Hot and Spicy on a Hot Summer Day

I think the first time I tasted chorizo was years and years ago in Barcelona. It was one blazing hot week in July - the streets of the beautiful city being red-hot and the hotel room boiling hot. The perfect escape  seemed to be the tiny tapas bars where air conditioning worked surprisingly well  *not* so in addition to the burning sun on my skin I got to turn on the heat inside of me as well, in the form of heavenly hot chorizo cooked in red wine and enjoyed bowl after another with a glass of refreshing cava.

Ever since chorizo has been one of the regulars on my shopping list. I do not only cook it in red wine  (or eat straight from the package) but bake little bread parcels filled with chopped chorizo and make pasta sauce of sliced chorizo, pineapple, blue cheese, jalapenos and cream. Bagels with chorizo are a favourite in the kids’ lunchboxes and chorizo suits deliciously on a pizza. Chorizo goes well with chicken, too, and I have always wanted to create The Perfect Dish combining these two ingredients with an 'extra-something’. I have tried various cheeses, cream, tomatoes… and finally I think I have found the combination which gives my tastebuds the most pleasure: chicken fillet stuffed with chopped hot or at least medium-hot chorizo, sliced Manchego (sheep milk) cheese, seasoned with lots of smoked paprika, quickly fried on a pan and then cooked in the oven.

Before sharing my recipe I would like to share a story first: I was recently at Fallon & Byrne in Dublin with The Little Brother. We were standing at the meat counter when he noticed a huge (about 20cm in diameter) chorizo sausage there and wanted to buy some. I asked the shop assistant if the chorizo would be very hot so she gave us a slice to taste and decide ourselves. “Tooo hot-hot-hot!!!” commented The Little Brother, and pointed at another chorizo sausage asking me if we could maybe taste that one, too. We got a slice, and this chorizo, made by Irish Gubbeen Farmhouse Products was delicious and not too spicy for him. “100 grams, please”, I said before The Little Brother would start asking for more samples (because I knew he would). After I got our chorizo neatly sliced and packed I gently but firmly took his hand and headed to the cashier. Just in time for him to live happily with his chorizo slices the rest of the day and not knowing about the barrels full of olives beside the meat counter. Otherwise I would not sit here writing but most likely stand eye-witnessing a never-ending tasting session with lots of debating if chorizo tastes better with black olives or green olives stuffed with garlic...

Chicken Fillets Stuffed with Chorizo and Sheep Milk Cheese (for 6):

6 chicken fillets (mine weighed about 170g each)

180g Manchego (sheep milk) cheese

200g chorizo

Salt and black pepper

3 tbs smoked paprika 

 1. Using a sharp knife cut a pocket to each chicken fillet. Open the fillet and gently pound each side.

2. Chop the chorizo into small cubes and cut the cheese into thick slices - I cut mine into twelwe slices, two for each chicken fillet.

3. Fill the pocket with chorizo and cheese and use cocktail sticks to close it.

4. Fry the stuffed chicken fillets quickly on a hot pan on both sides and put them in an oven-proof dish brushed with vegetable oil. Rub the fillets with smoked paprika and add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Cook the chicken fillets in the oven at 200°C / 390°F for about 20-25 minutes. 

6. Serve with tomatoes stuffed with bulgur wheat.

 

Tomatoes Stuffed with Bulgur Wheat and Herbs (for 6):

6 large tomatoes

1 dl / ½ cup bulgur wheat

3 tbs olive oil

Fresh herbs (basil, chives, oregano, parsley)

Salt and black pepper to taste 

1.  Boil the bulgur wheat on low heat for about 10 minutes and drain.

2. Wash the tomatoes and cut a thin slice from each stem end. Scoop out centres. Discard seeds and chop the rest into small cubes.

3. Chop the fresh herbs and together with olive oil, salt and pepper and the chopped tomatoes add to the cooked and drained bulgur. Check the taste.

