Mashed Cabbage ‒ Kaalimuusi

Reading my father's autopsy report I learned that in the time of the death his arteries were already so clogged his life expectancy wasn't terribly long anyway. Knowing how good old daddy ate and how much he loved butter that didn't really surprise me much. But considering coronary disease is still the most common death reason in Finland (accounting to a whole quarter of all the deaths) and especially wide-spread among men, the low-carb craze occuring here for the last couple of years has seemed a bit worrying. Or to be more precise, at least the way most people seem to carry the it out in practise.

All this of course, should be no reason to disapprove every principle that comes from low-carb communities, say cutting down on so called fast carbohydrates or favouring home cooking from fresh ingredients. Nor a reason not to read their forums in search of good ideas. One of the brightest ones I've encountered is mashing cabbage just like potatoes. A extremely simple idea, helps to include more veggies in your meal during the cold season and most importantly, delicious as hell. During the past couple of weeks this is the third time already we've prepared this. Bear in mind that this isn't as filling as mashed potatoes, so remember it's going to vanish from the table much quicker.

- 1 small cabbage
- 50 g margarine
- green pepper
- nutmeg
- salt

Chop the cabbage and cook it until soft. Pour the water away (and save for tomorrow's soup). Add the rest of the ingredients. Mash until smooth.

Nutritional values /  850 g:
energy 507 kcal
fat 37 g
protein 10 g
carbohydrates 33 g
fiber 17 g 

Cabbage and Horse Bean Soup ‒ Kaali-härkäpapukeitto

Recently we moved into a bit bigger appartement. The migration itself felt like a complete chaos and we had to sleep the first night on friends' couch since we simply couln't fit in with all the junk, but there were some positive things in the day too. For one, the soup a friend of my flatmate's prepared for all our wonderful helpers. That version contained several types of beans and chili sauce, but I thought I'd stick more with the version she wrote down here. The twist is in combining two separetely prepared food items, which of course, you can use individually too. I couldn't find kale so I just replaced it with more red cabbage and nettle.

Cabbage Soup
- 1/4 red cabbage
- 1 1/2 onions
- 0.5 dl kale
- 2 tbsp thyme
- 2 tsp dill
- salt
- black pepper
- olive oil
- 1 tl dry nettle
- 3 l  water

Marinated horse beans
- 3 dl dry horse beans
- cayenne
- tomato paste (3 tbsp)
- olive oil (2 tbsp)
- salt
- (apple) wine vinegar
- (smoked) paprika
- black pepper
- dry basil
(sugar or in my case, a tablespoon of dark syrup)

Let the beans soke in water overnight. Rinse and cook until soft. (Remember to peel off the foam.) Rinse again. Mix the marinade ingredients with the beans. Try to make strong enough to actually give taste to the beans. Leave in the fridge for the next day.

Chop most of the onion as well as the kale and cabbage, leaving bot big and small parts. Sauté separetaly. Let the water come to a boil. Add thyme, dill, nettle, salt and pepper. Let it all simme for 10‒20 minutes. Combine the soup ingredients except kale and simmer for another 30‒60 minutes. Check the taste and add the kale about 5 minutes before the soup is ready.

Serve the soup with marinated beans and uncooked onion circles.

Nutritional values / 3852 g
energy 1217 kcal
fat 44 g
protein 66 g
carbohydrates 129 g
fiber 65 g

Red Cabbage Salad ‒ Punakaalisalaatti

Tonight we'll be having our own traditional pikkujoulu party with a group of friends, just like we did last year. The idea of trying weird glögis turned out so well last time we thought we'd repeat it with some fresh recipes. I've also baked a chocolate cake for the occasion but I haven't tasted yet in which way is it to die for.

While waiting for the dessert, here's an extremely simple sidekick salad. It takes practically no time to prepare so it's just what you need when noticing your Joulu table is still missing something fresh. Cabbage and lingonberry are quite a regular combination in Finnish kitchen but somehow the nuts give it that special festive feeling.

- 500 g red cabbage
- 3 dl walnuts
- 2 dl lingonberry cram (with only a hint of sugar)

Shred the cabbage. Combine everything. Say: "Hyvää ruokahalua!"

For hi-fi version, toast the nuts. Depending on what else you're having on the plate you could also add couple of tablespoons of (nut) oil and some fennel seeds.

