dinner – Page 2 – luxlifefinn

Slow cooked roast pork shoulder

After not having had time for much home cooking lately, it was wonderful to whizz up this perfect fall-apart, melt-in-the-mouth shoulder of pork. I will also be using some of the leftover meat for another dish later in the week (keep your eyes peeled). This recipe does take quite a long time to cook, but I prepared the seasoning on the previous evening, and started the cooking as soon as I woke up in the morning. You can leave it unattended for a long time in the middle part of the preparations, so I also managed to go shopping whilst it was in the oven. For foolproof recipe for perfect Yorkshire puddings, click here.

1.6 kg piece of pork shoulder
3 sprigs of thyme, leaves
2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

1. Crush and mix all the ingredients together. Cut slits on the pork skin, and rub the spice mixture all over the skin, slits and meat. If you have time, do this the evening before you intend to cook the meat. Place in a container, cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Heat oven to 220°C / 430°F. Place the pork on a roasting rack, and roast for 30 minutes uncovered. Cover the pork properly by couple of layers of foil, and reduce the temperature to 160°C / 320°F. Roast for 4 1/2 hours.

3. Remove from the oven, and increase the temperature to 180°C / 360°F. Cut the skin off, and wrap the meat in the foil. To keep it warm, you may also want to wrap the foil package in a kitchen cloth / towel.

4. If cooking roast potatoes in the cooking juices from the pork, place the potatoes at the bottom of the roasting tray. Place the skin on the rack on top of the potatoes. Roast for about 1 hour 20 minutes , turning the potatoes every now and then (around every 20 minutes).

Murusoosi (mince beef sauce)

The direct translation for this mince beef sauce is descriptively ‘crumb sauce’. It’s perhaps not a pretty plate of food, but it’s one of my all time favourite childhood foods and I still cook it to date.

serves 2-4
vegetable oil
250g mince beef
1 onion
50g butter
1dl plain flour
500ml water
salt
black pepper
paprika powder
ground allspice

1. Peel and finely chop the onion. Place in a frying pan together with a splash of vegetable oil and the mince beef. During the cooking keep breaking the beef into smaller, ‘crumb’ like pieces, mixing together with the onion. Once ready, place aside in a bowl.

2. Boil the water. I’ve noticed that using hot water rather than cold will more easily give you a sauce that’s lump free. Melt the butter in the same frying pan you used for frying the meat. Once melted, add the flour. Mix together with the butter. If the mixture appears too dry (pictured below), you can add a little bit more butter. Fry, stirring, in medium heat until the butter – flour mixture has browned.

3. Reduce the heat to lowest possible setting. Pour about 300ml of water to the mixture. Whisk together until smooth. Add the remaining water, to the desired thickness. Add the cooked mince beef and the sauce together.

Mussels with spaghetti

This recipe makes wonderfully flavoursome sauce for your pasta. There isn’t much cooking effort to be made, the most time is spent chopping the ingredients. Depends on your portion sizes, this could serve 2-4 people.

olive oil
1 celery stick
3 spring onions (or 1 onion)
5 chestnut mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic
juice of 1 lemon (or 2 tbsp if not using fresh lemons)
100ml white wine (I use Sauvignon Blanc)
400g mussels
150g plum tomatoes
200ml creme fraiche
salt
black pepper
small bunch of dill
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1. Cook your preferred pasta.

2. Finely chop the celery and onions. Slice the mushrooms, and peel and squeeze the garlic. Fry in the olive oil for 5 minutes.

3. Add the white wine, lemon juice and mussels, and boil, covered with a lid, for 5 minutes.

4. Then add the creme fraiche, halved plum tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper and add the dill.

5. Add the cooked pasta to you sauce, mix well together and warm through. Enjoy with some additional Parmesan cheese.

Homemade pizza

Whether you’re having a quiet, cosy night in by yourself or with family, or are hosting a house party, homemade pizza never disappoints. The good thing is that there are no rules when it comes to the toppings, and you can make yours exactly how you like. It’s also a great way to use up some leftover ingredients in your fridge. I often make mine with mince beef, however this time I made mine half chicken – half tuna.

Dough for the pizza base
350g strong white bread flour
1 sachet of fast action dried yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
2 dl lukewarm water

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

2. Mix the warm water and oil together, and add to the dry ingredients slowly, whilst mixing. I use a food food processor, but if you’ve doing this by hand a wooden fork is good, as it will tie air into the dough. Knead for about 10 minutes. Kneading the dough for this long will help you get it to rise nicely.

