Jamón Gines and Paella de Conejo

Spain and Costa Blanca are popular with its holiday destinations also among Finns. A close friend fled the cold and wet Finnish weather to Spain in the 90’s to work in the real estate business. He took his family over there too and they are today next to natives. We visit each other every now and then and the visits offer us a great viewpoints into life in Spain and especially the Spanish cuisine. It is there with our friends that I’ve tasted my first anguilas (baby eels), percebes (barnacles) and ox tail stew.

The coastal areas have been invaded by tourists and ‘immigrants’ and Torrevieja is a good example of that. The city expands every summer when the number of residents tenfolds  from 100,000 to 1 million.  The ‘immigrants’ of today are among others the ever growing group of  pensioners and perhaps the nouveau riche of Russia. This made the real estate business boom, first in the late 80’s and then in the late 90’s after everyone had survived the depression of the early 90’s. Today Spain as many other countries is facing difficult times and an economical crisis. Literary to be frank as Spain has just pleaded for a bank bailout.

On one of our trips took us to visit Gines, a Spanish friend in the countryside in Redovan, Orihuela. The heartwarming welcome, the family, the tour at their jamon serrano factory and the lunch with paella conejo are all unforgettable.

We drove inland for about two hours starting from Torrevieja. First we visited the family and the ham production. The factory is small and a family business. We had the pleasure of meeting the grandfather who founded the business in 1930, and Gines runs the business today. Then we had a tour in the production facilities and saw the various phases of the ham from raw ham to delicious cured ham. The majority of the produce is jamón serrano which is also made of pata negra aka jamón ibérico, the famous black Iberian pig with black hooves that is fed with acorn (jamón ibérico de bellota) or other special diets. Other than that they make chorizo and embutido (different sausages and patés). The tour was splendid and I remember the smells and tastes of the tidbits. I’m afraid I cannot remember that much of the process.

In the afternoon, after the tour, we went out for lunch to a local bar and restaurant.
It was a remote place and the parking lot was half full of trucks, pick-ups and there were a couple of tractors too. It was definitely a place I would never ever enter by choice and my own free will if travelling on my own. It turned out that it really was the best restaurant in town and the friends had requested that a local specialty, paella with rabbit, be prepared for us. The paella de conejo was tasty and the meal very abundant in every way. My husband made a joke, as usually, of being a food journalist from our national paper. We did, in the end; set things right and told we were only tourists.

For Fish to Taste

For fish to taste right, it needs to swim three times – in water, in butter and in wine.

a Polish proverb

Not that Traditional and Traditional Midsummer Feast

Midsummer is a feast for barbecues and you can practically smell the grills sizzling as you drive to your countryside paradise i.e. your own or your family’s summer cabin. I wanted to cook something different this year and had the grill there only for the programme. Thus the menu was tortillas for a late lunch on Midsummer’s Eve on 24^th and a barbecue with sausages after sauna followed with grilled nectarines with honey and yoghurt (I’ll blog the recipe later). For lunch on Midsummer Day we prepared dishes with more traditional ingredients like herring, eggs, new potatoes and salmon.

All the family knows our summer kitchen for the sizzling steaks and vegetables so we might have brought about some disappointment. Our cottage life is down to basic and we live in the nature without electricity and running water. This means naturally some changes to our normal diet and everything needs to be fresh out of the store. The stone cellar keeps cheese, butter and vegetables fresh. I’ve also found some yoghurt types that keep for longer than one day. Oh well, you might wonder how we can make do with this but it is some of the delights of summer and quite ecological too, don’t you think. Thanks to this we go to the market place and have found a local farmers’ market store Luomo.

The tortilla feast was easy to prepare. My sister made the spicy minced meat sauce at home. The tortillas, sauces, guacamole and salsa sauce were convenience food. Other tortilla fillings were sour cream and sliced lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes. This meal was really easy to make and delicious. This time we tried wheat and maize tortillas, and tortillas flavoured with tomato. I have baked tortillas a couple of times at home but want to make allowances every now and then even though I hate convenience food in principle. I’ve given myself more leeway after hearing one of our Michelin star chefs, Hans Välimäki, tell that he buys spinach pancakes for his kids. The pancakes are much too complicated to prepare and the convenience pancakes are just as good for the kid’s lunch. Well, oh well… Välimäki runs (and owns) a two-starred restaurant Chez Dominique in Helsinki, he is a cookbook author and top chef judge.

