Patrona Helsinki - The quest for great food at an affordable price

On Tuesday me and my friend went to try out Patrona. A fairly new Mexican restaurant in Helsinki. I was really excited to try the food, because there are no Mexican restaurants in Helsinki.There's texmex (like Santa Fé), which is good too though.

First off, service was so friendly! They immediately asked what we wanted to drink, and explained about the food. I was a little apprehensive about the drinks. I'm not a fan of Tequila. OK, who am I kidding, after a very drunken night 8years ago the thought of tequila makes me vomit. I'm sure you've all been there.

My solution to the problem was to ask for a drink that isn't for a tequila lover, but a drink that could make me a tequila lover. This is what i got, the patrona. An amazing drink (margarita style) with tequila, lime and guava juice. The edges were covered with half salt half chili.. I must say the drink was amazing, for the first time in 8years I enjoyed drinking tequila. I even had another one.

My friend got a tall drink with passionfruit, this didn't even taste like tequila, but was of course wonderful none the less. Drinks were a little expensive around 9,8€. I say that because prices on food and wine were much lower, so I feel 7€ drinks would fit the concept a little better.

We started by sharing two appetizers, the chevicé (with whitefish and shrimp) and guacamole with tostodos. This ceviché was very different from what I had before, soaked in lime juice and served with a side of habanero sauce. It's actually a brilliant concept, because this way you can regulate the amount of heat yourself. I used a lot of heat - love spicy food. The guacamole was amazing, and their home made tostadas so incredibly good! Seriously huge points, and appetizers were between 7-9€ and that's a fair deal since there was plenty food.

For our main course, we shared the tortillas with braised pork belly and pineapple salsa (which is actually a warm starter) and also the chicken tortilla with mole sauce (a main course). The pork belly tortillas were amazing, and especially the pineapple salsa. They were overshadowed by the chicken tortilla with mole sauce though.

Molé is a chocolate sauce, this one contained five different types of chocolate, and also peanut butter and chili. Though it looks like a dessert, it most def. is not. This was my first try of Mexican Molé sauce and it blew me away! So incredibly tasty!! Apparently a lot of finnish customers don't appreciate this dish, since the server warned us it will be different... But damn it was good though!

At the end of the day, our bill was about 40€/person, which is ok. Especially considering 20€ of that was drinks.. Had we taken wine, a bottle would have been around 30€. Was the food Mexican? I have never been to Mexico, hard to say. However, it's def. not texmex, and  just like Mexican restaurants in NYC. Either way drinks and food, both delicious! I would go back anyday!

Pasta Diavolo Semplice

Sometimes all you want to do when you get home is eat a ready meal and watch TV. This dish is so fast, and so easy it will make never eat a ready meal in your life again. The name means the pasta is spicy (diavolo is really devil, but it's getting on the same point), and semplice means easy.

Recipe

Spaghetti or Linguine pasta (gluten free if you need it)

1/2 fresh chopped chili, you can use caynne pepper or dried chili flakes instead too

1 garlic clove (pressed or chopped)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt

1dl oil

dried parsely, or herbs de provence (any dried herb mix really)

Put water in a pot, bring it to boil, add salt and a dash of oil to the water. Don't add the pasta before the water is actually boiling. Otherwise the pasta will become discusting. Never add a lid, always boil pasta without a lid! Boiling time will vary about 8-12min. Read the lable, and leave the pasta al dente.

In a pan add 1dl of oil, heat it up slightly (low temp) add the chili, and garlic. Let the flavors get heated up and spread in the oil. Finally turn down the heat even more before adding the juice of 1/2 lemon. If you have white wine, this works as a perfect acid as well. Just remember when adding any water based liquid to oil all hell will break lose if the oil is too hot! Finally flavor the heated oil with a little salt and whatever dried herbs you have at home.

Finally pour the pasta through a strainer to remove the water, put it back in the pot. Add the heated oil and do like in the Sopranos: Mix together over heat for about 45sek. This way the flavored oil will get absorbed in the spaghetti. Pour the spaghetti in a bowl, and you are ready to eat! Fast and easy, and really really good..

