White explosion and culinary experiments

Hot, +27 C and sunny from Friday to Sunday evening:) 
Apple and cherry trees, together with some bushes had exploded into white blossom. The air was perfumed with the flowers of prunus padus (tuomi) and spiraea Grefsheim (norjanangervo).  This was the weekend to buy summer flowers. That was task number 1. The second task for this weekend was to try some recipes of Mindy Fox’s  salad book (Salads: beyond the bowl) that I bought in Francis F. Coppola winery  and shop in California, close to Napa valley.

We made Mexican-spiced pork on the grill with chunky guacamole and frisee and cucumber salad on Friday evening, straight from the book. Guacamole was hot (with 2 large jalepeno chiles) and plenty of cilantro. Yum!  Succeeded very well.

On Saturday, we drove to Dragsfjärd to buy flowers at Söderlångvik mansion. They have large greenhouses full of marvellous flowers. They also grow tomatoes and apples. This year they had less choice than last year, however, after stopping at each greenhouse on the way back, we managed to get all the flowers needed for seven long flowerpots and some other plants as well.

 Before planting them, I mixed the charmoula sauce for the chicken marinade. I picked recipe also from Mindy’s salad book. It is a North African fragrant sauce with zested lemon, garlic, cilantro and other spices. I used it as a marinade and it was excellent with grilled chicken thighs.

 

Charmoula sauce:

• 2 large lemons, zest one lemon and take the juice of 2 lemons
• 1 dl chopped cilantro
• 2 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Fine sea salt
• ¾ teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric

Mix all ingredients in a blender and marinate the chicken thighs 2-3 hours, then grill them 15 minutes. JD is our grill master and knows the exact minutes and heat required, I would probably burn the meat or cook it too long.

We had ice-cold Prosecco from the freezer as an aperitive, and Portuguese red wine Tiempo Briego from Douro valley and it was a bit peppery and in that sense a good companion to the spicy food.

Our culinary experiments will continue with Mindy’s recipes, I can recommend!

Thousand shades of green

Summer came early,  already in mid May, at least for one weekend. 24 degrees Celsius in Finland is considered heat.  That was nice continuation to our 9-day holiday in California where the temperature was 26. I still miss the palm trees and turquoise Pacific... A weekend in Kemiö was great, too. The garden and fields were dominated by green - all shades of it. The leaves appeared in a couple of days to most trees, except for oak, cherry and apple trees.

Swallows had arrived and they were busy making their nests under our jetty, as every summer.  The seagulls had finally understood to build their nest elsewhere than on top of our jetty.

The sudden heat made berry bushes to blossom, although apple and cherry trees were still waiting for more warmer days (or nights).  I am happy that the plum trees which I brought ten years ago as 50 cm saplings from my mother’s garden in Turku were now in full blossom. They have found their new home in our garden.

The composting equipment we bought last summer did their job. I distributed some compost soil to the flower benches. Butterflies, such as brimstones and swallowtails, were also busy flying around the flowers. 

The sun was so strong that we had to stay in the shadow in the hottest hours. It was lovely to take a book and read - I'm in the middle of John Grisham's Sycamore Row and it's exciting.

The herbarium  was already pushing the first edible greens: lovage, thyme and chives. I made an omelette for our Sunday breakfast seasoned with plenty of chives and some basil. Rhubarb had grown a lot since our last visit almost three weeks ago. They are best at early summer, and next weekend I’ll make a dessert from rhubarb.