Roast garlic and mozzarella bread

Today's recipe is a slight twist on the good old garlic bread. This time I decided to make garlic breads using roasted garlic. Roasting the garlic takes away that bitter harshness that raw garlic has, it's much more soft and sweet. I think it's perfect for slightly more subtle garlic bread that don't just scream "I'm a garlic bread and you will repel people for a week after eating me" but instead tempt you to devour multiple of these tasty breads and savour the soft undertones of garlic and still be able to go to work the next morning. 

Roasting the garlic can be done ahead of time, even the day before. I made these for a dinner party recently, and I prepared the garlic butter in the morning, and before dinner all I needed to do was butter slices of bread, cut some mozzarella on top and bake them until golden brown. I haven't added any quantities to the recipe, as one garlic makes plenty of garlic butter (you can keep it in the fridge in a sealed jar for a few days), so you can make as many garlic breads as you need really.

Roast garlic and mozzarella bread:
1 whole garlic
about 100 g butter 
slices of bread of your choice (I used a cheese bread for extra cheesiness)
thinly slized mozzarella (or grated would work as well)

The howto: 
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Wrap the garlic in foil and roast for an hour. Let cool completely. Separate the cloves of garlic. By squeezing the garlic clove, the puree-like roasted flesh will come out of the skin (your hands will have a lovely scent of garlic after doing this, if this doesn't appeal to you, just wear disposable gloves) and mix the garlic with butter. If you use unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt. You can keep the butter in a tightly sealed jar in the fridge for a few days.

When you want to make your bread, preheat oven to 230 degrees. Cut slices of bread of choice and smear with butter (more or less depending on your taste). Top with a slice of mozzarella. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately.

The verdict:
I made these for a dinner party and they all disappeared very quickly. I think that's all I need to say. Are they health food? Of course not. Are they good? Oh yes. Perfect to serve with a tasty soup or as a starter. 

Clean out your closets veg pie

I read a blog post somewhere a while ago how people tend to stock up on food, and end up with tens if not hundreds of pounds worth of unused food in their house. And in the worst case, you end up stocking so much that the food goes bad before you have a chance (i.e. get organised enough) to eat it. This is one thing me and my significant other disagree very strongly on. He thinks a lot of food is still good to eat past it's due date. I think you should use up food before the due date, not necessarily because it would be dangerous to eat after that (just use your eyes and nose, that will guide you right) but because food loses it's flavour and nutritional value so you should use it up as soon as possible. 

I have a really bad habit of hoarding food. I have no idea where this need comes from, it's not like I ever had to go hungry in my life. And I live less than a five minute walk from not one, not two, but five grocery stores and several restaurants, both fast and slow food. Because my kitchen is tiny, my hoarding instinct leads to bad storage problems. So I have decided I really need to decrease the amount of stored food I have hanging around. For some crazy reason I have even ended up with two gigantic containers of baking powder. No idea how I will be able to use them all up before they are out of date. What I really should do is go through all my stashes of food and make a list of what I have. But at least I'll start by trying to use up some things from my fridge which need using up really badly. Like spinach, asparagus and a large amount of tomatoes. Some leftover sundried tomatoes. A pack of feta cheese that has been hanging around for so long I started to consider it a permanent fixture. I even decided to use gluten free flour in the crust because in some crazy fit I bought some, but obviously have never gotten around to use them. Obviously regular flour would also work.

I always feel so guilty if I have to throw away food because it has gone bad. I used to be so good and plan all my meals and only shop what I needed. Lately I have been so busy (i.e. lazy) that I have eaten crap and any healthy food I have had lying around has gone bad. That will have to change. So I will set myself a challenge for the month of May. I am not allowed to buy anything from the grocery store apart from fruit, veg and lean meat. And try to use at least one or two ingredients from my pantry every time I cook. I had a good start the other day. I had a craving for cookies, so I used my newly found amazing oat cookie recipe and added some orange peel and candied ginger from my stash. Good for using up food, bad for trying to eat healthily. Especially since I ended up having four cookies that day. And another four the next. 

I was in a bit of a bad mental state while cooking this, so I just mixed together some ingredients to make the crust. Therefore I don't have any measures, as I didn't use any. I just went by feel, until I got something that resembled a homogenous dough. You could either do the same and just go by feel, or alternatively use a pie crust you like. Or try my quinoa pie crust if you are looking for something a bit different and lower carb.

