Green Fava Bean Toast ‒ Härkäpapupaahtoleipä tuoreista härkäpavuista

Today I got to taste fresh fava or horse beans for the first time in my life. They're one of those plants traditionally grown in Finland, which have almost been forgotten from the way of imported goodies, along with other such nutritious and tasty plants like hemp, turnip and buckwheat.

I do understand why restaurants don't want to use these fresh. Processing just a small patch like this meant several hours of work - and by work I mean the actual active time I did something with my hands, not just waiting while it cooks. But you never see these sold fresh either. This rare chance was all thanks to us planting and harvesting the beans ourselves in our small allotment garden.

So why is it such a hard work? Well, first you have to peel the beans out of their pods, then boil in water for 3-5 minutes and then individually pop them out of their skins as well before continuing to the actual cooking part. Of course, one way would also be to just serve them with greasy sauce and let the eaters peel the skins off. They're not related to new world beans in any way, so they're not poisonous to eat raw, just a bit unpleasant unless really young and small (in which case it's OK to use the pods as well). It's enough to cook them lightly so the aromas don't get waisted and the structure doesn't go mushy.

I wanted to try a rare treat like this really simply, so I used this recipe from a Swedish book Smakernas återkomst: när maten följer årstiderna (Ordfront förlag 2011) by a reporter Mats-Eric Nilsson. The instructions were a bit vague so I'll just tell how I did them.

- 5 dl precooked fava beans
- 6 slices of white sour bread
- 2 shallots
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- basil (I mostly used dill since we happen to have lots of it fresh)
- salt

Mince the shallots and sauté them in olive oil. Add the beans. Fry a few minutes more. Sprinkle with salt, basil and more oil. Move aside. Toast the bread slices on the pan as well.

Scoop the beans on the bread slices and enjoy on the spot.

Nutritional values / 790 g:
energy 1319 kcal
fat 44 g
protein 56 g
carbohydrates 173 g
fiber 32 g

Himalayan Balsam Pasta ‒ Jättipalsamipasta

The plant known as policeman's helmet or Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is native to the Himalayas, as the name might suggest for the brightest of us. In recent years however, it's become a real menace in Finland too. It looks pretty, so people have planted it in their gardens but it's managed to spread very effectively, invading the habitat areas of more domestic species with its huge and dense growing stalks. Luckily, unlike most other invasive weeds, this one is completely edible, so we can try to get rid of it by filling our bellies. Before flowering the stem can be used as a vegetable, the flowers themselves look decorative and the seeds make a nice snack. Unless of course, you let the pods explode and scatter their seeds all around up to seven metres. Simple minded people like me could be popping them open for hours in a row just for the fun of it.

This time of the year the stems have already gone a bit woody, but since I wanted to try this idea of filling them which I nicked from Sami Tallberg's Villiyrttikeittokirja (Readme.fi 2010), I wanted to try anyway. I was going to use cashew cheese here but since it had gone bad already while waiting for me to get round to actually doing this, I had to settle for basic store-bought spread. Tallberg describes the taste as peppery, but I got a little disappointed from the plant's lack of flavour, especially considering how aromatic it seems. This pasta might need something with more zest, say celery or extra apple. The seeds were crunchy and nice though, so they can make a nice addition to dishes. Next time I think Imight try roasting them a bit. Collecting them is less work if you wait until they're ready to pop open. Just place a bag around them and poke with your finger.

- 250 g good quality pasta
- 3 Himalayan balsam stems
- 1 dl Himalayan balsam seeds
- 4 small apples (not those watery market varieties but real apples)
- 5 spring onions with their stalks
- 50 g soy-based cream cheese spread
- 0.5 dl white wine
-  2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tbsp spruce syrup
- 1 garlic clove
- white pepper
- salt
- flowers to decorate

Cook the pasta in well salted water. Chop the onions and sauté them in plenty of oil.Cut the apples in four parts and remove the core. Throw them on the pan as well. When the pasta is done, pour away the water. Then add the onions, the apples, the wine, the syrup and the seeds.

Crush the garlic. Mix it and pepper with the cream. Peel the balsam stems and fill them with the cream. I find this is easiest done with a syringe. If the cream seems too thick for this, add a little bit of oat milk. Cut the stems in pieces.

Arrange the stems on pasta portions. Decorate the plate with some flowers.

(I wasn't able to find any nutritional information for the balsam, so I guess there's no point in counting it for the rest of the dish either. I'll add it here in case the situation should change.)

Pea Soup from Fresh Peas ‒ Hernekeitto tuoreista herneistä

The weekend was quite inspirational when it comes to food. This is why every food enthusiast should regularly try dishes completely different from their own stables. It helps to remember: oh yes, so many different flavours and mouth feels exist and I too, could try achieving them and learn how to change between worlds so different.

