Finnish summer classic - Kesäkeitto

Finnish summer classic, Kesäkeitto, is creamy soup made of summer veggies.  For me, this soup encapsulates all wonderful flavours from new fresh vegetables and it is the taste of summer.

The way I make my Kesäkeitto is bit laborious since the ingredients are not cooked all at the same time. I want to respect these great vegetables and give them a result they deserve. All veggies are perfectly cooked by parboiling, to ensure optimal taste experience. Even this requires more work than traditional way, this definitely is wort the effort. This is how you should make the Kesäkeitto!

Kesäkeitto
For 4 person
1/2 cauliflower
4 carrots with tops
8 radish
12 small new potatoes
1000 ml pea pods
4 summer onion
800 ml vegetable stock
200 ml cream
25 g butter
salt, allspice (or white pepper)

Cut the cauliflower into a size of a fingertips. Cut carrots, radishes and potatoes. Peel the most of the pea pods to a bowl, but leave the smallest unpeeled.
Cut the white part of the onions from the green tops and cut onions intoa a 4-6 wedges.

Bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a pot, add cauliflowers and carrots and cook them 4 minutes. After 1 minute, add onions. Using a skimmer, lift all vegetables to ice water for a while, then let them dry on a kitchen towl (or paper towl).
Add peas to boiling vegetable stock and cook 1 minute and radishes 30 seconds. Cool similar way than the above mentioned veggies.

Cook the potatoes in a stock until tender, add cream, butter and all parboiled veggies. Bring to a boil, to re-heat the veggies and when boiling, remove pot from the stove.
Season with salt and allspice.

My Kimchi 김치

I have spent a lot of time in Seoul over the years, and I have fell in love totally in Korean food, especially kimchis. Yes, I have used plural on word "kimchi", since there are large variety of diffrent kind of kimchis, not just that one people thinks.

Baechu kimchi is the one that everyone will know when you mention "kimchi". It’s made of salted and rinsed cabbages whose leaves have been packed and coated with a mixture of cochugaru, onion, garlic, ginger, green onions, and fish sauce (or shrimp or oysters). It’s then put into a container to ferment during storage and can be kept for months or even longer in the fridge.  Everyone has their favorite stage of baechu kimchi fermentation; it can be eaten fresh and is juicy and delicious when newly made, but, as it ages, it becomes more sour and better fermented. Some old men claim that kimchi cannot rotten at all, but I'n not convinced yet.

After year or so, my Korean business mates started to tease me, how korean I have become. Well, the main reason, I think, was the fact that I ate like korean people and already at time I had gathered a lot information about the korean dishes.  They also laughed that "She really knows her kimchi...". After few years, I got the biggest complement I could imagine, from my korean friends. I got the recipe of Baechu kimchi from my business mate's grandma. It was in korean originally, and I made huge work to translate it in finnish, and now it is available in english too. For me, this one is the authentic recipe, and I have used it ever since.

Baechu Kimchi (김치)
1 napa cabbage
100 g salt
1 l water
1 tbsp sweet rice flour
50 ml cochugaru
4 tsp korean fish sauce
½ korean pear (=Pyrus pyrifolia)
3 green onions
1/4 medium sized onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp of ginger, minced

Dissolve salt in water. You might need to heat the water to dissolve all salt. Cut the napa cabbage in half (lengthwise) and soak in salt water for 6 hours to overnight. Once the cabbage is soft, remove from salt water and rinse thoroughly. Chop up the cabbage approx. 3 cm wide strips.
To make the paste, add the sweet rice flour and one cup of water to a pot. Put over medium heat and continue to stir until thickened (about 5 mins). Transfer paste to a large bowl and add the cochugaru and fish sauce. Mix well and let the paste cool. Add pear, green onions, onions, garlic, and ginger to the paste and mix.
Massage paste into the cabbage and store in a jar. Let it set in room temperature for few hours to overnight, and move to fridge. Serve immediately if you like fresh kimchi. If you like it more fermented, wait until it fits your tastes. For me, after one week, it is perfectly fermented.

Ps. Whenever you take out any kimchi, press down the remaining kimchi and submerge in the liquid or the kimchi will become very bitter and change flavor.

