Middinner: Saffron chicken and mashed potatoes

The days between Christmas and New Year are time for relaxing and resting. One party is done and another one is waiting. The dinner should also be easy and fast to prepeare. Real saffron adds the touch of festivity.

Ingredients:

500 g chicken
0,5 g saffron
4 cloves of garlic
turnip rape oil
wheat grass
1 dl cream
salt, black pepper

mashed carrot-potatoes

Fry the chicken slices in turnip rape oil, add seasoning and cream. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add chopped wheat grass just before serving. Serve mashed carrot-potatoes on the side.

Christmas dinner: Redroot salmon and lingonberry whitefish

In addition to traditional Christmas food we prepared fish in new ways.


Redroot salmon:
2 kg salmon
1 dl sea salt
3 tbs sugar
4 grated redroot

2 dl sour cream
grated horseradish
dill
lemon juice
salt, black pepper

Place the salmon skin down in a container. Spread salt and sugar on the salmon and let rest for few hours. Add grated redroot and put a weight on the fish. You get good weights by filling on elitre plastic bags with water. Let marinade over night. Remove the redrood, cut thin slices and roll them into rosebuds. Serve with horseradish-sour cream and decorate with dill.

The recipe is adapted from the recipe published in Asiakaspolar-magazine 4/2008.

Lingonberry whitefish:
2 halves of common whitefish
crude sea salt
0,5 dl lingonberry
2 tsp sugar

Season the fish halves with salt and let rest about 15 minutes. Cover one half with crushed lingonberry and lift the other half on top of the other, skin outside. Wrap in plastic wrap and let marinade in refrigerator over night. Remove crushed berries and cut into thin slices.

The recipe is adapted from the recipe pubished in MTV3.fi.

Independence dinner: Rum Fruit Pavlova

This time the dessert is not for children. The reason for the forbidden delicacy is the careful rum marinading.

Ingredients:

Rum fruits:
5 dl strong (60% vol) rum
1/2 dl sugar
plum, pear, pine apple, apple

Meringue base:
6 egg whites
dash of salt
3 dl sugar
2 tl corn starch
2 tl white balsamic vinegar

Filling:
3 dl cream
1 rkl vanilla sugar
rum fruits
fruits

Let fruits marinade in refrigerator in a closed container for a week.

Separate egg whites into a clean dry bowl. Whip and add salt during whipping. Add sugar in portions, and mix corn starch to the last portion. Add vinegar and whip shining. Spread the foam on a baking sheet in the form of 24 cm diameter circle. The foam expands a little in the oven. Leave a shallower place in the middle for the filling. Bake on the lower part of the oven in 125 C for about 90 minutes. Let the base cool down before moving to the serving tray.

Drain the rum fruits. Whip cream hard, but watch out for the butter-effect. Mix fruits and drained rum fruits carefully with the whipped cream and lift on top of the base. Decorate with fruits and chocolates.

To get ice looking sugar decoration boil 250 g sugar and 1 dl water to 145 C. Pour the mixture on a baking paper and let cool down.

The recipe is an adaptation of the recipe published 27.11.2008 in Helsingin Sanomat.

Independence dinner: Mashed carrot potatoes and oven salmon

Simple and tasty basic courses conquered the table on the independence day dinner. Mashed potatoes get some sweetness and spirit from grated carrot. The salmon some edge from parmesan crust.


Ingredients:

1 kg floury potatoes
3 carrots
50 g butter
2 dl milk

2 kg salmon
50 g parmesan
1 dl turnip rape oil
4 gloves of garlic


Boil the potatoes. Grate the carrots and wok them for few minutes in turnip rape oil. Mask the potatoes, add butter and hot milk. Mix the carrot with the potatoes.

Place the salmon in an oven dish skin down. Cover with garlic-parmesan paste. Bake in the oven 200 C for half an hour.

