Rhubarb Sima ‒ Raparperisima

It may be a bit too late for this recipe but at least it's now here for the next May Day. Besides, I imagine this would taste great in the summer when rhubarbs actually grow here. And I've heard that garden angelica also makes a good mead.

Different varieties of mead are probably known everywhere in the world. A part of Finnish May Day celebration is nowadays a sweet but zesty mead called sima (usually very mild in alcohol for the reasons I've ranted about before). In the 18th century it was only enjoyed by wealthy people but when the ingredients grew more wildly available it became an appropriate symbol for May Day that has a strong working class echo in Finland. Sima is usually sweetened with muscovado (fariinisokeri) and bittered with lemon but since I don't find lemon an especially typical Finnish fruit I thought I'd try a recipe I found from Härkäpapua sarvista (Irina Somersalo & al., Multikustannus 2007). I scaled down the amounts and it still seemed to work so here you go!

- 1 rhubarb stalk
- 1.5 l water
- 1.5 dl muscovado (or a combination of normal sugar and dark syrup)
- ginger
- a yeast crumble

Chop the rhubarb in small pieces. Put it in a jug together with muscovado and ginger. Boil the water and pour it on them. Stir. When the water has cooled down a bit add the yeast. (Do yourself a favour and don't exaggerate with the yeast. More yeast won't bring more alcohol, more sugar does.) Let the jug stand in a warm place for the next day.

Filter the sima and bottle it. Add a teaspoon of sugar to every bottle to get sparkling sima. Loosen up the tops a bit every day so the bottles won't break. The sima should be ready in about 3-5 days. A common trick is to put some raisins in the bottle so when they float, you know the sima is ready.

Nutritional values / 1.5 litres (counted from the ingredients):
energy 510 kcal
fat 0 g
protein 1 g
carbohydrates 124 g
fiber 2 g

Mämmi Patties ‒ Mämmipihvit

Most mämmi recipes are for desserts. Which is why I wanted to try a salty recipe I found from here, a bit veganized. I was very suspicious about them but at the end they did taste rather good. And even better cold in the next day. The mämmi however just somehow vanished so if you want to get the mämmi taste in them I recommend you try to increase the amount of it.

- 2 cooked potatoes
- 1.5 dl mämmi
- 2 dl soy yoghurt
- 2 dl wheat flour
- 100 g melting soy cheese
- 1 onion
- chive
- parsley
- black pepper
- salt
- rape oil for frying

Mash the potatoes. Grind the cheese. Chop the herbs and the onion. Sauté the onion. Mix everything together. Mold the paste into patties that you fry golden from both sides. (Got myself ten patties.) Put them in a 200°C oven for ten minutes. (Next time I think I'll keep them there a bit longer though.)

Nutritional values / 1 pattie:
energy 194.3 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 5 g
carbohydrates 17.9 g
fiber 2.1 g

Mämmi Drink ‒ Mämmijuoma

I hope you understood to hoard lots of mämmi when it was at its cheapest right after Easter cause I'm planning to post my experiments on ways to use it. If you didn't, here's a recipe.

This is a slightly tuned version of Mämmijuoma in a cook book called Härkäpapua Sarvista (Irina Somersalo & al., Multikustannus 2007). This is anything but light but it does work as a great recovery drink after sports because of the high amoount of carbohydrates.

- 2 dl mämmi
- 5 dl cold oat milk
- 2 dl frozen bilberries (or fresh bilberries plus additional ice crush)
- 2 tbsp Vana Tallinn (An Estonian liqueur with a distinctive taste. If you can't find any, try cloudberry liqueur or coffee liqueur instead.)

Blend everything smooth. Decorate with bilberries. Enjoy with sunshine.

Nutritional values / 1 serving: (Without the Vana Tallinn)
energy 531 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 11 g
carbohydrates 104 g
fiber 20 g

Blins ‒ Linnit

Remeber when I frowned upon vegan caviar? Well of course I had to try it. I've never eaten roe so can't say if it reminded that or not but I did love the taste and the structure. And so did my seaweed hating spouse so I guess we'll be buying these again. Wonder if something like this could be made home?

