Lasagne

Serve with fresh salad.

This was my first time I made the lasagne sauce from scratch. Next time I might try to do the lasagne sheet as well, but we will see.

For four persons you will need:

Tomato sauce:
400 g minced meat
half an onion
3 garlic cloves
1 can of crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomatopuré
1 small can mushrooms
1 carrot
1 dl water
parpika powder
salt
pepper
basil leaves
thyme

Cheese sauce:
30-50 g butter
3 tbsp flour
6 dl milk
60 g grated parmesan cheese
salt
white pepper

Cook the meat thoroughly. Add the chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped carrot, crushed tomatoes, tomatopuré, mushrooms, salt, pepper and paprika powder. Finally add 1 dl water and let the sauce to cook on low fire for about 10 minutes. Chop the basil and thyme and mix them in the sauce at the end of the cooking time.

Prepare the cheese sauce by melting the butter and add the flour stirring all the time. Add the milk and stir well. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the sauce gets thick. Add the parmesan cheese and let it melt in the sauce, mix well. Season with salt and white pepper.

While the tomato sauce is cooking you can start cooking
the cheese sauce,

Oil the casserole. Pour some of the cheese sauce on the bottom and then add the tomato sauce. Place lasagne sheets on top. Then repeat by pouring the cheese sauce, tomato sauce and placing the lasagne sheets making layers. Start and finish the lasagne with the cheese sauce. Spread grated emmental and mozzarella cheese on top and cook the lasagne for about 35 minutes in 225 °C.

Serve with fresh salad.

Cook 30-40 minutes in 225 °C.

Roasted dorade with herbs

Fill in the fish with garlic, herbs and lemon zest.

Ever had those grilled or roasted fish on your Mediterranean holidays? Yes, the fish is so tasty. Luckily in January I found dorade, a Mediterranean fish, from my local fish store. It is so easy to make.

For 2 persons you need:

2 dorades
3 garlic cloves
basil leaves
thyme
zest and juice of a half a lemon
salt
pepper

Heat the oven to 200 °C. Remove the gut of the fish or ask your local shop where you bought the fish to do it. Rub some salt and pepper inside the fish. Add the sliced garlic, basil, thyme and zest of the lemon inside the fish. Sprinkle some lemon juice inside the fish.

Place the fish in a casserole and drizzle some olive oil on them. Season with salt and pepper. Let the fish to cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown on the skin.

Serve with fried mushrooms, vegetable and couscous.

Roasted, juicy and tasty.

Pastry bags filled with fried tofu in red curry

So easy to make :)

This recipe is from Reza Mahammad from Foodnetwork Channel. I have never made anything from tofu so I was really excited to try this dish. And it was delicious and spicy!

You need

100 g tofu
1-2 large shallots
thumb size of ginger
1 tbsp red curry paste
1,65 dl coconut milk
50 g black Chinese mushrooms (also known as cloud ear fungus, wood ear fungus etc.)
4-5 stalks of chilantro
leaves from the chilantro stalks
2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp crispy fried onions
half a lime (juice and grated zest)
large spring roll pastry sheets
chive or spring onions

The ingredients.

Warm up the oven to 180°C.

Dice the tofu and fry it as golden brown in oil. Put the tofu on side. Slice the shallots and ginger into thin slices. Cook the shallots and ginger slices together with chilantro stalks in the frying pan. Add the red curry and warm it up. Add the coconut milk and stir well. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook it quickly. Take the pan a side and add the tofu cubes and chilantro leaves. Pour the juice of the lime and add the lime zest.

Put the mix in the middle of the pastry sheet and close it as a bag. Tie the bags either with chive or thin spring onion.

Put the bags into the oven for 10 minutes. Yummy :)

Serve with fresh salad.

Dahl -stew from red lentils

Cilantro is perfect match with dahl. You may also serve
some naan bread with it.

I have always wanted to try cooking Indian food. My problem may have been that I have been afraid to use the spices they use in the Indian kitchen but once you get started you cannot stop thinking what else you could cook.

This recipe is a vegetarian recipe made from red lentils. The dish is called dahl.

