Goat Cheese and Radish Sandwich with Dill Oil

Dill is an herb that I rarely encountered before moving to Finland.  Here, and across Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltics, dill is a go-to herb, popping up on servings of fish, garnishing freshly boiled new potatoes, or in a potato and egg salad, boiled in a pot along with crayfish (jokirapu), or picked fresh from the garden and tossed into a green salad, where its distinct flavor blends well with other fresh, green ingredients you can find.

Radishes straight from the garden.

Fresh Dill

On our rooftop in Ruoholahti in the Slow Food Helsinki garden, there is an abundance of dill.  It is growing so happily and vigorously that it is beginning to shade the lettuce, so it was time to give the dill a little haircut.  I cut myself a generous pile and then came home to do a search on the Internet for a dill recipe that didn’t involve fish or potatoes, because, while I love that combination, a large part of the joy in cooking for me comes from trying something new and creating a combination that I otherwise wouldn’t have considered and wouldn’t likely run into anywhere.

Also abundant in the garden: the radishes are so ripe and ready they are popping up out of the soil, so finding a use for them as well was a bonus.

My search brought me to Heidi Swanson’s blog 101 Cookbooks and her recipe for Leek Soup with Dill Oil.  Sounds delicious altogether, but it was the potential of the  Dill Oil all by itself that had me pulling out the immersion blender to create a mess in the kitchen.

Goat Cheese and Radish Sandwich with Dill Oil

Oh, the places this can go!  Dill oil brushed onto whole grain bread and topped with a slice of pepper turkey, edam cheese, and a thick leaf of ice lettuce.  Or – because Heidi mentioned Dill Oil with goat cheese on a cracker, and because I had some, I tried soft goat cheese spread roughly across Whole Grain Bread with seeds, topped with fresh radish slices and a generous drizzle of Dill Oil.

Try this.  And if you have some Dill Oil left over, you could even try it on fish.  Or potatoes.  You’ll be very happy.  Enjoy!

Goat Cheese & Radish Sandwiches with Dill Oil

This is good stuff right here.

For the Dill Oil from 101 Cookbooks:
2 dl / 1 cup fresh dill, rinsed, dried and chopped
9 RL / tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Combine the dill and the olive oil and process in a food processor or with an immersion blender until the mixture is bright green and well combined.  The dill will be chopped into very short bits.

To make the sandwich:

Firm, fresh bread of your choice, sliced into thin slices (Ciabatta, Pugliese, or a seedy, whole grain are all good)
150 g / 5 oz Chèvre or other soft, spreadable goat cheese
small bunch of fresh radishes, washed and sliced into thin rounds
Dill Oil

Spread a spoonful of goat cheese roughly across each slice of bread.  Drizzle with Dill Oil.  Top with radish slices and drizzle with more Dill Oil.  Serve.

Serves:  this one is so easy to make – put together as many as you want!  I ate three…

Edible flowers: golden marigold and purple pansies

Do you need a reason to eat cake?

Maybe you have a chocolate craving.  Could be that the rain spoiled your plans of biking around the city.  Could be that your husband has a sweet tooth at the moment and is digging through cupboards looking for something worthwhile to eat.

Dark Chocolate and Grapefruit Mint

Perhaps you have an abundance of mint in your garden.

There is something special happening on a rooftop in Helsinki:  high above the sea in Ruoholahti neighborhood, on the roof of the old cable factory, there is a rooftop garden.  From the rooftop, you can look out across the sea toward Lauttasaari, watch the sailboats and the big ships come and go, and escape just a little from the humdrum of the city from inside this “Secret Garden”. The conditions in this garden are much like those in the archipelago:  with high winds to dry out and stir the plant tops into a frenzy, colder than usual temperatures, and an isolated position.  Way up there, Slow Food Helsinki built a garden, where everything to allow plants to grow, from pallets to raised garden frames to growing bags to soil were all hauled up piece by piece to the roof.  Some things didn’t like their new home at all.  The basil died. The citrus grass wilted and faded quickly.  The pumpkins were put out too early and were not at all happy with the transition.

Happy Rainy Day. Or Happy Any Day.

But the potatoes are flourishing in their grow bags.  We have edible flowers on the roof:  golden mini marigold and bold purple pansies are just some of these.  The dill, chives, sage, thyme, rosemary and lavender are pushing up further and faster everyday as the weather warms.   And the mint?  Ah – the mint.  The mint, as with mint in every garden, is preparing itself to conquer the world.  As soon its roots were buried into the soil, the mint:  Moroccan Mint, Spearmint, Peppermint, Grapefruit Mint and Licorice Mint – started setting out feeder roots that are soon going to fill the bed into which they have been placed.

There are worse problems to have than an abundance of mint!  This cake is just the beginning of what you can do with it.

Today is Father’s Day in America.  Perhaps if my father were living and I were home, I could serve him this cake.  My niece just graduated from the University of Washington – home of the Huskies and purple and gold.  I could serve her this cake in celebration.  My husband and I are at home watching the   rain fall and the fog move across the pine and spruce outside our window, and we are eating this cake as we enjoy quality time together.

I don’t need any special reason to eat cake.  I decided long ago that one doesn’t need a special day or occasion to make something nice to enjoy.   Life, I say, is not good just because of a few, big great things.  Life is amazing because of all of the special little things we have to smile about.

