Arctic Cloudberry: lemon

BBQ

Greek salad with marinated tomatoes and mint

22:04

cider

Rhubarb and strawberry sangria with rhubarb and ginger syrup - the perfect summer drink

22:02

chicken

Succulent chicken, dill and leak soup

22:38

butter

Visit to Henley and seared tuna steaks with lemon, garlic and oregano butter

22:17

garlic

Lemon, garlic and mushroom pasta with herbs - lazy Saturday

22:30

atlantic

Wild Atlantic salmon and crayfish or salmon and prawns baked with sour cream and dill

22:48

chicken

Greek chicken and rice one pot wonder and return from the village inthe woods

23:06

feta

Lemon orzo and rice with herbs and feta - the awesomest rice dish you'll ever have

18:00

Persian rice - you've just had your butt kicked, tahdig and all. This Greek style rice and orzo pilaf recipe was a new experiment for me, but I can't wait to do it again. And again. I can't see rice getting much more awesome than this although I may surprise even myself with my obvious talent for rice cookery. But for now this remains my finest hour at the handles of my rice pan.

Greek rice and orzo pilaf with lemon and feta

The recipe for this dish was a bit of a combination of different things I have seen online - originally I planned to do this in the oven with the chicken pieces cooking on top of the rice which I will try at some point. I can imagine the chicken juices making the rice even more delicious, although it's hard to imagine how it could be any tastier.

But yesterday I changed our dinner plan a bit because the weather was so gorgeous and I wanted to light the BBQ. We were out all afternoon enjoying the sun. We drove down to Runnymede to walk by the river, but actually it is a bit of a disappointing spot. There are much nicer walks along the river Thames. But oh well, at least we have now seen this historically important place although there is little to see. We walked on the vast open fields where King John signed the charter and visited the Magna Carta memorial. All that contemplating and discussing the importance of freedom and democracy made us thirsty so driving back into town we stopped in a little pub in Barnes.

One thing that again baffled me though was the car park picnickers. I have seen them a lot in the various car parks of places we've visited, country parks, historic houses etc. People drive to places like this to spend their day sitting next to their car. Between rows of cars. Why? Why would you drive to a lovely riverside location or a country park and not walk the 50 meters to do your picnic by the river or in the park. Surely no one can be that lazy? You go through the trouble of packing your cooler bags with food and drink, you pack your folding chairs and a table in your car, then risk your mental and physical health on M25 to sit behind your car in the car park rather than the actual beauty spot the car park is there for. Oh well, each to their own I guess.

So once back at home I quickly chucked the chicken in marinade. I should have done it in the morning, but it turned out fantastic although it didn't have long to marinade. I made quite a potent marinade of lots of lemon juice and zest, garlic, thyme, oregano, oil, salt and pepper and let the chicken pieces swim in it until the BBQ was ready.

But the star of the show, the belle of the ball was the rice. If you don't try this immediately you are crazy.

Greek rice and orzo with lemon, feta, oregano and thyme

Greek rice and orzo pilaf with lemon and feta recipe (serves 4)

Oil

1 1/2 cups basmati rice

1/2 cups orzo

1/2 leek

1 yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic

black pepper

2 heaped tbsp of fresh (or 2 tsp of dried) thyme

2 heaped tbsp of fresh (or 2 tsp of dried) oregano

Juice and zest of one lemon

3 cups chicken stock

100g feta

Rinse the basmati under cold water until water runs clear. Soak in salted water minimum 30 minutes. Drain.

Chop the onion and leek. Mince the garlic and herbs if you are using fresh herbs. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a non-stick deep pan with a lid. Fry the onions and leek on medium heat for a few minutes, add the garlic and continue frying for another couple of minutes. Add the herbs, pepper, drained rice and orzo and cook for a few minutes stirring the rice constantly, stir in also the lemon zest and juice.

