This weekend we had husband’s boys to stay. I love my Saturday afternoons on these weeks, usually every other week. I love my other Saturday afternoons too, but for different reasons. On these weekends one of my favourite things is to do a big shop and cook all afternoon while husband is picking the boys up from the station and hanging with them in gadget shops and smoothie bars. I do often bake something too, boys never say no to a peanut butter biscuit or two. They are great to feed, because they are skinny as rakes and can down amazing amounts of food.  And two hours later they are hungry again. They are growing boys, although hopefully not for much longer, as they have both passed the 6 foot mark.

A dish that the kids really liked when we visited my sister last summer was her chicken sesame stir-fry noodles. I have done it a few times after that to an appreciative audience. My sister’s version was amazing, I don’t think mine is quite as good somehow. She cooked hers outside on the patio in her huge gas wok which added to the ambiance and maybe also to the taste. We ate all of it. The onions and other veg in the dish caused no offence with the kids.

So I thought I’d do this because it's quite a quick dish (I’ve kissed the meat free week goodbye and will instead improve my ongoing ways by introducing one fully veggie day a week).

On the way home from work I popped in the supermarket to get some organic chicken and other stuff I was missing like two bottles of red wine.

Husband and kids were not at home yet when I came, so food was almost ready when they got in. With the noodles I made a simple salad and rosemary garlic bread. This bread is so good. I use this really nice Batard they have at the supermarket, it’s more tasty that a standard white baguette. I melt butter, press one garlic clove in the butter and add a tbsp of chopped rosemary. I then slice the bread leaving it intact at the bottom and then spoon the butter mix in between the slices. I wet a piece of grease proof paper under the tab, squeeze the extra water off and wrap the batard in it. Into the 200C oven for 15 min and it’s just perfect. You can use other herbs and spices as well.

We had a great dinner, there was very little left over, but just enough so I knew that everyone had been properly fed. My husband was telling us funny stories from his childhood. We never really know how much is true and how much he cooks up for entertainment purposes. He had a very simple childhood in the Dubai of the day - just sand, goats, chicken and palm-frond houses with fire pits on the floor for cooking. I think he may be exaggerating, but let's go with this, it sounds romantic. At least we know there were no high rises, no dancing fountains or indoor skiing slopes.

They had a small house in the Deira area. If you’ve ever visited the Dubai Heritage Village, that's what my husband says his childhood home was like. He told of his uncle, who had a motor bike and who wanted to get to the only cinema in the area, but kept getting stuck in the sand on the way because there were no proper roads.

And he told how his home burned down completely one fateful day. He was about nine years old and was outside looking after the goats (so cute!) with a friend (I hope it wasn't the girl who hit him in the head so that there is still a visible dent) when he saw his home on fire. His mum had been baking that lovely flatbread in the fire pit on the ground and somehow the fire escaped and two houses burned to the ground within minutes.

There was a fire engine somewhere in the area, but it kept getting stuck in the sand on the way and when it arrived the following morning there was nothing left of the houses.

Husband was very upset because tragically his most prized (and maybe only) possession, his football had been in the house. I think still today he got a bit upset thinking about it. Football gone! He’s always been a great football aficionado and at the time he was an enthusiastic admirer of Pele running around in the sand with his ball pretending he was Pele. Funny enough on the other side of the world at the same time my older brother, a huge Pele fan was running around on the grass with his ball, until neighour's Irish Setter Carlo ate it. Carlo also ate my sister's new red handbag and 28 pheasants from a near-by farmer's shed.

   

According to his own words my husband was a great footballer in his youth. I don’t quite see how that is possible. With all the wifely admiration I have for him, even I can see that he is probably the slowest runner in the world (I walk faster on the treadmill). But apparently he had a great "technique" (he says this with a French accent, I really don’t know why).

I was really shocked to find out that he had lost his home and asked how they coped and where they went to live. But he reminded me that those houses are not particularly complicated and don't take that long to build so a new one was up in a few days time. He doesn't remember if someone got him another ball but I hope they did.

Dubai heritage village, notice the well-placed fire extinguisher

Chicken honey, soy and sesame noodles recipe (serves 4)

400g (8 nests) whole wheat noodles

Oil

700g chicken breast or thigh, skinless and boneless cut to strips or cubes

1 red or yellow pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 yellow onion

3 tbsp smoked sesame oil

2-3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp honey

Red pepper flakes

1-2 tbsp of lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup sesame seeds 

Salt

Pepper

Cook noodles according to pack instructions until al dente, drain and run cold water over the noodles to stop them cooking further.

