Month: January 2018

Arto Lappi: Five Tanka

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Varpunen kävi
koputtamassa lasiin
ja minun oli
juostava ulos heittämään
muutama kuperkeikka.

A sparrow strutted
while tap-tapping on a glass,
and I was supposed
to run out, launching myself
into several somersaults.

Talitiainen
aloitta kosintansa
ja sirkuttaa kuin
järkensä menettänyt:
Sammakko loikkaa lampeen.

A great tit commences
its mating and marriage dance.
It chirps and twitters
as if it has lost its wits.
A frog leaps into a pond.

Isketään hanskat
kottikärryjen sarviin,
kottarainen on
ehtinyt jo rakentaa
betoninmyllyyn pesän.

Work gloves are slapped down
on a wheelbarrow’s antlers.
A starling has found
the time to build a nest in
the concrete cement mixer.

Kuka jännittää
jousen, josta pääskyset
noin mutkaisesti
singahtelevat aina
kuitenkin maaliin osuen.

Who bends back the bow,
sending the swallows hurtling
in such crooks and curves,
nonetheless always hitting
the target straight on the mark?

Turha miettiä,
matka on jo alkanut:
parasta pitää
hatusta kiini, kyllä
tuuli aukaisee takin.

It’s pointless to think:
the trip’s already begun.
It’s best to hang on
to your hat, since all the same
the wind will open your coat.

Source: Arto Lappi, Kukko puusa (Turku: Sammakko, 2002), pp. 9–11, 13, 29

Translation and photograph by Living in FIN

Finnish Almond Date Bread

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This coffee cake or quick bread has been a festive season favorite of my boon companion and me ever since I clipped the recipe from a December issue of the Finnish home design and food magazine Koti ja keittiö several years ago and gave it a try. Since then I have baked it something like a dozen times.

It is incredibly easy to bake and tastes great, especially with a cup of tea or coffee or cocoa amid the now nearly perpetual gloom of the slushy southern Finnish winter.

I am glad I clipped the recipe way back then, because the magazine’s website doesn’t seem to have a recipes archive. Fortunately, a smart looking blog entitled Idealista.fi has preserved the recipe for posterity in Finnish.

I have englished it, below, using standard English measures as well, rather than the metric measures used in Finnish recipes and cookbooks.

Finnish Festive Season Almond Date Bread

Ingredients

Approx. 1 2/3 cups White baking flour
1 ½ tsp Baking powder
6 Tbsp Sugar or fructose
1 tsp Coriander powder
Zest Lemon (one whole)
Approx. 1 ½ cups Dates, fresh, pitted, chopped
Approx. 1 cup Almonds, flaked (NB. This is my substitution.)
½ cup Butter or margarine
½ cup Milk
2 Eggs
2 or 3 pats Butter or margarine, for greasing bread pan

1. Measure the flour, baking powder, and spices, including the lemon zest, into a large mixing bowl and mix them lightly but thoroughly.

2. Chop and pit the dates if you have not already done it. It is up to you to decide how finely you want to chop the dates. I leave the almonds flakes whole, as they come out of the packapge, but you might want to give them a rough chop as well. In any case, set aside a small amount of the chopped dates and almond flakes for sprinkling on top of the bread just before it goes into the oven.

3. Melt the butter or margarine that goes into the bread dough. Add it and the milk to the mixture in the mixing bowl. Finally, add the eggs and mix the whole kit and caboodle until you have a smooth dough.

4. Grease a small rectangular bread pan. Spoon the dough into the pan and spread it around more or less evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle the surface with the dates and almond flakes you set aside earlier.

5. Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for around 45 minutes to an hour. When the bread is done, let it cool for a while before serving.

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Freely translated, tested, and photographed by Living in FIN