Add the chicken stock and cover the pan leaving it bubbling on low to medium heat. Cook until rice is cooked but still a bit al dente. There should be no liquid left at this stage, if there is let it cook uncovered for a while. Then wrap the lid in a clean kitchen towel, cover the pan with it tightly and leave on a very low heat to steam. You can leave it for 10-20 minutes easily and it will be lovely, the key is the kitchen towel that will soak the steam and leave your rice lovely and unmushy.

When ready to serve check the seasoning, mix in the cubed feta and sprinkle some fresh herbs on top. I can imagine a handful of olives would be nice in it also.

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cherry tomato

Easy lemon prawn and smoked salmon pasta - no bellyache

20:48

Husband returned home from holidays 4 days before me and during this time he had missed my ~~sexy body~~ cooking so much that on Monday night when I barbecued him lovely organic lamb chops he completely overdid it and had stomach pains all night wondering if there was something wrong with the chops. I had bought them on the day from the little farm shop near my work, so I know there wasn’t anything wrong other than the fact they were so expertly cooked to delicious perfection J that he just had too many.

Poor man. As one of many cheerful and optimistic Finnish proverbs says “Too much fun will end in tears”.

Lucky I had planned a lighter dinner for Tuesday. This is a really quick and simple recipe for those weeknights when you don't have hours to spend preparing dinner. You can be flexible with the veg and use any fish or seafood you like. I had a pack of king prawns in the freezer and some Finnish flame smoked salmon, but you can use any salmon in case you don’t happen to have Heimon Liekki salmon at hand.

Lemony prawn and smoked salmon wholewheat pasta

It turned out very tasty and I plated a reasonable size portion for husband. All-round success apart from a little mishap with photography. While looking for the best angle to photograph this awesome culinary masterpiece I dropped my iPhone on the plate and broke the plate. It was from IKEA not Wedgwood thank God, not that I have any Wedgwood plates. So it was a financially manageable loss.

Oops

Thank God also that it was the plate that broke not the iPhone. They're surprisingly robust these iProducts, my sister took a bath with her husband's iPad and the iPad survived. Her husband wasn't best pleased whilst hanging the device out to dry, but with my sister you have to moderate the expression of your displeasure or she might not talk to you for three years.

I on the other hand stepped on my iPod Shuffle with a stiletto heal. They were lovely pointy toed green suede L.K.Bennett heals. There was a heal sized and shaped hole in the screen of the shuffle after that. I took it to the Apple Store and said that it just went like that all of a sudden, I don't know what happened, a manufacturing fault perhaps? They just looked at me like I was deranged and didn't replace it.

I had got it for free from an advertising agency. Those were the days when bribes were still called corporate gifts. So I suppose it served me right. Easy come, easy go. Or as we say in Finland "If it comes singing, it will go whistling" or something equally stupid.

Lemony prawn, smoked salmon and dill pasta

Easy lemony prawn and smoked salmon pasta (serves 4)

350g wholewheat or spelt pasta

150g prawns

150g cold-smoked salmon

1 lemon, zest & juice

4 spring onions

1 courgette

Generous handful of cherry tomatoes

150ml sour cream

Salt

Lemonpepper

¼ cup Dill

¼ cup Parsley

Oil

Cook the pasta in salted water according to the instructions, drain preserving some of the cooking water.

In the meanwhile devein the prawns, chop the courgette and spring onions, halve the tomatoes, zest and juice the lemon, chop the herbs and cut the salmon into bite size pieces. Heat a tbsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and courgette and fry on medium heat until they start to soften (if you want to add a clove of garlic I won’t hold that against you, I bet it would be nice). Add half of the lemon zest and juice, the herbs, tomatoes and prawns and fry until the prawns are almost done, mix in the smoked salmon and cook until the salmon is done. This should only take a minute unless you are using raw salmon, in which case add it earlier.