Heat oil in a wok or other big pan. Fry chopped onion for a few minutes, add minced garlic and fry for another minute, add sliced bell pepper, chicken strips, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, pepper flakes and lemon or lime juice. Fry until chicken is done. Add the noodles, make sure it’s heated through, add the sesame seeds, check taste, add soy, honey or sesame oil if necessary. 

Tuesday I don't know what husband ate for dinner, but I accidentally put some smoked beef in his sandwiches. I subsequently decided that husband's lunch sandwiches are not part of the meat free challenge. He is a man after all and can't be expected to eat lettuce 24-7. 

I had a nightmare work trip to Middlesbrough through Darlington, which sounds sweeter than it actually is. Or maybe not.  The trouble with train travel is that you see all the horrible backyards with car carcasses and wonky green plastic garden furniture from 1980s, corrugated iron warehouses and empty industrial plots, maybe allotments if you're lucky. And when you get off the train, around the railway station is usually not the prettiest part of town. The first thing I saw when I got out of the station in Middlesbrough was Kalinka Vodka Bar which looked even less attractive than it sounds.

Oh dear. So far not so meatless. Half the weak gone and a lot of poultry consumed, a whole flock of birds between the two of us. I decided on Pasta alla Puttanesca for dinner, tasty and veggie apart from a few anchovy fillets, 8 actually. The remaining four I just ate from the tin because they would have just smelled in the fridge for the next couple of days and then I would have chucked them. Yum, I like anchovies, salty though. Alarmingly 6 entire animals consumed.

I had gorgeous bright red tomato linguine from a little delicatessen in Notting Hill (Valentina) that went well with the sauce although the colour faded when I boiled them and it didn't taste any different from the normal stuff, so in the end not sure if worth 4 times as much as normal supermarket pasta. 

We have both had some bad news from home this week and it's hard when you're far away, so we ended up finishing a bottle of red wine whilst crying into our pasta bowls. But at least well done for the first fully meat free meal of the week! 

Pasta alla Puttanesca recipe

Olive oil
6-8 anchovy fillets
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1-2 tbsp capers
Handful of pitted black olives
400 g can of tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
water
salt & pepper

Heat oil in a pan, add chopped anchovy fillet and fry until anchovy has melted into the oil. Add minced garlic and pepper flakes and fry for a minute. Add capers, olives, tomatoes and sugar. Bring to boil. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. If too thick add some of pasta cooking water. Serve with pasta.

We went shopping yesterday, a new car for husband and soup bowls for me. Gary the car salesman found husband  a good car and after a couple of hot drinks from the showroom’s brand new coffee machine which Gary was very excited about and a lengthy negotiation in which we probably were thoroughly bamboozled we came to a deal. I promised to sort out Gary's snoring and potential sleep apnoea, which apparently is driving his wife crazy. It got us some goodwill and if he follows my advice might save his marriage and life, but may not have impacted the actual car sale financials much at all.  He did throw in a seat cleaning kit for free, maybe that was for his long-term marital, respiratory and cardiovascular health.  

Kit or not, I will make sure he gets diagnosed, he's a nice man (he called me a lovely young lady). He’s been marred to his wife for 25 years. He always thinks her birthday is 29^th Jan, but it’s actually 28^th, so he misses it every year, but the wife thinks it’s funny instead of getting annoyed which I think is sweet. They have two kids, a 24 year old daughter who did a master’s degree, I forget in what, and is now a journalist. Gary is very proud of her, the first of the family to go to Uni. And a boy who’s now 16 so we don’t know what’s going to come of him yet.

Gary told husband to take wife for a lovely meal to celebrate the new car, but I still had in the fridge the expensive steaks that I was originally planning for the previous night which travelled with me around the home counties and the side dishes that I had already prepped before husband texted to tell me he was going to meet me straight in the cocktail bar we sometimes go to on Fridays. He did get me champagne, which made up for the steak dinner fiasco and we had a fun night.

So asparagus and the goat cheese, thyme and mushroom bake went to the oven. I also roasted some sweet potato wedges and made a fresh avocado and mint salad.

