Blue Eyes cooks quite a bit and he takes over the kitchen on certain occasions. One thing that Finns like is using the oven to make their meals. Oven food is easy, not messy and usually is a one-pot dish that can be eaten for at least two days. Saves the time in preparation as well as cleaning up.

I’m not particularly good with using the oven to cook, except for baking. It’s partly because I didn’t grow up in a household that used oven. It’s more a stir-fry and steaming kitchen that I grew up in. Quite a typical Chinese home I believe.

A popular and common Finnish oven dish is makaronilaatikko, which literally means macaroni in a box. In reality, it’s macaroni baked in a pan. The macaroni is usually mixed with spiced minced meat, and it’s baked in cream, eggs and cheese. In Blue Eyes’ case, since he doesn’t eat cheese, he uses bread crumbs as topping instead.

Blue Eyes is from Joensuu, in the eastern part of Finland. It’s close to Karjala, and this is where the dish karjalan paisti originated from. It’s basically a beef stew cooked in a pot. Lots of herbs were used and the stewing took two hours in the oven. Blue Eyes prepared this dish on one cold winter day and by the time it was ready, I was dead hungry. The meat was super tender and the sauces were delicious.

Being in this part of the world, salmon and tuna are popular as they’re aplenty, whether from the sea or lake or river. I’ve never been a fan of salmon as I find the fish a bit too “fat” for my taste. But like the saying goes, when in Rome, be like the Romans. So I’ve bought salmon and cooked it pretty much like how my mom prepared fish back home – frying it on the pan.

One day, Blue Eyes decided to show me a different way of cooking salmon – baking salmon in a smoked bag aka lohi savustuspussissa. Quite a mouthful to say in Finnish but it literally means salmon in a smoked bag. Here, one can find almost anything pre-prepared. Mothers are busy people, can’t afford to spend too much time in the kitchen so there are almost everything available to reduce the cooking time. Smoked bag is one of them. Can easily get one from the supermarket.

Now the salmon should be cut to resemble a butterfly before it’s seasoned with salt and black pepper, and other additional herbs desired. I only know how to cut fish fillet into slices, not a butterfly so Blue Eyes did the honour of showing how. After that, he dished the salmon into the smoked bag, put it on the warm grill and flip it every 15 minutes and half hour later, it’s done! The smoked salmon can be eaten with rice, or potatoes, or salad. Quite a pretty dish!

Now Easter has come and gone rather quickly but it’s a huge celebration here in Finland. Aside from the religious meaning, it’s also sort of a milestone that spring has arrived and that it’s time to start the spring cleaning, pack the winter clothes away and bring out the shorts and dresses. Easter meals are usually associated with Christian symbols ie. lamb and eggs.

Blue Eyes chose to make a lamb meal (since he doesn’t eat eggs!) and it’s a stew cooked in a pot with the oven – did I mention that Finns like their oven food? *wink

Blue Eyes put in so many different types of fresh herbs that I lost count but the ones I remember are mint, parsley, thyme and basil. The pot needed to be in the oven for four hours so that the lamb would be nice and tender when it’s cooked. It’s a freaking long time to wait for dinner but it’s worth it when the smell filled the kitchen as we dived into the awesome meal. Had it with a glass of red wine and it’s a nice closure to Easter (until next year!).