Gluten-free savoury muffins with sun dried tomatos, basil and olives

These days it's somewhat inevitable that in case you throw a party, there's bound to be at least one vegetarian. So, it was only fair to devise a vegetarian option to go with the cold smoked reindeer muffins I came up with for Philadelphia's recipe contest. I went for classic Mediterranean flavours of tomatos, olives and basil. And it was gooooooood. Take it from a ruthless carnivore!

Oh, and they're gluten-free too!

Depending on the size of your muffin tin this makes  12-22 

150 g butter

2 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

200 g Philadelphia garlic and herbs- cream cheese

1 dl milk

1 dl rice flour

1,25 dl potato starch

1,5 dl finely ground polenta/ yellow corn meal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb

1 dl sun dried tomatos, chopped 

handful of basil leaves, chopped (about 1/2 dl when chopped) 
1/2 dl black olives, chopped and drained (about 8-10 olives)

1/2 tsp black pepper

To decorate: 200 g Philadelphia garlic and herbs- cream cheese, cherry tomatos and/or basil leaves

Cream softened butter with sugar. Then add eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat. In another bowl mix cream cheese with milk until smooth and pour into the mixture. Combine the dry ingredients and add those into rest of the ingredients. Fold in reindeer and red onions. Season. There's no need for salt as cold smoked reindeer is that salty.

Spoon into the muffin tins. Those silicone ones totally rock - no need for greasing or lining with paper - nothing sticks to them! Bake at 200° for 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of your muffins). Check the doneness with a skewer - a little moist is perfect. Cool and decorate as you want.

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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?

        

Gluten-free savoury muffins with cold smoked reindeer

The swiftly approaching summer means a couple of things. Such as the beginning of the barbecue season. And numerous parties: weddings, graduations and so forth. And that, of course, means recipe contests galore! Recently we've been matching wines with food for that perfect summer party and barbecuing porky delicacies. And yes, now there's another one!

This time Philadelphia cream cheese invited bloggers to come up with innovative ways to use their cream cheeses for little savoury treats for the party season. And I can tell you my head was spinning with ideas - salty snacks have always been my preferred choice over anything sweet and cute.

I'm not totally immune to the cute though: tempted by the minimuffin tins I couldn't resist at my latest pilgrimage to the cook ware shop I came up with these gluten-free savoury minimuffins. Which, on top of being über cute are also über easy. The batter is ready by the time the oven has warmed and it's so incredibly versatile. Shavings of cold smoked salmon would compliment cream cheese with chives. Reindeer can be substituted with crunchy bits of fried bacon. And chorizo and roasted red peppers... how can it be anything but delicious! And there's a Mediterranean veggie version coming up, too!

Depending on the size of your muffin tin this makes  12-22 

150 g butter

2 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

200 g Philadelphia chives- cream cheese

1 dl milk

1 dl rice flour

1,25 dl potato starch

1,5 dl finely ground polenta/ yellow corn meal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb

1 dl cold smoked reindeer crumbs (about 50 gr) 

1 dl finely chopped red onions (about 1/4 onion)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg

To decorate: 200 g Philadelphia chives- cream cheese, fresh herbs

Cream softened butter with sugar. Then add eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat. In another bowl mix cream cheese with milk until smooth and pour into the mixture. Combine the dry ingredients and add those into rest of the ingredients. Fold in reindeer and red onions. Season. There's no need for salt as cold smoked reindeer is that salty.

Spoon into the muffin tins. Those silicone ones totally rock - no need for greasing or lining with paper - nothing sticks to them! Bake at 200° for 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of your muffins). Check the doneness with a skewer - a little moist is perfect. Cool and decorate with cream cheese. 

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Dining and w(h)ining in Helsinki: Ragu

Warning: following text will feature shitloads of photos, over-the-top-giddiness and cliches, lacking imagination and originality to the point of annoying, such as "breathtaking" and "exquisite". Oh, and I'm sure there's a blasphemic remark or two. Proceed with caution, then.

A couple of days we had a date night during which we pondered over how much has happened in the past four (yes, you read correctly - four!) months. And how yet another tempting restaurant has opened in Helsinki when there are still so many we still haven't had the chance to try.

In the light of all this an invitation to come try Ragu was more than  welcome and offered a nice distraction from everything that's been going on lately. You know, such as shelves, shopping lists for Ikea, shoe racks, rococo armchairs, the essentiality of coffee tables (I don't even drink coffee!) and the potentially nonexistent function of throw pillows.  

Ragu opened in April and is its chef's Antti Asujamaa's first own restaurant. He has previously worked in the kitchens of Sasso, Sipuli and Fishmarket. The other chef, Erno Kemi, has honed his skills at Michelin-starred Demo, too.

The decor is serenely elegant. The atmosphere changes slightly in different parts of the restaurant, yet remains fuss-free and simple peppered with some interesting details.

The menu lives according to seasons and is an elegant and quietly confident melange of what's best in Mediterranean and Scandinavian cuisines. As the name would suggest, they also have made the most of the lesser used (and cheaper!) cuts of meat, something I, too try to encourage readers to do. Leave those filet mignons in the store and instead give them a go - you're in for mouth-wateringly succulent feasts!