And what about the steaks that normally always go wrong – they didn’t! I rubbed them with oil, salted and peppered conservatively,  not in a showy-offy, maniacal, klingon foreheaded TV-chef manner. I fried them a couple of minutes on both sides, stuck the pan in the oven for 5 minutes and rested in foil (shiny side in!) for about 10 minutes. And they were perfect. I can’t believe it!  I am still more of a lamb and venison girl because I think there is more natural taste, but at least now I know I can get a beef steak right if I absolutely have to. I am not sure under what circumstances the mandatory steak frying requirement might arise, but you never know so it’s good to be prepared. Like a girl scout.

Nigella has said her motto is  “never knowingly under-catered” which I think is genius. That is what I have learned from my mother also. After a lunch for 4 say, there can easily be 15 whole boiled potatoes left over and my dad as the more mathematically minded person wonders “How many did you think each of us would eat?" Fair question, but a better question than “Is that it?" which is what husband said when he saw his steak.

I am slighty less overcatered than mum. I haven't got 5 kids so my potato calculator is calibrated to our small household. I do still always aim to cook too much rather than too little, but this time husband was actually left a bit hungry even after I gave him half of my steak, so into the rescue came my parents village caterer’s epic moose samosas.

I am relieved to have finally climbed over this culinary stumbling block. Next time I'll just get bigger steaks.  

I have been an embarrassingly bad steak chef. Every time I've tried it has gone monumentally wrong. I never thought there are so many ways to get something so simple so wrong so many times. Almost like perms in the 80s. Why did I keep doing it when my hair always ended up looking like a Russian fur hat.  

Once I had beautiful Scottish venison steaks which I marinated for quite a few days in a red wine marinade and then pan-fried making sure the pan was hot. And hot it was. I completely incinerated them on one side, other side was reasonably crispy too. Through the smoke and the fire alarm husband gently questioned whether we should eat them. He rarely criticises my cooking because he's a nice man, appreciates somebody cooking for him and also knows what’s generally good for him. And that time I couldn't really blame him. I did suggest because it was nice meat and I'd marinated and kept turning it around in the fridge for five bloody days that we cut off the burnt bits, which we did. There was little left of the steaks after that. Potatoes were nice.

Another time I had watched a Gordon Ramsay tutorial on YouTube and flamboyantly showered the steaks with generous amounts of sea salt as Gordon did on his stupid video. The steaks were perfectly cooked this time, but ridiculously salty and inedible. 

There has been a couple of times when we actually have managed to eat them, but only because we have strong jaws and good teeth. Sometimes I think the mistake has been that the steaks have not been out of fridge long enough, maybe the meat hasn’t always been great quality either. And once I barbecued some on the coal barbecue outside and it probably wasn’t hot enough. 

I had kind of given up and husband never asks for steaks. Funny that. But my sister told me that giving up is not what a good wife does.  (She also says if you love your husband you take his last name. His husband's last name doesn't have 13 letters out of which 8 are consonants, is all I say about that.) Apparently every man deserves a proper steak every once in a while, so I’d just better get my act together.

So this time I was ready to kick some serious fillet steak arse. No pre-packed supermarket meat this time. I went to Lidgate the butcher in Notting Hill yesterday and confessed my ineptitude to the nice old butcher (or salesperson) there. I asked him to give me something I wouldn’t be able to mess up. If he'd known all the ways I can mess up a steak he might have sent me out empty-handed. But he gave me two lovely pieces of organic fillet steak. Or he didn’t actually give them, I paid through the nose. I could buy two whole legs of lamb from the supermarket for the price, but hey-ho. Man must have steak.

And yesterday at gym running on the treadmill I watched a playlist of different chefs frying steaks excluding Gordon Saltshaker Ramsay, so I had my technique and timings all polished and confidence levels were soaring together with my pulse.

To avoid the perils of cold meat hitting the pan and cramping in shock, I took the meat with me to the office today. I kept it in the lunch area fridge and I had a post-it note on my laptop saying PIHVIT! (=steaks) which made sure I remembered to take them with me when I left. I didn't realize how freakily cold the work fridge was and steaks were practically frozen, so I upped the car temperature having to open the side window a few times as I was getting a bit queasy from the heat. Never mind that, the steaks got to see some Oxfordshire and were in lovely room (car) temperature when I got home.

At home I poured the red wine into a carafe to breath a little and even gave a bit of mouth-to-mouth to some of it.

