Cauliflower and broccoli gratin

This is a version of what the Brits call cauliflower cheese. I guess it can be served with whatever you like e.g. fish fingers, or pork chop or a piece of fish... whatever you like really. I don't bother having a potato or rice accompaniment to this, I think the gratin is perfect as an alternative.

Ingredients (serves 2)

•     1 small head of broccoli
•     1 small head of cauliflower
•     2 tbsp butter
•     2-3 tbsp flour
•     300 ml milk
•     60 ml double or whipping cream (these differ from single cream by their fat content)
•     1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
•     1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper/paprika
•     salt and pepper to taste
•     1 egg yolk
•     100g grated hard cheese e.g. cheddar, greve, gruyere (whichever you like), plus extra for sprinkling on top.

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Bring a pan of salted water to boil.
3. Cut small florets off the broccoli and cauliflower, approx 2 in./5 cm in height.
4. Start cooking the cauliflower in the boiling water. When it has been boiling for about 4 mins add the broccoli and boil everything for a further 3 mins. They should be quite tender but not soft enough to eat yet.
5. Drain veg, but set aside about 100 ml of the cooking water.
6. Melt butter slowly in a small saucepan, without letting it colour
7. Add the flour and stir constantly with a wire whisk. When this is blended together in a yellow lump start adding the milk, cream and cooking liquid in small amounts so they can be easily incorporated without lumps forming. Make sure you are whicking quite rapidly at this point.
8. When the sauce is starting to thicken (be warned it tends to stay runny for quite a while and you could be tempted to thicken it with more flour - don't, just be patient it will thicken), add the cayenne, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Feel free to add more of the spices to taste.
9. Remove the sauce from the heat, whick in the egg yolk and the cheese.
10. Put the florets of cauliflower and broccoli in a baking dish which will hold them compactly in a single layer.
11. Pour cheese sauce over the broccoli and cauliflower pieces and then sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top.
12. Bake in the oven for 20 mins, until golden brown on top.

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Apple and sage pork chops

I found this recipe online and thought it looked nice and then when I was cooking it I had a few misgivings - things weren't browning properly, the marinade looked like it wasn't going to do anything to the pork and the apples looked out of place. However, after putting the apples in the oven to oven bake instead of leaving them in the pan, this dish came out beautifully, especially when served with potato wedges and broccoli. You could also grill the chops and apples instead, I couldn't since our oven and grill aren't separate.

One tip I have for marinading is to use a bag instead of a bowl, anything will do really. I have used normal food bags, the bags that vegetables come in in the supermarket, or my preference - 1 litre ziplock food bags. If you do use a bag, double bag the marinading things particularly if they have bones on  to prevent them breaking through the bag. Usually before closing the bag I make sure that all air is out of the bag and that I rotate the bag round every so often just so all food gets the marinade.

Ingredients

• 2 pork chops, on or off the bone
• 2 red or pink small eating apples

For the marinade:

• 15 ml (1 tbsp) fresh sage leaves, finely chopped or 10ml (2tsp) dried sage
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped or 10ml (2tsp) dried thyme
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) maple syrup
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
• the juice and zest of half a lemon
• salt and pepper

For the sauce

• 150 ml single cream (you may not need all of this)
• 150 ml chicken or beef stock
• a little more maple syrup to taste

Method 

1. Remove excess fat from the chops
2. Cut the apples in half, leaving the core intact.
3. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl
4. Add the chops and the apples to the marinade and mix to coat all surfaces
5. Cover and put in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes. Do not marinade for longer than an hour, or the apples will turn brown.
6. Pre-heat oven to 180C and cook wedges on a tray and grease-proof paper, according to packet instructions. The next steps will take around 20-30 mins.
7. Put a small amount of oil in the frying pan and heat. Add pork chops and apples (cut side down) and cook for 5 mins.
8. Remove apples and put in the oven for about 15mins, cut side facing up.
9. Continue cooking the pork chops in the pan until the marinade is reducing and starting to caramelise and brown and stick to the pork.
10. Check the chops are cooked through, put on a  plate, cover in foil and allow to rest while you make the sauce.
11. Pour in the stock to the frying pan which the chops were in and try and get the sticky brown marinade off the bottom of the saucepan. This will give flavour and colour to the sauce. It doesn't matter if there are bits of sage there too. Allow to reduce and thicken.
12. Add the cream and stir. Taste and add some maple syrup if necessary. I think we may have added a little more sage to the mix. Allow to simmer and reduce for a few minutes.
13. Serve the pork chops and wedges with some green veg and with the sauce.