Karelian pie

If someone asks from Finnish people, what is the most traditional and iconic Finnish food, I bet most of the answers would be "Karelian pies". These are rice porridge filled rye pasties, eaten with Egg Butter or butter, -and they are amazing. Nowadays people doesn't bake these at home so often than few decades ago, because more or less every store sell these. The quality of the pies varies a lot in stores, but still many think these are way too challenging to make by themselves. I know quite many people who haven't even tried to do these, not even once.

I can't brag about my skills either, since this was the first time for me too. But anyhow, I think I can still give some compliments to myself, because these pies turned out to be pretty nice looking. Or what do you think? The taste is usually easy to get right, but the looks... Oh dear, that's the hard part. Everyone has their own handwriting, and there is even saying in Finland about shape of these pies compared to bakers privates... But I'm not go to that... :D

Karelian Pie
24 pcs
For the crust
1 ½ dl of water
1 tbsp canola oil
3/4 tsp salt
3 dl rye flour
1 dl all-purpose flour
For the filling
2 ½ dl of water
2 dl uncooked rice 
7 ½ dl milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
For brushing
Melted butter and milk

Prepare the filling first. Stir rice into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Add the milk and let the porridge simmer for 30 minutes. Leave the filling, lid on, for 10 minutes. Season with salt and let it cool. Stir the egg in the cooled porridge.

For the crust: Mix cold water, oil, salt and flours with a wooden spoon. Knead the dough until smooth and solid. Sprinkle on the table rye and wheat flour mixture and pour the dough onto the flour. Shape the dough into a log and cut into 24 portions and shape each into a round. On a lightly floured board, roll out each round into a 10-12 cm circle.

Spread filling evenly on each round. Fold two opposite edges of the pastry over the filling and crimp the edges of the dough toward the center to make an oval-shaped pastry, allowing about 1 cm of the crust to overlay the filling and leaving the center of the filling exposed.

Slide the pies on the prepared baking sheet and bake the pies 275 C for about 10-15 minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter and hot milk and brush on the pastries. Pile the pies in a bowl and cover with parchment paper and cloth.
Serve with butter or preferably with Egg Butter

Roasted Vegetable Soup

When I was a kid, my first choice for the supper wasn't vegetable soup. I didn't hate it, but it really wasn't my favourite either. From very early ages, my mouth has required strong flavours and different textures. Which is everything else than vegetable soup can offer, -or at least I thought so. All I knew was lukewarm soup looked someone has eaten it already once...

Then something happened when I started to lose weight. I wanted to find dishes which were low calorie, preferable high protein, but definitely delicious. Have to honest, it was pretty easy :D With these specifications, I found pumpkin soup seasoned with Moroccan style. It was so good that I gave another change to the veggie soup. Using that recipe as a base I started to create different variations, and this one below, is the last one. It really doesn't have much common with the original version, but I think this is even better. Maybe the only thing common is vegetable stock.

For the texture I usually add e.g. roasted chickpeas, crispy bacon, roasted onion or whatever comes to my mind. This time the fridge was quite empty, so I didn't add anything, except cottage cheese for protein.

Roasted veggie soup
For 4 persons
500 g butternut squash
1 (large) onion
400 g carrot
200 g parsnip
1-2 potato
2 garlic clove
1 tbsp ras el hanout
2 tsp cumin
1 small dried chili (or to taste)
salt & black pepper
1½-2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 l hot vegetable stock

Heat oven to 225 °C. Peel all veggies. Cut onion into 8 wedges. Cut butternut squash, carrots, parsnip and potato into 2 cm chunks. Tip all the vegetables and the garlic into a roasting tin. Sprinkle over the ras el hanout, cumin, chili, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the oil and give everything a good stir. Roast for 40-45 min, turning the vegetables over halfway, until they’re tender and caramelized nicely.

Transfer the roasted veggies to a large saucepan, pour over the hot stock and simmer for 10 min. Purée the soup until smooth. Add vegetable stock if the soup is too thick.

