Delightful brandy snap baskets with vanilla ice-cream and strawberries

Okay, the title says it all this time, there's not much to add to that. It's July and it's time to enjoy fresh local berries with ice-cream. As you may know, I'm generally not very great with desserts and somehow over the years my sweet tooth has basically left me. However in the summer it's so nice to have ice-cream with fresh berries and now I even have my own strawberries to taste. I also found these brandy snap baskets, which are quite cute and tasty as well, so they were perfect to be used in these desserts.

What are your favourite summer desserts?

Your VegHog

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

Blueberry and strawberry overnight oats

Finally I had to see for myself what the overnight oats fuss is all about, so I made this fully vegan fruity jar with oats and flax seed. After tasting, I feel that this dish never could replace warm porridge for me, but it does make a nice change for the summer especially. I will also consider making smaller jars and taking them to work with me.

Here are the ingredients I used for my first ever overnight oats:

1 cup oat flakes

3 tbsp milled flax seed

2 tbsp blueberry powder

½ tsp sugar

1 cup almond milk

8 strawberries

Mix the dry ingredients in a mason jar. My jar was maybe a bit too large for one person's breakfast and I couldn't finish it in one go. Add the milk and mix. Chop some strawberries on the top. Close the jar and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Enjoy it the next morning. I read somewhere that closed the jars would keep for three days in the fridge, but I haven't tested that myself. It would be quite handy, though if they do.

Have you experimented with overnight oats and what did you think?

Your VegHog

Fig salad

It's Sunday again and in case you are looking for lunch salad ideas for the upcoming week, here is one.

I think I will never get tired of the combination of halloumi cheese and fruit, they make such a great pair in salad. This time I also added some figs to my salad. I wanted to have a new type of a salad dressing, so I found this recipe on the BBC food pages (original here). I finally got to use my pomegranate molasses that I bought out of interest a while ago. It turned out to be rather nice. 

Dressing

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

1 tbsp vinegar

6 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Salad

3 figs

100 g strawberries

100 g babyleaf and rocket salad

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

The making of this salad is easy of course. Just chop the figs and strawberries and combine them with the salad leaves.

Fry the halloumi in vegetable oil until golden brown and add to the salad.

It's all ready to be enjoyed!

Cool strawberry and bell pepper soup

I found this experimental summer soup recipe on the web pages of a Finnish newspaper. The combination of peppers, shallots and strawberries does sound a bit strange, but it also made me curious of what it would taste like. Of course we are all familiar with gazpacho, the classic of cold vegetable soups, and the principle of making this soup reminds me of gazpacho, but combines other, more exciting summer flavours. I must say that the taste of this soup is very interesting (as was my first reaction), but it's not too bad at all. This dish was a nice refreshment and a sufficiently filling meal on a hot day. 

I changed a couple of things from the original, and here is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients

3 large red bell peppers

1 shallot

2 tomatoes

400 g strawberries

2 garlic cloves

½ tbsp rosemary

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

Chop the fresh peppers, tomatoes, shallot and garlic roughly. Purée all ingredients, apart from the ground black pepper (that should be ground on the top of the soup before serving). Add a little water, if the soup seems to be too thick.

Let the soup rest one hour in the fridge before the serving. Then serve cool in glasses with ground black pepper on the top.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Strawberry-lime cider ice lollies

The hot weather continues and I'm still trying to find the best cooling drinks and food. I now started making my own ice lollies as I bought a set of four of these silicone ice lolly moulds, and they are awfully practical for making all kinds of different fruity and boozy refreshing ice lollies.

Rekorderlig strawberry-lime cider is one of my summer favourites to have in a bar when it's really hot, and with some added fresh mint and lime it's even better. That is the reason why I chose these ingredients to make my ice lollies.

I got four ice lollies out of these:

500 ml Rekorderlig strawberry-lime cider (1 bottle) 

A few small mint leaves

½ lime

First I poured the cider into a large jug and let it stand around a while, and stirred so that the carbonation mostly disappeared. During this time you can already add the mint leaves and tiny lime pieces into the cider.

