Charred Vegetable Couscous

I managed to get a reasonable shot of the leftovers from last night's yummy Couscous dish!

There was just enough for lunch today - and by way of experimentation, I added a little Balsamic & Red Pepper Dressing over the top of it.  Mmmmn, it certainly added the sharpness that the lemon juice had hinted at, but not particularly delivered but that the red wine vinegar would certainly have delivered, had I have used it.


But I'm rattling on too fast.

Owing to the success of the Ottolenghi Green Couscous, I was filled with enthusiasm to try another recipe now that I know the kind of degree of flavour that makes Couscous good.  I found Jun Tanaka's recipe for Charred Vegetable and Couscous salad on the Good Food Channel's website and it definitely looked a likely candidate - with the added benefit that it allowed me to play with my new griddle pan, too.

However, I was a teensy bit concerned over the addition of red wine vinegar to the mix, as Son & heir is completely anti-vinegar at the moment.  In truth, I should have just added it, as he left all his vegetables and just ate the couscous.  I can't think it would have mattered.

However, the char-grilled veggies were glorious just on their own - and deliciously yummy when added to the moistened couscous.  I kept half of the aubergine aside for another day (char-grilled) as the aubergine I'd been sent with the order was humungous and would have fed an army, I suspect.

I am just SO glad I've found my way with couscous now!  It's always good to have an extra string to your culinary bow when trying to set the dinner menu for the week.

Here's Jun Tanaka's recipe.  I made it as is except for the garlic & vinegar, which I omitted.

CHARRED VEGETABLE COUSCOUS  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

150g couscous
50ml extra virgin olive oil
half a tsp of dried thyme (or a sprig, if fresh)
175ml water
half a chicken stock cube (or vegetable, for a vegetarian option)
1 red pepper, seeds removed and cut into small cubes
1 courgette, cut into small pieces
1 aubergine, cut into small pieces
8 asparagus spears, trimmed & cut in half lengthways
75ml red wine vinegar
6-8 spring onions, trimmed and sliced finely
small handful of parsley, chopped fine
small bunch of basil, chopped fine
lemon juice to taste.

Method :

1.  Place the couscous in a bowl.  In a small saucepan, heat the water, 25ml of the olive oil, the thyme and the stock cube until the stock cube is dissolved and the whole thing comes to the boil.


2.  Remove from the heat and pour the contents over the couscous, tipping the bowl this way and that to ensure all the couscous is made wet.  Cover in cling film and leave to steam for 20 minutes or so.


3.  (I did stages 3 to 4 lots earlier, as it took a long time - longer than the 20 minutes you've got for the couscous to steam).  Place the pepper, courgette, aubergine and asparagus in a large bowl.  Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and add the remainder of the olive oil.  Toss to ensure all are coated evenly.


4.  Heat a griddle pan and cook the vegetables on the griddle for 8-10 minutes, turning them over occasionally.  Once all the vegetables are cooked, put them back in the bowl and cut the asparagus into 4 smaller pieces.


5.  Add the red wine vinegar and the spring onions.


6.  Remove the cling film from the couscous and fluff it up with a fork.  Add the vegetables and mix well, together with the parsley and basil.


7.  Taste to check for seasoning and add a good squeeze or three of lemon juice.  Give a final stir, and serve.


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Quick! Here's the meal plan for this week.

I should really be watching "The Apprentice", but no - I'm here typing away just so that I won't be too late with the meal plan for this week.  Feel sorry for me, because not only am I missing "The Apprentice", but I also just bashed myself on the forehead with our griddle pan, whilst trying to sniff the centre of it because it smelled of char-grilled peppers.  *blush*  Oh, I can't help it - and yes, I should have known it was that heavy as I've spent all afternoon cooking with it.  But there you are.  *chuckle*

So, without further ado, here's the meal plan for this week :

Quick stroganoff & pasta

Tandoori chicken & Jun Tanaka's char-grilled vegetable couscous

Minced beef, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots

Ken Hom's Broccoli Chicken with rice

Anthony Worrall-Thompson's "Health in a Bowl" with char-grilled Ciabatta

Phil Vickery's Pepperpot Beef & Orange stew with rice & peas

Cornish pasties, oven chips and baked beans.

So, who is coming over for what dinner?  LOL

There's quite a lot of chef accreditation going on up there, isn't there?  Unusually so - but then I have been trawling the Good Food Channel's "Healthy Recipes" section, which is where the most of these have come from.

I'm afraid it's no good trying to book for the Quick stroganoff & pasta, because we had that yesterday and I have to say that it was truly disgusting.  However, in my own defence, I cooked it especially for Son & heir, as he's had to suffer some quite vegetable-heavy dishes just lately, and it was a little culinary thank you for doing his best with them.  It hit the spot with him in that he cleared his plate and declared it delicious - so job done.  (Even if it did make me feel very peculiar, later on in the evening!).

Jun Tanaka's version - mine was a lot chunkier!

