Dinner in a Box

After such an outrageously delicious weekend, I was not very hungry, but still graved something different.

My answer? A Bento box.

So instead of eating something very special, I presented simple, ordinary food in my cute little bento box. A quick dinner it was too, apart from eating, because I don't use chopsticks very often at all!

I filled my marine blue box halves with rice, carrots, courgette and mushrooms. It looks a lot, but really was just the perfect portion size. Since I was eating at home and did not need to pack it tightly, as usually is the case with bento, I filled the lid with some fruits for dessert.

Yes, it is more dishes than one plate, but variety is the spice of life and if that means eating from a box sometimes, so be it.

French Weekend

This weekend I've had the pleasure to spend a lot of time with French friends. Thursday evening it was wine, foie gras, terrine and tiny duck sausages. All very good. I cannot remember the name of the white wine, but it was very sweet. The red was Châteauneuf-du-Pape. On Friday we had a small barbeque of sausages despite the rain, more wine, baguette, French moustard, cheese and salami.

Saturday we went to the city center, first some blonde Belgian beer in Porterhouse and then dinner in Da Pino, Parliament Str. It was a very nice, lovely little restaurant. I had bruchetta for starters, so did the guys. And a strawberry daquiri too. Then green pasta with a creamy salmon sauce. So good! To finish all off I had an after-dinner cocktail called Japanese Sleeper.

The rest of the evening was spent back in the Porterhouse with Belgian raspberry beer Floris ..finally got my raspberry. The guys had "proper" beers. On Sunday afternoon our culinary weekend ended in Burger King. But even so, they do make nice frites.

The Irish weather favoured us too, in a way. Ok, for mid-July it was not the best, but at least the only heavy rain fall was on Sunday. Which in Dublin, is pretty good.

There's no photos at all from the entire weekend, sorry.. Only great memories. :)

Crêpes

My grandmother is the best crêpe-maker I've ever known. Hers always turned out beautifully lacy and crispy on the edges with just the perfect saltiness. I aspire to learn the skill she had.

So today I made savoury crêpes for lunch and sweet ones for dessert.


Crêpes

Egg
Milk
Flour
Oat Flakes
Salt

1. Whisk egg and milk lightly. Add salt, flour and oat flakes.
2. Let stand for a while.


Crêpes with oven-roasted Vegetables

Aubergine
Courgette
Mushroom
Leek
Oil
Parsley, Chive

1. Slice and chop the aubergine and courgette, halve the mushrooms. Keep aubergines separate.
2. Drizzle some oil over the chopped vegetables, spice with pepper and herb mix.
3. Roast in the oven. 200C. Aubergines for 20 minutes. Courgettes and mushrooms for 10 minutes. I threw in some leeks as well with the courgettes and finely chopped some extra ones to sprinkle over the crêpe while it was cooking on the other side to integrate with the crêpe.
4. Put a crêpe on a plate, cover with roasted vegetables, sprinkle some chopped parsley and chives on top and layer with another crêpe and vegetables. Repeat as many times as necessary depending on the size of your crêpes and tower you want to create.



Sweet Crêpes

Blueberry Jam
Vanilla Ice Cream

Top some warm crêpes with jam and ice cream, cover with a crêpe and serve.


In memory of my grandmother who passed away July 4th 2009.

Rice with Avocado

I'm continuing with my easy Japanese influenced theme. Today for lunch I made rice with avocado and cucumber. So simple! And yet, definitive Japan-esque flavour! Credits to this quick and good student-like dish go to my big sister.

I love this tiny gem lettuce, the perfect lettuce size for a single person. They're so small, you won't have any leftover lettuce going brown in the fridge!


Rice with Avocado

Rice
Avocado
Cucumber
Little Gem Lettuce
Soya Sauce

1. Cook rice. I used a mix of Basmati rice and porridge rice so the result was stickier and closer to sushi rice.
2. Peel and chop avocado. Chop cucumber.
3. After rice is ready, drizzle some soya sauce (Kikkoman Less Salt) over it. Add the avocado, cucumber and lettuce to get some greens on your plate.

