09 juin 2006
One afternoon with Catalina
What a nice and funny afternoon! I had planned to spend my afternoon cooking and organizing some kind of photo-shooting session for my "to-come" first cooking article which will be published in Etelä-Pohjanmaa newspaper Ilkka.
So I asked Catalina if she was ready to cook and take pictures for an afternoon...it was quite funny, after almost 60 pictures taken we finally found what we were looking for...
The afternoon cooking session dealt with two season ingredients: Asparagus and rhubarb (yes in Finland we are a little bit late...lilacs are just in blossom)
With rhubarb we made a chutney...I took the recipe from the wonderful book my mum offered last christmas:Larousse des confitures...Kiitos äiti!
250 g rhubarb
80 g sultana raisins
200 g onions
400 g brown sugar
20 cl of cidervinegar
1 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ginger (in powder)
1/2 teaspoon of cloves (in powder)
1/2 teaspoon of Cayenne peppers (in powder)
Peal and cut the rhubarb and the onions in small pieces, pour all the ingredients in a jam pot or inox pot and bring slowly to boil.
Then keep it at slow heat, keeping the boil on, for an hour. The mixture should be consistent. Pour the mixture in jam jars, close them tight and turn them upside down for a better conservation.
This chutney can be stored for a year.
If thought about that chutney because it goes really well with grilled meats, especially pork chops or pork ribs.
The next recipe was an asparagus flan (some kind of salty pudding...cannot find the word in english..oups)
But it will come tomorrow...not much at a time!
25 mai 2006
Mango Cheese cake
A very nice summer dessert, after a grill party. I made it for the first time in France, I needed to find a dessert after a tahitian meal and it was simply delicious....I still had in mind the delicious cheese cakes I ate during my year in Miami but I also remembered how heavy cream cheese was, so I decided to replace cream cheese by curd cheese (Fromage blanc in french)...and the result was really nice. Mango is also a very fresh fruit and has a "milky" texture which fits perfectly with the cheese cake...But enough talking...here is the recipe! Enjoy!
Ingredients - Ainekset (for 6/Kuudelle)
250 g speculos biscuits/ kaneli keksit
60 g butter/voita
500 g curd cheese /rahka
150 g sugar/sokeria
50 g flour /vehnäjauhoa
3 big eggs/ 3 isoa munaa
50 g crème fraiche /ranskalainen crème fraiche
2 mangos /mangoa
Crush the speculos biscuits, melt the butter and mix those two ingredients together to make some kind of paste. Put that mixture in the bottom of pan, and press evenly around the bottom. Bake in the oven 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
In the meanwhile, pour in the mixer: curd cheese, crème fraiche, eggs, sugar and flour. Mix those ingredients until you reach a smooth mixture.
Pour that on top of the biscuits in the pan and bake for 30 minutes at 150 degrees.
After taking the cake out of the oven, let it cool, place in the refrigerator. 10 minutes before serving dress mango slices on top of the cake and serve cool!
Bon appétit!
