Arctic Cloudberry

baking

Jack Daniels whiskey bundt cake - Rockenroll!

22:58

bean

Rustic Tuscan bean soup with garlic - and lots of it

15:44

#mealplanningmonday

Meal planning Monday 24th August - healthy does it

20:54

gordon ramsay

Maze by Gordon Ramsay - the boy can cook

20:31

feta

Lemon orzo and rice with herbs and feta - the awesomest rice dish you'll ever have

18:00

Persian rice - you've just had your butt kicked, tahdig and all. This Greek style rice and orzo pilaf recipe was a new experiment for me, but I can't wait to do it again. And again. I can't see rice getting much more awesome than this although I may surprise even myself with my obvious talent for rice cookery. But for now this remains my finest hour at the handles of my rice pan.

Greek rice and orzo pilaf with lemon and feta

The recipe for this dish was a bit of a combination of different things I have seen online - originally I planned to do this in the oven with the chicken pieces cooking on top of the rice which I will try at some point. I can imagine the chicken juices making the rice even more delicious, although it's hard to imagine how it could be any tastier.

But yesterday I changed our dinner plan a bit because the weather was so gorgeous and I wanted to light the BBQ. We were out all afternoon enjoying the sun. We drove down to Runnymede to walk by the river, but actually it is a bit of a disappointing spot. There are much nicer walks along the river Thames. But oh well, at least we have now seen this historically important place although there is little to see. We walked on the vast open fields where King John signed the charter and visited the Magna Carta memorial. All that contemplating and discussing the importance of freedom and democracy made us thirsty so driving back into town we stopped in a little pub in Barnes.

One thing that again baffled me though was the car park picnickers. I have seen them a lot in the various car parks of places we've visited, country parks, historic houses etc. People drive to places like this to spend their day sitting next to their car. Between rows of cars. Why? Why would you drive to a lovely riverside location or a country park and not walk the 50 meters to do your picnic by the river or in the park. Surely no one can be that lazy? You go through the trouble of packing your cooler bags with food and drink, you pack your folding chairs and a table in your car, then risk your mental and physical health on M25 to sit behind your car in the car park rather than the actual beauty spot the car park is there for. Oh well, each to their own I guess.

So once back at home I quickly chucked the chicken in marinade. I should have done it in the morning, but it turned out fantastic although it didn't have long to marinade. I made quite a potent marinade of lots of lemon juice and zest, garlic, thyme, oregano, oil, salt and pepper and let the chicken pieces swim in it until the BBQ was ready.

But the star of the show, the belle of the ball was the rice. If you don't try this immediately you are crazy.

Greek rice and orzo with lemon, feta, oregano and thyme

Greek rice and orzo pilaf with lemon and feta recipe (serves 4)

Oil

1 1/2 cups basmati rice

1/2 cups orzo

1/2 leek

1 yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic

black pepper

2 heaped tbsp of fresh (or 2 tsp of dried) thyme

2 heaped tbsp of fresh (or 2 tsp of dried) oregano

Juice and zest of one lemon

3 cups chicken stock

100g feta

Rinse the basmati under cold water until water runs clear. Soak in salted water minimum 30 minutes. Drain.

Chop the onion and leek. Mince the garlic and herbs if you are using fresh herbs. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a non-stick deep pan with a lid. Fry the onions and leek on medium heat for a few minutes, add the garlic and continue frying for another couple of minutes. Add the herbs, pepper, drained rice and orzo and cook for a few minutes stirring the rice constantly, stir in also the lemon zest and juice.

Add the chicken stock and cover the pan leaving it bubbling on low to medium heat. Cook until rice is cooked but still a bit al dente. There should be no liquid left at this stage, if there is let it cook uncovered for a while. Then wrap the lid in a clean kitchen towel, cover the pan with it tightly and leave on a very low heat to steam. You can leave it for 10-20 minutes easily and it will be lovely, the key is the kitchen towel that will soak the steam and leave your rice lovely and unmushy.

When ready to serve check the seasoning, mix in the cubed feta and sprinkle some fresh herbs on top. I can imagine a handful of olives would be nice in it also.

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atkins

Insanely healthy and delicious no carb salmon cakes

11:26

#fishfriday

Meal Planning Monday 17th August

19:55

black beans

Beef and black bean chilli - Fiesta Mexicana sin Cilantro

23:35

chanterelle

Tinned Moose and dried chanterelle tart

23:11

One of this week's cupboard clearing meals was a tinned moose and dried chanterelle tart. This tinned moose is kind of like Spam I suppose. But maybe a bit nicer. I don't want to knock the war time hero by any means. I've never tried it, so I don't know how fantastic it is.

