What's for dinner this week?

Yesterday was hubby's birthday and I made him a birthday curry.  Rather belatedly, as we were tucking into it, I remembered that I should have taken a photograph for the blog.  Hey ho, it'll have to wait until the next time.  It was a shame, as that curry really was rather spectacular (chicken, tomato, red lentil - it came up not unlike a Dansak).  I did some mushroom rice to go with it, which was extremely yummy too.

I am especially proud of last night's curry, as it hadn't been adapted from anyone's recipe - it was all my own work.  Mind you, I have had a little bit of coaching from the book "The Curry Secret", which the lovely Ian from Appliances Online sent to me.  (You can find Appliances Online on Twitter, too, so if you're thinking about getting a new appliance, why not have a word with Yossi).  Getting back to "The Curry Secret" by Kris Dillon, it is all about making curries like your local curry house does.  The "curry secret" as referred to, is in the making of a basic curry sauce which all the recipes are then adapted from by the introduction of various additional spices.  I will admit that I've not made the curry sauce yet, but the basic recipe for last night's curry was very close to Kris Dillon's (purely by accident) which I found quite interesting that I'd arrived there by trial and error, over the months.

So, that aside, what are we having for dinner for the rest of this week?

Hope mine looks as nice!

Well, tonight will be my first attempt at making a Mulligatawny Soup.  It is utilising the other half of the pot roasted chicken from Sunday, so will be a chicken version rather than the more traditional beef.  Mulligatawny is one of the original "fusion" foods, I think, but I'll have to try hard to make sure it doesn't turn into a curried stew!


Wednesday will be good old pie, mash & veg.  I've bought a steak & kidney pie, as a little break from the in-depth culinary creating!

Picture c/o BBC Good Food

Thursday is Creamy Chicken & Penne pasta.  We had this during the busy period after Christmas when I didn't have time to post about it, but it really is a cracker.  The recipe is so easy to do - and the results are lovely.  Just right for a dinner following on from a busy day at work.

Friday's meal will be something of an adventure, as I'm venturing into Ham Hock land.  I have a lovely-sounding recipe for Ham Hock with beans & vegetables, which we'll be eating with a lovely crusty farmhouse loaf.  I'm hoping it will turn out to be something akin to peasant food!

Saturday is another (albeit rather smaller) venture into the unknown, as I'm making home-made coleslaw to go with some barbecue sausages in pitta pockets.  Now, in years gone by, I used to make my own coleslaw which was very well received.  However, with these two chaps I'm now catering for, raw cabbage is not so well received.   The coleslaw recipe contains interesting things like apple and sultanas, which should go very nicely with lovely juicy sausages in a barbecue glaze - so keep your fingers firmly crossed!

Sunday and I'm pushing the boundaries of pot-roasting.  Instead of the usual chicken, this week I'm going for a piece of beef Brisket.

In view of the recent t.v. programme "Great British Food Revival" and my love of the humble cauliflower, I'll be serving the brisket with some spiced roasted cauliflower along with the more usual roasties.  The cauliflower is another "keep your fingers crossed for me" job and I'll be using the other half of it in a curry which will feature on the menu list for next week.  Curried cauliflower always goes down well.

Which brings us to Monday.  After all that exciting cooking over the weekend, I'm taking a breather with something everybody knows and loves - Pasta Bolognese with garlic bread.

So, looking back across the week, it seems as though we're having four different types of bread product, two different types of pasta product and seven different preparations of meat and two different preparations of potato!  You can't say I don't try to make the menu varied.

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Sometimes, as much as you want them to, things just don't go right.

By and large, as you look at this blog, you might think to yourself that everything I cook turns out simply marvellously and - even against the odds - everyone likes it and everything's lovely.  Not so.

Parmesan Pittas

Just lately, I've had a little run of dishes that weren't quite right for one reason or another.

