MIDSUMMER NIGHT DREAM WITH HOMEMADE BUTTER AND KNÄCKEBRÖD

There is a beautiful Midsummer fairy tale of two eternal Nordic lovers, the beautiful girl called Dust and a handsome boy called Dawn. They only meet once a year, on the shortest night of the year and kiss briefly.

To wait the whole year for this one kiss. Wow. This has to be something special :).




For the midsummer buffet I made homemade butter and swedish flatbread called knäckebröd. Unbelievably easy and tasty.


HOMEMADE BUTTER WITH CHILI & CHIVES

500g heavy cream
Sea salt
1 little red chili pepper
handful chopped fresh chives

Process heavy cream with electric mixer until buttermilk separates from the solid butter. Pour off (or save) the buttermilk. Remove the butter from the machine, squeeze it into a ball and wash it under cold running water several times until the water runs clear.
Add seasalt, chopped red chili, chives and mix it all together.


KNÄCKEBRÖD & SWEDISH FLATBREAD

150g flour
ca 50g water
sesame seeds
sea salt

Mix flour with salt. Knead together flour, sesame seeds and water until the dough is smooth. Add more water if necessary. Make little dough balls. Roll them out very thin on the floured surface. It is important that the dough is as thin as possible. Then bake each of them on the frying pan without oil until crisp on the both sides.

Enjoy with homemade butter.

Smakligt maltid!

"ICH BIN EIN BERLINER"

This is the famous quotation from Kennedy's speech 1963 in West Berlin. At that time the city was divided in West and East. The wall in the middle of the city cut West Berlin completly off from East Berlin and East Germany.

I had the opportunity to visit the city June 2011 and enjoy free and united Berlin, its history and culinary highlights.


Here are some Berlin gourmet recommendations


Weltrestaurant Markthalle in Kreuzberg
Pücklerstrasse 34

German Cuisin

It should be so easy. I am in Germany, Berlin and would like to eat some good german food. Nope. It is not so easy to find real german food in Berlin. My local friend took me to this restaurant and I am happy he did. This place has everything - good homy food, great service and nice rustic atmosphere. I tried their famous schnitzel with fried potatoes "Bratkartoffel". It was crisp, crunchy and irresistible, the way a schnitzel should be. An the fried potatoes, fried in butter like my grandmother did. Pure heaven.



Yoli - frozen yoghurts

Berlin Mitte
Invalidenstrasse 112

Yoli is the first frozen "pop" yoghurt store in Berlin. The shop has a very cool white and clean interior with stylish minimalistic furniture. But the best is the frozen yogurt with different toppings. I found the yogurt taste very neutral and creamy. Perfect with a combination of some fresh berries and chocolate cream. There so many different toppings you can choose from, berries, buiscuits, müsli, chocolate etc.

KOHUPIIMAKORBID - ESTONIAN CURD CHEESE BUNS

Summer is short. I can't believe it is already June. Time flies. One of the biggest festive activities in Nordics - Midsummer - is almost here.
There are different midsummer traditions in north. In Sweden you eat herring with new boiled potatoes, jump around the maypole and sing a song of little frog
Estonians jump over fire, eat a lot of bbq meat and traditional curd cheese buns. Estonians love their curd cheese. They eating it in various forms, salty and sweet, in porridge and with chocolate.
And in Switzerland people don't celibrate midsummer at all :(. It is just not enough north. But I decided to celibrate it anyway and baked those lovely little estonian curd cheese buns. It feels almost like home even with Alps and cows as background :).

SOULFOOD:
VILLE VALO " SUMMER WINE"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8VpOJeUBhY

First you need to make the yeast dough from my white loaf recipe http://mumsfilibaba-mumsfilibaba.blogspot.com/2011/05/braided-white-loaf.html.

Divide the dough in 12 little parts. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Then press the dough balls down with a bottom of a glass that has smaller diameter than the dough ball. Fill it with the following filling:

Curd cheese mix:
250g curd cheese or ricotta
0.5g sugar
1 egg
100g sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
I have added 2-3 mashed strawberries.

Mix everything and fill the buns. Brush the edges with cold egg.
Bake at 200C for 15 minutes.

Head Jaanipäeva!

EASY PEASY SNAP PEAS

There are a number of ways to eat snap peas.
What is yours?

When I was a little girl, the whole world was simple and I was eating the peas whole as a snack. I would just lay in the sun, dream away and eating the green wonders one after another :). So delicious.

Now when I am a "little bit" older I still love to eat them "pure". And when I feel I want to make it more difficult for me I just add some garlic, seasalt and pepper. This is a wonderful, easy and healthy side dish. It takes 10 minutes and it's ready.

SOULFOOD:
BLACK EYED PEAS
"WHERE IS THE LOVE"


150g fresh sugar snaps, ends snipped off
pinch of seasalt
pepper
olive oil
2-3 cloves pressed garlic

Heat the oil in a wok and sautè the peas for 2-3 minutes. Add salt, pepper, garlic and stir well. The peas should remain crisp. Remove from heat.

SAILING PICNIC - CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS

Today we went sailing with some good friends. It was not one of those perfect blue sky weather days. We had everything. Blue sky, dark sky, nice white clouds, summer rain, no wind, a lot of wind. I loved it. Isn't it like a metafor for life? We all have our sunny days and rainy days. Without the dark clouds we can't appreciate the blue sky.



SOULFOOD:
ROD STEWART
"SAILING"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyIw0gcgfik

I took some picnic food with me to eat on the boat. Some colorful chicken lollipops. Perfect for a summer day out.

Ingredients:

ca 500g chicken breast
1-2 zucchini
1-2 garlic cloves
salt
pepper
handful basil

With vegetable peeler cut long strips of the zucchini. Put the zucchini strips into cold water for couple of minutes. Drain the slices.

Cut the chicken breast into long strips. Add pressed garlic, salt and pepper. Fry the strips over medium heat until golden brown.

Put the zucchini slice and basil on the fried chicken and roll everything together. Pin it together with a toothpick (or something nicer :)).

Ahoi!