It is the middle of March and Spring is nowhere in sight yet. Following umpteen snowstorms, a sports centre’s roof collapsing under the snow and two ferries colliding after being pushed together by pack ice, we have just enjoyed several days of sunshine and temperatures up to 0 degrees C. This lulled us into a false sense of spring fever which was quickly quashed by a news report forecasting a late spring and sub-zero temperatures for “several more weeks”.
I also discovered the annual Snow Fighting Competition (dramatically called, The Sport of Snowball Battle, on the Finnish site) that is held at the end of March at Kemijärvi in Lapland. The competition was invented by the Japanese and not the Finns. The site encourages you to: “Find six friends, strap on your crash helmets and get ready to rumble...”. It sounds like fun, but if you don’t feel like travelling that far to throw snowballs at your friends or enemies, any old open square or backyard in Helsinki will do just fine right now. In the meantime, the ski trails are still in great shape and the landscape sparkles in the sunshine.
Another funny news report concerned rats. Apparently the Finns have been doing research into alcohol abuse with rats. Specially trained rats too. They have been trained to prefer alcohol over water. I did not think that that required training and these ritzy little rodents must have very exclusive taste when it comes to drinking. They are so expensive to keep that the Finns cannot afford to keep them during these hard times and will be exporting/flying them to the USA instead. I wonder how that will affect the US economy? And, pardon the pun, but is it just me who can smell a rat when hearing this news?
During the worst weather or when the snowstorms cover the trails, even more time than usual is spent in the library. This led to my partner, Paul, bringing home a book on breadbaking, while I was recovering from a bout of flu. Well, how can you stay in bed when a new recipe book is beckoning.
The book is ‘The New Family Bread Book’ by Ursula Ferrigno. Inside I spotted this recipe for small rolls filled with anchovies. I added other ingredients to the filling and made half the rolls with the anchovy filling and filled the rest with an olive filling. The recipe instructed to make 16 small rolls, but I made them slightly bigger and made 12 rolls.
Anchovy Rolls
For the Rolls:
250g Bread Making Flour
2 teaspoons Sea Salt
10g Fresh Yeast (I was not particular and used what I had, probably double that amount)
150 ml Lukewarm Water
2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
For the fillings:
8 Anchovies – Chopped
1 Tablespoon Finely Chopped Jalapeno Peppers – I used the bottled slices
2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley – Chopped
1 teaspoon Coarsely Ground Black Pepper
and:
6 Stuffed Green Olives
2 Tablespoons Grated Mozzarella Cheese
1 teaspoon Coarsely Ground Pepper
- Dissolve the yeast in 50ml of the water.
- Mix the flour and salt.
- Make a well in the flour and add the olive oil .
- Then add the rest of the water and yeast mixture and make a firm dough.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes till smooth and elastic.
- Place in an oiled bowl and let it rise for an hour, till doubled in size.
- Deflate the dough and knead again for a few minutes, then let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Cut the dough into 12 portions and form little balls.
- Flatten each ball, fill with a teaspoon of filling and form a ball, enclosing the filling
- Put the little rolls on baking paper on a baking sheet, seam side down and leave to prove for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 C.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes.
- Cool a few minutes and serve warm, but equally good cold.
- Serve with a little chilli sauce, lots of green salad and cherry tomatoes.
I decided to send this along for inclusion in Bread Baking Day.
BBD is a monthly event created by Zorra and BBD #28, hosted by Tangerine’s Kitchen, the theme is Bread Buns.
