Gone a bit vegetarian... but I still love meat :)

There is a Meatless October challenge going on in Finland. At this moment almost 28 000 people have taken the challenge and almost 4000 have said maybe. I am in the "maybe" category since I want to learn how to make good vegetarian food but I am not giving up meat. I guess I'll be eating less meat since I will cook more vegetarian dishes. :)

First I had an idea of making minced meat stuffed eggplants. But it easily turned into vegetarian dish since the minced meat was the only ingredient I was missing and I didn't want to go to the store to buy just that. I made a dish I like to call "Sari fainted", inspired by Imam fainted, a traditional Greek or Turkish (depends on the source) eggplant dish. To add proteins I also made Beluga lentil risotto.

Sari fainted (since it was so good ;) )

1 eggplant
1 big red onion
1 red bell pepper
1 red chili
1-2 cloves of garlic
3 big(-ish) mushrooms diced
100g soft feta cheese
2 small tomatoes diced
½ tbls dried oregano
½ tbls dried thyme
a pinch of salt and pepper
olive oil
parmesan cheese

Cut the eggplant in 1 cm thick slices. Brush with olive oil and add some salt. Put on a baking tray and bake 20 minutes in 175 degrees celcius.

Cut onions, pepper and chili into small cubes. Heat 1 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan. Add onions, peppers, chilis, oregano and thyme. After a couple of minutes add chopped garlic, mushrooms and tomatoes. Heat through and add feta cheese and pepper. Check the taste and add salt if needed.

Spoon the mixture on the eggplant slices. Grate some parmesan cheese on top and bake in 225 degrees celsius about 20 minutes.


Beluga lentil risotto (source: Herkkuruoka-blog, adapted a little)

1 dl Beluga lentils (black lentils)
1,5 dl risotto rice
1 dl white wine
6-8 dl vegetable stock
1 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 dl parmesan cheese grated
1 tsp dried sage
a pinch of pepper
2 tbls olive oil
2 tbls butter

Cook the lentils in water and a pinch of salt for 20 minutes. Drain (I saved the water) and set aside.
Cut the onion and garlic into tiny cubes. Heat oil in a pan and add onion, garlic and sage. When onions are a bit softer add risotto rice and stir until the rice looks slightly translucent. Add white wine and let it reduce.
Add the vegetable stock (I used the water from the lentils for the stock) little by little, let the rice absorb the stock before adding more. Stir after adding stock so the risotto will have creamy consistency in the end. Keep adding the stock until the rice is soft. Add a pinch of pepper, parmesan cheese and butter and taste. Add salt if needed.

Autumn food from a squash

I love autumn. All the colours of the nature and the fact that there is loads of fresh products in stores. I was shopping for food and saw a butternut squash. I picked on up eventhough I have never used it before and I had no idea what I would cook from it.

I googled some ideas but ended up making this soup recipe by myself. I baked some sun-dried tomato muffins to go with the soup. I used the pumpkin seeds in muffins.The muffin recipe can be found here.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

500g butternut squash
1 big onion
1 clove of garlic
2 small carrots
2 medium sized floury potatoes
½ chicken Fond du chef
½ vegetable Fond du chef
1 dl cream
1 tbls canola oil
water

Wash the squash well. Cut it in half and take out the seeds. Keep the seeds, you can use them on the muffins. Cut the squash (no need to peel it) in small pieces.
Cut the onions, peel the carrots and potatoes and cut in pieces. Slice the clove of garlic.
Heat the oil in a pot, add the onion. Add the garlic, carrot, potato and squash pieces. Add the fond du chefs and enough water to cover the vegetables. Simmer about 40 minutes or until the squash is soft. Run the soup smooth with blender. Add cream. Check the salt (add if needed) and heat up. Serve with muffins.

Proteins and carbs

I have finally got the motivation and interest in sports. I have a new training program and a new diet. Well, not a lot different from my "usual" diet, just a lot bigger food intake per day. So breakfast and snacks are now in my daily routine.

Today's dinner menu said: minced beef, whole grain pasta and vegetables.

So I made this:

Minced beef pasta dish (2 portions)

2 dl whole grain pasta
200g minced beef
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
2 handfulls of fresh spinach
2 cloves of garlic
6 cherry tomatoes
½ teaspoon salt
a pinch of pepper
½ tl grill seasoning
2 tl extra virgin olive oil

Prepare the pasta. Put the oil on a pan, fry the minced meat, chopped onions and bell peppers. Add roughly chopped spinach and tomatoes. Fry until the vegetables and the meat is cooked. Season. Toss in the pasta and enjoy.

Drink: Cold milk

Weekend breakfast is the best

One of the best things about weekends is that you have time to make a good breakfast and time to eat it in peace. My red espresso machine is crucial when making a nice cup of cappucino, this morning flavoured with hazelnut syrup.