We've just had the Tandoori chicken with Char-grilled vegetable couscous and, wonder of wonders, I won again on the couscous front.  Oh, well, apart from with Son & heir, who has decreed he doesn't like the char-grilled flavour on anything (well, except a Burger King burger, of course.  ~rolls eyes~).  As for the Tandoori chicken being even remotely Tandoori - it wasn't.  Yes, I know we don't have a Tandoor oven here, but the chicken was supposed to have been able to be cooked on a griddle pan (are you sensing a bit of a fixation here?) which I had thought might lend it the charred flavour that goes with Tandoori foods.  As it was, thankfully, I only tried the little mini-fillets on the griddle pan.  As they welded themselves to it, I put the breast fillets into the oven!  25 minutes at 200deg and they were really quite tasty, if entirely NOT Tandoori.

We didn't manage to catch a photograph of the dish (forgot!), but I have a little couscous left over which I'll try and take a decent photograph of, just so that I can pass the recipe on - as it was really extremely nice and worth doing again.

We're having a de-constructed Cottage Pie tomorrow.  Well, I'm at work so it's unlikely I'll want to make a Cottage Pie, but you never know!  I've actually been having dreams (like, every night!) about Shepherd's Pie, so perhaps I should, just to see what will happen.  Son & heir will be okay with this one, as he loves minced beef in all its guises.  Hopefully it will also mean I can use up the Maris Pipers I got for the Cheesy Champ Mash plus the Chantenay carrots I got for Son & heir's Sunday chicken dish.

Ken Hom's version - looks good!

Friday will be one of Ken Hom's lovely easy dishes.  This one, Broccoli Chicken, will help to make use of the Oyster Sauce I bought recently.  It's also not quite a stir-fry and is served with rice, so I'm hoping that Son & heir will be okay with it.  I'm sure hubby will, as he really likes all the oriental style dishes.

Somebody had better remind me, though, that on Friday evening I'm supposed to be putting some Lentils on to soak, ready for making Anthony Worrall-Thompson's Health in a Bowl on Saturday.

Health in a bowl - well, we'll see!

I am super-intrigued by this one.  It has got everything bar the kitchen sink in it - everything that's good for you, anyway!  Plus, it is based on some thick cut gammon ham - which is something we haven't had for ages.  I'm sure it would work perfectly with a smoked ham hock, too - but I'll be darned if I can source one of those around here at the moment!  Of course, owing to the fact that I haven't used the griddle pan for a few days, I've scheduled us to have griddled Ciabatta with a smudge of garlic and a drizzle of olive oil, along with it.  I'm feeling healthier just talking about it - goodness knows how I'll feel the day after making and eating it.  (Fingers crossed).

Sunday's dish is another interesting one.  Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to do any more heavy old stews because it was spring time, but this recipe says it isn't heavy - and as it's based on a Caribbean recipe, I guess it's got a 50:50 chance of being healthy.  Anyway, it's another (very good) excuse to use some lovely Brisket of beef.  The rice and peas I've put as accompanying it, I have yet to decide whether to do traditional rice and peas, or just make rice with some green peas in it.  Authenticity -v- colour.  Hmmmn, the jury's still out on that one.

Now as for Monday, let's just pretend that Monday isn't going to happen, shall we?  Although, I will just quickly say that I'll be having a jacket potato instead of chips, but that still doesn't mitigate the damage done by a shop-bought Cornish Pasty.  *sigh*  All I can do is try.  Well, you've got to serve some Man-food sometimes, just so that he knows you're listening to him, isn't that how it goes?

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Winding the week up - from Tuna salad to Champ.

The final three days of this last week involved some delicious food worth talking about, but only one real recipe.

Tuna salad - the adult version

I had scheduled a tuna salad for Saturday, but this was a salad that involved more than just lettuce.  Indeed, it had to grow in the making as Son & heir's best friend stayed for tea, so I was glad we had a "stretchable" dish on the menu for that day!

It had come about because I'd been searching for something to use two tins of tuna in.  I'm not that keen on the old tuna pasta bake (which is the obvious choice) and anyway, we're talking Spring here - and a pasta bake isn't exactly in keeping with spring like weather.

Tuna salad : kids' version!

Another point was that hubby had very cleverly found a griddle pan in the local charity shop, which got me yearning for something to cook on it.  The tuna was out, as that was tinned.  Hmmn, asparagus - it's in season and if I'm going to use it, now would be a good moment, plus it would be lovely done on the griddle.  Bread, too - Ciabatta rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil and griddled.  All that was left was to fill in the blanks.

The salad began with a large handful of lettuce and herb leaves, sprinkled with fine slices of red onion, quartered slices of cucumber, cold griddled asparagus, blanched fine green beans, warm new potatoes and quartered tomatoes.  The children didn't have the beetroots that we did, and we didn't have the soft boiled egg that they did.  They also had less Tuna than us.

The Ciabatta was just gorgeous - we all had some of that - and everyone except Son & heir ate it all up.  He declared that the asparagus was "horrid" and is going through a phase of not eating anything green, most especially anything leaf-like.  I served it with a dressing from Asda, made with Balsamic vinegar and sweet peppers.  It gave a welcome almost chutney-like feel to the salad that went exceptionally well with the tuna.  Definitely a "do-again" salad!

