Making Cinnamon Toast Finnish-Style

Ingredients for Making Scandinavian or Finnish-Style Cinnamon Toast

The method and ingredients for making baked cinnamon toast are simple, 
and can be adjusted to your taste. 

I soak some day-old home-made bread in milk, cream, a dash of salt, cinnamon and sweetener for a half-minute, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, then bake it on a buttered baking sheet in a low oven (250*) until lightly browned and dry. Let it sit overnight in the oven for a real crunch. Optionally, you can remove the toast after baking it for an hour, and re-coat it in the milk, cream and cinnamon batter, sprinkle it again with cinnamon and sugar, then bake again for as long as you believe necessary. This toast is usually dunked into coffee, as it is meant to be very crunchy.

©M-J de Mesterton 2010

Elegant Cornish Pasties

M-J de Mesterton’s Cornish-Style Pasties

OCTOBER 3, 2009

Home-Gardens Yield lots of Turnips, onions and potatoes in Autumn: Use Them the Traditional Cornish Way for a Nutritious, Easy-to-Serve, Elegant Luncheon

tags: Cornish Pasty Recipe, Elegant Meat Dishes, How to Make Cornish Pasties, M-J de Mesterton Original, M-J de Mesterton's Cornish Pasties, Pasty, Pasty of the Copper Country

by M-J de Mesterton

Devon-Style Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton (Pasties Crimped on Top)

I’ve been making Cornish pasties since the age of 20. My mother wrote a book about the pasty and its history which was published in 1990, but my method and ingredients differ from hers. The following is  my pasty (pronounced “pass-tee”) recipe: I will not formally transcribe my recipe and method for making pasties, because  I never use measurements. I can tell you, however, that they are made with a short crust containing both butter and lard, water, a teaspoon of malt vinegar, and unbleached, plain white flour. Since salted butter is used in the dough, add just a dash of salt to it.  I add sea-salt and hand-milled pepper to the filling, which consists of  four ingredients, diced very finely: tri-tip steak, which is always well-marbled and never tough; ordinary, high-starch brown-skinned potatoes, turnips, butter bits, and white or Spanish onions. The finely-diced beef and vegetables are tossed together in a mixing bowl with the salt and pepper before being laid upon the dough, dotted with butter and enclosed. The edges are crimped, either on top or on the side of the pasty, and a couple of well-placed slits are made in the top to allow steam to escape. The final product is brushed with a beaten egg mixed with a teaspoon of cream. The pasties are then baked in a very hot oven for close to one hour. Once the pasties have cooled for about twenty minutes, serve with an oil-and-vinegar-dressed lettuce salad. Offer Cornish cream, crème fraîche, Mexican Crema, or sour cream as an optional condiment. The pasties depicted here, which I made,  are the optimum size for a meal; the dough for them was shaped into a ball about half the size of a woman’s closed hand, then was rolled out and cut around a 7″ luncheon plate.  Making giant pasties just isn’t elegant, nor is it traditionally Cornish. I also make miniature pasties for parties, by using a tin can or the bottom, inner ridge of the same luncheon plate as a cutting guide. These mini-pasties are easily eaten by hand with a bread-plate or cocktail napkin to catch any pastry-flakes. For a basic short-crust guide, please see my Elegant Apple Pie recipe.~~Recipe and Pasty Photos Copyright M-J de Mesterton

Cornish Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton, Copyright 2009

M-J's Elegant Autumn Potato Salad

M-J's Elegant Autumn Potato Salad

Like the potato salad that my Swedish grandmother used to make for me, this dish relies upon some bacon, vinegar, and an onion.

Peel, quarter and boil eight medium sized potatoes, or ten small ones. Salt the boiling water. Alternatively, add some Maggi or Knorr chicken bouillon powder.
Boil the potato chunks for fifteen minutes. Drain but do not rinse them. In your cooking pot, sauté eight strips of bacon, finely chopped. Remove the bacon bits with a slotted spoon. and reserve in a small bowl or cup. Empty out  half of the bacon fat. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use peanut oil) and two tablespoons of vinegar (I use malt vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar). If you have it, a tablespoon of concentrated apple juice can be added to this dressing mixture. You will adjust the vinegar and oil to your taste after the initial mixing of all ingredients. Add the potatoes, one finely diced small onion (red, white or yellow), and one diced, unpeeled apple. Grind some pepper into the mixture for taste, and check for salt. Mix gently. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature for  best flavor.