Independence dinner: Baked apple salad

As a starter saad for the Independence day dinner I made a modified oven apple salad. The original recipe was published in Pirkka-magazine. Instead of a regular oven apple, I sliced the apple.

3 big apples
0,5 dl melted butter
1 tbs grated ginger
salt, black pepper

1 red onion
1 tbs apple vinegar
100 g rucola
1 dl lingonberry
salt, black pepper

Cut the onion into thin slices and mix with the apple vinegar. Let marinade for few moments in the refridgerator. Cut the apples into chuncks and mix the chunks with the butter-ginger mixture. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes in 200C.

Toss rucola and onion together and build the portion on top of the apples. Decorate with frozen lingonberries.

Independence dinner: Goat cheese and portobello

The starter of the dinner for the Finnish Independence Day is oven baked chevre-portobello mushroom. Portobellos can be replaced also with big champignons. Warm chevre gives the richness and taste the starter requires. The recipe is an adaptation of the recipe published in Pirkka-magazine.

Ingredients for four:
4 Portobello-mushroom
1 onion
200 g goat cheese (Chevre)
2 tomato
turnip rape oil
0,5 dl pesto
pine seeds
black pepper

Chop the legs of the mushroom and onion. Fry them in turnip rape oil, add pesto and season with black pepper. Slice tomato and chevre, one slice per person. Spread the onion-pesto mixture on the inside of the mushroom caps. Add tomato and chevre slices and decorate with few pine seeds. Bake in 225 C for about ten minutes or until the cheese gets some color.

Parmesan salmon and coconut rice

Salmon in the oven must be one of the easiest and most delicious foods. In the simplest form, you just place the salmon in an oven dish and bake half an hour in 200C. Ready made cream products add desired taste. Since personally I prefer real, original tastes, this time salmon will get parmesan frosting.

Ingredients:

1 kg salmon
1 dl turnip rape oil
1 dl lemon juice
4 gloves garlic
50 g parmesan cheese
salt

3 dl full corn rice
2 dl coconut cream
6 dl water
salt, coriander
spring onion

Place salmon skin down in an oven dish. Mix the marinade and add grated garlic and parmesan. Cover the salmon with the mix and bake in 200C for half an hour.

Boil rice according to the package instructions, but replace two deciliters of water with coconut cream. Season with salt and ground coriander. Add chopped spring onion before serving.

Chicken balls and mashed potatoes

Meat balls, brown sauce and mashed potatoes is a traditional Nordic meal. With small alterations the food becomes healthier and the taste gets some international nuance. Otherwise the meal is just like grandma made it.

Ingredients:
400 g ground chicken
5 tomatoes
2 dl full wheat flour
1 dl oat flakes
1 egg
1 onion
4 gloves of garlic
salt, black pepper, coriander

1 kg floury potatoes
50 g butter
2 dl milk
salt

0.5 dl turnip rape oil
1 tbs full wheat flour
1 tbs rye flour
5 dl vegetable stock
2 tbs mustard
1 tsp fructose
instant coffee
2 dl cream (low fat)
black pepper, salt

Chop tomatoes and mix with other ingredients. Let the chicken ball dough rest for a while. If the dough feels very dry, add some milk or water. Make small round balls of the dough and bake in oven in 200 C (390 F) for about 20 minutes.

Boil the potatoes and peel once done. Add butter and mash even. Add heated milk gradually until the structure is good.

Heat up the turnip rape oil and add flours. Fry for few minutes and add vegetable stock gradually. Season with mustard. Add cream and a pinch of instant coffee. Add fructose to taste. Season with salt and black pepper.

Rice and reindeer mushroom sauce

The traditional reindeer dish is "käristys", fried reindeer meat slices. The pre-prepared meat is available on almost every grocery store in Finland. The other common dish is the soup made of dried reindeer meat, for the people with demanding palate. This time the meal is somewhere in between, sort of a fried-meat-soup-sauce made of fillet.