4. Stuff the tomatoes with the bulgur mixture and put the 'lid' on.

5. Bake in the oven at 200°C / 390°F for about 15 minutes.

Chicken Stuffed with Chorizo and Manchego Cheese & Tomato Stuffed with Bulgur and Herbs:

Cook's Notes:

*A thin fish fillet knife is handy when cutting the pocket to the chicken.

*You can never use too much smoked paprika...

*There are lots of Irish sheep milk cheeses. I will have to try them, too, and not always stick to the old brand(s)!

Jury's Comments:

"I don't want anything green in my tomato!" (Son, 13)

"Is there any more chicken?" (The Little Brother, after eating his stuffed fillet)

"Would taste good BBQed [too]." (Husband, who'd BBQ everything when the weather is sunny and nice)

Liver Lover

I am a Liver Lover. To the extent that my favourite James Bond movie is Liver and Let Die, one of the best books I have read is Gabriel García Márquez’s Liver to Tell the Tale, and when I am in the mood for liver I listen to Uriah Heep’s Easy Liver. More liver than clever but I am not letting these darlings die – instead, I tell my tale of how to cook easy liver.

Even as a child, liver was among my top ten foods. Usually fried on a pan and spiced with lots of white pepper, but also cut into pieces and cooked in a creamy sauce and served with mashed potatoes and fresh lingonberries.  I cannot remember if I had had lambs liver before moving to Ireland but here it has become my absolute favourite - simply and quickly fried on a pan and enjoyed with lingonberry jam which you can buy at the IKEA food shop.

Liver casserole is a traditional Finnish food made of minced (pork) liver, rice, onion, raisins, eggs, milk, syrup and butter. In the old times liver casserole was usually made for Christmas, but nowadays you can buy it ready-made in every shop in Finland all year round (various brands, with or without raisins, lactose-free…), heat it in microwave or on a pan with lots of butter, or even enjoy cold.  I know people who love to fill their sandwiches with cold liver casserole and a dash of mayonnaise… - When I went to school in Finland in the 80’s, liver dishes, especially liver casserole, were frequently served in the school canteen. Now having a look at the school menus in Finland I can hardly find any liver on them.

I mainly use lambs liver in my kitchen and every now and then pork liver, too. It is not easy to find beef liver in Ireland, but when I see a piece I grab it. What comes to the family, my sons love liver and my husband eats it occasionally (‘best when wrapped in bacon and BBQ’d’) but the daughters and the cats never. 

When I need an energy boost, I treat myself to some lambs liver for lunch as it is best when enjoyed alone in the house (that is, no kids saying yuck and no husband seeing how much I actually eat...).  If there are any leftover mashed potatoes, it really is a quick lunch, and very inexpensive gourmet, too, the price of lambs liver being about 6-7 € / kg.

My Easy Livers:

Pan-Fried Lambs Liver:

Fresh lambs liver, about 150 g / person

Butter

Salt and black/white pepper

1. Heat a frying pan, add a knob of butter and fry quickly on high heat so that the middle is reddish, but cooked.

2. Enjoy immediately, preferably with mashed potatoes and lingonberry (or cranberry) jam.

Minced-Liver Hamburgers (makes 10):

300 g minced beef liver

3 medium-size potatoes

1 onion

1 apple

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground white pepper

1. Mince the beef liver. I use my food processor to get it very smooth.

2. Grate the potatoes, onion and apple and mix with the liver.

3. Add salt and pepper.

4. Fry on a pancake pan on low heat (takes about 5 min / side). 

5. Serve with potatoes/mash and, again, lingonberry (or cranberry) jam.

Liver Casserole (for 4):

