Bournemouth Echo "Jenny's Week" blog : Easter Sunday lunch : I'm getting better at it!

The Bournemouth Echo have posted my newest blog, so at last I can tell you all about the Easter Sunday lunch!

The following post can be seen in situ here

It’s not so much that last Easter Sunday’s lunch was a disaster (in truth, I can’t remember last Easter!), but more thinking back to the last time I cooked for anyone other than immediate family, it was a long, hard old slog.

I’d arranged for my parents to come over on Boxing Day last year.  I wanted to have a special celebration dinner, so I’d been cooking for a couple of days previously and the cooking on the day seemed to take FOR EVER.  I can remember pots steaming on the cooker top, me sitting peeling quail’s eggs for what seemed like an aeon and hubby washing up the pots as quickly as they appeared, only to have them dirtied again in a second.  It wasn’t chaos, but it was very close to it.

A rather hurried and particularly poor, snap of the assembled dinner!

So, when I invited my parents over for Easter Sunday lunch, I resolved that this time I’d learn from the previous time’s lesson – and not over face myself.

I’d decided, fairly early on, that we’d have a piece of pot-roasted brisket of beef, as not only is that gorgeous, but it almost guarantees a piece of tender, flavoursome beef with the added bonus of some lovely stock with which to make a superb gravy.

Hubby placed a request for another of the Ottolenghi Fennel & Cherry Tomato Gratin, and I decided to do some Boulangere potatoes, as I could prepare them ahead with the Gratin and both could go in the oven and be forgotten about until they were done.

The accompanying vegetables went from steamed curly kale, through tender stem broccoli to what we settled upon, which was stringless runner beans (because they’re forgiving to cook) and some British asparagus – because if you can’t eat asparagus at such a time as Easter, when can you?

The preparations began early on Sunday morning, when I seared the Beef almost before I’d had a cup of tea.  Through bleary eyes I turned it this way and that, making sure every side had a good colour, whilst trying not to get in the way of the exploding fat.  Having made a complete mess of the cooker top, I chopped up a couple of carrots, a leek and some celery, bashed a couple of garlic cloves, added a handful of fresh parsley plus some dried sage and crumbled in an oxo cube to a stockpot full of water.  Into its bath went the piece of brisket (with some seasoning), on went the lid and I sat and waited for the whole lot to boil.  Once it was boiling briskly, I turned down the heat to the minimum required to keep the pot simmering – and went for that cup of tea.

A little while later – and in a much improved frame of mind – I set to on the preparation for the two oven-bound dishes.

Half-way through, just added crumble & tomatoes

First thing was to make some crumble for the Ottolenghi fennel dish.  That done, I was able to use our Mandolin food slicer (after a cautionary word from hubby about how having to go to Casualty at that stage would seriously put the dinner back) to slice up the three fennel bulbs and the potatoes for the Boulangere.

The finished article - ready to be served

The fennel gratin is true testament to the magic that Ottolenghi brings to their dishes.  Cooked with garlic, thyme and cream, the fennel stops tasting like fennel and tastes utterly different.  With the sweet crumble on top, together with the oven-roasted cherry tomatoes, every mouthful takes on a character all of its own.  It’s a gorgeously rich but light, creamy but crunchy, sweet but sharp delightful flavour and texture combination.  I heartily recommend it to you!

The Boulangere potatoes couldn’t have been easier to put together, now I’d got the Mandolin to help out.  Previously, the long old process of attempting to slice potatoes to even thicknesses – and all without cutting your fingers off – would have been enough to make me think twice.  However, with the Mandolin I just pop a peeled spud into the holder and slice away knowing that my fingers are safe from harm and lovely evenly sliced spuds await.

Just butter the baking dish and add sliced onion & chopped garlic in layers with the potato.  Pour over just enough stock to keep everything moist, add the obligatory knobs of butter to the surface and cover over until you’re ready to put it in the oven.

As for the fennel dish, it can be prepared up to just before the adding the crumble stage, whereupon it will wait, covered, until you’re ready.  Then just add the crumble and pop in the oven.  You just need to remember to put the tomatoes on top somewhere near the end of cooking, so that they will be baked nicely.

After that, it was just decanting some of the stock from the beef pot to make the gravy and preparing the beans & asparagus.

I’m really not sure I did manage to carve the meat – it just sort of fell apart, rather than stayed in lovely carved rounds.  However, it was deliciously unctuous and beefy – and went so very well with the lovely horseradish cream.

Yes, I think I got this one right.

Parmesan gnocchi & tenderstem broccoli.

There is chicken there, somewhere!

