Veggies!

Sunday is vegetarian, and as said, I wanted to break the standard mold for dinner composition.
So here is my vegetarian komposition. With both egg and cheese present though...

Details:
Top left: Half grilled red pepper with chopped olives, baked garlic,  gorgonzola intenso, and pine nuts.
Bottom left: Half grilled green pepper with polenta with onions, red pepper, and garnished with spring onions.
Top right: Hollowed beef tomato, with egg, thyme, pecorino, and topped with basil leaves.
Bottom right: Grilled portobello mushroom with 1000 days gouda, baked garlic, roasted onion, chipotle, grilled aubergine, and garnished with rosemary and chili.
Small dish on the side: Dessert of kvark with blackcurrant syrup, sweetener, dried candied cranberries, chocolate, and honey granola.

Result:
The egg was too gel-y, and runny. SHould have been scrambled before put in the oven.
The polenta was almost tasteless. The portobello and the red pepper were delicious though! But they had all the good savory stuff anyway, so...

Mai Stik Longong

... Unfortunately... Because this is a dish for chopsticks, just for a good big mess and alot of slurping. But I had to stick to fork though...

Details:
Slow-cooked shredded teriyaki chicken.
Sugar peas, carrots, and snack-peber sliced in half/diagonal slices/sticks and stir-fried for a minute (or less) in smoking hot sesame oil, along with a little salt and sesame seeds.
Served on a bed of basmati-rice. Cooked after instructions on bag, but with a little bit of coconut cream flavored with pandan essence instead of butter as the package said.


Result:
This was really good, and not as heavy in the taste as chinese food can be some times.
The rice worked really well. I love sticky rice, which the coconut cream helped with.
The vegetables were a littletoo greasy, should go lighter on the sesame oil.
The play between the subtle sesame and pandan aroma, against the strong teriyaki, was blissful!
Also, just as the chinese would like it: The chicken was tender, the vegetables crunchy, and the rice creamy. Good texture variation, definitely a keeper.


Teriyaki chicken recipe from http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=6180 via http://clairekcreations.com/2012/04/teriyaki-chicken-in-the-slow-cooker/ (Who apparently got it from http://www.babycenter.com/)

Boring boring sandwiches

So here's what happens when I get home from something I thought would be dinner, but was not.
Too late, too tired, too boring...

Details:
"Soda-bread" that I got for free (That is bread baked on baking soda...) with caramelised onions, bacon, and "light brie". This abomination of a cheese that is almost without taste (and the taste there is, isn't the best). It does hold shape when heated though, so it is really good for melting. But really, don't buy it, really taste like mold and dirt :S

Result:
Caramelised onions and bacon goes really really well together. Everyone knows that. But this could have used a different cheese, and it would have been perfect. A finely chopped chili in the caramelised onions gave it a nice spicy touch.

I Just Don't Bake...

What a mess!! Flour is most definitely my nemesis in the realm of cooking!
Today I wanted something that I could pick up and munch with both hands, so a small size calzone really seamed like the thing.
The result, however, was kind of mixed...

Details:
For the filling I made 3 layers: Bottom is babyspinach. Blanched in a pan with salt.
Second layer was meat. Minced beef, with onion, garlic, tomato paste, beef stock, and a handful of mixed fresh herbs.
Third was a mushroom mix, quickly fried in butter with salt.

The dough was a simple, basic, yeast pizza dough. No eggs or anything.


Result:
Soggy bottom! Yea, despite my efforts to drain the mushrooms, beef and spinach of excess liquid...
Also, I baked it for 30 minutes at 250 c, which should be MORE than enough! But it did not seam to springy. I also brushed it with this "liquid margarine" kind of stuff, but the crust was just hard and boring :(
The filling was really good though! All 3 layers. The beef was a little salty, because I forgot how salty the stock was, so added extra salt.
Anyway, got some buns out of it too, so it's just peachy :) And here's a shot of the inside:

Big Spender??

It has been claimed that I am a big spender, when it comes to my food.. But... I disagree!!
I might use more ingredients than is most necessary. I might use something slightly above the cheapest discount. Hell, I even use organic!
But to disprove this heinous claim, I will now deliver an example.. Behold! A Salad.