On Sunday, Son & heir was due to be cooking his bacon-wrapped, garlic butter stuffed chicken breast dinner.  As it turned out, I made the garlic butter while Son & heir finished a battle on the X-Box.  He then asked if he could go to watch a football match and could I cook his dinner for him, except he returned in time to prepare the vegetables and see the dinner through to serving.  So, it turned into a joint effort - and was very tasty.

Monday's dinner was a cracker.  Unfortunately, I didn't catch a photograph of it, as we were all far too keen to get tucked in.  I had seen "Perfect" on the Good Food Channel on t.v., where Paul Merrett made a cheesy Champ.  It got my mouth watering then and I resolved to try and reproduce it very soon.

Flipping heck, but it was good.  I mashed some Maris Piper potatoes with a splosh of milk, some salt & pepper and a large knob of butter, then mixed in a bunch of finely chopped Spring Onions and around 150g of grated Mature Cheddar.  Served with some of Spring Fields' Cumberland sausages (pan fried), baked beans and plain old boiled peas, it was simple but absolutely delicious.

One thing, though - I can remember thinking, as the sausages refused to lay down and cook, the potatoes threatened to overcook, the baked beans threatened to weld themselves to the pan and the peas shrieked about being forgotten from the freezer, that I got less stressed cooking a roast dinner!

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A semi-successful venture into Polenta

With that curious sensation in one's stomach that only a true foodie would recognise, (being excitement at using a new ingredient, nerves in case it all goes wrong, more nerves in case nobody likes it and even more nerves, well, just because), I got cracking with trying the family out on wet polenta.

I made sure that I would have time and attention span to deal with the polenta, by pairing it with a dead easy chicken dish - Parmesan chicken.  This is basically nothing more than a chicken breast dunked in egg white, then into grated parmesan with freshly ground black pepper - and popped into the oven to roast.  For something so simple, it really is lovely.

So!  On to the polenta problem.  I had heeded the accumulated wisdom of various Italian cooks and as such, opted for the "polenta with blue cheese & small amounts of green stuff" version.

The first quandary was what stock to use.  Home-made chicken stock, or vegetable stock from a cube?  Home-made chicken is my favourite, but I was nervous of it becoming too chickeny, when it was going to have a huge hunk of blue cheese melted through it later on.  So, in view of this, I opted for the vegetable.  In retrospect, I think perhaps the chicken would have been good, as it wouldn't have contained half as much salt as the stock cube did!

The recipe said to add a crushed clove of garlic to the stock and allow it to infuse for 2-3 minutes and then remove it.  We must have super-duper garlic, or something, because even on 2 minutes, there was too much garlic!  (I know, there will be several of you throwing your hands in the air and exclaiming "too much garlic? There's no such thing!" - but for us, there can be).  So if you're garlic-sensitive, I'd skip this bit - and will do in future.

I'd also had a bit of a quandary over the blue cheese, in relation to the overall price of the thing.  The chicken had cost £3, add to that the cost of the parmesan, then £2 for Gorgonzola ... the overall price seemed to be creeping into the expensive bracket.  So, I opted for a £1 piece of French blue cheese of unknown origin.  It was soft, and vaguely sweet, with a lovely salty tang - so I figured it would do.  It did, indeed, do.  Very nicely!

I was lucky with the polenta itself, as I'd had some for ages - since we started cooking Cornbread (which I love).  However, having looked on the packet the best before date was some time in 2010.  ~cough~  Oh well, it was too late to get any more by then - and I'd used it quite recently to put on roast potatoes, so I figured we wouldn't die.

I also had some baby spinach in the fridge that needed using up, so substituted that for the rocket that the recipe demanded.  Personally, I think it was even nicer with the little crunch that the spinach gave.

A couple of things struck me when I was cooking the polenta dish, which were - firstly, my goodness but doesn't it thicken quickly!  I had to use twice the amount of liquid that was stated in the recipe, before it would become anywhere close to the right consistency.  Another thing, is that it is quite impossible for me to pour in a steady stream, while whisking like mad.  I can pour in a whisk-like circle whilst whisking like mad if you like - but then, I've never been able to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time, either. 

Lastly, I was surprised at the difference the lemon juice made to the dish.  Before adding the juice, the polenta was creamy and quite tasty.  You could taste the individual flavours of the polenta, the stock, the blue cheese and the spinach.  After the inclusion of the lemon juice - bingo!  It all came together as a cohesive whole.  Who'd have thought it!


Hubby’s initial opinion was *gasp!* and *gag!*, followed by “euk!” and “hmmmn”.  Which didn’t bode well at all.

Son & heir’s initial reaction was “have you tried this stuff, Mum?”, whilst looking extremely doubtful.

Well, of course I’d tried it – after all, I’d cooked it so I was bound to have tried it one way or another!  I quite liked it.  It was too salty, as between the stock cube and the cheese, they had delivered quite an accumulated load.  I really liked the cheese and I had no objections to the texture.  I did agree with hubby though, that the garlic was way too much.

Once hubby could speak, he voiced his objections to the polenta as being mainly rooted in the over-saltiness and the garlic excess that didn’t really sit well with the blue cheese.  He didn’t have any objections to the texture, which I was surprised about, and would countenance another go with maybe some polenta that was at least in date, this time.

