Kape Aihinen does not understand this Christmas food tradition: “I hate them”

Time to calm down. Christmas is a restaurateur and chef Kari Kape Aihinen. He says frankly that before Christmas the restaurants are so busy that he prefers to take it easy on Christmas.

– In recent years, I have spent Christmas with a small group at home. It’s nice to have a moment in peace. In the weeks before Christmas, I usually worked day and night, Aihinen says.

After all, Christmas time is the busiest time of the year for restaurants, but that’s also when the year’s results are often made.

When Aihinen’s father was still alive, big family Christmases were celebrated with the whole family. Aihinen was 25 years old when his father passed away unexpectedly in 1997.

– When the head of the family leaves, it affects a lot. As situations change, the tradition suddenly disappears, Aihinen regrets.

Christmas lunches out

However, Aihinen does not start all the Christmas traditions – or more correctly, the customs of Christmas time in the restaurant.

When Aihinen took charge of Savoy’s kitchen, the first thing he did was eliminate the traditional, Christmas-themed lunches.

– I hate them, he gasps.

The subject does not understand why to go to a restaurant to eat lantu box, peas and ham. They are also eaten at home.

In the same breath, he states that he understands that there are places where Christmas lunch is traditional and important, such as the Kulosaaari casino or Kalastajatorppa.

– But never in my restaurants.

Less stress

For many, the most important food on the Christmas table is ham. The subject reveals that he has never fried ham. During the Christmases spent in the childhood home, mother always took care of baking the ham.

For the past three years, Aihine has bought the ham baked by JJ’s BBQ in Salolainen.

– It’s hard. Ham is actually grilled pork.

Ahinen wants to give people an exemption from the Christmas food ban. If you are tired of ham, for example, fry good pepper steaks.

At the same time, he wants to reduce the stress of the Christmas season. Pain, panic, rush and anxiety are relieved when you do things on time. But even more important is the motto: less is more. Less is more.

– Make fewer qualities, but better. The main course can only be one dish.

Ahinen reminds that it is not always necessary to have a traditional Christmas table. He encourages you to step out of the familiar Christmas box from time to time – to look at things from outside the box. You can come up with a theme, such as an Italian or Mexican Christmas, a vegetarian Christmas or a menu where all the ingredients are domestic.

No whining

Aihinen reminds us that in a stress-free Christmas menu, all the dishes can be prepared in advance or just finished at the time of eating. It just requires good planning to succeed.

– You shouldn’t sneeze at Christmas. Make in the morning and reheat in the evening. It is also worth making larger quantities at once.

Here is Aihinen’s alternative menu, where ham is replaced with pepper patties.

You can fry the surface of the pepper steaks in a pan beforehand and leave the steaks to wait for cooking in the oven. Vegetables can be caramelized in advance and heated before eating.

The salmon should be put in the sugar-salt in time, and the potato salad should also be seasoned. Panna cotta also needs time to set. It is recommended to make a larger batch of the sauce in advance so that it can be eaten over several days.

If you follow these tips, all you have to do is open a bottle of wine.

You can put any kind of root in the root fondant. Aihinen’s own favorite root is celery. According to him, its taste and texture are superior.

Despite this, celery is not a favorite root of Finns. Aihinen regrets that he still doesn’t know how to use it versatilely. He feels that domestic root vegetables are generally undervalued. They should be used a lot, because root vegetables are inexpensive, good and even healthy.

Inquiries: Dishes E. Ahlström. Napkins and towels Lapua Kankurit.

Sugar salted salmon

350–400 g sea salmon (piece of fillet, boneless, skinless)

1 liter of water

80 g of sea salt

50 g of sugar

1. Remove the bones and skin from the salmon fillet. Boil salt, sugar and two deciliters of water in a pot. When the salt and sugar have dissolved in the water, pour in eight deciliters of cold water to cool the liquid as quickly as possible.

2. Pour the cool salt-sugar liquid over the piece of fish. Use only the necessary amount of brine to salt the fish. You need enough liquid so that the fish is covered under the liquid.

3. Allow the fish to salt for 1–2 hours. Remove the fish from the brine and dry it well with a paper towel.

4. Cut the fish into the desired shape for serving.

Marinated potatoes

1 liter of water

300 g potato (small, firm, thin-skinned)

1–2 shallots

1 pickle

1 tablespoon of capers

1 pot of dill

1 tablespoon white vinegar

0.5 dl rapeseed oil

salt

black pepper (ground)

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked. Cool the potatoes and cut them into the desired shape.

2. Slice the shallot into thin half rings. Dice the pickle and chop the dill with a knife.

3. Combine all the ingredients into a “potato salad”. Season with salt and black pepper if necessary.

Horseradish mustard sauce

2 dl mayonnaise (e.g. Hellmann’s)

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon mustard (seed mustard)

salt

black pepper (ground)

sugar

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix into a sauce.

