A busy week - all the more reason to meal plan!

It is indeed a busy week, this week - as might be evidenced by the fact that this meal planning post is appearing on Friday instead of Tuesday!  Oops!

On the reckoning that it's better late than never, here's what is on the menu for this week :

Tues : Chickarone Soup with cheesy pesto dippers

Wed : Pizza Hut for hubby's birthday

Thurs : Hot dogs and potato wedges

Fri : Mango chicken with spiced pilau rice

Sat : Chicken & fennel gratin with salad

Sun : Asparagus & bacon risotto followed by Raspberry Sherry Trifle

Mon : Kibbeh meatballs in pitta bread with salad & potato wedges

Yes, you're right - the Chickarone soup was indeed on last week's meal plan.  To be honest, I forget why it got bounced to this week but we managed to have it on Tuesday evening and very nice it was too.  I've already blogged this recipe, which you can find here if you've missed it.  The cheesy pesto pitta bread dippers were especially nice and worthy of a special mention!

So manly - so "Hubby" :)

Wednesday was hubby's birthday and although I'm afraid it was a very dull and uneventful birthday (for various reasons which I won't go into here) we did manage to go out to our local Pizza Hut for dinner that night.

We were taking advantage of their Happy Hour promotion, which offers either a pizza or pasta dish, a refillable drink, countless trips to the salad bar and a side order of either potato wedges or garlic bread, for £6.  Desserts were additional to the price, but as their ice cream machine had broken down, we didn't indulge but stopped at a drive through Macdonalds and got a McFlurry on the way home!

Photo c/o Pizza Hut

I definitely think I did the best in my choice of the Four cheese Pasta with vegetables, as it was really very nice indeed and looked so much more appealing than the two pizzas that the chaps had!  I love the salad bar and was very happy with my choices of salad items, which were fresh and appetising throughout. The drinks choice (Robinson's Squash) was a let down, as it quite obviously contained Aspartame - which is something of a surprise for such a reputable "name".  The garlic bread was just that - garlic bread.  Not dripping in butter, but tasty and with a crispy crust - so nothing to complain about there.

It wasn't the most earth-shattering birthday meal we'd ever had, but it was hubby's choice and he professed to have enjoyed his pizza meal - which took him back to pizza's of yore, he said.  Maybe next year we'll be able to push the boat out a bit further, you never know.  Well, it wouldn't be difficult, especially considering that boat stayed firmly where it was this time, resisting all attempts to be pushed out in any direction at all.  *sigh*  Hey ho.

Onwards and upwards then.  Or maybe it should be "onwards and straight forwards", as there doesn't appear to be much upward movement going on at the moment.  We have that huge monkey "circumstance" sitting on our backs currently, but as we move on through that circumstance, hopefully there'll be some upward motion!

So, Thursday's chicken dish got bumped in favour of Bockwurst hot dogs.  My motivation got up and left part way through the afternoon and hubby offered to make hot dogs instead.  You must all know that I'm easily swayed by the promise of a Bockwurst, but if you include the additional lures of fried onions and Maille Dijon mustard, then I'll be snapping at the end of that hook in no time at all.

Let me tell you, that Dijon mustard is a nice thing.  Grey's Poupon Dijon mustard is a very nice thing, but Maille Dijon mustard just blows all the rest out of the water, where quality and flavour are concerned.  If you've never tried it and are a bit of a mustard hound like I am, I thoroughly recommend it to you - but in small doses, for your own protection!

I was originally planning to have a variation on a sausage roll for dinner tonight, but now the Mango Chicken has superceded that as we had bought the chicken.  Anyway, I was really looking forward to this recipe, I just ran out of enthusiasm by yesterday afternoon.  It's back today, so we're all set for some chicken breasts stuffed with mango chutney and brushed with a curried oil mixture, oven baked.  With a spiced pilau rice to accompany, it sounds like a lovely comforting dish for a Friday evening.

Saturday's Chicken & Fennel Gratin is, I believe, a Mary Cadogan recipe that I gleaned from a BBC Good Food magazine.  I don't seem to be able to find the recipe online anywhere, but if you know different, do tell me where and I'll link to it!