On Saturday I went to my 2-month old godchild's naming ceremony. The proud parents invited both of their families to enjoy oh-so-classic standing stable meal similar to the ones I've eaten in almost every wedding and funeral I've ever taken part of. I had potatoes with brown sauce, bean salad, broccoli gratin, a nettle-filled bread roll and the drink of Louhisaari. And the star of the day got a pretty name too. She became Taru, a name meaning fairytale in Finnish. With a name like that she just must inherit her mum's red hair. After all, daddy already bought her first tank.

On Sunday we went to four pop-up restaurants of the Restaurant Day held all over the city. We got dadaist Russian-inspired pizza with sauerkraut, chili packed inside focaccia in the park, raw sushi and green smoothie from an Alice of Wonderland and vegetable soup with very lovingly combined garnishes together with kombucha in the balcony of a yoga school located in the harmonious surroundings of Pyynikki. All of them were made with care and carried along the very personalities of their makers. This is something I never seem to find from real restaurants. Recently I flipped through an acquaintance's portfolio pictures from cook school and got really depressed on how uninspired and unappetizing their meals looked and sounded. But it's only his first year so perhaps I shouldn't blame the whole field yet. At least they seem to concentrate on something of more substance than disguising the plates as abstract art.

On both days I also dropped by in Chilifest, held in the main square, where some severely badass people compete over the world championship of eating naga morich. We just settled for shopping sauces and spices. No new younglings as impulse buying this time since our window shield is quite full of chili plants already. Perhaps I should try more about incorporating the fiery fruits in traditional Finnish dishes.

Coming back to the "what should I cook today" subject with my head squirming with fresh ideas, I thought that for once, I could try making the classic Thursday soup while the main ingredient is still fresh from the stalk. Interestingly enough, nearly all the recipes I found when trying to google similar ones actually used frozen peas though the name talked about freshness. It's quite alright to make this quick soup for lunch or dinner in wintertime too, but please don't try to deceive me with a badly chosen title.

Unlike in the dried pea version, I pureed most of the peas to achieve a velvety structure and tweaked it more summerish with fresh tasting herbs. The main spice is sage, inspired by the famous Saint-Germain soup. You can also let this cool down before enjoying on a hot day.

- 1 l fresh pea pods (or 400 g frozen peas)
- 5 dl water
- 1 dl oat cream
- 1 small punch of fresh sage
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 portion of stock
- small piece of horseradish
- mint
- thyme
- salt

Peal the pods and put  the peas in a pot together with the water. Add the spices as well. Let the peas summer until they're soft. Puree the whole soup. (I like to use a hand-held blender for this since it still leaves bits and pieces untouched and the structure thus more varying.)

Mix the cream with the rest of the soup. Garnish with herb oil, lightly roasted sunflower seeds and couple of salvia leaves. Especially nice if served with an oven-baked bread.

Nutritional values / 1000 g:
energy 283 kcal
fat 10 g
protein 13 g
carbohydrates 38 g
fiber 13 g

Apponens ‒ Apposet

My spouse doesn't really care for fresh peas, and even I have to admit those things you can buy from the market square in our neighbour aren't nearly as good as the ones we grew in our backyard in my childhood home. These are less sweet and the pods so woody they're practically inedible. Guess we just picked them before they were fully developed.

This time of the year you can get them really cheap, so I like to make something out of them. This way they get soft and sweet again. But warning: they get devoured fast too. This is about the amount you should reserve for each eater:

- 1 l sugar pea pods
- 1 l water
- 2 tbsp sea salt
- 50 g margarine

Add the salt into the water and let it come to a boil. Throw the peas into it for about 15 minutes. In the late summer they might need more boiling to become soft but if you boil them too long they'll brake down, so keep checking the situation. Fish them out and forget the water.

While they're boiling, melt the margarine and pour it into a tall shot glass. It's easiest to give every eater their own. (I've also tried adding some nutritional yeast, but the two don't seem to mix. If you don't mind the unaesthetic mess, it does add some great taste though. Horseradish is another option.)

When the peas are done, it's time to eat. Grip a pea from the stem end and dip it into the margarine. Place the whole pod into your mouth. Now pull backwards while closing your teeth around the pod. The soft parts should now be left in your mouth but the woody ones in your hand. Discard the gutted carcass and help yourself to the next one.

Nutritional values / 450 g:
energy 483 kcal
fat 35 g
protein 12 g
carbohydrates 32 g
fiber 12 g

Fruity Summer Salad ‒ Hedelmäinen kesäsalaatti

All my main course salads basically consist of three parts: the green, the red and the brown. They don't necessarily need to be of the colour mentioned. The green part refers to the stuff we normally think when someone mentions salad: leafy vegetables like lettuce, salad rocket or endive. In this case I used the wild vegetables I happened to find along a short walk in the forest. The red part means juicy vegetables like tomato, cucumber, radish or in this case, fruits currently being sold on the market square next to me. This part is the most versatile as you could also add some cooked oat, fried bread, olives or sun dried tomatoes into it. The brown part refers to protein, which might come in the form of tofu, beans, nuts, sprouts or in this case, pea tempeh.

