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
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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.