I've been catching up on MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC iPlayer. I'm loving it as always. I'm not sure why there are so few women though. Is it all a huge misogynistic conspiracy or are women just not entering or crap cooks or what! I was routing for the only remaining woman, the pretty lady chef Joey, whose food is always so beautiful and colourful and makes you happy just looking at the plate. Which is all we can do anyway, but by the sounds of it it also tasted great. But not great enough apparently as she was booted out tonight.

I like some of the younger guys with facial hair, there's like at least three identical ones there. They clearly seem to have some talent. There were also a couple of guys with holes in their ears big enough to stick cucumbers through, but they're gone now.

I think the skills tests have been a great way to learn to do some every day basics. Like butchering a rabbit or stuffing a pig's trotter. WHO EATS PIG'S TROTTERS? No but seriously, great tips for filleting fish (from the head not tail!), making sauces, classic desserts etc. It's also always funny when the three judges make faces at the poor contestants when they do things that clearly are unthinkable on planet Chef like try to glue their ravioli with water instead of egg, poach meringue quenelles in custard instead of milk or turn their back on the salamander. Never turn your back on a salamander. I never even knew what a salamander was until this series (apart from the kind that burnt holes in Ron Weasley's trousers). I'm just the kind of cook to definitely turn my back on a salamander and burn me toast. So many important things I'm learning, And you don't make a sabayon for ice-cream.

Also great tip: next time you cook for Britain's top chefs, don't make them eat lobster intestines.

In one of the episodes Marcus Wareing's skills test was filleting a plaice, steaming it and making a creamy mushroom and white wine sauce for it. I thought it looked like it would taste fantastic and might be an elegant meal to serve some elegant guests. I'm not great with sauces, so thought would be good to add a simple but delicious sauce to my repertoire.

So I decided to try this with the guidance of lovely Marcus. I didn't happen to have a whole plaice in my fridge but I had some ready filleted bream (although I can fillet a bream, starting from head not tail obviously) which I thought would do just as well.

So into a pan I threw some fish stock and aromatics. I used this broth both for steaming the fish and for the sauce.

For the sauce I chopped a couple of shallots and some button mushrooms, then added a good splash of white wine, stock and cream. I checked the seasoning and it didn't need any extra salt.

For the bream, I seasoned the fillets lightly with salt and pepper (although Marcus didn't seem to season his, but sometimes maybe I just know things) and just grated a tiny bit of lime zest on the them. Then I folded them into nice parcels and placed in the steamer (in my case not a pretty bamboo steamer but a sieve over a pan with the boiling stock covered with a lid).

The fish took probably about 5 minutes to cook. It's easy to see, just take it off the heat as soon as it has just turned from translucent to white and flakes easily. Or if you have Marcus's magic fingers you just touch the fish and you'll know).

The sauce was gorgeous with great mushroom taste and the fish was cooked just right. Husband was a bit suspicious as I gave him his white fish pieces from the sieve. They look a bit bland but once covered in the creamy sauce he got the point and loved the dish.

I served it with a fresh salad and some completely tasteless gnocchi - my first attempt at made from scratch gnocchi which were also unbelievably ugly.

Marcus Wareing's steamed fish with mushroom, cream and white wine sauce (serves 4)

8 fish fillets (plaice, bream or bass)

2 cups fish stock
Fresh herbs and other aromatics
(Marcus used half a lemon, 2 bay leaves, sprig of thyme, shallot, lemongrass and fennel - I only had lemon, bay leaves, thyme and shallot, but threw in some fresh parsley and dill for good measure)

Sauce
Butter or oil
2 Shallots
Large handful (about 2/3 - 1 cup) chopped mushrooms
1/3 cup white wine
2/3 cup fish stock
1/3 cup cream
Handful of thinly sliced mushrooms
Fresh thyme

Fillet and season your fish and fold ready to steam. Bring the fish stock with the aromatics to boil. Place your fish in the steamer.

Chop the shallots and mushroom. Heat a knob of butter or tbsp of oil in a pan and add shallots and mushroom. Fry for a minute of two. Add the white wine, cook down a bit, add the fish stock from under the steamer, add the cream. Cook down a little. Sieve and discard the mushroom and onion. Return the sauce to pan and add thinly sliced mushroom and fresh thyme. Cook for a little while until mushrooms are done (add a splash of water if it's getting too thick). Check seasoning.

Once fish is cooked remove from steamer and plate. Spoon the sauce over the fish.

