Gluteeniton lasagna (herkkusieni & pesto) - Gluten free lasagna (mushroom & pesto)

I'm not a vegetarian, but this is a 100% vegetarian dish that tastes great! It's a mushroom lasagna served with pesto. The great thing with lasagna is it's pretty inexpensive to make a large batch, cooking for the week is done, and it stays well preserved in the fridge. It's easy to heat up a piece fast after work.

One thing with pesto is that if you need to make a large batch it can become fairly expensive fairly fast. The great thing about this pesto is that it's made with frozen spinach. Spinach is a fraction of the price of basil. For this recipe you need two bags of spinach around 40cents/each. In the 90's, and when I was a kid spinach had a "bad name" to it. It also led to me not really knowing how to use it in food, and spinach itself (especially frozen) isn't exactly a delicacy in taste. So it's all about the flavoring and knowing how to use it.

These days I love spinach! It's healthy, high proteins, has a great taste, and it's inexpensive. So if you like me had a prejudice towards spinach, this recipe is the best way to change your opinion!
If you want to make pesto the real/fancier version, use basil, in which case you need 2-3pots. 

Pesto

2 small bags of frozen spinach

1 garlic clove

1 bag of pine nuts (the less expensive version is to use almonds)

1dl of grated Parmesan cheese or Grana Padano

1-2dl olive oil

Salt to taste

I start this recipe by turning the oven to 220C and preparing the pesto. Begin with melting the frozen spinach. Put them in a pan on low heat. Once all the ice has melted and it's a soft green mush you can take the pan off the heat to cool down.

Meanwhile the spinach is melting, start by slicing mushrooms and putting them in a pan on high heat. Mushrooms have a lot of water in them, which is why high heat is preffered. Also thinly slice a garlic (this is for flavoring the mushrooms).

Lasagna

2 boxes of mushrooms (400grams total)

 dried oregano

1 garlic clove 

Semper lasagne plates

1 bag of shredded mozzarella

Once the mushrooms start to give away water and shrink, add some butter, add the sliced garlic clove and dried oregano. Keep the heat high until the mushrooms start to turn brown. Set them aside.

Time for the white sauce = the bechamel. This is what most people struggle with, because if you don't pay attention it tends to get lumpy or burn. If you prefer to buy a ready sauce, that works too. However I haven't found a gluten free ready sauce, which is why I decided to try this myself. I use a teflon kettle, they are super practical when it comes to heating anything with milk for example, because it keeps the milk from burning to the bottom of the pan. Now that you start making the sauce nothing else should be going on: Your mushrooms are ready and waiting, your spinach is cooling down. It's all you, the stove and the bechamel. Give it your full attention.

Gluten free Bechamel (white sauce)

3 tbs butter

0,7dl Gluten free flour

1L milk

1dl grated Parmesan or Grana Padano

salt & pepper

Start by melting 3tbs of butter. Add about 0,7dl of gluten free flour. This is a little less per 1l milk than in a regular recipe because gluten free flour is more starchy --> It become thicker with less. Mix in the flour in the melted butter over low heat, it will start to look like the picture below.

Finally start to slowly add the milk while you're whisking. Whisk whisk whisk whisk away, never ever stop. As you've added the 1l milk it might feel a little loose, and here is the most common misstake. You think "oh it's gonna need a little while to heat up to thicken, I'll just..." And then the sauce is ruined. The process of when it will start to thicken is very fast, not to mention how fast milk burns. So stand by the stove, keep stiring until the sauce is thick like a gravy. Then you can turn the heat of and put the pan to the side.As you do that, add the grated parmesan cheese and flavor with salt & pepper.

Now you can make the lasagna, i start with a layer of bechamel, then a layer of lasagna plates, on top of that a layer of mushrooms + bechamel, another layer of lasagna plates, an additional layer of mushrooms + bechamel. Top the whole thing of with shredded mozzarella cheese and put it in the oven for about 40min (220C).

Meanwhile it's time to finnish the pesto now that the melted spinach has cooled down.