2 dl / ¾ cup rice

300 g pork liver

2 tsp salt

½ l / 2 cups milk

1 egg

1 onion

½ tsp ground white pepper

2 tbsp syrup

1 dl / ½ cup raisins

Butter

1. Cook the rice until tender and drain it.

2. Mince the pork liver in a food processor.

3. Chop the onion.

4. Mix the rice and liver and add egg, milk, finely chopped onion, raisins, syrup and spices.

5. Grease an over-proof dish with butter and pour the casserole mix there. Add a few knobs of butter on top if you like.

6. Bake in the oven at 175°C / 350°F for about 1 h 15 min.

7. Serve with lingonberry (or cranberry) jam.

Cook’s Notes:

*I usually buy liver from a butcher’s or from the counter at a supermarket, as I trust it is fresher, but after buying packed liver from Tesco, I have to say it was a delicious surprise.

*If you are a bit suspicious with liver and/or find the taste of liver strong, replace half of the liver in the hamburgers with minced beef.

*Liver casserole may not be the most beautiful dish in the world but it sure is worth trying!

Jury’s Comments:

“What’s the smell in the kitchen… yuck, the liver looks like something I have inside of me!” (Daughter, 9, smelling and seeing fresh liver in the food processor)

“Yummy!!” (The Little Brother, 6, eating a minced-liver hamburger)

“Better than Saarioinen [a brand in Finland].” (Son, 13, Liver Casserole Monster)

Going Greekish

My family loves a meatloaf made of minced lamb and filled with feta cheese, olives and tomatoes. Sort of Greekish, I would say, so I started planning our Sunday menu around that theme. 

Lamb in Ireland is always delicious and fresh and I have never had a problem to find the piece of lamb I want (leg, shoulder, rack, mince…) and when I want. Ireland sure is a lamb lover’s paradise!

Even before moving to Ireland I always visualised the country full of green fields with herds of sheep. After moving to Ireland my image changed a little as I more often seem to see myself behind the steering wheel on a narrow country road where suddenly a sheep or a few of them appear from nowhere. I do manage to brake just in time but then realize - damn - why did I hit the brakes after all, it would have been an easy-catch Sunday dinner…

The National Sheep and Goat Census from December 2011 shows that there are nearly 3,5 million sheep in Ireland. The history of herding sheep is long – even St. Patrick was a shepherd for 6 years when he was sent as a slave from Scotland to Ireland in the end of the 4^th century A.D. 

In Finland there has quite surprisingly been sheep already in the Stone Age (article about it in Finnish at tekniikka&talous website) but rather than slaughtered young and used for cooking the animals have mainly been raised for their wool. Even in the Finnish national epic Kalevala the main character Väinämöinen himself is described shearing sheep, spinning the wool into yarn and making clothes of it. - In 2011 there were only 129 000 sheep in Finland which explains not only the fact that Finns do not eat much lamb but also that 80% of all lamb meat in Finland is imported.

What comes to Greece I do not think that much of cooking lamb (other than some odd dishes like moussaka and lamb souvlaki).  My mind rather keeps wandering to the Greek mythology where I remember lamb being a highly respected sacrifice to gods. – According to Eurostat there are about 9 million sheep in Greece.  The Greek not only eat the meat but milk the sheep, and yes, traditional feta cheese is made of sheep milk.

In the current economic climate Greece may not be the word you love but Greek food is absolutely delicious so let’s praise the Greek for that if nothing else. 

*** 

Our Sunday Menu (for 6):

Greek-Style Meatloaf 

Mashed Potatoes

Deep-Fried Courgettes

Tzatziki

Greek Flatbreads

Frozen Halva Parfait

***

I started my Sunday morning with making the parfait as it needs at least a few hours in the freezer before serving.

Frozen Halva Parfait:

6 egg yolks

½ dl / ¼ cup granulated sugar

4 dl / 2½ cups cream

250 g halva

Fresh berries / raspberry coulis / jam

1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick and white.

2. Whip the cream.

3. Crumb the halva and add the crumbs to the egg-sugar mixture.

4. Turn in carefully the whipped cream.

5. Pour the mixture into a loaf tin (I used an old ice cream container) and smooth the top. Freeze until firm, at least 4-5 hours but rather overnight.

