Vegetarian Easter Lamb

 Every now and then it's fun to make vegetarian versions of meat dishes. I decided to attempt an Easter lamb dish with soy mince and think it was pretty succesfull! I improvised with the recipe as well as the measurements, and the "meatballs" were really easy to make.

Vegetarian Easter Lamb "Meatballs" with Brussel Sprouts and Spinach

1 bag of frozen soy mince (I used Hälsäns kök färs)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
Chili paste, to taste

1 pot of sour cream
100 g feta cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
Plenty of fresh mint, finely chopped
Crispy fried onion, 2 tbsp (the stuff you normally put on salad)
1 egg
1 dl almond flour

Brussel Sprouts
Spinach
1 Garlic clove, finely chopped
Butter
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper

1. Heat some oil on a frying pan. Sautee the onion until soft, then add garlic, chilli and the soy mince. Fry for around 5 minutes, season to taste.

2. Mix the sour cream, feta, lemon zest, mint and crispy onion together in a large bowl. Add the mince and mix together. Add the egg, mix again, finally adding the almond flour until the mix stays together to make the meatballs.

3. Make even sized meatballs from the mix on a sheet of parchment paper and bake for around 20 mins in 200C.

4. While the meatballs are cooking, clean the brussel sprouts by cutting the stem and removing outer and browned bits. Cut the sprounts in half or quarters according to size. Wash the spinach. Warm up the butter on a frying pan and fry the sprouts until slightly browned. Add the spinach at the end and cook until just wilted. Season to taste.

5. Plate and serve! Goes well with a soft red wine, yesterday we opened a bottle of Australian Shiraz/Cabernet that was a gift from a friend and had been waiting for while. What a tasty meal it was!

On the menu on Shrove Sunday

Crème Ninon

Wolfberger Cremant D'Alcase Brut, Alsace, France

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Potato Blinis with Whitefish Roe, Cured Salmon and Creamed Forest Mushrooms 

Dr Pauly Bergweiler Blitz Riesling, Mosel, Germany

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White Chocolate & Macadamia Yoghurt with Blood Orange & Pomegranate

 

 Recipes will follow after some sleep...

Monday dinner

 It's starting to look and feel like winter finally, with heaps of snow and temperature going down to -20 celsius soon. On days like these nothing tastes better than my home chef''s Asian style noodle soup. We often have it on Monday nights, and it always tastes so good. He makes the broth separately with lots of spices, the flavour is intense with chilli, ginger, garlic, star anise and a hint of sweetness. The broth is poured on a bowl full of chopped vegetables and cooked noodles. Plenty of coriander is needed, as well as either tofu or prawns. I might share the recipe one day as well.
It is really a weeknight dish for us normally but you could make it more special and enjoy a glass of medium dry Gewurtztraminer.

We have sun!!!

The Heavenly Veggie Parcels

I will finally give you the recipe for those tasty looking parcels I already wrote about earlier. I already shared the recipe in Finnish on my friend Mari's blog Pumpkin Jam, as she asked me to do a guest post on there. She is a big inspiration to me and probably the reason why I ever got into blogging in the first place. She is an amazing writer, she should do it for a living in my opinion. There is a big blogger community in Finland but I haven't been very active so far, but I would love to get to know more people who love food as much as I do. I don't know if it is a problem that I write in English, I have been thinking if I should switch to Finnish just to "fit in" a bit more. However, for now writing in English feels more comfortable.

Anyway, here comes the recipe. It is a slightly altered version from The Modern Vegetarian cookbook by Maria Elia. I found it at the sales and while I was deciding if I really should own an another cookbook (need more shelf space!!!) I saw the recipe for these parcels and walked to the till with the book. I want to cook more interesting vegetarian food, not just the basic stuff. Today I have cooked one more recipe and will do another this evening, but more about them later. This  one really impressed me and my dinner guests, definately worth the little effort it takes!

 Parcels with Mushrooms, Spinach, Beetroot, Lentils and Mozzarella
 (4 big portions)

Ginger Vinaigrette Dressing
1 cm piece ginger
1 garlic clove, grated
30 ml rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar
75 ml sesame oil
2 tsp dijon mustard

Lentils
225g puy or brown lentils (I used green as had it already)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
salt and pepper
4 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped

Mushrooms
4 large portobello mushrooms (couldn't get any so used around 400g of button mushrooms)
2 tbsp olive oil (I used butter, always for mushrooms)
salt
pinch of chilli flakes

To put together you need
Fresh spinach
300g mozzarella, torn into small pieces
200g cooked beetroot, sliced into wedges
4 squares of parchment paper (38cmx38cm), scrunch and dampen under warm water, squeeze water of. this way they look prettier and are easier to work with
4 strips cut of parchment paper (2cmx38cm)

1. Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking all ingredients together.

2. Wash the lentils. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion and garlic, sautee until softened. Add drained lentils and just enough water to cover them. Simmer until tender, about 20 mins, adding water if needed. Drain and dress with ginger vinaigrette when still hot. Season with salt and pepper, add coriander.

3. Clean the mushrooms and remove the stalks. Drizzle with olive oil(or butter), season with salt and chilli and cook in a hot pan for 3 minutes on each side.

