Some current favorite dishes

• Fish
  The main thing is of course that fish has to be as fresh as possible! The time it takes to catch, clean (fish and net) and otherwise prepare fish for eating truly makes everybody hungry...
  • Smoked salmon.
  • Marinated, raw Baltic herring.
  • Fried flat-fish or pike-perch with a pinch of salt and white pepper, lots of light smetana (`kermaviili') and dill, citron juice (essential) and boiled new potatoes.
  Fish is healthier than meat (unless your fishing area is into heavy metals...) and often cheaper too.
• Vegetables
  • Carrots and paprika.
  • Thick spinach soup with boiled egg.
  • Thick pea soup (traditional finish `hernekeitto') which has only a little of meat, garlic, basil and raw onion.
• Bread
  Rye bread is healthy and has the best taste. In general I like bread that contains different flours etc. so that the `texture' of bread varies a bit.
• Meat
  • Good beef of course.
  • Honey-marinated chicken pieces with rice and vegetables.
  • `robber roast', sheep with garlic, mint sauce etc.
  • Fried pork and French fries with salsa ketchup and grilled ananas, dense cottage cheese, cucumber and other vegetables.
• Organs
  • Fried liver which has been stewn in cream-mushroom-pepper sauce.
  • Liver-rice casserole.
  • Liver paste.
  • Raw... (nah, just kidding ;-))
• Salads
  In general I don't like salads which contain oil (vegetable, motor, whatever).
  • Tomato - onion (as thin slices as possible) salad.
  • Ones with Meetwurst, pasta and majonese.

August food recipe:

• 1/2 - 1l fresh mushrooms (in Finland preferably of the 'cantharellus cibarius' variety)
• 200g smoked bacon
• (1 tomato)
• 1 onion
• 1 dl cream
• (1 dl milk or water)
• 1 spoon of flour
• 1/2 tea spoon of salt
• some white pepper
• (chive for decoration)

Clean and cut up the mushrooms and onion. Cut the bacon slices into pieces onto the frying-pan with scissors. Fry until bacon is crispy or at least until fat has melted. Move bacon aside onto a plate and add mushrooms and onion onto the fat left on the pan from the bacon. Cut up the tomato and add it onto the pan. Fry until mushrooms have withdrawn a bit and onion is transparent. Add flour and spice with salt and white pepper. Add cream and bacon. Mix and let the cream withdraw a bit before checking the taste. Add more spices if necessary. Add milk, mix and let withdraw. When the dish seem ready, sprinkle with chopped chive and serve with boiled new potatoes.

Here are a couple of additions to milk gravy:

This combination could be served for example with pasta:

• Tomato puree
• Rainbow salmon
• Shrimps

• Leek
• Bailey's (cream liqueur)
• Aura (mold cheese)

Hmm... I wonder whether I should next check out the Russian culinary culture? After all, our traditional foods have been strongly influenced by our eastern neighbor. It's a real shame how the American fast food trash has invaded here. Cajun food etc. would have been much more interesting alternative (humming: `I'd like to eat an alligator...' :-).