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.