I liked this recipe as it is really very simple to produce, we love fennel and the gratination will add a lovely light crunchiness to the dish.  It seemed to me to be a perfect combination to eat in this betwixt & between period, as winter draws to a close yet before spring has really sprung.   I had the majority of the ingredients already in stock, just needing to get in the chicken and fennel - which amazingly, the supermarket had today!  Usually whenever I want fennel it isn't there, yet when I don't, there are dozens of the furry topped little green monsters just falling off of the shelf.  Well, two fell into my basket today, so I'm satisfied.

We're having my parents over for lunch on Sunday - being Mother's day - and hubby is going to prepare one of his legendary risotto's.  It's looking like a bacon & asparagus risotto at the moment, but as he is the one developing the recipe, it could be subject to change!  I'm going to make a beautiful old-fashioned raspberry & sherry trifle in the lovely glass bowl that hubby picked up - just for the purpose - for £1.50 in the charity shop.  I can't wait, it's been an absolute aeon since I've had a proper trifle!

I don't know about you, but whenever we are expecting either set of parents to visit, it seems to motivate a week of furious cleaning and sorting out.  As much as I have tried to resist the compunction to do this, it just gets the better of us and we find ourselves stressing over whether the windows are clean enough, or should we wash the curtains?  These days, owing to my being incapable, it's poor old hubby who gets all the jobs to do.  He's been grafting away every day this week - pretty soon, we'll be able to comb our hair in the reflections from the surfaces.  Meanwhile, I sit here typing away whilst trying not to a) get in the way and b) say anything that might imply I'm adding to his taskload!

I'm sure Sunday will be a nice day, as it will be lovely to have my parents over to us for a change.

By Monday, however, I expect hubby may very well be ready for a day off.

Monday's lamb meatball dish should add a bit of Middle Eastern interest to the day.  The mince is mixed with bulgur wheat and pine nuts (amongst other things) and the meatballs are served in a salad stuffed pitta bread, with tzatziki to moisten the whole thing.  Sounds, to me, absolutely delightful and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Now, I STILL haven't made that Dorset Apple Cake, nor the Peanut Butter - although I am harbouring peanut butter making hopes for when I finish with the blog.  You never know!

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Bournemouth Echo "Taste" Blog : From failure to success!

This blog can be seen in situ here

You may remember that last week’s blog ended on my expressing a hope that the weekend’s fare would yield better results than had the previous few days.  Well, my mojo returned and I’m pleased to say that it all went really very well.

The Oriental Beef & Butternut Squash we had on Sunday evening was, quite simply, a triumph.  What made it especially good was that it purported to be a low-calorie meal.  Well, if all low calorie meals tasted as amazing as that one, we’d all be stick thin!

The use of beef brisket in the dish is a sneakily wonderful idea, as brisket tends to be a fairly lean cut of meat – made even better by judicious trimming during preparation.  I cooked it for rather longer than was dictated by the recipe, as I wanted to avoid any chance of it being rubbery.   The extra-long cooking time worked a treat and the meat just fell apart.  With the star anise, the five spice, fresh ginger, orange juice and soy combining into a beautiful rich, dark, aromatic sauce, you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps you wouldn’t bother with the butternut squash.  However, when it came to eating, the butternut squash provided that stroke of difference to the textures that kept your brain interested while your tongue went into rhapsodies over the flavours.

Next on the list of lovelies, comes the Cheesy Celeriac Slice.  It’s a fairly ordinary name for something so wonderful.  I have to blow my own trumpet here a bit (I hope you’ll forgive) and say that the recipe is my own adaptation of a standard cheese & potato pasty.  Bearing in mind hubby’s total dislike for all things potato, I set my mind to wondering what would make an admirable understudy – and I instantly hit up on the gnarly charms of the celeriac.  Celeriac will cook like potato, mash like potato and basically do everything that potato would do, in this recipe.  Plus, celery in cheese sauce is one of my all-time favourites and as the two main ingredients were to be celeriac and cheese, I was sold.  I used two cheeses – approximately 200g ordinary strong white cheddar, grated, plus another 200g of a lovely red Leicester, diced very small.  Stirred into the mashed celeriac with chopped spring onions, a little Dijon mustard and a good dash of cayenne pepper, they made a rather odd-looking filling for the puff pastry.

However, once the lot had been cooking in the oven for around 15 minutes, everyone in the house had gathered around like the Bisto kids, with their noses in the air.  I have got to say that it made an inordinate amount – we all ate it cold for lunch the next day – but it was as good cold as it had been hot and served with baked beans.  Very definitely a “do it again” job!