Leftover vegetarian pie:
For the base:
2 grated carrots
2 tbsp greek yoghurt
gluten free flour (maybe around 3/4 cup?)
oats (maybe around 1 cup?)

Filling:
2 cups spinach
8-10 stalks asparagus
10-15 cherry tomatoes
5-10 sundried tomato halves
200 g feta
200 g mozzarella

2 eggs
2 cloves smoked garlic
3-4 tbsp milk
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano

The howto:
 Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. For the base, mix together all ingredients, adding flour and oats until you have a smooth dough. It's not the type of dough you can roll out using a rolling pin, I just dumped the whole lump of dough in my silicon pie mould, and tapped it out using my hand. Chop the asparagus  an sundried tomatoes roughly, finely chop the smoked garlic. If you can't find smoked garlic (it's amazing stuff, I have found some in both ASDA and Morrison's but haven't seen any in Tesco) you can obviously use regular garlic instead. Add spinach onto the crust, and then add asparagus and both types of tomatoes. Crumble feta on top. Mix together the chopped garlic, milk, eggs and spices. Pour onto the pie. Slice the mozzarella and top the whole pie with mozzarella slices. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the mozzarella has turned golden. 

The verdict:
This pie can easily be adapted to contain any leftover veg you have. I could imagine olives would be great in it, as would courgette or aubergine. Or add some beans if you have a can that need to be used up. Replace mozzarella with any other type of cheese you happen to have lying around. Use whatever flour you have for the crust, maybe something that has been around for a bit too long and won't be perfect for bread anymore. It will still be good for the pie crust.

I liked the flavour combination with the soft flavour of asparagus nicely coming through, but with the tomatoes and the salty feta bringing in a lot of flavour. I also like that the asparagus won't cook too much, but will still have a nice texture. The oregano and garlic go really well with the feta. The mozzarella is definitely a luxury, the pie would work perfectly well without it if you want to make a healthier option. I had an opened pack of mozzarella lying around, and since the crust is all nice and fat free, so I thought what the heck, lets just go for it. I don't think the pie tastes too healthy, and even the Culinary Consultant had some of it, despite the lack of anything animal in it.

Card of the day:
Today's card is a simple thank you card. I embossed the background with a swirly embossing folder, and sponged some Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire distress ink onto the edges using Ranger Ink blending foam. I stamped a big flower from the Hero Arts Layered Flowers set using black HobbyCraft pigment ink. I used Tim Holtz distress inks to colour the flower using a watercolour brush, and sprayed Perfect Pearl mist onto the flower. I added a blue ribbon, and attached the whole thing on craft cardstock. I rounded all corners by using the corner of a distress ink pad as a template and cut using scissors. It's a small and simple card, but I think it turned out rather nice. Next time I will layer the flower a bit more by cutting the middle out of a second piece of card and attaching it with dimensionals to bring a bit more texture to the card. 

I made mozzarella!

This cheese thing is getting totally out of control. But now that I've got started, there is no stopping me. I have a collection of recipes I really want to try. I even found several recipes for Leipäjuusto, a Finnish oven baked cheese which is absolutely impossible to get anywhere outside Finland, and impossible to transport as you would need to keep it chilled during transport so that it won't spoil. Can't wait to try that out! Anyways, after a few successful attempts with the basic easy farmer's cheese, I felt it was time to take things up a notch. Mozzarella. Which requires a bit more than just milk and half a cup of lemon juice to make.

Best friend came over to help me out with this, after all, two PhD brains are better than one PhD brain, right? Well, there is of coure the Swedish proverb saying the more cooks, the worse the soup. But we have both been successful in the lab following very complicated protocols, so we felt like we were up for the challenge. 

This recipe calls for some ingredients you don't necessarily find in your local grocery. However, the wonderful world of internet shopping brings it all to your fingertips at the flash of a credit card. I bought my citric acid off Amazon for just a few quid. The rennet was a bit more expensive, but I should now have rennet to last me at least the next 20 years. Well actually, maybe not if I keep up the level of cheese making I'm currently at. But for a long time nonetheless.

A few thoughts on the choice of milk. The recipe states that you can use pretty much any milk (skim, semi skimmed, whole) as long as it's not ultra hight temperature (UHT) pasteurised. Regular pasteurised will do fine, although apparently raw is best. But hard to get hold of unless you happen to have a cow or two hanging around. I was going to go for whole milk, but then I saw this amazing thing called Gold Top Milk, which has a bit more fat (it's 5.2%). So I ended up buying two litres of whole milk and a litre of the Gold Top hoping it would bring a bit of creaminess to the mozzarella. And yes, I know you should use buffalo milk for mozzarella, but my local Tesco doesn't seem to stock it for some strange reason. So this is cowzarella.

