Ålandspannkaka - Aland pancake

Aland pancake gets its distinctive  flavour from cardamom and lemon zest and is the best pancake on land or sea. 

* * * 

When I was a kid I couldn't think of a better place than my Grandma's house. When there, I got to wear her pearls and play fancy lady. She would invariably nod off early, which meant getting to stay up late and watching all the things on TV my parents would have never allowed me to watch like Twilight Zone (and quite rightfully so: after one episode of Twilight Zone I was too terrified to sleep for a week). 

She would also always get me Kalle's Kaviar (a Swedish smörgåskaviar made of roe) at the shop and never say anything when I would wolf the entire tube down in one sitting. And to top it all off Grandma made the best pancake in the world for which she, in a manner that seemed so exotic to me, would use porridge.

At the time I had never even heard the name Aland pancake let alone of the island that gave it its name (I grew up North. We didn't know much...)

You can make the pancake using either semolina porridge or rice pudding, in which case it's also gluten free, seeing how my recipe uses no flour at all. There are also different takes on the ideal thickness, but obviously mine, the "less is never more", is the only right one. So, pie dishes or lasagne dishes reign supreme over sheet pans. 

The recipe below is enough for a 20 cm diameter dish. 

Serves 4-6

Ålands pannkaka - Aland pancake:

5 dl full fat milk (yes, really. Step away from that fat-free variety and place your hands where I can see them...)
0,75 dl finely ground semolina 

2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)
4 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tl suolaa
1,5 tsp cardamom
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest 

Start by making the semolina porridge. Bring milk to boil in a heavy-bottomed pan, whisk in the semolina and, over low heat, stirring every now and then, cook for 5 minuts until done. Leave to cool. 

Beat eggs with rest of the ingredients. Then whisk in the cooled porridge until smooth. 

Pour into a pie dish lined with baking parchment (or use the Scandinavian strick of smearig a coating of butter on the bottom and the sides and then sprinkling the dish with layer of bread crumbs). Bake in the lower part of the oven at 175 for 45 minutes until the pancake has set andis gloriously golden. 

Serve with jam and whipped cream.

Traditionally Aland pancake is served with loosely whipped cream and plum jam. My Grandma served hers with strawberry jam she made herself and even the memory of its sugary sweetness still makes my teeth cry.

So, try this rhubarb and orange compote or this heavenly toffee-like oven roasted apple jam. 

If baked in a square tin, you could cut them into bite size squares for a party treat.

I bet after this recipe you will never guess where our journey continued from Turku? And which destination I'll be intriducing you on the blog next...?

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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?

      

SHARING IS CARING!

Rhubarb crumble

Oh, the ambitious plans I had for making the most of the rhubarb season! I had plans for rhubarb ketchup (don't ask), rhubarb curd and jams galore. And what happened? Not much. I managed to dish out pork chops with rhubarb that tasted like vomit.Oh, and a rhubarb tart with goat cheese, white chocolate and rosemary. Which, luckily was a massive hit. Give it a try and try not to love it!

We finished the culinary extravaganza that was this year's Midsummer with this plain and boring timeless classic rhubarb crumble. Classic with some tweaks though: The crumble was cooked with vanilla and ginger and the crumble got some extra oomph from toasted coconut flakes. I'm so loving them right now - they give such a nice texture to savoury dishes too. Sprinkle them on salads or on top of some Asian style caramelized pork!

Oh and while on rhubarb... surely I can't be the only one out there that thinks there's something dubiously cannabis-like in its smell? Surely...?

Serves 6

Rhubarb filling:

750 g rhubarb

a couple of cm piece of ginger, cut in slices

1 vanilla pod

1,5 dl sugar

Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds out. Trim the rhubarbs and (if they're thick) peel if needed. Cut into a couple of cm chinks and put in the pan with rest of the ingredients (including the vanilla pod) and bring to boil. Lower the temperature and let simmer until rhubarb is done to your liking (7-10 minutes should do it). Remove the vanilla pod and fish out the ginger too. Check taste and (if needed, add more sugar).