I’m not giving you the meat sauce recipe because it is my sister’s. In the end I did not grill the nectarine because my sister arrived with an apple pie. The recipe for the herring salad comes from my auntie.
The lunch was herring salad, new potatoes, corn cobs, mixed salad with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, cold-smoked salmon, salmon sauce with mustard and eggs. Everything tasted of summer and was easy to make and what more, absolutely delicious.

Herring Salad

feeds at least 8, takes 15 min to prepare

150-200 g herring in a pickle e.g. Matjessill, herring in a dill sauce
2 – 3 dl cottage cheese
1 dl chopped dill
2 spring onions and onion stems
2 dl sour cream
white and black pepper

Cut the herring into small pieces, chop the dill and onions.  Mix all the ingredients. Taste and add pepper to taste. The salad is at its best if you let it rest in the fridge for a day. If there is any leftover salad, eat it with rye bread (on the bread).

 This is our Midsummer scene by the sea in Western Finland. The pics are taken at 10 pm. We have the midnight sun!

   

Gourmet in Kastelholm

I’m still mentally in Åland. The last evening was a terrific experience. We visited one of Finland’s most renown cooks Michael Björklund. He runs the Jan Karlsgårdens Wärdshus in Kastelholm, Åland.

Michael aka Micke is a famous TV cook. Some know him only from the TV show Strömsö. He is in fact a restaurateur, the cook of the year 2000 in Sweden and a member of a former Swedish national league of cooks. Why Swedish?? Well, he has got double citizenship.

Micke’s restaurant Jan Karlsgårdens Wärdshus has an excellent location near the Kastelholm castle dating to the Middle Ages and in the midst of the countryside.

 After visiting the castle Micke gave us a lecture on Åland’s cuisine and it was followed by a tasting of their liqueurs and ålvados (Åland’s version of calvados) given by Mike Wentjärvi the maitre’d and sommelier. Then it was time for dinner.

I’ll first try to summarise some of the lecture. Åland has a history of being a part of Sweden and Russia just like Finland as it is a part of Finland. There are traces and traditions of the both countries also in the food culture and some of the traditional dishes are therefore prepared with diffrent ingredients.

Ålandspannkaka, the local pancake and desert, is something that all the tourist cafés serve but it is very popular also with the natives. There are two leagues, two ways of preparing it. One with rice and one with semolina. The other ingrediens are cardamom, milk, eggs, sugar and milk and it is served with a cream of prunes and whipped cream (plommonsås och snömos).

There are also two types of ‘black’ bread – a lighter and a darker version. Mickes mother-in-law bakes all the bread for Wärdshuset and you can buy the bread there too.

Natural and traditional ingredients of the Åland cuisine include fish and lamb. Perch is a local delicacy and the Baltic herring is today caught near the mainland in the archipelago of Turku. Smoked baltic herring is one of Mickes favourites – the golden brown, savoury small fish preferably with lots of roe inside. There are lots of sheep and lamb is another local delicacy. The farmers hunt in the forests and deer and hare are typical bases for game dishes. Ramslök, wild garlic, is used in some of the dishes. It resembles leek on the outside and tastes like garlic. It grows wild on the islands.

Micke favours local produce and ecological production. The aim is to produce everything locally and serve seasonal food. This will also reduce the number of intermediaries and thus benefit the local farmers. He keeps busy and is involved in much. Has his ‘spoon in many soups’ as a Finnish proverb says. He acquired a local winery a couple of years ago and is now a liqueur and ålvados producer. He also tells that his first whiskey is in brewing. The first parts of Smakbyn, a village of tastes, will open in the end of the year. He also has a pub in Sjökvarteret in Mariehamn- Pub Niska is the name and they serve local beer and pizza. And there’s more, more projects in progress…

The liquer tasting was good. Althought I’m not a great lover or drinker of liqueurs or spirits, I have to say it was intriguing. They make a variety of fruit liqueurs which is only natural as Åland is a producer of fruit, especially apples. Åland stands for 2/3 of the Finnish apple production (which is of course small scale when compared with France for example). Their cherry liqueur, Röd granit (red granite), was fragrant and tasty, the apple wine rounded nicely with creamy cheese, the Ålvados was smooth and intense and the herb liquer strong and refreshing, a good divestive. They have clever names for the spirits – Åplaud for the apple liquer, Kobba Libre for the rum after a light house and the rest you can figure out yourself. The rum is sought after and has a secret recipe.

