Super easy orange-mandarin sorbet

Sorry for not updating my blog for ages but the end of my school-year was pretty hectic. The exams and other works took a lot of time. I'm trying to compensate it during the summer by posting more.

         One day we had lots of mandarins and their peels were so tight that we couldn't peel them. I happened to have an ice cream machine and I used it to make some sorbet. After juicing the mandarins I added some orange juice to increase the amount of the juice. There were at least ten mandarins and after halving them I had 20 halves to juice. That took a while because we don't have a proper juicing machine, just a citrus juice extractor.

         To make this even simpler you don't have juice the fruits yourself. You can add ready-made juice from a bottle. Also you don't have to use just orange or mandarin. The world is full of fruits that can be juiced and be made to sorbet. Experiment with different juices to find your own favourite.

         When I had the juice I just poured it in the chilled ice cream machine and let it freeze for 30 minutes. The machine did all the work for me: the freezing and the mixing of the juice. It's also easy to make without the machine. Just pour the juice in a bowl and put it in a freezer. Let it freeze for a few hours and mix it a few times with an electric mixer during the freezing.

        The result was delicious but in the borders of being too sour. If you like sweet then you can add some sugar but it's not necessary.





 

Reindeer tortilla

 We had some salted reindeer meat and one day we decided to make some reindeer tortilla. I chopped the reindeer and added some sour cream, herbs and onion. Then we wrapped it in corn tortillas.

It was quite salty but it tasted absolutely delicious. I’ll make some tortilla again if we happen to get some reindeer meat somewhere.

Some espresso

Hello everyone who bother reading this! It's been ages since the last time I wrote anything in here. If you have been following my Instagram you may have seen some of my dishes but I have been too busy to write anything (or too lazy). But here's my first blog update for 6 months.
         I have recently become more intrested in different type of coffees. Cappuccino is clearly my favourite but I also like different types. To make cappuccino you need some espresso and milk. We had had a moka pot for years but I haven't paid any attention to it before. The opening of a new coffee roastery in Jyväskylä has strengthed my enthusiasm to coffees. It's called paahtimo Papu. It's the only organic roastery in Finland. Here's a link to  their website: http://www.paahtimopapu.fi/  (the website is in Finnish).

        I bought some espresso grounds tested to make some coffee. It tasted disgusting. The next time I put some less grounds at it tasted a whole lot better. I also tried to make some latte and it tasted pretty good.

Restaurant Pöllövaari

I just had my 16th birthday and my parents gave me as a birthday present a dinner in restaurant Pöllövaari. It's in the middle of Jyväskylä, Finland. The name is Finnish and means owl grandfather. I ordered a menu called Kotimaan matka. It means a trip around the home country. It included goat cheese and onion as an appertizer, lamb as a main dish and crème brûlée as a dessert. The lamb was very tender and I enjoyed the whole meal.

Ravioli

I made some ravioli one day. It took hours to make enough pasta for my whole family but with a little preparing it won't take long. You can make the dough in advance and freeze it. You can find the recipe from my previous post.

Opening the barbeque season

 We started our barbeque season yesterday by grilling some corn chicken and pork. As you might see, there's still some snow on the ground. But I didn't let it matter. I made the dish in the middle of the plate (under) by putting some soft goat cheese, red onion and some devil's jam on the grilled pork pieces.

Devil's Jam

800g Crushed tomatoes
400g Red peppers
1 Onion
2-4 Red chilis
6-8 Garlic cloves
1 tspn Salt
1 tspn Ground black pepper
1 tspn Oregano
1/2 dl Vinegar
1 packet Jamsugar

Chop peppers and onion and crush the garlic. Add all ingredients except the sugar in a pan. I made two batches of this; other one was hotter, other milder. Stir and let it pour for 30-40 minutes. After that add the sugar, stir and let it pour for 5 more minutes. Let it chill for a minute and bottle. I sterilised the jars by putting them in the oven for about half an hour. I like to serve it with this pig, goat cheese and red onion dish.

Smoked Chili

 My father smoked some salmon yesterday and I decided to try to smoke some chili at the same time. I grabbed a random chili from one of the bushes. I thought it wasn't so hot because it was that big. Nope.

When I put the chili in my mouth, it started to burn almost immediately. The pain lasted for about 10 minutes.
      The upper picture shows the chili before smoking and the lower picture after. We used apple tree and alder chips in smoking.