I don’t know – some people just want the moon on a stick.  *chuckle*
 
POLENTA WITH GORGONZOLA  (serves 3-4)
Based on a recipe by Paul Merrett.

Ingredients :

570ml vegetable or chicken stock (I used around 900ml, so have some extra just in case!)
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed (optional - see above!)
half a tsp of dried thyme
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
150g quick-cook polenta
50g unsalted butter (note the UNsalted)
handful of fresh rocket or spinach leaves
200g Gorgonzola or other melting blue cheese, cut into cubes
1 lemon, juice only.


Method :


1.  Bring the stock to the boil in a large heavy based pan over a medium heat.


2.  If you're using it, add the crushed garlic to the stock and allow to infuse for 2-3 minutes before removing it and discarding.  Add the thyme.  Season to taste.


3.  Add the polenta to the hot stock in a thin, steady stream.  Whisk immediately and continue whisking as it cooks for 2-3 minutes to avoid any lumps.  The texture will be of mashed potato when cooked.


4.  Add the butter and stir to combine.


5.  Add the cubed cheese and stir to combine until it has melted through the polenta.


6.  Add the rocket or spinach and allow to wilt, then add the lemon juice and give everything a last stir.


Serve.


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A  

Springtime Prawn Pasta

I have said how I want to move us along from eating heavy stews and cream-laden this that and the others - which is okay during the winter (to a certain extent), but doesn't do for spring or summer.

As such, I found a recipe on Yummly that got my brain ticking over as regards a pasta dish.  I was looking for a lighter pasta dish anyway and although the one in question (Creamy Shrimp & Mushroom Pasta) didn't really fit the bill owing to its use of linguine (which hubby has requested we steer clear of for a while) and mushrooms (which Son & heir can't abide), it only needed a change in ingredients to make it a viable proposition.

The trouble was, I then had a bit of brain-fade about what to use instead of mushrooms, that would make it "spring like".  Owing to said brain-fade, I wound up using baby corn and sugar snap peas.  Which were fine - but it required something else to give it another dimension.  As I was cooking it, I was wishing I had a bunch of spring onions in the fridge.  I'm sure they would have done the trick. 

I was also aware that a whole pack of cream cheese wasn't exactly following the "steer clear of creamy stuff" brief, but having changed the recipe to include a low fat cream cheese, figured that was enough of a compromise.

The end result was nice, but requires some work.  When I do it again (and I will, because I am convinced there's a nice dish in here somewhere), I'll change the low fat cream cheese to low fat creme fraiche, lose the garlic (as it didn't sit very well with the "spring" theme) and add spring onions and maybe some dill or tarragon along with a good scrunge or four of freshly ground black pepper.  (A "scrunge", for those not in the know, is a turn of the peppermill.  "Scrunge" is our description of the sound it makes!).

So, unusually, the recipe you have here is the untried and untested, mark II version.  Do let me know what it's like, if you try it before I do!

SPRINGTIME PRAWN PASTA  (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

Enough Fusilli pasta for the assembled throng.  I usually use around 4-500g for 3 of us.
a knob of butter
a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and chopped quite fine
300ml pot of creme fraiche
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped dill or tarragon (not both!)
1 tbsp chopped basil
300g prawns (I used frozen cooked peeled prawns, defrosted)
100g baby corn, broken into quarters
100g sugar snap peas
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

METHOD :

1.  Put a large pan of salted water on to boil.  Once boiling, add the pasta to it and cook as it says on the packet.  However, seven minutes before it is ready, add the baby corn and four minutes before it is ready, add the sugar snap peas.  It is best if they are at room temperature before adding, so as not to cool the water too much.

2.  In a frying pan, melt the knob of butter and add the spring onions.  Cook them gently until they are beginning to soften.

3.  Then, add the creme fraiche and warm through gently, stirring all the time.

4.  Add the herbs and stir through, along with a good quantity of the black pepper.

5.  Making sure that the creamy mixture is quite thick (reduce it a little further, if not), add the prawns and stir them through.  Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, then check for seasoning and adjust if needs be.

6.  When the pasta is done, drain in a colander and replace into the pan.

7.  Add the prawns to the pasta and stir through, then serve immediately.

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Sweet chilli chicken stir fry - better than the stuff from a bottle!

Having slipped one stir fry past our son, I thought it might be worth a go to see if another might work.

It took a fair amount of encouragement for the vegetables in his meal to go, but a good 80% of them eventually got eaten.

Now I know of the young teenager's caution at everything green, added to the young male's predictable caution at anything vegetable, however, I have to admit that I just don't understand it.

To me, vegetables are the most glorious ingredients, which should be looked at with almost as much enjoyment and anticipation as a nice piece of beef, or a plate of sausages.  After all, there are just so many of them!  If you were to take me to a greengrocer's shop and ask me to name what of his produce I didn't like, I doubt I could name anything.  Yes, garlic has an uncomfortable effect upon me (makes me itch!) when eaten either raw or in quantity, and yes, I used to be allergic to all forms of onion (before I became pregnant - fine afterwards!).  These are just vegetables that I have a sensitivity to, rather than being actively disliked by me.

