Going nuts

A month ago I had a surgery on my shoulder due to an old injury and ever since I've had the pleasure of spending the whole summer on a holiday. Unfortunately only now my hand starts to be in such a shape that I can easily write on the computer or cook anything beyond pesto in the kitchen.
So here you have some spring and summer recepies

This satay sauce can be used as a dip for chiken/bbarbequed meat/ veggies.

About coconut:

• When choosing the coconut milk pay attention to the amount of coconut in the product. Obviesly the flavour is a whole lot differend when using coconut milk with 75% of coconut then the one with 46% coconut

About chilies:

• You can regulate the hottnes of this food by choosing differend chilies. I like to use one small habanero and feel it gives a nice kick without being overwhelming.
• REMEMBER don't touch the chili and then your eyes/nose/ears without washing your hands in between(even if you were wearing gloves)
• Note that the hottnes of the chili is not in the seeds but in the stem.

SATAY-CHIKEN

400g of chiken. You can use breasts or wings which ever you prefer

1 jar of coconut milk (400ml)

200g of unsweetened peanut butter

100g of roasted peanuts

zest and juice of one lime

2 gloves of garlick

1 small chili 

2-3 dl of water

• Roast the peanuts on a dry pan until they have a bit of a colour and give away sweet nutty scent. Be careful not to burn them.
• Add all the ingredients to a blender and let it mix until smooth.
• Add water just enough to make it paste but not runny.
• If the paste becomes too runny roast some more peanuts and add them in.
• You can also leave part of the nuts just roughly crushed and add the to the paste to give a nice texture.
• Take about 1/3 away and store in a cool place. 
• With the rest of the paste cover the chikens all over and allow to marinade for at least 4 hours or over night.
• Once marinated you can barbeque the chikens or fry them in the oven. 

Prosessed cheese in Finland is a whole different from the one you get in tubes in States. The closest I've came to equivalent has been in Germany where it was called schmelzkäse. I haven't tried this with normal creamcheese so no quarantees on how it would work with that :)

If you want to maek it healhtyer you can use low fat cottage cheese and kvark. 

When I'm doing more sports I do this spread with the fat free stuff and eat it with practically everything since both kvark and cottage cheese are excellent sources of protein.

Works well as sandwich spread, dip, with warm sandwitches instead of mayo, with jacket potatoes etc.

   COTTAGE CHEESE SPREAD

• 200g kvark
• 200g cottage cheese
• 200g prosessed cheese (for example Olympia)
• 2 gloves of garlic

additional flavours:
fresh chives, small amount of leek, some tabasco, few drops of lemon juice..
When you add the spices keep in mind that the flavours will get stronger in time so be reasonable with the amounts.

Cover a sift ( for example the one you drain your spaghetti at) with coffee filters and pour the kvark into it. Let it drain over night at fridge.

The next day move the kvark to a bowl and mix the spice with it.Change the coffee filters to new ones and let the cottage cheese also drain for couple of hours. 

Mix all indgredients together and allow to rest for at least couple of hours. The longer the better. 

This spread will stay good just as long as the best before date was on the kvark and cheese.

  

PESTO-BACON MUFFINS

• 355g all-purpose flour
• 120g whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2,5 dl buttermilk
• 4 big tbsp of pesto 
• 100 g of crispy bacon
• 1,7 dl vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1,5 g grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Chop the bacon into small bites and fry on a pan until crispy. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the egg, buttermilk, pesto, bacon, broth and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Set aside 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Mix remaining Parmesan cheese into batter. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full; sprinkle with reserved Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 200° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Makes about 12 muffins

 

super easy frosting

175g white chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 tbsp of lime zest
1 tbsp of lime juice
75g unsalted butter
115g icing sugar
90ml heavy cream

Put all the ingredients into a heavy based saucepan over a very low heat.
Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients have melted and blended into a smooth mixture. 

