Helsinki Sangria

A few years ago I had the fortune to live in Spain for a while and learn from my boss and bartender how to make a proper Sangria.

The idea is simple; red wine, oranges; spirits and gaseosa combined in various proportions. The key spirit being Brandy de Jerez to give it the particular flavour.

The recipe I use is tweaked a little since Brandy de Jerez is too hard to come by here in Helsinki and instead I use Jaloviina, i.e. local cheapish brandy. Gaseosa is another unknown component and all sweetened fizzy waters are also flavoured, Sprite just doesn't cut it for this so I use normal fizzy water and homemade sugar syrup.


To make the sugar syrup; simply heat up sugar with splash of water to dissolve, and when heated adding just enough water for the liquid to go from milky to clear - 500g sugar makes about 1 liter of syrup. Handy to keep around in a capped bottle for mixing drinks or topping up sangria through the night.

The success was granted as I saw bowl after bowl empty at the housewarming party last week. I kept filling up with white wine (keeping the white sofas safe instead of with red) from the box roughly 1 -1,5 liter at a time, about 1/3 liter of orange juice and the same amount of sugar syrup I prepared earlier, plenty of ice, sliced fresh lemon and oranges, the juice of 1 fresh lemon, about 1/3 bottle of Jaloviina (1/6 l) and some sweet peach liqueur (instead of the standard Cointreau that I think works better with red wine). Top the bowl off with about 1/5 l of fizzy (unsweetened) water.

Snack pack porridge

Take a jar with a tightly closing lid add...


about 1,5 dl soft greek yoghurt (or half and half yoghurt and milk) 

1 spoonful of Maca (if you like it), 

1 handful of frozen blueberries (or other berries or fruits you like), 

1 handful of rolled oats (or a little less rolled oats and with some chia seeds or flaxseeds) 
and a sprinkle of demerara sugar on top (or honey or mashed dates if you prefer)

Stir, put the lid on and put it in your pack, go for a few hours hike in the November sun...

... find a sunny spot, take the snack pack out and a spoon and enjoy!

The frozen blueberries wont break when stirring them cold, so it looks nice too and the slow defrosting process will keep the yoghurt fresh for longer. 

Afternoon snack

You could of course use these as an afternoon snack at work, before heading to the gym which unfortunately happens more often. The packs will last nicely a few days in the fridge too, so make a few once you're at it. 

Flax crackers

Flaxseed keep me healthy and happy, especially on the road when my eating habits are disrupted. But scooping down flaxseed gets a little one-sided. I made crackers like these the first time on the clean diet, cutting out grains, dairy and other foods that induce the inflammatory state in the body etc etc. The diet worked wonderfully, I felt better than in a long time, but I don't stick with it all the time. Life is to be enjoyed and, I love baking bread too much. Either way, the crackers stuck. They make a brilliant fiber-rich snack on the go and are perfect with salsas, hummus, baba gannouch and any kind of wholesome dip you can think of. 

To make, take 3dl of flaxseed and grind about 0,5dl - 1dl of it, put all of it in about 4dl water overnight. The seeds will swell and make a gooey looking mess (not appetizing at all). The amount of flaxseed you grind will determine how crumbly vs compact your crackers become. The more ground seeds you have the more compact crackers you get. The next morning, add 1 or 2 finely grated carrots, and according to your personal likings some dry herbs (I particularily like rosemary in this), perhaps some garlic, cumin seeds or grated parmesan. Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, buckwheat etc can also be included. 

Spread the mixture over a baking sheet on a baking tray, about a 1-1,5 cm thick layer, sprinkle sea salt on top and dry the mixture in the oven overnight on 50'C with the oven door slightly open until dry. You could use a dryer (if you're lucky to have one!) to make these raw, or to speed things up you can turn up the heat slightly to 75'C. (I usually start up with 50'C overnight, then give them a final blast during the morning routines on 75'C before I turn the oven off, still with the door slightly open, and head out to work...)

Then finally break the sheet of flaxseed in good sized pieces, peel them off the baking sheet and enjoy or store for later. 

**I'm thinking of experimenting with a sweeter version, with a little honey some raisins, nuts and other goodies in there. For the next climbing trip...

Enjoy!

Flatbread with oats

I still bake all my bread adapting the basic bread recipe I shared with you earlier, this one is no different. The rolled oats in the recipe keeps the bread fresh and moist for a long time, they're full of fiber and makes a perfect filling lunch sandwich.

