borscht

i saw nice big beets in the shop yesterday and borscht came to mind. i bought two kilos because if you make a mess, a slightly bigger mess isn't that much harder to clean up...

started by peeling the whole bunch. in this dry winter weather it paid to wear surgical gloves, no bright red fingers!







i love that shade of red. on beets, that is, not on me, the wall, my clothes or the rug on the floor







now the mess part... took out my kenwood processor for the grating part. i would have only needed 1 kg of beets for this soup but it pays to grate more







besides having enough for the soup today, i got two 500 gr bags to freeze for later use. only one mess but three borschts (what a mouthfull that word is!)







it's also worthwhile to pay very close attention when working with kitchen appliances... i meant to grate the carrots with the same blade as the beets, but certain someone had something very important (not!) to tell and i left the kitchen for a minute.

when i got back, i put the blade on, fixed the lid and 5 seconds later i had sliced carrots. i'm rather proud of myself on not shouting and cursing out loud, instead i counted to 50 by which time i had figured what to do with the sliced carrots. took a knife and kinda chopped them into smaller pieces, not as pretty as i would have liked but didn't want to waste the carrots







now that the mess section is over... here's what went in

1 kg beets, peeled and grated
400 gr carrots, peeled and grated
30 cm piece of leek, halved, thinly sliced
300 gr white cabbage, thinly shredded
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 l boiling water
white pepper to taste
vegetable fond, according to package directions
2 bayleaves
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp parsley, minced
creme fraiche to serve

(and something else that you would not use if you were making a vegetarian borscht)

i took out my big pot since i've learned that my soups tend to feed an army. this batch certainly would have, the recipe is easily halved and still feeds four...

put the pot on to heat on medium high, added the oil, leek, carrots and cabbage and sauteed them for a few minutes







then added the beets, bayleaves, fond, white pepper and boiling water. turned up the heat to bring a boil, then to medium low to a slow simmer







45 mins later it looked like this







at 45 mins turned off the heat, added the red wine vinegar and parsley







if you're in for the vegetarian version, skip this next ingredient, namely hotdogs! sliced them into 1 cm slices, browned them quickly on a hot pan before adding them to pot.

there was so much that i divided the soup between two pots, the other stayed strickly vegetarian, the other got the hotdogs. i will take some to certain someone's mom tomorrow, some to work and there'll be plenty for certain someone to eat as well.







plated with creme fraiche. i had smetana in my hand at the store but for some strange reason i bothered to see how much fat there is in it... needless to say, and eventhough creme fraiche isn't exactly diet food either, i took the lesser of two evils







as with any soup, rye and crisp breads are a natural







the outside temperature is at -20C... not the coldest in finland at the moment but thank god for the fireplace at the shack!

another cold smoked salmon pasta

when i don't have time for anything else, i make this pasta dish. it's 20 mins from start to eating, no kidding, and faster if you use pasta that cooks quick. well, sometimes i make it just because i think it tastes really good...

my shop across the street at the apartment is nowadays open from 7am to 11pm (which in itself is quite convinient, yet very dangerous as to fighting cravings at 10.30pm) i'll be able to get these ingredients whenever.

i started by bringing water to a boil for the pasta. i have used up all white pasta in the pantry, so it's whole wheat from now on (you can never get too much fiber). white pasta would look nicer with salmon, so if you made this for the looks, feel free to use white, it's equally tasty. i used whole wheat fusilli, cooking time for that is 10 mins.


leeks pre-slicing, approx 10 cm piece of the light green part





slice it fine, like here. on occasion i've used button mushrooms instead of leeks, works equally well (if not better when sauteed in butter). i'm still looking for a perfect knife, this victorinox is quite good and not that expensive, but time will tell if it'll become my absolute favourite






once the water is boiling, add pasta. i always cook plenty, if there is some left over, you get a base for a quick salad. heat up a skillet on medium heat to wilt the leeks in 1 tbsp of oil, for approx 2 mins. i used rape seed oil, if you have non-stick pan, no fat is needed, just add few tbsps of water to steam the leeks.

i buy the salmon sliced in 150 gr package, it's easy to roughly chop to smaller pieces







i could not resist, a dip in soya sauce, it is so goooood!







once the leeks are wilted, pour in 2 dl of cooking cream. i used 4%, but go as fat, or lean, as you like. bring the cream to a boil, turn off the heat, add the salmon, season with black pepper (lots of black pepper!), mix well and leave on the warm stove until pasta is done. this salmon could be eaten "raw" but if eating raw fish is repugnant to you, do leave the stove on and cook the sauce a bit longer







again, no salt added. there is some in the salmon, and i did splash some soya sauce on top. if the sauce looks too thick for your taste, thin it out with some water. serve either plated or from a big bowl, bon appetit!

shrimp mush & design humidifier...

mush? yes, eventhough i liked the taste, this wasn't perhaps one of the prettiest dishes ever made, but taste comes first, right?

it all started already last week, you remember, not enough eggs to bake, etc? well, eggs were not the only thing that i'd forgotten. anyways, i decided that there just has to be something in the pantry and/or freezer that will make up a lunch and some left over to take to work.