Tournedos Rossini

I critiziced earlier the price range of Restaurant Sunn, and claimed to be able to make the food better myself. Well, time for proof. I decided to try making Tournedos Rossini, this is once again a version with a twist. The original dish has fois gras (duck/goose liver), however my mother oppose eating that for ethical reasons, so I had to skip it. Instead I use bacon as a fat component. Also, I was all out of Madeira wine so the sauce is red wine with a vanilla twist. Finally since black truffels are hard to find, I did my usual trick; using regular mushrooms flavored with truffel oil..

Also I used spelt bread (if you're gluten free this is a no go, IBS friendly though for some) I recommend anyone to use spelt instead of wheat, the bread is more crispy in texture..

Tournedos Rossini is made with Filet Mignon, and the one thing you can absolutetly not change is that: The meat, the heart of the dish!

Recipe (2people)

400 grams Filet Mignon (two filets of 200grams each)

1 pack bacon (150grams)

1 pack mushrooms (200grams)

Truffle oil

2 pieces of bread (Spelt, wheat or gluten free)

Start by wrapping one or two slices of bacon around each filet. Set aside and let the meat become room temperature. The bacon will protect the meat and att natural fat when searing. Cut the mushrooms in slices (leave 4-5 for the salad), sautée mushrooms, once brown take off the stove and flavor with about 1-2 tsp of truffel oil. Cut the two slices of bread, cut the crust away and set aside.

Sage potatoes

8-10 potatoes

Olive oil

dried sage

salt

Turn the oven to 220C. Cut potatoes in half along the long edge, and then in half again so you get cloves. Drizzle olive oil, dry sage and salt over the potatoes. Put on a tin and place in the oven. The potatoes will take around 40min to cook.

Sauce

2dl Red wine

1/2 tsp stock powder (meat)

1/2 carrot

1 piece green celery

1 Vanilla pod (vaniljatanko)

50 grams of butter

1tbs tomato purée

1/2 tbs Maizena sauce thickener (suuruste)

Start making the sauce by pouring 2dl red wine in a pot and heating it up, add the stock powder. Peel and cut half a carrot in pieces, wash and cut the celery. (piece size won't matter, feel free to make them look as ugly as you like!) Add them to the wine, let boil for about 15-20min. This will make the alcohol evaporate and make the sauce friendly for kids too.. When about 20mins has passed, pour the wine with the carrots and celery through a strainer in a new pot. This way the carrot and celery has given flavor to the wine. Put the pot with the strained wine back on the stove. Take the vanilla pod, cut it open and scrape out the vanilla seeds. Add them to the wine. Add 1 tbs of tomato purée, stir and let the sauce simmer. Add the sauce thickener carefully while stiring. The Maizena one I use, you don't have to mix with water. However check, if you use potatoflour for example you absolutetly must mix it with cold water first. Let the sauce simmer and thicken, if you want to make it thicker add some thickener. Finally add the butter. Butter will make the sauce shine (I'm not kidding) and improve the taste.

Salad

Rest of the bacon

4-5 mushrooms

1/2 cucumber

lettuce

Chop the bacon, and fry it crispy. Slice mushrooms, cut the cucumber in slices or squares, and mix the lettuce, mushrooms and crispy bacon in to a salad.

Preparing  & serving the meat

Now that everything else is done, heat up a pan and put some butter in it. Place the meat in the pan, fry it on each side for about 4min to make it perfect. This will make the meat medium rare, and this is how Tournedos Rossini should be served. If you don't like medium to medium rare meat, don't make the dish. I'm actually not kidding, Filet mignon is expensive meat and cooking it well done is a complete waste of your money. If you regardless feel like doing this, after 4-5min/side put the meat in the oven to cook through ( You're breaking my heart if you do it. Seriously!) Take my word for it, if there ever is a time to try medium to medium rare meat, this is it! Just do it!