And right now, I am smiling at this cake.

Fresh Mint and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cake

Preheat oven to 200° C / 400° F.  Grease two 8″ round cake pans with olive oil, and line each one with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit, or, alternatively, dust with flour to coat, tipping out any excess flour.

In a bowl combine with a fork:
3/4 cup / 1,5 dl almond flour
3/4 cup / 1,5 dl spelt flour
3/4 cup / 1,5 dl wheat flour
3/4 cup / 1,5 dl sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

In another small bowl combine:
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup / 2 dl whole milk
3/4 cup / 1,5 dl olive oil

Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and combine until just mixed.  Add:

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
100 g / 9 oz dark chocolate (60%), roughly chopped small chunks

Stir until chocolate and mint are incorporated into the batter.  Pour into prepared baking tins.  Bake for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown and a toothpick or knife inserted come out clean.

Cool at least 15 minutes before serving.  Makes two 8″ round cakes.

Note:  I used a mixture of four mints, but any mint will work well here.  For the strongest mint flavor, choose Peppermint or Moroccan Mint.

Everywhere I look outside right now, I see broad swathes of yellow among the bright green of spring.  There are flowers blooming everywhere, and those most visible are the ones that have pushed their golden faces up toward the sun and are waving softly in the wind – a sure sign that summer is not far away.

The most familiar of these, of course, is the dandelion.  A weed that many try to get rid of – hours of labor are spent every year attempting to eradicate their stubborn roots from the soil in our gardens and lawns.  Dandelion is used for it’s culinary attributes in many parts of the world.  I have munched on a few leaves here and there – though I’ve found it to be quite bitter.  Maybe another day.  Dandelions are not the subject of this post today.

It’s Yellow Rocket (Peltokanankaali), dandelion’s tall, graceful, yellow-headed neighbor and the sweet, tasty little violet  (Orvokki) that are on the menu for today.

First we need to start with the humble cucumber.  Many people I know grow cucumber in their gardens.  It tends to produce an abundance of fruit, though not quite in the sometimes overwhelming fashion as the zucchini does.  Nevertheless, come midsummer, you may find that your gardens are pumping out an impressive quantity of these little green gems.  Now you can pickle them – something I love to do.  You can slice them and dice them and chop them as an addition to salads and vegetable trays.  Or, you can do as I did and make them the base of a simple yet beautiful and delicious salad.  If you aren’t yet getting cucumbers fresh from the markets – in many parts of the world it’s too early for that, as it certainly is here in Finland, you can buy cucumbers from the store.  Both the long, thin, elegant English cucumber as well as their short chubby cucumber cousins work well here.

Cucumber alone is pleasant.  Combined with a few fresh wildflowers, its aesthetic appeal grows exponentially.  Drizzled with a light, spring vinaigrette, it makes your taste buds explode and your mouth curl up into a big grin.

You’ll find edible wild flowers everywhere.  If you are not sure about them, you can use the garden flowers pansy and nasturtium in this dish instead, to get a similarly sweet flowery and slightly peppery flavor, respectively.

I went for the wild flowers.  Yellow Rocket grows on the roadsides and fields all over the place, and if you look closely near the roots of the Yellow rocket or at the edge of the line, you are likely to spy the pretty blue, purple and white violets shining their bright faces up toward you.

For the Yellow Rocket, use the leaves and the flowers.  The flowers are actually best when they are slightly closed and resemble broccoli florets.  You can use them in the same way, then – steaming them briefly to remove any bitterness.  Once the flowers open and are bright yellow as mine were, you can clip the buds and use them  in salads where they add a slightly bitter and peppery flavor, similar to rocket.

For the violets, clip the whole stem, a quarter inch above the ground or so, an use the whole thing, stems, leaves and all.  To me, violet tastes a bit like spearmint mixed with rose petal.  I actually like using it to stuff the belly of a fish before putting it in the oven – an idea I got from Sami Tallberg’s book Villi Yrtit.  

This is a wonderful salad to start with, and looks charming on the dinner table.

Cucumber and Wild Flower Salad with Basil Vanilla Vinaigrette

2 English cucumbers ends trimmed and cut in half or 4 small cucumbers, ends trimmed
Yellow Rocket, about 1/2 cup of leaves and flowers
Violet, about 1/2 cup leaves, stems and flowers

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the cucumbers into long, thin slices and allow them to curl as you drop them onto the plate.  Divide the cucumbers evenly among four salad plates.  Sprinkle the Yellow Rocket flowers and leaves over the salad.  Repeat with the violets, arranging them decoratively for visual appeal.

Just before serving, drizzle with the vinaigrette, or serve the vinaigrette in a separate serving dish and let each person add their own to taste.  I found I wanted to add more dressing as I ate through the salad as the zingy dressing suited the other ingredients so well.

Basil Vanilla Vinaigrette

1/4 cup / 1/2 dl basil vinegar (or white wine vinegar with 6 chopped basil leaves)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 2 teaspoons regular sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon honey mustard
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup / 1 dl fruity extra virgin olive oil

Pour all ingredients except the olive oil into a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid.  Shake vigorously until all of the ingredients dissolve into the vinegar.  Add the olive oil and shake vigorously again to combine.  Serve immediately.

Salad serves 4.