Bird's Food

Warm autumn soups

2010-09-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

It is one of the best things when it becomes chillier in autumn - to make hot soups. I am hugely ffond with all kinds of pureed soups. Here are a few ones I made recently, which I liked really much! Really simple but good. Root vegetables are a Big Word.

Red turnip-soup

1 large turnip
1 beetroot
1 small onion (or half big)
salt & pepper

Peel and slice the vegetables into a kettle, and pour water just enough to cover them. Let simmer under cover until soft. Puree with a blender and add salt and pepper to your liking.
I didn't really add any spices here, because it tasted so velvety and soft on it's own, the apple gives a nice flavor. But I ate this with blue cheese and sprouts!

Beetroot-celery soup

4-5 beetroots
1 red onion
few garlic cloves
4-5 stems of celery
few tbsp coconut milk
coconut oil
herbs, cumin seeds, salt, pepper

Peel and dice the onion and garlic, saute them in the coconut oil for a while. Add the celery and beetroots, pour water until they are just covered. Let simmer under cover until soft. Add spices and coconut milk, puree with a blender. Taste if needs to be added something. Serve with roasted sun flower seeds.

Rhye-flaxseed rieska

2010-09-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

I craved for something warm and I craved for bread. I found an inspiring recipe of a rhye-bread on a flax-seed package, and I used the idea from it. I ended up making these flat breads, which they call "Rieska" in finnish.

Rhye-flaxseed FLATbreads!

3 dl sesameseed (or any other, like oat, coconut) milk
(soaked sesameseeds+few figs, dash of salt & cardamum and blended with water)
1 tsp of baking soda
½ tsp of baking powder
dash of salt
cumin seeds
few tbsp of sugar / syrup
½ dl flax seeds (whole)
about 5 dl rhye flour

Mix all the ingredients except for the flours, add them last. The batter becomes quite thick but sticky. Let the oven heat in 200 degrees. Take small balls of dough and pat them into round flat breads on the baking sheet. Stick with a fork and let bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until slightly brown. Enjoy warm with a splash of olive / coconut oil (or butter), salt, pepper and herbs!

Pies and food.. but just one recipe

2010-08-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

I made so many delicious things in the summer, but this time I only want to write down the pie-recipe we used last night for making lingonberry-pie for dinner. I mean as a dinner. I'll post images later on.. I'm just lazy. But our recipes are always so good and successful that I have to start writing them down more often! Here of course you can use any berries you wish, we just had a craving for lingonberries. Or at least I did.

Lingonberry-pie

The base:

Wet mixture:

0,8 dl oil (we used coconut oil, feel free to use butter etc)
1,5 - 2 dl oat milk
1,5 dl muscovado sugar

Dry mixture:

5 dl flour
1 large teaspoon of baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
spices : cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg

200 g lingonberries

Mix separately the dry and wet parts and after that whisk together. If the batter seems to sticky add some liquid. Heat the oven in 180 degrees and pour the batter on a round pie casserole (the base becomes quite thick this way, you can use also baking tray to make a thinner pie) and put on the lingonberries. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes (or until the base seems cooked), and if you wish add after that some crumbles :

2 large tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp sugar
2 dl oat flakes

Mix together the oil and sugar, add oat flakes. Pour evenly on the lingonberries, and cook for another 5-10 minutes until slightly brownish.

Kitchen meme

2010-07-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

How do you enjoy your coffee/tea?

Usually I drink tea - coffee is a speciality for me, and then it should be of good quality and well made. I prefer tea plainly as it is, in winter I tend to use honey, but not much and it must be solid (the running kind of honey seems to be sweeter). I'm up for everything except for black tea or cheap teabags. Green & herbal teas are good. Fruity teas not. When I drink coffee I usually take a cappuccino, or then coffee made in a pan (or a presso-pan) just plain or with hot milk.

What's your favourite breakfast?

It depends, on the season and what I'm doing. Often I like just plain liquid breakfasts, water, tea and some fresh squeezed orange juice for example. Or then smoothies, raw porridge (i became so fixated with this last winter, I ate so much raw porridge - just soaked over night in oat milk, seeds and some berries and indian sugar&spices, yam). Or just fruit.

Peanut butter?

YEs... But I have to keep myself from buying or making it too often because I spend one can in a wink of an eye. ;) All the nut spreads are a weak spot, tahini even more. (By the way, banana with peanut butter/tahini is super)

What kind of a dressing do you want with your salad?

Olive oil&vinegar

Coke or Pepsi?

Neither

You're feeling lazy, what will you make?

Eat fruit, yoghurt? Tea? Skip?

You feel like cooking, what will you make?

Start composing with the ingredients, take a recipe but do it differently in the end. IT depends ;O)

Does some dish give you bad memories?

Yes. Spinach soup from the early school years, and some salty porridge we had one time. Those are the few times I couldn't eat because the food made me feel like puking.

Does some dish remind you of someone?

Of course. Kampanisut reminds of my grandmother in the north, also makaronilaatikko (macaron casserole). Some certain candies remind me of my childhood friends (still friends though). Chocolate pie reminds me of my friends last year in study, 'specially my room mate. Fish soup reminds me of my grandfather (the best I've ever had, the school soups are disgusting compared), and fish anyhow of the other grandfather from mom's side.

Is there a dish you would refuse to eat?

Yes. Very many ready-made-dishes you can buy in the stores I'd refuse, meat (i do eat fish occasionally), chicken no, sodas. But mainly I eat pretty much anything, if it's not spoiled and gone bad. And milk I wouldn't drink, it just disgusts me (Although in this same breath I say, I could try fresh milk just because of interest).

What was your childhood favourite food?

Makaronilaatikko, meatballs, spaghetti&tomato-tuna-sauce, candies and pulla, chips.. everything trashy :-D

Is there a food you hated as a child but now love?

Very many. For example olives, many vegetables and root vegetables, coffee, green tea.

Your favourite fruit and vegetable?

It changes. On the season and location - in Finland you can't get the delicious fruits you can get abroad. In finland best are apples in season.

Your favourite junk food?

Hmmm. I don't know if I really like that much junk food, I'm sad to say. For ex. I don't like pizzeria-pizzas (and part of this is that the few times I've had it I've felt horrible after it, like I couldn't move for the rest of the day) but I do like home-made pizza. But I don't think that is any more junk food. BUt hey, does ice cream count? But that I mostly like the italian gelato and sorbet kind of things.

Your favourite snack?

Fruits, nuts

Do you have any weird food habits?

I like cold porridge. I mean the oat porridge that has been cooked and cooled.

You're on a diet. What shall you eat?

Mmm, well, I don't think so much of diets but I think I would mainly watch I don't eat anything that makes me feel heavy and uncomfortable, like candies, chips and food with preservatives. Drink much liquid. Eat liquid.

You finished your diet. What would you like to have?

Mmm..

How hot do you order your Indian/Thai food?

I like hot. But the finnish hot is different from Indian hot..

Something to drink?

Water, with lime/lemon. Wine.

Red or white?

Winter mostly red, summer white. It's not that black and white but red feels sometimes too heavy to be drunk in summer.

Your favourite dessert?

I like desserts of many kind.

The perfect nightcap?

Nightcaps are totally unfamiliar to me

What's your first baking or cooking memory?

Mm, well, I remember I used to make pulla when I was younger and that felt quite difficult. Don't know if that's the first one but..

Who has most affected your cooking?

Many things. My mother, all the information including books, blogs. VEry much vegan, vegetarian and living food-stuff. Nigella Lawson - although i haven't made her recipes but I love her presence.

Do you have a photograph as an evidence from your early cooking?

Hmm. No? Not sure.

Do you suffer from any sort of a cooking fear, does even a thought of cooking a certain dish make your hands sweat?

Naaahhh... I'm quite fearless

What's your most used or valued kitchen utensil and/or your biggest disappointment when it comes to your kitchen utensils?

I like a blender. You can do so much with it. I'd really love some really professional knifes - but ... the truth is that I always have used really crappy knifes. Maybe when I grow up ;)

Name a funny or weird food combination that you really like.

Dhmm, mmm. Banana and blue cheese is good, but dunno that's weird

Name three eatables or dishes you just can't live without.

cheeses, fruit, mm,, ahh, I get confused

What's missing from your cooking?

Mm, ahh, many things, my focus is now spread too much to think on this

Beetroot pie

2010-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

Beetroot pie

Well, okay, maybe this is more of a bread, but because it's kind of sweet I do call it a pie. I felt the need to write down this recipe, because this was such a success! The result was soft and moist, and I think a lot if it had do to with the ingredients. I used organic spelt flour with gives a nice taste for this.