I'm sure this could be fancied up with some low-fat fish or seafood. Or just adding nori.

Misoish Soup

I've been wanting to go to a Japanese restaurant here in Dublin, but sadly as it is, I cannot afford to eat in restaurants at the moment.

I've got some tofu in the refrigerator and thought about trying miso soup. I have no miso or dashi however, so I just threw in things I do have to create a small resemblance to the real soup. Of course the flavour is not quite there without actual miso, but in midst of recession one must make do with less. Even so, it was very good.


Misoish Soup

Tofu
Noodles
Leek
Carrot
Parsley
Vegetable stock

Italian Biscuits

Yes, I know, it has been nearly 2 months since last post. Have been traveling a little and enjoying the summer days. As well as working on a big life changing project.


In the spring me and my flatmate were looking after a little kitten while her owners were on holidays in Italy. For our "trouble" they brought these lovely chocolate chip biscuits. If anyone knows what they're called or can provide a recipe, I'd be very grateful. They were absolutely delicious!

Lime Tofu with Noodles

I know it's been a while. I have not been starving myself, but just have not tried much new things. So here goes. Tofu marinated in limejuice and honey. I thought this would taste fresh and quite good. I was wrong. Well the tofu would have been edible, but for some reason I made a sauce of the marinade and poured it over the tofu and noodles.

It tasted like I'd mixed a big dollop of lemon curd in my dinner. I should have made a lime pie out of the sauce! I won't encourage anyone to try this. Also I burned the tofu a bit. Not a success.

Creamy Mushroom-Courgette Sauce

Another lovely pasta sauce. Very similar to the mascarpone one, but with cream. Very rich indeed, but oh my, so delicious.

Creamy Mushroom-Courgette Sauce

Courgettes
Baby Button Mushrooms
Olive Oil
Butter
Pepper
Cream

Pasta
Parmesan

Picnic

Today Ireland was blessed with another gorgeous sunny day so what better than to have a picnic in park with friends. We stopped to get some food from a supermarket, one of those posh ones that greet you with piles of fresh bread and pastries as you walk in. After filling the basket with baguettes, salads and cheese, we went to the Botanical gardens.

The bread was so fresh, it was almost eaten before we even got to the gardens! The blanket was laid on the grass, away from any possible shadows. We bought some nice smoked gouda and some wensleydale cranberry, which we didn't like much. For a bit of sweet I had baked mini muffins in apricot-cashew flavour. In Ireland one really appreciates days spent outdoors in the sun. It was a lovely day!

Cashew-Carrot Noodles and Wicklow

I had an wonderful day out in the Wicklow mountains. All week it had been dreadful weather, raining and cold. On Saturday morning, however, all that was gone like a nightmare and I awoke to a beautiful sunny late morning.

Had breakfast at the balcony for the first time since I moved to my new apartment in December. It was so lovely sitting in the sun. Since it was so nice I rang a friend of mine and organized for us to go to the Wicklow mountains for the day.

It was a very nice drive up there, we took a little detour. Our destination for the day was Glendalough. It's a beautiful place with two lakes and a monastic city. We wandered the foothpath and had a very leisurely time. It was so relaxing. Just a perfect day!


Naturally I was starving when I got back home in the evening, so quickly made this easy meal.

Lingonberry Jam

Isn't IKEA a wonderful place? Sure there's furniture, but also food. Swedish food market. On my last trip there, (I need to go all the way to Belfast, since Dublin store won't open till sometime this summer) I bought some lingon- and blueberry jams and blueberry soup, of course. Not to mention a bar or three of Marabou chocolate. Beats Cadbury's 10-0!


Today I finally opened my long saved jar of lingonberry jam or lingonsylt as it is in Swedish. I mixed it with some oats to make a snack-like porridge. Yum!

Lingonberry Oats

Lingonberry Jam
Oats
Milk

Mix the berries with oats in ratio thick not dry. Add a drop or two of milk to create a porridgy kind of texture. Adding sugar is optional, jam has added sugar. Using fresh berries requires a good amount of sugar. Although lingonberries are best not too sweet.