Details (Now with prices):
From top down:
Pine nuts, toasted, about 1/6 of a bag, bought for half price...
Asparagus... Leftover from salmon, bought for half price. Fried in butter.
Bacon. The rest of the package from the chili casserole.
Shaves of cheese, and even a good one!
1000 days gouda. Like a parmesan with a more filling taste.
Expensive? Yes.
To me? Nope!
It was from a counter of heavily discounted cheeses in the local supermarket. And for some reason, no one wanted a cheese that old. And it expired soon! (Gasp!) Within the next month!
So got it for 20% original price...
THEN it's the tomatoes, these are wild, organic, beautiful tomatoes. Limited stock, same price as all the other tomatoes.
Under that it is a heap of braised red deer meat...
From a brawn my mother gave me, which I "melted" on the pan.
Salad underneath is organic, special offer, same price as regular.
Sourdough rye bread was free. Got a loaf from the cantina at work so they didn't have to throw it out.

And all of it topped with my... 4 leaf balsamico... Bought for... About... $18 (100kr.)...


Result:
Sure might be prettier at a café, and maybe even cheaper, but it was good... The cheese, bacon, asparagus, and meat really united well, and the tomatoes, salad, and balsamico countered it perfectly with sour nodes. Didn't taste much of the pine nuts, but they did give a slightly sweet hint that worked well against the rest.

When the sum is too much

No.. I did not eat half a kilo og deer when I made the chili.
The other half was for today.
On my way home I decided to change the rather simple and bland dish.
It seamed kind of.. Unfulfilling.
Also, i DID have one last tortilla, and some tomatoes I had to use up.
Plus the tomatillo topping, and an excess of kvark and that good mature cheddar.

So what better solution, than a burrito!
Unfortunately it didn't turn out that well.. You see, a burrito has to be folded...

Details:
A wheat tortilla with 2 slices of cheddar was put in the panini iron on low to melt the cheese.
An excessive amount of the chili is smothered on top, and topped with a grilled sweet pepper, and a salsa made of; chopped tomatoes, a chopped green chili, chopped spring onion, tomatillo topping, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. To counter all the spice and add some freshness, the whole thing was topped with iceberg and a bit of kvark.


Result:
DAMN I'm stuffed! It was kind of over the top, and as you can see, it never did become a burrito. Which was kind of a shame, as all the flavors work so well together. Even had to throw out some of the chili :(


Fun fact: Now we are at minced meat again: Norwegian brown cheese is actually not a cheese, as it is based on whey. On the other hand, kvark is actually a cheese! As cheese is defined as a product made of milk solids, and is even made with rennet. On the other hand, creme fraiche is not a cheese,as it has not been strained for whey, so it is a soured milk product, like yoghurt. So there you have it ;)

Freezer Diving

I am really not setting up a good example here...
Sunday is usually vegetarian day, for the global conscience around our excessive meat consumption. But this time around, it was porkchops.

To my defense, the alternative was to throw it out. There simply was no room for it in the freezer any more!
That is, after I had to make room for 1kg butter in 10g packages...
Explanation: I use butter as a "condiment", so in very small amounts, and only rarely. I don't want to buy a pack of butter just to throw 95% of it out some time later, and I don't want to be without. So when I came across the pack of butter at a 70% discount, I couldn't help it!

Details:
The pork was in some kind of tomato/mushroom sauce, but almost wiped clean.
Some boiled potatoes, just crushed with knife and fork.
Frozen spinach I also had to pull out. Which I mixed with garlic, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Garnished with plenty of pecorino and roasted sunflower seeds.

Result:
Could have omitted the vinegar.. And you know what could have a been REALLY good? a dollop of melted butter, right between the potatoes and the spinach! But I don't have any... Oh wait.....

Chili Con... Ciervo??

Got half a kilo of minced red deer meat from my dear mother, and felt like making a chili.
A chili of Smoke.... And PEPPER!

Details:
I'm just going to list it all here...
Onion, garlic, deer meat, bacon, red green and yellow pepper, tomatoes, red and green chili's, chipotle in adobo, red wine, red wine vinegar, beef stock, rum, instant coffee, extra dark chocolate, syrup, salt and pepper..
Oh, and the gooey green stuff is the tomatillo stuff..
Some of the peppers were fried hard to char them, rest was added in usual fashion.
Cooked for about 1½ hours.

Result:
Filling! And kind of peppery! Really worth the trouble, despite the problem with having that much stuff on such a small tabletop.

Mexican style

Friday night is easy night...
I was going to make a panini, but with the rather mexican style ingredients, I decided to go with a quesadilla instead. Good choice! Also, got my hands on chipotle in adobo, and tomatillo topping. Would have preferred more pure versions of both, but hey...

