Burger Bar

I love love love love love this place! :)

I take mine with bacon, cheese and pineapple. Also, even the small fries are enough for 2 persons. And you get the burger on a PLATE!

http://www.burger-bar.nl/our-menu/

Pizza!

I make pizza at least 4 times a week. I always have dough in the fridge and I use a little bit of the old dough to make a new one - a trick that I learned from Heston Blumenthal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOng2plzZA

I have also noticed that resting the dough overnight in the fridge gives you more crispy and chewy crust. I never measure my ingredients for the dough.  I use about 4 dl water, 1 bag of yeast, tablespoon of salt. First I mix the yeast and the salt with some flour and add the water. Then I add more water until I have very loose dough, mixing with wooden spoon. This mixture is then left to rest for at least 30 min. After 30 min I mix in more flour until I am happy with the texture. So I pretty much go with a feeling. The dough should feel firm but soft and not stick to your hand anymore.

This is the pizza I made yesterday:

Pizza with ham, salami, pepperoni & fresh garlic with a twist

I made the tomato sauce simply by thinning some tomato puree with water, added sugar, salt, oregano and black pepper.  Normally I cook it down from canned tomatoes and puree in food processor but was lazy :) and this one works nicely too.

After the pizza was cooked I added some fresh basil and sambal (pure chili sause) and...

Crispy salad & Turkish garlic sauce. You can also use salad dressing, ranch dressing etc.etc.

Karelian pies

These are very popular pie kind of thingies in Finland. It takes a while to make them but it is really worth the effort.

Recipe is from finnguide.

For approximately 20 pies

Dough:

2 dl water
4 dl rye flour
1 dl white flour
1 tsp salt

Rice filling:

4 dl short-grain rice
2 liters milk
5 dl water
1 tsp salt
2 tbs butter

Glazing:

Butter
(water or milk)

Egg-Butter Spread:

8 hard-boiled eggs
150 gr butter
½ tsp salt

Rice filling:
Bring water to a boil in a saucepan with a thick bottom. Add the rice and cook until the water is absorbed. Add milk and bring to a boil whilst frequently stirring. Simmer at a low heat for approximately 30 - 40 minutes, until cooked. Season the rice porridge with salt and butter and set aside to cool.

Egg-Butter Spread:
Boil the eggs in water for at least 8 minutes. Rinse the boiled eggs under cold water and remove their shells. Use a fork to mash the eggs finely together with the soft butter, in a mixing bowl. Add some salt. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into the fridge to cool.

Crusts:
Stir the flours and salt into water and knead into a solid dough. Form the dough into a bar on a well-floured baking board, and cut the bar into 20 pieces. Form little balls from the pieces and then flatten them.

Sprinkle some rye flour onto the baking board, and with a rolling pin, roll a piece of the dough into as thin a round crust as possible. Place the ready-made crusts into two piles (sprinkle rye flour between them!). Cover the crusts with a kitchen towel to prevent them from becoming dry before all the crusts have been rolled.

When all the crusts are ready, fill the center of each crust with a thin layer of rice porridge. Fold the edges of the crusts and pinch tightly with your fingers forming oval shaped pies. (Turn the tips of the pies inwards to prevent them from burning during baking).

Place the pies onto a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper, and bake at 275 – 300 degrees Celsius for 10 - 15 minutes, until golden brown.

When the pies are removed from the oven, brush them with melted butter or a butter and water / milk mixture. Place the pies onto a greaseproof paper and cover with a kitchen towel to soften. (If you prefer a crispy crust, do not cover the pies!)

 

Few words about Christmas food in Finland

I spent the Christmas 09 in Finland with my parents while my poor man had to work in Amsterdam. Next year he will hopefully experience the Finnish Christmas extravaganza with me.

The menu of 09 looked like this:

Fish:

Cured salmon with mosterd-dill sause

Cold smoked salmon

Smoked salmon with garlic-chives creme fresh sauce
Herring caviar
Smoked vendace

Meat:
Christmas pate
Meat jelly
Blackcurrant jelly
Cold smoked ox mousse

Bread:

Archipelago bread

Rye bread

Karelian pies

Salads:

Beetroot salad
Wild mushroom salad
Garden salad

 Warm main courses:

Ham

Homemade mustard

 Wild hare-stew

Peas

Swede casserole

Carrot casserole

Potato casserole

Desserts:

Cheese platter

Cinamon cookies

Salty crackers

Strawberry jam

My favourite things

I admit, I am a total gadget freak when it comes to cooking. My latest purchase, G3 Ferrari pizza oven is AMAZING. After burning couple of pizzas and myself I've tamed the beast and now it obeys me and cooks the most nicest pizzas in the world.

 

The delivery guys at Ferrara are going to be pissed off though.. no more deliveries to our house!

Besides the pizza oven our kitchen is full of stuff. We grind our coffee beans and use french press, there is a sandwich grill also - which BTW cooks chicken and steaks nicely also. The next thing I want is the Kitchen aid as I am getting a bit tired of kneading the pizza dough by hand :)

   

I found a name and now let the blogging begin!

After some succestions on my FB wall I decided to pick this one.

Helicious moments to be expected, most likely a lot of pizza, pasta and steaks.