Pesto

2 small bags of frozen spinach

1 garlic clove

1 bag of pine nuts (the less expensive version is to use almonds)

1dl of grated Parmesan cheese or Grana Padano

1-2dl olive oil

Salt to taste

Put all ingredients in a bowl. I usually press the garlic, and I chop the pine nuts before adding to the spinach. Use a bamix (sauvasekoitin) to "puree" the wole thing. It's up to you how purée like you want it, I want it to have texture. So in fact I also add some extra chopped pine nuts after to get some bites in my pesto. Anyways that's how easy it is. Flavor the pesto with salt, and put it in the fridge to rest while your lasagna is in the oven. When it's time to serve, take the pesto out, and usually you have to add a little olive oil to losen up the consitency. If you prefer to use less oil, you can add a little water instead.

Take the lasagna out of the oven and let it "sit" for a while. This is not just to let it cool down, but also it makes the bechamel stay together better.

Finally serve a piece of you lasagna with the pesto. Enjoy the fresh cool taste of the pesto with the warm creamy lasagna!

Home made tortillas with Masa Harina

I have never been to Mexico, so these tortillas might not be "atuthentic" Mexican style, but they are damn good anyways! I read online that tortillas are made with Masa Harina. Before February I had never even heard of that stuff. Masa Harina is a special corn flour traditionally used in mexican cooking.

Now for some unexplainable reason all store bought ready tortillas in Finland are made with wheat flour. Even those that say "Corn Tortillas". Which of course makes perfect sense. (Not!) With the exception of Patrona, all Tex Mex/ Mexican restaurants in Helsinki serve wheat tortillas.

I also read online that Masa Harina can be found in eco stores, or online. My first choice was Aitokauppa, however they had never even heard of Masa Harina.

Finally I found Cool Chile Masa Harina flour from Ruohonjuuri in Kamppi. There's two ways of making the tortillas. One is easier, the other tastes better (of course!). The easy way is to use hot water, in order to process the dough it needs to be warm. However the tastier way is a recipe below.

Recipe

5,5 dl  Masa Harina
2 dl Bulgarian yoghurt

1,5 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1,5 tsp baking powder

1.  Mix all ingredients together and start working the dough. You can't use a food processor because the key here is the heat from your hands. Work the dough for at least 10min, the longer the better. 
2. Divide the dough into pieces (this recipe makes about 6 larger tortillas or 12smaller)
3. Keep working each piece with your hands until it feels clay like and elastic.
4. Put the piece on to a baking sheet and spread it out. It is usually easiest to put it in between two pieces of baking sheet and use a roller/or hands.

 Heat up a pan and put one tortilla at a time in the pan. Don't remove the baking sheet.

Flip the tortilla over after about 3-4min, and then flip it once more 3-4min later. Then the tortilla will start to puff up.

 Keep tortillas heated by wrapping them in a warm, moist towel. For filling you can put whatever you like! Below are some tips.

Corn

Chicken with Taco Spice, red and yellow peppers

Chopped Cucumber salad with spring onions and a splash of lime juice

Salsa

 I also love guacamole! A great guacamole recipe is below, the same I used for my Superbowl Nachos'.  For this version of guacamole, I also added some chopped cilantro.

Guacamole

2 Ripe avocado's

1 garlic clove

1/2 lime

Gluteeniton suklaa kuppikakku / Gluten free Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes

It's really annoying at work when it's coffee time and they bring out the buns... When you can't eat wheat you just sit there and watch everyone else enjoy their treats. Yesterday was a day like this, so when I got home, I decided to make chocolate-orange cupcakes. The decision was purely based on what I had at home, since I didn't want to go to the store :) This recipe makes 11-12 cupcakes, and feel free to double the recipe if in need.. It works just as well with regular wheat flour, but perhaps make sure you check your amount of liquid. Add slowly, gluten free flour can be thicker..

Recipe

  75grams butter

  1 dl sugar

  2,5dl Semper Mix gluten free flour

  1tl  baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 dl Orange juice (freshly squeezed)

  1 egg

orange zest(from 1/2 orange)

Begin by mixing the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk. Add the egg and mix it in, use a regular whisk. In a separate bowl mix flour,  cocoa powder and baking powder together. Add this to the butter, sugar, egg mix. Stir it together. Add the orange juice and the zest and keep stiring.

Finally, with the help of a spoon, fill your cupcake forms up to half with the batter. Put them in 220C for about 10min, until theu look like in the picture below. Take them out of the oven and let them cool down.

While the cupcakes are in the oven you can make the frosting.

