PANCAKE DAY CHICKEN

Time for something politically correct after the reindeer recipe last month.

Hey, Pancake Day is coming! I think it's interesting how every country has its own name for it: Mardi Gras, Pancake Day, Laskiainen (Finland), etc. I suppose Shrove Tuesday is the international term for it but no one uses it. It sounds a bit boring, doesn't it? Also, people don't really notice the religious connection nowadays so I say call the day whatever you like.

OK, so Brits make pancakes on Pancake Day. Yes, the clue is in the name but the point is that that's the only way they celebrate it. Not too exciting compared to Mardi Gras or a Venetian masked ball but at least it's something, and it's very unique which is great.

The Finns are a bit impatient when it comes to special occasions. We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, Midsummer on Midsummer's Eve, Easter on Good Friday, and Shrove Tuesday on... Sunday! The festivities include skiing, butt-sliding, tobogganing and general outdoors fun, followed by pea soup and brioche buns filled with cream and jam or almond paste.

We have some Finnish in-laws coming over next week and I think I'm going to give them a feel of Pancake Day. My father-in-law makes pretty good pancakes and we tend to make our guests earn their upkeep. My husband's always making people do the washing-up for us. I think that's just cruel but making pancakes is OK, right?

This savoury recipe is great if you want to use up any leftover pancakes on Wednesday, or if you want to do a full-on pancake dinner on Tuesday. Why not have pancakes for mains and dessert? I think this needs a dessert, to be honest – a win-win situation, then.


Serves two not-so-hungry people

Filling:
50g butter
2 gently poached chicken breasts, or leftover chicken.
1 small onion
1 stalk celery
1ooml good chicken gravy (if homemade, use chicken stock, swiss bouillon powder and garlic)
green chillies to taste
salt
5ml balsamic vinegar

To asseble:
2 or 3 English pancakes, ie. very thin pancakes. I made mine with gluten-free flour mix.
Mild cheddar
(a splash of gravy)


Fry the dry ingredients of the filling, add gravy and allow to simmer until celery softens. The filling needs to be quite thick because the pancakes, unlike lasagna sheets, will not absorb any of the liquid.




Layer the pancakes with the filling. If your top layer is a pancake, pour some gravy over the top, if it's chicken, leave the extra gravy out.

Cook under the grill (broiler), or in a very hot oven, until golden.

My husband can't handle chilli so there's extra sprinkled on my half. Yummy!

Enjoy!

VENISON CHILLI WITH REINDEER

Time flies when you're busy and I sure have been. Of course that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking; I just haven't been taking much photos (maybe it hasn't been very pretty) or writing about it. This chilli is one of the recipes I tried recently, after discovering it, I can't remember how. Check out the video recipe by the amazing BBQ Pit Boys. Hats off to the attitude these guys have.

I spent Christmas in my native Finland, and as you may know we have reindeer in the north. As venison is just deer meat, why not reindeer? Some may think it's quite macabre to eat Rudolph, especially around Christmas, but we don't see a problem with it.

Bloggers always write about something being 'the best' while actually meaning just 'really nice'. I don't do that. This chilli really is the best I've had. I also had beef chilli recently but now that just pales in comparison. I was blind but now I see.

There's a couple substitutes I made to the original recipe, due to dietary restriction or unavailability of ingredients, or just because I happened to have something I wanted to use. You should really watch the video but below is an illustration of what I used.

Here we have the salami. Finns will recognise this instantly. You can use whatever salami that has a strong meat flavour.

And just to write it out to you. Measurements aren't that important here.

Venison
American-style bacon
Russian-style salami (to substitute Italian hot sausage)
Pickled jalapenos
Onions
Garlic
Tinned tomatoes
Tomato purée
Fresh tomatoes
Green pepper
Mushrooms
Kidney beans
Dry apple cider (to substitute beer)
Cajun seasoning
Oregano
Cumin
Chipotle powder (dried, smoked chilli, to substitute the smoking)
Paprika powder
Cayenne pepper
Salt
Black treacle
Also pepper, I think


Easy: Fry meat, add other stuff, stir. Let simmer for a couple of hours.