 

The dinner then… I do not remember when I’d last had such a wonderful meal in such beautiful surroundings. My dinner was a soup of Jerusalem artichoke, perch with seafood sauce and season’s vegetables (baby carrots and asparagus) and apple pie with vanilla sauce and ice crea. Yummy!!!

You cannot miss Mickes food should you ever be in Åland. Have a look at www.mickesmat.ax the page is unfortuntely available only in Swedish but I am sure you can google your way to more information with Michael Björklund.
I know you cannot taste or smell the Internet pages … but looking at the pictures should take you close to it. By the way, you can also book cooking courses with Micke.

Check also Tjudö vingård at http://www.visitaland.com/tjudovingard/en

 

          

Micke’s cookbook with an autograph (sigh), Min nordsika mat (My Northern Food), today awailable in Finnish and Swedish.
The book won the title of the Best Scandinavian Cookbook 2011 (Bästa Nordiska Måltidslitteratur 2011!). The co-author is Kenneth Nars and the excuisite fotos are taken by Anton Sucksdorff.

Diet Food

The only time for diet food is while you are waiting for the steak to cook.

Julia Child

Salmon in Hot Company

aka salmon soup with traces of Thailand (thaidoftande laxsoppa)

This is one of my favourite quick fish soup recipes. We eat a lot of fish here in Finland and you can make this with salmon or another type of fish. The salmon is, however, a greasy fish and suits this recipe well.

It takes about 20 minutes to cook the soup. We usually have it for lunch but it could be a starter just as well. This is what you need for two people:

2 tbls oil
1 – 2 tbls chili paste (red or green, choose according to taste)
300 g salmon or other fish
leek or spring onion
coriander
2 dl coconut cream
2 dl fish stock

100 – 150 g noodles
1/2 red chili pepper
1 lime
coriander

1. Clean the fish leaving the skin on and cut it into pieces that fit in your kettle.
2. Heat the oil and stir in the curry paste.
3. Add the fish stock and the fish. Let cook at a low temperature until the fish is done.
4. Skin the fish pieces and sieve the stock. Add the coconut cream, stir and add the fish.
5. Cook the noodles in a separete pot and as instructed in the package.
6. Cut the leek into thin stirpes. Seed the chili pepper and cut it into small pieces.
7. Put everything together on the plate or a soup bowl for each eater. First take some noodles, then ladle in some broth with salmon and, last, decorate with leek, chili pepper and coriander. Squeeze in some lime.

Landscapes and Artists in Önningeby and Föglö

Önningeby Museum, Önningeby in Åland Islands

course in Åland is now over but I want to share the experiences. I got home today after spending a week with 17 other enthusiastic language teachers. We all enjoyed the ‘holiday’ very much. Out dwelling, Åland’s folkhögskola in Finström, is in the middle of nature yet near everything as things are on Åland.

 

Ålands folkhögskola, Finström

I wrote earlier about Stendahl syndrome, remember? The visit to Önningeby artist colony the other day took me close to another seizure. Önningeby is a small village near Mariehamn, in the Åland Islands, and it was the homestead to an artist colony at the end of the 19th century. Victor Westerholm first invited colleagues to his home Tomtebo in Lemland, Åland. The time is called the Golden Age in the Finnish art history. Önningeby was especially in favour of young female painters who came to stay there from the continent ie mainland Finland. Most of the artists would first study in Finland then in Paris, and they would travel and paint both in Europe and in the home country.

  

This was the era of landscape painting and artists wished to move away from the bustle of towns. The colony was especially in favour of young female painters of whom Elin Danielsson-Gambogi is the most famous and renown. Other painters to mention are e.g. Hanna Rönnberg, Amelie Lundahl and Dora Wahlros. There were also some Swedish painters that spent summers in Önningeby. The most famous of them is probably J.A.G Acke and the rumour tells that many of the female artists were infatuated by him.

     Victor Westerholm’s house by the canal in Lemland.

 

After the visit to Önningeby we continued to Föglö, one of the municipalities and islands of Åland. On the way we had to take many ferries some of which carried 20 some cars and some only 20 people and a couple of vehicles. The landscapes near Embarsund offer most beautiful sailing routes in Åland.

   

At the end of the tour our guide, Kjell Ekström, took us to his studio and home in Föglö. Kjell is the very man behind the association of Önningeby Museum, an art expert and connoisseur. He was a terrific guide and help us enjoy the day very much.

