Guilty Pleasures Salad

Pssst! Want to know the real reason I couldn't remain a vegetarian? I.love.bacon.

I also love blue cheese and salads and dijon mustard. Truly some of my favorite things. That's why this combination makes a killer salad. A salad so good, it serves as a main course. A salad so good, it deserves a blog post. 

So simple: fry up some bacon and drain it on paper towels, or use some leftover bacon. Throw together some chopped lettuce (I used ice-berg and ruccola) and tomatoes, chunks of blue cheese and add the bacon once it has cooled a bit. For the dressing, use some of the bacon fat, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper, a heaping tablespoon of mustard (yellow or dijon) and a tablespoon of apple cider or white wine vinegar and whisk together.

The cure for the case of the Mondays

Pizza with red onions, olives, feta and garlic.

Mondays come and go. Afterall, it's just a 24 hour span of your life that society has given a name and placed ordinally between Sunday and Tuesday and what's the big deal anyway? My Monday was spent bombing a intermediate German final and finding that someone had stolen my makeup at the gym. Otherwise...The weekend flew by, it was only 48 hours, and it'll be humpday before we know it. (And I'll be missing a Joni Mitchell cover band in lieu of a thesis meeting).

After working all last week in, well, the nicest restaurant I've ever even stepped foot in, I was ready for some relaxation. Down to earth time at home. Then again, I thought, I deserve to do something nice for myself too, and be classy while I'm at it. (Most of the time I'm called 'classy' it's sarcastically and I've got a 1.5 litre beer taped to each hand, but that's another story for another Monday)

Pizza with green pesto, chevre, and zucchini.

 I was in Stockman's Hullut Paivat (Crazy Days) super sale 3 out of 5 of the days it was running, and somehow I wasn't overwhelmed and felt completely relaxed. Maybe all the rumoring about how chaotic and annoying it is has really helped to deter the masses from going. I managed to go and find exactly what I was looking for: A pair of gloves, an umbrella, lefty scissors (well actually I bought righties by accident and exchanged them the next day).... Saturday was time for me and A to finally have some quality time together, so we met up in this crazy place and went to their gourmet grocer and parted the crowd looking for the best olive oil on sale, the best coffee on sale, etc etc. So don't ask me how we ended up with 4 types of cheeses in our cart, but it happened. Normally I think rationally and might say something to A like, 'don't you remember we already have a lot of cheese in the 'frig'? But ok, we hardly ever buy such AWESOME cheese. I especially like the goat cheese (chevre) we bought. Yum. Gouda, aged Guyere, mascarpone....

We already had in the refrigerator: 2 types of blue cheese (because of lack of shopping communication), 2 types of mozzarella (because I was going to make lasagna and never did), cream cheese, parmesan, and feta. Now what? Pizza!! I know it looks like I made a lot of pizza and,  yes, I made all four pizzas tonight..... but my oven is currently the size of a microwave, so these pizzas are like individual sized and we only ate the equivalent of 3. I started with this pizza dough....

Quattro Fromaggio

 If you have any suggestions what to do with the other cheeses, or for other pizza topping suggestions, let's hear it. (Though I finished off the mozzarella thankfully)

Pizza with roasted red and yellow bell peppers and grilled chicken.

Mac 'N' Cheese

So a planned fondue night never happened. Too many people out of town or sick or.... well it doesn't matter. But the fact is, that I had so much cheese in my fridge from a long over due 'fondue fundue' night, that I wanted to find a new way to use it.

After a long summer of over indulgence and laziness, debauchery, rowdiness, long nights out admiring the midnight sun, music, frisbess golf, beaching it, boozing it, too little exercise, excess in all the wrong places, basking in the unadulterated bliss that is living in a flat without roomates, without responsibility and basically reverting back to my freshman in college days (sans dorm living and video games), it is time that I say enough is enough.

The nights are cooling, and in mid-August in Helsinki, it is apparent that fall is soon upon us. In Helsinki that means, back to school, classes, student parties, more gigs for me at the Fair Center, rain, darkness, and did I mention, cold weather? Some of these aspects are fresh and exciting. The start of a new season means the start of a new impetus for change. Change in direction, change in possibilities, change in dress, change in seasonal foods (Brussels sprouts are coming soon!) and change in diet.

I've recently decided to try a vegan diet for some time. I won't be surprised if it doesn't last very long. I know this doesn't sound like I have a lot of faith and commitment to this, but the truth is that I've gone vegan several times and never with the intent on permanence. I believe in many facets of a vegan lifestyle and greatly admire those that choose to adhere to these rather strict principles, but I know myself well enough to know that this is just not something that ultimately fulfills my need to champion a cause. If I champion a cause it is in self discovery, and I've already discovered that the vegan thing doesn't stick to me very long.

However, I've chosen, and with that in mind, it's time to purge my refrigerator (also for my impending and dangerously close move). I won't throw food out just because of my recent decision. Worse than indulgence and excess is wastefulness, in my opinion. Cheese is something I love to indulge in. I love cheese of all kinds, smelly, sharp, soft, curded, peppered, holey... you name it. But let's face it, it's not exactly health food. It is, however, comfort food. And with that in mind, to ease the sense of failure after a fizzled fondue party, I indulged in some television and Mac N Cheese making.

