I have an engineer <3

Sam handed in the final version of his bachelor’s thesis today and to celebrate we bought a couple of ciders & beers and you guessed it, fired up the grill

I’ve been pimping our garden ever since the snow showed the slightest signs of melting. Our latest garden feature is a small pink bucket filled with water with a fake LED-light up waterlily Sam got from his sister. It’s a little trashy-kitch but what can you do, we’re students with a quirky style

I don’t usually drink cider (I’m a beer girl) but it was such a sunny day that I thought I should make an exception and go for a fruity girly cider. Most of the fruity ciders sold in Finland taste overtly sweet and are terribly artificial, but I have to admit that there is one brand that I love and that is Rekorderlig. Even though they have fruity tastes geared towards teenage girls who want to get drunk without tasting alcohol they taste a lot less shite than other brands. I tried the strawberry-raspberry for the first time and it was good. Easy to drink, refreshing and not overtly sweet or fake tasting.

I marinated red peppers and zucchini in oil and a herbs de Provence spice mix before grilling them until soft and a ‘little’ charred (oops ).

One of the reasons I love grilling is because it makes chicken taste phenomenal. Chicken is cheap and unsurprisingly we eat a lot of it and there is nothing wrong with that. But once the chicken hits the grill our humble everyday dinner becomes something truly delicious. I marinated the chicken in soy sauce and some sugar and then grilled it until cooked through. I then brushed it with a thick and sticky soy sauce, sugar and tamarind sauce glaze. Yum

I also grilled some corn and tomatoes. I use ready cooked corn on the cob which is the only corn on the cob readily available in stores here year round. The best way to cook it is to brush the corn with oil and to grill until warm and nicely charred all over. Then I make a sauce of crushed garlic cloves and melted butter which is then brushed on the cobs right before devouring!

We ate on our patio and it was the perfect laid-back way to celebrate. Once Sam officially completes his degree we’ll have to organize a proper party but that’s to come…

-Laura

Ps. Check out my summery nail polish

Weekend snack

When there’s nothing in the fridge…

..make a pie.  I didn’t have many ingredients, but this is what I did and it turned out alright. The crust was a bit odd, sort of bread-like, a bit spongy, but still tasted good. If you use wheat flour, it might take a bit longer in the oven and you’ll probably need to add some water too.

There’s-nothing-in-the-fridge pie

2 eggs
2 dl grated cheese
1,5 dl flour of your choice (I used half almond and half soy flour)
1 tsp baking powder

Break the eggs into a bowl. Add flour, baking powder and grated cheese and mix together into a dough.  Put the dough into a pie mold evenly and bake in 225C for 10 minutes. When it has rised a bit, take out from the oven to place the topping.

Toppings:

4 tbsp pesto sauce
cherry tomatos
100g feta cheese (or goat cheese would be good too)
black pepper

Spread pesto on the bottom. Don’t worry about the pesto being too oily and making the crust soggy – it actually makes it super crunchy in the hot oven.  Cut cherry tomatos in half and place them on top of the pesto.  Crumble feta cheese on top of everything and finish with a pinch of black pepper. Put back in the oven in the same temperature and bake until the cheese has melted a bit and has some colour to it. Let the pie rest for a while, then eat!

Cooking in the dark

I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding last night and it got me thinking about lamb again. Kind of wished my family roasted a whole lamb on a spit every Sunday! To be honest lately lamb has been on my mind a lot with spring and Easter on the way. I don’t usually get to eat lamb since it’s not a meat readily available in most markets here in Finland (at least not fresh) and according to Sam it tastes like sucking on woolen socks. But with my craving getting stronger by the day and Sam visiting his parents this weekend I decided that it was finally time to defrost and devour the rack of lamb my dad gifted me a while back

I decided to try out something new whilst making tonight’s dinner. As some of you may know it was WWF Earth Hour from 20:30 to 21:30 so I decided that I would have a nice candlelight dinner with Bobby. Then after some thought I decided that it would be fun/funny to try to cook by candlelight too. So tonight’s lamb was cooked in the light of a couple of candles

I seasoned the lamb with salt, pepper and some piri-piri seasoning and then pan fried it in olive oil and a generous teaspoon of bacon fat with garlic cloves. The pan was on high heat and I fried it up quickly so the lamb was medium rare just the way I like it

Cooking in the dark (or candlelight) turned out to be quite fun but I’ll probably not make a habit out of it. Eating by candlelight on the other hand is something I might get used to

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.