One of the two recipes that had been carried over until the following week, was a pot roasted chicken accompanied by parmesan gnocchi & tenderstem broccoli.

I was very keen to do this recipe, as I am constantly on the lookout for vegetable side dishes to have with pot-roast chicken.  There's only so many times you can have roast potatoes, lovely as they are.

The great benefit of this recipe was that I could cook the chicken in the morning, then take the meat from the bones and re-heat it for dinner that evening - and the same for the following day.  Oh, and let's not discount the using of the carcass and cooking liquid for stock and/or chicken soup!  The gnocchi recipe seemed to be very easy and wouldn't be too hard on me to produce.

As it was, as a last minute addition, I decided to roast some courgettes and cherry tomatoes to go alongside the gnocchi/tenderstem broccoli dish - and I was very glad of them.  Although the gnocchi dish is delicious, it would have been better served with a robust form of meat such as gammon steaks or roasted gammon.  With the chicken, it tended to muscle the lovely chicken out of the way like a big, burly bouncer would do.  "If yer name's not down on the list (beside the garlic), then you're not comin' in".  As a consequence, it needed the acidity of the cherry tomatoes to provide the balance.  When I do the gnocchi dish again, I'll make sure to do some cherry tomatoes with it unless it's accompanying something with tomato as one of the main players.


Please don't take that as a negative view of this dish, as the softness of the gnocchi provides a lovely counterbalance to the crispness of the tenderstem broccoli, and the freshness of the broccoli provides a counterbalance to the richness of the parmesan.  I'll definitely be doing the gnocchi again, as quite apart from anything else, it's the first gnocchi dish I've ever really liked!


PARMESAN GNOCCHI & TENDERSTEM BROCCOLI  (serves 3)


Ingredients :


a knob of butter
1 garlic clove, grated
teensy pinch of chilli flakes
150ml vegetable or chicken stock (depending on what you're serving it with)
5-6 tbsp creme fraiche (I used a low fat version)
60g parmesan, finely grated
250g tenderstem broccoli, halved lengthways if large
250g gnocchi.


Method :


1.  Heat a large pan of salted water until boiling.  While it's heating :


2.  Heat the knob of butter in a frying pan and cook the garlic and chilli for 2 minutes.


3.  Add the stock, bringing to a boil and continue boiling until reduced by three-quarters.


4.  In the meantime, cook the broccoli until just tender.

5.  Whisk in the creme fraiche and parmesan to the stock, to make the sauce.

6.  Add the broccoli when done and retain the cooking water, to which you should add the gnocchi and cook following pack instructions (around 3 mins).  Drain and add to the broccoli and sauce.

7.  Toss to cover with the sauce and serve.


.

Pork steaks with rhubarb : chinese style!

I guess that title has probably put at least 50% of you off reading this recipe, but if you got this far do please read on - it's very worth it!

Ruby - growing well, but before she went for world domination

I was very keen to make the most of the butcher's special offer regarding the pork steaks, plus Ruby our rhubarb plant has been growing like a proverbial weed and needed cropping.  You might think "main course and dessert", but if you're me, you think "how can I combine the two"?

I had a recipe for braised pork with plums which I'd been hanging onto with a view to making some day soon and, having had a bit of a review of it, began to consider the concept of replacing the plums with rhubarb.  There wasn't any other ingredient that would clash with the rhubarb and I felt that the astringency would sit well beside the pork and in place of the plums.

I had another potential area of difference with regard to the original recipe, over cooking time.  The recipe recommended cooking for 2 hours, although it was dealing with pork shoulder - and I had pork loin.  I knew if I cooked the loin steaks for too long, they stood the chance of being like shoe leather.  However, if I didn't give them long enough to render down any areas of fat (even following on from a judicious trimming), neither of my chaps would be able to eat it.  The saving grace, in this instance, was the oven temperature, which the recipe recommended at 140deg C (fan).  I reckoned that if I kept a lid on the casserole dish, at that temperature, covered in sauce, the steaks would (hopefully) come out without damage.  As it turned out, the meat was perfectly tender and without a scrap of fat to cause confusion and dismay.  (Thomas the Tank engine reference there - did you get it?)

There was also required to be some juggling where the timings for cooking was concerned.  It required two hours, so let's allow some three quarters of an hour preparation time (other people could do it quicker, but it takes time when you're sitting down for some reason), so probably three hours would see it right.  So, we would eat at 6pm so three hours would take us back to 3pm - the trouble is, I needed to be out at 2.30pm on an errand, which was right in the midst of prep. time.  The only thing for it, was to prep. the dish right up until the "putting in the oven" stage, minus the rhubarb, then put it in the oven when I returned - all of which worked like a charm.