4. To assemble, preheat the oven to 190c. Place the spinach at the bottom of the parcel, top with mushroom(s), lentils, beetroot and mozzarella. Tie the sides of the papers together with thw paper strips. The parcels can be made in advance and cooked when everyone's ready to eat!

5. Place on baking tray and cook for 15-20 minutes or until throroughly heated.

I served a simple salad of rocket, fennel and parmesan with the parcels. A light red wine goes beautifully with this, really complementing the earthy flavours.

Sunday dinner with good friends, good food and wine

 When we invited our good friends over for Sunday dinner, I announced that I would like to be cooking it all by myself. This has not really happened much before, as my significant other happens to be a professional chef. Somehow he always ends up taking over in the kitchen whenever we want to have something slightly better than a everyday salad or pasta.

So, I planned ahead for a three course menu which ended up looking like this:

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup with Crayfish

2009 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling, Rheingau, Germany

Parcels of Beetroot, Green Lentils, Mushrooms, Spinach and Mozzarella served with a Salad of Rocket, Fennel and Parmesan

2008 Krug'scherhoff Pinot Noir, Rheinhessen, Germany

Banoffee Pie

 The wines were bought during our Berlin trip in August, I liked the Riesling a lot but as I tasted the Pinot Noir I started dancing and laughing, I absolutely loved it. Beautiful berries with cherry, cranberry and strawberry aromas, velvety lightness and balance, no tannins. Match made in heaven for the beetroot and lentils. I am not ashamed to say I was proud of myself today, definately the best dinner I have ever cooked, without any help. Need to do this more often!
Next some pictures of the night, I will be posting the recipes in the next few days when I am less tired.

 

Somewhere Over The Rainbow Trout

Today we had a lovely friend visiting us and we enjoyed a long long dinner of nibbles for a starter, Rainbow trout for a main and olive oil-chocolate fondants for dessert. We also played with my new Canon eos 450d camera and between courses we rocked some serious(ly scary) singstar. Who says Mondays are boring?


Nibbles consisted of olives, hoummus, macadamia nuts and crackers with G&T for aperitif.
I love hoummus and it's a piece of cake to make ; blitz together a tin of drained chickpeas, garlic (I had enough to make sure no vampires will ever approach Helsinki), juice of a lime or lemon, salt and olive oil. Too easy mate!
(You should also use tahini but we didn't have any. )

I also made a carrot and walnut loaf, which was also easy and very tasty indeed. Will post the recipe at some later point. Promise!

Rainbow trout was a bargain at the supermarket costing less than 5 euros for the whole bugger. Andy first washed the trout, then skilfully (ehem) filleted it and removed the bones. He placed the fish in an oven proof dish and rubbed home-made macadamia-pesto all over the two fillets. It was cooked in 200 degrees for around 15 minutes, until cooked. We served it with a rocket, tomato and onion salad.

Macadamia Pesto

1 dl Olive Oil
Two small handfull of Basil
One small handfull of Rocket
One small handfull of Parsley
1-2 Garlic cloves
Dozen whole Macadamias
2 tbsp Grated Parmesan
Salt & Pepper

Blitz all ingredients to a paste in a blender.
Our choice of wine was Yalumba Viognier 2008 from Eden Valley in South Australia. Viognier is a great alternative to Chardonnay, the usual option for fatty fish. There was only subtle flavour of oak, with floral aromas and exotic fruit both on the nose and palate. It was quite full bodied but had enough acidity to balance the fattiness of the fish. A beautifully balanced and richly flavoured wine.


Dessert was divine, olive oil chocolate fondants served with rhubarb compote and Vanilla ice cream, but we'll save the recipe for that for later.

Spicy Shepardess Pie

Friday night, and time for some serious comfort food!
This is a veggie version of the British dish Shepherd's pie, which normally has minced lamb in it. I saw a recipe of the meaty version on Maku magazine's Kevät 2/09 issue and was inspired to make it, maybe for the first time actually. I made up this slighty spicy version, perfect for the -21 degrees weather we're having over here at the moment. For the vegetarians this is an excellent filling and protein rich meal.

Spicy Shepardess Pie

4-5 Portions

For the mash:
Around 6 potatos
Cream
Seasoning

Filling:
4 dl Vegetarian Soy Mince
Veg stock
1 Onion, diced
2 Garlic cloves, chopped
1 Carrot, grated
~100 g Frozen Sweetcorn or Peas
Teaspoon of minced red chilli paste (Rajah)
Teaspoon of Paprika powder
Worcestershire Sauce to taste- LOTS in mine!
Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan Cheese

Heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Boil the potatos in salted water until cooked.
Mash and add cream, season to taste.
Prepare the soy mince according to the package instructions.
Heat some olive oil on a frying pan, cook the onion for a minute, then add garlic.
Add soy mince and some water if needed to prevent the mix from sticking to the pan.
Add carrot and sweetcorn/ peas.
Season with chilli paste, paprika powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
Pour the soy mince mix on the bottom of a baking dish. Spread the mash on top.
Add lavish amount of parmesan cheese.
Place in the middle of the oven and bake for around 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

I have decided to find a drink match to all of my recipes and since this dish is really a pub classic I recommend you wash it down with some dry apple cider or a thirst- quenching lager. Since we don't really have the proper equilavant of a British pub here in Helsinki, this home version will do just fine!

Edit. I forgot the chilli paste earlier! Very important ingredient to make it spicy.