I didn't get to cook for us last night. Kids asked if we could go for Chinese food. They love a Chinese buffet. Husband and I are not huge fans, but they don't ask often, so of course we went. I remember how much I liked going out to eat when I was a kid.

Back then in the tiny town were we lived there weren't that many options of different cuisines. We used to go most Sundays for lunch to the same restaurant on top of a cliff with beautiful views to a big lake. Mum and dad had wiener schnitzels or something equally 70s. My older brothers had Frankfurters and fries and I had a mushroom omelette. Not hugely adventurous perhaps, but we were happy with our choices. My younger sister and brother were still on baby food, so they just sat in their baby chairs at the end of the table having no clue and chewing their toys. My brother had a squeaky plastic teddy bear wearing green overalls that he loved and would probably still be hugging and chewing it if it was socially acceptable.

And afterwards dad gave us some change and me and my older brothers ran to the bar to buy some spearmint chewing gum. About 12 years later on many a Saturday night I was standing at the same bar with my older brother and some friends downing Tequila Sunrises, Tom Collinses and Cuba Libres. Happy times, both the mushroom omelette days and the disco nights.

So to Chinese buffet we went. We tried to avoid the pretty horrible Dragon King near where we live. It's always too busy and noisy, but everywhere else we tried either didn't have a buffet, were permanently closed, or just closed at the time, because we were kind of between lunch and dinner. But if you advertise an all day buffet, then you have a buffet all day. A buffet that is closed for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner is not an all day buffet, I had to tell the guy at the Hungry Yeti. I don't think he took my feedback very seriously, there was much too much shoulder shrugging and not enough apologies for my liking.

So after driving around West London for over an hour, we finally ended up at the dreaded Dragon King. It was as bad as we remembered, maybe slightly less busy because we were still quite early. But everything including the drinks was deep fried. I managed to find some non-deep-fried vegetables and rice. The kids loved it at least.

So today I wanted to demonstrate how much nicer and more satisfying a fresh home cooked healthy meal can be. There really is no need to ever deep fry anything, if you ask me. I stuck to the Far Eastern theme and made a soy and honey glazed side of salmon with egg-fried rice and king prawns. Very pretty and colourful. And tasty. I'm not sure if the kids were thinking "OMG, why did I ever eat KFC, I must have been out of my teenage mind" or that they are any less likely to ask for the occasional fast food treat, but my food went down well. We finished the whole 1kg side of salmon and all that was left over was a spoonful of rice.

Egg fried rice with peas and prawns (serves 4)

2 1/2 cups of basmati rice
Oil
2 garlic cloves
4 spring onions
1 cup of peas
3 eggs
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp butter
350g raw king prawns
garlic oil
1/2 lime, zest and juice

In the meanwhile devein the shrimp and season with salt and pepper, drizzle with garlic oil, add the lime zest and juice. Mix and leave to one side.

Wash the rice in a sieve under running water and soak at least 30 minutes in cold water and a sprinkle of salt. Drain and cook in plenty of water until just done. Drain.

Mince the garlic and chop the spring onion. Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork.

Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan or wok. Fry the garlic on medium heat for a couple of minutes, add the spring onion, peas and rice. Move the rice to one side and pour in the eggs. Scramble the eggs and just as they start to set mix everything together.

In a separate pan melt the butter. Add the shrimps and fry on medium heat until they turn pink. Add the shrimps to the rice and mix everything together making sure it hot.

Soy, honey and lime glazed salmon (serves 4)

1 kg side of salmon
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 lime, zest and juice

Pre-heat oven to 200C.

Make sure salmon has no bones. Oil the bottom of an oven dish lightly and place the salmon in the dish. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Don't go overboard with the salt, because the soy sauce adds sals to the dish.

Mix oil, honey, soy and the lime zest and juice. Pour over the fish. Bake for 20-25 minutes until done basting with the juices a couple of times during cooking.

Game pasta bake with moose and smoked reindeer (serves 4)

Some weeks ago over our regular mezze lunch at our favourite little Iranian restaurant Manoush in Bayswater (very friendly service, delicious food, and we always get huge portions because we are regulars, or maybe because the waiter has a crush on my friend, sometimes he actually forgets to bring my food or drink altogether) in Bayswater with my friend I came up with this fantastic idea. At least I think I did, it may have been my friend, but I'm totally taking the credit.

