Salmon With Pesto Sauce

Today it was rainy autumn Sunday and I cooked salmon with pesto for lunch at home.

Pesto sauce ingredients:

2 pots of fresh basil

75 grams of parmesan cheese

1-2 garlic cloves

50 grams pine nuts (seeds)

3/4 dl of olive oil

lemon juice

salt

After cutting basil leaves and garlic clove, crating parmesan and heating pine nuts, I added some salt, lemon juice and olive oil and mixed all incredients in a blender and the pesto sauce was ready.

For 3 people I bought little bit over 1/2 kgs boneless salmon. I placed the fish on oven dish skin on top and had it in oven in 175 degrees C for 20 minutes. Then I took the skin off and added pesto sauce on top and put the fish back in oven for another 10 minutes.

Served fish with simple salad and strawberry balsamic vinegar dressing.

Dessert was quick Finnish squeaky cheese warmed in oven with cream and served with berry jam.

As it was a laid-back Sunday afternoon so ideal time to have a nap after the lunch.

One More Time: Chisu

Yesterday it was the last concert of Chisu's current Kun valaistun tour at Cable Factory in Helsinki. Sold out concert with some 3000 people started with Chisu singing "Minä ja mun pää" behind the stage curtain so that her face was shown on the screen.

When the curtain was removed Chisu revealed her black dress and golden jacket singing "Sabotage".

Chisu has beautiful voice and stage charisma and she really takes her audience.

 It was awesome mood at the concert and the audience gave exceptionally good response by singing along most of the songs.

This 1,5 hours show included many of her old hits such as Sama nainen and Baden-Baden as well as all three new songs Kolmas pyörä, Frankenstein and Kun valaistun.

And after this gig Chisu is going to have break from touring, but hope to see her soon on stage again!

Chisu Concert Setlist at Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki on September 22, 2012 | setlist.fm

Marvellous Sofi Oksanen

Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish no. 1 author at the moment. She has written 4 novels of which the latest Kun kyyhkyset katosivat ie. When The Doves Disappeared being published the last of August and it instantly became the most sold book in Finland in August and will likely be the most sold book in 2012.

Sofi Oksanen deputed in 2003 with Stalin's Cows (Stalinin lehmät) and was already then nominated for Finnish literature Runeberg Prize and after that she has often been nominated and also won several prizes, such as the most prestigious Finlandia Prize in 2008 with her third novel Purge (Puhdistus) that also got her Runeberg Prize and the Nordic Council Literature Prize the following year. Until now Purge has been translated from Finnish to 38 languages, made into theathre plays, opera and film.

Besides the novels Sofi has also written lyrics for music play Too Short Skirt - Tales From The Kitchen with Maija Kaunismaa singing the lyrics. Songs describe the demands and expectations placed on the modern woman as well as the injustices women encounter daily.

 

Sofi Oksanen has written lot about Estonia and When the Doves Disappeared is a story of occupation, resistance, and collaboration in Estonia during and after World War II. This book is next on my reading list.

I sincerely recommend everybody to read Sofi Oksanen as she is highly talented author and her books handle complicated topics in thought-provoking way. She is without a doubt the most important and influential Finnish author of our era.

Dinner At Juuri

Restaurant Juuri is located in Korkeavuorenkatu near Design Museum.

The speciality of the restaurant are Sapas appertizers with traditional Finnish flavours. Sapas are really tasty mouthfuls and there are some 15 different options on the menu priced EUR 4,50 each. You can take 2 each and share with 2 people so both get to have a taste as starters. But these are so tasty one wants to eat them all and as a main dish it was recommended to have 6-7 sapas each.

This time we chose Smoked bream and potato mousse with fried rye dough, Mushroom brioche with onion and cream cheese, Black sausage and Baked oregano cottage cheese with gooseberry and green pepper jam. All were delicious!

As a main course we both chose the dish of the day which was really nice salmon.

Two desserts were tested and I preferred Apple and rowan berry crumble with birch and yoghurt sorbet and salty liquorice sauce over Swiss roll with chocolate and caramel, salt caramel ice cream and pine fudge sauce.

Overall really good experience and excellent food. Sometimes the service can be little bit stiff, but now we had really good waiter. The only thing was that the noise level at restaurant gets pretty high at times so it is hard to have a conversation.

But the restaurant is definitely worth a visit because of the great food! And after dinner you can have a drink at next door Latva Bar.

  

Various Positions of Leonard Cohen

I have been a fan of Leonard Cohen's music for quite some years and was really delighted when I first saw him live in Helsinki 2010. The artist is born in 1934 so one got to admire his energy to pull through a world tour with several concerts.

This summer I visited Greece for the first time and was eager to go to Hydra, the island where Leonard Cohen lived in 1960's writing poetry, novel and songs. Just to get the feeling about "So Long Marianne".

Early September 2012 I got to see Leonard Cohen again in an outdoors concert in Helsinki.

And what a brilliant concert it was, the show lasting some 3 hours with several encores.

 
The later and the darker the evening got after the pause, the athmosphere got even more intense. 

In the beginning of September Taidehalli in Porvoo had Leonard Cohen Artworks exhibition, which I also went to see.

Like the artist himself said: "If there were no paintings in the world, mine would be very important."

 

Ps. Check the great fanpage: The Leonard Cohen Files

Everyday Discoveries

One of Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 events is Everyday Discoveries (Arjen aarteet) exhibition in Suvilahti. During Habitare furniture and design fair there was a free non-stop transport between Helsinki Exhibition centre and Suvilahti. 

 The exhibition presented everyday design items from over 20 different countries.

Really interesting joint display of the countries in Kattilahalli.

Besides Kattilahalli display there were separate exhibitions by over 20 countries.

Helsinki Tagged

Suvilahti is good venue organizing events like this as there is plenty of space inside and out.