725.Mititei

Ages ago I was watching The Hairy Bikers, back when they had their original first series where they travelled around Europe on their bikes and cooked food from all the different countries, rather than now where they have 47 different shows and don’t ride motorbikes in any of them. They were in Hungary and they made these little meaty, sausagey, pattie type things called mititei and they looked pretty delicious and I wanted to try them and then I forgot all about it. Fastforward a few years and I realised they were on the list, so I searched out their recipe and gave them a go for dinner. The only difference I made was using all pork rather than half pork and half beef. They were really nice - just subtly spicy and juicy, a little like a burger without a bun. I served them with some mustard mayonnaise to dunk them in.

725 down, 1071 to go

717. Kabanos

In the past few years British supermarkets have started stocking a lot more authentic Polish foods as a result of Polish people emigrating here. I have no complaints about this as all the foods I’ve tried so far have been great quality and good value too and it’s awesome to have all the new choices. Kabanos are great for lunch as you can just chop them up into chunks, put them in a sandwich or a salad, dip them in stuff, or just snack on them by themself.

718. Smetana

On this occasion, I dunked them into a tzatziki-like dip I made, along with some cucumber and celery. For the dip I used a ready-made tzatziki seasoning I got in Greece (which I think is mostly garlic powder and dried mint), and mixed in into smetana. Smetana is an Eastern European version of sour cream but I found that it was slightly more creamy and slightly less sour than regular sour cream which made it perfect for the dip.

718 down, 1078 to go

708. Mojo Chicken

Mojo chicken is a Cuban way of preparing chicken where you marinate it with cumin, garlic and citrus. I marinated chicken breasts in the mix for a couple of hours then roasted them in the oven. I decided to serve it kind of like a burrito, so once the meat was done I shredded the meat up and mixed all the cooking juices into some rice so I didn’t waste any of the flavour. Then I just rolled it all up in a tortilla with some salsa and coriander.

708 down, 1088 to go

703. Pork Schnitzel

I already made turkey schnitzel for the blog before, but pork schnitzel was on the list as well. It seems a little bit like overkill to me, but I love schnitzel so I’m not going to complain! It makes a really great dinner as it’s quick and easy, and you can have it with so many things - with chips, with salad, in a sandwich, with mashed potatoes etc etc

703 down, 1093 to go

701. Porkolt Csirke

Porkolt csirke is basically what I’ve known as chicken paprikash - a Hungarian stew with chicken, peppers, tomatoes and paprika topped off with soured cream. It’s full of some of my favourite ingredients so I knew I was going to really enjoy it.

702. Hungarian Paprika

My kitchen has become a bit of a paprika mountain lately; not that I’m complaining as I cannot get enough of the stuff. I now have hot Greek paprika, smoked Spanish paprika and sweet Hungarian paprika, and I used all three in this dish. They each add different (and awesome) flavours.

702 down, 1094 to go

700. Poulet en Papillotte

En papilotte is a really simple, healthy and yummy way of cooking chicken. You get chicken breasts, put them on a big sheet of greaseproof oven paper (or you can use foil too), add whatever veggies you want, pour over a splash of white wine, and then season it with salt, pepper and herbs. Then you scrunch the paper up into a parcel so that it traps all the steam in, and put it in the oven for around 25 minutes. Keeping all the steam inside the package means that the chicken is insanely moist, and also keeps in all the flavour. You can do the same thing with fish, or just vegetables too.

Also, woohoo, 700!

700 down, 1096 to go

697. Short Ribs

First off, apologies for this crazy awful picture. The room was dark, and I hate my Blackberry. I can’t wait to get rid of that piece of crap phone, get myself an iphone and join the real world. Anyhow, for my birthday meal I ordered short ribs. This is weird for me as in the past I never would have ordered beef in a restaurant. First off I never ate it at all, and then even when I started it was pretty much steaks or get out. Now though I eat almost all kinds of cow.

697 down, 1099 to go

690. Taleggio

Taleggio was another of the cheeses I picked up at Wally’s recently. It’s an Italian cheese which has a texture similar to brie so I used it in the same ways as I would use that. For this dinner I stuffed the chicken breasts with some of the taleggio, then wrapped them in bacon before roasting them in the oven. I also roasted all my veggies in the same tray so that they would pick up the bacon flavour and any of the lovely melty cheese that escaped!

690 down, 1106 to go

672. Devilled Chicken

Devilled anything tends to imply that something is made spicy with mustard and cayenne. For this devilled chicken, the mustard and cayenne pepper is mixed with ketchup and some hot sauce, spread over the chicken and then baked. It makes a really quick, simple and tasty weeknight dinner.

672 down, 1124 to go

665. Gjetost

This was another of the picnic-style lunches that I like so much. I’d visited Wally’s delicatessen in town so I picked out a bunch of list items to make up a pretty fancy meal. The first thing was gjetost, which is a Norwegian brown cheese. It’s a caramelised cheese made from boiled whey, and it ends up having a fudgey texture and a sweet taste. It was just about the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. Neither the texture nor the taste was anything like any other cheese I’ve ever had. It wasn’t bad per se, it was just so confusing to my mouth that I don’t think my brain really knew what to do with it. It retains a vague hint of cheesiness, but that is overshadowed by the sweetness, so you’re left kind of unsure as to whether you’re actually eating a cheese or if it’s really some odd type of candy. I ended up offering tastes to a bunch of my friends and family and they all had similar experiences.

666. Ajvar

Ajvar is a sauce made from red peppers. I used it here as a dip for veggies, but I think it would also be really nice for a lot of other uses. I’m going to try adding it to grilled cheese sandwiches, and I think it would be great as a ready-made pasta sauce.

667. Prosciutto di San Daniele and 668. Finochionna Salami

I also got a couple of meats from the charcuterie counter. Prosciutto di San Daniele is an Italian ham, which I found was really just very similar to any other kind of prosciutto or Parma ham I have tried in the past. The finochionna salami is a salami made with fennel seed and, as someone who isn’t a huge salami fan, I found it delicious. It was really meaty with a hint of spiciness and sweetness.

668 down, 1128 to go