Fill the drink with the greens into the ice lolly moulds and freeze. Enjoy the frozen goods when you need the cooling most.

Your VegHog

Blueberry and strawberry cooler

It doesn't get much simpler than this drink or smoothie – there are only three ingredients! I can't believe what a great and healthy breakfast this is in this hot weather.

Just mix the berries into a smoothie with the crushed ice and there you have a cooling summer drink.

I used these ingredients:

100 g blueberries

100 g strawberries

Crushed ice

I slipped two teaspoons of sea-buckthorn powder into the second version, and it was also very good. You can use any of your favourite berries and fruits to make a fruit cooler. What would your dream combination be?

Stay cool!

Your VegHog

Fruity halloumi salad

There's a heatwave in England! I certainly don't want to complain, but I still prefer staying in the shades. However my plants like this weather very much as long as I water them enough.

In this sort of heat it's good to eat lightly, just some fresh produce. Fruits are among the best choices that can be done, but as you might know, I really prefer savoury dishes to sweet ones, so I do add fruit to savoury salads like this one. I nearly always add cheese to salads as that makes them filling enough to be a stand-alone dish. This is a perfect salad to be had with a vegetarian barbecue as you can grill the halloumi at the same time.

Have you ever added fruit to your salads? Please share your taste experiences in the comment box!

Ingredients

4-6 nectarines

1 pomegranate

200 g strawberries

Mixed salad leaves

250 g halloumi cheese

Vegetable oil for grilling (not needed, if a charcoal barbecue is used)

Method

Chop the nectarines and strawberries into small cubes and remove the pomegranate seeds. Place these into a salad bowl on the top of mixed salad leaves.

Grill the halloumi cubes so that they get distinct grilling marks. Grill them either on a griddle pan or on a char-coal grill outdoors. Add the halloumi warm to the salad.

Enjoy the salad and stay cool!

Your VegHog

Strawberry and cream dessert

I've been quiet for a few days, because I had lovely family members visiting from Finland and I showed them a few nice spots in England. One evening I made this dessert for them and it was very well received.

I thought of this recipe as strawberries are in season, it's summer and it's okay to eat nice desserts, right? I have never eaten the traditional British dessert “Eton mess”, but I've been told that my dessert resembles it. I wasn't trying to copy that dish, but just wanted to combine nice flavours. Surely they don't have patent pending for strawberries and cream in Eton? It would be nice to try the traditional Eton mess one day, though. 

For my recipe I cut a couple of corners again by using ready made meringue. I promise you to make my own some other time. For some additional punch I decided to add some brandy as it does make cream so much better! Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

200 g strawberries (100 g for the sauce and 100 g for the dessert)

3 tsp sugar (1 tsp for the sauce and 2 tsp for the whipping cream)

300 ml whipping cream

2 tsp brandy

4 small meringue nests

Method

Whip the cream with sugar and in the end carefully fold in the brandy.

Cut the half of the strawberries into halves or quarters depending on the size.

Make the strawberry sauce by puréeing the other half of the strawberries with one teaspoon of sugar into a smooth sauce.

Add the strawberry pieces to the whipped brandy cream and mix. Then also crush the meringues into that mix as generous pieces.

Place into serving bowls or glasses and pour the strawberry sauce on the top.

This recipe makes four small desserts, double up for more people.

Enjoy the taste of summer!

Your VegHog

Crêpes

Every time I think of making crêpes I can't help being transported back to my childhood. As a child I spent most of the weekends and school holidays at my grandparents' farm. My grandmother would quite often make crêpes (“Lätyt” as we would call them) and us kids didn't mind at all eating them all in one go. Sometimes we would help grandmother frying them and it was such fun. The sizzling of the melting butter, the smells, the exciting process of the turning – all so exciting! My granddad sometimes turned them by throwing them in the air and would get some chuckles and admiration.

These memories came back to me again today when I decided to make crêpes for lunch. I happened to have some new local strawberries, so wanted to have those with the crêpes. In the childhood we would quite often pair the crêpes with strawberries as well, or just eat them with some extra butter melted on the top – divine!