You could also turn this into a side salad for a summer evening's dinner by just leaving the tempeh out. Or skip the need for a kitchen stove by using extra firm smoked tofu instead. As a perhaps interesting side note, I thought I had made a mistake counting the nutritional values since the protein amount seemed quite high. It wouldn't be the first time I've made mistakes so I checked where it comes from. I quickly noticed that chickweed was responsible for the second biggest part of protein and though I must have values wrong somehow since it's just a simple, neutral-tasting weed. But googling a bit I found out that no, it really is that surprisingly rich in protein, consisting 15‒24 percent of the stuff. Nice.

- 300 g tempeh
- 300 g strawberries
- 300 g cherries
- 300 g water melon
- chickweed
- fireweed top leaves
- young dandelion leaves
- 3 spring onions
- pineapple weed or lemon balm
- oil for frying

Wash the onions, the weeds and the leaves and cut them into mouth-fitting pieces. Cut strips from the tempeh and fry them lightly from both sides.(At this point you can also apply some spices to them if you wish.) Cube the watermelon, half the cherries and slice the strawberries. Jumble up.

This doesn't necessarily require any added dressing, but if you wish for one, choose an equally fruity type. For example, some puréed raspberries from the freezer with a little bit of oil and vinegar added.

Nutritional values / 1480 g:
energy 1109 kcal
fat 51 g
protein 82 g
carbohydrates 170 g
fiber 40 g

Sauna Bundles ‒ Saunanyytit

Having a sauna is such an integral part of Finnish culture in general and such a self-evident part of any informal gathering of people I don't normally even think about it.Within the past week I've bathed twice in a sauna. On Friday with my spouse we had our weekly turn in the housing cooperative's communal electric sauna. A week ago we ended up to a friend's wood stove sauna together with all the other guests that came to the party. During the midsummer weekend we also thought about trying out a public tent sauna but unfortunately the keepers had already rolled it up by the time we got to the happening.

It's not anymore the place where every Finn is born and dies, but you still can't fully understand Finnish culture separate from it. Sauna is a sacred place that I hounour for making everyone equal and stripped from titles at least for that small moment, as well as keeping away that shame and over-sexualization of our own and others' bodies.

So you understand I was a bit shocked when I read about an Internet questionnaire by Finland's largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, the result of which was that 38% of all answerers have never been to a normal mixed sauna in their life and only 57% sees them natural. Guess this explains why all public saunas either split the groups of friends in half according to their sex organs or make you wear a swimsuit, which kind of ruins the idea of cleansing oneself. The top example of this is the longest worked public sauna Rajaportti, where the original design was altered by building a sex segregation wall through the whole building when mixed saunas were banned in 1931. Up today, I don't know a single public sauna I could go together with my friends in the manner we do in home circumstances. But somehow, there's something very Finnish in that when one half of people likes something and the other half doesn't, everyone has to work on the terms set by the dissaprovers.

To get to the actual point, meaning food, I've never really got used to the idea of it being appropriate to eat in a sauna, rather afterwards. But since the sauna stove is hot anyway, you can also use it for cooking. Here's a simple vegetable snack you can cook in a tin foil. You can of course use pretty much anything you wish or happen to have in bundles like these. Sweet potato and champignons as well as rutabaga and smoked tofu pair nicely for example. The thing in these is that the moist veggies and their condiments together form a lot of sauce which was described as "Chinese take-out" to me, so you can easily plan a whole meal around them.

- 1 zucchini
- 1 eggplant
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic (yes, a whole garlic)
- 1 chili
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 200 g melting soy cheese

Chop the veggies and mix with the oil, the soy sauce and the vinegar. Divide evenly on foil sheets. Sprinkle with soy cheese.

Leave on a sauna stove (or grill or 200°C oven) until everything has softened up (this should take about half an hour). Enjoy together with your after sauna beer!

Nutritional values / 1393 g:
energy 1278 kcal
fat 90 g
protein 42 g
carbohydrates 70 g
fiber 24 g

Omelette in Bell Pepper ‒ Paprikoitu munakas

Quite a while now I've had this idea of cooking pea omelette inside circles (or whatever their shape is) cut from bell peppers. I've waited patiently as it hasn't been the right time for bell peppers. I even had to try whether this would work with tomatoes and grill first, but I missed the fried surface of the omelette part and the tomatoes of course needed a folio around  them since they went all soft before the omelette batter managed to coagulate at all.

