Blueberry and strawberry dessert

I have been doing my share of foraging during this holiday, and as blueberries are in season, off to the forest I went. I love forest walks, especially in Finland, and it's only a nice extra to get some edible goodies while you're at it. This year is very good for blueberries, which is nice.

I made this simple dessert for my family, and it's quite Finnish style. Fresh local berries are the best part about this and you will only need these ingredients.

100 g blueberries
100 g strawberries
200 ml whipping cream
250 ml quark
2-4 tbsp sugar

Cut the strawberries into slices.

Whip the cream with the added sugar and fold the quark carefully into it. Add the berries and mix.

Taste, and add more sugar if needed.

And it's all done, enjoy!

Your VegHog

Veggie barbeque

I rarely do a barbeque, but a veggie barbeque can be a fine thing. When I'm here in Finland during the summer, a few barbeques are a must. This time I just char-grilled some vegetables, halloumi and rye bread, and that made a very filling meal. I have been eating quite a lot in general on this holiday, so a small diet could be in the cards when I get back to the UK, a healthy diet with affordable pulses etc. Okay, but back to the BBQ theme now.

Here are the components of my meal this time:

- new potatoes (pre-boiled), I could just barbeque new potatoes alone, they get divine after a bit of char-grilling

- bell peppers

- aubergine, rub the aubergine slices with barbeque seasoning and oil

- new season onions

- tomatoes, I put the tomatoes into additional foil bags, as they get very soggy

- halloumi

- rye bread, a must in a Finnish barbeque and so tasty slightly grilled and eaten with some butter

As a veggie barbeque drink I could recommend the Finnish Olvi Hiili 4,5 %, a very dark beer that actually tastes a bit like coal.

What kind of veggie barbeques have you been having?

Your VegHog

 

 

Distillery tour at Kyrö Distillery Company

This weekend I had the pleasure to go on a tour through the premises of the Kyrö Distillery Company. You can read my first post here about the distillery that is a reasonably new venture in the village where I was born. The company is distilling whisky and gin in the old dairy building of Isokyrö. There also is a bar and restaurant Kyrönmaan Matkailun Edistämiskeskus offering the own products and various fine drinks made with them and named after local places. They are normally open on a first Saturday of each month and sometimes for special occassions.

The annual 18th Century Market was taking place in Isokyrö town centre this weekend, so the distillery and bar were open for three days frequently offering distillery tours. The tour is very much worth taking, as it was very informative and also amusing. On the tour we heard how whisky is made there and what makes it so special in comparison to other whiskies and methods. There was also a brief introduction to the local history and heritage, to which the distillery wants to be closely attached. The font they use on their branding comes from a local war memorial and the font of their new "seal of approval" comes from the wall paintings of the local medieval church. Also the seal with the bottle is a similar image to the coat of arms of Isokyrö, which shows a bear with a fir tree.

After the tour we tasted pretty much all products of the distillery, some of which I wasn't familiar with yet. I haven't been able to obtain the new products yet, so now was the perfect opportunity to taste them. Verso is the more matured version of Juuri. It's a sprout of whisky as the name suggests and has been matured for 4 months. It is already much smoother than Juuri and has strong rye flavour to it.

Then there was a new gin variation, Koskue, which also tastes very pleasant with rye notes and hints of fine botanicals. We also tried Helsingin, which I think had a bit more juniper flavours and less other spices, and the name is very inspired (Helsinki in its possessive form contains the word gin).

The distillery recently won the trophy for the best gin & tonic decided by the IWSC, and luckily for us, the winning drink was served at the bar. Napue Tonic contains Napue gin, Fever Tree Indian tonic, cranberries and rosemary, and it truly is an excellent drink. I will have to try recreating it once I'm back in England.

One of my favourite alcoholic drinks is Lonkero, or the grey gold of the north as I call it, a Finnish mix drink of gin and grapefruit lemonade. Of course the bar served the lonkero of the house containing Napue gin and I obviously had to have some of those, and it was of course better than any odd Lonkero.

Needless to say how great it was to visit the distillery and bar again! I'm hoping it won't be quite another year until I can go there again, but if it is, I will surely try out the quirky Zetor ride then. I can only recommend a visit there, if you'll ever have the chance.