I picked up this recipe from Pinterest (you know, I hardly even have a look on there these days. Yeah right... Way more addictive than Facebook, I'll tell ya). I even have a whole board dedicated just to cheese! The recipe I used is from a blog called The Kitchn and it has some really good pictures and extensive instructions to aid in the loss of your mozzarella-making virginity. And unlike some other recipes I was looking at, this does the finishing steps in the microwave instead of heating the cheese in the whey during the kneading steps, so it was a bit easier and quicker. 

This recipe has quite a few steps, but don't let that scare you. There is no hurry between steps, so you can take your time and read the instructions while cooking. Having an extra pair of hands holding the thermometer is always helpful, but you can manage alone no problem. Just keep your cool, read through the recipe once or twice before starting and then just proceed step by step when cooking. You will do fine, trust me. It's not rocket science. But it's ridiculously fun!

I made it myself Mozzarella:
3l milk (original recipe says a gallon, which is actually 3.7l)
1 1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
1/4 rennet tablet
salt

The howto:
Make sure you also have a cheese cloth (or tea towel) lined colander, rubber gloves, a slotted spoon, a microwave proof bowl and a thermometer. 

Start by dissolving the citric acid in 1 cup of water and the rennet tablet in 1/4 cup of water. 

In a non-reactive pot (see here for a discussion on non-reactive cookware, I used my Teflon lined 5l pot) stir in the dissolved citric acid into the milk and heat on medium while gently stirring until the milk reaches 32 degrees C (90 degrees F).

Take the pot off the hotplate, stir in the rennet. Stir slowly while counting to 30 and then cover the pot and let stand untouched for 5 minutes for the curds to form. After 5 minutes they should look like "silken tofu" according to the original recipe, mine looked like severely thick grainy soup. But it was a bit firmer than the curds from the farmer's cheese. If you feel like the curds haven't solidified to look like the picture, let them stand covered a bit longer.

Using a knife, cut the curds to form squares. Make sure you cut all the way through the curds (which were not quite solid, but the cutting marks stayed in the curds). You can see how the whey is separating.

Put the pot back on the hotplate on medium heat, gently stir while heating to 40 degrees C (105 degrees F). Don't stir too vigorously so that you don't break up the curds too much. Take the pot off the hotplate and continue to gently stir for another 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the curds to a microwave proof bowl. Don't worry that there will be quite a bit of whey in there as well. Microwave for 1 minute, and transfer into a cheese cloth lined colander to drain off the whey. Put on rubber gloves, and squeeze whey out of the curds. Transfer back to the microwave proof bowl.

Microwave the curds in 30 second intervals until they reach 57 degrees C (135 degrees F). This took 3x30 sec for me, and they actually ended up much hotter than 135. Don't worry if that happens, your cheese will still turn out perfect! 

Add salt. Wearing rubber gloves, stretch the curds and fold over themselves for a while, they will soon get a nice mozzarella texture. Don't overwork it. When the texture is firm, form into several small balls, one big ball or anything in between. Congratulations, your mozzarella is done. You can eat it immediately, or store it in the whey in the fridge for a few days. 

The verdict:
You know what mozzarella tastes like? It's like little bits of heaven. Well, this mozzarella tastes exactly like mozzarella! And you know how mozzarella feels when you chew? A bit chewy, a slight bit squeaky between your teeth. And you know what, this feels exactly like mozzarella! In fact, this is just like mozzarella. Only better. Because you made it yourself. You cooked the milk, made it curdle, heated it up and worked it until it became mozzarella. Me and Best Friend were giddy, we kept looking at each other saying "We made mozzarella". For some reason, I was convinced we would screw it up. It would turn out weird and not very good. But it turned out exactly like mozzarella! I can't stop saying that, because I still can't believe how amazing it turned out. I worked it with my own hands, I kept stretching the play-doh like cheese mixture in my hands, just because it felt so amazing. Ok, I realise this is probably not comparable with, say, sending men to the moon, discovering the structure of DNA or a finally getting that elusive glimpse of the Higgs boson. But pretty goddamn close.

We ended up enjoying our mozzarella fresh from the oven (well fresh from the microwave) with some juicy ripe tomatoes, basil and garlic butter baguette (you know, the one you buy ready made from the store and pop in the oven and pretend you baked it yourself). And you know what, it tasted exactly like mozzarella! Oh, maybe I already mentioned that. 

