Returning tomorrow: part deux

Ok, it's been a little bit longer than I expected. Work has taken alot of my time lately and I haven't had time to update this blog but from tomorrow I shall be back again.

Returning tomorrow

It's been slow lately on the updating but I'll be back tomorrow on Monday, uploading quite a few pictures and recipes. Until then, peace!

Reindeer for birthday!

We have some kind of a tradition that on special days we eat reindeer. Well today it was my birthday and also celebrated our anniversary which was on Wednesday.

On the menu there was filet of reindeer, mashed potatoes with carrots, mixed vegetables and berry sauce.

For the sauce I used half a liter of good beef stock, 25g bacon, salt, pepper, a little bit of garlic, 4 berries jam, cream and cornflour to thicken everything up.
All you need is to fry the bacon, add stock and let it simmer until it has reduced into half. Then you remove the bacon, spice it up and add good amount of jam so it's not too sweet. Heat it up, thicken it up, check the taste and add a little bit of cream to give it a good taste.

I had carrots with potatoes which I boiled in salted water, mashed and added warm milk which I heated up with some butter and salt.

Reindeer is really tasty meat, tastes like game without being game.

Barbecue steak and French fries

Another lazy day for us so my boyfriend decided he wanted steak.

We got 2 steaks and grilled them on our new grillpan, made some French fries and green beans on the side too. Sauce was from a jar.

Quick and tasty that's for sure!

Pannenkoeken - Dutch pancakes

This is VERY Dutch, pancakes. I didn't feel like cooking today at all, so thought pancakes is a nice option for dinner.

We're cheating and using this ready made-mix, all u need to add is egg and milk. And I always add some sugar and salt too. Today we had pancakes with bacon, just mix everything up, put bacon on the pan and let it get brown, then add the dough, flip it around after few minutes and there you go. And of course, sprinkle some icing sugar over it.

You can easily use anything, apples, ham, cheese, you name it, you can use it. I usually eat just the basic one without anything fancy but sometimes I feel like ham or bacon, usually nothing sweet though.

Testing out new grillpan

It was our 2nd relationship anniversary on wednesday and I got my boyfriend a grillpan. Well, naturally it was for both of us but it was a great excuse finally buy it.

On Thursday I decided we'll try it out so I made a marinade out of pineapple juice, laos, ketjap manis, salt, pepper, coriander and garlic. I let 2 filets of chicken rest in the marinade over night and then just fried them on the pan.
On the side I fried potatoe slices which I boiled in water for a little while before putting them on the pan. Sauce was the marinade thickened with cornflour.

Chicken soup

It's been a long time since I made soup like this. Wasn't sure if it was going to turn out nicely but it did and I'm happy about that.

1 chicken filet
300g soup vegetables
2tbsp spreadable cheese (I used sambal flavoured one)
salt, pepper, laos, coriander, garlic
water

Boil water and put the chicken in, let simmer until cooked. Remove chicken from the pot and add vegetables in the water and cook until overcooked. Meanwhile cube or strip the chicken.
Once the vegetables are soft, puree them in a blender, pour back in the pot and add spices and cheese, let it melt. Then add the chicken and heat up. Serve with fresh bread.

Very simple recipe and it's enough for atleast 2 people.

Meat sauce with a stroganoff twist

I felt like having something really typical Finnish, stuff we eat normally at home when everybody has gotten home from work or school. We sit by a dining table and talk about what has happened to everybody during the day.

This is pretty simple dish to cook. Any kind of meat will do, also pork goes well with the rest of the ingredients. I don't really have any certain amounts for everything since I just go by the flow and use hand measurements but I'll do my best.

500g beef cut in strips or cubes
50g bacon
5 dl water
3 medium sized gherkins
2tbsp mustard (Dijon)
salt, pepper, ketjap asin(salty soy sauce)
maizena (cornflour) and water for thickening

Get a pot and add bacon in it and stir until it gets nice and brown, then add pieces of beef and fry until they're brown too. Spice the meat with salt and pepper. Then add water, let it boil and turn on lower heat and let simmer for about an hour. Meanwhile dice the gherkins and then add them with meat. Once meat is tender, add mustard. Keep stirring until smooth, then add maizena in the water and thicken the sauce as thick as you wish. Last add the soy sauce to give the sauce nice colour. Serve with boiled potatoes and vegetables.

The picture isn't any good but we were hungry and already started mushing up the potatoes before took the picture. Also I forgot to get any vegetables so we just had really plain meal but it sure was really tasty.