It is time to let go of the barbecue. I will still do the occasional ribeye steak on the outside coal barbie, but the time has come to dig out the dutch oven, root vegetables and hardy meats.



Game is really healthy, low in saturated fats and full of iron and vitamin B12 (venison at least) and all kinds of good things albeit with the occasional shot, which I always try to find lest husband get upset at the violent end of our dinner ingredients. Which I think is a lot more merciful than the modern abattoir waiting for the farm animals. Just whetting your appetites here with these entertaining death stories. So if your target audience is of sentimental constitution when it comes to gunned down wildlife feel free to include an additional step of palpating the meat for any shot into the instructions below.

Other than that this is a very easy, tasty and comforting autumn food. You can make it into a  stew if you prefer, just use less liquid. You can also make this into a darker soup or stew using red wine and beef stock, but I think lately I have given husband too much weird dark food like squid ink pasta and black paella, so he casually enquired at some point whether there would be red food on the menu any time soon.

This soup really hit the spot when husband was suffering from his first manflu of the season and came home one night exhausted and bunged up. He collapsed on the sofa resuming the fetal position and exclaimed "What life is this? Life of work and illness!" He can be quite dramatic at times, but also very responsive to care. So I told him to go have a long hot shower, put his PJ's and warm socks on, tuned the TV from Food Network to football and brought him a steaming bowl of this tasty, nourishing and vibrantly red soup with toasted seeded bread and a hot toddy. Not sure if his physical symptoms got any better, but his outlook on life brightened instantly.

Warming game soup with tomato and root vegetables

Oil
500g game (I had ready-made game mix of venison, pheasant, partridge and mallard)
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red pointed capsicum, chopped
1-2 tbsp of chopped fresh thyme
Pinch of smoked paprika
1 small turnip, chopped
2-3 potatoes, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Small can (227g) of chopped tomatoes
2 cups low salt chicken stock
Water if necessary
Salt
Black pepper

Add a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil in a lidded non-stick pan. Add the meat that has been cut into 2cm cubes. Brown the meat and remove from the pan.

Add the onions to the pan and saute for a few minutes. Add the minced garlic and capsicum and continue to saute. Add the wine and let it evaporate a little before adding the chicken stock. Add the meat back into the pan with the thyme and paprika. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and leave to cook on low heat for about 45 minutes.

Add the rest of the vegetables and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes until the meat is soft and the vegetables are done. If you want to make it a stew, use a bit less liquid or cook without a lid for some of the cooking time.  Or if you want to make it very soupy, add a bit of water.

Garnish with a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves and serve with warm, fresh bread.

My answer to the burning Catalan independence question is paella. We love paella in this household and this time I wanted to find a way to make it really healthy without compromising the taste. Not that paella is that unhealthy to begin with, but still wanted to see if I can pimp it up a bit with great ingredients and lots of veg and herbs for our fish Friday dinner last night.

This is what this awesome seafood bonanza looked like. And it tasted awesome.


And this is how husband repaid my lifesaving efforts the day after:

Fish and vegetables - what could be wrong with that, he says.

Actually I am all for giving yourself a break every once in a while. Or that's what I say to maintain a more relaxed and tolerant image. At least this time it was a very good plate of fish and chips. I know because on top of my tiny beetroot and goat cheese salad I had some space to try some of it.

This was the park cafe in St. James Park, but next time we will stay inside, just too many pigeons and pigeon poop everywhere it the outside area and kids feeding pigeons off the tables and wings flapping everywhere. Why their parents thought it is OK to feed pigeons in a restaurant I do not understand, but I understand that better than kicking pigeons which is another habit a lot of kids seem to have that their ignorant parents think is acceptable.

That's all I have on pigeons this time.


So this is what I did to the good old paella. To keep the glucose index lower than traditional paella for husbands diabetes I replaced the bomba rice with black venere rice, which is a whole grain and on top of it's better glucose profile apparently also has all kinds of antioxidants and other healthy stuff. It is the veritable blueberry of the rice family. And I upped the veg content to add lots of fibre to soak up some of the glucose and ensure slower release in the body.

I left out the chorizo which is full of salt and saturated fats, cooked the seafood by steaming it on top of the dish rather than frying it and of course used healthy rapeseed oil and was a bit careful with salt.

The end result was absolutely delicious, but the black rice has a different taste and texture, so it is a bit of a different experience from your traditional paella.

Black venere rice paella with lots of vegetables and seafood.

