Thanks to Antti for the short introduction yesterday; a while back he asked whether I was interested in doing some selective cross-posting style syndication with some food-stuff I write for my personal blog, Only Slightly Bent. There was a clear danger in saying “yes” to this, as I found out already last summer that some people actually identify me as “the guy who photographs his food”. Right. Perhaps not the kind of thing you want to be associated with in the minds of strangers..

But then again, things could be worse. I do photograph my food occasionally, so the heck with it. So I said yes.

I don’t know about superbly written stories, but I’ll write stories – probably mostly restaurant reviews. And despite the theme of the site, I can’t promise there wouldn’t be occasionally some drama. Btw, a word of reading advice is likely in order; whenever I mention “we”, the other person involved is, unless otherwise indicated, my wife Sarita.

But enough with the introductions.

Henri’x BBQ House in Kamppi

One evening a couple weeks back, we decided to give another Kamppi newcomer a try: Henri’x BBQ House. I was hoping they’d fare better than their neighbor Minos (review of which is coming up later) and, being one of the few truly BBQ/steak-oriented restaurants in the city, expectations were actually quite high.

The surroundings suffer a bit from the restaurant being essentially in a mall; however, Henri’x also has a nice all-glass semi-terrace from where you could observe the life around the Kamppi center. As was expected with all the concrete and tiles, this life consisted almost purely of skaters who had the open space completely under their control. And they weren’t great either. So not much in terms of a view (yet).

Once inside, we were shown to our table after some initial confusion as to where it is that we were supposed to be seated in the first place. There is not much internal decoration to speak of and the tables and chairs are, while comfortable, also very basic. The neon bull at the bar was quite nice, but that was about the extent of the interior d?cor.

At the tables, things seemed to be in order: nice cloth napkins and a clean set of glasses. No tableclothes, but that is perfectly understandable for a BBQ place. The physical menu itself, however, was flimsy – a piece of more or less crumpled paper, some haphazardly glued to a piece of cardboard.

From reading the menu, it’s immediately clear that this is not a place for vegetarians: in fact, the main courses are all steaks. The wine was interestingly classified on the menu with selections of only “decent – good – superb”. It turned out that there is a separate wine menu, too, something that wasn’t curiously brought to us before we asked for it. Our selection of wine, Ca’del Solo Big House Red, turned out to be a bit too weak to accompany the heavy food. Of course, this was purely our mistake and I’m sure the list would’ve offered better options.

But on with the real essence of the evening, the food. The starters sounded quite delicious with choices like coconut green curry-soup, but we felt like going straight for the meat, with the hopes that the portions are big enough. Sarita went with a chateaubriand (€22) with chilli butter. I was looking forward to testing the much-advertised BBQ sauce, so I chose the porterhouse steak (€38, though see note at the end) with that. Neither of us was asked how we wanted the steaks – this could either be a good or a bad sign.. After taking a little long to arrive, I was a bit disappointed to find out that my porterhouse steak was served pre-sliced and not as whole. But as soon as it came to the table, doubts about it being big enough vanished. There was lots of it. I mean lots, the photo does not do justice to it.

And, as it turns out, it was really quite good and tender. When bringing the portion, the waitress immediately offered to bring more BBQ sauce and taking her up on the offer was the right thing to do – the BBQ sauce was delicious. Doubts about the level of doneness were luckily unfounded: everything was cooked just right. Sarita’s chateaubriand also turned out just perfect, though the chilli butter could’ve used some chilli in it – a common problem in Finland. In any case, in terms of quality of food, the expectations were met or even partly exceeded.

There was a choice of three side dish selections; Basic, Classic and Modern. At least the Basic with potato wedges, simmered red cabbage and an onion-haricot bake was a good selection.

Then came the shocker, however: my portion was so big that I just could not down it all. This caused more mental anxiety than actual physical trauma – am I going to have to leave delicious meat on the plate? In the end, I had to condescend to admitting defeat: there was just no room for it all.