Wednesday brought about our next big success, which was a slow-braised pork with cider, crème fraiche and mustard recipe.  I used some of our local butcher’s pork steaks, which cooked up beautifully.  The recipe recommended the use of pork shoulder but being leery of the amount of fat involved, I opted for their somewhat leaner loin steaks.

The cider I opted for was a single variety cider that is big on flavour and stands up very well to the onions and pork flavours.  Bolstered with a little Dijon mustard (what would we do, without Dijon?) and enrichened with a little low-fat crème fraiche, it really was glorious.  It really couldn’t have been any easier to make, either.

The really big accolades, however, should go to hubby for his Asparagus & Prosciutto risotto, which he crafted with love and skill for our dinner last night.

It is really magical – I think – how the use of the right kind of rice, some vegetable stock, a bunch of asparagus and a little prosciutto ham (basically) can result in such a taste-bud pleaser.

He had used the inedible woody ends of the asparagus to enrichen the vegetable stock as well as making the stock with the water from blanching the asparagus tips.  All of which gave the asparagus pride of place in the chorus of delicious flavours.  It was fresh, light, deliciously salty and perfectly creamy.  Personally, I don’t think he’s ever made a better risotto, this one could definitely be right up there if ever he were to have to name a signature dish!

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Asparagus & Prosciutto Risotto - the risotto king strikes again!

In the scheme of things where the menu planning is concerned, Saturday is now the day when hubby cooks.  He likes to cook and more often than not, his dishes are a big success.

This Saturday was a bit of a mystery tour, however.

We set off for the supermarket with the knowledge that we needed to get the ingredients for a risotto, but not what that risotto was going to comprise.  Maybe a seafood risotto, maybe an asparagus risotto - really, it could have wound up being anything.  Hubby was looking for inspiration along the supermarket shelves.

First of all, we checked out what the fishmonger had in the fresh fish Department.  He had some lovely Sea Bass, but they'd have needed filleting.  The bags of frozen seafood - squid, mussels, prawns etc. - were out of our price range at £4 for 400g.  He picked up some Prosciutto as we went through the delicatessen, but nothing else really appealed.

On to the fruit and vegetables we went, where he wandered along looking increasingly disconsolate.  Right up until we spotted the asparagus.  Suddenly, an asparagus and prosciutto risotto took form before his very eyes.  We had vegetable stock already, together with butter, parsley, olive oil and parmesan cheese.

Sorted.

ASPARAGUS & PROSCIUTTO RISOTTO  (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

75g thinly sliced prosciutto

250g asparagus

3 tbsp olive oil

a medium onion or 3 shallots, very finely diced

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

25g butter

300g Arborio or Carnaroli rice

1.5 litres of  vegetable stock

10g fresh chopped parsley

parmesan to taste, grated and shaved

Method :

1.  Bring a saucepan of salted water to a rolling boil and prepare the asparagus by snapping at the weak point (around one third of the way up the stem from the cut end).  Retain the woody ends for use in the stock and blanch the tipped ends for 60 seconds, then plunge into bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process and retain the cooking water.

2.  Prepare the stock with the asparagus water and add the woody ends cut lengthwise.  Keep the stock over a very low heat until required, not allowing it to boil.  Remove asparagus just before use.

3.  Heat the olive oil and butter gently together in a large pan.  Add the onion & garlic until they are soft and transparent, not allowing them to brown.

4.  Slice prosciutto into very thin strips.

5.  Add rice to the onion mix and stir well to coat with the oils, then turn the heat up as hot as you dare - without burning - before quenching the pan with a ladleful of stock which should have had the asparagus pieces removed.  Reduce heat to a simmer.

6.  Add another ladleful of stock and the prosucitto.   Continue adding ladlefuls whenever the mixture runs dry, stirring well and keeping it moving to avoid catching on the bottom of the pan.

7.  Continue in this way until the rice is cooked al dente.  You may find you have stock left over, which is normal as different rices require different amounts of liquid.

8.  Drain the asparagus from the iced water and add them to the risotto, warm them through.

9.  Just prior to serving, add some of the parsley, reserving a small amount for garnish.

Serve in warmed bowls, garnished with shaved parmesan and chopped parsley.

Add a bowl of grated parmesan on the table, for folk to add as they please.

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