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Mökki living & BBQs

Sorry about the lack of blogging recently, however the recent hot weather hasn't inspired much cooking, it has only inspired this....

 and this...

although I will tell you about the lovely chocolate tiffin and the chocolate pastry rolls my OH made, some other day...

*a mökki is a Finnish cottage or cabin where they go to enjoy the summer often they only have simple amenities and will be hidden down a dirt track somewhere

Bacon and mascarpone pasta

I used to be into the Atkins diet a while ago (which worked actually, but I cheated and stayed in the induction /first phase the entire way through - the weight  has kinda stayed off but a recent visit back home and Easter has made the scales wobble more than just a bit!) and this recipe is inspired by an Atkins recipe but it uses real pasta instead of Atkins pasta - which I read is horrible. I never tried this while on Atkins because I generally hate food substitutes, I'd rather go without than substitute for less. However, I love bacon and cheese of most descriptions and combining these ingredients with pasta has got to be a winner... well it's hearty, comfort food for me :) I guess it would also work with some broccoli, peas or green beans in the sauce as well. This isn't my favourite dish ever but it's nice for a weekday when you just can't be bothered to do much.

Ingredients

• 120 g bacon (streaky or back), sliced
• 100 g dried pasta
• 1 small shallot, chopped 
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 60 ml white wine (good excuse to have a couple of glasses with the meal!)
• 100 g mascarpone cheese
• 60 ml whole/semi-skimmed milk
• large handful of chopped fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Boil a pan of salted water and add the pasta
2. In a large pan over medium-low heat, cook the bacon until crisp, which will take about 12 mins - not too hot otherwise it will go dry and burn.
3. The pasta should be ready sometime during the cooking of the bacon and so drain and return to the same pot but leave it with the lid on, off the heat.
4. With a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain the fat and pour off most of the fat leaving about a tablespoon of bacon fat in the pan.
5. Cook the shallots in the pan that has the bacon fat for about 3 mins on a medium heat until translucent.
6. Add garlic and cook for a further minute
7. Stir in the wine and cook until reduced by half (about 3 minutes)
8. Add the mascarpone, salt and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted,.
9. Mix in the milk and parsley; cook 1 minute to heat through and then add the pasta and the bacon and stir until the pasta is nicely coated.
10. Serve on it's own or with a small salad

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Sausage fusilli

This recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver's "Proper blokes' sausage fusilli", we made a few changes to the original recipe in that we used more sausage per person and less pasta and fresh chilli instead and I had powdered spices not whole seeds. I was a bit worried since I am quite used to "saucy" pastas, but this was really really good - so good I'm trying to resist making it for the second time in one week! Jamie recommends good quality sausages and I cannot agree more - you would lose the texture and flavour of the dish if you buy cheap sausages. I used Cumberland sausages and they were fantastic.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 and a bit tsp ground fennel
• 1 finely chopped red chilli
• olive oil
• 400g good-quality Cumberland sausages
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• a wineglass of white wine
• zest and juice of 1 lemon (you shouldn't need all of it)
• 200g good-quality fusilli or penne
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a couple of knobs of butter
• a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or pecorino or something similar), plus extra for serving
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped

Method

1. Heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan/wok.
2. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins and put into the pan, and use a wooden spoon or something to break it up and then fry for a few minutes until the meat starts to colour
3. Carry on trying to break up the large lumps of sausage - it will start to look like mince.
4. Add the fennel and chillis to the sausage meat and cook on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the meat becomes crisp, golden brown and a little bit caramelized.
5. Put on a pan of salted boiling water for the pasta.
6. Stir in the oregano, pour in the white wine and allow it to reduce by half.
7. Add the lemon zest and juice - but be gentle with the lemon as I found that all the juice made the sauce a bit too lemony.
8. Turn the heat down to low on the sausage meat while you cook the pasta according to the instructions.
9. When the pasta is ready, take about 200 ml of the cooking water and put it aside and then drain the pasta.
10. Add the pasta to the sausage meat and stir to coat, add the butter, parmesan, parsley and a few spoonfuls of the pasta cooking water usntil the sauce has loosed up a little.
11. Season to taste and serve, remembering to sprinkle some of the cheese on the top.

