Ruokahaaste menikin arvonnaksi!

Kuten alempaa voitte todeta, puoliltaöin ratkennut haasteäänestys oli aikalailla kahden kauppaa. Tiukan kärkikaksikon muodostivat kaksi kalaherraa, ja äänestyksen napsahtaessa kiinni haasteveteraani Polkkapossun friteeratut pekoniin käärityt ahvenfileet punajuuri-rommi-smetanakastikeella sekä Suu Auki-blogiuutuuden marinoitu nieriä hunaja-jalapeno-tartarilla (kastike se selvästikin kalan tekee...) olivat aivan tasan tasoissa. Huh-huh!

Koska maalikamerakuvasta ei tässä lajissa ole hyötyä (ai miten niin MM-kisaviikko...) ja itseäni moisten mestariteosten välillä valitseminen suoraan sanottuna hirvitti, päätin antaa arvan ratkaista, ja onni suosi tällä kertaa nieriää. Kuvakin on aikasta nami, eikö?


Arctic char
Originally uploaded by huono_ekonomi.

Onneksi olkoon sekä Mikolle, joka saakin vetäytyä miettimään syyskuun haasteteemaa, että Polkkikselle, jolle uskaltaa kyllä menneiden perusteella luvata parempaa tuuria jatkossa.

Lakkarahka kiittää kaikkia osallistuneita hienoista resepteistä ja vetäytyy vaihteeksi miettimään ruotsinkielistä ruokahaastetta (*vink vink* siihenkin saa mielellään osallistua jos ruotsi edes auttavasti sujuu).

Cyberkocken

Äntligen är det dags för höstens (ja, här har det åtminstone varit riktigt höstligt redan) första cyberkock-tävling. Det hela går alltså helt enkelt ut på att tillreda en måltid med fyra givna ingredienser (och så många andra du vill, naturligtvis).

Från Ilvas lista på ingredienser lottade jag ut tre stycken, och sen var det bara att hitta på den fjärde, vilket gick ganska lätt för jag har haft svampar på hjärnan i några veckor nu redan och dessutom, se ovan: höst! Cyberkockens ingredienser är den här gången:

rucola
nötter
gröna bönor
svamp

Bonus blir det om alla ingredienserna finns i samma rätt men såklart går det också med en meny. Om det är nåt du inte gillar, inte tål, eller bara inte får tag på går det bra att byta ut det mot något annat.

Nu har ni alltså till måndag eftermiddag (kanske fem-tiden svensk tid i praktiken) på er att skicka in era bidrag, antingen genom att länka mig (i en kommentar här eller per mail till deinin@gmail.com) till bloggposten i fråga, eller (om det är nån som inte bloggar men ändå vill vara med) genom att maila text och (helst också!) bild till mig.

To my English-speaking readers: I swear I'll have some actual cooking-made-by-me content here soon. Well, one of these days. The transition from summery foods to stews and soups is not going very smoothly here, as anyone eating my cooking lately will testify.

Ja suomenkielisille vielä: huomisiltaan (tai siis puoleenyöhön) asti voitte vielä antaa äänenne kalahaasteessa.

Äänestä suosikkiasi!

Nyt on sitten kuukauden kalaruoat kokkailtu - ja ainakin itselleni löytyi monenmonta kokeilulistalle menevää keitosta. Pidemmittä puheitta arvon ehdokkaisiin:

1. MonkeyFoodin Ylimuuli paneroi kalaa dukkah-seoksessa: puna-affen pähkinöinä.

2. Suu Auki oli meikäläiselle ihan uusi tuttavuus. Tarjolla olisi marinoitua nieriää ja hunaja-jalapeno-tartaria.

3. Otetaan ensin puoli kiloa voita... tyhjentää pakastinta ja taikoo esille lohi-pinaattilasagnea.

4. Keittokomerossa taas hyödynnetään torin sienisatoa ja kokkaillaan rakuunalohta kantarellihöysteen kera.

5. Polkkapossun haastevastauksen nimi puhunee puolestaan: friteerattuja pekoniin käärittyjä ahvenfileitä ja punajuuri-rommi-smetanakastiketta.