Wet setting:

2 dl of almond milk (soak overnight and blend with water and soaked raisins - or just use some other kind of milk)

0,5 dl olive oil

1 dl muscovado sugar (or indian sugar)

0,5 dl crushed almonds (use the leftovers of the milk)

2 dl grated beetroot (1 big or 2 small)

Mix separately:

4,5 dl finely ground spelt flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp clove

½ tsp cardamom

Mix the wet and dry portions together nicely. Lay the ready dough evenly on a baking sheet or muffin tins, if you like. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes in 175 degrees.

Confessions on raw food

2009-07-30T01:02:00.000-07:00

I've been eating for some weeks more and more living, raw food. I travelled for couple weeks, so I ate a little unusually for some time, but am back to basics now. I do eat some cooked foods, but try to maintain mainly raw foods. I'm hoping I could transfer more and more to living foods.

I have noticed, that in the last six months, I have been more often sick than in many years in total. One factor is that I've worked with children, but I just can't put all the blaim in that. I know that emotional and spiritual state has it's meaning, but I've been eating a lot of dairy products, bread and sugary foods. It's almost like a slip back, before I've been quite mainly vegan. But the result is quite noticeable, definitely!! Energy level is lower, I gained some weight (even I wasn't in any ways fat, but it felt like over my ideal weight, and I think you should feel good in your body and come to terms) and felt quite bloated almost all the time. And the feeling of real hunger was rare. I just ate in the rhythm of the work, and felt like I wasn't hungry but had to stuff in food, because it was been offered. And then felt more stuck and bloated. Like there was no time for my metabolism to work, so it just got stuck. And dairy products develop definitely mucus for me.

Now I just have made the promise with myself, to listen to my body and what it would like. I've been struggling with the thought, that if everyone else reads dairy and bread without complaining, then why don't I? But if I don't feel good eating that way, then why should I. I thought that I should just "eat anything and be happy", but noticed that was not working.

So, now I've been changing little by little what I eat. For the first weeks when I shifted, I would feel lot of symptoms of toxins being released. Some days I would feel really fatigue or powerless, having no energy at all. Or then I would feel really cold. I had some headache in the evenings, and then in the day also - but it disappeared, when I did yoga. And for some time my stomach was a bit unsettled and mixed.

But now I'm starting to feel like on the better side, my energy level has started to rise phenomenally, and I feel much lighter and my metabolism works. I sleep less easily, my skin is better, and my breath doesn't feel so smelly in the morning!

I don't feel like I should be all about raw and eat nothing else. I am quite happy to eat cooked foods now and then, but leave dairy products out and eat mostly organic food. I just don't want to stress about food, that is the least thing that you should be obsessed about. It's about feeling good, not being boring and stuck to some opinion.

In the morning I usually make myself orange juice with lots of pulp, and drink some green or ginger tea. I have my breakfast smoothie in noon, when I feel hungry. Now when blueberries can be picked just couple meters away from home, I've been doing blueberry smoothies like below, with a hint of star anis.

Sprouted hummus

Ingredients:

about 2 dl dried chickpeas

2 cloves garlic (or more, less to your taste)

1 tsp tamarind paste / lemon juice

sea salt

virgin olive oil

water

Soak the chick peas over night and sprout for 2-3 days, rinsing with water few times a day. Boil the chickpeas in water for 5-10 minutes, let cool. Put in a blender with seasonings, mix, add gradually some oil and water until makes a fine, creamy paste. Serve as a dip, with salad, bread etc. Store in the fridge.

Sunshine muffins & Raw cake

2009-07-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

My updating has been low for many reasons, mainly because I'm switching to raw foods currently, and there's not too much to post about. But I had in stock these vegan muffins.

Sunshine muffins

Ingredients:

1,5 dl soy milk

0,8 dl fresh orange juice

0,8 dl melted margarine

1,5 dl sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

4,5 dl flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cardamom

1 tbsp grated orange zest

1 dl chopped dried apricots

1 dl chopped nuts

Preheat the oven in 175 degrees. Mix together in a large bowl soy milk, orange juice, grease, sugar and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda and spices. Do not overmix. Fold in the orange zest, apricots and nuts. Pour the batter in small muffin tins and bake for 13-15 minutes.

Raw banana-peach cake

I'm SO excited, this is the first time I actually made a raw cake, that has a solid texture! I bought some agar-agar and it worked well. It's not 100% raw since I added some potato starch to be sure, but I guess this would've been just fine even without.

Ingredients:

1 dl dried dates

½ dl sunflower seeds

1 dl nuts

½ - 1 dl coconut flakes

1 banana

2 peaches

about 1 dl soy yogurt

1,5 tsp agar-agar flakes

1 dl soy milk

(2 tbsp potato starch)

Soak the dates, sunflower seeds and nuts in water for about 6 hrs. Grind them in a blender and add the coconut flakes. If the mixture seems too dry, add some water. Set the base in a small cake tin, about 22x24.

For the filling, put the banana and peaches in the blender, add soy yogurt, and mix until smooth (add potato starch if wanted). Now heat the agar-agar flakes and soy milk in a kettle and let it boil, mixing all the time, for about 5-10 minutes. Add liquid if it seems to dry too much. Pour the agar-mixture in the filling and mix well. Pour on the base and let it cool for some time, and decorate with some coconut flakes. Put to the fridge for at least 2-3 hrs to settle.

Two ways to use coldsmoke-tofu

2009-05-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

Life should be taken lightly at times! Celebrating is an important part of life. Now is the time when people unite to celebrate, ending school, graduating and welcoming the summer holiday (perhaps). If you have age, you will certainly be offered some sparkling wine or maybe even champagne! We had some dry australian rose-sparkling wine, Pink Yellowglen.

Cold smoke-tofu-pie

The base:

2 dl soy flour

100 g margarine

Mix the soy flour and margarine to a dough, preferably by hand. Press on a pietin evenly on bottom and sides. Stick with a fork a bit. Prebake in the oven for 10-15 min, in 175 degrees.

The filling:

150 g coldsmoke-tofu (half of a package)

1 onion

½ yellow paprika

2 dl of coconut milk

1 tsp of jeera

1 dl grated cheese

salt, pepper

Chop the onion, tofu and paprika and spread on the prebaked pie. Whisk jeera and spices in the coconut milk and pour on the filling. Sprinkle on top the grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Cold smoke-tofu salad

1 jar of leaf lettuce (I used tammenlehväsalaatti, I have no idea what it's in english)

½ yellow paprika

150 g cold smoke-tofu

1 tomato

1 apple

pumpkin seeds

Dressing:
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp honey
½ dl olive oil
½ lime's juice
salt, pepper

Chop the tofu to cubes, and roast on a pan (no oil) until slightly brown. Let cool. Chop the other ingredients and mix in a bowl, and add the tofu when cool. Mix the ingredients of the dressing and add salt and pepper to your flavor. Pour on the salad and mix. Roast the pumpkin seeds on a pan until they pop, and garnish the salad.

Banana-beetroot bread

I found yet another recipe from Veganomicon I just had to try (I haven't got yet to try the cookie recipes, but I'm anxious to make them!!). I variated the recipe by adding some beetroot and cardamom (once, again). I can't describe the aroma that came from the oven, it was so good. Maybe this is a more of a winterly thing, but why not ? On a rainy day.

Ingredients:

2 large bananas

2 beetroots (or 1 dl of applesauce)

1 dl melted butter (or oil)

1 dl sugar

2 tbsp syrup

5 dl flour (I used spelt-flour about 3 dl, and all-purpose 2 dl)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmed

1 tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Lightly grease a 20x12 (about) pan. In a large bowl, mash the bananas well. Add sugar, beetroot, butter and syrup, whisk briskly. Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the ingredients are just combined. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. The top should be lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Vegalicious pancakes !

2009-05-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

Banana-nut-pancakes

I have started to take us of my new vegan bible. Vegan brunch part 704, these pancakes must have been..best ever! My only addition was replacing nutmeg with freshly ground cardamum. Banana and nuts are my favorites!! Eaten with a new find: coconut jam by Jam It! Suitable for vegans. They also have other exotic jam options, papaya and mango. But now for the recipe (from the book Veganomicon, the measures are translated from cups):

Ingredients:

about 4 dl of soy milk

1 dl of water

2 teaspoons apple honey vinegar

2 bananas

3 tablespoons oil / melted butter

3 tablespoons honey (or maple syrup)

1 teaspoon vanille sugar

about 5,5 dl of flour (3½ dl of spelt flour, 2 dl of all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tsp cardamom (about 3-4 whole cardamoms)

2,5 dl of nuts (chop or fine with a blender)

Preheat the pan. Pour the soy milk, water and vinegar into a cup and set aside.