The natural thing to eat with caviar is of course blins. Finns usually think them as a Russian dish but in Russia the word may mean any kind of pancakes. In Finland the name always means small, round and above all, sour pancakes made from buckwheat. They're the salty option for sweeter pancakes that are usually eaten as a dessert.

I've tried many recipes for blins but before this all of them have involved eggs. Now that I left eggs out I couln't tell the difference. I used this recipe with couple of minor changes.

- 3 dl oat milk
- 2 dl soy yoghurt
- 15 g yeast
- 3 dl buckwheat flour
- 1 dl spelt flour
- 1 tsp dark syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 50 g margarine
- 1 dl beer, for example Lammin käki or Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA
- rape oil for frying (about 2 tbsp)

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk. Mix in the yoghurt, the flours and the syrup. Cover the bowl with a towel and leave in a warm place for couple of hours.

Melt the margarine and whisk it in as well as the salt and the beer. Fry small pancakes with plenty of oil.

Besides red Caviart we enjoyd these with fried shiitake mushrooms, minced onion, pickle slices and whipped soy cream. Yummy!

Nutritional values / 1000 g:
energy 2259 kcal
fat 73 g
protein 50 g
carbohydrates 244 g
fiber 19 g

Apple Goodness ‒ Omenahyve

My parents came for an Easter visit and since it's a couple of hours drive we decided we should prepare them a lunch. Of course they had eaten on their way here. Which was great since that way it didn't matter so much that I managed to bake a raw seitan roast. I kept it in the oven for 1.5 hours but apparently the frozen cranberries I stuffed it with barely managed to melt during that time. So we just ate potatoes and brown sauce with fried mushrooms and veggies.

Since I had exhausted all our baking powder and white flours the night before when trying to make a swiss roll (It came out a raw mush as well. Maybe there's just something wrong with our oven, not my cooking skills.) I made apple crumble for dessert. Luckily it came out perfect. Even my parents liked it though they usually make fun of everything I do. (Blame the oven!) Next time I think I'll try to add some rhubarb to bring more bitterness instead of the lemon juice.

- 5 large, bitter apples (or 10 small)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- nutmeg
- cardamom
- 1 dl sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2.5 dl rolled oats
- 100 g margarine (for example Keiju 70%)
- 1 dl talkkuna

Cut the apples in slices. Sprinkle them with the lemon juice, the cinnamon and dashes of nutmeg and cardamom. Lay them on an oiled casserole. Sprinkle the sugar on top. Rub the margarine together with the oats, the kama and the vanilla sugar by your fingertips. Cover the apples with the crumble. Put the goodness in a 225°C oven for 30 minutes or until the crumble on top looks golden brown.

Serve with ice cream or vanilla sauce.

Nutritional values / 1060 g:
energy 1756 kcal
fat 69 g
protein 21 g
carbohydrates 248 g
fiber 27 g

Beer Ice Cream ‒ Olutjäätelö

Before recently discovering this site I never imagined making my own ice cream. Turned out it's actually really easy. Ice cream consists of milk (or cream or yoghurt), sugar, possibly some gelatinous substance (like agar or potato flour) and of course aroma ingredients. You only need a special ice cream maker if you want to speed things up. Now I can no longer understand why anyone would want to buy ice cream for the freezer.

At the moment I've got a long list of ice cream tastes I want to try. I promise I'll tell you more about them after I've tried them out but meanwhile read what Agnes has to say. Also check this blog. (The guy has just started the English version but he's kept the same thing in Swedish much longer.) Or buy this or this recipe book. And if you really run out of ideas see the list of the world's most horrible ice cream tastes. Interestingly, nearly all of them are Japanese. There's also a "Finland ice cream" on that list but unfortunately they won't tell what's in it besides xylitol.