Ingredients:
200 g reindeer fillet
6 champignon
2 tbs sour cream
30 g pine seeds
0.5 l vegetable stock
50 g butter
turnip rape oil
2 tbs full wheat flour
2 tsp rye flour

lettuce
lingonberry
fructose

full corn rice

Slice the champignons. Toast pine seeds on a dry pan. Slice the frozen fillet into very thin (2 mm) slices. Fry the slices gently in butter. Add the champignons and continue frying. Melt the butter on the pan, add some turnip rape oil and fry the flours for few minutes. Add vegetable stock, fried reindeer, champignons and pine seeds. Let simmer for a while and add sour cream before serving.

Serve with salad and rice. Lingonberry with a dash of fructose on the side.

Oriental theme: Flower soup and wood ear mushroom

When feeling fluish, there's nothing better than hot soup, at least it makes you feel a bit better. Also dried wood ear mushroom is supposed to have a positive impact on heart.


Ingredients:
1 l vegetable stock
3 tomato
1 tsp fructose
salt, black pepper
sesame oil
2 eggs
spring onion

50 g dried wood ear mushroom
3 sweet pepper
2 dl cream
turnip rape oil
sesame oil
salt, black pepper
coriander

1 kg salmon
1 lemon
50 g peanuts
1 dl orange juice
fructose

500 g champignon
250 g broccoli
6 gloves of garlic

Heat the vegetable stock boiling. Add tomato cubes and seasoning. Let cook a while, and pour lightly beaten eggs slowly but steadily in. Stir peacefully with a fork until the egg has formed thin ribbons. Add chopped spring onion and serve hot.

Soak dried mushrooms in cold water at least an hour. Change the water once or twice. Drain the mushrooms well. Add oil to the hot wok-pan and stir fry mushrooms for few minutes. Add sweet pepper stripes and seasoning. Fry for few more minutes and add cream Let stew for a while.

Grate the yellow part of the lemon peel and squeeze out the juice. Add orange juice and some fructose. Cut the salmon into thick slices and fry on a pan on both sides. Add peanuts and continue frying. Add juice and let stew on low heat.

Toast champignon cubes in a dry wok-pan. Add oil and chopped broccoli. Stir-fry for few minutes and add grated garlic. Serve immediately.

King prawns on salad bed

The frozen stock from the previous meal makes this otherwise plain shrimp salad more festive and spicy.

Ingredients:
200 g king prawns
butter

1 l fish stock
100g butter
50 g wheat flour
1.5 dl milk
8 cl cognac
cayenne pepper
salt

500 g tomato
ice berg lettuce
spring onion
olive oil

400 g champignon
turnip rape oil
3 tl ground coriander
1 tl salt
black pepper

Melt the butter and stew the wheat flour for few minutes on a low temperature. Heat up the stock and add little by little to the thickener. Whisk the soup even. If the soup is very thick, add some milk. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Add cognac, seasoning and strain the soup.

Remove the seeds and juice from the tomato. Cut into cubes. Slice the lettuce and rinse in cold water. Spin dry. Chop the spring onion. Mix the ingredients and add olive oil.

Slice mushroom and toast on a hot dry pan. Add turnip rape oil, tomato juice and seeds. Fry for a moment and season.

Dry the king prawns carefully and fry them fast in butter. Build up the portion.

Salmon rillette and apple chicken

A totally successful end result often depends on small details. I was thinking of making the blueberry sauce in a new way, but this time the result was everything but the desired one. But that's why this is called a hobby, it is not always perfect. Quite eatable, though.