These Persian spiced lamb shanks are the best I have ever made. By a mile. And I have cooked some mean shanks. No, modesty is not my thing. At least I'm not taking any credit for this recipe, because it is not mine. But I did find it online, I suppose that's something. I googled "Persian spiced lamb shanks" because that was exactly what I wanted. And this recipe for Persian spiced lamb shanks magically came up on top. Thank you Google!

And I executed the recipe to perfection and I'm not just saying that myself, Husband's quite the shank man and he was in heaven. He must have said at least 5 times during the dinner what unbelievably great food it was and what a lucky man he was to have such a brilliant shank-cooking wife.

He's actually been sending me these really sweet messages now, probably fuelled by the shanks. In one a little animated couple sits on a picnic rug and the boy puts his arm around the girl and squeezes her lovingly. That's the power of a well-cooked shank for you!

I made these on Saturday when husbands kids were over and the kids were slightly embarrassed by husband's rapturous reaction "Dad you said that at least 5 times already" but they loved the shanks too. Got through two each, Together the four of us demolished 2 kg of meat / 6 shanks. Just saying in case you ever invite us for dinner, a little won't go a long way. Plus a fair amount of baghali polo (dill and lima bean rice), roast potatoes and mast-o-khiar cucumber yoghurt. Result!

I followed the original recipe pretty closely. It looked perfect and I had nothing much to add or change. I replaced fresh nutmeg with ground, left out the orange as had none, was a bit more generous than the original recipe with saffron, because I love saffron, and just converted the amounts to match my larger amount of meat. I bet you could add garlic and/or ginger, but I thought I'll trust the original recipe as there seems to be such depth and breadth of flavours already.

And oh boy was it awesome. It's not a difficult or cumbersome recipe either. Just the sauce with the rice would have been worth the effort. And the meat was fall-off-the-bone soft and gorgeous beyond words.

Can't wait to do it again. It made it's way straight onto my "Xmas week's magical menu for Mum and Dad" excel spreadsheet of the most epic dishes that I will be cooking for them as they visit us this Christmas.



Recipe and instructions by David Tanis at NY Times:

Persian spiced lamb shanks

4 lamb shanks (ask for the hind shanks), about 4 1/2 to 5 pounds
Salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground dried rosebuds, optional
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
Vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon crumbled saffron
Juice of 2 limes, about 4 tablespoons
3 teaspoons rosewater, available from Middle Eastern grocery shops
1 large onion, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon ground dried lime, or the zest of 1 fresh lime
Zest of 1 orange, plus 1 tablespoon more for garnish
A few thyme sprigs
2 fresh bay leaves
6 cups hot chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons roughly chopped parsley, for garnish
2 tablespoons roughly chopped mint or dill, for garnish

Trim any excess fat from lamb shanks and season generously with salt. Mix together the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, rosebuds (if using), black pepper and turmeric. Sprinkle evenly over shanks and rub into meat. Let sit at room temperature at least an hour, or wrap and refrigerate overnight, then bring to room temperature.

Place a Dutch oven or deep, heavy pot over medium-high heat and add oil to a depth of 1/2 inch. When oil is hot, add 2 lamb shanks and fry until nicely browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside, then brown the 2 remaining shanks.

Meanwhile, put saffron in a small bowl with lime juice, 2 teaspoons rosewater and 1/2 cup warm water. Let steep for 10 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Carefully remove all but 2 tablespoons oil from Dutch oven. Add chopped onion and cook over medium heat until softened and lightly colored, 8 to 10 minutes. Season onion with salt, then add lime zest, orange zest, thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Stir in saffron mixture. Lay in the lamb shanks and add the broth. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and cover pot.

Transfer pot to oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours, covered, until meat is tender when probed and beginning to fall from the bone. Remove lamb shanks to a deep serving dish and keep warm. Strain braising juices through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing with a wooden spoon to obtain all the liquid (discard thyme, bay leaves and onions). Skim fat, then taste and add salt if necessary. Add 1 more teaspoon rosewater, if desired. Reheat strained juices and pour over lamb shanks. Combine parsley, mint and reserved orange zest and sprinkle over top.

Use a large spoon to break the tender shank meat into large chunks. Serve in low, wide soup plates, giving each portion a spoonful of the juices. Accompany with steamed Basmati rice, lavash flatbread or a loaf of crusty French bread.

