We are going fishing today!

The weather is warm, the boat is waxed (not ours) for the start of the new season, and the early morning summer sun woke me up at 5:30 AM.  We are going fishing today, leaving from Lauttasaari and heading out into the sea.  The plan is to fish a while, grill up something out there, and enjoy good company, warm sunshine, and hopefully catch some fish to take home.

By now it won’t surprise you that whenever I plan for a trip to anywhere, one of my first questions is:  “What will we eat?”  If we are heading to a city, this isn’t a problem – we most likely follow our whims, stomachs, and noses to find places where we can enjoy good food.

When we are going somewhere where there is unlikely to be a chef readying a plate to order, then the fun begins, because I can be as creative as time, energy, and ingredients allow.  A day out on the boat has its unique challenges, particularly when the main goal is to fish.  I get grumpy when I’m hungry, but I don’t want packaged foods simply because they are convenient – unless I’ve packaged them myself at home and brought them with me.  Space on the boat is limited – particularly space to prep food.  And frankly, I don’t like preparing food on a boat:  the boat dips and sloshes – the carrot rolls off the table, the bowl filled with liquid tips precariously, ready to send its contents to the floor, and I typically forget some ingredient at home that I might have liked to have with me.  I’d rather prepare the food on dry land…or prepare it in advance so the mess stays home and the food is lunch time ready.  And I want something full of flavor – maybe a little zip and a little salt to tide me over through the day.

This Asian-inspired salad is perfect because everything is mixed up at home the morning of the trip (or the night before at the earliest), packaged into a plastic container or a ziplock bag, dropped into a cooler with an ice pack, and we are ready to go.

Got Zucchini?  This is a great salad to keep in mind as summer moves on and that zucchini (kesäkurpitsa) plant in your garden begins to produce more zucchini than you know what to do with – as they always do!  Green or yellow zucchini work equally well here.  You could use radish instead of the red pepper if your spring garden is producing that – it will give the salad extra zing.  Also try using spring onions to replace the yellow onion if you have some fresh ones (omit the chives then).  They would be beautiful and really tasty.

The prep time is brief (cook the millet while you prepare the rest of the salad) and the ingredients are all available from your local grocery store.

Make sure to toast the sesame seeds before dumping them in the salad – it makes all the difference in the world here.

Asian-inspired Toasted Sesame, Vegetable & Millet Salad w/ Cilantro & Lime

Place a small saucepan over high heat and add:
1 1/2 tablespoons / ruokalusikkaa sesame seeds

cover the saucepan with a lid and gently shake the pan.  You will hear the sesame seeds jumping and popping as they toast – this whole process will take no more than a minute, so check the seeds to see if they are a golden brown.  Remove the pot from the heat and immediately pour the toasted seeds into a separate bowl.  Set aside.

Rinse the pot with clean water.  Add
1/2 cup / 1 dl millet (hirsi)
1 1/2 cup / 3 dl water

Place over high heat; bring to a boil; reduce to low; cover pot with a tight-fitting lid and allow the millet to simmer for 25 minutes until the water is absorbed and the millet nice and fluffy.  Spread the millet on a large plate and allow to cool about 10 minutes before combining with the vegetables.

While the millet cooks, prep the vegetables.  In a large bowl combine:
2 medium sized carrots / porkkanaa, peeled and grated
1 medium zucchini/courgette/kesäkurpitsa, rinsed and diced
1 organic red pepper / luomu punainen paprika, diced
1/2 medium-sized onion / sipuli, diced small
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives / ruohosipulia

Prepare the dressing:
Juice of one organic lime
1 teaspoon organic lime zest
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon liquid honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped, fresh cilantro

To complete the salad, add the cooled, cooked millet to the bowl with the vegetables and mix to combine well.  Pour the salad dressing over the mixture and stir well to combine.  Add the sesame seeds, reserving 1/2 teaspoon for garnish.  Mix well.