The first thing I decided to try was naturally beer ice cream. The idea originates from the Guinness factory so of course there's Guinness in it (Apparently Guinness extra stout is complitely vegan whereas Guinness Draught uses a fish swimbladder product called isinglass.) but after trying that one I'd go for some stronger tasting yet still thick and smooth beer cause my Guinness ice cream tasted more like oat than beer (although yummy it was anyway). Unfortunately my nearest brewery Plevna isn't allowed to sell out their products so instead I'd go with the Norwegian Nøgne Ø or Danish Nørrebro. (This being said without a clue of their possible animal additives. Usually quality beer makers tend to avoid empty extras that don't add to the experience.)

These amounts may seem a bit weird since I've converted them from American cups. Don't think it matters if you round them a bit though. It's funny how nearly every English-speaking country seems have a unit system of their own. In most recipes I just use 2.5 dl instead of one cup though it can be more or less.

4.8 dl oat cream
2.4 dl oat milk
3.5 dl creamy stout (for example Guinness Extra Stout)
1.8 dl sugar

Whisk the ingredients together. Put the bowl in the freezer. Remember to stir occasionally (for example every two hours) to break the icy glitter it would otherwise form. At the end of the freezing you'll need a blender to do this.

Generally speaking, if you put the cream in the freezer when making breakfast you can raise your scoop by the dinner time.

Nutritional values / 1223 g:
energy 1411 kcal
fat 50 g
protein 7 g
carbohydrates 210 g
fiber 7 g

Pea Omelet ‒ Hernemunakas

This is a quick and cheap but tasty dinner for weekdays. You can make it more foody by adding beans, mushrooms or veggies like tomato, bell pepper, beanstalks and onion. Just saute them a little before pouring the paste over them. It's also possible to roll stuffings into the omelet. That way you can substitute a snack sandwich or even prepare a dish for a bit fancier dinner party.

- 3 dl pea flour (or chickpea flour aka gram flour aka garbanzo flour aka besan flour)
- 3 dl water (sparkling water if you want a fluffier kind of structure)
- 1 chili
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp mustard powder
- 0.5 dl soy sauce
- 0.5 tsp turmeric
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp rape oil for frying

Chop the chili and whisk everything well together. Pour half of the paste into a hot oily frying pan. When the edges start to look golden turn the omelet over and also fry the other side for a moment. Then add oil and make another omelet in the same manner. (You can also spread the paste into a casserole and cook the omelet in a 250°C oven until it's turned golden.)

Nutritional values / 1 omelet (counted with chickpea flour):
energy 491 kcal
fat 21 g
protein 22 g
carbohydrates 53 g
fiber 10 g

Good Morning Smoothie ‒ Hyvän aamun pirtelö

I'm not really sure if it's right to call this a recipe cause it's so simple anyone can make it up. Still, I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite treats from my teens.

I call it good morning smoothie since if I was the morning person I dream to be this would be my ideal breakfast after jogging. Actually I'm not so I rather enjoy this in the evening under a blanket with the company of a good book.

Must have:
- 200 g frozen berries (in my case typically a mix of black currant, strawberries and raspberries but bilberries are great too)
- 1 blender

Optional additions:
- 200 g silken tofu (If you use tofu but not milk this actually becomes more of a silken sorbet.)
- 1 dl soy yogurt or oat milk
- 2 tbsp hemp seeds or almonds
- 0.5 dl soy flour
- 0.5 oat meals
- 1 fruit, for example a banana or a kiwi
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar

If you're using hemp seeds or almonds blend them first with a small amount of water. Then pour everything else in too and blend until mostly smooth. Enjoy right away.

Hemp Milk ‒ Hamppumaito

Making vegetable milks involves no magic. The instructions nearly always follow the same pattern: rinse the seeds you're using and soak them, blend smooth with some water (how much depends on the structure you're looking for), filter and season if you like (for example with vanilla and syrup). If you're using something like oatmeals you don't need the blending. If you're using things like soy flour you don't even need the filtering. Soy beans are probably among the hardests ones as they also need simmering for about half an hour.