However, hubby doesn't like potatoes, peas, broad beans, green beans, most forms of cabbage - including brussels sprouts, any type of cauliflower, marrow - and the list goes on.  It seems to be a texture thing, as well as an odour thing, with him.  If something is of a squishy texture (i.e. overcooked cauliflower, or marrow) or smells of the compost heap (i.e. overcooked cauliflower, or cabbage), then he can't face it.  To give him his due, some of these things he will eat, but without enjoying the experience.

Son & heir seems to also be going down the texture route - as in his dislike of mushrooms and courgettes.  However, he also dislikes anything dark i.e. aubergine.  Interestingly, he won't eat anything remotely caramelised such as the chicken in this stir-fry dish, declaring it "burned".  It makes me wonder whether the "burned" thing subconsciously applies to the aubergine skin, too.  He won't eat a fried or baked tomato, but will happily eat a raw tomato.  He hates sliced onions being apparent in his food, but if you cook them until they disintegrate and are hardly visible, then that's okay.  I could go on.

Hubby reckons that females are the waste disposal units of the human race.  He reckons that a female will eat something that a male will think twice about (stop giggling at the back!) because of procreation.  He figures that females are hard-wired to be in top baby-carrying condition i.e. carrying lots of fat, so as to keep baby well fed until birth and even after, if you take breast-feeding into account - and I think he may have a point.

As someone who has her likes and dislikes - but none of the dislikes would actually prevent me from eating anything - I find it unfathomable that the chaps can be so picky.  Everything out there is just so exciting!  I look at an ingredient, be it a pepper or a pea, and immediately I'm considering what it would go with, what it's flavour is likely to be and how I could present it.  I guess that's what marks me out as a Foodie!

SWEET CHILLI CHICKEN STIR FRY (feeds 3)

Ingredients:

3 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin slices
1 red chilli, chopped
1 garlic clove, grated
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp olive oil
half a pack of egg noodles
1 tsp sesame oil
vegetable oil
vegetables for stir-frying (buy a pre-prepared pack, or select your favourites which should be sliced finely)
1 tbsp Mirrin (or rice wine)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp Oyster sauce
juice of half a lemon.

Method :

1.  Place the chicken, plus the chilli, garlic, honey and oil into a plastic bag and massage to make sure the chicken is covered.  Leave to marinade for as long as you've got.

2.  Heat a frying pan until quite hot, then tip the chicken and marinade into it.  Try not to let it poach by keeping the temperature up.  Turn the chicken regularly, until you achieve a golden to dark brown colour and they become glazed.

3.  In the meantime, place the noodles into a large bowl and cover with boiling water.  Cover the bowl and leave until softened.

4.  In the additional meantime, heat a wok or deep frying pan until roasting hot.  Then add the vegetable oil, swiftly followed by the stir fry vegetables.  Add the mirrin, soy sauce and oyster sauce and stir fry until the vegetables are wilted and softened.

5.  Next, drain the noodles & add the sesame oil, giving a light stir to ensure each noodle is covered.  Add them to the vegetable pan and toss the stir fry vegetables through them, coating them in the oyster sauce mixture.  Spoon out onto warmed plates to form a bed and nestle the chicken pieces into bed.  Serve!

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Meal planning ahoy!

After a cunningly placed two days without a recipe worth blogging (in the hope that I'd catch up a little bit! Still got a book review to do though), here I am on Wednesday all ready to talk about this coming week's menu list.

Which is a bit better than last week, when it was very nearly all over by the time I got to it!

Here's what we're having :

Pizza and doughballs

Spicy lamb mince and Kosheri

Spring time prawn pasta

Parmesan chicken with Polenta and peas

Tuna & Asparagus salad with Ciabatta

Chicken a la Son & Heir with Jersey Royals, carrots & tenderstem broccoli

Sausages, cheesy champ mash & peas (or baked beans).

Tuesday starts the week with a special request from hubby for Pizza and doughballs.  Yes, I know I should have had some virtuous salad or something, but there we are.

Tonight is a lovely combination, being my recipe for Spicy Lamb Mince and Ottolenghi's recipe for Kosheri.  It's been a while since we've had Kosheri and I am remembering it as being a bit of a trek - but having read the recipe it seems easy-peasy, so either it's harder than it looks, or my memory has gone to pot - which is quite possible!

Thursday demands an easier recipe as it's a working day.  I discovered a recipe for Spicy Shrimp & Mushroom pasta, which I've used as a base and developed what I'm euphemistically calling "Spring time prawn pasta".  It's basically what it says it is - pasta with prawns, plus sugar snap peas and baby corn.  It has a cream cheese (low fat) sauce which binds it all together.  I've never done this one before but hopefully it'll be tasty.

Friday is another case of "face the scary recipe", where I'll be having a go at cooking wet polenta for the first time.  I've taken Willie's advice (and who better, considering he's been making it for years) and I'll let you know how I get on!  The chicken is a simple chicken dunked in grated parmesan recipe, so that I can give the polenta my attention!

Saturday (pray for fine weather!) will be a Tuna & Asparagus salad, with Ciabatta.  The tuna is only tinned - but then I've two tins lurking in the cupboard needing using - and hopefully I'll be able to get some Asparagus, even though we're at the end of the season now.  I have a fall-back position just in case I can't find Asparagus - which is to get some fine green beans, but Asparagus would be so much better!  The Ciabatta will be rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil and cooked on our new griddle pan.  Hubby found the griddle pan in a charity shop for £1.50!  Bargain!

