Orange flavored white chocolates

Ready to be eaten.

Christmas is only a few days from now and everybody’s baking and baking. I must admit that I have been a bit lazy and only Christmas candy I made is these white chocolates with a hint of orange flavor.

300 g white chocolate

0,75 dl cream
2 tsp grated orange peel
Coconut flakes

Wash the orange and grate the peel with a shredder. Place the chocolate pieces in to a casserole with cream and warm it up until the chocolate melts. Remember to stir the chocolate-cream all the time to avoid it to burn to the casserole. Add the grated orange peel and let the mix to boil for couple of minutes. And do remember to stir!

Place the chocolate into the fridge for at least an hour or overnight. Form small balls from it and roll them in coconut flakes.

So good!

You don't need a lot to make these :)

Creamy chicken fillets

Your ingredients

I thought that chicken breast made in the oven would result in paper dry meat, but I was wrong with this recipe. The meat was so juicy and tasty that I was amazed big time.

4 chicken breast fillets

2 dl cream
4 slices of bacon
6 pieces of sun dried tomatoes
10-15 mushrooms
4 tsp of mustard
Salt
Pepper

Fry the chicken fillets golden brown from both sides on a frying pan. Season with salt and pepper and place the meat in the oven casserole. Slice the mushrooms, bacon and tomatoes. Fry the bacon as crispy on a pan and add the mushrooms. Mushrooms should also get some colour on them.

Place the bacon and mushroom on the chicken with the sun dried tomatoes. Mix the mustard with cream and pour it on top of the chicken.

Cook in the oven in 225 degrees for about 15 minutes. Serve with potatoes, rice or with green salad.



Fry the meat on the pan,
this will keep the meat juicy
in the oven.

Put the tomatoes, bacon and mushrooms
on the chicken.

Pour the cream-mustard mix on the meat.





Delicious and juicy!

Fresh spring rolls - Goi Cuon

Serve with dipping sauce.

I think everybody knows the Chinese spring rolls, but I must admit that I was surprised when I heard about the fresh Vietnamese spring rolls. Could they offer a healthier option for the fried crispy spring rolls? Anyway, I loved the taste and they are quite fun to make.

As I was making these for the first time I followed quite closely the recipe I found on Youtube (Helen’s recipes – Vietnamese food). Maybe next time I dare to experiment with new fillings.

600 g pork belly

300 g scampi
200 g rice vermicelli
Salad leaves, pepper mint leaves, coriander, chive and sliced cucumber
Rice paper (large or small according to your choice)



Boil the other half of the
pork belly and cook the
other half in the oven.

Cook the scampi until they
are orange.

For the sauce you will need:

Oil

4 garlic cloves
5 table spoons of hoisin sauce
5 table spoons of the water where the pork belly was boiled in
1 table spoons of peanut butter
Sugar


Cut the pork belly in two pieces and boil the other piece in salt water for half an hour. The other piece you can quickly fry on a frying pan on both sides before putting it in to the oven for 45 minutes in 175 degrees. Before putting the meat in to the oven taste it with salt and pepper. When taking the meat out from the water or the oven check that it is not raw or pink in the middle. When the meat pieces have cooled down cut them in thin slices.



The ingredients.

Peel the fresh scampis (remove also the black line on the back) and fry them on a frying pan without any oil until they are orange. Cut them in half.

Cook the rice vermicelli and rinse it with cold water.

Rince the rice paper under water and place it on the table. Put the salad and mint leaves, cucumber slices, coriander and rice vermicelli on the other end of the rice paper. Next the vegetables place one pork slice. To the end of the rice paper you place the 2 slices of scampi so that the skin is towards the rice paper. Start rolling the paper from the end where the salad was and stop just before the scampi. Close the open ends by turning the sides of the spring roll. Add the chive on top of the scampi and finish the rolling of the rice paper.



Fresh spring rolls.

Place the vegetables in the
end, meat infront and
scampi in the other end.

The sauce you make by warming up the oil and gently cooking the small garlic pieces in it. Add the Hoisin sauce with pork belly water and peanut butter. Stir it well and add 1 table spoon of sugar. Let the dipping sauce to thicken for couple of minutes on low fire.



Stop rolling just before scampis,
turn the ends and continue
rolling over the scampis and
chive.

Minced meat soup with cream cheese



Enjoy the soup!

When the weather gets cold it is nice to warm up the body with a hot bowl of soup.