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Chicken and peppers in pastry

My friend makes this and she kindly gave me the recipe to post up. I rarely work with pastry - mostly due to lack of confidence after a disastrous steak and ale pie and few years ago, but I thought I would give this a try. It went pretty well apart from the fact that I was too lazy to read the defrosting instructions on the pastry first and we almost had a very sticky unusable pastry block. To ensure that puff pastry is light and puffy one has to preserve the layer structure when rolling it out and not mess it up by making it into a ball and rolling it out.I quite liked this but I think there was too much pastry - so maybe I should have rolled it out thinner and perhaps only use half a pack of pastry for the two servings! Also I think next time I would use a stronger cheese than brie, maybe something like blue cheese. I guess one could also exchange the peppers for other veg such as spinach. Anyway, good luck :)

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 packet puff pastry (voitaikina)
• 2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• olive oil
• mixed herbs for marinade
• 1-2 sweet red ramiro (pointy) peppers
• brie, sliced
• 1 egg  beaten or some milk for glazing the pastry
• salad to accompany the meal

Method

1. Butterfly chicken breast and marinade in olive oil, mixed herbs, salt and pepper briefly (this is not strictly a marinade, but more to coat the chicken in something tasty)
2. Brown the chicken breasts in a pan and put to one side once done.
3. Meanwhile, roast some sweet red peppers under a hot grill. I like to remove the seeds and insides and halve them and rub some olive oil over them before putting them under a really hot grill for 5-10 mins. Let cool and then peel the skin off the peppers and slice into strips.
4. Open up the chicken breasts, put a few strips of roasted red pepper in middle of chicken, add some slices of brie, then wrap in puff pastry. You can do this however you like.
5. Put the wrapped chicken on a baking tray and glaze with the milk or the egg.
6. Bake for 30-40 mins at 200C, or until the pastry looks risen and done.
7. Serve with salad.

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Slow-cooked pork ribs with blue cheese dip

I think I have finally perfected cooking ribs. This batch were beautiful - the meat was very soft and falling off the bone. I still haven't found a home-made marinade that I am happy with yet, so I just stick to the ribs that have been pre-marinaded - they seem to work just fine and are a similar price to unmarinaded ribs. These are great with things like potato wedges, barbeque sauce (one of my favourites is Santa Maria's Kentucky Whiskey BBQ sauce) and vegetables such as carrot and cucumber sliced into sticks, for eating up the remaining dip!

Ingredients

• 2 x 300-400g pre-marinaded pork ribs (much easier than marinading own, ribs really need to be marinaded else dry and chewy)
• 1 dl crumbled blue cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• handful of fresh/frozen parsley, chopped
• 200 g (1 pot) sour cream (kermavilli) or creme fraiche

Method
For the ribs

1. Pre-heat oven to 120C.
2. Remove ribs from packaging.
3. Wrap the ribs and marinade in foil - do not leave any gaps open in the foil.
4. Put in/on a baking tray, a tray with sides is best, just in case of any spillages.
5. Cook at 120C for 2.5 hrs
6. Turn heat upto 200C and cook for a further 15 mins and then take out of the oven for 15 mins to rest.

For the blue cheese dip (start making just before you turn the oven up on the ribs)

1. Pour sour cream into a bowl.
2. Add the crumbled blue cheese.
3. Add salt to taste, add the parsley and stir.
4. Let it stand in the fridge for half an hour before serving.

 Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Sima (Finnish mead for Vappu/May Day)

Sima, also known as Mead, is a popular drink on Vappu (aka May Day) in Finland and Sweden. You can get it in alcohol or non-alcohol versions. The recipe below is for non-alcohol lemon Sima, which we decided to adapt and add an extra lime. We would have tried making an alcohol version but we started this project about 5 weeks too late! So, maybe we can try again in time next year. I have heard of some more exotic types of Sima, such as lime and ginger, but have no idea what they are like, but I would love to try. Anyway, you will need about a week for this project, no special equipment except a large bucket and some clean empty bottles. Fizzy drinks bottles, wine bottle etc will do, so long as you can seal them with a screw cap or something that will let the pressure out. We tried sealing some old wine bottles with corks and ended up with rather explosive Sima when we opened them. Good luck!

