cottage food

spent last week at the cottage with mom and dad, and the heat. fortunately the lake provided an occasional breeze, but it certainly was warm enough upstairs where i slept.

sunday lunch was almost as easy as they come, sort of spanish omelette with potatoes and ham, except i didn't bake mine. mom had some cooked potatoes and ham in the fridge, it was hot and i felt lazy







minced the sliced ham roughly, quartered the potatoes and browned them a bit on low heat before adding the eggs. cooked for a few minutes on medium (controlling the heat is so easy on gas) (which i love to cook with) before turning the whole thing around with a plate to cook the other side as well. almost fooled my dad by telling i flipped it...

oh, the beans, or rather chichpeas, another easy-lazy side dish. rince a can of chickpeas, drain well, add chilli powder to taste and 1 tbsp of good olive oil and there you have it!







monday was pasta day, again the easy way out...my brother, little niece and nephew and one of my mom's brothers came to visit. or rather, the guys came to help dad to build a shed for firewood (more on that later). the little niece took my camera and lots of pictures.

i'll call this pasta sauce bolognese purely for the fact that there is minced beef in it, and tomatoes. here are approximately what went in:

800 gr minced beef
500 gr crushed tomatoes (mom forgot her glasses home and got some with chili in, any kind will do)
4 medium size carrots, grated
2 onions, minced quite finely
5 medium fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped (i didn't bother to peel them)
1 tbsp sugar
black pepper, flat-leaf parsley and basil to taste
oil for sauteeing onions, grated carrots and tomatoes







browned the beef in two batches, continued with onions...







...carrots and tomatoes...







poured everything into the pot, added the canned crushed tomatoes, spices and let cook on medium for approx 30 mins







my huge portion with grated parmesan on top. despite so many eaters, there was plenty left over. i liked the sauce cold on toast...with parmesan on top...







mom dug out this moose roast from the freezer (which we are glad to say, is finally starting to look empty). i tied it, rolled it in crushed black pepper and salt, browned all sides, laid it on bed of onions and cooked in 200C oven for 30 mins, until inside temp was 70C







as the gas stove is outdoors, i did what i had wanted to do for the longest time but could not because of the horrid onion smell afterwards, fried "some" onions, there's 5 bigs ones here







20 mins later, substantially diminished...







only this was left after 40 mins on low heat. i thought of doing some fancy stuff like balsamic vinegar but ate my portion as is, soooo good! i do have to mention that onions fried in butter (not much, but i did use butter) is something i so should not eat because of my acid reflux...







i had brought his micro-plane box-grater to cottage for mom. i have one like this at the shack and love it, and i hate box graters. the reason i needed the grater was waldorfish salad (as in almost waldorf salad). here's what went in:

300 gr celeriac, grated
4 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
2 green apples, peeld and diced (1cm dices)
1 small tin of crushed pineapple, drained well (mom drank the juice...)
10 or so walnuts
2 tbsp mayonese (so little you ask? well, that was what was left in the jar, and it turned out to be quite enough, and made the salad very light!)







i really don't like the taste of walnuts and almost never use them. this time i got them because the original recipe for waldorf salad uses walnuts and i figured there must be a reason for it. turns out there is, when crushed into smaller pieces and mixed into the salad, the walnuts taste almost disappears and mellows and mingles with the celeries







mom says that celeriac should be briefly cooked before adding to salad, but with the micro-plane grater you get a very thin result, and i figure more fiber and more nutrients when not cooked at all (ok, it's also the easier way...)







mom also says that there should be some cheese in the salad as well, hmm, i haven't seen a waldorf recipe with cheese in it. but hey, who says you can't grate some emmental on top!?

the meat turned out to be perfectly cooked and was nice cold on a sandwich as well







grilled eggplant, had mine with sour cream and chilli powder, learned that trick in a lebanese resturant in nyc a decade (gosh, how time flies!) ago