Tonight's dinner : Simon Hopkinson I might love you ...

Why this sudden devotion to Simon Hopkinson (he of "Simon Hopkinson Cooks" on the t.v.)?  Two words : Piedmontese Peppers.  I'd seen him make them on his t.v. programme and saw how much he enjoyed them and was attracted to the idea from way back then.  So when I had tomatoes and peppers in the same space, both looking for a job to do, I remembered the recipe.

This evening's dinner consisted of a gammon joint, pot roasted slowly in apple juice with a bouquet garni and black pepper, along with Piedmontese Peppers (half a capsicum pepper, with slices of garlic, half a tomato, salt & pepper and rapeseed - or olive - oil), almondy green beans, steamed carrots and potatoes, with gravy.

Those Piedmontese Peppers.  Well, I can't remember the last time I ate something that so rattled my cage with delight in the way these did.  The only trouble was - I was the only one!  Hubby wasn't keen on the skins of either the peppers or the tomatoes, although he liked the flavours apart from too much garlic.  He felt the garlic clashed terribly with the gammon.  Son & heir didn't even try his pepper, having had a little taste of the anchovy on top.  I was SO disappointed about that.

So.  The next capsicum pepper I get, is going to be made into Piedmontese Peppers and I'm going to eat them on a socking great chunk of toasted ciabatta for a totally awesome and amazing lunch.  Then I'll blog them - and try not to go on .. and on .. and on .. about how gorgeous they are.

Aside from that, the meat was tender and luscious - just so juicy, from being slow cooked in the apple juice.

It was the first time I'd made the almondy green beans, too.  It's a bit of a shame that I chose the same day to make the peppers, as without them overshadowing the beans, I'd have been waxing lyrical about how gorgeous the beans were!  Cooked normally (in boiling salted water), when you drain them, you melt a big old knob of butter in the hot pan then add the toasted almonds (I toasted them first in the same pan), put the beans back and warm them through over a low heat.  Gosh but they were good!

With the Vegibox's fabulous carrots which are so mild and sweet and their lovely robust potatoes, everything about this evening's meal just hit the spot with me.  It's just as well somebody liked it all!

Birthday dinner - and a weird lunch at The Woolpack, Sopley

Yes, apologies for the lateness of the appearance of the "dinner" blog, only I was a bit busy eating it, then watching a DVD (Burke & Hare - which was unremarkable) and then going to bed.  Sunday was spent with my parents (see below, as regards that!), more going to bed and then I then went to work - and now here I am!

Hubby (you may have noticed a "Chillibob" commenting in places - that's him) did a wonderful job on the roast lamb dinner for my birthday.  We didn't need to worry about son & heir as he went out to a sleepover.  So it was just the two of us, tucking into the lovely lamb, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, onion sauce, mint sauce, peas and carrots with Yorkshire puddings and gravy.  What a feast!

I'd studded the lamb with rosemary sprigs, slices of garlic and anchovies before wrapping it in silver foil and roasting for 3 hours.

We'd got the butcher to bone and roll the joint for us and he'd kindly included the bones in the package, so they formed a neat trivet for the lamb to sit upon.  Ooooh, it was absolutely gorgeous and such a treat!  It had been so long, I'd quite forgotten just how much I enjoy mint sauce - not to mention the onion sauce - with lamb.  I knew I liked it - which was why I chose it for my birthday dinner, so it was lovely to re-acquaint myself with just how much I enjoy it!


I finished off the last few slices, cold, last night with some chutney.  Roll on next birthday, if birthdays mean I get roast lamb!

The following day, Sunday, we met up with my parents for lunch at The Woolpack in Sopley.  It is in such a lovely area, being within the New Forest National Park.  The pub itself is thatched and sited beside a stream.  Where we were sitting - in the conservatory - we were right beside the stream, where a duck brought her babies to paddle.  We were tempted to throw pieces of bread for her, but resisted.  I'm sure those ducklings would be far better off eating natural food (of which there had to be enough)!


Regrettably, I forgot to take the camera with me so there aren't any photographs of the food, but my point in writing about it is to comment on the quite ridiculous portion sizes.  If, in the weeks to come, I see in the local newspaper that The Woolpack has gone out of business, I shan't be surprised.  It'll be all their profits that they've thrown away in the shape of lettuce leaves and cucumber slices!


