D Day has finally arrived. The movers came and the kitchen was taken away. It's on it's way to Helsinki. The boss and I are however in Norway for one more week. So we've adopted a camping approach to feeding ourselves.
Faced with the long drive from Trondheim to Helsinki we always knew we had limited space in the car for things. So I've been trying to turn down every request for something to stay with us by imagining a car bursting at the seams with stuff, a 12 hour drive, little daylight and increasingly wintry conditions.
However that still leaves the question of how we shall feed overselves over the next week. The answer is simple. All those odds and ends that have found their way to the freezer because they might add something to a dish I was making have now been dusted down, invented and our lives have been turned into a week long edition of ready, steady, cook. I don't mind this at all. It does lend itself to a rice and stock based diet which bothers me not a bit. The boss is reading this and I've skimmed through a couple of times enough to be able to riff on the basic themes. So lot's of rice, vegetables, ctock (because we can't take it with us and I won't waste it) and fish.
I shall be sad to leave Norway, I have enjoyed living here enormously but I feel quite excited about setting up the Kitchen in Helsinki. My little brother is coming for Christmas and I know the idea of cooking traditional Finnish Christmas Dishes is too appealing to pass up. Oh and by the way it isn't a "winter holiday" it's Christmas. Stop being so damn politically correct!
The final brilliant part of this plan is that as we eat a lot of things that are in the Kitchen Box right now and other bits and bobs like foil and bags will be used up in the next week so there will less stuff going into that car.
Until next time. Waste nothing.
Friday, 26 October 2007
Sunday, 21 October 2007
On the road
We've been away for the last few weeks hence the quietness on the blogging front but hopefully this post will tidy up a few odds and ends and get a few recipes out there and bring everything bang up to date.
We left Norway on the 9th October for Copenhagen to see Crowded House at Amagerbro. It turned out to be an old Cinema converted to a concert venue and the size was small enough to be intimate, big enough not to be like playing squash with elephants in the back of a mini. The band were on excellent form and seemed to tear up the set list from the first song to the last and we were treated to all the classics and few belting new tunes. All round top gig.
Then we went on the UK to make wedding arrangements. We have a date - 31st May 2008. I assure you now that the Kitchen will be closed that day!
I also managed a walk in the Lakes while we were in the UK and we were treated to a mid october day so lovely I was wearing shorts!
*****
Before we left for Copenhagen we managed to harvest some of the plum tomatoes we've been growing just for the purpose of making passata. I have to give credit where due and I used this recipe here. A by product of this process was I had a lot of lovely tomato juice left over so last night we made a quick pasta supper and the recipe is as follows:
We left Norway on the 9th October for Copenhagen to see Crowded House at Amagerbro. It turned out to be an old Cinema converted to a concert venue and the size was small enough to be intimate, big enough not to be like playing squash with elephants in the back of a mini. The band were on excellent form and seemed to tear up the set list from the first song to the last and we were treated to all the classics and few belting new tunes. All round top gig.
Then we went on the UK to make wedding arrangements. We have a date - 31st May 2008. I assure you now that the Kitchen will be closed that day!
I also managed a walk in the Lakes while we were in the UK and we were treated to a mid october day so lovely I was wearing shorts!
*****
Before we left for Copenhagen we managed to harvest some of the plum tomatoes we've been growing just for the purpose of making passata. I have to give credit where due and I used this recipe here. A by product of this process was I had a lot of lovely tomato juice left over so last night we made a quick pasta supper and the recipe is as follows:
Chop up some onion and a fresh chilli.
Heat a little oil in a pan and add onion and chilli and fry gently.
Add some bacon that is chopped up and some courgette.
Put on some water to boil for the pasta.
Add the tomato water to the frying pan and leave to simmer.
Add some salt to the pasta water and when it is at a rolling boil add pasta.
Dash of cream to the frying pan. (We added a dash of flour to thicken up the sauce and it worked really well.)
When pasta is cooked serve with some fresh basil leaves on top.
Just a few things to remember
The tomato water is pretty salty already so you're not going to need a lot of seasoning.
Add a little water to the flour before it goes into the pan.
It was a simple and tasty supper and best of all it was using left overs that might ordinarily have been thrown out. Always good to live up to the Kitchen's ideal to waste nothing.
It was a simple and tasty supper and best of all it was using left overs that might ordinarily have been thrown out. Always good to live up to the Kitchen's ideal to waste nothing.
*****
While I was cooking that supper I was suddenly struck by the question of whether rosemary and chilli were a good combination. I'm not sure but it sounds exciting so hopefully there will be some experimenting and reporting back.
*****
Finally it is worth mentioning that we have been very lucky this year in the Kitchen to have got hold of some fantastic home grown ingredients - garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, turnips, chill, basil and carrots to name a few. It does make a difference to your cooking when the ingredients are fresh. I'm hoping when next years growing season comes around all the things we've learnt this year about the Scandanavian growing season help us to manage the plants better so we get a bit more and I can have the challenge of making sure nothing is wasted!
Monday, 1 October 2007
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!
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!
Monday, 24 September 2007
Out of the Kitchen to Hoth
Soon it will be time to shut the Kitchen down and move it to Helsinki. Before that happens we will have a few weekends when things are quiet to get out and see a little of Norway before the year runs away with us.
Just to show how far things are advanced here I've included a photo from a wedding we attended at the weekend. We had a chance to take a quick walk before the ceremony and I've since discovered we were wandering over pretty much most of the film locations used in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Walking is one of my passions along with cooking and a spell away from the Kitchen can be a real good way to get yourself enthused again.