Now Sunday is a special day, as that's when Son & heir will be trotting out his recipe for Sunday dinner, involving a chicken breast wrapped in bacon, with Jersey Royals, carrots and tenderstem broccoli.  The last time he cooked this for us, it came out beautifully.  He's keen to do it again - and I'm certainly not going to stop him!

Which brings us back to Monday, which being a working day, demands an easy dinner.  We'll be having sausages from the butcher, with the cheesey champ mash that I saw Paul Merrett making on "Perfect" the other night - except with somewhat less butter!  The combination of raw spring onions with the melted cheese and mashed potato has been making my mouth water ever since - so it just has to be done!  I'll be having some peas with it and I expect the boys will be wanting baked beans.

So that brings us to the end of another week.  I'll have to buy just the Pizzas, prawns, chicken and sausages, as the lamb mince and tuna are in the kitchen already.  The Kosheri doesn't require shopping for, as I bought everything for it last week.  The Polenta is already here, as is the parmesan and the peas.  I did have to buy some blue cheese to use with it though, and hopefully Willie will forgive the fact that it's French blue cheese instead of Gorgonzola - as there was a difference of £1 inbetween the two!  I think it's a nice variety of styles of cooking and meat products, with plenty of opportunity to get those all important veggies into us.

Now, if only I'd remembered to get the Lamb mince out of the freezer this morning ....

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Sunday roast? Naaaah - it's a beef curry for us!

Hubby suggested we have a "proper" beef curry - and I liked that idea.  I liked it a lot more when I saw that the only day I could commit that kind of time in the cooking, was Sunday.  I was looking for an excuse to not do a roast dinner for once!

Much as I love roast dinners, I was ready for a break - and making a curry was the perfect answer.

Having used Brisket of beef in two or three recipes just lately, I knew that Brisket would not only be the perfect cut of beef for the curry, but had the depth of flavour that would be required to stand up against the spice.  There then ensued a lengthy discussion about how much Brisket to buy, to make a princely curry with enough beef in large chunks.  We generally reckon that 400g of something is enough to make a dinner for three of us, however we were after a "princely" curry and 400g just didn't feel like enough.  I was swithering between 500g, 600g and 700g - but hubby beat that by suggesting 800g!  In the end, commonsense won and we opted for 650g - which turned out to be the perfect amount.

As usual, Brisket doesn't need a lot of trimming but I popped the trimmed bits of fat into a small roasting tray and cooked them alongside the curry, so that the fat would render down.  I'm collecting the liquid fat in a container which I keep in the fridge, so that the next time I'm cooking roast potatoes, I'll have some lovely dripping to use.  The dogs love the beefy crunchies that are left, too.

I cooked the Brisket for 2 hours in the oven - after flash frying to brown the meat - and then for another half an hour, once I'd added the baby corn.  The pieces were as tender as could be, without an ounce of fat in evidence.  The long slow cooking definitely agrees with the curry spices, too, allowing them time to amalgamate and the sauce time to thicken beautifully.

I ate the leftovers today, two days later - and I can confirm that the curry definitely improves over time.  So, if you've two days where it can sit in your fridge - it won't do it any harm!

BEEF & BABY CORN CURRY  (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

A knob of butter
a tablespoon of olive oil (or vegetable oil, if you prefer)
2 onions, sliced
650g beef Brisket, trimmed of all fat and cut into cubes
sea salt & black pepper
3 cloves garlic, grated
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
a red chilli, chopped fine
2 small potatoes, peeled and diced finely
1 tsp dried Sage
2 tsp Garam Masala
4 tsp Madras curry powder
1 tsp ground Cumin
half a tsp ground Coriander
half a tsp finely ground Black Pepper
2 tomatoes, diced finely
400g tin of cherry tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes, but cherries have a better flavour)
1 beef Oxo cube
water
1 tbsp tomato puree
8 baby sweet corn, broken into thirds
a large bunch of fresh coriander, chopped fine.


Method :


1.  Heat the butter and oil in a deep sided frying pan and cook the onion, on a medium heat, until it is turning golden brown.  It is good if some of the smaller pieces of onion are a darker brown, as this all adds to the flavour.  Remove from the pan and set aside to keep warm.


2.  Turn the heat up high and once the pan is hot, sizzle the meat in order to brown it.  It is good to obtain some caramelisation on some pieces - you definitely don't want it to braise, so brown in two batches rather than overfill the pan.  Season the meat just before it is finished.  Place the meat into the casserole dish and put to keep warm.


3.  Pre-heat your oven, to 160deg C.


4.  Reduce the heat to medium and replace the onions into the pan - it is worth doing it this way around, as the meat takes on some of the onion flavour and the meat juices are amalgamated into the onions - and add the garlic, ginger, chilli, potatoes and sage and allow to cook through.  It is important not to burn the garlic, but to have everything beginning to soften.


5.  Reducing the heat again, add the Garam Masala, curry powder, Cumin, Coriander and Black pepper.  Stir through and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.