6. To serve, remove the parfait from the freezer and let it soften slightly. Unmould it onto a plate and cut into slices. As halva is very sweet, berries make your parfait perfect. 

Lamb Meatloaf:

500 g minced lamb

1 egg

1 dl / ½ cup liquid (water, cream, beer)

1 dl / ½ cup dried breadcrumbs

1 tsp salt

black pepper, ground paprika, oregano, basil, chives

Filling:

100 g feta or mozzarella cheese, chopped

1 dl / ½ cup sliced black (or, rather kalamata) olives

1 tomato, chopped

1. Mix the breadcrumbs, salt and spices and add the egg and liquid. Let the mix settle for a few minutes.

2. Add the minced lamb to the breadcrumb mix. I always use my food mixer, but I know some of my friends cannot get the right touch unless doing it by hand.

3. Line a pan with baking parchment and with (olive) oiled hands shape the meat into a 1 cm/ ½” inch thick square, about 25 cm x 25 cm / 10” in size.

4. Mix the chopped cheese and tomato and sliced olives together and place them on the meat. 

5. With the help of the baking parchment roll the meat around the filling and close the ends.

6. Cook the meatloaf in the oven for about 30 min at 175°C / 390°F.

7. Cut the cooked meatloaf into nice and thick slices and serve. I love it with mashed potatoes.

Tzatziki:

2 small cucumbers

1 garlic clove

250 g Greek yoghurt

2 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp salt

pinch of ground black pepper

1. Grate the cucumbers and put the grated cucumber in a sieve to get rid of excess liquid.

2. Crush the garlic.

3. Mix the cucumber, garlic, yoghurt, lemon juice and spices and serve immediately.

Greek Flatbreads:

3 dl / 1 ¼ cup water

9-10 dl / 3½ - 4 cups strong white flour

1 bag (7 g) dried yeast

½ tsp salt

Butter for frying

1. Mix the flour, yeast and salt together.

2. Pour in the warm water.

3. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes and leave to rise until doubled in size.

4. Divide the dough into 16-18 small balls and roll them flat (about 15cm/6”) in diameter.

5. Heat a frying pan.  Melt a little butter (half a teaspoon, maybe) for each bread and cook the breads, both sides, about 1 minute per side.

Deep-Fried Courgettes:

1 medium-size courgette

1 egg

4 tbsp flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp (smoked) ground paprika

Oil for deep-frying

1. Cut the courgette into thin slices.

2. Mix the egg and milk on one plate and the flour, salt and paprika on another.

3. Dip the courgette slices into the egg mixture.

4. Heat the oil in a pan.

5. Toss the courgette slices in the flour mixture and slip them into the hot oil for about one minute.

 6. Drain the deep-fried slices on kitchen paper.

7. Serve piping hot.

 

Cook’s Notes:

*In Greece there are 0,9 sheep per inhabitant, in Ireland the figure is 0,8 and in Finland only 0,02. The more sheep the worse economy…?

*Frying the flatbreads takes some time. Make them first and warm them up before serving. I ended up having two pans on the stove as everything else was ready and half of the breads were still waiting to be fried.

*The halva parfait melts very quickly so serve it right after you take it out of the freezer.  If you want to get nice pictures have the camera ready in your hand because the parfait is not only melting fast but disappearing fast, too…

Jury’s Comments:

“Make more meatloaf next time!” (Everybody)

“The leftover courgettes are great when just fried but they get all squishy instead of nice and crispy if you heat them in the microwave.” (Husband, after enjoying leftovers for lunch the following day)

La-Di-La-Di… Lard - Pork Pie

I prefer butter in my baking. I add oil to pizza and bread dough, but I hardly ever use margarine, and lard I had never used until now that I saw some interesting pie recipes with lard in the crust.  