My friend is not the greatest of cooks. Putting it mildly (in case she reads this). She is just generally not the world's most practical person. I have put together her flat-pack furniture and she's the one with the engineering degree for God's sakes. She's the person you really wouldn't want as your survival buddy on a desert island. A great friend and inspiring company if your want to discuss science, acupuncture, politics, spirituality or relationships. Building huts, cracking open coconuts, fishing with sticks, lighting fires with flints. Not so much.

She also reads books by first reading the last couple of pages and then she just randomly reads a few pages here and there and that's it. She's done. I've never seen anything like it. I think I read in a Paul Auster book that when you read you should pay each word as much attention as the author has done when writing them down. I think I didn't manage to finish the book because apart from that one quote I actually had no idea what was going on. Despite having carefully read each word so far.

So back to cooking troubles. Into aid rides Arctic Cloudberry with her trusted pans and pots and some chicken thighs. My friend sometimes comes over for lunch on a Sunday anyway, so why not cook the lunch together so she can learn in a safe, fun and encouraging environment. I promised not to whack her in the head with a pan if it all goes horribly wrong.

And I hoped she would not whack me in the head with a pan if I got too bossy. She is a very nonviolent person, which is good as I can't guarantee to completely quench my natural bossyness.

My friend has a couple of nice dishes in her repertoire. She makes a very delicious salmon flan and a great chilli con quorn which I personally have witnessed. I thought she also did a nice baked cod, but when I asked her about it now, she said it was an absolute disaster.

I asked her what she would like to learn to cook, and she said chicken. She has been very scared of salmonella and campylobacter and has therefore not ever cooked chicken at home. I put together a little list of tips on how to safely cook chicken. Having had campylobacter once (not from own cooking) and  knowing how awful it is, I'm always very cautious when handling and cooking chicken.

And we both thought you can't really live in England respectably without knowing how to do nice roast potatoes.
Dessert wise I think she's also slightly limited. I was once cooking us lunch and she was supposed to bring the dessert. Her mum had just taught her to make a Swiss roll and she had managed to get it right on her own once, she told me very proudly. That time though it all fell to pieces somehow, maybe even literally. No details were communicated, but no Swiss roll was introduced and we happily finished our meal with some chocolates and strawberries and never mentioned the Swiss roll again.

So I decided that we'd bake a cake together. I have this easy robust recipe that I have never managed to mess up and I'm not the world's greatest baker. It includes sour cream which keeps it moist and juicy. I have made it with blueberries, but it works great with apple too. Original recipe is here. Or use pear or mango or whatever the hell you like, go crazy, it's a great cake!

This is the menu we cooked - not because it is a great combination of things but because it worked as a great curriculum for learning some basics.

Hummus (just because we both love hummus, who doesn't love hummus?)
Fried chicken strips with basil salad (because my friend needed to learn how to fry chicken)
Blue cheese salad dressing (because I had some lovely blue cheese)
Toasted baguette slices (to migrate the hummus from bowl to mouth with, baguette was shop bought though. I think bread baking is some way off for her)

Lemon and herb chicken with feta and bell pepper (lovely easy but impressive looking and delicious chicken main course)
Roast potatoes with Greek herbs (must know how to do if want to call oneself woman, just kidding)

Apple cake (forget about the Swiss roll)
Ice-Cream (shop-bought, because she has worked in an ice-cream kiosk and can do the perfect ice-cream balls, so worked as a confidence booster, also fab with the warm cake)

We had a fun time cooking. Whilst frying the chicken she exclaimed excitedly "I'm frying chicken!" in manner of someone jumping out of a plane screaming "I'm flying".

Hummus

400g can of canned chickpeas (drained, reserve the liquid)
2 tablespoons tahini
1 garlic clove, crushed (you can leave it out if you have a hot date planned)
½ teaspoon of ground cumin (optional)
½ teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)
3-4 tablespoon  of chickpea liquid or water
1/2 freshly squeezed lemon
Ground paprika (optional for decoration)
Parsley leaves (optional for decoration)

Drain the chickpeas reserving some of the liquid and tip into the food processor. Add the tahini, crushed or minced garlic, oil, salt, lemon juice and some of the reserved chickpea liquid (or water). Turn on the food processor and run until smooth adding liquid / water if it looks too thick. Process less if you like it crunchy or more if you like it smooth. Obviously.

