This batch serves 2 people as a snack or a starter – I have a feeling that next time we make these I will be doubling the recipe. The mint flavor came out quite delicate despite the seemingly large amount of mint leaves in the recipe, possibly because our mint was a little bit on the dry side.

The Ingredients:

• 200 g firm tofu, not pressed
• 1 dl cashew nuts
• 1 dl mint leaves, lightly packed
• 2 cloves garlic
• a 5 cm piece of a lemon grass stalk
• 1 red Thai chili, de-seeded
• 1 to 2 tablespoons water, as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

I placed half of the tofu, cashew nuts, mint leaves, garlic, lemon grass, the chili, and a splash of water in our mini food processor, and started blending into a coarse paste. The paste didn’t end up completely smooth, just so that there were no larger pieces of lemon grass or chili – I think this could easily be achieved with an immersion blender as well.

Now I crumbled the rest of the tofu, and added that to the spicy paste. I seasoned the dough with salt, and it was ready to be fried.

I heated a tin layer of canola oil in a frying pan, formed the dough into 10 balls, and flattened them lightly. I actually battered two of the croquettes with a gram flour and water mixture (the one that is on the right side of the picture being one of those), but I think the un-battered ones were slightly nicer.

I fried the croquets on high to medium high heat until browned on both sides, and then drained them on kitchen towel. I served these right away with an easy dipping sauce made with lime juice, soy sauce, and a pinch of sugar.

After googling, reading and watching through a plethora of kimchi recipes, I settled on the one that looked most promising, and adapted it to my liking. Not only it proved to be really easy to make, but supremely delicious too! I am already planning my next batch of pickled vegetables. Even though making kimchi is easy, it does require some planning ahead. During the first day, there are two separate stages of preparing, and a six hour wait between them. After that, it takes three or four days of fermentation before the kimchi is ready.

This is what I used:

• 650 g chinese cabbage
• plenty of salt
• 1 beet, grated
• 2 red onions, chopped
• 2 – 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• slice of ginger, about 1 cm thick, crushed
• 2 teaspoons hot chili powder (or to taste)
• 4 teaspoons sugar

When making the kimchi, I mostly followed the instructions from the Pyongyang metro kimchi recipe.

I began by rinsing and chopping the cabbage, resulting with pieces of cabbage about 5 cm in diameter. I made layers from the cabbage in a plastic bag, sprinkling salt liberally between each layer. At this stage, it’s important to ensure that the cabbage is thoroughly salted, so next I poured some salt over my hands and rubbed the pieces of cabbage between my hands. I added some more salt, and repeated until I’d gone through all of the cabbage. Then I squeezed the pieces of cabbage between my hands to extract as much water out of them as possible. I did this over the plastic bag, so that all the extracted water was collected in the bag. I tied up the bag, and let it sit for 6 hours.

At this point, the original recipe said rinse the cabbage “if necessary”, and remove the extra water, but since my cabbage wasn’t that watery, I decided not to remove any water. Moreover, I didn’t rinse the cabbage, since I hadn’t used that much salt. Most of the saltiness disappears in the fermentation process anyway. Now I put the cabbage in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, and added the rest of the ingredients. I put on my kitchen gloves, and started squeezing the ingredients in my fists. I continued squeezing the cabbage mix for a couple of minutes.

All done! I tasted it a bit, and it was already really yummy, a bit salty perhaps. I closed the lid, and put the kimchi box into our coolest cupboard for 3 days. I think I read from one of the recipes, that the place to keep the kimchi should be under 20 degrees Celsius.

After three days, the kimchi was ready! I kept it in the fridge now, so that it wouldn’t go extra sour too quickly. We ate it as a side a couple of times, and I had it over rye bread a few times. We also made kimchi fried rice, which was really great! I followed this recipe pretty closely, except I substituted the meat for tofu, and omitted the eggs, of course. Oh, and I used 2 or 3 times more tamari than the recipe calls for, adding more of it in the end, tasting until the balance was right.

Kimchi fried rice with some steamed bok choy

Spring rolls are actually quite simple to make. We made them on two separate occasions. The first time we just fried them on a pan, and the second time we baked them in the oven. The following instructions are for the oven, but they apply to pan-fried spring rolls too. Just don’t brush them with oil, but put the oil in a frying pan instead.

This is what we used:

• ready-made wheat spring roll wrappers (we got them from Aseanic Trading on Kolmas linja)
• 1 onion
• 2-3 tablespoons canola oil for frying and brushing
• 1 tablespoon of crushed ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 150 g firm tofu
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon raw cane sugar
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 teaspoon potato starch

This makes enough filling for about 12-15 mini spring rolls.

For the dipping sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• ½ tablespoon brown rice vinegar

First, we preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, chopped the vegetables into small pieces, and minced the tofu with a fork.

We put a frying pan over medium-high heat, added 1 tablespoon of oil, and fried the onions for a few minutes, until they turned translucent. Next, we added the garlic, ginger, chili powder, and bell pepper into the pan, and fried them for a couple of minutes more. Then we added the minced tofu, and fried it for an additional two minutes or so.

