Lighter take on Waldorf salad - salad with celery, fennel, apple and grapes (vegan and gluten-free)

One of the most sumptious hotels of my travel history is, without a doubt, Waldorf Astoria. Even the name echoes Old World glamuor, top hat-wearing doormen, atmosphere that just oozes elegance and clientele consisting of heiresses dripping with diamonds (ok, I might have been overdoing Hercule Poirot recently...)

And sure enough it is favoured by those of the upper echelons of the society: as I entered the hotel after a hard day of shopping I didn't understand the crowds gathered at the driveway, screaming and taking photos. I mean, I had left all my diamonds at the hotel safe, so there was no way they had me down as one of the heiresses. The reason turned out to be bunch of (admittedly handsomely built) young men that walked into the lift with me. A.k.a AC Juventus... (!!!)

In my dreamsthere is, however, only One Real Waldorf Astoria and that, along with so many other things I dream about (delis of Lower East Side, Barney's, the legendary Sunday Brunch at Waldorf Astoria, scenes of Breakfast at Tiffany's, my future husband...) is located in New York. 

That's also where this salad was born. I ended making it as I had to think of some use for the celerys left over from this soy bolognese (waste not, want not...). While I've never been a big fan of celery (when it's not swimming in a pool of vodka and tomato juice, anyway...),thinly sliced with the rest of the ingredients I really, really loved it. Fresh, quick, easy... and delicious!

The original salad bathes in a heavy dose of mayonnaise, so this is a lighter and fresher version. Should you want a more robust texture, roughly chop the ingredients into cubes. If the idea of salad with no meat in it scares you, this is delicious with some grilled chicken. 

Serves 2-3, as a side dish (try with chicken or fish!) 4-6

Lighter Waldorf salad:

3 celery stalks, thinly diagonally sliced (use the leaves, too!)
2 large fennels, thinly sliced
1 large green apple, thinly sliced
200 g green grapes, cut in half
1 large bunch of parsley
130 g walnuts

Dressing:

1/3 dl oil
1,5 tst mustard
the juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp honey
salt white pepper

Cut the fennels in half, remove the core and outer, leathery skin. Slice thinly and combine with rest of the ingredients. 

Mix the dressing and toss into the salad. Serve.

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Warm kale salad with roasted sweet potato, red onion and pomegranate seeds - autumn colours on a plate

This meat-free October has somewhat inevitably broadened my horizons and started to change my approach to veggies. And salads. I'm slowly starting to realize that they. Can. Actually. Taste.Good (yes, I just wrote that.) As long as you steer clear of the cucumber, tomato and sad, soggy salad leaves.

Now that the autumn is in full force, salads can be warm, too, like this recent discovery. It gets its body from roasted veggies, warmth from the spices and lovely texture from pomegranate seeds. I mean - just look at those colours! You only need about handful of ingredients, but once you put them together... good. So god, you too might find yourself whipping up another batch right after finishing the first one. 

You can serve it warm or at room temperature. Another thing that makes this a great addition to buffets is the fact this is suitable for all possible dietary restrictions. 

Instead of sweet potato you could also use pumpkin or carrots (in which case be prepared for a longer roasting time)

Serves four

Warm kale salad with roasted sweet potato, red onion and pomegranate seeds

2 largeish sweet potatos (total weight about 1 kg)

4 red onions

0.5 dl oil

3/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp allspice

1,5 tsp ground coriander seeds

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt, black pepper

125 g bag of kale, core removed and leaves shredded

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

oil for frying

to serve:

the seeds of a pomegranate

bunch of coriander

The dressing:

4 tbsp oil

1,5 tbsp pomegranate molasses (can be substituted with Balsamico syrup)
1 tbsp honey
the juice of a lime

Peel and chop the sweet potatos into a 2 cm chnks. Cut the onions in 8 segments. Heat the oil in a pan and then add to spices. Pour the oil over the veggies, toss to make sure they're all covered and roast at 200 for 15-20 minutes until done.

Heat a couple of tbsp oil in a pan, add garlic and a little while later kale. Cook, covered, for about 5 minutes until done to your liking.

Place the kale on serving plate, top with roasted veggies and sprinkle with coriander leaves and pomegranate seeds. Combine the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the salad. 

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Asian stir-fried asparagus and Wolfberger Riesling

Round about right now there are two types pf people I do not understand (well, in addition to my usual dislikes such as Neo Nazis and people with bad BO, anyway). People who've had enough of asparagus for one year and those, who refuse to touch it in the first place.

