Beetroot Soup with Potato Dumplings ‒ Punajuuri-perunamykykeitto

All beetroot soups aren't borschtes, just like all cold tomato soups aren't gazpachos. According to Jaakko Rahola's excellent food glossary, borsch is a hot or cold Eastern European soup consisting of different vegetables. In Russia, these veggies always include beet and fermented broth used for pickling the beets, giving its distinctive taste which for most Finns is way too sour. One ingredient it never ever includes is vinegar, which by comparison is nearly always found from Finnish beetroot soups. So I wouldn't call this pink treat with the name of the famous Russian stuff but there is nevertheless a lot of resemblance with the neighbor. Shall we say it has a rather Eastern Finnish cling to it.

Then again, I topped my soup with dumplings which are more of a Western Finnish thing. Myky or more often klimppi is basically the same stuff as Russian pelmeni, German knödel, Italian gnocchi and numerous other dishes found around the world. But for some reason mykys aren't nearly as popular. In fact, many modern day Finns seem to find the whole idea of them repulsive. This shall definitely change if I can do anything about it!

- 5 beetroots (plus their leaves if you manage to acquire them intact)
- 300 g cabbage
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 apple
- 1 sausage
- 1 dose of stock
- 2 tablespoons rape oil
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 small bunch of thyme
- 1 dried chili pepper
- salt
- 2 l water

For the mykys:
- 5 cooked potatoes
- 1 dl semolina
- soup broth for boiling

Peel the root vegetables and shred them. Cook them together with the water and the spices. In the meanwhile, shred the cabbage and cook it on a frying pan with oil until it has softened up. Add the cabbage into the soup pot. Chop the sausage, the apple and the onion and roast them a bit on the pan as well. Add into the pot with the rest. The soup is ready when the beetroot pieces have turned soft.

If you wish to have mykys as well, simply mash the potatoes and mix the semolina thoroughly with them. Shape small balls out of the mass, a dessert spoonful at a time. Take enough broth from the soup to fill a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Drop the balls into the boiling broth carefully one at a time. Let them simmer for about ten minutes. Serve with the soup.

Nutritional values / 3773 g:
energy 1420 kcal
fat 36 g
protein 62 g
carbohydrates 198 g
fiber 40 g

Rowan Fudge ‒ Pihlajatoffee

This time of the year you really notice how many rowan trees there are in the city center as they all bear loads of delicious-looking (and very bitter) red berries. Too bad there are almost as many cars so we can only use the berries for throwing them at friends or admire them with dignity. Luckily this pet of the Finnish thunder god grows in some more peaceful places as well. After all, it is the first tree you should plant on the yard of a new house.

The recipe is an adaptation from the lingonberry fudge in the cook book Härkäpapua Sarvista (Irina Somersalo & al., Multikustannus 2007). The amount of brandy I added is so small you can't really taste it but this is easy to fix if you wish. And with the same basic method you could prepare salmiakki fudge or even garlic fudge which was also suggested by the book.

- 2 dl oat cream
- 3 dl dark sugar
- 2 tablespoons margarine (or coconut oil)
- 1 dl rowan berries
- 1 tablespoon brandy

In a saucepan, heat up the cream, the sugar and the margarine, stirring often until the basic fudge mass is ready. It may take some experienting to figure out the right time between caramel sauceness and lollipop hardness. After about 40 minutes it should have turned into a dark brown pile of thick bubbles. If you drop a bit into a glass of cold water, it should form a firm bullet but not become rock solid yet.

See all your berries are clean. Crush them a bit and add into the mass in small batches. Add the brandy as well and let the mass come to a boil once more.

Spread as a thick layer into a casserole covered with parchment paper. Let it cool down and refrigerate for a few hours. Cut in pieces.

Nutritional values / 547 g:
energy 1381 kcal
fat 41 g
protein 2 g
carbohydrates 244 g
fiber 5 g

Oven Baked Apples ‒ Uuniomenat

Have apple trees always made this many fruits? Seems that everywhere I look there are delicious looking red dots to test my moral. Quite a large percentage of them are newcomers since during the exceptionally cold winter of 1709 most apple trees in Scandinavia and even in northern Germany froze to death. And yet, the only good apples I've ever tasted have all been domestic (no, not even necessarily stolen).

I snatched the recipe for these oven apples from here but changed it for whole apples. The problem in cooking them like that is they tend to fall apart easily if you won't keep an eye on them. Oh well, at least that doesn't affect the taste.

- 5 apples
- 2 rkl margarine
- 1.5 dl oatmeal
- 1 dl lingonberries (or red currants)
- 1 dl sugar
- cinnamon

Wash the apples and remove the core. Melt the margarine and mix together with the rest of the ingredients. Fill the apple holes and top with one more spoonful. Bake in a 200°C oven until the crust has acquired some colour (about 20 minutes).

Enjoy with vanilla sauce or ice cream.

Nutritional values / 1 apple / 137 g:
energy 181 kcal
fat 5 g
protein 2 g
carbohydrates 30 g
fiber 3 g