Somehow I had got the idea that I would need to ask lard from a butcher’s shop where they would have it hidden behind the counter. After asking for it the butcher would hand me a suspicious-looking white ‘blob’ hanging loosely from a piece of pig’s skin with blue stamps on it… Well, this image of lard in my head probably associates with a Glaswegian gangster Aloysious “Lard” O’Connor – an imposing character in Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street series books – who in  Espresso Tales (2005) is described as “an extremely overweight man” with “fleshy tattooed forearms”.

What comes to the butcher’s I was wrong. There seems to be lard available in every supermarket, neatly packed and piled on the shelves beside the butter I always buy.  This does make sense after I read about the industrial processing of lard and the type of pig fat used for it. You can find instructions how to make lard at home, too, but I don’t think I would bother after buying the nice package costing only 0,59€/250g. 

I browsed various recipes to get ideas for my very first pork pie with a lard crust and decided to use simple ingredients for the filling:  minced pork, smoked bacon, onion and spices.  And some jelly too, just to see if/how it works out.

Crust:

200g lard

2,5dl / 1 cup water

9-10dl / 3½-4 cups plain flour

1. Put the water and lard in a pan over low heat until the lard melts.

2. Add the flour and mix with a spoon until the dough is smooth.

3. Let the dough cool down a little and roll it into a firm ball and let it rest while you make the filling.

Filling:

600g minced pork

200g smoked bacon rashers, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1-2 tsp salt (if the bacon is very salty, 1tsp is enough)

black pepper, paprika, dried parsley, dried chives

Glazing:

1 egg yolk 

Jelly (optional):

2,5dl / 1 cup vegetable stock

2 gelatine leaves

1. Fry the chopped onion on a pan with some oil. (not necessary but I wanted to make sure the onion is well-cooked when the pie is ready)

2. Mix the minced pork with the chopped bacon, (fried) onion and crushed garlic. Add salt and spices. - Fry a little filling on a pan if you want to check the taste.

3. Grease a loose base cake pan with lard.

4. Take about 2/3 of the dough and press it around the pan, both bottom and sides. For the lid roll the rest of the dough to a circle (a little bigger than the pan).

5. Place the pork mixture evenly on the crust.

6. Put the lid on carefully and pinch the edges together with your fingers. Make a hole in the centre of the lid. If you have any dough left roll it and use a cookie cutter for making decorations.

7. Glaze the lid with egg yolk.

8. Bake in the oven for about 1h 30 min at 175°C / 350°F.

9. Let the baked pie cool in the pan.

10. If you want to add jelly soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes and add them to the hot vegetable stock. Using a funnel, pour the smooth liquid into the hole in the pie.

11. Let the pie set in the fridge at least for 4 hours, then remove the pie from the pan carefully and serve with salad or pickled or sour cucumbers. 

 

Cook’s Notes: 

*Crust made of lard is very easy to handle as it is not sticky at all. I hardly needed any flour even when rolling the lid.

*I found it hard to get the liquid made of vegetable stock and gelatine poured into the pie. It just did not go in but flooded all around. Maybe the filling was too tight and there should be left some room between the lid and the filling (if possible)?

Jury’s Comments:

"Add some roughly chopped apple and a few tablespoons of Calvados next time you make it." (Husband, Calvados Lover)

"Where is the ‘like’ button?" (Son, 13, Screenager and Mouse Potato)

"I love what’s inside but not what’s outside [crust]." (The Little Brother, 6, Carnivore)

"It’s not that nice [but I tasted it!]." (Daughter, 9, Open-minded Critic)

"I’m going to the chipper." (Daughter, 17, Chipperian by Heart)

"Zzzzzz…" (Cats)

Cupcake Fun

”I’m having a sleepover with three of my friends in our house this Saturday and we are going to make cupcakes,” announced my 9-year-old daughter last week. “Here is a shopping list for you!” 