Ingredients

• 8 litres water
• 450 g dark brown sugar (fariinisokeri)
• 600 g granulated sugar (plus extra for the bottles)
• 1/4 tsp fresh yeast
• 2 lemons, sliced
• 1 lime, sliced
• raisins

Method

1. Boil about a litre of water, take off the heat and add the sugar, and stir until dissolved. If you want to alter the the colour of your Sima, you can do so by changing the proportions of brown to white sugar for darker or lighter Sima. Pour into a large 10 litre bucket.
2. Add the remaining cold water to the bucket, stir. This mixture should be lukewarm. If not allow to cool for a bit. Pour a bit of lukewarm water into a cup and mix in the yeast. It is important to remember that yeast is a living organism and cannot tolerate temperatures above 40C - i.e. it will die if you add it to too hot water, then your mixture won't ferment and you will be left with sugary water, not Sima.
3. Add the sliced lemons and lime, stir a bit to mix, put a lid on the bucket. In our case we used a large plate to cover.
4. Leave to stand at room temperature or slightly warmer e.g. an airing cupboard, for 48 hours (the instructions said 12-24 hrs but we forgot to do it then)
5. Now you will need to bottle the mead. You can use any type of bottles for this - we used left over wine bottles from our wine making last year.
6. Add a small handful of raisins and about 1.5 tsp sugar to the bottom of each bottle. Pour in the mead, without the lemons. We used an ordinary sieve and a funnel to make sure we didn't get any pips into the bottles. Seal the bottles but not too tightly (so the pressure from the ongoing fermentation process doesn't build up) and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days (upto a week). You know the Sima is ready when the raisins rise to the surface.

Easter choc chip cupcake nests

I made these for Easter to take to a friend's house for dessert. They went down really well although they were rather large and one small complaint was that there was too much frosting - something I didn't have a problem with!

The small eggs are Cadbury's mini-eggs (which I adore...), which you can't get over here. But feel free to substitute. Traditionally people break up Cabury's flake bars to make the nest like texture, and so you would then only use frosting to stick the flaky chocolate to the cupcake. However since we don't get Cadbury's in any form here I tried to make the nest like texture by using a piping nozzle from Ikea and the cute cupcake/muffin cases that I used were the Drömmar, also from Ikea. I think these were probably on the big side for these cakes. Sadly we don't get shop bought chocolate chips so I had to improvise and make some of my own by cutting up a chocolate bar with a knife, which actually works out quite well!

Ingredients 

For the cupcakes

• 150 g softened butter (I usually take it out of the fridge and let it soften while I get the other ingredients ready)
• 150 g caster sugar (siro erikoishieno sokeri)
• 175 g self-raising flour (or 175 g plain + 2.5 tsp baking powder)
• 3 large free-range/organic eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or substitute some of the sugar for vanilla sugar
• 50 g milk or plain chocolate chips

For the icing

• 150 g softened butter
• 250 g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp very hot water

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Line a 12 cupcake pan with cupcake papers
3. Crack open the eggs into a cup and beat gently with a fork
4. Put all the cake ingredients in a large bowl
5. Beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy
6. Spoon the cake mix evenly between the cake cases
7. Bake until risen and firm to the touch, about 18-20 mins
8. Allow to cool briefly and then transfer to a wire rack to cool thoroughly before icing
9. Now to make the icing while the cakes are cooling.
10. Beat the butter and icing sugar together with  the electric mixer
11. Combine the cocoa powder and the hot water and then add them to the butter and sugar mix, beat until smooth and creamy.
12. Use a piping bag and nozzle of your choice to frost/ice the cakes. If you are not sure how to use one of these just google "how to use a piping bag" and there's some nice videos and how to guides around to help.
13. Finish decorating by adding a couple of eggs to the top of each nest.

Hyvää ruokahalua!

Pinella

Pinella is the name for an old and beautiful riverside building in Turku. It started as a restaurant back in the 19th century and apparently has been known as Pinella ever since, even if the ensuing restaurants inhabiting the building have had different names. The building was closed in 2004 and after extensive renovations and buildong work, Pinella the restaurant opened about 3 weeks ago and we got to visit for a work lunch. I have to say that ever since I checked out the menu back in March I have wanted to try it out, so lunch seemed a perfect opportunity to see whether it is worth coming for dinner.

First impressions were that they had managed to make the place seem very light despite the thick stone walls and the pillars and overhang outside, which could conspire to make it dark and dingy. The decor was simple with a mix of normal chairs, poufs and sofa style seating in the main restaurant area. The restaurant was very busy, however our party of 30 people was still served in good time and politely. Some colleagues suggested that sitting on the poufs for a three course meal could be quite tiring and not good for the back, but I didn't see that to be so much of a problem.