I don't know how fond of asparagus Asian people are, but the continent has served me inspiration before: just try this asparagus tempura! The inspiration for this came from a recent lunch I had in Stockholm and my. My, my. This just might be my favourite so far. 

It took me 3 days to drag myself out of the bed and into the kitchen to whip up a batch, but in case you are not hovering between life and death (and the latest season of Orange If The New Black), this dish comes together in mere 5 minutes.

Serve as a starter as it is or as a side dish ("grilled pork!" The Boy Next Door wailed. "I want some grilled pork to go with this!")

Serves 3

Asian stir-fried asparagus with chilli and garlic: 

bunch of asparagus

1 large clove of garlic (or 2 small ones), finely chopped

1 large red chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

a couple of tbsp oil for frying

To serve: bunch of coriander, chopped

Rice wine vinaigrette:

1/4 dl rice wine vinegar

the juice of 1/2 lime 

1,5 rkl canola or rape seed oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp honey

1 tsp mirin (this can be substituted by doubling the amount of honey)

Start by making the vinaigrette. Whisk together the ingredients and check for taste. In case you prefer it sweeter, add honey and/or mirin. In case you want a thicker and milder flavour, add more oil. 

Trim the asparagus (that is, chop off the dry ends) and cut diagonally into 5 cm pieces. In case the asparagus you're using is thick, cut them in half.

Heat some oil in a wok (or a frying pan). Add into the pan garlic, chilli and ginger and then asparagus. Cook until done (with still a bit bite to them) - about 5 minutes.

Pour vinaigrette over the asparagus, top with coriander and serve.

Asparagus and Asian food have (in addition to my greedy stomach!) another common denominator, too: Riesling. Since they are both so keen on Riesling and we are both so keen on Riesling, that's the wine we went for. And weren't wrong!

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Spicy chickpea salad from Yotam Ottolenghi

Oh yeah, more salads (my God, you should see how well I've actually been eating lately... no, wait - you will see! That's the whole point of this blog of mine!)

Just like shirazi, this is from a vegetarian cook book that just came out in Finland, though into that book the recipe found its way from another cook book altogether: Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi, champion of all food Israeli (what did the world do before him?)

The salad itself is a wonderful combination of fresh herbs and crunchy veggies but the thing here, habibi, is the dressing. Its warm spiciness wakes the senses and curiosity, making everyone go "ooh" followed by "hmm... what is in this?"

"Tastes very authentic", was The Vegetarian's verdict who turned up for lunch. "I'll have some more".

Spicy chickpea salad:

1 (400 g) tin of chick peas, drained and rinsed (and picked)

1 large cucumber, diced

2 large tomatos, diced

150 g radishes, thinly sliced

1 red pepper, diced (and de-seeded and white parts removed)

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 bunch coriander, chopped

1 small bunch parsley, chopped

1 small bunch dill, chopped

Dressing:

1 dl olive oil

the juice and finely grated zest of  1 lemon

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cumin

salt, pepper (to taste)

Place chickpeas into a bowl together with chopped veggies and herbs. Combine the ingredients for the dressing (apart from salt and pepper) and pour into the salad. Season.

Serve chilled. If you want, you can dd dried up pitta bread into the mix or any other stale white bread (crusts removed).

Note: You can also toast the pitta bread and break into pieces or deep-fry pieces of stale pitta bread and sprinkle with sumac. The result: Palestinian salad called fattoush.

Do yourself a favour and save this recipe for summer picnics. I'm telling you, you really should. This is perfect for gluten-free, vegan, kosher, dairy-free diet... well, let's face it, for everyone!

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Iranian Shirazi salad

All systems have been go of late and more than often this spring and everything it's had in store has left me totally exhausted. 

One morning I woke up to a loud, banging noise and my immediate reaction was that this is it: Putin has invaded Finland and we're at war (ah, the joys of having the longest land border with the most unpredictable country in the world...). Still half asleep I was trying to reason what would be the best thing to do in such an occasion. In the end I decided to do nothing: just stay in bed and die there - seeing how I didn't have the energy to eve get up and shave my legs (yes, the first stop during times of crisis...). Which is just as well - the noise turned out to be the sound of my neighbour's very vigorous carpet-cleaning operation.

So, even I can't always be at my most creative in the kitchen. Which has given me reason to finally go through some of this spring's new cook books. This salad called Shirazi, is from one of them. Though from Iran, initially.

