Stunning July

It is amazing how fast everything grows in the garden now that the heat is above 20 degrees C. All the berries are ripening at the same time. I had to cover the white, red and black currant bushes with nets to prevent birds from eating the ripening berries.

Strawberries are sweeter than ever – despite the rainy June. We normally buy 6 -8 liters per day as the number of eaters has settled to over 10.

I picked 8 liters of blueberries during the first ‘inspection’ trip to the forest – they are big and there’s plenty of them. I am eagerly waiting for mushrooms to pop up after the heavy rain and thunderstorm last Sunday.

The life has much focused on kids in July, but they have also had other program than being with us. All the kids (Hanna, Emma, Ollie and Sam) went to  Robin’s  concert in Taalintehdas during the Baltic Jazz. Emma had also got tickets to Robin's concert in Helsinki Olympic Stadium as a birthday present, and she loved the event.

No-one was interested inthe local annual Traktorikavalkadi  this year, but Nellie, Emma and Hanna went to a large horse event Kemiö Jumping, as always. This year our neighbor was competing there in show jumping with her beautiful horse.

Then we also had first-time visitors (and, who knows, new family members..) in two successive weekends when my daughter Inka brought her new fiancé Tim and my son Ilpo his partner Windy. We took both couples boating and served Black Agnus steaks with Siikli potatoes and large bowls of salad late in the evening for dinner (to give them a feeling what and how we normally eat on the island). Hanna was practicing cooking and volunteered every night to prepare dessert, mostly from strawberries. She also made cookies one day.

I had to return to Helsinki in Mid-July to work and had the possibility to enjoy the gorgeous weather and big family only during weekends.  However, I have to admit that I greatly enjoyed for being alone and not cooking anything while in the town!

 

Hot pot night

One of our summer traditions is Mongolian hot pot. We prepare this meal when our Chinese friend Hong and her family visit us. This happened last week.
 

One of our summer traditions is Mongolian hot pot. We prepare this meal when our Chinese friend Hong and her family visit us. This happened last week.

Hot pot is a steaming aromatic broth simmering in a shallow pot divided into two sections, one has more spicy broth and the other one a mild broth. We have two original Chinese pots for this purpose to serve 8-10 people.

There is also an assortment of fresh ingredients such as thinly shaved meat, napa cabbage and other Chinese greens, noodles and tofu and people cook their own meal from these ingredients in the common hot pot. Once the chosen pieces have been cooked a minute or so, they will be fished out with chopsticks from the broth and dipped in a tasty spicy dipping sauce.

By the end of dinner, the broth has taken on wonderful flavors, and a big bowl of the broth with a dash of the dipping sauce makes for a perfect ending to the meal.

Hong was the main chef in our kitchen that day. She brought the Chinese ingredients such as goji berries, fresh and fermented tofu, black beans, Asian chile paste, glass noodles, Chinese pepper, ginseng, tahini and herbs.  We bought the meat (thinly sliced beef sirloin and lamb meat), napa cabbages and ingredients available on Kemiö S-market.

Hong mixed the ingredients to the dipping sauce and broth from her head, without measuring anything. The result is every time different but always delicious. Our kids aged from 4 to 14 all liked the food and managed to eat with chopsticks. Only little Ollie needed some help.

If you don't have a Chinese friend, there are plenty of recipes for hot pot on the internet, for example these:

• http://www.melindalee.com/recipes/mongolian-hot-pot/
• http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/dinner-recipes/mongolian-hot-pot
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEE7Kz0eSDw

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Fairy-tale art

Heat has landed on the island. We had +26 C today. So everyone is happy, happy, happy.

 

Yesterday after Inka and Yaffa had left, Rose, Hanna and I drove to Westers Garden to see flowers and herbs, and the art exhibition arSboretum 14, featuring fairy-tale art in an old barn and in the garden. Fabulous! Hanna, 12, said she wanted to buy the whole place. Me, too. 

