cottage food II: grilled lemon herby chicken, raspberry tart, and others

i've been back and forth at the cottage, as i had leave last week. cottage is always, well mostly anyways, about simple food. here, grilling flat chicken (martha calls it spatchcocked, how to here) while enjoying the scenery.







before you go thinking i've used semi-rotten meat...that bluish color comes from sage and thyme that i put under the skin with very thin slices of lemon.







about half an hour into grilling the birds (on medium-low) i noticed all the fat on the gridle...and remembered that there was some left-over boiled potatoes in the fridge. the chicken fat did wonders on the potatoes, just don't tell your cardiologist! total time for the chicken was about 45 mins.







made a poor man's greek salad (no olives) to go with the chicken, basil on the side. if it had been me, mom and certain someone the basil would have been in the salad (basil works surprisingly well with feta cheese), but for some reason dad will not eat "greens" in a salad...go figure.







naturally, i did make a stock from the backbones. the sage and thyme gave a strong flavor, the stock'll make a great soup later on (it frozen now).







mom then...not sure her medication is alright, the amount of energy she has, wears me out. she's been in the woods for weeks now, picking this and that, and these raspberries. the wild kind is far superior to the garden variety, so sweet and bursting with flavor. as there was so much berries, i needed to figure out what to do with them...







...and a recipe for blueberry tartlets in maku magazine gave me this idea...(it seems that the recipe isn't on the website yet.)
i made the crust with all-purpose flour and some oats, butter and one yolk. there really isn't a recipe but any shortbread type crust will do.






for the custard layer i used half of a vanilla pod, scraped the seeds and blended them into sugar with the blade of a knife, the seeds will distribute more evenly into liquid or flour. i learned this trick from tv (the great educator!), a danish cooking show called "the sweet life". like the name says it's all about the sweet goodness...now, if danish wasn't so hard on my ears...







this trick (the cling film right on the surface of the custard) i learned from anna, i think...







the crust could have been a tad thinner, other than that, perfect summer tart. the glaze was made with jelly sugar that doesn't have any animal products in it.







from sweet to savory, as mentioned earlier, the chaterelles are plentyful. here, sauteed with onions and butter (let your conscience tell how much you can use), the longer in lower heat, the better.







a slaw with carrots, white cabbage, root celeriac, flat-leaf parsley, chives and mayo.







mom's potatoes...from the ground into a pot in 5 mins, they taste amazing, but new potatoes usually do. or maybe it's the fact that mom buried fish parings into the ground with the seed potatoes...







my new favourite, giant white onions grilled on low heat, for a long time. you could use butter, but it's really not necessary, tiny amount of oil will do. i've contemplated on adding some balsamic reduction to this but so far it's just perfect as is.







i have a handy electric grill at the cottage, perfect for the onions, and keeping other (gas)grilled goods warm.

at the lake & in the woods

i love the shades of pink in late summer evenings' light at the cottage. this evening here, the lake was surprisingly calm.














on my last visit at the cottage, this mallard brought her ducklings to visit us.







she stood on the rock whilst the young ones fooled around in the long grass.







after a while mama mallard called the ducklings who dutyfully followed her.







but yesterday evening, as i was going to take some more pics of the pink moments, the mallards had come back for the night.







didn't have my tripod along...sadly mama mallard seems to have lost a duckling.







they didn't seem to mind me getting quite close (3 meters)







not sure if it's only due to the fact that i've started looking at clouds...but sometimes there are strange formations.







from the water to the woods, or, actually, a small swampy pond up on a hill not too far from the cottage.







swampy areas have cloudberries, tiny one here. i guess i'm supposed to say they are delicious, but have yet to learn to like them. it's not that the taste is somehow off or outright bad, there is a sort of tartness to it that i just don't enjoy. but don't let me stop you from trying if you ever get a chance.







i do like this place, but...in the winter there usually is just way too much snow, in the summer you won't believe the amount of bugs, and autumn just might be even worse for bugs because the moose flies. little over a week ago when i went there (semi-hiking with mom) it had just rained (fresh, cool air), there was a slight wind (no mosquitoes) and most importantly, no moose flies yet!







