Culinary



Mushrooms

There are mushroom pickers in the family who taught this way of living from an early age. Finnish folk wisdom says that "Know the poisonous mushrooms and eat only the mushrooms you know". The more simplier rule is, you can eat all mushrooms, but some of them only once. Finland is the only country where the sale of ear Gyromitra esculenta in the market square is allowed. The Gyromitra esculenta is quite tasteless, but a sauce based on real butter makes it good. I recognize the chanterelle, the Craterellus tubaeformis, the Russula, the Leccinum versipelle, and the horn of plenty (Craterellus cornucopioides).


Homemade Jam



In autumn I pick blueberries and lingonberries from the nearby forests of Hyvinkää. I go to orienteering competitions every week, and there I mark the blueberry places on the map. On the weekend I then go picking berries from the best places. The areas change every year, because the blueberry harvest depends a lot on what kind of weather during the flowering season has been, nor should it be too dry, otherwise the blueberries will suffer. In dry years, the bog bilberry goes just as well as blueberry. My Aunt has been an active blueberry picker and has therefore gotten to Turku Newspapers online TV



Swiss roll with apples



This easy and low-calorie wrap cake can be made in half an hour. In the dough, I use only flour and only enough water to make a really thin dough sheet. I may add a spoonful of oil, otherwise the dough will tear easily. I sprinkle apple slices, almonds and raisins and cinnamon on top of the dough.


Gingerbread House




I wouldn’t have done it for fun, but the choir ordered all to make gingerbread houses for Christmas sales. This is a very laborious bakery, and takes several days, and the kitchen is messy after that. The right gingerbread is made with honey, the ingredients in the dough are quite expensive. On the other hand, syrup can also be used instead of honey. You must also be prepared for the wall plates to get charred in the oven, so make more dough than necessary. When gluing the house together with molten sugar, you should wear leather gloves to prevent your fingers from getting burned. There are many dough instructions on the internet, but I prefer to use recipes that have already been tried and tested by myself.


Fish



I’m not interested in fishing by nature, and I really don’t understand at all why people fish for fun, because it is also somehow cruel to the fish. However, now that there is a cottage by the sea, it feels as if I am downright obliged to fish because there is a boat, there are nets, there are the net markers and the purchase of a fishing number is mandatory anyway. Besides, I live in the cottage largely from dried soups, dried milk etc, and the fish bring a little more flavor to this rather monotonous diet. My Uncle is a swedish speaking Finnish and with him I have been brought up to see how in the winter fishing nets are placed under the ice with the help of long sticks and ice picks. He has a cottage owned previously by a keen fisherman (Maybe a professional), and there I have also seen a wide range of very special fishing tools. With a group of colleagues, I went ice fishing in Hanko, even to competitions and later also in the archipelago in the spring with rowing boat. It’s a unique experience to smoke fish on an uninhabited island. You have almost to see these things by yourself so you can do them on your own. The repairing and sewing of a net is difficult to learn from books, an very many times I have had to return back to the beach embarrassed than the net was totally entangled.

Chaga tea



It can’t quite be compared to real coffee because it doesn’t have any stimulating effect. But that’s also why it can be used as an evening drink. It is quite often seen in the forest in the birch bark. I saw it off with a hand saw, then I cut it into about two-centimeter plates. Those plates can then be broken into smaller pieces by hand, and I then drive those pieces through a regular grater into a coarse flour. Pretty laborious and the end result is just a dull black powder.



Strawberry cake. The biscuit bottom can be bought ready from the supermarket. The glaze is made with potato starch powder.


Quiche lorraine



Almost fat-free quiche lorraine with mushrooms. dough: 250g flour, 250g lactose-free curd, 1 egg. I put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spoon in the beginning, and when crumbly lumps form, I start kneading with my hands. Then put the dough ball in the fridge for about half an hour. Take the ball of dough to the table and knead it with a rolling pin into a round "pizzabase" that will fit in the cake tin. I actually put the aluminum foil on the table first and kneaded the dough sheet on top of that alufoil, so it was a little easier to lift it into that glass cake tin together with the foil, and then once it was in the pan, I peeled the aluminum foil off the dough, and it came off easily. Stuffing: about 2-3 dl of fried and chopped mushrooms, the same amount of fried onion cubes, and turkey cutlet shavings. sauce for the stuffing: 3 eggs, 250 g curd, blended with a blender until foamy. Oven temperature 200 degrees Celsius. First, bake the dough alone for 10 min. Then take the pre-baked dough out of the oven, and spread the mushroom filling on top of the base. Pour the whipped cream on top. On top of everything, spread some grated mozzarella cheese. Bake the quiche lorraine in the oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes.