homecooking – Page 7

Mince beef soup

This winter warmer soup is especially perfect for those cold, cosy days. This is a very Finnish style soup of basic runny liquid base, with all the ingredients as bitesize chunks, rather than those thick, puréed soups. I personally quite like these kind of soups, because you can see and taste the ingredients separately. This soup contains a lot of healthy root vegetables, and doesn’t actually require a lot of cooking itself, most of the work goes to chopping the vegetables. This recipe makes a big soup, which is perfect. I think homemade soups are a little bit like curry, in a way that they seem to taste even better the next day. Also, the great thing about this kind of food is that you are not restricted to follow the ingredients too strictly, but can add other ingredients too. My recipe will be ever so slightly peppery-hot, if you don’t like any heat in your food you might want to leave out the white pepper, or reduce the amount.

1 onion, finely chopped
250g mince beef
1.2kg potatoes
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp allspice
1.5 litres beef stock click here for homemade recipe
1 large parsnip (200g)
2 small turnips (200g)
300g swede
1/2 large leek, finely chopped
3 bay leaves
2-3 dl frozen peas
(1 tsp salt if necessary, to taste at the end. I tend to use sea salt for this)

1. Fry the onions in vegetable oil in a pan, until starting to get translucent. Add the mince beef and mix with the onions. Add the spices, and fry until cooked. During the cooking process, keep braking into small pieces.

2. Take about a quarter of the potatoes, and peel and chop into small pieces. Boil in the stock, covered, until cooked, then mash them.

3. While the potatoes are boiling, peel and chop all the other root vegetables into small, bite size cubes. Add to the stock and mashed potatoes, together with the bay leaves.

4. Peel and cut the remaining potatoes into small pieces, and add to the soup. Lastly, add the finely chopped leek, peas and the mince beef.

5. Cook until all vegetables are cooked. After all the ingredients have been added this should only take about 10 more minutes, depending on the size you’ve cut your potatoes.

6. Check the taste, and add the salt if required.

Thai green curry

This fragrant Thai food is one of my favourites. I was very glad when I learnt how to make my own paste some years ago. The paste itself is easy to make, and so is the rest of the food.

5 tbsp Thai green curry paste click here for my recipe
400ml coconut cream
500g chicken, cut into strips or chunks
1 courgette / zucchini, cut into pieces
2-3 mini aubergines / eggplants, cut into pieces
1 red pepper, cut into strips
5 chestnut mushrooms, quartered

1. Fry the paste in a pan for about 10 seconds. There is no need to add oil.

2. Pour the coconut cream in, and add all the other ingredients. Bring to boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Thai green curry paste

When cooking foods that are not part of your original culture, it’s often easy to think that it’s something very difficult and complicated. I’ve loved the fragrant Thai green curry for a long time, but didn’t really know how to make it. Until I started making my own paste, and realized how easy it actually is.

6 small green chillies
1 onion
large piece root ginger
3 cloves of garlic
small bunch of coriander
2-3 stalks of fresh lemongrass
1 lime, juice and grated zest
8 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp Thai fish sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Break the whole spices with either a pestle and mortar or a spice mill.

2. Cut the stalks off the chillis, and chop roughly to smaller pieces.Peel and roughly chop the garlic, onion and ginger, and prepare the lime. Also chop the lemongrass into smaller pieces.

3. Put all ingredients in the food processor, and blitz until smooth paste.

4. The paste is now ready to be used.

Sea bream with mango and crab salad

This plate of food is like sunshine on a plate. It’s so fresh and colourful, and all the flavours just simply work really well. Even though raw garlic and chilli are used, when eating this you don’t notice it. It’s also a quick dish to make.

1 mango

1 avocado

2 large red chillies (mild, or to your liking), finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

3 spring onions, chopped into thin slices

100g cooked white crab meat

100g king prawns (I tend to use raw and cook them myself, but cooked are ok too)

1 lime (juice)

1. Cut the mango and avocado into cubes.

2. Add finely chopped garlic and chilli (deseeded). Add all the other salad ingredients.

3. I usually use raw prawns so I put the mixed salad into fridge, and pan-fry the prawns. I then let them cool, while cooking the fish (pan-fry for about 5 minutes, then finish under a grill in the oven for another 5 minutes). Then mix the prawns into the salad, and serve with the fish.