We ordered two starters - a Salmon & Prawn salad and a Butternut Squash soup.  The soup arrived in the usual tureen, but accompanied by three inch-thick half slices of wholemeal bread.  There had to have been enough bread there for three people to have had soup.


The Salmon & Prawn salad also had two of the inch-thick slices of bread (without butter), along with a good helping of prawns, a slightly meager helping of smoked salmon and an enormous heap of salad leaves incorporating iceberg lettuce, sorrel, spinach, radicchio and at least three other leaves that I didn't recognise, as well as cress, tomato, cucumber and red onion.  Not one of us finished the salad, as it was just too much.


This trend continued.  Son & heir had fish & chips, which came wrapped in newspaper (which made his day) and were the only "normal" sized portion to appear.

Hubby had Scampi, chips and salad - and had the over-sized portion of salad, all over again.

My Dad had a portion of Lasagne (which he declared was very nice), but again, accompanied by what looked to be a portion of salad some eight inches across, by three inches high with countless different types of salad ingredients, including coleslaw and potato salad.  The unfortunate part about it was that the sheer quantity of salad made the portion of Lasagne look meager in the extreme.

My poor Mum had opted for the smoked chicken salad.  Her plate arrived, a good seven eighths covered in salad some three inches high, with a bald chicken breast clinging on for dear life, at the side.  In fact, she had to hunt for the chicken under the salad.  What made matters worse, was that the chicken had been very poorly trimmed before smoking, which left a nasty-looking bloody patch at the thick end.  She cut it off and left that bit, which effectively reduced the amount of meat she had to eat with that enormous mountain of salad.  Needless to say, neither of them made it to even half way.


As for me, well I'd ordered the Mussels in cream, coriander and garlic.  I had seen that it would include crusty bread and garlic bread and was prepared for there to be too much bread - but not for the sheer weight of quantity that turned up - and not just bread but mussels too!  The earthenware pot which contained the mussels was (and I'm not exaggerating here) some ten inches across.  Now I know that mussels need a lot of room because of their shells, but there had to have been enough there for two people.  There was also three pieces of garlic bread and three slices of wholemeal bread (again, with no butter).  I didn't even touch the wholemeal, nor did I manage to finish the mussels.  I had a damned good try at finishing them, but there had to have been a third of them left by the time I ground to a halt.  They were gorgeous and the sauces was just divine - but there was so much there, that you just didn't know where to start!


Quite apart from the "throwing away their profits" aspect of the issue, there's also the point of view that when you're served with such a mountain of food, your immediate reaction is one of "good god, I'll never get through that" - which puts you off even trying.  Another aspect is that when you're being taken out for a meal, it is only polite to attempt to eat everything that is put before you - after all, someone else has paid for it and it seems only polite that you do justice to their financial outlay!  So, it's embarrassing to have to send back untouched piles of food.  Lastly - and not by any means least - is the issue of waste.  The amount of food that went uneaten last Sunday, could have fed our little family of three for at least two days.  It was a wicked and wanton waste that just didn't sit well with me at all.


The end result, was that the quality of both the foodstuffs and the cooking (which were, in the large part, both extremely good) were overshadowed by the ridiculous quantities.


I'll be writing to the pub to put these points of view across.  Don't suppose I'll get a response, but I'll feel better anyway!


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Chicken Caesar Salad - lovely when you get it right!

Chicken Caesar Salad - this is one of those dishes that has followed me down the years.

In the days when I worked at Hampton Court Palace, I can remember visiting Blubeckers in East Molesey with my friend Didaskalos (which was his online nickname and yes, he was a teacher) and eating Chicken Caesar Salad there.  I would choose the salad because I knew I would spend the whole lunchtime laughing - and it was the easiest thing to eat, in the circumstances.

Times change and things move on, to where I discovered that Sainsbury's were producing a Caesar Salad kit - and still are, to the best of my knowledge - which held the best Caesar dressing to be found.  I have no idea where they got it from, nor why they couldn't sell it in bottles, as every bottled Caesar dressing just didn't measure up.  I still have yet to find a bottled Caesar dressing that equates to Sainsbury's kit version.  The best one, so far, is Brianna's Homestyle Caesar Dressing - although it is just a tad too cheesy (I know, odd concept, eh?) for my liking.