But this moose thing is 100% moose meat and made a bit juicier with the addition of wild boar fat! How bad can that be? (Asks Ina after a cup of sugar, a cup or butter and a cup or chocolate.) Not very! It's moosey and delish!

At its best it's cold on a butter smeared piece of sourdough rye bread or on a crisp bread. Or just spooned straight to gob from the tin. Holy cardiac arrest!

An observant viewer may detect a spoon mark in the meat.

I remember the cheaper version made of beef and pork, deliciously called "pig-cow", from my childhood. We kids loved it, but usually we only had it during the summer holidays at our little island cabin. It was one of those great reserve foods that would keep in the cupboard for however long. But other than that our parents probably didn't think it particularly healthy. It's kind of seriously processed, salty and fatty. We used to have it on top of crispbreads when we ran out of fresh bread and meat.

That time we didn't have a fridge there as there is no electricity on the island. Nowadays there's a gas fridge, but then the only place to keep stuff cold was a "cellar" under the kitchen floor. There was a hatch on the floor with a large space underneath. A bit like that crazy dude had in the Silence of the Lambs where he kept that chubby girl. But smaller and with shelves on the walls and no kidnapped people inside.

Mum would lie on her stomach on the kitchen floor to reach the stuff on the shelves. She was much more nimble then. If she had to do it now she might never get up again. Like recently when on holiday to Crete the restaurant entertainment crew made her and dad dance Kalamatianos and they were both left traumatised as the dance includes a lot of squatting, which is fine. It's just the getting back up that's a bit tricky when you're pushing 80.

Every once in a while mum forgot to close the kitchen floor hatch and one of us would accidentally fall into the hole while running through the kitchen. So that was exciting. And painful.

Like I said this meat is best cold, but there are a couple of recipes I like to make with it. One is a tart or quiche with mushroom and onion and whatever other veg I'm in the mood of chucking in. The rest of the can originally was supposed to go to my Finnish Pea Soup, but I didn't do that this week, so rest of the meat went to freezer and there may be a Finnish Pea Soup with Moose post appearing at some point.

This tart would be great with rye pastry, but this time as it was cupboard clearing week I used some filo that has been in the freezer for a while. My dried chanterelles had been in the cupboard for some time as well and took some time to rehydrate, I think the taste also wasn't all there anymore, but after a little fry with a knob of butter and some mouth to mouth with my Scandinavian spice mix they were feeling a lot better.The filo was crispy the filling tasty and the tart lasted us for two nights.

Moose and chanterelle tart recipe

4 or 5 sheets of filo pastry
1 red onion
200 g of tinned meat (moose or otherwise)
1/2 bell pepper
30g of dried chanterelles
(or a large handful of any fresh mushroom)
Fresh or dried parsley and/or oregano
Salt
Pepper
2 dl milk
2 heaped tbsp of sour cream
2 eggs
50g grated pecorino (or another cheese, goat cheese or Gruyere would do well I imagine)

Moose and girolle tart with salad on a plate

Chop the onion, mushroom, herbs and pepper. Heat a tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Fry onions and peppers until they are slightly softened. Add the soaked dried mushroom and herbs and fry for another couple of minutes. The veg should be still a bit underdone at the end of this.

Break the meat into bite size chunks with a fork.

Mix the milk, eggs, sour cream and grated pecorino. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover the bottom and sides of a round tart dish (appr. 25cm) with the filo pastry. If you feel up to it you can brush each sheet with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Spread the meat and the vegetable mix on the filo base. pour over the milk, egg and cheese mix.

Bake for about 30 min or until the filling is firm and it's nicely browned on top. Serve with a salad and a nice red wine.

Canned moose and dried wild girolle quiche

cat breed

Maine Coon - How to Be More Dog

17:25

chanterelles

Traditional Finnish wild mushroom salad

21:54

This is a really traditional Finnish recipe. One of those classic dishes that in the olden days any self-respecting hostess would have served to guests whether it was a wedding, a funeral or just a normal dinner party. Even today I'm not sure a Christmas dinner can go ahead unless there is a bowl of wild mushroom salad on the table. My mum, who admittedly is not the most modern or adventurous of cooks nowadays, makes this as a side for a Sunday lunch or whenever they have quests for lunch or dinner.

Authentic Finnish wild mushroom, cream and vinegar salad

The recipe dates back to the time before fridges and freezers. The popular, age old method to preserve wild mushrooms, or forest mushrooms as we call them, was to boil them, layer them with generous amounts of salt and press down with a weight. The salt will tease out water from the mushrooms so they end up sitting in brine. I remember mum always having either a bucket or a huge glass jar of wild mushrooms at the bottom of the fridge covered with a plate and a rock on top as weight.

