Kirjolohipasta - Salmon pasta

Om nom nom.. would one of my Finnish friends say :), but she is not here..
The boys however were, including my husband, and for some reason I am considered the sole provider of cooked food in the house in 90% of the cases..
Tell me about teaching own and future husbands how a modern household functions.. the right way.. *Sigh*...

I had some salmon in the fridge for sushi, but last thing I felt like doing was sushi, especially that the boys like the nigiri sushi, hubby wants the sushi rolls (California roll being one of the favorites), one and I'm not very effective in making any of them, so just didn't feel like making any.

Sooo... What else to make?
The fact that I bought two 3 pound (1.35 kg khhmm) sour creams kinda pushed me to cook a version of the salmon cream pasta I ate loooong time ago while visiting Muumimaailma, or Moomin world. Nice times :). 2004, just turned 30, broken knee, visiting parents, Finnish summer in Naantaali with the bright see and islands. Yayy..

Ingredients (besides the Finnish summer)
penne pasta for 4
1.5 pound fresh salmon (from Costco, again), grilled
0.5 pound ~250 gr cream
80 ml milk, 1/3 cup
1 tsp mustard
pinch salt
pinch black pepper
1-2 tbsp oil 

It has surely nothing to do with the original version as it was 11 years ago and I was lazy to look for a recipe, nor was it so thrilling as the one in Naantaali. But.. California is not a bad place to be as a compensation :), and the taste wasn't any worse than the original.
When I think if salmon three spices pop in my mind: black pepper, mustard and dill.
Not sure why I didn't want to try dill, but I immediately reached for the stone ground mustard that replaced the Dijon mustard's place in my heart. And fridge, for that matter :).

The best pasta to go with would be Costco's penne, however, this time I had a special one in my pantry: German tagliatelle egg pasta. what was so special? There wasn't anything else :D.

I used a table grill, sprinkled the salmon with little salt, wrapped it in foil, and grilled until cooked. The time will depend on how thick your fish is, but mine took about 15 minutes, turning half way.

So I went ahead and cooked 3/4 of the tagliatelle pasta bag (probably the whole bag if your family has a better appetite for pasta), al dente. I always add a tsp of oil when ready, to prevent them from sticking together.

Meanwhile mixed the sour cream with a pinch of salt, the tsp of mustard and lightened it up with the milk.

When the salmon was grilled, I sprinkled it lightly with the pinch pf coarsely ground black pepper.
Serve while the pasta is hot, and let the kids experiment with the proportions of pasta, salmon and dressing.
My older son LOVED the dressing, the youngest skipped the salmon altogether because he claimed he found some fishbone in it :(.
Pity, but he ate his pasta with spoonfuls of sour cream :), so he worked his way around.

Bone appetite!
Apologies for the boring pics but today I was kinda uninspired and tired in mids of planting my new veggie garden. Much more excited tho about my plants! Yay!!

Lohikeitto - Finnish salmon soup

Phew, what a day.. 9 fires in San Diego, Santa Ana blowing crazy the whole day tormenting the trees, and some 38C in shade.
Nothing like baking, or even cooking, time, but I promised to bring lunch for our teacher, and nothing less but Finnish Salmon soup.
Salmon soup is a kinda big win 'cause is ready in 25 minutes, plus prep, (which is much better than cooking goulash), and gets equally many compliments (almost) than the goulash.. Almost, not because it's worse, but because has quite some half-half in it, which is not the easiest meal for a stomach :)

All in all, it is totally worth making it!
Start by hitting the stores for fresh salmon. I went for a combination of sockeye salmon and wild salmon file, which gives an extra kick to at least the looks ;), and the rest of the ingredients is most probably laying in your pantry.