Mash the bananas well, add the soy milk mixture with oil, honey and vanilla. Now add the flour, baking powder and soda, salt and cardamom. Combine with a fork, don't overmix. Fold in the chopped nuts. The batter becomes quite firm.

Now add some butter or oil on the warm pan, and cook the pancakes. Because of the batters' texture I used a spoon to spread it evenly on the pan. Serve with ice cream, jam, fresh strawberries etc..

Salty Goodness

2009-05-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

I ordered myself a vegan cookbook from the States, and it arrived on friday! I read a lot of cookbooks, mainly from the library. Even though I rarely cook the recipes on the books, I find reading them very inspiring. Often you get ideas from the books that can be variated as you like. Now I have my first own vegan book, Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I have given it only a quick look, but seems nice! Though it lacks photos it is a good package full of information.

We ate some feta-cheese (tomato, salad, honey melon, fetacheese, yellow paprika, onion) salad and cheese-croissants today. This recipe is good for the croissants, I like that it's not too greasy. Using spelt flour gives a nice taste on them. I added some turmenic, which gave them a fun yellowish color. For the filling you could use some blue cheese, or as I did now, Grana Padana etc. I prefer quite sour cheeses on these, like Emmental and Polar. You needn't add any salt, since the cheeses use to be quite salty.

Cheese-croissants

Ingredients:

4 ½ dl of flour (3 dl of spelt flour + 1 ½ dl of wheat flour)

4 dl of grated cheese + 2 dl for the filling

3 tsp of salt

2 sp of cumin seeds (2 tsp of turmenic)

100 g of room-temperature margarine

1 ½ dl of soy milk / water

Mix the dry ingredients. Add in the butter until the batter becomes crumbly. Add liquid and knead into a firm dough. Heat the oven in 200 degrees.

Share the dough in 3 portions. Roll the portions to a round shape, and divide in eight sections, like a pizza. Now sprinkle some cheese on each part and roll them from the wide end to a tight croissant. Apply some soy milk on the croissants before putting to the oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Spring Brunch

2009-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hola! Summer is coming! Breakfast is def-i-nitely my favorite meals. It doesn't matter if the meal is small, somehow I am a breakfast person. So brunch is the weekend-special, where you can devote more time for cooking and eating (and socializing of course). So here is a quick look on our (May Day) Brunch.

Small bites:

Toasted Nuts

I'm trying my very best to remember, how I seasoned these...! But I'm not totally sure. But you can use your imagination! There is no one-way. Just use
200 g nutmix (cashew-, para-, wal-, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds)

Roast the nuts in a pan (no oil) with medium heat. When the nuts seem slightly brownish, add seasoning. One option : chiliflakes, cocoa powder, freshly squeezed orange juice and some honey. Roast a bit (don't burn) and pour on a small bowl. Other option: freshly ground cardamom, cinnamon, freshly squeezed orange juice. Let cool.

With fresh rye-bread

Smokesalmon-mousse

I'm thinking you could use smoked-tofu for this! We usually just use salmon. This is a classic in our festive foods.

200 g of smoked salmon

1 onion

1 red paprika
200 g of Philadelphia (plain unripened cheese)
2 spoons of creme fraiche
juice of a half lemon
salt, pepper, fresh chives

Put the salmon, onion and half of the paprika in a blender. Mix in the cheese and creme fraiche and seasonings. Chop finely the other half of the paprika and mix in(don't blend), garnish with chopped chives. Serve with small pieces of rye bread!

Bluecheese-pear-salad

100 g of blue cheese (Aura Gold)
1 pear chopped
1 mango chopped
salad
fresh basil and mint leaves
lime juice, salt, pepper, olive oil

Drink some bubbly

Sparkling wine

This was just normal dry sparkling wine, but pureed frozen raspberries gave it a pink look! Cheers for spring! I can recommend a good organic sparkling wine: Can Vendrell cava, Albet i noya. Spanish wine, and I loved it, organic is somehow always better... Not the cheapest bottle, cost was about 12 euros, but definitely worth the price. IF you wish to invest on quality instead of quantity...!!

For Sweet dessert
Fruit salad & Flourless chocolat cake

For the fruit salad I chopped some fruits, banana, apple, mango, orange, dates. Add some fresh mint leaves and desiccated coconut and sprinkle on some lime juice. I have the recipe for the cake over here: Chocolat cake. You can do it without the dried fruits and season with cardamom, cinnamon, chili, coconut, or whatever you wish!

Non-vegan easter delights

2009-04-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

American cheese-cake

We have family visiting, and mom wanted me to bake this cake. It's not vegan, and the recipe was in "Yhteishyvä"'s food-magazine. The recipe is also found in the internet. In finnish.

Ingredients:

The Base:

1oo g of room-temperature margarine

1 dl sugar

1 egg

3 dl flour

1 tsp baking powder

Use a casserole about 24x24 cm size. Prefer a tin with a removable bottom. I didn't have one with the right size, so I made it in a normal tin. Grease the tin thoroughly. Foam the margarine and sugar, whisk in the egg and flours with baking powder ( I added some soy milk in this stage, since the dough was quite crumbly). Lay the dough in the tin, on the bottom and sides. Put in the fridge while making the filling.

Filling:

500 g of milk quark

200 g of unripened cheese (Philadelphia)

zest of 1 lemon

juice of a half lemon

2 ½ dl of sugar

2 tbsp of vanille sugar

1 dl of potato flour

5 eggs

Mix in a bowl the milk quark, cheese, lemon zest and juice, half of the sugar, vanille sugar, potato flour and the egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites and rest of the sugar separately to a firm, hard foam (it took from me about 10 minutes with the mixer). Add carefully the foam in the dough. Pour in the tin. If you wish, you can add some mango- or peachslices on top. Bake in a 175 degree oven, in lower part for an hour. The filling rises quite boldly. Let the cake cool totally before removing the tin.

Indian flat-bread

2009-03-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Potato rotis & coconut-yogurt chutney

I can't get enough of indian food! We have so much potatoes that we're eating it in every form. Boiled and smashed potatoes make fine indian rotis, flat breads baked without raising the dough and roasted on a hot pan. They have something similar with the finnish traditional rieska. Rotis are usually roasted without oil. Rotis and the chutney are well on their own as a small snack, or as an accompany for some spicy indian curry. The rotis and yogurt cool the heat of the food. If it was summer, I'd chop fresh mint leaves in the chutney!

Ingredients:

8-10 boiled potatoes, smashed

1 tsp of chili sauce

1 tsp of chili flakes

1 tsp of turmenic

1 tsp of jeera (roman cumin)

salt

½ dl oil

2-3 dl of flour

Mix the spices and oil with the potatoes. Knead in the flour little by little to get a soft dough. Heat a pan and take a ball of the dough and roll it to a round flat bread on a floured table. Roast on a hot pan until slightly brown, flip over to roast the other side. Serve hot, with a cooling yogurt chutney and some curry.

Only some left any more

Yogurt chutney:

Ingredients:

2-3 dl of desiccated coconut

1 dl of soy yogurt

1 tsp of tamarind paste (or lemon juice)

2 grated garlic cloves

salt

Soak the coconut flakes in warm water for half an hour. Sift the extra water out. Mix the coconut with yogurt and spices.

Vegan brownies

2009-03-27T11:16:00.001-07:00

Orange-chocolate brownies

Orange and chocolate are a fine combinement. I recommend you squish the orange juice by yourself, it's a lot better! I also left some of the fruit's pulp in the batter. I'm so glad we had soy yogurt in the fridge, vegan baked tastes so much better, and it's so true. But instead I ran out of good real dark cocoa powder, I found like only one spoonful and I had to use the lighter cocoa powder that has sugar mixed in it.

Ingredients:

3 dl of flour

1 ½ tsp of baking powder

½ tsp of baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp of vanilla sugar

3 tbsp of cocoa

1 ½ dl of sugar

zest of one orange

2 dl of soy yogurt

½ dl of soy milk

½ dl of orange juice

Icing :

juice of a half orange

25 g margarine, melted

1 tsp of orange zest

2-3 dl of confectioner's sugar

Heat the oven in 175 degrees. Melt the margarine. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix separately the wet ingredients (soy yogurt, milk, orange juice and margarine). Whisk all together, do not stir too much. Pour the batter in a large tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Once you've taken out the cake, let it cool while making the icing. Melt the margarine in a small kettle. Mix in the squeezed orange juice and zest. Whisk in the confectioner's sugar until the mixture is nicely firm. Lay it on the cooled pie and let settle for a while.

Best NAN bread ever!

