American Style

Last week was the 1st of May, which here in Finland is known as Vappu, and celebrated mostly by the students, especially by the high school graduates. In most families on May 1st it is a tradition to make doughnuts, and we got inspired by this to try it by ourselves also. We were under the impression that it would be somehow very difficult, but it was actually surprisingly easy.

When you think of doughnuts, people often start thinking about the USA, the promised land of all junk food. We decided to stay within the lines of that idea, and tried to imitate the KFC deep fried chicken. To prevent it from becoming that overly fatty, we enjoyed the fried chicken dipped in Greek Tzatziki and  next to some marinated tomatoes with mozzarella and onion. Since America is sometimes considered as the melting pot of different cultures and nationalities, it was probably acceptable that we mixed in some Greek impressions too.

Homemade KFC

~ 400-500g of chicken pieces of desired size

~2,5 dl of wheat flour

curry powder

pepper 

salt 

dried herbs of your desire (oregano, thyme, tarragon, parsley...) 

a few chopped garlic cloves (we left this out, since there was garlic in almost everything else on the table)

an egg (which we forgot to add... but it still was good and crispy, just quite not the same) 

Lastly, around a liter of vegetable oil to fry them in

Just add together the dry ingredients, garlic, and the egg. Roll the chicken pieces in the mixture. The result something something quite dry, even with the egg. Then just heat the oil up in a wide pan up to around 180-190 degrees Celsius. If you don't have a thermometer to measure the oil with, you can throw a piece of white bread in the oil. If the bread rises to the surface the oil is hot enough to start deep frying. Lift all the chickens in the oil and fry under a lid, though occasionally turning them around, until the surface is deliciously golden brown. Take the done chicken pieces out with a sieve and roll in paper to get the extra oil away from the surface, otherwise they will turn soggy when the oil gets absorbed. 

The Tzatziki 

150 g Greek yogurt 

~½ cucumber

a few garlic cloves 

dill 

vinegar or lemon juice

olive oil 

Peel and grate the cucumber, squeeze the water out, and place on a sieve to drip in peace. Chop the garlic cloves until very fine. Add the garlic to the yogurt along with dill and around half a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon, and a tablespoon of olive oil. Mix in the grated cucumber and put in the fridge for at least half an hour so that the garlic taste can develop in peace. 

The Doughnuts 

100g melted butter

2½ dl full fat milk

1 pack (7g) dry yeast (or a corresponding amount of normal yeast) 

1 dl sugar

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp salt

1 egg

7½ dl wheat flour 

Around a liter of oil to fry 

Some sugar to roll them in when they're done 

Melt the butter and put it aside to cool down. Warm the milk a little warmer than body temperature, and pour in a bowl. Add sugar, cardamom, salt, and egg (if you are using normal yeast, add it to the warm milk and stir well. If you're using dried yeast, mix it in the flour). Add most of the flour in small portions to the milk mixture. Before adding the last part of flour, pour in the melted butter. Finish the flour, and knead well with hands. 

Let the dough rise until twice the amount

Make small buns out of the dough and make a hole in the middle to make the desired kind of doughnuts. Notice that the size will still increase when fried, so make them smaller than what you want them to be when they're done. After,  start heating the oil and let them still rise while the oil heats up. When the oil is around 180-190 degrees Celsius, deep fry them. Look at the recipe of KFC to see the tip of measuring the right temperature if you don't have a thermometer. The doughnuts cook done very fast. It takes only around a minute per side or less, so don't do anything else while deep frying, concentrate on what you're doing. Lift the doughnuts up from the oil with a sieve, and roll with spoons in sugar all around.

 Enjoy the fatty, sweet treats without feeling bad, it's alright to treat yourself well every once in a while! 

Notice, that you can use the same oil twice or thrice to deep fry. We used the same oil for both KFC and the doughnuts, but we fried the doughnuts first, because they don't leave a taste in the oil. It would be quite unpleasant to eat chicken-tasting doughnuts, or what do you think? 

To complete the evening American style, we spent the rest of the evening watching the Bad Boys II. Awesome entertainment when you don't feel like using your brain! Highly recommended. 