Apart from organic options all the wines come from Italy. The wine list is thought through and continues to evolve, I hear. Some of the wines you can't get anywhere else - such their own wines.

The beautiful glasses are sourced from Italy, too.

Our culinary expedition was kicked off with Champagne (how else...?). Jacquesson Cuvée no 736 was dry with lovely acidity, but courtesy of its rather a high Chardonnay percentage (53) it was charmingly light, too. All the recent Champagne tastings are clearly starting to pay off: I noticed the "delightfully small bubbles" (!) and "brioche-like toastiness" (!!)

The bread platter (foccaccia, muffins baked with olive oil, soft malt bread and some wonderfully thin fennel- flavoured crisp bread) was served with Jerusalem artichoke and goat cheese mousse, olive and tomato paste, browned butter (I bet you could hear my sigh as I typed in that one?) and rhubarb spread. Which was insanely good.

We gave the kitchen a free reign over our meal and so our evening started with this piece of art:  Amazingly juicy and sweet veal crudo with lemon mayo, roasted small onions, marinated cherries and jellied egg yolk. I mean, just look at it: is anything less than "breathtaking" even enough to describe that?

We were offered two different wines to go with this dish. Pinot Noir (swiftly becoming one of my favourite reds in its exciting versatility) complimented the cherries brilliantly and brought out the pepperiness in wood sorrel in a whole new way.

But the rosé (also Pinot Noir) was, if possible, even better match.  It had a very subtle acidity but enough body to sustain several of the master pieces we got to enjoy that night. For instance with the lemony mayonnaise it was a fantastic combination. 

Then we moved on to trout pastrami with roasted new potatos and avocado mousse. The trout (from Åland) was sublime in its subtlety and cooked to perfection. Why don't I eat fish more often? Why doesn't it taste (and look!) anything like this in my kitchen?

With the trout we were served their own Chardonnay. Which was ok. For a Chardonnay. I've just had such an overdose of the said grape that I doubt it's ever going to knock my socks off. The rosé worked well with this dis, too, lending it some new character. According to The Boy Next Door it had "brininess reminiscent of Baltic Sea". And sure enough: the bouquet really did have some sea in it!

Then it was onto the white fish. And man, what white fish it was. With it there was Hollandaise made with olive oil, wonderfully rich fregola with shrimp (move over risotto - there's a new sheriff in town!) and spring veg - so delicate yet so full of flavour. And that crumble on top? Olive liquorice, of course!

The recommended wine for white fish was a grape neither one of us had ever even herd before: one of the hundreds grapes native to Italy, Arneis. This rascal from Piemonte (that's the actual translation of the grape!) is considered difficult to grow, but the result is dry and full-bodied wine. Intresting, I say. Though something with a little bit more acidity and citrusy notes would have worked beautifully, too, providing the rich dish with some contrast.

And then this heroic bottle made its appearance. The spicy bouquet immediately got our attention and the aroma, oozing dark berries really set the expectations high for the main course...

... which is exactly where we found ourselves, too. High on cloud nine. We were served this jar, which, upon opening released a thick cloud of smoke in the air. Feast for all senses!

The smokey aroma immediately transported me back to my childhood and my grandparent's sauna by the river and the contents of the jar, lamb shoulder ragú, slow cooked over 18 hours, was very much in sync with the atmosphere - it was pure love. The red wine it was cooked in lent it some wonderfully deep berry notes that the wine so deliciously complimented. Along with the fig jelly it was served with. A wine match made in heaven if there ever was one. Ragù was served with asparagus risotto with boldly al dente asparagus. My absolute favourite for ragú is and will always be soft, moreish polenta though.

The dish made an equally potent impression on the date, too. "Is this the lamb of God", he asked. 

Already at this point there was no end to our raving as the we reviewed the evolution of the evening we'd just had. That lamb... nothing short of divine. But we weren't done, oh no. There was dessert! Chocolate ganache and orange served 4 ways. Crikey. Both looks and taste... incredible.

With it we got a glass of Moscato we'd never had before: Macula Dindarello. Fresh and fruity without being too sweet. Perfect for fruity, citrusy puddings with some acidic notes.

We finished the evening off with coffee and with it some Recioto della Valpolicella, Italian counterpart for port wine. The grapes (Corvina, Molinara and Rondinella) are hand-picked and dried for minimum 100 days, resulting in wine that is dark, sweet, full and rich to a point of jelly-like. No toastiness but neither is it overly sweet.

As you probably could tell too, we were well and truly looked after. Even the sneak previews I'd collected among my friends mentioned the excellence of service and we couldn't have agreed more. That is one of the things they really know how to do here. The staff, both i kitchen and in front of the house emit an air of rock-hard professionalism, ambition, pride of their knowhow and a true passion for their work. Ok, I'll admit: I actually hugged every single one of them - that's how happy they made me. I definitely recommend. Go. And PLEASE- do have the ragú!