Drizzle with some olive oil, decorate with a few whole chickpeas. Sprinkle with paprika and fresh parsley.

Blue cheese dip or salad dressing (serves 2)

1 heaped tablespoon of blue cheese (Stilton or similar)
3 tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
1-2 tablespoons of milk

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork until smooth.

You can do this also with feta, goat cheese or other soft cheese if you're not a fan of blue cheese. Serve as a dip or salad dressing.



Pan-fried Chicken strips (serves 2)


1 tablespoon of oil
3 chicken thigh fillets (boneless and skinless)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/3 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of dried herbs (you can use a dried mediterranean herb mix, provencal herb mix or just dried basil or oregano)
Juice of half a lemon

Cut the chicken thigh fillets into finger sized strips with scissors. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add the chicken strips, salt, black pepper and whatever herb you are using. Fry on medium to high heat until nice and brown outside and done all the way through. When you cut a piece into two, it should cut easily and not be opaque / pink inside.

Once the chicken is cooked squeeze half a lemon on top.

Serving suggestions
- Serve on top of a bed of salad with tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and fresh basil
- Cook some pasta, add a couple of spoons of pesto and the chicken.
- Stir fry a ready made vegetable stir-fry mix and add the cooked chicken to the vegetables and serve with basmati rice

Easy herby roast potatoes (serves 2)

5-6 large roasting potatoes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
4 tablespoons of oil
1-2 tsp of mixed herbs
Preheat oven to 200C

Peel the potatoes and cut into about 1 inch chunks. Par-boil in lightly salted water for about 5-10 minutes until the potatoes have softened but are not completely done. Drain the potatoes in a colander and tip onto an oven tray.

Drizzle over the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and herbs and mix with hands so that all potatoes are nicely covered with oil on all sides. Pop into the oven. After about 30 flip the potatoes over so that they brown evenly on both sides.

Once crispy and brown on the outside take out and serve immediately. This will take about 40 minutes.

Herby Chicken with feta and lemon (serves 4)

1kg boneless chicken thigh fillets (you can use breast fillet, but I find thigh tastier and less dry)
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dry)
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dry)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt (feta will add more salt)
1/2-1 tsp pepper
Zest and juice of half a large lemon

1/2 red and 1/2 yellow bell pepper
1 cup cubed feta

Place the chicken in a bowl (remove any extra bits of fat with scissors). Add the herbs (you can use other herbs if you like, a herb mix or basil for instance), oil, salt, pepper and lemon zest and juice. Rub it all over the chicken pieces and refrigerate to marinate for a couple of hours if you have time. But you can also cook immediately.

Place in an oven dish, top with strips of bell pepper, I had red and orange, and feta cubes. Bake in 200C oven for about 40-50 min until the chicken is cooked through.

Fail-safe Apple cake

175g soft room temperature butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
140 ml sour cream
2 apples (soft & sweet, golden delicious or similar) (you can use 150g of blueberries instead of the apple)

Preheat the oven to fan 160C. Butter a loose-based 22cm round cake tin and line the bottom with non-stick baking paper buttering the paper also.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric hand beater until lighter in colour, about 3 minutes (at this stage you can't overbeat). Break the eggs to a glass or bowl and add one at a time beating lightly just to incorporate (don't overbeat). Mix in the sour cream and the vanilla.

Once the sour cream and the vanilla are incorporated get rid of the electric beater. Mix the flour and baking powder in a bowl and mix into the batter with a spoon until everything is mixed well.

Peel and core the apples and cut into small cubes. Fold in the chopped apple into the cake mix and pour the mix in the prepared cake tin and spread it level.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until it is risen, feels firm to the touch and springs back when lightly pressed. It shouldn't stick to a toothpick or knife when inserted. Cool for 20 minutes, then take out of the tin and peel off the paper lining in the bottom. Serve warm with ice-cream or leave to cool and serve with warm custard.

This is ultimate man grub. A fat lamb shank, bulky like a gladiator’s guns, braised in stock and spices until it’s falling off the bone, tender enough to eat with a spoon. This would probably be the death row last meal for husband. At least he seems to choose it often if it is on the menu when we eat out. Which of course is much nicer than death row. I often (not on a daily basis) wonder how they manage to swallow a bite. I rather fear my otherwise dependable appetite might let me down at that point.


