Bilberries and wild raspberries were the stuff of my childhood. We'd go picking every summer in the forests around our summer house and get as much as we could. Mum would then freeze them and use in baking and for desserts throughout the winter months.

My sister was particularly good at foraging and one summer I think the rest of us had given up so Dad was paying her by the litre and she earned enough money to buy herself a straw hat. Yes, that really was the one thing she wanted more than anything else. It was a nice orange straw hat with a ribbon and flowers on it. No, it wasn't the 1800s and we weren't in a Jane Austen novel. Pray.

I was pretty crap and my aracnofobia didn't help. I had to first carefully brush the blueberry shrubs clean from spider webs and a few times I actually returned to the cabin in tears because there were too many spiders. Nowadays I am much braver and hardly cry at all. I still don't like spiders but I can handle the reasonable sized Finnish ones having had to deal with the much bigger English bastards.

In Scandinavia we have this thing called Queen Jam or Queen's Jam. Some online resources say it's originally a Swedish invention, but my objective view is that it's Finnish. Swedes just like to claim everything. Like Santa and Sauna. It's ridiculous.

Queen Jam is a jam made of wild raspberries and bilberries, half and half, and with sugar of course. Some people might throw in some strawberries as well and I'm not gonna judge them. I have never been able to find bilberries in the shops here, but I'm sure some farmers markets must sell them. I used shop bought blueberries and some frozen raspberries I had leftover in the freezer for this tart.

But you could use other left over fruit or berries - I could see peach and blueberries work nicely together, Or even apples and pears or cherries, whatever's dying in your fruit basket.

For the creme fraiche topping you can use natural or greek yoghurt as well, or a combination of creme fraiche and yoghurt, whatever you happen to have in your fridge.

For the base you can make any sweet tart base, I use this one with oats, it has lovely taste and texture, almost like a crumble and oats is good for cholesterol!

Recipe: Blueberry and raspberry Queen tart

Pie crust:
125 g butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1.5 cups oats

Topping:
1.5 cups of any berries or chopped fruit
Cream mix:
3/4 cup creme fraiche (or combination of cream, yoghurt and creme fraiche, even quark)
1/4 cup sugar (or slightly more or less depending on how tart your fruit or berries are)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

Preheat your oven to 175C.

Mix the room temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and oats. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mix. Butter a round tart dish and spread the mix into the bottom and sides of the dish.

Tip the berries or fruit on top of the tart base. mix together all the ingredients of the topping and pour it on top.

Bake for about 35 minutes until the sides are starting to brown a little and the topping has set.

Serve as it is warm or cold, or with vanilla ice-cream or warm or cold custard.



Linking to Fuss Free Flavours and Fabfood4all 

Last week cooking didn't really happen a lot. I made a pretty good Ghormeh Sabzi stew, but next time I will go back to the lamb. I thought beef would be just as nice as there is a lot of taste in the stew anyway and I thought it would be healthier, but this recipe really is a lot nicer with lamb.

This week I will try to do a bit better, unfortunately I am away a bit so the start of the week is going to be weekend's leftovers for husband.  I made a really nice seafood pasta with three kinds of salmon, fresh, lightly smoked and proper smoked, prawns, asparagus. white wine, lemon and sour cream Sunday night, so the leftovers will see husband through till Wednesday when I'm back home. I just texted him that I had a nice piatti pesce and salmon and poached egg with asparagus on sourdough bread for dinner and he texted back that he had macaroni salad. That's apparently what he calls my beautiful seafood tagliatelle. With sour cream. Lemon. And fresh herbs.

Macaroni salad.

Meal plan for the week:




Sharing with Mrs M and Org Junkie

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.

Smoked reindeer, reindeer salami, roast veg and 4 cheese pizza

Last week went 100% to plan, maybe partly because I wrote the plan midweek.

I'm going to stop reporting the expenditure. I don't see the fun in that really.

So - lots of good food was had, a tasty chicken and chorizo paella, delicate redfish in white wine and an incredibly yummy reindeer pizza on Saturday night.

White wine baked redfish with lemon and dill

Husband helped with the pizza, he used to run a pizza restaurant, so he was making the dough and showing (off) how to knead the dough into portion sized tight balls that apparently should feel like an 18 year old's boob. The last time I felt one is more than a quarter century ago, so not so helpful. I should hope it has been a while for husband too. After he was done with the dough, he pointed at the mess on the worktop and said "You can clean now" and went to watch football in his superhero pyjama pants.