Serve with a dollop of yogurt or cottage cheese, a scattering of coriander. If you like the soup to be more spicy, add some chili oil on top of the soup as well.

*

With this soup, my preference is beer. Since the soup has sweetness and quite strong flavours in it, Stallhagen Delikat would be very nice choice.

Stallhagen Delikat 

Chanterelle "Carbonara" - autumn flavors from the forest

There is one thing I particularly love in Finnish forests, and that's the wild mushrooms. You can't find as good them from anywhere else in the world. They are simply the best, and the variety is more than great. Only thing that keeps me not collecting them all, is the fact, that I don't recognize all species. And there are poisonous mushrooms as well in our forests. I have sometimes tried to find english names for our mushrooms, but the result has been bit poor, so I call them all mushrooms or wild mushrooms. Sorry about that!

This dish can be eaten as a main course or as a starter, -your choise. But the risk is that you eat too much of this as a starter, and there is no room left in your belly for the main. Either way, hope you enjoy!!

Fresh Pasta
for 2 persons
325 ml all-purpose flour or preferably Tipo ‘00’ flour
2 eggs
1tsp salt
Cold water if needed

Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, add salt and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth. Mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Add water if needed. Knead the dough until silky and firm.
Wrap the dough into the plastic wrap and let it rest in a fridge, at least half an hour.
Create/roll any shape of a pasta, this time I rolled pappardelle. Boil in a salted water until al dente, approx. 1,5-2 minutes.

More detailed instructions you can find e.g. The Science of the Best Fresh Pasta

Chanterelle "Carbonara"
For 2 person
2 handfull of fresh chanterelle (or any other wild mushrooms)
1 tbsp butter
0,5 garlic clove finely chopped
1 shallot chopped
2 eggs
100 g pecorino cheese
Black pepper and salt to taste

Chop the mushrooms if you wish. Grate half of the pecorino. Melt the butter in medium heat and cook mushroom, onions and garlic. Mix eggs and grated pecorino in another bowl. Season. When pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with mushroom mix. Pour the egg-cheese mixture to the pan, stir, but do not cook. If you heat the mix too much, eggs turn to a scambled.
Place the dish to a plate and slice the rest of the pecorino on top of it.

*

I have a great wine tip for this dish as well; Masciarelli Montepulciano D'Abruzzo. The wine upgrades the mushrooms in to a next level goes well with pasta because of its soft flavors and gentle tannins.

Even though I said this wine is great with mushroom pasta, but it is perfect with the Cep risotto... Try it!

Tribute to Finnish superfoods

Whipped porridges are quite common Finnish dishes, like porriges overall, and usually these whipped versions are made of semolina. The berries varies a lot, but the most favourite ones are lingonberry and redcurrant. But you can use any berries you like. The dish is often served as a dessert, with cold milk, since it is sweet. Altough, it can easily be a light lunch or breakfast as well, especially if the amount of sugar is reduced.

Today I wanted to prepare whipped porridge for light lunch, because we have done nothing but eaten all weekend. We celebrated our friend's 40th birthday and had so many nice breakfasts, lunches and dinners. So today it was good idea to eat a bit lighter... Instead of semolina I chose more healthier option for the flour, I used rye. And for berries, my preference is always bilberry. I just love them. So Finnish and so healthy!

If you haven't tried this dish yet, I really recommend to do so. What could be more Finnish than this?? A real superfoods!

Whipped Blueberry Rye Porridge
for 4 person
1 l water
pinch of salt
0,5 l blueberries (preferably bilberries)
100 ml sugar (optional, if you like sweet. I didn't use any)
300 ml rye flour

Boil the water in a pot, add salt and bilberries. Bring to a boil. Start adding rye flour whipping at the same time to avoid clods. After all flour has been added, cook over low heat 15 minutes. Let it cool.
Using mixer, whip the porridge until fluffy and light.
Enjoy with cold milk!

Korean stir fry glass noodles, Japchae, 잡채

When I visited first time in Korea, I ate noodles which were different, but amazingly delicious. Some time later I found out that the dish I loved so much is made of sweet potato starch noodles, and it is called Japchae, 잡채, Korean stir fry glass noodles. This dish can be eaten as a main course, side dish or appetizer, I usually prepare this as a side dish, or banchan as they say in Korea.