Nutritional values / 815 g:
energy 1401 kcal
fat 119 g
protein 35 g
carbohydrates 47 g
fiber 41 g

Cabbage Casserole ‒ Kaalilaatikko

There's something very soothing in these numerous rustic casseroles. They're just the kind of thing I need when days grow shorter and colder and I wouldn't want to leave my bed at all. Unfortunately, this particular casserole is also one of those dishes that many Finns have learned to hate at school. All classics like that are something that I feel everyone should really try to cook themselves just once before judging. After all, if this isn't a comfort food I don't know what is.

This time I was out of barley so I used the rice that has been standing in my food closet for years. Funnily, the casserole seemed dried and more crumbling than with barley. If I'll repeat the rice version I think I'll add some oat cream to the recipe or at least use porridge rice.

- 1 kg white cabbage
- 2 dl barley
- 2 dl soy crumble (TVP)
- 1 onion
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- 1 tablespoon dark syrup (at least)
- garlic salt
- white pepper
- marjoram
- 2 tablespoons margarine

Cook the barley. Chop and sauté the cabbage to soften it up. Chop the onion and fry together with moistured soy crumble and spices. In an oven proof casserole, mix everything together and spread evenly. Top with margarine pieces. Stick into a 200°C oven until the surface has acquired some colour (at least half an hour). Avoid overcooking since that may also result a dry casserole.

Cabbage casserol is best enjoyed with lingonberry jam.

Nutritional values / 1415 g:
energy 1391 kcal
fat 51 g
protein 54 g
carbohydrates 177 g
fiber 51 g

Gratin for Four Brassicas ‒ Neljän kaalin gratiini

Once again I had some problem with translating the title. Technically, the Brassica genus covers a rather wide sounding range of plants from mustard to turnips. To my understanding you can't just use 'cabbage' as an umbrella term for the varieties of the species Brassica oleracea as with the Finnish equivalent kaali, so I thought it better to label the dish with the whole genus' name. Maybe mustard would work as a nice spice here.

If you ever have the misfortune of attending to a Finnish funeral you'll almost certainly find some form of this gratin in the menu. And yet, these are all veggies that seem to divide opinions among Finns. My theory is that haters have only eaten them poorly prepared and covered with cheese so no one would taste the bland stuff underneath. (Cheese is an almost certain sign that there's something severely wrong with any given gratin. And I'm not alone with this opinion.) Most recipes tell to precook the kraut but I prefer to save some of the crunchiness.

- 1 cauliflower
- 1 broccoli
- half a white cabbage head
- half a red cabbage head
- 1 portion of white sauce
- yarrow
- white pepper
- rape oil for buttering
(- bread crumbles on top)

Prepare the sauce. Chop the veggies and mix them with the spices. Butter an oven casserole and lay the brassicas into it. Pour the sauce evenly on them. Cook in a 225°C for 25 minutes. Turn them a bit in the middle of the cooking.

Brussels sprouts and German turnips would also fit here perfectly. With some fried soy flakes it turns into a main course.

Nutritional values / 2780 g:
energy 1165 kcal
fat 51 g
protein 69 g
carbohydrates 95 g
fiber 50 g

Chocolaty Sauerkraut Stew ‒ Suklainen hapankaalipata

My favourite food is called mush. Others have invented flashier names for it though I think they're only designed to hide the truer essence. You hardly need a recipe for them since their very idea is to take a pot and stuff it with anything you find from the closet or the refrigerator. This can sometimes lead into quite dubious looking concoctions. I'm still sincerely wondering if I should divide this ingredient list into two, just for the sake of people with further developed taste buds than me. But then again, perhaps there are some other twisted minds out there.

If you can't stand sauerkraut but would like to give this a try nonetheless, flush the sharpest taste out of your kraut with water ‒ or just use freshly shredded cabbage instead. One warning: I've never run into this problem myself but little birds told me that using vanilla-flavoured chocolate in salty dishes may result in even weirder taste results.