Take the filets of the pan, and let the meat rest for a while (5min) this way the juices won't escape when you cut it. During this resting period you can throw the slices of bread to the pan with a little butter and fry them quickly (30sek/side).

Constructing the dish

 This dish is always served on a plate, so it's all about constructing next.


Start by placing the fried/roasted piece of bread one on each plate. On top place the meat, and on top of the meat the seared truffle flavored mushrooms. Finally pour the lovely red wine sauce on top. As a side serve the potatoes and the salad. Perfection!

Coffee Snob! & NetOutlet Finland

Wow, it's been a hectic week at work, so no updates, sorry about that! I got so excited on Wednesday though when my coffee delivery came.. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a coffee snob, I really taste differences and appreciate good quality.

There's a new company in Finland, called NetOutlet Finland. They were on Sharks Tank Finland yesterday (Leijonanluola) on Nelonen. From them I bought this espresso tasting set with my friends, and got a great discount. It's the easiet ever, just login with facebook and start to earn discounts!

You don't have to worry about having a super expensive espresso machine, I'm old school and I use my Bialetti every morning. From Netoutlet you can buy a set and get started!! It's pretty cool.

If you want to see NetOutlet on Nelonen figthing for cash, go here to watch it!

Spicy Chicken Meatballs with Whipped Truffle Flavored Mascarpone

 In New York I tried these amazing Chicken Meatballs with truffle Mascarpone. I obviously don't have a recipe for them, but I decided to try and replicate the taste. These work best as Tapas, but technically you could serve them as a starter or a snack. The important thing is to flavor the minced chicken meat enough, it doesn't have that strong of a flavor itself.

Meatballs

400grams minced chicken meat

1/2 chopped red chili

2tbs grated ginger

2tsp ginger powder

chopped cilantro

1 egg

3 tbs breadcrumbs (gluten free if you need it)

salt & pepper

Mushrooms to garnish

Mascarpone whipp

150gr Mascarpone

1tbs quark (maitorahka)

salt

3tsp white (or black) truffle oil

 When you use ginger in a recipe like this, it might be better to grate it than finely chop it. A problem is that grating ginger on the finest possible blade, usually makes it stick to the grater.

A trick I learned (and this works for grating lemon/lime zest as well) is to put a piece of baking paper over the grater and press it down. Then you grate with the baking paper as cover.

What happens is that the baking paper actually captures all the finely grated ginger (or zest) so when you remove the paper, it's all there intact. Nothing stuck on the grater.

When the ginger is grated, remove all the seeds from 1/2 red chili and finely chop it. Chop up cilantro as well.

Add ginger, chili, cilantro, one egg, and the breadcrumbs to the minced chicken meat. Star working on mixing it all together.

Form some meatballs and put them in the oven for about 10min in 220C. Make sure the meatballs are cooked through, eating raw chicken is a serious health hazard.

While the meatballs cook it's time to make the mascarpone whipp. Combine mascarpone, quark a little bit of salt and the gradually the truffle oil. Mix it together. Taste it, if you feel like adding some truffel oil, do it. Be careful though, truffle has an overpowering taste.

 

Take the meatballs out of the oven,  chop up 4-5mushrooms and sear them in a pan with oil. Add some truffel oil when they are don, and mix it in. This will give the illusion of eating actual truffles. Pour the chopped mushrooms over the meatballs in a serving dish.

Add the mascarpone whipp, and garnish with some cilantro. Voilà! To make the whipp look prettier, I add it by using a ziplock/baking plastic bag that i cut a larger hole in. That way when you squeeze it, it looks prettier and fluffier than if you put it there with a spoon.

Umeshu Helsinki - The quest for great food at an affordable price

As me and my friends somewhat reluctantly have transferred into working fulltime, we have realized that we spend less and less time with eachother. In college we would always meet, everywhere and at least for lunch. Now we have to take the trouble of picking up a phone and making a call. One of my friends had a brilliant idea, let's automatically meet every other Tuesday for afterwork/dinner. This was our first Tuesday, and since we all love sushi, Umeshu was our restaurant of choice.