Chickpea omelette makes a perfect quick meal for a lazy day. Adding the bell peppers around them doesn't give much more trouble than that but it's a change to adding them into the omelette, and besides looks nice on a dinner with friends. Usually I've made them with chickpea flour only, but this time I added some tofu to make the structure thicker and softer. For a fluffier structure, I also used sparkling water as the liquid and added a teaspoon of baking powder, but they're not necessary. Spicing them well is, since they can quite easily remain a bit lame.

- 4 bell peppers (you can be more adventurous than me and use different colours)
- 300 g silken tofu
- 3 dl chickpea flour (also called gram flour)
- 3 dl sparkling water
- 5 spring onions
- 0.5 dl nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp rape oil
- 1 tsp baking powder
- cilantro leaves
- mustard powder
- turmeric
- salt

Cut circles of the bell peppers. Save the tops and bottoms to be used later. Blend the tofu. Sprinkle the flour with it little by little, stirring while you're at it. Add the spices, the baking powder, the water and the onions too. Mix well.

Heat up a frying pan. Apply oil, place the bell peppers and pour the batter inside them. When the omelette has coagulated, turn around and cook from the other side as well. Serve with a zesty and fruity sauce.

Nutritional values / 1458 g:
energy 1323 kcal
fat 47 g
protein 72 g
carbohydrates 146 g
fiber 44 g

Yogurt Garnish for New Potatoes ‒ Jugurttilisuke uusille perunoille

One of the biggest holidays in Finland, the midsummer or Juhannus, is on the door. As this is the celebration of the Finnish thunder god Ukko, the tradition is to tent or sleep in a cabin by a lake, with lots of friends, do love magic and eat (and especially drink) well. For the first time in years I'm going to spend it in city.  Today we're probably going to see the bonfire in Pispala, a city district known from one of the biggest hippie and artist concentrations in all Europe. On Sunday there's a grill party at a friend's garden, so that still leaves the "official" day open for negotiations. One of the plus sides of a city midsummer is of course being able to use your own kitchen, so I think we're going to take the eating part especially seriously this year.

Usually I belong to the school that thinks new potatoes should have very simple sauces or sidekicks. I usually just eat them with plain margarine or white sauce. When cooking the first batch of the year I add a carton of oat cream, salt and some spring onions to their boiling water ‒ only a step away from summer soup.

This time I wanted to make a use for the fake shrimps I once bought from an Asia store and had been sitting in the freezer for months. I've never quite grasped the urge of Asians to make vegetarian dishes that replicate the look of different meats as perfectly as possible, but oh well, if it tastes good that's all that matters. I've never cooked shrimps in my life but the look kind of lead me to design a dish that uses the same methods I at least imagine would fit with them. I don't know about the (apparently authentic) texture of the "shrimps" themselves, which turned out to be ridiculously low in protein too, but the sauce turned out delicious. It complemented well the sweet taste of new potatoes, but might also be used as a filling for oven potatoes or as a pasta sauce.

- mock shrimps (or simply precooked soy strips)
- 5 dl soy yogurt
- 1 dl white wine (or apple wine)
- 1 rhubarb stalk (or a lemon)
- 1 small punch of fresh dill
- 1 piece of leek
- 2 tbsp margarine
- salt
- white pepper

Chop the leek and the rhubarb. Melt the margarine on a frying pan. Add the "shrimps", the rhubarb and the leek. Turn them around so the "shrimps" get some colour and the rhubarb mashes. Pour the wine on them, stir and let the whole thing simmer for as long as the liquid has reduced.

Mix the shrimp pan with the yogurt. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir. Mince the dill on top. Serve with potatoes or pasta.

Nutritional values / 1145 g:
energy 1780 kcal
fat 40 g
protein 26 g
carbohydrates 67 g
fiber 8 g

Fresh Tomato Sauce with Ground Elder and Horse Bean ‒ Tomaattikastike tuoreista tomaateista, vuohenputkesta ja härkäpavuista

This is quite likely the ugliest photo I've posted all year. The actual dish I promise is definitely worth a try though. It was one of those nights it got late before we had time to cook and feeling hungry we had to put up something quick. So I took the punch of fresh tomatoes that really start to taste their best this time of the year and put them in the pot. With them I wanted to use ground elder which is said to be on its best in tomato-based dishes. When the sauce was ready, I took the extra time to take couple of fast shots and then it was suddenly gone with even plates licked. Forever gone. No remains for morning. I may have to prepare it again.

- 5‒6 well riped tomatoes (let them go over ripe by all means)
- 1 big punch of ground elder leaves
- 2 dl horsebean crush
- 1 lovage sprig
- 1 small punch of fresh basil (or 2 tbsp pesto)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp rape oil
- black pepper
- salt

Pour the oil into a sauce pan. Quarter the tomatoes and sauté them on a mild temperature until they've turned into mash. Add the rest of the ingredients (greenies chopped, garlic minced) and let the sauce simmer for about half an hour. Serve with good quality, nutritious pasta.