- 300 g seitan strips
- 5 dl sauerkraut
- 2 dl beans
- 2 large apples
- 40 g dark chocolate (semi-sweet, at least 70 %)
- 1 tablespoon rape oil
- 1 tablespoon tar syrup
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
- 4 dl beer (I only had dark lager this time but I imagine stout or thick porter would fit even better)

In a large pot, heat up the oil. Fry the seitan and the beans until they've acquired some colour. Drain the sauerkraut and add it into the pot. Add the spices as well. While they warm up, peel (or just wash if you're using organic) and cut the apples. Mix in the apple chunks, the beer and finally, the chocolate. Let the stew simmer for few more minutes so everything becomes just one big mess.

Decorate with pickled onions.

Nutritional values / 1510 g:
energy 1778 kcal
fat 45 g
protein 126 g
carbohydrates 182 g
fiber 52 g

Sauerkraut ‒ Hapankaali

Last Sunday I got to see a Unesco world heritage site called Sammallahdenmäki. It's a Bronze age burial site that was used for a thousand years. Nowadays it's a beautiful granite hill covered by colourful lichen species and a few dwarfy pines but in the beginning of the construction it must have looked completely different. The place used to lie on a seashore and the climate was subboreal, meaning the temperatures were much like those that Central Europe now enjoys. Pine hadn't arrived yet and nut trees were fairly common. Weirdly, we know more about the religious views and language of those people than such tangible things like what they ate. Judging from what was available it might have been much closer to what dietitians recommend than a typical nutrition of today, at least during the good years.

One food preparation method that was very likely used intensively was fermenting. And as a food enthusiast I of course want to learn how to do that myself. After all, fermented dishes are still something that everybody should eat on a daily basis and the commercially produced ones tend to be spoiled by pasteurizing. The classic to start with is naturally sauerkraut.

This doesn't really require a recipe but I'm going to tell you how I made it anyway. There are varying instructions out there and my chemistry knowledge is scarce so I can't really tell which ones are based on actual evidence and which are more like folklore. That's why I try to explain just the guidelines and leave the experimenting for you.

(That miserable greyness in the photo is by the way the view from my kitchen window at noon. That's the brightest it gets right before winter solstice.)

- 1 cabbage head
- 2 carrots (or other veggies)
- 1 tablespoon caraway (or other spices)
- 1 tablespoon salt

Grind or shred the cabbage and the carrots. Add the caraway and the salt. When the cabbage starts to sweat (because of the salt) start beating it with any mallet or jar available. The idea is to get so much juice out it covers the cabbage. If the cabbage has already seen it's best days it may be so dry that this never happens. In that case dissolve some salt into boiling water, cool down and pour over the cabbage.

Put the cabbage with its juices into a clean and airtight vessel (I just use glass jars with a weight on top). Press the cabbage below the juice level so it won't touch the air and rotten instead of lacto-fermenting anaerobically. Let your forthcoming sauerkraut sit in room temperature from 3 days to 6 weeks depending on how strong you want it to be. The reason for moving it into a colder storage place after couple of days in some recipes is to slow down the process. Notice the vessel will flood over unless there's a lot of empty space left. Sometimes mold appears on top but this isn't dangerous ‒ just peel it off.

When sauerkraut has stopped bubbling it should taste pleasantly tart. Don't eat if it has turned soft. The taste matures for about six months if stored well in cool temperature (like fridge). If you think it tastes too sore rinse with cold water before eating. Sauerkraut can be used as a salad, in green smoothies or even in hot dishes (though heating of course destroys the largest health benefits). It's a good habit to always add a spoonful on your dinner.

Nutritional values / 1730 g (counted from the ingredients, also see Fineli):
energy 534 kcal
fat 3 g
protein 19 g
carbohydrates 102 g
fiber 37 g

Beer Pots with Potato Crust ‒ Olutruukut muusikuorrutteella

To make the best of those awesome colours of the trees right now I tried to imitate them for the perfect autumnal Sunday dinner. I've never really learned how to use pumpkin so I was going to put some into this. However, I only managed to find huge halves that cost about 10 euros a piece. That's a bit more than I'm ready to pay even for domestic veggies. So instead, I bought 3 kilos of rutabaga with one euro. We'll see where I manage to cram them.

Oh, by the way, the colours of these couple of last photos aren't that awesome. That's because I thought I'd just use my camera's inbuilt flash and filter the ugliest direct light with a yellow dishcloth. Getting the white balance even close to natural after that took me longer than preparing this dish. Maybe next time I understand to fetch a real flash even if the Simpsons is about to start.