Japchae can be done either vegetarian version or with meat, usually beef. The noodles itself are called Dang-myeon. They have a unique and pleasant texture, and don't feel heavy like flour-based pastas.

Japchae 
For 4 person
150 g glass noodles (dang-myeon)
½ onion  
1 carrot (medium size)
50 g shiitake mushrooms
50 g spinach
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt, black pepper to taste 
Seasoning
4 tbsp soy sause
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp garlic (minced)
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds

Make the seasoning by mixing all ingredients together.
Peel the carrot and onion and julienne them. Slice the mushrooms. 
Boil nice amount of water and add noodles, cook 6 minutes. Rinse glass noodles twice in cold water. Drain all the water out using a strainer.
Coat a frying pan with 1vegetable oil. Sauté carrot and onion 2-3 minutes, add mushrooms and continue cooking until they are tender. Add spinach.
Add noodles and pour the seasoning sauce into the glass noodles and mix well.
Sauté the glass noodles mixture on medium heat until all the noodles are warm.
Sprinkle sesame seeds as a garnish. Enjoy!

Crème ninon - French green pea soup

Crème ninon is one of the classics in French cuisine. This soup is made of fresh green peas and finalized with champagne. It is also one of my classics in my own kitchen. When I want to serve something very delicious yet easy, I prepare this. I usually serve this as a starter, but especially in summertimes when it's hot, this is very nice dish for light lunch. I see this dish perfect for spring and summer time, but one one gives you complaints if you decide to have it in any other seasons as well.

Crème ninon
For 4 person
400 g frozen green peas
500 ml chicken stock
1 shallot
20 g butter
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 bay leaf
100 ml champagne (or sparkling wine)
100 ml cream
salt & pepper to taste

Peel and chop the onion. Melt the butter in a pot over the medium heat. Add the onios and cook them a moment. Add flour and cook a moment more. Add chicken stock and bay leaf. Stir well and bring to a boil. Simmer approx. 10 minutes and then add the peas. Simmer another 5 minutes. Add soup the blender and blend until smooth. Sieve soup back to the pot, season with salt and pepper. Whip cream until you get loose consistency. Heat the soup just before serving, add whipped cream and champagne. Stir gently and serve immediately.

Original recipe: Hiltunen, Nyströn: Kokki ja viinikauppias Ranskassa

Divine veggie burger

What can I say about these burgers... except they are divine... Well they are vegetarian, but I bet that carnivores would love them too. These are the best vege-burgers that I have ever made, and probably they are the the best vege-burgers I have eaten. Usually the patties in vegetarian burgers are awful mush made of grated over-cooked vegetables without any flavor. These are not anything like that.

I personally like the roasted flavor of beets, perky lime juice and sweetness from the sweet potatoes, all mixed together. Parsley gives some earthiness to this burger, and that is the reason I really really love these. Instead of bun, you can serve these even using salad leaves, and they are still fabulous.

Veggie Burger
For 4 person
4 good quality burger bun per person
4 Beetroot-quinoa patties
Avokado sauce
Sweet potato fries
Parsley

Make patties, sauce and fries using the recipes below.
Grill nice color to bun and make sure they are warm.
Fill all ingredients and enjoy!

Beetroot-quinoa patties 
4 medium size beets, peeled and cut in half
2 tbsp canola oil
100 ml quinoa
1 onion
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 egg
2 tsp Sonnentor BBQ spice mix
1 red chili, finely chopped
salt & black pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 200 °C.
Peel beets and onion. Chop the onions finely. Cut beets in half and place them into a pan. Drizzle 1 tbsp oil over the beets and mix until oil covers all beets. Bake until soft (approx. 1 hour). Let them cool.
Cook the quinoa as instructed in box. Let it cool.
Heat the 1 tbsp oil over the medium heat. Add onions and cook until tender and fragrant. It is totally ok to caramelize them a bit.
Mix beets, quinoa, onion, garlic and all spices together and mix. Add egg and mix well. Shape to patties. Cook them over a medium heat until they are crisp on outside, flip and repeat. Be careful when flipping the patties, since they break very easily!