This frosting tends to be a bit too soft to make any nice deco but it's just perfect if you want to spred it on an even space.
I've also altered this recipe to make frosting for a cinnamon- chokolate cake. I replaced the white chokolate with dark, left out the lime, added some seeds of vanilla and freshly graded cinnamon.

COCONUT-LEMON CUPCAKES WITH WHITECHOCOLATE-LIME FROSTING

• 40g coconut in flakes
• 175g confectioners (icing) sugar
• 200g all-purpose (plain) flour
• 1 tbsp of grounded lemon zest
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 115g melted butter
• 3 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
• 5 egg whites

Pre-heat the oven to 200^o

Line a 12 cupcake pan, with cupcake papers.

Combine the coconut, sugar, flour, baking powder and lemon zest in a large bowl.

Stir in the melted butter.

Stir in the egg whites, until well combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes - until firm to touch.

Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Makes 12 cakes.

long overdue halloween recipes

Halloween is a brilliant time of the year. In the middle of the darkness a carnival full of nonsense, and fortunately it is startign to make it's way to Finland also.

We don't spend thanksgivin, so without halloween the first break in the mids of autum is the independence day in December.

This year I decided to host a halloween party with a servings of differend  muffins and cupcakes.

We had chokolaten muffins with nutella topping,coconut-lemon cupcakes with whitecholate-lime frosting.

For salty snacks there was pesto-bacon muffins. For the salty muffins I served a cream cheese topping.

Muffins are super easy party servings tomake. Just mix all the dry ingredients together and add all the rest. Stir gently and divide into cups.

                                                        

                                                           CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

• 4,5 dl all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons best quality coco powder
• 1 dl superfine sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg

Special equipment: Muffin tin with paper muffin cases

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, and sugar into a large bowl. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together, remembering that a lumpy batter makes the best muffins. Spoon into the prepared muffin cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

Old school meatballs in tomato sauce

Meatballs seem to be the comfort food of every nation.
Finnish people serve them in creamy brown sauce with mashed potatoes, Swedes prefer basic brown onion sauce or plain with cranberrys and boiled potates, but I think the most famous is the Italian version of spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce.
Here's my version of which I claim the whole credit (or blaime for that matter) since my mom never made them in tomato sauce but always the Finnish style.

SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS IN TOMATO SAUCE

Meatballs

• 400g of grounded beef
• 2 slices of toast soaked in milk
• 1 big or 2 small onions chopped and fried until golden brown
• 1 egg
•  salt, pepper and tabasco for seasoning

Add the fried onions, egg and seasoning to the meat. Squeeze the slices of toast dry from the excess milk and add. Mix well together. Leave the meat to the fridge so the flavours have time to even out. Meanwhile prepare the tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce

• 2 cans (á 500g) of crushed tomatoes
• 2 cans (á 140g) tomato pyree
• 2 dl of cheap red wine (you can also use a mixture of tomatojuice and water 1/1)
• 1 small onion chopped and fried untilgolden brown
• 4 crushed gloves of garlic
• salt & pepper
• from the spices feel free to add or remove accrding to your preferences. Examples
• oregano
• thyme
• marjoram
• tarragon
• savory
• basil

I usually use my ready made mixture of  Herbes de Provence* which I bougth while travelling in Paris. :)

Chop and fry the onions

add tomato pyree and garlic and let it warm up on the pan but be carefull not to burn them since the flawour will be very tangy after that. Add canned tomatos and fluids and let it zimmer on medium heat while makin the meatballs

Pour some oil on your hands (this way the meat mixture won't get stuck on your fingers) and roll small balls from the mixture, place the balls in neat little circles arount the pan in the sauce. Lower the heat just a bit and cover the pan. 

Avoid mixing the sauce since you might end up with just meat sauce if the meatballs break.

Let the meatballs cook slowly untill done (this takes about 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the meatballs). If it looks like the sauce is running out you can add sme more water/ tomato juice/wine and mix carefully

Serve with spaghetti and parmesan cheese

* http://en.wikipedia.orgm wiki/Herbes_de_Provence