Take a look at these websites if you are interested in learning more
www.visitaland.com and www.kjellekstrom.com (Swedish).

Soup and Shopping in Mariehamn

Shopping spree and lunch in town were my leisure activities yesterday morning.
We took ourselves to town and started wandering the streets. With help of some local knowledge, the tourist brochure and  recommendations it was easy to  navigate.

 
Sjökvarteret, the harbour quarter, is a new set up in the East Harbour and  nests one of Åland’s gems Guldviva which is a jewellery store with beautiful handmade silver jewellery. SALT is a store that sells local handicrafts.
Judy’s is another store for handicrafts and Judy’ ceramics. In the same house you find a fine secondhand store Emmaus loaded with book that are almost new. Got 7 novels for 7 euros.

After the books we realised that we were almost out of time and had to rush to lunch. Indigo was the restaurant we close. It is on the first floor of an old house in a quarter full of cafés and restaurants. At lunch it was full of people with the waiters bustling about. I had a lovely salmon soup with carrot, potatoes, celeriac, a dash of white wine and salmon. Mariehamn is a small town of about 12,000 inhabitants and 50 restaurants? Think! They are for the thousands of tourists that visit the towns arriving with sailboats, cruises, ferries and planes.

  

The Oldest Champagne in the World

The world’s greatest champagne discovery was made in the Finnish waters kera the Åland Islands two years ago and today I had the pleasure of meeting the young entrepreneur and driver Christian Ekström who found the ship wreck.

On 16 July 2010 Christian Ekström had been taking a group of Swedish tourist on a week’s diving trip and had some misfortune the first day. This made him change his plans and take the group to a wreck he’d found some years earlier but not inspected thoroughly. In the end of the day that day he found himself calling to the local authorities asking for permission to take up one off the hundred some wine bottles he had found.

In the following weeks he discovered that the 168 bottles were Veuve Cliquot, Juglar and Jackson and Heidsieck champagne fround around 1841 worth fortunes. The narration of hos the bottles were found and taken up from a depth of 47 meters was exciting. It had been a questions of a frozen almost lost thumb with the first bottle that had, in the end, popped open as it was already onboard their boat, and withing the reach of some plastic mugs. The wine tasted of a sweet Muscat and Christian had no idea that it was champagne.

It was another story then to find out the origins of the wine. As Christian calling Veuve Cliquot they asked for the coordinates of the shipwreck and once they got the, announced “But there’s ony water there between Sweden and Finland. What is this place you are calling from, Åland?”.

The champagne has brought both fame and fortune to this indipendent area of Åland and Christian has been their face to the world, to the hundreds of journalist and photographers. The second international Åland Champagne auction was held last Friday with a turnover of some 109,000 euros. The Veuve Cliquot found has received 85 points of experts who estimate the present equivalent, Veuve Cliquot demi-sec, to 86 points. The old champagnes makes grown men (and women) cry – to be able to taste something that old and precius. Christian had also brought a bottle. Think, you find a wreck loaded with champagne worth thousands and yet you need to pay to get yourself a bottle.
You can read more at http://www.champagne.ax

Of you ever come to Finland or Sweden you must come to Åland. It lays in the Baltic Sea and actually consists of thousands of islands. And once you are here, ou can check out Christian’s brewery and pub Stallhagen. They brewery ekologian beer and have a leveys meny degustation. His book of tastes might be out in the stores then, too. There’s much more to Åland like the sea and cliffs, forest and pastures, apple groves, medieval stone churches and fortresses and many more.
http://www.visitaland.com/en

Breakfast Time

What is your favourite breakfasts like?
I used to like a healthy big breakfast of Scandinavian type with coffee, sandwiches with ham and cheese, juice and oatmeal porridge or muesli with yoghurt. The coffee needed to be strong and black. We in Finland like to think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you skip breakfast, you won’t have a good day. This has to do with our weather. A big breakfast helps you fight the cold – snow and frost in the winter and rain and cold in summer.

Today I rather eat less in the morning and prefer cappuccino or caffè con latte, toast or a croissant and fruit.

This picture (the tray) is of a breakfast I put together on a holiday in Italy. We had just read an article on breakfasts of famous people in Gentlemen’s Quarterly Italia (Guigno 2011, n.141). They presented breakfasts of leaders like the Pope, Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama.
The following morning I had to take a picture in the similar style. This is what we had: coffee, orange juice, two tiny plums, cantuccini, toast with Philadelphia and a pastry swirl.

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