About the Soufflé

Greetings from a train! These Finnish long-distance trains are nowadays so pleasant to travel in, as most of them have a free wi-fi to please internet addicts like myself. The trip between Jyväskylä and Helsinki takes about 3,5 hours, so there has been a lot of time for me to pin stuff on Pinterest, eh. I’m traveling with super heavy luggage, and could not take our camera with me (S will bring it on Friday when he comes to Helsinki), so all I can think of is that I cannot photograph my food during these days! At least I need to try to do that with the things I’m going to prepare for my second birthday party (I think I mentioned that most of my friends live in Helsinki and had not a chance to come to Jyväskylä for the small gathering on my birthday).

While preparing to move, there has also been an ongoing “Operation: empty the fridge”. For some reason we had collected a reserve of potatoes, carrots and onions there, so in the future days I’ll probably post several recipes of those. And here comes the first one, really surprisingly good side dish, probably at its best with chicken or white fish. We had it with salmon and it was okay too. The carrots and shallots here are covered with gremolata, a condiment made of herbs, garlic and lemon zest, which was a new thing for me. I read it is often served with osso bucco, but goes well with other meat too - and carrots! If you also have some extra carrots hanging around in your fridge, give this a try.

The recipe is adapted from Proud Italian Cook.

Roasted Carrots and Shallots with Gremolata

4 carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise into strips 

4 shallot onions, peeled and cut in half

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt & black pepper

a few springs thyme (I only had Italian parsley so I used it)

For gremolata:

3-4 tablespoons good olive oil

1 big clove of garlic, finely chopped

zest of one lemon, extra finely grated

handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Place the cut carrots and shallots on a baking sheet over parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the carrots are tender but still have some bite to them.

Mix the ingredients of gremolata together. 

When the carrots and shallots are roasted, move to a serving plate and while still warm, toss in the gremolata.

Serve warm.

Pizza! Who wouldn’t love it? During the past two decades pizza has basically became the favorite food of Finnish people. It’s for sure the most consumed fast-food and there is no small town in the middle of nowhere without a pizzeria. Most of the pizzas available cannot be called gourmet (no offense), but rather a quick, greasy hangover fulfillment. Even so, I prefer that to big hamburger chains that just don’t offer anything to me with their nutrient poor, mayo overflowing hamburgers. And in which the iceberg lettuce, that basically equals to paper in nutrition, is usually the only fresh thing. Not that I wouldn’t love burgers in general, because I do!

Back to pizza. I remember when I was a kid and my parents used to prepare pizza on special occasions. That pizza had a fluffy, pan pizza like crust and a lot of different kinds of toppings. Those pizza days were glorious, because they were so rare. Usually pizza was eaten in the New Year’s Eve, which made it feel even more glorious. I also remember feeling envy for the neighbor girls whose parents put only tomato, anchovies, onion and cheese in their pizza. My god, that was delicious! I never dared to ask my parents to put anchovies in our pizza, as I thought they already would if they liked them. Until these days my parents still prepare the pizza in their style on special occasions (like, still, the NYE). For me pizza has become more like everyday food, and I don’t see that glory in it I used to when I was a kid. It’s so sad in a way! Nowadays we cook pizza a couple of times a month. S has his own favorite, pizza à portuguesa, which is a typical pizza they eat in Brazil. It consists of ham, onion, boiled eggs and black olives. I like to try different flavors each time, even though my all-time favorite is simply pizza margherita. 

The recipe that follows takes pizza on a new level again, as the flavors are truly elegant and in perfect balance. My favorite pizza dough is so simple to do that I always use it, even though I sometimes would like to try some other dough. Note that this dough is at its best if you can let it stand covered in the refrigerator for 8 hours before using (yes you read right, in a fridge, not in a warm place). It’s not absolutely necessary, though, and you can also let it raise in a traditional way.

Finding just the right measures for the dough is hard, so share your pizza dough recipe with me, if you have found a perfect one!

Pear, Gorgonzola and Pecan Pizza

For the pizza dough (makes two small pizzas):

250ml lukewarm water (42 C)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

2,5dl + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour + more for dusting

1 teaspoon salt

For topping:

2 medium pears, halved and sliced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons dark balsamic vinegar

150g Gorgonzola, or other blue cheese of your choice, sliced

200g fresh mozzarella, shredded

handful of pecan nuts

Prepare pizza dough. Place warm water in a medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let stand for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and gradually whisk in the flour. Knead for 5-10 minutes. If you are going to make the pizza immediately, cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and let the dough double in size in a warm place for about 1 hour. The dough is at its best when refrigerated for 8 hours, covered with plastic film, before using.

Heat up the oven into 250 C (or higher, if your oven allows). Make sure your oven is very hot before you put the pizza in. Unless you use a pizza stone, which I unfortunately don’t have myself, place the baking sheet into the oven to become hot while you prepare the pizza. This guarantees you a crispier result.