To serve:
Tortilla chips
Blue cheese
Mild cheese
Pickled jalapenos

AFRO-MEXICAN PUMPKIN SOUP

I can't quite decide which cuisine this soup is trying to represent. There's plenty of cinnamon, cumin and chickpeas which make it a little bit African but there's also coriander, lime and brown sugar which make it Mexican. The Thai curry paste complicates it further. Oh well, the soup is lovely, and that's the main thing.

Another thing that's impossible to define is the amount of servings. This can make four servings for some not-so-hungry people, but also just two for a hungry, lonely man as I discovered last weekend.

I'm not a big fan of soups or peanut butter and I used to hate coriander (cilantro) so if I call this soup lovely, it's a huge praise. Actually, I think this recipe is what made me like coriander but we still call it Fairy herb because it tastes a bit like washing-up liquid. Maybe I just like Fairy.

I adapted the recipe from this one. I make it very often and don't measure anything but have a look at the original if you need more specific instructions.


Afro-Mexican pumpkin soup

A big chunk of lard for frying. Use ghee if the thought of lard is unpleasant. Oil will burn.
A heaped teaspoon of red curry paste.
2ml cinnamon
5ml cumin
Chilli powder to taste
Several garlic cloves, at least 4
Two peppers, or some leftover bits equivalent to two whole ones.
Boiling water
A big chunk of pumpkin or butternut squash, I'd say about 500g.
Two very heaped spoonfuls of peanut butter. As much as you can hold on a tablespoon.
A tin of chickpeas, drained.
A heaped tablespoon of brown sugar
Juice of one lime
Salt to taste.
A big handful of chopped coriander (cilantro).

Fry the spices and garlic. Add peppers and fry for a minute. Add water, pumpkin and peanut butter.




Boil until the pumpkin is tender. Mix until the froth created by the peanut butter has dissolved and add chickpeas. Mash the soup roughly and add remaining ingredients. Add more chilli if needed. Stir until the sugar and salt dissolve and serve.

Some coriander.

And a bit more.

Notice how there's ice crystals on the coriander. I buy it in big bunches, chop it up, and freeze it.

SALTED OX TONGUE

I picked up a salted ox tongue at the Norfolk Food Fair on Saturday simply because I had never had tongue.

The tongue was an Angus tongue from Foxley Wood. If you wish to buy some quality beef for your Christmas meal or some other occasion, this farm is a very good choice. They start maturing Christmas beef in October.




The stall-keepers were two lovely ladies who gave me detailed instructions on how to cook the tongue. I promised them to write something about my experience.




Fist you need to simmer the tongue on low heat.



Skim the foam when it forms.



The tongue is done when you're able to insert a skewer easily. This will take a few hours. When the tongue is cooked, put a weight on it and let it rest. I think I used a fairly unorthodox method for this, as you can see below, but it worked.




Peel the tongue. The skin will come off very easily.




And finally, you can slice it.



I have served the tongue two different ways so far. Below you can see it with Hollandaise sauce. I have to say I didn't enjoy the sauce very much even though it's a classic.




The second time I fried plenty of garlic, an onion and tree tomatoes and added some balsamic vinegar. I added the sliced tongue into the mixture to warm it up. I also sprinkled some parsley on top. This worked much better.




The flavour of the tongue is quite mild. I have to describe it, I'd say it tastes a little bit like ham or seafood. The texture is very soft and tender, as you can see in the photo below. There are several types of tissue in the tongue and they all have a different flavour and texture.




Fridge-cold tongue is delicious on it's own. I'd imagine it makes a lovely sandwich.

GARLIC CHEESE SALMON

2 serving-size pieces of salmon
plenty of salt
2 cloves garlic
2 heaped tbsp cream cheese


Sprinkle the salmon with so much salt the surface is grainy all over. Spread the crushed or chopped garlic on the fish and spread the cheese on top of that. Bake in 200°C until the peaks of the cheese are brown.

Don't worry about the amount of salt, it'll be just perfect.

This recipe echoes one that my in-laws sometimes make. They cook the salmon fillet whole with the skin side up and there's a huge amount of salt and garlic between the flesh and the oven tray. The skin is removed when the fish is cooked.

LAMB LOAF COOKED IN CIDER

This is one of those super-easy but really fragrant recipes to impress your date on Valentine's Day.

My apologies for the quietness lately. I've had other things on my mind but now I'm back to my usual self and I'm dying to try new things.






