A taste of Finland

An early summer's evening on the Finnish archipelago.

I haven't been asked to do this, but the author is a dear friend of mine and an amazing chef. Finnish cuisine is a bit of an enigma. When people are asked to think of cuisine from Northern Europe/Scandinavia, Finnish food items are rarely mentioned. Proper Finnish food to me is clean, simple and fresh. We have the heavy comfort foods of winter such as kiusaus (similar to potato dauphinoise but with the addition of either salami, ham or anchovies). Summertime is when Finnish food comes into its own, characterised by fresh local(ish) fish, smoked (hot and cold) fish, pickled fish aka silli, accompanied by seasonal vegetables and salads. There is also crayfish season in the late summer. In Finland (and Sweden) we celebrate this time with crayfish parties and Finnish vodka. Although America also has crawfish parties, I think the way the two regions celebrate is rather different, if my quick Google about the matter was anything to go by!

My friend, Sini Kiialainen, currently Chef to the Finnish Ambassador in London, has written and published a cookbook about Finnish cuisine. She has written it so that anyone with an interest in food should be able to try their hand at making some Finnish classics (with her own stylish twist). I got to have a sneak peek at some of the recipes and I'm excited to try them out for myself. You can find more info about Sini and where to buy her cookbook "Kuura" here: http://www.sinikiialainen.com/

She also did a short (10 min) radio interview on Monocle, which you can listen to here: http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-menu/141/ (from 22:30 onwards).