Ingredients:
Salmon rillette:
500 g salmon
3 tbs Dijon mustard
wheat grass
5 gloves of garlic
the same amount of ginger
salt
2 tbs ketchup
100 g mayonnaise
rye bread

Stock:
5 dl vegetable stock
5 dl white wine
whole black pepper
bay leaf

Blueberry sauce:
3 dl blueberry juice
2 tbs fructose
3 dl cider

Apple chicken:
500 g chicken slices
500 g apple
turnip rape oil
fructose
lemon juice
white balsamic vinegar
salt, coriander, black pepper
1 dl cider
2 dl water

Salad:
rucola
ice berg lettuce
olive oil

rice

Cut the salmon into cubes off the skin. Simmer about 15 minutes in white wine - vegetable stock. Drain the cubes and let them cool down to the room temperature. Let the stock cool down as well, and freeze for later use. Chop wheat grass and grate garlic and ginger. Mix the ingredients with salmon into an even mass. Cut round pieces of the rye bread with a round cookie cutter. Spread olive oil on the pieces and use the cutter to help add the salon mass on top of the bread. Cool down in refrigerator.

This time I prepared the blueberry sauce first cooking the blueberry juice into half of its original volume. Then added fructose and cider. I was planning to thicken the sauce with yolk, but unfortunately I boiled the sauce after adding the yolk - just like what you do with regular thickeners. Well, there was no thickening there, but the yolk gave the sauce fairly unpleasant smell of a dead animal. The taste was intact, fortunately. Now I have learned, that there is no boiling when using yolk for thickening. And that yolk is not an optimal thickener for berry and fruit based sauces.

Stir fry the chicken in a small amount of turnip rape oil. Add apple slices. If the apple is very sauer, like in the case of Finnish apples, add some fructose. Add other spices and let it stew for a while. add cider and water if needed.

Boil the rice according to the package instructions. Prepare green salad for a side dish.

Trumpet chanterelle pasta and rucola

A wealthy amount of fresh trumpet chanterelle were waiting, and this time they turned into a pasta sauce. And if for some odd reason some of the sauce was left over, adding some milk and food thickener will make it chanterelle soup.

Ingredients:
2 onions
turnip rape oil
300 g trumpet chanterelle
2 dl cream
2 dl milk
instant coffee
salt, black pepper

full wheat pasta
rucola

Fry onion in turnip rape oil and add mushroom. Continue frying and once the mushrooms start to give liquid, add cream and milk. A dash of instant coffee will balance the taste of cream. Season with salt and black pepper.

Macaroni casserole asian style

Macaroni casserole is always tasty, and as such is an elementary part of Finnish food making. Personally I have never liked pig or cow meat based food, so this time I wanted to spice up the Finnish basic food with South-East Asian flavors.

Ingredients:
2 egg
2 tsp ground coriander
2 dl coconut cream
2 dl pineapple juice
1 1/2 tsp salt

450 g chicken
70 g almonds
350 g pineapple
200 g cottage cheese
200 g fusilli pasta
parmesancheese

Boild the pasta according to the instructions. Toast the almonds on a dry pan and move aside. Sauté chicken in turnip rape oil and add pineapple chunks. Mix pasta, almonds and chicken-pineapple in an oven dish and add egg-coconut cream mixture. Grind some parmesan cheese on top of the food. Bake in 200 C (390 F) for 30 to 45 minutes. Serve with ketchup.

Rye and parmesan

Rucola controls the flavor space of this salad. Rye croutons and parmesan cheese balance its strength, still letting it take the leading role it deserves.

Ingredients:
pine seed
rye crouton
ice berg lettuce
rucola
olive oil
parmesan cheese

Pine seeds and rye croutons are toasted on a dry pan. When you toast the croutons after the seeds, the delicious pine seed oil flavors also the croutons. After toasting, the croutons are tossed in wealthy amount of olive oil in a separate bowl. Freshly grated parmesan cheese gives the salad the final touch.

Green tomatoes, yellow chicken

Finnish summer this year was not favorable to tomato home gardeners. As the autumn arrived, there were a lot of green tomatoes still in tomato plants. Appropriately though, Helsingin Sanomat published on September 25th 2008 in the food section Ossi Korhonen's recipe for Creamy green tomatoes, which inspired this dinner. And the green tomatoes, they ended up on the plate, instead of the compost box.