Unfortunately my version will never quite live up to my grandmother's one, she was a great cook. But anyway, this is my easy recipe that makes about six large (full pan) crêpes. Double the recipe if you have more mouths to feed.

2 eggs

4 dl milk

2 dl wheat flour

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

Butter for frying

Strawberries or other summer berries for serving

Whisk all the crêpe ingredients together into a smooth batter. It's easier to avoid flour lumps if you add the flour slowly to the milk and eggs and keep whisking throughout.

Heat little bit butter in a frying pan. Add new butter to the pan for each crêpe.

Pour a ladle of batter into the pan. You can make large ones that fill the whole pan, but of course also smaller ones.

Fry the crêpes on both sides until golden brown. Turn them around carefully.

Serve straight from the pan with fresh strawberries on the top.

Enjoy the tasty dish!

Your VegHog

Strawberry and cream buns – Laskiaispullat

I already made these Finnish strawberry and cream buns last year, but now I want to improve my technique. I'm not sure whether I managed to improve or not, they were very delicious, but could've been better looking I guess. Well, this is a seasonal dish, so I'll make sure to make some in a year, if not before.

These sweet buns are traditionally enjoyed on Shrove Tuesday after the day's activities out in the snow, but of course they taste wonderful at any time, even in a warmer climate. The cardamom seeds give the distinctive taste of Finnish baking and an interesting twist.

Ingredients for about 10 buns

For the buns

50g butter

250ml milk

700ml flour

50ml sugar

½tsp salt

2tbsp dry yeast

1tsp ground green cardamom seeds

1 egg for brushing the buns before baking

2tbsp icing sugar as the topping

For the filling

1dl strawberry jam

300ml whipping cream

3tbsp sugar

Method

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan and warm the milk slightly above room temperature.

Mix the dry yeast with about a quarter of the flour. Then mix the sugar, salt and cardamom in a bowl and add the milk. Add the part of flour that was mixed with the yeast into the bowl. Follow this by adding the melted butter and then the rest of the flour gradually while mixing until the dough is nice and smooth.

Let the dough rise in the bowl under a tea towel for about 45 minutes until it doubles its size. Shape small buns of the dough and place them on a baking tray and let them rise for further 10 minutes. In the meanwhile pre-heat the oven to about 220C. Brush each bun with the beaten egg before baking and bake them for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

Let the buns fully cool down after the baking. While they are cooling down you can whip the cream. Add the sugar to the cream and whip with a hand mixer until it's a firm foam.

Cut the buns in half slightly above the middle in order to form a lid. Spread strawberry jam on each side (lid and base), spread whipped cream on the base in an approximate thickness of 1 cm.

Place the lid on the base and in the end sprinkle some icing sugar on the top of the buns.

Serve with coffee or hot chocolate and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Strawberry, halloumi and spinach salad

Fruits and salad – amazing! Strawberries and balsamic vinegar – amazing! Cheese and fruits – amazing! So then, this fresh summer salad should be a success! Do try it on a warm day when you want to eat lightly and just prepare it within minutes.

Ingredients

Halloumi

Strawberries

Spinach

Rocket

Basil

Black pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Vegetable oil

Dice the halloumi and fry it in vegetable oil until golden brown and firm.

Cut the strawberries in half or quarter them. Wash the spinach and rocket.

Place everything fresh in a bowl, grind black pepper on the salad, season with chopped basil leaves and frame with balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy the taste of summer!

Your VegHog

Spring forest picnic

What could be nicer than to pack a few fresh fruits and veg for a picnic and then have a stroll in the forest. I chose the New Forest as my picnic destination and got lucky with a sunny day even though this spring's weather hasn't been ideal. I think that there's no need to write a lot about this, you know what I'm talking about! I'd rather let the photos to speak for themselves.

I love my beautiful new hand painted Nkuku tiffin that was convenient to transport as it's small enough, it kept the food fresh and it's nice to look at.

I took only a few snacks with me: Tomato, mozzarella and basil sticks, strawberries, grapes, cheese focaccia and white wine.

There were also some curious friends trying to join me.

Have fun at your picnics and tell me where you went!

Your VegHog