Shirazi salad:

1 large cucumber, in cubes

6 ripe tomatos, in similar size cubes

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

1 tsp dried mint

salt, pepper

the juice of 1 lime

1/2 dl olive oil

the seeds from 1 medium pomegranate

2 tsp sumac

Cut the cucumber into 1,5 cm cubes. De-seed the tomatos and cut into similar size cubes. Add onion, mint and season to taste. Combine lime juice and oil and pour into the salad. Finally sprinkle pomegranate seeds and sumac on top.

The salad is best served chilled, so chill it in the fridge for at least half an hour before serving.

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Thai steak salad

Finland celebrated her Independence Day last weekend. And we celebrated the 97-year-old lady with some fine Finnish organic meat. Don't get too carried away with patriotism though: our petit tender, a tenderloin-like cut of the chuck, was joyously bathed in Thai marinade after which it hit the pan for a couple of minutes for a beautifully browned colour and got served on a bed of crisp salad. See, our Finland is an international one!

And man, it was good. As in, really, really good. Multiculturality in a form even Nigel Farage would have appreciated it. The Boy Next Door claimed it was better than the wagyu we had at a top restaurant just a couple of days before that. Ahh. Love and extreme hunger - both wonderful things that so beautifully cloud one's judgement.

Our salad got a nice crunch from crisp, deep-fried mung bean vermicelli, but you could just as well use dry roasted (salted) peanuts or toasted coconut flakes. 

And hey - you could also make this using leftover roast. Just slice the meat finely, marinate for a couple of hours and hey presto!

Serves 2-3

500 gr petit tender/ beef tenderloin/ beef sirloin/ flank steak

Marinade:

1,5 dl soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
0,75 dl honey (or brown sugar)
4 cm piece of fresh ginger, finely sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 - 1 red chilli, finely chopped
the zest and juice of 2 limes

Pat the beef dry. Combine the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the meat. Let marinate, covered, for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight. Take into room temperature a good couple of hours before grilling. Drain the marinade and turn into a glaze for serving if you want.

Pour the marinade into a pot, bring to boil and then simmer until it's reduced (depending on the pot and so many other things 15-20 minutes) to a thickened sauce. Be careful with the temperature as you don't want the sugar to burn. Keep an eye on it to stop it form boiling over. Check the taste, add more sugar as needed (the marinade itself is salty and sour) and serve.

Wipe off the excess marinade (to stop it from burning). Grill the meat on a hot BBQ or a good (griddle)pan - 4 minutes/ side. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. 

Salad:

1 Bok Choy

100 g bean sprouts

1/4 cucumber

2 carrots

1 small (red) pepper

5 radishes

1/2 red onion

bunch of coriander

to serve: 1 spring onion (chopped), red chilli (chopped) a handful (when uncooked) of mung bean vermicelli or peanuts

Remove the bok choy leaves and trim the white, hard bits. Place on the serving dish. Finely slice the veggies and spread over the bok choy leaves. Finely slice the meat and rest on the salad.

If using the vermicelli, cut them into 5-cm pieces. Heat oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the vermicelli in batches. Dump each batch into the pan and it puffs up immediately. Lift out of the oil (these only take a second or two) and serve.

These also make a nice (and hey, gluten-free!) snack on their own too - try sprinkled with some nori salt!

PS. Coconut mayo would work with the salad too...!

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Greetings from the bazaar: Bokharat

The souqs of Middle East North Africa are full of spice blends out of which ras el hanout has already made an appearance here on the blog. One of my favourites is blend that goes by the name of bokharat, or 7 spices (a.k.a. 7 epicés as its' known in the French-speaking parts of the world) . Though as you might have already noticed, it's actually a mix of 8 spices. If even basic mathematics are too much for them it's hardly wonder the concept of peace is so difficult...

The make-up differs from one country to another. When living in Tunisia, I became a fan of their version which is redder in colour and beautifully fragrant, courtesy of ground rose petals they use. Definitely worth a try, too!

There are two ways of making your own. You can get a package holiday to, say, Egypt, fall in love with a scuba instructor, learn Arabic, move to the countryside to his family's smallhold, grown your own spices, roast them over open flame, then grind them using your heirloom pestle and mortar and then sell your blend in the local bazaar.

Or you can grab the needed spices at your local supermarket and put together your own mix. Entirely up to you!

Oui, oui - I can do languages, me!

Bokharat spice blend:

2 tbsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground nutmeg (or allspice)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom

Combine the ingredients and store in an air-tight jar. Makes for a great foodie gift too, now that the festive season is upon us...

This versatile blend can be used for Moroccan köftes, cabbage rolls with a Middle Eastern twist... or in sambousek - another Middle Eastern treat you're in for next!