Ingredients:
chicken
yellow sweet pepper
turmeric
turnip rye oil
green tomatoes
onion
butter
cream
salt, black pepper
basmati rice
chives

The chicken is wokked first in oil. Sweet pepper and turmeric are added once the meat is done. Tomatoes and onion are cut into half a centimeter (1/4 of an inch) slices and fried in butter until they get some colour. Add cream and let it simmer gently until the sauce thickens a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste. Rice is cooked according to the instruction on the package, chives is cut and added just before serving.

If there is left overs of chicken and rice, they can be wokked the next day with cottage cheese and parmesan. Green tomatoes can be warmed up in a pan or micro wave oven.

Salmon pie and salad

Even when making food can be very rewarding by itself, sometimes it is nice that the chef can socialize with the guests also. The pie and salad can be made well in advance, and occasional left-overs taste even better the next day.

Ingredients:

800 gr salmon
lemon juice
black pepper
cheyenne pepper
tomato

Filling:
150 gr spinach
200 gr cottage cheese
170 gr blue cheese
3 eggs
2 dl sour cream
marjoram
2 dl milk
-
rye dough

Salad:
rucola
ice berg lettuce
roasted sunflower seeds
olive oil

Cut the salmon off the skin into an inch thick slices. Season with the peppers and marinade in lemon juice for half an hour. Mix the filling ingredients. Press the rye dough on the bottom of a 10 inch pie plate, punch some holes in it with a fork and bake it in 175 C (350 F) for 10 minutes. Place the salmon and tomato slices on the bottom and pour the filling on top of them. Bake in the oven for another half an hour until the filling is firm.

Toast the sun flower seed on a dry pan. Cut rucola and lettuce into thin slices, rinse with cold water and drain in a salad spin dryer.

Carrot noodles and ginger chicken

Frying in a wok pan keeps the aroma of the raw material, and only takes a little time. Not much more than ten minutes is needed for food making, especially if some of the ingredients is specifically meant for wok - like the wok-noodles this time.

Ingredients:
chicken
chicken stock
garlic, ginger
turnip rape oil
mint, coriander
salt, black pepper
carrot
noodles

Fry the chicken slices in a wok pan with a dash of turnip rape oil. Add graded garlic and ginger. Cut carrot into stripes and add to the pan. When the chicken is done, add the wok-noodles and half a littre (2 cups) of chicken stock. Season with salt and black pepper. Just before serving mix chopped mint and coriander into the noodles.

Whole wheat salmon pasta

Fibres and healthy fats in a tasty combination. The cream creates slightly sinful glow on the otherwise hyper healthy portion.

Ingredients:
whole wheat pasta
salmon
cream
cream cheese
milk
black pepper
turnip rape oil
olive oil

Fry salmon in a pan with a sprinkle of turnip rape oil. Add cream, milk and cream cheese and stew it slowly. Boil the pasta according to the instructions, drain and add some olive oil.

Reindeer fillet and tomato rice

Reindeer filet stays well in a vacuum pack in freezer. For this course it should be defozen totally in cold water before preparing food.

Ingredients:
reindeer fillet
Aattu's signature blueberry sauce
rice
tomato
rosemary
turnip rape oil

Boil the rice according to the instructions. Add chopped tomato and rosemary just before serving. Cut the reindeer fillet equally in two. Fry the pieces both sides one-two minutes. Give the final touch with Aattu's blueberry sauce.

Reindeer filet and chicken au cidre

A dinner becomes easily more festive just by preparing a little more impressive starter. Even when the main course is relying on southern European influences, the starter's taste and raw materials are clearly from Lappland.

