Mush

« Spicy lamb meatballs, feta-olive cheese sauce and mashed potatoes. »

When you have a toothache, in spite of the dentist telling you twice that there is nothing there, that causes you to daydream about taking a dremel to the offending tooth or chugging down a bottle filled with 400mg ibuprofen to ease the headache, soft foods become really attractive. Brief flashes of fizzing dentures in a glass with efferdent and sucking your meals through a straw do tend to dampen the desire to have all of them removed without ceremony. In a world without teeth, the surest proof of a non-existent or a surly bastard of a malevolent god, one might even reconsider atheism.

In the interest of soft foods, I noticed a tasty and gum-tastic recipe for meatballs and a feta cheese and olive sauce that I had to try. The pureed tomatoes that are mixed with the bread crumbs really had such a nice flavour that it's worth adding to regular meatballs as well. I served them with nice, soft and fluffy mashed potatoes that were proof that the potato ricer is a gadget worthy of my affection. A bit of butter and milk warmed in the microwave then poured over the riced potatoes and mixed with a fork are amazingly smooth. Amusingly, there seems to be a great deal of heated debate online over whether the ricer or a food mill or the old-fashioned masher makes the best mashed potatoes. It's one of those things you'll just have to try for yourself. I'll never make lumpy mashed potatoes again.

Even for those without fantasies involving dentists with pliers, meatballs and mash are perfect winter food and these actually have some taste to them. Although the Finnish 'coffee pudding', made with rolled spelt wheat, milk and coffee, that I tried making the other night looked like vomit and smelled like popcorn so I'm not sure that all soft foods are as appealing as others. :) Now, what do I make for the mobility-challenged man who wrecked his ankle yesterday? Is there such a thing as self-delivering food? Perhaps I could work on strapping a food tray to Otava. :)

spicy lamb meatballs and feta-olive sauce

Makes: about 45 meatballs
Time: about an hour
Source: Ruoka & Viini

spicy lamb meatballs

• 2 dl or 2 cups pureed tomatoes
• 1 dl or 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1,5 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 egg
• 500g or 18oz ground lamb meat (ground beef could also work)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1,5 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup chopped pine nuts
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup chopped golden raisins
• ground black pepper

feta-olive sauce

• 150g or 5.5oz feta cheese
• 1 dl or 1 cup chopped green olives
• 250g or 9oz kermaviili/unflavoured yogurt
• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
• ground black pepper

Heat oven to 200C/390F.

Puree tomatoes, mix with bread crumbs and let sit for a minute or two. Add salt, egg, and meat. Mix well. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Form mixture into small meatballs. Place on a baking pan (place a lightly greased small wire cooling rack on top of the baking pan and bake the meatballs on it to allow the grease to drain away and the underside of the meatballs to brown) and bake for 15-25 minutes until brown.

In a bowl, crumble feta cheese with a fork. Blend in chopped olives and kermaviili/yogurt. Flavour mixture with lemon zest, lemon juice, mint and black pepper.

Blue Plate Special

« Maksalaatikko, a.k.a. liver and rice casserole. »

I was one of those weird kids who really liked liver and onions. Liver gets an undeserved bad rap and subsequently isn't very popular in American dishes or very commonly featured in cookbooks. Years ago, I did a stint in a research lab where we would obtain human liver samples, isolate the hepatocytes and infuse them with various substances and I lost my taste for it after one night when I was mistakenly given an enormous whole human liver instead of the usual 50g sample. The image of the hard, red, bulbous organ would pop into my mind every time I'd see or smell liver for the next few years, but I eventually got over it and it's a good thing, too, since liver casserole is one of the most popular and commonly consumed dishes around here. It's the macaroni and cheese of Finland.

Finland doesn't have diners, sadly, but if it did maksalaatikko would be first on the menu since it's packed with diner and comfort food qualities. I can imagine it as a featured blue plate special served with a side of slaw and fries at any diner north of the Mason-Dixon. It's easy to make in a single dish (such as the fabulous Arabia Kokki casserole), in fact so easy that there aren't any good excuses to buy the ready-made instead, especially since the ready-made stuff doesn't really taste like much of anything except rice. I add cronions to the top for a bit of truck stop flair as well as to avoid the pre-digested appearance of the store-bought variety and it works well if you like onions. A bit of blue or cheddar cheese might also make a nice addition. What's not to love about liver when it's baked with tasty stuff in a casserole?

Maksalaatikko / Liver Casserole

Makes: 4-6 servings
Time: about 50 minutes + bake time

• 400-500g or 14-18oz beef, chicken or pig liver
• 2 large onions, diced
• 50g or 4 tablespoons butter
• 5 dl or 2 1/4 cups milk or beef stock
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup raisins, soaked in warm water if dry (optional)
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon ginger culinary syrup (optional)
• 1-2 teaspoons ground white pepper
• salt
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh or dried marjoram
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup cronions for the top (optional)
• lingonberry jam or cranberry sauce to serve with it

rice:

• 2 dl or .85 cup porridge rice
• 5 dl or 2 1/4 cups water
• 5 dl or 2 1/4 cups milk

In a saucepan or the casserole dish, bring milk, water and rice to a boil. Stir in raisins, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.

In a skillet, or in the casserole dish you intend to bake with, melt butter and sautee onions until soft. Put onions into a small bowl and set aside. Slice liver into small pieces and sautee until brown and cooked through. Place on cutting board and use either a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to crumble the liver into very small bits. You could also briefly use a hand blender.

When rice is done, mix together all ingredients in casserole dish and bake for about 50-60 minutes at 200C/390F.