Quelques diners "presque parfaits"

This past week, something very strange has happened to me. I’ve suddenly felt unreasonable urge to, er, cook. That is something that will surely surprise some of you readers nearly as much as it did myself. OK, to be fair, I have done cooking before (when I was starving as a student and couldn’t even afford Indian/Chinese takeaway on a daily basis), and I do participate quite actively at home in cooking (but more in a “vegetable chopper/heavy duty mixer” kind of role). One reason could be, I suppose, the fact that my Valentine's dinner meal (Isle of Skye pasta) was not a big success, might have something to do with it.

It all started last week, when I got all nostalgic about being a Finn, and decided to make a Finnish meal for Mathilde. There are not many dishes more typical than “hernekeitto ja pannukakku” (pea soup and pancakes). It is traditionally eaten on Thursdays, but I was too eager to wait, so we decided to cheat and eat it on Wednesday. I even did something which is totally against my principles (which is to do EVERYTHING last minute), and went shopping the night before. Which was really a good thing, as it turns out the peas have to be soaked in water overnight! So I put the peas to soak, feeling quite pleased with myself. On Wednesday, the cooking frenzy started. In the peas went into the big pot, along with the pork lard, onions, and carrots. I then left the pea soup to boil, whilst I started preparing the pancake paste. I was getting a bit worried about the soup, since it didn’t look anything like I remember from my childhood (it should go all green, but in my case, the soup stayed transparent…). Well, at the end of 2 hours, we were too hungry to wait any longer, so we decided to have a go. At least the soup got some colour when I chucked in the cream – but still it wasn’t quite how I remember it. But the most important thing is surely the taste, and we both found that quite OK. We had some Californian red wine with the meal – not very Finnish really (but more glamorous than a glass of milk – which would be the norm back home). The pancakes were not quite the same as my grandma’s either, but the taste was good enough - which is the main thing, right? So all in all, I would call the dinner a success (but maybe not quite “Un diner presque parfait ;-).

I had also misjudged the quantity wildly, so there was rather a lot of soup left over. So the solution to this problem was to invite my fellow Finns over for lunch the next day! (which is actually the traditional day to have pea soup and pancakes). Grudgingly Teemu, Pete and Hannu accepted – whereas Mikko politely declined (he appears to be pretty much allergic to all things vegetable). I was somewhat nervous – since the judgement of my fellow countrymen obviously meant a lot to me. And they all pretty much came to the same conclusion as me – the pea soup wasn’t quite how it’s supposed to be, but still good, and the pancakes were just about right. So I was quite pleased with myself.

My escapades continued on Monday, when my parents came over for dinner (Mathilde was still in Angers). This time I had decided to go for an Asian speciality – a coconut milk turkey stir fry with vermicelli noodles, followed by some brownies. With the self-confidence gained from last week’s qualified success, I confidently got prepared the ingredients for the stir fry, even going as far as attempting some multi-tasking (meaning I started preparing the brownie pasty as the stir fry was on the boil). The timing was even pretty good, as I just had time to welcome my parents and have a quick apero before digging into the food. The main course was again relatively successful (or maybe my parents were just being polite). But as for the dessert… The nicest way of describing the end result would be “rock-hard brownies a la Teemu”, the honest way would be that they were, well, rock-hard. They were barely edible coming out of the oven (my parents politely smiled while chewing/crushing them…). But about an hour later, they resembled hardened pieces of lava or something…

Anyway, I didn’t let this slight failure discourage me, but prepared myself mentally for the next meal – which was an Italian meal for my darling on Wednesday, a little something to welcome her back home with. So this time I decided to use a recipe from our “Jamie Oliver in Italy” cookbook called “spaghetti con gamberetti e rucola” (that would be spaghetti with prawns and rocket), followed by a lemon panna cotta with caramel decoration. The pasta preparation went without an incidents - the only slight problem being that I had bought mash salad instead of rocket (I call it improvisation). The panna cotta preparation went well also, and as the recipe said, I put it in the fridge to cool down (figuring it would surely be ready in an hour or so). So we dug into the pasta, and both found it tasty – although the spaghetti was unfortunately a bit overcooked.




Unfortunately, the panna cotta wasn’t quite ready…. They could’ve mentioned in the bloody recipe it takes 4-6 hours to cool down, dammit! So let’s say the wait between the main course and the desert was bit long… And as for the caramel sauce – it ended up being nearly as hard as the brownie from 2 days earlier…. So after chewing on a couple of bits of it, we gave up (the damn stuff ended up in the dust bin). But the panna cotta, once it was finally ready, I’m really proud of! I dare say it’s as good as the stuff they serve in the restaurants. So again, in the whole, a qualified success then.