Ingredients:
reindeer filet, butter
wheat bread
rye bread
rosemary
Aattu's signature blueberry sauce
cream cheese
chicken, cider
turnip rape oil
rice, coriander
champignon
zucchini
cocoa, cinnamon
chili
tomato, onion
tarragon
white balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Fry the chicken slices in turnip rape oil. Season with salt and black pepper. Add two desilitres of dry apple cider and let stew in a low temperature. Boil the rice and add chopped coriander just before serving.

Melt some butter in a pan and fry the fillets two-three minutes on both sides. Move to the cutting board and cut an inch thick slices. Smear the cream cheese on the wheat and rye bread, pout them together and cut portion sized pieces with a round cookie cutter. Build the starter with the bread and two slices of reindeer fillet. And some blueberry sauce and chopped rosemary.

Slice the champignon and toast it on a dry hot pan. Add turnip rape oil and zucchini strips once the champignon is almost done, but still firm. Season with cocoa, cinnamon and chili.

Slice tomato and onion, add chopped tarragon, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Let rest a while in a refrigerator.

Salmon on carrot bed

Another simple and easy to prepare oven dish. The main color of this dish is orange, and instead of potato, rutabaga is used.

Ingredients:
salmon
carrot
rutabaga
cream, milk
salt, black pepper
cheyenne pepper

Cut carrot and rutabaga into strips. Season with salt and peppers and add cream-milk mixture, half cream, half milk. Lay the salmon filets on top, either with the skin up, or remove the skin first. An easy way to remove the skin is to fry the salmon skin down on a pan for a while. After which the skin peels off easily. Stew in 175 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about an hour or until the carrot and rutabaga are soft.

Moose with sweet potato

As the moose hunting season was beginning again, it was a good time to empty the freezer from the last moose meats. It's advisable to let the meat warm up a little bit before cutting it, less force is needed and there is less risk of a slipping knife. The appropriate time in room temperature is about an hour, in a refrigerator two to three hours.

Ingredients:
moose, butter, onion
black pepper, salt
sweet potato, rutabaga
blue cheese
milk
broccoli
wheat grass
turnip rape oil
sesame oil
lingonberry
fructose

Fry the sliced meat immediately on a hot pan with butter, and move into a kettle to stew a while and wait for the other courses to be ready. Slice the onion and sauté it after the meat in the pan, add to the kettle. Season with salt and black pepper. Chop the broccoli and stir-fry it in turnip rape and sesame oil. Broccoli should become little soft but remain firm. Add cut wheat grass.

Peel and cube sweet potato and rutabaga. Simmer until soft. Pour the boiling water away and smash with potato masher together with blue cheese and warm milk. Prepare portions on oven safe plates and heat them up in oven with the top heat on, so that the surface gets some color. Add some fructose to smashed lingonberries and serve on the side.

Chicken and rice the summer cottage style

Preparing food on a sunny summer day is at its best in the open air. The food is simple and fast to make, and the best flavor is the fresh air and friends around.

Ingredients:
chicken
salt, black pepper
pineapple chunks
turnip rape oil
white balsamic vinegar
rice, tomato
lemon balm

Cook the rice according to the package instructions and add just before serving the diced tomato and chopped lemon balm. Fry the chicken on a wide iron pan ("Muurikka" pan) in a dash of turnip rape oil. When the meat is well done, add pineapple chunks with juice, spices and some white balsamic vinegar. The pan should be hot, so that the frying time is not too long and the chicken and pineapple stay juicy.

Salmon and turnip

This oven dish requires some patience, and some manual labor to slice the salmon and remove the skin.

Ingredients:
salmon
lemon juice
champignon
turnip
sweet pepper
sesame oil
ice berg lettuce
tomato
spring onion
white balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Cut the salmon off the skin into an inch thick slices. Pour lemon juice on top of the slices and let them marinade in a refridgerator for half an hour. Cut the vegetables into strips and put into the casserole dish. Lay the salmon and sweet pepper strips on top. Pour the marinade into the dish also. Flavor with salt, black pepper and sesame oil. Build the salad with the vegetables cut into strips, flavor with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Sweet potato and chicken

A simple and easy oven dish, not suitable for a busy day, though. The longer the food stews, the better.