Nutritional values / 770 g:
energy 714 kcal
fat 18 g
protein 47 g
carbohydrates 88 g
fiber 48 g

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

Dandelion Sima ‒ Voikukkasima

Gardening is about trying to weed out the plants that flourish in certain soil and conditions and trying to make plants that don't want to live in those conditions prosper instead. This summer we rented an allotment garden from the city for the first time, so we'll see if that's true. Already when seeding I did get this strong feeling we'd be at constant war with certain grass types that grow just awesome roots that snap every time you try to pull them out. Dandelion is perhaps more common plant that some people really try to fight with on their lawn. This is something I've never understood. I mean, they're really beautiful and may even make those otherwise awful golf yards look almost bearable. But perhaps that's just me who mostly likes yard that look like no human hand has ever touched them.

At least these "teeth of a lion" or "butter flowers" like they are called in Finnish can be quite delicious to get rid of. Their leaves can be used as salad leaves and their pungent taste gets often compared to that of salad rocket. Their roots can be roasted, ground and used as a herbal tea or coffee substitute. And those pretty flowers themselves, well, they smell and partly even taste like honey. Which is why I like to make a sparkly summer drink out of them.

- 3 l dandelion flowers
- 6 l water
- 1 dl farine sugar (or muscovado)
- 4 dl sugar
- 1 rhubarb stalk (or a lemon)
- 1 fingertip sized piece of fresh yeast

Right after you've picked the flowers, boil them and in three litres of water for about ten minutes. Fish out the flowers, save the liquid and boil the flowers again in a fresh batch of water. This time discard the flowers altogether. Chop the rhubarb and add it as well as the sugar to the liquid. Stir to make sure all the sugar has dissolved. When the liquid has cooled down to lukewarm, add the yeast piece. Let it rest for a day or so.

Next day, bottle the sima into clean bottles. You can also add a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle to assure they'll sizzle. Leave them in room temperature and let the extra pressure out every now and then so they won't explode. I personally prefer plastic bottles because of this. Check the taste after three days. Serve cold on a hot day.

Nutritional values / 6 l:
energy 2040 kcal
fat 7 g
protein 21 g
carbohydrates 491 g
fiber (not applicable)

Rhubarb Tart with White Chocolate ‒ Valkosuklaa-raparperipiirakka

I'm now going to post something that probably hundreds of other food bloggers are posting within a week. This is the rhubarb season, and the most classic thing to make from the excess of rhubarbs so many people seem to get from their garden is a tart or pie. Sometimes I wish this wonderfully sour plant would get to be used a bit more creatively, but then again, classics are usually classics for a reason. This year I tried to find some variation to the classic by combining the sourness of rhubarb to the rounded taste of white chocolate, which complements it just wonderfully especially when still a bit melted.

This base fits into many types of pies and tarts so if you want to variate it, try adding cocoa powder or replacing some of the flour with something crunchier like rye flour.

Basic shortcrust pastry:
- 150 g margarine
- 4 dl wheat flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 0.5 dl cold water
- 1 tsp baking powder

Filling:
- 5 rhubarb stalks
- 200 g white chocolate (milk-free white chocolates seem to have huge differences so taste before deciding which one to use)
- 5 dl soy yogurt (or oat)
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- mint

Pick the sugar and the margarine together between your fingers. Add the flour, mixed with the baking powder. Keep picking until you have a bowl full of crumby mixture. Knead it together with the water to acquire a paste. Move in the fridge for a while.

While the dough is cooling down, prepare the filling. Chop the rhubarb and sprinkle with vanilla sugar. Either chop the chocolate into flakes with a knife or use a blender. Mix with the yogurt and the sugar. Spice with dried mint.

Spread the dough into your mold. Cover with rhubarb pieces. Cover the rhubarb pieces with the yogurt mixture. The idea here is to leave the rhubarb deliciously sour but place it between two sweet layers.

Bake in a 200°C oven for 45 minutes or until the yogurt has coagulated and perhaps even got some colour. If you want the structure to hold together better, you'll need the patience of an elephant: let it cool down well, perhaps even spend the night in the fridge before serving.

Nutritional values / 1890 g:
energy 3771 kcal
fat 126 g
protein 64 g
carbohydrates 341 g
fiber 25 g

Pickles ‒ Suolakurkut

Hey who took the summer away? Didn't August used to be the most summery month or is my memory playing tricks on me?

