Sunday Brunner

Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner all in one, what's not to love?

Today we had a friend over for "brunch" as an advance thank you for taking care of our dog while we're away on holiday in Paris.

Menu du jour:

Saint Clair Vicar's Choice Sauvignon Blanc Sparkling, Marlborough, New Zealand

Beetroot Carpaccio with Goat's Cheese

LaiLai Pinot Noir, Chile

Herb crusted Salmon Fillet with Creamed Leeks and Sugarsnap Peas

Vinho Verde Alvarinho, Portugal

Metsuri Cheese with Fig Jam and Rye Crispbread

Rose Flavoured Macarons

Taltarni Brut Taché, Tasmania, Australia

Table setting

The best wine today, unusual sparkling out of Sauvignon Blanc that worked as an aperitif as well as with the starter and the main.

Beetroot carpaccio

Vinos

Herb crusted Salmon Fillet

I <3 Creamed Leeks

Lovely Johanna

Main Course

Metsuri Cheese

Rose - Macarons AND Bubbles

Pretty happy with these, although half of the batch failed - but more about that in a post coming soon...

 So this is what you might get for taking care of our dog - who wants to be next? :)

Ps. Consumed life encourages you to drink responsibly !! (In other words, we did not finish all those bottles of wine during this meal)

Today I made A Pretty Good Omelette (whatever the French may say)

So, not so much cooking has been happening recently. Seems like it is not my top priority when my days are full of stuff to do... but it will come back, and I'm happy to accept that. The main point is to enjoy fully the things you have time to do.

This morning I was studying food culture of Provence in France, and then it became my top priority to cook a tasty brunch for us, instead of writing an essay. So I decided on an omelette. Cooking an omelette for a chef is scary, but I think it came out pretty good even if I say so myself. The trick is to cook it just for the right time so that the inside is still a little runny. Traditionally the outside should have no colour, but mine wasn't really traditional, with lots of filling as well ; red pepper, rocket and pecorino cheese, with a little pesto, salt and pepper.

Saturday Market Brunch

Woke up to bright frosty (-15c) sunrise and took the bus to Hakaniemi for some food shopping. Asian food shop for bok choy (still not available at supermarkets in Finland!), sushi rice, japanese mayo, wasabi and seaweed - tomorrow is sushi Sunday!

Then to Hakaniemi food hall for some Moriz bread from Tuffe's bakery, herb marinated olives, avocado, cherry tomatoes on the vine and zucchini and some salmon for tomorrow's sushi from Töölön kala. Also treated myself to some tulips from the florist. The sunlight is starting to win and the idea of spring starts to feel like a possibility. I love mornings like this!

Simple and tasty!

With the good ingredients, only little cooking is needed and so when I came back I had a tasty lunch of tortilla Espanola from before, Moriz bread, avocado, tomatoes (best I've had for a while!) with a little finger salt & white wine vinegar and olives. YUM-MY! Happy Saturday to everybody!

Three times a brunch!

A lie in, slowly waking as the sun rises (10 am or so at the moment over here), making a cup of tea and maybe doing some excersice and then taking some time to fix a good meal to keep you going for the rest of the day. What's not to love?

First there is the smoothie. So easy to make, so healthy. I just randomly pick stuff from the freezer - thanks to mum there are wild blueberries, lingonberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants in there. Then I add some liquid like juice (sugarfree cranberry, orange or apple is good) or milk, and some quark (light but high in protein) or natural yoghurt. In this one I also added some three-grain mix for extra fibres as well as some banana for a lovely smooth texture. Then I just blitz it all together until it's a good composition.



The Shakshuka a.k.a Shakshouka, shaqshuqa, chakchouka; is something we fell in love a couple of years ago in Thailand when we were staying at an Israeli guesthouse in Bangkok.

Quote from wikipedia tells us that it "is a North African dish consisting of poached or fried eggs cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices (often including cumin, turmeric, and chillies), and usually served with pita bread.
The dish is now a staple in Israeli, Yemeni, Tunisian, Algerian, Somali and Moroccon cuisine.It is similar to the breakfast dish Huevos rancheros."

We make different versions according to what we have in our cupboards, this one had garlic, red onion, butter beans (left over from the previous night's dinner), chopped tomato, seasoning and three organic eggs from Lentävä lehmä at Hakaniemi food market.

All the ingredients are sauteed on a frying pan (oven proof) and then the eggs are broken in the middle. The pan is then placed in the oven(around 180 degrees celsius) until the eggs are cooked to your liking. We personally like 'em runny! We had some lovely 7-grain bread with it, but it's also great with pitta or othre kind of flatbread for dipping.


Last but not least there is the good old Full English breakfast, but with a healthy twist. This is from the other day and I had two organic poached eggs, two slices of wholegrain toast, avocado, cottage cheese, grilled tomato and a tofu sausage. Served with green tea to make you think it's even healthier! Yum yum yum.