Gold medal in cooking

The Culinary Olympics founded in 1896, is one of the oldest and most prestigious international cooking competitions in the world. And this year the gold medal was won by the Finnish team in Erfurt, Germany, with participating teams from 40 other countries.

So, what does this mean for Finnish cuisine after years of bad mouthed comments from leaders of other European countries, have they been wrong or has the Finns improved their cooking skills?

I am quite sure there were teams present from the countries with leaders who think they have the best culinary skills in their country and I doubt any drastic change has been taken place in the Finnish cuisine, so i guess these famous politicians must have been wrong. And maybe not for the first time as I has been all across the European tabloids.

Anyway, to my own disappointment, the menu served, did not consist of any Finnish specialities, but I guess the ingredients were chosen before hand, as in most renowned cooking competitions.The Finnish winning menu consisted a three-course meal consisting of salmon and lobster with spinach for starters, veal with sweetbread sausages for main, followed by an orange-yoghurt cake and strawberry-chocolate mousse.

Sounds yummy!

Optional food

The day was again spent on an expedition out in the woods picking mushrooms, this time baskets full of Suppilovahvero, Cantharellus tubiformis, a kind of tube formed chanterelle that is brown on top and yellow underneath like the ordinary chanterelle.

The catch was big even though the season for them mushrooms is not quite yet with the recent warmer than usual weather, so I expect to be going out again later on when the weather has cooled down a bit, just before the winter hits with snow is normally the best time as night frosts do no harm to this species.

We also found surprisingly many ordinary Chanterelles, Cantharellus cibarius, which is quite unusual for this time of the year, but that must be due to the lack of night frost. As the day’s catch was fairly big dear spouse of mine had the good idea of going for a second walk into the woods looking for a third species of Chanterelles, the black tube form chanterelle, Cratellus cornucopoides, but fortunately he found none as he would once again have overdone it. We already, that means me, had loads of mushrooms to clean, some for drying which is where the sauna comes in handy, and the rest to cook with a portion to be indigested right away at dinner time and the rest to be stored in the freezer for future culinary experiences. Just after having put the rest of the tube formed Chanterelles away I read a recipe for mushroom pie I feel an obligation to try so I am looking forward to the next trip to the woods.

Surprisingly many elk flies were still around, but as I now know they do no harm to humans, they are easier to deal with than on our last mushroom expedition when I had not yet googled it.

It is strange how the offspring whom used to be so fond of food in their childhood and now with having grown up and heard the opinions and theories of their friends’ opinions on certain foods, their taste has deteriorated. Some foods that used to be considered as happily savoured are now turned down. Like blue mould cheese, Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola for instance used to be a favourite and now it is over the line detested.

At some point I had to keep in mind a list of fish, that were concerned as “white fish” and there for edible, the same went with mushrooms, some were digestible and others were disgusting, and still very much remains so they are the food optionals, the ones we could do without according to the offspring that is. One thing though that has strangely enough not changed over the years is that broccoli is edible and that is rare, most children hate their veggies and especially broccoli. At one point the offspring even planned to build a house inside a huge broccoli to live in when older, and a second one made out of a huge tomato. Must have been some odd advertisement seen at the time.

Anyway, our palate change over the time and I am not anymore fond of the same things as I earlier used to be, learning new foods is an exciting part of life, at least of mine that is. And here in Finland I never cease to find surprisingly new and innovative ways to cook food.

Helping out

A strange thing I have noticed here in Finland is that sometimes when you are asked to help you are out of some peculiar reason meant to ask when it is convenient for the help you have promised to give. Like for instance when a friend needed help with help with babysitting a toddler with chicken-pox in the early feverish stage just to run a couple of errands on her own like the pharmacists and so on. She never managed to ask me when it was convenient for me to baby-sit, or whether I could baby-sit at a certain time she wanted to go out. In the end she got angry with me as I did not understand that I was expected to have an opinion when she wanted my favour so in the end she told me off by phone in not a very nice way.

How was I supposed to know what she wanted without her either telling or asking me? It’s like when moving your friends don’t arrive to help you with carrying your furniture until the next day when you’re packed gone and unpacked in the new place.