- 1 small rutabaga
- 1 large carrot
- 1 celeriac
- 10-15 brussels sprouts
- 0.5 l beer, for example Sinebrychoff Porter or Fuller's London Porter
- 2 dl seitan flour
- 0.5 dl rowan berries
- 1 chili
- 1 dl nutritional yeast
- 1 dose of stock
- white pepper
- 4 potatoes
- 1 dl oat cream
- dragon's wort

Squash the rowan berries and the chili. Make a paste of them and the seitan flour. Add some as well water if needed. Cut the seitan and the vegetables into strips and sauté them. Add the stock, the yeast and some white pepper.

Cook the potatoes. Mash them together with the cream and the dragon's wort. Never apply a blender or other sharp blades to potato unless you want to get glue.

Next you'll need four small oven pots. If you're going to use normal mugs, first check that they're meant to last in the oven. Unfortunately, cheapest ones rarely are. Portion the veggie and seitan mixture into the pots. Pour the beer on them. Scoop the mashed potatoes on top. Put the pots into a 175°C oven until the potato mash starts to turn golden from the edges (about half an hour).

Serve with pickles and lingonberries.

Nutritional values / 1 pot:
energy 357 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 24 g
carbohydrates 36 g
fiber 8 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.

Cabbage Rolls ‒ Kaalikääryleet

I just love cabbage. It's savory and one cheap head feeds a family for a week. One of the home made dishes everyone's mum used to make is of course cabbage rolls, though I suspect the recipe was originally borrowed from Russians. Which is probably why one thing you should definitely also try is a mushroom filling.

- 1 white cabbage
- 3 dl textured soy protein crumbles (that is, soijarouhetta)
- 2 dl barley grains
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 onion
- 1 chili
- 3 garlic cloves
- syrup
- margarine
- blue-style soy cheese (For example Sheese)
- broth

Boil the cabbage head for about twenty minutes. Be sure not to throw away the tasty broth. Peel of about 15 biggest leaves. (The rest of the cabbage can be used to make a cabbage soup.) Thin the petioles with a knife. Cook the oat grains and fry the soy with chopped onion, chili and garlic. Mix the cream into the oat pot.

Now you're ready to roll! Everyone has their own technique with this. The main thing is just not to stuff them too full. I usually lay one teaspoon of oat and one teaspoon of soy on each leaf, top the thing with a pat of cheese and fold both ends together so that the result is more of a square than a roll. Now quickly turn it over into a casserole, so the seam side stays closed. Lay the rolls tightly side by side. Scoop broth on them enough to fill the casserole half way through. Pour syrup on the rolls with a liberal hand. Top with margarine pats and let them bake in 225°C for an hour. If they start to look dry in the oven baste them with a little more broth and syrup.

Serve with lingonberry jam and potatoes.

Nutritional values / 1 roll / 100 g
energy 116.7 kcal
fat 5.1 g
protein 4.5 g
carbohydrates 13.1 g
fiber 3.1 g

Cabbage Soup ‒ Kaalisoppa

This is an easy, tasty and light dish that my mom used to make. You can portion it into the freezer or serve to a larger crowd. And the best thing is that the more you cook it the better it gets.

- 1 white cabbage
- 5 large potatoes
- 1 onion
- 3 dl textured soy protein flakes (soijahiutaleet in Finnish)
- 1 chili
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp miso
- 1 tbsp dark syrup
- a bunch of fresh chives

Boil the cabbage for around twenty minutes. Make sure not to throw away the tasty broth. Tear of the leaves from the cabbage. (If you want you can save the biggest leaves to make for example cabbage rolls.) Chop the rest of the cabbage as well as the potatoes and put them back to the broth. Let them cook while you add the rest of the ingredients.

If you want you can fry the soy with the onion, chili and garlic before adding them to the pot. Add water according to your own taste of thickness. The miso should be dissolved in a cup of water before adding it in, which is something you may want to at the very end since boiling destroys some of miso's nutritional benefits. The soup is ready when the potatoes are.

Nutritional values / 2000 g (= without the water)
energy 1110 kcal
fat 12 g
protein 54 g
carbohydrates 185 g
fiber 42 g