It was time to season the filling with soy sauce and sugar. We mixed the sugar with the soy sauce, and poured the mixture into the frying pan, stirred it in, and removed the pan from the heat. When the filling was done, it was time to fill the rolls.

Assembling the spring rolls:

First, we wet the edges of the spring roll wrapper using our fingers dipped into a bowl of water. This helps the pastry edges to stick together. Then, we put a tablespoon of the filling in one end of the wrapper, leaving about 1 cm space between the filling and the edge.

Next, we folded the sides of the wrapper together, and started wrapping tightly from one end.

We kept on wrapping until we reached the end.

The first spring roll was ready to be baked or fried now. Next, we started from the beginning, doing two at a time:

Once the spring rolls were ready, we brushed them with canola oil on both sides, placed them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and put them in the oven for 7 minutes. We ate our spring rolls with rice, dipping them in a sauce made of soy sauce, sesame oil and brown rice vinegar.

This stew made a nice lunch with a few slices of rye bread. If it was cooked in a regular stove-top pot, the black beans would need to soak overnight, and the cooking time would also be considerably longer – but the stew would be just as good I’m sure.

Here’s what I used:

• 4 dl dried black beans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried chili
• 1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 l water (boiling)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice

First, I fried the onion and the garlic in the olive oil in the pressure cooker. I rinsed the black beans carefully, and then added them to the cooker with the boiling water. I also added the seasonings except for the salt, black pepper, and lime juice. Adding salt before cooking can make the beans’ skins a bit chewy, and prolongs cooking time.

Now I brought the cooker to high pressure, pressure-cooked the beans for 25 minutes, and released the pressure. I stirred in the salt, black pepper, and lime juice, adjusting the amounts a little bit for perfect balance, and our lunch was ready to be served.

Edamame means fresh young soy beans in Japanese, and they’re usually cooked and served in their pods. Fresh soy beans are not available in Helsinki, but some Asian markets stock frozen edamame without pods, and that’s what we used in this soup.

The soup only took 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish.

Edamame Avocado Soup (serves 2):

• 5 dl frozen edamame
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small avocado (Hass variety is what we had)
• 5 dl vegetable stock (we had boiling water mixed with 2 teaspoons vegetable broth powder)
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry wine

We first fried the onion in the olive oil until translucent, for about 6 minutes, and then added the rest of the ingredients except for avocado. We brought the soup to a brisk boil, and let it bubble up for five minutes. Now, I removed the pan from heat, let the soup cool down for a few moments, then added the avocado, and puréed the whole thing with our immersion blender until it was very smooth, almost fluffy.

Frozen edamame beans are very pretty.

We’ve tried a couple of variations of this soup. This version is basically a crossbreed between a recipe that was in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about three years ago, and various chick pea soup recipes from the excellent Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa by Habeeb Salloum. This is what we used:

• 5 dl dried chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 small leeks, chopped to matchsticks
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 2 potatoes, boiled and cubed
• 1 liter water
• 5 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• some freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

About one hour before cooking, we put the chickpeas in a bowl, and filled it with boiling water. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you should soak the chick peas overnight. We put the cooker over medium-high heat and heated the olive oil. We then fried the chopped leek and sliced garlic for a couple of minutes, stirring frequenty so that the garlic wouldn’t burn. Next, we poured in the water and the chickpeas and added the vegetable stock powder, covered the cooker, and cooked on high pressure for 2o minutes. Then we lowered the pressure, added the cubed potatoes, cilantro, cumin and paprika, and cooked on low pressure for 10 minutes more. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, you’d probably need to cook the chick peas about for an hour, and then add the spices and potatoes, and simmer maybe 15 minutes more.

Now, we took the cooker off the heat, lowered the pressure, and used our immersion blender to purée the soup. Then we added the salt, lemon juice and black pepper. I guess this goes without saying, but at this point sample the taste, adding salt, pepper or lemon juice as you see (or taste) fit.

We served the soup sprinkled with chili and cumin and topped off with a liberal splash of olive oil. These are essential! Also have a few extra slices of lemon handy, which can be squeezed on top of the serving according to taste.

Ground cumin (also known as jeera, geerah, kamoon), crushed red chili, and red paprika powder, with some frozen cilantro on the background.

Making soup can’t get easier than this; I placed the ingredients in a pot, and cooked for 15 minutes. This batch makes one big bowl of soup, and would easily serve two as a starter. To make it a little fancier, I would garnish the individual servings with chopped cilantro, basil, or other fresh herbs.

Here’s what I had:

• 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 leek, cut in matchsticks
• 1 big clove garlic
• a handful of cashew nuts (about 1/2 dl I’d say)
• water to cover
• salt to taste
• about 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• a little freshly ground black pepper

I placed the carrots, leek, garlic, cashews, and salt in a small cooking pot, and filled it with just enough water to cover them. Now, I covered the pot with a lid, and cooked the soup for about 15 minutes, until the carrots were tender. I puréed the soup with our immersion blender until creamy, added about a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice (a few squeezes), and adjusted the saltiness. Then I poured the soup in a bowl, and crushed some black pepper to garnish.