Take the Algerian Chakchouka that I served with Parmesan Pittas.  The pittas were lovely (drizzled with olive oil, covered with grated parmesan and baked for 15 mins), but the Chakchouka (really, just paprika, onions, peppers and tomato with an egg cracked into it to poach in the tomato sauce) really wasn't great.  I knew that hubby had a thing about eggs and was particularly leery of part-cooked eggs.  So, I broke his egg in a teensy bit early, which meant it would be almost fully cooked when served.  Hence, I was a bit surprised when he announced "I don't like hard-boiled eggs", and promptly removed his egg and sat it on the side of his plate, untouched.  (It was a Burford Brown, too! ~weep~).  I honestly thought it would be okay.  ~gallic shrug~  Ah well, you win some, you lose some.  Son, however, decided he liked his egg fine - he just didn't like the pepper/tomato mixture it had been cooked in.  *sigh*  Although, I had sympathies with him regarding that score, as I wasn't all that keen on it either.  (I did eat mine, however!).  So that was one of those nights when it would have been better to send out for chips.

The following evening, we had a Cheese, Leek & Ham flan.  Now as you know, my pastry has been the subject of some considerable rudeness from the family, but this time, I followed a different recipe for an all-butter shortcrust pastry.  It rolled out fine and baked to a lovely colour.  I had a bit of an accident with it when I took it out of the oven (darned near dropped the lot, in fact), which resulted in one side of it becoming broken.  Which was a pity, because it was looking quite lovely before that happened.

The recipe came from http://www.closetcooking.com/ and I had no reason to believe it would be anything other than extremely yummy.   In fact, it was extremely yummy - it was just the texture that let it down.

The tart filling comprised pan-fried ham, leek and grated cheese, mixed together with a touch of garlic (inspired idea!), an egg, cream and whole grain mustard - and put in the oven to bake for around 20 minutes.  Well, I'm afraid mine wasn't anywhere near ready at 20 minutes, it was still absolutely liquid in the middle.  Another 15 minutes and it was still soggy in the middle.  Another 10 minutes (that's 40 minutes in all) and it was sort of blobby, whilst accompanied by some sort of whey, or maybe it was leek juice - who knows?  Either way, the flavour was lovely - it was just the horrible blobby texture that we found quite difficult to get along with.  I can only think that somehow the egg/cream mixture had split during cooking - resulting in the blobs and whey.  As to why - I have no idea but would be open to suggestions!

So, to end this tale of woe on a positive note, here's a photograph of a dinner which hubby put together for us.  Yes, they are Chicken Kievs from the freezer, but if you can forgive that fact - doesn't it look edible?  Those little potatoes were just YUM!

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Taking a chance on Peppered Mackerel Fish Cakes

If there's one thing in this life that I really enjoy, it's a fishcake - and preferably not one of those mealy pap type that you get from the freezer section of the supermarket, but a real, honest-to-goodness, coarse as you like, home made fishcake.

Gorgeous!

When we used to live in Kent, I ventured into fishcake making.  After all, I had a young son and knowing fish is extremely good for young growing brains was keen to get as much into him as was humanly possible.  Fish, that is, not brains.  Haven't broached the subject of brawn yet.  ~delicate shudder~  

I began by making tuna fishcakes, purely because tuna was about the only type of fish that was even remotely affordable.  In those days, I was a bit of a scaredy-cat about frying (in fact, these fishcakes were my first "real" foray into shallow frying for aeons) and wouldn't do it.  Hence, my early fishcakes had to be baked in the oven - which is never a good look on a fishcake.  I then began to get a bit random with the ingredients, resulting in a potato cake that had a little bit of fish in it - which was never going to go down well with my potato-hating hubby.

As a consequence, fishcakes have been off the menu roster for a very many years.

Which makes it all the more surprising that one day last week, we had "Peppered Mackerel Fish Cakes" - which weren't greeted with dancing in the aisles, but were eaten and professed to be "your best fishcake yet".  Which I take to mean "blinking gorgeous fishcakes" in any other language.  Well, I thought they were "blinking gorgeous fishcakes", anyway.  In fact, if some were to float past me now, I'd probably cause more tremors to be felt across in Japan in getting to them - and we don't want that - so it's probably better that they aren't likely to.

