Cloudberry Cups ‒ Lakkamaljat

My spouse prepared us a habanero pie for dinner so I took care of the dessert. This one gets full 10 points for the effort/luxury ratio. The only part that involves cooking is the caramel sauce, but even that only takes 15 minutes or so. Learning how to make it involves some trial and error (I've usually ended up with a chewable fudge instead of a sauce) but even so the result is rarely anything of which you wouldn't enjoy destroying all the evidence.

I've rarely used cloudberries in my recipes though they're among the most delicate tasting berries I know. It's pretty telling how many names it has even in literary Finnish: lakka, hilla, suomuurain, valokki and lintti are the most common ones you hear. The problem is they live in swamps and though Finland in general is the swampiest land on the planet there's barely any anywhere near where I live. So every time I've met a cloudberry I've picked it straight into my mouth. Picking them isn't quite as fast or easy as say, picking lingonberries either since one shrub only bares one berry and you need to move a lot around, bending and stretching. Which is why they also cost several times more than most berries and I bear to buy them only about once a year.

- 500 g cloudberries
- 4 dl vanilla flavoured soy or oat yogurt
- 1.5 dl farin sugar
- 1 dl oat cream
(- 3 tsp instant coffee powder)

Measure the sugar, the cream and if you wish, the coffee powder into a pot. Cook it on a low temperature, stirring most of the time. When it starts to look more like a pile of frog spawn than just regular boiling liquid you can try dropping a small spoonful into a glass of cold water.

If the result sticks together instead of dissolving into the water you are done and should quickly take the pot away from the heat. In case you can even mold the drop between your fingers congratulate yourself for you have managed to prepare fudge by cooking the sauce too long by a minute or two. You can still probably pour it over the dessert but it does require chewing.

Pour half of the yogurt on the bottom of your serving glasses. Carefully add half of the cloudberries and then half of the sauce. Make a second layer of them all. Serve immediately.

Nutritional values / 1105 g:
energy 1787 kcal
fat 23 g
protein 27 g
carbohydrates 158 g
fiber 36 g

Cloudy Brussels Sprouts ‒ Lakatut ruusukaalit

It's usually the protein on the plate that gets the most attention, while the sidekick is some quickly tossed salad or potatoes. Thought I'd turn this upside down for a change and learn to use my imagination on sidekicks as well. So I took some store-bought tofu steaks, smeared them with smoky chili sauce and fried on the pan. Then I turned my attention towards the sidekick, which today was all about those small but sweet cabbages that so many people seem to mistake as bitter and bland after they've met badly cooked individuals one or two times too many.

Brussels sprouts are often combined with smoky flavours and nuts but orange and sweet things also seem like common pairings. I thought I'd replace orange with something more appropriate for autumn, and so cloudberries happened to match the colour. These came out really quickly but seem fancier than you'd expect for a regular Thursday meal.

- 400 g Brussels sprouts
- 0.5 dl cloudberry jam
- 50 g margarine
- 2 tsp apple wine vinegar
- mint

Set the sprouts to steam for about ten minutes. In the meanwhile, whisk all the other ingredients together. If your sprouts are really big you can half them after they've softened up. Otherwise, just mix them with the sauce. Spoon on your plate. Try not to lick your plate like I did.

Nutritional values / 518 g:
energy 505 kcal
fat 37 g
protein 6 g
carbohydrates 34 g
fiber 17 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