Salmiakpastiller

Strong candy, beautiful Finnish packaging

If you hadnt guessed from my Piparkakut recipe, I enjoy Finnish food, culture, and people. I had a chance to visit in 2003 traveling from Helsinki to Mantyharju to Rovaniemi to Pyha in Lapland and back. A beautiful trip filled with lakes, trains, reindeer, hiking, coffee, beer, and lots of great food. My travel companion and I stayed with Jaakko Matilla who led us berry picking in the countryside. Afterwards I pulled together a blueberry pie with the small blue berries (like the Maine variety) that no one has ever forgotten. The rest of the trip was filled with herring (creamed, pickled, fried, and stuffed in bread) and lots of liquorice treats.

Lapin Kulta, a not so fancy beer I enjoyed in Finland, 2003

Jaakko is visiting NYC this week, and Ive been treated to an impressive ring of ruis rye bread from Nordic Breads NYC. Im told is better than the kind in Finland. Jaakko also brought a bag of Salmiakki, or should I say Super Salmiakki candies. Salmiakki contains ammonium chloride (salmiac) which gives the already aggressive flavor of black liquorice a salty flavor. The candies are beyond chewy. The texture is more like a hard gummy candy that clings to your teeth and tongue with a vengeance. The flavor is only slightly sweet, nearly savory, liquorice with a bite of table salt taste and an unexpected menthol minty flavor. Im eating them in small quantities. The flavor lingers on for an hour or more, jammed in my molars.

Reindeer in Lapland.

I havent traveled abroad in a few years now. Jaakko has made it clear that NYC and Americas new foodie tendencies toward organic foods, CSAs and sustainably produced foods would be welcome in Finland. Ive been elected to help. I cant make promises but its a thought to grow on. Finland must be doing okay. Jaakko tells me that you can split a whole or half reindeer meat share.

Sarma Grapeleaves

Sour and savory grapeleaves filled with rice stuffing and steamed

Some of you know stuffed grapeleaves as dolma, but in my home (half American-half Armenian/ Lebanese) we called them sarmas. The reason? Sarma means rolled and dolma means stuffed. I have an ancient memory of my father telling me that. My sarma has shredded vegetables, white wine, and parsley. Not traditional ingredients, but flavorful. I hold no recipe sacred. No food is safe from my kitchen meddling.

This isnt an easy recipe. It involves multiple steps, and a little bit of a guessing game (How much rice goes in each leaf? How long to cook until the rice isnt chewy or too soft? Why is there extra water left in the pan) and time to manually roll each leaf. The good news is even if you mess up you will probably get something that tastes great. Make it for a special occasion, or a good party. If youre making grapeleaves, then you ought to show them off, er, um, I mean share.

Sarma Grapeleaves

1 medium onion
1 medium zucchini
2 tblsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried mint
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 bunch of parsley, stems removed, chopped
2 tsp white wine
1 1/2 cups uncooked medium or long grain rice

1-2 jars of grapeleaves
olive oil
2 cups of water
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 cup pickle juice from jar of grapeleaves
more olive oil and lemons for presentation

Shred onion and zucchini. I used the slicing disks on my food processor. Alternatively, can pulse the vegetables in the bowl of your food processor until its in little pieces, or the old fashioned on the large holed of a cheese grater. Add vegetables to large skillet with salt and oil. Cook over low-medium heat until very soft. Dont brown. Brown chunks in the grapeleaves looks kind of funky. Add tomato paste and mix to coat vegetables. Cook for about one minute, stirring. Stir in spices and mix until combine. Add white wine, scraping the bottom of the skillet to remove any of the flavorful bits that cling to the bottom. A wood spoon is a great tool for this. Turn off heat, and stir in rice. Mix until the rice is evenly coated. This mixture will be the filling for the grapeleaves. It can be prepared 3-5 days before rolling the grapeleaves and stored in a sealed container. When Im in full on party planning mode I make the filling up to 2 weeks in advance freezing it in a good container.

A good set up makes the work easier

To roll and cook the grape leaves youre going to want to set aside a good 1-2 hours. Have some fun music playing while you dirty your hands, maybe invite some friend over to help. First find a large pot, 4 qts are more, to steam the grapeleaves in. You will need to keep a plate on top of the grapeleaves while they cook, so make sure that you have a plate that fits snugly over the opening before you start rolling grapeleaves. Find a nice clean workspace to roll grapeleaves where you can place the pot, a surface for rolling individual leaves (like a plate), the stuffing and leaves within comfortable reaching distance.

Remove the grapeleaves from the jar and rinse. Dont throw out the pickle juice the leaves are packed in. Cover the bottoms and sides of your pot with grapeleaves. Try to use the large leaves, which may be tough or hard to roll the sarmas with. The leaves will provide an ideal steaming environment, and help prevent sarmas from burning on the surfaces of the pan. Slosh a few glugs of olive oil on the leaves, and youre ready to sit and roll.

