keskiviikko 25. huhtikuuta 2012

FOODSPIRATION

Hi!

Sometimes we all face one of those days when your "fridge is empty and there's nothing to eat" and "I'm too lazy (or poor)  to and buy some groceries". Don't worry! I have them too. Actually I have one right now.

Did you know that your larder and spice rack are actually full of treasures?

I decided to go and give my larders a try and let the laziness win!

Let's do the oh-so-familiar step by step list:

1. Go to your fridge and take out anything that can be eaten.

2. Also go through your flour cabinet, larder, freezer, booze shelf..

3. Let your imagination fly!

Easy, right?

I could help you by telling what I managed to make, and what you most likely will be able to cook:

Inspiring Veggie burgers:


 I digged up a little and happened to find:

- Snack carrots
- Red lenses
- Onion
- Eggs
- Parmaggio
- Breadcrumbs
- Lemon
- Chili
- Salt
- Pepper
- Lettuce
- Bread
- Sesame seeds

I'd write you a recipe but it's really hard to rememeber how much of everything I used:D
But with a basic Veggie steak recipe it should be just fine.

The other recipe I tried on Monday was this:

Basil (fresh or dryed!)
Olive oil
Salt
Parmaggio
Pasta
Peanut crumble

That's it!
Just boil the pasta and mix other ingredients! D-licious!

There you go! Remember that sky is the ony limit when it comes to cooking. Sometimes you may fail but at least you'll learn something for the next time!

Tried doing this?

Comment and tell us!

If you didn't comment anyway! Just tell me how hard your life is!

WL

Momo

P.s Next up: Bakinspiration
What would it be? Microcakes?

sunnuntai 22. huhtikuuta 2012

CHERRYCHOCOCOOKIENOM



Hello!

Yesterday we went to shop to buy some groceries and begun to wonder what we should be eating tonight. We went through mozzarella salads, tortillas and all the other foods you can think of until we noticed the skewers at the fresh counter. We decided to start our grilling season with these awesomely delicious skewers!

For a dessert we wanted to have something sweet! As Ben&Jerry's is so freaking expensive we decided to come up with something similar. At the end of this post, we have a recipe for self made Ben&Jerry's alike!

At first, warm up your grills 'cause here comes the recipe for:


Bananas overdelicious skewers:
alias halloumi-cherry tomato-mushroom skewers with cream cheese filling

Ingredients:
a box (ca. 200g?) of cherry tomatoes
a box (ca 200g too?) of mushrooms (not those huge ones!)
150g of Halloumi cheese
100g of cream cheese (we used herb flavoured but use anything you like!)
Olive oil
Pepper
Skewer sticks


1. Take the spindles out of the tomatoes and pull your finger in so the contents will come off (yes, this seems awkward but actually is the only working way!
Also take the feet off from your mushrooms by twisting and pulling at the same time.

2. Fill the tomatoes and mushrooms with cream cheese. An ordinary food knife will work the best.

3. Chop the halloumi into 2cm square pieces

4. Make the skewers. (You know how to do this, right?)

5. Brush the skewers with olive oil and sprinkle some black pepper on them.

6. Grill for about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are fully done.

7. Enjoy with Frisé salad seasoned with balsamico, olive oil and black pepper


These were so good that we almost fell from our knees while eating them! Flavor harmony - perfect!

And now, if you're dieting, it's time to stop reading.

Because....

The next recipe is:

Cherry-Chocolate- Cookie Icecream

Ingredients:

1 liter of Vanilla ice cream (just buy the cheapest one!)
100g of (cherry) jam filled cookies with chocolate on top of them (Jaffa cookies in Finland)
7 cocktail cherries
1 tsp cherry liquid (the water inside the cherry can)


Looking so good!

1. Put all the ingredients on bowl
2. Ram them with blender

3. Put into fridge for 20 minutes or so
4. Make into cute servings:


Or just be lazy and eat straight from th bowl...(we..didn't.)


This was good.

Too good.

I want more.

I guess that was it!

I will continue my food travelling series shortly!

Yours icereamfully,

Momo

P.s Poke will spend next week in Amsterdam so I will most likely be making some boring updates 'cause I'm bored. Sorry in advance.


keskiviikko 18. huhtikuuta 2012

GOT ANY....GRAPES?



Hello!!!

Today is time to cook something VERY special!

it's called....

GRAPE-ORANGE-CHICKEN!!

now you can wipe that WHAT THE FRED-face from your face and keep on reading!

I admit, it seemed like a crazy idea when I read the recipe for the first time but the outcome was DELICIOUS!!!

now, let's see what do we need!

Ingredients:

a. 1 kg of chicken breast
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
4-5 garlic gloves
2 tsp provence mix
juice of one orange
1 tbsp chicken fond
2 sliced oranges
200 g grapes (sounds weird...I know but the taste is wonderful!)
1 dl of kalamata-olives/black olives

1. Put the chicken breast to the pan
2. Brush with olive oil, season with salt, garlic and provence mix
3. Chop the oranges and separate the pulp from the skin, cut the grapes and olives into halves.