6.  Add the chopped tomatoes, stir through and allow to cook for another 1-2 minutes.  They should be small enough that they are beginning to soften.


7.  Add the tinned tomatoes, crumble over the Oxo cube and add enough water (I used the tomato tin) to achieve a good wet saucy mixture.  Add the tomato puree and give everything a good stir.


8.  Decant the sauce into the casserole dish and stir so that the meat is well covered and everything is combined.


9.  Cover and place into the oven for 2 hours.


10.  When the 2 hours are up, remove from the oven and give a good stir.  Add the baby corn and make sure they are below the sauce level.  If the sauce is looking a little thin, put back into the oven uncovered.  Otherwise, cover and replace in the oven for another 30 minutes.


11.  Just before serving, stir through three quarters of the chopped coriander - and save a quarter for sprinkling over.


Serve with white rice and a good dollop of thick plain yoghurt.


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Devilled sausages : a family favourite

What can I say about Devilled Sausages?

They have been one of my few recipes that I have carried forward over the years.  They date back to childhood, when my Mum would make a much less interesting version - but no less tasty - which was always greeted well.

When I moved out from home and went to live on the boat, they became a staple there too.

I can remember making them once I'd moved back to dry land, in a shared house in Kingston Upon Thames.  I used to accompany them with an enormous home-made coleslaw with sultanas, or a big old salad - sometimes involving banana!  Enough for everyone.

When I moved to my own place in Oxshott in Surrey, I can remember coming home from a day at work, then an evening with the horses, then walking the dogs and finishing by whipping up eight devilled sausages.  I'd eat four that night, then keep four more for the next day which I'd eat cold with the home-made coleslaw.  Yummy!

I doubt there will ever come a moment when Devilled Sausages are suggested and rejected.  I hope not, anyway!  As good hot as they are cold, they can be packed into lunchboxes or even - as I did - packed into boxes to accompany a picnic dinner whilst watching Gilbert & Sullivan at Polesdon Lacey.

You can tinker about with the devilling mixture, but this is the one that hits the spot after all these years.

DEVILLED SAUSAGES  (makes 8)

Ingredients :

1 pack of 8 pork sausages, Cumberland are good, but plain old Pork are best.
1 tablespoon of Branston pickle (Brown pickle)
2 teaspoons of Dark Orange Marmalade
1 tablespoon of smooth Peanut Butter
2 teaspoons of Madras Curry Powder
1 teaspoon of English mustard powder
Optional ingredients include a teaspoon of mango chutney and however much hot sauce you prefer!

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C.

2.  Take each sausage and cut a slit into it, along the long side.  Open the slit out until you have made the sausage boat-shaped.

3.  Place it on a baking tray and fill with a teaspoonful of the devilling mixture.  Ensure the mix is spread from end to end.

4.  When all sausages are complete, put into the oven for 25-30 minutes (depending on the size of your sausages).

5.  They are done when the sausages are well coloured and the devilling mix has melted into the sausage and browned.

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Ottolenghi's Green Couscous : a revelation in flavours!

So.  Couscous.  When hubby suggested we have couscous with our devilled sausages (recipe to follow), I laughed.  I laughed because every single attempt at injecting flavour into couscous, to date (as was) has been a catastrophic failure.

I've gone down the herbs & lemon route, I've gone down the cumin & eastern spice route.  I've even gone down the "Ainsley's couscous in a packet" route, just in case I was missing something there.  ~shakes head~  All have been devoid of the kind of flavour that makes you look forward to couscous appearing on the menu.

Until now.

Now let it be said and agreed that Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are magicians.  Certainly with food, they are.  I'm not sure about the "produce a penny from behind your ear" type of magic, but I wouldn't put it past Yotam Ottolenghi - he looks the sort who could do that.

The moment hubby suggested couscous, I knew I had to take some serious advice on the subject - and where better to go for couscous advice than the two Ottolenghi cook books, "The Cook Book" and "Plenty".

I will admit that I rejected the first couscous recipe I found therein, but that was largely because the ingredients were hugely expensive and wouldn't particularly have sat well beside a sausage.  "Green Couscous" (page 255 for those who have "Plenty" on their bookshelves) didn't appear - at first reading - terribly hopeful.  However, having scanned the ingredients I discover that we had almost everything barring a couple of the herbs.  As I'm always keen (and even keener, now) to try another Ottolenghi recipe, we were on.

As with a lot of couscous recipes, it's not that difficult to make - provided you have a good blender/processor that will chop herbs down to a fine paste.  We've got one of those hand blenders (left over from when son & heir was a baby) that has a tub which you can plug the blender into - that did the herbs perfectly.

As for the flavour, well it'd be more true to say that it's a case of flavours, not flavour.  Everything combines most beautifully yet each and every flavour stands out in multiple layers of surprise.  I'd recommend using coarse sea salt for it, as the grains when they are tumbled through the couscous leave delicious trails of saltiness behind them.  Hubby was amazed to discover that there was only a quarter of a teaspoon of coarsely ground sea salt involved (not counting the stock cube, of course).