2 cups dry macaroni or other small pasta (I used spirals)
1/3 cup butter
1 onion, finely diced
3 tablespoons of plain flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons of prepared yellow mustard
2 cups grated cheese (I used a 50/50 mixture of guyere and swiss, though many recipes suggest cheddar if it is available)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1.) Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente (this means 'slightly undercooked' for those of you not familiar with Italian ;) Drain and set aside.
2.) Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
3.) Stir in the flour gradually, mixing well.
4.) Take off the heat and stir in the milk gradually. Return to heat and stir as it thickens, several minutes.
5.) Lower the heat and stir in 3/4s of the cheese, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.
6.) Mix the pasta and cheese sauce well. Spoon into a buttered, oven safe dish. Top with remaining cheese and bread crumbs (I also sprinkled some paprika on)
7.) Bake at 180C for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Beet and Tomato Ragout with Goat Cheese

Yes, you can find beets all year round in Finland. But I believe they're finally in season, because the prices took a dive and I just had to pick some up. Maybe too many, so this will not be the last beet post to come for a while.

I do realize now why Jamie Oliver went by 'The Naked Chef', because cooking with things like beets requires a little bit of nudity if you don't want to ruin all of your clothing. I'm getting used to cooking in the nude as a way to cut back on laundry, and it's warm enough, and the tree blocks the window to my kitchen, so who's complaining? Just check this picture of my hand after peeling and chopping 3 beets and trying to wash off the juices:

This is good as a main course with a few greens on the side or as a side dish. I ate this for two days straight (TMI, FYI a bit concerned about the color of my stool afterwards), but I know beets aren't everyone's number one favorite, so a side dish is also appropriate for guests.

2 tbs olive oil

1 red onion, diced

1 tbs tomato paste

1 tbs brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 large beets, cubed into about 1 inch cubes

1 cup tomatoes canned or fresh

salt and pepper to taste

balsamic vinegar to taste (about 1-2 tbs is probably more than enough)

a few sliced rounds of good quality goat cheese

1. Heat the olive oil in a sautee pan. Add the onion and slowly brown it for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

2. Add the tomato paste, sugar, garlic, and 3/4 cup water to the pan and stir well.

3. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, which takes about 25 minutes.

4. Add the beets and tomatoes with salt and pepper and balsamic vinegar and simmer for another 20 minutes, or until beets are soft.

 5. Serve the ragout topped with slices of goat cheese.

Labneh- Greek Yogurt Cheese

I met this Greek dude last Tuesday coming out of Nordea bank in Munkkiniemi. He came out grumbling about the fact that it was snowing in May and that they had charged him a 7 euro surcharge for making a deposit. I sympathized, clearly. I don't believe in charging people to deposit money into a savings account. I don't believe in snow in May! I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe this is pretty good cheese.

As it turned out, the guy was from Ohio, but his family was Greek and he had just visited them in Greece. I wanted to like him, I really did. I usually approach fellow Americans with a very hopeful attitude. But ya know, we can't all be awesome. This guy only wanted to complain about Finland, Finnish people, weather, and so forth. If you've been here as long or longer than me, those complaints are beaten into the ground with a mat-cleaning-whacker-thing by now. Old, hackneyed, frusterating. If you don't like it, go back to Greece and join the protests there. Or go back to Ohio and...... do whatever it is that they do in, Ohio.

This Greek cheese was not inspired by my ungrateful American compatriate turned expatriate. It was inspired by a lot of plain yogurt leftover from last week's Indian food frenzy. None-the-less, I just had to try it out. I would compare it to cream cheese in consistency and taste.

1 liter plain yogurt (full or fat free will both work fine- I used fat free)
good olive oil
rosemary, thyme and garlic

1. Season the yogurt with salt and pepper.
2. Simply pour the yogurt into a coffee filter, or double folded cheese cloth (I used a coffee filter)
3. Tie the ends of the bag/filter. Tie the strings to a knife, and lay the knife with the dangling bag over a deep dish, like a tall tupperware.
4. Leave the bag there for 2-3 days, draining the water from the tupperware if needed. I drained mine only for two days before I realized no more liquid was coming out.
5. Using teaspoons, make small balls from the cheese and put them in a container covered with the oil and spices.

This is better presented contained in a wide-necked glass jar, but since I didn't find any, I used the wine glass for the photo. Obviously the cheese will now taste of rosemary, thyme and garlic, but with a little imagination you can season it however you might like. I was thinking next time to make a sweet version with honey and the rind of an orange. The cheese is really soft, but the balls stay separate with the oil. This will make about 10 tbs size servings and lasts about 4-5 days in the fridge.

Yellow Tomato Salsa over a Smokey Quesadilla

I love these cute little yellow 'cherry' tomatoes, because they're so colorful and they have a nice sweet tanginess that reds don't. Problem is, what to do with them? These are a relatively new food commodity to me, so I am hesitant to do too much experimentation until I start to have a taste for them. So for this recipe, I adapted something from one of my favorite food blogs, the Gluen Free Goddess, for a tasty roasted salsa recipe. This woman's a great writer, photographer, and obviously she must be a pretty good cook. If she were vegetarian, I'd be down-right devoted. For anyone out there who's a celiac, I highly recommend.

Making the salsa was so easy because there's really only two steps: chop all the ingredients, and put them in the oven to roast.

• 1 kg yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 large red onion, diced
• 1 cup canned sweet corn
• 2-4 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 3 tbs dry white wine

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Toss all ingredients together.
3. Bake for about 35 minutes, stirring once half way through, until tomatoes are becoming slightly browned.

Enjoy chilled with chips, or on a quesadilla. I recommend with smoked cheese, it goes well with the roasted flavor. If you like cilantro, chop some fresh and mix with the salsa when it's cool. Otherwise you can use some other fresh herb. I used parsely.

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.>