eew! i just don't like moose flies! but these lingonberries are looking good, few more weeks and they'll be ripe to be picked







wild raspberries are abundant! hmm, little did i know, these are not just wild raspberries, but arctic raspberries...







mom's been picking them like crazy, there are still places you can pick a handful after handful, and have a handy snack along a hike.







and blueberries, there's plenty of them, too. whether you choose to call these wild blueberries or bilberries, to me, they are the true blueberries.







another tasty snack...







this, however, is not a blueberry, but a northern bilberry. who knew berries could be so confusing!?







though, there is nothing confusing about these, wild strawberries

chanterelle pasta

a long overdue post...the wireless internet connection at the shack got whacked by a thunder storm and until the repair guy came, no one knew how bad it actually was. a lightning had done serious damage in a socket, serious like in burned...luckily the house wasn't burned down. certain someone wasn't a happy camper when the net was down...

anyways. right now, i'm at the cottage. it's getting close to autumn, yeah, yeah, someplaces it's summer until sept 23, but in our neck of the woods summer is on the loosing side. i like autumn so i'm good. at the cottage i usually take a walk with mom, at this time of year mom spends hours on end foraging in the woods...you know, blueberries (the wild kind), raspberries (again, the wild kind) and chanterelles, and whatelse.

if you don't pay attention you'll miss the fungus, 'cause you'll think it's just some fallen birch leaves, 'cause they hide pretty well.






i don't mind telling that i walked pass this one, mom didn't.







pretty nice...







got all this and we weren't even looking that hard. little cleaning is needed before these make it into the pan.







this batch is from last week, rinsed well before putting on the pan with one minced onion and some butter (it's ok to use oil, too)







cooked some whole wheat linguine, any long thin pasta will do.







cooked the chanterelles and onion on medium heat until the juices started to evaporate...







...then added the cooked pasta, crushed black pepper and salt, and some cream that i had laying around (cream is totally optional, but so good...) delish lunch in the time it takes to boil your pasta...

afternoon at the amusement park

welcome to linnanmäki! my brother and his family came to helsinki for the afternoon yesterday for a summer staple, the amusement park. i joined them for a few hours.

gotta have cotton candy.







fun for free...







the wooden rollercoaster had its 60th anniversary yesterday. i have never in the 40plus yrs of going to linnanmäki been brave enough to ride it.

some say that the squeaking and creaking of the wooden frame adds the thrill, but i'd get "sea-sick" in no time.







more of a my kind of smooth ride.







another ride you won't get me on...kieputin / spinner. once on board, towards the end the machine stops like this for a few seconds, your face towards the ground. enough said.







another smooth ride.







a helsinki landmark, rinkeli ferris wheel. as a kid this (well, the former one) was one of the few rides that i would go on. now i'm too scared of heights.







kieppi, another ride that will surely shake and swirl your guts. my nephew rode it twice!







hiphop, discription says "stomach tickling bumps"...







the amusement park is run by children's day foundation, which donates the proceeds to finnish child welfare work.

in addition to the 40plus rides, the grouds are beautifully gardened. i tried to find info on the garden, but so far found none. i did email the foundation asking for it...







love the hanging grass.







and the hanging pinkish-purple whatever it is...







cool idea for a fountain.







on the way to the amusement park i walked under a bridge on tivolitie. the tunnel has had a minor face-lift as this artist has been doing paintings on both sides on the tunnel. she told me there will be a story about her and the paintings in the local paper next week (will link it here later, link from the newspaper's web version).






whilst i admired her work, she expressed concerns that proper lightning would not only do her work more justice, she pointed out that the tunnel was a very dark place most of the year and that for pedestrian safety the tunnel should have lights all year long.

the tunnel is a natural pedestrian route from alppila to the center of town, therefore there is plenty of pedestrian traffic also in the winter. unfortunately, many a good women have had bad things happen to them in that tunnel...

city officials, get some lights there, please!





UPDATE: artist's website here.