Whether you make your own milks or buy them, I strongly encourage you to experiment with various milks. The same ice cream can have a very different underlining mother taste depending on whether you use oat milk, coconut milk, rice milk, soy milk, hemp milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, sesame milk, peanut milk, quinoa milk or yam milk. Also their structures vary a lot: coconut milk is very creamy and soy milk gives the nicest flavour to coffee. So even if I usually write "oat milk" (which is produced in Finland, sold in every food store and gives the pleasently round oat taste to most basic foods) in recipes you can substitute it with any one you want.

Here's for example the simplest recipe for hemp milk:

- 5 dl hemp seeds
- 1.5 l water

Let the seeds soak in water overnight. Next day, smash them. Keep adding water as you proceed. The smoother you make, the better the result. If you use a mortar or a grinder it's even possible to make fine powder you don't have to filter at all.

If this is not the case filter the milk through a cheesecloth. Be sure to use a dense enough textile. First time I tried this with a standard strainer and old stockings which of course resulted in a lot of hard black pieces in my milk and later in my hemp tofu or hefu. (Old t-shirt then again works better.) If the milk seems too dense add more water. Remember to shake before using. This isn't homogeni

The nutritional values depend on the hemp variety you're using (They vary surprisingly much. For example mine were especially rich in fat.), how well you've managed to grind them and how much water you used. Just to give a reference, here and here are the values of two commercially produced hemp milks.

Macaroni Casserole ‒ Makarooniloota

We often eat some fiber or protein rich pasta as a sidekick for the main dish. But me and my spouse haven't been able to make a deal about how to cook pasta. He thinks it should be al dente in South European style, I find crunchy pasta plain raw. So the ideal way to steamroll my opinion through is to make macaroni casserole. It's so easy to make that pretty much the only way to ruin it would be using raw macaronis. No one could ever want stony macaronis in their casserole.

This is one of those dishes that all the Finns love. (And I'm next to certain that the comfort food of Americans called macaroni and cheese resembles this a lot.) First it was just a sidekick, nowadays it has developed into a main course. But it can still be used as both. If you just want a sidekick leave out the soy, the cauliflower and the broccoli. And probably part of the milk. I shold test that myself.

- 4 dl full corn macaroni
- 3 dl soy crumbles (or pea)
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 1 broccoli
- 1 red onion
- 2 dl soy yoghurt
- 50 g blue-style soy cheese
- 3 dl oat milk
- 1 stock dose
- 1 chili
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 pucnd of fresh dill
- black pepper
- mustard powder
- oil for frying
- margarine for the casserole and on the top
- breadcrumbs for the casserole

Cook the macaroni with the stock. Soak the soy with the remaining broth. Chop the onion and the chili. Fry the onion and the soy together with the chili and other spices. Crumble the cheese into the yoghurt. Butter your casserole and cover with breadcrumbs. Mix everything except the milk and the remaining margarine in the casserole. Pour the milk evenly and top with a few margarine pieces. Bake in 200°C for half an hour.

Many peoople like to eat their macaroni casserole with ketchup. It's worth trying although this is quite delicious on its own.

Nutritional values / 1600 g:
energy 2454 kcal
fat 88 g
protein 104 g
carbohydrates 207 g
fiber 43 g

South-Ostrobothnian Beer Soup ‒ Eteläpohojalaanen kalijavelli

\o/ I made it! I cooked edible beer soup! And it only took me two tries.

This is a treat that my granny used to make. For some reason my spouse - and now that I think of it, pretty much everyone not from from South-Ostrobothnia - was very suspicious of this. I guess it just sounds like a weird idea for them to use beer in any other way than on it's own. Still, I recommend you to try. Remember, you've got nothing to loose, only to gain. And there's really only one thing you can do wrong with this: boiling it bitter.