Serves 4-6

1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 fennel
1 bell pepper
Pinch of dried red pepper flakes (or fresh chilli)
1 tsp of turmeric
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
Pinch of saffron
Salt
Black pepper
1.5 cups of black rice
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 glass of white wine
Small bunch of parsley
Small bunch of dill
2.5-3 cups of low salt fish stock
Fresh or frozen peas
2 fillets of cod
2 fillets of redfish
250g mussels
250g squid rings
Fresh herbs or spring onion and lemon wedges

Chop all the vegetables and herbs. Heat oil in a paella pan. Add the onion and saute on low heat until the onion starts to soften, add the minced garlic and continue to cook. Add the spices and mix well. Add the chopped fennel and bell pepper.

Crank up the heat, add the rice and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon zest and juice and he wine. Let the wine evaporate a bit before adding the herbs and the stock. Reduce heat, cover and leave to simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the rice is almost done (check pack instructions). Stir every once in a while and add water if necessary

While the rice is cooking cut the fish fillets into quarters, season the fish and squid with salt and pepper and you can drizzle on a little rapeseed or olive oil and lemon juice. Clean the mussels well and throw away any that don't close when tapping the shell.

Once the rice is nearly done stir in the peas. Then add the seafood in the order of required cooking time pushing the fish pieces and mussels into the rice. I added the mussels and fish fillets first, let them steam on top of the paella with a lid on for 6-7 minutes until they were almost done, then added the squid for just 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle with some lemon juice, fresh herbs or chopped spring onion, add some lemon wedges on top and serve with a crisp salad.

This authentic and very healthy Mexican Chilli con Carne recipe works as a traditional chunky chilli served with rice. Or if you want to enjoy it as a hearty soup, just add a bit more water and serve with a crusty roll. Delicious either way!

There is definitely a whiff of winter in the air. I wore an angora dress and boots to work this week. On the way to work I noticed a big hole in the front of the skirt created by the moths (at least I think it was the moths, but evidence is purely circumstantial)  we've had in our house which now seem to have disappeared together with the hand-knotted Persian rug that had made such a lovely home and breeding ground for them. Cold-heartedly replaced by a hostile synthetic IKEA rug. Thank you IKEA, unfortunately too late to save my dress.


Apart from the hole in the dress, I was very elegant and seasonally appropriate.

And to replace the moths we now have weevils, those minuscule beetley buggers who live in cereal and flour. Never a pest-free moment in our household.

Apparently weevils are ok to eat when cooked. Just saying to any future dinner guests who might be concerned. S'ok.

This minced beef and mushroom chilli soup is a lovely easy winter weeknight recipe, and it's healthy. We had a bit of a break from our healthy lifestyle this weekend. We had dinner on Saturday with friends in a Persian restaurant, which was not hugely unhealthy, but it was followed by about ninety-five cocktails in our favourite Italian bar. We discovered the wonderful Spritz Aperol drink in Venice and after spotting the bottle on the shelf in the bar we ordered a few of those. It's basically booze and prosecco which is brilliant and it comes with a slice of orange for added vitamin C. And we did have some Jack Daniels just to add some rock'n'roll into the proceedings, if I remember correctly.

On Sunday we didn't move from the sofas and had a takeaway. I even ate some sweets, which I almost never do, but I found this tub of Finnish salty licorice and had a couple of handfulls until blood pressure was about 190 over 130. I still wasn't quite right on Monday and had a chocolate biscuit at work, which is very uncharacteristic for me. I must have been still hungover to engage in that sort of craziness!

But apart from these occasional weekend lapses we have been very good. Husband has stayed away from naughty snacks and I haven't bought or baked him any biscuits or cakes for weeks. Yesterday, because he has been so very good, I brought him an enormous cinnamon bun from the Nordic Bakery in town. I haven't seen him as happy for a long time. For a moment I though he was going to burst into tears. But so sensible has he become that he ate half of it leaving half for later so as not to elevate his glucose levels too much. What a good boy!

Hearty and healthy minced beef and mushroom chilli soup

Rapeseed oil
1 brown onion
1-2 celery stalks
2 small carrots
1 red bell pepper
250g low fat minced beef
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or fresh chillies and/or tabasco if you like it hot)
2 tsp dried oregano
Black pepper
150g mushrooms
400g can of tomatoes
Water
Beef stock cube / pot
400g can of beans (black beans or red kidney beans or I had rosecoco)
Salt if needed
Fresh coriander for garnish (optional)

Add a splash of oil in a large non-stick pan or dutch oven. While the oil is heating start chopping your veg and add them to the pan as soon as you've chopped each of them, first onion, followed by celery, carrots, pepper and garlic. Make sure to stir regularly.