Avocado sauce 
1 ripe avocado
1 lime juice
salt
Mix lime juice and peeled avocado together, e.g. using hand mixer. Season with salt.

Sweet potato fries 
1 sweet potato
1 tsp corn starch (e.g. Maizena)
1 tbsp canola oil salt to taste

Preheat oven to 225°C and warm your baking tray in an oven.
Peel the sweet potato and cut it medium thickness. Not hugely thick cut and not shoestring. Cut all your fries into the same size so that they all cook at the same rate.
Soak fries in cold water for around an hour – a half a day for maximum crispiness! Dry them.
Dump sweet potatoes into the bag with the cornstarch. Then give sweet potatoes you drop in the cornstarch a good shake. Twist the top of the bag so it forms a balloon with some air inside and shake the fries around until they’re lightly coated with the cornstarch.
Put coated fries on a non-stick cookie sheet. Drizzle oil over the fries. Using your hands, make sure the fries are well coated.
Put the fries into oven and cook for 15 minutes. Check the fries after 15 minutes, flip them over and bake them another 10-15 minutes. The timing really depends on the size of your fry, the heat of your oven and how well your pan conducts heat. Season with salt.

Shakshuka - Eggs in fiery veggie stew

Sometimes vegetarian food is more than welcome, and yesterday was one of those days. My husband isn't a fan of vege food, except when it is seasoned very well. And this dish is! So comforting and full of strong middle eastern flavours. I really love this dish. And if you try it, you'll love it too.

This dish has many different names; Shakshuka, Chakchouka, Shakshouka, etc. But what ever the name is, it's always great dish.

Shakshuka

For 6 persons

1 aubergine

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

2 large onions

4 cloves of garlic

4 small potatoes

2 red chilies finely chopped

4 tomatoes

3 tbsp canola oil

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp ras el hanout

70 g tomato puree (1 can)

250 g chickpeas (cooked)

100 ml chopped parsley

100 ml chopped cilantro

400 ml water

salt, black pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 150°C

Dice aubergine, peppers and potatoes. Peel the onions and cut roughly. Peel the garlic cloves. Cut the tomatoes into wedges.

Heat the oil in a pot over a medium heat, add aubergine, peppers, onions and potatoes. Add paprika, cumin and ras el hanout as well. Cook approx. 5 minutes.

Add tomato puree, tomatoes and garlic cloves, continue cooking few minutes.

Add chickpeas, water and season with salt and black pepper.

Place the pot into an oven and cook 2-2,5 hours.

Transfer wanted amount (for 2 persons: 1/3) of the sauce into a smaller frying pan.

Make small indentations (1 egg per person) in the sauce, and gently crack an egg into each one. Cover the pan, and cook until the eggs are as runny, or firm, as you like them (I cook mine for 10 minutes, covered, which makes a runny egg).

Garnish with chopped parsley and cilantro, and serve right away. 

Idea for this recipe is originally from Tero Lilja, Restaurant Lämpö

Roasted beetroot and carrot soup with sour cream

There was large bag beets in our fridge, and I wanted to use them someway. My original thought was to make Borscht soup, but because I didn't have cabbage, I couldn't do that. So after few moments of thinking, roasted beetroot soup came to my mind.

I made it using not only beets but carrots and onion as well. And this time I decided to puree the soup, but it is as good, if you don't want to do that. Your choice! But one thing you can't miss, is the sour cream, without that, the soup doesn't work. At least no so well...

Beetroot soup
For 4 persons 
3 large beets, peeled and diced into large pieces
2 carrots
1 tbsp canola oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp canola oil
1,5 l vegetable broth
1 branch rosemary
2 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream and rosemary for garnish


Preheat oven to 190 °C. Peel beets and carrots and dice them. Then place them in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss to distribute the oil well. Roast veggies, turning once or twice during roasting, for 60 minutes (or until tender). When the roasted veggies are cool enough to handle, chop them as finely as possible or grate them.
Put the remaining oil in a skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook until soft (about 3 minutes). Turn down heat to medium-low and continue cooking the onions until golden and very tender (10 to 15 minutes).
Add the chopped garlic clove, beets and carrots, along with the stem of the rosemary and broth to cover. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the soup is ready, approximately 30 minutes. Remove the Rosemary branch. Puree the soup if you wish.
Add the red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with rosemary.