3. Cover with an oiled cling film, and a non-see-through cloth, and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

4. Flatten the dough by hand. I then tend to use a rolling pin to get the dough thin. I usually make one big pizza, so I then place the dough in the oven tray, and stretch it to the whole size of the tray by hand. It’s easy to do, as the dough is very flexible and won’t break easily.

Tomato sauce

1 celery stick
1-2 carrots
1 medium onion
2-3 garlic cloves
handful of fresh basil leaves
handful of fresh parsley
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
4 tbsp tomato purée
dried oregano
dried herbs de provence
olive oil
salt
black pepper

1. In a blender, finely chop onion, garlic, carrot, celery and fresh herbs, and fry in olive oil in pan.

2. Blend the chopped tomatoes, and add to the pan. Add dried herbs and tomato purée, and season with salt and pepper.

3. Put back in the blender, to make extra smooth texture, otherwise it’ll be somewhat coarse.

Building your pizza

1. Spread some tomato sauce on.

2. Sprinkle most of the grated cheese on. I tend to use something like cheddar. Today I used a mixture of cheddar, red leicester and manchego.

3. Add the other ingredients of your liking, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on. I used tomatoes, red pepper, mushrooms and red onion. On the tuna half, I crumbled some blue cheese on top, on the chicken half (I cut the chicken into small pieces and pan fried it) I used the same cheese mixture as at the bottom of the pizza.

4. Heat the oven to 250°C / 480°F. Place the pizza on the bottom shelf and cook for 15 minutes. When I take the pizza out I tend to squeeze some raw garlic, and sprinkle some dried oregano on (this might be a Finnish habit).

Simple steamed salmon

I find steaming a really good way to get salmon cooked in a way that it’s not over cooked, but very juicy and soft inside. It’s also very convenient if you have a tiered steamer pot. My one has three tiers: the bottom one is where the water goes, and I might often cook the potatoes in the bottom tier, then depending on what else you cook you can use one or two steamer tiers. I’ve accompanied my salmon with boiled new potatoes, steamed broccoli and peas, and avocado / tomato / onion salsa.

Serves 2
200g new potatoes
2 salmon fillets, 125g each
1 small broccoli
1 dl frozen peas
1 avocado, chopped
4 plum tomatoes, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp capers
white pepper
salt
cayenne pepper

1. Wash the potatoes, and bring to boil in salted water. Boil on medium temperature for 15 minutes. Season the salmon with salt, white pepper and cayenne pepper. Prepare the salsa by chopping the avocado, tomatoes and onions, then add the lemon juice and capers. Place in the fridge whilst other ingredients are cooking.

2. Add the tier of broccoli and boil / steam for 5 minutes. Add the peas together with the broccoli. On another tier, also add the salmon at the same time as peas. Steam for 5 minutes.

Guinea fowl supreme

One tray bakes are a very easy way of cooking dinner. All you need to do is chop your ingredients, put it in the oven and relax. I love gamy birds. Game is very lean meat so it may dry easily, which is good to be aware of. It has it’s distinctive flavour, some more, some less. Guinea fowl has a very mild flavour, so if you’ve not tried game birds before it might be a good one to start with. In addition to the usual vegetables I use for my one tray bakes, I thought beetroot and sweet potato would also be great accompaniments, with their earthy flavours going well with game. Also, bacon goes well.

serves 2
2 guinea fowl breasts
1 large raw beetroot, peeled and chopped to small cubes
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped to small cubes
1 pepper, cut into bite size pieces
1 courgette / zucchini, cut into bite size pieces
1 onion, chopped into large pieces
4 chestnut mushrooms, quartered
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
6 plum tomatoes
4 thin smoked streaky bacon
few sprigs of thyme, leaves only
salt
black pepper
olive oil

1. Heat oven to 180° / 355°F. First, place the guinea fowl and the prepped beetroot and sweet potato in the tray, drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and add the thyme leaves. Roast for 15 minutes.

2. During the first stage, prepare all the other vegetables. After the first 15 minutes of cooking time, add all the prepared ingredients. Drizzle with some more olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes.

3. Place the thin bacon rashers on top, and roast for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for about 5 minutes.

Slow cooked lamb shanks

This is my husband’s favourite Sunday roast. I must admit that lamb has never been my favourite meat, however when I cooked these lamb shanks for the first time I was completely sold. The meat literally falls off the bone. This is also one of the dishes I would cook when I want to impress guests. With this kind of dish, I would say the main challenge is timing of all the elements. The lamb itself will take a long time in the oven, but once they are cooked, they can be covered and put aside to wait. You can also see the links to the perfect accompaniments of roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding below.

