The Winter Solstice, More Snow And The Taste of Sunshine

Monday was the shortest day of the year, it is all downhill towards summer from here. But, in between, we are living in a winter wonderland. The bay froze very quickly in this last week and since then we have had heaps of snow, much like the rest of the northern hemisphere. Another blizzard is forecast this evening, following the ones we had yesterday morning and last night. Of course it has created havoc in terms of public transport on what is traditionally Finland's busiest travelling day. On the positive side, it is finally time to unpack the x-country skis and enjoy the ride. And while you are out there, pick up a few birch logs and turn them into elves and Santa with a few dabs of red and white paint.

It is almost Xmas too and Glögi (mulled wine) and Jouhluatähtitorttu are on the menus everywhere in Finland. They consist of featherlight flaky pastry stars with a generous dollop of plum jam in the center. A lovely little bite with an espresso.

Finland is not a country of hype. I have only heard my first Xmas carol in a shop last week and most Finns would have bought their Xmas trees this last weekend, which is just the way it should be. But, if you keep you eyes open, you will notice that Xmas is not neglected here and you may spot Xmas trees in unusual places.

Or you will notice that Santa has upgraded from Reindeer to a Model T Ford pickup –at least while he is visiting Helsinki.

For breakfast during this week leading up to Xmas, I baked an Apricot, Orange bread with Macadamia nuts. The flavours, colours and taste to remind me of Australia and spending Xmas on the beach in hot golden sunshine while feasting my eyes on the snowy landscape around me.

Apricot Orange Bread with Macadamia Nuts

2 Cups Bread Making Flour

1 to 1 ¼ Cups Unbleached All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 sachet Dried Yeast

¼ Cup lukewarm Water

¾ Cup Apricot and Orange Nectar, or use Apricot

Grated Zest of 1 Orange

1 Egg, beaten

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

200 ml Dried Apricots, chopped

200 ml Macadamia Nuts, chopped

Egg wash

- Dissolve the yeast in the water.

- Add the fruit Nectar, oil, egg, salt and zest.

- Then add the Bread Flour and mix well till smooth.

- Add the All-purpose Flour, half cup at a time till the dough needs to be pulled together by hand (I used only 1 Cup).

- Knead on a very lightly floured board, till elastic and it does not stick to the hands.

- Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl, till doubled in size.

- Gently deflate the dough and flatten into an oval.

- Sprinkle with the Nuts and Apricots.

- Roll up and shape into a scroll.

- Let it rise again till doubled in size.

- Paint with egg wash.

- Preheat the oven to 200 C.

- Place the bread in the oven and turn the heat down to 170 C after 30 seconds.

- You may need to cover the top of the bread with foil to prevent it burning after about 10 minutes.

- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, till firm and hollow sounding when tapped.

- If you had some fruit nectar left over, paint the loaf with the nectar. Turn the oven off and place the bread back in the oven for 5 minutes to dry.

- Taste the sunshine.

And here is a bit of nostalgia we are all familiar with, to celebrate the season.

Roadside Residents, First Snow And 2 x Penne Pasta With Roquefort

Following lots of frost in recent weeks, some snowflakes fell for two days early this week and everything looked like it had been frosted with icing sugar.

Last Monday we headed west again. Every couple of months, we are required to visit Pori on the west coast of Finland. Along the roadside on these trips, a few unusual residents have caught my eye.

Towards late summer, this guy was hanging around an empty roadside stall.

At the recycling plant in Vikki, the guys seem to have good fun doing their work and, instead of recycling some of the more unusual characters that come their way, they hang them on the fence. A large Pooh Bear was hanging there during summer, but by the time I turned up with my camera, he had been replaced by this lady.

And near Fiskars (where they make those famous scissors and knives) this couple was offering/advertising their services.

Following the snow the days have been clear, but very cold. It is the time for comfort food and to replace the energy the cold takes out of you. These are my favourite variations of Pasta with Blue Cheese. Both recipes makes 4 servings.