- 270 g firm tofu (This replaces an oven fried fresh cheese called leipäjuusto. It fits great since it has the same kind of squeaky texture, but one day I'm going to try if it's possible to make leipäjuusto from soft tofu. Can't see no reason why it wouldn't work.)
- 1 l beer (traditionally kalja but any "easy" and soft one should do.)
- 0.5 l oat milk (actually, I substituted part of it with oat cream)
- 3 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 dl dark syrup
- 2 dl raisins
- a hint of salt
- margarine for frying

Cut the tofu in cubes and fry them well with margarine and part of syrup. Put them in a kettle with everything else. Whip it up a bit to make sure the flour has dissolved instead of forming clumps. (There also exists a clump soup but that's a different dish not involving beer.)

Warm up the soup until it has thickened. Keep stirring constantly. Be sure not to boil it! Beer will quickly turn bitter and inedible when boiled. (Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.)

Remember: it's better to leave the soup a bit runny than overboil and thus ruin it!

Nutritional values / 1.5 l:
energy 1524 kcal
fat 38 g
protein 58 g
carbohydrates 232 g
fiber 18 g

Mushroom Soup ‒ Sienikeitto

I used to hate mushrooms. Every autumn dad took me to the nearby forest to pick up russulas and milk-caps. It was fun. But when we got home he minced our mushrooms and fried them with a half a kilo of butter into a sloppy mush I thought repulsive. Later on my attitude was strengthened by those slimy canned champignon slices that cheap eateries use.

One day I just got disgusted by my own pickiness, bought a box of fresh champignos, chopped them a little, fried well with a drop of oil and realized they were delicious. Nowadays I even eat canned mushrooms from time to time. Next autumn I'm planning to go hunt them from the forest myself and dry for the winter.

Besides frying, another simple way to use them is in a creamy soup.

- 500 g or 1 l mushrooms (chanterelle is a classic)
- 1 red onion
- 1 stock dose (in my case 1 dl)
- 5 dl water
- 2 dl white wine
- 2 dl oat cream
- 1 tbsp potato flour
- 3 garlic cloves
- black pepper
- margarine for frying
- (2 dl barley grains)

In case you use barley first cook it with the water and the spices. Chop the mushrooms into chunky pieces. Chop the onion into semicircles. Sauté both and add to the soup. Let it boil for couple of minutes.

This also makes a nice sauce. Just leave out the water and the barley and only use 200 g mushrooms. And of course the same method can be used with many different soups. Just replace the mushrooms and the barley with your favourite veggie and soy strips. The fun thing about soups is you can experiment a lot without much fear of failing.

Nutritional values / 1 l (with barley) :
energy 1250 kcal
fat 32 g
protein 34 g
carbohydrates 167 g
fiber 31 g

Potato Soup ‒ Perunasoppa

I often find it easier to make one big portion than several small ones. This is a nourishing basic soup that lasts for a couple of days even in our voracious househould. It's one of my first cooking bravuras and one of the first applications I've learned to use tofu for.

- 8 large potatoes
- 270 g firm tofu (or more)
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 rutabaga
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 1 chili
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1.2 l water (increase if your soup starts to look like a stew)
- 2 dl stock
- 1 dl red wine (sweet dessert type fits best)
- 1 tbsp miso (dissolved in water)
- 1 tbsp curry
- oil for frying

Chop the tofu and the onion. Fry them with chili and curry. Chop other veggies as well and put them in a cattle with the rest. Cook until potatoes are soft (approximitely for an hour). Enjoy with rye bread.

Nutritional values / 1.5 l:
energy 1159 kcal
fat 39 g
protein 64 g
carbohydrates 119 g
fiber 26 g

Carrot Spread ‒ Porkkanalevite

Another tweaked spread idea from Monipuolinen kasvisravinto (Kaarina Virtanen, WSOY 2006). Although this sounds suspiciously healthy it got a lot of praise.

- 500 g carrots
- 100 g margarine
- fresh leek
- fresh thyme

Cook and mash the carrots. (I cooked them in the stock pot to add a little flavour.) Whip the margarine until it foams. Chop the others. Combine all.