4. Cook chicken breast in 200*C for about 30 min
5. Add the fruits'n'stuff and cook from 10-20 minutes
6. EAT


Anyway, this is how it should look like...



This is it!

WL:


Poke (and Momo..grammar nazi)




sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2012

BUN BUN BUN BUN





HUOMENTA!!![fi-en translation: morning!!]

So! Poke is back!

I'm very glad to announce that my cooky cookery book is now ready!!!

Maybe you will see a sneak peak someday, other day! maybe neverday! genious.

Today we won't continue our food trip (or momo's food trip...) but it'll continue shortly when easter holidays are over and momo is bored to hell again.

I haven't been active with this blog, so I decided to update with BUN RECIPE!!(momo didn't force me to do this...too violently..)

Today is a sweet day!

Starting with bun!

Ingredients:

5 dl milk
50 g fresh yeast( or 2 sachets a 11g dry yeast)
1 tsp salt
1,5 dl sugar
1 egg
c. 13 dl wheat flour
150 g margarine
a lot of crushed cardamom

Brushing: egg
Topping: coarse sugar

I should probably confess that I almost word-to-word copied this recipe from ES wheat flour packet...but almost!!! I would never use so much flour! and there was no egg...so no copyright violation!


1.Mix the yeast with warm milk (exact warmth, 42°C)

You can measure it easily with food frobe! used for example measuring the ripeness of the meat!


Heating the milk is easy to do in a microwave! just make sure your container can take the heat....just sayin'

2.now when the yeast is completely dissolved in to the milk, add sugar, salt, cardamom and gradually start adding flour! Firstly, only 1,5 dl and then another 1,5 dl or 1 dl....get it?
3.You should stop adding flour instantly, when it no longer sticks to your hand, even if you still have a few desilitres of flour left! that's the secret of perfectly soft bun!!
4.Add the melted margarine! DO NOT ADD FLOUR!!1!11
yummyyyyyyyyy..wait no.

4. Now. Let it rise for about...one hour? when it's doubled it should be ok.
5.When you think it's huge enough to be baked, you can start forming it into small buns or slap in the face...I mean cinnamon rolls ( try to translate korvapuusti into english with google translator and see for yourself..)
You can also make bun girls and bun boys or a massive pullapitko which is basically bread made out of bun dough..like sweet bread?

like this...
Cinnamon rolls are made easily, just roll the dough into huge sheet, butter it with melted buttet, sprinkle a lot of sugar and cinnamon on it (more the better...) and simply roll it into....a roll

now cut it like this...

easy as dough.

OK, now when the folding is done, brush the buns slightly with beaten egg and decorate with coarse sugar!
Bake at 225°C for about 10-15 minutes!

ENJOY WITH FRESH MILK!!!!


It wasn't too hard was it?

With love:

Poke

PS. HAPPY EASTER!!














torstai 22. maaliskuuta 2012

MOQUECA AY AY AY!



Olá!

Today we are going to continue our food tour.

Sim, we are still in Brazil! Now let's hop on a tiny helicopter

and let it lead us to....

Salvador!


Ah, the city of colours! The food we are going to prepair is also quite colourful! Ever heard of Mogueca? If you have, great, but since you probably have no idea I'm going to inform you briefly: Moqueca [muqueca] is a traditional brazilian type of seafood stew. In Brazil, it's been an integral part of their diet fo over 300 years! Since we are on a bahia state of Brazil (means northeast) we are cooking the moqueca baiana type of stew.

This recipe actually has a story behind it. We got this recipe from our travel agent Maija, who used to have her own restaurant in Brazil. It was a finnish restaurant called Koskenkorva:D Too bad we didn't get the chance to eat there but instead we had an awesome chance of tasting this moqueca! Afterwards, she sent us this recipe, with her message on it and we still have the original piece left! (though we used a scanned version while cooking, not wanting to ruin it)

When starting to cook moqueca, be prepared to spend a while doing your groceries!


(Maija's) Moqueca

1 kg of fish(originally the fishes used in this recipe were something called bajedo (cod like fish)and namorao (the name stands for boyfriend..)which we sadly couldn't find from a finnish supermarket :( Wonder why! However, if possible buy cod,pike perch of salmon)
2 handfuls of shrimps (these are fully obligatory)
5 tblspn of olive oil
3 onions
3 tomatoes
3 gloves of garlic
1 big piece of red pepper
stack of fresh cilantro
2 dl of coconut milk
2 dl of white wine ( the rest can be served as a drink!)
(Tabasco if you prefer spicy)

1. Take a huge pot and fry the onions and the garlic in the oil, add (sliced) tomatoes and pepper
2.Add the fish on top of the vegetables, don't blend! Add white wine and let it cook for half an hour (in ALL peace, ahem)
3. Add coconut milk and chopped cilantro (and shrimps)
4. Let stew from 5 to 10 minutes (the longer the better)
5. Serve whit white rice and a fresh salad



Mmm...once again, tasty! Takes a while but totally worth it!

Now that we've enjoyed this masterpiece of our kitchen I guess it's time to head back to airport. We can't just travel in Brazil in these travel series of mine...

Wait...where is this plane going!