Orange Flavoured Chocolate Chip Muffins

I was itching to make muffins, it's one of my favourite things to do. So after work, being a good girl and first eating my salad (smothered in olive oil), I wondered what I could create today. There wasn't much to choose from, I had not been to the store after Easter and had no desire to even go there in the middle of the rush hour.

I had chocolate. So chocolate chip muffins were a natural conclusion. I used Lindt & Sprüngli Orange Intense, that is a fine dark chocolate with pieces of orange and almond slivers. It suited beautifully. These muffins have a light citrus taste enchanced by the use of lemon yoghurt.


Absolutely delicous with a cup of chaï while reading a book and listening the rain drops. I find that rain is a good excuse for treats like these, and it rains quite a lot in Ireland!

Orange Choc Chip Muffins

Makes 12 mini muffins

2 dl Flour
1 dl Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
60 g Lindt Orange Intense Dark Chocolate

1 Egg
40 g Lemon Yoghurt
1/3 dl Milk
1,5 tbs Vegetable Oil


1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips.
3. Mix in another bowl egg, yoghurt, milk and vegetable oil.
4. Grease the muffin tray.
5. Mix gently together the dry and wet ingredients. Spoon the dough into the tray cups or in paper muffin cups if used.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until done.

Cheeseburger

I know I'm an oddity when it comes to fast food. I've only ever had a hamburger once in my life. I'm not a vegetarian or generally against fast food in any way. It's just that burgers do not appeal to me at all.

My first experience with a burger was not off to a good start. I was in Stockholm with my mum, must have been 10 or 11 years old then. We went to some fast food restaurant for a quick lunch. I tried to eat the burger but could not finish it. I'm sure it wasn't terribly bad, since everyone else happily ate theirs. But to me it tasted so awful I've steered clear of hamburgers ever since.

Stopping at Rick's Burger, however, was a life changing experience. It was 3 AM on Sunday morning, coming home from a club. My friend had said these are the best burgers in Dublin and man, was he right! The biggest bun ever filled with a huge prime-beef and grated cheddar. It's so tasty! Also eating it outside in the square on a warm spring night couldn't have been a better idea! Thanks Wojtek!


Rick's Burgers, 24 Dame Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

Pain Perdu

I have a long weekend off from work thanks to Easter. I slept till late and then I decided to start the day lazily with a late brunch and use some old bread to make french toast. I have not made these in ages even if it so easy and I often have stale bread left. It really is a very yummy way of getting rid of old bread if you don't want to throw it away. I had mine with home made apple jam and sugar. Ice cream would have been lovely since it was a gorgeous sunny day!


Pain Perdu

Stale bread slices

1 Egg
2 dl Milk
1 tbsp Flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Butter

1. Whisk the egg and milk together. Add flour, sugar and cinnamon. Pour on a plate.
2. Heat the pan.
3. Let the bread slices soak in the mixture.
4. Fry in butter on both sides.
5. Serve with jam, ice cream or whipped cream.

Mignon

This is it. The famous Mignon Egg.


Packaged just like real chicken eggs!


Yum!!!

Spanish Omelette

I just love Spanish Omelettes. It's so quick and easy to make and you can add whatever you find in the cupboards or fridge to it. Normally I go for the simple option of potatoes and onion. Sometimes I add some mushrooms, but I guess it stops being Spanish then. Oh well, as long as it's good.

This one is with leek instead of yellow onion.

Spanish Omelette

2 Eggs
Potatoes
Leek
Olive Oil
Ground Paprika
Salt&Pepper

1. Peel and slice or chop the potatoes. I prefer boiling them a while so don't need to fry them on the pan so long.
2. Wash and slice the leek.
2. Heat the pan, add the leek and the pre-cooked potatoes.
3. Beat eggs with drop of water and add spice.
4. Pour the eggs on the pan over leeks and potatoes.
5. Cook until done from other side and then flip over if you like it cooked on both sides.