The weather was supposed to be raining all day with intermittent rain showers and as thus the day was completely wrongly planned as most part of this lovely sunny day has been spent indoors cooking after a short shopping trip down to the market when the rain was pouring down earlier this morning.

After a lot of peeling of carrots, beetroots and onions a great deal of chopping were made on the peeled carrots, beetroots, onions and cabbage for the annual bortsch soup. It has now been simmering on the stove in a large saucepan for hours to obtain the right taste. Bortsch soup has one advantage before many other soups, it gets just better for every time you heat it up and most part of it goes in the freezer to be savoured on cold winter nights together with some soured cream. I also managed to get a medium sized pumpkin as pumpkins tend to come in an oversized format, too big for me to handle on my own. So some pumpkin has also been simmering on heat for the traditional pumpkin pie and a very nice pumpkin pickle I learned to know here in Finland and have become very fond of.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day so the plan is to go mushroom picking but as the weather turned out to be this nice today I wonder if the weather Gods will be gracious enough to let us go out in the woods without getting wet all through.

Going off

One thing I have been wondering about is that everything and anything is marinated in the supermarkets here in Finland.

When walking through a supermarket there are chopped, sliced whole or diced chicken, fish mostly salmon, meat chopped, sliced whole or diced and chopped, sliced whole or diced poultry and they all come in several different marinades and packed ready to just fry in a pan.

Then there are the unseasoned ones, the same fish, beef, pork, chicken and turkey but without any spices that is more expensive than the marinated ones. And what do they put into the marinade that makes them less expensive than the plain, unseasoned meats? Or has the plain meat after the best before date has run out been re-packed and shoved into a spicy sauce to conceal it not being as fresh as before?

And what is in the marinades anyway as there are plenty to choose between the tangerine, garlic, herbs and barbeque ones only to mention some for each of your chopped, sliced whole or diced variety of chicken, turkey, pork and beef?

This is said to be a development during the past few years as people have less time for cooking, well how hard can it be to season it in your own way and being sure of its’ freshness and how it tastes without the spices to cover it if being slightly off?

Anyway, the strangest things begin to happen with people when they fall in love, their personality alters and the younger the person is, and the unsure of themselves the persons are, the more they try to match their partners, their boyfriends and girlfriends. And as you begin to date and go steady, you want to see the other half as much as possible and the time is limited if you are going to different schools and do not share a hobby.

Now the latest turmoil in our home had been discussions about all of a sudden quitting about a hobby that has been around since early childhood, which during the years has become a way of living, and it would be hard to be without it as much of the excessive energy is used that way, and I think it would be the wrong thing to do right now.

Even sadder is that the offspring has good chances of becoming a professional in it, if not even real world class champion but surely to live of, and many others would give their right arm for being as good as that. Well maybe not, they would not be able to without the arm but you get my drift, so now we are trying to talk calmly about thing and explain that too much time together might even be bad for the relationship as you have to be an individual, to know who you are yourself, before you can be joined and one with somebody else.

At least that is what I have learned from life. Maybe it is some kind of marinade this love thing too, you just don’t see it yourself while being in the middle of it and too much company might also sadly enough make relationships go of prematurely.

One of those days again

The libraries in Finland are suffering from staff shortages and there is a lack of especially educated and experienced librarians as new employees often lack the education needed for their position.

This might once again be an attempt to cut down costs of the municipalities, which is sad as the libraries in Finland are an excellent institution and the Finns continue to be active book lenders as it is free even though you sometimes must wait to get your hands on a hot copy of a bestselling novelty but you get to read it in the end.

Anyway, finding a new apartment to live is not as easy anymore as it used to be “in the old times” with teenagers involved and wanting to have a say in the choice of the new habitation and everyone has to be pleased, or maybe I should just please myself and leave all with a fact, this is it?