...I think it's travelling to our next blog entry! (means that it's a secret...wait means that I don't know)

अलविदा! (just a hint of our next destination)

- Momo

P.S Wondering why I'm always the one to write these? The actual reason for that is the fact that I happen to be on a reading vacation and bored as hell:D
I actually shouldn't sit here, writing this.
I have my math finals tomorrow
I'm actually not even good at maths



perjantai 9. maaliskuuta 2012

FEIJOADA POR FAVOR!


"You walk off the plane in Rio, and your blood temperature goes up. The feel of the wind on your face, the water on your skin, the taste of the food, the music"
- Amy Irving

Olá meninas é meninos!

Today we're going to travel a little. I'm going to take you on a tour with BananaTravel. I'm Momo and I'm your guide today.

At first we hop on the plane and fly ALL the way from Finland to the Sunny shores of Rio de Janeiro (the river of January) and Amazon . I could tell you about our funny songs on the plane when we flew over Casablanca or our adventures at the Ilha Grande jungle but let's stick to the food.



We have now arrived to Rio but let's keep on moving until we reach the Ilha Grande!




..Aand here we are! You can see our hotel there if you take a closer look (The white building on the right side). However, let's stick to the food and step inside Bananas can cook it kitchen! (or bananas pode cozinhá-lo) Let's see what we have here...I think it's time to cook...


...Feijoada! Practically, feijoada is a stew made out of beans that is started a day ahead. There are as many feijoada recipes as there are cooks so feel free to suit to your liking.

Feijoada

1 kg of black beans (if you can't find them, kidney beans will work out just fine)
water
7 bay leaves
1 kg of smoked ribs
200g of beef

200 g of Krakow sausages (or salamis..or both)
1 green pepper

1 red pepper
oil
1 tspb of cumin
fresh coriander/cilantro
salt
black pepper
6-12 gloves of garlic

1.Start a day ahead and put all the beans in a big bowl and cover with water, use a lot of water since while beans soak, they're gonna suck it all!

2. On the next day, take out the biggest pot you can find and pour your drained beans inside. Then pour some water on them until they're fully covered and wait 'till they boil. Add the ribs and bay leaves now, so they will cook nicely.

3. While the beans are boiling, cut the meat, pepper, g
arlic and sausage and fry them in a pan of oil. When you've done this, add them into your boil. (you may need to add some water)

4. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it boil on a medium heat for LONG! (or if you're really hungry, 'till the beans are soft)

5. Serve with rice and green salad. In Brazil they
serve it with french fries and white rice and manioc flour, farofa (which I'm allergic to:<) So if you wanna dive deep in Brazil, try that!
..Mmmm...that was tasty! Next time we are heading to...WAIT! that's a secret

'till we meet again

Tchau!

- Momo




torstai 23. helmikuuta 2012

FAT FREE CHOCOLATE


Hello!

This is my first time writing a food blog, huh? Let's see if I can manage as well as Poke did:D

However, let me start with a story:


I've been dieting for 3 weeks. I think I'm going crazy. This morning I had a conversation with a chocolate bar. Lovely, dark, thin, delicious but oh, so many calories and so much fat! I wish I could resist him...but we belong together like water and lake, wc and wc-paper, air and breathing. Mr. Chocolate has stolen my heart. I think there's no way out. I guess I'll just have to be fat and happy with Mr.Choco or die in despair!



Suddenly, a wild Momo, dressed to kill, appears. "Miss, I sense that you - are a victim of Mr. Choco's wild temptations! I've come to save you!".

Yesterday I was planning to make a nice cup of hot chocolate. However, I ended up preparing something like dark chocolate.

This recipe is nice because it barely includes any fat or milk. Basicly, it has 4 ingredients. Here we go:

Momo's fat free choco sensation

3 tspn of Sugar
2 Tbls of Cocoa
0.25 dl of Boiling water
pinch of Salt

1. Mix the sugar with salt and dissolve them with boiling water. If you want, you can also use orange juice, rum or sherry but make sure it is hot enough to dissolve sugar.

2. Mix the solution with cocoa. The amount of cocoa used in this recipe is for illustrative purposes only so just add cocoa until the structure is soft but non-sticky.


3. Move the chocolate mass into a b
oard and use your hands to make yourself some truffles.

4. Decorate them! I used cashew nuts (strongly recommend!) Sun flower seed and Orange peel.

5. Enjoy!


"But how are you going to save me?"The girl asked. Momo closed her eyes and smiled. "Here you go, a chocolate truffle with no fat and as little calories as in fruits" The girl stared Momo with a little suspicious face but tasted the truffle. " This can't be.." she said "..thank you for saving me!". Momo smiled politely and kicked Mr. Chocolates ass. " Yo, Mr. Choco-Loco, I think it's your time to go and get divorced with Mrs. Calories, Y know, calories are so out!"
Mr. Choco looked down and smiled. " I guess you've saved me too, Mrs. Calories was always cheating on me with Mr. Chips anyway" Momo grinned and caught her anti-calorie gun. "I guess he'll be next then!"

The End.


Yours sincerely,

(Super)Momo