Green Salad

I made this green salad for lunch today. Wanted something fresh and light since my mum sent me some chocolate Easter eggs from Finland of which I really need to have a little taste before Easter. Really her fault to send them so soon, but I'm glad she did! These are of course Mignon eggs, of which more later. This is ever so simple, but I'll share it anyway. Now it's veggie time.

Green Salad - Trois Verts

Green Bell Pepper
Cucumber
Salad (I used Iceberg this time)
Olive Oil
Salt&Pepper
Pine Seeds

1. Chop the pepper and cucumber.
2. Tear the salad leaves.
3. Mix together with pine seeds, oil, salt and pepper.

Dream of macarons

I had a dream last night of macarons. Ones that I'd made and they looked so gorgeous! Lilac and lovely pink ones. Oh, how I wish I could create them in real life and not just in my subconscious. Soon I'll be in Paris, my beautiful Paris and true love. First thing there of course is to indulge in some of Ladurées delicious pistachio macarons. Pure heaven!

Jauhelihamakaronilaatikko

Now that's a long Finnish word and means casserole with minced beef and macaroni. It's a very simple dish and perhaps therefore often served in schools for lunch. The mild flavour and familiar ingredients make it a favourite among children.

Sometimes it's nice to have something that brings up memories and reminds how easy my life ones was.


Lihamakaronilaatikko

Minced beef
Olive Oil
Herbs de Provence
Paprika
Salt&Pepper

Eggs
Milk

Macaroni

1. Cook the minced meat, season.
2. Cook macaroni.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C and butter oven dish
4. Beat the eggs and mix with milk
5. Layer the macaroni and minced meat in the dish.
6. Pour over the egg-milk mixture.*
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes or untill done.

* You can top it up with grated cheese or with bread crumbs. But I haven't been to the Polish shop so didn't have any bread crumbs.

Raspberry Mousse

So this is another product from Glenilen Farm. I tried their lemon cheesecake earlier. The Raspberry Mousse is just as good. I added some fresh berries to it. Makes a nice little dessert.

Tiny Lemon Cakes for Baby Benjamin

This morning I became an aunt! My sister gave birth to a baby boy whom they called Benjamin Aleksanteri. The new little family lives in England so I wont have a chance to see the new arrival for a while, but still I decided to celebrate the occasion. My way is of course by making something sweet.


I got a recipe for a Spanish lemon cake from a colleague of mine who sometimes -not often enough!- brings her gorgeous cake to work to share. That's so nice of her! She was also so kind as to give me the recipe! I just love people like that.

I only made one fourth of the recipe since was running low on sugar and flour; the most basic cake ingredients.. Also because instead of making a cake I used my mini muffin tray. It's so handy! I have a lot of ideas for this recipe, can't wait to go to Finland and treat my family with all sorts of lemon delights! And for Benjamin to grow and learn about his Finnish heritage and good Northern food.

Courgette Mascarpone Pasta

This is one of the most wonderful pasta sauces I've come across. It's very rich and absolutely delicious. Today was the second time I made it. I love using fresh pasta, it makes very fine bubbles when boiling. I call them champagne bubbles, adds a bit posh to my dinner.


Courgette Mascarpone Pasta

Courgettes
Mascarpone
Milk
Lime
Basil
Salt & Pepper
Vegetable oil & Butter

Fresh Tagliatelle

1. Wash and thinly slice the courgette.
2. Cook the courgettes on a pan with little oil and butter.
3. Cook the pasta.
4. Mix mascarpone with milk so it is not so thick. Add some basil, lime zest and salt&pepper.
5. Mix mascarpone with courgettes and heat a little.
6. Drain pasta and pour sauce over. Serve.

Mignon Chocolates

My lovely mom was ever so kind and surprised me by sending a box of chocolates. Not just any ordinary Finnish choccies but a new kind of Easter confectionary.


The traditional Fazer Mignon is actually an Easter egg. It is an almond hazelnut nougat inside a real eggshell. Fazer has been making them since 1896, so perhaps it is about time to make different variations for modern chocolate lovers. Although I'm sure the Mignon egg will stay a favourite for generations to come.


This modern version is packed in an eggshaped box. It even stands upright, how clever is that!

