First Day of Winter

Winter is finally here, now bring on the cooler weather! I think this lentil soup will be my favourite this season.

Lentil Soup

(serves at least 6 people)

olive oil

3-4 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

1 brown onion, finely chopped

200g (1 cup) red lentils

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 vegetable bouillon cubes (or vegetable stock)

water

black pepper

1. Heat oil in a large pot, add carrots and onion and cook for a few minutes.

2. Add lentils, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Add water as much as necessary (I like thick soups and lentils will thicken the soup as they cook). 

3. Simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables have soften. Serve warm.

Creamy Salmon Soup

One final winter recipe before we flip the calendar page over to September (and spring!) tomorrow. This past winter in Sydney has been exceptionally warm with temperatures reaching up to 25C and beyond. One can hardly call that winter anymore!

I couldn't help myself making one of my all time favourites soups despite the warm weather and I'm secretly hoping we will have at least one or two cooler spring days so I'll have an excuse to make this again before summer is here. 

I love this creamy salmon soup with lots of dill and a side of rye bread or rieska would have been absolutely perfect with this. I'm not sure if carrots are part of the original recipe, but to me they bring added sweetness and colour to this dish and I just must have them there.

With these thoughts I wish you all a happy spring (or autumn, depending where you are) !

Creamy Salmon Soup

(serves 4)

1 litre of water

whole peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) salt

1 onion, finely chopped

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

6-7 potatoes, peeled and cut to chunks

500g salmon, skinned and boned, cubed

300ml cream

whole bunch of dill, finely chopped

1. Add water, peppercorns, salt and onion to a large casserole. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. 

2. Add carrots and potatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are half-cooked.

3. Add salmon and cream and simmer on low heat for a further 10-15 minutes or until the fish has cooked through. Add dill and serve.

Arctic Winter

Greetings from Lapland!

I came back home for a short visit to attend my grandma's funeral. We are in the midst of winter here in Lapland and the temperature has been around -20C. The winter here is so serene and beautiful; the frozen rivers, snow capped trees and the 'blue haze' we get during the day when the sun barely rises above the horizon. I feel right at home here.

A frozen river

Rapids on the Swedish border

Marinated Chargrilled Capsicums

It's such a beautiful, sunny winter's day here in Sydney. I've been at home today; cleaning, doing loads of washing and crafting a little. I've taken multiple tea breaks and just sat on the balcony in the sunshine enjoying the warmth. This weather reminds me of late spring days back in Finland. 

I've also been enjoying the crisp, red capsicums I've seen in abundance at green grocers lately. I just had to take the opportunity to preserve some of those flavours for later, when capsicums are not as plentiful as they are now. This recipe proved simple and straight-forward and I'm sure these marinated chargrilled capsicums will be enjoyed with gusto during the next couple of months.

 

Marinated Chargrilled Capsicums

(Recipe adapted from taste.com.au)

1kg red capsicums

2 garlic cloves

60ml red wine vinegar

120ml extra-virgin olive oil

fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano), optional

1. Cut the capsicums into thick slices. Remove seeds and white pith.

2. Preheat a grill pan on high heat and place capsicum slices, skin-side down on the pan. Grill the slices (in batches) for about 10 minutes or until the skin is completely blackened. Remove from the grill and place in a strong and sealed plastic bag (minigrip or something similar). Leave for a few minutes, then rub the skins off and leave to cool.

3. Thinly slice the garlic cloves and mix red wine vinegar and olive oil in a separate bowl.

4. Layer capsicum slices and garlic (and herbs, if using) in to sterilised jars and pour the olive oil and vinegar mixture on top. Refrigerate for at least overnight before using. These will keep in the fridge for a few months.

Pomegranate Glögg

It was another sunny winter weekend here in Sydney. We spent Sunday in the northern parts of the town, lunching and visiting my partner's parents. This is my favourite part of Sydney and I never get tired of the beautiful beaches and the scenery there. I could have spent the whole day outside, taking photos and enjoying the sunny weather. I certainly enjoy this temperature much more than the heat in summer!