Frosting

1 pack of Philadelphia Cheese

50grams butter (room temp.)

Powdered sugar to taste (0,5dl)
Vanilla flavor

1-2 tbs cocoa powder

I just simply add all ingredients together and mix them with a bamix or electric whisk. In this frosting I use cocoa powder, so keep tasting and perhaps add a little more sugar. Cocoa powder is bitter, so that needs to be balanced out. Once the cupcakes have cooled down, use a pastry bag or ziplock bag to frost them. Enjoy!

Low Carb Burger

I have a friend that's on a low carb diet, and we decided to make burgers.. This is slightly challenging since potatoes, corn, rice, any wheat flour is off limits.. I actually got a tip from another blogger (fashion blogger) about this pizza dough/burger bun you can make with eggs and cream cheese. Thank you Heidi!

Recipe

3 eggs

80grams (3oz) cream cheese

1/2tsp vinegar (etikka)

1/2tsp dijon mustard

salt

pepper

oregano

Turn the oven to 150C. Start by separating the egg yolks from the whites. Mix in one bowl egg yolks, cream cheese, mustard, salt, pepper. Use a bamix/electric whisk so the mixture becomes smooth. Add oregano to taste

Add the vinegar to your egg whites, and whipp them hard in glass bowl. When you can turn the entire bowl with whipped egg whites upside down (and nothing falls out) The egg whites are ready.

Carefully mix the whipped egg whites with the yolks, use a spatula (don't break the texture). It won't mix perfectly and can look marble like.

Put baking sheet on a tin, pour the mixture in six circles on a baking sheet.
Put in the oven for about 20-30mins. When the "buns" turn brown on top take the tin out and let it cool down for about 5-10min before trying to remove them from the baking sheet.

I can honestly say these were very tasty! And they do hold together, you can eat your burger with hands. Try it and love it!

BBQ Patties

400grams of ground beef

1 egg

 1/2 tsp mustard

1tbs of Tony Cachere creole seasoning

1/2tsp of Hickory Liquid Smoke

Mix everything together and make patties with your hands. Because there are no breadcrumbs in this recipe the most important thing when making the patties is to have heat under your pan! Make sure your pan is hot before you put your patties there. Otherwise they will start to give away liquid.

Sides/Filling

We filled our burgers with salad, pickles, mayo, cheddar... Whatever you feel like works!
As another tip, sweet potatoes has seriously a lot less carbs than potatoes. So make sweet potatoe fries (Recipe under my pulled beef burger post).

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

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.

Seared Tuna with Grilled Sweet Potato

As a main course for our girls dinner, I decided to make Seared Tuna. Tuna is a difficult fish to make because if you cook it too long it tastes like card board. Whatever and wherever you read how long to cook it, it's too long or short, because every grill & stove is different, and Tuna is a very delicate fish. My solution to the problem is to "raw cook" the meat in a marinade first, and quickly sear it. If tuna is cooked correctly, it's divine. So what does raw cooking mean? It means you let the fish cook by using some kind of acid, for exaple lemon juice or lime.

Marinade

1 lemon (juice)

3tbs sesame oil

1tbs minced fresh ginger

1 large garlic clove (chopped or pressed)

1dl olive oil (Extra virgin)

1tbs soy sauce

1 mild red chili

Remove the seeds from the chili and chop it. In any given Chili it's the seeds that give a burning heat and the shell that gives taste. If you want more heat, never add seeds, change the type of chili you use to a hotter kind. Chop garlic, fresh ginger and mix all together in a bowl. Add juice from one lemon, sesame oil, soy sauce and olive oil. Mix everything. I use a see through plastic bag to put the tuna in and pour the marinade over. The once you get from the grocery store (when you buy veggies or fruit) are perfect. Seal the bag and let the tuna marinade for about 1h. The juice of the lemon will start to cook the meat and you can see a slight change of color after 1h.

Meanwhile prepare the rest of the dish. I serve the tuna with sliced and grilled sweet potato. For four people 1 large sweet potato will do, or 2 smaller. Peel the sweet potato (bataatti) and cut it in half along the long side. After this cut slices in the shape of half moons. Put some baking paper on a tin and place the sweet potatos there. Drizzle oil and salt over them. The sweet potatoes will need to cook for about 10-15min, so put them in the oven (220C) just before it's time to serve.