There is the location to keep in mind, to be able to see and keep in touch with their friends, and the apartment itself must meet all required standards of the offspring. How the apartment looks and is equipped, the colour of walls, the size of the rooms, is there a sauna, a balcony or a garden and the list just goes on. On top of all this, it seems that this is the wrong season to do it as it now is the end of the summer as many relationships that bloomed during the summer now has born fruit and couples are moving in together. And there are always the new incomers every autumn moving to town to study, from somewhere else needing somewhere to live so I guess we might be lucky to have a new place at Xmas to move to when these new relationships begin to come falling down a shambles. I personally would have preferred to have moved during the warmer period of the year, but then it might have been raining anyway with my luck, and today has been one of those days again.

Some days everything just seems to go wrong. Like when I was at the hairdresser’s earlier today to get a haircut, I walked into the coat rack and got my mp3-players cords entangled in it knocking it over my feet. Later when at the local shop getting some milk for my tea I to my delight spotted bagels, and as they are a special favourite of the offspring I got some, as they normally just have them on Fridays out of some peculiar for me unknown reason and I thought I’ll get some cream cheese to go with them.

Arriving home I to my disappointment discovered that I had apparently forgotten the cream cheese in the shopping basket as I do recollect having picked it off the shelf and it was not specified on the receipt I got. So here I am having a nice cup of tea and there are bagels but no cream cheese, and what is a bagel without cream cheese? Like carrot juice, tastes like carrots but is not crunchy and chewy as I prefer to eat my carrots and dietary fibre is essential I have heard. And they say this is probably going to be the last hot day of the summer for this time, well, this mind of mine is beginning to worry me, as the cooking of my tea did not turn out well. Putting the kettle on but forgetting to switch it on, well that is a major error in tea cooking, the hot water. Bagels I have but no tea. Yet.

I really wonder who will be doing the cooking today as I ma not sure whether I dare to as things just go wrong some days and this is certainly one of those days I should not be near anything hot or sharp as a knife. A salad would of course rule out the using the stove but not the knife, and there are some nice and fresh salad ingredients in the fridge and it would suit the weather, wonder who I can trick into making it as I am continuing to read the book I just have begun reading yesterday and will go on doing it for the rest of the day to prevent myself from any serious corporal damage.

Bread and mayonnaise

I am a huge fan of low carb eating, not the in the way that I just eat animals fats and leave out all the carbs as suggested in various low carb diets. I try to keep in mind what fats are healthy and make sure I get more of them than the saturated fatty acids and I try to get more fibre into my diet by eating a lot of vegetables, like salads and stuff. My main failures maintaining this kind of eating step in when visiting or having been invited for a meal. Here bread comes into the picture and I used to be quite fanatic about my sandwiches when younger. Even when pregnant the only way I changed my eating was to add one sandwich more in the evening as I did not get any other cravings at all. The problem with my sandwiches usually is the mayonnaise it has to have on it, and having made my own mayonnaise for over a decade made it easy. Home made bread fresh from the oven with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomatoes, smoked ham and a touch of Dijon mayonnaise.

Carbs combined with the fat in the mayonnaise is no good for you eating in any way, not when having it for days or weeks or even years and as it turned out I who always used to be slender, even when pregnant, was suddenly weighing more than 30 kgs more than I should have weighed. Loosing all those kilos was no joyride even though as the low carb way made it a lot easier as it is a matter of choice, to choose what you eat, instead of limitations of the intake by reducing calories.

During the year even the mayonnaise turned healthier than it used to be in the original recipe I began from by adding cold processed linseed oil in order to get some more omega 3 fatty acids than we do not get enough of to balance our intake of saturated fats. The linseed oil itself tastes quite awful but adding a bit more of mustard than you should make the mayonnaise it reduces the tanginess of the linseed oil.

Anyway, back to my bread making, the more fibre and whole grain you have in the bread you eat the better it is supposed to be for you, and having baked my own sour dough bread for almost two decades now I still have not found an ideal recipe for bread. Normal bread yes, there are several favourites of mine, but no really tasty low carb one and to day has been spent with experimenting once again. Linseed, soy flour, wholegrain wheat, wholegrain buckwheat and just the smallest amount of fine durum wheat flour to make the dough manageable has been left over night to rise and baked in a hot oven to give it a nice crunchy crust. Now I just have to be patient and wait until it has cooled down enough to be tasted. How many carbs there are I have no idea, but as I do not eat that much bread anymore, it is more an exception instead of the rule it used to be I am not that worried about the carbs in it anyway.