The dessert menu also sounded delicious, but anything more to eat was out of the question at this stage. When we got the check, I realized why I had trouble with the size of my portion. They had inadvertently brought me the porterhouse for two (€64, IIRC), which our waitress said is a whole kilogram of meat. What a relief. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad about not being able to eat it all. The mistake was swiftly sorted out on the check. But of course, now I can’t be sure whether the porterhouse for one would’ve been big enough… Perhaps it’d still be safe to say that it would.

All in all, the service was quite good, and the occasional glitches (like not refilling our tiny water pitcher without asking, offering the table next to us food they didn’t order etc.) were something that I could live with. With the food also very good, it’s likely we’ll be back here – must try the starters and desserts next time, too.

Doughboy has mainly been a recipe blog, but soon a new author Sim will start a new series including, but not limited to restaurant reviews. These are mainly targeted to our readers living in Helsinki metropolitan area, but I hope the rest of you also enjoy reading his superbly written stories.

Sim is an ex colleague of mine, and like me, spent a few years working in Boston. I let Sim introduce himself better with hist first posting.

Hope you’ll enjoy!

1st of May – Vappu in Finnish – is workers’ and students’ festival, and the closest thing to a carnival we have in this land of quiet, polite people who like to mind their own business. I feel too old to celebrate Vappu with the students, and don’t really share the ideology with the labor union people whose day this really is.

Foodwise I like Vappu though. This is the day when mom always served sausages with potato salad and mead. The mead was always home made, refreshingly lemony, sugary and bubbly, with a few raisins floating in it. Totally yummy! I have banned all sugary drinks, so making a 10 liter (2.5 gal) batch was out of question. This year I substituted the mead with some dry Spanish Cava :)

In our family tradition the Vappu food has always been industrial – processed sausages, processed potato salad etc. But at least once a year I find it wonderful to pig out this additive-laden, so-not-good-for-you meal!

I’ve been busy at work lately, and have had difficulties to find stamina to cook after hours. This weekend is a long one however because on Monday we celebrate the 1st of May, and it is a public holiday. It’s also pretty safe to say that the outside temperature will finally stay above freezing point until the inevitable new winter after a few months, and I’ve been able to walk outside without mitten and a scarf. To me this means one thing only: BBQ Time!

I’ve always loved grilling, smoking, and barbequing – generally spekaing anything which involves playing with fire :) In Boston I was devastated as I didn’t have a place for a grill. Every time I went to a Home Depot and walked by the long lines of gas and charcoal grills my heart was bleeding. One of the very last things I did in the States before moving back to Finland was buying a couple of Weber grills. They’re horrendously expensive here in Finland, but very reasonably priced in the US. The movers had already packed all my belongings into an ocean container when I drove to the moving company’s warehouse with two huge cardboard boxes and asked them to ship them too. Interestingly I’m not apparently the only crazy European hauling grills from one continent to another. The sales assistant at The Backyard Barbeque in Framingham (where I bought my Weber Q gas grill) told that quite a few people tell them they’re taking the grills to Europe – even as a flight luggage!

But long story short – I have now two nice grills at my disposal, and since the weather was nice, my tummy grumbling and my inner vegetarian squelch by my inner carnivore, I called my brother and asked if he fancied some BBQ. Not surprisingly the answer was affirmative, so I headed to a trusty butcher shop in a nearby mall. I was supposed to buy half a kilo or so of tenderloin (fillet mignon), but then saw Argentinian Beef Angus prime rib roast (entrecôte) on sale. In the States prime rib had been my ultimate pleasure, so I basically impulse bought a 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) slab of the prime rib roast. This decision would inevitably affect our lunch schedule, effectively turining it to a dinner instead.

While my brother was preparing the fire, I made a dry rub for the roast. I ground the dry spices in a mortar to a coarse powder, which I patted and rubbed all over the roast. The spices stick better if you moisten the meat with water first. The first picture shows the roast with the dry rub applied.

The roast may look small in this picture, but that’s only because the grill is huge – its diameter is 22.5″ (57 cm). I wanted to smoke the roast, which calls for an indirect cooking method. The coals are on the other side of the grill, and the roast on the other on top of a water-filled drip pan. When cooking with a Weber kettle, it’s important to keep the lid on at all times, as it reflects the heat back like a convection oven.