Is it easier to buy ready made mozzarella from the store? Oh yes. Is it cheaper? Depends on if you get the cheap stuff or not. Is the home made one better? I would say at least as good as store bought, possibly a notch better, particularly when combined with the sense of achievement this gives you. Will I make it again? You bet your bottom (and my expanding one) I'm going to make it again. After I try to make Leipäjuusto, and halloumi, and ricotta, and cream cheese and mascarpone. And possibly some other cheeses I haven't found the recipe for yet. And no, you won't be able to avoid hearing about my continued explorations into the amazing world of home made cheese. Well, you will if you don't read the blog, but we wouldn't want that now, would we?

Lucky coincidence seafood lasagna

Putting together a three course menu always requires a bit of thought. I usually start with an idea for a main course and then build around that. It's a bit of a puzzle to put together a nice balanced menu trying to somehow tie together the dishes while still keeping a balance. If there is cheese in the starter and main, it might not be a good idea to bake a cheese cake for pudding, that sort of thing. I finally managed to settle on a nice combination of dishes, and headed off to the grocery store. Only to realise there is no way I would be able to cook what I planned as I couldn't get the main ingredient. Sob. Happened to me last Saturday. There I was in the grocery store, trying to come up with an alternative. I had settled on a bit of an Italian theme, melon with parma ham and Burrata with tomatoes and basil for a starter, mussels in white wine and freshly baked cheese bread for the main and then lemon and meringue pie for pudding. Turns out there were no fresh mussels. Panic!!! And you know how your brain always shuts down when you need it the most. There I was, the person who could list a dozen of dishes I want to cook in a minute, not coming up with anything. Ok, so Italian theme. Pasta. No mussels, but maybe sticking with sea food. Salmon! Salmon pasta. Then I remembered Best Friend talking about a smoked salmon lasagna she had made and it turned out great. Breakthrough! Smoked salmon and king prawn lasagna with sundried tomatoes and a lovely Bechamel sauce made from scratch. Lots of parmesan and mozzarella. Problem solved!

I have to admit this was the first time I have ever made proper Bechamel sauce, and I'm happy to announce that it was a success. The secret is to boil everything slowly enough so that you won't burn the milk or the flour so that the sauce stays nice and white. And to use a lot of onion and pepper. I managed to get a wonderful, creamy and delicious sauce using this recipe.


Seafood lasagna (serves 6-8):
For the Bechamel sauce:
1 l milk
a couple stalks of parsley
1 shallot
2 bay leaves
20 black peppers
80 g butter
40 g white flour
salt and black pepper


300 g fresh lasagne
200 g smoked salmon
200 g king prawns
300 g mozzarella
100 g grated parmesan
1 jar sundried tomato paste (finely chopped sundried tomatoes in olive oil)
white wine


The howto:
Start by preparing the Bechamel. Finely chop the onion, and add the onion, parsley, bay leaves and black peppers to the milk and bring it slowly to a simmer (yes the secret is to do it very slowly, and stir every once in a while to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan). Then strain the milk. Melt butter in a pan, and when melted, add the flour. Make sure to keep a low or medium heat so that the butter doesn't brown. Stir rapidly to make a gooey paste. Add milk in very small amounts while stirring rapidly to the butter and flour to make sure no lumps form. After adding half of the milk, you can start adding the milk in slightly more at a time, and keep whisking with a ballon whisk. Bring everything slowly to a simmer and let simmer for about five minutes, or until the sauce is thick and shiny. Season with salt and pepper. Go light with the salt, as the smoked salmon will bring quite a bit of salt to the dish.


Line an oven proof dish with lasagna, spread tomato paste on the pasta and add smoked salmon, grated Parmesan and a quarter of the Bechamel sauce. For the next layer, use prawns and mozzarella instead of salmon and Parmesan, and make the third layer identical to the first. Top with a layer of pasta, and pour Bechamel sauce and white wine over the top, and finish off with the rest of the mozzarella. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the lasagna is bubbling and mozzarella is golden brown. 

Ready to go into the oven, with mozzarella
and creamy dreamy Bechamel on top.

The verdict:
Sundried tomatoes and salmon. And lots of cheese, and a creamy dreamy Bechamel. A splash of white wine, and more of the same in a glass to accompany the food. Admittedly not health food in any way, but amazingly good. And it was as terrific re-heated the next day. And the day after. I ate way too much of it. And will be making another batch very soon, as this was one of the best things I have eaten in a long time, even if I say so myself. I'm actually happy I didn't end up getting any mussels as it resulted in this amazing dish. Talk about lucky coincidences.