I remember at one point I used the glass jar as an aquarium for the three fishes my friend gave to me. I have always loved animals, but we could never have any pets because of my allergic brothers. They really fucked up my childhood on so many levels. Just kidding. See the smiley face.

So I was so happy and excited to have my own three fish. One day I came home from school to find one of them had been eaten. The bones were floating on the water. I don't know who ate him, but I suspect it was one of the other two fish. Although I wouldn't put anything past my oldest brother. I was very upset. Unable to deal with my grief I donated the surviving two fish back to my friend and the jar back to mum for less violent use.

They keep apparently for years as long as the mushrooms are all covered in the salted water, that's why the weight is important. When taking the mushrooms out of the brine before using them you need to soak and rinse them until they are the desired saltiness. Straight from the salt water they are way too salty. We wouldn't keep them for years, but just over the winter until the next season. The bucket would be empty and the last wild mushroom salad made just when the first new mushrooms were ready for picking in the forest.

Finns are avid wild mushroom foragers, apparently 70% of Finns do it, which is impressive considering that 30% of Finns must be either too young or too old to even walk. This is not even taking into account the invertebrate teenagers who obviously won't go to the forest because there is no WiFi. Picking mushrooms would be difficult anyway with a smartphone glued to the hand.

I love mushrooming. I am not very good at recognising all of the different ones and I'm scared of many things in there; bears, little girl ghosts, spiders and accidentally finding a dead body to mention a few. So I always go with dad and have the mushrooms reviewed by him before placing in my basket. There are deadly poisonous ones that you leave for your neighbours to find and harmless but foul tasting ones you also don't want in your basket. I know the best edible ones. We tend to favour funghi from the milk cap, porcini, cantharellus, cratellus and russula families. I have no idea what you call all of those in English and whether they grow here.

Porcini actually disagree with me, I apparently lack the enzyme to deal with them. Imagine being the enzyme to break down porcini, not a very busy job, is it, in most cases? Well, mine quit altogether so porcini give me an almighty stomach ache. The rest I love passionately.

I haven't been able to find proper wild mushrooms here apart from chanterelles in a little shop in Chiswick. I would have to remortgage our house to buy any though.

Ideally for the salt preserved mushrooms you'd want the milk caps and the kind. So this time I made my salad with chestnut, oyster and shiitake mushrooms. It's not as tasty as with wild mushrooms of course, but will have to do for me this time. And actually it was really good. I might replace oyster and shiitake next time though, they are not the right consistency, you need something crunchier for this, chesnut mushrooms were fine.

I eat this as a side to any food or sometimes on its own as a weird little snack. It gives you a great vinegary onion breath so nice to eat just before bed. At its best I think it's as a side to a meat dish preferably game. It is also sometimes served with blinis.

Salt preserved mushrooms

wild mushrooms
water
sea salt
sprigs of fresh dill and/or parsley (optional)

The proportion is 10-15% of salt to mushrooms, so for 1kg of mushroom you need 100-150g of salt.

Tear the mushrooms into pieces - no need to chop yet. Boil them in plenty of water for 5 minutes.

Drain, rinse and leave to cool. Sprinkle some salt in the bottom of a large container. Layer mushrooms and salt adding sprigs of fresh herbs if you like in between. Press down with a plate that sits right on top of the mushrooms and place something heavy on top. Cover with a lid. Check later that all the mushrooms are covered with water - if no add a bit of water.

Finnish wild mushroom salad recipe

4 dl mushrooms
1 yellow onion

Dressing:
1.5 dl whipping cream
sprinkling of sugar
2 tsp distilled malt vinegar
salt
pepper

Soak the mushrooms in cold water until it's the desired saltiness. This may take a few hours and you should change the water a couple of times, or you can leave them soaking overnight. Drain and press gently to get rid of excess water.

If you want to make the mushroom salad from fresh not salt preserved mushrooms, just boil your mushrooms for five minutes, rinse and let cool. You need to add salt to the salad in this case.

Chop the mushrooms. Chop the onion finely and mix with the mushrooms.

For the dressing add a sprinkling of sugar to the cream and whip until it's a light foam, not too stiff. Add the vinegar and mix. Check the taste - it should be quite zingy, if not zingy enough add vinegar!

Add the dressing to the mushrooms and onion. Grind in some black pepper and mix all ingredients well. Check the taste and add salt if necessary. You can eat immediately but it improves if you let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving.