so leave some space between them. Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes at 200-225°C. They will be soft when they come out of the oven, so let them cool before you move them.

It's the time of the season...

2009-09-05T20:39:00.001+02:00

...for apples! Admittedly, I have a sweet-tooth, and am constantly trying to find healthy options to chocolate cookies. My mother-in-law was very proud of her home made apple-chips last christmas and they were good; tasty, chewy, sweet and sour. I decided I want to try this very simple recipe, too – the markets are full of fresh, yummy apples right now. And luckily here in Berlin it's easy to find organic apples, so our treats will be pesticide and preservative free! There are three different ways to dry the apples that I know of; hanging them to dry in room-temperature, using the oven or using a food dryer. The oven is the least ecological choice, but it was the easiest one for us who don't have much space in our apartment. For comparison we also left some to dry in room temperature.

Dried apple chips
5 big organic apples
organic lemon juice
(sugar and cinnamon)

Prepare a bowl of water and add lemon juice, one tablespoon per 100ml water. This will keep the apples from turning brown. I added a little bit of cinnamon and some sugar, because the apples were quite sour. Wash the apples and remove the cores with a core remover or a knife (be careful!). Slice the apples into thin rings, about 2-5 millimeter thick, if you can. Plop them in the water as you go.

If you hang your apples to dry using string, pat them dry first and then hang them slightly apart. Hang them on a clothesline or clothes rack, for example. This will take a few days. You can also leave apple slices to dry lying flat on baking paper, but I'm sure this is even slower. When using an oven, line up the apple slices in rows on multiple baking trays and fill the oven as much as you can. Heat the oven to 50°C, and if your oven isn't a convection oven (fan oven), you should keep the oven door open from time to time. Rotate the trays every few hours, the top one will dry quickest. This took about 6 hours in our oven, times may vary.

Healthy oat biscuits

2009-08-31T23:20:00.003+02:00

Sometimes a girl just has to have cookies. The only thing that can be done is to try to make the lapse as healthy as possible, and I do this by making oatmeal cookies. It's a childhood favourite. Lately I have been adding mixed seeds and a bit of manuka honey, too, to make them feel extra-healthy. They are really easy to make, and I tend to have all the ingredients in the house, so why not?

Oatmeal cookies
500ml oatmeal
100ml seeds; sunflower, pumpkin, sesame... (if you don't have seeds, just add more oatmeal)
2 tbsp organic wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
125g melted butter
150ml fair trade, organic sugar

Measure and mix all the ingredients, except for the sugar and butter. Melt the butter in a small pot, add the sugar and stir until the sugar has liquified. Pour it in with the dry ingredients, make sure it mixes evenly. Cover your baking tray with a sheet of grease proof baking paper and spread the crumble evenly on it. Pat it flat and dense, try to shape it into a large square, then bake for about ten minutes in 175∘C. Cut the square into smaller pieces while it's still warm.

Anja's latkes – what's a latke?

2009-08-31T16:07:00.003+02:00

My friend Anja experimented with this recipe for a while and when she had perfected it, she was proud to share it. She even gave me permission to blog it! I'll admit, I had to google the word 'latke' (a pancake, often with grated potatoe) before I dared to promise to try it. We had invited our friends for dinner and decided to serve our latkes with salad, smoked salmon, eggs filled with shrimp and mayo and a side of sour cream sauce. And now I know what a latke is!
P.s. Courgette=Zucchini

Anja’s courgette and parmesan latkes
350 ml grated courgette (about 1 medium/large courgette)
35o ml grated parmesan
2 eggs
100-150 ml flour
Chopped coriander
Ground pepper

Grate the courgette and sprinkle some lemon juice on it so it doesn't turn brown. Use paper towels to wring out as much of the moisture from the courgette. Mix it with the parmesan cheese. Add the eggs, then flour according to need (don't make it too thick), then spices. Let it sit in the fridge for a bout 5 min to set. Use a tablespoon to scoop and spread small pancakes over a medium heat saucepan and fry for about 1-2 minutes each side. Enjoy hot or cold.

My best pasta sauce

2009-08-11T17:56:00.000+02:00

I have cherished an old printout of an aubergine pasta sauce recipe, thinking I will surely make it someday. When I read the recipe properly, I realised it had a ton of mozzarella and parmesan cheese blended in with the pasta, and it just sounded complicated and greasy. Not that I mind heaps of cheese, but still. So I made my own version based on what we had in the fridge: a small aubergine, a zucchini and a tomato. It was honestly the best pasta dish I have ever eaten – also thanks to the yummy organic spelt tagliatelle.

Aubergine pasta sauce
Olive oil
1 small aubergine
1 small zucchini (aka courgette)
1 tomato
1 garlic clove
200 ml cream (half fat or less)
3 tbsp tomato purée
Basil
Salt, pepper

+ Tagliatelle pasta

Chop the aubergine into small cubes and fry in a small pot in olive oil for about five minutes. Add the finely chopped or pressed garlic, then the chopped zucchini and tomato. Let simmer for about 15 minutes with the lid on.

(Now is a good time to start boiling the pasta.) Pour in the cream and season with tomato purée, basil, salt and pepper, taste, and then let it stew for another five minutes.