Nutritional values / 650 g:
energy 695 kcal
fat 61 g
protein 4 g
carbohydrates 28 g
fiber 14 g

Horse's Cutlets ‒ Härän pihvit

Wee, I found some dried organic horse beans. They used to be a common ingredient in Finnish food before Christian invaders brought peas here. Ketunleipä had this patty idea which is apparently originally from a book called Veganomicon. That sounded like an ideal way to use the beans and make cutlets without lots of the costy gluten flour. (Moreover, these don't look quite as much like fried pieces of someone's bottom, which was a bit of a problem the first time I tried seitan.)

The stucture turned out nicely chewy but the taste was a little stale. Either I haven't familiarized myself into the flavour of horse beans yet or there was something wrong with my standard spicing. Maybe I should settle for just some apple cider, cranberries and herbs next time?

- 3 dl cooked horse beans (fava beans)
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 2 dl gluten flour
- 1 dl breadcrumbs
- 0.5 dl water
- 0.5 dl smooth tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp hemp butter
- 1 tbsp apple vinegar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 chili
- 2 garlic cloves
- oil for frying

Mash the beans and the oil into a paste. Throw in the rest of the ingredients. Shape into cutlets and fry. (I got 8 rather large ones from this portion.)

Enjoy with mashed potatoes. Or place between two toasts with onion, mustard and ketchup and voilá ‒ you've got yourself a hamburger.

In case I'll find the right way to spice these I just might make some for the freezer. They seem like something to take for a picnic or a grill evening.

Nutritional values / 1 cutlet / 73 g:
energy 150 kcal
fat 5 g
protein 13 g
carbohydrates 14 g
fiber 2 g

Mämmi

Some of you may have wondered what the name of my blog means. Mämmi is a traditional sweet rye pudding that's today known mostly as an Easter dessert. The sweet dish nowadays known as mämmi was originally eaten only in the Southwest whereas elsewhere in Finland a runnier sweet-and-sour dish also known in Eastern Europe was prepared.

One of my many plans is to tell you more ways to use mämmi all around the year. In the meanwhile go and find a book called Mämmi-kirja by Ahmed Ladarsi, the founder of The Finnish Mämmi Association. I'm sure I will. It's got 80 different recipes that use mämmi as a main ingredient.

For starters you need some mämmi. The recipes differ greatly, so I just followed the one that seemed most convincing (which in my case means taking the longest time to let it sweeten naturally). Now I've got four casseroles full of it and they won't all fit into my freezer. At some point I may have to try if this can be done as a smaller dose.

5 l water
1 kg rye malts
1.5 kg rye flour
0.5 tsp salt

If you wish:
2 tbsp powdered bitter orange rind (Of course this isn't an original spice but it is commonly added. Funny thing is that I've never seen any other recipe even mention the whole fruit.)

Heat 2 l water to a boil and pour it into a 10 l bucket. Add half of the malts and one fifth of the flour. Whisk well. Sprinkle a thick layer of flour on the surface. Cover the bucket tightly and leave it to sweeten for about two hours hours in a warm place.

Pour another round of hot water into the bucket. Add the rest of the malts and some flour. Whisk, sprinkle and cover as you did last time. Keep adding water and flour every two hours until they're finished. (I for example made four rounds.)

After the last sweetening whisk the mixture cool. Add the salt and the bitter orange at this point. Fill casseroles (or tuokkonens if you're happy enough to have some) half full but be careful not o overfill since mämmi may flood. Put them into a 150°C oven for three hours. Stir occasionally to prevent a hard crust from forming.

Conserve in cold. Mämmi is at its best after couple of days. The classic way is to serve it in a tuokkonen, a box made of birch park. Even commercial mämmis often have a birch print on their carton boxes. Try sugar and oat milk, whipped oat cream, vanilla sauce or ice cream with it.