I prepped asparagus with lemon and a dish of mushroom, garlic, thyme and goat cheese ready 

to bake for nice light side dishes as we were going to go out for drinks later, so didn't want to make the dinner too heavy.

Oven was heated. Steaks and the cook raring to go. 

It was getting a bit late so I decided to text husband and ask if he was on his way home soon, so that I'd know to time my cooking. He texted: "No, stuck at work, meet you in Bar Italy at 10pm."

So back to fridge go the well travelled and tempered steaks. I may try again tomorrow if I haven't killed husband by then.

This time I have no recipe for these yummy pasties, just some approximate directions – I will make similar ones one day and will post -  but it’s not a complicated thing so feel free to just work it out yourselves. And as with any moose recipe, you can always substitute the meat with good quality organic lean beef or of course venison.

These ground moose pasties were made by a caterer lady who lives in the same little village where my mum is from and where my parents still live some of the time. She has catered in a few family parties for us like dad’s 70^th birthday, which was a fun event and the food was great. There were speeches and some piano music by my talented niece and mum performed a poem like she always does where two or three are gathered. She is a great performer, she really gets the emotion into every line. She has actually studied this, hosted her own poetry recital evenings and even given lessons in vocal technique and articulacy. Mostly to me with scant results. But one of her external students became an MP in the Finnish parliament. She subsequently got mixed up in some kind of corruption scandal involving washing machines and is now disappointingly using her vocal skills as a spokesperson for Finnish fur industry of which we do not approve.

So mum. It’s just that her choices for poems are sometimes a bit weird, but we must grant her her artistic freedom I suppose. For Dad’s jolly 70^th she had chosen a poem about when love is over, a journey is at an end and the loneliness and sadness when it’s all over, whatever it is. The poem is more suited for funerals I think. But then, most Finnish poetry is best suited for funerals as are most Finns – it’s not easy for mum to find upbeat material.

I remember when I was a kid she used to read this poem to me called “The Funeral”. Yes, I know. It is a morbid name and topic for a children’s poem, but this is 1970's Finland we must remember. There was no SpongeBob SquarePants (Paavo Pesusieni) and we only got Jiminy Cricket’s (Samu Sirkka) Christmas for 45 minutes a year on Christmas Eve. Apart from some Czechoslovakian wax animations that was the entirety of children’s entertainment of the day.

This poem “The Funeral” by a great Finnish poet Lauri Pohjanpää is about a butterfly whose life was ever going to span for that one sunny day only, but she had to die early in the morning. The starting words still make me well up: “Oli kaste viel’ yli kukkien, kun kuoli päiväperhonen, joka lensi tuokion vain. Niin niin ja se aamulla haudattiin. - The dew was still covering the flowers, then died the butterfly, who only flew for a moment. Yes yes. She was buried in the morning.” It does sound a bit more poetic in Finnish, but still a kind of a straight forward punch in the gut. I don’t know why mum thought it would be appropriate entertainment for an oversensitive animal loving 7-year-old.

The poem elaborates at length on how lovely it would have been for the butterfly to happily fly all of the sunny day, but she only was allowed a brief flight and then she had to die. She was even buried in the morning. I never knew of such hasty burial arrangements in our country where bodies keep for weeks in the cool temperatures so time can be taken. Anyway funeral it is, and the crickets play the funeral march, ants carry the tiny coffin, the reverend Morning Cloak (or Camberwell Beauty in Britain less aptly) performs the ceremony and a choir of ladybirds sings a hymn of mourning. Movingly at the end of the poem the tough Beetle, the gravedigger who has seen all kinds of things, a bit of a Yorkshire-man I imagine, not exactly wearing his heart on his sleeve, looks at the small coffin of the little butterfly lying deep in the ground. He secretly wipes away a tear with the back of his hand  and mutters “On kovaa niin aamulla kuolla - It’s hard to die so early in the morning”. I remember ending up hiding behind a cupboard crying hysterically for the little butterfly and all her lovely insect friends so heartbroken on a bright summer’s morning. Still, early cultural education is important even when it comes at a cost.

So back to the caterer lady.  She bakes amazing traditional sour dough rye breads which I always bring with me when I visit home. These are the kind of round, fairly flat breads with a hole in the middle that have been made in Finland for generations. Originally the whole in the middle was there so they could be speared with a pole and hung from the ceiling to dry there, when there were no freezers.

