Finn Pancakes

If you ever end up in Thunder Bay Ontario whether on purpose or by accident or just driving through you HAVE to stop in at The Hoito, the Finlandia Club's restaurant in the basement of the Finnish Labour Temple, for pancakes. Plan your road trip accordingly to make sure you can be in T-Bay for breakie. In fact Rick Mercer did a piece on The Hoito a few weeks back.


Finn pancakes are kinda like crepes nut not really. They are the size of dinner plates and come topped with your order of eggs, bacon etc. Me? I like 'em plain with a side of crispy bacon.


My friend from Thunder Bay set out on a mission a while back to perfect the art of Finn pancakes so that he could satisfy his longing for them without having to fly across the country. It took a few trial runs of tasty but not quite right breakfasts before he got it.

ETA: a T-Bay Finn friend of the above mentioned friend had some advice on the whole business and suggested leaving out the salt and baking powder. My response is leave the salt in (it's just a bit, it won't kill you and has magic cooking/taste bud powers. Not sure about the baking powder. I need to do some reading on the science of cooking first. Which is why I bought this and am now waiting for its arrival.

Finn Pancakes

2C Milk
1.25C Flour
2Tbsp sugar
1/4tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs

The night before you'll want to mix everything together in a big juice jug and put it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, in your fuzzy slippers and jammies get out a heavy duty pan (a large diameter crepe pan works well... remember these things are supposed to be the diameter of a dinner plate) and get it good and hot.

Turn it down to medium for cooking. Oil the pan. Pour a thin layer of the batter over the pan - it'll be thin like a crepe. Turn once when the other side in golden and getting crispy as the picture above.

Lightly oil the pan in between pancakes to keep them coming up easy.

We usually transfer them into a warm oven until they are all cooked so we can feast together.

Hyvää ruokahalua!

Balsamic Roasted Chard

I've been trying to figure out a good way to cook chard for a few months now, it's supposedly a super food so I'm keen to add it to my diet. Sauteeing it wasn't as successful as I wanted so I've been keeping an eye out for other recipe ideas.

Yesterday I came across a reference to roasting red chard. I LOVE roasting vegetables so I immediately ran out a grabbed some chard. Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven let me down for the first time in ages (I consult pages 96-99, on roasting veggies, more than anything in any of my other cookbooks) so I went to the good ol' internet and found the following recipe. It's tasty and super quick too.

Balsamic Roasted Chard
Ingredients:
1-2 heads Swiss chard chopped in 1-2 inch strips (tough rib removed)
Generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Salt (preferably kosher or Sea)
Big splash of balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Lay chopped chard out on a sheet pan.
Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and salt.
Roast for approximately five minutes or until wilted (depending on chard’s thickness).
Remove and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Crêpe Mania

I have a tendency to fall victim to intense food cravings that often continue long enough to be considered a mania.

My current mania has been crêpes. Really, it's not about the crêpe, but what you put in it - sweet crêpes with jam, lemon, sugar, nutella, fruit, etc. are lovely. Savory crêpes are fantastic with veggies, meat and especially cheese. Can't forget the cheese! Two weekends ago I had crêpes for dessert, breakfast, brunch and dinner. I've exercised restraint this weekend, I only had crêpes for dinner tonight.

Savory crêpes with asparagus, chevre and black forest ham.

The recipe I use is from Joy of Cooking (1975 edition) and is very easy.

French Pancakes or Crêpes
Sift:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Resift with:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
2 tablespoons powdered sugar (omit for savory crêpes)

Beat:
2 eggs

Add and beat:
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Make a well in the sifted ingredients. Pour in the liquid ingredients. Combine them with a few swift strokes. Ignore the lumps; they will take care of themselves. You may rest the batter refrigerated 3 to 6 hours. Heat a 5-inch skillet. Grease it with a few drops of oil. Add a small quantity of batter. Tip the skillet and let the batter spread over the bottom. Cook the pancake over moderate heat. When it is brown underneath, reverse it and brown the other side. Use a few drops of oil for each pancake.

Torbin's Birthday Cake

Best accompanied by good friends, hyper kids, and happy music.