I made a tasty tomato sauce with lots of fresh herbs and smoked garlic - a new acquaintance. It smells lovely, but I'm not sure how much the taste comes through in something like this where in the end results there are so many strong tastes. I will be trying it in salads and dips where it might shine more. I also roasted some peppers, onion and mushroom for the pizza.

And then husband resumed his duties shaping the two perfect little boobs into thin pizza bases flamboyantly throwing them up in the air. I was standing by handing him instruments like an operating theatre technician admiring the skill of the surgeon - "Cutter" - "Meat tenderiser" (!?!) - "Flour" - "Pan" but remarkably no "Rolling pin" which I had ready on my instruments tray.

We must play this actually, I'll wear my little plastic nurses uniform and husband will wear something other than superhero pyjama pants.

We then topped the pizzas with my lovely sauce and veg, slices of smoked reindeer and reindeer salami, mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey Jack and edam finishing them off with thin slices of tomato and olives. They were awesome - we are going to do some this Saturday with kids, they sounded a bit jealous on the phone when husband told them what we were doing. And I'm totally going to embarrass them with their Dad's boob story. Sexual education is important, how the hell are they otherwise supposed to know what an 18 year old's boob is supposed to feel like.

On Sunday I did a cooking afternoon with a friend who wants to get more confident in the kitchen - we did some hummus. a blue cheese dressing, chicken two ways and an apple cake. I think there might be separate blog post in it when I get a moment.

Hummus

Chicken with lemon, feta and herbs, roast potatoes with Greek herbs

Apple cake with sour cream and clotted cream and honeycomb ice-cream. Cake home-made, Ice-cream shop-bought.

This week's plan is not super inspired, but hey ho.




Sharing with Mrs M and Org Junkie

On Sunday we did a cooking experience with my friend. I don't want to call it a cooking class exactly as I would be a ridiculously unqualified teacher, but we just cooked some foods together and I tried to give my culinarily challenged friend some tips. It's also all about confidence, so practising together is a great way to build her morale that has been crushed by collapsing Swiss rolls and baked cod disasters. Having been considerably clueless myself only a few years ago I can still relate.

One of her questions leading up to our Cooking Experience was How to cook chicken safely. Up to three quarters of our supermarket chicken is contaminated with campylobacter. And I’m sure there’s a bit of salmonella thrown in here and there for good measure even though that situation seems to have improved in recent years.

An infection like this can in the worst case be lethal and if it's not at some point you probably wish that it was. I had campylobacteriosis once (from a restaurant - not self-inflicted) and there aren’t many people in the world I would wish it upon. There are some, I can immediately think about a few actually, a list is suddenly forming in my head, hmm.

My friend has been so concerned about this that she actually never has cooked chicken at home. So I thought why don't I put some tips down as I have managed to cook chicken loads of times without killing anyone. If you follow these simple safeguards, you should have no concerns at all.

So here are my top tips
1. Don’t lick the raw chicken
2. Don’t massage your vegetables and work surfaces with the raw chicken

No seriously here we go:

How to cook chicken safely - 6 tips to avoid the risk of food poisoning

1. Be paranoid all the way from the supermarket

Sometimes bacteria can reside in the outer surfaces of the packaging as well, so my tip is to pack your chicken in a separate plastic bag at the supermarket so you don’t cross-contaminate your other food. I like to segregate the poor chicken even in the shopping cart so it doesn’t touch my other foods.

Keep your chicken in this bag when you put it in your fridge so none of the potential bacteria in the packaging is transferred to any surfaces or other foods in your fridge.

2. Don’t wash your chicken

By washing the chicken you are not likely to get rid of the bacteria on the chicken, but actually just spread it around your work surfaces and wherever the water ends up splashing on. Probably everywhere.

3. Protect and wash your cutting board and utensils 

If you need to cut the chicken, don’t use your wooden or plastic cutting board uncovered. I often use scissors to cut the chicken into pieces keeping the chicken in the container it came in. Afterwards I just put the container in the bin and scissors in the dishwasher, no contaminated surfaces or cutting boards to worry about.

If you use a board, protect it with parchment paper and/or plastic bags that you then discard and make sure you wash the cutting board very thoroughly as well as any other utensils you use.