The menu offered a chicken and goats cheese salad, which looked succulent and was praised by those who had ordered it. The beef cheeks with red wine sauce and mushroom polenta also went down well with some colleagues who said that the beef almost melted in your mouth. I had carrot and ginger soup with crayfish tails. This was a fabulous soup, not too sweet from the carrots with a nice kick from the ginger. The crayfish tails were perfectly done and they certainly didn't skimp on them. Most of us felt that we could have had a dessert to round off the meal, however the work budget did not extend that far. At around 9 euros for the lunch main course, which is in line with normal restaurant lunch prices in Turku I would say this was good value. It has most certainly inspired me to return to check out their a la carte menu one evening in the near(ish) future!

Wild mushroom risotto

I was never a great fan of mushrooms until I started to pick my own. From the end of August until sometime in October it is common to find Finnish people heading out to the countryside with buckets (and funny hats to ward off the elk flies) in order to pick mushrooms. Everyone has their own favourite mushroom picking spots and many would keep the secret of where these places are - even on their deathbeds! I'm no expert, only confidently able to pick two types, the yellow chanterelle and it's darker and in my opinion much tastier cousin suppilovahvero, also known as yellowfoot. I love doing this every autumn and it's great to then dry what you have picked so you have plenty of mushrooms for the whole year round.

Risotto is a great dish. It is quite quick, however it is attention demanding - requiring constant attention from the moment you add the rice. I don't know if the alcohol is important but most recipes I have found usually suggest white wine or dry martini. Although I have been known to use red wine, which makes the risotto a bit pink! The most important thing with risotto is to keep stirring as this helps make it really soft and creamy by releasing the starch from the rice grains. I have used chanterelle mushrooms before for this, however I found it a bit bland. The nuttier more flavourful suppilovahvero are much better in my opinion for risotto. This risotto is great served with a nice piece or red meat such as beef or lamb, or enjoyed by itself.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• handful dried/fresh wild mushrooms e.g. porcini or my personal favourite - yellowfoot (suppilovahvero)
• olive oil approx. 2 tbsp
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped (optional)
• 250 ml wine or martini or vodka or cider
• 150-200 g arborio risotto rice
• 500 ml chicken or vegetable stock (you may need more...)
• 25 g parmesan, grated
• handful frozen or fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
• salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

1. If your mushrooms are dried, then you will need to rehydrate them. Do this by putting them in a bowl and cover them with hot water until they are soft. Drain away the water and pat them dry with some kitchen towel. Then chop the rehydrated or fresh mushrooms into quite small pieces (whatever size you prefer really). Dry fry for a few mins on a medium-hot neat until they don't look so wet. Be careful sometimes the mushrooms tend to jump around the pan!
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry the shallots and celery on a medium heat until the shallots become translucent, try not to brown the shallots if you can help it.
3. Turn the heat up to medium-hot and add the rice. Stir thoroughly to coat all the grains in oil and then add the wine/cider/martini or vodka. Stir until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
4. Start adding the stock to the rice. It is important to do this a bit at a time, by adding just enough to cover the rice and stirring constantly until the rice has absorbed the stock, then you can add more, bit by bit. You may not need all the stock and the risotto should look creamy towards the end (about 20mins after starting to add the stock)
5. The rice is cooked when it is al dente which is basically the Italian way of saying soft and cooked but still with a slight crunch/hardness to the grain. Essentially you should still be able to chew this meal and not have it so overcooked you could suck it through a straw!
6. Take the risotto off the heat and stir in the Parmesan and parsley. Season to taste and serve.

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Moroccan chicken tagine

This dish I had at a friend's house the other night and it was lovely, the sauce was fruity and lemony and the chicken was probably the softest chicken I have ever had. Essentially a tagine is a two part dish with a conical lid. Originally they are made of clay but you can also get steel ones these days. When one makes a dish in a tagine, it is similar to braising for a long time, however the shape of the tagine and the material it is made from is said to impart an authentic flavour to the dish. We were going to try using a proper tagine, however we had forgotten to cure it beforehand, so we opted for a heavy lidded saucepan on the lowest heat possible which worked pretty well (although some Moroccans may disagree!).

