Brown Sauce ‒ Ruskiakastike

You know how French kitchen has four mother sauces that all the rest are based on? Well, my mother has just two: the brown sauce and the white sauce. This time I'll concentrate only on the brown one and save the white one for early summer and new potatoes.

English speaking world uses that wonderful term comfort food. Basic roux-based sauce with potatoes is certainly one of those for me. It's really simple in principle but it took me quite many years to learn how to properly prepare it. It got burnt, it got clumpy, it got watery. The key thing is knowing when to add the water. The flour should be roasted but not burnt. My mum, a child of the post-war shortage years, has learned to replace butter with good quality margarine but I've taken the progress even a step further. Oil seems to work just as well and you don't need it quite as much.

- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
- wheat flour (about 4 tablespoons)
- 4 dl water
- salt

Heat the oil in a sauce pan. Sift in the flour, in small batches. Keep stirring the bubbling mixture until it has acquired a beautiful colour. Add the water, again in small batches, stirring all the time. Season with salt. Let the sauce thicken up before removing it from the stove.

You can cultivate the sauce for example with mustard, onion and sausage slices. Tomato puree, oat cream and paprika make another yummy combination. Add red wine and herbs instead of water and you've just made yourself the best red wine sauce there is. And it's nearly always a good idea to pour a dollop of stock into any of them.

Nutritional values / 467 g:
energy 379 kcal
fat 28 g
protein 5 g
carbohydrates 27 g
fiber 2 g

Mustard Foam ‒ Sinappivaahto

I find the experimentalism of molecular gastronomy really fun and interesting. How could we ever come up with new recipes if we never played with food? That being said, this experiment clearly went onto my failure pile.

I saw this idea of mustard foam and thought it would make a nice dressing for my lunch salad featuring pear cubes and the remains of a seitan roast (the structure of which I like to make as dry and crumbly as I can). But the foam turned out way too faint and quickly vanishing for the mission so I had to substitute it with normal mustard instead. I can't really come up with any way to use this foam, save for the fact that fruit flies were happy to drown themselves in the liquid. Well, while I still have lecithin left I guess I'll have to make some other uses for it. Apparently it should make bread fluffier, and perhaps this type of foam would work better in hot drinks.

- 3 dl water
- 1 tablespoon mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon soy lecithin
(vinegar, salt, paprika)

First blend the mixture into a smooth liquid. Let it stand for at least fifteen minutes to let the mustard build up some burning sensation. Add some flavourings if you wish. Whip to get foam. Spoon the foam on whatever you wish to use it with.

Mustard Eggplant ‒ Sinappikoiso

A little while ago I found a recipe for vegan mustard herring from this Swedish page. I used to love the marinad herring is usually sold in so I thought I have to try this thing out. Well, this didn't go even near that one but it's still really good on rye bread, with mashed potatoes or used in cooking. So here's my English version of it:

- 1 eggplant
- 1 tbsp mustard powder (or non-sweet mustard)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tbsp apple wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp rape oil
- 1 dl oat cream
- salt
- (1 red onion)
- (1/2 pickle)

Slice the eggplant into strips. Boil the strips in salty water until they soften up just a bit (for about five minutes). Spread them on a towel for a moment. Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients (mustard, sugar, vinegar, oil and cream). If you're making this for the dinner table (that is, not for cooking) chop the onion and the pickle into small cubes. Mix everything together.

Nutritional values / 600 g:
energy 719 kcal
fat 57 g
protein 9 g
carbohydrates 42 g
fiber 11 g

Can Patties ‒ Tölkkipiffit

Normally I feel recipes using convenience foods despise my intellect. The recipe magazines published by big store chains will tell you to spice your soup with their instant soup bag since that way they'll get a better prize than if they'd just teach you how to prepare your own stock. That's not really a recipe. Anyone can figure out how to open up a bag.

This however is just too beautiful an idea to be sneered at.