Ingrediets:
spring onion
sweet potato
tomato
chicken
butter
broccoli
champignon
egg, beer

Stir-fry the chicken first. Slice the vegetables and put them on layers with the chicken in the casserole dish. Spice with salt and black pepper. Mix the egg with two desilitres (1 cup) of beer, and pour into the dish. Stew in 175 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about an hour or until the sweet potato is soft. The dish can be covered with aluminium foil for the first half an hour, but after that it should be removed for the food to get some color.

Strawberries

The easiest and sweetest dinner was created when the strawberries in balcony boxes gave their first harvest. The only things that could have been on the side were whipped cream and champagne.

Ingredients:
Home grown strawberries

Chicken in hot apple sauce

The ripening of Finnish apples gave the idea to use them in food making. Chocolate and chili are a splendid combination as such, but together with Finnish apples they form already a Finnish-Mexican alliance. Some added fructose is needed, however, to balance the acidity of the apple.

Ingredients:
apple, cocoa
chili, cheyenne pepper
white balsamic vinegar
fructose
turnip rape oil, sesame oil
chicken, rosemary
tomato, spring onion
ice berg lettuce
cottage cheese
pine seeds
olive oil
black pepper
basmati rice


Peel the apples and remove the seeds. Stir-fry the apple cubes in turnip rape oil and flavor with cocoa and the peppers. Add some fructose and let simmer for about half an hour, check the taste.


Sauté the chicken slices in turnip rape oil and spice them with rosemary. Boil the rice according to the package instructions. Cut the ice berg lettuce to thin slices, rinse in ice cold water and spin dry. Cut the green parts of the spring onions to the salad. Toast the pine seeds on a dry pan, and add to the salad. Finalize the salad with a dash of olive oil, a couple table spoonfuls of cottage cheese and some black pepper. Chop tomatoes and the white parts of the spring onion and mix them together. Add some white balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Redfin perch with tomato salsa

The flavors of a fresh fish are crisp and delicate. The frozen fish traveled from the other side of the globe doesn't give the same experience, even though it is often sold as "fresh". This time the dinner is vitamin and fiber rich, but has almost no carbon hydrates.

Ingredients:
ice berg lettuce
cucumber
lemon balm
roasted pumpkin seeds
olive oil
sesame oil
white balsamic vinegar
tomato
spring onion
basil
perch
butter

The basis of the portion is a simple green pumpkin seed salad, which gets some perkiness from common balm. Tomato, spring onion and basil are chopped for the salsa, then added sesame oil and balsamic vinegar. Let rest in a refrigerator for about an hour. Remove the bones from the perch filets and fry them on a moderate heat in butter for a minute or two on both sides.

Chicken pasta with cottage cheese

This quick pasta gets some extra character from sesame oil and cottage cheese.

Ingredients:
chicken
roasted champignon
onion
tomato, tomato puree
cream, tarragon
instant coffee
sesame oil
turnip rape oil
cottage cheese
penne pasta

The champignons are toasted on a dry pan. Add the oils and fry the onion gently. Add chicken slices and fry. The puree gives stronger tomato taste and a dash of instant coffee sharpens the roundness of the cream. Pasta is boiled in water with a pinch of salt. The portion is crowned with cottage cheese and black pepper.

Oriental theme: Chicken and tomato rice

This time oriental atmosphere is created by the salad, which is made with long sliced cucumber and ice berg lettuce. Chopsticks are the natural choice for utensils. Salad is flavored with fructose, salt and some balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients:
ice berg lettuce
cucumber
balsamic vinegar
fructose, salt
full corn rice
tomato
coriander
spring onion
roasted champignon
chicken fillet
tarragon
turnip rape oil

Before cutting the tomato peel into cubes, the seeds and juice are removed to be used with the chicken. Tomato cubes, chopped coriander and spring onion are mixed to boiled rice just before serving. Chicken filets can be placed in freezer for a while, so that they are easier to cut into slices. The champignons are first toasted on a dry pan, then added oil and chicken. When the meat is done, add tomato seeds and juice and fry briefly.