Then add you minced beef breaking it into pieces with a wooden spoon. Add all the spices. Add sliced or chopped mushrooms and keep sauteing for another couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes again breaking them with the spoon (or you can use chopped canned tomatoes), add 1 - 1.5 cans of water and the stock cube or pot. Leave to simmer, You can simmer it up to a couple of hours if you like, just make sure to stir every once in a while and add water if it looks like it's drying out. Then add the drained beans and simmer for another 10 nimutes, check the seasoning and serve.

But if you don't have the time, simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, add drained beans and simmer for another 10 minutes and serve.

You can use less water and make it drier and it's just a normal chilli you can serve with rice.

Many people call this squid ink pasta but it is actually cuttlefish ink. The two molluscs are closely related, I'm not sure I can tell you more about them or their ink, but just thought I'd mention they are not the same thing. Like Finland and Sweden. Not the same country.


This dish was inspired by our lovely, romantic weekend in the absolutely awe-inspiring Venice two weeks ago. I love Venice, I have about five thousand pictures of the canals, I particularly loved the small, quiet side canals. An avid motorist, husband was mainly amazed by the lack of cars. So, lots of walking and exploring as always on our holidays, and of course good food. I've probably had more pizza this year that in my entire life so far.

View of San Marco's square from Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

Gondolas, Grand Canal

I blame the questionable decision I made in January to study Italian which has partly influenced our recent holiday choices. I thought it was an easy language that you could master by adding a random vowel at the end of each word, cranking up the volume a bit and waving your hands for effect. Disappointingly it doesn't work like that. I won't go into the depressing detail of conjugating verbs, irregularities and the hundreds of tiny little one or two letter words that need to go absolutely everywhere. But I take comfort in the fact that I pronounce it like a boss. In Finnish we roll our R's and have a similarly passionate relationship with our double consonants. I think this might have made our travelling companions believe I was more fluent than I actually am. All I actually did was some ordering in the restaurants and buying a stamp - un francobolli - I love that word. So powerful. FRANCOBOLLI, pronounced with a proud double k, perfectly describes this fearless little square of paper and glue that boldly takes all kinds of secret and controversial messages wherever they need to go. I need to tell my dad, who has been a devoted francobollist all his life about this wonderful word, he will love it.

Sometimes the streets get busy - DHL delivers

So we were travelling with another couple, a friend of husband's and his quirky wife who made us laugh a lot. Our last evening back at the hotel after our night out husband was brushing his teeth and I could hear him struggling behind the bathroom door as he was repeatedly bursting into hysterics. I can't share the joke that made us giggle helplessly because it's one on those things you had to be there for = not a very good joke. It involved death and jellyfish. But you know how after 15k of walking, Italian food and several glasses of prosecco, tired and happy, it doesn't take much to crack you up.



My only slight grievance during the holiday was that I was left to make all the decisions about where to go, what to do, when to meet for breakfast etc. I am very bossy by nature, but I would like a break every once in a while. But these guys, I would really like to run my leadership culture workshop with them. And this includes husband. You'd think evolution would have had its way with this kind of aimless ditherer. "Oh there's a massive, hungry-looking lion. Which way do you reckon we should run (=dawdle)?" "Oh I don't know, you choose, I'll just dilly-dally after you." "Well you know, I don't really have a preference, I quite like the look of those bushes, but then there's the nice little river as well, what do you th..AAAARGH."

But then actually I'm often more comfortable with my own decisions than anybody else's. Probably because mine usually are of course much better. The only time the others made a decision during the trip I nearly burst into tears. I had completely fallen in love with the beautiful, colourful, little island of Burano and wanted to stay there and explore but the others wanted to go to the boring stupid island of Murano. But to my credit I hid my anger and tears very well under my sunglasses. I think husband might have possibly suspected something, partly maybe because I said to him three times that I would have wanted to stay. I managed not to stamp my foot, which is a sign of my maturity. But as soon as we landed on Murano husband plied me with a Spritz Aperol, which is an awesome mix of the aperitif Aperol, prosecco and some other stuff. So peace and jollity was promptly restored. But if you ever go anywhere near Venice make sure to visit Burano, and if your friends want to leave the colourful fishing village for a pretentious glass art tourist trap, let them go and find better friends.