All in all, I’m happy about my venture into the world of cooking. Although I don’t think I’m quite ready for “un diner presque parfait” yet…. ;-)

A bit of "murtsikka" in Greolieres

Some people in my home country always go on about their great memories from the military service. Me, I was never much of a soldier, and only start reminiscing when I’m really drunk, and surrounded by equally drunken Finns (which of course hardly ever happens). But one joy I actually rediscovered during my military service was actually cross-country skiing (known as "murtsikka" in Finnish). Or let’s say that my best and worst memories are to do with skiing. Best since it was at times a great way to enjoy the peace and quite of nature – and the Finnish forests are really very beautiful when they are covered with snow. Worst since you had to carry shed-loads of stuff whilst skiing ridiculously long distances – often when there was hardly not enough snow to ski (we really did get to know the expression “no pain, no gain”. So anyway, ever since I arrived on the Cote d’Azur, I’ve been telling myself I ought to give cross-country skiing a go.

Today was a good a time as any (although admittedly it took some motivation – I had had “a couple” of beers with my fellow Finns in Antibes the night before) – so off I headed to Greolieres. I rented the gear, and reluctantly paid the 6 euro piste fee (it feels a bit odd for us Finns to have to pay to go cross-country skiing). I started off with an easy 2.5 km green track. Kind of to my surprise, I got back into it pretty quickly (I guess it’s a bit like riding a bike in that sense...). After the quick practice round, and a sandwich lunch, I decided to go for thre 6.5 km blue track. That one I really enjoyed, it felt really great to get away from the crowds and just enjoy the great scenery and the cool winter air. And I can tell you, I gave my muscles a good workout too, all those slopes.... That was enough for a first go – I decided to call it quits quite early to leave before the traffic got too bad...

On the way back I decided to drive via Cipieres, for a change. Our good friend Olivier, whose parents have a house in Greolieres, had once said it was “nearly as beautiful as Greolieres” (coming from him, compliments don’t get much better than that). So I decided to stop there and walk around for a bit. And it was a pretty village indeed – dating back to the 11th century, with its charming fountain at the main square, and 17th century chateau overlooking the village. It’s also a bit out of the way – it’s not the kind of place the tourist buses would stop at, I don’t think, with the impressively located but too-touristy Gourdon just a few km away...

Family gathering in Antibes

My parents were kind enough to invite me for dinner tonight at their place, together with my nieces who were still on the Cote d’Azur. Mathilde was in Angers, so I went on my own this time. After a nice apero, we sat down at the as always well-decorated table to devour some delicious lamb steaks, with oven-cooked potatoes, with a bottle (or 2 ? or 3?) of Piedmont red wine to go with it.

This was followed by the usual impressive selection of more and less smelly cheeses (let's just say that my parents are, er, more open-minded when it comes to cheese than me), with a strawberry cake to fill up any empty space there might have been in my stomach – kind of my premature birthday celebration (only a month in advance – but hey that was OK with me ;-). By now I had decided it would probably be a good idea to stay the night on the sofa rather than drive back.

We continued the fun by playing some card games – my dad, the old’ card shark, came out on top as always – whereas my performance left rather a lot to be desired (I was barely beaten to the loser’s spot...). I blame all the red wine... In true Turtiainen fashion we then continued drinking wine and discussing until a respectable 2 o’clock in the morning – my nieces having long since gone to bed (the youth of today, eh...?). All in all, a very pleasant family evening, then!

More Carnival action

My dear nieces (including my god-daughter Julia) had come all the way from Finland on a visit – so we decided to head down to Nice to meet up with the young ladies as well as my parents. So after a light lunch at the flat, we jumped on our train, and zipped down to Nice.


Elbowing our way thorough the crowd, we found my fellow Turtiainens near the McDonalds on the Promenade, watching the Carnival action from a safe distance. Things were slightly less riotous than last night, but the atmosphere was still great – the crowd really was going mad (a bit to my nieces’ discomfort, who seemed to be slightly annoyed trying to get all that spray out of their hair). And we were once more treated to my favourite Carnival monster - the fearsome dragon (although admittedly it was slightly less scary in the daylight ;-).

