ABC steak

ABC Farmarin Possu – Farmer’s Pork 11,90€

We spend a lot of our weekends driving between Tampere, Vantaa and Mäntyharju. Whilst on the road our usual stop is at ABC rest-stops. There’s usually at least one on our way, regardless of where in Finland we’re going. The service is quick, the menu has many options to choose from (pizza, burgers, steaks), the price isn’t bad and neither is the food. This month their special is the farmer’s pork which features a pork fillet, with your choice of side (potatoes/veg etc…), topped with a fried egg and BACON! For 11,90€ it’s good value for money on the go.

Sunday burger

Sunday’s are great days for doing everything you normally don’t have time to do. I’ve been doing some spring cleaning all day, packing winter clothes and storing them for the summer, washing the bathroom and doing laundry. As a reward we made some burgers with my boyfriend. We had to run around the city to get the all the ingredients, because we kept forgetting to buy some of the things.. But finally made it home and started cooking.

I baked the buns myself, and then made the patties. All you need for making a nice burger patty is some ground meat, salt, and pepper. Just mix the spices into the meat, divide into pieces of  ~100g and flatten and shape them between your hands. These aren’t meant to be too thick, just thick enought for them to stay in one piece. Then fry in a hot pan for a couple of minutes and make yourself a burger of your choice. Ours had a lot of stuff in them; bacon, tomato, lettuce, two sorts of mayos, ketchup and cheese. It was goooood. And the best part is, that there’s still some left for tomorrow!

-Riikka

Bacon birthday

On Thursday I turned 25 (!!!) and to celebrate I decided to have a small bacon themed birthday party. But in order to make it happen I had to have a good lunch to keep me going all day. This resulted in a sushi lunch at Maruseki, one of Tampere’s few sushi places (I think Tampere only has two proper sushi restaurants). Maruseki’s lunch includes a salad, miso soup, main course (sushi sets/grilled fare) and coffee/tea.

 

Either I’m pretty unadventurous or I’ve found something I really crave because I almost always go for the same lunch.  I go for the Shibuya which gets me 10 yummy salmon nigiris  (10,50€) Once you’ve placed your order you’re directed to get your salad and miso soup from a buffet line. So, if you’re really hungry you can basically heap as much salad on your plate as you wish. On Thursday they had basic shredded salad, sprouts, cucumber, pickled cabbage and nori. The best thing about their salad table are the salad dressings. There’s like five or six different ones to choose from. I went for the wasabi yuzu dressing. Delicious! Much better than your typical (western) creamy salad dressing. The cool thing is that you can buy the sauces to take home 100ml/2€. The miso soup is good too

After lunch I headed to Lidl to buy more bacon and some drinks for the party. All in all we bought a little under 1kg of bacon!! Then I headed on home to get ready and to finish making my bacon ice cream

Instead of having my party in our small apartment we opted for our housing companies ‘clubhouse’. They have a pool table, Foosball table, sofas, mini kitchen, ample space to party and most importantly it’s not attached to any of the other housing spaces so the neighbors don’t complain

Of course since it was my party food & drink was a top priority! I bought some chips, sour cream & onion and my personal favorite salt & vinegar (I knew this one would divide my friends opinions). I also made a fruity punch (recipe below ).

I got some lovely gifts from people which was a surprise since I wasn’t expecting anything! Again food and drink was a clear theme Satu baked me a delicious Bailey’s cheese cake which was really rich and delicious and Riikka made me chocolate covered bacon <3 (perhaps they’ll put the recipes up soon? )

I usually make a white wine sangria type punch but this time I decided I would use some of the liqueur we brought over from Tallinn last fall. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but in the end trial and error proved to be the best way. Someone said it tasted a little like those red gummy bears

500 ml raspbery liquer

100 ml vodka

100 ml triple sec

1,5l flavored mineral water (Rainbow Breezy Lime)

1l juice (Marli Vital mustikka-arnoia… blueberry-chokeberry)

Orange slices, strawberries and lime slices for decoration.

I also made a big ice cube thing by freezing some of the juice in a silicone cake mold

Make sure you chill all the ingredients well in advance Mix in a large punch bowl, garnish with fruit slices and enjoy! The punch is a healthy 5.78%

My piece de resistance was the bacon and hazelnut ice cream. I’ve been toying with the idea of a bacon ice cream for quite some time and since I recently invested in an ice cream machine the idea finally became a reality

500 ml heavy cream

2 vanilla pods, scored down the middle

100g sugar

4 egg yolks

crushed hazel nuts

5 slices of crispy fried bacon

molasses

dash of Amaretto liqueur

1. First heat the cream with the vanilla pods until the cream is close to boiling (don’t let it boil!). Take of the heat and let the pods infuse the cream (around 20 min).