Ingredients
400-500 g, 1 pound salmon
4 medium carrots
6 medium potatoes
2 onions, or 1 American onion (for some reason they are extreeeeeeemly buge)
200 ml half-half, cream (ruokakerma ;))
bay leaves, salt, black pepper
dill, 3-5 tbsp, depends on your preferences
water

Take a medium sized pot, minimum 3 liters.
Clean the potatoes, onion and carrot. Chop the carrots in thin slices, and cut the potatoes in not too small pieces, about 2x2 cm, or 1x1 inch.
There are two choices how to start cooking:
1) Put the potatoes, onion, carrot and add water until covered plus 3 cm, 4 inch.
2) Chop the onions. Add 3 spoons of oil, I prefer sunflower oil, heat it up, add the finely chopped onions, and fry them until golden. Add a generous dash of water, and continue simmering until it is reduced back to oil only. It caramelizes the onions and gives it a smooth texture and taste. That's what I did... Next add the finely slices carrots, and potatoes, stir just couple of times, and then fill with water until all covered, plus the 3 cm, 4 inch.

Either way, now add the spices: a tsp of salt, large pinch of pepper and 2-3 bay leaves.
Cook for 15 minutes, until it is almost fully cooked.
Meanwhile cut the salmon in generous cubes, 4x4 cm, or 11/2x1 1/2 inches.
Add the salmon and add finely chopped dill, leaving some for serving.
Adjust the water level, saltiness and amount of black pepper if needed, the potatoes will most probably soak up some.. If you like a less thick soup add more water, but in general is best as is, a bit more thick than the average Hungarian soup.
Cook for only 5 more minutes. Add the cream, wait until it starts bubbling and remove from the heat.
Serve with a pinch of fresh dill on top.
Bon appetite!

Ps. It can be served even cold, or colder, which makes it more appealing in this hot weather.

Aranygaluska - golden wallnut dumplings

Nah, finally one of the things our family likes the most, yeast based goodies.
I'm cheating a bit with my aranygaluska recipe, traditionally a yeast based, spongy, walnuty Hungarian cake, and here are the reasons...
First of all, I fell in love with the cardamom in the Finnish "pulla" dough, so I add cardamom in my Hungarian aranygaluska, which is very untypical. You can omit it, if you want something more original..
Second, my kids don't like walnuts in cakes, so I replace it with almonds. You can stick to the walnuts.. (Or, if you are allergic to nuts, you can omit both the almonds and walnuts, and just triple the cinnamon portion for stronger taste.)
Third, I add a bit of cinnamon.. Just 'cause I like it :).

Ingredients
25 g icing sugar
250 g all purpose flour 
25 g butter
20 g fresh yeast or 1 tsp dry yeast 
pinch of salt
1 egg
120 ml whole milk
1/2 tsp minced cardamom (optional)
1 lemon peel grated (small lemon, if you have a large one half will be enough)

For rolling
100 g ground almonds or walnuts
70 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, flat (optional)
100 g butter

Vanilla cream
500 ml whole milk
1 vanilla bean (seeds)
4 egg yolks (if you like it less"eggy" you can add 3) 
70 g sugar
1 tsp flour 
rum aroma

Let the yeast rise for couple of minutes in the hand-warm milk with a large pinch of sugar.
Add the pinch of salt to the flour and crumble with the butter. Add the remaining sugar, egg, yeast and the remaining milk, and work them nicely together in a soft dough.
Let it rise for 30 min.
Pinch from the dough balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter, roll them into the melted butter and then in the sugar/almond/cinnamon mix.
Place them evenly in a buttered and floured 26 cm cake form (not too tight, they will grow still..) and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
In many Hungarian recipes the dough portion is double and there are several layers of dough-balls placed on top of each other. I prefer it this way, and rather bake two portions if needed, as I find the final result more fluffy and light.
Before putting them in the oven, sprinkle on top of the dough-balls some additional butter and almond-sugar mixture.

In a 170C (350 F) preheated oven bake them for 30-35 minutes, on the top rack of the oven.
Serve still warm with the cold vanilla cream.

If you prepare your own vanilla cream, while the dough balls are rising in the baking form you can make the cream.
Whisk the flour evenly in 200 ml milk, bring them to slowly boil and cook until it thickens a bit, ~5 min, stirring constantly. Add the remaining milk and bring to boil, for additional 3 min.
Mix well the egg yolks with the icing sugar, and pour it into the boiling milk, and let it thicken for additional ~3 min but DON'T boil it anymore or the egg will cook and it will have a terrible eggy taste, again stirring continuously.
Remove from heat and let it cool.
Serve with the aranygaluska.