mainly carrots, a soup

cold winter days call for a soup and the fact soups are easy...







and the fact that i had 4kgs carrots "left over" from christmas. i meant to make a carrot and rice casserole before christmas, but never got round to it. i originally meant to use just carrots for the soup, but then started digging into the fridge and freezer, and found a bag of frozen celeriac and rutabaga cubes, minced green parts of leek and parsley stalks, and the flavoured (sun-dried tomatoes) cream cheese in the fridge, and an onion in the pantry.







first roughly chopped the onion, put the kettle on medium high and added the onion, leek and celeriac/rutabaga (frozen) and parlsey stalks and let simmer for 5 mins to thaw whatever was frozen and to soften the onion.







mixed well after adding the cubed carrots and let sautee for a few minutes, before...







...adding water until the mixture was barely covered, veggie stock will work as well. i added 1 tsp of herbamare buillion mix before putting the lid on and letting the kettle simmer on medium low for 15 mins, which was enough for me...







...to play with the camera and take pics of the dog. he did't seem too happy to be woken up in the midst of his mid-morning nap







time to take out the stalks...







...put in the cheese and the immersion blender. i tried to make the soup quite smooth, but there are always pieces of carrot that managed to avoid the squishy-mushying machine. the looks were quite alright, but i felt fancy and added 2 tbsp all purpose flour in a scant 1 dl of cold water (mixed well) and brought the soup to a boil to cook the flour, as well. not something that you will taste, but perhaps the soup looked nicer. very tasty and once again, no salt added.






i did think it needed a "kick" or something, so i got out my hot sauce and added a careful ½ tsp of it. i love hot sauce but my stomach doesn't, the tiny amount did round up the flavours







little parsley as garnish and crisp bread to go with, perfect lunch on a semi-cold day (-12C)

happy new year & ramblings...

hopefully you've been kind to yourself with new year's resolutions. oh, could be most of us should contain less fat, more more fit, show acts of kindness to people we know (and to strangers), save the planet and be better persons overall. i happen to think that most of us have lives to live, jobs to go to and these things take a strain on you, taking too much on your plate isn't a good thing. i feel that one should balance duty and fun, the scales a tad more on the fun side!

i have, however, made one resolution: i will not, once again, buy clothing to myself in finland. let's face it, my closets are bursting even with boxes full of donated pieces, and i just won't wear out what i have any year soon. things might change if i need to start wearing my own clothes at work, but that's something i will not worry about right now. last year i succeeded pretty well on this issue, i only bought 4 items in finland (not counting underwear), not too much when travelling, either.

there are some gastronomical challenges that i need to tackle, making soufflé and creme brulee and flambeeing something (maybe i even flambee the creme brulee!). i will also start paying (more) attention to what there is in the pantry and fridge, and not to waste food because the best-by date was weeks ago. i'm pretty sure that certain someone and i could live for weeks with just freezer and pantry items. (it looks like we'll be eating a lot of rice in the coming weeks...)

lastly, there will some house-cleaning here at liisamarja's, some of it you can already see (however, this change needs a bit more adjusting) right now the sun is shining and the dog needs his walk...i'm heading outdoors, cleaning can always wait!

all the best for 2011, be kind to yourself!

sweetened potato casserole

this dish certainly isn't a looker, but i love it, my mom makes the best. i was dead set on trying to make it this year, i was aiming for it to be edible...it turned out edible alright, quite nice actually, perhaps not in my mom's league but let me practice for a few decades...

this dish is traditional, some parts of country make it sweetened (flour and/or syrup) or regular (basically baked mashed potatoes)







i started by boiling 3 kg potatoes (floury work best, like with mashed potatoes). traditionalists say you should cook the potatoes with the skin on, but i figured it's easier to peel them raw than cooked and hot. besides, mom cooks them peeled...

after the potatoes were done, poured out the water and added 2 dl of all purpose flour and mixed well, put the lid on and left to "brew" overnight (if not overnight, then at least for several hours). ideally the pot should be then placed in a warm place. luckily the fireplace had been going on at the shack, so the mantel was quite warm, but you could set the oven for 70C and keep the pot in there.







next day i buttered (generously) four 1,5 liter foil pans. normally i would stay away from foil pans, but they make freezing so much easier







next, i added 1 liter of full fat milk, 2 tsbp of dark syrup (something traditionalist shy away), salt and liquid fat (butter and vegetable oil)







not pretty, but wait until this gets...






... mixed well. the mixture should be rather "runny", a lot more so than mashed potatoes







...and baked. blobs of butter on top and optional, but will definitely make a difference in taste







baked three casseroles for 3 hrs in 175C, froxe one for later use (who says this traditional christmas dish cannot be eaten, say, on easter!?)

my stuffed turkey breast

like i mentioned in my post on dec 23rd, the turkey breast was humongous...it turned out quite pretty anyways...







i made the stuffing out of these:

dried aprocots
pinenuts
garlic
fresh parsley and sage, dried thyme
maldon salt & crushed black pepper
butter







saved the parsley stalks and froze them to be used later in a soup







motorized gadgets make life so much easier







as the breast was so big, i needed to figure out how i was going to tie it. laying out the kitchen twine, bacon and sage leaves beforehand helped a lot







i was going for a rolled efect but the mere size of the breast set limits to what could be achieved







it took two set of hands to tie the monster (and to take pics)







i think the bundle spend little over 2 hrs in the 200C oven, but i did have a thermometer in it, took the meat out once the inside temp was 77C.

xmas lunch

i hope you've all eaten well during the holiday weekend! i had a hasty christmas lunch on the eve before going to work, but i will enjoy a proper dinner tonight (it's still xmas, right?!)

here's what i enjoyed...cold smoked salmon, salmon roe with smetana and red onion on toast.







my fight to like brussels sprouts continues. never a christmas tradition in my family, but here with slivered almonds and balsamic vinegar...i might be starting to like the sprouts







the stuffed turkey breast. i does pay to use a thermometer to check when any meat is cooked enough, the turkey was optimal doneness, not one bit dry.







i served the turkey with red wine gelee, mint jelly and sweetened potato casserole, the latter being my all time favourite xmas food. i have been very hesitant to make as my mom's is so good...i have made once many, many years ago, but will not bore you with the details of how that turned out.

the next couple posts will show how i prepared the sweetened potato casserole and the turkey







sorry for the crummy pics, was in a hurry and lighting sucked (excuses, i know!)