Ingredients

• whole chicken leg on bone (thigh) with skin
• 2 tsp coriander seeds crushed
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp dried ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp of either paprika or chilli (something for a bit of a kick)
• olive oil for marinade
• 1 whole onion roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• whole fennel bulb, roughly chopped
• few strands of saffron
• 2 salted preserved lemons, cut roughly into eighths
• 250 ml chicken stock
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Marinade chicken overnight in olive oil, coriander, cumin, ginger, turmeric, paprika/chilli, salt, pepper.
2. Brown the chicken and marinade in olive oil - start with the skin side for a bit then turn to the other side for a while and then turn back to the skin side until nicely golden.
3. Add the chopped onion and fry gently until softened, for about 3-5mins. Then add the crushed garlic, fennel, salted lemon and the stock.
4. Put the lid on the pan and make sure any holes are plugged up - kitchen paper works just fine.
5. Simmer on low heat for 1.5 hrs
6. Serve with couscous or rice

Home-made pesto

I have tried making pesto a few times and the thing is, it always ends up a bit different each time. That was starting to bother me but actually now I don't mind. One thing I am learning, is not to follow a recipe religiously, since the ones I have found haven't been brilliant. Instead I try to follow my taste buds on this, so forgive the approximate measures, but it is probably just best to adjust it to taste.

Ingredients

• Handful of basil leaves (fresh or frozen)
• small handful of pine nuts (pinjam siemen) - around 40 g...
• 2 cloves of garlic
• olive oil -in the words of Mr J. Oliver... you'll need a few good glugs - around 50-100 ml
• pecorino or manchega or pecorino cheese - I usually grate this in to taste, maybe 20 g
• salt and pepper to season

Method

Combine all the ingredients and blitz with a hand mixer. If the mix tastes very bitter then add a bit more oil and cheese and pine nuts. In the end the pesto should resemble a grainy mixture and may taste slightly over seasoned, but this is fine. The thickness of the pesto can depend on the purpose, whether it is to go on meat or mixed with pasta. If it is too thick, thin it out with a bit of olive oil. If I am adding it to pasta then I usually start cooking the pasta and in the meantime I make the pesto - it's that easy and it doesn't need to be cooked either.

I usually eat this with pasta, tuna and sweetcorn with some more cheese grated on top. It's something I used to eat in my student days and it's a great meal when I can't be bothered to make too much of an effort.

Dark chocolate fondants

I have recently discovered fondants as a dessert. Fondants are small cake like desserts, however, when you cut into them with a spoon they have a lovely gooey, runny centre that just oozes out onto your plate. They are also incredibly easy to make.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aquilaonline/696025642/lightbox

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I used normal cake cases, but apparently it is possible to get silicon or metal moulds for this purpose. The recommended mould size is 7cm diameter by 4.5cm depth (my cake cases were a bit smaller and so instead of 4 fondants I ended up with 6). If you use moulds you should grease them and gently dust with flour and place them on a baking tray with greaseproof paper on. If you use paper cases then a muffin tray is fine.

You could probably replace the dark chocolate with milk or even white chocolate or have dark chocolate fondants with white chocolate centres...

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 50 g brown sugar (fariinisokeri)
• 1 dessert spoon (12ml or 2 tsp) plain flour
• 1 dessert spoon (12ml or 2 tsp) cornflour
• 140 g dark chocolate, obviously around 70% cocoa solids is always good :) broken into small pieces
• 2 squares of chocolate per fondant (approx another 70g more chocolate)
• 110 g butter
• 3 dessert spoons (36ml or 6 tsp) whipping cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C (or 180C for fan assisted oven)
2. Beat eggs and sugar
3. Sieve flours together and beat into eggs and sugar
4. Melt chocolate, butter and cream over bowl with simmering water (bain-marie method)
5. Pour the chocolate, cream and butter mix in with eggs and flour and beat until smooth and well mixed
6. Leave in fridge for 1 hour to stiffen up
7. Pour into each paper case until the case is half filled
8. Place 2 pieces of chocolate per fondant onto the mixture in each mould
9. Top up mould until it is 2/3 filled
10. Put in oven and cook for 8-10 minutes. The recommended time was 6-7 minutes but I found this was still too gooey even for the smaller cake cases, at least with my oven. If the fondants look shiny on top then they will still need 3 or 4 more minutes.
11. Turn out immediately and serve

These are very rich, so we found that one was more than enough!