For last night's Caesar Salad, however, I resolved to have a crack at making my own dressing.  You can imagine how much it had to live up to!  However, I am pleased to report that the dressing detailed below is not only better than Sainsbury's kit one, but it makes huge great lakes of the stuff (which is why you'll see our salad is a bit over-dressed) which bodes well for further salads in the week.

I was dubious about including the pinch of chilli flakes, about including greek yoghurt and about the raw garlic (knowing how prone I am to getting the garlic-itchies!).  The pinch of chilli flakes just appeared to amalgamate into the whole dressing experience somewhat seamlessly, but I fully expect if you don't include them - you'd notice it.  The greek yoghurt added to the creaminess but without making the dressing heavy.  I can imagine that seven tablespoons of mayonnaise would have been icky in the extreme.  As for the garlic - although there was garlic included in every inch of the salad, I escaped the garlic itchies!  There you are, you see - you just never know.

Another really good thing about making your own dressing is the anchovies.  Four for the dressing - and one for me.  Maybe another one for the dressing - and one for me.  Better have another one before I wrap the remainder in cling film, to put in the fridge.  Love anchovies!

The chicken was dealt with really simply.  I trimmed it up and put the three breasts into a bowl with lemon juice, thyme, salt & pepper and olive oil.  Onto a roasting tin and 25 minutes later in a hot oven, they're done.

Hubby was in charge of the croutons, as he'd made a loaf of bread especially with them in mind.  He sliced the bread thickly and rubbed it over with garlic.  Then removed the crusts and cut it into lovely big croutons.  Then into a bowl with dried herbs - chives, basil, oregano and thyme plus olive oil.  Toss out onto the oven tray and into a hot oven for 5 minutes, turn them over and sprinkle with salt, back in for another 5 minutes, turn and salt and back in for a final 5 minutes.  Out onto some kitchen paper to drain and bingo!  You've got your croutons.  Mmmmmn, I could have eaten them with a lovely glass of wine, never mind in the salad!

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD  (Serves 3 with extra dressing)

Ingredients for the chicken :

3 skinless boneless chicken breast fillets
1½ tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 garlic clove finely chopped.
 
Ingredients for the croutons :
 
3 slices white crusty bread
quarter tsp dried chives
half tsp dried basil
half tsp dried oregano
half tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Ingredients for the dressing :

1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
good pinch chilli flakes
5 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
3 tbsp good-quality mayonnaise (Hellman's is good)
4 tbsp plain greek yoghurt.

Ingredients for the salad :   

1 head Iceberg or Romaine/Cos lettuce (choice to suit you), leaves separated, washed and dried
25g piece Parmesan cheese, finely grated.

Method :

1.  Chicken :  place the juice, oil, thyme and garlic in a shallow dish. Add the chicken and turn it over in the marinade to coat well. Season with freshly ground pepper and leave for up to 2 hrs.

2.  Salad :  Keep any small inner lettuce leaves whole, tear the larger outer leaves into 2-3 pieces, then put them all into a large bowl full of ice cold water with 6-7 ice cubes.

3.  Croutons : Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.

4.   Croutons : Slice, then cut the bread into big, rough cubes for the croutons. Then put into a bowl with the herbs plus pepper and olive oil.  Toss until completely covered, then out onto a baking tray and into the hot oven for 5 minutes, turn them over and sprinkle with salt, back in for another 5 minutes, turn and salt and back in for a final 5 minutes.  Out onto some kitchen paper to drain, and reserve.

5.  Chicken : Place the chicken onto a baking tray, then into the oven for 25-30 minutes.  When done, leave to cool slightly then slice.

6.    Dressing : Meanwhile, put the garlic into a mini blender with the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, chilli, anchovies, mayonnaise and yogurt, then blend until smooth - it should be the consistency of double cream. Adjust the taste with lemon juice and pepper. 

7.  Salad :  Drain the lettuce and spin to dry.  Place into a large bowl and pour just under half the dressing over the leaves.  Add the parmesan and carefully toss to coat - it's gentler to use your hands. Pile the leaves onto individual plates, tucking in the croutons and chicken. Drizzle the rest of the dressing over and around, then finish with an extra squeeze of lemon.

Serve.