This is the only picture we have of the soup, and the actual food is hardly visible. What can be seen is that we cooked it on the wood stove at the cottage, next to the rutabaga cubes that we fried at the same time. Aesthetically, this dish really is just dark brown, thick, and mushy, so I actually think the photo still reveals more than a picture of a bowl would have been capable of.

We served this soup as a starter for the Christmas dinner, and it came out pretty much like the one our hospitable hosts Noris and Israel cooked for us in Habana; thick and filled with the deep flavor of black beans, with an added smokiness from smoked red paprika.

This is what we used for the soup:

• 1 big onion, cubed
• 10 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 l water
• 1 l black beans, soaked overnight (400 g dry beans)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 red bell pepper, cubed
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ teaspoon dried crushed chili
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• lemon wedges and fresh cilantro to serve

First, we rinsed the beans and let them soak overnight, covered with plenty of cold water. Then we fried the onions and garlic in the olive oil until they were translucent, being careful not to burn them. On medium heat, this should take about 7 minutes. Then we added the red bell pepper to the soup pot, fried it for a few minutes, and added the rest of the ingredients, except for salt. It’s best to let the beans soften before adding salt, because it can make their skins a little chewy.

Now, we brought the soup to a brisk boil, let it bubble for some 15 minutes, and then lowered the heat to let it simmer gently for about 3 hours. After about an hour or so, I added the salt. Since we cooked it a day ahead, we refrigerated the soup and reheated it the next day before dinner. The taste of the soup benefits from the long simmering time and gets even better when reheated. Nevertheless, if the cook is really hungry, the soup should be ready to eat after an hour and a half of simmering.

We served the soup with lemon wedges so that everyone could squeeze fresh lemon juice in their soup. There was also a bowl full of chopped cilantro on the table, so that each diner could sprinkle their bowls with as much of it as they liked.

There were four of us at the Christmas dinner, and this recipe left us with a lot of leftover soup for the remaining holidays.

Spanakopita filling:

• one batch of our tofu “cheese”
• 300 g frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 smallish leek (150 g), chopped
• 2 small onions, finely cubed
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon dried red chili
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme, slightly crushed between fingers

While Anni was preparing the filling, I started to write this post. I added the part on how the Spanakopitas tasted and how they were received by our friends only afterwards, I swear!

First, Anni fried the onions about 10 minutes on a medium low heat, until they were translucent and not yet brown. Then she added the chopped leek, and continued frying for about five minutes more. Then it was time to add the chili and the paprika, and after frying them for a minute or so, she added the spinach to the frying pan. After stirring for a while, she added the salt, nutmeg, black pepper, sugar and thyme. The spinachy part of the filling was now ready.

The other half of the filling, the tofu “cheese”, Anni had made the day before. After the spinach filling had cooled down a little, we combined it with the tofu, and were ready to assemble the pastries.

Assembling the triangles:

• 450 gram package frozen filo pastry
• olive oil (preferably in a spray bottle)

This was our first time using the filo dough, so we didn’t really know how hard it would be to work with. In the end it didn’t prove to be that difficult, but it is important to follow the instructions on the package carefully. We took the frozen filo dough out of the freezer the day before baking, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. On the day of baking, we let it thaw in the room temperature for two hours.

Another important thing to remember is that the filo sheets that aren’t worked on must be protected from air, so that they don’t dry out. We did this by placing a sheet of baking parchment over the remaining filo sheets, and covered the whole thing with a damp kitchen towel.

First, Anni placed one filo sheet on a dry table, and cut the filo sheet with scissors in four parts lengthwise. Then she sprayed the filo strips with olive oil, and placed a scant tablespoon of filling by the end of each filo strip.

Now, she folded the right corner of the dough over the filling, and a triangle formed. Then she folded the triangle over and over again, covering the filling with about three layers of filo dough. She cut off any excess dough, placed the triangles on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment, and sprayed them with olive oil.

Then we baked the triangles in 180 degrees Celsius, for about 15 minutes, until they were nicely browned.

• 200g morning glory (also known as kangkung or water spinach)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 tablespoons canola oil for frying
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

The way we prepared it was really simple. First, Anni washed the kangkung stalks carefully, and shook them dry. While the oil was heating up in the wok, I crushed the garlic and cut it into tiny pieces, and then I cut the kangkung in three parts, chopping off about 1 cm from the stem ends of the stalks:

I waited until the oil was really hot, and threw in the garlic, stirring continuously so that it would not burn. After maybe 10 seconds, I threw in the kangkung, and fried it while stirring continuously. Anni caught the hectic stir-frying atmosphere nicely with this photo:

After frying the kangkung for maybe two minutes, I poured the soy sauce in the wok, and stirred the kangkung a bit more so that the sauce would spread evenly. We were ready to eat! We ate the kangkung with some fried marinated tofu, and it was great.

I think that kangkung’s taste and texture are very good for stir-frying, and wish I had tried it earlier! We’re gonna eat it a lot more often from now on, that’s for sure.