One of husband’s favourite places to eat this is a little stall at the Camden market. He gets the shank and I get a chicken shish. It’s all served with a massive flat bread, grilled tomato, salad and a big pile of saffron rice, just as it should be. Then we sit outside on the little scooter bikes that act as chairs next to a narrow table attached to a graffitied wall and munch away happily crouched over our Styrofoam trays.

I so much rather eat there than in a 2 Michelin starred restaurant with starched table cloths and snotty waiters, which is really convenient and also rather theoretical as we can’t afford Michelin starred meals.

I make lamb shanks quite often myself and my shanks are pretty damn good too. One of my favourite ways to do it is with middle-eastern spices served over rice very similar to the Camden market one. But this time I was fleetingly tempted by a more French style red-wine braised approach and a mushroom risotto. But in the end I thought merde and went with the middle-eastern way and served it with a lovely herby sabzi polo and a fattoush salad.

I used some of my smoked lamb stock from the organic Finnish smoked lamb leg that I cooked some time ago. I remember the night I cooked the stock, the whole house was smelling of smoked lamb. I made us a really quite lovely Risotto Primavera for dinner, but husband was poking the risotto trying to see if there was meat hiding in there somewhere, his eyes were searching the table and then he asked me if this actually was it? Or did I forget something and what was the smell about and what was cooking on the stove and why weren’t we eating it?!?

It’s like with the family dogs – you’ve got to give them a little bit of what you’re cooking and eating because they smell it in the air, and then they eat their dry food quite happily afterwards, not that there has ever been a lot of dry food for our dogs.

With the shanks though, at first I thought the smoky lamb stock was a mistake as I tasted the concoction. The smokiness didn’t really blend with the warmth of cumin and cinnamon which would have been quite predictable if I’d thought about it. But what wasn’t predictable is that after an hour and a half or thereabouts in the oven the tastes actually had come together. The end result was a delicious combination of middle-eastern sun and heat with a dark punch of Nordic smokiness. A bit like our marriage.

Fattoush

Recipe: Middle-Eastern spiced lamb shanks

Oil
2 lamb shanks
1 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Arabic spicemix (optional)
Pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes (if you like heat)
Can of chopped tomatoes or 4 chopped fresh tomatoes
3 cups lamb stock
Salt and pepper

Heat oil in a deep pan or Dutch oven. Fry the shanks until brown on all sides, remove to a plate. Fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes, add all the spices and fry for another couple of minutes. Return the lamb to the pan, add the tomatoes and stock, season and bring to boil. Cook in 175C oven for 1.5-2 hours depending on size of shanks until they are soft and tender. If the sauce is too thin cook uncovered for the last 20-30 min.

100g smoked reindeer meat

I made a couple of dishes this time for us and the kids for Saturday dinner. The other one was a very basic but lovely herby side of salmon. The other was a tasty chicken and feta dish. I got the idea for the chicken dish originally from my sister who is an incredible cook. She is a step-mum like me and is always creating teenager friendly recipes for the kids. She’s actually the one who should be blogging, she's always trying new things, last weekend she was cooking a whole rabbit. But she’s not in social media. No Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Not even the tiniest board on Pinterest. It’s amazing, but apparently you can live like that. The only way to stay in touch with her is phone, email or SMS. I’m sure even this is painful and she’d prefer homing pigeons.

Neither of us particularly wanted kids of our own and now we both have some through our husbands. My mum is ecstatic about this. Having had 5 of her own she can’t understand why someone wouldn’t have children. I would have thought she’d be the first person to see lots of reasons. 5 at least.

But actually I can recommend the role of a step-parent. The boys are great, we have a really nice, uncomplicated relationship; I cook, they eat. And we have become good friends as well. My husband keeps telling them they must look after me when I’m old because I have no children of my own to look after me. In his culture kids actually look after their parents, can you believe it. Isn’t that sweet. The boys promise and the younger one says he can make us pot noodles when I’m too old to cook.

My sister’s feta chicken is so simple but luscious. She uses breast fillets, seasons them with salt, pepper, and curry powder, maybe some other things as well. She then fries them until nice and brown and puts in an oven dish,  sprinkles over some feta cubes and bakes in the oven until the chicken is done. Delish!

But I decided to pimp up the recipe a bit with some fresh herbs for a bright spring taste, so it’s quite different actually, but equally nice.