Heat the olive oil in a medium-size skillet and cook the onions over medium heat until golden and soft, about 8 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and continue cooking for a few minutes more, until the liquid has evaporated. Set aside.

If you want, quickly sautée the pear slices on oil as well, about one minute is enough. This might be necessary if you don’t use ripe pears, but gives a good flavor overall.

Halve the pizza dough in two same sized balls. On a floured surface, roll the balls open until the thinness you prefer. I like my pizza not super thinly rolled, having something to chew on the edges.

Place both the rolled doughs on their own pieces of parchment paper. Top the pizzas with shredded mozzarella, balsamic onions, pear slices, gorgonzola and pecan nuts (in this order). 

Bake for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the crust gotten a golden color. Drizzle with olive oil before serving.

I think many people agree when I say that moving out from an apartment can be so nerve-wrecking. Today it’s been (again) so incredibly beautiful day that it would have felt like a waste to spend it indoors. That is because here up North you can never know if the summer lasts for three months, three weeks or three days. That’s why every day of warmth and sun should be embraced like it was the last one.

Another reason to get out of the apartment today was of course to say good-byes for now to all the friends. As I don’t know when will we meet again, even though I know that day is not so far away. I felt slightly sad anyway, those people have been very important during the months here, where me an S don’t practically know more than a handful of people. So now, after a day in the sun with friends our apartment is still a total mess, which means  tomorrow we can only hope it will be cold and rainy! Because tomorrow for me means scrubbing, rubbing, wiping, washing, vacuuming, arranging, and finally, packing.

To the point: Sun usually makes me less hungry, which is great, because I sometimes feel my stomach is bottomless. So tonight our dinner was salad. I love salads and I would like to have more of them, but for some reason S is not completely agreeing in this. I assume for a man a salad for dinner is not quite enough to feel satisfied. And because it doesn’t make much sense to prepare different food for each of us, we rarely have salads. This time the inspiration for the salad came from my dear friend who one day gave me a coconut. So of course I had to prepare something out of it! I have never opened a coconut, but luckily the South American of the house knows how to do the thing. And so beautifully it opened, like an egg, by just using a knife. I’m impressed!

I’m also so happy we decided to use the coconut in exactly this dish, because I think we found a new favorite again! Underlining the word we, as S loved it too. I might have told he’s a big fan of Thai food, after I introduced him to the wonders of this intriguing cuisine. This salad was a nice change for our weekly red/green/yellow/massaman/panang curry tradition.

The recipe I took from the newest edition of a Finnish magazine Olivia, and as it’s not online (at least yet), here it comes for you to take and save in your archives! The original recipe calls for fresh mint, but as our market had run out of it, I substituted it with a same amount of fresh coriander.

Thai Salmon Salad with Yam Dressing (serves 3, or 2 very hungry ones)

400g fresh salmon fillet

0,5 teaspoon salt

1 shallot onion

1dl grated coconut

1 English cucumber

100g long green beans

big bunch of lettuce of your choice (NOT iceberg), roughly torn

1dl fresh mint, chopped

For the dressing:

1-3 small, very hot chillies, thinly sliced

3 kaffir lime leaves (frozen or fresh, I used frozen), cut into thin strips

1 teaspoon fresh chili paste, like sambal oelek or alike (use more if your chillies are not hot)

5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

4 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

4 tablespoons coconut cream

2 tablespoons palm sugar

Whisk together the ingredients of the dressing and refrigerate.

Open the coconut. Now I did not do this, like I told, so I cannot really tell how to do it. But I googled and found many tutorials which show the proper way to open your coconut, so you might wanna take a look in case you’re not already a pro in this :-) Grate the coconut.

Thinly slice the shallot and cut the cucumber into 0,5cm strips. Boil the beans in a saucepan for 3 minutes, drain, let cool and cut in 2-3 pieces.

Spread the lettuce on the serving plate and top with cucumbers, green beans, shallots, grated coconut and chopped mint. 

Cut the salmon fillet into strips (about 2cm x 4cm) and sprinkle with salt. Heat up a teflon coated skillet over a medium-high heat and cook the salmon pieces quickly, about half to one minute on each side without oil or butter.

Pour the dressing on the salad base and place the salmon pieces on top. Garnish with some fresh coriander.

Some months ago I took an objective to try new breakfast dish every weekend, as those days were the only ones we could spend a long time enjoying a breakfast together. I did that actively for some weeks, but then got lazy and the tradition ended before it even really started.