1 onion

1 l of vegetable bouillon
300 g minced meat
1 dl pasta
150 g cream cheese (I used pepperoni flavored but try also with herbs etc)
300 g mixed vegetables (broccoli, corn, cauliflower etc).
Parsley

Prepare the bouillon and when it boils add the onion pieces in it with the minced meat. Let it boil for some 5 minutes. Add the pasta and the cheese and let it cook for 10 more minutes. Add the vegetables and let the soup to boil for couple of minutes. Sprinkle some parsley on top of the soup.

 Bon app!

Easy and good :)

Home food - Meat soup

This meat soup is part of slow cooking and you should be ready to cook this soup around 2 hours. For the best bouillon and taste use the chuck steaks with bone. The taste is in the bones and the long cooking time will release the flavors in the soup.

Cut the meat fiber crosswise.

About 1 kg chuck steak with bone
1 l water
2 onions
4-6 bay leaves
10-15 whole black peppers
6 potatoes
your own selection of soup vegetables
1 food spoon of salt

Cut the meat fiber crosswise so that the meat will become tender when cooking. Rinse the meat with cold water and boil it until the foam appears to the surface. Remove the foam and add the sliced onions, bay leaves, peppers and salt. Cook the soup for 2 hours on a low fire.

Remove the foam.

During the last 30 minutes add the potatoes and during the last 15 minutes the vegetables of your choice.

Cook for 2 hours.

Roasted chicken

Serve with rice.

I never tried making a whole chicken before, only those ready marinated that you just put in to the oven and eat. My parents made the roasted chicken when I was a child and it was quite awful and dry. I think my traumas come from there. But I decided to give another chance.

For 2-3 persons you will need

1 whole chicken
1 lemon
1 tea spoon of honey
Rosemary
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Let the chicken to be
30 minutes in the room
temperature.

Rub the chicken with salt and let it be in the room temperature for at least for 30 minutes or more. Slice the lemon and put it in to the chicken with the herbs and some olive oil. Rub olive oil on the outside of the chicken and then with honey, salt and pepper.

Place the chicken in a crock pot chest side up. Put the chicken in the oven and cook it in 225 ˚C for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature after this to 175 ˚C and let the chicken be in the oven for about an hour. Take the chicken out from the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Serve with rice. If you want some taste in the rice let them be in the fat that is left in the crock pot. Not the healthiest option but a tasty one.

Stuff the chicken with herbs
and lemon.

Rub salt, pepper and honey
on the outside.

Vanilla rolls

I have baked sweet buns before and this time I tried the recipe for the vanilla rolls. In this recipe the rolls had a subtle taste.

11 dl flour

4 dl milk

50 g yeast

2 eggs

200 g butter or margarine

1 dl sugar

1 tea spoon of vanilla sugar

1 tea spoon of salt

2 tea spoons of cardamom

Filling

100 g butter

2 dl powdered sugar

2 tea spoons of vanilla sugar

Warm up the milk as the same temperature as your body temperature and mix the yeast with the milk. If the milk is too warm the yeast will die. Mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, cardamom and half of the flour with the milk.





Mix the ingredients.

Add the rest of the flour to the dough and finally mix the soft butter in it. Let the dough to double its size in a warm place. Let the oven to warm up to 200 ˚C.

Roll out the dough into a sheet with a rolling pin. I used a bottle because I did not have a rolling pin J Spread the filling on the sheet and roll the dough. Cut the roll into small pieces and place each of the pieces in their own paper flows. Put some sugar on top. If you want you may smear the buns with eggs just to give it a nice shine when they are baked in the oven.



Butter the filling.

Bake the vanilla rolls in the oven for about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Enjoy with cold milk or with nice latte.

Cut the roll into pieces.

Lingonberry porridge



Lingonberries

This dish is eaten in Finland and you can even buy it ready in a grocery store. The dish brings back my childhood memories. You can eat is as lunch, dinner or dessert.

 

1 l water

3 dl lingonberries (also known as cowberries)
2 dl semolina
1 dl sugar (for sweeter version use 2 dl)

Boil the lingonberries for 10 minutes and add the semolina to the water mixing the lingonberry water at the same time. Add the sugar and boil for 5 more minutes. Let the porridge to cool down and mix it with a mixer or hand mixer. I used only 1,5 dl of semolina and the porridge was left rather watery so I think 2 dl should be better for a more firm consistency.