The worst part of this recipe was the pin-boning of the fillets of fish before flaking them into the potato.  It's incredibly hard to find those leetle bones when they're covered in a coarse covering of pepper!  Oh, but it was worth it.  So very, very, worth it.

PEPPERED MACKEREL FISH CAKES  (makes 6)

Ingredients :

300g cold mashed potatoes

6 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 tbsp horseradish sauce

300g peppered mackerel fillets, skinned, de-boned and flaked

salt & pepper

2 tbsp plain flour

1 egg, beaten

85g dried breadcrumbs

sunflower oil, for frying

salad and lemon wedges, to serve

Method :

1.  In a large bowl, mix together the potato, spring onions, horseradish and mackerel and season to taste.

2.  Shape into 8 even-sized cakes, compressing the mixture together as much as possible.

3.  Roll the fish cakes in the flour, then dip into the egg, then into the breadcrumbs.

4.  Cover and chill until ready to cook.

5.  Gently grill or shallow-fry the fish cakes for 5-6 mins on each side until crunchy, golden brown and hot all the way through.  Place them onto a warm plate under a warm grill, to keep hot until you are ready to serve.

6.  Serve with salad and lemon wedges.

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Blood Oranges - so gorgeous, but why so difficult to find?

Once upon a time, I can remember walking down to our local Greengrocer where (it seemed) he had Blood Oranges available all year round.  Of course, this was more than likely because we were only in the U.K. for certain months of the year, as at that time we were living in Germany due to my Dad being in the Army.  I expect we were in the U.K. for a summer holiday, visiting my Nanna & Gramps in Kingston upon Thames.

Anyway, Blood Oranges are part and parcel of my memories of childhood.

I can remember being vaguely revolted by the idea of a "Blood" orange, yet (being a bloodthirsty kid at the time) the very idea of an orange containing "blood" but still tasting like an orange, was intriguing beyond mere curiosity.

I can remember unwrapping their little crinkly paper coats and smoothing each coat out to be kept.  Some of those little paper wrappers were works of art!  Why don't oranges still wear them?  Then admiring the tell-tale signs of colouration beneath the skin as I broke into the orange with my longest fingernail and began to peel.  As each piece of skin came away, I was always excited to find out whether my orange was the reddest one of the lot, or whether my brother had the reddest - and therefore, the best - orange.  Then, popping each segment into my mouth, with that explosion of sweet orange flavour that is like no other.  Somehow the sun is always shining in these memories, too.

I wanted to make those memories happen for my son.  So, when Blood Orange season was upon us, so began the search for these little citrus jewels.

No word of a lie, it took probably 3-4 weeks before I found some - and then only thanks to putting the alert out there in the Twitterverse did I discover that Sainsbury's had them in stock.  However, having found the little beauties, I find that they are priced at £2.45 for four!  I remember them as being relatively cheap to buy.  They HAD to be, if my parents were buying them for us - as we certainly didn't have money to fritter away on frivolities in those days.

I then began to wonder, whether the lack of Blood Oranges on the market had anything to do with their being called "blood".  Having asked some people who are "in the know" as regards fruit, their opinion was that I may be onto something there.  It seems that Blood Oranges have been being marketed as "blush" or "flame" oranges - although full marks go out to Sainsbury's who had theirs labelled as "blood".

Another little gem of information - which came from the people at Jaffa - is that with the rise in interest with regard to juicing, most Supermarkets have largely juicing oranges in stock, while ordinary "eat it whole" oranges have taken a back seat.  It seems, which I find appalling, as though us consumers are prepared to eat an "easy to peel" orange or satsuma, but an orange that takes a little more effort to peel?  Nope.  Can't be bothered.  ~gasp~  What does that say about us?  I have some sympathy with the office-bound person who is reluctant to take an orange to work because the peeling of it leaves orange zest on your fingers for the remainder of the day.  I used to hate that.  So personally, I just cut my orange into segments and get stuck in - rather like eating melon.

