A Finnish Success

Salmon with Dill Cream Sauce

Our Finnish dinner was a great success, but I am definitely not a food photographer.  I tried multiple times to make this salmon look as delicious as it tasted, to no avail.  The other picture I took was even worse.  I had a nice plate set up with the braised red cabbage, a piece of salmon, and the quark dessert off to the side.  My husband said the picture of the cabbage looked like a tarantula on the plate, so I chose to show only the salmon.  Anyway, the Salmon with Dill Cream Sauce was excellent and as a bonus it was quick and easy to prepare.  I did make one small change in the recipe, I added about 1/4 cup of plain Kefir (a yogurt type drink), because I didn't have enough cream.  I love Braised Red Cabbage so I was excited to try a new twist on  this dish.  The molasses gave it a delightful depth without too much sweetness. Then we ended with Quark Dessert.  I had no idea what this was at first.  But I found out that quark is very common in Northern Europe. It is actually a type of soft cheese.  I was able to find it in the grocery store and it was similar to creme fraiche.   I mixed fresh raspberries and blackberries with about a cup of quark and then folded that gently into lightly sweetened whipped cream.  It was the perfect end to our culinary visit to Finland.

Kathy