Some recipes succeed - these, unfortunately, didn't.

I've been quite fortunate, lately, in having had a phase of successful recipes.  However, in the last week or so, two have let me down quite severely.  One of them even made poor old hubby gag!

So, first of all, let's talk about the Sausage Croissants.  The idea was great - take an unbaked Croissant and form it around a part-baked sausage and some chutney, then finish the baking in the oven.  Hey presto - a variation on a sausage roll.

Except it didn't really happen like that.

I used the JusRol Croissant dough, which I've never used before and it's quite possible that it might not be the best on the market for this job.  The dough didn't puff up like you'd expect a Croissant to puff, it was more bread than a cross between bread and puff pastry, as it should be.  The outside of the Croissant was dull and looked like it could have done with egg washing - although that wasn't part of the preparation on the packet.

As for the sausage, well, see my previous post for what I think of sausages nowadays.  I used the very same sausages (Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Pork & Fresh Herb) but they were grim.  In fact, the whole thing was grim - the only bright spot being the use of the chutney, which gave a welcome sweetness, spice and tang to the proceedings.

Just recently I've seen quite a number of recipes that make use of Croissant dough in various guises.  Some as pastry, some as "cobbler" type topping for casseroles and some as an integral part of a casserole, which I don't understand as surely it'd just be slush by then?  Bizarre.  Terribly disappointing - and I won't be trialling this one again!

The one that made poor hubby gag, was Maunika Gowardhan's Tandoori Gobi Masala - which I'd extended somewhat by making some Turkey and Mango Chutney meatballs to go with it.

The plan was sound, I thought.  We'd have the Tandoori Gobi Masala (Cauliflower, marinated in and baked in Tandoori spice mix, yoghurt & gram flour), which would be served on a bed of stir fried green pepper and red onion, along with the Turkey & Mango Chutney meatballs - all served with Chapatis with which to pick the pieces up and a Raita to provide the moisture and cooling element.  Sounds like it would work, doesn't it?

Well, neither son & heir nor I disliked it quite as fundamentally as hubby did.  But then, he's always been sensitive to cauliflower.  I thought we might be onto a winner here, as the cauliflower would be coated and marinated in the Tandoori curry spices - and he's always said that the only way cauliflower is edible, is in a curry.  However, we now have to amend that to "in a gravy-style curry, preferably 5 miles away".

It is a shame, from the Turkey meatballs point of view, that the cauliflower really detracted from the overall dish so intensely.  As a stand-alone little meatball, I felt that the Mango Chutney made an interesting flavour combination with the Turkey mince and rolling the meatball in the Tandoori spice mix before baking them, upped the interesting factor to "really very tasty".  However, I think hubby's rejection button had been firmly pushed by the cauliflower and he said he felt the meatballs tasted "old", as though the turkey mince had been past its best.  Neither son & heir or I agreed with that view, so I think we have to give the meatballs the benefit of the doubt.

I will agree, however, that the Cauliflower dish really didn't work at all.  The Tandoori spice was too intense at 1.5 tbsp per head of cauliflower and even being tempered by 75ml of greek yoghurt couldn't calm it down.  The cauliflower flavour came through with no problem (which was what threw hubby for a loop, but I enjoyed it as I like cauliflower), but the Patak's Tandoori Paste made for, I felt, an overpoweringly citrus-like flavour and what hubby felt was a raw tomato paste flavour.  Either way, it wasn't good.

I even had problems finding a photograph of the dish that looked half way decent.

I'm really not sure what went wrong with this one as I followed the recipe to the letter, even down to the basting of each piece in melted butter, as per the recipe, to achieve the "lovely charred edge", which also didn't really happen.  The end result resembled the photograph on the recipe, so all I can think is that this combination of flavours just isn't a great one for us - even putting aside hubby's cauliflower thing!

So I have to save this tale of woe, by telling you all about a little dinner that I put together out of "this and that - and some pork steaks", which worked beautifully.

I had a jar of Hoisin sauce left over from last week, in the cupboard.  I also had a real yearning for a pork chop.  So I put the two together, in that I trimmed up some pork steaks for the lads, trimmed up a pork chop for me (the chaps don't like tangling with a bone!) and coated them all in Hoisin sauce.  Into the oven they went - along with some sweet potatoes in their jackets - and 45 minutes later, we had a yummy dinner.   I'd made some greek yoghurt with lime zest, lime juice, finely chopped red chilli, fresh coriander and salt & pepper, which is just sublime with baked sweet potatoes and we also had a little salad with some of the Peppadew piquant mini peppers.  Gorgeous!

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Planning for a week's easy meals

Well, I can hope, can't I?

In fact, as I am woefully late with this posting (again!), I can report that the first two meals of this week have been satisfactorily simple - and rewardingly delicious!

Son & heir's school concert happened on Tuesday evening and a fine time was had by all.  From the wobblingly unconfident singing of the choir, through the entire range of guitar playing (which went from an intent young man playing two chords repeatedly, through some assertive bass playing, several thrash metal bands and ultimately a divine piece from two acoustic guitar players who must have a bright future ahead of them) to some happiness-inducing, toe tapping pieces from the entire company, I very much doubt anyone there went home without a big smile on their face.