Besides on its own, mämmi can be used in many, many ways in desserts, breads, beverages, sauces and even main courses. Anywhere you wish to have its smooth and sweet but malty flavour. We'll get back to that.

Nutritional values / 7500 g (counted from the ingedients, also check Fineli):
energy: 8365 kcal
fat: 52 g
protein: 263 g
carbohydrates: 1685 g
fiber: 368 g

Stock ‒ Liemipohja

One characteristic feature in Finnish cuisine is soups. They aren't just appetizers or snacks but quite often very filling main courses of the day. And all the cooks in the world know that the secret of a good soup is the broth, which is why they keep their special stock recipes secret. You should always have couple of different kinds of them available cause otherwies all your foods start to taste the same. Cooking a stock is all very easy but if you make a larger portion at once it quickens things up for busy days.

Some general guidelines:
1. Making a stock is a perfect way to recycle all the vegetable leftovers like peels and heads. If you use whole vegetables wash them normally and remove the clearly rotten parts but don't bother to peel. Remember you're not going to eat them.
2. Try to add something from all the basic tastes (except fat which has also got into this category lately): bitter, salty, sour, sweet and savory (aka umami).
3. Keep fat out of this since it doesn't store well. You can always add margarine or cream to the soup itself to make it richer.
4. Many alcohol drinks like wines or brandies fit this purpose well. But as much as I love beer this isn't the place for it since it turns bitter when boiled (as I learned when trying to make beer soup).
5. Don't exaggerate with any of the ingredients. If you want your broth to taste like white wine add white wine to the broth itself. Try to keep the stock well balanced and multifunctional.
6. Frying the veggies isn't necessary but it adds to the taste. The one you shouldn't fry is garlic since it may turn bitter.
7. If you for some weird reason want to clarify the stock use for example a clay called bentonite which is widely sold for winemaking.
8. When you're using the stock remember to let it come to a boil to get the taste out of it.
9. How much you should use the stock at once depends on your personal likings, the amount of other spices you're going to use and the denseness of your stock (aka how tighly you concentrate it). It may just as well be 2-3 ice cubes or 1 dl at a time.

Just to show you a couple of examples, here are the recipes for three stocks I've made so far. Next time I might try for example yeast pate (for example Tartex), cider, laurel, lovage, juniper berries or birch sap. Perhaps even a hint of strong tastes like salmiakki (Ammonium chloride), tar or horseradish might work.

Hearty stock:
- 0.5 rutabaga plus the skin and the head of the other half
- skins and heads of 500 g carrots
- skins and heads of 500 g beets
- 1 onion
- 1/2 garlic
- 1 punch of dill
- 8 whole black peppers
- 0.5 dl dark syrup
- 0.5 dl miso (dissolved in water)
- 0.5 dl apple wine vinegar (more aromatic than apple cider vinegar)
- 1 tsp monosodium glutamate
- 1 tsp salt

Zesty stock:
- leftovers from 1 white cabbage
- leftovers from 1 cauliflower
- cores and peels of 3 apples
- 1 sheet of algae (nori)
- 2 tsp dried yarrow flowers
- 2 dl white wine
- 0.5 dl lemon juice
- 0.5 dl mustard powder (Remember mustard condiment also contains oil and sugar.)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp monosodium glutamate
- 1 tsp salt

Spicy stock:
- 1 leek
- 500 g tomatoes
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 chili pepper
- all the dried herbs I had in the closet but couldn't recognize anymore
- 2 dl red wine
- 0.5 dl mämmi
- 0.5 dl sea buckthorn juice
- 1 tsp monosodium glutamate
- 1 tsp salt

Chop and fry the veggies on a dry pan. Put them in a cattle with the rest of the ingredients and 1.5 litres of water. Let them simmer without a lid. The stock is ready when at least half of the liquid has vaporized and the veggies have turned mashy (after approximitely two hours). Filter the stock, pour it into an ice cube tray (if you've saved plastic soy yoghurt cups or such they're also ideal for this) and freeze. The part that didn't fit there stores a few days in the fridge.