One of my favorite Spanish foods is tortilla española, a potato omelette, that I have some times also had for breakfast (not made by me, though). That is, however, a bit too much work for a morning, with all that peeling and cutting potatoes etc. In the weekends I wish to wake up in a slow pace, enjoying the morning moments with food, coffee and magazines, not spending a lot of time in the kitchen preparing stuff. So one weekend I came up with a solution to my yearn for a Spanish potato omelette: to do it of a ready potato product. Now I know, that it is not the same thing at all. I know those frozen potato products are full of fat and so on, but I will now admit: this was good. We at least were very happy to start a day after this breakfast, so unless you’re totally against using any ready products, try this! If you are, try the Spanish omelette instead :-)

Breakfast Omelette à la Pommes Parisienne

400g pommes parisienne

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion or half of a big one, thinly sliced

half of a red bell pepper, julienned

handful of mushrooms

1 teaspoon ground cumin

0,5 teaspoon sweet paprika powder

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

a few spring onions (green parts only), to garnish

Sautée the mushrooms on a dry pan over medium heat until they have lost their excess liquid and gotten some golden color. Keep stirring frequently so that they won’t stick in your pan.

Heat the olive oil in an oven-proof skillet. Add in all the vegetables and Parisian potatoes, and sautée over medium heat until the veggies are tender and the potatoes have gotten color. Season with cumin, sweet paprika, salt and black pepper.

Break the eggs on top of the sautéed vegetables, spice up with a little more salt and pepper and place the whole pan into the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked.

Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve on a sunny morning.

It’s officially the last day of this semester for me. On Monday I’m moving from the small student city of Jyväskylä to Helsinki. These last days are really busy for me, therefore this post today will be short. But this recipe will be great for you, who wants to prepare something simple (all my recipes seem to include the word simple, heh) and summery in the weekend. Just head to the nearest market, or market place if you’re lucky to have one near, get a lapful of fresh peas, take some time to shell them, and prepare this soup.

This time I didn’t use anyone else’s recipe, but improvised. The soups are one of the easiest dishes to improvise, aren’t they? I am not so accustomed in kitchen that I could easily prepare any dish without using a recipe, but I do that with Italian and Mexican food, like pastas, pizzas, risottos, enchiladas, quesadillas…and soups. I guess by doing you learn, right?

Have a sunny Friday!

Fresh Pea Soup

400-500g fresh peas (the weight after shelling), you can also use frozen peas

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

400-500ml light chicken or vegetable broth

half teaspoon dried marjoram

1 small bay leaf

salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

50ml heavy cream, whipped and spiced with a pinch of salt

Heat up the olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add onion and garlic, and cook until soft and transparent.

Add the peas, marjoram, chicken or vegetable stock and the bay leaf. Let boil gently until the peas are cooked, but be careful with overcooking so that they won’t lose their beautiful green color.

Take the soup off the heat, remove the bay leaf and puree using a stick blender. Season with salt and black pepper to your taste.

Serve with a spoonful of lightly whipped cream and a pinch of black pepper. And better, with freshly baked sour dough bread, which unfortunately we didn’t have.

Hummus has been one of my favorite things to prepare for almost any occasion since I lived in Berlin for 8 months and got to eat a lot, and a lot of Lebanese food. Usually the chicken schawarmas and falafels in pita bread were accompanied by tahini sauce, but sometimes you were lucky to get some hummus too. Hummus is rich in flavor, in nutrition and childishly simple to prepare. You can dip various kinds of stuff in it to create delicious combinations - most traditionally of course pita bread. 

I ran into different variations of hummus lately, as I’ve been actively browsing Pinterest. My typical hummus includes the basic ingredients, chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon, and often also sun-dried tomatoes. I find them almost unbeatable in hummus! But I wanted to try something else for change, and there came the idea of this one, sweet potato hummus. The recipe I took from Martha Stewart. I still keep preparing my favorite hummus with tomatoes, but this was actually very fresh, delicious and sweet, too. 

I also baked my own pita bread, for the first time, and they became quite okay. I highly recommend, as they’re super easy to make and cost you much less than buying them from the market. I got the recipe from a Finnish super popular food blog, you can find the original here.

Sweet Potato Hummus

450g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or equal amount boiled chickpeas

juice of one lemon

3 heaping tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 garlic clove, chopped

salt

sweet paprika powder

Set a steamer basket in a large pot. Fill with enough water to come just below basket and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, cover and cook until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Combine chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, oil, cumin, and garlic. Puree all the ingredients, including boiled sweet potatoes, in a food processor until smooth paste. I used a stick blender because I (still) don’t have a food processor. Thin the hummus with water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and let cool.

Before serving, sprinkle with sweet paprika powder and top generously with olive oil. Serve with freshly baked pita bread.

Simple Pita Breads (makes 10-12)

300ml lukewarm water (or 42 C)

11g (one bag) dry active yeast

7-8dl all-purpose flour (I used a little less, maybe 6,5dl)

0,5 teaspoon salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and gradually add the warm water, kneading until the dough is almost chewy in its texture.

Let it stand in a warm place, covered with a kitchen towel until it has doubled in size. This takes usually around one hour, but keep sometimes even more.

