THE FEAST OF CRAYFISH

Finland is known as a country of thousands of lakes. Those lakes are home for small lobster looking shellfish, and give the resourceful folk a perfect excuse to feast.

Finland is also known as a country with nature extremes. The summer is dominated with continues sunlight, that shines even throughout the night, "white nights", as the locals call them. In northern part of the country the sun is above the horizon for over two months, from the beginning of June until the beginning of August. It's time to reserve the energy of light for the long and dark winter months. Summer is without any doubt the highlight of the year.

On the other hand, winter brings short days, with only few hours of daylight. Again, in the North, there is a dim period when sun doesn't show up for 2 full months! Snow and moonlight bring a little comfort to the dark season.

One would think that there's not that much to celebrate, but Finns welcome the autumn with style and smile. Summer ending parties bring friends together. Babysitters are booked well in advance, these parties are adults only. It's time to eat, drink, sing and dance the summer away. The name of the event "rapujuhlat" (the crayfish party) gives a hint of the tiny red creatures that play the main role in the summer ending celebration.

Crayfish parties are held during the harvesting season, which starts the 21st. of July and lasts only 3 months. Local delicacies are quite costly, but nevertheless so popular that the shellfish is often sold out during weekends. Imported crayfish is growing in popularity. Spanish and Chinese producers have started to cook the crabs according to the traditional Scandinavian recipe and provide Finnish crayfish lovers an inexpensive frozen alternative.

The summer ending celebration starts in the afternoon, typically with two starter dishes like smoked salmon pasta and saffron mussels. By sunset the biggest hunger has already been conquered, and everybody can concentrate on the crayfish with no hurry. Colourful lanterns and oil lamps are lit and the host cracks the first shell of the year's catch. It's customary to sing a song for each crayfish tail, and to wash it down with a sip of citrus flavoured vodka.

During the season restaurants also serve crayfish, even the national airline, Finnair, has got crayfish on its business class menu on the flight to New York. However, crayfish parties are traditionally held outdoors. You can see the parties on the smallest balconies of the apartment buildings, gardens, porches or even at pier of the summer cottage.

Nothing can hurry the event of the year, it's almost as if the time stopped at the crayfish table. Nobody wants to end the last day of summer, maybe that's why the celebration goes until the early hours of the next morning, the very first day of autumn.


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MENU
smoked salmon pasta
saffron mussels
crayfish with toasted bread, aioli, lemon mayonnaise and dill

strawberry daiquiri
dry white wine
lime flavoured vodka

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Strawberry daiquiri is a perfect welcome drink, made out of the last fresh strawberries of the summer. The strawberry colour also matches well with the theme of the evening.

Spaghetti with smoked salmon and sun dried tomatoes sets the taste buds into the right track, and saffron mussels give good exercise for the fingers that haven't cracked seafood shells for a full year.

The celebrated shellfish are eaten on top of the crispy white toast. Some like them with garlic mayonnaise, others with lemon flavoured mayonnaise, sprinkled with chopped dill.

The desert, oven ice cream, tells with it's appearance what there is to come in the months ahead. Snowball shaped egg white meringue hides inside a sponge cake bottom, vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries.


SMOKED SALMON PASTA
serves 4 as a starter
400 g spaghetti
2 onions, finely chopped
150 g sun dried tomatoes, quartered lengthways
300 g cold smoked salmon, sliced
400 ml cream
500 g chopped parsley
freshly ground black pepper
sunflower oil
Heat the oil in a skillet, add the onion and saute over medium heat for about 15 minutes, until soft and golden. Add sun dried tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes to soften. Add salmon and simmer about 15 minutes.

Add the cream and half of the parsley, season with pepper. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and toss the pasta, the sauce and the rest of the parsley together in a bowl.


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SAFFRON MUSSELS
serves 4 as a starter
1 kg of mussels
2 tablespoons of butter
1 finely chopped onion
3 chopped cloves of garlic
2 sticks of celery, julienned
2 medium sized carrots, julienned
200 ml dry white wine
saffron
sea salt
200 ml cream
200 g parsley, chopped

Scrub mussels under cold water, remove beards. Discard any that have broken shells or do not close when tapped.

Melt the butter in a heavy based pot, add the onion, garlic, celery and carrot strips, and cook stirring regularly, for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden.

Pour in the wine, season with saffron and salt. Add the mussels, stirring to coat with the mixture. Cover and cook until the shells open, about 10 minutes. Stir a couple of times so that they cook evenly. Discard any that do not open.

Stir in the cream, let simmer for couple of minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with crispy white bread.

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COOKING THE CRAYFISH
3 kg of fresh (alive) crayfish
5 litres of water
200 g sea salt
1 kg dill
5 teaspoons of sugar

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the sugar and half of the dill, cook for 10 minutes. (Avoid using the flowers of dill, the seeds have a distinctive anis type flavour that easily covers all other tastes.)

Add the crayfish. (use only alive crayfish, throw away the ones that don't move.) Cover and cook for another 10 minutes.

Set the crayfish pot in a sink filled with ice-cold water, to hurry it cooling. Discard the dill, it will turn the stock bitter if left to cool in it. Let the crayfish cool, and refrigerate.

After 5 hours, remove the crayfish with a slotted spoon and pile on a serving pate. Garnish with the flowers of dill.

Stock can be used also to cook various crabs and shrimps or to add fresh taste to the frozen products.


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SNOWBALL SHAPED OVEN ICE CREAM
serves 4
1 litre of vanilla ice cream
1 litre of fresh strawberries, halved
1 sponge cake bottom
meringue

Sponge cake bottom
2 eggs
80 g caster sugar
75 g self-rasing flour
1 tablespoon of cornflour
butter for greasing the baking pan

Preheat oven to 200 degreed of Celcius. Grease a 20 cm diameter round flat tin.

Beat eggs in a bowl with electric mixer, until foamy. Gradually add the sugar.

Sift flours over the egg-mixture. Fold the flour in, until combined.

Pour mixture evenly into prepared tin and bake sponge bottom in 200 degrees about 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely before using it as a base of the oven ice cream. Sponge cake can be made in advance.


Meringue
5 egg whites
1 g caster sugar

Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff. Gradually add the sugar, continue whisking, until meringue is thick and glossy.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees of Celcius. Spread the strawberries evenly on the sponge cake. Cut ice cream into small squares, pile them in top of the strawberries. Using a palette knife, spread the meringue over the ice cream, strawberries and sponge to cover it all completely.

Bake the "snowball" for 4-7 minutes, watching closely, until the peaks become golden. Serve immediately.


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STRAWBERRY DAIQUIRI
serves 4
1 kg fresh strawberries
400 g ice cubes
70 ml white rum
superfine sugar

Put strawberries into a blender with the rum. Blend until pureed.

Add the ice, process until evenly crushed. While the motor is still running, gradually sweeten with sugar, according to your taste.