And she had not only made a shopping list, but written invitations to her friends and a schedule what they would do, hour by hour, including having Chinese food for dinner, going to the front yard and have a race, eating non-butter popcorn while watching a movie and going to bed at 1 a.m. The bedtime was the only thing I had to disagree with her. Baking with the girls would be great fun and I was looking forward to seeing their creations.

So shopping I went, after checking what we already had in the kitchen cupboards. It was not easy to find coloured cupcake cases  as Easter was gone and Christmas stuff would not arrive to the shops until in a few weeks or so… Nor was I sure what fondant icing would be as I had never used it before, but I did find it (fondant icing is a ready-made block of icing; it is easy to roll, shape and you can colour it if you like), and got cute coloured paper cupcake cases, too!  

Before the girls arrived I made the dough ready. This is a very basic recipe and enough to make 36 small(ish) cupcakes.

Dough:

300g butter

3 dl / 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar

5 eggs

5dl / 2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla sugar

(2 tbsp dark cocoa powder)

1. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.

2. Add the eggs one at a time.

3. Mix the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar and fold into the butter-sugar-egg mix.

At this point I divided the dough into two bowls and added 2 tbsp of cocoa powder into the other half.

The eager little bakers filled the cupcake cases - half full as I instructed them to do. Then my job was to bake the cupcakes in the oven at 175°C / 350°F for about 10-15 minutes. 

While the girls were cooling down in the front yard I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, making some icing and putting things ready for the girls to let them prove their creativity as pastry chefs. 

Icing:

50 g soft butter

3 dl / 1 ¼ cup icing sugar

A few drops of food colouring 

Beat the butter and add the icing sugar gradually. The paste should be smooth and firm, especially if you like to pipe the icing on your cupcakes. Add some water or milk if the icing is too stiff. 

I divided the icing into two bowls colouring the first half of the icing yellow and the rest green.

For decorating we had:

Home-made icing

Fondant icing

Writing icing

Sprinkles

Mini marshmallows

Some odd candies my daughter found from her ‘safe’ (leftovers from her Friday candies)

When everything was ready I called the girls in so they could start making a mess decorating the cupcakes. The little brother wanted to join the team as a sous-chef and to my surprise he was welcomed to do so!

I gave the kids free rein to create their cupcakes as they liked. I helped them with filling in the piper with icing and checked every now and then that they were sharing the two rolling pins we had and not using a whole jar of sprinkles on one cupcake… Otherwise the bakery was fully theirs:

One of my daughter’s favourite food programs is Ace of Cakes and she had learned from there how to make a rose of fondant icing. After making one, her first one ever, she was teaching her friends how to make roses, too.

This one my daughter made from ‘milk teeth’ candies and the tongue is made of fondant icing with some red writing icing on it. Great idea for Halloween!

The little brother could maybe borrow the teeth from the cupcake in the picture above while waiting for his own teeth to  grow… These  cupcakes were his creations which he was very proud of:

As you could see from the pictures, there was icing sugar all over the place and sprinkles everywhere you could think of from the kids’ ears to the cat’s tail, and I found a few little stains of green food colouring on the carpet but the kids had great FUN and so did I!! - And the cupcakes turned out just gorgeous:

After the cupcakes were all ready and set up on the (very shaky) cupcake stand the girls sat at the table and enjoyed some of their precious creations with tea. I packed the remaining cupcakes for the guests to take home the following morning and we all said good night after an absolutely great evening, brushed our teeth (the inedible ones) and went to bed.

***

What comes to the bedtime, the lights were switched off around midnight and the girls were nicely curled up in their sleeping bags in the living room. Yesterday morning my daughter told me that they had been up till 2:35 a.m. but I couldn’t hear a sound from downstairs (at least nothing overpowering my husband’s snoring) so cannot be sure. Last night my daughter did sleep for 13½ hours – how lucky I am she is that it is a bank holiday Monday with no school today so she was able to do so.