Quick Snack

One afternoon a sudden hunger attacked us and we wanted to make something quick, fatty and easy. So we connected a few of the most unhealthy things we could find to make an epic snack, which is not for calorie-phobics. So beware!

We started off with taking a hard iron pan and roasting some garlic, spring onion and herbs in butter, and then added some cheese sausages on the pan to absorb the flavour through the butter. Note, that the sausages were wrapped in bacon. Meanwhile we heated up the tortillas in the microwave. When the bacon on the sausages looked done, we took them off the pan, and replaced with the last slices of bacon. The sausages were covered in sweet chili-sauce, and wrapped in tortillas. The wraps were still covered with grated cheese, and the last bacon strips.

Mmm, Elegant!

Posted by K.

Menu Françias

For a long time already we've had in our minds to accomplish a French dinner. Since we already started our nationality themes with Lithuanian cuisine, this fit perfectly in the series. We wanted to make it as authentic as possible, and so we sought after fresh and natural ingredients. Our menu for the evening was special in another way also; it was fully vegetarian. I personally have huge respect for people who are able to give up meat completely, and so the feeling of loading the cashier's desk at the store with fresh and organic plants and vegetables was quite extraordinary.

So now to get to the point, we started with a cliché, but something that still works every time, namely, baguette served with white cheese and dark grapes. That's just something impossible to get bored of! And this time we had chosen organic brie as the cheese to go, as we got started with the green spirit anyways.

The main course for our French evening was nothing less traditional than quiche, served with tomatoes and crunchy salad leaves. Nothing more complicated.

The recipe for the pie crust can be found from this link. At least for the pie mold we used the amount of dough was not quite enough, so we recommend you to increase the amounts a little bit.

So we made a so-called Rainbow quiche. The filling was composed of the following:
- an onion
- a red paprika
- a small broccoli (some of it was saved for the breakfast to be put between an omelet, because it seemed there would be so much of the filling and we feared it wouldn't fit in the crust)
- mushrooms (We had some of our self-picked mushrooms from last autumn in the freezer. Even if champignons would've been more traditional, we decided to use our own. I am not quite sure about the name in English, but at least Wikipedia called it Yellowfoot. Fits very well)
- 3-4 eggs
- 200g cream cheese
- around a cup of milk
- fresh herbs, such as basilica, sage, or parsley
- salt
- pepper

What you do, is basically just mix the vegetables and the spices together and put in the raw pie crust, after which you mix eggs, cheese and milk together in a bowl and pour over the vegetables. Bake in 200 C for 45-55 minutes. Now, don't do the same mistake as we did, but let the pie rest when it comes from the oven. The juices will absorb and it won't be that watery if you wait for a while before eating it.


As the dessert we made a French pastry called Mille-feuille (which means the thousand leaves), also known as the Napoleon. It takes some effort to make it, though it's quite worth it if it succeeds. Our's didn't turn out as pretty as it could've; the topping was too watery and the fillings didn't want to stay inside it. The recipe for the dessert can be found here. This time we didn't do any modifications in it really, apart from making it in a smaller scale, and added some raspberry jam inside it with the filling.

 Posted by K.

Lithuanian Cuisine

We were inspired by N's earlier nationality, and decided to prepare a two course Lithuanian dinner. We wanted to make foods that he would have lovely childhood memories of, and so chose kibinai and tinginys.

Kibinai is a salty pastry which is filled with meat. Us not being so handy with our hands, didn't make it exactly as it's supposed to look like, but according to N the taste was exactly as it was supposed to be, which we're both proud of. 

The original recipe which we used can be found both in Lithuanian and English from here. We didn't touch the recipe of the dough but tried to follow that as closely as possible. The only change we made was dividing the amounts in half, because they sounded way too large for just the two of us to eat. 

In the filling we used minced pork meat, onions, pepper, salt and some herbs.

Kibinai is commonly served with a soup. We made it from vegetable stock and a bunch of fresh parsley. Simple, but fits really well.

Then the tinginys. A dessert which will silence the cravings for sweetness and chocolate immediately. It was a bit difficult to try to find the proper recipe for it in English. Finally we ended up in a forum where we could find the translated and an authentic one.