My happy place - Burano

In the food front I mainly luxuriated in the beautiful seafood pastas. There is an absolute classic of a dish called Spaghetti con seppie alla Venetziana, spaghetti with cuttlefish Venetian style. I had been eyeballing it on the menus on previous nights but it does look a bit hardcore, so had opted for easier looking clam and mussel pastas. But I am happy I had the courage to try it, it was very very good.

Spaghetti con seppie alla Venetziana

Our first evening - pizza by the Rialto bridge

Pizza on the go

As this inky messy thing might be a bit too much for husband I decided to ease him into the world of black pasta by a slightly more approachable version. I bought this black pasta at the Venice airport, but you can get it here also. Just head for Carluccios or any other Italian delicatessen.

Squid in pasta with lightly smoked salmon, prawns, mussels and squid

Rapeseed oil
400g cuttlefish ink pasta
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 chopped fresh chilli (optional)
Zest and juice of 1 lemon2/3 cup of white wine
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful of fresh basil, chopped
Salt
Blackpepper, freshly ground
Dried italian herbs
Half a bag of spinach, chopped (optional)
300-400g Seafood of your choice (mussels, squid, prawns)
2 lightly smoked salmon fillets, skin removed and cubed (or use normal salmon)
2 heaped tablespoons of low fat sour cream
Pecorino, grated

Cook pasta in salted water according to the pack instructions leaving it al dente and preserving some of the cooking liquid.

In the meanwhile prepare the seafood sauce. Heat a tbsp of rapeseed oil a deep non-stick pan. Add the onion, garlic and chilli and fry on medium heat for a few minutes until they start to soften, add the zest and juice of the lemon and the white wine and cook down for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes herbs, seasoning and spinach and continue cooking until the spinach has wilted. Add the sour cream and the seafood in the order of how long things needs to cook. Don't over cook, the salmon cubes only need a few minutes and squid only a minute.

Add some of the pasta cooking water if you need more sauce. Once your sauce is cooked add in the pasta, mix careful not to break up the salmon too much. Sprinkle with fresh basil and grated pecorino.

I was inspired to make these lovely fresh egg, avocado and smoked salmon breakfast burritos by my recent work trip to our San Diego office. Every morning we started the day's meetings with egg, bacon and sausage filled breakfast burritos with sour cream and salsa. So I thought I'd make a pork-free healthy version for us for breakfast this weekend.

I love California, but then who doesn't. Sun, Pacific beaches and a relaxed way of life. Laid-back and slow-paced husband would fit right in and I would improve my stressful ways in no time. I would start by making an excel-sheet on how to chill. And then I would probably file daily progress reports to see how I was getting on.

On the way back I nearly missed my connection at LAX. I thought the "TBIT" on the board was some kind of code for "To Be Informed Timelyly" (couldn't really think of what the second T would be for), so I sat enjoying a lovely glass of red in a wrong terminal waiting for the gate number to appear. Then finally as the take off time was getting really close I established from a gentleman sitting next to me at the bar that TBIT was the Tom Bradley International Terminal and that I wasn't in it. Luckily I was wearing my fastest flipflops so made a run for it. I made it by the skin of my teeth and nearly kissed the Rupert Everett lookalike steward who welcomed me on board.

As I had sat down panting on my seat and Rupert had brought me a much needed glass of sparkling wine, there was a crisp greeting from the seat next to mine. "Good Afternoon" said the young man in polished tones. It was 11pm. I found out later that he was coming from Hawaii, which probably explained his chronological misplacement. He was a child of two navy officers on his way back to his boarding school in England. His father was escorting him, but was seated in economy (best place for him said Rupert who thought we were mother and son travelling in style having deposited the old man in the cattle class). Monty, I'm not making it up, he was called Monty, not sure if it was short of Montague or Montgomery, was 11 and reading a book about the Cold War?!?!

We chatted all the way through our dinner. He was the best conversational company I've had for a long time. He's going to study architecture at the UCL. When my younger stepson was 11 he wanted to be a petrol pump attendant (not that there is anything wrong with it).

Monty and I talked about his life in the boarding school, apparently it IS a little like Harry Potter! We talked about how it is to be without his parents and how it is to be an only child. As we parted we shook hands although I just wanted to give him a big hug. I do feel a bit sorry for poor old Monty having to be so brave, grown up and emotionally restrained at 11.

Today over the breakfast burritos I told Monty's story to my petrol pump loving stepson and asked if he's got any more ideas on what he will study and where as he has to decide in about two months time. Not a clue.