I think mallards are beautiful. The male mallard with its green and blue shiny bits that is. The poor lady mallard is a bit drab. But they look like wonderful mums calmly floating around with the tiny ducklings in a tight little cloud behind them.

There is something sympathetic about these birds although I read somewhere  about their mating habits. Not very sympathetic, but we will not delve into that. There's enough evil in the world without waterfowl turning all gangrapey. So I will forget I ever read that.

T'is the season to eat soup! Not that I say no to a succulent soup any season. This Provençal tomato soup is particularly great for any season, kind of fresh and light but creamy and warming all at once. And very inexpensive.

It's one of my mother's recipes. Or probably not my mother's originally, but something she found in a magazine or in an ad for processed cheese. Because that's what's in there, that's what makes it special, processed cheese. No namby-pamby Philly type soft cheese for this, but Laughing Cow / Dairylee (Koskenlaskija or Mesikämmen in Finland) and herbs de provence herb mix!

I love any kind of tomato soup. A friend of mine used to live in Amsterdam and you know how the Dutch are not particularly known for their great cuisine (yes, I do intend to eventually offend all possible nationalities in my blog) but they do fantastic soups and sandwiches. That's their lunch protocol, a soup and a sandwich - or rather a filled bread roll with a large glass of milk. That's why they are so freaking tall (all the protein in the milk) that even a very tall Finn like me finds herself feeling all dainty and slightly intimidated by the towering amazons with their broad shoulders and uvular fricatives.

But soup-wise, lovely place Amsterdam. Many a time did we sit by a canal with my friend slurping down a lovely soup accompanied by a cumin gouda filled roll with our other friend loudly protesting that if she had to eat another bowl of soup or any more bread she'd push us both into the Prinsengracht.

Recipe: Creamy Cheesy Provençal Tomato Soup  (Serves 4 for a starter, 2 for main)

Olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp plain flour
400g can of tomatoes
1tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar (or a bit more depending on your tomatoes)
1 1/2 cup of vegetable stock
Black pepper
1-2 tsp herbs de provence dry herb mix
5-6 triangles (80-100g) Dairylee or Laughing Cow processed cheese
salt (if needed)

Chop the onion and mince the garlic (I do realise all my recipes start like this). Heat the oil in a deep lidded saucepan. Fry the onion for a few minutes, add the garlic and fry for a few more minutes. Add the flour and continue to fry for another minute. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and herbs de provence. Cover and let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

Add the cheese and mix until cheese has dissoved. Blend until smooth. If you want a smooth elegant soup you can sieve it, but I like it with more texture. Serve with a swirl of yoghurt or cream,  a garnish of fresh herbs and fresh warm bread,

Khoresh bademjan or Khoresht or Khoresh-e bademjan (my Farsi is not great - but I can say "thank you" which is "mersi" - ok that's a bit easy - and "khubi" which is "whattup?") eggplant and tomato stew is a traditional Persian dish that can be made with chicken, lamb or beef. It's a comforting and satisfying dish with lots of tasty sauce that's lovely to ladle over rice or dip you bread into. It's also pretty healthy, particularly if you choose a lean sort of a meat! And hold your oil when frying the eggplant. Or be rebellious and controversial like me and bake them!

Apparently eggplant's the potato of Iran, a bit of a staple like potato for us Scandinavians. Potato, you will find, is the potato of Scandinavia. In Iran a lazy person is called a sofa aubergine and something insignificant is small eggplants. No, not really.

But this is true (because Google says so): if they say "A person's eggplant doesn't have a defect", it means the person is perfect for the job. So next time you apply for a job make sure you mention your eggplant doesn't have a defect!

I was going to be out for the evening so I thought this would be a great meal for husband to heat up and eat while watching football. Obviously he would rather eat with me discussing the events of the day over soft candle light and delving into various relationship conundrums of people whose lives are more interesting than ours. But a TV dinner with football and a bottle of beer had to suffice.

Recipe: Khoresh Bademjan (serves 4)

750 g chicken thighs and drumsticks (bone in)
Vegetable oil
2 large eggplants
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1tsp saffron
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutneg
4 tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups of chicken stock
salt
pepper

Peel the eggplants and slice into 1/2cm thick slices diagonally (or whichever way you like). Salt the slices on both sides and place in a colander for about an hour to get rid of the bitter taste. After an hour rinse them thoroughly and pat dry with kitchen towel. The original way to prepare this dish calls for pan frying the eggplant and I'm sure it make the recipe even yummier, but it does add quite a lot of fat into the dish, so I oven roast my eggplant.