Crumble:

75 g butter

1,5 dl flour

pinch of salt

1 dl toasted coconut flakes

1 dl sugar

1 dl toasted and roughly chopped nuts (macadamia, hazelnut, Brazil, cashews or pecans)

2 generous tsp cardamom

Toast coconut flakes on pan over medium heat (no oil) until they turn golden. Remove from the pan and repeat with nuts. Let the nuts cool a bit and chop. Finely chop/grate the butter into a bowl and rub together with flour and salt. Then add rest of the ingredients. Spoon rhubarb filling into an oven-proof dish and spread crumble mixture on top of it. Grate a couple of shavings of butter on top of the crumble and bake at 175° until the crumble is crisp and golden: about 30-40 minutes. 

Let cool just a little and serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.

_____________________

ANYONE FOR SECONDS?

      

Duck a l'orange

My career in domestic goddessing has not been without its glitches. Once I set The Gentleman's oven on fire. Another time I burnt one of his beloved Le Creuset pots as I was caramelizing carrots (?) for sushi (?!). Bent knives remind of my "we don't need any of those Japanese miracle knives they sell on QVC that cut through soda cans and soles of shoes"- attempts to saw cubes of frozen seafood. The all time low would still probably have to be the time I gave him a food poisoning.

At one point some years ago there was a legendary recipe circulating in American glossies called "The Engagement Chicken". It was named that because it was so good and comforting in a way only a  home-cooked meal is that several women who cooked it for their significant others were proposed to as the men realized this was exactly the kind of woman they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with.

I approaches this challenge with carelessness and always-as-elegant "how hard can that be"- attitude. Well, featuring an entire bird, very. I went on waiting for that proposal for another four years - that night we were both far too busy running to the loo...

Since then The Gentleman has been in charge of cooking endeavours of that scale. I have strived to keep mine smaller (both in scale and in ambition...)

Duck is my favourite dead animal and one we eat quite often - it, too, being so cheap in Spain. Around Christmastime shops sell whole ones and even those sell for €10.

Duck in orange sauce is so retro it just might be downright tragic. Though mine is´n't very sweet but in it's spiciness rather Christmasy. Perhaps this marks its comeback...?

For 2

2 duck breasts (appr. à 350 g)

salt, pepper

Orange Sauce

4 dl chicken stock
2 dl freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tsp orange marmalade (not sweet)
2 tsp grated orange zest
1 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
1/2 tsp cardamom
2 cloves
1/4 tsp ginger (dried is fine)
1 tbsp sugar
knob of butter
salt, pepper

Take the duck ito room temperature at least an hour in advance. Heat the oven 200°.

Pat the ducks dry, score the fat side with a sharp knife almost all the way through to the meat. Season. Put the duck in a cold pan, fat side down and then start bringing the heat up.This way the fat melts, keeping the duck moist but without burning. Once the fat side has a good, brown colour, turn around and cook the other side until beautifully browned. Move the duck in the oven and continue cooking for 4-8 minutes, depending on the desired doneness. I like mine very rosé, so I'm a 4-minute-girl.  Wrap the duck in foil and let rest for 10 minutes. This gives the meat and the juices the chance to recollect their composure (a.k.a. redistribute the juices evenly)  and stay moist.

In the meanwhile make the sauce. Pour the stock and the juice into a pan with the spices and cook over fairly high heat until it starts reducing. Add marmalade (mine was tangy kind, but if you must use the sweet one, you might want to tone it down with a little dash of soy sauce) and sugar. Whisk until smooth and run through a sieve. Add orange zest, check taste, season as/ if needed and add a know of butter to round up the flavours and to add a nice sheen to it.

Serve the duck with sauce and roasties (that duck fat rocks when frying potatos!) or grilled veg. Such as asparagus.

Soup Sunday: Indian style sweet potato

This week even Soup Sunday is going all vegan and kosher.