Though I already opened the mushroom season yesterday I thought that before mushroom recipes I ought to post you something I got started two weeks ago: pickles. Finns love them on rye bread, as a sidekick and especially with fast food. There are basically four common variations that can of course be seasoned creatively.

1. Suolakurkku is pickled in salty brine. This is what I prepared after I got to watch some example from a certain lady from Eastern Karelia and realized how simple it really is.
2. Etikkakurkku is preserved in sweet vinegar brine. A common mistake is using way too much vinegar. Think this is the most common variation in the rest of Scandinavia.
3. Maustekurkku or herkkukurkku may contain both salt and vinegar but instead of them the taste should be ruled by spices. These tend to be on the sweet side as well.
4. Hapankurkku aka Russian suolakurkku is also pickled in salty brine but the pickles are turned sour, for example with a sour bread piece or some yogurt as a starter. I've never seen these sold in your average supermarket.

- garden cucumbers (as many as you can cram into your largest glass jar)
- enough water to fill the jar
- 25 g salt for every water litre
- for seasoning black currant leaves, mustard seeds, whole black peppers, garlic cloves, dill flowers and/or horseradish

Wash the cucumbers and let them soak in water overnight. In the morning, arrange the cucumbers into your jar together with the spices ‒ whole or sliced. If you're using black currant leaves wrap them around the cucumbers. Boil up the water and dissolve the salt. Pour the hot water on the cucumbers. Make sure that all the cucumbers are fully covered underneath the water since contact with air makes them rotten. Close the lid and move into a cool place. The pickles should be ready in about two weeks.

If you replace about ten percent of the water with vodka the pickles should better hold on to their beautiful green colour. For less traditional versions ginger and cinnamon also make nice spices. After you've eaten the pickles, the brine itself is an excellent basis for many soups.

The Drink of Louhisaari ‒ Louhisaaren juoma

Louhisaari is a manor in Masku, built by the dreaded noble family of Fleming and best known as the birth home of C.G.E. Mannerheim. It's signature drink is Louhisaaren Juoma aka Marskin Shampanja ('Mannerheim's Champagne'). Unfortunately, I have seen all kinds of beverages made out of those oh-so-aromatic black currant leaves claiming the name and frankly, I have no clue which one is the original. Most of them are different types of simas (an American friend of mine told me to stop calling them mead so I better listen) but I decided to go for the citric acid variety this time since I've never tried one before.

I do have a powerful backup: the drink recipe page I found contains separate instructions for the Sima of Louhisaari and the Drink of Louhisaari, both of them containing black currant leaves. The site is held by Marttaliitto, an organization for advising in home economics. Interesting group, by the way. It was founded in 1899 for house wives and long known as a socks knitting circle of conservative grannies but lately they have managed to modernize quite a bit. Nowadays they accept men as members and even promote some environmental values, even if not perfectly openly.

But back to the business! This is the latter recipe, only cut in half.

- 2.5 l water
- 2 l black currant leaves
- 12.5 g citric acid
- 250 g sugar

Wash the leaves. Boil up the water and pour it over the leaves. Add the citric acid and stir well. Cover with a lid and leave in room temperature for 12 hours. Fish out the leaves. Sweeten with sugar.

The drink can be enjoyed as such, mixed with sparkling water or as a part of different cocktails. If you're not going to slurp it all right away you better freeze it or boil and seal carefully into air-tight, sterilized glass bottles.

Nutritional values / 2.5 l :
energy 1000 kcal
fat 0 g
protein 0 g
carbohydrates 250 g
fiber 0 g

Clover Balls ‒ Apilapyörykät

I could swear I've seen a recipe for red clover balls somewhere but can't find it anymore. Now I just had to guess what would make a fitting base. Instead of just adding the flowers to my classic soy balls I decided to use raw nuts and prepare the balls like raw foodies do. With spices I thought it best to be careful and only use couple of my favourites. Oh well, I'm assuming the original recipe was published in the beginning of the last century so it wouldn't have helped me in deciding the spices anyway.

This small test batch of mine turned out nice (especially with a spicy dip sauce) but not good enough yet for me not feeling the urge to fry them on a pan. Feel free to add all kinds of stuff you need to get rid of. Carrots, leek, champignons or rye bread should fit to suggest a few, and of course your favourite spices.

- 2 dl red clover flowers
- 2 dl hazelnuts
- 2 garlic cloves
- smoked paprika
- salt

Soak the hazelnuts in water overnight if you have time. Wash the clovers. Make a paste out of all the ingredients. Add water if you need to. Check the taste.

Roll into balls and dry them up. In most kitchens this is easiest done by turning your oven to a low temperature (I use 50°C), possibly keeping the door just a little bit ajar and turning them around couple of times. The problem with this method is that it takes some time, about 2 hours depending on the moisture of the paste.

(This time I'm leaving out the nutritional values since I wasn't able to find any source for the flowers and it doesn't make sense to count the nuts only.)

