Meal planning for a new week

We met again on Monday last, across a bed strewn with recipes, notepads, pens and Jack Russell terriers - and planned this week's meals.  Oh, the romance!

Well, actually, making a menu plan is a nice excuse for a cup of coffee and a couple of hours spent talking (almost exclusively) about food, flavours, what goes with what, what might go with what, what cooking methods to use, what turns out to be way too expensive, etc.  Allow for a bit of deviation from the focus of the conflab, to scratch a dog's ears or retrieve a pen from the other dog's mouth - you can imagine, if you've ever owned a dog, I'm sure.

We started from a position of "what do we know for sure we'll be cooking?", moved on to "what have we been yearning for?" and "what have we had in mind to cook?", winding up with "what's a family favourite that's easy to do?".

The final list looks like this :

Tues : Pizza

Weds : Springtime Pasta and meatballs

Thurs : Maneating Chicken, roast sweet potato with sesame broccoli & beans
Fri : Kari Udang with rice

Sat : Tarragon Chicken & Asparagus, Jersey Royals, broccoli & peas

Sun : Slow Roast Cinnamon, Fennel & Cirtus Lamb with Roast Rosemary & Sea Salt Jersey Royals, Green spring vegetable Thoran & gravy.

Mon : Chilli con carne with potato wedges.

Well, Tuesday's Pizza doesn't come into any of the categories above, as it forms a bit of a breathing space in between weeks.  It's good to just chuck a pizza into the oven every so often - and it's always a winner with son & heir.

Eat at lunchtime .. sleep rest of day

Wednesday's Springtime Pasta and Meatballs got bounced from last week owing to our having broken our tummies by eating the remains of the Tuna & Vegetable Lasagne for lunch.  I hasten to add that they weren't broken in a bad way, just broken in a "I couldn't eat another thing for many hours" kind of way.

Everything was keepable - even the Little Gem lettuce, which has kept very well in the vegetable drawer of the fridge - so it was easy to bounce along to this week.

Thursday's "Maneating Chicken" originated as "Man pleasing chicken", but the name got adjusted along the way by hubby.  He discovered the original recipe on the Witty in the City website and loved both the look and the sound of the recipe - plus, its reputation as "man pleasing chicken" is always a good sign.

He's going to be making roast sweet potatoes in a very similar fashion to the roast butternut squash (except with different spicing) that we had this last weekend with the pork.  It will be interesting to see how they turn out, as I have a great deal of problem getting sweet potato to caramelise and look roasted, instead of just mushed!

I think this one qualifies under the "what have we been yearning for?" category, as hubby has always wanted to find a really really good chicken recipe - one which knocks spots off of all the others.

The Kari Udang is a Malaysian recipe recommended to me by The Spice Traders.   Taken from their website, it has required a bit of sourcing of things like curry leaves and fenugreek, but we (pretty much) had the remainder of the spices in the cupboards and fridge already.  I really like prawn curries and we've picked up some King Prawns to use, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be great.  I think this one comes under the "what have we had in mind to cook" category, as I'm always in the market for an authentic Malay recipe.

Saturday's Tarragon Chicken with Asparagus is a recipe from this month's BBC Good Food magazine.  The minute I saw the photograph, it was love at first sight and I knew I had to make it - and soon.  It doesn't seem to have hit their website yet, or I'd show it to you - but take it from me that it looked completely gorgeous.

Cooked with lovely steamed Jersey Royal potatoes (which are our favourite type of new potato), broccoli and peas, I think it'll make a superb Saturday dinner.

Hubby's back in the kitchen with his "Sunday Lunch Chef" hat on next. We were originally planning on a salmon dish - right up until I saw an advert for reduced price lamb at Tesco.  I'm afraid I was swayed by this and we drove down to our local Tesco and made off with a leg of lamb just this morning.  We have since reconvened the brainstorming session (complete with accompanying Jack Russells, ever keen to be in the midst of a major conflab) and come up with what sounds like a terrific menu for Sunday's lunch.