Salsa

1 Red pepper (punainen paprika)

1/2 Mango

1/2 Red Onion

I serve some mango red pepper salsa with my Tuna. Dice all ingredients and mix them. It's the easiest salsa in the world! Make sure the Mango is ripe though. If you don't like onion, it's fine to leave them out. I do that these days, or use scallions instead.

Finishing touches

1) Put the sweet potatoes in the oven

2) Put a nice salad mix on the plate

3) Searering the tuna: I heat up a pan with just a little oil ( Tuna is a fat fish). Make sure the pan is hot!! I have a gas stove, which makes it easier. Seare the tuna on one side for 30sek, and then turn it over and sear for another 30sek. This is enough. A golden rule is 33-33-33: When you cut the tuna steak it should be 1/3 cooked, 1/3 raw in the middle and 1/3 cooked on the other side.

4) Take out the sweet potatoes and falvor them with a little cayenne.

5) Make a smaller batch of marinade and serve it as a side

This dish is best enjoyed with a good white wine (riesling or gewurstraminer) /or light red (pinot noir), in great company and with some juicy gossip!

Shrimp Ceviche

We have a great tradition with some of my girl friends. We take turns in organizing a three course dinner for eachother, inspired by food we love to cook. It doesn't have to be expensive, just taste good. Each pay for the food when it's your own turn to cook, and the others bring wine/drinks. We try to cook food the others don't know how to make, so when my turn came I decided to make Shrimp Ceviche for starter, and Seared Tuna for main.

Shrimp Ceviche

400grams Tiger Prawns/Shrimp (jättikatkarapu)

1 Avocado

1/4 Cucumber (peeled)

1/2 red chili (mild)

Chopped cilantro (korianteri)

1/2 lime and lime zest

 salt to taste

I start by buying good quality prawns, and here in Helsinki fresh can rarely be found. Make sure you don't buy regular shrimp, instead jättikatkarapu. Frozen are ok, just make sure they're pre-cooked (red/pink in color). If they aren't (gray in color) you have to cook them until they turn pink and let them cool down. If you use preserved (liemessä) make sure you rinse them! Otherwise they will taste salty and sour :/

I remove any shell left, and cut the prawns in half. Next I peel the cucumber, this might seem dumb but it makes an incredible difference. If you don't peel the cucumbers, they will have a much more bitter and overpowering taste. Once the cucumbers are peeled i dice them into small squares. Next I dice the avocado in about same size dices.

I usually use a mild chili, as much as I love heat, the point of a Ceviche is not to be spicy. I want it to have a kick, and a taste of chili, but that's it. Here Pirkka has mild red chilis that are quite good. Remove all the seeds, and chop about 1/3 - 1/2 of the chili depending on taste.

Mix avocado, cucumber, shrimp/prawns, juice from 1/2 lime, a little salt and lime zest. You can easily let this sit in the fridge while you wait for your guests. Don't mix in the chili until about 10min before serving. The chili will react with the lime juice and easily become too spicy and overpowering.

About 10min before serving, add the chili and the chopped cilantro. Taste! Add acidity if needed or salt to taste. Voilà, a perfect fresh starter, easy to prepare before guests arrive.

Lemon Meringue Pie (G)

Once I had baked my lemon curd cupcakes, I was stuck with extra lemon curd, as well as egg whites. That same weekend my brother had his birthday party, so he asked me to bake a cake. I decided that a lemon meringue pie would be perfect.

The curd recipe can be found from my lemon curd cupcake recipe, with the only difference that I thinckened the curd with one extra tbs of potato flour. This is easily done by heating up the curd and add potato flour that has been pre-mixed in some water. Let it simmer until it thickens.

Then I make the meringue by whipping the eggwhites (in this case 4 was left over) hard, and adding powdered sugar. I don't want the meringue too sweet, so for me about 3tbs is enough. If you want more sweetness, just add more powdered sugar. The meringue is done once you can turn the entire bowl of  whipped eggwhites upside down without it falling out of the bowl.