2009-03-22T03:31:00.000-07:00

We had an indian food-night with girls, I got to show my skills learned from India! I made dishes I learned in our cooking classes. I have done some of these before, and they were so goood, the whole meal was a success! So the recipe for the nan is from Shaila, our teacher, and it's the best I've tried. It's made without yeast (even better). This Indian Thali consisted of these dishes: nan-bread, dhal fry, palak paneer, jeera rice, peanut chutney. For dessert we had masala chai and a western twist, pancake! I'm only putting out some of the recipes, because I don't have proper pictures to offer from all of them. I'll try again next time I'm making these dishes!

Nan-bread

Ingredients:

1 big bowl of wheat flour (about 8 dl)

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp of sugar

1 tbsp of baking powder

2-3 dl of soy yogurt (I added also some milk)

1 tbsp of oil

butter

Mix the baking powder in the flour, add salt and sugar. Add the soy yogurt and knead into a ball. Add oil. Leave the dough aside for 5-6 hours for fermentation.

For making the nan you need a hot (not too hot so they won't burn) pan and butter. Take a small ball from the dough and roll with some flour into a circular shape. When the pan is hot, add the bread. Roast for 2-3 minutes and flip over. When ready, smear butter and serve hot!

Palak paneer

Ingredients:

150 g Frozen spinach (palak)

2 diced onions

200 g of tomatocrush

some fresh ginger

2-3 garlic cloves

oil

cinnamon

clove

peanuts

dried chili

200 g feta-cheese (or the vegan choice, tofu or potatoes)

Take the frozen spinach to room temperature. Dice the cheese (or tofu/potatoes). Warm a pan with 2 spoons of oil, add onions and fry until slightly brown. Add ginger, garlic, chilies, cinnamon, cloves and peanuts and fry until slightl brown. Add the tomato crush and fry for a minute. Take off the heat, and when cool, put in a blender with 1-2 dl of water and make a fine paste.

Take a saucepan, add oil. When hot, add the paste and the spinach. Let the spinach melt, add salt to taste. Add the feta to the pan, bring to boil and remove from the heat. Serve with nan bread.

Peanut chutney

Ingredients:

1 large cup of peanuts

100 g Desiccated coconut

red chilies (can also be replaced with dried chili flakes)

2-3 garlic cloves (optional)

1 tsp of tamarind paste(if you don't have any, replace with a tbsp of lemon juice)

salt to taste

Soak the desiccated coconut in water/or soy milk for 30 minutes. Roast the peanuts on a pan until slightly brown. Heat the red chilies in oil for 2-3 minutes until crispy, add garlic. Grind all the ingredients in a blender. Add the seasoning:

oil

mustard seed

Take a pan with a cover, add oil, and when hot add mustard seeds. Put the cover on and let pop under it. Put this seasoning in the coconut chutney. Delicious!

(Pancake ;)

Sparkling mind

2009-03-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

I am a great fan of sparkling wine! Yesterday, for the honor of friday, we had some farely-priced sparkling wine, Törley Sec, very dry. I really can't stand anything else than dry wines, I'm avoiding the sweeter ones always. This wine was definitely sparkly and enthusiastic!

Flourless chocolate brownies

To accompany the drink I made this heavenly chocolate cake. It is not vegan, but use organic eggs and be happy. This flourless cake was quite spongy, not too heavy though I thought it would be. This is a really festive dessert and delight, and definitely easy to make.

Ingredients:

225 g of dark chocolate (use as dark as you can!)
225 g of margarine
1 dl of sugar
1 tsp of vanille sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 dl of raisins and dried fruits, chopped

Heat oven in 175 degrees. Melt the chocolate and grease with low heat. Take off heat and mix in the sugar and vanille. Let it cool for a while, and add then the beaten eggs and dried fruits. Pour the batter in a tin (about 25x25 cm) and bake in the oven for 25-30 min. Let cool. SERVE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM!!

Savoury pie!

2009-03-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

Our fridge seems to look quite plain nowadays, but dad brought some mushrooms and a huge sack of potatoes from his parents. So now it means, we are eating potato for the rest of the spring. I had to "get rid" of the mushrooms before they were spoiled, so I came up with this pie. Since we had no soy cream or milk or pretty much anything, I thought about making a bit different pie dough than our usual, something that doesn't have so much margarine as they normally do. This consists of potato- and carrotmash and has a top crust.

Mushroom pie with potato-carrot crust

Ingredients:

FOR THE PIE-DOUGH

3-4 large potatoes

2 carrots

25 g margarine

salt, pepper

1 tsp of chili

4 dl of flour (and some more for rolling)

Boil the potatoes and carrots. Then squash into a puree, add the margarine and spices. Let it cool for a while. Heat the oven in 200 degrees. Add the flour, until it has made to a nicely firm dough, not too hard. Take it on the table, and divide into to portions, other one a bit bigger. You might need more flour, since the dough can be quite sticky. Take the bigger piece and lay it on the pie mold (about 27 cm). Stick with a fork and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

THE FILLING

1 onion

1 big garlic clove (or two small)

200 gr of mushrooms

1 big potato, margarine

salt, pepper

Chop the onion and mushrooms. Mash the potato, add some soy milk (I used water since we had none, but I'd prefer soy milk, or cream) and mix in the grated garlic and spices. Pour on the pie, and lay on the onions and mushrooms. Now take the other piece of the dough, and roll it for the top-crust. Put on the filling and press nicely, stick with a fork some holes. If you wish, lay some oil on the top-crust. Bake for 45 minutes in 175 degrees.

Sweet tangy tooth

2009-03-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

IN ACTION! Our kitty is one of a kind, wild one. She likes to crawl under the tablecloth.. especially when you're drinking tea, ready to spill everything.
I am so full! I didn't really eat any real food today, and made myself a banana-blackcurrant-kiwi-smoothie for dinner. And...made this. Today I knew I had to bake something sweet, and I found a recipe for this from "Frantsilan yrttitilan kasviskeittokirja"-book. Although the recipe was for making pastries, I instead turned it into a pie. And the jam is made by myself. I think you can use any jam, something like apples and cinnamon, or any berries.. but self-made is best. We had some really tangy mandarines, so this is how made their hard core sweeten a bit and put them to use! No waste.

Oat-black currant&mandarinejam pie

I'm feeling pity for this pie since it looks so burned :,) And I can tell you, this pie tasted like a vegan pie, I don't is it just my baking but usually it tastes. But I just love it.
Ingredients:
3 dl of oat flakes
3 dl flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of vanille sugar
3 tbsp of jaggery (or sugar, or honey if you prefer)
250 gr of melted butter
2 dl of soy milk (or cream as in the book)

2 dl of jam, blackcurrant-mandarine or any you like/have!
To make the jam, put in a kettle some blackcurrants and peeled mandarines with sugar to your taste. Boil in a low heat covered for some time. When the berries seem broken enough and the texture is satisfying you, pour in a glass can or some other.. ;)

Heat the oven in 200 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and whisk in the cooled butter and soy milk. Pour the batter in a greased (or as I did, oiled) cake tin (about 24x24 cm) and spoon on the jam evenly. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Perfect with vanilla ice cream (or custard)!!

Baking with alcohol

2009-03-07T04:25:00.000-08:00

Beer bread

I got the inspiration for this bread from an old magazine of http://www.glorianruokajaviini.fi. The dough is made entirely to beer, and in this case - it's cornbeer (non-glutein)! I had some cans in store, and I have no other use to them. The bread was really good, the texture is really smooth and it tastes ...different (but not like beer). The negative side is that I felt quite obnoxious while making the dough, because of the smell of the beer. But that can be just me, and the result is good anyway! Maybe next time trying.. white wine??

5 dl of beer (one can)

1 bag of dry yeast (11 g)

some honey

Mix the yeast and honey in room temperature beer. Add

3 dl of barley flour

½ dl of oil

1 dl of oat flakes

Knead in the rest of the flour.

8-9 dl of wheat flour

Knead for about 5-10 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic. You can also use a machine if you wish to save your arms. Let rise covered for about 30 minutes. Roll the dough on a table to two roundshaped breads, or if you wish you can make smaller buns also. Let them rise for another 30 minutes, and make two crossing cuts on the breads with a sharp knife. Bake in 200 C for 40 minutes (smaller buns for about 15-20 minutes).

My FAVOURITE soup!

2009-03-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

Green lentil soup

This is one our familys traditional foods. Always as good and safe. And the younger ones eat it also! Even if it's green! Everyone loves it. This soup is made of green lentils, I have never really gotten into the red ones. To make the soup more nutritious, you can add chick peas also (and some carrots). I variated the basic soup this time by adding some indian spices : jeera (cumin), green cardamoms and cinnamon. I brought these spices from India, that's is not exactly a cinnamon stick... cinnamon wood. The measures in the recipe are "about", if the soup seems dry add more water and so on. This serves about 4 persons.