On a floured surface, using a rolling pin, roll the dough into small, approximately 10-15cm diameter rounds. The thinner you roll them, the better the result as the pitas are supposed to form an air pocket inside them in the oven, and with too thick dough the upper part doesn’t rise properly. So make some effort in this.

Preheat the oven to 250C and let the pitas stand covered until the oven is hot. Bake the pitas for 3-5 minutes, depending on the oven. They should stay very light in color, so once they have puffed up, they are starting to be ready. Don’t over bake, otherwise they might end up being too hard to eat.

Spring is slowly but surely turning into summer here up North! That’s such a great feeling, although I have to stay inside writing my thesis, AND I’m having allergic symptoms. But who cares, it’s summer! During the past days the temperature has raised to more than 20 C and yesterday me and S spent some time outside reading and writing. I’d love to sit on our back yard doing the work, but seriously I should get better sunglasses to see my screen in the sunshine.

Now doing the thesis should be my first priority, as in one week I’ll be moving back to Helsinki! I can’t believe it’s so close…the time runs so fast…it runs out, actually. But I’m doing my best to get as much done during this week as possible. Other non-food related news is that yesterday I received the cutest video regards for my birthday from my in-laws in Brazil. I think I’ll have to post the video so that you can see it too. It made me so happy, it made my day!

But to the serious business: food. As the summer is now here I think it could be a time for my last asparagus post of the spring. Let’s put it tentatively, as I might still go back to asparagus during the early summer. Here’s a recipe of spaghetti with asparagus and spinach pesto. The original recipe is from Simply Recipes, that I’ve been browsing lately quite a lot. I love their way of doing namely simple and delicious food. Just like the one that follows. 

This time I followed the original ingredients and amounts very precisely. Only the pine nuts I had to replace with roasted almonds, just because the pine nuts are a bit too expensive for a student budget. But unless you have a situation like mine, don’t substitute pine nuts with anything, as they give a truly unique and delicious flavor! If you however have to do like I did, use less than 2,5dl of the nuts.

Spaghetti with Asparagus and Spinach Pesto (serves 3)

400g spaghetti

450g fresh asparagus, washed and woody ends cut

3 handfuls baby spinach, washed and drained

1 big or 2 small cloves garlic, peeled

2,5dl parmesan cheese, grated + more for serving

2,5dl pine nuts

75ml good olive oil

juice of half lemon

salt and black pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Sprinkle in some salt.

While water is heating, put the pine nuts in a single layer in a large skillet. Heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and lightly browned. Remove pine nuts from pan and set aside. You will use 3/4 of the pine nuts for the pesto paste and 1/4 to mix in whole.

When the water boils, drop the asparagus in. Let boil for 2-3 minutes only, so that the veggies keep their bright green color and become slightly tender. Remove the asparagus from the pan and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Cut off some asparagus tips, to use for garnish.

Add some water into the pan if needed, and bring to a boil again. Add some salt and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. 

While pasta is boiling, prepare the pesto. Place the chopped asparagus, spinach, garlic, Parmesan, and 3/4 of the pine nuts to a food processor. Purée and, with the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until a paste forms. Add the lemon juice and lastly black pepper and salt to taste.

Who can tell when doing pops became trendy? Cause I woke up to this hip thing only a few months ago, when a local magazine was telling that’s the “it” thing of the spring.

And since then I’ve tried to find proper paper sticks from the nearby markets to try different kinds of cake and cookie pops. I still did not, but for the party last weekend I desperately wanted to try out some pops, so I ended up getting me a packet of wooden sticks. Actually they worked perfectly. The only disadvantage, compared to paper sticks, are of course the looks. White paper sticks would for sure give some cuter appearance to already cute cookie pops. 

Talking about cuteness, I did some mistakes in coating my pops, and therefore they ended up being not-so-pretty. So I suggest, if you’re new to this thing like I was, to see some tutorial video before starting to coat the pops. That’s where I’ll be smarter next time too!

If you’re truly into pops I recommend you visit Bakerella, as there you can find instructions to any kind of pops you can dream of. This recipe I used was taken from a Finnish food & wine magazine Glorian Ruoka&Viini. 

Chocolate Sandwich Cookie Pops

350g chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos or Dominos in Finland)

100-150g cream cheese

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

225g semisweet chocolate

sprinkles, to decorate

paper (or wooden) sticks

Separate cookies from the cream filling. Mix together the filling, cream cheese and powdered sugar. Set aside.

Place the cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin until very small crumbs. If you have a blender or equivalent, that might do the job easier. 

Mix the cookie crumbs with the cream cheese mixture. If the mixture seems too crumbly add more cream cheese. You should be able to shape the mixture into firm balls quite easily.

Between your palms, roll the mixture into balls. Place them on a plate with parchment paper, cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Prepare the frosting. Melt a small amount of your semisweet chocolate in bain marie. Dip the lollipop sticks one by one into the melted chocolate (about 1cm) and then stick them at least half-away into the cookie balls. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate has set and the stick won’t fall off.