Hyvää ruokahalua!

EDIT Have just discovered that if you make too many you can keep them in the fridge and warm them in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds before serving. I also fed these to a friend earlier and she loved them!

King prawn green thai curry - fail

I attempted to make a King Prawn Green Thai curry from this book...

I have had this book for a couple of years and every so often I attempt to make something from it. However, I usually remember by the eating stage why I haven't made anything from it for a while. It's a bit potluck as to first whether the quantities are correct and second as to whether the food tastes any good. The pictures never resemble the finished product and I really don't think this down to me (all the time...) since I am an good-ish cook. I have made a couple of good things from it, but I am now considering throwing it away since I just cannot trust the recipes and I am fed up of wasting money on good ingredients. Either that or I'll see what I fancy and compare with other online recipes.

First failure was, I used cooked king prawns, partly through laziness and partly because my local shop isn't big enough to stock even frozen king prawns. So even though I reduced cooking time they still ended up overcooked and rubbery. Yuck. I will never ever do that again.

Second failure was that we had picked up light coconut milk (5-7% fat) by accident. When I added this to my curry paste and prawns it was grey and watery. I looked at the ingredients only to find out that "light" literally means they have added water to normal coconut. In an attempt to salvage things we drained off the watery muck, found some normal coconut milk, added a bit more curry paste and cooked for a couple more minutes.

Unfortunately that didn't salvage things, the sauce was still as runny as hell and even if I had used uncooked prawns, following the cooking instructions still wouldn't have yielded a thicker sauce. Cooking it longer would have meant very elasticy rubbery prawns anyway.

If I were to try this again, I would use coconut cream, and raw king prawns and I would probably start cooking the sauce and get that almost cooked, before adding the prawns which need very little time to cook. I would also use only about half the fish sauce recommended and a dash of lime. If I dare try it again, I'll post the improved recipe up!

I managed to salvage the evenings food with some lovely chocolate fondants, but I'll save that for another day...

Bistrot le porc

A little gem of a restaurant that we found last Autumn is Bistrot le Porc. The menu is small and changed regularly and is affordable. What I really like is that while the food sounds relatively simple, it has always been beautifully executed and every last mouthful has been a pleasure. I also love how they have wine recommendations for each dish. This is somewhere that you can go for lunch, go with girlfriends or for celebratory meal. It is not the cheapest place to eat but the quality to price ratio is excellent and always worth it.

Salmon and creamy dijon pasta

We found a fab deal a few days ago on salmon but as usual we had enough for several meals so I decided to find inspiration from the web and came up with this...

Our salmon was a fillet that had been cooked the day before, but you could also use cold-smoked or gravlax. Just beware that gravlax is quite salty so be gentle when seasoning. My friend at Uni used to use the Tesco value offcuts when making something similar, so you don't have to spend too much on this dish! I guess you could also add some veg such as peas or broccoli.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• salmon (however much you have or like, maybe around 200-300g for 2 people).
• 1 red onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• dried pasta (enough for 2 which is about 75g per person)
• 250ml cream, either single, whipping or what the Finns call ruokakerma. You probably could even use a thick natural yoghurt.
• 3 tsp Dijon mustard
• a handful of chives or dill
• salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Cook pasta according to instructions. If you are using fresh pasta, obviously start cooking this as the last thing!
2. Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic on a medium heat until transparent, try not to get them coloured.
3. Add the cream and dijon mustard to the onions and garlic. Taste and add more dijon if you like.
4. Cook together for a few minutes, if it is looking a bit thick add a bit more cream (or milk).
5. Add the herbs and season to taste
6. Add the salmon and cook gently for a couple of minutes to warm through
7. Drain pasta and mix the pasta and sauce together and serve

Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Lamb chops with greek veg and couscous

Have worked our way through almost all the random lamb cuts we have in our freezer. Again after a few experiments I have decided that braising is the only way forward for any meat on the bone. Feeling lazy, this is a mostly from packet meal, but as it turned out so well, I thought I'd share.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• olive oil
• 3 lamb chops
• 500ml stock, beef or chicken or vegetable
• Findus Greek veg mix (Kreikkalainen kasvishöystö)
• 1 jar of Gaea Cyprus (tomato and citrus fruits) Sauce - I guess it wouldn't be too hard to make this from scratch
• 1.5dl couscous

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175C
2. Heat some oil in a pan
3. Brown the lamb chops on a high heat for a few minutes
4. Submerge lamb chops in the stock in an ovenproof dish (with lid), make sure the chops are covered in liquid. Put foil over the top of the dish and then put the lid on.
5. Cook chops in oven for 1.5-2hrs
6. Once chops are cooked, put them to one side, cover in foil to rest. Reserve some of the stock to cook the couscous
7. Warm the sauce for around 10mins 
8. Meanwhile, cook the veg according to the instructions (stir-fry for about 5 mins on high heat) and cook the couscous in the stock water according to instructions and serve.