Spring in Finland this year has been very fickle and on a couple of occasions I did seriously wonder if it had been cancelled altogether this year (you know, austerity...) So my psyche and vocal chords, tormented by the rain, sleet and gale force winds has been medicated with this gently spicy sweet potato soup.

The soup was inspired by an evening with vegetarian friends. You see, a food blogger is always a welcome guest - she's actually happy to do all the cooking! That night the menu consisted, among other things, of oven roasted sweet potato spiced with the treasures unearthed from the Tunisian host's kitchen. I doubt I'll ever know exactly what went into them, but I know chilli, coriander seeds, cumin and cardamom did. Or so I think anyway.

Today those same building blocks came together and made a soup! You could of course chop the sweet potato and cook it in vegetable stock but roasting it just makes it even more yummy.

For 2

1 large sweet potato 
(mine was 570 g)
1 chilli (adjust based on the fieriness - mine was HOT)
3 large garlic cloves
1/ tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp ground corianderseeds
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
3/4 tbsp cardamom
1/2 l vegetable stock
salt, pepper

Heat appr. 1/2 dl oil in a pan and toast the spices to release the aromas. Cut the sweet potato lengthways into 4 and then each segment into slices of about 1 cm thick. 

Place in an oven-proof dish and pour the spice oil on top. Toss the sweet potato slices so they're covered with oil. 

Roast at 200 for 45 min- 1 h until they're done. Blizz in a blender with vegetable stock until velvety smooth and season. Serve with some coriander leaves.

Breakfast in bed

Sunday mornings are for lazying around and for delicious breakfasts, of course. And on Sundays The Gentleman gets his served in bed.

One thing where the French really are on to something is their delectable contribution to the world of breakfast dishes: French toast. Egg-soaked bread fried in butter, served with berries and a dusting of icing sugar. That is also my niece's and nephew's favourite way to start the day.

If there's one thing these 6- and 9-year-olds have learnt it is this: proper French toast is definitely not cooked in a whiff of health-conscious low-fat cooking spray substitute. Answer to "what do we need now?" comes from these chef apprentices immediately: BUTTER!

This is a delicious way to recycle stale bread otherwise going to waste (I suppose that's how the treat got its original name pain perdu, wasted bread from?) so we often use regular toast for this.

Today's coconutty version was served with blueberries. And it was yummy. I think I'll declare tomorrow Sunday as well...

Serves 4 

4 slices of toast

2 eggs

appr.4 dl milk

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tsp cardamom (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon)

1 heaped tbsp coconut flakes or ground coconut

1 tbsp sugar

butter for frying

Whisk the eggs and mix with milk. Add the coconut flakes or coconut meal along with sugar, vanilla sugar and cardamom (in case you're using coconut meal, you might want to add a bit more sugar).

Slice the toasts diagonally and let them soak thoroughly in the egg-mixture.

Heat the butter in a pan and fry on both sides until crisp and golden brown on the outside.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with berries.

Way to a man's heart

Needless to say - when he finally did get home from his epic trip to England, the Gentleman wasn't a happy man. Noooo. And since the way to an angry man's heart ,too, goes through his stomach, I whipped up a batch of orangey cardamom and oat cookies, his favourites. 

(Sure he says he's not into sweet stuff, but these I always have to make a double dose...)

(appr.20 cookies)

75 g butter or margarine
2 dl oats
1,5 dl sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon coarsely ground cardamom
grated zest of 1 orange

Melt the butter and add the oats. Stir in sugar, vanilla sugar and the egg. Mix flour, baking powder and cardamom and add into the mixture. Let it rest in the fridge until oven is hot enough (180°).

Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet, 1 heaped teaspoon per cookie. The mixture will spread in the oven, so leave plenty of room between each dollop. Approximately 9 per baking tray is ideal.

Keep the mixture in the fridge while each batch is baking.

Bake for approximately 8 minuted, until the edges are golden brown. The cookies burn quickly, so keep an eye on them.

Once ready, remove the tray from the oven and lift the sheet from the tray to cool and crisp. Enjoy!