Easy beetroot and goat cheese salad

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything, but I was super busy with work and traveling again and I tried to gain some inspiration from my trips, my plans for a lifestyle change and just be so much more creative then before. I decided that I will try to use only seasonal products to create recipes and make easy, healthy and also extraordinary tastes. I will slowly get back to blogging again and I hope you’ll enjoy my creatures with cheese again and give feedback on what you’d like to see here and what kind of cheese, spices and ingredients you’d want me to try to make something new and groundbreaking.  🙂

Because you all know there is no food without cheese  🙂

So here’s an easy beetroot salad that you can have for lunch or dinner…or breakfast if you’d like…

Ingredients:

• • 200 gramms of beetroot
  • 1 or 2 small carrots
  • 1 apple ( I used Golden, but if you like you can use a more sour kind )
  • parsley
  •  pomegranate
  • salt & pepper
  • fresh goat cheese

Steps:

1. Peel the veggies and cut them into 2×2 cm cubes
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius
3.  Put the beetroot, carrot to the own with a pinch of salt, pepper and spill some olive oil on it. Bake it for 25 mins till the veggies start get soft then add the chopped apples as well. ( If you feel it is getting dry, add a 0, 5 dl water )
4. Bake it for an additional 15 mins till the apple gets soft as well.
5. Pour the baked veggies to a bowl
6. Cut the goat cheese to small pieces, chop parsley and stir it together with the veggies.
7. To finish strew the seeds of a half pomegranate on top and it is ready to be served.  Enjoy 🙂

The Finnish cheese platter – or something platter made of something cheese :)

Finnish cheese platter

At first I wanted to make separate posts about the different types of Finnish cheeses but I just decided recently that it is better to write my personal experiences and some history of the different types and make a small cheesplatter along with personal recommendation on how it would be the best to eat these lovely and smooth delicacies.

So here you can find all the cheese I tasted in Finland so far and let me share my opinion on all these. You can argue, you can share what you think of the following.

Please do not hesitate 🙂

#1 Oltermani

Oltermanni is a brand of Finnish cheese that is similar to the Danish cheese called Havarti. It is often eaten on rye bread, or with other meals (e.g. the Finnish rice pie: Karjalanpiirakka). Oltermanni is manufactured by the company Valio. It is a rindless, semi-soft rich cheese with a high fat content usually made of fresh cow’s milk. It has a fresh aroma and I would say that is has almost similar taste as a young Ementaler but it is less ’agressive’.

Taking into consideration that is has high fat content I would suggest having it with a glass of Pinot Noir or a Glass of brown ale from Brewdog  such as #MashTag2015  or Guinness.

#2 Aura cheese

Aura is a type of blue cheese alsoproduced by the Finnish dairy company Valio. Aura is made of cow’s milk and takes its name from the Aura River, which runs through the city of Turku. The cheese is available in two varieties. The regular variety is aged for six weeks, whereas the stronger ‘Aura Gold’ variety is aged for 12 weeks.

Aura has a really strong almost Gorgonzola character therefore it takes the leading role either in a meal or on a cheesplatter. It can be sprinkled on a salad or put on rye bread with a little bit of butter accompanied by grapes or pear. I would also recommend having a glass of Riesling as the sweetness of the wine clings to the fat in the cheese and makes it a perfect taste sensation.

 

#3 Leipajusto a.k.a  Breadcheese

It is my personal favourite from the ones I met in Finland so far. It is soft and fresh almost cottage-cheese like usually made of cow’s milk, but since I am on a goat farm we used goat’s milk and compared to the original cow one, I preferred the goat milk version. The procedure of making is a bit extraordinary as the fresh goat cheese has to be baked in an oven for 20-30 minutes on 250 celsius degrees ( I personally needed 45 minutes), but it actually worth waiting, especially if you have some fresh berries in the garden or any kind of non-sugary jams in the cupboard. It is especially delicious with apple or pear jam along with a cup of sparkling white wine or an ice-cold Merlot or a glass of stout beer.

#4 Fresh goat cheese ( made in the morning)

Well, this is the easiest case since it is a very light, soft and smooth cheese that caneasily be spread on fresh rye bread either by itself or along with lingonberry or other sour type of berry jams, also this can be a perfect match with plum jam also. And to make the indulgence more extatic you should be tasting it with a glass of Sauvign on Blanc.

So take your time and try out either only one of these or the whole variety but I promise you won’t regret any of the moments spent with these lovelies.

Have nice cheese moment 😉

Making of the Finnish fresh goat cheese

Well.. well. I have decided to make sort of a cheese trip around the world and discover different types of milks, cheeses, animals, procedures, traditional recipes and stories of my favourite food.

This time I chose Finland to dig myself into the middle of artisan goat cheese making and experience a little bit of the countryside lifestyle. However, it turned out that the little bit will mean the most nomad way I have ever encountered. No bathroom, no electricity, going to bed after sunset and waking up in a jurt to which we have to chop firewood every day.

At first I was scared or I would rather say terrified of the facilities around the place but slowly started to realize that as an uptown girl it is not necesarilly important to be in my convient and cosy cage all the time and I can still learn a lot of usefull skills about puritan, organic life and the rules of survival without electricity.

So to cut it all short, the story of my first goat cheese making is not  as simple as I expected J

At first I had to learn how to milk the goats for that valuable cheese base which is not so easy. All goats have a personallity and are extremely stubborn, so you actually have to fight with them to make them tied to their place and keep them calm while you are milking. In my case it required two other people to handle this outrageous situation . ( I am small and weak enough to fail in such situation alone). 

Finally I could manage to milk two goats but it is more or less not even 3 liters of milk, which is literally nothing for cheesemaking. Therefore my host and myself have decided to make cheese in every 5-6 days when we have enough milk to produce a normal amount.

I was pretty upset because the only reason I have come here for was cheesemaking, but I had to calm down a bit and wait until it is time for the real jo to be done.

It took a couple of days but finally my time has come and I could not wait to make fresh goat cheese. – I have to mention that goat’s milk is pretty nice and smooth added to your morning coffee too.

It was a shiny  and chilly morning in  the jurt and I jumped out of my sort of bed to enter the „ cheesemaking day” . The milk was already on the stove ( yes, stove) and my host was smiling as a little kid as she know how excited I was about the upcoming hours.

Method:

Well, it was not so scientific as I thought it would be. We heated the milk up to about 50-60 celsiu than added the „ secret liquid” and left  it
on the stove for like 30 minutes. After that we put the already hardening material to a cheese cloth, squeezed it for like 3-4 times and let it hung for a couple of hours. Then it was ready :O

Personal impression:
The fresh goat cheese was unbelievebaly creamy and little bit unsalty. I would say that it was rather a cottage cheese made of mozzarella and squeezed or some other cheese with not such a dominant caracter although it was a lot more unique than a normal cottage cheese made of  sheep’s or cow’s milk.

 Recommendation:

As the cheese itself is very smooth and soft I would recommend eating  with freshlymade chapati and a bit of lingonberry  ( its lingonberry season in Finland) or blueberry , accompanied by a glass of cold Chardonnay or  Rizling. Also it could serve on any salad or grilled softly in a pan with some balsamic vinegar.