2. Season with salt and black pepper. If necessary, add a pinch of sugar to neutralize the acid in the sauce.

Pepper steaks

4 beef tenderloin steaks (approx. 160 g per steak)

1 tablespoon of black pepper

1 teaspoon rose pepper

1 tsp green pepper

2–3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil

50 g of butter

2–3 cloves of garlic

1 pot of thyme

1. Bring the steaks to room temperature about an hour before frying. Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

2. Grind the peppers in a spice grinder until coarse. Season the steaks with salt just before frying and dip the cutting surfaces of the steaks in peppercorns.

3. Heat the pan and add rapeseed oil. Fry the steaks for about a minute. Then add butter, garlic and thyme to the pan. Turn the steaks and fry for about a minute on the other side. Spoon the flavored butter from the pan over the steaks.

4. Put the nicely browned steaks on a baking sheet and cook them in a 200-degree oven for 5-8 minutes or until the internal thermometer reads about 50-52 degrees.

5. Take the steaks out of the oven, wrap them in foil and let them rest in a warm place for about ten minutes.

Cognac cream sauce

1 yellow onion

25 g of butter

0.5 teaspoon pepper mixture (same as on top of steaks)

5 sprigs of thyme

0.5 dl cognac

1 jar (500 ml) Maggi by Puljonki meat broth

1–2 dl whipped cream

1 tsp dijon mustard

salt

1. Finely chop the yellow onion. Brown the cut onion in a frying pan in butter. Add pepper mix and thyme. Pour the brandy into the hot pan and evaporate it by boiling it completely.

2. Pour the meat broth into the pan and boil it until there is about a deciliter of strong meat broth left. Add whipped cream and a small spoonful of dijon mustard.

3. Cook the sauce until the texture is right. If necessary, add a pinch of salt to the sauce. Serve the sauce hot with the steak.

Root fondants

half a celeriac

2 carrots

1–2 parsnips

2 red onions

5–8 sprigs of thyme

100–150 g of butter

2 cloves of garlic

salt

0.5 l vegetable broth (e.g. Maggi by Puljonki)

1. Peel the celery, carrots and parsnips and remove the tough stems. Peel the onions, but leave the stems to keep them together while cooking. Chop the root vegetables into good-sized pieces.

2. Heat the frying pan and add butter to the pan. When the butter has melted, place the root pieces in the pan, cut side down. Add thyme, garlic and salt. Pour the vegetable broth into the pan so that the root vegetables are just covered. There should be one third water and two thirds butter.

3. Cover the pan with baking paper and cook the root vegetables under the baking paper hat for 10–15 minutes. Remove the cap and let the liquid evaporate and the roots slowly roast to a nice brown. At the same time, they may stick to the bottom of the pan.

4. Cover the pan with foil or a lid and let the roots cool for a while under the lid. After this, they come off more easily. Carefully remove the beautifully ripe caramelized root vegetables from the pan and serve on a plate, for example, as a side dish for lamb stew.

Baileys panna cotta

3 bay leaves

1 liter of water

1 dl Baileys cream liqueur (or another cream liqueur)

1–1.5 dl cane sugar

1.5 dl whole milk

2.5 dl of whipped cream

250 g bush blueberries (fresh)

1. Soak the gelatin leaves in ice-cold water for about 2-3 minutes or until the gelatin has softened.

2. Boil the liqueur, sugar and milk in a pot. Squeeze out the excess water from the bay leaves and combine the bay leaves with the hot liqueur mixture. Make sure the gelatin is melted. Pour the whipped cream into the liqueur base and mix until smooth.

3. Portion the pannacotta into glasses or cups for four, so that each diner gets a portion of about 1.5 deciliters. Allow to set in the cold (refrigerator) for 1–2 hours. Decorate the finished pannacotta with fresh blueberries and oat crumble.

Remember! The dessert contains alcohol, and in this recipe it is not boiled away completely. If you want to serve dessert to children, replace the liqueur with the same amount of whole milk. If you want, you can add a vanilla bean or cinnamon to the non-alcoholic version to give it more flavor.

Cinnamon oat crumble

1 dl of almond chips

1 dl of coconut grass

3 dl of oatmeal

1 dl nut meal (all nuts are suitable for this)

1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon

0.25 tsp sea salt

0.5 dl rapeseed oil

25 g of butter

0.5–1 dl syrup (light or dark)

1. Combine all dry ingredients together. Melt the butter.

2. Mix the melted butter, oil and syrup into the dry ingredients. Mix the ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.

3. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet over baking paper. Roast at 150 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Stir a few times during roasting.

Tip! Cinnamon-oat crumble can be used like muesli. It is a tasty addition to be served with breakfast yogurt or curd. If you want to correct it, replace the almond flakes, coconut flakes and nut flakes with the same amount of ready-made fruit-nut mixture.