Yorkshire pudding

To me, the Yorkshire puddings are a delight of British cuisine. A roast dinner isn’t complete without one or two. Funnily, there was a debate at my husband’s office, where all participants were British, whether Yorkshire puddings should or should not be part of a Christmas meal. From an outsider’s view, Christmas meal, too, is a roast dinner, and it’s therefore crucial that it’s included.

2 large eggs
equal quantity of milk to eggs
pinch of salt
equal quantity of plain flour to eggs
vegetable oil / lard

1. Whisk the eggs, milk and salt together, and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Add the flour, and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

3. Heat oven to 210°C / 410°F. Place the oil or lard in tins and heat in the oven for 5 minutes.

4. Give the batter another good whisk, adding 1 tbsp of cold water. Fill 1/3 tins, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Chicken fajitas

I may be known for my fine dining hobby, but sometimes you just want that honest food that may be messy to eat. For my fajitas, I tend to make make everything apart from the tortillas from scratch. This Mexican food is enjoyed across the world, and making everything by yourself allows you to adjust the spicing to your liking. The tortillas are usually eaten with a selection of fried meat, fried peppers and onions, tomato salsa, guacamole, creme fraiché and cheese. I tend to leave the cheese out, and just to make things easier, fry the meat together with the pepper and onion. In my blog I have individual posts for my guacamole and salsa, so I won’t write them again on here, but I’ll include links for them. This is great comfort food for those cosy evenings in.

Tomato salsa
Homemade guacamole
crème fraiche
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500g chicken breasts
2 peppers
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 small green chilli
2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
splash of vegetable oil

1. Finely chop the chilli and garlic. Slice the peppers and onions, and set aside.

2. Cut the chicken breasts into strips. Fry in the oil, adding the cumin, salt and pepper. Once just about cooked through, add the other ingredients. Fry until onions are cooked.

Mince beef and potato bake

This is simple home cooking. Easy and quick (in preparation), and will be enough to take as lunch to work too. Now, I spent a great while trying to think what to call this dish. I couldn’t really come to any good definitive conclusion of what would be best, most describing name. I’m happy for anyone to give me suggestions on this. My mum used to make this when I was a child. She would always make two version: one with blue cheese for adults, and one without for the children (I’m the second oldest of five). These days, I always make mine with the blue cheese, but this can easily be left out if you’re not a fan.

2 onions
500g mince beef
6 medium to large potatoes
50g blue cheese (I used Roquefort)
5 dl milk
3 eggs
salt and black pepper
ground allspice, white pepper, paprika (optional)

1. Finely chop the onions, and fry in vegetable oil in a pan until they start to get translucent. Add the beef and mix with the onions. add spices of your liking. I tend to always use salt, black pepper, white pepper, allspice and paprika on my basic mince beef for various different foods. Cook until the beef is ready, breaking it into small bits as it’s cooking.

2. Peel and slice the potatoes. Layer about a third of them at the bottom of an oven dish. Then put half of the mince beef as the next layer. If using blue cheese, add half of it on next. Then a layer of half of the remaining potatoes, remaining mince beef and remaining potatoes on top.

3. Mix the eggs and milk with a fork, then pour over the potatoes / mince beef. If using blue cheese, add the remaining half on top.

4. Cook in preheated oven 180°C / 355° F for about an hour, until the potatoes are soft.

Liver casserole

This dish is food that’s eaten in my native Finland any time of the year, and in my family also as part of the Christmas meal. I always thought this food to be something of an acquired taste, and every time I used to host a party I would tell the British guests that I will not be offended if they don’t like it and finish it. As it’s turned out, it has actually always been one of the dishes people love. It’s not the most beautiful food in terms of presentation (I admit it does look more like dog food), but sometimes the taste can speak for itself instead. This dish is normally served with lingonberries, or lingonberry jam. I would say the closest substitute to lingonberries would be cranberries, which are probably more widely available.

