Early potatoes are one of the highlights of Risto Mikkola’s food year.
Early potatoes, onion sauce, smoked fish paste and crisp bread are the most excellent summer food. Roni Lehti
– You should eat early potatoes when it’s early potato season, reminds the chef Risto Mikkola.
That time is right now.
Mikkola cooks the potatoes in plenty of salted water. He reminds us that if the early potatoes are boiled for a long time, the potatoes will become mushy.
Mikkola advises that the potatoes should be left al dente, after which the water is poured off and the potatoes are left in the pot under the lid to cook in their own heat and steam.
There are several stages in the early potato soup, which can be divided into different schools. Here’s one: do you put the potatoes in cold (this is a new idea) or boiling water? Mikkola prefers boiling, because then he knows exactly when the potatoes start to ripen.
The pretzel dough can be rolled thin using a pasta machine. Roni Lehti
– I test the ripeness of the potatoes with a thin metal stick designed for that purpose. It’s a bit of a hoax. A toothpick works too, but I want to be a bit fancy with early potatoes, Mikkola laughs.
This time, he has combined many delicacies in the same meal: early potatoes, onion butter, crispbread and smoked fish. For that you need a tin of smoked fish or some other smoked fish, onion-butter sauce and pretzel bread.
Hard to believe, but butter onion is made even better by half a desi water. As the water boils, the butter thickens and becomes sauce-like. Usually the water is watery, but not this time.
Mikkola doesn’t understand at all why people throw away the stems of early onions in the store.
– Onion stalks have a good and delicate taste. They are suitable for all dishes, hot and cold, such as salad. You should definitely not throw them away. Don’t do that people.
The summer treat is, of course, a combination of melted butter and onion stalks, in which early potatoes are dipped.
Onion stalks are also suitable on top of a fried egg. According to Mikkola, the stems of early onions are much more versatile than raw onions.
Whipped sour cream and smoked fish make a delicious paste. Roni Lehti
Early potatoes
1 kg of early potatoes
2 tablespoons of salt
dill stalks
1. Wash the potatoes in cold water and carefully brush them clean. Add the potatoes to the water seasoned with sea salt and dill stalks. There should be enough water to just cover the potatoes.
2. Cook the potatoes under the lid for about 15–20 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. Drain off the cooking water. Put the pot back on the stove for a while to evaporate the excess moisture and put the lid on.
3. Allow the potatoes to finish cooking in the steam. Chop fresh dill and a piece of butter on top, mix.
Smoke trap
150 g canned smoked fish in chips (or some other smoked fish)
1 dl chopped dill
2 dl sour cream
0.5 dl onion rings
0.5 tsp of salt
1. Whip the sour cream and mix all the ingredients together.
2. Leave to season in the cold for 15 minutes.
Onion-butter sauce
100 g of butter
3 spring onions, sliced
0.5 dl of water
0.5 tsp of salt
0.5 tsp dill chips
1. Lightly fry the onions in butter for about 5 minutes.
2. Add water and mix well. Add salt and dill, mix. Offer now.
Crispbread
3 dl rye flour
2 dl wheat flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2.5 dl of water
1. Mix dry yeast, flour and salt in a bowl. Add plenty of hand-warm water and knead the dough until firm.
2. Let it rest under a kitchen towel for 30 minutes. Divide the dough into four parts and roll them in wheat flour. Sprinkle wheat flour over the baking paper as well.
3. Take a piece of dough at a time and roll them on baking paper into almost paper-thin loaves. While rolling, sprinkle wheat flour on top of the dough, otherwise it will stick to the rolling pin. Wipe off the excess flour with your hand and bake in a 225 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. The breads will darken, but be careful, they burn easily.
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