More soup for the weary

My girls are sick. They have been sick for nearly three weeks, with a few days in between of realatively good health. Like everyone in my family the first thing I do when my girls are not feeling well is make Chicken Noodle Soup. They do not sell canned stock in Finland, and cubes don't have the nutritional content of real stock. So here is my recipe for Chicken stock and then the soup.

I save chicken bones in the freezer so that I am ready whenever I need to make stock. In a large pot I put the chicken bones, water and vegetables. Usually I use 2-3 carrots, 3-4 stalks celery, one large onion and 3-4 garlic cloves. All the vegitables are unpeeled and cut into large sections. In additions to the veg I add 2tsp of salt, 1tsp of peppercorns, 1tsp dried rosmary, 2 bay leaves and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

It takes between 2-3 hours for the stock to cook properly at a low simmer. Once the stock is done I let it cool and skim off as much fat as possible. I strain the stock into plastic containers and put it to freeze for later use.

For the Chicken Noodle Soup you need

300g chicken
1l chicken stock
1 carrot chopped
1 parsnip chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1 onion chopped
200 ml macaronni

Lightly brown the chicken in the pot then add the stock. When it has come to the boil add the vegitables. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes then add the pasta. Bring the heat back up to a rolling boil and let cook for 8-10 minutes.

If you have leftover chick that also works great, so use it.

My girls are little so like their soup fairly bland, but I usually add Tom Yum soup base and a handful of spinach to my bowl for a spicky and delicious lunch.

Hupaa!!

My Big Fat Greek Cooking course, or adventures in the Finnish language.

I have been in my finnish language class for six months now and despite my own insecurities my finnish is definately improving. To test my ability to comprehend and interact with "real" Finns I signed up for a day long Greek cooking course.

I am proud to report that I understood almost everything that was said. I only had to look up a few unknow words from the recipes.

We made five recipes and ended the course with a sit down meal that was to die for. Both from volume of food consumed and quality, everything was delicous! We made: Greek salad with grilled Halumi cheese, feta and spinach pies, zucchini fritters, pastitsio (sort of like Greek noogle lasagne) and finnally a yogurt and walnut cake.

Here is the recipe for the Yogurt Walnut cake we ended the meal with, first in finnish then my translation. We had this cake just out of the oven and it was warm and light and lovely.

PÄHKINÄINEN JOGUTTIKAKKU

Kreikkalainen jogurti 2.5dl
jauhoa 4dl
leivinjauhe 3tl
sokeria 4dl
kananmunaa 5
saksanpäkinoita 2dl-3dl
sitruunankuori 2tl
margariinia 240gm

Vatkaa munat ja sokeri vatkaimella kuohkeaksi taikinaksi. Lisää juokkoon jogurtti, sitruunankuori ja margariini sulatettuna. Päkinärouhe lisäätään taikinaa nostellen ja aivan viimeiseksi leivinjauhe jollei sitä ole sekoittanut vehnäjauhojen juokkoon jo aiemmin.

Kaada voideltuun vuokaan ja paista n. 170-180 c:ssa tunnin verran. Kunnes kakku on kypsä.


WALNUT AND YOGURT CAKE

Greek yogurt 2.5 dl
flour 4 dl
baking powder 3 tsp
sugar 4 dl
eggs 4
walnuts 2dl-3dl (roughly chopped)
lemmon zest 2 tsp
margerine 240 gm

Whip the eggs and sugar together untill very fluffy (aprox 3 min). Add the yogurt, lemmon zest and melted margerine. Mix in the walnuts. In a seperate bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Add the flour mix to the wet ingredients and stir to incorperate.

Pour the batter into a buttered ring pan and place in a 170-180c oven for 1 hour or until fully cooked.