When grilling steaks, quick and hot is ok. When smoking, the temperature is kept low and the meat is cooked for a long period of time. My 2.5 kg roast took 2 hours 45 minutes in the grill, plus an additional 15 minutes in an oven, after which I kept it wrapped in a foil for another 30 minutes to post-cook and keep the jus.

A rough 120 C (250 F) is a desired lid temperature when smoking, albeit some prefer higher, some lower temperatures. I’ve found this to be an ok temp. In a Weber kettle, keep the top vents open, and control the temperature with the lower vents. And don’t let the coals burn out! Keep adding them every now and then during the cooking, but don’t keep the lid open for too long.

When the internal temperature of the roast has reached 46 C (115 F), remove it from the grill, and put in a preheated 200 C (400 F) oven for 15 minutes. After that, wrap in a foil for 30 minutes before carving.

If you have tended the fire properly, and not overcooked the meat, you should find someting like this under the dark, spicy crust:

Stockyard, my favorite steak house in Boston often served horseradish sauce on the side of the prime rib, so that’s what I use at home too. Heat the sauce in a microwave for a little while before serving. Don’t throw the jus away, but bring also to the table with the horseradish sauce. Mashed or baked potatoes or sweet potatoes make a perfect side dish for the roast.

Dry Rub

1/4 cup black pepper
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp white pepper
1.5 tsp ground thyme
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Ground everything into a coarse – semi fine powder, and rub all over the roast. Wet the meat beforehand slightly with water to help the rub to stick.

After the calorie-laden Easter festivities, this piece of advertising from the wall of one of the huge warehouses along the Riverside Viaduct seems particularly appropriate. I want lighter fare – I want salad. I also want something that is really tasty.

Proust was transported back to his youth when he dipped a madeleine into a cup of linden tea. Raspberry vinaigrette has a similar effect on me. This yuppie nectar brings back the early 1990s like nothing else. At the time, I was skimping by on a tight budget, having just moved to my first apartment and trying to learn to cook traditional Finnish delicacies. It was a rocky start. Antti never tires of reminding me on my nontraditional take on silakkalaatikko – herrings, backbones intact, no salt added, swimming among semi-raw slices of potato in skim milk.

Pretty quickly I learned that the posher-than-thou back issues of the British House & Garden magazine were much less daunting learning material: soon I was eating quail eggs in birds nests of tagliatelle verde for lunch, Moroccan saffron-scented briouats with wild rice biriyani and carrot and orange flower water coulis for dinner, profiteroles with mango and praline cream for dessert, and mussels wrapped in balsamic vinegar infused lardons for snacks ;) No, I’m not making up those dishes: while in Helsinki, I recovered a full binder of food-stained H&G clippings straight from the era of power suits, shoulder pads, and opaque black tights. In fact, some of the less outrageous entrees still remain in my repertoire, although generally my taste in food has evolved toward considerably simpler fare.

Anyway, here is the dish that triggered all those memories.

Spinach Salad with Bacon, Asparagus and Raspberry Vinaigrette

Crisp fried bacon
Sliced red onion or chopped spring onions
Black olives
A few spears of blanched asparagus
(Sliced champignons)

For the vinaigrette

100-150g frozen raspberries, thawed and drained of most of the liquid
1-1.5 tbsp of white balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, cider vinegar or raspberry vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
(1-2 tbsp heavy cream)
1 teaspoon chopped chives or fresh basil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine raspberries, vinegar, and oil in a blender. (I don’t have one so I puree the raspberries in a coffee grinder – if you are fastidious, press the puree through a sieve to get rid of the raspberry seeds). Arrange the salad on a plate and drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Raspberry vinaigrette is good on many different salads. In this salad, you can easily skip the bacon and the cream. Another wonderful version of the spinach salad includes walnuts, a sliced Granny Smith apple, a sliced pear, and perhaps a few slivers of blue cheese.

In any case, this meal is obviously accompanied a glass of chardonnay, Tom Wolfe’s first novel and this retro NY Times restaurant review.