And I liked the pieces of art, particularly as Eeva-Leena Eklund’s large paintings. As we didn’t have the needed cash (or credit), we just admired them. 

 

In the evening we got more life to the house when Hank, Angie and Sam, 7, arrived. The kids had a hilarious evening in the beach sauna and after that, in the hot tub.

Today, JD’s old uncle Matt, 84, and his wife visited us. They hadn’t seen our long dining table on the patio, and he said: “I didn’t know that you have opened a restaurant here!” Well, he wasn’t so wrong about it. This is a pop-up restaurant, open for family only. It was nice to meet them and have four generations at the table.

As the day was hot, I made a large bowl of salad with buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and olive oil for lunch. Hank grilled some sausages for the kids (and all adults ate them, too). 

Today it was Rose and Rob who had to return to Helsinki, and the number of people at the dinner table was again down to 10. Late in the evening we’ll grill tiger shrimps.

Finnish bouillabaisse

On Thursday Rob went fishing with Ollie and Emma. With a small Angry Birds rod and spincast reel they managed to get four pikes and one perch. So I had to fulfill my promise to cook bouillabaisse. This turned out to be a full-day job.

I cleaned the pikes at the seaside, and let the perch back to freedom – Ollie didn’t want to hurt it. Then we drove to Salo with JD for shopping some ingredients for the seafood stew, such as Norwegian salmon and cod, onions, carrots, and fennel. Our fishermen couldn’t catch clams and shrimp, so we bought frozen ones. 



On the way to Salo Citymarket, we stopped by Perniön Liha to buy 2.5 kgs little sausages for next day’s meal andKemiö bakery’s rye bread.

Meanwhile, Rose fetched Siikli potatoes from the farm we always buy potatoes and strawberries.  

 

 

Finnish bouillabaisse for 10  

• 1 dl extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 bunches of onions, white and green parts, diced
• 2 fennel bulbs
• 8 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 8 tomatoes, cut into small dice
• 8 baby carrots
• 1 kg Siikli potatoes
• Little Tabasco
• 2 bay leaves
• Pinch of saffron threads
• 2-3 liters of fish stock (and water, if needed)
• 1 kg skinless salmon
• 0.5 kg skinless cod
• Boneless pike or perch
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground  black pepper
• 1 package of frozen clams
• 0.5 kg frozen large shrimps
• 3 dl Riesling

First thing to do in bouillabaisse is to make a good fish stock. I used the pikes for the broth and cooked them with heads and skin in plenty of water for an hour, and added black pepper, salt, parsley and fennel in the water. Small pikes have so many bones that they have to be removed, and if you do it, there’s not much to eat. For this reason I strained the stock and hand-picked some pike flesh for the stew (not much really).  

Next, I dipped the tomatoes in boiling water to remove the skin. Then I chopped the onions, baby-carrots, fennel, potatoes and garlic, took a large pot and sautéed the vegetables in virgin olive oil. Tomato and fish stock was added next with the seasoning: saffran, sea salt, thyme and black pepper. I added potato cubes a bit later. In a traditional bouillabaisse there are no potatoes and carrots, but they are so lovely at this time of the year and fit well in this stew.

The different seafood is added when the vegetables are almost cooked. I also added some Riesling for the perfect finishing touch. (The same Riesling is served with the stew!)

 

The Finnish bouillabaisse is served outside by the sea when it’s cold and windy and eaten with dark rye bread and butter. It was exactly like that, windy and cold, at 10 pm when we had dinner outside. Everyone preferred the dessert (apple pie with vanilla sauce) inside the house.

 

Gym, jogging and Mölkky

Despite the cold (12-14 degrees C) and rainy weather the high season in this house started in the beginning of July. JD and I escaped to Italy for one week after Midsummer, but when we came to Kemiö almost straight from the airport we found 12 pairs of Crocs welcoming us in the porch. Annie’s family with four small kids and Rose had already arrived, and Inka and Yaffa came a bit later.