Veggie Curry inspired by Jamie Oliver

We have decided to have at least one vegetarian day per week. For this week, saturday was already 4th veggie day for me. I dreamed all week about this saturday night dinner. For some reason, I started to hunger Indian food. I'm not good at all with ethnic cuisines, except maybe Korean, but it doesn't matter. I managed to find good recipe from Jamie Oliver, and created my own version of it.

I used sweet potato, cauliflower and chickpeas for this dish and it was very good. I'm happy that the portion was so big, that we can eat this also today.

Sweet potato and cauliflower curry
For 6 persons
1 heaped teaspoon crushed almonds
1 large sweet potato cut into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cauliflower
1 onion peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic-crushed
One 3cm piece of fresh ginger- grated or finely chopped
½ bunch fresh coriander including stalks
½-1 fresh chilli
1 handful of curry leaves (or a tsp curry powder if not available)
100 g curry paste (bought or make your own)
250 g chickpeas cooked
1 lemon
4 tablespoons low fat natural yogurt (optional)

Toast almonds in a dry frying pan over a low-medium heat until golden, then set aside.
Scrub sweet potatoes and cut into 1 cm chunks. To make the cauliflower, chop the leaves off and cut the stalk into small pieces. Cut florets into even pieces.
Add olive oil to a large saucepan over a medium heat and then add the sweet potato. Fry for 5 minutes or until golden. Add curry leaves or powder to pan and stir for one minute, then add all the chopped vegetables (except cauliflower stalks), curry paste and the chopped coriander stalks. Fry for another 10 minutes or until onions are softened.
Add chickpeas and 600ml of boiling water and bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened (about 30 minutes). Add cauliflower stalks to the curry mix.

To serve curry: add lemon juice to curry, sprinkle with almonds and chopped coriander leaves and serve with yogurt over the rice.

This recipe is adapted from Save with Jamie and can be found at www.jamieoliver.com. "Jamie Oliver’s Veggie Korma with Mock Cauliflower Pilau"

Beaujolais Nouveau meets Rustic onion tart

Yesterday it was that certain day of the year, -third Thursday of November. After work I went to buy bottle of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau, and after that it was time for cooking. Earlier we have eaten cold cuts and cheeses with BN, but this year I wanted something with onion. After long search I found very nice recipe of onion tart from the Food&Wine. And I made that! It was delicious, and went nice with the wine. I'm pretty sure, that this tart shall be done many times in my kitchen in a future as well.

For the tart, I made only ½ portion of the dough from original recipe, because I prefer thin crust and wanted onions to shine.

Rustic Onion Tart
For 4 persons
Dough
125 ml all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
45 g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
35 ml ice cold water
Filling
50 g butter
1 kg sweet onions, thinly sliced
2 gloves garlic
6 thyme sprigs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of milk

In a bowl, whisk the flour with the salt. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle the water over the flour and stir gently just until incorporated; gently press to form a dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
In a skillet, melt the butter. Add the onions and thyme and cook over moderately high heat, until softened, about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderately low and cook, until the onions are golden, 20 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and discard the thyme, season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Set a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven or position a rack on the lowest rung and preheat the oven to 190° C. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 30 cm round and transfer to the baking sheet. Spread the onions on the round, leaving a 3 cm border. Fold the edge of the dough up and over the filling and brush the edge with the egg wash.

Bake the tart on the stone or on the bottom shelf for about 40 minutes, until the dough is richly browned on the bottom.
Transfer the tart to the top shelf and bake for about 5 minutes longer, until the top of the crust is browned. Transfer the tart to a rack and let cool slightly. Cut the warm tart into wedges and serve.

Original recipe: Food & Wine

Sushi or Kimbap? Which I made?