1 onion
2 carrots
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp of fresh ginger
2 tsp cilantro
1 tsp cumin powder (Cuminum cyminum in Latin and jeera in Hindi)
0,5 tsp cinnamon powder
4 dl red lentils
400 g crushed tomatoes
400 g coconut milk
2 dl vegetable stock
salt
lime juice
(chili powder)

Finely chop the onion, carrots and garlic. Saute them for couple of minuts. Add ginger, cilantro, cumin and cinnamon (and hint of chili powder). Mix well. Add the lentils and mix again. Add crushed tomatoes, coconut milk and vegetable stock. Mix well.

Let the stew to boil on low fire for 25-30 minutes. Season with salt and lime juice. Decorate with fresh cilantro.

Roast turkey with lemon and herb butter

This turkey was about 5,5 kg.

This time it was our turn to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner. I wanted to make something I never had done before and chose turkey. When I was in USA my family was invited to Easter dinner there we were served this beautifully moist turkey. My friend told that the secret behind the moistness is brining.

But I was still a bit of scared of the fact that maybe the turkey still will stay dry so I decided to combine the brining with Gordon Ramsey's lemon butter turkey. So I first brined the turkey for about 24 hours and then had butter all over the bird. And here is the recipe.

Brining:

about 3 litres water
2,5 dl salt
5 dl sugar
2,5 dl apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp sage
2 tbsp thyme
2 tbsp rosemary
2 tbsp pepper
1 l ice

Cook 1 l of water boiling hot and mix the salt and sugar in it. Stir until they are dissolved in the boiling water. Take the casserole off the stove and add the rest of the water and ingredients in to the salt and sugar water. Add the ice to the water. Dry the turkey with paper towels and remove the giblets (save the giblets for the gravy). Put the turkey in the water and let it marinate about 24 hours in a cool place. Our turkey was about 5,5 kg.

Brine the turkey about 24 hours below 10 °C.

The next day take out the turkey from the water and dry it thoroughly, also the cavity. Let the turkey to be in the room temperature about 2 hours before putting it to the oven.

Ingredients for the lemon and herb butter:

400 g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lemons
3 garlic cloves
bunch of parsley

Grate the butter. Grate the lemon zest and crush the garlic. Season the butter with salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the olive oil. Mix well. Add the grated lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic and parsley. Mix well.

Grate the butter, season it and mix the lemon zest, juice
garlic and parsley in it.

Other ingredients

salt and pepper
1 lemon
1 whole garlic
2 onions
6 bay leaves
olive oil
8-10 slices bacon

Heat the oven to 220 °C.

Season the cavity with salt and pepper (you have already the day before removed the giblets). Stuff the cavity with halved lemon, halved onions, horisontally halved garlic, couple of bacon slices and couple of bay leaves.

Now we should add the butter under the skin of the turkey. For this you need to loosen the skin with your fingers. You should do this from the both ends but be careful and not to break the skin. Take the butter in to your hands and stuff the skin underneath. Move the butter from the outside of the skin by gently massaging it all over the turkey. After you have stuffed the half of the butter under the skin you can add some bay leaves under the skin too.

Finally spread the rest of the butter all over the bird. Drizzle some olive oil on the butter to prevent the butter from burning in the oven.

After you have stuffed the butter under the skin, you may
spread the rest of the butter on the outside of the skin.

Roast the turkey for 15 minutes in 220 °C. Then take the bird out and baste it with the juices on the oven pan. Cover the turkey breasts with bacon and baste the bird again. Now lower the temperature to 170 °C and put the turkey back in to the oven. 2,5 -3 hours. You can calculate half an hour per kilo. Remember to baste the turkey once in 30 minutes.

After roastin the turkey for 15 minutes, take it out from the
oven and then cover it with bacon.

When the turkey is ready take it out and let it rest at least 45 minutes.

From the juices that are in the oven pan you can easily make the gravy for the turkey. I cooked the onions, lemon and garlic from the cavity in the juice. I also added 1 tomato to the gravy and some rosemary. In addition I had the giblets cooking the gravy as well but the liver I threw away.

Serve with mashed sweet potatoes, steamed vegetables, gravy
and good red wine.

Mashed sweet potatoes

I should use sweet potatoes more often. I think mashed sweet potatoes with cream finally proved it :)

For 4-6 people follow the direction under:

about 1 kg sweet potatoes
1 dl cream
1 large tbsp butter
salt
pepper

Peel the sweet potatoes. Cook them until they are soft. Mash the sweet potatoes, add the cream, butter and season with salt and pepper.

Serve for instance with turkey :)

Mashed sweet potatoes are prefect match with turkey.