4. Marinate, don't cross-contaminate

If you marinate your chicken, make sure the container you marinate it in is clean outside and completely covered so you don't contaminate the contents of your fridge. I usually use a metal bowl which I wrap completely in a clean plastic bag. Once I'm ready to cook I just chuck the bag in the bin and put the bowl in the dishwasher. Also discard any extra marinade, don't use it as salad dressing. Duh!

5. Keep washing your hands obsessive compulsively

After handling the chicken before you touch anything make sure you always wash your hands carefully with water and soap so you don't spread the bacteria with your hands to door handles etc.

6. Make sure your chicken is cooked through

Test from the thickest part of the chicken cutting into the meat. Juices should run clear and meat should not be pink or opaque. Leg meat is a bit darker, so it may look a bit coloured even when it’s cooked. If in doubt use a meat thermometer, the temperature should be 165 for cooked chicken.

This week's #fishfriday meal was going to be whatever would catch my eye at the fish counter at John Lewis Foodhall. I often work Friday's at our London clinic just behind the Oxford Street John Lewis so I pop over at lunch or on my way home to get something nice that's not necessarily available at my own local not always so versatile supermarket.

This time I kind of had halibut in mind because I've never cooked it, but then saw these interesting looking Norwegian deep-sea red fish fillets which I have never tried before either. I asked the fish guy what kind of fish it is, like taste and texture-wise and he said it was like bream but fishier and meatier. After establishing how fishy and meaty exactly (not mackerel fishy or monkfish meaty) I asked for three fillets, two for husband and one for me and the fishmonger agreed that it sounded like a good plan.

I decided to gently bake them rather than pan fry. I'm sure they'd be lovely panfried with a little bit of butter. I just seasoned them with salt, lemon pepper, chopped fresh dill, lemon zest and juice and let sit in the fridge for an hour before pouring some Sauvignon Blanc on top and baking for 15 minutes. I served the fish with basil and tomato gnocchi. It was a lovely dinner and just light enough for us to go out for a sophisticated little drink to our favourite Soho cocktail bar and get completely hammered. Oops.

Recipe: White wine baked redfish fillets with lemon and dill (serves 4)

4 Redfish fillets
Salt
Lemon pepper
2 tbsp chopped dill
Zest and juice of half a lemon
Oil
100 ml white wine

Place the fillets in a baking dish. Season them with salt and lemon pepper, lemon zest and juice and chopped dill. drizzle over a little bit of olive oil and let marinade for a couple of hours in the fridge.


Heat oven to 200C. Pour the white wine in the baking dish and bake for about 15 min (depending on the thickness of the fillets).

Last week was a good one foodwise, mostly on plan. Also new personal best in spending; £115 for food, only excuse is an expensive lamb leg, otherwise I am a bit baffled as to how it came to that much.

I've been doing even more fish than normal in the recent weeks and we've had quite a few fully vegetarian days also. I am going to continue on this great path. Husband did point out that although he is absolutely loving all this and appreciating my culinary support of his cardiovascular health, he is also a man after all and will need a certain amount of meat. Manhood is a meaty business.

Here are some of the week's culinary escapades:

Creamy Finnish salmon and prawn soup

Moroccan chickpea, lentil and butternut squash stew

Mediterranean fish stew

Greek lamb kleftiko It looked more appetising after 6 hours in the oven

Pear and brandy cake with almonds

Pink raspberry cake at the Buckingham Palace cafe

This week started off quite busy and Monday night I resorted to leftover moose burgers from the freezer. Last night I did a sweet potato and chilli soup. Wednesday a friend is visiting so I will do a bit of a Spanish theme, it's a work day and I am picking her from the airport on the way home from the office, probably driving to at least two wrong terminals before eventually finding the right one, so I will keep it reasonably simple.

Sweet potato and chilli soup

Sunday another friend is coming over for a cookery experience. Cooking has not really been top of her agenda and she would like to learn more. So we are going to have a fun afternoon learning to cook chicken a couple of ways and some other things. I'm still working on the ideas, we might even bake a cake. But we also just want to sit around the table, eat and gossip.

Weekly meal plan

Monday             Moose burgers and salad
Tuesday             Sweet potato and chilli soup
Wednesday        Chicken, chorizo and seafood paella
Thursday           Leftover paella
#fishfriday        Best of what the John Lewis foodhall fish counter has to offer
Saturday            Seriously this time I am bloody well gonna make the Pizza
Sunday              Chicken two ways

Sharing with Mrs M's meal planning Monday and Organising Junkie.