Californian egg, avocado and smoked salmon breakfast burritos (makes 4)

4 burrito-sized wholewheat tortillas (or wheat or corn)
Oil
3 spring onions
8 eggs
Water
Salt
Blackpepper
Homemade or shop bought salsa
Sour cream
2 large avocados
4 big handfuls of shredded iceberg, romaine or gem lettuce
Packet of smoked salmon (about 150g)
1/2 lime

Preheat oven to 190C. Wrap the tortillas in foil and place in the oven. Chop the spring onion. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry onions on low heat until soft. Add a bit of water if necessary to stop the onions from browning.

Crack the eggs in a bowl, add a splash of water and mix well with a fork or whisk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour on top of the onions and scramble.

Shred the salad and core, peal and slice the avocados. Squeeze some lime on the avocado to keep from browning.

Once the eggs are ready, take the tortillas from the oven, spread with a spoonful of sour cream and salsa, fill with the egg, smoked salmon, salad and avocado, add a squeeze of lime if you like. Wrap burrito style and pop in the oven for a couple of minutes just to make sure they are hot - not to cook.

Serve with more salsa and sour cream, tomatoes, cucumber and salad leaves.

There have been some murmurings from husband since I have introduced the lower carb and lower saturated fat diet, which has meant more veg, fish, weird pasta made out of things that probably shouldn't be in pasta, less meat and particularly less red meat like his beloved lamb. Summa summarum: girl food. Some meals have induced the question "What is this?", which usually is not a good sign, even if asked with a curious rather than a judgmental tone. And I managed to cause a bout of constipation by hiding chia seeds in meatballs.


And then there was baklavagate. We had some baklava left over from a dinner I prepared for some of his family who were visiting London and came to us for a Middle-Eastern feast. The following evening I heard his anguished shout from the kitchen "Why didn't you hide the baklava, now I've eaten it all!" I rushed to his aid, ripped the baklava plate from his sticky, sugar high shaky fingers. The damage was extensive, but not devastating. He hadn't eaten all of it, but quite a few pieces.

I decided to bin the rest (they were those shop bought super sugary and greasy ones, definitely not designed for a healthy diet). Husband pleaded for another piece before I binned the rest (he actually threatened to take the plate out of the bin and eat all of it if I didn't let him have one more little piece) - I caved in and gave him half a piece. You should see him in his pleading mode, worse than a Labrador puppy with his misty brown eyes.

Husband manfully negotiating over some baklava.

So to ease the pain of the healthy diet I realise a well timed proper man meal with a big slab of meat is in order.

I've never been a great steak chef, but have managed to get them right in the pan a few times. Recently I decided to get brave with the barbecue because we've had some nice weather. My first effort was two large and juicy ribeye steaks. I had been planning to make them for dinner on a Saturday and had asked for some tips from a friend who is a great cook. As advised I had taken them out from the fridge in the afternoon to get properly to room temperature before cooking that evening.

But then I thought with the late brunch maybe we would want to have a light dinner, like fish and veg. So I ran this past husband. "Well, let's have a look at those steaks at least", he said audaciously and I showed him the steaks. He weighed the steaks in his hands and said he felt he could manage one. Gravely he added that he probably should, in all honesty, since he was losing weight at an alarming rate. He invited me to try how very bony his shoulders have become. As a dutiful wife I poked him in the shoulders and agreed that yes I could definitely feel some bone and an injection of protein was the ticket.

Since then I have barbecued steaks many times and they have turned out fantastic without fail. I have always served them with my home made oven chips and some healthy but delicious sides, no double deep-fried chips and buttery sauces for us.


Foolproof BBQ ribeye steaks with grilled tomatoes and chimichurri

Good quality steaks (dry-aged)
Rapeseed oil
Salt
Blackpepper
Herb of your choice (optional)

1. Take the steaks out of the fridge to get to room temperature well in advance, like 3-4 hours, not half an hour before you plan to cook them.
4. Cook 3 minutes on each side for medium (depending on the thickness of course). You can season with salt at this stage, once you have turned the steak once add salt on the cooked side, and once you have cooked the other side, add salt on that side.
5. Rest in a warm place under tinfoil and kitchen towels to keep hot for about 5 minutes before serving.
6. Serve with home-made oven chips, chimichurri, grilled tomatoes and a Greek salad with low fat feta or your choice of sides.

Chimichurri

Small bunch of parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh or 2 tsp dried oregano
1-2 garlic cloves
2-3 spring onions
½ tsp chilli flakes
3-4 tbsp olive oil
juice of ½ lemon
2 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

To make the chimichurri, blitz all ingredients in a food processor. Season to taste.