Lovely Autumn!

Last of rose & rhubarb syrup and preserved lemons moroccan style

What a lovely and busy Autumn we've had so far! We've been meeting our old and new Finnish customers, and now we've sent the collection for a world tour! We've also moved our showroom to a place a bit closer to Helsinki centre.

Now there is a little more time to focus on the essentials, a.k.a food. You might think we mostly live on a diet of mushrooms during the Autums, and you probably would not be far off. My favorite chantarel dish probably would be risotto, with folded prosciutto on top.

For this mushroom risotto you'll need:

vegetable or chicken stock
risotto rice
chantarells
onion
white wine
cream
parmesan
prosciutto
salt and black pepper

Chop the mushroom. Fry the chantarells with chopped onion (medium temperature) in butter and olive oil, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add risotto rice, and fry for couple of minutes more. Add wine and let alcohol evaporate. After that you can start adding the boiling hot stock, a ladle by ladle, until the rice is cooked and is the consistency of soft porridge. Towards the end you can add some cream. Then some grated parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper to taste and fold prosciutto on top before serving.

As recommended by Miss Marple, I wanted to try making damson gin. My dad has been making liqueur for years, but when I learned Miss Marple made hers with gin, that's what I wanted to try. It's only a jar full of damson fruit, sugar and gin, let it sit there until Christmas, sieve out the fruit and it should be ready to enjoy.

Sunny Sunday School

 

There's going quite a harvest feast in the Pattern Bakery.  Garden is full of juicy apples, red berries and vegetables.  Here's couple of snap shots of making dry apple chips in Käpylä.  There's plenty of apples left so I'm going to make some juice next week. Cheers!

The Great Blind Test of Frozen Strawberry Yogurt

The season for strawberries and also something cool for high summer. We did a tasting test to find out the favorite flavor combo, it was a tough job, but someone had to sacrifice... I think we all agreed they were all very good, but most points were given to mixture of strawberries, mint and lemon, then with just strawberries and last one was orange water, though in no way was it a bad option either. 

You will need:

3 dl natural greek yogurt

1 dl cream

0.5 dl caster sugar

3 dl strawberries

orange water

lemon

fresh mint

Let yogurt strain through a sieve for couple of hours or overnight. Whisk yogurt with cream until smooth. Mash strawberries and mix with yogurt and cream so that few lumps remain. Add sugar. 

We tried three different flavorings, first one with just strawberries, second one added with few drops of orange water and third one with lemon and fresh mint. Freeze for few hours or use ice-cream maker. Defrost for half an hour before serving.

Midsummer

 

 

Here's couple of images of our Midsummer celebrations last weekend. Midsummer is one of the biggest festivities in Finland, a celebration of the Midnight sun and long-awaited summer. Most people go to summer cottages, if you're a tourist it probably isn't the best time to visit if you're in for a city holiday, as the cities tend to get deserted during that weekend, and shops closed. If you have a chance to visit someone's cottage, it's a magical and lovely time!

We went to west coast, had a barbeque, sauna and good company! Two recipes I can recommend wholeheartedly, first some rhubarb-rose water -syrup marinated strawberries with whipped cream. And the second my favorite barbeque of the summer, grilled broccoli. You have to boil broccoli florets for couple of minutes, dry them and barbeque. Then mix lemon juice, olive oil, red chili, garlic, salt & black pepper and pour it on the broccoli. This sauce works with barbecued kale too. The surprise factor of it being so good is an added bonus!

Rhubarb syrup, taste of early summer!

The season has come for rhubarb, and everyone I know, is almost desperately seeking for recipes to use  even some of the stalks before they turn woody. As we have been lucky to have a couple of weeks heat wave recently, this recipe is definitely my favorite. Drink it well chilled, or with vanilla ice-cream...

Use less sugar to make it more like juice. You can use orange juice or lime instead of lemon, or try adding strawberries or cinnamon stick. The more red stalks you use, the pinker your syrup becomes.

To make rhubarb syrup:

1,5 litres chopped rhubarb, not peeled

3 dl water

5 dl sugar

2 tbsp vanillasugar

1 dl lemon juice

Boil water and rhubarb in saucepan for 10 minutes. Pour through a sieve and add sugar, let simmer for 10 minutes so that all sugar has dissolved. Add lemon juice and let the syrup cool before pouring it into a container. Keeps refrigerated for a month.

You can pour the syrup on porridge, crepes, pancakes or muesli.

For drinks, here's few suggestions, you'll have to taste as you go along to make it just how you like it. Experiment with herbs and different tonics.

- Simply add tonic or lemonade for non-alcoholic version. Decorate with herbs, such as basil, lemon balm, mint leaves or sliced strawberries.

- Tonic, gin, basil, ice, lime (rhubarb gin & tonic)

- Tonic, vodka, lemon balm

- chopped mint leaves, crushed ice, white rum, soda, lime (rhubarb mojito)

- crushed ice, vodka or gin, vermouth (rhubarb martini)

To celebrate summer and also coming harvest time, here's few labels for your bottles and jars. Best use fit-to-page -command when you print it. Send us your photos if you like!