~~Recipe and Photo of Autumn Potato Salad Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2008 

Make Your Own Finnish-Style Cheese: Leipäjuusto

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

by M-J de Mesterton

Leipäjuusto and Cloudberry Jam: Photo by Teemu Rajala

Click Image to Enlarge Recipe

My mother gave me a booklet in 1985, when it was published: Kitsi Finnish Foodways, a publication of Suomi College (now called Finlandia University) for FinnFest 1985. My copy of Kitsi is yellowed. I don’t think my dear, departed mother ever made squeaky cheese, but, working at Suomi College’s Finnish-American Heritage Center, she did draw the illustrations on Kitsi’s cover. Leipäjuusto is an unusual creation that I really like with rye bread, when in Finland. Here is the recipe for making your own Finnish Squeaky Cheese.

Update: I’ve just found my mother’s friend, Beatrice Ojakangas’ blog, where she hosts a richer recipe for leipäjuusto.

Copyright M-J de Mesterton

Here is a recipe for Finnish Apple Cake, by Beatrice Ojakangas, the Queen of Scandinavian Cooking

FINNISH APPLE SUGAR CAKE (Omenasokerikakku)
Makes 12 servings
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
dash salt
3/4 cup light cream or undiluted evaporated milk
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced about 1/2 inch
Cinnamon sugar: 2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 13-inch cake pan.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together; add the eggs and beat until light. Stir the flour, baking powder and salt together and add to the cream mixture alternately with the cream. Mix until batter is smooth and spread into the prepared pan.
Insert the apple slices so that the outer edges of the apple slices are up. Sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean and dry. Serve warm.
~~Copyright Beatrice Ojakangas, The Finnish Cookbook, 1964

Cruciferous Vegetables for Good Health

Article about Cruciferous Vegetables in 
The World's Healthiest Foods

The elegant radish can be eaten spread with a little butter, French style, usually as a breakfast component; as a fresh snack with a little salt and pepper, or sliced thinly in a tea-sandwich.
 Radishes are an effective liver-tonic the morning after a dinner party.

Red or purple cabbage is a health-promoting, cancer-inhibiting, cruciferous vegetable.

Green cabbage can be marinated in a salad European-style, stuffed as choux farcí, or stir-fried with other vegetables the Chinese way.

Cauliflower can be sautéed, steamed or baked. Popular methods of preparation include as a component of  casseroles, blanched on vegetable platters with dips,  and served in chunks with tahini sauce.

©M-J de Mesterton 2010

M-J's Elegant Sauce Velouté

Sauce Velouté for an Elegant Dinner Dish Made with Poached Chicken Breasts

M-J's Sauce Velouté Recipe

Save the broth from poaching chicken breasts as shown in a previous post, and make elegant sauce velouté, a classic feature of French cuisine. For this recipe, I would prefer the chicken poaching liquid to contain just salt, white wine, water, and a spoonful of lemon juice.

Make a roux with about two tablespoons each of butter and flour. Stir it until light tan and bubbly.
Add about two cups of chicken broth or poaching liquid, stirring it in quickly.

Cook the ingredients until smooth.
When the sauce is very thick, slowly add a half-cup of cream and incorporate it well, cooking on low heat for another minute. I like to use bamboo tools, because they do not scratch my cookware.

Elegant Sauce Velouté, a French Classic with Many Applications

If you don't plan to use it right away, it is perfectly acceptable to store your sauce velouté in a jar, and refrigerate or freeze until needed. Thaw the sauce slowly in a covered pan or pot, and add some white wine or champagne to taste. Cream may also be stirred-in until the sauce is at the consistency that you prefer. Dress your chicken in this elegant French sauce velouté. It is very good to have at hand for impromptu gatherings, together with some poached and sliced chicken breasts. These two ingredients guarantee you a quickly-prepared, elegant dinner party offering.
©M-J de Mesterton 2010

Make Your Own Elegant Tortilla Chips

MAKE YOUR OWN ELEGANT TORTILLA CHIPS You don't have to throw out your tortillas if they are past their prime. Make them into tortilla chips, which will be very popular with your family and guests, as they are pleasingly different from those bought in the store. Take a stack of tortillas and dust between the layers with salt, pressing it into them. Then, pressing into it with a large knife, cut the stack of tortillas into quarters. Lower a handful-at-a-time of the uncooked chips into bubbling hot oil. For this light and crispy batch, I used a combination of soy oil, which is now sold as "vegetable oil", and lard. Peanut or corn oil are also good for deep-frying tortillas.

When the chips themselves have developed bubbles and are slightly brown, it's time to remove them from the pot with a runsible or slotted spoon. Drain them on paper towels, and dust with more salt if desired. The cooking oil may be strained, refrigerated and re-used for French fries, yams or potato chips. My recipe for Elegant Guacamole goes very well with these tortilla chips. So do sour cream or crème fraîche, and a mixture of sliced jalapeños with melted Cheddar cheese, baked on top of the chips for a few minutes in a hot oven.

 ©M-J de Mesterton 2009

 M-J de Mesterton's Elegant Guacamole Dip: Find the Recipe on Elegant Cuisine and Elegant Cook.