So the long and the short of it is - if you don't want Blood Oranges to disappear completely, get out there and buy them and shout long and loud about it, when you can't find them!

I think we should start a movement promoting the marketing of Blood Oranges.  I love a campaign!

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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.

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Austrian Beef Goulash

Not so long ago, I had a crack at making Hungarian Beef Goulash.  It wasn't so terribly successful in that the broth/sauce was far too thin for hubby's tastes and the paprika didn't feature well enough in the general flavour.

I resolved to have another go at another time, as once I'd fixed the thin broth issue, the paprika issue should be easier to define.  However, in the meantime, I discovered this "Austrian Beef Goulash" recipe.

Now this intrigued me, as I wondered what made it "Austrian", as opposed to "Hungarian".

Having made the dish, I think the largest differences are the degree of tomato that is employed, plus the lack of caraway seeds.  In truth, though, it really is very similar.

Oddly enough, even though the recipe uses two tablespoonfuls of paprika, hubby still declared the paprika flavour to be lacking.  I might have to use three tablespoonfuls in future, although I am a tad nervous of overdoing it for everyone else!

I used beef shin in mine, as I am trying  - where possible - to use cheaper cuts of meat.  Doing that is good for my purse and good for the global waste issue.  I extended the cooking time of the original recipe to some three and a half hours (at a low heat) to ensure that the fat was all rendered down and the meat super-tender.  Shin of beef really does lend itself to this type of cooking, as the flavours were superlative.

It is worthwhile, when cutting up the beef, to make the cubes a little bit larger than one normally would for this kind of meal.  The sauce becomes quite thick and we've discovered that it is difficult to find smaller cubes when it comes to plating up.  You don't want to plate up two ladlefuls of sauce, whilst leaving all the beef in the pan!

One other advantage to using shin of beef, is that Jonty and Basil (the dogs) get the offcuts.  From the moment my feet touched the kitchen floor, Jonty (the Saluki) was in attendance.  He's a very attentive companion, as he watches everything being got out of the larder, pan cupboard and fridge.  He begins to lick his lips as the onions go into the pan, as he knows the next job will be to cut up the meat.  I think, however, he just doesn't understand why I insist on calling Basil (Jack Russell) to come and share the haul.  He'd be really much happier if I'd leave Basil sleeping and let him (Jonty) have the lot!

AUSTRIAN GOULASH (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

3 tbsp sunflower oil (sunflower is best, as it can attain a greater heat than olive)

2 large onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, grated
4-5 chesnut mushrooms, quartered
600g shin of beef, cut into large cubes
2 tbsp paprika (more, if you desire)
2 tbsp plain flour
salt & pepper
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tsp mixed herbs
125ml red wine
400g can tomatoes or 500ml passata
350ml beef stock
2 large red peppers, cut into rings
142ml carton soured cream
chives, chopped, to garnish


Method :

1.  Heat a tablespoonful of the oil in a flameproof casserole over a medium to low heat, and cook the onions until soft - approx 5 minutes or so.


2.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking and stirring for another five minutes or so, then set aside.


3.  Add the remainder of the oil and, on a high heat, add the beef and sear until browned.


4.  Return the onion mixture to the pan and add the flour, seasoning, paprika, tomato puree, vinegar and herbs.  Stir well, then add the wine and bubble for a minute or so.


5.  Add the tomatoes, stock and bring to the boil.  Stir all the time, to avoid lumps forming in the sauce.  Once boiling, check the seasoning.


6.  Cover and place in the oven for two hours.


7.  Remove from the oven to add the peppers and stir through.  Put back in the oven for another hour.


8.  Serve with white rice, sour cream and chopped chives sprinkled over.


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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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Getting to grips with being thrifty

I try, as far as I am able, to be thrifty in the kitchen.  Well, not only in the kitchen in fact.  However, a certain percentage of my thriftiness has been good intentions, rather than put into practice.

It just so happens that, this weekend, I appear to be putting a certain amount of good intentions into operation.  Such as the red wine situation.