So if you want to oven roast the eggplant preheat your oven to 190C. Place the eggplant slices on a large baking tray. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and mix with your hands. Bake for about 30 minutes or until they are soft.

If you want to pan fry, use modest amounts of oil, a griddle pan and after frying pat off excess fat with paper towels.

Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Heat a tbsp of oil in a large frying pan. Add the onions and fry on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the garlic and continue frying. Crush the rose petals and saffron threads in a pestle and mortar and add them with all the rest of the spices to the onions. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the chicken pieces and fry until they are slightly browned on all sides. Chop the tomatoes and add to the pan. I don't bother peeling the tomatoes, but if you want to you can pop them in boiling water for a few seconds before peeling and chopping.

Add the tomato paste and continue frying a little while adding a splash of the stock if the pan feels too dry, but the tomatoes should start giving out some of their juice by now. Once the tomatoes have softened a little add the rest of the stock, mix well and bring to boil.

Pour the stew into an oven dish, cover with tin foil and a place in the oven for 30 minutes. Then add the baked aubergines into the dish making sure they are covered in the sauce. Cover and bake for another 15-20 min until the chicken is done and the eggplant is soft.

Serve with saffron rice and flatbread.

This beautiful venison with red wine served with buttery and herby gnocchi was our elegant Sunday dinner to celebrate our new dining table. Husband has for a long time now been complaining that our kitchen table is too small. The size of the table was really not the root of the problem I think. Table was the right size, the problem was the people around it. When I bought the table many years ago I was still thinking it would be just me and my normal sized friends eating around the table not husband and his freakishly tall kids.

Also I was a crap cook and rarely had much to put on the table apart from a bottle of wine and an ashtray.

But now things have changed. Table needs to accommodate more food and bigger people (I am the same size as ever I might add), so to IKEA we went, and after a nightmarish two hours among 2 million other Londoners who all came with all own and neighbors' kids we were heading home with the bigger new table and 6 chairs in the back of the car.

And a selection of candles and glogg.

Then the joy of putting them together which I probably hate less than some, but I still hate it quite a lot. But I'm pretty good at it. Or maybe husband just says it so he can hang around the kettle making us tea and serving Swedish ginger biscuits. He did help and we got them done without too much agony.

The old table and chairs found a good home. Husband took them to a nice old lady who needed one. She was very happy and gave us a jar of dried rose petals from her garden in Iran. Husband immediately adopted her as our special extra mum and invited her over for dinner.

Recipe: Red wine marinated Scottish venison stew (serves 2)

350g diced venison

Marinade:
1/2 large yellow onion
2 garlic gloves
1 cup red wine
2 tbsp olive oil
juniper berries or game spice mix (optional)
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme

For the stew
oil
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 cup game (or beef) stock
salt
pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
150 g sliced chestnut mushrooms

Fresh herbs to decorate.

Mix all the marinade ingredients with and cover the venison well in the marinade. Leave in the fridge for minimum 4 hour, ideally overnight.

Pour the meat and marinade in a sieve preserving the marinade - you will use it for the sauce. Pick the venison pieces discarding the onions and herbs. Pat dry.

Heat oven to 180C.

Heat oil in a deep sauce pan. Fry the venison pieces in batches until browned on all sides. Set aside. Add a bit of oil in the pan. Add the chopped half on the onion and fry for about 5 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the tomato paste and flour. Fry for another minute of two. Add the marinade , beef or game stock, chopped herbs and sliced mushrooms. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cover the dish and place in over for 1hour - 1 1/2 hours until the meat is tender. If there is too much liquid cook on stove for a few minutes uncovered to reduce, or if it's too thick add a splash of water.

When ready sprinkle on some fresh herbs and serve with the carb of your choice.

I made this fantastic Greek inspired one pot marvel for husband as an "Isn't it nice to have your lovely wife back" dinner last night. He agreed that it was nice and wife indeed is lovely. After two helpings he declared that "This food is very good". It is a pretty easy dish to prepare and full of taste with lemon and fresh herbs.

I had been away for a week visiting my parents in the little village where they live in the middle of the Finnish lakeland. Or they live there just some of the time, they have an escape place in the town nearby when the village just gets too much. Or too little. It's a strange place, calming, heartwarming and ever-so-slightly depressing at the same time.

