Energy bites

Found this lovely recipe from Sprouted Kitchen, but with the intent to have them as a workout-snack tonight I thought I'd tweak it a bit. Hemp protein powder with its nutty flavour works well in chocolaty or nutty sweets, a pinch of salt is a good addition when you're drinking and sweating it balances the sweetness of the dates well too.

Mash up soft fresh dates (with a fork or food processor) with unsalted peanut butter and enough almond flour and hemp protein powder to form a crumbly thick dough, add cocoa nibs if you have and/or some dry cranberries. Roll small balls and sprinkle a little Maldon salt on top. Store cold.

The tiny 5min batch I did this morning, took 6 pitted small fresh moroccan dates, 1tbsp smooth unsweetened peanut butter, roughly 1/2dl almond flour and about 3tbsp hemp protein powder and made 8 bite-sized balls.  (And for a batch this small, forget about storing, my biggest problem is not eating them all before practice!)


They're absolutely divine and chewy (not hard) when you stick them in the freezer for a few hours. And, why not roll them in cocoa powder and serve them up, like truffles, with champagne?

Workout treats

30's birthday bash

Considering my love of food and my motivation for keeping this blog I have a terrible habit of not taking pictures of stuff that make their way through my head, fridge and cupboard. So yet again...

True to my cross kitchen and idea stealing style I made some fab nibbles on saturday. The fact that I thought I made cocktail nibbles for 30 and there were 20ish of us and we ran out pretty fast is either a testimony that we were short of food or probably, the food was good, or both.

Did some quick and easy rieska rolls, filled up with cold-cut meat (smoked lamb is fantastic in this), stirfried mushrooms, philadelphia cheese, oven-roasted bell peppers, chopped parsley and black pepper. Filling, rolling and slicing up quickly makes it look like you did a lot of work when actually you were watching Anthony Bourdain on tv at the same time...


For those of you unfamiliar with rieska, Wikipedia defines: "Rieska are unleavened barley-based flat breads, which are made similarly to crispbreads, but are not dried into a crisp. They are often served warm and buttered and consumed with milk.". Makes it all so clear doesn't it? 
In short, I'd say, it is the north of the polar circle answer to tortilla bread, a little less chewy and fluffier but almost as thin, made with barley and sometimes with potato in it too. Some are baked round, some rectangular and the Swedish streetside hotdogstands use it to serve up a dog with potato salad and roast onions. Genious!


For a big plateful I used 6 approx 20x30cm rieskas, 400g philadelphia, 200g cold cuts, 2,5 roasted peppers and half a bunch of parsley (maybe 50g). I mixed it all up, spread the mix on the bread, rolled them up, let them rest in the fridge til' closer to the party before cutting them up. Too self-evident to really have to mention, right?

The black bread-garlicmayo-smoked salmon-gari (sprinkled with black sesame seeds just for the pretty contrast) was a major success. No cooking involved, just getting the ingredients, slicing bread and putting it all together. Need to repeat this, soon.

I do feel I should invest in a mandolin to make my own gari in bulk, the stuff in the shop is way overpriced and not very good, a potato peeler does the trick but it is much slower. To do that, you just need to warm up the vinaigrette to dissolve the sugar, shave the ginger root thinly and marinate.

It doesn't take much ingredients either, just 1 part ginger, 1 part vinegar ( just plain rice, or go wild with fruit vinegars), sugar/cane sugar/honey to taste (about 2-4 tbsp for 1 dl vinegar). The young fresh and tender ginger will turn pink, the stuff you get in the finnish supermarket need a drop of beetroot juice in the vinegar to make it pink. Serve with cold cut fish of any kind, don't restrict yourself to just sushi.

Another hit was my dear friend's chocolate cheesecake, tweaked a little from a Pirkka recipe. Make sure to use organic eggs, the flavour of the eggs makes all the difference. The almond flour crust bakes to a lovely crispy bisquit that I'll surely be using for berry tarts next summer.

For the crust, mix 1dl almond flour with 2dl plain flour,1dl sugar, 50g butter and 1 egg. Perhaps add a pinch of sea salt to put the almond in the limelight next time. Line a cake tin (about 26cm diametre) with removable sides and butter it up, press out the base crumbles over the sides and base and place in the fridge to set. To pre-bake (and make it crispier), pinch the base with a fork to avoid it rising and bake for 10 mins in 225C.

For the filling, whisk 200g philadelphia cheese, 2dl heavy cream, 3 eggs, 1,5dl sugar, then sift in 0,5dl dark cocoa powder and mix thoroughly. Pour the batter in the crust and bake in 175C on the lowest level in the oven for 45 mins. Let cool and serve.

I wouldn't have managed to show any pictures of this one either though, if it wasn't that my friend and I was planning to make two cakes, 1 full and 1 half size, but as all the guests started turning up we just finished the full size and hid the prepped crust for the small one in the fridge. This is why it ended up on the breakfast table the next day and onto my camera...What a way to start a Sunday morning!

Chocolate cheescake and January sunshine

Salad vinaigrette formula

A salad is not a salad is not a salad without a dressing. I'll use up the last drops of any random sauces in the salad dressings I make. Once I managed to empty 6 different condiment bottles and jars at the same go (see the asian dressing below). So I promise you, you can always stir one up with any remnants in the cupboard...

I'll usually mix my salad dressings in any empty glass jar with a tight lid, filling it up halfway (to leave room for shaking it) with 

• something or some things sour (usually fresh lemon juice, but sometimes any kind of vinegar, lime juice etc), this together with the fat is really the bulk of the dressing
• something or some things fat (olive oil, unsweetened peanut butter, tahini, sesame oil etc etc)
• something sweet (some sugar, honey, fruits, jam or marmalade, a little goes a long way)
• something or some things salty (salt, shoyu, anchovy, grated parmesan cheese etc etc)
• and maybe something more (dijon and finely chopped shallots, mustard, chives, herbs, sesame seeds, a little cream, yoghurt, grated ginger, fresh or roasted garlic, fresh or roasted chili etc etc)

Go wild!

Close the lid (properly) and shake it, taste and add whatever you feel is missing and shake some more, repeat til you're satisfied with the flavour. 

An always sure bet is the Dijon vinaigrette including lemon juice, olive oil, honey, salt, dijon mustard and shallots. But I'm pretty sure everybody, really everybody, already knew how make a Dijon vinaigrette. Right?

My asian flavours dressing include lime juice, rice vinegar, peanut butter and toasted sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, spring onions and a mix of dark and light sesame seeds. Or I'll do a simpler version with soy sauce, lemon juice, peanut butter, honey and some roast garlic and chili oil. Nice with any greens, kale, cole, shrimps, chicken etc.

Right now I have this strange sounding chocolate dressing idea in mind that I have not tried out yet, playing with the idea of a mole really. I'm thinking balsamic vinegar,  chocolate syrup, sesame oil, salt and chili... maybe some peanutbutter too if it falls too flat without,  this to top off some really dark green leaves, roasted pinenuts and cooked torn-up chicken. Try it if you fancy, but I'm taking no responsibility for it...

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.