3 dl pudding rice
1 litre water
3 tsp salt
8 dl milk
2 eggs
2 onions
1tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1tsp dried marjoram
3 tbsp dark syrup (I had to replace this with 2 tbsp treacle due to availability of the syrup I normally use, and it worked fine)
1 1/2 dl raisins
500g beef liver (Pork is fine too. Beef liver will give smoother flavour, pork stronger)

1. Boil the rice in the salted water for about half an hour. You may want to stir it from time to time so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

2. Peel and chop the onions, and place in a blender. Roughly chop the liver pieces, and check for any sinewy parts you may want to discard. Place in the blender together with the onions. Blend until the liver doesn’t have firm texture anymore. The onions can still be in small pieces.

3. Once the rice is cooked, add the cold milk, and all other ingredients. At this stage the mixture will be very liquid, but when it’s cooked it will become firm.

4. Pour the mixture in a buttered oven dish, and add some small pieces of butter on top. Cook for about on hour 180°C / 355°F.

Meatballs and tomato sauce

I’m a kind of cook who usually just throws ingredients together, without exact measures (unless required by the recipe). I’ve sometimes made my recipes by just checking which ingredients certain food requires, and just come up with a perfect result through trial and error. Sometimes I swap ingredients depending on what I have in my cupboard or fridge. This is why writing this blog may be a challenge at times, however one I embrace and enjoy at the same time. Below you can find a recipe for my meatballs and tomato sauce.

Meatballs
500g mince beef (you can also replace half by mince pork)
3 eggs
1 dl breadcrumbs
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp allspice
2 tbsp fresh parsley
olive oil
butter
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2 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard or
1 chilli

1. Finely chop onion and garlic, and fry in olive oil. Let cool.

2. Add all ingredients together, and either mix in a blender (for finer texture) or by hand. If mixture is too hard/dense, you can add some water (or cream), or if it’s too soft add more breadcrumbs. Sometimes, I add a finely chopped chilli for a bit of a kick. This time, for the balls in the picture I added grainy Dijon mustard instead.

3. Shape into even size balls, and fry in butter in a frying pan.

Tomato sauce

This is my basic tomato sauce I use for everything, from bolognaise to pizza. I don’t usually use cream with tomato sauce, but I wanted to try how it would work this time, and it worked well.

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
(splash of cream – optional)

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.

4. If using cream, add a splash.

Spicy honey roasted parsnip soup

One of the great things about this time of the year is it’s the season for root vegetables. I’ve not been that experimental with parsnips in the past though, so I thought I need to explore this ingredient outside the normal roast vegetables on Sundays. I’ve decided to use parsnips for my soup of the week. This recipe will make quite a thick soup, you could always add more stock if you’d like it less so. Also, if you’re not a fan of spicy, I would suggest you go with one chilli rather than the two I’ve used. This soup is actually packed with the best medicines nature has for fighting off colds, so fantastic dinner option for these cold autumn days.

750g parsnips
2 medium onions
2 medium potatoes
3 garlic cloves
2 fresh green chillies
thumb size piece of fresh root ginger
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp clear honey
2 tsp ground turmeric
1.2 l beef or vegetable stock
2 dl cream
salt
pepper

1. Heat oven to 190°C.

2. Peel the potatoes, rinse and cut into smaller pieces. Wash the parsnips, and cut the end off. Cut in half, then half the thinner pieces, and quarter the thicker pieces. Cut peeled onions into wedges, and finely chop the garlic, chillies and ginger. Add all these to a roasting tin, coat with the oil and honey, as well as the turmeric. Mix all together, and roast for 45 minutes.

3. Once cooked, transfer to a pan, and add the stock. I’m using my homemade beef stock as I think it goes well with parsnips, but you can use vegetable stock too. Let simmer for 5 minutes, and move aside to cool.

4. Add cream and purée in a blender until smooth. Reheat and check the taste, adding salt and pepper as required.