Continue with covering once the chocolate is firm. Melt the rest of the chocolate in bain marie. Dip cookie pops into chocolate, so that they are completely submerged (make sure to cover the chocolate around the lollipop stick!). It’s really important that the entire cake ball is covered with chocolate. Remove from the chocolate.

Once removed from the chocolate, excess coating will start dripping off of the pop. Hold the cake pop in one hand, and gently tap your hand to help remove excess coating, turning the pop as you go.

Place to dry either standing in a jar (so that the pops won’t touch each other) or inverted in small candy cases. 

When the chocolate has set slightly, decorate with sprinkles. You might want to wait a little bit after covering the balls, as the weight of the sprinkles can misplace the chocolate if you decorate them too quickly. 

Let to dry completely before enjoying.

In my post of zucchini & tomato galettes I gave a hint that I was preparing myself a birthday cake which, when successful, would be THE cake of the decade. Well now the birthday party is over, and I can proudly tell you, that it was THE SH*T. It must have been the best cake I have ever stuck my spoon into. It got so many compliments from my guests that I didn’t have time to count.

In a nutshell: it was perfect.

Now, I am so sorry to provide to you these photos that really don’t do justice to the cake. The thing is, that the moment I finally got to put the cake on the table, cut it and photo shoot it, the sun was just setting, which can be seen in the pictures. After the first piece was cut, people attacked the cake so that just minutes after there was nothing left. I succeeded in saving one big piece in my fridge - which some hours later I saw a girl eating. So, I succeeded in saving a small piece in my fridge after that… Which, on the next day, I did my best in photographing. The quality of the pics is a pity mostly, because I really wished I could show you how amazing it was. Just for you to see, that you HAVE to give it a try too! But now you just have to take my word: do yourself a favor and prepare this cake.

A couple of words about the inspiration and the process of doing the cake. First of all, the cake is a combination of several recipes I found. The recipe for the fudgy brownie base was taken from Sugar Duchess.  It was by far the best cake base I have ever come across. The execution of it had some set-back though, as it’s baked in a water bath in the oven, and my cake pan leaked water in. So my brownie base was basically wet and broke in pieces when I took it out of the pan. So you might wanna line your pan very properly with aluminium foil before baking.

Cracking of the brownie wasn’t too harmful, as the toppings saved the situation perfectly. I especially loved the chocolate mousse recipe found from Delicious Magazine, as it didn’t require gelatin. For some reason I’m not a big fan of gelatin, and every time I can avoid using it, I will. This mousse got perfectly firm after staying overnight in the fridge. A great choice was also the other topping, peanut butter mousse, for which I took the recipe from here. I made only half a portion of the original amounts, and that was more than enough for my 22cm diameter cake. Lastly, I decorated the cake with simple chocolate ganache and pieces of Snickers bar. In the end, the cake could actually be called a gigantic Snickers, as that’s how it tasted like.

Hope you enjoy, and please, tell me what you think after trying this!

Killer Fudge Brownie, Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

For the brownie base:

300g high-quality semisweet chocolate

4 large eggs, yolks and whites separated, room temperature

0,5dl + 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

120g butter, room temperature

For the chocolate mousse:

150ml double cream

225g semisweet chocolate

4 large eggs, yolks and whites separated

For the peanut butter mousse:

300g creamy peanut butter

250g cream cheese, room temperature

2,5dl powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I left this out)

250ml double cream, chilled cold

Prepare the brownie base. Preheat oven to 200 C. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and below it a deep baking sheet almost filled with water. Prepare a 22cm-24cm diameter spring form pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper and greasing the sides lightly with butter.

Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a metal bowl on top of simmering water (bain marie). Set aside to wait.

Place the room-temperature egg whites in a large, grease-free mixing bowl with about a third of the sugar. Using an electric mixer, start beating on slow speed, gradually increasing the speed. Beat until the whites begin to look fluffy. Add the remaining sugar, salt, and vanilla, and continue to beat until the meringue is shiny.

Next, using a whisk, stir the soft butter into the melted chocolate until completely incorporated. Then whisk in the egg yolks (I used electric mixer). Using a wire whisk, fold half of the meringue into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining meringue with a rubber spatula, being sure to mix in the heavier batter at the bottom of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place the cake in the oven. Bake for 26-28 minutes (for me it took 45 minutes to bake, so keep checking how it will be with your oven). The top will be shiny, and a cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate the cake for 1 hour, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cake onto a serving plate. Remove the bottom of the pan and the parchment paper circle, and replace the ring from the spring form around the cake; it will be the mold for the two mousses.

Make the chocolate mousse. Whip the cream and set aside. Melt the chocolate over a pan of gently simmering water. Remove from the heat once melted, beat in the egg yolks, then fold in the cream. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl to soft peaks, then fold into the chocolate mixture. Spoon evenly over the brownie base and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, well before serving time, prepare the peanut butter mousse. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter and cream cheese in large bowl to blend. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until well blended.