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
19oz can crushed pineapple

bake at 350 oC for 40 min in 9x13" pan.

decorate with:
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
grated orange peel

Mocha Muffins

It's all Stan's fault. He said Coach Drew had a muffin top. Drew then pointed out that so did Stan. Since then Drew has lost the muffin top but not the... er... "handle". He still gets called Coach Muffin Top once in a while.

So for his birthday his "partner" Coach Alan asked if I could make muffin tops. And so I did. Out of this recipe. I'm assuming they'll be just as good in muffin form.

Mocha Muffins

3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup regular milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar 'cause no one has buttermilk in the fridge... except my dad but he makes muffins 2 or 3 times a week)
1/2 cup of strong coffee (I used espresso) cooled to room temperature
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 cup of oil * see below for a note on this

1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 ounces of grated good quality dark dark chocolate * see below
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup "chips" i.e. butterscotch, chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter.

* don't want to grate the chocolate: can't blame you it's a pain instead use 1/3 cup dutch cocoa powder and increase the oil by 3 tablespoons

Whisk together wet ingredients.

In another (bigger bowl) mix together dry ingredients.

Fold in liquidy mixture. Fold until just combined. Too much mixing with make the muffins tough and chewy.

Bake 20-25 minutes at 375F. Or 15 minutes for tops :)

Makes 12 regular muffins (or 22 tops in my pan). Don't for get to use muffin cups or spray the pan before loading it so that they don't stick.

Power Orbs

And from appies we'll skip the main and go right to dessert. Mostly because it's the only recipe I can remember off the top of my head while at work.

These are named by Elvis (not the King - the other one).

WARNING can be addictive.

1 c Smooth peanut butter
1 c Icing sugar
1 1/2 c rice krispies

6 oz or so of chocolate of your choice (I like a combo of milk and dark)

Combine peanut butter and sugar with some forks (unless you are lucky enough to have some fancy device like a food processor or a pastry cutter)

Add rice krispies (I try to crumble the "dough" and get the rice in from there with my hands - don't use the food processor and if you did before then remember safety first and take the dough out of the processor or else don't come crying to me about lost digits).

Form balls of just under an inch (like 3/4 of an inch).

Freeze them (this is key).

Melt chocolate in a double boiler (bowl fitted into a pot with about an inch of water, boil water and the steam will heat the bowl melting the chocolate without burning it).

Dip the balls in the chocolate to coat and then move to wax paper with forks.

Cool on the counter for a bit and refrigerate to set chocolate. If you move them right to the fridge the chocolate gets "foggy".

Potstickers

For my first post I'm going to add a snack/appie.

I discovered this recipe while watching a cooking show - it turned out to as easy to make and as tasty as it looked on the show. I only had two problems with it: I ate way too many wontons the first time I made them and felt a little ill after; and I left the spare wonton wrappers in the fridge a little too long and they became very, very stinky.

Extras freeze well and make for a quick snack.

Potstickers
(from Everyday Food)
Serves 4
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup finely chopped Napa or Savoy cabbage
Coarse salt
6 ounces ground pork, not all lean (I used ground chicken)
scallions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Wontons
24 rectangular (3 1/2-by-3-inch) or square wonton wrappers
1 recipe Wonton Filling
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 scallions, finely chopped (optional)
1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce, for serving

In a medium bowl, toss cabbage with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Wrap cabbage in a double layer of paper towels; firmly squeeze out excess liquid. Return cabbage to bowl; add pork, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Mix well with a fork. Refrigerate leftover filling up to 2 days.

Wontons
Work with one wrapper at a time, and keep the rest covered with a damp towel. Spoon one rounded teaspoon of filling in center. With dampened fingers, wet the four edges. To make a triangle, fold wrapper in half over filling, making sure the ends meet and filling is centered; press edges down firmly to seal.

Moisten one tip on long side of triangle. Then bring together both tips on long side, overlapping them slightly; press tips together to seal.

Fold remaining top corner back. Transfer to an oiled plate; cover with a damp towel to keep moist. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.

In a 12-inch nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add half the wontons and cook, turning once, until lightly browned, about 1 minute per side. Carefully add 1/2 cup water (oil may sputter), cover, and steam until translucent and just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Repeat with remaining tablespoon oil and wontons. Sprinkle pot stickers with scallions, if using, and serve with soy sauce.