Midsummer Friday Quickie

And so it's here again. The most wonderful of days, Friday. The moment you leave work on Friday, and know it's over two whole days before you have to return... Bliss! This week is a bit special, or at least would be if I was back home. In Finland, Midsummer (or Juhannus) is one of the biggest holidays. For many it's the start of the summer holiday month. Everyone packs family and food into their cars and head out to the summerhouse by the lake. Helsinki is almost deserted and even those who don't have their own summerhouses have rented one or are forcing themselves on friends or family who have one. Then you are stuck in endless traffic jams for hours. But when you finally arrive at the summer house, after hours of sweating and swearing, unpack, get the fire in the sauna going, and then have a dip in the lake or the sea... It's all worth it. For an expat, Midsummer means reading endless Facebook updates about how everyone is celebrating. Me, I went to work. Then for my weekly grocery shopping, cooked a bit, went for a run and cooked some more. And now finally I'm sitting here on the sofa, feet up, enjoying my Friday quickie. Friends have stopped updating Facebook as they are probably starting to get a bit tipsy. Lucky bastards! And now days will start getting shorter. It will be Christmas in no time.


When I was planning my weekly menu, I was totally at a loss of what to cook this Friday. Thankfully, Pinterest came to the rescue. I'm totally obsessed with Pinterest these days, it's a foodporn addict's heaven!! I am in agony every time I browse people's food boards, as there are so many amazing things to cook in this world, and so little time to cook them. And then the added complication of the ever expanding derriere, which puts some limits on the cooking as well... Anyways. I had decided that since I have been (almost) good with my eating for the last two weeks, I could award myself with something yummy, this time I ended up choosing a lovely fluffy white ball of mozzarella as my treat. And I was going to cook these oven baked courgettes from Proud Italian Cook, as I had a poor lonely courgette in my fridge that needed to be eaten sooner rather than later. I know it's not terribly new and exciting after the whole aubergine post last week. What can I say, you need some sort of vessel to pile the mozzarella on, be it aubergine or courgette. I also had a sudden craving for prawns earlier today, so I decided to add some on. And when I was browsing the seafood isle, I ran into some lovely mussels as well, and inspired by a wonderful dinner I was treated to last night, also decided to add mussels to the recipe. How decadent, by the way, to eat mussels two days in a row!! So I ended up with this concoction, which turned out absolutely amazing. Then again, even a piece of cardboard would taste heavenly if it had some garlic and mozzarella on it. The cherry on top was having fresh cherries for pudding. Bought myself a whole kilogram of cherries, and am working my way through them very efficiently. My guess is, there are none left after tomorrow.


Seafood courgette thingys
1 courgette
5-10 cherry tomatoes
1/2 tbsp oil (I used a lovely garlic infused rapeseed oil)
juice from 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
garlic pepper spice mix (regular black pepper will do fine, too)
100g prawns
50g mussels
125g good mozzarella


Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Halve the courgette lengthwise, and cut off a little bit from the bottom so that the halves are stable in a oven proof dish. Mix the oil, lemon juice, pepper and finely chopped garlic, and drizzle half of it on the courgettes. Cut tomatoes in half, and place on courgettes, drizzle on some more oil. Save a little bit of the seasoned oil for later. Bake for about half an hour. Add seafood and mozzarella, finish by drizzling still more of the oil on top, and bake until mozzarella melts and turns lovely golden brown. 

Step 1: courgettes and tomatoes ready to go
into the oven for about 30 min. 

Step 2: courgettes and tomatoes looking
hot and lonely, waiting for some company

Step 3: Still looking a bit naked although courgettes
 and tomatoes are joined by prawns and mussels

Step 4: It's the mozzarella that makes it all perfect.
Come and get it while it's hot!

The verdict:
This is again a lovely example of how cooking amazingly good food doesn't have to take many minutes of your time. The preparation steps only take a minute or two. With the rather large amount of mozzarella, this is admittedly not the most healthy of dishes, but some Fridays a girl just needs a treat. It could of course be debated how badly that treat is needed after said girl stuffed her face with mozzarella, garlic pasta with mussels and dreamy chocolate ganache dessert with ice cream and biscotti... But hey, that was yesterday, and this is today. Like I said before, you cannot go wrong with a combination of mozzarella and garlic.