I wasn't so sure this would work when I started, however when tucking in this evening the lamb fell off the bone nicely and the fruity sauce went very well with the cous-cous, veg and lamb. It also went down nicely with a rose wine from Portugal.

 Hyvää Ruokahalua!

Shepherd's Pie

Our friend gave us what I thought resembled half a lamb a few months ago which we dutifully froze and have been trying to make a variety things from the different cuts we got (so please excuse a few upcoming lamb recipes).

While we have had fun getting to know the different cuts and how to cook them: scrag or neck (grillikiekko), chops (grillikyljys), leg (viulu) etc. We have also had a few disasters: lamb ribs - I will never buy again, they are just fatty with the minimum of meat; Anjum Anand's Honey Roasted Spicy Leg of Lamb recipe was not good - I don't know what we did wrong but it ended up dry and the meat was not flaky and soft like lamb leg should be. If I had actually paid good money for a leg of lamb I would have been hopping mad about the failure of this one.

So, instead, I thought I would make the new start to this blog with a traditional British recipe and probably one of my favourite dishes of all. If it's cold, or I'm homesick and want some good hearty food, then Shepherd's Pie is one of the dishes I crave the most. After several experiments with different variations and some help from Gordon Ramsey, I think I may have cracked how to make good Shepherd's Pie. For those who don't know the difference, Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie are pretty much the same, except Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb mince and Cottage Pie is made with beef mince.

Ingredients (serves 4)

•  2 tbsp olive oil
• 500g minced lamb (I am just so happy when lamb is available here I don't care whether it is lean or not!)
• 3 or 4 rashers of bacon
• 1 large onion (or a couple of small ones), grated
• 1 large carrot (ditto), grated
• 4 or 5 cloves garlic, grated or crushed
• 1.5 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• Thyme fresh (1.5tbsp)/frozen(1.5tbsp)/dry(1 tbsp)
• Rosemary (same quantities as thyme)
• 250 ml red wine. I usually use alcohol free because it's cheaper
• 300 ml chicken stock
• 1 kg of potatoes which are good for mashing, peeled and quartered
• 50 g butter
• around 100 g strong cheese, grated e.g. Gouda, Cheddar or whatever else you like
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Heat oil in a large pan until hot
3. Season the mince and fry both bacon and mince in the oil over a moderate to high heat for a couple of minutes. They don't have to be completely browned.
4. Stir in onions and carrots and add the garlic. Add in the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and herbs and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Pour in the red wine and reduce until it has almost completely evaporated.
6. Add in the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the sauce has thickened. At this point you want it slightly runnier than is to your taste as it will thicken further when it is baking.
7. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft (Don't forget to stir the mince from time to time). Drain and then let steam dry off the heat for a couple of minutes. Add the butter and a bit of milk or cream if you have any and mash. Add about 3/4 of the cheese and continue to mash until relatively smooth.
8. Spoon the mince into the bottom of a large ovenproof dish (I like the small Ikea Koncis series, they seem to be the perfect size and are a good shape for the oven, although they do resemble school dinner serving dishes!).
9. Add the mash potato on top. I find this a bit difficult, so I just put small blobs around the top of the dish and then gently try to smooth them together to form a layer over the top of the mince. I then make swirly patterns with the fork and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.
10. Bake in the oven for around 20mins until the top is just starting to turn golden brown

Since we are a two person family, I usually save half in the fridge to reheat in the microwave for the next day.

Hyvää ruokahalua!

Blog change

I've decided to give this blog a bit of a change. I'm a bit of a foodie and I've decided that maybe I will try and share some of my successes (and failures) in the kitchen.I don't think I have a style of cooking, but I am influenced by India and the Far East. Neither Finnish nor English food have a good reputation, however during the long winter months, both cuisines have a place in our kitchen and you will find recipes from both countries.  Bon Appetit!