Rose Prince's Piquant chicken liver pots

See those pickled onions? Home made by Hubby!

I've been browsing through Rose Prince's "Kitchenella" cookery book, which I borrowed from the Library recently.  It's an intriguing book in that virtually all the recipes are not only "do-able" (which is the mark of a good cook book, in my eyes) but they are also right up there on the "good for you" front, too.

Because we have a certain amount of health issues in our little family, believe it or not I do try to balance our meals and provide dishes that are not only tasty and look good, but aren't too terribly bad for us either.  Rose Prince's book has been a bit of an eye opener plus an education in providing meals that are largely good for you.  I think I'll have to include this one on my birthday list!

I've wanted to make a pate for quite some time, but have always backed away from the recipes because of the degree of butter, cream cheese or cream - or all of them - that the majority of recipes demand.  Rose Prince's version, Piquant chicken-liver pots, does indeed use butter - 2 tbsp of it in the cooking and then more to cover, but aside from that it's just flavours and aromatics.

I pondered on the recipe for a week or so and decided to ask at Spring Fields Butchers whether they could provide chicken livers.  It turns out that they can, but they're frozen.  Well, the only other chicken livers I'm aware of are from Asda and they were frozen too,  so I bought some from the butcher and hoped for the best.

Cooling - little did we know

I began by slicing up the shallots - and managed to cut the quick of my finger on the plastic mesh of the bag they were in.  So, once my finger had stopped leaking, I tackled the chicken livers.  To be honest, apart from the "ewww!" factor, I don't know why I worried about not bleeding everywhere, because by the time I had finished, the place looked like an abbatoir.  The livers, once defrosted, had degenerated into a big bloody bowl full of wet slops with the whole livers doing their very best to evade capture.  Trimming them of their gristle wasn't particularly difficult - and I put them into some milk to soak, just in case there was any bitterness threatening.  I'd rather forget the state of some of the livers - and I don't want to think about what happened to the poor chickens to make them look like that.  So it was a very gory time spent sorting, chopping and trying not to breathe too hard.

However, once they were in the milk they became a lot more agreeable to deal with and once the worktop, utensils and my hands had been washed clean, it was fairly easy to forget how gross the last 15 minutes had been.

So that you can see the texture, under the butter

The cooking really couldn't get any easier - although I did have to bubble the wine for a bit longer than it said in the book, as I was very wary of having too much liquid at the end of the cooking process.  Because of that, I threw the wine in before the livers were quite cooked through and they effectively fried and poached, which prevented them from getting tough and over-cooked.

Every individual ingredient that was added completely changed the character of the pate, until by the time it was headed towards the blender, I was seriously doubting whether it would be edible.  The wine had resulted in the blend taking on an odd grey hue which didn't help with its appeal.

The recipe says to decant the lot onto a chopping board and chop until the liquid had been absorbed, but knowing how easily tired my arms get, I opted to blitz the lot.  Of course, as it blitzed, it changed colour again and began to look rather more like pate.

As I decanted the mixture into its individual pots, I steeled myself to have a taste, knowing that with it being still warm, it wouldn't reflect exactly the end result - but it would be a good indication of the way it was going.  I had a lick of the spoon - and all doubts vanished.  It was flipping gorgeous.

You really wouldn't believe it of him, would you

I pushed the three pots to the back of the worktop (more to stop them from being knocked onto the floor, than anything else) and left them to cool.

Upon returning to them - much later - the one at the front of the group had had a huge scoop shape removed from it.  *shock horror*  I went and checked with hubby (who had commented earlier that "that pate smells like dog food!") and no, he wasn't responsible.  Son certainly wasn't responsible as he was in bed.  That left one person.  Mr Jonty long legs, long neck and long nose, who had obviously had his huge snout in the nearest pot.  Honestly, it is aeons since that dog has counter-surfed - and it made me wonder about the "dog food" comment!  So, son and heir had a cheese ploughman's, instead of pate.  It's just as well he was happy with that.

PIQUANT CHICKEN LIVER POTS (serves 3-4, depending on the size of your pots)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp butter
6 shallots, finely chopped
12 chicken livers, trimmed of gristly and left whole
6-7 anchovy fillets
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 wineglass red wine
sea salt & black pepper

For the herb butter :
4 tbsp salted butter, softened
2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped chives.