And they taste delicious of course!!

Amsterdam

I went to Amsterdam for a very short trip on St Patrick's day weekend. It was my first time in the Netherlands. I arrived there on Sunday afternoon, since it was mid-March the air was quite cool. I dropped my backpack at the hostel, St Christopher's Inn, and started exploring the city.

What a nice city it really is! Small and compact with endless canals and quiet streets. I loved the fact that there was no traffic jams, hardly any cars in fact in the city center! Since everyone has a bicycle or a scooter. How brilliantly it works over there! Sadly Dublin is the exact opposite of that.

On Sunday I had just time to visit the Van Gogh museum after spending most of the afternoon just happily walking around. In the evening I took a budget option for dinner and bought some sushi and a bag of carrots from a supermarket to enjoy back at the hostel.


On Monday it was a bit warmer and in the morning first thing I headed to the famous Albert Cuyp market. A mile long market street where one can buy just about anything. I bought some mini pancakes. They're covered in a thick layer of icing sugar and served with a dollop of butter that melts nicely so you can dip the sugary treats in it! It was delicious, but I had a black trench coat on and as I was walking along the street while eating I ended up having half of the sugar powder on me.


After the market I visited FOAM, a gallery that had an exhibition of Richard Avedon's photos. Did some more walking along the canals and river Amstel. Then some shoeshopping -of course!

To fuel my shopping I bought some frites from Vlaams Frites Huis, a tiny little chippie on a side street that has been making probably one the best fries in Amsterdam since 1957. And for my sweet tooth, I got a caramel stroopwafel from a bakery called Lanskroon.


I had to buy some stroopwafels from Albert Heijn supermarket to bring back to Dublin too. They really are so deliciously addictive!

Mushroom - Courgette Quiche

I have been thinking about making a savoury pie for quite a while, I just couldn't decide what to put in it. Too much choice I guess. In Finland my top choice would be salmon. But in Ireland, I'm opting again for the green stuff.

I bought a big bunch of leeks and needed to use them somehow, so this recipe does not call for any yellow onions. Also I'm loving courgettes at the moment. I did not actually use a recipe to make the pie crust, so I'm not giving one out now either. I simply threw flour, water, oil and salt into a mixing bowl and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it did not come out very good. Next time I shall definitely use a recipe or a shop bough pie crust.


Baby Button Mushroom - Courgette Quiche

Leeks
Baby Button Mushrooms
Courgettes

Egg
Cream
Salt & Pepper

1. Wash and chop the leeks.
2. Halve or slice the mushrooms.
3. Wash and chop the courgette into small cubes.
4. Line the dish with the pie dough.
5. Fill in the veggies.
6. Pour the egg-cream mixture over.
7. Bake in 200 C for approx. 25-35 minutes.

Apple - Cinnamon Muffins

I made some apple muffins too, since didn't have enough raspberries for two batches. I added 1 crated Granny Smith, 1 tsp Cinnamon and some ground cardamom, to make them spicier and because I love cardamom, into the dough. The texture turned out to be a bit thicker, but still made very good minimuffins. They weren't as flyffy and moist as the raspberry ones. I think these would make excellent breakfast muffins. At least they feel healthy because of the apple.

1. Peel and crate the apple.
2. Squeeze some lemon juice over the crated apple.
3. Add the spices, mix a little, stir gently into the dough.

Raspberry - Lemon Muffins

These are my first ever raspberry muffins. My mum makes rasberry muffins sometimes, but they're slightly different. I was shopping on Saturday and saw this cute mini muffin tray. I have a normal sized back home in Finland and thought might be fun to have a mini one. And fun it was, got some fresh raspberries - I know they cost a small fortune - but totally worth it! Those big berries really filled the minitray cups, there was not much room for dough.


They turned out nice and fluffy with delicious rasberry heart! I must say, I was rather pleased. And so were my collegues at work, when I took these and another batch of Apple-Cinnamon muffins to the office the following morning!