Stem facing you, veins up

Spread an individual grapeleaf on a plate, stem end pointing towards you, veins up. Using a small spoon plop a clump of filling across the wider stem end of the leaf. Around 1 tsp of filling per leaf. You dont want to over fill the leaves. They will explode, and you will have wasted all your hard work. Fold the sides of the leaf over the filling and roll away from you. Push/fold any wild leaf edges in towards the center as you roll. You are trying to make a nice little rice and leaf package that is not too tight, with a little lose space for the rice to expand. Tight packages may explode when cooked. Place each rolled grapeleave loose edge down (important) in the pot. Continue rolling and neatly packing grapeleaves in rows in your pot. You can stack 2-3 rows of grapeleaves.

Rolling grapeleaves never takes me less than an hour, and usually I get bored and antsy. Do not give in to the urge to overfill the grapeleaves to get done faster. You may just be messing them up, making them pop when cooked. I wish I had take a photo of my exploded grapeleaves, but theyre so gory and sad.

After youve rolled all of the sarmas, and stacked them in your pot, gently pour in the water, lemon juice, and pickled leaf juice. Cover with an inverted plate, and place a weight on top of the plate. I use my Pyrex 2 cup measuring cup filled with water to hold down the plate while the grapeleaves expand. Place pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and lower heat to medium low.

Sometimes it takes 30 minutes to steam the sarmas sometimes over an hour. Im not sure why. I suggest tasting a sarma after 30 minutes for doneness, and every 10 minutes there after. The rice should be tender, not chewy. Remove from heat, and drain any fluids that may remain. Move sarmas to storage container to help cool. Be careful they will be really hot. Use tongs. Squeeze lemon juice on top, and another glug of olive oil. Serve at slightly warm or at room temperature. Enjoy all your hard work, and know it gets a little easier every time you make sarmas!

Mini Pies

2-bite sized perfect mini pies

Mini (palm sized) pies are roughly equivalent to cupcakes, plus a little bit of extra work rolling dough, minus the frosting, which no one but sugar freaks actually like anyways. My good pal Craig (Sugar Daddy) invented this idea one Christmas handing out individual mince pies at a party. This recipe is dedicated to him! So simple they should a phenomena found everywhere. Fill em up with apples or whatever pie you like. If you want to be fancy make 2 small batches of filing for variety. McDonalds has nothing on these.

Mini Pies

Whole Wheat Pie Crust
1 cup ice water
1 tblsp apple cider or white vinegar
1 cup fat (butter, or shortening, or a mix)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 egg, beaten

Apple filling
t tblsp water
1 tblsp brandy
8 oz dried fruit (pears, figs, apricots, raisins, dates etc), chopped coarsely
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced 1/4 - 1/2"
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
2 tsp white flour
1 tblsp butter, cut up

Prepare the crust first. Pour ice water and in a 2 cup measuring cup. Its exceptionally easy to measure the fat into the water adding until water displaced up to the cup line. Add vinegar, swirl, and freeze for 5-10 minutes. Add flours, salt, and sugar to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to blend. Add half of the chilled fat to the food processor and pulse until medium crumbs form. Add the remaining fat and pulse until small and medium crumbs form. Its better to under mix in the processor then over to avoid tough crust. Stop the processor, remove lid and smoosh in any stray large clumps of fat with fingers. Be careful to avoid the blade. Put lid back on and add beaten egg while pulsing. You may need to add a few drips of ice water to bring the dough into a ball. Dough should be soft but floury and modestly dry. The dough is ready when it holds together when pinched. Dump dough on a sheet of wax paper. Form into a disc, and wrap in wax paper. Chill in refrigerator for 1-2 hours or freeze for up to a week inside an air tight plastic bag.

Brandied dried fruits have been making lots of appearances in desserts lately

Prepare the filling. Mix brandy and water in a small sauce pan. Bring to nearly a boil over medium heat. Add chopped dried fruit, and turn off heat. Mix and let soften for 5-10 minutes. Drain fruit. Add apples, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, flour, and dried fruit to a bowl. Mix and let sit for 10-30 minutes allowing fruit to macerate.

Use biscuit cutters to fit dough into muffin tins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from the fridge. Let sit at room temp for 30-45 minutes if its been in the freezer. Butter the bottoms and sides of a dozen muffin tins. Place disk of dough on a well floured surface and roll 1/8 inch thin. Cut 3 inch circles with biscuit cutters and gently place in muffin tins. Fill each crust to the top, or a little over, with filling. The apples will bake down. Dot with pieces of cut butter. Cut little circles or shapes with remaining pie scraps and use to decorate pies, leaving some areas open for air to escape. Bake for 30-40 minutes until crusts are browned and filling bubbles. Cool for 15 minutes. Serve plain or with a dollop of rum spiced whipped cream, like Craig did.