Garnish the salad with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and a few fresh cilantro leaves.

Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side dish.

Do you know what these are?

Take a closer look:

Like me, you may have spent most of your life feeling a bit resentful towards these pesky plants – Stinging Nettles (Nokkonen in Finnish).  They are an obnoxious weed you can’t get rid of.  They are annoying and persistent and sting you when you get too close.  You’ll find them under raspberry bushes and in between blackberry thorns, and brushing up against your unsuspecting bare leg or arm as you walk through tall grass in the summer.

They are also one of the most nutritious wild plants out there, full of iron, calcium, Vitamins A, D and K as well as protein.  They are used as a diuretic and for joint pain.  They help cure hypertension.  They are good for your adrenal glands and kidneys, help your body relieve stress and can help to relieve all kinds of other aches and pains.  You do not need to order in Goji berries from China and pomegranates from other distant shores.  You don’t need to stock up on green powders at the health food stores to get your morning dose of good stuff.  This is one of the original super foods.

Annoying?  Absolutely.

But oh so delicious.

I discovered that you could eat nettles one year ago.  By that time, the nettles were beyond their prime and I was told I’d be better off waiting until Spring came again to pick my first crop.  Finns and other people around Europe are quite familiar with the virtues of nettles.  Foragers in the Northwest of the US, I have discovered, are also quite fond of these green plants with the stinging tongue – Fat of the Land covers a lot of nettle recipes in his blog, along with other wonderful Northwest delicacies – his website is definitely worth a look.

The first nettles of the season and the first I have ever consumed were picked out by the sea in Bortomsjö, near Raasepori in Southern Finland, their tips barely showing above the grass with a slight purple hue – we put on bright green gardening gloves and held tightly to the handles of our Fiskar scissors as we carefully snipped the tops for Lentil soup with nettles.  Once steamed, their earthy flavor and scent surprised me – reminiscent of the forest floor.

The Spring warmed up; the nettles grew.  Now they are the perfect picking height – about 10 cm and a bright green.  I picked three bags full, blanched, chopped and froze them.  The weekend came and we faced an empty fridge.  The only thing between us and an empty stomach was a rock-hard loaf of whole grain bread, a few eggs, a little milk, some cheese, a couple of onions, and half a fennel bulb.  I went out into the woods and picked a small bag of nettles to add some extra flavor and put together one of the most tasty savory bread puddings I have ever enjoyed.

Halfway through the season – now I have had stinging nettles in soup.  I have had them in pancakes.  I have used them instead of basil in my pesto.  I have had them steamed with pike that was pan fried fewer than two hours after it grabbed the hook tossed into the sea outside of Velkua.  I am dreaming of the day I will have them Italian style in the way my friends Paola and Giuseppe say they love them:  in Risotto.

But this day, it was Nettle Bread Pudding that put a smile on my face.

The taste of the nettles comes through strongly in this dish, balanced pleasantly by the fennel and shallot.  It’s a wonderful main course with a salad or served as a side dish with grilled chicken.   If your nettles are beyond their prime for this year, you can substitute spinach and bookmark the page for next year.

Before you get excited and rush out the door with your basket to go after that crop of stinging nettles in your back yard, slow down just a minute.  Put on a thick pair of jeans.  Add some sturdy shoes.  Grab your rubber kitchen gloves or a thick pair of work gloves.  Get a pair of sharp, long scissors and take them with you.  Stinging nettles are aptly named – they sting, and the stings leave little red bumps that itch like crazy.  I’ve found that if you rub a raspberry or salmonberry over the nettle bite, the sting & itch go away, but it’s enough to make you grumpy and best avoided since you can.  But go!  It’s great fun, Nettles have good flavor, and they are good for you.  And then you can get back in here and make this:

Stinging Nettle Savory Bread Pudding

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F

In a large bowl combine:
8 dl / 4 cups of whole wheat bread cubes (bread with seeds & nuts is really nice here)
1 dl / 1/2 cup grated Emmental cheese or other mild white cheese
1 dl / 1/2 cup grated Parmasan cheese – use the large hole on your box grater, not the small ones for this

In another bowl combine and then set aside:
3 eggs, beaten
3 dl / 1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons of chopped, fresh parsley

Heat a frying pan over medium heat.  Add:
1 T olive oil.  When hot, add:
2 shallots, halved and sliced
1/2 Fennel bulbed, chopped roughly

Cook until the shallots and Fennel are translucent and tender.  Add:
3 cups fresh nettles, rinsed and snipped into thumb-length pieces with scissors (I snip them as I add them to the frying pan – just wear your gloves ALWAYS when handling raw nettles or you’ll be very sad).

Stir the nettles into the shallot-fennel mixture and stir until bright green and wilted, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir the vegetable mixture into the bread mixture until well combined.  Pour the egg mixture over the bread-vegatable mixture until well combined.  Pour the mixture into an oven proof casserole dish (a 5 cup or 1.5 liter dish or larger).

Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and slightly crispy on the top.

Serves 4 as a main course and 8 as a side dish.

Oven Fresh Raspberry Buttermilk Scones

I learned to cook because of my Mother.

and Betty Crocker.

The first cookbook I remember using was the red, hardcover Betty Crocker cookbook that hung out on the shelf in our kitchen.  Betty Crocker was the staple cookbook in the homes of most of the people I knew growing up, and a frequent reference point for me.

When I was in fourth grade, my Mom was substitute teaching and working on her Master’s degree in Library Science.  I was beginning to experiment in the kitchen.  First, it was basic things like spaghetti – where boiling water for the noodles was simple, and where the basis of the sauce was a 3 or 5 pound roll of ground beef added to sautéed onions in a huge cast-iron frying pan.  Once the ground beef was nicely browned, a big can of tomato sauce and another big can of crushed tomatoes were poured over, followed by a bag or two of Lawry’s spaghetti sauce mix purchased at Top Foods.  When dinner was ready, the sauce was mixed the noodles in a huge pot and placed in the center of the table.  A tall green can of Kraft’s dried parmesan cheese was placed next to it, and a plate piled high with Melissa’s homemade bread.  The whole family gathered around and plates and pots were quickly emptied.

…After.

Before &

A family can’t live on spaghetti alone, and a pre-teen girl gets bored doing the same thing over and over, so the recipe experiments began.  “Check Betty Crocker and make a list of the ingredients you need,” my Mom would say.  So I would pore over the pages of Betty Crocker.  Roast beef with roasted potatoes.  Pork chops with mashed potatoes and Applesauce made in the fall by my Mom & sisters from the apples growing in our yard – canned and used all year. It was always applesauce with pork chops!  I still love that combination.  After my parent’s trip to Corpus Christi in Texas, my dad raved about the chili there, so I consulted Betty Crocker about how to make my own, made a list of ingredients, and Mom did the grocery shopping.  I am not sure it was anything like Texan chili, but we ate it down with Betty’s cornbread recipe and repeated the experiment many times thereafter.

When I wanted to make French Bread on my own, Betty Crocker couldn’t deliver, so Mom pulled an old Fleischmann’s yeast paperback cookbook out of the back of the cupboard and pointed me there.  Thus began my first bread-making experience, with tips from Mom on how to get the temperature right so the yeast would work properly and the bread would rise.

Pastry blender – a favorite tool

As I became more comfortable in the kitchen, I tried to fancy things up – a teenage whim to make dinner look like the pictures:  on request Mom picked up a couple of whole, fresh pineapples (a very cool thing in the late 1980’s) and I carved out the middle to make a bowl into which I piled the fruit salad.

