Sweet rhubarb soup

Apologies. It's likely that from now on there's going to be more talk about food. That's because the lovely summer season with fresh vegetables, berries and all the goodies is about to begin!




Yesterday I got the summer's first bunch of rhubarbs from my mother in law. I decided to make sweet rhubarb soup, kiisseli (I have no idea what's kiisseli in English, I've seen the following options in various lunch menus: kissel, pudding, fool, soup). Kiisseli is an ordinary every-day dessert in Finland, and it's often served at lunch places.

I went for Hans Välimäki's recipe. However, I took the liberty to modify the two-michelin-stars-chef's recipe - because he didn't explain all the kiisseli-tricks that my mother has taught me. And after all, it was Mothers' Day.



According Hans I would have needed 1 liter of chopper rhubarb. However, I barely had 4 dls, so I added some raspberries and lingonberries to compensate.



I cooked them in 7 dls of water and 1 dl of sugar. Hans's recipe said 2 dl of sugar, but I'm not used to that sweet. Cooked them for about 10 minutes. I also added a hint of salt into the pot. Hans didn't advise me to do that, I've learnt it from a mother (not my own, but my friend's mom). Salt enriches the flavors and prevents the flat taste of water.



I mixed 4 tbl spoons (Hans said 5 tbl spoons, but it sounded like too much) of potato flour with 3 tbl spoons of cold water, and poured the white stuff into the hot stuff while mixing.



Then I poured the soup into bowl, and sprinkled some sugar on top of the soup. Again, Hans didn't say anything about the sugar, but my mom has told me it prevents the formation of "skin" on top of the soup.



I let it cool down and served with whipped cream. Hans suggested vanilla ice or milk, but my mom served cream with the dessert soups.

With all due respect, Hans, you may be the champion of fine dining, but when we're talking about everyday food, nobody can beat the moms. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.

Our squeaky cheese

This is something that Finnish restaurants serve as dessert. Not all Finnish restaurants but those which brand themselves as Finnish restaurants and where the waitresses are forced to wear folk costumes.




You need leipäjuusto, Finnish squeaky cheese. About 200 grams for three persons. Cut it into pieces and set nicely on an oven-proof bowl.




Crumble some brown sugar, fariinisokeri, and cinnamon on top of cheese and to the bottom of the bowl. Add some cream, kuohukerma. Put it into 200 C oven for 5 to 10 minutes.




Serve with cloudberries.

Ekberg

Let's continue with the places where the local people go. Ekberg is a popular café in Helsinki city center, Bulevardi. Ekberg is a traditional and a bit old fashioned café with table service and French style pastries - maybe that's why mature ladies like the place. Ekberg's brunch is classic, they've been serving brunch long before brunching turned into a trend. Because of the brunch, on weekends the thirty-something generation shares the stage with the grannies.

Ekberg also has a take-away bakery shop right next to the café. So far it's the only place where you can get really good baguette in Helsinki. Also potato cakes (perunaleivos - yes, they look suspicious) and Napoleon cakes are delicious.

Eastern for Easter

Another traditional Easter desserts is pasha, sweet and creamy quark delicacy with lemon and raisins. Pasha as such is bit heavy to my taste, and therefore I prefer the pulla version of pasha. This is more or less traditional pastry from the Eastern Finland, Karelia.

First you need to make a pulla dough:

6 to 8 dl wheat flour
1 bag of dry yeast
2 tsp crushed cardamom
1 dl sugar
0,5 tsp salt
3 dl milk
1 egg
100 g butter

Mix 2 dl of flour with the dry ingredients. Add milk (40 C), egg and melted butter, and mix. Add the rest of the flour and mix. Knead for couple of minutes.




Let the dough rest under a cloth for at least 30 minutes, until it has expanded to double of its original size.




Mix the pasha filling while waiting for the dough to rise:

600 g quark

200 g sour cream

2 eggs

1 - 1,5 dl sugar

vanilla

peel of 1 lemon, grated

1,5 dl raisins




Spread the dough on the baking plate and pour the filling on top of it.




Keep it in 200 C oven for about 25 to 35 minutes.




Let it cool down properly before eating. That's the hardest part.

Mämmi

It's dark. It's a bit sweet. It's malt porridge baked in the oven. It's eatable. It's called mämmi.

Mämmi is one of the traditional Easter desserts. You're supposed to eat it with cream and sugar. Or if you want to take a modern approach, try mämmi with vanilla sauce or ice cream. Mämmi yummy.