Using clean dry beaters, beat whipping cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form; fold into peanut butter mixture in two additions. Spoon filling on top of the chocolate mousse and spread evenly. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

For decoration:

100g semisweet chocolate

100ml double cream

+ one Snickers bar

Bring double cream to a simmer in a medium heat. When lightly simmering, add chopped chocolate. Once the chocolate starts to melt, remove from the heat and stir until fully incorporated. 

Garnish the cake with slightly cooled ganache and chopped Snickers.

Happy Birthday to me!!! Today is the day, my 30th birthday, the reason of a smallish crisis that I’ve been struggling with for the past days. I mean, on the other hand it’s great to be 30! Most of my closest friends have already crossed that line. S also turned 30 earlier this year. It’s great! But on the other hand, should I have achieved certain things by now? I haven’t. I don’t have my own house/apartment, I don’t have kids, I haven’t graduated from the university, I don’t have a steady job… I have my life, and my freedom, and sometimes I love it and sometimes I wish things were slightly different. But I haven’t got the things that 10 years ago I thought I would have by the time I’m 30 years old.

Last night I almost cried when going to sleep, and I don’t even know why. Maybe because just when the day changed at midnight S dropped an expensive plate I’ve had for years and it broke in half, lol. Maybe because I didn’t know how I would feel tomorrow (today). Maybe because I was hoping the big day would be something very special, and I couldn’t handle the thought that anyway, it was going to be just an ordinary day. I was going to be just one day older. And that’s it. Life doesn’t stop, but continues.

This is not a blog for a self-search, but these things just now seemed important to let out. I also have some foodish stuff for you! Last night I used for baking to my small birthday party I’m gonna hold today. The bigger one will take place on early June, as most of my best friends live in a different city with me at the moment. I’m moving back to Helsinki by then, so that’s also a good reason to party. So, last night I started with my birthday cake, which I hope will be totally fab! I also baked some savory stuff, of which these galettes were maybe the nicest new thing for me!

The wonderful crust recipe is from Smitten Kitchen (I had a taste of the dough, but didn’t get to eat the ready galette yet!). I doubled the amounts to make two galettes, one with zucchini, one with tomatoes. The original recipe inspired me to use zucchini, but otherwise I modified the filling to my own taste. Also the filling is for two galettes. Here it goes.

EDIT: Now after the party I can tell the galettes were absolutely amazing. They collected a lot of compliments and even one marriage proposal (from a friend, though), haha!

Four Cheese Galettes with Zucchini and Tomatoes (makes 2)

For the pastry:

6dl all-purpose flour, chilled in refrigerator for 30 minutes

half a teaspoon salt

225g butter, cubed and chilled again

1,25dl sour cream

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1,25dl ice cold water

For the filling:

1 big zucchini, sliced crosswise

salt

2 large tomatoes, sliced

handful of sweet cherry tomatoes, sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 big or 2 small cloves garlic, finely chopped

250g smooth ricotta

50g parmesan cheese, finely grated

200g feta cheese, finely crumbled

100g mozzarella di Bufala, shredded

a few springs fresh thyme & fresh basil leaves

salt & black pepper to taste

1 egg yolk + 2 tablespoons water, for brushing

Prepare the dough. Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle bits of butter over dough and by using your hand work it until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with the biggest pieces of butter the size of tiny peas.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add this to the butter-flour mixture. With your fingertips or a wooden spoon, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Prepare the filling. Spread the zucchini out over several layers of paper towels. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and let drain for 30 minutes; gently blot the tops of the zucchini dry with paper towels before using.

In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil and the garlic together; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, Parmesan, feta cheese, and 2 teaspoon of the garlicky olive oil together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare the galettes. Preheat oven to 200 C.

On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into two 30-35 cm rounds. Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Spread half of the shredded mozzarella on both galette dough rounds. Then spread half of the ricotta-feta mixture evenly over both of the galette doughs, leaving a 4 cm border.

Shingle the zucchini attractively on top of the other galette, in concentric circles, starting at the outside edge. Spread the tomatoes on the other one. Drizzle the remaining two tablespoons of the garlic and olive oil mixture evenly over the veggies. Fold the borders over the filling, pleating the edge to make them fit. The center will be open. Brush crust with egg yolk glaze.

Bake the galettes until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with fresh herbs (I used basil and thyme), let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate.

Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

The summer, or at least a summerish weather, has arrived in Finland! Yay! Yesterday we had the warmest day so far, with 18 C and today the thermometer shows 19 C. Cloudy though, and they forecasted some storms. But who cares, it’s warm, it’s summer! Let’s get the bikinis out of the closets and have a bbq in a park! That actually is the thing foreigners living in Finland wonder. The first, even somewhat warm day and the locals go crazy. Everyone gets out of their caves on the streets, wearing small clothes, barbecuing and behaving like it was at least 30 C. But please forgive us, we only have warm days a couple of months, and the rest of the year we have to struggle with cold and snow, or at least the darkness!