I served the dish with plain white rice, but it was crying out for some vegetable involvement.  Next time - and there will be a next time - I'll cook some mushrooms with the pork and maybe some baby corn.  Perhaps I might even go mad and steam some Pak Choi to serve alongside.

CHINESE STYLE PORK STEAKS WITH RHUBARB (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

3 pork steaks or 800g pork shoulder, diced
3 tbsp mirrin or rice wine
3 tbsp soy sauce
2cm piece of root ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, grated
a red chilli, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
a small onion, chopped fine
a star anise
1 heaped tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp granulated sugar
half a tbsp tomato puree
250ml chicken stock
2 large sticks of rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2cm chunks.

Method :

1.  Heat oven to 160deg C/140deg C fan/gas 3 (or not, if you're doing the two-stage preparation method).

2.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan.  Tip in the onions, ginger, chilli and garlic, star anise, five spice powder and cinnamon.  Fry until fragrant and soft.

3.  Stir in the sugar, then increase the heat and add the pork.  Turn in the oniony mix until the meat is just sealed, but not browned.

4.  Add the mirrin and soy sauce, tomato puree and stock.  Stir well and decant into a casserole dish and cover.  Then either place to one side to cook later, or place into the oven to cook for 1 hr.

5.   After the hour is up, remove from the oven and add the chopped rhubarb.  Stir well to combine, then replace in the oven uncovered, to cook for a further hour.

6.  At the end of that hour, if the sauce is still fairly thin (the rhubarb will have added to the juices as it cooks), simply separate the meat from the liquid then pour the liquid into a small saucepan and reduce until you're happy with its consistency.

7.  Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.

.

By son & heir's request : Walnut & Banana Muffins

Hubby has started a new short-term contract and so is working during the week.  This means, as our son quickly deduced, that he won't be at home to make cakes, buns, bagels or bread -  all of which appeal greatly to son and heir when he returns home from school.

Hence, in desperation at the idea of a week with no home-baked goodies to return from school to, he asked me whether I'd be able to make some muffins "or something".

I had anticipated a request such as this and had stocked up the baking supplies cupboard already.  Hence, I had a number of goodies like dessicated coconut, semi-dried apricots, chocolate chips and walnuts, just waiting to be used.

However, sitting on the kitchen's side windowsill were two OAP bananas.  They had two options - inclusion in some form of baking, or being pensioned off to the great bin in the corner.  As I'm sure you know, I hate throwing anything away, so it was a foregone conclusion that those bananas were right up there on the ingredients list.

I've used bananas in muffins in the past, as they provide a great base for flavours.  However, you have to be careful about what flavour you match them with as they can be somewhat overpowering in their advanced OAP stage.

Now I'd just read something about how walnuts have been favoured in France for their anti-inflammatory effect, and was quite keen to make use of the walnuts I had in the cupboard.  The condition that afflicts me - Polymyalgia Rheumatica - is one where the veins & arteries become inflamed, so you can probably understand my interest!

There was an added benefit to making walnut & banana muffins, which is that I am very aware of hubby's diabetes and so any sweet cakes we make are required to be low in sugar.  Owing to the intense sweetness of the bananas, I felt sure I would be able to reduce the sugar content - and indeed I was right.

All of which serves as explanation as to why the Walnut & Banana Muffins were settled upon.

The end result was a type of muffin that isn't best eaten as is, but is quite gorgeous when halved and spread with a little butter.  They have that lovely sweet/savoury thing going on, which made them perfect for their function - a little bit of loveliness to go with a glass of milk (or a cup of tea!) after school.

WALNUT & BANANA MUFFINS (makes 10-12)

Ingredients :

2 large overripe bananas, mashed

a quarter of a cup of granulated sugar

1 slightly beaten egg

one third of a cup of melted butter

100ml milk

half a tsp ground cinnamon

half a tsp baking powder

quarter of a tsp salt

one and a half cups self-raising flour

half a cup of chopped walnuts

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180deg C.

2.  In a large bowl or a Kenwood Chef type of mixer, mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg, butter and milk lightly until combined.

3.  Add the baking powder, cinnamon, salt and flour and mix again until just combined.

4.  Add the walnuts and give it a final mix.  Try not to overdo the mixing, or the muffins will toughen.

5.  Pour into silicone muffin moulds (or greased muffin tins) and bake for 30-35 mins or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.

6.  Put on a cooling rack and get the kettle on.

.