Ingredients:

4 dl of green lentils
1 onion , chopped
2 garlic cloves
fresh ginger
1 ½ l of water
oil
jeera
green cardamoms, cinnamon
salt, pepper

I first sauteed the onion, garlic, ginger and jeera in oil for a few minutes. Then add the rinsed lentils and roast for some time. Add the water (I use hot water boiled in a tea pan, it's quicker and easier) and boil under cover for about 45 minutes in a low heat. Check if the soup is getting dry and add water if needed. When ready, take out the whole cardamoms and cinnamon. Puree with a blender and add salt and pepper as you wish.

Eat India, Part II

2009-03-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

India theme continues! This is what we ate at the second cooking class, North Indian thali. We made Nan-bread, dhal fry, palak paneer, jeera rice and the sweet dessert vermicelli kheer. Palak paneer is the green sauce in the picture, palak means spinach and paneer is indian cheese. It can be easily replaced with tofu or potatoes. I'll try to add some dishes with recipes we made in the cooking classes, when I get to cook and photo them. Here some views we saw in India.

What would India be without the cows? The promised land for elephants and cows.

Some citysight from Mysore, Gokulam.

Views from the train, I guess this is a rice plantasion.

Kerala, village along the river.

Sea in Amritapuri, Kerala! The sea made quite an impact, Kerala is definitely a really beautiful place. It's a shame we didn't stay in Kerala for longer.

Here you can see some pepper! We went as far as the pepper grows. We stayed in an accomodation place, which had their own small garden on the back yard, where they had all kind of fruits, herbs and vegetables growing.

Coffee beans!

And here is the banana tree.

Papayas.

The alcohol culture is quite different in India. I don't know about the night-life in bigger cities, but this is a local "bar" in one village - a small stall beside the street, which sells booze. And not too fancy, just pour the liquor in a paper-cup and all in.

These are the typical shops they have, kiosks beside the street.

Street cooking. I remember this was making masala dosa. Not that I'd dare to eat off the street...

And last, but not least, the palm tree. No coconuts there though!

Eat India! Part I

2009-02-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

Good news! Bright news! Wonderful news! I bought myself a new digital camera, and it should come in a week. I've been missing taking good pictures, and now I get my own camera. I can do more food entries :,)
I have some pictures from India! And not just some, I have just a small share of all the pictures on my computer, my friends have more and better quality ones. This is the first load I'm coming with. Loading the pictures is so slow that my patience is not enough to put it all at once.
The thing is: we went for cooking classes! And it was awesome. I never understood what indian food is about, before that. Well, I can't say I do understand now, but more than before. We went for three lessons, that held different courses. I think I have photos really only of the first one. That is a shame.
The first lesson was about making south indian thali. It was about learning how to make different rotis, dhal curry, beetroot palya, brinjal potato masala and curd rice. Dhal means lentils, palya means a sidedish and masala goes for a seasoning. Below there is a picture of our teachers maid rolling some rotidough. We learned to make the usual one, indian flat bread just roasted on a pan without oil. And also a sweet one, with sugar and cardamom and oil, chapatis, folded roti and roasted in oil and nutritious roties, with different herbs in the dough.

Here I think is some dhal curry coming on.

Here I can see beetroot palya ( I was surprised about the amount of beetroot that was used.. the only thing about beetroot I know is rosolli, the christmas dish, the icky borsch-soup which reminds me of school days and beetroot-vegetablepattys ) ahead.

I though I uploaded a photo of the whole meal, but I guess it vanished to bit-space. Well, later on. Here I have a picture of "train-food". We were offered some dried, spicy delights by our indian by-passengers in the train. It was quite hot, our noses were bleeding all the way.. but it was good! One thing I loved in India were banana-chips, yummy! Hot or not.

And of course we visited some vegetable markets, didn't buy anything since we didn't cook. But just wish we had the same here!

We ate out, mostly. This time we were quite intrigued by the malai kofta we got, it has never look (or tasted...) like that before. It looked like a birthday-party dish, a huge mountain and dried cherries on top. I can't say what the cook had in mind... good day I suppose.

Oh and we learned to drink coconut water! Everyone drinks it, there are coconut stands everywhere, on the road and in cities. Anywhere you go. There was always a man with a machete ready to brake some coconuts, just put the straw in and enjoy! We were wandering for a long time what it tastes like, and why everyone drinks it. And because yogis drink it.. it must be healthy. (It is said to be one of the healthiest drinks in the world) So one day we tried, and the first impression was, ugh, bad. I couldn't finish my coconut really, it tasted like icky warm water. We were just wondering why does everyone drink these???

But it got better. We tried again, and the whole experience was different. And the coconuts taste different, depending on how raw they are. Of course they are all raw coconuts, picked from the trees like this. If they are riper, they are sweeter and have some white meat inside that you can eat after drinking. These is not the stage where you can get the white meat that we have as desiccated coconut. If the coconut is let to the palm-tree for a longer time, it develops the hard, brown and hairy coconut we know, inside it. And there you get the grated coconut. And if stays even a longer time in the tree, you can get coconut oil from it.

And oh my sweet lord, all the fresh fruits everyday! Papayas the size of your head and sweet mini-bananas! When I came back home, I didn't know how to cope with the "normal" bigger bananas we have. They felt too large to eat at one time, even though we usually ate many small bananas at once. Pineapples, limes, chickus, oranges, pomegranades ... we visited frequently the fruit lady near our flat. And ate for breakfast a bowl of fruit salad sooo many times. I miss my daily papaya portion! The mango season starts in the spring, when the monsoon is coming. Although we got to taste a few mangos, but they weren't as sweet as they should be..just not the right time.

Namaste!

2009-02-21T04:09:00.001-08:00

Oh, I just visited India and got back and, sigh. Some time to get back to blog-business.

Potato-baguettes

I've been baking a lot of bread lately! That has made even me eating more bread than usually. Normally I'm not so in to eating bread, even though I love rye bread, but fresh oven-baked bread rolls are beatable. I wanted to switch the outlook and decided to do baguettes instead. The same recipe suits very well if you want to roll instead.

Ingredients:

5 dl of water
1 tbsp of sugar (or syrup)
1 tsp of salt
2 plump garlic cloves
3-4 big potatoes, boiled and smashed
1 tsp of cumin, anis
1 bag of dry yeast
flour
½-1 dl of oil
sesame seeds for garnishing

Mix the sugar, salt, garlic, potatoes and seasoning in 42 c warm water. If you wish, you can add oat flakes, sesame or sunflower seeds etc. Mix the yeast with flour, and start kneading with the water. When you've added most of the flour, add oil. Knead to a firm dough and leave to rise covered.
When the dough has risen to double its size, take chunks of the dough and roll them to baguettes. Heat oven in 225 degrees and let the baguettes rise for a moment covered. Make some cuts to the bread with a knife, and anoint with egg, water or milk. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top. Bake for about 14 minutes.

We had some indian style food, with sparkling wine and so on.. Some chapatis with peanut chutney and palak paneer! Yummy.

Baked and raw pastries!

2008-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Hi there! I've been pausing for quite a while, and that is because I broke my camera. Fortunately I have a bad-quality mobile phone camera, to make some "food-notes". So I apologise for the quality of these photos, but they deliver the idea in every best manner they can. So this entry includes my saturday-bakings! And raw.

Buns

As you can see, I baked some traditional finnish coffeebread today! Or actually I think these are called cinnabons. I'm quite sure that almost everyone knows how to make a bun dough, but no harm is done by writing it down.

The dough:

5 dl of water (or soy milk)

2 dl of (cane)sugar

1 tbsp of cardamom

1 tsp of salt

25 g of dry yeast (2 bags)

1-2 dl of raisins (optional)

15 dl of flour

150 g of melted margarine (or oil)

The liquid should be as warm as 42-celsius degrees for the yeast to work. Mix in the sugar, cardamom, salt and raisins. (I put in this some almond paste, but I can't really say I would've tasted it?) The dry yeast should be mixed with the flour, but I'm telling you a secret: I'm so lazy, that I always put the yeast in the liquid. And the buns always work out fine (and when I try using normal yeast problems begin..). Molest in most of the flour (I never really count the amount of the flour, I go by instinct), and then knead the dough with the margarine. Add the rest of the flour until the dough is nicely firm and detaches from the bowl. Let it rise covered.

Bake the buns in 225 degrees for 10-15 minutes (in my oven 12 minutes is The Time). To make cinnabuns, share the dough in four batches and roll each to a plate. Then brush with melted margarine, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (and desiccated coconut, as I did).