For the piecrust, I made it gluten free and I would call it a semi-failed attempt ;)

Pie crust

150gr butter

3dl Semper Mix gluten free flour

1tbs water

1tbs sugar

I made the dough by mixing it all together by hand. Apparently keeping the dough cold is key, so the heat from my hand kinda made it too soft --> Next time I'll use a food processor. Still at this point the texture was fine though. I let it sit in the fridge for about 20min (apparently 1h is minimum, but I was on a schedual). It was easy enough to put in the pan. Then came the problem with all gluten free pie crusts: Pre-heating. ARGH!

I pre cooked the crust for 10min in the oven, it completely sunk together. I learned fast that when pre-heating a gluten free crust you should always put a bag of dry beans or something as weight. It makes the crust keep its form. Well, what to do when the party is in 30min and I'm the only one baking the cake. And it's Sunday, and I'm all out of flour. Right. No time to panic.

My solution was actually suprisingly effective. I waited for the crust to cool down to about 38C,  warmer than room temp, but not hot. At that temp the texture isn't set, so I just re formed the sunken pastry to fit the pan. To my surprise, it worked! After this I filled my crust with the curd, topped it with the meringue and cooked it in the oven at 100C until the meringue started to turn brown on top.

I let the pie cool down, and brought it to my brothers party. I was a little anxious about how it was going to turn out, and it was great! I've made another pie crust that was gluten free, and better in texture. I had unfortunately forgot the recipe to that one.. I'll post it here when I remember ;)

So all in all, if you bake it with wheat flour, this dough is great. If you bake it with gluten free - you can make it work, but I felt the texture wasn't perfect.

Superbowl Nachos

Incoming weekend was the Superbowl. I'm a huge American Football fan, so even though the game was at 1:30am finnish time - I had to see it. We got together with some friends to watch the game, and of course we had Superbowl Nachos'. Unhealthy - but oh so good.

It is the eternal debate between my brother and my sister who makes the best Nachos'. Last year my brother made them, this year it was my sister's turn.

Recipe

800grams ground beef

1/2 can brown beans

1/2 kidney beans

400gr tomato crush

Taco Spice

Jalapeño

We made a batch for nine people, but if there's less, just make half. Sear the meat in a pan until brown. Add taco spice, beans, tomato crush, jalapeños and let it simmer. Take a big bowl and put Nacho Chips on the bottom, let the next layer be the beef mix, then a layer of Nacho Cheese dip. Repeat procedure as if you're making lasagna. Top the bowl of with grated Cheddar Cheese. Under no circumstances use the store bought slices (these won't melt and make a good top). If you can't find a good piece of cheddar, instead you can use a good Gouda cheese and grate it. Put in oven for about 8min until the cheese has melted and is golden brown.

Please listen to Country music while cooking (for example Keith Urban) or have the NFL football pre show on.

Superbowl Nahcos are to be served with Guacamole. This is my own recipe and the best there is! After you try this you will never buy that discusting store made guacamole dip, that contains about 3% avocado.

Guacamole

2 Ripe avocado's

1 garlic clove

1/2 lime

Mush everything together with a fork. Don't use an electric bamix (sauvasekoitin). It destroys the texture and makes it too purée like. If you can't mush it with a fork, the avocado's aren't ripe enough. Use a garlig presser to get the garlic working. Finish with 1/2 lime.  The lime not only gives a required bitterness, it is also what keeps the avocado's from turning brown. They stay green and fresh this way. Because we were nine people, I doubled this recipe and used about 5 avocados. Be careful with adding too much garlic, I only used one larger clove. Garlic has a strong taste, it's easier to add if needed than trying to cover it up when it's over powering.

Finally Superbowl Nachos' are served with extra chips, lettuce, sour cream, cheese dip and tomato salsa. Awesomeness...

Gluteeniton sitruuna kuppikakku / Lemon Curd Cupcakes (Gluten free)

In my family we have gluten intolerance, we however also have people without gluten intolerance. Now, one critique always posed to gluten free food is that it simply doesn't taste the same. I call bullshit. Indeed it would take a chef without having to make glutenfree food, to start making it and really requiring it to taste as good. I mean - why settle? This is the quest my mom set out to do, prove to everyone that gluten free food and baked goods are just as good if not better.

This has inspired me, so I challenge myself. I want to make everything gluten free, and so no one knows it is. This cupcake recipe is my own, through failure found. It's perfected and I challenge anyone and everyone to tell me it's not wonderful and tastes better than cupcakes made with wheat flour.