Many things are going on with the kids: Hanna, 12, was collecting flowers for drying and pressing, as they have a flora task from school to collect 30 plants, just like in the old times, except we had to collect 120 plants and know the Latin name of each and every one of those. Emma, 9, has sports competitions in the neighboring towns every week and she is practising running, long jump and shot put, and Ollie, 5, is learning letters and numbers. Vappu, 1.5, is learning to speak, she already can run fast.

It was too cold for boating and swimming in the sea. Instead we had a gym on the patio with Inka as a trainer, several people went jogging daily, and there was Mölkky games, football (soccer) on TV and sauna of course.

All the plants are growing fast and we don’t need to water them, which is exceptional on this island. The perennials are blossoming and the flower bench has doubled its size in a couple of weeks. 

 

Even the grapevines have flowers, but the summer is too cold and short to have grapes. The zucchini and chili plant have plenty of flowers which are turning fast into zucchinis and chilis. Soon we can cook them. Zucchini is not everyone’s favorite, but we have two options for dinner here: Take it or leave it.  

Tomorrow, Rob will try to catch fish - and I promised to cook bouillabaisse if he is successfull. 

Midsummer - or autumn?

Regardless of the weather, the Finns escape to their summer cottages for Midsummer and tend to repeat the same rituals every year. So did we. The weather was rainy and coldest in 30 years, 8-11 degrees, but self-evidently Midsummer was to be spent in Kemiö.

JD and I arrived on Wednesday evening to prepare the house for Midsummer, and the others, 11 members of our family, came on Thursday.

We bought 6 kilos new Siikli potatoes (for sale for the first time this summer) from a local farm with cute sheep, loads of salad ingredients from Perniö, and brought fish, meat and plenty of other food from Helsinki. It’s kind of funny that you cannot buy fish on the island (or it’s very difficult, there’s only one fisherman in Kemiö selling fish on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m., and his fish is normally sold out by 2.30.

Rose brought six liters of local strawberries and a big bag of bread from Kimitö Bageri.

Butter didn't melt on a potato 

On Friday, Midsummer Eve, we started heating the beach sauna at noon. It takes many hours to heat it, but once it’s done properly with birch logs the heat will last the whole night. We set the dinner table outside, as always, knowing it will be too cold. The Finnish flag was hoisted at 6 p.m. Then we sat down at the table, sweaters and jackets on, and started the dinner with new potatoes, salmon and Baltic herring. Butter didn’t melt on the potato, it was so cold…

After the first course, the children and some of their parents went to the sauna. They continued the bathing in the outside hot tub, while the other couples went to the sauna in turns.

JD and I went last, we enjoyed the black smoky renovated sauna and sat on the terrace watching the cool night, the sea and boats. I plunged in the sea, too.  On the opposite shore there was a Midsummer fire, but no party noises.

 

Meat Eaters’ dinner

After some hours of sauna and bathing, we set the dinner table inside to continue the dinner with the main course. This was actually the first time ever to eat inside at Midsummer! Close to midnight JD started grilling special rib-eye steaks from wagyu beef. He had bought nearly 5 kgs of the meat. That seemed as plenty for 10 adults, but he knows his family, they’re real meat eaters as soon as they get teeth.

The wagyu meet is said to be one of the most delicious meats in the world.  It is very juicy due to intense marbling.  In Japan they even massage the animals and add beer or sake to their food to make the cows happy and improve the meat’s flavor. So we ate at midnight the best steaks anybody had ever tasted, the meat melted in the mouth. Thanks JD! He spent several hours studying the cooking techniques for this meat. This time he chose to cut the meat in large, half a kilo steaks which were then cut to slices after grilling. As Emma (8 years) said, “This meat wouldn’t have tasted so good if someone else than Grandpa had made it.”

