Black and Bleu Veggie-Burger

One of my favorites from the good old days of working at O'Brien's Oyster Bar and Grill was the black and blue burger. While it's no longer on the menu, it's easy enough to whip up on request. While I no longer eat real hamburgers, this veggie version was easy enough to put together since I had extra bleu cheese.

What really comes in handy is this 'tumma soijarouhe' or 'dark soy groats', though I think groats is a slights strange word and don't like saying it, much like a friend of mine's aversion to saying 'moist'. Haha, well anyway, I'll be referring to it generally as textured soy from now on.

• 1 cup dry textured soy
• 1 1/2 cups water or beef stock
• 2 tbs instant french onion soup mix
• 1/2 finely diced onion
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup flour or bread crumbs
• 1 tsp each cayenne pepper, chilli pepper, black pepper
• salt to taste
• vegetable oil for sauteeing
• kaiser roll or hamburger bun
• toppings (optional): lettuce, tomatoe slices, bleu cheese, mayo, mustard, ketchup, onions, sauteed mushrooms.....

1. Sautee the onion in oil on medium heat until translucent.
2. Add beef stock and textured soy, stirring well to incorporate and allow the soy to absorb the liquid.
3. Add instant onion mixture, egg, and flour or bread crumbs, adding as necessary until the desired consistency is reached. The mixture should be moist (hehe) yet firm.
4. Create patties with your hand by starting with a fistful of the mixture and flattening it out between your palms.
5. Mix the pepper, cayenne, chilli and some salt in a small dish. Place the patties one at a time in the dish flipping until coated.
6. Sautee, broil, grill, or fry the paties until darkened to perfection. I sauteed mine in a tsp or two of vegetable oil for about 3 minutes on each side.
7. Serve on a bun with the toppings of choice- I used bleu cheese, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce and tomatoe slices.

Cloudberry and Lingonberry Custard Pie

I literally dreamed this pie up Friday night. Maybe I was hungry. Maybe Finland is finally getting under my skin. Maybe I just needed to have my fix of sweetness.... Whatever the reason, it was still in my head after I woke up. After I had brunch at Fanny Goes to Hollywood on Bulevardi, I was all the more inspired to do some cooking of my own.

• Basic pie crust
• 2.5 dl cooking cream
• 1.5 dl milk
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 dl sugar
• 1 tbs vanilla sugar
• pinch of orange zest
• 1.5 dl lakkahillo (cloudberry jam)
• 100 g puolukka (lingonberries) dusted in flour

1. Bake the pie crust at 175C for about 15 minutes.
2. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla sugar, and orange zest.
3. Heat cloudberry jam in a small pan until it becomes runny.
4. Fold in warm jam into egg mixture.
5. Pour egg and jam mixture into pre-baked pie crust.
6. Sprinkle lingonberries all over the pie.
7. Bake for about 45 minutes or until set.

This turned out well, although a little more egg-y and a little less sweet than I had hoped. I think I will try this recipe again, using more sugar, or more jam (or more of both), and perhaps some orange flavored cream cheese, to make it a hybrid between a custard and a cheesecake. In my dream of this recipe, I also melted some white chocolate and lined the pie crust with it once it had cooled. During execution of the recipe, I wanted to keep things simple and practical, so I omitted the white chocolate- maybe next time. We'll see how it goes. I'm always up for some experimentation!

Gratin au Reblochon

Some of the best cheeses (and the smelliest) I've tried have been those which my friend G has introduced me to from her home country of Switzerland. Though typical grocery stores may not carry a multitude of good cheese, the Kauppahalli, or Market Hall in Hakaniemi or in the Satama, will have almost everything you're looking for (I'm still searching for good sharp cheddar- not Pilgrim's brand!).

Reblochon is a cheese originally from the French Alps, during a time which taxes were paid by how much milk the cows produced. So dairy farmers often did not milk the cow fully, and waited until the milk was measured, then used the remaining richer milk to make their own cheese, such as this one.