Penne Pasta with Roquefort, Walnuts and Sour Cream

100g Roquefort Cheese, crumbled, at room temperature
50g soft Butter

50g Sour Cream

5ml ground Cumin

50g Walnuts – chopped plus a few extra for garnish

Some chopped Chives – to taste

Salt & Pepper

4 Cups Penne Pasta

1. Boil water with salt in a stainless steel saucepan and cook the Penne.

2. When nearly done, make the sauce

3. Keep a few roquefort crumbles aside for garnish.

4. Mash together the butter and rest of the roquefort.

5. Add the cumin and sour cream and mix till smooth.

6. When the pasta is done, drain and put into a deep bowl.

7. Add the roquefort mix. Stir through till the sauce is melted and coats the pasta.

8. Add the walnuts and chopped chives and stir through.

9. Divide the pasta into portions. Garnish with extra nuts, cheese crumbles and chives.

10. Finish with generous grating of black pepper.

Penne Pasta with Roquefort, Lemon and Pine Nuts

100g Roquefort Cheese – crumbled,at room temperature

50g soft Butter

50g Pine Nuts

1-2 teaspoons fresh Rosemary – strip the needles from the sprigs and chop finely

1 small Lemon – grate the zest, then peel the lemon and chop into small pieces, removing most of the pith

Nutmeg – freshly grated

Salt & Pepper

4 Cups Penne Pasta

Mix together the lemon zest, rosemary, a good grind of black pepper and nutmeg

Repeat steps 1 – 4 as above.

Add the lemon, lemon zest mixture and pine nuts to the pasta and stir through.

Divide the pasta into portions and garnish with pine nuts, a sprig of rosemary and another grind of black pepper.

This afternoon, after coming home from hiking, I lay out all the clothing I wear when I go out into the cold and took a picture, just for the record.

It is unbelievable that I can wear all of that and still feel the cold. I am looking forward to getting rid of all those layers and layers of clothing when I head back to the southern hemisphere. Sunscreen and a sarong remains my uniform of choice.

Independance Day, Trolls And Pear Brioche

The 6th December is Independence Day in Finland and the flags were flying in an icy cold breeze. In Finland they fly the flag on all important days or for official events. All or most of the buildings have flagpoles and the flags are put up the night before the relevant day and removed again the next night. To celebrate, we went to the annual Independence Day Concert at Finlandia Hall. The program did include Sibelius’ Finlandia (of course) but also featured two other Finnish composers. The piece that really impressed was Missa, composed by contemporary composer Jukka Tiensuu. It is simply a fantastic piece of music for clarinet and orchestra consisting of 7 very short movements. It suited the occasion perfectly. No clarinet ever sounded like this before and the music transported the listener to the Finnish landscape.

Speaking of the Finnish landscape, I have been searching for trolls. I would really like to adopt a little troll (dead or alive) to take back to Australia with me. And if the little guy got too hot down there, I would simply teach him to surf. But finding an authentic troll is harder than I would have imagined before I lived here. Don’t, for one second, imagine that young trolls aren’t keeping up with modern technology and trends. For example, you can buy your very own Longtail Rock-n-Roll Troll (that does have a nice ring to it doesn’t it?) on this website.  He comes complete with electric guitar and pink hair. It seems that they even have very good hairdressing facilities in the Scandanavian forests.
 

Meantime, in downtown Helsinki, old style trolls are guarding the doorways and holding up the stonework with grim determination.

I wanted to make a special brekky for Sunday. Now follows the tale of the Pear Brioche.

One morning, some years ago, we were walking along Hay Street in Perth, West Australia, and stepped into a roadside café for coffee and a pastry. The lady behind the counter recommended their Pear Brioche. It was small, slender, individual brioches with a crème patisserie and poached pear filling. It was so good that I have never forgotten it and it just gets better as time goes by. Now, when we speak about it, you can hear angels voices and violin music floating in the background. Needless to say, when I returned to Perth last October, the café and brioches were no more.

So I decided to recreate it. First problem I encountered was finding tall, individual brioche moulds. Eventually I had to settle for Dariole moulds. Then I spotted a jar of apricots in Amaretto liqueur in the grocery store and thought it would be great to have some variety as well as enabling me to use my standard brioche moulds.

Pear Brioche

I made a classic brioche, leaving it in the fridge overnight, after the first rise. There are many recipes for brioche and crème patisserie on the internet, so I won’t publish yet another set of them. All you need to do beforehand, is to peel, quarter and poach a couple of pears in a simple sugar syrup.