The dinner was a hit, the side of salmon was finished until the last little mouthful, out of the 11 thigh fillets only 3 were left over, we also demolished about a kilo of oven roast rosemary new potatoes, a loaf of garlic bread, some roast asparagus and a green salad. Result!


Zingy Herby Feta Chicken (serves 4)


1kg chicken (any part you like – I used boneless thigh fillet)
1tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dry)
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives (or 1 tsp dry)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt (feta will add more salt)
1 tsp pepper
Zest and juice of half a large lemon

1 bell pepper (mix colours for a nice look)
1 cup cubed feta

Mix the herbs (you can use other herbs if you like), oil, salt, pepper and lemon zest and juice. Rub it all over the chicken pieces and refrigerate to marinate for a couple of hours. Place in an oiled oven dish, top with strips of bell pepper, I had red and orange, and feta cubes. Bake in 200C over for 30-40 min until the chicken is done.

Recipe: Zingy Herby Side of Salmon (serves 4)

1kg side of salmon
Zest and juice of half a lemon
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or 1 tsp dry)
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or tsp dry)
Black pepper or lemon pepper
Salt

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Mix the oil, herbs, lemon zest and juice and spread on top of the salmon with a spoon. Refrigerate for an hour or two. Bake in 200C oven until done, about 15 – 20 min, but check because it depends on the thickness of the salmon and you don’t want to overcook the fish. It should flake and not be translucent – it can be ever so slightly orange/pink in the middle when you take it out of the oven.

I never used to eat plaice growing up in Finland, those days it wasn't available. I don't think sole or plaice grow in the Finnish waters. We did get other North Sea fish as well as freshwater fish of course and ate lots of beautiful things like pike-perch (sander), freshwater whitefish, Baltic herring, vendace and salmon of course.

My grandfather used to fish as a hobby, most people did, there are lakes everywhere after all. He used to get mostly common bream, pike and perch.

Dad also fished a bit during the summer holidays which we always spent at our island cabin. I would often row for him when he needed to check the nets, most of the time it was so windy the boat would go wherever it wanted and my gentle, patient dad would show his other, surprisingly feisty side loudly questioning if I knew what was right and what was left (a justified question), shouting for me to back the oars, back the oars while trying to hang on to the net with his fingers that were gradually turning bright red and numb in the cold water. Most of the time there was no fish and every time there was it had messed up the net so much we'd have to get the whole bloody thing up and hang it to dry and then de-tangle.

It almost seemed more hassle than it was worth. But the common bream either smoked or prepared in the wood burning sauna stove tightly wrapped in wet greaseproof paper and newspaper is one of the best fish I have ever eaten.

Dad also had a friend who used to bring us burbot, which he probably thought was a delicacy. I don't think he intentionally wanted to cause distress by burdening us with this evil fish as slimy and disgusting as it's name.

But back to plaice, I cook it often now, it's such an inexpensive and quick week night meal. Sometimes I just season it with salt and lemon pepper and fry, but sometimes I like to do it a la Meunière although the amount of butter is a bit scary.

But then the sole itself is healthy and I usually serve it with boiled or steamed veg and potatoes. Not necessarily just because they are healthy but because I think they go best with the sole. Finnish people think almost anything is best served with boiled potatoes.

Sole Meunière recipe (serves 2)

4 fillets of sole
1/2 cup flour
salt
pepper
4 tbsp butter divided (or ideally clarified butter)
juice of a lemon (you can also grate in some of the zest)
2 tbsp chopped parsley (or 2 tbsp capers)

Spread flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Skin the sole fillets by placing them one at a time on a board skin down. Hold on to the tail and run your filleting knife along the skin of the fillet. Cut off the frilly bits on the sides.

Cover the fillets with the flour all over. Melt 2 tbps butter in a frying pan on medium heat and once it starts to turn brown add the fillets on the pan. Fry for maximum one minute on one side, flip over and  fry another minute on the other side. Take the fillets off the pan and place on a heated plate to keep warm.

Wipe any burnt bits of butter off the pan with kitchen towel and melt 2 tbsp (or more if you don't care about the health aspect) of butter on the pan, once it starts to brown add the lemon juice and chopped parsley (or capers), shake the pan to incorporate and pour immediately on the fish fillets. Serve with a salad, vegetables of your choice and potatoes..