The kids could stay up as long as they wanted, but the three smallest ones were deeply asleep at midnight. I and Hanna (12 yrs) made the desert. Local strawberries with a cream of Mascarpone, lime, creme fraiche, vanilla and whipped cream.

At 3 a.m. the house became silent – but just for a couple of hours. Baby Vappu (1 yr) woke up early.

Picking mushrooms

Saturday was cold, too. There was even a shower of hail. It was also boring to be inside. Nelly and Mark went for a walk in the forest and came back with mushrooms. There were also tiny chanterelles popping up. This is supposed to be early summer – not autumn!! Never before have I seen mushrooms at midsummer. 

Twisted ankle

In the afternoon, one of the young men sprained his ankle and had to be taken to a doctor. Salo hospital was the closest emergency room. JD drove him there and the ankle was taped. It took several hours before they came back. Then we went, of course, to the beach sauna. The flag was laid down at 10 p.m.

So we had, once again, a very late dinner (the kids were fed earlier and put to bed). At midnight we were sitting inside, eating sweet peppers and chicken breasts from the grill.  The discussion continued until 3 a.m. again. Seems to be a standard here.

 

Vacation:)

Sunday morning was windy and plus 10 degrees. Three cars were loaded up and headed back to Helsinki. I was happy that we didn’t need to leave the island because I have vacation – 3 weeks ahead without any plans! Well, some visitors coming… and hopefully warm and sunshine!

Pink pots, poppies and a pine marten

Two extra holidays around the weekend made our stay on the Island a labor camp. Our boys Hank and Yaffa had spent four days in the house during the week, treating our patios with wood preservatives and doing some garden work.  A farmer living near-by fetched the big piles of limbs, twigs and reed. I arrived with JD on Thursday evening and JD’s sister Rose on Friday.


Tools for the sauna job

I had planned to give a new look and feel to the old beach sauna, a log cabin built some 20 years ago. First I had to clean the sauna properly with a special detergent. Then I took the benches out (quite a job), and removed resin from the logs (there was plenty of it allover) with a sharp tool. Unfortunately it left white spots after resin removal. Then I polished up all the surfaces with a grinder. This was dirty job, dust allover and quite a noice.


Smoky black sauna after waxing

Sauna walls before the treatment, resin

Then I covered the floor and the stove carefully, and treated the roof, log walls and sauna benches with black wax (Tikkurila, Supi Saunavaha). This all turned out to be a 3-day job. I enjoyed it, the weather was nice, birds were singing and the sea was great.

After all the time and effort, black nails and cuticles, the result was luckily what we wanted, a smoke-black sauna. Next I have to find a wooden 'mat' and some new sauna textiles before Midsummer.

Pink

After many years of strong colors in the flower pots we decided with Rose to have pink flowers this year. We planted pink geraniums, petunias, lemon thyme and million bells in many pink shades mixed in long pots.










In addition to all the summer flowers, the pink bushes, such as honeysuckle, azaleas and rhododendrons were blossoming.

So did the poppy, gorgeous three flowers. We have only one old poppy plant. I have tried to grow more from seeds without succeeding.

Pine marten

The range of animals observed in our garden increased by one – on Saturday morning Rose saw a strange brown animal with a large fur tail and long nose, with a size of a small dog, snooping around on our patio, then loping across the lawn.

Obviously it was a pine marten (never seen before!).  Hopefully it's not going to settle down on our yard.

I discovered a little bird’s nest with three 1 cm dia eggs behind the house. And plenty of mouse poo while cleaning the beach house.

Picanha

JD took care of cooking while I was busy with the sauna and Rose helped him. On Saturday he bought new potatoes and strawberries at our favorite farm, grilled veal picanha and I made a quick salsa from chile, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic and lime. As a dessert, we had strawberries with a crème from mascarpone, crème fraiche, vanilla and lime.   On Sunday, the dinner was simply left-overs, 'pyttipannu'.