This is a recipe G used last weekend at a party she and T threw for another successful benchmark at work passed. Congrats G! There were other French speakers there, mostly from Belgium, and they certainly appreciated her hard work (and duh, her gratin au reblochon!)

Gratin au Reblochon

• 1 kg potatoes, peeled, boiled, then sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 leek, sliced
• 4 tbs butter, melted
• nutmeg, salt, and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 210C.
2. Rub the gratin dish with a clove of garlic.
3. Saute the onion and leek in 2 tbs of butter until soft. Adding seasoning as desired.
4. Layer half of the potato slices in the dish, layer the onion and leek, then add the remaining potatoes.
5. Combine milk, cream, wine, and remaining 2 tbs of butter, and pour over the layers.
6. Grate or shave as much of the rind from the reblochon round as possible, and cut the round horizontally to create two thinner rounds of cheese. (this tends to be a bit messy, so you can use a helping hand, or a large spatula).
7. Top the gratin with the rounds, rind facing up, soft side down.
8. Bake gratin for about 30 minutes, turn down the oven to 180C and bake for another 15 minutes.

This was a great hit! G made three, two with smoked ham and onion, and one with leek and onion for me, what a sweetheart. <3.>

Chinese Soy-'Beef' Wontons

Another fun afternoon activity while you are watching a movie and have time idle time, is to wrap your own filling into wontons. Buying pre-made wonton wrappers frozen from your nearby Asian market, like Vii Voan, is the best way to skip the mess and hassle of making wonton dough on your own. I have made my own, and I can tell you that unless you have a LOT of time and a spacious kitchen (unfortunately I have neither), then this isn't worth it. Just buy these:

The filling:

• 1/2 cup dried textured soy
• 1 cup water
• 1 cube veggie or beef bullion
• 1 cup finely chopped cabbage
• 1/4 cup scallions diced
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbs ginger, powder or grated
• 1 tbs corn starch
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• dash of salt and pepper
• wonton wrappers
• 1 tsp roasted sesame oil
• peanut oil for frying

1. Boil the textured soy in water and bullion until soft and completely rehydrated (about 10 minutes)
2. In a large saucepan, heat some peanut oil. Add the garlic, ginger, scallions and lighly fry until soft.
3. Add the cabbage and carrot to the saucepan and cook until softened (about 10 minutes)
4. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, corn starch and other desired spices, and sesame oil.
5. Add textured soy to the cabbage mixture and mix well. Allow to cool.
6. Using a small bowl of water, line 2 sides of a sqaure wonton wrapper with water.
7. Place 1 tsp of filling in the center of the wonton, fold in half and press to seal.
8. Continue the process, leaving ready wontons on a lined baking sheet until you have run out of filling (or time or patience).
9. Add wontons to soup, or fry them quickly in hot peanut oil** and serve with sauce.

*Since this recipe makes about 4 dozen wontons, you may want to freeze some. To do this, I suggest placing the whole baking sheet with wontons into the freezer for about 2o minutes so that the wontons are frozen separately. Then, you may add them to a container or a bag inside the freezer. Do not throw them together in a bag before they are seperately frozen, or else they will stick together and become a mess.

** Peanut oil or coconut oil is recommended because of it's higher smoke temperature. You are able to fry the wontons quickly at a high heat without burning or creating smoke.

Tofu Soup

This soup can be made with several different broth bases so it's very easy to modify to your own arsenal of ingredients. You can also add veggie dumplings or other vegetables to this soup!

I started out with a mushroom stock base leftover from my mushroom spring rolls. I added another 2 cups of water, and a vegetable bullion cube.

• 1/3 block firm tofu, cubed
• tbs ginger, fresh or 1/2 tbs ginger powder
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 carrot, julliened
• 1 bunch scallions, diced
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs balsalmic vinegar
• 1 tsp roasted sesame oil
• coriander, salt, pepper, chilli paste or flakes, to taste

1. Fry tofu cubes dry in a non-stick pan on low heat for half an hour, using a spatula to turn them around and firm them on all sides. This dries out the extra moisture, giving a golden color to the outside. Be sure to stir every 5 minutes or so to avoid tofu cubes sticking.
2. While the tofu is frying, cut all other vegetables, garlic and ginger and add them to the broth.
3. Add all other ingredients, season to taste. When the carrots are soft, the soup is read.

Wild Mushroom Spring Rolls

I am lucky to have someof the best friends and know some of the nicest most generous people in Helsinki. With their support, I havebeen able to make Helsinki my second home.

One of them, currently my landlord, MK, and his girlfriend LY, are now my neighbors. They are also Chinese. I wanted to make them a special dinner to show my gratitude, but I was given a special challenge. LY is allergic to seafood, and accustomed to mainly meat dishes. In any case, I was excited about this chance to try making some authentic dishes that the true experts could judge for themselves. I was rewarded with the compliment that it tastes 'better than in some Chinese restaurants in Helsinki'. I know that's not really saying much, but it made me happy!

First, I wanted to start with these mushrooms typical to China. There is the typical shitake mushroom, which is meaty and juicy, and then the black fungus, which when rehydrated, unfurls into a beautiful flower like form, but has a rather delicate yet distinct taste. I bought these from Vii Voan on Hameentie 3, for 3,50e and 1,90e respectively.

Then I decided to make mushroom spring rolls, using frozen spring roll pastry, only 1,90e for 280 grams. I had way more wrappers than needed for this recipe, so I can use the rest to make different spring rolls another time! The rest are waiting for me in my freezer.



Wild Mushroom Spring Rolls (makes about 12-15 rolls)
Preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes*

• about 1lb of mushrooms, rehydrated (this is about 4-5 handfulls of dried mushrooms)
• bunch of scallions, diced
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 2 cups cabbage, shredded
• 50grams bean thread noodles (1 individual packet, if you can find them packaged as shown below), blanced (easiest if you leave the string tied around it while it soaks in boiling water)
• frozen spring roll wrappers
• 1/2 tbs ground ginger, or fresh grated ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs roasted sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice blend (I ground equal portions of star anise and cloves with pestle and mortar then added a pinch of salt, pepper, and cinnamon)
• 1 egg, beaten
• peanut oil for frying
• Spicy Mustard Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)

Bean thread noodles

1. Soak the mushrooms in warm water for approximately an hour. If the shitake mushrooms still seem hard in the center, cut them in half after soaking partially and soak longer. They should double or triple in size. Drain, but save the water (this makes invaluable mushroom stock for soup recipes).
2. Dice mushrooms.
3. In a large pan, heat a few tablespoons of peanut oil. Add the garlic, ginger and scallions and fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add the diced mushrooms to the pan and fry for another minute.
5. Add the cabbage, carrot, spices**, soy sauce, and sesame oil and continue to fry until tender.
6. Using a large space, prepare your roll wrapping area by placing the beaten egg in one bowl, the stack of wrappers thawed and handy for use, the blanched bean thread noodles, and mushroom mixture in two separate bowls, and one parchment lined baking sheet.
7. Placing the wrapper at a diagonal, place about 2 tbs mushroom filling, topped with a thin layer of bean thread noodles, and roll the wrapper until the filling is covered.
8. Fold in outer corners of wrapper, brush the end triangle with egg, then continue rolling all the way. Place on baking sheet.
9. Heat oil to a high temperature, and fry each spring roll until golden and rest on paper towels to drain. Serve and enjoy immediately.

Spicy Mustard Sauce

• 1/2 cup spicy yellow or dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 3 tbs rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp roasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Blend all ingredients together.

* I know this seems like a long time, and rolling the filling into the wrappers can be tedious. But do what I did and enjoy the rolling process while watching a movie :) I watched 'Hurt Locker' which was very intense and seemingly realistic but enjoyable.

** Also it would be good to add about 1 tbs oyster sauce, though I did not add it due to LY's allergy.