- 1 can of thick pea soup (The kind with carrot and onion will fall apart.)
- mustard
- breadcrumbs
- rape oil for frying

Open the soup can from both ends. Use a drinking glass with a flat bottom to press the bar out intact. Cut it in six flat pieces. Smudge with mustard, roll in breadcrumbs and fry from both sides. The result has a similar type of structure to that of Arabian fallo... sorry, falafel balls but the taste fits better to Finnish mouth.

This also works when camping. Just leave the breadcrumps out and use the mustard only just before teeth. I'm sure my Trangia will be happy to prepare peas in some other form than soup for a change.

Nutritional values / 1 pattie / 90 g:
energy 128.6 kcal
fat 3.5 g
protein 6.8 g
carbohydrates 17 g
fiber 3 g

Mustard ‒ Sinappi

Some people will tell you to first read your recipes several times and then follow them rigorously. For me, this sounds very boring and lacking of personality. On the other hand, if you're making some dish for the very first time, it's easy to do a thing or two wrong and thus ruin the whole dish. I've solved the dilemma by always trying to find several recipes for the same thing. This way I can compare them, understand what are the essential parts and create food that best serves my own taste.

For example, yesterday I made my virgin flight for mustard, all Finn's favourite sauce. Borrowing from several sources I came up with a sweet mustard that mostly resembles the flavour of this company's mustards.

- 1,5 dl mustard powder (freshly grinded from seeds if you manage to find them)
- 1,5 dl brown sugar (which can be substituted with dark syrup)
- 2 dl oat cream (half of which can be substituted with coffee)
- 1 empty shampoo bottle

Those were the essentials. The following ingredients are only meant to add to the flavour and structure. Commercial mustards may also use chili or garlic.

- 1 tbsp potato flour
- 1/2 dl rape oil
- 1/2 dl vinegar (Some recipes only use as little as 1 tablespoon.)
- 1 tbsp brandy (Wonder if tar liqueur would do the trick?)

Mix the dry ingredients in a pot and combine with the liquids. Let the gunk come to a boil so it thickens up a bit, stirring the whole time. Take off from the stove. The mustard should thicken more as it cools down. A well-washed shampoo bottle makes an appropriate container.

Use on a soy sausage, with pea soup or in hamburger. Mustard also gives a nice flavour to sauces but that can be done with the powder.

Nutritional values / 500 g (without the brandy)
energy 1624 kcal
fat 91 g
protein 30 g
carbohydrates 170 g
fiber 3 g

Mustard Roast ‒ Sinappipaisti

For some reason the structure of seitan doesn't appeal to me in most cases. You really should both boil and fry it before savouring. In this roast however, the structure is nice and firm. Only used to make it for Christmas until I realised it's easy to prepare and great on sandwich anytime. The recipe is mostly formed by combining the ones presented in this forum. Now my only concern is how to cook something that wouldn't feel too everyday for next Christmas. (Well it's only 10 months away!) Probably by stuffing and decorating. Like this.

- 4 dl wheat glutein (seitan) flour
- 1 dl graham flour
- 1 dl soy flour
- 1 dl nutritional yeast (oluthiiva)
- 1 dl soy sauce
- 0.5 dl mustard
- 0.5 dl smooth tomato sauce
- 0.5 dl rape oil
- 1 chili
- 3 cloves of garlic
- paprika powder
- black pepper
- marjoram
- water (approximately 3 ‒ 3.5 dl)
- breadcrumbs

Mix everything except the breadcrumbs together with your hands. Try to use as little water as possible while still getting a dough out of it. Mold it into a roast and place on a sheet of folio. Cover with breadcrumbs. (The mustard can also be used on the roast in order to make the crumbs stick better.) Wrap into the folio and roast 1,5 hours in the oven in 175°C. Best served cold with mustard.

The amount of spices may seem large but seitan itself tastes pretty lame. Of course you can replace the spices according to your own taste but I wouldn't just leave them out. Then again, I do like my food rather strong-flavoured.

Nutritional values / 953 g
energy 1748 kcal
fat 54 g
protein 201 g
carbohydrates 113 g
fiber 16 g