I read that condensed milk can be produced at home easily, it's just quite time consuming. It's as easy as pouring milk into a wide based saucepan (preferably teflon) and leaving it on the stove on low heat for a few hours to condense/evaporate. So if you're feeling like being a true homemaker, go ahead. We just bought a can from the store. If you're unfamiliar with this ingredient and are wondering whether to buy the sweetened one or the other one, we recommend the other one. The unsweetened one is already so sweet that you can eat only a few spoonfuls. 

We used half the amount of nuts and half the amount of biscuits that the recipe suggested (because the packages I bought were too small...) but it turned out amazing nevertheless. This way it just turned out more chocolaty, which is not in this household considered a minus at all. 

Lastly, if you're busy or just feeling an uncontrollable desire to eat the dessert already, it's possible to reduce the freezing time by instead of a fridge putting it in a freezer, where it will turn good in about an hour already. If you'd ever decide to make this, we guarantee, it's totally worth it (especially because it's really easy to make) if you love sweet things. 

Posted by K & N

First Year Anniversary

Hello everyone, N&K are back! 

We're deeply sorry for this break of two months without a single post, but we've been too busy to write it. Though that doesn't mean that we would've been too busy to cook!

 A couple months ago we celebrated our 1st year together. Our goal was to make it fancy, and that succeeded perfectly. We got each other presents on this occasion also. N gave me a photo frame with a picture of us on our holiday trip last summer, with a box of self made chocolate truffles (can be seen in the picture). I couldn't have been more impressed and delighted about a gift! I gave him a CK perfume. Dressed up in a suit and a dress we prepared together a three course dinner for two.

We started off with a sure-to-succeed appetizer, something that we  recommend for everyone, in case they want to make an elegant and fancy evening with almost no effort (when there's not a lack of money): All different kinds of cheeses with crackers and grapes. It looks beautiful and smells absolutely gorgeous when served. There's of course no recipe for this, just buy the cheeses that you enjoy the most, or some new ones if feeling adventurous. We recommend at least blue cheese, strength depending on your personal taste. At least if you choose to go with something as strong as Roquefort for example, it would be a good idea to take milder cheeses on the side to balance it out, such as creamy French country brie.

We were hungry and impatient and almost filled ourselves up with the starters. Elegance is a skill to practice for the future, with some self control... But that did not steal the enjoyment of the main course: oven baked salmon and rice served with creamy and fresh lemon sauce. The salmon was prepared the way I've been used to in my childhood.

A salmon fillet is placed whole on an oven tray. Some lemon or lime (or both) juice is sprinkled on it. If available, you should also try some whiskey too, it gives a nice flavour. Unfortunately we didn't have any. Next, some salt. You shouldn't use small grained salt, it may ruin the texture of the fish. Large grained sea salt is traditional, but to our delight I had some Himalayan salt (somewhere also known as rose salt, due to it's colour that is finely red/pink). The salt is followed by lemon pepper and dill. Then it's put in the oven in about 200 C or less, for about half an hour, depending on the size and thickness of the fish.

The sauce was composed of the following:
- vegetable stock
- lime juice
- cream
- a couple of table spoons of wheat flour mixed in water (to thicken the texture to "sauce-like")
- dill
- pepper
- and lastly, I just can't remember whether it was blue cheese or goat cheese that I took from the remains of the cheese plate, but use the one you like the most, both fit excellently in my opinion

For dessert, we prepared pannacotta. There are different ways to make it, but we chose the one without gelatin, since that ingredient seems to have some personal issues with me. So our recipe was the following:

2,5 dl cream (or milk, or both)
1 dl jelly sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar

Mix all ingredients in a pot, heat until boiling, and let the mixture boil for around half a minute. Poor into glasses from which they'll be served and take them to cool down in the fridge. We recommend you to make these already the day before. We didn't, but let them be in the cold for only 2-3 hours, which left them still runny. It didn't matter though, it tasted great still! Decorate the portions with any fruits or berries of your desire. Chocolate(sauce) could also fit, but if and only if the meal before the dessert was not too heavy. Pannacotta is very sweet and surprisingly filling, and so some berries are a good way to lighten it up and make it "easier to eat". As you can see from the picture, we used strawberries. Unfortunately fresh and good ones weren't available in the winter here in Finland (oh how we love the arctic conditions...) so we used ones melted from the freezer.