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Lamb chops with persillade crust

One's relationship with one's butcher is a lot like one's relationship with one's hairdresser. It's based on admiration and appreciation for his/her talent, but also a little bit on fear.

You can't really go anywhere else because that iron-clad trained eye immediately notices it. "What's been going on over here? Who's in charge of these highlights?"

We have two vendors at Hakaniemi market hall that we rely on for our meat. And the other one sure isn't shy about reminding us we've not been seen for a while. So, sure we'd do our bit in spreading the gospel of vegetarianism... but the butcher.

A little while back we picked up some lamb to be the star of our very British Sunday lunch. Though in a very un-British way we left the very rosé. In case that looks just a little too pink for you, cook them in the oven for 20-25 minutes instead depending on the desired doneness. Do allow them to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into chops though!

Our rack of lamb got a lovely herby crust from persillade left over from the summery salad with marinated octopus. For the recipe please see here.

Serves four (at least)

2 racks of lamb (total weight 1 kg)

salt, pepper

persillade sauce
butter and oil for frying

Take meat into room temperature well in advance. Season it and fry in a mixture of oil and butter until it's got a lovely brown crust. Transfer into an oven-proof dish, spread persillade on top of it and bake at 160º for 15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes and cut into chops.

Serve with salt & vinegar potatos and garlicky cashew sauce.

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Porchetta! Prego!

Midsummer celebrations are out of the way for another year. And my, how we stuck to the Finnish traditions: wellies, jumpers and woolly scarves galore... We had fun though. We didn't drown, break up, cheat, fight or even land in jail. Even our wine consumption bordered on moderate. Crikey - is this what it feels like to be a grown up? But before we dive into the culinary extravaganza that was our Midsummer, let's get cracking with the ones in the queue first. And first up is this treat from our recent leisurely Sunday lunch. For the teasers as to what's coming up, don't forget the blog's Facebook-page!

Erm... you know how a little while back I was all giddy with spring and summer and all the fresh produce and how it was time for "rich, meaty dishes to take back seat for a while"? Right on. Seems to fall into the same category as meeting a friend for a drink. It just never pans out that way.

Pork - I just can't get enough of it. And once we're through with +3°c weather (yes, for real) and get to kick off BBQ-season... what's there not to like! Especially pork belly has become a firm favourite of mine. After Filippino-style lechon liempo and Andalusian chicharrones it's time to pay homage to Italian traditions: porchetta, per favore!

Porchetta is a delicacy of Central Italy and Rome in particular and that's where I, too, discovered it. It's good both warm and cold (try in on a slice of ciabatta!) so get a piece as big as you can possibly carry home - you'll keep on wanting more. Lemon zest can be substituted with orange zest too. And with herbs you can't be too generous!

Serves 4-6

2 kg (organic) pork belly, boneless

6 cloves of garlic

2 tsp salt

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp fennel seeds

8 sprigs of rosemary (about 2 tbsp when chopped)

1/2 bunch of thyme, leaves chopped (about 2 tbsp)

handful of sage leaves (about 2 tbsp when chopped)

the zest of 1/ 2 lemon

2 tsp dried chilli flakes
black pepper

Using a pestle and mortar crush the garlic with oil and salt to a paste. Toast fennel seeds on a hot, dry pan (careful they don't burn), crush and add into the garlic paste with finely grated lemon zest. Chop the herbs. Rub the garlic paste on the pork flesh and spread the herbs on top of that. Roll tightly and secure with butcher's twine.

Let season in the fridge (uncovered) for at least a good couple of hours or overnight. Take into room temperature a couple of hours before roasting it. Dry the skin and rub some salt on that side too. Drizzle a little of olive oil on top of the roll and place into a roasting tin. Roast at 180° for half an hour, turning halfway through. Then lower the temperature to 160, cover the roll with foil and continue cooking for another 2-3 hours until the temperature is 75-78°c. 

(Foil prevents the crackling from forming which makes this easier to cut into thin slices).

Let cool and cut into slices.

PS. Oh, remember how I was told I and my Italian-inspired menu had put a curse on the England- Italy game? Well, we'll just have to see what happens next: over the weekend I made GERMAN potato salad...!

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Chicharrones

After all the eating out and posing at cocktail parties and longing for Asia it's time to return to the blog's roots and love of all things Andalusian! Vamos!