For the moose pasties my parents take the ground moose to the catering lady and she creates these delightful little parcels. The pastry is lovely, not greasy, but somehow substantial and light at the same time. I think she uses quark. The tasty filling is made of onion, ground moose and rice. Seasoning is simple, just salt and pepper I would imagine. You could always throw in some parsley I guess. But it must be kept simple, that is the point here, no garam masala, turmeric or other funny Asian business which I otherwise love.

Husband loves these – I remember I brought some to him some time ago and then had to go on a work trip and leave him to his own culinary devices. I called home one night and asked if he’d had any of the “samosas” as he calls them rather than “hirvipasteija” which they actually are. He had had seven.

The name Gravadlax or Gravlax is Swedish, grav meaning a grave or the verb grava meaning burying. In the olden days the Swedish fishermen Johan Andersson, Anders Andersson, Anders Johansson och Johan Johansson would cover their booty with salt and bury it in sand for a few days before digging it out to eat with their Wasa knäckebröd.

The Finnish word is Graavilohi – the word graavi is not really Finnish. It just sailed across the Gulf of Bothnia to our shores and we kept it unlike most Swedish things that try to cross that water. Now we use it as a synonym for salt curing.

I’ve had a lot of gravadlax in my life, but the best is done by my dad. This is no unfounded daughterly sentimentality, but it really is flippin’ awesome. He’s got years of experience of sprinkling exactly the right amounts of the right things on it.  I also think he always buys very good quality salmon. He’s not particularly free with his money, more on the tight side, once refusing to buy mum (who says she is like the Queen and doesn’t like to carry money) an expensive Biotherm wrinkle cream with the result that mum’s life was “in ruins” until they found a compromise in a more reasonably priced Vichy-product. But gravadlax is dad’s passion. Gravadlax, philately and chopping wood.

That reminds me of dad’s triathlon. He always challenged my two older brothers to his summer triathlon of swimming, darts and chemistry because he could beat them in those three activities. I am unclear on how the chemistry competition was organised.  

I often do my gravadlax in the freezer because I’m not sure of the parasite situation in all the fish that I buy. Heat kills them but salt doesn’t. So I add the cognac, salt, sugar, dill and pink peppercorns, wrap the salmon tightly and freeze it. I think the recommendation is several days, 5-7.  And when you want it you just defrost it in fridge salt side up for 24 hours, no weights on top needed. While it slowly defrosts it cures and is ready to eat and worm-free. Yummy!

But if need for gravadlax is very immediate I just put it in the fridge for about 24 hours salt side up and it's done, no need for several days of curing.

Authentic Finnish Gravadlax with red peppercorns, dill and cognac recipe

1 kg Side of salmon

2-3 tbsp Cognac

2-3 tbsp Coarse seasalt

1-2 tsp Sugar

Fresh dill (freely)

1 tbsp Pink peppercorns

Place the salmon skin side down on a piece of greaseproof paper. Pick out any bones and cut any extra fat off, massage the salmon with the cognac, sprinkle the sugar and sea salt on top.  Add the pink peppercorns and chopped fresh dill on top. Wrap it tightly in the greaseproof paper. Place in the freezer for minimum 5-7 days, it stays good for longer. Take it out to slowly defrost and cure in the fridge salt side up for 24 hours. Eat with boiled new potatoes or rye bread and fresh dill.

On my head office days I’m not home till late, so unless I have prepared something in advance, which of course I often have, I am after quick but still tasty dinner recipes. Today was such a day, there weren't enough leftovers of last night's poronkäristys and I also was going upstairs for a little tipple – usually it ends up being at least a bottle of bubbly to be honest - and a chat with our neighbour. So I needed something quick to cook for husband before heading upstairs..

I’ve done this Indian Keema before, I think I used ground lamb last time, you can use ground beef as well. This time I opted for the leaner turkey, not because of the leanness necessarily, but because I had some in my freezer and wanted to make some space as it’s so full now after my visit to Finland with all the goodies I brought with me.

So hubby headed for gym after asking if the flat tummy medicine that he saw advertised on Facebook might work just as well. I suspected it probably would not, so better just head for the exercise bike. I should have joined him after being power fed by my sister and mum for the last 10 days and looking like Kim Kardashian's backside and not in a good way, if there is a good way.

But I didn't. Instead I made a fragrant pot of healthy keema to wait for him on the stove (with some not so healthy basmati rice) and headed upstairs with a bottle of Cava.