6. Kulinaarimurujakin tarjoilee ahventa, vähän italialaisittain: parmesaaniahvenet.

7. Pastanjauhannassa jauhettiin tällä kertaa lohta: tuloksena lohipihvit.

Äänestysaikaa teillä on torstaihin asti, voittaja julkaistaan perjantaina!

Challenge Time Ahoy!

I'm in the (very enviable!) position of playing host to both a Finnish and a Swedish food blog challenge this month. Which is kind of lucky, because I'm having serious issues with getting food from the "shots on camera, recipe in head" stage to "edited pictures and post" one. Without further ado:

The Finnish one: elokuun ruokahaaste alkaa olla loppusuoralla; lähettääkääpi kalapostauksenne minulle lauantai-iltaan mennessä!

Samaten vinkkaan että koulu (tai koti-) ruotsin taitoja verestävät cyberkokkiosallistujat (lisätietoa alempana) saavat meikäläiseltä kymmenen pistettä ja papukaijamerkin. Ja keksejä.

And the Swedish one: det är dags att välja ingredienser till Cyberkocken igen! Hos Ilva i Aglio e olio kan ni ge förslag på nya ingredienser att lägga till de här: muscovadosocker, rucola, soltorkade tomater, fetaost, gurka, nötter, gelatin, färsk spenat, hallon, kyckling, västerbottensost, quinoa, rädisor, och rödlök. Nästa onsdag, dvs 29.8, lägger jag sedan ut tre ingredienser lottade ur de förslagna, plus en extra (som jag nog redan har lite tankar kring). Sen har ni till måndagen (3.9) på er att laga en måltid med de givna ingredienserna, posta om den och länka mig till posten. (Blogglösa deltagare skickar sitt inlägg antingen till Ilva eller till mig, så lägger vi upp det på våra bloggar.)

Bonuspoäng om alla indredienserna kommer i en och samma rätt, extrasuperbonuspoäng för alla finländare som vågar sig på att blogga på svenska. Men först ska det alltså ges ingrediensförslag, och det gör du här.

And so it's not all Foreign Tongues, All The Time: dear Quark readers - tell me about your experiences with mushrooms! Do you only eat the ones to be had in shops? Do chanterelle and porcini sneak in now and then? Or funnel chanterelle and horn of plenty? How about sheep polypore? (That's lampaankääpä / fårticka over here.) Enquiring minds want to know!

Glazed Turnips for One

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I feel a bit like the turnips pictured above, sticky and slighly singed. It's about eleven hundred degrees out there. And a bit more in here. Last night I tried to make ice cream and it wouldn't freeze. Someone tell me about the housing situation on the North Pole, please?


If it weren't so infernally hot, I'd tell you about these glazed turnips, or turnip to be precise as I was feeding only myself on Saturday. But what can you do? Have some shots from Kauppatori (Salutorget) instead.




One end of the market is a tourist trap full of horrible T-shirts and reindeer hats (which reminds me to cook Rudolf soon, I think we have some in the freezer), and there's a food court where fried vendace (yum) battles paella (um), but the part closest to Esplanadi is a genuinely fabulous market with wonderful if fairly pricey produce.






None of this has anything to do with glazed turnips, except that I actually bought them there. Also chanterelles, but more on those later.





Glazed Turnips

1 medium turnip, peeled and julienned
1 tsp butter
pinch each of salt and pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a pan and add the turnip and just a splosh (like a tablespoon, tops) of water. Stir fry for just a minute or so until the turnip softens a bit. Add the sugar and a bit each of salt and pepper and stir until the sugar melts and goes all sticky. Mix in the chopped parsley before serving.

