This week went pretty well to plan – only a couple of meals changed around. I wanted to empty the freezer a bit and I managed to do that. I'm sure I'll fill it back up in no time. But I need to pay attention, we just booked our holiday to Finland end of July and I want to bring back all kinds of local things that I can't get here, so will need all the freezer space I can have.
Monday Husband foraged for some leftovers as I was away.
Tuesday I made crispy oven baked panko shrimp with a Greek salad. (Shrimp from freezer)
Wednesday was Turkey, vegetables and chickpea stew. (Turkey breast from freezer)
Thursday Smoked salmon, asparagus, feta and fillo tartlets (from freezer)
Friday was supposed to be fish. I had 3 lemon sole fillets in the freezer which I defrosted. As I opened the pack a horrible rancid smell filled the kitchen. First I thought that it’s just the smell you sometimes get when you open a vacuum pack and then it goes away. It soon became clear that the smell was from some kind of evil dimension and was not going away. I wrapped the poor sole (!) in several plastic bags to isolate the smell and chucked it in the bin. I always feel bad throwing away food, especially if it has been a living being, or a being and a half in this case :( But it wasn't really my fault, it had only been in the freezer a couple of weeks and was within the dates when I froze it.
The smell lingered even after opening the back door and when shortly after husband came home he asked if there was a dead rat somewhere. "No darling, not to worry", I reassured, "it’s your dinner."
Husband has a very sensitive nose, so he went around the house with his trusted little lavender spray bottle while I defrosted some ground moose in the microwave. I made my Mighty Moose Stroganoff, but slightly altered. Instead of boring chestnut mushrooms I had some lovely Finnish funnel chanterelles which I also defrosted. These are a regarded a delicacy in Finland, there are loads of them in the forests in the fall months, but you need to know the right places to go. They taste stronger and smokier than their pretty famous blond cousin the girolle or golden chanterelle. I love them both.
Also in the stroganoff I used this really interesting looking black balsamic garlic - jury's out on the interestingness (yes, it is a word) of the taste - and added some sprouting broccoli that I had in the fridge. I served it with a spelt spaghetti.
Saturday was BBQ central – yoghurt marinated lamb cutlets and a really quite large side of salmon in a smoker bag with baghali polo - rice with dill and broad beans.
Sunday I was going to roast duck legs, but we ended up having Saturday's left overs.
This week there's nothing specific going on, no travelling or evenings out, so lots of cooking opportunity!
This weeks dinner plan
Monday - Duck legs, bumped from Sunday
Tuesday - Some lovely fresh fish or seafood, depending on what catches my eye at the fish counter
Wednesday - Chicken marsala
Thursday - Sweet potato soup
Friday - Grid-iron salmon and grilled vegetables
Saturday – Moose salami and grilled vegetable pizza
Sunday – I have a friend coming over for lunch and I want to barbecue us something, not sure yet what, maybe seafood skewers and I might smoke some fish, and I'll definitely do a nice selection of little starters, dips and salads
As usual I'm sharing the meal planning fun with Mrs M, where I always get inspiration from other bloggers and meal planners.
Wow, moose?! I love this meal planning community, my eyes are opened to so many new things! Hope you have a great week xx
ReplyDeleteSame here - I always get so many ideas from everyone else. You have a good week too!
DeleteDuck legs - they sound yummy! What do you do with those? I've only ever used duck breast x
ReplyDeleteYou have try the legs - so easy and always amazing, much better than breast I think.Here's how I do them usually, but sometimes I use different herbs or add some garlic in the dish. Season and roast for 2 h uncovered in 190C oven.
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How's your week going? :) I've already totally changed a recipe, tonight's salad didn't sound all that inspiring when I looked at the recipe again!
ReplyDeleteMoose salami and grilled veg pizza sounds really good! As do the seafood skewers, we're hoping for good weather again soon so we can have a surf and turf BBQ
Oh I never though before, but I was wondering if you knew any traditional Finnish recipes with bilberries in them? As I know they grow quite well over there according to a few Finnish friends. They weren't much help on the recipes, metalheads and more into beer than cooking! :D
So far not so much to plan, made the duck legs though:) What do you do for your surf and turf? Sounds nice. I love BBQ so hoping that the nice weather lasts. I'm sure I can do better than your metalhead buddies although don't mind a bit of metal music myself - we love using bilberries in open tarts, there is lovely a creme fraiche vanilla version I do, and there's a traditional way of just covering a sheet of pastry with blueberries and sugar and pastry strips for decoration. I think I need to blog about this and then you can improve the recipes. There is a very traditional way to cook the bilberries under a rye crust called Rättänä :) It's lovely eaten hot with vanilla ice cream. I found this recipe for it http://scandifoodie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/mustikkakukko-blueberry-rooster-rye.html My mum also makes a really nice bilberry soup that you can eat as a dessert or for breakfast with serial or musli.
DeleteWe'll be having the BBQ at our cousins, she's got a massive garden, ours is tiny! We'll probably do it in a week or so and do salmon and some kind of fish kebab, then steak for the fish haters! :)
DeleteI have a collection of bilberry recipes growning nicely :D and they grow near by, so I will be going to pick fresh ones later in summer and experimenting some more (I have an couple of ideas I can't wait to try), would definitely love to try some traditional Finnish recipes.
Friends have said before why don't I write a cookbook. If I ever did, that would be it, a bilberry cookbook, a bit specialist but they are my favourite! :) Bilberry soup with muesli sounds like the perfect breakfast! :D Thanks for the info and I look forward to your recipes!
Oh and Finish Death Metal is up there as the best DM in the world! ;) An acquired taste but I love it! One day I'll take a trip there for metal, bilberries and what sound like amazing summers :)
I love bilberries too, they're kind of like our national berry. We go picking every summer with dad and my parents dog who is also a great bilberry enthusiast.You should definitely do the Bilberry cookbook, there are so many cookbooks around that it's good to find your unique niche :)
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