Perfect roast potatoes
Yorkshire pudding
~~~~~
4 lamb shanks
100g plain flour, seasoned with salt / black pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
500ml red wine
500ml chicken stock
1 onion, sliced
3 fresh rosemary sprigs
3 fresh bay leaves

1. Heat the oven to 160°C / 320°F.

2. Coat the lamb with the flour.

3. Heat the oil in a casserole dish, and fry the lamb for about 5 minutes, turning until browned all over.

4. Add all the other ingredients. Liquid should pretty much cover the meat. Because of the size of the dish I use, I have to use double the amount of wine and stock than in the recipe, to cover the meat.

5. Place in the oven, and cook for 3 hours.

6. Remove the shanks. You need to be careful when handling them, as they are now so soft that the meat will fall off very easily.

7. Sieve the liquid into a pan.

8. Reduce the cooking liquid by boiling, uncovered, to about half, to get wonderful gravy that’s full of flavour.

Smoked cod with mustard and kale mash

This cod dish is pretty good, easy cooking for those days when you’ve been working late, and just want to quickly get on with it when you get home. Cod itself can normally be quite a tasteless fish in my mind, and buying it smoked makes a nice change. I might also swap it to smoked haddock, which works well too. I would say this recipe can work for anything between 2-4 people, depending on the diners’ appetite!

3 medium to large potatoes
300ml vegetable stock
3 handfuls of chopped kale
2 large smoked cod fillets
25g butter
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
salt
black pepper

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into fairly small chunks. Place in a pan, and boil in the stock for 5 minutes, covered with a lid.

2. If the chopped kale pieces are large, you may want to chop them more finely. Stir in the kale and butter, and lower the temperature to simmer. Simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.

3. Place the fish pieces on top of the potato – kale mixture. Simmer gently, steaming the fish for 7-8 minutes.

4. Carefully remove the fish. Coarsely mash the potatoes and kale together, and mix the mustard in. Season with salt and pepper.

Chicken Kiev meatballs

These chicken meatballs are a hybrid between Chicken Kiev and Chicken nuggets. They are in fact perfect served with BBQ sauce (click here for my homemade recipe). The garlic and parsley butter inside keeps it tasty and moist too.

650g chicken breasts
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2-1 tsp black pepper
~~~~~
Garlic and parsley butter
100g butter
2 garlic cloves, squeezed
handful of parsley, finely chopped
~~~~~
Coating for the meatballs
1 dl plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
2 eggs
4 dl breadcrumbs

1. Prepare the butter first. It might be a good idea to prepare it in advance, because first you’ll need it to get soft, and once you’ve mixed all the ingredients together you’ll need to leave it in the fridge to get hard again. Once you’ve mixed all ingredients together, roll in in a log inside cling film, and put in the fridge to harden. Once hardened, cut into discs, and quarter the discs.

2. Place all the chicken meatball ingredients in a food processor, and blend to a fairly smooth mixture. Take a handful, press a whole in the middle, and place a piece of the butter in the middle. Bring back to a ball, covering the butter all around.

3. Prepare the coating ingredients. On one plate / bowl, place plain flour with the spices and mix. On another the egg and on one more the breadcrumbs. With the breadcrumbs, first place about half the amount on the plate / bowl, and add more as needed. First, place each meatball in the flour mix, then the egg, and finally the breadcrumbs.

4. Once the balls are ready, heat some vegetable oil in a pan. Fry for about 15-20 minutes in medium-high heat, turning around, until golden brown all around.

Salmon en papillote

En papillote cooking is an easy, mess-free and quick way of cooking food. You basically place all the ingredients per portion inside one parcel, which each diner will then have.

serves 2
2 salmon fillets (about 125g each)
6 tbsp frozen peas (3 tbsp on each portion)
1/2 leek, sliced (split in two parcels)
4 tbsp crème fraiche (2 tbsp per parcel)
2 tbsp tarragon or parsley, finely chopped (1 on each parcel)
dash of black pepper
dash of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Remove peas from the freezer. The fish will cook quickly, so it might be better if the peas have defrosted a little bit.

2. Take 2 large non-stick baking parchment sheets. Place the salmon pieces on the sheets, at around 1/3 from front, leaving 2/3 at the back, so that you will be able to fold it on top. Season with salt and pepper. Add the leeks, peas, crème fraiche and herb.

3. Bring over the baking paper, to cover the fish. The front edges should be together. Roll until it reaches the fish. Then roll the ends. The parcels are now sealed, which means the fish will cook in it’s own juices / steam.

4. Cook in the preheated oven for 7 minutes.