Anyhow, this warm weather should encourage us also to eat light. On the contrary, it seems I’m cooking heavier than I probably should. The following dish was a request from my boyfriend (let’s call him S from now on, much easier and that’s the “nickname” I already gave him a couple of years ago in my other blog). He found the recipe of Noble Pig and I prepared it. I am crazy about cheese, and if you are as well, this is your dish. Basically it barely has anything else but cheese, eh. Anyway, it’s delicious! I have a slightly guilty conscious that I didn’t prepare the gnocchi myself this time, as it’s a super simple thing to do (recipe coming up, too). Nothing like making pasta, which I find slightly challenging.

So the gnocchi came ready-made from the market. Our near grocery store didn’t have Fontina, so I substituted it with a Swiss mild, Emmenthaler-like Alpine cheese. Talking about cheese, there’s a thing I wanna say about using Parmesan, or Parmigiano-Reggiano: NEVER use the readily grated ones that they sell in bags. That is not the real thing. I doubt that is even cheese. I came across this when I lived in Brazil, and using these products in cooking was normal there. No, no and no. Always grate your own from a beautiful chunk of real cheese, I promise you will not regret it.

But back to the recipe; I also modified the amounts of the original one just slightly, as sometimes the American cup-thinking is a bit difficult for me.

Say cheese & enjoy!

Gnocchi n’ Cheese

500g gnocchi (better self-made, I used store-bought this time)

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

200ml milk

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I had honey Dijon in my fridge and it suited fine in this, giving some sweetness to the otherwise so cheesy dish)

50g Fontina cheese, grated

50g Gruyère cheese, grated

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

fresh herbs, to garnish (I added some thyme leaves in my cheese sauce and would recommend!)

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and boil the gnocchi according to the package instructions. Usually 1-2 minutes is enough. Drain and place the gnocchi in a single layer in an oiled, shallow oven-proof dish.

Heat the oven to 200 C.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Whisk in flour until it thickens and bubbles, then gradually whisk in milk and Dijon. Continue to whisk mixture and cook until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes.

Combine Gruyere and Fontina, then add by the handful to milk mixture, stirring until melted before adding the next handful. Once all cheese is melted, season sauce with salt and pepper. I added about half a teaspoon salt.

Pour sauce over gnocchi and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano over top.  Bake gnocchi in the oven until cheese is golden and bubbly, about 20-25 minutes. Let gnocchi rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Despite the fact that it’s usually almost impossible for me to walk after eating in an Indian/ Nepalese restaurant, I just love the food and could probably eat those heavy stuffs many times in a week. At the moment we live in a smaller city, which honestly doesn’t offer much of a variety what comes to ethnic restaurants (or actually any restaurants). Here’s one Indian, which is not good, and one Nepalese that I haven’t yet tried, but where the general atmosphere doesn’t really invite you to enjoy a dinner there.

So, so far I’ve cooked some Indian style food at home, but these cookings have always served for super fast dinners, without too much of time or effort. Usually I’ve used ready Indian curry or tikka pastes, and so preparing the meal has become ridiculously easy. Last week however I have been yearning for GOOD, proper Indian food that you can get in good restaurants. By accident I came across of this recipe of paneer (in Finnish) and that was it. I had to prepare a) the cheese and b) something of it.

I found a recipe that I will share with you later, and all I can tell, is that I might never eat in an Indian restaurant again, haha. That was too good to be true, and I was so surprised I could do something like that all by myself! The recipe will come later, so stay tuned.

But now to cheese business. Here’s the simple recipe of paneer. I seriously never knew making cheese could be this easy!

Paneer aka Indian Cottage Cheese (enough for a dish for 2 persons)

1 liter whole milk (at least 3,5 % fat)

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

salt

Bring milk to a simmer in a thick bottom saucepan. Stir occasionally so that the milk won’t burn.

When the milk starts simmering, turn the heat to lowest possible, add lemon juice, salt to taste and stir. The curd will immediately start to separate. It will take 5-10 minutes for it to completely separate.

While waiting, cover a strainer with cheesecloth of muslin cloth (I used that one). Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, pour the whey into the strainer with the cloth. Wrap it tightly inside the cloth and rinse under a cold water. This will take out the sourness of the lemon.

Squeeze out all excess water from the cheese, shape it as you wish, and place the wrapped paneer under a heavy weight. In 1-2 hours you will have a beautiful, firm chunk of fresh cheese in your hands. Refrigerate if not used immediately.

It’s pretty weird I still haven’t posted any Thai food recipe, even that is definitely (alongside of Italian) the kind of food we cook most at home. Especially Thai curries are our favorites, because they’re flavorous, they are extremely quick and simple to do, and they have a real kick in them. I have never been to Thailand myself, but learned to love their food here in Finland, in Thai restaurants and in friends’ homes.