Add the sour cream and the rest of lemon zest and juice to the pasta with a pinch of salt and lemon pepper. Mix in carefully the prawn, salmon and vegetable mix. Check for seasoning and add salt, pepper and some of the pasta liquid if necessary. Make sure it’s hot through, garnish with fresh dill and serve with a salad.

dijon

Yoghurt, Honey and Dijon marinade for lamb

18:02

asparagus

Double salmon, feta and asparagus fillo tartlets

20:45

crisp

Crispy oven baked shrimp

23:22

barbecue chicken marinade

Za'atar citrus chicken - the lovely smell of chicken BBQ

22:31

Today I did a quick and easy chicken barbecue dish with the wonderful and versatile middle-eastern herb and spice mixture Za'atar.

I love the smell of a proper coal barbecue. To me it smells of summer and happiness and nights that never get dark. Sometimes I want to light the coals just for the smell, even when I am not planning to cook anything. In our little market place near the high street they sometimes do a barbecue, I don't ever buy the food but sometimes I stand there for a while inhaling. The smell brings up all kinds of sunny summer memories from when we were kids, dad behind a small red kettle barbecue and mum laying the table in the garden.

My dad is more of an academic than a practician, so a great chef he is not. He does the barbecuing though, because in my parents household it's a man’s job. Mostly I remember dad doing pork chops and chicken when we were kids. I particularly loved the chicken. They bought whole chicken, cut them into pieces and barbecued with just simple seasoning of salt and pepper and brushing the pieces with a BBQ sauce during the grilling.

The drumsticks were the most sought after piece. My sister who always had a pathetic appetite would have a wing and be happy with that. I bet that’s why she’s got a special place in my frugal dad’s heart. The rest of us had healthy appetites and dad still reminds me of a time when I had 7 pieces of chicken. I can see it's quite a lot for a child but I'm not sure if it's enough to alert the Guiness book of records people exactly. Dad clearly was deeply traumatised by this.

But there is one different kind of BBQ memory. My mum used to be a very devout Lutheran – I think she still is devout, but less fundamentalist and mellowed with age. She is certainly much more accepting of different religious views, which is handy for my muslim husband. But back then she wasn’t much of an interfaith pluralist (I just looked up the term and mum was not mentioned there).

Dad was outside barbecuing pork chops. It was a lovely sunny Sunday, all us kids where hanging there as well, I think we were playing football, this wasn’t the time though when I tackled my sister so that she broke her arm. Maybe if she’d eaten more and hadn’t been so bloody skinny all the time she wouldn’t have gone flying from my little tackle.

So while my dad was innocently tending to the chops, the Jehova’s witnesses came to talk and sell their leaflets as they used to in our little town sometimes. We’d all been told by mum to politely say thank you but never to buy the magazines. As if we would use our weekly allowance to buy a Zion's Watch Tower. But that Sunday Dad bought one, we’ll never know why, or we might if we asked, actually. But I suppose it was just to get rid of them before the chops burned. But mum saw it from her vantage point behind the potato pan in the kitchen and came out in rage her Titian hair flowing. She was probably a bit like Jesus when he found the money launderers or whoever they were in the temple and overturned the tables, and money and pigeons (!?) went rolling everywhere. In our case it was the red kettle barbecue and the pork chops that were overturned and went a-rolling.

Dad sulked even after mum brushed the chops clean and we all sat around the table and assured the chops were great and the grains of sand were hardly noticable.

Nothing to do with the blog post, but we went walking in the Chiswick
House Gardens today and I got close to a heron when it was just
taking flight and got this picture so thought I'd share it.

Za’atar Citrus Chicken recipe

12 chicken drumsticks

1/3 cup olive oil

3 garlic cloves

3-4 tbsp za’atar

Zest and juice of a lemon

Juice of half a lime

Salt and pepper

Mix together oil, minced garlic, za’atar, lemon zest and juice, lime juice, salt and pepper and whisk all ingredients together. Add the chicken and massage so all the drumstick get a could coating of the marinade. Leave to marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours or even overnight.

Heat up your barbecue and grill the meat until juices run clear.