Rhubarb Chutney with Chili ‒ Chilinen raparperihilloke

Before 18th century Finns usually acquired sourness to food by using levain. Then vinegar was introduced and eventually it became really popular. In restaurants and higher class families it used to be a basic table condiment along with salt and pepper. But in Finland vinegar usually meant white vinegar made from barley spirits whereas in Southern Europe vinegar used in food is nearly always made from different wines.

I have a small collection of different vinegars in the kitchen closet, but my most trustworthy bottle lives in the bathroom. I tend to use apple wine vinegar in everything from cooking to cleaning to hair and fabric conditioner. It's a different thing than apple cider vinegar which the English speaking world seems to be most attracted to and which I don't believe I've ever even seen. From what I can gather, apparently their acidity is about the same but apple wine vinegar has a mellower and perhaps fruitier taste from the two.

This recipe however uses the classic white vinegar which has as high as 10% amount of ethanolic acid but is otherwise rather odorless and colourless. In case you want to replace it with some other type, you probably need a bit more and you'll also get yet another taste in the mix. The rhubarb itself is also sour of course, so I used sugar to round the taste a bit. It became a wonderful condiment for the first barbecue of this summer, together with cherry tomato, tempeh and zucchini skewers as well as this year's last asparagus rolled in seitan.

- 800 g rhubarb stalks
- 1 onion
- 1 bell pepper
- 3 chili peppers (I used aji benitos)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 dl farine sugar (or muscovada)
- 0.5 dl white vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- cinnamon
- cardamom

Chop the veggies. Put everything in the same pot. Cook about half an hour and stir every now and then. Let the chutney cool down. Pour it in clean glass jars. Let it rest for couple of days.

Serve as a condiment with any dish. Works especially well on any grilled or deep fried dishes.

Nutritional values / 1422 g:
energy 1069 kcal
fat 1 g
protein 12 g
carbohydrates 239 g
fiber 18 g

Ohratto for Springtime ‒ Keväinen ohratto

This blog has been a break for the past couple of years now, and I must say that has bothered me quite a bit. Since food blogging is really fun and tends to improve my cookings about 200 % I thought I'd start writing again, and while I'm at it, do some other, hopefully helpful changes as well. We'll see about them, but now, let's move to the most important thing, food.

Ohratto has become quite a popular Finnish version of the Italian delight risotto. The basic difference is it's made of a more domestic grain, that is barley or ohra in Finnish. I actually wondered if I could translate it barleyetto or something, but that just sounded awful so I leaved the Finnish name intact. (Edit: seems like I've done that already.) They can be prepared as sidekicks, but more often they belong to that simple yet wonderful category of nutritious one-pot meals. Ohrattos often get their taste from seasonal vegetables. In autumn this might mean mushrooms, during the peak grilling season you could add grilled fruits in it. Now that the Sun has started to shine again and my first herb seeds are pushing those teeny-weeny green leaves I feel it's time for fresh and crunchy tastes.

From many ohratto recipes the one I mostly used was this one. But I also wanted to add those first asparaguses I've seen in the store this year since I never seem to be able to just pass them by. If you're using whole barley which hasn't been precooked you may want to soak them for a few hours to shorten the cooking time.

- 300 g asparagus
- 200 g frozen peas
- 1 onion
- 3 dl barley
- 1 l water
- 1/2 lemon
- 2 dl oat cream
- 1 tbsp rape oil
- 1 dose of stock
- 1 tsp apple wine vinegar
- 1 small punch of fresh coriander
- 1 garlic clove
- black pepper
- salt

Mince and sauté the onion in the oil. If the asparagus stalks seem thick and hard, peel them carefully. Then chop them for nice mouth-fitting pieces and throw in with the onion. When the asparagus has turned deep green but not lost its crunchiness yet, add the barley. Keep stirring for a few minutes before pouring the water to the pot as well as the stock and salt.

While the barley is cooking, juice the lemon and crate its peel. Also, take the peas out of the freezer, chop the coriander and mince the garlic. After the barley seems cooked but not turned all soft, add the rest of the ingredients. You can save some of the coriander leaves for decoration on top.

Nutritional values /  2242 g:
energy 1433 kcal
fat 41 g
protein 51 g
carbohydrates 207 g
fiber 47 g

White Sauce ‒ Valkokastike

When writing about the brown sauce I promised to tell you later about the other mother sauce my mum makes, the white sauce. Just like the brown one, this is really simple but can be used as a base for many other sauces. While I tend to associate the brown sauce with winter, the white one is much more summery. It crowns many of those seasonal delights of springtime: new potatoes, asparagus, fireweed and dandelion leaves or artichoke but can also be used for seitan steaks or in lasagna. French cuisine calls it béchamel.

- 3 tablespoons wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons margarine (of good quality!)
- 5 dl soy milk (I find this works better than oat milk but that's naturally only a matter of taste)
- white pepper
- herb salt

Melt the margarine in a sauce pot. Sift in the flour, stirring all the time so it won't get clumpy. Add the milk as a thin strip, stirring all the time. Spice up. The sauce is ready after it has thickened up.

For asparagus and dandelion I like to add some mayonnaise and a teaspoon of vinegar. Dill, garlic and blue-type soy cheese also fit here just perfectly.

Nutritional values / 5 dl:
energy 469 kcal
fat 32 g
protein 24 g
carbohydrates 25 g
fiber 1 g