Ground turkey (or beef or lamb) Keema recipe(serves 4)

1 yellow onion

3-4 garlic cloves

Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp cinnamon

Cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for heat according to taste

400g ground meat

½ tsp  sugar

4-5 fresh tomatoes

1 chicken cube

Salt

Pepper

Juice of ½ a lime

Water
½ - 1 cup of peas

1/3 cup of parsley
(you can replace parsley with coriander and also add 1/2-1 tsp of ground coriander with the other spices)

Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onion and fry until soft - 5 min or so. Add minced garlic and minced ginger, fry another minute. Add the dry spices and fry a couple of minutes. Add ground meat and continue cooking, breaking the meat with a wooden spoon. When meat is browned add sugar, chopped tomatoes, chicken cube, salt, pepper and lime juice. You can also add a splash of water , 1/3 cup or so to make it a bit saucier. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes or even longer if you have time until tomatoes are soft and meat is tender. Add frozen or fresh peas and chopped parsley 5 minutes before you are ready to serve.

  

Besides gardening the career options for reindeer include tourism, pulling sleighs and being petted and obsessively photographed by Japanese tourists. Some serve in the police force. I particularly remember a female reindeer called Maija, who sadly died in the line of duty after being run over by a car. Her death was doubly unfortunate and ironic as Maija’s main job was to act as an ambassador for traffic safety. Maija’s young son Artturi will follow in his mum’s hoofsteps visiting events and spreading the important message of safe driving in the often challenging arctic conditions. Due to his heartbreaking family history his word is bound to carry some extra weight.

By SA-kuva. (MTV3) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In peacetime there may not be many jobs for the reindeer in the Finnish Defence Forces, but in the Winter War 75 years ago our gentle antlered buddies fought for the freedom of our country alongside our brave men and women mainly in transportation duties.

There are some professional athletes among them as well – reindeer racing may not be exactly as lucrative as the F1 and they never end up living in Monte Carlo, but the fastest and strongest reindeer and their jockeys are definite celebrities. The winners also get chosen for breeding for their herding co-ops – the reindeer, not so much the jockeys. I remember reading somewhere that the ideal weight for a reindeer jockey is 60kg. You can do what you like with this piece of information.

But the most obvious career for a reindeer is within the food industry. Having the choice you definitely want to aim to be a so called “live reindeer”. They get to live and breed. The alternative is less attractive. Reindeer meat has a strong gamy taste and may not be to everyone’s liking, but it still is a very popular meat all over the country.

The most popular way of cooking reindeer is sautéing thin slices in butter, with or without onion and simmering it in stock or beer until its tender. The authentic accompaniment to the meat is buttery and creamy mashed potato and lingonberry jam, but you can also serve it with pasta or rice and replace the lingonberries with cranberries.  This dish is widely available in restaurants all over Finland, not just in Lapland, and the meat can be bought from the freezer in most supermarkets.

Some recipes don’t call for the meat to be cooked for long at all, but I simmer it for up to two hours to make it really tender. It is very thinly sliced so technically it’s done quickly, but particularly the meat you get from the supermarkets down south is not cut from the most tender parts so patient simmering will bring the best out of this tasty and wholesome dish.

250-300g reindeer meat (thinly sliced)

1 yellow onion

1 clove of garlic (optional)

Salt and pepper

Butter

1-2 cups beef or game stock (or lager)

Melt butter in a lidded pan. Add the reindeer meat, chopped onion and minced garlic. You can add the meat frozen if you like. Saute until meat is brown and onions soft. Season with salt and pepper, pour a cup of water or beer on top. Cover and simmer for 1½ -2 hours adding water if necessary until the meat is tender.

I served it this time with a potato and broccoli mash with cheese.

Whenever I go away I always cook something for my husband so he doesn’t have to resort to takeaways. He actually has a couple of dishes he can do quite well, but I like to think that when he’s lonely and missing me terribly :) there is still the comfort of my food made for him with love.

Mostly I just go away for work for a night or two, but this time I’m going away for a week to see my family in Finland.  He comes with me every summer and really loves it, but during the winter he’s not so keen after a couple of crisp encounters with the astringent Finnish winter. I remember one Christmas when the mercury fell to around -28C. My parents have a dog and she obviously needs a bit of a walk and a visit to the loo whatever the temperature, so we decided to walk to the little shop in the village. 