My Mom cooked too, of course, and my favorite thing (still) that she produced were Barbecue Ribs.  I don’t know the process exactly – I’ll need to get that recipe to share with you here.  Somehow I seem to remember that the ribs were boiled before baking.  The sauce cooked up beforehand and included tomato sauce and ketchup and brown sugar and spices, and was then poured over the ribs which were cooked for hours to the point where the meat literally fell off the bone into the delectable sauce to be eagerly consumed by whomever was around the table.  They are still one of the things I look forward to most when I visit the US now.

Holidays were a cooking fest – and the recipes I use today are heavily influenced by our family potluck Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with cousins.  Mashed potatoes and corn along with roast turkey and stuffing were staples; baked sweet potatoes or yams and cranberry sauce were welcome side dishes, and every year, the jar of green olives stuffed with red pimento appeared on the table…I am still not sure who ever ate them, though my sister Julia tried one each year with a slight grimace until one year she discovered she actually did like the taste!

Easy clean up.

These days my Mom loves when we cook for her.  She fully enjoys our experimentations with the culinary arts, both complicated and simple, but one item which inevitably seems to make her smile is also one of the simplest.  My dear Mother loves scones.

When I was studying in England, my Mom, sister  and friend came to visit.  We rented a car and drove north and south, east and west.  One of my favorite stops (and theirs, I would guess!) was to Cornwall, and more specifically, St. Ives.  A small village that curls along the rocky cliffs leading down to the sea, St. Ives charmed us with its quaint houses, vibrant sunsets, pink wild flowers pushing earnestly up between the rocks, fresh Cornish pasties, and sweet little cafes tucked into the corners of the streets on every turn.  My mother’s face brightened when she saw the sign for saffron current rolls in one of the corner shop – she grew up in a little mining town in Northern Michigan, where Cornish and Finnish miners worked side-by-side in the Copper mines – and apparently these rolls were familiar, as were the Cornish pasties which made a common appearance on the dinner table when I was a kid.

But another English tradition really made her smile.  Afternoon Tea is a normal part of traditional English life.  Perhaps the English don’t adhere to this tradition so much anymore (can one of my English friends weigh in here?), but High Noon Tea is something every tourist to England should experience, with it’s formality, it’s tiered trays piled high with finger sandwiches as well as small sweet delicacies accompanied, of course, with a pot of tea.  You feel like you could be dining with the Queen.  In St. Ives, though, we kept things simple:  A pot of tea, fresh Cream Scones, strawberry jam, and a pot of clotted cream in a tiny cafe just big enough for us to fit and sunlight pouring in the windows.

Since then, we’ve made scones.  And I have a hard time remembering a Mother’s Day breakfast or brunch after that where scones of some iteration or the other haven’t made an appearance – Apricot White Chocolate Scones made by Colleen are a particular favorite.

If I were helping to prepare brunch for my Mother today, I would make her scones.  Since she and I are an ocean apart right now, I’ll share the scone recipe with you – for you and your Mothers to enjoy.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  With love.

To share.

Raspberry Lemon Scones

Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together:
2 1/2 cups or 360g flour
1/4 c or 60 g sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Add:
7 tablespoons or 200g cold butter, cut into pieces

Using a pastry blender or a fork, blend in until the mixture forms coarse crumbs:

In a small bowl combine:
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons or 90g buttermilk
1/4 cup lemon juice or 52 g
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Add:
1 cup or 2 dl frozen raspberries (fresh raspberries will smash and make a mess, so use frozen), 110g

Using your hands, divide the dough into two parts and knead each ball lightly so it come together and forms a ball.  Be careful not to over mix – the less you handle the dough, the better the texture of the scones.  Place each dough half onto the pan and flatten it into a disk about 1 inch/2.5 cm thick.  Cut each disk in half and then in half again to form four triangles.  Separate the scone triangles so they are not touching and they have space to grow in the oven.

Bake the scones for 15-17 minutes until the are golden brown and fragrant.  Serve with your choice of coffee or tea.

Makes 8 scones.