After a good and huge meal, the best thing to do is to watch a great movie. After a romantic meal would've been too syrupy to watch some boring 100 times seen romance chick flick, and we chose to see the Naked Gun 2.

Posted by K&N

Valentine's Day

Hmmmm, what a better way to spend a Valentine's day then making some delicious burgers? No really, it's a great way! This Valentine's day started of with the exchange of some gifts, which we got for each other. One received freshly baked chocolate cupcakes with a delicious sugar topping and the other a box of Belgian chocolate.. so much chocolate.. don't you think? We had no idea that we will still cook something today, yet at the last moment we decided to spend this Valentine's day (a weekday) and night together. What now? That's right, now it's time to cook! Not feeling like something too fancy? Maybe the amount of time isn't appropriate. Well, I think it's safe to say, that burgers will save you. And as a remark, nothing is impossible; burgers can also be made delicate and fancy ;). Here's what you'll need:

Your favorite bun recipe
Minced meat (the amount depends on you, yourself)
An egg
Blue cheese
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Cheese
Spices and herbs (whatever you're feeling like)
Some sauce (this time we used sweet chili sauce, surprisingly delicious)

First of all bake the buns! Follow your favorite recipe! Mix the minced meat with one egg. Season it. Add some blue cheese, you won't regret it. Mix and form it into meatballs. Size doesn't matter ;). Chop the tomatoes, cut the cheese. When the buns are done take them out and cut into two halves. So what goes inside? First of all the sauce (in this case sweet chili sauce), then one hot meatball. Lettuce goes next, followed by tomatoes and finally some cheese.  

Doesn't it just look beautiful? We suggest you enjoy with someone special, don't forget to add a pinch of love, and some romance ;) 

Thanks for reading! We hope you've enjoyed your Valentine's day, keep up on the love guys!

Posted by N.

The Unexpected Meal

This weekend our evening together came with a rather short notice, and only late on Saturday evening did we decide to start cooking. Inconveniently, proper stores were already closed here in Finland at 19.00, so we had to settle for the selection of a local kiosk, which was not too luxurious. Overall, we still managed to create a splendid, multicultural meal. Due to the lack of ingredients that the original recipe suggested, and also a sudden boost of creativity, we again ended up improvising in the recipes. Cooking is an art, and what is an art without expressing yourself?

We found a very interesting idea in another cooking blog, where was a recipe called "The Mexican dip". When you look at it, it seems more like an actual meal, but it's eaten with chips. Sounds extraordinary, and instead of asking why, we asked why not? We also, of course, made a dessert, for which we got a recipe from N's mother. The original recipe required some ingredients that aren't even sold in Finland, so even if we wanted to we wouldn't have the chance to make it exactly the same. Here are the results of the evening's work.

400g minced meat
~ 200g cream cheese (we used sour cream, since the kiosk didn't sell cream cheese, but I believe the result would be more "dense" with the cheese)
390g pack of crushed tomatoes
blue cheese
garlic
Taco spice mix
fresh chili
herbs according to mood
any cheese of your choice, grated
olives

Mix the taco spice mix with the cream cheese/sour cream, and spread it on the bottom of a wide pan. Then cook the minced meat on a stove, add all the other ingredients in apart from the grated cheese and olives. Poor the meat sauce on the cream cheese in the pan, and spread olives and the cheese on top. Bake in 225C for around 15 minutes, or when the cheese on top gets some nice color.

Serve it with chips that you like. Preferably nacho ones, but again, the selection from which we had the opportunity to choose from didn't contain those, so we settled with normal ones spiced with chili.







Apple surprise cake with ice cream
3 eggs
160g sugar
160g flour
50g butter
1 tsp baking powder
3 apples
100g (or as you please) chocolate-fudge cookies (or any cookies you like)




Mix the eggs, sugar and flour together in a bowl with a mixer until smooth. Melt the butter and add it to the dough. Peel and chop the apples, and crumble the cookies, and add them to the dough with baking powder. It's better to leave the pieces quite big, since it's nice to be able to taste the cookie and the apple properly. Poor the dough to a buttered oven pan and bake in 170C for around 40-50 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream, the contrast between the hot cake and cold, creamy ice cream is delicious...

Thank you for reading! 

Post by K&N