It is quite a labour of love to make brioche. Having tasted both the brioche with the pear and with the apricot, I decided that I could not improve on the original idea and may stick with the pear in future. I thought the pear was subtle enough to suit the delicate brioche dough. But, then again, it may depend on your taste.

Activities Indoors, Outdoors And Cheesy Late Night Snacks

It is a good season to do things both indoors and outdoors. When it is raining cats and dogs, we frequent the movies, chip away at golf balls at the indoor range and attend a few ice hockey games.

Recently we spent a Saturday watching the Karjala (or Karelia, as we would say it) ice-hockey tournament between Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Czechs. The Russian team walked away with the honours. They played flawlessly. There is simply not another team that can keep up with them. Ice hockey is not as violent as I believed before I started living here, and never boring. It is so fast and active and they put on quite a spectacle for the spectators.

Of course the game is not preserved for boys only. Just check the cute logo for the girls’ hockey day that took place earlier this month.

Sunshine today and while out hiking, I was fortunate to spot a little Pygmy Owl  and observed him hunting. I do love living here. We are only 7 kms from the Centre of Helsinki, but it feels as if we are living in the countryside. I was therefore delighted to hear that our stay in Finland has been extended and we will be spending another spring and summer here.

Coming home from the chilly outdoors or the ice rink, is the perfect time to indulge in something warm with a glass of the best. Gougére, the classic French cheese pastry is easy and quick to pull together. It melts in the mouth and is equally good as a pre-dinner snack.

My own recipe include adding ½ Cup of finely chopped sundried tomatoes and sometimes I pipe the gougeres in a ring on the baking sheet, like a pull-apart loaf.

You can find links to recipes for Gougére on the Wikipedia site and I really like this recipe by FXCuisine. It has step-by-step photos and includes all the necessary hints to make perfect gougéres.

Looking for snacks during the game, we surveyed some of the sweeties on offer. There are some strange (in my opinion) flavour combinations for sale in this country, such as Mint-caramel and Lemon-liquorice. But this one intrigued us.

We wondered what sweetie flavoured sweeties would taste like and if Sweetie also referred to a type of fruit, as the packaging suggests. Well, it just tasted like sweeties. No particular flavour. I suppose we should have guessed.

Various Forms Of H20, Cold, Cold Autumn Evenings & The Best Braised Pork

The weather gods were unable to make up their minds last week. It alternated between snow, rain and ice pellets coming down. On Tuesday, the sun showed up for a few hours, melted most of it and went down against a clear, pastel-coloured sky.

At the end of the week, Helsinki somewhat resembled a giant chocolate and cream slush puppy with the remaining few autumn leaves, mushrooms and berries acting as the coloured candy sprinkles. Then a burst waterpipe at Helsinki’s main station caused havoc, not only closing the station but causing major damage to shops and businesses.

We are waiting anxiously for heaps of snow. The x-country skis have been unpacked and prepared for many kilometres of enjoyment and sweat. One of few things that generate body heat out in the cold as well as turning the long winter and short dark days into fun.

Earlier today we went walking around the bay which is starting to freeze over. Much further, towards the island, a powerboat went by along an unfrozen passage. A minute later, it’s wake followed and filled the sky with the most amazing sound when it hit the ice. It sounded like a combination of tram wheels on a track in addition with the sound of a howling wind. The ice layer heaved a bit and large cracks appeared.

Looking out over the steely grey bay on Sunday, thoughts turned to hearty meals and wine in front of the fire. The perfect meal for the occasion was my pork chops with a mozzarella and mustard crust. It is one of my favourite meals and I have recently reworked and perfected it.

Braised Pork With A Mozzarella & Mustard Crust

Lean Pork fillet or chops

1 onion, chopped

Brown the pork and the onion in a little olive oil in a pan.

Then sprinkle with salt, pepper and 2-5ml dried sage (or to taste and depending on the amount of meat).

Make a mix of:

100 - 250ml vegetable stock (depending on amount of meat)

50 - 200ml white wine - you might as well use a good one, then you can sip on the rest while cooking.
2 Bay leaves

Pour into the pan with the meat and onion.

Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer over low heat till very tender (at least 45 minutes). You may need to top up the liquid during the cooking time.

In the meantime, make the crust.

Mix together:

4 Tablespoons rolled oats (or breadcrumbs)

2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley

150 ml grated mozzarella cheese

1 Tablespoon wholegrain Dijon Mustard or a mustard of your choice (use less if you are using a stronger flavoured mustard)

If you are making lots of porkies and this is not enough – double the ingredients

Moisten the cheesy mix with about 50 ml of the juices in the pan to hold it together.

When tender, remove the pork from the pan and put on oven sheet or platter.

Keep simmering the gravy.

Top the pork with the crumb and cheese mix and grill till bubbly and golden.

Serve with the gravy (and wine, of course).

Finally, I spotted this inspiring meal, A Wintery Pasta from a link on the on the Limes & Lycopene site.

Helsinki Automotive, Autumn Colours & Tomato Bread With Herbs

I have spotted quite a few interesting old motor vehicles around the city in the last couple of months. Usually, some really old and interesting motor vehicles and motorbikes feature as exhibits in the parking garages in the city.

The parking garages that connect the two shopping centres of Kamppi and Forum, as well as the main station, are probably the most interesting parking garages around. It is the only place I have ever lived where they put an effort into making even a parking garage user-friendly. Apart from the fact that they always have interesting old vehicles on display, they entertain you with taped birdsong, all year round. The birdsong changes ever so often and next to the elevators to the Stockmann department store is a board that has all the information about the bird you can hear singing at the time. Other fun things to do or look at when in the parking garage … curved mirrors, a fishtank, rides for the kids and lastly, water buckets and gear to clean your windows before you head off. In any case, if you were intending to hibernate down there for the winter, you are not going to get bored too soon.

So, I headed out to go and photograph a few of the vehicles for this blog. These little French numbers may be a new fad. A few of them have popped up around town recently.

It was definitely the end of autumn yesterday when we had snow coming down all day. To celebrate the yellow and red season a little longer, I baked a rich tomato loaf and added some summery green herbs and olives. (It occurred to me that a few of the vehicles in this blog also sported green, red and yellow colours.)

Tomato Herb Bread

4 - 4 ½ Cups Bread Flour (I used wholewheat)
1 ½ Cups Finely Chopped Ripe Tomatoes (skinned if you prefer)
Small Can of Tomato Paste (70g)
¼ Cup Warm Water
1 Packet Yeast (11g)
2 Tablespoons Raw Sugar
2 Tablespoons Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Herbs de Provence
2 teaspoons Salt
½ Cup Green Olives, quarters (optional)

- Dissolve the yeast in the water.

- Mash or puree the tomatoes, depending how ripe or juicy they are.

- Blend yeast, tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oil, salt and herbs together.

- Add the olives if using.

- Stir in as much flour as needed to make a firm dough.

- Knead till smooth.

- Place in a greased bowl let rise covered until twice its size – about 1 hour.

- Deflate and form a loaf. You can put into a greased loaf pan.

- Pre-heat the oven.

- Let the loaf rise until double again.

- Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with more herbs.

- Bake at 200 C for 10 minutes, and then turn the oven down to 170 C and bake for a further ½ hour or till nicely browned and hollow sounding when tapped.

France On 3 Wheels & Pumpkin And Coconut meet on All Saints Day

Our tour of southern France along the Cote D’Azur and through Provence was one of our more enjoyable holidays and much too short. We flew to Nice for the first weekend. A beautiful city. We enjoyed hiking along beautiful beaches and drinking ice cold beers in the hot sunshine. We thought all our Christmases had come when we discovered that they had a exhibition of Rodin Sculptures in the Matisse Museum. A combo made in heaven for lovers of sculpture. Their modern art museum MAMAC was equally impressive with a wonderful exhibition by artist Robert Longo, called, Retrospection.

After the weekend, we locked up one of our backpacks at Nice station and headed to Cannes by train. In Cannes, we hired a 400cc scooter, a Piaggio MP3 from a place called Elite Bike Rentals. It was a brand new machine and a pleasure to ride. It has enough space underneath the saddle to pack a smallish backpack, or 2 helmets plus jackets and two small shoulder bags.