Details:
The tortilla was a store-bought wheat tortilla. Cheap simple solution. Rubbed with butter on both sides.
Inside there is mature cheddar, tomatillo topping, slices of turkey, chipotle in adobo, sliced tomato, and red onion. Grilled on high in the panini iron.

Result:
Nice and crispy! no crumbs, really good taste. And the cheddar! I have used emmentaler for so many grilled sandwiches, but from now it's cheddar FOR SURE! The smoked turkey and the smoked chipotle was great together. Not really any taste from the tomatillo though :( Also, some salad for filling would have been nice...


Small note about chipotle: IT BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :S

Double Salmon!

Yea, salmon again. It was 2 for price of one, so I tried making it different this time. Maybe I should try a bit harder to get away from this typical "meat/starch/salad" combination.

Details:
Steamed salmon with salt, pepper, and lemon.
Cooked small unpeeled potatoes in danish smoked cheese (only solely danish cheese, actually..) with capers, red onion, sesame oil, and lemon.. Again...
And salad... With tomato, toasted sesame, and... Yes... Lemon... Again

Result:
Nothing new or exciting here, but it all worked well. DID however cheat a little with the salad, and busted out a dressing, because THAT was kind of bland...
Also, smoked cheese is kind of gritty, but when melted it is really creamy. 

Sweet Sweet Salmon

Yea yea, I know that these farmed salmons are overly fat and low on omega-3, but it's all we get :(

Details:
Grilled salmon glazed with maple syrup, topped with toasted almonds and chili.
Butter-fried asparagus, and spagetti with tomatoes, gorgonzola, and sage.

Result:
Really good with the sweet nutte flavors with the fat salmon, and worked well with the asparagus. Spagetti was ok, but it would be better with a different kind of pasta.. You know, for handling...


A "rule of thumb" is that free animals are healthy animal. There are ALOT of adjustments to such a claim, but in regards of omega-3, it seams to fit very well. Grassing cows have begger omega-3/6 balance in their milk, and alaskan salmon is leaner, but with vastly more omega-3 (of the best kind)

Note to self: Maple syrup is sticky... :S

How do you make an omelet stay together?

Needed to use up the rest of my chicken and leek, so this was the not-too-fast-but-still-messy solution.

 

Details:
Thin omelet with chicken, chorizo, leek, garlic, halved potatoes, and quartered tomatoes.
With a "ketchup" of Shiracha, tomato paste, worchestershire sauce, dark syrup, garlic, salt and pepper.

Result:
The dish needed a little more taste, but the ketchup made somewhat up for it.
The chorizo however, added much needed flavor to the chicken.


Note to self: Get lesson in flipping pancakes and omelettes. Get kitchen with higher ceiling, and get a mob.

Brunost really isn't that bad...

Brunost, norwegian caramelised whey cheese ("brown cheese"), tastes like dolce de leche with a... "piquant" node. Definitely an acquired taste, but had to try it, and thought I'd give it a shot as "filler" with meat.

Details:
This is a very basic meatsauce with meat browned with onions, salt, peppers, and chili.
Afterwards added tomatoes, tomatopaste, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.
What sets this apart is the final touch, of stirring in norwegian "brunost", a caramelized whey cheese.

This gives it a slight tinge and a "fill" in its creaminess and caramel sweetness.
Sweetness enhanced with a dollop of syrup.
Served on jasmin rice with 3 drops of pandan essence (works better with basmati)

Result:
The brunost wasn't quite as potent as I had expected. One should use rather small amounts of tomato paste to avoid it overwhelming the brunost



Meat was free range and organic. Not for my health, not for the taste, but because I feel responsible for what I eat (even though I know it might not be globally scalable)

13/4: Chicken on Spelt and Peas

The is my favorite kind of meal, where you can just dig in, instead of trying to balance five different things on the fork to get the unified taste expression. (Always leaving you with half of it hanging outside your mouth :( )

Details:
Pearl Spelt mixed with peas and ricotta blended together with sweet basil.
Added extra peas for variation to the texture.
Roasted pinenuts for sweetness and topped with fresh onions to add a bit of edge.
Chicken coverede in mild mustard and breading to seal in the moisture. Grilled in panini grill.
Chorizo added for extra salt and spice to counter the sweet and fresh base along with the chicken.

Result:
The creaminess was really nice, and the sweetness of the peas worked so well with the basil!