Tomorrow night I'm going to make a simple turnip soup. I kind of figured it out in my head earlier today and then did the research and I was very close. It's part of what I'm striving for in the Kitchen - a store of knowledge about the food we eat so that no matter what ingredients land in front of me something tasty, something worth sharing with friends, something comforting, somthing nurishing will come out. The simple stuff and the fancy stuff, it all needs to come from within, the recipe book in front needs to be less important than the knowledge in your head.
So if this turnip soup works well I'll be heading out for another walk.
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Seasons & soppjakt
The year is turning fast, summer is really gone. All those weeks I managed to run around the house in my shorts are just a memory and we have really begun to think about buying some more woolen underwear.
This week the kitchen has been mirroring the change. Friday night, after a long week at work we managed to turn out a deeply autumnal risotto that welcomed in the change of the season. It came about in a good way which was true to the kitchen's ethic that it is wrong to waste food.
Last week when the boss was away I prepared some Palette du Porc a la biere for her return. It was delicious but we had too much sauce left over. So for our first risotto of autumn 2007 we converted the sauce into a stock (or in laymans terms we diluted it with water) for the risotto which gave it a deep richness that allowed the simple ingredients we used. I'm sure there are purists out there who would decry me for allowing a sauce that had french mustard in it anywhere near a risotto but I don't care.
In a slightly odd counterpoint to this the boss & I kicked back last night after service and had a couple of wonderfully stiff mojitos to say goodbye to a great summer.
As if further evidence was needed of the march of time the first snow was seen on Vassfjellet this morning when we got up. Unperturbed by this we went to nearby Bymarka to collect wild mushrooms and endured a day where we were snowed on, rained on, blown about and generally treated like a rag by the elements. Luckily we were well wrapped up so it was great fun to be out. The hunt itself was a desperately frustrating affair as we managed about 4 pig fungus and 1 small chanterelle. Still they were put to good use in tonights service.
Moving time is soon upon us so the challenge now is to empty the freezer of as much as possible. This makes service in the Kitchen very simple but probably means there'll be more time to clean which is my least favourite job!
Keep cooking and waste nothing!
This week the kitchen has been mirroring the change. Friday night, after a long week at work we managed to turn out a deeply autumnal risotto that welcomed in the change of the season. It came about in a good way which was true to the kitchen's ethic that it is wrong to waste food.
Last week when the boss was away I prepared some Palette du Porc a la biere for her return. It was delicious but we had too much sauce left over. So for our first risotto of autumn 2007 we converted the sauce into a stock (or in laymans terms we diluted it with water) for the risotto which gave it a deep richness that allowed the simple ingredients we used. I'm sure there are purists out there who would decry me for allowing a sauce that had french mustard in it anywhere near a risotto but I don't care.
In a slightly odd counterpoint to this the boss & I kicked back last night after service and had a couple of wonderfully stiff mojitos to say goodbye to a great summer.
As if further evidence was needed of the march of time the first snow was seen on Vassfjellet this morning when we got up. Unperturbed by this we went to nearby Bymarka to collect wild mushrooms and endured a day where we were snowed on, rained on, blown about and generally treated like a rag by the elements. Luckily we were well wrapped up so it was great fun to be out. The hunt itself was a desperately frustrating affair as we managed about 4 pig fungus and 1 small chanterelle. Still they were put to good use in tonights service.
Moving time is soon upon us so the challenge now is to empty the freezer of as much as possible. This makes service in the Kitchen very simple but probably means there'll be more time to clean which is my least favourite job!
Keep cooking and waste nothing!
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Top tip
It's so simple but mix chorizo and slab bacon together. They bring out good things in each other.
Green Tea Ice Cream
We had a friend over for dinner on Sunday and decided that in his honour we needed to cook some Japanese food. He's German so Japanese was the natural choice!
What was due to be a fairly simple meat and rice dish became much more fun as we made some miso soup and some green tea ice cream.
First of all when it comes to Miso soup you need your Dashi stock. Like any stock home made stock is better than packet bought instant. Yes in mid Norway it is difficult to find seaweed and bonito flakes to make an authentic dashi but where there is a will there is a way and the results are better for it. So next time you make miso, go out and make proper stock.
Next time you make anything that needs stock - make your own.
Make a lot.
Freeze the excess.
It is worth it.
The other thing we made was green tea ice cream. This was hand made old fashioned ice cream needed just sugar, egg yolks, milk, cream and green tea powder. For those of you who are sceptical - it tasted wonderful, it wasn't too hard to make and it is a real wow at the table.
I'm very excited that the relocation of the Kitchen to Helsinki will make the availability of ingredients for Japanese food so much easier than here in Trondheim. However much I am enjoying the idea of living in a big, cosmopolitan town again there is a part of me that will be sad that the inventiveness that was needed here will be gone in the face of all the odd ingredients you could wish for in a big city.
Still no stopping progress hey?
What was due to be a fairly simple meat and rice dish became much more fun as we made some miso soup and some green tea ice cream.
First of all when it comes to Miso soup you need your Dashi stock. Like any stock home made stock is better than packet bought instant. Yes in mid Norway it is difficult to find seaweed and bonito flakes to make an authentic dashi but where there is a will there is a way and the results are better for it. So next time you make miso, go out and make proper stock.
Next time you make anything that needs stock - make your own.
Make a lot.
Freeze the excess.
It is worth it.
The other thing we made was green tea ice cream. This was hand made old fashioned ice cream needed just sugar, egg yolks, milk, cream and green tea powder. For those of you who are sceptical - it tasted wonderful, it wasn't too hard to make and it is a real wow at the table.
I'm very excited that the relocation of the Kitchen to Helsinki will make the availability of ingredients for Japanese food so much easier than here in Trondheim. However much I am enjoying the idea of living in a big, cosmopolitan town again there is a part of me that will be sad that the inventiveness that was needed here will be gone in the face of all the odd ingredients you could wish for in a big city.
Still no stopping progress hey?
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