Sushi is very familiar to most of the people nowadays, and korean food starts to be. I have eaten sushi many times in Korea, but as many, I have eaten kimbap. And they are both so delicious there. Unfortunately I have never had a change to eat sushi, or anything, in Japan, but hopefully that will change soon. I like them both, and today I couldn't choose which I wanted more, so I made seaweed rolls inspired by both of them.

But what is difference between sushi and kimbap? They are both basically rolls of rice wrapped in a sheet of nori seaweed.

The only rule for kimbap seems to be that it be some kind of rice wrapped in seaweed. The rice is usually steamed medium grain white rice, but it can also contain other types of rice.The rice is usually flavored with salt and sesame oil. The one rule for sushi rolls is that the rice itself is flavored with rice vinegar, salt and sugar. The term sushi itself refers to this vinegar-flavored rice. If the rice is not flavored with that vinegar mix, it's not considered to be sushi even if it's wrapped up in nori.

I made sushi rice but I wrapped very kimbapy ingredients in seaweed. So I really can't tell you which one I had...

Seaweed Rolls
for 2 persons
Sushi rice
2 sheets of gim (=nori)
1 small carrot pickled
1 thin omelette
5 cm piece cucumber cut in stripes
wasabi to taste

Place a sheet of gim on a bamboo mat with the shiny side down. Evenly spread half of the sushi rice over top of it, leaving about 2-3 cm uncovered on upper side of the gim.
Place wasabi, pickled carrot, omelette stripesand cucumber in the center of the rice.
Roll the mat (along with gim and rice) over the fillings.

***

Sushi Rice
250 g sushi rice
330 ml water
Seasoning
30 ml rice wine vineger
35 g sugar
5 g salt

Rinse the rice in a strainer or colander until the water runs clear, 3-4 times. Combine with water in a pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove heat and let it stay 25-30 minutes. Do not open the lid.
In a small saucepan, combine the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Cool, then stir into the cooked rice slowly. Do not crush the rice but stir it very gently. Keep stirring and the rice will dry as it cools.
If you are not use rice immediately, let it stay in room temperature, covered with wet cloth.

Pickled carrots
1 small carrot
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
½ tbsp sugar
½ salt

Peel carrot and cut it "julienne".
Mix all other ingredients together. Stir until sgar and salt are totally dissolved. Add carrot sticks and let them marinade at least an hour.

Thin omelette
2 small eggs
salt

Crack eggs in a bowl and add salt. Beat it with fork.
Drizzle a few drops of oil on a heated pan. Wipe off the excess with a paper towel so only a thin sheen of oil remains. Turn down the heat to low and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Spread it into a large circle so it fills the pan.When the bottom of the egg is cooked, flip it over. Remove from the heat and let it cook slowly in the hot pan for about 5 minutes, with the ultimate goal of keeping the egg as yellow as possible, and not brown.
Cut it into 1 cm wide strips.

Squid Ink Tortellini

I have eaten squid ink risotto few times in my life and I like the taste a lot. But I have never tried squid ink pasta before. And since the dinner included beluga lentils in main dish, which look bit like rice, I chose pasta with the squid ink. For the filling I wanted autumn season ingredients, and what could be better than beetroots. My this years autumn favourite vegetable.

For the sauce I made brown butter. Simple, elegant flavor and yet robust. The tortellini should be the start of the dish, and that's why the is no complex sauce to this.

Squid Ink pasta
Pasta dough
325 ml all-purpose flour or preferably Tipo ‘00’ flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp squid ink
1tsp salt
Cold water if needed
Filling
1 large beetroot
1 tbsp feta or ricotta cheese
salt & black pepper to taste

Start with the filling. Roast the beetroot in an oven 200 C 1 hour or until tender. Let it cool.
Grate finely and add cheese into the beets. Season. Set aside.

Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, add salt and crack the eggs and squid ink into it. Beat the eggs and ink with a fork until smooth. Mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Add water if needed. Knead the dough until silky and firm.
Wrap the dough into the plastic wrap and let it rest in a fridge, at least half an hour.
Roll, using pasta maker, for thin sheets and cut circles using a large cookie cutter. Scoop filling onto the center of the pasta and pinch the edges to seal. Pinch finally the corners together.
Boil in a salted water until al dente, approx. 1,5-2 minutes.