View to the lake and village from my parents' house

The village has less than 800 inhabitants and they are spread far and wide. The centre (there is no high street, just a little square by the "town" hall, the wall of which my brother bicycled into full speed 40 odd years ago whoopsidaisies) consists of two pubs (one is apparently closing down and the other one only opens for summer), a bank (open only once a week on order), library (open two days a week) and a shop (open every day, hurrah!). That's pretty much the service provision. There is a small school and a daycare centre (with 9 kids in! although at least three belong to the lady who runs it), a care home for old people (that one's quite busy) and two large graveyards.

The accounting needs of the villagers are well taken care of however. There are two accountants, one interestingly also sells eco-knitware made from dog and alpaca hair in case you're interested in an orange poncho made of doghair. From an orange dog presumably. Apparently doghair garments are particularly great for people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

I love the crazy village with all my heart. My family from my mother's father's side have lived there for hundreds of years, as far as the church records go and probably longer. The farm where my grandfather's family have lived for generations still stands carrying my mother's maiden name.

People are mostly known by their trade, like Apothecary (retired), Library Miss (coincidentally an overweight middle-aged man), Sacristan (yes - it is a job), Composer (the village's only celebrity - he's moved away now to a more vibrant artist community, a less vibrant artist community would have been impossible to find).

The river connecting the two lakes that surround the village

Or they are known by a nickname based on a background story and the person in question might not know what they are actually called behind their back. I don't know for instance what my parents are called. Or me. Do I have a name!? Maybe "Glamorous lady" or "Hot city chick". Or maybe "Crazy woman talking to her dog".

When she was a child my mum was called Big Scale Head, as in scales and weights, maybe because of her big head or severe haircut, or because her father was the shopkeeper (or managing director of the co-op, if you ask my mother) and her younger sister was Small Scale Head.


An example of a storybased name is Pyromaniac. He got his name after he burned down his own house. He was new to the village and had just build a big beautiful house across the lake from my parents. On Christmas Eve my sister-in-law was outside with the dogs and came in telling that the guy across the lake had some awesome outdoor candles going. Turned out it wasn't candles so much as the house itself. Pyromaniac also known as Arsonist had had an argument with the wife known as Pyromaniac's wife. Wife had left to stay with her mother in the next village, Pyromaniac had passed out with some candles on and something caught fire. Pyromaniac woke up luckily. FireBrigade managed to save some of the house, wife came back eventually and they rebuilt the house. A happy ending.

Another story that comes to mind is of a lady now known as Judas Iscariot. She embezzled some money from the council, I used to think it was the parish and hence the biblical naming, but no, it was the council. She lost her job as a result. She was then given a job in the local pub and shop combo The Sunken Log and M-Market. A job with less access to cash might have been a better idea. She did some more embezzling, lost her job again and is now mainly drinking beer in the other pub, the Pit Stop. Not so welcome in the Sunken Log, I presume. Once Pit Stop closes she's screwed. Only one of the many sad stories of the village. There was also the guy who put an iron bar in his boot, took his boat to the lake and jumped.

Recipe: Rice, orzo and chicken one pot wonder

For the chicken:
500-600g chicken - I had skin-on, bone-in thighs
1 tbsp chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried oregano
Zest and juice of one lemon
2 large minced garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
black pepper
1 tbsp oil

For the orzo-rice:
oil
3 shallots or one onion
1/2 bell pepper, yellow or red
3/4 cup long grain rice
1/2 cup orzo
1/2 cup of olives (preferably kalamata)
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt (depending on how salty your stock is - taste!)
black pepper

To finish:
100g feta
Fresh herbs
Lemon slices

Mix the chicken and marinade ingredients. Let marinade for a few hours or overnight in the fridge. If in hurry, let marinade in room temperature for half an hour.

Preheat oven to190C.

Chop your shallots or onion and peppers.

Heat some oil in a deep lidded pan and saute the onions for a few minutes, then add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil. Add the marinated chicken thighs on top and pour over any leftover marinade.

Cover the pan and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid, check the liquid and add a little bit if it looks too dry. I put the broiler on as well to get some colour on the chicken. Bake for a further 10-15 minutes until chicken is looking nicely browned on top and the liquid is absorbed. Check that the chicken and rice are done.

Remove the chicken pieces and fold the feta cubes into the rice. Place the chicken back on top of the rice and let rest for a few minutes. Garnish with fresh herbs and grilled slices of lemon.