I went wild doing these cinnabuns, and tried some new fillings!! I can surely recommend trying:

-Mashed banana, cinnamon, desiccated coconut

-Almond paste, redcurrant (jam or just mashed), (desiccated coconut)

-Any jam you like

Raw-food lemon pie

I got really excited about this new recipe! I made the base as normal, but the filling was new. And I can tell you, this was so good! You couldn't tell no sugar was used.

The base:

250 g of dried fruits (I used one bag of mixed fruits)

½ dl of sesame seeds

½ dl of desiccated coconut

Juice of a half lemon

So the dried fruits were soaked in water over-night. The next day I ground them with a blender with the sesame seeds, desiccated coconut and added the lemon juice. It should become a nice firm paste. Then I put it in a cake tin with some desiccated coconut for the bottom.

The filling:

1 dl of almonds, ½ dl of cashew nuts (soaked in water for 1-2 hrs, then rinsed)

1 banana

2 tbsp of soy yogurt

zest and juice of 1 organic lemon

cloudberries

Ground the nuts with a blender to a smooth paste. Then mix in the mashed banana, soy yogurt and lemon juice and zest. Sprinkle some cloudberries on the base, and then pour on the filling. Decorate with the cloudberries. (You can use any other berries you like or fruits) Let the pie be in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours or over-night for a firmer texture.

And below a picture of another raw-food pie and a WILD pancake my mom made last weekend! It was huge.

Breakfast edition

2008-10-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

I have some sad news! I haven't been updating lately, because I accidentally broke my camera. And actually, not even my camera, and the accident was as embarrasing as making it swim in beer. One thing I learned, is not to carry beercans in your bag with a camera.
But I had some photos in my archive. I have been planning on writing about my almost-every-morning-habit, making smoothies ! I've gotten so fixed in it that I can't imagine living without it. I used to eat fruits as breakfast before, but I prefer this as a more exciting option. It requires some making in the morning, and it goes well with me.

Smoothies are really light to eat, and serves if you don't want to eat heavily in the morning. I feel like it's kind of a cleansing-habit every morning, it gives a refreshed and light feeling. But sometimes if I want to eat more firmly, I mix some granola in it, and it keeps hunger away for a longer time.
Really there are no rules and regulations in making smoothies, about any fruits and berries go, and you should just use your imagination. I have just gotten used to almost always using banana - it somehow makes the texture firmer and is quite mild tasting so it goes with almost anything. Also avocado gives a nice texture, I just prefer not using it too much, because it can be too icky. Apples and pears are aöways safe options. Really the royals in this are berries, especially fresh ones. I love especially the mixture of banana and lingonberries! I recommend kiwi also, I love it's zesty taste. Pineapple, mango, nectarines, strawberries, raspberries, what ever you can find.
I usually put in one smoothie about three fruits, depending on the size of course, it makes about 1 ½-2 glasses (I should get me a taller glass so all would fit in on one time!). And I always keep the fruits in the fridge so they're cold, and it's good to add berries from the freezer. I like to add always couple spoonfuls of soy yogurt for the texture. If you like the texture to be juicier, you could well add some fruit juice or soy milk, as you like.

And then just use your blender and eat right away ( I prefer eating them with a spoon rather than just drinking..). Is there really a better way to start a day?! Enjoy with green tea, mornings news paper and a cat in your lap (not on the table).

Pie for consoling injuries

2008-10-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

Savory cloudberry-pie

I love this recipe! Before I have made this from lingonberries, but we had some cloudberries in the fridge so I took my advantage of them. I've had a real clumsy day, I injured myself bloodily at work - cut a piece of my little finger with a sharp knife and it bled like the Niagara Falls. We'll see, if it's time for stitches tomorrow. I had to solace myself with something. Let it be sweet.

Ingredients:

100 g of melted margarine

1 dl sugar

2 good tbsp of soy flour mixed with about the same amount of water

2 dl of spelt flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of ginger

2 tsp of cinnamon

½ tsp of cardemom

2-3 dl of cloudberries ( or lingonberries )

Heat the oven in 200 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar, add the soyflour-water mixture. Combine separately the dry ingredients, and then stir together. Pour the dough in a small cake tin and the berries on top. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven. At that time make the filling:

½ dl of soy cream

½ dl of muscovado sugar

1 tsp of vanilla sugar

Boil the ingredients up in a kettle, and pour on the cake. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Alcohol acquaintances

2008-10-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

Irish Coffee

Well, I don't usually drink coffee, and if I do it's non-caffeine. And alcohol is an occasional acquaintance, usually I don't drink at all or then have a few glasses of wine (especially sparkling!), whiskey or rarely some good beer. I don't see any harm in it. But the thing is, I found myself in a bar, and had my first Irish Coffee ever last weekend. It was so good. I love hot drinks anyways, and drink them always in a minute! Can't help it! The funny thing in it was that I was looking at the making of this drink and it seemed a bit desperate. The bar tender was quite, um, chilled. I was a bit horrified how it was going to turn out to, but not is everything what it seems - it looked and tasted awesome, maybe because the glass was quite small, and according to the amount of coffee there was a lot of whiskey... But I know now, how to use the remains of my Jameson-bottle I got last christmas.

This is how to make Irish Coffee:

1, 5 dl of coffee
2 tsp of farine sugar
5 cl of whiskey (any Irish whiskey should do, for example Miller's, Jameson)
Some whipped cream

Measure the sugar in the glass and pour on the hot coffee. Mix, add the whiskey and the whipped cream on top. To make it non-alcoholic leave out the whiskey. (But I can say that it's not even nearly the same!)

Muffins strike again

2008-10-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

Pineapple muffins

Ingredients:
50 g of melted margarine
1 banana
about ½ dl of soy yogurt
1 dl of pineapple juice (from the can)
2 dl of spelt flour
3/4 dl of sugar
3/4 dl of desiccated coconut
1 tsp of vanilla sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 small can of pineapple cubes

Heat the oven in 225 degrees. Mash the banana, and mix with margarine, yogurt and pineapple juice. Mix separately the dry ingredients, and then combine. Chop almost all the pineapples from the can (or all, if you want to) and leave some for decorating. Whisk the pineapples in and admeasure to muffin tins. Set the rest of the pineapples on them and sprinkle some desiccated coconut on top. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

I guess it is muffin season now.. ! The pineapple muffins were wonderfully moist, thanks to the fruit. I definitely add pineapple to my favorites from now on.
I made also this, or actually it was supposed to butterscotch-pecan bars, but I didn't have a proper tin for it. And I think that I baked this for too long, it was quite crispy, but edible it still was of course! After all, it hasn't been failure-clear-week!! Here is the link for the recipe: http://havecakewilltravel.com/2008/10/02/a-can-of-whoopmolasses-another-twist-of-the-butterscotch-bar/#more-2439

Muffin cloud

2008-09-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

The thing that has happened to me many times is that when I try to make good muffins without egg, the result sucks. Often they stick to the mold and don't come off the paper as a whole, pshff. I'm not in harmony with this chemistry yet. But today I nailed it, I didn't mean it
I have been planning on making these for some time. After all the work I found out that I had time, and I was hungry, so I made these instead of making real food (excellent decision). We named these the tropical muffins!! Jambalaya ? Next thing I have in mind, is baking pineapple muffins, that is a craving. But these were good and sweet and vegan. All good and all happy.

The tropical muffins

Ingredients:
3 dl of spelt flour
1 dl of oat flakes
½ dl of sunflower seeds
2 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 dl sugar
1 dl of desiccated coconut
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of clove
50 g of melted margarine
2 dl of soy- or ricemilk (I would have loved to make this to coconut milk, worth a try)
½ dl of chopped dried dates
2 medium sized carrots grated
1 small apple grated

Heat the oven in 225 degrees. Grate the carrots and apples. Mix the dry ingredients, and add the liquids. Sturb in the dates, carrots and apple. Admeasure evenly to cupcake molds. Bake for 15 minutes!

Altered Pizza & Cake

2008-09-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Polenta-almond pizza

This recipe was found from the book Paula Heinonen & Satu Silvo's book Satumaista voimaa arkeen. It made for two pizzas, or then it could be for one large one. I rarely eat pizza, and it's so greasy and makes you feel quite dunk, but this was quite a ... "light"-version of a pizza (even though I could just squint for the word light)! It's also gluten-free! I think some spices could make the base more interesting, it was quite mild tasting.