Tomato Soup for a Heat Wave ‒ Hellepäivän tomaattikeitto

When mother nature decides to break some heat records you don't feel like eating but you know you ought to grub something in order not to feel even worse. In a situation like that cold liquids are super. This drinkable salad should take almost no effort to prepare. And no, it's neither gazpacho nor bloody Mary. Actually, gazpacho doesn't even have to be cold nor contain tomato.

- 700 g ripe tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 celery rib
- 0.5 roasted garlic (or 3 garlic cloves)
- 1 punch of fresh basil
- 0.5 red chili pepper
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon grapefruit juice
- 1 teaspoon dark syrup
- black pepper
- salt

Chop the tomatoes and smooth them down in a blender. Chop the other veggies as well and smooth down again. Add the spices and - you guessed it - smooth down. Check the taste. Move into a refrigerator for couple of hours so it has time to juice up and get chilled.

Nutritional values / 1108 g:
energy 336 kcal
fat 2 g
protein 13 g
carbohydrates 62 g
fiber 15 g

Flower Marmalade ‒ Kukkamarmeladi

Smart people get their inspiration to make dandelion jelly when dandelions are at their full blossom and it takes ten minutes to pick them. Well not me. After seeing this article I got a desperate urge to try it out myself. So instead of the few withering dandelions I saw I picked some mouse-ear hawkweeds (that at least look like dandelions) and red clovers. What ever edible flowers you happen to have in hand, see that instead of a terribly intense flavour (like yarrow) they taste juicy and sweet.

- 4 dl flowers
- 4 dl water
- 2 dl sugar
- 2 tablespoons grapefruit juice
- 1.25 teaspoons pectin (or equivalent amount of other gelling agent)

First, the hard part. You don't want the green stuff into your marmalade so you have to pick out the yellow or red parts. This is most easily done by pulling them out with your fingers. (You can also use scissors but that way you'll only get the tips of the petals.) Put on your favourite record and sit down. This will take a while but can be quite meditative.

You should end up with about 2 dl petals. Boil them in the water with a lid on for about half an hour. After that you can either fish them out or leave in the jelly. Add the pectin, then the juice and last, sugar. Let it come to a boil and stir until it turns syrupy. In case a foam should emerge skim it out.

Pour into a glass jar and let it cool down a bit before refrigerating. Use like honey.

P.S. I have a really hard time trying to understand how the algorithm of that "Related" box works. A nice feature but most of the time rather, well, random.

Nutritional values / 570 g:
energy 680 kcal
fat 0 g
protein 0 g
carbohydrates 169 g
fiber 0 g

Cold Cucumber Soup ‒ Kylmä kurkkukeitto

A heat wave has been on for several days now and weather forecasts don't promise a relief anytime soon. Although I love summer and being able to sleep outside without massive range of equipments, the situation right now doesn't affect me in too many positive ways. No matter how often I shower I feel sweaty and smell bad. I feel lazy and unable to concentrate on reading or writing.

During a weather like this, cold soups are the perfect replacement for a proper meal. This is one of my favourites. (Sorry about the blurry photo. I took this in a hurry and didn't check how it turned out.)

- 1 cucumber
- 5 dl soy yogurt (or runny nut yogurt)
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 dl dry apple cider
- thyme
- chevril
- salt

Wash and grate the cucumber. Crush the garlic (with a press if you have one). Combine everything.

Enjoy as a soup or wrap inside a rieska. If you drain the yogurt first and replace the cider with couple of spoonfuls of white wine this also makes a nice dip sauce.

Nutritional values / 628 g:
energy 342 kcal
fat 3 g
protein 9 g
carbohydrates 13 g
fiber 4 g

Strawberries in Sparkling Wine Bath ‒ Mansikat kuohuviinikylvyssä

Tomorrow it's May Day. Finns call the day Vappu after German Walpurgisnacht since it's quite a new carnival of labour and students. There are much more traditional holidays during springtime and just as riotous but I'll tell you about them some other time. Right now I have my mind set for tonight.

The previous night, you see, is the one of jolly picnics. Or so it would be if it didn't rain. Me and my friends decided to have a picnic inside instead, at my place, and so I thought I'd repeat the dessert we had last year. Lea's version also had cucumber slices but for my level of experientialism they were a bit too much. Actually, in the tasting of last year each one of us wanted to leave out a different ingredient but since I'm the one who prepared the dish this time I got to decide. In any case, it certainly features things you won't see in my kitchen every day so it's perfect for this type of special occasion. Perhaps even more so for some summer parties when strawberries are in season and taste like strawberries.