It turned out that my pack of dill had decided to dissolve into green slush, so that's one difference from the original recipe, as is the lack of fresh tarragon (which I couldn't find anywhere).  I substituted a teaspoonful of dried tarragon and nobody noticed it, so that's fine.  I wouldn't recommend doing the entire recipe in dried herbs of course!  Another difference is that the original recipe demanded a green chilli and all we had in the fridge were red ones, but again I suspect that it didn't really matter.


So the recipe you have here is the recipe that I made and that hubby and I enjoyed so much.  Son & heir, needless to say, took a teensy tiny forkful and decreed he didn't like it and left all of his.  ~shrug~  Hey ho, it was expected and his Dad and I polished it off for him, so no harm done.  If you're lucky enough to have a copy of "Plenty" on your bookshelves, the original recipe can be found on page 255.

Just how "Ottolenghi" does that look?

HERBY COUSCOUS (after Ottolenghi's Green Couscous)  Serves 4


Ingredients :


150g couscous
160ml boiling vegetable stock
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil (for frying)
quarter tsp of sea salt
quarter tsp of ground cumin
3 spring onions, trimmed & finely sliced
1 red chilli, top & tailed, most seeds removed and finely sliced
30g rocket, coarsely chopped.


Herb paste :
20g fresh parsley, roughly chopped
20g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tsp dried tarragon
3 tbsp mint, roughly chopped
90ml extra virgin olive oil.


Method :


1.  Place the couscous in a large bowl and cover with the boiling stock.


2.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 10 minutes.


3.  Meanwhile, fry the onion in the olive oil on a medium heat until golden and completely soft.  Add the salt & cumin, mix lightly and leave to cool slightly.


4.  Make the herb paste by placing all the ingredients in a good processor and blitzing until smooth.


5.  Add the herb paste to the couscous and mix well, fluffing it up with a fork.  Next, add the cooked onion, spring onions, chilli and rocket and mix through.


Serve.

Printable Version


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Steak & Kidney Pie : especially for Mr Tom Hux!

Shin of Beef - my choice for Steak & Kidney

Here you go, Tom!  I (eventually) got around to posting up my recipe for you.  *phew*  It's a good job you weren't holding your breath!

So, the way I go about Steak & Kidney is to create the meaty filling and then apply it to whichever form of "pie" I require.  So, for instance, if it was going into a "pudding" type, with suet-based pastry, I'd make it a wetter mix.  However, it is was going into a "puff pastry" type of pie - with maybe a shortcrust bottom and a puff top, I'd make it a dryer mix simply by reducing the sauce further.

Brisket of beef.

I'll leave the "pieness" for you to decide upon, as it's easy to find shop-bought pastry, plus the suet-based crust is equally easy to find a recipe for.  However, I'm pretty sure you said you didn't like the "puddingy" type of pies, so that's another reason for skipping lightly over that bit.

So, having said that - here's how I make the meaty filling.

STEAK & KIDNEY (for a pie) - serves 4


Ingredients :


2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, cut into thirds and sliced
1 clove of garlic, grated
800g Beef shin or Beef Brisket, trimmed and diced.  With Brisket, you can get away with less quantity, as the trimming is much less.  However, you don't get the help with the flavour that you do from the fat in the Shin.  Your choice!
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, quartered
2 tbsp plain flour plus seasoning
a quantity of good dark beef stock (home made if possible, otherwise 2 x Oxo cubes crumbled over, plus water to just cover the contents of the saucepan)
1 tsp tomato puree
1 tsp Bovril
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp dried Sage
half a tsp of ground cinnamon
freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
4 lamb's kidneys, cored and cut into small dice.

Method :


1.  Into a large saucepan and on a medium heat,  add the oil, allow to get hot and then the onion.  Fry until the onion has taken on some colour and the smaller pieces are quite dark brown - around 10-15 mins.


2.  Add the grated garlic and fry for 30 seconds, stirring well, to ensure an even distribution.  Remove and keep warm.


3.  Heat the pan until sizzling, then add the beef and flash-fry until brown (and some pieces will be caramelised).  You may have to do this in stages, depending on the size of your pan.  Don't overcrowd the pan, or the meat will braise instead of fry.

4.  Reduce the heat under the pan, then sprinkle over the flour and stir for 2-3 minutes.


4.  Return the onions & garlic to the pan and add the mushrooms.  Stir to combine.


5.  Add the stock (or Oxo cubes & water) and stir to combine, making sure all the lumps of flour are stirred in.


6.  Add the tomato puree, Bovril, Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup, dried Sage and cinnamon and stir well to combine.


7.  Taste and season with the freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.  The quantity of salt required will depend on whether you are using home made stock, or the Oxo cubes.  In the case of the cubes, go lightly with the salt.


8.  Allow the whole lot to come to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes, before covering with a lid and putting in the oven for a minimum of 2 hours.

Lamb's kidneys

9.  After 2 hours, add the kidneys, stir to combine, cover and return to the oven for another hour - or an hour minus the time the pie will require to cook.

It is worth allowing time for the mixture to cool slightly before trying to apply pastry - as the heat of the meat will make the pastry extremely hard to handle.

Personally, I'd be cooking the meat on Saturday and the pie on Sunday.

Let me know how you get on!

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