Serve with brown butter and deep-fried beets

For the wine our friends bring Pfaff Pinot Blanc 2013, and that went nicely with the dish.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

When I was a kid, I didn't like stuffed peppers. Actually, I didn't like much cooked peppers at all. At some point during my adult years I started to eat these more often, and today, I even like them. But more or less only when stuffing is vegetarian and without grated cheese on top of pepper.

I prefer yellow peppers when cooking the them, because I think they are sweeter and have more flavor than red ones. Red peppers should be eaten raw. Well, my opinion only :D For the stuffing I used quinoa and ingredients what I found from our fridge. So if you don't have something, replace it with something else.

Sfuffed peppers
For 2 persons
2 (yellow) peppers
100 ml quinoa, uncooked
1 carrot
2 spring onion
1 garlic clove
1 leaf kale
100 g sweet corn
parsley
½ lemon juice
2 tsp Sonnentor Frankie's Barbecue Spice Mix  
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 200 C.
Cook quinoa in a pot until done. Set aside.
Shred carrot, chop spring onions, garlic and kale. Mix all together with quinoa. Add corns and season with chopped parsley, lemon juice and spice mix.
Cut peppers in half and fill peppers with the quinoa mixture. Place stuffed halves intoa a pan and bake at 200 C for 35 - 45 minutes. Until pepper has softened.
Serve with Yoghurt-garlic sauce and parsley

Super healthy, super delicious breakfast

Everyone says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well, it might be but I'm not good at it. For me, enough is black coffee. Sometimes I make exception, especially in the weekend. But then, I think it is more like brunch, not breakfast. Well, anyhow, I eat breakfast quite rarely.

I love pancakes, but they are not that good for me. How does the saying goes: "a moment on your lips, a lifetime on your hips". This is so true, at least for me. That's why I was more than happy when I found recipe of a healthy, low calorie pancakes.

This is already sort of a classic, but I still want to put the recipe in here. Altough, I changed it a bit, instead of using two eggs, I use 1 egg and one egg white. And most of the ingredients contains cinnamon, but I replace it with cardamon, which goes so well with blueberries. And I serve these with blueberries.

Banana Pancakes
For 1 person
1 ripe banana
1 egg
1  egg white
cardamon to taste

Place banana, egg and egg white in the blender, and blend it well, until smooth.
Heat the skillet and add bit of oil (for the non-stick pan you don't need to do that). Add the batter to the skillet and let space them out since they tend to spread. Be careful with the temperature, pancakes tend to turn too dark very easily.
When bubbles start to form, flip the over and cook on the other side

Serve pancakes with berries, e.g. blueberries, strawberries, rasberries and/or black currant. And if you like, pour some maple syrup on top of the pancake pile.

French Onion Soup

When autumn comes, I start desire warm soups with large flavours. One of my favourite is traditional French onion soup. This is true comfort food for dark and chilly evenings, like today. Temperature is not below zero yet, but you can easily feel the fall. Big bowls of onion soup and glass of wine... I'm happy and so is my husband!

 

French Onion Soup

For 2 persons

400 g onions
2 cloves garlic
25 g butter

2 bay leaves
1 tsp brown sugar
1 dl white wine
5 dl beef stock
2 fresh thyme sprigs

Salt & black pepper
Handful of Gruyere cheese, grated
2 slice of country-style bread

I used regular onion and one shallots. Shallots give tenderness and sweetness to soup, when you combine that with regular onions. But you don’t have to use it, yellow onion is totally fine.

Peel and chop the onions and garlic. Melt butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and salt. Cook for a while and then add brown sugar. After this cook until onions are soft and caramelized, approx. 15 min.

Add the wine and beef stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 45-60 minutes. Taste the soup, and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the grill in your oven to 225 °C. Use individual oven-proof bowls, ladle the soup into the bowls. Cover with the bread slice and sprinkle with the cheese. Put into the grill until the cheese bubbles and is golden brown.

For the wine, Pfaffenheim Pinot Gris will always enhance your enjoyment of the flavors in this soup.