The best way, and really the only way to eat Sushi, is to get several items on the menu and share with your friends. My absolute favorite Maki at Umeshu is the Yaki Shake (slightly grilled salmon) and Shiromasu (smoked white fish). Ebifurai (fried prawns) is amazing, but they use breadcrumbs so it's not a gluten free option.

These are also good Sushi to start with if you've never had Sushi before, because they are cooked. It's easier to transition into raw fish once you know what to expect. Personally I love raw fish, so adding Spicy Shake (spicy raw salmon) and any other Maki is not a problem for me.

 

One of my friends is on a low carb diet, and even though rice is not as bad as wheat, she's trying to stay away from all of that. That's another good thing about Umeshu, it's not just sushi, they have other japanese style foods as well. 

 She opted for a salad and some lightly grilled salmon with apple and fennel.I guess the only negative thing was that her food didn't come at the same time as the rest of our sushi, so we had to wait a fairly long time.

 

I've been to Umeshu several times, and new to their menu is the dumplings. Their dumplings are incredible, full of flavor. Traditional dumplings are often made with rice flour, but I believe these had wheat in them, so if you're gluten free - double check! 

All in all I would argue that Umeshu has the best sushi in Helsinki. I feel their price range is pretty good, a bottle of wine for 32€, Maki rolls for around 6-8,5€ (there's 8pieces in each) and I get full for about 2 - 2 ½ rolls. We had somewhat an OD on Sushi this time, but you can easily get away with around 30€ (including wine). 

The only downside is the service. I don't think I saw the server smile once, and we litterary waved for 10min without anyone looking our way. This restaurant is tiny by the way... Finally we had to raise our voices and say excuse me. I feel that's so humiliating to do, and I didn't appreciate being put in a situation where you have no choice. I can't blame this restaurant alone, ususally this is the standard still wherever you go. It is assumed you as a patron, want to be left alone.

All in all, great food, pretty good price, but horrible service :) I will be going back though, for the food, and just hope for better service..

Bataatti keitto / Sweet potato soup

This sweet potato soup is the easiest and best soup you can make. Another good thing about it, is that it's easy to adjust depending on preference.

Recipe

2 sweet potatoes

2 regular potatoes (Rosamunda)

1 tbs of minced fresh ginger

2tsp chicken stock powder

6-8dl water

0,5 dl cream

olive oil

 Twisting it up

Chili (if you feel like it)

Truffel oil (if you feel like it)

Fried bacon (if you like it)

Peel the sweet potatoes and the regular potatoes, chop them in cubes. Start by pouring a little olive oil in a kettle, add the ginger and let it sear for about 5min. Add the cubes of sweet and regular potatoes, keep searing for about 4-5min.

Add the water and the chicken stock powder. My favorite stock is "Luomu kanaliemijauhe" by Reformi, because it's organic, it doesn't contain any wheat, and it's one of the few stocks that doesn't contain onions either (IBS friendly).

 

Let the soup simmer for about 15min, then check if the potatoes and sweet potatoes are soft. If they are, use a Bamix (sauvasekoitin) and purée the whole thing. If the soup feels to thick, too purée like, add more water. It's impossible to say on beforehand exaclty how much water is perfect. Potatoes and Sweet potatoes vary in size, and the amount of starch in them vary. Trust yourself with adding water and choosing a good texture. Add the cream for flavor, and the soup is ready to serve!

The ginger will give this soup a nice kick and flavor! This soup is great in it's simplicity. If however, you feel like twisting it up - here are some tips.

Twisting it up!

• For a little stronger kick, add 1/2 chili to the olive oil at the same time as you add the ginger
• To cut the texture, chop up some bacon in mini squares and fry it until crispy. Garnish the soup with the salty crispy bacon
• Garnish the soup on your plate with a sprinkle of white or black truffle oil. You can always garnish with olive oil, but that won't give the same taste

Gluteeniton Pizza /Gluten free Pizza

When I heard I couldn't eat wheat anymore the number one thing that came to my mind was pizza. I have always loved home made pizza! To my surprise, making gluten free pizza is actually pretty easy!

