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.....