first i raided the pantry, got plenty of rice (all kinds...), i chose quick cooking brown rice. then checked the fridge and found these







then the freezer, plenty to work with there! like these shimps







this corn







these green beans







these peas







a merry mix in colander, thawing away







now, will this become a recipe, i doubt it, but here's what happened: i cooked the rice (plenty of it), sauteed 1 minced onion, added the thawed corn, beans and peas, chopped spanish pepper and grated peel of 1 lemon, mixed all this well. then added some chilli oil, ginger paste and pad thai sause (can't give amounts, 'cause i used what was left in the jars and bottle), perhaps i should say "add to taste"







had the thawed shimp in a bowl into which i added juice of 2 lemons ('cause i like lemon...) and 2 tsp of chilli powder, mixed well and poured onto the pan with other ingredients. it looked like this, there was plenty of it, like for 10 people.

tastes equally good cold (had some for lunch today). certain someone seemed to enjoy his share, said it was tasty and easy to eat (go figure what that means!) feel free to leave the shrimp out and go all vegetarian







the air indoors is very dry because of this frosty weather. i do hang my laundry indoors to dry, but that isn't enough to humidify the air in my apt. i tried to figure out how to fix the problem and remembered that way back when we used have a humidifier that was hanging on a radiator. this made me think hard, very hard...

then i saw this alvar aalto vase sitting and collecting dust... and came up with a solution. i poured some water in the vase and placed it on my warm raditor... i now have a design humidifier






luckily the radiator is wide enough for the vase to lay on properly and balanced (and that there is kinda "flat" side to the vase to lean on the wall). perhaps not quite how mr aalto intended his vase to be used but on the other hand, i now have a use for the vase (other than collecting dust, i mean)

"cupcakes" & cupcakes

this winter wonderland is at the shack, taken yesterday afternoon on our way to walk the dog in the rather nippy -19 C weather







i guess we could have left a bit earlier to catch the sun still up (not that it was very high anyway...)







this happens a lot with the dog, he jumps into the snow and starts digging







deeper and deeper. there has to be something extraordinary for him to be digging that deep, right?







his "cupcakes", a.k.a frozen blobs of horse manure. you'd get a very angry growl if you even tried to get close, not to mention trying to take them away. now, imagine it not being this cold and the blobs start melting while he eats them... yes, disgusting... but i guess dogs know what's good for them and what's not!







now to treats for humans... i got this susan tee's cupcake book at xmas and wanted to try a recipe from it today (after another arctic walk with the dog, today it was only -16 C!)








originally i had chosen peanut-butter cupcakes, but since i only had one egg (shame on me!) left, so i had to choose a recipe that required just one egg. luckily there was one in the book, applesauce cupcakes.

since the recipe isn't on the web i won't publish it here. however, there are numerous other applesauce cupcake recipes available. there is a surprisingly small amount of butter in the recipe, which can't be anything but a good thing. the crumble topping does have butter in it...








...i'm thinking (now that i have "tasted" two of the cupcakes i just pulled out of the oven) that cream cheese with cinnamon and brown sugar might work as a topping as well







yes, will definitely try one batch with cream cheese topping






wonder if i could eat another, certain someone won't know how many i made...

hot dog -soup

it's been such a long time since my last soup... bear with me, there is a reason(s) for this soup. since i was working, certain someone went grocery shopping, he got hot dogs and potato salad ('cause you ain't finnish if you don't eat hot dogs and potato salad at new year's). it also happened that yesterday i fell asleep well before midnight, and we did have those tarts, etc, so we didn't eat the hot dogs yesterday. anyways, we had hot dogs, it's very cold outside, therefore nice hot bowl of soup was in order.

oh, the other reason was that i joined poineer woman's tasty kitchen and i wanted to submit my first recipe on that site. so there.

here's my hot dogs sliced to 1 cm slices







celery sliced to ½ cm slices







rutabaga that i dug out of the freezer, chopped to 1 cm cubes







carrots chopped to 1½ cm cubes







small white onion minced fine







i usually use this nonstick pot to make my soups, it works best for browning sausages / hot dgos, sauteeing veggies before adding stock to it. this time i started by browning the hot dogs on high heat, just a minute or two to get some color on them, removed them onto a plate to wait.

then i sauteed the onion on it's own to soften it, then added the above mentioned veggies, kept sauteeing the mixture for a couple of minutes before adding ½ liter (or enough to barely cover the veggies) of home made stock from the freezer, a bayleaf and ½ tsp of chilli oil (you won't get the heat but it does give substance) and cooked this for 10 mins.

as a rule i don't use any salt in my cooking (there is some in the hot dogs and the stock), but feel free to use some to taste.

now, i used these veggies because they were what i had in the fridge. if i'd been shopping with an intention to make a soup, i would have gotten parsnips, celeriac and leeks, maybe some cabbage, too.







after 10 mins i added potatoes and cooked for another 15 mins







after the 15 mins i turned off the heat and added the hot dogs and let the pot sit on the stove for 5 mins before adding some parsley.

here's the soup plated. i have rye bread with my soups, with some cheese on top, but i would imagine a grilled cheese sandwich might be nice accompaniment as well






the recipe? well, hopefully it will be at tasty kitchen