2. In a metal bowl, beat and mix together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Remove the vanilla pod from the pan of milk and scrape out the seeds into the milk. Pour the milk into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar whilst stirring.

3. Make an improvised water bath by putting the metal bowl into a large enough pot so that the bowl fits in to it properly. Very carefully cook the mixture into a thick custard (when you can see a film form over the back of your spoon it’s ready). It should not boil! Leave the custard to cool. I put it in the fridge overnight.

4. Mix oil and molasses with the crushed hazelnuts and roast in the oven until golden (this happens very fast).

5. Put the custard into the ice cream machine. Add the bacon and roasted hazelnut bits into the mixture while the machine is churning.

6. At the very end add a little molasses and a dash of Amaretto (optional).

7. Put into a container and sprinkle some bacon and hazelnuts on top. Put into the freezer until firm then serve to hungry guests

To be honest the ice cream turned out surprisingly good. Even less bacon obsessed people enjoyed it (or so they claimed)!

All in all a fun night with good food and some excellent company <3

Thanks again to all!

-Laura

Chicken Galliano

Yay! Today is officially the first day of spring! And to celebrate I’m posting this entry from our sunny, yet totally snowy, patio. Thankfully yesterdays snow storm is over and today has been a  lovely sunny day. Sitting in my coat and scarf listening to the sun (slowly) melting the snow away it is finally beginning to feel like spring (might be on its way)!

A while back my in-laws visited and as a gift they brought us a lovely bottle of Galliano. After an evening of various renditions of Harvey Wallbangers we were left with fond memories, a slight hangover and an unfinished bottle of Galliano. Now I’ve been stuck without any good use for the remnants of the bottle since it seems like a waste to finish it whilst getting ready for a rowdy student night. So, you can imagine how excited I was when I found a chicken Galliano recipe whilst flipping through issue #131 of Saveur magazine! I made a few changes to the recipe so here is my version to fit my taste and student budget.

What you need
3 chicken legs (thigh & drumstick… but you can use chicken breast)
salt & pepper to taste (bacon and chicken broth are quite salty)
goats cheese (I used plain soft goats cheese and added my own “herbs de Provence” mix)
6 slices bacon
6 small/medium common white mushrooms
butter
flour, for dredging
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup Galliano liqueur

What you need to do

1. Mix goats cheese with herbs until cheese is softened. Separate the thigh and drumstick. Then de-bone the thigh and remove skin. Season both thighs and drumsticks with salt and pepper. Lay thigh meat flat on a cutting board and spread goats cheese on one side of the thigh meat.

2. Using bacon wrap thighs into tight little cylinders (with goats cheese on the inside bacon on the outside). Then using kitchen twine (if you can find the darn thing anywhere anymore!) or in my case dental floss (!!) tie the chicken into neat little rolls. Snip off any excess twine you don’t want random strings hanging from your neat little packages!

2. Heat about 3 tbsp. butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook, without stirring, until browned, 4–5 minutes. Stir mushrooms and continue cooking until softened, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Put flour on a plate; dredge each chicken roll in flour.

3. Heat 2 tbsp. butter and the oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning, until browned and cooked through, 12–14 minutes. Transfer chicken rolls to a plate.

4.  Add broth and Galliano to skillet; boil, stirring, until sauce has reduced by a third, 4–5 minutes. Return mushrooms and chicken to skillet; cook, turning to coat in sauce, until warmed through, about 5 minutes.

3. Transfer chicken to a platter. Remove skillet from heat; swirl in remaining butter to make a smooth sauce. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve with rice or as I did with pasta.

The chicken turned out really good It was moist (because of the goats cheese & bacon) and really flavorful! The Galliano and it’s 30 or so aromatic herbs gave the sauce a complex and deep flavor and I have to say that I prefer Galliano being used as a component in this dish rather than it being a part of a Harvey Wallbanger no matter how much of a classic the drink is!

-Laura & Bobby

PS. This post and the making of Galliano Chicken was unofficially powered by some Liviko Cherry liqueur and cola left over from the last student party I attended.