Your VegHog

 

 

Courgette and carrot fritters

I have been fully spoiled by my family members, who already served me many lovely veggie meals during this holiday. Now I made these simple courgette and carrot fritters for my mum and granddad, as they tend to like them.

These are very basic fritters that are quick to make and they are quite juicy thanks to the combination of grated vegetables and cheese. So they were just perfect to make on this occasion.

Ingredients

1 small courgette
4 small carrots
2 new season onions
25 g Oltermanni cheese (or other cheese)
1 egg
1 dl wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying

Method

Grate the courgette, carrots and cheese and chop the onions finely. Mix them together and add the egg, wheat flour and seasoning. Add more flour, if the texture of the batter is too moist. The fritters should keep their shape when fried.

Heat a pan and add about a teaspoon of vegetable oil. Put a couple of tablespoons of the batter onto the pan in a fritter shape for each fritter and fry from both sides until properly fried. Repeat the method until the batter is gone and add more vegetable oil between the batches.

Serve with potatoes and sauce, as we did now, or as burgers.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Boat trip on Lake Näsijärvi

My Finland holiday is in full swing and I'm very sorry that I haven't posted anything from here yet. I've been kind of busy travelling between places and meeting family and friends. Now I thought that I would share some of my photos with you from a boating trip when I visited some of my relatives at their beautiful house by the Lake Näsijärvi.

The place is of astonishing natural beauty and I felt so relaxed there. Lake Näsijärvi is a large lake located on the north side of the city of Tampere streching into the Pirkanmaa region. Its length is 44 km, just to get a general idea of the size. My godfather took me and my partner on a little boat ride around some of the small islands on a sunny day. That was a pretty fine way to spend a day. We saw a goose island, dragonflies, water lilies, nuphar luteas, clear waters, rocky shores and forests. Here a few photos from that trip. I apologise for the poor picture quality, as the mobile uploading tends to take its toll on that. I might re-upload them once I'm at home.

 

 

Raspberry Eton Mess

Guess what? I'm leaving to Finland today! I'm so happy about the start of my summer holiday and I will post something from there for sure. I don't have many plans for the trip, only to eat well and relax. So here's a post to get into the holiday mood.

I too rarely make desserts. I just love savoury food so much that I mostly even forget about sweet dishes. However my partner has a bit of a sweet tooth and always appreciates little cakes or desserts. So now I made this raspberry Eton Mess from the lovely new season raspberries. It was very yummy I must say and doesn't require much preparation. I served the raspberries in two consistencies, as fresh and whole and as a cooked sauce.

Ingredients

300 ml double cream

2 tbsp sugar

400 g raspberries

6 small meringue nests

Method

Add one tablespoon of sugar to the double cream and whip it into whipped cream.

Take about a third of the raspberries and combine them with one tablespoon of sugar in a small saucepan. Gently cook the mix until the raspberries have become more liquid. Pour the sauce through a sieve in order to remove the raspberry seeds and let it cool.

Break the meringue nests into pieces. I used a half of a nest per glass.

Layer the components into serving glasses and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Flammkuchen

Vegetarian Flammkuchen is one of my favourite dishes ever and I occasionally make it. Flammkuchen comes from the Alsace region and is a classic dish there. I especially like the leek variation. I have published a very similar recipe before under the name Leek Flame Cake, but now I thought that I would make it again and share with the Eat Your Greens challenge, the leeks of course being the greens here. Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table blog hosts this monthly vegetarian cooking challenge, and since it's already August, new entries can be added. Have a look at the links and participate as well, if you are a blogger! 

Now to my recipe that makes two Flammkuchen.

The dough:

250 g self-rising flour

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

100 ml water

The filling:

2 leeks

1 onion

1 garlic clove

Fresh basil leaves

6 tbsp crème fraîche

50 g grated Jarlsberg

50 g grated mozzarella

Ground black pepper

Salt

Method:

Mix the dough ingredients together, knead and roll the dough out thinly.

Slice the leeks and chop the garlic finely.

Spread some crème fraîche onto the rolled out dough. Then put the leeks, garlic, fresh basil grated cheeses, black pepper and salt on the top.

Bake at 250C for about 10 minutes and for the last couple of minutes you can use the grill setting in order to get some more flaming marks.

So simple and tasty, enjoy!

Your VegHog