Adventures out in the Kingdom

Last weekend out and about in Norway we met enough snow to convince anyone that winter had muscled autumn out of the way and settled in. Six days later and it is all change. We headed out again to the north western fjords and were treated to beautiful big blue skies and a countryside closing down after the tourist season, in other words we had it to ourselves and we were lucky with the weather.

Away from the Kitchen in my day job I have had an almost unending line of my colleagues enthusing about one place or another as special in Norway. This weekend plan was to drive from Trondheim to Innerdal and then onto the Trollstiggen road, over the water to Geirangerfjord and finally up to Ålesund and take the coastal express home to Trondheim.

I have to say that it surpassed my expectations and while I am ready to relocate the Kitchen to Helsinki I cannot claim that I am not sad to be leaving. However this weekend went someway to making sure that packing away the Kitchen will be done with a sense that the opportunity (however short) was taken.

*****

The Kitchen was briefly out in the wild when we came to cook dinner on Saturday night in a self service hytte high above the town of Tafjord. We had no idea what we would meet in the hytte so I was delighted that the choice to cook a steak was rewarded with a heavy cast iron pan which cooked them beautifully. To all others in the area enjoying the solitutude I can only apologize for setting off the smoke alarm!! We also had some leeks that we cooked in butter and served on top which added a little twist on the old classic of steak and onions. I used the same cast iron pan and loved the way that some parts were crisp and others still had a bite to them. Try it.

*****

The turnip soup worked and here is the recipe

Wash, clean and chop up the Turnips and add a few potatoes.
Cover with water, salt and boil.
Once cooked - puree. You will need the cooking water for this so make sure you save it.
Return to the pan, season and heat up gently.
Add cream.
At this stage I added something spicy to give it a little oomph. This can be as simple as pepper and as complicated as Garam Masala or Chilli flakes. Don't go mad, you don't want to obliterate the taste of the Turnip.
Cook for a few minutes.
Check seasoning and serve.

Keep cooking and don't waste anything!