Having spent a fairly significant amount of energy ducking wild teenagers trying to spray us down, we figured we’d earned ourselves an afternoon snack. So we headed down to the old town, and sat down at a crepeerie at Cours Saleya for some crepes and coffee. The food was not the best - but at least we got to enjoy the sunshine. After this nourishment, it was time for us to head off, since the carnival action had also finished for the day (we didn’t envy the poor lot who had to clean up after the carnage...).

A great day on the Cote d'Azur

Today started out great, with a blue sky and a blazing sun - perfect weather for a walk. We opted on a walk near the Italian border, starting from the picturesque village of Castellar, located just a stone’s throw away from Menton.

The walk started from a parking next to the strangely named “Voie de La First Special Service Force” (I’m guessing that’s the military unit which liberated Castellar during World War 2?), climb steadily up towards the Plan du Lion. Much to our surprise, parts of the footpath were actually covered by ice and snow! Once up on the plateau, we sat down for a well-deserved lunch (these walks seem to be more difficult than they used to be – must be old age or something?), basking in the sun and enjoying the fabulous views over Menton and Castellar (we could even see the snow-tipped peaks of Mercantour in the distance).

From there we carried on up to our destination – Mont Carpano, at the lofty height of 773 meters. Once there, we had the opportunity to take in both the Italian and French Riviera, and mountains – Mont Carpano is actually situated on the border between France and Italy. The views were once more magnificent. From there on we had an easy walk back down to the village. We spent a good half an hour exploring the village – a typically picturesque little place.

Then we jumped back into the car and headed back home, to fresh up for the evenings activities – the Nice Carnival! Once ready, we jumped on the train, and headed down for our dinner rendez-vous with the Finnish lot at Hippopotamus (Sami was there with Pete and little Jasmine). We were somewhat dubious about the choice of restaurant, but in the end I was quite happy with my steak – not bad at all... We were actually lucky to even get a table – the place was absolutely packed (in fact Hannu and his family had to dine elsewhere...).

Our stomachs filled, we then headed up to Sami’s Famous Penthouse suite – for what was to sadly be our last visit (as Sami was heading back to not-so-sunny Oulu a couple of days later). From there were had a great view over the Carnival action, taking place on Place Massena. Hannu and his clan joined up for the champagne aperitif.

After a while at the flat, the kids got impatient, so we went out to Place Massena to check out the action from close range. We really had a great time – this kind of thing always brings out the little child in me (or something like that...). The highlight was, once again, the fearsome dragon we already saw last year... We then continued the festivities at Sami’s place – until it was time to catch the last train home. The farewells to Sami were tearful indeed...

Days on the Cote d’Azur really don’t get much better than this!

Chateau de Roquebrune

A couple of weeks ago, we tried to tackle a walk from point de Cabbe up to Roquebrune, with its medieval castle. Unfortunately, we were hindered at the time by Mother Nature (big waves washing up on the beach). Today, the weather was back to normal (blue skies, sunshine), and the winds less imposing, so we figured we’d have another go at the walk.

So we parked our car next to Point de Cabbe, and walked down to the beach from where the walk starts. And thankfully, this time the waves were less imposing, so we could cross the beach without putting our lives in peril. The walk took us for a couple of kilometres along a coastal footpath towards Cap Martin. We kept a lookout for Le Corbusier’s log cabin, which we’ve already tried to see a couple ot times, but alas, it once more eluded us. I think it must be something the local municipality has made up to attract tourists or something?

Anyway, the footpath eventually took us through the outskirts Cap Martin up towards Roquebrune. On the way, we came across the house of the famous Irish playwright William Butler Yeates, who apparently spent his autumn years on the Cote d’Azur as well (can’t blame him, he must’ve had a pretty nice view from the house, with views over the coastline all the way to Monaco). A good workaout later, we arrived at Roquebrune, one of the prettiest villages on the Riviera, dramatically perched on the cliffs, overlooking Cap Martin, and overlooked by it’s imposing castle.

We would’ve been rather keen to have a coffee, and possibly visit the castle, but unfortunately the undersigned stupidly left his wallet home. So no coffee this time… But, we did get to enjoy the free pleasures the village offers - which include great views over the coast, and one of the oldest olive trees in the world (and the biggest I’ve ever seen!).

Having wandered around the village for a while, we walked back down to Point de Cabbe (again looking for Le Corbusiers cabin in vain). Having enjoyed the sun at the beach for a while (stripped down to my tee-shirt – not too bad for February eh?), we got back to the car and drove home, re-energized by a great day out. On days like this I really consider myself lucky to live where I do!

