The sun is back and we had tartiflette for lunch at our summerhouse terrace.The recipe I used could not be easier: put sliced potatoes (peeled), onions, garlic and thinly-cut smoked duck into a glass bowl. Mix. Add cream and black & white pepper. Mix again. Add special tartiflette cheese on the top of the ingredients. Cook under aluminum foil for 1h – 1h30 minutes. Enjoy with either red wine or dry white wine (for example AOC Vin de Savoie Apremont).

PS Duck can be replaced by lardon. To give more taste, onions and garlic can be sautéed in a frying pan.

July 14 is the French National Day, also called Bastille Day. We are in Finland at the moment, far away from Paris celebrations, but my parents decided to create a special meal for their French son-in-law.

Two days before the big day we begun defrosting a lamb leg, bought at the local farm. On the eve we placed the leg in the largest bowl we found at the summer house and covered it with olive oil. We then added herbes de Provence (mixture of dried herbs), fresh rosemary, thyme stems and black pepper, with only a little bit of salt. Next we cut plenty of garlic into small pieces and put them on the lamb, not forgetting to place (unpeeled) garlic cloves aside in the bowl.In the end, we added a cup of water, covered the leg with aluminum foil and put it in oven. At the summer house we have a traditional Finnish oven called leivinuuni, which is specifically made for cooking: excellent for making crunchy pizza, bread, overnight porridge, meats, etc. The moment we started cooking the lamb leg, it was around 110C inside the oven.The next morning I moistened the leg with juice that had come out of the lamb. The dish was looking good. I repeated this a few times during the day. In the evening, after approximately 24 hours, we removed the leg from the oven. The temperature had decreased to 50C. My Mom had prepared a green salad with home-grown tomatoes, cucumber, olives, feta cheese, onion and basil leaves. My husband served red wine (AOC Côtes du Luberon). The lamb leg was excellent: juicy, not greasy, not dry; just perfect. The garlic cloves melted in the mouth. France was properly honored!

PS I did not have time to do it yesterday, but today I prepared some eggplants (with olive oil and herbs), and we finished the lamb with oven-baked eggplants.

Yesterday’s fish tajine turned out excellent and I thought to write down the recipe before I forget it.

PREPARATION (see also the previous post Finnish fish tajine (part 1)

• Peel and cut potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, eggplant, and place them in a large bowl (clay pot gives deeper taste but glass is fine, too)
• Add spices: couscous mix, coriander powder and crushed coriander seeds, curcuma (also called turmeric), paprika, cinnamon sticks, lemon pepper and harissa paste
• Add olive oil (in addition I used oil from a sundried tomato jar and it gave a lot of taste!)
• Add fish broth (I used homemade frozen burbot broth)
• Peel a lemon and cut it into thin slices
• Add green olives

Mix everything thoroughly. Add fish pieces in the end (I had frozen pieces of burbot, which is an excellent fish for tajines and stews because of its solid texture). Leave the dish to marinate in the fridge for several hours. Heat the oven to 250C. Let the dish cook during one hour. The fact that the dish was cooked under a rather high temperature gave the vegetables a lot of taste (in fact the trick is to let the vegatables to almost-burn! but in order not to burn them totally, you should keep stirring the dish regularly). Enjoy “Finnish fish tajine” with cool rosé wine, for example AOC Côtes du Luberon from the South of France. Serve harissa aside for those who like it hot. I am confident to say that your dinner will be a great success!

PS I was a little bit in a hurry, but to prepare the dish more properly you should probably heat up the spices, garlic and onion in a frying pan (it is important to “open up the spices”with oil). Secondly, if you don’t have burbot, try to find a similar type of fish that has firm texture. Lastly, should you want to save money and do something even easier, try with canned tuna.

When the sun shines in Finland, one has to enjoy it. So, when I spend time at the summer house by the lake, I try to do as much as I can outside. Even my cooking preparations!

My parents have burbot (made in Finnish) in the freezer (it is a winter fish), so today I decided to make a fish and vegetable stew. I invented a recipe as I was advancing. I started peeling and cutting potatoes, carrots, eggplants and onions. I placed them in a large bowl and added garlic, green olives, couscous spices, harissa, slices of lemon and olive oil, and left the dish to marinate in the fridge for several hours. It is in the oven now and will be eaten after the sauna. I wonder if it will taste anything like a Tunisian fish tajine? Probably not, but I am sure it will be tasty on its own curious way… As my husband brought with him some rosé wine from the South of France (AOC Côtes du Luberon), and I think it our dinner will be just fine!

PS Burbot is an excellent fish, but unfortunately many people are afraid to buy it because of its weird looks. Some people consider it difficult to prepare, too (getting rid of the skin etc.). This is a pity, because the texture of the fish is wonderful for preparation of many types of dishes. If you have your special burbot dish, I would love to hear about it!