Elegant Greek Salad

Lettuce, Feta Cheese Chunks, Olives, Olive Oil, Vinegar, Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Cilantro Make an Elegant, Refreshing Luncheon Salad

Elegant Pineapple Chunks

Pineapple Chunks are likely to make your stir-fried dishes and pizzas soggy, if used directly from a can. I soaked pineapple in soy sauce for a couple of minutes, drained and then baked it until the chunks had a caramel-colour. Now the pineapple chunks can be added to any dish and contribute rich flavour and texture.

©M-J de Mesterton 2010

M-J's Cream of Celery Soup

My Original Recipe: Low-Carbohydrate Celery Soup

Potage de Céleri

Wash a whole head of celery, by cutting the bottom off and bathing the stalks in a sinkful of water. With French chef’s knife, chop finely. Include the celery leaves, which are packed with flavour. In a large pot, melt two tablespoons of butter. Put the chopped celery in, and add a teaspooon of salt, one half-teaspoon of cumin, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Saute until bright green and almost soft. Stir in a tablespoon of cornstarch (cornflour), which has seven grams of carbs. Saute for two more minutes, and then add one cup of cream and two cups of water. Simmer for ten minutes. Serves six. This soup is a good accompaniment to croques monsieurs for luncheon.

~~Copyright M-J de Mesterton, February 2007

Baking Day with M-J

Once a week, I make a large quantity of my favourite bread-dough, and freeze several balls of it in plastic bags. On Baking Day, I make one or two loaves for immediate use. Taken out of the freezer the night before it is needed, the other balls of dough will be ready to knead one more time and rise again for freshly-baked bread during the week. I use my extra dough for pizzas, hamburger buns, and baguettes. Rather than baking all the dough on Baking Day, which would only guarantee two-and-three day-old loaves, I expend the energy producing the dough in bulk on one day, and bake it whenever I need to during the week.

©M-J de Mesterton 2010

Cooking with Wine: Burgundy in a Box

Wine isn't used just for drinking in France; it is used in cookery, including the famous braised-beef dish boeuf bourguignon. Marinating and cooking meat  in Burgundy wine makes it very tender, with a robust flavour.

In the U.S., you may wish to keep a five-litre box of Almaden Mountain Burgundy (available at Sam's and elsewhere for between 12 and 15 USD) in the kitchen for cooking. This way, a whole bottle of Burgundy, which can be expensive, doesn't need to be opened when you just wish to add a half-cup of it to your dish. The wine is protected in an air-free vessel  inside the box, and is always at-hand for occasional use in cookery. Wine on-tap on top of the refrigerator is a great boon to any creative home-cook. 

©M-J de Mesterton 2010

Oneida's Guide to Setting the Table

Oneida

The Oneida Pictorial Table-Setting Guide

Elegant Purple Cabbage Salad

Red or purple cabbage, sliced thinly and mixed with feta cheese, yellow tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, cilantro and salt makes an elegant salad. I grew this purple cabbage and the yellow pear tomatoes. It is best to let this dressed salad sit at room temperature for at least an hour, so that the cabbage softens a little.

©M-J de Mesterton

Elegant Hamburger Buns

See the Elegant Cook Main Page, for M-J's Elegant Bread Recipes

Pita Bread

Yield: 8 Pitas


Ingredients


3 cups of unbleached white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of yeast
11/2 cups of warm water
2 tablespoons of butter or your favorite vegetable/peanut oil


Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.


Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add oil/butter and water.
Knead for ten minutes.
Form the dough into a ball and coat with oil, set into a bowl, and let rise for 90 minutes.


Punch down your dough-ball, then divide it into 8 balls. Dust them with flour on both sides and, using a rolling-pin, flatten them into discs.


Bake the pitas in your 400* oven on a stone or heavy, flat pan for approximately 5 minutes.


©M-J de Mesterton 2010

M-J's Elegant Hommos bi Tahini

M-J's elegant recipe for hommos bi tahini, hummus bi tahine, tahina or whichever way you prefer to spell chickpea and sesame dip: mash the chickpeas and add sesame paste, preferably a very liquid one with lots of natural oil in it, and squeeze into this mixture the juice of a lemon, add salt, red pepper and olive oil to your taste. Mix until almost smooth. Serve hummus bi tahini with warm pita bread, Moroccan olives, shawarma, and whatever else you have on your meze table. Hummus is a perfect dip for summer entertaining. And without the addition of raw garlic, which no one will miss, this dip is more socially acceptable. The lemon component is very refreshing, the sesame paste is tasty, and the garbanzos (chick-peas) are light and airy. Combining these simple ingredients results in a magical dish that is very popular at parties.

©M-J de Mesterton

M-J's Meat Sauce and Rotini

See M-J's Sauce Ragú
M-J's Original, Slow-Cooked Meat Sauce
A French and Italian Hybrid

Elegant Home-Grown Vegetable Smoothie