Tummyrumble

Chicken saltimbocca with mushroom and tomato sauce

Saltimbocca (which literally means "jump in mouth") has never been as tasty as with this sauce. Wrapping the chicken fillets in sheets of parma ham not only adds a lovely saltiness to the flavour of the chicken, it also seals in all the juices making the chicken really tender and succulent.

If you feel there is a lot of butter used in this dish, you are right. I have recently started following a diet called "LCHF" - Low Carb High Fat - so from here on, beware. Cutting out on the carbs and replacing them with fat has a lot of health benefits, of which perhaps the most paradoxical one is that you get rid of your overweight in a natural way. Fat and cholesterol are good for you. Read up on it, its fascinating.

Sweet lamb mince bolognese

Wanted to cook something simple and decided on bolognese. Found a recipe that mentioned using lamb mince and I thought "why the hell not?"

Oriental salmon and bean salad, Tesco style

Thank you Waitrose
Originally uploaded by Manne.

When I really have no clue what I want to cook, I usually do a quick look online just before I leave the office to see what recipes I can find that are inspiring, quick to cook and slightly different.

Today I checked out Waitrose's web site for the first time since I have seen the recipe leaflets and brochures they hand out in store. Found this excellent recipe called "Oriental Salmon and Soya Bean Salad" that looked yum.

Now, I don't live near a Waitrose, I don't even have one on my way back home from work so despite the recipe mentioning almost exclusively Waitrose specific ingredients I decided to take my chances with my local Tesco and improvise if there was something I couldn't find (right, miso paste at Tesco, I think not).

This is the result, after quite a lot of improv. Still yum, and really healthy too. And so quick to cook.

Ingredients (serves 2, or me coming home after a long run)

2 salmon fillets (skin still on)
1 tin of broad beans
1/2 pack of string beans (full pack is 265 gr)
2 chopped shallots
8 cherry tomatoes on the vine, halved
1 pack of fresh coriander (30 gr)
1 tbsp Chinese Five Spice paste
1 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn or potato flour
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cooking oil

Method

Start with cutting the string beans in half. Put them in a steamer for five minutes, and simmer the broad beans in a sauce pan for the same amount of time. Also chop up the coriander and put in a salad bowl.

While the beans are tendering up, make the dressing. In a small bowl put the chilli sauce, the Chinese Five Spice paste, the soy sauce and 2 tbsp of boiling water. Give it a good stir so the paste dissolves. Set aside.

When the beans are done, put them in a cold water bath so they cool down and crisp up a bit.

Mix the chopped shallots with the corn flour in a bowl until the shallots are evenly coated. Warm a non stick frying pan on high heat, add half of the oils, then add in the shallots. Fry until golden, about 1-2 minutes. Set aside on a kitchen paper towel.

Return the frying pan to the heat and add the remaining oil in. Now place the salmon fillets skinside down (Waitrose says skinside up which is bonkers, you want the skin down from the start so it crisps up) and let fry for 4-6 minutes (depending on thickness) until you can see the meat getting light and opaque up until just under half the thickness of the fish. Flip them over (see how golden and crispy the skin now is?) and let fry for another 3-5 minutes until completely heated through and crispy on both sides. Be careful not to over cook them and ruin the velvety goodness inside.

While the salmon is cooking, put the beans, the shallots and the tomatoes in the salad bowl with the coriander and drizzle with 1-2 tbsp of the dressing. Mix it all up.

When the fish is done, place a small mound of salad on a plate and the salmon on top. Drizzle some of the remaining dressing over the fish and salad, serve immediately.

Absolutely bonkers good.

Gulasch soup / stew

Lovely gulasch.
Originally uploaded by Manne.

This was originally a rather simple soup recipe I found, that I then experimented with to make it more hearthy and rich. So to be honest it has become more like a stew than a soup, but that is not a  bad thing...

The word "gulasch" stems from Hungarian and means something like herdsman or shepherd, which should put a picture in your head of what this dish is like. After a long day of herding cattle, sitting on a wind swept plain with nothing but stars above your head, a fire in front of you and a big pot of this spicy warming stew simmering away above the flames.

Brown rice casserole

Found this recipe a few weeks ago, and it seemed to me the perfect lazy Sunday comfort food dish. Original name is "Chicken and brown rice casserole", but seems to me you can chuck most anything in there and you would still have a really enjoyable and filling dish.

Modified the recipe a bit since we had pork roast leftovers and mushrooms lying about, and what better purpose than feeding four hungry, slightly hung over, lazy flat dwellers on a cold March day.

Ingredients (serves 4-6 people)

2.5-3 dl boiled brown rice

2-3 tbsp butter

2 tbp vegetable oil

500 gr boneless chicken thighs

150 gr of some other meat

1 dl flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp crushed black pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp Chinese five spice

1 large onion, diced

3 carrots, sliced

2 romano peppers, diced

200 gr oyster mushrooms, diced

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 dl green olives, roughly chopped

100 gr grated cheese

2-3 dl vegetable stock

The "other meat" part is optional, but it added some extra feel to it with the left over pork meat diced and fried with the chicken.

Method

Wash the rice and put it to boil according to the instructions on the packet. Add one of the tbsp of butter and a tsp of salt to the water before adding the rice. For this amount of rice I would use just under twice as much water and simmer the rice for 30-35 minutes or until the water is gone. When done, set aside.

While the rice is boiling, chop up all the vegetables. Keep them separate as they go in at different times.

Trim the thighs from excess fat and cut them in bite size pieces. Boneless chicken thighs is without a doubt the most succulent chicken meat you can get, it will just melt in your mouth. Mix the flour with 1 tsp of salt and the black pepper, then turn the chicken meat in the mix until completely covered.

Start your oven and set to 180 degress Celsius.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan (all ingredients are mixed in here until transferred to a casserole dish), fry the chicken for a few minutes on all sides until golden brown. You don't need to cook them all the way through at this stage, just get them golden and crispy. Flavor them with the smoked paprika. If you use any other meat, add it in and fry it here as well. Put the meat aside when done.

Melt some of the butter in the same pan and fry the mushrooms. Set aside with the chicken.

Some more butter in the pan, saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic, cumin, ginger and a tsp of salt. Fry for a minute more mixing thoroughly. Add in the carrots, romano pepper and stock, bring to a boil and simmer for about five minutes until the vegetables soften.

Mix back in the meat and the mushrooms, and the rice. Also add half of the grated cheese and the olives. Turn off the heat and gently stir it all through.

Transfer mixture to a buttered casserole dish and sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top. Cover with aluminum foil and put in the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove foil cover and gratinate for a further 15 minutes. 

Serve piping hot with a simple green salad and some sliced cherry tomatoes.