Raspberry Mousse

So this is another product from Glenilen Farm. I tried their lemon cheesecake earlier. The Raspberry Mousse is just as good. I added some fresh berries to it. Makes a nice little dessert.

Tiny Lemon Cakes for Baby Benjamin

This morning I became an aunt! My sister gave birth to a baby boy whom they called Benjamin Aleksanteri. The new little family lives in England so I wont have a chance to see the new arrival for a while, but still I decided to celebrate the occasion. My way is of course by making something sweet.


I got a recipe for a Spanish lemon cake from a colleague of mine who sometimes -not often enough!- brings her gorgeous cake to work to share. That's so nice of her! She was also so kind as to give me the recipe! I just love people like that.

I only made one fourth of the recipe since was running low on sugar and flour; the most basic cake ingredients.. Also because instead of making a cake I used my mini muffin tray. It's so handy! I have a lot of ideas for this recipe, can't wait to go to Finland and treat my family with all sorts of lemon delights! And for Benjamin to grow and learn about his Finnish heritage and good Northern food.

Courgette Mascarpone Pasta

This is one of the most wonderful pasta sauces I've come across. It's very rich and absolutely delicious. Today was the second time I made it. I love using fresh pasta, it makes very fine bubbles when boiling. I call them champagne bubbles, adds a bit posh to my dinner.


Courgette Mascarpone Pasta

Courgettes
Mascarpone
Milk
Lime
Basil
Salt & Pepper
Vegetable oil & Butter

Fresh Tagliatelle

1. Wash and thinly slice the courgette.
2. Cook the courgettes on a pan with little oil and butter.
3. Cook the pasta.
4. Mix mascarpone with milk so it is not so thick. Add some basil, lime zest and salt&pepper.
5. Mix mascarpone with courgettes and heat a little.
6. Drain pasta and pour sauce over. Serve.

Mignon Chocolates

My lovely mom was ever so kind and surprised me by sending a box of chocolates. Not just any ordinary Finnish choccies but a new kind of Easter confectionary.


The traditional Fazer Mignon is actually an Easter egg. It is an almond hazelnut nougat inside a real eggshell. Fazer has been making them since 1896, so perhaps it is about time to make different variations for modern chocolate lovers. Although I'm sure the Mignon egg will stay a favourite for generations to come.


This modern version is packed in an eggshaped box. It even stands upright, how clever is that!

And they taste delicious of course!!

Amsterdam

I went to Amsterdam for a very short trip on St Patrick's day weekend. It was my first time in the Netherlands. I arrived there on Sunday afternoon, since it was mid-March the air was quite cool. I dropped my backpack at the hostel, St Christopher's Inn, and started exploring the city.

What a nice city it really is! Small and compact with endless canals and quiet streets. I loved the fact that there was no traffic jams, hardly any cars in fact in the city center! Since everyone has a bicycle or a scooter. How brilliantly it works over there! Sadly Dublin is the exact opposite of that.

On Sunday I had just time to visit the Van Gogh museum after spending most of the afternoon just happily walking around. In the evening I took a budget option for dinner and bought some sushi and a bag of carrots from a supermarket to enjoy back at the hostel.


On Monday it was a bit warmer and in the morning first thing I headed to the famous Albert Cuyp market. A mile long market street where one can buy just about anything. I bought some mini pancakes. They're covered in a thick layer of icing sugar and served with a dollop of butter that melts nicely so you can dip the sugary treats in it! It was delicious, but I had a black trench coat on and as I was walking along the street while eating I ended up having half of the sugar powder on me.


After the market I visited FOAM, a gallery that had an exhibition of Richard Avedon's photos. Did some more walking along the canals and river Amstel. Then some shoeshopping -of course!

To fuel my shopping I bought some frites from Vlaams Frites Huis, a tiny little chippie on a side street that has been making probably one the best fries in Amsterdam since 1957. And for my sweet tooth, I got a caramel stroopwafel from a bakery called Lanskroon.


I had to buy some stroopwafels from Albert Heijn supermarket to bring back to Dublin too. They really are so deliciously addictive!

Mushroom - Courgette Quiche

I have been thinking about making a savoury pie for quite a while, I just couldn't decide what to put in it. Too much choice I guess. In Finland my top choice would be salmon. But in Ireland, I'm opting again for the green stuff.

I bought a big bunch of leeks and needed to use them somehow, so this recipe does not call for any yellow onions. Also I'm loving courgettes at the moment. I did not actually use a recipe to make the pie crust, so I'm not giving one out now either. I simply threw flour, water, oil and salt into a mixing bowl and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it did not come out very good. Next time I shall definitely use a recipe or a shop bough pie crust.


Baby Button Mushroom - Courgette Quiche

Leeks
Baby Button Mushrooms
Courgettes

Egg
Cream
Salt & Pepper

1. Wash and chop the leeks.
2. Halve or slice the mushrooms.
3. Wash and chop the courgette into small cubes.
4. Line the dish with the pie dough.
5. Fill in the veggies.
6. Pour the egg-cream mixture over.
7. Bake in 200 C for approx. 25-35 minutes.