As parents, we're just glad that the show was such a success and that son & heir didn't let himself down in any way.  We're also a teensy bit glad that we now get a break from trying to source items for his costume and having to drive backwards and forwards to school conveying either guitar, costume and son (or any combination thereof) to rehearsals at random times of day.

So you won't be surprised to hear that I've been on the lookout for easy recipes for this week's menu plan.

Here's what I settled upon :

Tues : Courgette, prosciutto & blue cheese tart with salads

Weds : Sausage & mustard pasta

Thurs : Tandoori turkey masala with chapatis

Fri : Hoisin pork with jacket sweet potatoes & salad

Sat : Chinese chicken curry with rice

Sun : Turkey & chestnut cider pie with mashed potatoes & broccoli

Mon : Chilli con carne with rice.

The first cab off the rank was the tart - which proved to be an absolute winner with its simplicity and speed.  We needed something super-easy to have before reporting for duty at son & heir's concert - and this was it.  The combination of courgette, prosciutto and blue cheese was another winner that I thoroughly recommend.  Watch out for the recipe which I'll be blogging very soon - and tuck it into your memory for "meals to make in a hurry"!

Wednesday's Sausage & mustard pasta came from a BBC Good Food recipe which you can find here.   The name gives the impression of a fairly pedestrian sausage & pasta combo, but oh no!  Far from it!  The combination of ingredients - including Dijon mustard, cream, parmesan and fresh tarragon - was simply alchemical in its results.   This is another one that I'll be blogging, as it very definitely requires sharing far and wide!

I'm quite looking forward to tonight's curry offering.  The recipe originated from a combination of my looking for inspiration as to what to do with some Turkey mince that I'd been sent to play with - and the discovery of Maunika Gowardhan's Tandoori Gobi Masala recipe on lovefood.com.

Her recipe deals specifically with cauliflower florets, but it got me to wondering whether the same preparation principle would work for a turkey patty or meatball.  Because turkey is such a low fat meat, when you cook a turkey meatball in the oven very little fat is released.  To me, this is similar in many ways to a cauliflower floret, which doesn't release much water when baked.

I'm not quite THIS bad - but it's been close!

So anyway, that's what we'll be having tonight - Tandoori Gobi Masala, along with Tandoori Turkey Masala, with a raita.  Tear a piece from a chapati, pick up a piece of cauliflower or a meatball (or both at once, if you're clever!), dip it into the raita and into your face it goes.  What's the betting I'll get it all down my front?  Pretty sure fire thing, I'd say - break out the napkins!

Friday's Hoisin Pork is borne of a desire to use the other jar of Hoisin sauce that we bought last week and my current pork chop lust.  I'll be getting some pork steaks for the chaps, as they both aren't keen on pork chops - hubby hates the fat and son & heir can't be bothered with negotiating with the bone and also hates the fat aspect.  I'll make some of my lovely chilli & lime mixture to go with the sweet potatoes - which is another guaranteed winner.

Both hubby and son & heir really like the sort of curry that you get from a Chinese takeaway.  Personally, I don't like it at all, but I'm hoping that Lily Kwok's version from goodfoodchannel.co.uk is a cut above the rest.  Still, if I'm not too keen on the result, hopefully that will mean that the chaps really like it!

You'll notice that Sunday's pie has re-appeared, as I didn't get to make it last Sunday.  The turkey leg chunks came out of the freezer the most peculiar colour - so I'm afraid they went in the bin, as I'm not prepared to risk food poisoning.  We had sausage & mash instead, which is always a good standby.  So having bought some more turkey leg chunks, fingers crossed this lot will look a bit more pleasant and I'll be able to make my pie.

Weightwatchers' Turkey & Cider Sauce - not SO far out after all!

Hubby has said that he's not too sure about the idea of this pie, in particular the combination of cider and turkey.  It's interesting, because one of the points of being sent the turkey meat to play with was to create interesting dishes that people would want to try out for themselves - and pairing turkey meat with unusual combinations is all part of that.  I can see the pie in my mind's eye and can imagine how I want the flavours to combine.  I'll need to make sure that the pie doesn't stray too far towards the sweet, as a number of the ingredients (turkey, cider, chestnuts, carrots) can all go that way.  However, hopefully the balancing of the gravy/sauce along with the savoury pastry and celery will help to carry it back towards the savoury.  We'll see!

Monday's evening meal will be what a Monday dinner often is - something easy, something we've got confidence in, something everybody likes.  Good old Chilli Con Carne.  I think of Monday as being a day when we get to have a rest from the efforts of the earlier week and when we can step back a bit and get ready for the creations that will appear over the coming week.  Cue comfort food, one of which - for us - is Chilli.  Yum!

Hubby made an interesting observation last night, which is something that had occurred to me but that I hadn't voiced.  He said "we're so lucky, really, in that for the last couple of years almost every night we've had something different for dinner.  Not everyone can claim that!".  So thank you, Rhubarb & Ginger, for driving interesting - if not always successful - mealtimes in the Jenny Eatwell household!

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