Smoked Reindeer Liver with Potato salad and Beetroot Purée

A friend from work gave me a wonderful gift last week, a smoked Reindeer liver. This gift was in response to a conversation earlier in which I stated I hadn't tried reindeer liver before. Reindeer is a popular meat in Finland (as well as other Nordic countries) and is used in everything from Soups to Pizzas, Steaks to Bagels. Products from reindeer, like milk, cheese and meat are considered some of the healthiest in the world. A recent Norwegian study showed that 100 grams of meat contains your daily dose of omega 3-6, double the amount of Vitamin B12, high in Iron, Zinc and low in fat (around 2% , Beef is around 9%).

As Reindeer is a big part of Finnish culture, I wanted to produce a dish I thought reflected Finnish food culture but also wanted to make it in a way that you would see served in a good quality restaurant. I decided upon all the ingredients based upon my perceptions of their use in Finnish cuisine.

So for this you will need (feeds 4):-

Beetroot purée:
2 medium beetroot, trimmed (around 400g)
1 clove garlic
50g butter, melted
1 tbsp Greek yoghurt
pinch of coriander
pinch of salt and pepper

Potato Salad:
1 Basic Mayonnaise recipe
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cooked
2 gherkins, diced

Lettuce
200g smoked Reindeer Liver, sliced
Carrot, grated for decoration

Boil your beetroot in lightly salted water until soft. Cool down and put into the blender with the garlic, butter, yoghurt, coriander and some seasoning. Turn on until it makes a nice paste and put into the fridge.

Mix the potatoes and gherkins into the mayonnaise. Now it's time to construct your plate. Put some lettuce on the bottom and top with your potato salad. Stack your liver slices on top and then place some carrot on the liver. Using two spoons, shape your beetroot purée and put on the plate. Serve with some fresh bread and butter and watch everything disappear into the satisfied mouths of your guests.

In our home the children eat the same as the adults.... however beetroot isn't all the child friendly.

Nordic Style Baked Salmon

Last night (29th June) we had some very special guest round our house. Sister Gasser and her parents. This sister has been a big help to our family over the last several months she has been in Oulu, so as a thank you, we decided to cook for her and her family a really nice Nordic style dinner. This oven baked salmon is a perfect example of Nordic food, simple and tasty.

This will serve 6 people:-

1,4kg Salmon side (You want around 150-200g per person)
2 tbsp Coarse sea salt
2 tbsp fresh cracked pepper
2 tbsp Dill
Juice of one lemon
4 tbsp of olive oil

Take your Salmon and go along the middle bit and check for bones. If there is any take them out with some tweezers. Once cleaned put your salmon inside some baking paper and add the sea salt, pepper, dill, lemon and olive oil, rub into the salmon and put in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 200oC.

Take your fish out of the fridge and wrap the baking paper around it, then cover it in tin foil. Place on an oven tray/dish and put into the oven.

After 30 minutes open up your parcel and return back to oven for 15 minutes.

Take out of oven and serve. It is that simple.