Ingredients

The base:

225 g of polenta grits

1 l of water

2 tsp of salt

1 dl of crushed almond

Let the polenta grits boil in the salted water for 10 minutes, sturbing for the time. After that pour in to an oiled casserole for a 1-2 cm layer and let cool. Fill as a normal pizza as you like. Bake in 200 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

And we had some "mozzarella"-salad, but the mozzarella had passed it's best before-date, so the situation was saved with some cottage cheese! The taste is pretty much the same. The salad included fresh basil, wild rucola, pear, tomato and the cheese.

And now I have some pictures of the living nutrition's cake! http://nanae-n.blogspot.com/search/label/living%20nutrition That link holds the recipe used also in this one. This could be variated in so many ways, and it's under to-do-list to make different versions of this cake. I filled this with mashed banana and red-currant-jam, and put on top nectarine and apple, desiccated coconut and cinnamon. No sugar & flour used.

Pancake breakfast

2008-09-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

Blueberry pancakes

Pancakes for breakfast is a good tradition! Mom insisted me doing some for this morning. These could be variated in so many different ways, by using different berries or some chopped fruits, and using coconut milk instead of soy milk etc. I've quite advanced in baking pancakes, since the first ones I made last summer became quite poor. I like to sit next to the stove and read something meanwhile the pancakes are frying. Relaxing.

Ingredients:

5 dl of soy- or ricemilk

50 g of melted margarine

Juice of a ½ lemon

4 tbsp of grounded flaxseed mixed with 4 tbsp of water (replacing 2 eggs)

4 ½ dl of spelt flour

½ tsp of salt

2 tsp of baking powder

2-3 dl of blueberries (or whatever berries you have to use)

margarine or oil for frying

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, and then add together. Whisk in the blueberries. Heat a pan with some margarine, and when hot, put a spoonful of the dough in. Fry for 2-3 minutes from each side. I prefer adding margarine a little for each pancake. I also like the pancakes not too flat. This made about 12 pancakes with my pan.

Asian Cooking

2008-09-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the weather was just perfect, the air was fresh and cool so I walked to town taking alongside some pictures. Today clearly it's just been raining and of course it's mail distribution day today... I've been soaking wet, but made some asian lunch and Yogi tea and changed in to dry socks. This recipe was from Yukiko Duke's book Viisi aasialaista keittiötä, though a little variated.

Zha Caixin (Woked Choi Sum) with rice noodles

So this recipe is really meant to be cooked of Choi sum-cabbage, but I used just ordinary iceberg lettuce and it was fine. It says in the book, that this fits for all green leaf veggies. I added the noodles to this so it made a whole meal. Otherwise this could be used as a condiment.

Ingredients:

500 g of iceberg lettuce

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of soy sauce (it says in the recipe to use oyster sauce, but we had none)

250 g of rice noodles

water

Peel and crush the garlic. Heat the wok pan and pour the oil in it. Add the garlic and fry for a minute. Add the lettuce with spices and fry for 4 minutes.

At the meantime, heat the water so it's boiling, and add the noodles in it. Take off from the stove and let it sit for 3 minutes. Strain the water and flush with cold water. Add to the wok pan in the last minutes.

Soup Days

2008-09-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

This is how sane she is. Above a capture of our kitchen.
Soups are needed, when I want to eat something not-too-heavy, and still get warmed up. I've made two different variations of a carrot-soup. Funny how the things you disliked as a child... I don't know what it is, but these days I like cooked carrot and vegetable soups. Maybe I'm just too adult. I like pureed soups the best, when they are not too creamy and not made in cow milk. And not tasting boring.

I have no good pictures for the first soup, it was beautifully golden orange.. but it tasted so nice I wanted to put the recipe up. The first soup gives spunk to carrots with coconut milk and ginger, and the other one tastes quite autumnal with lemon juice and honey. I recommend both of these! They equal the color in the leaves of the trees. Both of the recipes are for 1-2 persons.

Coconutty Carrot-Soup

Ingredients: (for 2 person)

3 medium sized carrots

1 tomato

2 dl of coconut milk

1 garlic

2 tsp of grated ginger

2 dl of water

olive oil

sea salt

Saute the ginger and garlic in some olive oil. Add carrots and tomato, chopped finely, plus the coconut milk and water. Let it boil until cooked and puree with a blender. Season with sea salt.

Carrot-lentil soup

Ingredients:

3 carrots

50 g of red lentils

1 garlic

about 4 dl of water with ½ vegetable bouillon

juice of a ½ lemon

1/4 dl of soy cream

1 tsp of honey

pepper

sea salt

Chop the carrots and add to the boiling water with garlic and red lentils. Let it boil for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lemon juice, honey and soy cream and let it boil for 5 minutes. Puree with blender. Enjoy with fresh rye bread !

Some tastings

2008-09-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Berry-pie

Last friday I baked some berry-pie. Mainly blueberry, but I mixed in some cloud- and redberries also. It was SO good. And also vegan. I've been feeling quite good leaving out egg in cooking, even though sometimes I get frustrated and throw eggs in when things seem to go against the wall.
Ingredients:
The base : 3 dl of spelt flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of vanilla sugar
½ dl of sugar
50 g of melted margarine
½ dl of syrup
2 dl of water
1 tbsp of vinegar

About 4-5 dl of blueberries and/or other berries
Some sugar

Preheat the oven 175 degrees. Mix the ingredients of the dough and pour into a greased cake tin (mine was quite huge, but if you use smaller a longer baking time in the oven would be good). Set the berries on top and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

And then I also made some rice pilaff in the weekend, it consisted some apple, raisins, nuts, onion and indian spices. It was one of "I-had-to-come-up-with-something-and-quickly"-foods. And some salad, I watched Nigella the other day.. (Can't really watch now, because the tv signed itself off. I'm glad) Crispy iceberg lettuce, a bag of frozen peas quickly boiled in water and seasoned with vinegar, salt and fresh mint, and avocados chopped in good slices. And some more mint and sea salt.

In the Cookie jar

2008-09-02T09:33:00.000-07:00

Almond-sunflower seed cookies

This recipe was from the book "Kasviskeittiö".

Ingredients:

50 g of room-temperature margarine

1 dl sugar (I guess less would also serve fine, these became quite sweet with that amount)

1 dl of crushed roasted almond

½ dl of sunflower seeds

2 dl of graham flour

pinch of salt

1 tsp of baking powder

½ dl of soy milk (or cream)

Am I forgetting something from this recipe? I put in some nuts also. These were baked in... 220 degrees I think . Good guesses, these were good but I would have preferred less sugar. I want a cookie jar full of cookies.

Last weekend before September

2008-08-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

Chanterels

Isn't it autumn already? I love it!! The nights are getting darker and the air smells somehow refreshing, there is something deeply refreshing in autumn. It feels like giving up old leaves and growing on new ones. I think that after all, this is and always has been my favorite time of year. I feel this awesome sensation every year.
We bought some chanterelle, mmmmm. Just simply fried with onion and olive oil until golden brown, and then boiled with some soy cream. Seasoned then with pepper, salt and fresh ground parsley. We ate this with dark rye bread and redcurrant juice. The most simple wonders are most delicious.

Gratinated artichokes with goat cheese-salad

This recipe is from Virginie Besancoies cookbook "Aurinkoinen keittiö", as also the tofu buns. There weren't any artichoke's hearts in the store, so we just used normal artichokes. The artichokes and goat cheese were gratinated in oven 225 degrees, with dried oregano, thyme, pepper and olive oil for about 15 minutes. Then they were setted on different salads. The dressing was basic, olive oil, vinegar, pepper and salt.

Champignons with sesame oil

This recipe was from a book called "Intian makuja". INDIA! Coriander, lemon oil, bay leaf and dried chili were fried in sesame oil for a minute, and then added the champignons for 3-4 minutes.

" Tofu buns"

Cake for the soul

2008-08-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

Peary chocolate cake

Made in heaven!! Once again I made chocolate cake, a good habit for the soul, and also a cake of the living nutrition. Both cakes were awesomely delicious, it's the secret spell. The chocolate cake was made with Fair Trade's extremely dark chocolate, 90% cocoa. Very bitter, and gets to shine in baking.

Here is the recipe for the Living Nutrition's Cake :

200 g of dried plums

200 g of dried apricots

1-2 dl of sunflower seeds

1 dl of almond crush

coconut flakes

Fresh berries, fruits

Put the plums and apricots in a bowl, and pour on them 3 dl of water. Let them soak up over night. Next day mince them in a blender, and then add the sunflower seeds and almond crush. This should make a quite firmy batter. Sprinkle the coconut flakes on a cake tin and level the batter on them evenly. Garnish with berries and fruits! Delicious served with vanilla soy cream.

Autumn leaves and so on!