Hazelnut Cappuccino and a Fry Up

Bacon strips
Onion
Cherry tomatoes
Egg
Salt
Oil

Fry bacon and onions.Cut the tomatoes in half, season, add to the pan. Add the egg and fry sunny side up. Leave the yolk a little runny. And then just enjoy your breakfast. :)

Food Journey to Vietnam

I have wanted to try Vietnamese Spring Rolls for some time now. I have some rice paper I have bought from our local eastern food store. Lovely store! Today I went to have an apple cider in the sun (restaurants are opening patios first time this year). I felt the spring so I was inspired to make these today. It was quite nice at the patio, only about +3C but sun was shining warmly, had one cider before the wind chased us away. :)

You can stuff these with the veggies you like, spicy or not, shrimp or chicken.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

8 sheets of rice paper
180g shrimps (peeled)
1 red chili
2 small shallots
2-3 cloves of garlic (or 1 small one-clove garlic)
2 tablespoons grated ginger
1 small yellow bell pepper
any crispy green salad
1 carrot
1 small avocado
1½ tablespoons fish sauce (vietnamese/thai)
4 tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon coriander powder (you can also use fresh if you like)
Sweet chili sauce

Cut the onions and chili into thin strips. Grate the ginger. Mix onions, chili, ginger, fish sauce, lime juice and coriander. Add the shrimp and put in fridge to set.
Shred the salad, grate the carrot, cut the bell pepper and avocado into thin slices. Soften the rise paper sheets one by one in hot water. Put some of all the stuffings on the sheet and roll. Cut diagonally and serve with sweet chili sauce.

I made these to be quite spicy and hot and these were really good. :) I like the stickyness of the rice paper and the avocado cuts the heat a bit.

Drink: Rainbow Rasberry flavoured sparkling mineral water, my favourite

Ngon quá!

Linguine with raw sausage sauce

I was thinking about starting this post with "I love pasta". But then again I should start all the posts with "I love this and that"! Let's just say I LOVE food and I will try to come up with other starting lines. :) Well anyway, I do love pasta... I have not yet tried to make some myself but I just bought a pasta machine so I hope there will be a post about that too soon. 

Yesterday evening I made some pasta sauce using raw sausages. I usually have it in the freezer because it's much easier to cut while it's just a little bit thawed. With this recipe you can make a big portions for two. The sausage I use is quite basic pork sausage, spiced slightly with nutmeg, cloves, chili and black pepper.

Ingredients

250g raw sausage
1 small onion, chopped
500g crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon crushed black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
linguine or other pasta you like

Cook the pasta. While it boils prepare the sauce. Put the oil in cold frying pan. Cut the sausage into bite size pieces (I take the skin off eventhough it is edible) and add to the pan. Put the pan on medium heat and sautee until the sausages are fried on one side, stir and fry until they have some colour on both sides. Add onions and herbs. Cook until the the onions are soft and then add crushed tomatoes and pepper. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Check if the sauce needs salt and serve it with pasta.

Drink: Cold milk again, I love that too. :)

A little snack before bed

I love avocado and I when I saw an Avocado Egg Salad recipe in Pinterest I just had to make some last night. :)
You can find the recipe here. This was really delicious! I had it on gluten-free buckwheat bread with couple of capers.

Drink: Lipton Oriental Earl Grey tea

Sunday soup

It is still quite cold here in Finland. The temperature goes between -22C at night and -6C during the day. Soup sounded good. Warming and comforting. So Chicken soup it was then.

Sari's Chicken Soup

300g chicken (I had honey marinated strips)
1 banana shallot, halved and thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, quarteder and thinly sliced
200g frozen corn
400g frozen potato&onion strips
8 dl chicken stock
2 dl cream
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

Saute chicken and shallots in a pan in oil. Add chicken stock. When stock starts to boil add potatoe&onion strips and corn. Cook five minutes. Add cream, bell peppers and sweet chili sauce. Bring to boil. Serve.

Drink: cold milk :)

Hmmm.... Good!

First let's have some sushi

I love sushi! We didn't have a sushi restaurant here where I live so I learned how to make some myself. We do have a sushi restaurant now but I am not impressed and I'll still rather make my own. :) I have many friends who love sushi too and they are eager to learn how to make it at home. So as I have done these many many times I have now also started to teach my friends. Last night I once again had "an apprentice" and we made a big patch of absolutely delicious makis,futomakis gunkanmakis and nigiris.

I have a great recipe for the rice and it comes out great every time as long as you follow it to the letter (no shortcuts, tried that once, didn't work...). The recipe is from a book Easy Sushi by Emil Kazuko. I don't use kombu but you can add a piece of kombu to the water.

Sumeshi (sushi rice)

4 dl sushi rice
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2½ tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt

Rinse the rice well in cold water, as long as the water is clear. Then soak the rice in cold water for 10-15 minutes. Rinse. Put rice and 5 dl water to a heavy based pan, put the lid on. Boil 5 minutes in medium, then lower the temperature and simmer 10 minutes. Do not open the lid at any point and do not stir the rice. Take off the stove and let it sit 10-15 minutes (lid still on).

In a small bowl combine the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Stir until sugar has dissolved.

Take a large plate or a tray, pour the rice on it. Add about 2/3 of the rice wine vinegar. Fold the rice, do not stir, and use a fan to cool it at the same time. Taste and add the rest of the rice wine vinegar if needed. When the rice is about room temperature it's ready to use.

We also had salmon, tuna, salmon roe, avocado, carrot, cucumber and mayonnaise. And of course you also need nori, wasabi and soysauce. The small makis didn't make it into the photo, they were not pretty but they tasted amazing. :) Try a combination of salmon roe and avocado. That makes a divine maki roll!

You can find loads of good sushi tutorials, recipes and ideas online.

Drink: We had a mildly sparkling organic white wine (vino frizzante) with the sushi. It went well with the food.
Il Sole Gardanella 2011, Italy

Go ahead and try makings sushi yourself. It's not too difficult. :)