Two recipies

I do not remember which TV program I saw this recipe on sometime in either 2001 or 2002… but the host(ess) was visiting a posh New York NY restaurant and lemon garlic chicken was prepared. I’ve made this several times since. Here’s what I do:


Lemon Garlic Chicken
4-8 boned skinned chicken breasts
2 lemons, squeezed
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs oil
Salt to taste

Coat frying pan with oil, sprinkle minced garlic into pan, place chicken breasts on top of garlic. Sauté gently, turn and sauté other side gently. Add lemon juice. Sprinkle salt on top. Simmer gently to reduce lemon juice almost to caramelized state – it is nice to have a bit of the lemon garlic sauce left over. Turn chicken regularly to be sure both sides absorb the lemon garlic flavour as they cook. Rice would accompany this very well and left over lemon garlic sauce can flavour the rice.


This second recipe is more traditionally Finnish, from the eastern part of Finland

Karelian Stew
¼ - ½ pound of beef and the same amount of pork. These can be second cuts and should be cut to bite size pieces. I do not trim the meat.
Onion: 1 large, or 2 medium, or 4-5 small cut in chunks
Garlic 3-5 cloves coarsely chopped
Bay leaf
Black Pepper – to taste
Water to cover

This can be made in a crock pot, or cooked in a glass casserole, but I prefer to use a cast iron pot with a lid. Assemble ingredients, place into pot, put lid on and put the pot into cold oven (unless using a crock pot). Turn oven on, set at 325 F, 140 C. Cook for at least three hours. Add water, add salt to taste. Serve with mashed potatoes.

It is possible to add other things to the stew, but traditionally it is this basic. Things like carrots and turnips would most likely be side dishes: first boiled, then mashed to puree, then allowed to sit a day before being baked as casseroles.