Raspberry - Lemon Muffins

Makes 12 minimuffins

2 dl Flour
1 dl Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Lemon Zest

1 Egg
40 g Lemon Yoghurt
25 g Milk
1,5 tbs Vegetable Oil
1 tbs Lemon Juice

125 g Raspberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest. Mix in another bowl egg, yoghurt, milk*, vegetable oil and lemon juice. Grease the muffin tray. Mix together the dry and wet ingredients. Gently mix the raspberries in the dough. Spoon the dough into the tray cups or in paper muffin cups if used. Sprinkle some sugar on top of each muffin, this is totally optional. Bake for 12 minutes or until done. Let cool in the tray on a wire rack.


*You can use just yoghurt and if there is no lemon yoghurt available, natural kind can be used just as fine. I use Weight Watchers Lemon or Lemon-Lime.

Chunky Vegetable Soup

I got home today starving after a busy day in the office and was really feeling like some nice comfort food would be in place. So what better than a big bowl of hot soup and a slice of Polish bread. Here in Dublin there's a bunch of Polish people which means Polish shops and whole shelves in big grocery stores like Tesco dedicated to Polish products. This is good news to me because Polish bread is more similar to Finnish bread than Irish. Irish bread is based on soda or buttermilk instead of yeast.

I don't make soup very often and don't even own a blender to make those lovely creamy smooth soups. But guaranteed is, that I will attempt to make those some day when I have a proper kitchen filled with all lovely cooking utensils and gadgets.


This is a very rustic simple soup. I opted for a vegetable soup, since it's my favourite and not too heavy. Although this one ended up a bit too salty. Also very easy, quick and cheap to make!


Chunky Vegetable Soup

Potatoes
Carrots
Leeks
Vegetable stock cube
Parsley

Peel and dice the potatoes. Peel and chop the carrots. Slice the leeks. Try to make even pieces or cubes so that they boil roughly at the same time. Start by boiling the potatoes first, when they are almost done throw in the carrots and leeks with the vegetable stock cube. Boil until carrots are done. Garnish with parsley.

Irish Cheesecake

I had a craving for cheesecake for days and finally gave in. Well, I had to when I saw this cake. Was wondering around the store, they have recently changed the layout, so spent some time finding my groceries. And so I spotted this lovely looking lemon cheesecake on the shelf.

After half a seconds hesitations it was in my basket. Made by Glenilen Farm, an Irish artisan dairy. The list of ingredients is short and the description mentions happy cows. One cannot go wrong with happy cows!

Made with fromage frais, fresh cream and lemon juice it really is delicious! Although it has a very high layer of topping, it does not taste too heavy, so makes a great dessert after dinner too. I will be definetly sampling other products from their range in the future.

http://www.glenilen.com/index.html

Tofu & Honey Carrots with Noodles

Thought to share one of my favourite tofu recipes, since I managed to find tofu in an ordinary grocery store here in Dublin! Lucky me! This is a very simple yet delicious quick meal. Using honey makes it rather a sweet dish and the pine seeds give a nice crunch.

I fell in love with the combination of tofu, carrots and honey here in Dublin, as it happens. I was 21 and working in a fast-food restaurant in the outskirts of the city centre and a friend of my sister's had cooked a bit for us to sample. Now I'm back here again, same city, but my turn to cook.



Tofu and Honey Carrots with Noodles

Firm Tofu
Soya Sauce
Black Pepper
Vegetable Oil
Carrots
Honey
Ginger
Pine Seeds
Egg Noodles

Cut the firm tofu into smaller cubes. Place in a bowl and marinate in soya sauce for at least 2 hours. Season with black pepper.

Peel and slice the carrots. Boil for a couple of minutes. Drain and throw on a hot frying pan. Add ginger and 2 spoonfuls of honey. Turn the heat down and stir so honey will not caramelize or burn. You just want to glace the carrots gently in the honey. Add the marinated tofu and fry, so that it has nice colour. Add the pine seeds.

Boil noodles according to instrustions in the packet. I prefer having spinach noodles myself, gives a nice colour balance with the carrots, but unfortunalely these are not always available in the store. Basically any noodles or rice will be just fine. Mix together and serve.