Lazy beetroot pizza

Have to call it lazy, because could not be bothered to go shopping, but I just used what ever was lying around and leftovers in the fridge. This time it was beetroot, goat's cheese, rocket and pine nuts. The beetroot has to be cooked before adding it on the base, and rocket and toasted pine nuts after it comes out from the oven. Drizzle it with olive oil, salt and black pepper. This combination makes also a lovely salad!

Wishing You Delicious Holidays!

We would like to wish all our friends, colleagues, agents and clients a delicious and relaxing Christmas! It has been a pleasure being in contact with you all, thank you, will be back next year!

Best wishes from Salla, Miia and Minttu

Here's a warming Pattern Bakery Winter- drink

for two

4 dl full milk
4 tsp cocoa
4 tsp sugar
1 small red chili
peel of 1 klementine
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 cardamon pods

to decorate

whipped cream
dark chocolate shavings

Let spices soak in cold milk for few minutes. Then heat the milk and add cocoa and sugar. Let cool a bit under a lid and pour into mugs through a sieve. Decorate with whipped cream and chocolate.

Winter lentil soup with winter mushrooms

Ever since coming home with some 20 litres of the funnel chantarelle, I've been trying find new recipes as how to use it. Lovely as the creamy mushroom soup is, it's nice to try more ways to enjoy the harvest. I've crumbled the dried mushroom into meatball dough and ragu without prior soaking, and that lasagne was the best thing ever! But it took five hours to make, which for lunch is just too much. This lentil soup is from Nigel Slater, with some modifications. Really nice it was too, recommended!

serves four

1 onion
1 glove of garlic
1 small dried chili
20g dried funnel chantarelle (about two handfuls)
1,5 dl rinsed green lentils
bay leaf
vegetable stock cube
app 6 dl water (you can add more when it boils if it looks too thick)
handful parsley, or to taste
soy sauce
lemon juice
salt & black pepper

Soften onions in oil in a saucepan. Add chopped garlic, chili and chopped mushrooms. Cook for five minutes, or until the liquid from the mushrooms has mostly evaporated. Add the lentils, stock cube, bay leaf and water, bring to boil and let simmer under a lid for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Add chopped parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper, soy and lemon juice.

Mushroom hunting in the Magic Forest

The delicious and plentiful Winter mushroom, my favorite. Also known as Funnel Chanterelle, or Yellowfoot.

Poached rhubarb with pannacotta

Here's something for the weekend, as well as something for the rhubarb season. I'm always looking for new ways to use rhubarb, lovely as the pie is there is a limit as to how much I want to eat it. It's always good to have rhubarb with dairy products, as it contains oxalic acid which will use calcium from your bones if it doesn't get it from somewhere else.

This combination originates from Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. 2, and as before, had me jumping of joy. I did tweak it a bit, the pannacotta -recipe I've simplified as much as possible, and it still is lovely, and the poached rhubarb has orange juice, as I find the whole oranges bitter when roasted. But here goes:

For 4 people

vanilla pannacotta:

4 dl cream
1,5 milk
0,5 dl sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 gelatin leaves

Soak the gelatin leaves for 5 minutes in cold water. Bring cream, milk and sugar to boil in a saucepan. Squeeze the water from the gelatin leaves, add to cream, stir well and leave to cool.

Pour the cooled pannacotta mixture into small bowls. If you are worried about gelatin lumps, you can always sieve the mixture into bowls. Leave to set in the fridge for 4-5 hours or overnight.

Poached rhubarb:

a big portion, but you can have the extra later with some natural yogurt or vanilla ice-cream

500g rhubarb
4 tbsp honey
cinnamon stick
2 star anise
0,5 dl orange juice

Trim and peel the rhubarb, cut into short lengths. Put into a baking dish with rest of the ingredients. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes or so in 160 C degrees, until the rhubarb is soft.

Let me eat cake

... and my favorite cake, banana cake! It's beginning of February, and I have maybe three months of cold and snow ahead. I've deserved a bit of comfort food deluxe, and so have you! For this I used a small bundt tin I got when I was a kid, but I've seen similar ones in Ikea's kid's department. The amount of cake dough in the recipe won't all fit in that small form, so I made also about 12 muffins, or you could use a bigger bundt tin. The cake is quite sweet and moist, and seems to be favored by kids and adults alike. The flavor will be at it's best after couple of days, though the flavor of the left over dough scraped from the bowl might be even more popular...

100 g room temperature butter
2,5 dl caster sugar (I used the Finnish "erikoishieno Siro-sokeri", though you can use the regular granulated sugar as well, "Taloussokeri")
2 eggs
3 dl all-purpose flour (vehnäjauho)
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp soda
0,5 dl yogurt (cream or sourcream will do nicely too, or the Finnish piimä, buttermilk)
2 bananas

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until white and fluffy, add eggs one by one, mix well. Mix flour, vanilla sugar and soda in a separate bowl and add to dough. Mash bananas with a fork, then add to the dough with yogurt. If using a big tin, bake in the oven 150 degrees Celsius for an hour, or for muffins, in 190 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes.