*We were happy and well-fed guests of the restaurant*

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Lechon liempo - pork belly the Filippino style

With one recipe contest out of the way, it's time to start cracking with the next! Feeling pretty good too: pulled lamb sliders made it to the final and everything! But seeing how the star of the next recipe contest is pork (and organic at that!) how could I stay away? Especially as the judge in the contest is the chef of a Michelin-decorated restaurant...!

The contest was kicked off with BBQ treats for which we got an introduction at a lunch the said chef hosted a couple of weeks ago. Doing it right you see lends the meat both taste and texture. Inspiration for my entry comes from ever the seductive Far East and Filippino specialty lechon liempo. I haven't actually ever been to the country but if theirs is anything like this... Oh. My.

Traditionally this would be cooked over hot charcoal in rotisserie, but my BBQ isn't quite that fancy. In case you don't have one at all, you can do the whole hog in the oven too - in that case after the 2 hour cooking period at 175° crank the heat back up to 230° and continue roasting for another half an hour or so until a gloriously golden and divinely crispy crackling has formed. From South West Asia to English Sunday lunch... it's all about the cracking crackling (ooh, how I crack myself up)!

Serves 3-4

700 g boneless slab of (organic) pork belly

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp Chinese five spice (or a blend of ground ginger, anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon bark and pepper)
1 small chilli
2 garlic cloves

2 tsp salt

2 stems of lemon grass
the juice of 1 lime (and more to serve)

Using for instance the back of a knife rub one of the lemon grass stems, garlic cloves and chilli to a paste. Mix with vinegar and oil. Place the meat on a cutting board skin side down and score the meat to diamond shape pattern. Rub the marinade into the meat and season. Bash the other lemon grass with the back of the knife to release the flavours and place in the middle of the meat. Roll tightly into a joint and tie with butcher's twine, tying the knots about 1 cm apart. This, by the way, is strictly a four-hand-operation, so in case you aren't (by the Grace of God or a nuclear destruction-related genetic mutation) in the possession of all of them yourself, have someone lend you a hand. Cover and marinate in the fridge for a good couple of hours (or into the next day).

Take the meat out of the fridge at least an hour prior to cooking. Rub some oil and a couple of tsp of salt into the skin and place on a rack in a roasting tin. Pour a couple of tbsp of water into the tin so the juices dripping from the meat won't burn. Heat the oven to 230° and roast for half an hour or so until the skin starts crisping. Drizzle with lime juice, bring the heat down to 175° and continue roasting for 2 more hours. Finish off on the grill to get that crackling.

Let rest for 20 minutes, remove the twine and carve. Serve with Asian coleslaw and freshly squeezed lime juice.

And what do you know- we even have a wine pairing for this! We had stocked some Kung Fu Girl Riesling (a classic with Asian dishes if there ever was one) but then we stumbled upon something even better. A couple of days earlier I had received a selection  of Vintae wines to sample (nope, it doesn't suck to be me!) and La Garnacha Salvaje del Moncayo 2011, made with Garnache grapes (elsewhere in the world the same grape is known as Grenache) with its soft tannins, berry notes and jelliness worked like magic. I highly recommend it - works so well with BBQ!

*In cooperation with Kotitila.fi and Norex Spirits- the meat and wine were provided by the suppliers*

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Coleslaw with Asian twist

Thanks to the couple of sublimely sunny and summery days we've gotten to enjoy, we, too, got to kick off the BBQ season. What we kicked it off with? That you'll just have wo wait until the next post! Here's a teaser though.

As far as side dishes for grilled, well, anything, goes, one is head above the rest: coleslaw. But this time coleslaw, that American take on salad with its shredded cabbage and carrots drenched in mayonnaise, got an Asian twist. Instead of the usual mayonnaise dressing I made some of that mango, chilli and ginger dressing I devised for those duck confit burgers and later turned into that crayfish paste too. I'm warning you - I've fallen for this dressing so hard that by the end of the summer you too will have totally overdosed on it...!

You can replace half of the mayo with either Greek yogurt or low-fat crème fraîche for a lot lighter version of the original. In addition to crisp veggies, this version gets extra crunch from toasted cashews. The result is a wonderfully sunny, fruity salad that has just the right amount of spicy heat to it. Works wonders with pork, chicken, beef and hot dogs. Try it as a side dish, on sandwiches, in burgers, inside pita or as a filling in wraps.

Serves 4-6

about 800 g chunk of cabbage (about 750 g when shredded)

3 large carrots

1 bunch of spring onions

2 tsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp sugar

1,5 -2 dl mango, chilli and ginger mayonnaise - depending on how rich you like yours (recipe here!)

handful of toasted cashew nuts

bunch of coriander (what ever gets left from making the dressing)

Remove the hard core from the cabbage along with the leathery outer leaves and shred finely. Peel carrots and shred/ grate. Cut the spring onions to about 10 cm pieces and cut them lengthwise into strips. Combine vinegar and sugar and mix with the veg. Occasionally stirring, let them get ready while you prepare the dressing.

Fold the dressing into the salad, toss in rest of the coriander leaves and scatter the cashews (dry roasted on a hot pan and cooled) on top of the salad.

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