Mix the porridge with a mixer.
 

Pink porridge :)



Home-made Swiss roll



Bake the dough in 225 C˚.

Who would not love Swiss rolls? So good and rather easy to bake. Swiss rolls are also known as sponge cake rolls. Filling can be according to your taste from raspberry, blueberry jam and whipped cream and so on.





For one roll I used:
3 eggs
1 dl sugar
1 dl flour
0,5 dl of potato flour
1 tsp baking powder
Rapberry jam, blueberry jam, apple jam





Sugar the empty paper.

Mix the eggs and sugar into a white foam. Mix the flour, potato flour and baking powder. Pour the flour mix carefully to the egg foam mixing carefully. Do not mix the dough too much because otherwise the foam can flatten.

Put the dough into cake form and place it into the oven for 6-7 minutes in 225 C˚.




Place the roll over the sugared
paper.

Place an empty baking paper on a table and some sugar on it. Carefully roll over the cake on it. Let it cool down a bit before spreading the raspberry and blueberry jam mix on it. Here I have used apple jam on the other half of the roll.

Let it be in the fridge for half an hour and enjoy with coffee or cold milk. 
 
 
 

Spread the jam and
start rolling.

Pork tenderloin with black currant sauce

Cook the jam together,
add butter

Have you ever made sauce from black currants and eaten apples instead of potatoes? Well I found this French recipe from one cooking book I got as a present. Curiosity made me to try this dish and I loved it.

 

For four people have:

800 g pork tenderloin
4 apples
2 dl of black currant jam
Butter
Cinnamon
Salt
Pepper

Cook the apples and add
cinnamon

   (Frozen or fresh black currant berries)

Take the tenderloin out from the fridge and let it be in the room temperature for couple of hours. Fry the tenderloin on high temperature until it is golden brown on all sides. Take the meat on the side and put it back on the pan when the pan has cooled down. Add salt and black pepper on the meat. Cook the tenderloin on low temperature under a lid for 15-20 minutes.

Cook the sliced apples for 10 minutes in oil or butter and mix the cinnamon in the end.



So good!

Take the meat on the side and let it rest inside a tin foil. Cook together the black currant jam with some butter on the pan you cooked the meat on. If you want you can add some fresh or frozen black currant in the sauce.

Place the apple slices first on a plate, then the tenderloin and pour the sauce on top.

Bon app!

Pumpkin soup

Jack-o-lantern

Halloween is near and I wanted to make my first jack-o-lantern ever. It turned out to look really nice for my first lantern J I guess people usually throws the inside of the pumpkin away but I decided to make a soup out of it.

1 pumpkin (you will need about 500 g of its meat for the soup)

2 carrots
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Chili (fresh or powder)
1 dl cream
1 l of vegetable bouillon
Coriander
Salt
Pepper

Open the pumpkin on the top and use ice cream spoon to get the meat and the strings out. Wash the seeds and let them to dry. You can roast the seeds in the oven in 160 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Chop the onion and garlic and cook it lightly on a pan with oil (or butter) and chili for 1-2 minutes. Add the pumpkin meat and the carrots and cook the mix for few minutes. Add the bouillon and let it cook for 20 minutes. Mix the soup with a hand blender. If you use the hand blender you can use actually everything inside from the pumpkin, not the just the meat but also the “strings” where the seeds were.

Blend with hand blender



Use ice cream spoon
to take out the meat

What you need is...



Serve with coriander and
roasted pumpkin seeds

Add the cream and let it boil once. Taste with salt and pepper and serve with fresh coriander and roasted pumpkin seeds. Try the soup also with some goat cheese like chevre ;)
 

Happy Halloween!

White chocolate mousse with touch of mint



Mix the egg with chocolate

This dessert doesn’t need any long presentations: white chocolate mousse.

 

For four people you need:

 

3 dl cream

3 egg yolks

150 g white chocolate

Dark chocolate with mint taste

 

Melt the white chocolate either in a water bed or on a low temperature in a casserole. Be careful when melting the chocolate because it can burn
easily. Let the chocolate to cool down a bit and then mix the egg yolks in it.

 




Mix the egg mix with
whipped cream

Whip the cream and add the egg mix in it. Stir it well.

 

Break the mint chocolate into small pieces and mix it with the mousse. Before serving let the mousse to be in a fridge at least an hour.