Fresh home made bread will be a nice surprise for the home comers later in the afternoon though.

Tatties

One thing that sure comes up to debate when socializing with the Finns is potatoes.

It is a question of which variety you are to prefer and the discussions sometimes tend to drag long as there always is someone with a different opinion form the majority of people present. There are the summers varieties of potatoes that do not keep well and has to be eaten right away and there are the winter potatoes that you later on can make potato mash of but the only variety I have never ever heard anyone in Finland preferring to anything else is Blue Congo.

And the name itself says it all, the potatoes are bluish purple in colour when cooked and it does really not resemble any other potatoes, may be the taste is the same but it feels odd with the colour of it.

Having finally established who likes which potato variety the next issue at hand turns always out to be how to cook them. It is not whether to deep fry them in oil into chips or make a gratin in the oven of them. Maybe what is best for mashed turns up but the main question is if you are to add the potatoes in cold water when cooking them or into boiling water? And naturally at the same time pondering whether cooking potatoes is to be preferred with their skins on or without it.

Most seem to agree about just brushing and washing the potatoes well in the summertime is enough as the skin is not as thick as in the wintertime but I just recently heard about a family that eat their boiled winter potatoes with their peels on just brushing them off then as well!

The reason for this potato skin discussion lies in that the most nutritious and healthiest part of the potato is said to be just underneath the skin but when potatoes are peeled the skin is thinner than paper and comes off easily and I have not heard any reasons for eating potato peel, I just wonder whether it is just pure laziness or maybe even ignorance about how to peel hot potatoes without making a mess out of it that makes them eat the skins even in the winter.

Anyway, I am not sure I really understand the necessity to always, every single day have to have potatoes. Not even though there are many varieties, it’s always just old, plain tatties.

But I guess it makes safe conversation at dinner parties.

Food culture

The is an ongoing debate in the current government budget talks about a general reduction of VAT on food in Finland from 17% to 8% aimed to take effect latest at the beginning of the year 2009.

And consumption of healthier foods might be made preferable for consumers by reducing the taxation on vegetables and low-fat products. The Finnish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry emphasises it taking at least six months before consideration of possible tax benefits of healthy foods and that this should not be mixed with the general VAT reduction on food.

Today on Finland also has received its’ first commissioner for Food culture after in recent years a couple of visiting foreign politicians having loudly expressed their demeaning opinions on Finnish food and the complete lack of food culture in Finland. Now the food culture commissioner has to enhance the appreciation of Finnish food and form a trend of food culture in this country.

As he was interviewed on morning TV this morning the Food culture commissioner emphasised that food has to look like itself, to be recognizable, instead of being fancily disguised, in order to be appropriately appreciated.

I have for long been along the same lines, simple food looking like what it is and no cross-over-cuisine, maybe that should go for the cooking on morning TV as well. I really wonder what this food culture commissioner thinks about their cooking and him being a former teacher in one of the best cooking schools in Finland, well wonder what grades he’d give for the coleslaw made yesterday for instance?

At least that Coleslaw would be eligible for the tax-reduction for the vegetables as well as for the light sour cream used in it.

Coleslaw?

My “favourite” morning TV programme, Ruokala, “The Diner” is now back from its’ summer break and yesterday morning they began their cooking with bold new twists and turns in international cooking. I guess their ambition to make people here in Finland experiment with their cooking trying out new things.

It is a nice try but it just remains that, a nice try, as the outcome is not what they advertise using the names of their dishes or is this just a poor attempt to "Finnocise" food?!? (That would mean to make food more Finnish)

Well, coleslaw may not be a trademark and I have seen recipes with thinly shredded fennel in it, as I have seen apples julienne in it but the basics have always remained the same; finely shredded cabbage with thinly sliced onion and carrots Julienne with a mayonnaise sauce seasoned with salt and perhaps coarsely ground black pepper. And the choice between red or white cabbage is not a major one as they taste about the same, just differ in colour.