Apple - Cinnamon Muffins

I made some apple muffins too, since didn't have enough raspberries for two batches. I added 1 crated Granny Smith, 1 tsp Cinnamon and some ground cardamom, to make them spicier and because I love cardamom, into the dough. The texture turned out to be a bit thicker, but still made very good minimuffins. They weren't as flyffy and moist as the raspberry ones. I think these would make excellent breakfast muffins. At least they feel healthy because of the apple.

1. Peel and crate the apple.
2. Squeeze some lemon juice over the crated apple.
3. Add the spices, mix a little, stir gently into the dough.

Raspberry - Lemon Muffins

These are my first ever raspberry muffins. My mum makes rasberry muffins sometimes, but they're slightly different. I was shopping on Saturday and saw this cute mini muffin tray. I have a normal sized back home in Finland and thought might be fun to have a mini one. And fun it was, got some fresh raspberries - I know they cost a small fortune - but totally worth it! Those big berries really filled the minitray cups, there was not much room for dough.


They turned out nice and fluffy with delicious rasberry heart! I must say, I was rather pleased. And so were my collegues at work, when I took these and another batch of Apple-Cinnamon muffins to the office the following morning!

Raspberry - Lemon Muffins

Makes 12 minimuffins

2 dl Flour
1 dl Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Lemon Zest

1 Egg
40 g Lemon Yoghurt
25 g Milk
1,5 tbs Vegetable Oil
1 tbs Lemon Juice

125 g Raspberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest. Mix in another bowl egg, yoghurt, milk*, vegetable oil and lemon juice. Grease the muffin tray. Mix together the dry and wet ingredients. Gently mix the raspberries in the dough. Spoon the dough into the tray cups or in paper muffin cups if used. Sprinkle some sugar on top of each muffin, this is totally optional. Bake for 12 minutes or until done. Let cool in the tray on a wire rack.


*You can use just yoghurt and if there is no lemon yoghurt available, natural kind can be used just as fine. I use Weight Watchers Lemon or Lemon-Lime.

Chunky Vegetable Soup

I got home today starving after a busy day in the office and was really feeling like some nice comfort food would be in place. So what better than a big bowl of hot soup and a slice of Polish bread. Here in Dublin there's a bunch of Polish people which means Polish shops and whole shelves in big grocery stores like Tesco dedicated to Polish products. This is good news to me because Polish bread is more similar to Finnish bread than Irish. Irish bread is based on soda or buttermilk instead of yeast.

I don't make soup very often and don't even own a blender to make those lovely creamy smooth soups. But guaranteed is, that I will attempt to make those some day when I have a proper kitchen filled with all lovely cooking utensils and gadgets.


This is a very rustic simple soup. I opted for a vegetable soup, since it's my favourite and not too heavy. Although this one ended up a bit too salty. Also very easy, quick and cheap to make!


Chunky Vegetable Soup

Potatoes
Carrots
Leeks
Vegetable stock cube
Parsley

Peel and dice the potatoes. Peel and chop the carrots. Slice the leeks. Try to make even pieces or cubes so that they boil roughly at the same time. Start by boiling the potatoes first, when they are almost done throw in the carrots and leeks with the vegetable stock cube. Boil until carrots are done. Garnish with parsley.

Irish Cheesecake

I had a craving for cheesecake for days and finally gave in. Well, I had to when I saw this cake. Was wondering around the store, they have recently changed the layout, so spent some time finding my groceries. And so I spotted this lovely looking lemon cheesecake on the shelf.

After half a seconds hesitations it was in my basket. Made by Glenilen Farm, an Irish artisan dairy. The list of ingredients is short and the description mentions happy cows. One cannot go wrong with happy cows!

Made with fromage frais, fresh cream and lemon juice it really is delicious! Although it has a very high layer of topping, it does not taste too heavy, so makes a great dessert after dinner too. I will be definetly sampling other products from their range in the future.

http://www.glenilen.com/index.html

Tofu & Honey Carrots with Noodles

Thought to share one of my favourite tofu recipes, since I managed to find tofu in an ordinary grocery store here in Dublin! Lucky me! This is a very simple yet delicious quick meal. Using honey makes it rather a sweet dish and the pine seeds give a nice crunch.

I fell in love with the combination of tofu, carrots and honey here in Dublin, as it happens. I was 21 and working in a fast-food restaurant in the outskirts of the city centre and a friend of my sister's had cooked a bit for us to sample. Now I'm back here again, same city, but my turn to cook.



Tofu and Honey Carrots with Noodles

Firm Tofu
Soya Sauce
Black Pepper
Vegetable Oil
Carrots
Honey
Ginger
Pine Seeds
Egg Noodles

Cut the firm tofu into smaller cubes. Place in a bowl and marinate in soya sauce for at least 2 hours. Season with black pepper.

Peel and slice the carrots. Boil for a couple of minutes. Drain and throw on a hot frying pan. Add ginger and 2 spoonfuls of honey. Turn the heat down and stir so honey will not caramelize or burn. You just want to glace the carrots gently in the honey. Add the marinated tofu and fry, so that it has nice colour. Add the pine seeds.

Boil noodles according to instrustions in the packet. I prefer having spinach noodles myself, gives a nice colour balance with the carrots, but unfortunalely these are not always available in the store. Basically any noodles or rice will be just fine. Mix together and serve.