This boatful of potatoes (at least I'm assuming it started out full of potatoes, but I'm not a very early riser) didn't have anything to do with turnips either:

BLT Baguette

I love sandwiches. I love them with just a bit of cheese, and maybe a few thin slices of cucumber, and now I'm just starving, I wonder if there's any roe paste left in the fridge... erm. Yes. Sandwiches. Are good made with toast, and usually even better made with rolls or baguettes or rye bread or... you know, any bread is good, really. (I wouldn't last a day on a low-carb diet. Possibly this was already glaringly evident.)


I haven't necessarily had enough BLTs to judge, but it is my firm belief that this is the best BLT known to man. Of course, it's not so much bacon-lettuce-tomato as parmesan-lemon-avocado-red-onion-bacon-lettuce-tomato. But that makes for an unwieldy acronym, so.

As a bonus, it travels really well, wrapped in clingfilm, and is popular not just with the two-legged-crowd.

BLT
adapted from the Swedish TV show Mat med Tina, serves 2

2 20-cm (or so) pieces of baguette
1 avocado (make sure it's nice and soft)
half a red onion
juice from half a lemon
4 slices of bacon
some sliced tomato
lettuce

1 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp crème fraîche
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan
½ clove garlic, finely minced

Slice the red onion finely, rinse in cold water and drain well. Chop the avocado and sprinkle with about half of the lemon juice. Sprinkle the rest over the bacon and fry in a large pan (this will be important later) until nice and crisp. Drain on paper towels, leaving the bacon fat in the pan.

Mix together mayo, crème fraîche, parmesan and garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix together avocado and red onion and season those as well.

Split the baguette pieces and toast them in the bacon fat until nice and crispy. Spread the baguettes with the mayo mix and assemble the sandwiches. I'm sure you have your quirks about which ingredient goes next to which. It's OK, I won't judge.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Lattice Pie

...but didn't you say you didn't like rhubarb? you may ask. Yes, I did, and yes, I'm quite prepared to eat my words as well, for I have come around to this most enthusiastic of our homegrown goods (the gooseberries are just barely ripe, and the birds got most of the redcurrants). It's still going strong in the garden, although of course the stalks aren't quite as tender as in, say, June. Never mind, though, as this pie spends a whopping hour and a half in the oven - just the thing to go for in the middle of a heat wave! Whoops.

I can't believe I haven't blogged about it here, but the summer's foremost dessert has been a fabulous crumble with rhubarb and strawberries (I've adapted it somewhat - throw some oatmeal and nuts in the crumble, reduce the sugar in the fruit mix and use more rhubarb than strawberries) that for some reason just refuses to photograph. I hope I'll still have time for a last attempt, but we're fast running out of strawberry season, too, so it may have to wait until next year. Wonderful on its own, divine with vanilla custard or ice cream.


But back to this rhubarb dessert. With over a hundred reviews at epicurious (most of them debating the cooking time - I did reduce mine a bit because the lattice was starting to turn unattractive, but really I think the long stay in the oven gives this a rounded, jammy taste that I for one adored) I was fairly certain there couldn't be much wrong with it. I made my own crust because shortening is not something I'm familiar with, have access to, or am in favor of, and I don't know if things'd be different with the original, but I have to say I prefer pre-baked crusts. But that's really the only thing I'd change, and I'm usually known for my nitpicky habits!

Rhubarb-Strawberry Lattice Pie
adapted from Bon Appétit, April 1997

500 ml (2 cups) cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
¾ tsp salt
175 g (6 oz) butter
100 ml (7 tbsp) ice water

750 ml (3 cups) chopped rhubarb
1 l (4 cups) strawberries
100 ml (7 tbsp) soft brown sugar
100 ml (7 tbsp) sugar
50 ml (about 3 tbsp) potato flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

lightly whipped egg for glaze

Cut the butter into small cubes and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes. Mix together the dry ingredients for the crust, cut in the butter (I do this by pulsing it in a food processor) and add enough of the water (start with about 75 ml/5 tbsp) to make the dough gather in small clumps. Tip out on a piece of clingfilm and press together to form a cohesive dough. Divide the dough in two, one piece slightly smaller than the other, form into flat disks and wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate overnight (or at least an hour).

Hull and halve/quarter the strawberries and mix together fruits, sugars, cinnamon, salt & potato flour in a large bowl.

Roll out the larger piece of dough on a floured surface and transfer to a buttered, floured pie form. Pour in the filling. Roll out the smaller piece of dough and cut into strip. Arrange the strips in a slanted lattice pattern and press the ends against the bottom crust to seal. Brush the lattice top with eggwash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 175°C (350°F) and bake for another hour. Let cool completely before serving.

Potato Salad with Peas

...and the previously touted tartar sauce. After a fairly cool and rainy July (I swear I wasn't complaining about it! At least, if I was, I wasn't serious.) August has delivered some seriously sweaty days lately. Cue a diet of sandwiches, ice cream and, you guessed it, cold salads.


At this point, new potatoes have been around for almost two months. I'm not really a new potato person (when my mother gets back to a computer after the weekend, she's going to disown me) but I think they work very well here, and not just because the cooking time is short. Along with some parboiled mangetouts/snowpeas, about half a cup of chopped pickled cucumber, and the rest of the tartar sauce, this turned into a super-fast supper. Almost superb, even.



Potato Salad with Peas
serves 3

1 pickled cucumber, chopped
150 g snowpeas
12 baby new potatoes
100-150 ml tartar sauce

Boil potatoes in salted water until almost tender. Drain and let cool. Boil the snowpeas until almost tender, drain and run under a cold tap (or put in an ice bath) to stop the cooking process.

Once the potatoes have cooled, halve or quarter them and toss with the chopped cucumber, snowpeas and tartar sauce.

Tartar Sauce

This little bowl of sauce doesn't exactly look like a momentuous occasion or anything, but it actually contains my first-ever batch of homemade mayo. (Usually when I call for mayo in the recipes posted here, what I actually use isn't even the best commercial stuff, but low-fat artificial gunk. Where do I hand in my food cred, again?) To summarize: mayonnaise - not impossible. Also quite high-fat. Funny how making stuff from scratch drives these things home (puff pastry, I'm looking at you).


Although invented to go with steak tartare (duh), tartar sauce is generally served with fish over here (fish fingers in particular - this was a regular and popular lunch at school) and we had some of this with simple breaded fish fillets that were devoured before I had any chance to take pictures and then threw the rest in a potato salad - this makes a lot of sauce but the batch is easily halved.

Tartar Sauce
adapted from the Swedish food blog Kärlek, mat och folköl, served three people twice, but your mileage may vary

2 egg yolks
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tsp cider vinegar
a few drops tabasco sauce
250 ml oil
150 ml finely chopped pickled cucumber
100 ml capers, rinsed, drained and chopped
a big bunch each of parsley and chives, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together egg yolks, mustard, vinegar and tabasco until well combined. Add the oil a little at a time in a slooooow trickle, still whisking (I did this in a food processor). Mix in the cucumber, capers and herbs. Season with salt (if needed) and pepper to taste.

Radish & Mint Sandwiches

Oh man. Remember when I used to post about every other day? I haven't been out of town or anything. I haven't even stopped cooking, although you may want to brace yourself for a slew of posts on the joys of fabulous sandwiches - for example, I've had the world's best BLTs twice this week, but more on that later - once I get around to it. The pictures just keep piling up on the hard drive, and doing something about them seems disproportionally momentous (it was probably the five thousand cat photos from my vacation that did me in) and so nothing really gets done.