Chicharrones are a porky treat that have already before been featured on the blog once. In Spain it's typical to Andalusia, but it is also popular in South America. In South America the typical way of preparing this snack is by rubbing bicarb on the skin, leaving it in the fridge (until the next day if needed), cutting it into chunks, dumping them into a wok and pouring in enough water to barely cover the meat. Then the meat is simmered away over low heat, turning the meat every now and then. By the time water has evaporated (a 3-4-hour process) and only rendered pork fat remains the heat is turned up and the bits get fried in their own fat (genius, huh?). 

This is a recipe from Cadíz restaurant Moro.

As tapas this serves 4-6

1 kg boneless (organic)pork belly, skin scored

2 cloves of garlic

3 tsp salt

1 tbsp fennel seeds, ground

1/2 onion

to serve: 3 tbsp cumin, lightly toasted and roughly ground, lemon wedges

Rub fennel seeds, garlic and 1 tsp salt into a paste and rub it all over the flesh, Then  flip it around so the skin side is facing up and dry the skin thoroughly. The restaurant itself actually recommends a hair dryer (!) for this. Sprinkle generously with salt and leave for 20 minutes. Dust off excess.

Place the onion half on the bottom of a roasting tin. The convex shape apparently helps the crackling to form. Roast at 230° on the top shelf of the oven for 20-30 until crackling has started to form. Bring the temperature down to 190 and continue cooking until the meat is soft and succulent. Cook completely.

Cut into bite-size chunks and fry on a hot pan (no added oil) until they're crisp. Serve with a sprinkling of cumin and squeeze some lemon juice on top. Oh, and a bottle of chilled San Miguel only makes this better...!

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Pike, crayfish and asparagus terrine

Pernod Ricard invited bloggers to take part in a OivaPari-recipe contest, where the participating wines are paired with food suitable for the parties that spring and summer always bring with them. A celebrity chef will pick his favourites out of all the entries and then you get to vote for the winners!

The contest kicked off with a virtual wine tasting. The wines were delivered to my doorstep and then I sampled them in a tasting that was broadcast over the Internet while chatting with the fellow participants - all from the comfort of my own bed. So very convenient, so very convivial!

(Though you can imagine the Boy Next Door's reaction as he finally got home, knackered after another long day in the office. Me, on the bed, surrounded by bottles of wine and balancing the laptop on my knees. "So... how was your day, then? Try and explain then that "hey, I'm still working!")

The first up was Castillo de Molina. Their Reserva Pinot Noir 2011 was recently voted as the overall winner in the Wine of the Year 2014- competition in Finland and subsequently has sold out everywhere. And a fine wine it is too!

With a spring on our minds (and in our steps!) we went for Castillo de Molina Reserva Sauvignon Blanc, which also had been recognized in that same competition. The crisp wine immediately got us thinking of all the springtime treats such as fish, crayfish... and asparagus, of course! Oh, how I've been looking forward to the asparagus season! More recipes (loads of them!) for that coming up on the blog soon! Though I'm clearly not the only one - there are days when I've practically had to fight for the last bunches...

You can make the terrine already the day before. It also makes for a great party food in that it is suitable for those avoiding meat, gluten and carbs - these days so many of your guests are bound to fall into at least one of those categories...! 

10-12 portions

appr. 600 g pike or another white fish
150 g crayfish tails 
2 shallots (or 1 small onion)
2 eggs
2 dl cream
finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
generous handful of parsley leaves
handful of dill wisps
4-5 green asparagus (depending on the size)
1,5 tsp salt
1,5 tsp black pepper

Finely chop the herbs and onions. Sauté onions in butter or oil until soft. Trim the woody ends off the asparagus and steam or boil them for a couple of minutes. Then shock them by immersing them in ice water (this stops the cooking and helps them maintain their vibrant green colour). Grind the fish in a food processor (for stories on how not to do it please see here...), add eggs, keep pulsing and finally, with the motor running, cream. Fold in drained and roughly chopped crayfish tails, lemon zest and herbs. Season. But carefully. The healthcare professionals behind those recommendations on RDA on salt are probably seeing red already because of the salt content of brine that the crayfish came in...

Line a terrine mold/ loaf tin (mine measured 22 cm x 10 cm so the ) with foil so that there's enough of the foil hanging outside the tin. Pour in half of the mixture and smooth it. On top of that lay the asparagus, top with rest of the mixture and smooth the top. Fold in the foil on top of the terrine so it's covered, place the tin into a bigger oven dish or roasting tin and pour into that dish enough boiling water so it comes halfway up the loaf tin. Bake at 175° for an hour. Let cool and then set in the fridge . Using a sharp knife cut into slices and serve at room temperature. In a good company and with some chilled white wine!

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