Method :

1.  Melt the butter over a medium heat, add the shallots and cook for around 5 minutes until pale gold and sweet.

2.  Add the chicken livers and cook, stirring, until just browned.

3.  Add the anchovies and capers and cook for a further minute, then add the wine.  Allow the wine to boil for around a minute or so, stirring all the time, then season to taste.

4.  Allow the contents to cool for a moment or two, then tip into a blender and blend until you are happy with the consistency.

5.  Fill pots with the mixture, packing it down inside and leaving at least 5mm space at the top.  Allow to cool completely.

6.  To make the herb butter, mix the butter, parsley and chives in a bowl and spread a little on top of each pot to seal in the mixture below.

7.  Cool the butter slightly to serve, or cover with cling film and refrigerate.  Remember to remove from the fridge a half an hour before serving, to allow the butter to soften.

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Pasta Puttanesca with Tuna - at last!

You may be wondering why the addition of "at last!" in the title there.

Well, you see, I was beginning to think that I'd never get the chance of making this 'ere pasta dish.  The last THREE times it has appeared on the menu list, it has been bumped off for one reason or another.  I was beginning to think it was cursed - or that hubby and son viewed its inclusion on the list with such trepidation that they were going to all kinds of lengths to avoid having it.

However, it turns out it was just unfortunate circumstance that brought about its loss from the menu lists and we successfully ate it for dinner a few nights ago.

Now you may also wonder about the addition of tuna to the recipe, as I know that a strict pasta puttanesca is largely vegetarian (if you forget about the anchovies).  The trouble is, that my boys (both large and small) are committed carnivores.  If the meal doesn't include meat of some kind - and fish is included under the heading of "meat" for this purpose - then it's not "dinner".

So, having come across Delia Smith's recipe for straight Pasta Puttanesca and liking the look of it very much, I immediately began to consider what meat I could include and how it would go.  Should it be included in the recipe, or the recipe used as a side dish to the meat?  I considered bacon, but we've already got a number of successful pasta dishes that use bacon and I'd rather use something else.  Then, the anchovies raised their delicious little heads, which got me to thinking tuna.  Having re-read the method, it seemed entirely logical to include a tin of tuna right at the end when the sauce is pretty much made.  That way, the tuna wouldn't be broken up too badly.

I have to admit that I tinkered around with Saint Delia's recipe something awful (shallot, red pepper, wine, fish sauce, ketchup .. the list goes on) - but then considering the scrumptious dish that resulted, I'm not of a mind to apologise for doing so!  I think I can safely say that this is the first dish I've made, that I've been actively aware of the Umami (the fifth taste sensation) involved.

PASTA PUTTANESCA WITH TUNA (feeds 3)


Ingredients :

350g spaghetti or linguine (more, if you are hungry!)
3 drops olive oil
1 pinch sea salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, chopped fine
1 red pepper, seeds removed and sliced small
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
150ml red wine
50g anchovy fillets, drained
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
50g pitted black olives
1 tbsp capers, drained
400g tin cherry tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
tin of tuna in spring water, drained
pinch black pepper.

Method :


1.  To make the sauce, heat the oil gently in a medium saucepan then add the shallot and red pepper and cook them slowly until softened.


2.  Add the garlic and basil and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Then add the red wine and allow it to bubble until reduced by approximately half.  This should only take a few minutes.


3.  Add the anchovies, fish sauce, ketchup, olives, capers and tomatoes and season with black pepper.  Do not use salt, as you've already got salt in the form of the anchovies and fish sauce.


4. Turn the heat down to low and let the sauce simmer uncovered for some 40 minutes, stirring from time to time, by which time it will have reduced to a lovely thick mass with very little liquid left.  Taste for seasoning and add the sugar if the acidity is too much.


6.  Add the tuna and a little extra basil to the tomato sauce and stir gently to combine.  Allow it a minute or two to heat through sufficiently.


5. While the sauce is reducing, cook the spaghetti or linguine to manufacturer's instructions, except adding the three drops of olive oil and making sure the water is salted.  Drain the pasta when there is still a little bite left in it and return it to the pan.  Aim to have the pasta ready when the sauce is finished.



6.  Serve on warmed plates with plenty of grated parmesan cheese and garlic bread.

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