Making the Christmas Ham

Well now.  It's been a few weeks since I've had time to put fingers to keyboard, which is entirely down to that thing called "Christmas" intervening.  I've sat down this morning and made a list of what I want to tell you all about - and it's come down to twelve individual things!  Now normally, I'd deal with them in chronological order.  This time, however, I can go no further without recounting the sheer triumph that was our Christmas Ham.

As you do, we'd been contemplating what to have for our Christmas Dinner since way before the date and had both been in agreement that Turkey was so yesterday, Chicken was for Christmasses of yore when money was tighter than today.  Goose & Duck were both a temptation, but the worry was that it wouldn't go as far as I needed it to.  Beef was extremely tempting, but too expensive for the size I wanted.  So, we came down on a Christmas Ham (with a piece of Beef to add variety to Boxing Day).

That's a big old piece of pig!

We had been eyeing up the enormous legs of pork in the supermarkets and although we knew we should be buying from the local butcher, I'm afraid the supermarket won on price.  If it's any consolation, we did buy the Beef from the local butcher!  We got a 5kg bone-in (although it turned out to be the tiniest bone) half leg.  Top half - the thigh, effectively.

With kettle added, for size comparison

The next quandary was what to soak it and cook it in.  None of our saucepans were even remotely big enough, and neither was my Mum's pressure cooker.  Then Chillibob remembered the Jam Boiler that our friend Laura had given to us and which had been residing in the shed ever since, awaiting a suitable glut of fruit.

Now that's a BIG jam boiler!

It seemed as though this enormous piece of pork qualified as a glut of pork - so we got the boiler out and gave it a scrub, boiled up some water in it (which took 30 minutes, even starting with hot water!), let it cool and plonked Mr Pig inside.  Perfect!

It took 8 or 9 litres of water to cover it for soaking, which made us glad we'd bought that extra 2 litre bottle of coca-cola, as that was what we'd be cooking it in, the next day.  I added three satsumas, which I'd pulverised the juice out of, some star anise, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cloves, a chilli (which I'd punched holes in, to allow it to steep) and some garlic and left it to swim around for the night.



The following day, I baled out enough of the liquid so that I could remove the pork to drain the boiler.  It was just too heavy to lift, otherwise.  The water had gained an "interesting" hue and it all smelled satisfyingly Christmassy.

Ready to be cooked - in coca-cola, plus some!

Having rinsed the boiler out and placed it (gently - it's a ceramic hob) onto the cooker top, I then went about replacing Mr Pig and setting him to swim in a bath of six litres of coca-cola, topped up with a little water.  To the coca-cola, I added everything but the kitchen sink, which is roughly translated as carrot, onion, celery, cloves, coriander seeds, peppercorns, parsley - all the usual suspects.

I then set it to boil.  Three-quarters of an hour later, it had achieved a gentle bubble.  An hour and a quarter later, I turned the heat down to a gentle simmer - and left it whilst I researched how long to cook the beast.  There seemed to be two schools of thought on this subject - around two and a half hours -v- four to five hours.  So I compromised and looked at it once it'd achieved three hours - and it appeared done.

All studded and ready to be baked

Chillibob had to be press-ganged into fishing Mr Pig - who shall henceforth be known as "Mr Ham" - from the enormous vat, where he had (Mr Ham, that is, not Chillibob) achieved a major suntan and had changed from the translucent Pork appearance to the lovely juicy pink appearance of Ham.  He also smelled extremely interesting!

Having allowed the Ham to cool briefly, I took the rubbery rind off of its back and got busy with the clove-studding.  I'd have left a bit more of the fat on, but knowing how fat-phobic my two chaps are, thought it best to carve as close to the meat as possible.  It worked out fine, but doesn't look as pretty as it would have done otherwise.

The next problem was finding room for it in our already bulging fridge, but with some help from the snow outside bringing the temperatures down we were able to decant the drinks and vegetables to the shed, which helped.  So, that just left the marmalade glaze to put on it tomorrow, before baking.

As a two-day enterprise, it was all going rather swimmingly.

Now how nice does THAT look?  Still pink inside and juicy, too.

Following its marmalade glaze, baking, basting, more baking and a final flourish with a blowtorch (because it was a Christmas present and I could, right?), the Christmas Ham was done.

That 5kg piece of meat has, so far, done three of us for Christmas Day, four of us for Boxing Day, countless sandwiches and cold meat suppers, a risotto, a soup and I've still got 400g of it in the freezer awaiting a potato & cheese bake.  It may have taken three days in total, but boy, was it worth it.

Happy Christmas!

.