Oriental theme: Jiaozi and garlic

Jiaozi, dumplings, are a very common food in Asia. In fact, there are some sources, that claim this kind of food has traveled to Asia from west, even from Finland. This is plausible, since one of the traditional Finnish foods is Carelian pies, prepared the similar way as dumplings.

This time, however, the dinners is prepared in Chinese way. The method is very labor intensive, but at the same time it offers a nice way to prepare dinner together with friends.

Ingredients;
celery
minced chicken
ginger
garlic
spring onion
coriander
eggs
wheat dough

The ingredients are minced and mixed together. The wheat dough is made the similar way as pasta dough, flour, water and egg. Small pieces of dough are then rolled thin and round. Spoonful of the filling is added to each of them, and the package is carefully closed. The dumplings are then boiled in a big kettle. One portion is added into the boiling water, and when the water boils again, some cold water is added. This is repeated three times, and the dumplings are ready.

For this dinner we made the dumplings the previous day, and fried them for the dinner in turnip rape oil. Served with soya sauce and grated garlic.

Blueberry reindeer and mushroom rice

The size of a reindeer filet is not extensive, but the savor and texture brings it to the aristocracy of meats. And in such case it can and should be fried only in butter on a cast iron pan. The filet need some heat on both sides for just a few minutes. The filet is sliced just before serving.

Ingredients:
ice berg lettuce
spring onion, mint
roasted pumpkin seeds
olive oil
Aattu's blueberry sauce
rice, roasted champignons
reindeer filet, butter


When the main character of the dinner is modest but strong, the salad or the side dish must not be profuse. The salad gets some edge from the spring onion and fresh mint leaves. Champignons toasted on a dry pan add character and structure to rice. Aattu's slowly cooked blueberry sauce gives the finishing touch to the meal.

Pumpkin seeds and goat cheese

This salad was a bit of a panic solution, I got hungry, and there wasn't much anything to eat at home. Despite of the starting point, the outcome was very tasty.

Ingredients:
ice berg lettuce
spring onion
tomato
roasted pumpkin seeds
cold cuts of reindeer steak roll
Norwegian goat cheese
olive oil

I piled the reindeer and cheese on top of each other before slicing it very thin. The sweetness of the cheese complements nicely the smokey aroma of the reindeer.

Reindeer and almonds

Smoked reindeer steak roll brings nice and strong flavor to otherwise light salad. The meal is also fairly substantial, and won't make you hungry right after leaving the dinner table, as would easily be the case with a regular salad.

Ingredients:
ice berg lettuce
spring onion
roasted almonds
cold cuts of reindeer steak roll
cold cuts of honey chicken roll
coriander, mint
lemon balm
olive oil
turnip rape oil
black pepper


The herbs are cut into small pieces, and covered with turnip rape oil. The cold cuts are sliced. Salad is built and the final touch is given by olive oil.

Salmon and rice

It is fast and easy to make tasty food with salmon. As I accidentally was able to get some real salmon, instead of the Norwegian bred-in-a-bag fish, I wanted to make a little more complex dinner with salad, side dish and salmon.


Ingredients:
salmon
basmati rice, coriander
champignons, tomato
tarragon, turnip rape oil
ice berg lettuce
spring onion
pine seeds
basil, olive oil


Salmon is cut into medallions, fried on a tender heat in its own fat. Rice gets some colour and taste by adding coriander just before the serving. The tomato juice and seeds are fried in turnip rape oil with toasted champignons. Add salt and tarragon. Salad is built with ice berg lettuce, spring onion, tomato peel cubes, roasted pine seeds, basil and olive oil.