Minus 28 is pretty cold but the rest of us are all used to it. My husband was clearly suffering and had his scarf wrapped around his face so that only his slightly panicked brown eyes were visible. On the way back he asked my dad why he didn’t wrap a scarf around his face. Dad looked at his son-in-law whom he affectionately calls "son of the desert", thought about the suggestion, but then just said he didn’t really see the need for it.

One of my go-to foods to cook for when I am away is lamb kofta. It’s easy for him to take from the freezer and defrost the amount that he likes. He can cook rice to go with them, or eat them in a pitta bread with salad. And I bet the homely smell and taste make him feel all warm and fuzzy! So that’s what I decided to do now. 

Lamb kofta recipe (12 pieces)

500g minced lamb

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp kofta spice mix (optional)

1 tsp coriander

Pinch of cayenne pepper

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 red onion

2 cloves of garlic

Salt

Blackpepper

The moose is sometimes called the King of the Forest, I assume partly because of its size – it is the largest living member of the deer family and the largest animal in the Finnish wildlife. The title is probably also partly due to the magnificent shovel-like antlers that crown the male moose's head.

Another claimant to the title is the brown bear, Finland’s national animal. If a bear and a moose get together to argue the case, the bear will win. But anyway, I have no bear meat in my freezer so back to the moose.


Sorry for going all metric here, but most moose live in metric countries. A male moose can grow up to over 2 meters height, which is basketball player tall. And they can weigh up to 700 kg – that's probably about 7 basketball players combined. Or a (very) small car – like Renault Twingo.

For an animal that’s a lot of mass. You don’t want to bump into one on the road even if you are travelling in something bigger than a Twingo.

Moose is the most important game animal in Finland. Hunting is very regulated similar to almost every other aspect of life in Finland. We are after all one of the world’s most rule-abiding and regulation-loving nations. 

I don’t know the ins and outs of moose shooting regulations, but there are shooting tests, all guns must be licensed, the club needs to apply for licenses to shoot the moose. They can only shoot the allowed number, which is every year calculated by the government officials to keep the roads safe, protect the forests from damage of overgrown moose population and to protect the moose population itself from malnutrition, infections and other consequences of the population getting unsustainably large.

There’s about 350kg edible meat in a grown male moose, which is about the amount that ends up in my parents 3 massive freezers every autumn. They know a hunter who shoots a moose for them every year. They share a lot of it with family over the winter months, otherwise it would be quite a lot for two old people to get through. Particularly as they also buy and freeze a whole organic sheep once a year. Vegetarians they are not.

By Canter (NPS) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Every time I go home I come back with frozen meat in my suitcase, I'm sure it's not completely legal and I sometimes wonder if the customs dogs detect a meaty whiff about my suitcase.

Moose is not super gamy, it’s quite like particularly good quality, lean, beef. It is actually so lean that some people add bacon or pork in the recipes – we don’t eat pork, so I don’t do that. 

I still had some ground moose in the freezer and decided to do a creamy stroganoff style sauce with mushrooms to make space for some more as I’m going home in a week’s time.  

Ground moose Stroganoff recipe (serves 2)

Butter

Oil

250g ground moose (or beef)

1 yellow onion

200 g mushrooms

1 cup of game (or beef) stock

2 tsp Scandinavian forest spice mix (or you can mix some dried herbs like thyme, rosemary and parsley – 1tbsp altogether)

Salt

Black pepper

100g goat cheese

¼ cup single cream

1 tsp Truffle oil

Melt butter in a dutch oven or deep pan, fry mushroom with a pinch of salt and black pepper in the butter until done, about 7 minutes. If you can get hold of fresh chanterelles or wild mushroom, they would go wonderfully with this. If not, then chestnut mushrooms will do just fine! Once done set mushrooms aside – it is important to add the mushrooms back to the dish only when the stroganoff is almost done.

Now in the same pan heat some oil. Add the ground meat and stir for a while, add the sliced onions (or you can chop, but for some reason I like a thin slice in this). Keep stirring for a few more minutes on medium heat. Add two cloves of garlic. When meat is browned through add the Scandinavian forest spice mix or your dried herbs. Add the stock and leave to simmer for 45 minutes on low heat.

Crumble in the goat cheese and add the cream and simmer for a couple of minutes. If too thick add a spash of water - if too thin let simmer uncovered for a while. Add the mushrooms and the truffle oil (I used black truffle oil), check seasoning, make sure it’s got loads of black pepper.