I bought a bottle of red wine - not one of the most expensive, or one of the cheapest - but a nice enough, albeit young, bottle of Merlot to use exclusively in cooking.  Or, in particular, for the Kielbasa recipe and the Chicken Liver pate (which I have yet to blog about).  Both recipes used around 125ml each, which left the very good part of the bottle sitting doing nothing.  Now I agree, I could drink it.  I'm not a very great drinker of alcohol - never have been - but a small glass of wine in the evening is extremely convivial and, I understand, useful from a good health point of view.  However, we've already got two bottles of Chianti earmarked for that job - and it's always good to have a little red wine available to include in cooking.

This morning, I remembered the "red wine ice cube" way of keeping wine that was surplus to requirements and, as an ice cube tray was free, filled it up and popped it in the freezer - just to see what would happen, rather than anything else.

Apologies for the poor photo - you can (just) see the cubes!

Well, what a jolly good ruse this has turned out to be!  I now have a bag full of red wine ice cubes, with another tray freezing as we speak.  Now I shall be plopping ice cubes into just about everything (except maybe scrambled eggs. ~shiver~ No, don't think so).

Owing to the Pepper and Bacon Lasagne having been bumped from the menu in favour of fish & chips last week, I now have a surfeit of peppers taking up huge amounts of room in my fridge.   This has got me to thinking what I could do with them.  Soup immediately comes to mind, but knowing how often I have (in the past) made soup for lunchtime that has been passed over in favour of baked beans or a marmite sandwich, you probably understand why I didn't give that a lot of thought.

Not charred to death - still got some life in them.

However, something that I've always wanted to have a go at, but never attempted before today, was making char-grilled peppers.  I have a ceramic hob, which I'm nervous about using for char-grilling peppers because, basically, it was my Mum's cooker that she adored and it almost broke her heart to give it up when it wouldn't fit into their new kitchen when they moved house.  So you can maybe understand my reticence in using its ceramic hob to set fire to peppers. 

What I do have, however, is a flamethrower.  Oh, all right then, it's a blowtorch.  Not quite a flamethrower, even though I do treat it with the respect a flamethrower would engender.

So, I stuck a long-handled metal fork into the pepper and blowtorched it.  It didn't take as long as I thought it would.  Having spent a couple of hours in a plastic bag, I've just scraped all the burned skin off and sectioned up the flesh, sploshed it with olive oil and had a taste.  Goodness, but it's really yummy!  The loss of the skin is only to its benefit, in my opinion, as so often the skins are really quite tough.  The flesh isn't exactly cooked, but it has softened whilst still retaining a tad of crunch - which is very nice indeed.  The smokey flavour of the charred skin is very much still there and I'd say that they are 100% nicer than any char-grilled pepper that came in a jar.  I've done an orange and a yellow pepper and, with addition of some salt & pepper, will include them in the salad that's going with the Chicken liver pate for tonight's dinner.  As the family seems to be giving them the thumbs up, I may well convert the remainder of the peppers to char-grilled and freeze them for use in casseroles.   

So, I'm feeling really quite pleased with both those experiments.

Herbs included for size comparison

Aside from all that, I recently received a voucher to sample some of Innocent's new juice.  Either orange (with bits or without) or apple, in their new 900ml carafe.

Unusually, we shopped at Sainsbury's last Friday and lo and behold (apart from Blood Oranges - which is quite another blog post entirely) there was the Innocent Juice, so I picked some up.  For all that the voucher quite clearly said it was for a 900ml container, I hadn't quite got my head around how big 900ml was.  Hence, I was quite surprised at how much you got!

I love Innocent's labelling, it's demonstrative of the entire company having something of a sense of humour.  Even down to the underside of the Carafe, upon which is embossed the words "Stop looking at my bottom!".  Their labelling is always worth a read, in the process of which I learned that the juice contained therein was completely unsweetened.  Now that came as something of a surprise, as - in comparison with something like Copella - it tasted so much sweeter.  I guess it's just the type of apple that they use.  The juice didn't suffer for being sweeter, in my opinion it was still jaw-droppingly gorgeous and if I could afford to pay £1.99 for 900ml of juice, instead of 90p for a litre of not-so-nice juice, but agreeably palatable juice, then I'd be buying Innocent - and maybe the odd Copella when I needed a hit of sharpness.
 