On morning TV they made a coleslaw with shredded cabbage, carrot, thinly sliced apple, thinly sliced red sweet peppers, parsley, leaving out the thinly sliced onions, seasoning it with salt and left it to season for a while, preferably for a couple of hours with some fresh lemon juice. Then after a while a sauce is to be made to go it out of mayonnaise and soured cream to make the sauce a bit lighter with a dash of Tabasco for added flavour.

It is like making a sauce beetroot soup but leaving out the beets and using peas instead, you get something completely else. Why call it coleslaw as they did not make coleslaw, they made something that remotely reminds of coleslaw.

Or making a Béarnaise sauce adding some Stilton cheese to it. Which might not be a bad idea, the taste might be magnificent or extraordinary but it would not be sauce Béarnaise anymore.

Increased need

Last year record many people moved to Finland, almost 22.500 which is 1.100 more than the year before, and with only 14.000 persons moving abroad.

What I would like to know, talking statistics as we are again, how many of the immigrants were moving back to Finland, and how many went abroad to study?

It is like statistics about how many people that are unemployed, depends on who counts them and how they are counted. I know about at least two persons who are retired because of health reasons but still are counted as unemployed as their paperwork is not through yet, and that has now been for several years, or one being on maternity leave but still receiving unemployment benefits.

Anyway, we went for a walk again with the weather being so nice my husband and I, to get some fresh air before I have to start cooking for the Sunday dinner we have today with some friends coming over. When we were just leaving I told my husband that I’ll just get the camera, which resulted in a grunt from him “Oh, one of these days again”.
What on earth did he mean by that?

Except that it might be more of taking pictures than walking. He should be happy I decided to go with him instead of staying home trying out my brand new, sharp knife! Which I will today cooking dinner, later. I just have to check if there are any plasters left, and if not, today being a Sunday I might be in trouble as the shops are not open and I’d rather not take a trip down to the pharmacist to get some.

At least this statistics the husband and off-spring at least are sure about, mum getting a new knife normally means an increased need of band-aids for the next two weeks.

Thread Saturday

Yes, today is Easter Saturday, here called “Thread Saturday”. Why?!? I have not got the slightest idea.

Today is just an ordinary Saturday and the shops are open as normal and we had planned to go for a walk and window shopping in the city centre… but with the cold northern wind that has been blowing now for almost a week has not yet shown any signs of stopping, we decided to stay at home and just be. And guess most of the day, at least mine, will be spent cooking our Easter meal today.

Hmm…a thread, does this have anything to do with loosing the thread in the conversation, or your own thoughts?

So if Jesus was crucified and died on Good Friday after having been betrayed after his last supper on Thursday and as he is to rise after three days, showing himself to his apostles, when was he buried, on the Friday or the day after?

If he dies on Friday and is buried the same day, well then the second Easter day is when he rose from the dead. So why do we then celebrate the first Easter day?!?

I mean today, as it really seems to have no more importance than having a long weekend with four days off work.
Enough of this, I better get on with the cooking!

Serious cooking

My normal morning routine consist of checking out the latest the news in the morning and also to watch morning TV and check out what they have come up with for an idea of what to cook for dinner today in the Ruokala section, which would be about translated to “Diner” in English.

They send this program every weekday morning and I have been following their cookery on and off for some years now, and I am quite surprised some mornings of what goes on.
By the way, it was in this program that the different party leaders were cooking in, that I mentioned about earlier when talking about campaigning for the elections.

Anyway, I think it is good there is a show like this, giving people new ideas on what to cook for dinner, how to make dishes in new styles and easier ways though their standards in the show has come down greatly since last summer when two of the chefs quit. Anyway, some mornings my tea is at danger coming up the wrong way that is coming out through my nose!