Recipe

2 dl warm water (37C)

0,5dl olive oil

50gr yeast

4-6dl Semper Mix flour

1tsp salt

Start by pouring warm water and the olive oil in a bowl. Add the yeast and let it melt. Start adding the flour. The more flour you add, the easier the dough is to handle, and the thinner the final crust will be. If you use less flour the pizza will become thick, "pan pizza" style. I chose to make thin pizzas, and used a lot of flour. Once you've added the flour and salt, let the dough rise for 1h.

Oil your hands and spread out the crust on a tin with baking paper. If you prefer not to use oil, you can use gluten free flour instead, I think oil works better though...

Sauce

1 can (400grams) crushed tomatoes

1 large garlic clove

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2tbs dried oregano

olive oil

Start by heating up the olive oil and adding garlic and cayenne pepper. When you add the spices straight to the oil it will spread and give a nice flavor to the entire sauce. It also takes the edge off (in a good way) both the garlic and cayenne. Add the tomato crush, make sure the oil isn't too hot. Because the crush contains water, you will have tomato-crush fireworks if you pour it in steaming hot oil. It happened to my sister, and it wasn't pretty to clean up. Take my word for it.. Add 1tbs oegano and let the sauce cook for about 20min. The longer the sause cooks, the better the flavor, so be patient and make it while the dough is rising. Finally add an additional tbs of dried oregano.

Make the pizza by pouring the sauce on to the dough (I  never preheat the dough) and add whatever you want as filling. This one had ham, chorizo/salami, peppers, pineapple and mushroom. A weird combo to some, but I love it. Finally put shredded mozzarella cheese on and in the oven for say 15min (or when the cheese is melted) at 220C. Finalize the pizza with fresh rucola or parsley, that really makes the difference. Enjoy!

Gluteeniton Laskiaispulla / Gluten Free Mardi Gras Bun

The one thing that's difficult with eating gluten free food is baked goods. Especially when you celebrate a particular holiday like Mardi Gras (laskiainen). This is a great recipe for gluten free buns, it's not too difficult either.

Recipe

2,5 dl milk

1 tbs fiberhusk

25gr yeast

0,5dl sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1tsk cardamom

1/2 tsp salt

50gr soft butter

0,5 dl quark (maitorahka)

1 egg

4 1/2 -5 dl Semper Mix gluten free flour

Filling/Garnish

Hot milk

Whipped cream

Almond paste (mantelimassa)

The key to this recipe is the quark, and the fiberhusk. I can honestly say I'm not even sure what fiber husk is, I just know it helpes when baking :)

Start by pouring the cold milk in a bowl and add the fiber husk. Let it sit for 10min, it will turn into something very slimy. This is supposed to happen. Add the yeast and the sugar, work the dough by hand. Sugar helps the yeast, salt kills it so do not add the salt at this stage! Add the soft butter, egg, cardamom and the quark and keep working the dough with your hands (or a spoon). Mix the baking powder with the flour and slowly add it to the batter. Do not use a spoon anymore, get your hands working now.

The dough is done when it looks like the pic above in texture, add the salt lastly. The dough will be quite soft and you can't form the buns by hand. This is how it's supposed to be. Take the dough and put it in a ziplock / plastic pastry bag and cut a corner (the hole can be quite large). 

 Squeeze the dough in buns sizes on to a tin covered with baking paper. You will get about 6 good size buns form the dough. Let it rise for 1h, while you preheat your oven to 220C. Put the buns in the oven for 8-10min.

The next step is serving the buns. Now each family will have their own traditions, and this is the way I used to eat them in my childhood.

Take a spoon and dig out the lid. Press a hole down int he bun, fill it with almond paste. Put whipped cream over the almond paste, place in bowl and pour hot milk over. So damn gooooood!

I don't like eating these with jam, but if that's you're tradition, then do it your way :)

Mange Sud

Me and my friend had both received gift cards from Mange Sud, 2 menus for the price of 1. So we decided to invite 2more friends and go to dinner there. For anyone who is interested in that deal, you can still claim it here. The gift card is valid until the 28th of February.
 