Pretty beetroot soup

2009-08-05T23:01:00.005+02:00

I never thought this way or that about beetroots before. After making this soup, I LOVE them. Probably mostly paired with goat's cheese or blue cheese, but that still counts. The recipe is from from Finnish blog Vegemisiä, but I swapped the cheese for goat cheese, and I've tried blue cheese too – and it all works. It's one of our dinner table classics now and I bet it's really nutritious too, with plenty of those soy beans. Make sure they're organic: that means they are not genetically manipulated and don't contain pesticide residues.

Beetroot and goat's cheese soup
A big onion
3 garlic cloves
1 l water
500g beetroots (one big one)
Equal amount of potato
400ml soaked and boiled soy beans
About 125 g soft goat's cheese (blue cheese works really well too!)
Pepper
Salt (if your cheese isn't salty enough)

Fry onion and garlic until soft, add 1 litre of water (stock cube or salt optional), bring to the boil and add the chopped beetroot. Boil for about 25 minutes. Peel and chop your potatoes while waiting. Add them and boil for another 15-20 minutes, until both are soft. Add beans, spices and the cheese, let it boil and the flavours settle. Serve hot – YUM!

Adapted from the Finnish blog Vegemisiä

Chocolate treat with heat

2009-08-04T02:16:00.005+02:00

These cupcakes are a gourmand's choice, they are packed with flavour (and sugar), so you can't eat many at a time. The chocolate flavour is thick and intense, harmonised by almonds, and the chili creates a nice tingle at the end. The icing on the cake is the icing, that is slightly sour. Make sure you chop those chillies finely: a big fiery chunk could be nasty to bite into.

Chili-chocolate cupcakes
Makes about 18 small cupcakes

200g dark fairtrade chocolate
50g butter
1/2 medium sized red chili chopped finely
(This is very mild, you can use more chili if you like, but remember small chilies have more heat than big ones.)
2 organic eggs
250ml brown fairtrade sugar
125ml organic wheat flour
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking powder
50g almond chips

Icing:
200g soft cheese (like Philadelphia)
1 lime, the grated peel and the juice
5 tbsp icing sugar

+ Cupcake cases

Preheat your oven to 175°C. Measure the flours, vanilla sugar, baking powder and almonds into a bowl. Chop the chili. Melt the butter in a small saucepan at a low temperature, then add the chocolate, broken in pieces. Let the chocolate melt and toss in the chopped chili. Whisk the eggs and sugar until they form a pale foam, then stir in the melted chocolate. Gently add in the dry ingredients – the batter will stay pretty fluid. Arrange cupcake cases on your baking tray: I used them doubled to make them sturdier. A heaped table spoon was good per case. Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, take them out and let them cool. Prepare the icing. When the cakes are room temperature they can be decorated. Apply the icing using a spoon or a knife, or a pastry bag if you have one.

Recipe translated from www.hs.fi/ruoka

Garlic soup to die for

2009-07-25T17:54:00.002+02:00

This soup is my dinner-party-classic, because I can make it a day or two in advance and it only gets better with the wait. Garlic soup may sound daring, but it’s actually silky smooth and not strong at all, thanks to the roasted garlic. I find it best served in small portions in pretty little tea cups or wine glasses – it looks great!

Garlic soup
8 small servings

4-5 whole organic garlic bulbs 
3 tbsp butter
2 floury potatoes 
1 organic onion
2 tbsp olive oil 
700ml vegetable stock
100ml chopped fresh parsley
Black pepper 
Salt
200ml cream (I use light ones)  
3-4 tbsp butter

Cut the top quarter or third off the garlic bulbs and place them on an ovenproof tray. Melt the butter and pour it evenly on the garlic. Roast in 175°C for 20-30 minutes or until the garlic is soft.

Dice the potatoes and the onion and fry them gently in oil, in a pot for about 10 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, a dash of salt and pepper and the parsley. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into the pot. Let the soup simmer for a half hour. Use a blender to puree the soup, add cream and check the flavour. Lastly add butter, portion it in glasses, chop some chives or parsley on top and serve.

The best fish cakes

2009-07-25T16:03:00.003+02:00

Potatoes are great in summer, sweet and starchy. I have always loved potatoes, boiled, fried, mashed or roasted... This is a perfect recipe for leftover potatoes: something that doesn't happen too often in our household. Next time I want to try to make them vegetarian by switching the fish to feta or halloumi cheese.

Fishcakes
Makes 4 big fish cakes

125 g smoked salmon  (the cooked kind)
A half onion, finely chopped
1 red chili
2 scallions (spring onions)
1 heaped tsp cream cheese
4-6 (new) potatoes, boiled and cooled 
1 organic egg  
Black pepper 
Lemon juice 
Butter or oil to fry the fishcakes

Fry the finely chopped onion and chili gently for about 10 minutes until it's soft and has some colour. Put the fish in a bowl and separate the flakes gently with a fork. When the onion is done, mix it and the chopped scallion with the fish without mashing, you are aiming for a nice and lumpy consistency. Fold in the soft cheese. Crush the potatoes to small chunks, but still don't mash. Fold them in, too. Season the mix with plenty of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Lightly beat the egg and mix it gently – don't mash! Divide the mixture in four and shape it into balls, then flatten into a cake shape. Put the cakes into the fridge for at least an hour to firm up before frying. Fry in butter or olive oil over medium heat. Allow the cakes to fully fry on one side before turning them over, otherwise they can break up a little.

Serve with a nice salad and crème fraiche sauce.