Lastly, to round off this posting of "things I must write about on my blog", I just had to show everyone the flowers that my hubby bought for me today.  They are so cute!  They're the first flowers I can remember being given from him for ages - and all the sweeter for it.

Kielbasa Polish Sausage with Red Cabbage

I don't really know what it is about the Polish cuisine, but I really, really enjoy making Polish - even Polish-sounding - dishes.  I've never met a Polish person that I didn't like, (hiya Rad!) and if anyone suggested going there for a holiday, I'd seriously consider it.

We had already discovered Kielbasa sausage (available from Asda in Bournemouth) and are confirmed Kielbasa fans.  Hence, when I spotted a recipe involving "Polish sausage", I knew what we were talking about.

I was looking for a dish that would be relatively easy to make.  One that either I could make earlier in the day and just pop in the oven to get on with cooking, or one which didn't require me to chivvy it along.  The reason for this is that I knew that today was going to be a fairly busy day - as indeed, it turned out to be - and that I also wanted to cook some chicken liver pate for us to have on Saturday for supper.

My disability is one of those conditions that results in your having the best of your energy supplies available in the morning (usually), which is why we do the shopping etc. then.  Some evenings, it really is more than I can do to cook a meal - which is why you'll find items being bumped from the menu list.  However, because I meal plan, I was able to find an easy recipe that would mean I had "enough left in the tank" to tackle the pate later on.  Oh how I envy those people who can spend the evening baking!  At one time I would have been able to do that, but then I was far too busy gallivanting around with my horses!

The recipe begins with the requirement to pour a kettle of boiling water over your sliced cabbage.  Now I've absolutely no idea why you're required to do that - except for the fact that I noticed it changed the flavour slightly, bringing out the sweetness of the cabbage.  It also lost that "rawness" that features in dishes like coleslaw and ran colour all over the sink.  Well, that was fine, because my chopping board was already purple, my hands were an interesting blue colour and the colander was all the colours of the rainbow!  As for my t-shirt, well, all I can say is I forgot to put my pinny on again.  *sigh*

However, the most entertaining part of the whole recipe (apart from eating it, of course!) was the chemical reaction involved when you pour the five tablespoons of lemon juice over the purple cabbage and watch it turn hot Chinese pink.  Who knew you could use purple cabbage leaves as litmus paper?  Not me.

A point of note is the involvement of the sugar/cornflour mixture.  I was a tad dubious about this, as my cabbage wasn't producing much in the way of juice.  The lemon juice and the wine hadn't really helped much either, so I was cautious when adding the cornflour mixture.  Just as well, as everything dried up and I was required to add around 100ml of water with each half of the cornflour mixture.  The end result was a lovely glossy sauce which, coupled with the sour cream on the potatoes, was more than enough to moisten what would otherwise have been a dry dish.

I absolutely adore the juxtaposition of the colours.  The dark purple-pink of the cabbage against the white of the sour cream, with the lurid green of the chives lifting everything and providing that splash of green that makes a dish look so tempting.  The flavours went so well together, too.  The cabbage took on the flavour of the Kielbasa almost instantly and both flavours went so well with the lemon, butter and wine.  To quote Masterchef - it worked.  It worked all the better for the rich nuttiness of the oven-baked potatoes, together with the sour cream bringing its lovely creaminess to the table, with the chives adding that alternative level of flavour.

Would I make this one again?  You bet I would - even though son and heir didn't like the cabbage overly much.  ~shrug~  He's got the jacket potato and the sausage, he won't starve!

Look at those colours!