 We started off the evening at my place, had a glass of wine and some Cheese. Actually white wine is better with fat cheeses like Brie and Chèvre, but ultimately my filosophy is to choose whatever you're in the mood for.  These were both organic cheeses, and I actually feel like putting an extra euro in to cheese is usualy (= read always) worth it. I served the cheese with some crackers and apricot jam. A great mix, another favorite is figue jam.

After some gossiping we left for Mange Sud at Tehtaankatu. We had reservations at nine, another good reason to meet earlier and have a small bite of something. After looking at the menus everyone chose Menu Mediterranea. Otherwise gluten free, but has a Cannoli for desert, the staff was more than happy to exchange that free of charge to Créme Brûlee and offer gluten free bread.

Going back to scallops... I think these are the best scallops I've had in my life, served with fried bacon with a very nutty taste. They've probably used walnut oil or something. The purée was sweet potato flavored with truffel oil. Amazing!

 

For main course we had the Duck Confit, and though texture wise and taste wise it was amazing, I believe the chef must have been in love. At least my plate had a little too much salt, and since I'm a salt addict that's saying something. Otherwise a perfect dish

 There was a cheese course in between that served Brie and Roquefort. Personally I'm not a fan of Roquefort, plus I prefer starting or finishing with cheese, and we had already had some.. For dessert I had the Crème Brûlée. Perfect in taste, a perfect sugar crust, but whyyyy the red currant purée on top?! I scraped mine away because it completely overpowers the delicate taste of a Crème Brûlée.

All in all though I really enjoy Mange Sud, great food, great service, and one of the few restaurants in Helsinki that's loud! A lot of laughter and you can see all patrons enjoying themselves. I def. recommend, especially since you can get the great deal all february: 2 Menus for 1

Incoming Weekend

Plans and posts for this incoming weekend. Today we're going out with some friends to Mange Sud, so I'll be writing about that experience tomorrow.

Also Mardi Gras is coming up (Laskiainen)! This means I will be making some gluten free mardi gras buns (laskiaispulla).  Check in on the progress on that, success or complete disaster. We will see...

Spring dinner: Halloumi Salad with Strawberries, Seared Duck and Pannacotta

As I've mentioned some of us girls get together and host dinner parties taking turns. This was last spring, but it being a blizzard outside I'm already dreaming about summer and fresh food.

For started she made one of the best salads I know. It's incredible in its simplicity. A good reminder that flavors need not always be complicated to work.

For the salad base there's rucola, what else? Then you add fresh strawberries and grilled halloumi cheese (if you don't have a grill you can fry it in a pan.). Grilled cheese? Yes, don't expect all cheeses to grill without melting, Halloumi however is a special kind, and it can handle the heat!

The best dressing to go with is just some oil and balsamico mixed. Balsamico and Strawberries go beautifully together. What makes this salad so good? Well Rucola is strong in taste, Halloumi is salty and can handle that, it all balances out with the sweetness of the strawberries. So what is missing? Acidity, and that you get from the balsamico dressing. Voilà!

Main Course

For the main course we had duck. Duck is something I don't eat enough, I adore duck. The meat is so tender and full of flavor. You just have to dare to not over cook it, leave it at 55C. Another misstake easily made is removing the fat layer. Absolutetly don't do that when you cook. If you like a more lean version, just remove the layer of fat once the duck is cooked.

The duck breast was served with beans and bacon as a side dish (a great combo), and grilled potato wedges. Of course a red wine sauce as well.

Dessert

For dessert we had Pannacotta. This was a yoghurt based one, and I think it's a very fresh way to end a meal. I've never made pannacotta myself, but it's on my check list. I don't know if I'll ever be able to compete with this one though!

I remember this dinner well, not just because of the great food, but because we sat well in to 3am talking, gossiping, not realizing time was flying by. That's an interesting thing about Helsinki in the summer/spring. The sun is up shining in the sky at 2am, so it's not surprising time can fly by without anyone noticing.