If you want to decorate with dark chocolate, you could do this:

70 g dark chocolate
0,5 dl cream
1 tsp butter

Heat cream in pan. It shouldn't boil, but the pieces of chocolate should melt when added. Mix so there are no lumps and add some butter to make it shinier. Drizzle on top.

Christmas time

Amidst all the Christmas rush and the overflowing amount of flavors, colours and things, I find myself craving for something simple for a change. Simple and clean flavors, real comfort food I suppose it could be called, warm bowl of porridge is my choice. Though it was no fast food, as I recently got a brand new fireplace, with a wood burning oven, and I've been experimenting with it ever since. The making of the porridge took about 6 hours, but the result was worth it. (This can be made quicker on the stove or a regular oven. )


I also used, I think it's called hulled barley in English, where the barley is whole, not broken, but the outer layer is removed. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) To the barley I added 0,5 litres of hot water, and then 1 litre of milk and a pinch of salt. After covering the bowl with foil, it went to the hot oven for about 5 hours. It's not so easy to regulate the temperature in this kind of oven, or at least I haven't got the knack of it yet, so easiest thing is to make foods that are not so particular to the exact temperature.


After few hours the porridge is ready when it looks and smells ready. With some cold milk and sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar, it's my kind of Christmas.


This Christmas is special as it's the first time I'm spending it in my new home.

Wish You All a relaxing and peaceful Christmas time, and also the Very Best for the New Year 2011!

Potato pastry with apple mash

One of my favorite food authors has to be Vivi-Ann Sjögren. This now over 70 year old Finnish lady, an author and an actress has traveled the world and gotten to know the flavors and recipes from all over. Her cooking is not posh or fancy, but down to earth, and she speaks strongly in favor of using simple ingredients, and basically utilizing what ever is in season and you have lying around. The scraps or leftovers are not to be thrown away, but rather utilized in a new, lovely and tasty recipe. She does remind me of Nigel Slater, or rather given her age, Nigel should be called "The Vivi-Ann Sjögren of England". For spring, there are recipes for deep-fried dandelions and for winter stews and stocks, but this potato pastry with apple mash felt very appropriate for just now, especially as I've dug up my potatoes and cooked gallons of mashed apple. I did modify it, only ever slightly, adding a sprinkle of salt to the pastry, some vanilla sugar to the whipped cream and icing sugar on top.

From Vivi-Ann Sjögren's book "Vivi-Annin keittiössä"

150 g cooked and mashed potatoes
150 g butter
150 g all-purpose flour (white wheat flour)
5 dl apple mash
2 dl whipping cream
icing sugar
salt

Mix potato, butter, sprinkling of salt and flour together and leave to set in cool place for an hour. Roll small balls from the dough and roll out flat and thin. Prick with a fork and bake in the oven, in 220 Celsius until crispy and light brown. Cool and then spread apple sauce on one piece of pastry, whipped cream on another, pile them and stock with third piece of pastry, with sprinkling of icing sugar.

Best of Autumn

Time to prepare for those long, cold winter nights, time to make pickles, jams and jellies. I've tasted the pickled cucumbers I made about a month ago, and hmm... I don't think they were quite the success I was hoping for. They still look pretty in their glass jars in my cellar, but the taste leaves something to be desired for, or rather they are quite hard, not really pickled enough. But as I have a tree full of apples, and I've eaten as much apple goodie as I can, it was time to make some mashed apple sauce. I love it with some oatmeal porridge, or with crepes or toast.

There's no need to peel the apples, but wash them well, and cut in to lobes. For this size of saucepan I used less than desilitre of water, it is there just to prevent the apples from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Let them soften in the boiling water for few minutes, the less you cook them, the more vitamins there will be left.

Then grind or mash them.

Add some sugar and I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon. Keeps well in the freezer or in clean glass jars.

Time for these...

Though we're still busy with the coming pattern season, there are other seasons going on as well. Like the season for fungi, this year the cep seems to be particularly plentiful. Also called in English the penny bun or porcino, it's one of the most delicious mushrooms I've ever had. Lovely as sauce, soup, or of course, as risotto, a match made in heaven. A half an hours walk in the woods gave enough ceps for a supper and some to be frozen for winter evenings as well.

For this mushroom risotto you'll need:

vegetable stock
risotto rice
ceps
onion
cream
parmesan
salt and black pepper

Chop the ceps n to app 2cm x 2 cm cubes, bearing in mind that they loose a lot of liquid when fried and become smaller. (Do I measure my mushroom cubes? Do I heck, but thought maybe I should give some kind of estimate.) Fry the ceps with chopped onion (medium temperature) in butter and olive oil, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add risotto rice, and fry for coule of minutes more. After that you can start adding the boiling hot stock, a ladle by ladle, until the rice is cooked and is the consistency of soft porridge. Towards the end you can add some cream. Then some grated parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper to taste.


Also season for these, pickled gherkins...


... and potatoes!