- 0.75 l sparkling wine (Real, not champagne. Good quality cider goes fine as well.)
- 2-3 strawberries per portion (about 250 g)
- 0.5 dl dark sugar
- 1 dl water
- 1 punch of fresh lemon balm (or mint)
- 2 teaspoons agar powder (you can also use pectin but that means you'll need more sugar as well)

Slice the strawberries and arrange them into your serving glasses (I used six glasses). Mince most of the lemon balm. Cook it with the water for a few minutes to seize the aroma. Filter out the balm parts.

Add the sugar, the agar and some of the wine. Let the mixture come to a boil, then move it out of the stove. Mix very carefully with the rest of the wine (so you won't loose the bubbles) and pour evenly on the strawberries.

Decorate with lemon balm leaves. Refrigerate for couple of hours.

Nutritional values / 1 portion / 206 g :
energy 139 kcal
fat 0 g
protein 1 g
carbohydrates 12 g
fiber 1 g

Sahti

If you don't know sahti, you don't know beers. This primordial Finnish top-fermented beer is among the oldest still brewed beer types in the world. If there hadn't been a prohibition law in Finland from 1919 to 1932 it would also be the longest brewed beer type for sale ‒ officially. That crown now belongs to another fine beer, Belgian lambic, which also happens to have the probably closest resemblance of sahti.

Sahti's taste is soft, sweet and thick, often described as banana-like. Instead of hops it's flavoured with juniper. It doesn't bubble much and stores only a month at most the fridge. The old poems describe mash bushel being lifted on the roof for the thunder (=ukkonen) god Ukko water it and then fermented with the drool of a horny boar. And as you probably understand from this description sahti has a special place in certain pagan feasts.

At the moment I'm making my very first round of sahti for the most important holiday of the year, midsummer, the nightless day. This feast originally known as Vakkajuhla (= bushel feast) used to be celebrated with a big punch of friends by a lake to ask Ukko send rain for the harvest to grow. Christian invaders turned pretty much all the Finnish feasts to have Christian meanings but the only thing they managed to change in this one was its name: it's nowadays known as Juhannus which refers to John the Baptist. It still involves gatherings by lakes, drinking and eating, bonfires and fertility rites. I'll update this post after I've seen how my sahti turns out but I thought I'd post this plan already in the hope of inspiring the rest of you to try as well.

To be a purist you should keep in mind that:
1. Sahti doesn't contain hops. Instead it's usually flavoured with juniper (though I've heard some other herbs like heather or wild rosemary have been used as well).
2. Sahti is always made of barley malts. Some people also use rye or caramel malts but only small amounts for flavouring.
3. Don't use added sugar. All the sugar should come from the malts and sahti isn't supposed to sparkle either. You won't need sugar even in the bottling stage since it can't be stored long anyways. Besides, well cooked wort should already produce 10-11 % beer which in most beer types is more than enough to make it taste like alcohol and thus ruin its own taste.
4. Never let the mash temperature rise over 70°C or you'll get porridge. The wort shouldn't be cooked at all, only quickly sterilized at most.
5. The most common yeast used today is common baking yeast, not normal ale yeast. This gives sahti a distinct flavour. (Of course in the old times people just saved some yeast from every round for the next one. I wouldn't want to annoy an angry boar.)
6. Approximately, 1 kg of malts makes about 2 l of sahti. Yes, it's thick.
7. Sahti is served unfiltered. Actually the leftover yeast helps it last better.
8. Three most important things to remember are cleanliness, cleanliness and cleanliness. Sterilize all the tools you use, including your hands.

Of course, rules only exists to be broken. But if you do make exceptions to please your own taste then please don't call your beer sahti. You may feel it doesn't change that much if you use hops but names used very broadly cease to really mean anything. Here's what I did:

- 3 l sahti malts
- 3 dl rye malts
- 20 g juniper berries
- 7 l water
- 50 g baking yeast

Sterilize all your equipments. Put 3 l of water in a big pot and let it come to a boil. Add the malts. Keep stirring until you've got a porridge. Heat up until the temperature has reached 70°C and make sure it doesn't rise further. Simmer for an hour. Crush the juniper berries and throw them in. Simmer another three hours. Taste to make sure it's sweet enough. It's also desirable to measure the gravity at this point so it'll be easier to trace what went wrong.

Filter and pour into an air tight fermentation vessel (with airlock). Boil the rest of the water and pour in. When the temperature has dropped to about 20°C add the yeast, dissolved in a mug of lukewarm water. Let your sahti-to-be ferment in room temperature as long as it wants to. This should take about 3-5 days. Check the gravity again and bottle your sahti and store in cold for a week. Apparently, the bigger the barrel the longer the taste lasts. Don't leave room for oxygen. If you see a foam your sahti hasn't finished yet and shouldn't be drunk (unless you want stains in your underpants).

Ask your friends over to drink your sahti fresh! Here's a suggested drinking song as well.