 KIELBASA SAUSAGE WITH RED CABBAGE  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 large red cabbage, sliced
2 litres boiling water
2 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
5 tbsp lemon juice
125ml red wine
half a tsp salt
quarter of a tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp dark brown soft sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
400g Kielbasa sausage, sliced
3 large potatoes, suitable for cooking in their jackets
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
1 small tub sour cream
handful of chives, chopped fine.

Method :

1.  Place the cabbage in a colander and pour the boiling water over the cabbage.  Allow it to drain well.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg.

2.  Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Add the shallots and cook for around 5 minutes or until golden, transparent and sweet.

3.  Add the cabbage and stir in the lemon juice.  Cook and stir for around 5 minutes, until the cabbage is pink.  Marvel at the magic that created that colour!

4.  Add the wine, salt and pepper, then cover and simmer on a low heat for 45 minutes.

5.  Prepare the potatoes ready to be baked in their jackets.  Check them over thoroughly, removing any blemishes and wash them carefully.  Prick each potato with a sharp knife three or four times each side.

6.  Place a tablespoon of olive oil on the centre of a baking dish and dip each potato into the oil.  Rub the oil over each potato, making sure it is completely covered, then place each around the baking dish, with enough room between the potatoes to allow a through flow of air.

7.  Season each potato well, especially with salt.  There's nothing nicer than a lovely salty potato skin.  Place them in the oven to bake for around 1 hour, turning them over half way through the baking time.

8.  Mix together the sugar and cornflour with a little water and add - half at a time - to the cabbage.  You may well need to add 100ml of water with each addition of the cornflour mixture, if you're not seeing a sauce appearing.  Stir well, to avoid the cornflour setting into lumps.

9.  Add the sausage pieces, stir well to combine, then cover and resume simmering for 30 minutes more.  You'll need to stir the pot every 10 minutes or so and watch the liquid levels, adding a little more water if needs be.

10.  Once the potatoes are done (when a vegetable knife inserted into them runs through without restriction), cut a cross into the top of each one, press the sides (through a tea-towel if they're too hot to touch) to bring some of the flesh to the surface and top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chives.

Serve. 

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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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Chicken & Bacon Cacciatore

Well, this recipe had mixed results in our family in that I loved it, son liked it, hubby liked it, but wouldn't go out of his way to have it again.

I thought I'd post it up, on the reckoning that there's a nasty cold bug travelling through the household (which started with son) and there's every chance that hubby's taste buds could have been affected.

We had tried a recipe for Chicken Cacciatore previously, which had turned out to be pale pink in the extreme.  So I'd been looking for another recipe which looked likely to turn out something flavoured rather more robustly.  Inevitably, I've tinkered around with the recipe so that it suits our requirements (breast of chicken instead of pieces, plus additional herbs) but the net result was a very creditable meal.

I served it with mashed potato, carrots and stringless beans, however it would be just as nice with anything from chip shop chips to plain white rice.  (Mmmmn .. did someone mention chip shop chips, just then? lol).

CHICKEN & BACON CACCIATORE (Serves 3, but is easily adjustable)

Ingredients :  

2 tbsp olive oil
3 skinless chicken breasts
6-9 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
2 onions, sliced
2 rosemary sprigs
1 x 400g can plum tomatoes
2 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
500ml chicken stock
small bunch of parsley, chopped
5-10 leaves of basil, (depending on their size) chopped.


Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a deep frying pan.  Brown the chicken until golden, then reserve and keep warm.


2.  Add the bacon and cook until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisping.  Then reserve with the chicken.


3.  Add the onions and rosemary (leave the rosemary as a sprig, don't remove the leaves from the stick) to the pan and fry for 5-10 minutes or until the onions have softened and are beginning to brown.


4.  Add the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, stock and seasoning.  Taste to check the seasoning.


5.  Add the bacon, then the chicken and bring to a simmer.


6.  Cover and cook for 25-30 mins until the chicken is tender.  If the sauce is still quite thin, add a teaspoon of cornflour slaked with a little water and stir until the sauce thickens.


7.  Add the parsley and basil, stir to combine and serve.


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