Chocolate eggs

Next Sunday when your door bell rings, there might be small witches behind the door. They'll have decorated willow branches with them. They'll present you a poem, they'll give you the branch and you're supposed to give them something in return - candy or a chocolate egg. That's how it goes on Palmusunnuntai, the Sunday before the Easter.

So fill your stock and be prepared for the witches!

Rahka

Rahka, quark is sourish dairy product that seems to be common in the Northern and Eastern Europe, at least in the Nordic countries, Germany and and former Soviet countries. Rahka is different to cottage cheese. You can use rahka in baking or as it is for the desserts. The easiest way to prepare rahka is simply to mix it with whipped cream, berries and sugar.

For preparing a big bowl of rahka you need

4 small jars of rahka (200 g each)

2 dl of cream, whipped

700 g berries, defrosted

sugar to taste

vanilla

Mix. Enjoy.

It's spring. Officially.

The spring is here, officially. This morning I was exposed to many unquestionable pieces of evidence:

• It was light when I walked to office. I went to office a bit later than usually, though.
• Birds were singing.
• It was warmer. Feather jacket was almost too much.
• I saw a mosquito. A live one.

And if those were not enough, here's some more. Dear winter, you may go now, you've given all you've got to offer:

• The official snowstorm of the year (actually many of them) - checked.
• Sledding - been there, done that.
• The best and the last Runeberg's torte of the year - it was perfect until it lasted.

Kiss(-Kiss)es on Valentine's

Shame on you, Stockmann! I wanted to buy those big boxes of 25 Brunberg's kisses for Valentine's Day, but only pathetic small six-packs where available. Well, Kiss-Kiss candies were valentiny (that's supposed to be an adjective) enough to do the trick.

I bet it's been something like 20 years since I ate Kiss-Kiss candies. I'm pretty sure that 20 years ago the hard sugar shell was thinner and there was huge amount of syrup filling in the candy. Those were the days.

The day of friends

Valentine's Day is here soon. Ystävänpäivä in Finnish, a direct translation would be something like "the day of friends". The Finnish word ystävänpäivä is actually quite describing, because for us February 14th is more about celebrating friendship, not that much of romantic love.

Then how do we celebrate ystävänpäivä? According to the people of post office Valentine's Day is the second busiest time of the year in terms of sending post cards and letters. That's why they publish a special edition of stamps around the Valentine's. In addition to sending post cards we celebrate Valentine's Day by eating candies. The sales figures of heart-shaped jellies and Brunberg's kisses take a small peak in mid-February. Bakeries have tried to create and advertise all kinds of Valentine's pastries with pink icing, but those ideas haven't flied too far; the February pastry market is already saturated with Runeberg's torte and Laskiaispulla, so there's no room for Valentine's pastry.

In Finland the Valentine's Day is quite minimalistic. Restaurants don't have a Valentine's menu for two, supermarkets are not selling loads of pink confetti. However, I'd like to propose a tradition for celebrating Valentine's Day in Finnish style - since ystävänpäivä was included into Finnish calendar officially in the 80's, let's celebrate it in the style of 80's: dig out a waffle maker (a piece of luxury from the 80's) from somewhere, invite your friends over and make a huge pile of heart-shaped waffles - since the heart-shaped waffle irons used to be the most common (and the only?) model available in Finland.

Sisu

Sisu is something we like to see as a unique Finnish concept. Sisu is all about persistency, stamina and guts to do something. Maybe I'm a traitor, but I think quite many cultures and languages have a concept for such a willpower that makes one go even through a rock - so in that sense sisu may not be too unique, Finnish-only type of phenomenon.

Sisu is also a candy. And yes, it's called Sisu, not Gifu, the font is a bit misleading. As a candy I think Sisu is pretty unique, I've never tasted anything like Sisu candies. Sisu tastes a bit like liquorice mixed with a hint of mint or eucalyptus. Sisu candy also has a very characteristic smell, you can immediately tell if someone in the room has eaten Sisu. In mouth Sisu feels a bit like if you were having a piece of tyre in your mouth, and it looks like a piece of tyre too. Not that I'd have experience on tasting tyre, but I can imagine how it might feel like.

I've understood that Queen Elizabeth always carries a box of mint candies in her purse. Maybe Sauli Niinistö could equip himself with a pack of Sisu as a president of Finland. Congratulations Sauli and good luck for the new challenges! You will most likely need both sisu and Sisu.