Except, as I said, sandwiches. I'll have something on egg sandwiches and BLTs and some other things later (see, I'm writing that here in the vain hope that something will happen) but for now let's talk about the ones I actually took, edited and uploaded pictures of, namely these radish and mint ones. The original recipe was for tea sandwiches which is all very good if you want something dainty and thin and deceptively light-looking, and it's not that I didn't, but accomplishing thin-enough slices of bread just felt beyond me, and besides I happen to like this dark, partly whole-grain, pre-sliced bread, both for its taste and because it looks pretty next to the vibrantly colored radishes.



You know what would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, though? Thinly sliced bread. Again, if you live somewhere with easy access to said commodity, please don't tell me about it unless said place is Helsinki, Finland. Sometimes people talking about their groceries makes me want to cry. If you happened to have a recipe for a basic sandwich loaf (preferably not-completely-white) that is easily sliceable and doesn't crumble, that is a different story altogether. I have great faith in my kitchen cooling down to temperatures at which I could justify turning on the oven again. Maybe in November.

Anyway. Radishes. Mint. Bit of mayo mixed with lemon peel (and juice) and salt and pepper. Sliced bread. Enjoy.

Goo Cake

kladdkaka

Look, I'm just translating the name literally here! Kladdkaka is, as I see it, the Swedish version of a brownie, but generally it's baked in a thinner layer, and also left deliciously sticky. Not a fancy dessert by any means, but very easy and popular. The only tricky part is getting it out of the oven at the right time - too long and it's just your average boring cake, too short and, well, it's still a batter. (That said, the batter is, um, extremely edible. Or so I hear.) You want the edges of the cake to be quite firm, but a large area in the middle should still be well wobbly, as it'll firm up as it cools.


This time I went with the zest of an orange for extra flavor, but like with brownies, there's really no end to how you can spice it up - nuts, liquor, flavorings like peppermint or coffee, you name it. (Another favorite of mine is a few tablespoons of cognac and about a cup of toasted nuts.)

Goo Cake

300 ml (1¼ cup) sugar
150 ml (5 fl oz) all-purpose flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
½ tsp salt
75 ml (5 tbsp) cocoa powder
finely grated zest of one organic orange
150 g (generous 5 oz) butter or baking margarine, melted
2 eggs

Mix together the dry ingredients and orange rind. Stir in the butter and then the eggs one at a time, just until it's evenly mixed. Pour into a buttered, floured pan and bake at 175°C (350°F)for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool and serve with whipped cream or ice cream and maybe some fruit or berries (raspberries are especially good).

Cauliflower & Spring Onion Dal

I eat a lot of lentils, usually in vaguely Indian stews, and so far these have been sadly underrepresented on this blog. This was pretty much what I lived on during my vacation, at least on the chillier days, but I actually went almost three weeks without taking a single food picture, so what you see is a reconstruction. (And wow, gas stoves are SO MUCH QUICKER than my regular electric one.)



I don't have a particular source for this recipe, but I think it's safe to say that everything I know about Indian cooking I learned from food blogs.

Cauliflower & Spring Onion Dal
serves 1 greedy person as is, probably two with rice

¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground coriander
½ dried red chile
2 pods cardamom
3 whole cloves
about ½ cup moong dal (split, skinned mung beans)
about a cup of cauliflower florets
one fairly mature spring onion, chopped
oil for frying
about a cup of water
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp dried coconut, toasted
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp black mustard seeds
salt & pepper to taste

Rinse the dal well. Heat the oil in a medium-sized pan until sizzling, add the first five ingredients and stir for about 30 seconds. Add cauliflower and the white bits of the onion and fry until the cauliflower is nicely browned. Stir in the dal and add some water, reduce the heat to a minimum and cover. Let simmer until the dal is very soft and starting to go mushy. Stir in the green bits of the spring onion, cover again and take off the heat.

In a small frying pan, heat the ghee and add the mustard seeds. Let sizzle until the mustard seeds start to pop, pour over the dal and stir to mix.

Note: if you're serving this with rice, it's probably a good idea to make it a bit less dry. So increase the water a bit!