2008-08-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Redberry jam

So autumn is coming! Our backyard has sooo many redberry bushes, and one rainy day I picked one big bowl of them, and still a lot remained to be collected. I guess it requires some good wild imagination where to put all the berries - jam was one thing I had in mind, red-berry juice is awesome too. Our freezer just doesn't take anything in anymore - it is full of cloud-, blue- and strawberries and who knows what else. It's not too big anyway. I guess that some shall be given to friends who would like to adopt some!

The redberry-jam was easy to make, I just made it very simple. I boiled about 2 ½ dl of water and 2 dl of fructose in a kettle, and then added 1 ½ litres of berries. It was boiled with a mild heat for about 25 minutes. The jam was poured into a clean oven-heaeted glasspot (for the bacteria to die - heat the pot in 100 degrees in the oven). It should be then keepen in cold.

Autumnal Mushroom-pie with fennel

Mushrooms picked from the forest, what else makes it feel the autumn is definitely falling? I don't remember what the name of these were, but just some ordinary mushrooms found. The base is consisted of soyflour and margarine, our regular. I wanted to put some fennel in the pie, but I must say, this pie was very mild of it's flavor. But it was good, so it's OK. I guess fennel tastes more "spunky" when served raw.
This was served with salad from the garden and some organic cherry-tomatoes! Yum!

The Base:
2 dl of soyflour
100 g room-temperature margarine

Fiddle into a dough and press in a casserole. Sting with a fork and pre-cook in the oven, heated in 200 degrees, for 10-15 minutes.

1 Onion, chopped
½ fennel, finely chopped
½ litres of mushrooms, pre-boiled and chopped
2 eggs
2 dl of soycream
Fresh parsley
Pepper
Salt

The onion and fennel were sauted in some olive oil. Mix the eggs, soy cream, parsley and spices in a bowl. Pour all these on the pre-cooked base. Bake in 175 degrees for 30 minutes.

Granola cookies

2008-08-22T02:10:00.000-07:00

Spinach pancakes

I found some fresh spinach in the local stores. Lovely green ! But I was surprised how I felt, it really didn't taste so much, maybe I've been too used to the flavour of spinach that I learned in grade school - the spinach soup that was never so good, hhmm.

5 DL Soy milk

150 g fresh chopped spinach leaves

2 dl spelt flour

1 dl soy flour

1 tbsp of honey

1 tbsp of oil

pinch of salt

Granola bars

I got inspired by these cookies when a friend served these, "health-granola bars", with chocolate and umm.. so much for the health stuff. These were so good, I just basicly mixed all kinds of stuff I could find that would fit in. The basis is on granola and some room-temperaturer butter. In these I added raisins, chopped almond, sunflower seeds, muscovado sugar, chopped chocolate and some flour.

Chocolate cake with cloudberries

2008-08-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

Chocolate cake with cloudberries

I made some chocolate cake for tomorrow to my friends "farewell cafe", who is moving next week. Or tea as it propably will be. I am planning also making some cookies if I have time. Our freezer is so full of berries that nothing else fits in there, so I thought I'll put some cloudberries on this! This is completely vegan cake.

Ingredients:

The Cake:

2 tbsp of Cocoa

3 dl of spelt flour

1½ dl of soy flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 dl sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tsp vinegar

100 g vegan butter (or cooking oil)

1-2 dl of soy milk

2 dl of cloudberries

Preheat the oven in 175 degrees. Melt the butter and mix all the ingredients together. Put the batter in a greased cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. Turn the cake around on a plate after letting it cool for a while.

The Frosting:

½ dl of soy yogurt

1 tbsp of soy milk

3-4 dl of powdered sugar

2 tbsp of cocoa

1 tsp of vanilla sugar (or extract)

Mix the ingredients of the frosting together. Pour the frosting on the cooled cake.

Cauliflower soup

2008-08-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

I was aching for some soup today! Cauliflower seems to have the tendency to "go indian"... Goes well when planning to travel India.

Golden cauliflower soup (Indian style)

Ingredients:

One cauliflower

1 dl of red lentils
Onion, chopped finely
½ Red chili, chopped

2 tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 Lime

1 tsp of Turmenic

2 tsp of Curry

300 g of Coconut milk (about one can)

Some olive oil

Fresh parsley (or coriander)

Pepper, salt

Wash and rip the cauliflower to small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a cauldron, and add the onion, red chili, ginger, turmenic and curry. Saute for 20-30 seconds. Add water (about 4 dl), the cauliflower and red lentils. Braise for 10 minutes.

Squeeze the lime juice and add it with the coconut milk to the soup. Let it boil for couple minutes and season with pepper and salt. Sprinkle some parsley on top!

And like always when I'm eating something, Nelli came for share! The all-eater kitten. She knows how to appreciate sweet baking.

Thursday potatoes

2008-08-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Today I cooked some potatoes, since there were some in the fridge that had to be used. I'm not really a big fan of potato, but it goes every once in a while. I got inspired by the beautiful big oranges on the table - and this turned out actually quite good! There was no olive oil in our kitchen, but would be good to add... I think this would serve well as a condiment to something, but goes fine alone too.

Herb-potatoes

Ingredients:

½ kg of potatoes
Onion
Orange
Dried provencal herbs
Sea salt
Olive oil

Heat the oven in 225 degrees.
So, I peeled and pre-boiled the potatoes for 5-10 minutes. Slice the onion, and half the orange. Squeeze the juize out of the other half and slice the other half to small chunks. Cool the potatos with cold water and cut into nice pieces. Put the potatoes, onion and orange into a casserole and add the orange juice and some olive oil. Spice with the herbs and sea salt. Roast for 40-45 minutes.

2008-08-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

No pictures, just some recipes I want to write up.

Small artichoke-pies
(From the book: Kasvisherkkuja juhlaan, Celia Brown)

Ingredients:

12 slices of toast
Soft butter or margarine for greasing
400 g artichoke hearts (in oil) chopped
55 g fresh, grated parmesan
2 fresh mild green chilis chopped, without seeds
3 tablespoonfuls of mayonese
Pinch of salt
Black pepper

Preheat the oven in 220 degrees. Cut round pieces from the bread with a glass (diameter about 5 cm). Grease the breads from both sides and put on the oven plate.
Mix the other ingredients and share on the pieces of bread. Bake the pies for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. Let cool for a while. Serve warm!

Grilled tofu-skewers (for 4-5 persons)

Ingredients

The sauce :
4 tbsp of dark soy sauce
2 tbsp of honey
5-6 drops of tabasco
2 tbsp of lime juice
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger

The skewers :
4 tbsp of flour
300 g tofu
Oil for the frying
1 ripe mango chopped in cubes
10 limecubes

Soak the spits in water. This should prevent them from burning in the grill. Mix the ingredients of the sauce.

Sprinkle the flour on a plate. Cut the tofu in about 20 small cubes and roll in the flour. Heat in a pan a 1 cm layer of oil hot. Fry the tofu in the oil crispy and golden brown. Turn once when frying. Don't let the cubes touch each other, so they won't stick. After frying let the tofu ooze in some kitchen towel and put in some bowl or a plate. Pour the sauce on the tofu, and if you have time let it spice up in the fridge.

Stick alternately mango-, tofu- and limecubes in the spits. I used also some mushrooms. Heat the grill and grill the skewers from each side quickly, since the tofu is already ripe. (Serve with noodels or rice.)

Blueberry-pie

2008-08-13T05:27:00.000-07:00

Blueberry-pie

So this pie was made from the first blueberries picked this year. I adjusted some recipes I found and this is what I came up with!

Ingredients:

THE PIE

3 ½ dl flour

125 g margarine

1 1/4 dl icing sugar

½ dl lemon juice

Preheat the oven in 175 degrees. Mix the flour, butter and icing sugar in a blender. Add the lemon juice and quickly stir to dough. Roll the dough to a circle and put it in the freezes for 10 minutes.

Now the FILLING

about 500 g blueberries (I used also some strawberries)

1 tl lemon zest

1 ½ - 2 dl soy yogurt (I used vanilla flavored)

½ dl soy flour

½ dl sugar

I used the soy flour instead of 1 egg - I mixed it with couple tablespoons of water. Blend all the ingredients.

Now take the dough out, and trample 3/4 of it on a circular cake tin (I used quite a large one). Put the filling on it, and then add the rest as the crust. I used a heart-shaped gingerbread mote as you can see in the picture, but I think you can use your imagination.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the pie is beautifully golden brown. (If wanted, sprinkle with icing sugar) Very good with vanilla ice cream! I prefered this better when it had cooled properly.

And of course this pie wasn't about perfection - I used some flow making the pie crust... This was a bit of a different version from the blueberry pie we usually make, very good for a change.