My idea of ideas of food and cooking is inherited from my parents, my father a great chef and restaurateur in his time, and my mother also from the same trade. Nothing beats hygiene, washing your hands, keeping your hair tied up, sharp knives and proper clothing to not injure yourself. Well, imagine my surprise one morning when one of the female chefs was cooking in morning TV, in a very low-cut pink t-shirt risking showing “it all”, not to mention the hazards of burning her boobs!

I can’t even remember what she was cooking, but I would have taken more care of my “goodies” and avoided getting any splashes of hot anything on them!

No this is not the way it is to be done, if you are showing example of how it is to be done, then do show how you are supposed to dress for avoiding greater mishaps.

They do not seem to take their cooking seriously.

Baking a cake

I wonder what is with us people as we always tend to leave the things we have a deadline for to the latest possible moment to have them done?

As I once made a delicious cake and promised to bake on for the birthday of a friend once, it now has become a tradition for me to make the cake every year for the celebration.

Well, in between the baking I today found out that it is not only the liquorice-wrapper that is going to be changed into something new after having been the same for 80 years. Last year the candy-bar named Geisha from the same manufacturer lost its’ beautiful geisha-girl from the wrapper.

Anyway, as I am not the candy eating type as you might have understood as I did not notice it before it was mentioned on the news, it came as a complete surprise. The candy-bar is quite delicious and I do buy it now and then, but as you might guess have not done so recently.

The geisha-girl was probably on the wrapper for 80 years too and the producer Fazer removed her “to be able to expand on the International market” and not to spread "racial stereotypes". Who can be offended by a Japanese girl dressed in her traditional kimono on a candy-paper? The coloured boy I can somehow understand.

Anyway, got to go now, cake cooled down and ready for the icing.

Surviving gingerbread-hell

One of our Christmas traditions has been baking gingerbread and most of the years it has always developed into hell making them.

Traditionally I make the gingerbread dough myself, as I am very picky about the taste and we have tried various doughs during the years, some were very tasty but almost impossible to make any gingerbread cookies of, others were easy to bake but tasted nothing like the gingerbread used to when I was a child.

Anyway, the off-spring normally has been making the cookies with various results depending on their age and ability. As long as this Christmas tradition has been going on it has always sooner (which means fighting about having to bake the cookies) or later (having fights with the dough been thrown around in the kitchen) become hell, at least for me.

Do you know what I mean here ?!?

Well, this year for the first time there was no fights, no tears just peaceful cooking activities in the kitchen! And only minor cleaning for me to do afterwards.

I must be getting old as it does not distress me as much anymore, or might it be that the off-spring has become older to behave better? Are they finally growing up?

Finnish cuisine

Finnish cuisine has been talked down badly lately in the media alongside with the English cuisine. Some EU-countries brag about their world famous gourmet-cuisines. So what really is pizza more than tomato-sauce on bread? Or Confit de canard, a mushy bird simmered in fat? Foie gras, pate on the liver of geese with too much food forced down their throats so they develop enlarged, sick livers?

It is just that these dishes are well known around the world and people are more accustomed to them. Finnish food is not merely smoked reindeer-meat and cloudberries. Or did you just get served the bad pieces or is the real problem that you are jealous at the Finns, ( and Swedes and Norwegians) cooking food on all Santa’s reindeers and none left to the rest of Europe?

The Finnish cuisine at least has different seasons with different foods accordingly. Wild game, wild berries and mushrooms in the fall. Pork, ham, rustic stews and soups, fresh sweet water fish such as Pike and Perch in the winter. Summers filled with food barbequed outdoors, fresh cooked dill potatoes, pickled herring, smoked salmon and strawberries and whipped cream and crayfish in end of summer.

Here we are really dealing with originality and preserving the Finnish national identity in a united Europe, the European Union! So leave the Finns their food and when here if you do not dare to try something different, then you are welcome to have your everyday tomato-sauce on bread yourself.

Oh, and one more thing about Finnish traditional cuisine, at least you get full on what you are served on the plate and do not have to wear your reading spectacles on to see what is on your plate.

Unless if you are on a reduced calorie-diet, then I guess just seeing some food, no matter what food, just any food, will do. And the less the better!