Photograph c/o BBC Good Food website

It will now be a slow roasted leg of lamb - marinated in lemon & orange, rubbed with cinnamon, fennel & garlic, then roasted for a minimum of 4 hours.  As side dishes, we've come up with roast Jersey Royals with sea salt & rosemary, after which we go off up a complete side road with an Anjum Anand recipe for Green Spring Vegetable Thoran.  You can find the exact same recipe here, although it isn't credited to Anjum at all, so I don't know who got which from whom - but here it is, anyway.  The Thoran has no sauce as such, so will go very nicely with the lamb & potatoes, leaving us the elbow room in the ingredients list to make a lovely gravy from the lamb pan juices.


Wish hubby luck with this one, he's not going to need it, but he is going to need some support with just thinking about creating it all and having it all go right!

Good old Chilli con Carne makes another showing on the menu list for Bank Holiday Monday.  We all love this one, but to make it a little different this time, we thought we'd serve it with potato wedges.  It all depends on whether we've a lot of potatoes going wrinkly as to whether we make the wedges or just chuck some in the oven from the freezer!

Either way, with grated cheese and some sultanas to sprinkle on the top (you don't have sultanas?  What?  Try it, next time!) I know it'll be empty bowls all round.

I don't suppose the weather will do anything but rain, however, with the chance that we might see some sun on that day I've purposely not scheduled anything that takes a long time to make.  It'd be nice to get out and see something other than these four walls! 

Ruby's first crop of rhubarb - plenty more where that came from!

As for extra cooking, well we're still on the lookout for a good rhubarb chutney recipe and I've still to bake a cake.  I'm guaranteeing nothing where either of them are concerned, it all depends upon finding the right recipe (or dreaming one up!) and the time available!

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Where did Christmas go? Meal planning for New Year.

Did you see it? That was Christmas, that was!

Flipping heck!  Blink and you'd miss it - that's how Christmas was in our house this year.

We spent a good month working towards it and in an instant it's gone.  I suppose it's very much like making a good dinner.  You spend what seems like ages planning, shopping, then creating and cooking, only to have it devoured in less than five minutes, where after it becomes just a memory.  Makes you wonder why we do it, really!

Oh and I know I've yet to blog any of the recipes from last week.  All I can say is "patience, young Padawan!", they'll get blogged as soon as I can spend the time to do so!

I thought that, before I got cracking on blogging the lovely recipes that came out of the Christmas week, I'd better get on with blogging our plans for the week leading up to New Year's Day, or it would have passed us by without any word about it!

Son & heir very kindly passed his sniffles on to hubby, who contracted a nasty case of Man Flu over Christmas.  Fortunately, he was just on the upside of it when Christmas Day struck, so was able to enjoy what was, for us, a very quiet day.  I was determined that the nastiness should not breach my defences and so had nothing to do with it.  Right up until about 3 days ago, when I started feeling a bit rough.  However, I seem to have gained the upper hand without any noses starting to drip or hacking coughs becoming evident, and I'll settle for that!

Because of all this feeling below par, the first few days of this week have been a bit low-achieving on the meal front.  Consider it the culinary equivalent of treading water, before getting back into the kitchen in a big way again.

I got three new cookbooks over Christmas - Rose Prince's Kitchenella (my favourite cook book of all time) as a gift from son & heir, James Martin's Desserts as a gift from my brother & his family and Michel Roux's Eggs which I won in a competition run by Clarence Court (the source of the lovely Burford Brown).  So you can imagine, it wouldn't take long for me to get back in harness again - I've so much inspiration, from those three books alone!

Here's the plan for this week's menus :

Tues : High Tea including party nibbles like mini Duck Spring Rolls, Jalapeno Mozzarella

bites, Spicy Chicken Kebabs and a cheeseboard.

Weds : Pizza

Thurs : Sausage, Mash, Baked Beans & Peas

Fri : Lamb rice with golden onions

Sat : Tarragon chicken with gnocchi

Sun : Pork Ballotine, Parsnip & Sweet Potato roast, Baby Aubergines & Courgettes

in lemon vinaigrette followed by Chocolate Mousse

Mon : Tuna Pasta Bake.

So you can see how the week progresses to the crescendo of New Year's Day, followed by the return to "treading water" on the Monday!

Friday's Lamb rice with golden onions is a recipe taken from Rose Prince's Kitchenella and aside from sounding gorgeous, it looks really incredibly simple to prepare.  I'm all for "incredibly simple", right at the moment.

The Tarragon Chicken and gnocchi is one I've done before - quite recently - and it was very well received, so it will be a nice warm-up to the following day's culinary endeavours.

The Pork Ballotine is a home-brewed recipe, conjured up by hubby and I during a quiet moment on Boxing Day.  The idea is, to take a pork fillet and very nearly cut it in half but instead opening it out, then flattening it and thinning it until you achieve sufficient to wrap around some stuffing.

The stuffing will be formed primarily by laying a little stuffing mix of pork sausage meat with flavourings such as pine nuts, sage, prunes and sauteed onion along the pork, followed by slices of chicken breast, followed by a little more stuffing.  The whole lot is rolled, wrapped in cling film and cooked sous vide style, in the slow cooker.  Just prior to service, the ballotine is unwrapped and pan fried in butter to give it colour and flavour.  Well, that's the plan.

I'll be serving it with an Ottolenghi recipe - the Parsnip & Sweet Potato roast, on a few Rocket leaves for colour.  Extra vegetables will be provided by griddled baby aubergines and courgettes, dressed with a parsley & lemon vinaigrette.

Sounds good - we'll wait to see whether it IS good!

New Year's standby dessert : Xmas Pud!

I've also got some good dark chocolate left over from Boxing Day's Avocado Pie, which I intend on making into a chocolate mousse.  I've never made a chocolate mousse before, so fingers crossed it works out well!  I've found a super-easy recipe that's just melted chocolate, cream, egg yolks and beaten egg whites (in a nutshell) and I reckon that if I make it the day before, if it turns out to be disgusting, well I've always got the remainder of the Christmas pudding to break out!

Having detailed all that, you can probably understand why we're going for the easy option on the Monday!

We'll be trialling gluten-free corn pasta in the Tuna Pasta Bake, as normal wheat pasta has the unfortunate habit of giving me stomach pains, followed by some quite severe bloating.  I've got enough of a girth, without any bloating adding to the mix!  I seem to recall that we've tried this pasta previously and weren't impressed, but it will be interesting, nonetheless.

Apart from a few forays into "bottom of the fridge vegetable soup" (of which I've just made a Celeriac, Butternut Squash & Carrot version which was top notch), that seems to be everything on my "to cook" list for this week.

We've decided not to make New Year Resolutions this year, but to make New Year Culinary Intentions, instead.  Just got to finalise them, then we'll have a plan to work to for the year.  Love a good plan!

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Tarragon chicken with gnocchi

What a find this recipe is!

It is based upon the "Chicken Hot Pot" from Olive Magazine (which you can see here), except without the new potatoes and with some gnocchi.  Also, why buy Kenyan beans when there is lovely tenderstem broccoli out there?  Okay, the country of origin is still Kenya, but then I'd rather have tenderstem over squeaky beans any day!

I cut the recipe out of the magazine absolutely ages ago - probably close to two years ago, now.  When I first mooted having it, hubby obviously didn't quite understand what was involved in the recipe, as he wasn't keen.  So I kept hold of the little slip of paper, because I really wanted to try it.

I slipped it onto the menu list at the beginning of last week and crossed my fingers.  I was hoping that the use of the word "gnocchi" might overshadow any memories of having rejected the recipe earlier.  I also, strategically, didn't call it "Hot Pot" as I know that brings connotations of a casserole with a layer of sliced potatoes on top - which is not one of hubby's favourite things.

Having read through the recipe again, I could see that it should turn out a sauce that would be acceptable with gnocchi and, as both hubby and son really like gnocchi, was hopeful that those little puffy potato clouds would suit them - and they did.


As is so often the way, the recipe is superbly simple to produce and right from the word go you can tell that it's going to be a corker.  I mean, leeks and garlic cooked in butter - if ever there was a great start, it's that one.  Capitalise on that great start by adding wine, tarragon and creme fraiche (especially creme fraiche D'Isigny, as I did) - you just can't go wrong!

Because the leek I had bought was only very thin, I used three spring onions just to boost the oniony flavour.  I figured that spring onion, being sweet, is about as close as you can get to a leek!  I also used chicken breast instead of the chicken thighs, basically because the chaps here prefer chicken breast.  So owing to that plus the lack of potatoes, the sauce didn't require as long to cook as the original recipe said.  I will try to make a bit more sauce next time - and there will be a next time - as it was absolutely gorgeous and I ran out a bit early, when it was on the plate.  Those gnocchi are too good at absorbing sauce!

TARRAGON CHICKEN served with Gnocchi and Tenderstem broccoli  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

A knob of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut into 3 pieces each
1 leek, halved lengthwise and sliced
3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
1 garlic clove, grated
1 glass (generous) white wine
400ml chicken stock
1 tsp dried tarragon leaves (or fresh, if you can get it - use a little more)
3 tbsp creme fraiche (use half fat if you want to reduce the fat content)
sufficient gnocchi for 3 people
a pack of tenderstem broccoli (or other green vegetable of your choice).


Method :


1.  In a large frying pan, heat the knob of butter and olive oil.  Once heated,  add the chicken and, on a high heat, fry until golden brown on at least two sides.  The chicken doesn't need to be cooked through at this stage.  Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve in a warm place.

2.  Add the leeks and spring onion to the pan and cook on a reduced heat until beginning to soften.

3.  Increase the heat under the pan, then return the chicken to the pan and add the wine.  Allow it to frizzle for a moment or two, then reduce the heat again.

4.  At this stage, boil some salted water in two pans - one for the gnocchi, one for the tenderstem broccoli.


5.  Add the chicken stock, tarragon leaves and season to taste.  Allow to simmer for some 10-20 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced by almost half and the chicken is cooked through.

6.  Slot the gnocchi into the cooking process around this time, according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Mine took just 3 minutes.  Likewise with the tenderstem broccoli.  Mine took around 5 minutes to cook.


7.  Getting back to the chicken, add the creme fraiche and stir to combine.  Taste to check the seasoning and allow to simmer so as to thicken the sauce slightly whilst you drain the gnocchi and tenderstem.


8.  Serve.

A week of firsts - well, almost. Meal plan w/c 20 Sept 11

Firstly though, I just want to tell you about the end of last week.

A couple of weekends ago, you may remember we invested in a mahoosive great lump of roasting bacon.  I did a kind of pot-roast with the slow cooker and half of the piece has been sitting in the freezer awaiting inspiration.

Eventually we gave up on inspiration striking and went for Ham & Cheese Pasta.

This was to be one of hubby’s cooking nights and my goodness but he did it proud!  The ham was soft and sweetly salty, while the cheese sauce on the pasta was all oozy and delicious.  We have found a new cheese (well, to us it is new!) in the supermarket, called Castello® Reserve Herrgård®, which is apparently a matured Swedish hard cheese.  It is a cheese very similar to extremely mature cheddar in its texture, but without any of the salty crystals that you so often find in cheddar.  They reckon it has buttery undertones of caramel and nuts – well I’m not sure about that, as the high flavour tones do tend to monopolise your tongue!

Anyway, I can recommend it in a cheese sauce for pasta.  Working together with a mature cheddar (cheddar in the majority) it completely rounded out the flavour, resulting in a super strong cheesy kick.

Oh and by the way – it’s gorgeous on a cracker with some chutney, too!

So, that brings us on to the new week - and this is how it's looking :

Tues : home-made pizza

Weds : Corn chowder with poppy seed loaf

Thurs : Beef Lasagne with chips for boys and salad for me

Fri : Chicken Traybake with runner beans

Sat : Tarragon chicken, gnocchi and tenderstem broccoli

Sun : Beef Goulash with rice

Mon : Sausage plait with chips and baked beans.

Well, typing that just made me hungry - so I reckon it's looking good.

Looking good!

As is often the way, a few days have gone by in the new week.  So where Monday's pizza day is concerned, because we couldn't think of anything we particularly wanted that wasn't suitable for Son & heir, we all had pizza.  Except, instead of buying frozen pizzas, hubby put his pizza-maker's hat on and made some cracking home made versions.  Son & heir had a ham & pepperoni, whereas hubby and I had everything including the kitchen sink on ours.  That included pepperoni, ham, red pepper, red onion, mushroom and most wonderfully of all - anchovies.  Goodness how I love those little fishies!

The pizzas were so filling that neither hubby nor I managed to finish ours - which provided breakfast for hubby for the following day.

As for Wednesday's Corn Chowder, well, I'd been keeping my eye open for a good hearty recipe for this.  I'd seen a few that seemed particularly lightweight and not really suitable as a main course soup.  Then I clapped eyes on one from www.fresh365online.com.

I made it last night and after a bit of a worry about how the corn was cooking, it turned out fabulously.  I'll blog about it separately, so won't go into detail now.

Tonight's dinner - the Lasagne - is hubby's first ever go at making Lasagne.

We all really like Lasagne and because I've not been well, I've not been making dishes like this that take a while to make.  I just find it impossible to devote the time that's required, what with making the bechamel sauce, then the pasta sauce, then the assembly and creation of a salad to go with it.  Unfortunately, it's just beyond me at the moment.  So, dear hubby has stepped up to the hotplate and had a go.

Having just got back to the computer from devouring a good third of the Lasagne, I can tell you that hubby has got the job!  Again, I'll be blogging about this one - so you'll have to wait until then to hear all about it in detail.

Sneak preview!

Friday is a little bit exciting in a beetroot kind of way.  This is the day that the samples of beetroot arrive for the "So you think you know beetroot" challenge.

I'll be receiving three types of beetroot and, to start us off, several recipes have been suggested.  I thought I'd do one of those recipes - as they are recommended - and just freewheel after that.  So Friday's dinner will be the "One pan roast lunch of chicken, beetroot, potatoes and carrots" from www.lovebeetroot.co.uk site.  I have plans to add this and that to the dish, to make it more an evening dinner rather than a lunch, but again (sorry!) you'll have to wait and see what turns up.

I've got all sorts of fledgling ideas about what to do with the other two types of beetroot, but none of them have turned into formulated plans yet.  I'm waiting to see how much of each type I get, before I decide what to do with it.  After all, it's no good planning on doing something that takes 500g of purpleness, if you are only getting 250g - and you can't get to the shops!

Photo c/o BBC Good Food

Saturday's Tarragon Chicken dish is an adaptation of a recipe that I first saw in Olive Magazine, absolutely ages ago.  I've kept it, thinking "I'll do that one day soon" and some two years later, I've managed to include it!  Because of hubby's potato hatred, instead of the new potatoes (which we'll already have had in the traybake) that are recommended, I thought I'd go for gnocchi.  The sauce for the tarragon chicken should have a good enough consistency for the gnocchi and I think our favourite tenderstem broccoli will be fabulous with it.

Now Sunday's Goulash is all that @sarahcartlidge's fault, because she mentioned it being Goulash weather, which switched on an "oooh, yummy!" response in my brain, which won't be switched off again until I make one.  Fortunately, I haven't put the slow cooker away yet - which may well prove to be a permanent fixture on the worktop, at least until Spring strikes.

What do you reckon to beetroot in vinegar served beside Goulash, a la Margi Clarke's Scouse on MasterChef?  Seems do-able, to me.  More so than the Scouse, because after all, beetroot and goulash do originate from similar places ..

Monday is hubby's day to cook again - and this time he's planning on creating a sausage plait (basically a giant sausage roll, with plaited pastry).  Sounds lovely to me - especially as he's going to be adding some additional flavours to the sausagemeat.  As of yet, I'm not sure what, but all will be revealed!

So there we are.  All except for the home-made pizzas are dishes that are new to us.  Even the Goulash is, as I've never managed to create a "proper" Goulash - and by "proper", I mean one which lives up to the one I've got in my head.  Exciting times in the kitchen, even before the beetroot turned up!

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