Spice up your life

It's now easy to cook ethnic food in a city like Helsinki, as long as you know where to go to buy the right ingredients. There are 2 main areas (and surely more, but we don't know them, yet) where you can find specialized groceries: Hakaniemi & Itis. Itis is probably the best bet, as most newer immigrants from the middle east live in the eastern part of the city. Indeed, there's a large choice among the many restaurants, bakeries or groceries in the area, mainly from Syria, Irak, Turkey, and a few other countries. And when we are there, we always go to Alanya grocery, to re-supply in spices. They probably have the largest choice of spices form all over the world (they have 2 shops: one in the Itis mall basement, the other one 200m away in Puhos, where most bakeries are located - and boy, the smell there!). So, to make a (little) middle eastern feast at home is easy peasy. 

Inside Alanya shop, with a whole wall full of spices in all shapes and forms.

So, to make Köfte (or Kofta, depending the country), we used organic minced lamb and beef 50/50, lots of finely chopped yellow onions and fresh coriander, a few table spoons of Köfte Baharati spice mix, a bit of lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Once mixed well, to the fridge for an hour or so to rest.

The Köfte are grilled on charcoal with specially designed turkish flat skewers.

And here we are. A little middle eastern feast at home.

The Köfte are served on a freshly baked bed of flat bread bought in a syrian bakery, with a thick turkish yogurt (seasoned with shredded cucumber, garlic, mint, lemon, bit of cayenne red pepper, and olive oil), sliced red onions, fresh coriander and pieces of lemon. On a side note, when you buy breads (there are lots of different varieties) in a bakery in Puhos, they're most of the time oven hot and ready to be eaten on the spot if you want to. A true delish to be experienced.

A taboule salad rich in herbs completes the menu. The wine (Tavel Rosé) is from France. This kind of wine is a great match for spicy food. Alternately, you can enjoy a turkish yogurt drink "Ayran", natural or mint flavored (a bit like piimä), sold as well in Alanya shop.