 

A glögg is a perfect hot drink to have on a cool winter's day. I've chosen rather untraditional ingredient of pomegranate, but you could happily use frozen lingonberry, cranberry or black currants instead. The spices give this drink a warm hum without making it too strong, and a bit of rapadura sugar makes the glögg sweet as it should be.

Pomegranate Glögg

(serves 2)

250g frozen pomegranate seeds

2 cups water

1 cinnamon stick

knob of fresh ginger

5-7 cardamom pods

3-5 cloves

1 star anise

1 tablespoon rapadura sugar

1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. 

2. Drain the mixture through a sieve into 2 mugs. Serve hot.

Sweet roasted vegetables with dried fruit

Roasted vegetables must be one of the the most reliable crowd-pleasers during autumn and winter months. Because they are so easy to adapt, I think they make an ideal meal for a family of picky eaters, or a couple like us where the other one prefers all veggies and the other one more meat on the dinner plate. Nonetheless, roasted veggies on their own, or served with creamy feta, grated hard-boiled egg or toasted nuts, is certainly a wholesome meal for a vegetarian, but also makes a lovely side dish for fish or meat.

This particular recipe has a little twist to the original favourite. The seasonal veggies get an added boost from some dried fruit and a killer dressing that combines orange and lemon juice with raw honey, fresh ginger and verjuice. Speaking of which, I've been totally addicted to verjuice since our trip to Barossa Valley in South Australia, and it certainly makes wonders to this dish as well!

 Sweet roasted vegetables with dried fruit

(Recipe inspired by Terry Walters' Clean Start)

1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled

1 large parsnip, peeled

2 carrots, peeled

2 onions, peeled

small handful (5-6) prunes, pitted

small handful dried wild Persian figs

juice of 1 orange

juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons verjuice

1 heaped tablespoon raw honey

knob of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 teaspoon sea salt

small pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon potato starch

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. 

2. Cut the sweet potato, parsnip and carrots into 2 centimetre chunks. Cut the onion into wedges and place all vegetables into a large oven dish.

3. Toss in the prunes and the figs. 

4. For the dressing, whisk the orange juice, lemon juice and peel, verjuice, honey and finely chopped ginger in jug. Season the dressing with sea salt and nutmeg and whisk in the potato starch. Pour the smooth dressing evenly on to the vegetables.

5. Roast the vegetables in the oven for about 40-45 minutes tossing them in between to coat with dressing. Cover the dish with a lid (or foil) for the first 20 minutes to avoid burning. Serve with creamy feta, toasted nuts or grated hard-boiled egg as a main meal or on its own as a side dish.

All things citrus

So we finally had to succumb to the first cold of the season. Catching a cold seems to be quite inevitable when people everywhere around you are coughing and sneezing, and we spend more time indoors than during the warmer months of the year. All you can do is hope that in some miraculous way you won't get what everyone else is having. Unfortunately we weren't saved from it this time and so we've spent a good few days getting better. Coughing and sneezing, just like everyone else.

If there is any benefit of having a cold during this time of the year, however, it is that you certainly have the abundance of winter citrus fruit to give you that extra kick of vitamin C when you most need it. With a woollen blanket wrapped around me, I've been cradling a cup of hot lemon drink with a healthy dollop of raw honey and some grated fresh ginger and it has been as good as gold. This simple citrus salad is the second best thing to have when winter citrus fruit is at its best. It is beautifully sour, just the way I like it, and had I had some fresh yuzu, I would have thrown that in too.

Winter Citrus Salad

(Serves 2)

1 poorman's orange or grapefruit

1 Navel orange

1 Meyer lemon

1 lime

2 mandarins

1 tablespoon good extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon raw honey

small knob fresh ginger

1. Finely grate the zest of the lime and the orange and set aside. 

2. With a sharp knife, peel the rind and the white pit of the poorman's orange, orange, lemon and the mandarins. Discard the pips and cut the fruit into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a platter. 

3. For the dressing, whisk the lime and orange zest, along with the juice of the lime, one tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil, honey and grated ginger in small bowl. Drizzle the dressing on the fruit and serve.

Last, but not least, here's a link to a special little interview I did recently with the Australian SBS Food. I am always happy to bring Finnish food on the culinary map and I it is such an honour to be featured on the SBS Food!