Moi moi, Sami

Sami, the man from Karunki, has entertained us on the Cote d’Azur for the past 2+ years. But now, alas, it is time for him to move to new pastures – to Oulu. So time to say bye bye to the sunny weather, clear skies, beautiful mountains and the blue sea. And say hello to cold weather, no daylight and lots of trees. Well, actually Oulu is pretty nice, and at least the summers are great ;-). Still, I reckon Sami might suffer a bit of reverse cultural shock after 5 years over here...

So obviously we had to give ol’ Sami a proper send-off. Since Sami was too busy cleaning his flat all week with industrial strength detergents, and chasing his resident mouse, we decided we could start off with a nice meal in a proper, classy restaurant – the Luna Rossa. This time we booked a table, since our previous attempts to get a table without a booking had all failed... Pretty much all of the Finnish crowd showed up (Hannu, Pete, Mikko and of course Sami). We’d even made the effort to get a present – a proper “wilderness man’s Provence survival pack” (which includes such indispensible items as a bottle of Eau de vie, a bottle of Pastis, etc.).

The meal was really great (and not even that expensive – 40 euros a head including wine ain’t that bad), but the entertainment was even better. Namely Sami in this case, especially when he was making a rather humorous attempt at the Nagu dialect (“Skidu överraskning” – a phrase those at the table will not forget for a good while). I also chipped in by ordering my steak "a poil" (which means naked) instead of "a point" (which means medium).



We then headed back to Sami’s penthouse suite, overlooking Place Massena, all clean and tidy. The lads were kind enough to show us their entertaining home movie of their adventurous journey to watch the Finnish ice hockey team’s heroic campaign at the Turin winter Olympics (when we got made it to the finals, only to sadly be beaten by the damn Swedes...). Most entertaining - especially Mikko’s summary of the Czech game – his cold analysis only slightly hampered by the rather long and wet lunch... Things got even more entertaining when Sami took out his guitar and the Finns got all musical (we even danced, believe it or not...). Unfortunately we had to leave the chaps to it at about midnight, to catch the last train. What a great night out though – can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so hard.

Turns out Sami isn’t leaving for another week though, so there is potential for “Sami’s leaving do – part II” ;-).

A visit to Antibes

We had been hoping to be able to do something sporty today, like go hiking or skiing. Alas, it was not to be, as the rainy weather that has plagued us over the last days continued... But after a rather lazy day of doing nothing much at all, we decided we ought to do something. Since we had been invited for dinner to my parents place, we figured this was a good occasion to do a bit of touristy stuff in Antibes.

So we jumped into the car and headed down to the old town of Antibes. After a short walk in the unusually empty old town (might have something to do with the miserable weather), we headed for the Picasso museum, which had been reopened recently after some renovations. It is rather impressively located in the Chateau Grimaldi, right in the centre of town. The old castle, which dates back as far as 442 AD, got its name from the Grimaldi family (yes, that would be the Monaco Grimaldis) who were residents from 1383 to 1608. Over the next centuries the castle had several functions, until Antibes invited Pablo Picasso to stay there and use it as his studio, in 1946 (he was living in nearby Golfe Juan with Françoise Gilot. He stayed for a couple of months, and produced quite a few works of art. Later on the museum was to bear his name.

The museum was interesting enough; especially considering the great location of it (the castle offers great views over the old town and the old walls). I’m not generally a big fan of modern art, but Picasso impresses me – the guy really had an extraordinary imagination. There was art from a couple of other artists on display as well, which on the other hand was the type of modern art I find rather silly (the kind, which at least to my untrained eye, looks like something a child randomly splashing paint on a canvas has produced).

Having had our dose of culture, we had a very pleasant walk around the old town.
It was rather atmospheric, with the winds howling, waves rushing up against the walls, and hardly anybody in the streets apart from us (apart from a few Brits - it felt like at least half of the people we ran into were English). Quite different from the summer days, and the hordes of tourists that invade the town... We also took the opportunity to visit the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Immaculée Conception(the main church in Antibes, located just next to the PIcasso museum), in baroque style, as most of the churches in the region are (this one dates back to the 11th century though - the facade was reworked in the 18th century).



We then headed back to our parents place for a delicious dinner of lamb cutlets, followed by a carrot cake (which we had baked earlier today – to bring back old memories from our days in old Blighty, I suppose). Seems that my parents have a busy few weeks ahead of them, with a visit to Rome, some relatives coming over, Opera visits to Genoa & Milan. And of course they need to squeeze in the French lessons and petanque games as well – oh the busy lives of pensioners... ;-)