LAMB LOAF COOKED IN CIDER

1 000g minced lamb
2 eggs
a few tablespoons ground almonds
2 tsp salt
dried thyme
pepper
pint can of dry apple cider, divided


400g swede (or more if you want to make it a one-dish meal but add more cider as well)
1-2 apples


Mix all the dry ingredients, meat and eggs. Add 100ml of cider and mix in. Knead until the mixture starts to firm up.




Cut the apples and swede and place them around the loaf. Pour the rest of the cider over the food. I've suddenly forgotten how to revert pictures but you get the point.




Bake in 200°C for about an hour.

Wow the smell is bad! The alcohol evaporates during cooking but all the good aromas will still be left.

LAMB TAGINE

I never liked lamb until I tried this tagine and I can tell you that getting all those spices is really worth it. I've made this just a tad spicier than in the original recipe because I only wanted to use enough meat to make four servings. You can add chickpeas, augergines, tomatoes and whatever vegetables you like about halfway through cooking if you'd like to have a one-dish meal.

Serves 4.

Spice mix:
oil
2tsp paprika
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp salt
small piece crystallised or fresh ginger (about the size of a medium or large grape)
pinch of saffron
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp ground coriander

225g carrots
large onion
300ml chicken stock
550g lamb, separate some of the fat
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tomato puré
t tsp sugar
6-8 dried apricots


Cut the lamb the night before and leave to marinate in the spice mix. Remember to keep the excess fat for later.




Cut the onions, carrots and apricots and chop the garlic.




Fry the lamb fat until about half of it has melted and the solid bits are brown.




Add the onions, garlic and carrots and sauté until the onions are slightly transparent.




Add the sugar, lemon juice, chicken stock and tomato puré. Also stir in the apricots.



Mix this in with the meat and bake with a lid on in 100°C for 3 hours and an extra hour in 80°C if desired.

Before:


After:


Serve with couscous or boiled green lentils fried in plenty of butter until nicely crispy. Merlot goes well with this dish if you like wine.




Original:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lamb-Tagine/Detail.aspx

COKE BUM CHICKEN

Here's an idiot-proof recipe for juicy yet crispy chicken. This method of cooking seems to be quite popular in the US where they often use beer instead of Coke.


Serves 3-6 people.

1 medium chicken (3-4kg), room temperature
330ml can of Coke
lemon juice
basil
salt


Remove the top of the Coke with a tin opener. Pour half of the contents out.




Rub lemon juice and spices on the chicken and place it sitting down on the Coke so that the can is upright inside the chicken. Use the legs to prop it up. It will be quite steady, don't worry.



Bake in 150-170°C for about two hours for a medium chicken. We used one that was a little over 3kg.



Get someone to help you remove the can because it's hot! Serve and enjoy.

I mixed some mayo with orange juice to make a sauce and served this with ratatouille.

ENGLISH-ITALIAN SAUSAGES

Quick, simple and tasty. Serves two.


1 pack English pork sausages
6-8 large mushrooms
2 handfuls broccoli
2-4 tomatoes
spinach
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, more if you like
salt
pepper
herbs


Fry the sausages until evenly brown and cooked. Add the quartered mushrooms and after a few minutes, the quartered tomatoes and chopped broccoli. When done, mix in some spinach and spices and serve.

FALAFEL

The blog was getting too meaty so here's my favourite vegetarian recipe. Serves two.


200g (or 250ml) soaked and boiled chickpeas
Small egg
3 tablespoons ground almonds (or fine breadcrumbs)
2 cloves garlic, or more
Half small onion
Plenty of herbs
Salt
Pepper

For the coating and frying:
Ground almonds (or breadcrumbs)
200ml oil, or more


Soak 100ml of dried chickpeas overnight. After boiling you'll have a total of 250ml of beans. Roughly mash them.






Chop the onion and garlic and add to the beans with the egg, ground almonds and spices.




Mix until the falafel is firm. It may be necessary to add more almond.




Form balls and coat them with some more ground almonds.




Fry the falafel in a large amount of oil until evenly brown. You can also deep-fry them but I think that's a waste of oil. Semi-deep-frying is enough for me. Don't use extra virgin olive oil because it burns very easily.




Serve with salad and tzatziki. This is also great with pitta bread, tzatziki and some fresh vegetables, maybe tomato and cucumber.