To start with, stir 12 g of fresh yeast (1/4 of a block) and 1 tsp of sea salt into 3dl of cold water. Add about 3dl of rolled oats and 2,5dl of bread flour and give it a quick stir.

The dough just after first mixing.

Let the dough rest for a half-hour, fold it over by hand and cover with a little extra flour and let it rest for another half hour. Sprinkle the worktop with some flour and transfer the dough over, form a round flat cake on the worktop (about 1,5cm thick and the size of a large plate), sprinkle with flour and cover with a tea towel while heating the oven for another halfhour.

Baked out on the countertop

Heat the oven to 250C with the baking stone, if you have one, or the baking tray inside. 

Transfer the bread to the hot stone, might help to fold it over in half and/or using a spatula. Fold it back out on the stone, prick the surface with a fork and cut the cake in 6-8 pieces (without cutting all the way through). Then, put the bread in the oven and lower the heat to 200C and bake for about 20 minutes. 

Bukkake Okazu Rayu

Picked up this jar at Narita last time there, completely at random. Turned out that it was the best condiment I've tried ever... Sweet and crisp fried garlic and chili in oil, simply superb!

I just ran out though, and not knowing where to get some more I desperately tried making some at home cooking plenty of finely chopped garlic (1 bulb) and red chillies (6pcs) in sunflower oil (1dl) until slightly golden before taking it off the heat. I seasoned with a little sugar (to accentuate the sweetness of the chili and garlic even more) and a little salt (for balance).

Oil gets real hot and it keeps cooking a while before it cools after taking the saucepan off the heat, so take it off as soon as you see just a hint of colour. Obvious to most I guess, but I didn't think too far ahead so my first batch ended up a little bit crispier than I first had in mind... Toasty but tasty, I guess you can't go very wrong with chili and garlic, right? 

However, it still doesn't fully compare to the original, so if you bump into some in Finland, please let me know!

Bread basics

I bake bread quite often nowadays, ever since discovering Martin Johansson's excellent book and blog some time ago baking rather than buying bread have become the norm.

The basic recipe I use over and over is rather simple, there's barely any kneading involved. I don't go about it very scientifically, never used a scale and nowadays I only really use a measure for the water, so the outcome is rarely the same.

For variation I mix in seeds and substituting part of the flour for other than wheat. I've noticed that part oat or spelt keeps the bread fresh for longer. Durum helps the bread rise and is good to combine with the spelt and oat flours don't rise so well otherwise.  A favourite of mine is with wholemeal wheat flour, spelt flour, sunflower seeds and whole spelt grains to make a really satisfying bread which keeps you going for long. Great everyday staple, tasting fresh even 4 days in. Another favourite is a simple white loaf with dried fruits and nuts to serve with a cheese platter.

A dough based on 2 litres of water, making 40 something burger buns

For 1 loaf of bread just stir together:

3 dl cold water

sea salt to taste, I like it as salty as the ocean

~10g of fresh yeast

and then stir in:

~6,5 dl flour

________

Don't worry if it looks like sticky porridge at this point, it should. If it looks too much like a dough and feels tough, add some water and stir a little more. You can then choose to:

Let it rest for a half-hour, fold the dough over a few times, rest again, fold again, rest again and fold a third time before wrapping it loosely in tea towel well covered in flour and let rise for an hour while heating the oven with the baking tray (and pizza stone if you have one) to 275C.

or

Let it rest for four hours, fold the dough over, wrap in a tea towel covered in flour and let rise while heating the oven and the baking tray.

or 

Let it rest in the fridge overnight, fold the dough over, again wrap in the tea towel and let rise while heating the oven and the baking tray.

________

Once the oven is hot and the dough have risen nicely transfer the dough to the hot oven tray. I often just grab the dough at two ends and twist it over before laying it down on the tray, to give it nice shape. When the tray is hot it will close up the dough which makes it not stick, paper will easily burn at 275. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for approx 25 mins. After half the time, turn the heat down to 250.

or

If you at this point notice that you are running out of time and don't have 1,5 hours. Start heating the oven, form 8-10 buns or two baguettes and let rise while the oven heats up, then bake for approx 15 mins.

Let the loaf or buns cool on a grid or in a basket without covering.

The burger buns a few hours later

To really make it rise high in the oven you need to bring up the humidity. Fancy ovens even have a function to spray in moisture, mine doesn't. When baking all-white ciabatta type loaves, I place a small dish with a little water in it on the bottom of the oven to build moisture.

The other trick, to make the crust really crispy, is to let the moisture out after half the time. And of course, to use part durum flour (pasta flour) in the dough.