   

Our tour started by heading north through Grasse, the Perfume capital. Then we had the pleasure of winding mountain roads and bends riding through the 25 km long Gorges Du Verdon that ends at the lake Lac de Sainte-Croix.

   

Overnight in the town by the hot springs Digne Les Bains and then across the lavender fields and olive groves to Provence. On the way we fell in love with a beautiful small town on the river Sorgue. We spent the day there and stayed overnight. L’Isle sur la Sorgue is also famous for its antique shops and markets and we spent an unusual lunchtime there in the park by their large waterwheels while listening to the chestnut trees cracking the caps of the nuts and dropping them around us.

 

 

Next stop was Avignon, surely the most beautiful city in France and home to the Pont made famous in the song. If I had to choose a home in France, it would be in this city or region. While exploring the town we had some fun at an exhibition called ‘Games with Mirrors’. From there we visited the Roman aqueduct at Pont Du Gard and the Roman amphitheatre in Nimes. Next stop was the ancient city of Arles that was founded in the 6th Century BC. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its Roman and Romanesque monuments but I am familiar with it as the city of Van Gogh.

Unfortunately, our trip through the Camargue was cut short by the wind. It was blowing so fiercely that we thought we would get blown sideways, right across the Camargue. So we escaped and headed out towards Marseille and the coast back in the direction of Cannes where we had to drop the bike on Saturday morning. On the way we discovered some delightful facts about France, such as how popular Elvis is and the wonderful bakeries on every corner.

 

It was not easy saying goodbye to the Moto, but we picked up a car and drove along the Mediterranean coast through Monte Carlo to Menton, the last beach before reaching the Italian border. There we turned north and drove through the Maritime Alps to Lyon feeling envious of all the young men on their motorbikes enjoying their weekend cruising in the Alps. I must also admit that we admired but did not feel too envious of all the cyclists riding up those mountains. On the way we did go up mountains such as the Col du Galibier, tracing the footsteps of the Tour de France. On to Paris, where we encountered few tourists, good warm weather and enjoyed the views from the Eiffel Tower as well as the top of Notre Dame. After spending a morning with the sculptures in the Louvre, an exhibition of Dutch art at the Pinacothèque  and and an afternoon in the exquisite Museum of Hunting and Nature, we spent a day at Versailles before returning to Helsinki. Sigh!

Back in Helsinki the weather it is much colder, the leaves are mostly on the ground now and the days getting shorter. First I had to get ready for visitors. For 2 fun-filled weeks we had visitors from West Australia and England visiting us. So much fun that the blog was somewhat neglected. But as the last few people left on the 30th, thoughts turned to baking for All Saints Day or Halloween.

I was inspired by the squashes and gourds on sale in L’Isle sur la Sorgue and I thought hard of something a bit different in terms of pumpkin.

I remembered a recipe downloaded some years ago from the ecobites website. After my disastrous hard drive crash in April, it had been lost. I went back to the site to look for it. Originally called Organic Pumpkin Bread, I found it much too light and fragile to make a loaf. So I turned it into a baked dish and served it with yogurt for brekky or cream and maple syrup for morning tea. I have made some adjustments to the ingredients to compensate for items that was unavailable and increased the spices to suit my own taste.

Pumpkin Coconut Bake

1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas) + 2 Tablespoons

2 cups coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder (aluminium free)

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups cooked pumpkin or, if unavailable, sweet potato works well

½ cup organic honey

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 large organic eggs

¾ cup plain organic yoghurt

- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

- Toast pepitas in a baking tray in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

- Chop the pepitas to a course consistency.

- Mix dry ingredients together including the pepitas.
- Puree pumpkin and stir sugar, honey and pumpkin together.
- Warm the coconut oil for a few seconds in the microwave till liquid.
- Beat the oil and eggs together.
- Add dry ingredients, then pumpkin and blend.
- Add the yoghurt.
- Oil and line a small baking dish (1 litre) with baking paper.
- Sprinkle the extra pepitas over the dish before baking.

- Bake for about 35 minutes or until well browned.

- It freezes very well and can be reheated in the oven for brekky.
Serves 8.

 

Finally, while searching for interesting props for my baking venture I found this nose. The description had me somewhat tongue-tied.