Base

125 grams butter

2 dl sugar

5 dl Semper Mix gluten free flour

2 tl  baking powder

1 dl Lemon juice (about 2lemons)
0,5 dl milk

2 eggs

lemon zest

Start by whipping butter and sugar together. I don't use an electric whisk, just my hands until it's well mixed, and then I whip it fluffy with a whisk or even fork. If you don't have the strength, use an electric whisk. Add eggs to the batter and keep mixing.
First mix the baking powder with the gluten free flour, and then add it to your mixture. Finally add 1dl or freshly squeezed lemon juice, use the zest from the leftover lemons, grate it and add to the batter. Check the consistency, sometimes it needs a little more liquid, in which case add about 0,5dl milk so the batter is easy to put in to the forms.

Lemon Curd

 2 lemons

1,5 dl sugar

4dl water

4 egg yolks

3 tbs potato flour

25grams butter

Mix all ingredients together cold in a pan, heat up slowly. as the heat increases the curd will begin to thicken. If you want a less thick curd, lower the amount of potato flour. If you feel you want it thicker, never add potato flour to the hot mixture. Take a glass, add a little water and some potato flour so it liquidates in the glass. Add the water mixture to the curd and keep stirring.

Of course, one easier way out is to buy ready lemon curd. I prefer making my own. Taste! Sometimes lemons are a bit bitter, especially during winter times. You can add sugar according to taste.

Making the cupcakes

Once the lemon curd is done, add it first to your cupcake forms. Then pour the batter on top. This will create a soft lemon curd heart in cupcakes. Bake the cupcakes in 220C for about 10min. Let them cool off before putting the frosting on.

Frosting

1 pack of Philadelphia Cheese

50grams butter (room temp.)

Powdered sugar to taste (0,5dl)
Vanilla flavor

Make sure the butter is room temp!! Whisk together Philadelphia Cheese and butter, use an electric whisk or bamix (sauvasekoitin). When even and soft, add powdered sugar to taste. I don't like my frosting too sweet, so I only add about 0,5dl. Do it according to required taste and consistency. Add vanilla flavor and put in fridge to harden.

Once the cupcakes are cool, and the frosting is cold, start putting the frosting on! The best job. Then enjoy the best lemon cupcakes ever!

Lamb Shahikorma

In the U.S. I had the best Indian food of my life. I've never had Indian food in London though, which I've heard is world class. One of the dishes that absolutely stole my hear was Lamb Shahikorma. The best lamb Shahikorma came from this place on 96th street (near east Harlem) in NYC. I don't remember the name of the place though.. Back here in Helsinki I've tried to recreate that dish from memory, and now found the best combo. Here it is.

Marinade
Cashews - 125grams + another bag for garnish
Garlic  - 4 cloves
Ginger, minced - 2 tablespoons
Water

Put all ingredients (except the water) in a food processor. Add water according to need until it becomes a granual paste, looks a little bit like porridge. Pour the mixture over the cubed lamb, buy about 150grams/person.  I often use paahtopaisti, but any "lower quality" lamb will do because  of the long cooking time.
 
Let the lamb marinate for at least 1h, however over night is preferred though.

The Sauce

Oil 

Vindaloo Curry paste - 2tbs

Whole cloves - 4 to 6 / or 1tsp powdered (Neilikka)
Cinnamon stick -- 1-inch piece

Heavy cream - 2dl (vispi kerma)
Water - as needed
Garam Masala - 1-2tbs 

Once the lamb has marinated, put some vegetable (or rypsi) oil in a pan, add 1-2tbs of Vindaloo curry paste. Vindaloo curry paste can be bought from any better grocery store. You want to fry the paste because that way the spices get into the oil and makes the heat soft. If you like heat, use 2tbs, if you're not a big fan, use 1tbs or less. Add one cinnamonstick and the cloves to the oil. Keep frying for a minute or so. 

Add the lamb with all the marinade to the pan, fry it for about 4-5min. Then add the heavy cream and water. Please don't ever use "Ruokakerma" that stuff should be banned from the face of the earth. If you want less fat, use less cream and more water. Finally, add the Garam Masala spice and let the whole thing simmer for 1-1,5h. Finish the Shahikorma by adding another bag of whole cashews.

Serve with Basmati rice, and garnish with fresh cilantro and red chili.