The Sounds of Spring, Rainy Day Art And Malted Guinness Bread With Walnuts

Easter weekend was moody with lots of fog and rain except for a few lovely hours of sunshine on monday. The rain heralded the arrival of spring, of course. Temperatures were particularly mild this week and the ice in the bay and on the river is melting very quickly. For the first time this week, you could see the migratory birds arriving over the bay. So, on Easter Monday, when I headed out to slip and slide in the slush along the hiking trails, the sound of birdsong and the thundering river were vying to fill the sky around me with the most beautiful sounds. And, peeping through the slush, were the first few green shoots from some bulbs. There really is no bad or ugly season in Finland.

I also took an historic picture yesterday. Well, I would like to think so. It was mentioned on the English news bulletin that a stork had been spotted in southern Finland although it is very early in the season for them to be arriving already. When I checked the pictures I took around the bay and at the bird santuary, what did I see…. a stork. I had been concentrating on other things and never even noticed. I was rather pleased.

I love catching up on art blogs and art exhibitions on rainy days. Currently on show at the Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki, is a wonderful exhibition of Escher’s art, called Impossible Worlds. I do own quite a few books on his art, but nothing is quite as good as seeing the real thing. And some favourite blogs are Finnish artist Maarah who will email her rainy day sketches to you if you subscribe. Another favourite is a young British graphic artist, Albert Eyre  who does commissions. Check out some the modern and dynamic art on his site. Other sites I regularly visit is Gurney Journey  and my favourite graffiti site  
Art Crimes.The Writing on The Wall. I am always on the lookout for interesting graffiti and discovered this scene on a construction site at the beginning of winter. I thought it was an interesting combination of textures and colour.
 

Easter is a busy time in the kitchen. I was baking hot cross buns, shortbread and an interesting malt bread that is made with Guinness and includes walnuts and raisins. It tastes wonderful with a big hunk of strong, aged cheddar or a hard cheese such as a mimolette  Living in Finland, you just have to search and settle for some cheddar. Not many interesting cheeses are available here.

Malt And Guinness Bread With Walnuts and Raisins

1 ½ Cups Malt – I used the really dark malt that is used to make the dark rye bread here in Finland but you can use a Graham or Malthouse flour instead.

2 Cups Plain Flour, I actually replaced one cup with bread making flour, and it makes a very firm dough.

2 teaspoons Sea Salt

1 Sachet Dry Yeast, about 10g

350 ml Guinness - adjust according to the flours your are using

50 ml Lukewarm Water

½ Cup Walnuts, chopped

½ Cup Raisins

- Dissolve the yeast in 50ml of the water and let it sit till frothy.

- Mix the flour and salt.

- Make a well in the flour and add the yeast mixture and the Guinness.

- The dough will be quite sticky and moist.

- Knead the dough for 5 minutes till smooth and elastic.

- Place in an oiled bowl and let it rise for 1 ½ hours or, till doubled in size.

- Deflate the dough and press into a circle shape.

- Sprinkle with the walnuts and raisins.

- Bring the dough into the centre from the edges to cover the nuts and raisins.

- Turn over and form into a round loaf.

- Put it seam side down on a lined baking sheet and let it rise again till double in size. It will take about 30 minutes.

- Preheat the oven to 220 C.

- Slash the top of the loaf a few times and brush with an egg wash.

- Place the bread in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

- Turn the oven down to 180 C and continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes on the fan.

- Cover with foil if the top gets too brown.

- The loaf is ready when the base sounds hollow when tapped

- Turn off the oven and leave it in the oven with the door slightly open for another 5 minutes before you take it out.

- Let it cool for 15 minutes while you get the salty butter and cheese ready and pour some red wine.

I will be spending the next two weeks back in Australia in Sydney and Perth. After a long winter I am looking forward to two weeks of sublime autumn weather, sunshine and blue ocean, before returning to the northern spring.

Snowball Fights, Ritzy Rodents And Anchovy Rolls For BBD#28

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.

Photographing Snowflakes And A Variety of Sweet And Spicy Bites for Morning Tea In February

Because of all the snow we have had, sooner or later, we were going to start photographing snowflakes. Easier said than done and most of our efforts ended up being deleted. We got these little flakes on an old pipe near home and also some on our windscreen but nothing really impressive.

 

So we started a little research project to satisfy our curiosity about how to photograph snowflakes. Very soon Paul came home with a wonderful book full of photos of snowflakes, called - The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty. That led us to the the author's wonderful website: SnowCrystals.com. It is an interesting site not only featuring a gallery of beautiful snow photos like this one,

But also features videos showing how snowflakes form or grow. Much like little plants, adding more branches as they get bigger.

The site features interesting facts about snow, how snowflakes form, equipment required and how to photograph snowflakes and grow your own etc, etc. If it wasn’t for the fact that we were returning to the southern hemisphere before the year end, we would have been as busy as beavers building the gear (plans also on the site) needed to do the pictures.

Currently on the menu at the cafés in Finland - Runebergintorttu. Little cakes named after the Finnish poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg. A poem by Runeberg called Maamme (Our land) became the Finnish national anthem. Apparently the gentleman used to have breakfast consisting of a glass of schnapps and a small cylindrical dry cake with a drop of jam on top in a café in his hometown every morning. These cakes appear on the menu from the beginning of February to celebrate the poet’s birthday on February 5th. They contain almonds and rum with a dollop of rasberry jam surrounded by a ring of almond flavoured icing on top.

Also on the menus are Laskiaispulla - soft cardamom buns filled with almond paste or raspberry jam and whipped cream. Traditionally they are/were served on Fat Tuesday but seem to be available all month. Well, after a good few weeks of tucking into all of the above, I think Fat Tuesday could not have been more appropriately named.

Not wanting to bake what every bakery and Finnish housewife was baking this month, I made an unusual cake that combines lemon and coriander with dried figs and walnuts. It is a moist and flavourful cake and the coriander and lemon makes for a delightful surprise on the tastebuds. I do prefer dark cakes and breads with lots of flavour/spice and texture. This is one of them.

Fig and Coriander Cake with Lemon Syrup

For the Cake:
330ml Unbleached Cake Flour

120g Soft Butter

200ml Soft Dark Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

10 ml Baking Powder

5 ml Ground Coriander

Pinch Salt

Grated Zest of a large Lemon

125ml Buttermilk

200g Soft Figs, chopped

100ml Dark Port

½ Cup Walnuts, chopped

For the Syrup:

100ml Lemon Juice

Cut some slivers of peel from the lemon and chop into fine strips

15ml Dark Brown Sugar

60ml Honey

30ml Raw Sugar

10ml Whole Coriander Seeds, bruised in a mortar

Soak the chopped figs in the port overnight.

• Prepare a 19cm ring pan – butter and lightly flour.
• Preheat the oven to 200 C.
• Beat the butter and brown sugar till fluffy.
• Add the eggs one by one, continue beating.
• Then add the lemon zest, nuts and figs together with the soaking liquid.
• Sift together the dry ingredients.
• Add the butter mixture and buttermilk to the flour and mix through.
• Ladle into the ring pan and level the top with a spatula.
• Place in the oven and turn the heat down to 180 C.
• Bake for 30 minutes – cover the top with foil when it gets brown.
• Turn the heat down to 160 or 170 C and bake for a further 30 minutes.
• Test and take out of the oven if ready.

Combine the ingredients for the syrup and boil for 2 minutes.

Turn out the cake on a cake rack or plate and ladle the hot syrup over it with a spoon.

Let it cool before serving – it hardly needs much more that a little cream.

The flavours will develop overnight and it will taste even better the following day.

I also love fiery hot food. Watch this space.