When me and my boyfriend started to date in 2009, it was one of the first times we went out in bars together and ended up eating whatever we could find in my fridge late at night. That day I had prepared me some red curry and so we devoured the leftovers with a good appetite - at least I did. For my significant one that was rather a strange experience, simply because he had never tasted Thai food before. However, something changed that night and since then he’s been a huge fan. It’s actually him, who requires us to have at least one Thai dinner in a week.

One of my favorites of Thai cuisine is pad thai. Along times I’ve tried to find a proper recipe for this dish by googling, but there’s always something that could be done better. This is why I have always done my own version of it. Actually it’s about a time for me to write the recipe down, as I always forget how I prepared it last time, and have to start all over again. In fact, I start losing the memory of preparing this delicious noodle dish already, but I’ll try to be as precise as possible with the amounts of ingredients.

And PS. I totally FORGOT the egg from my previous pad thai, that’s why you can’t see it in the pics ;)

The Best Pad Thai in Western World (serves 3-4)

200g flat dry rice noodles

150g firm tofu, cubed

1 tablespoon canola oil

200g shrimps (I use frozen ones but peel and devein yours, if raw)

150g bean sprouts, washed and drained

2 cloves garlic, very finely minced

2 eggs

50ml salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

4 spring onions, finely chopped

handful of fresh coriander, coarsely chopped

lime wedges, to garnish

For the sauce:

6 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

50ml fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons ketjap manis

1 tablespoon palm sugar

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

2 heaping teaspoons tamarind paste

2 teaspoons chili paste or one fresh red chili, finely chopped

Bring water to a boil in a large sauce pan. Break the noodle nests slightly smaller an boil according to the package instructions. Cooking time for rice noodles is usually very short, around 1-3 minutes depending on thickness. It’s better to leave the noodles a bit al dente and elastic, as they cook slightly more when added into the wok. Rinse ready noodles with cold water, drain and set aside.

Mix all the sauce ingredients well together, until the sugar dissolves. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly.

Heat up a wok pan and fry tofu cubes over a medium heat without oil until they’re slightly golden on each side. When ready, add 1 tablespoon of canola oil, the shrimps (if you use raw ones, fry them for 1 minute before adding the next ingredients), garlic, bean spouts and drained noodles. Stir fry for 1 minute.

Make some room in your wok and pour the beaten eggs in the pan. Scramble until almost cooked, then mix with the rest of the ingredients on the pan. 

Lastly, add in the pad thai sauce, 3 chopped spring onions and half of the crushed peanuts. Stir fry for a minute or two more, until everything is cooked and well incorporated.

Garnish with rest of the spring onion, peanuts and fresh coriander. Serve with lemon wedges and shriracha. 

I’m a breakfast fan, and like I once said, aim to try new breakfast things each weekend (sometimes I’m lazy though and those mornings we have simply just eggs and toast with toppings). This Sunday we spent in a striking, self-caused nausea and slept reaaaallly late. I had promised good old all-American pancakes for breakfast, so despite my feeling I could not let my better half down.

There are probably thousands of different pancake recipes in America, and everyone has their own favorite. We in Finland have also our own type of pancakes, that are more like crepes, thin and crispy from the edges. This recipe here is actually from a Finnish magazine, so I’m not gonna say anything about its “American” authenticity. However, with it you can’t go wrong. These pancakes here are so simple to prepare, so fluffy, so delicious and they go well with all kinds of toppings. My favorites are berries with maple syrup but this time we had banana, some pecan nuts and syrup, of course. I actually have eaten these also with caramelized bananas and ice cream, so I will add the instructions here after the pancake recipe.

Happy mornings!

Buttermilk and Banana Pancakes

700ml buttermilk

2 eggs

50g butter, melted

500ml all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons sugar or honey

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/vanilla sugar

For serving:

1-2 bananas

6 pecan nuts, roughly chopped

maple syrup

In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk and eggs. Mix flour, baking powder and soda and salt and add gradually into the buttermilk mixture. Keep stirring until smooth. Add rest of the ingredients, mix well and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

Heat a small cast iron skillet into medium low heat. Grease the skillet with a 1cmx1cmx1cm cube of butter. Once melted, scoop 100ml of the pancake batter into the skillet. Cook until bubbles start to form on top of the pancake and the bottom is golden brown. 

Flip the pancake and cook until golden from both sides. Fry all the pancake batter and keep the ready pancakes warm, wrapped in aluminium foil.

Slice the bananas and chop the pecan nuts. Gather on a serving plate the pancakes and top with bananas, nuts, maple syrup and some icing sugar.

Caramelized Bananas

2 unripe bananas

30g salted butter

2 tablespoons icing sugar

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Slice bananas and add into the pan. Fry turning until they soften, around 2 minutes. Add the sugar to the pan and cook a couple of minutes more or until the bananas start caramelizing. 

Serve with pancakes or crepes and whipped cream.