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We’ve moved into our new flat! Hooray! And most excitingly, it has a garden. I have been missing our outdoor life from Australia. Actually, that sounds grander than it is – I’m actually not a really outdoorsy person. We had a fairly small back deck on our house in Australia and I did like eating dinner outside, having barbecues etc. After nearly 2 ½ years of what feels like being permanently inside, I was very much looking forward to our own outdoor space.
I was rather optimistic about our move and had planned a potential barbecue meal for Sunday lunch. In the end, the barbecue wasn’t actually constructed until nearly 4pm and we still don’t have a gas bottle, so the barbecue meal had to be cooked inside.
I knew I’d be busy, so I hadn’t planned a particularly complicated dish. Nor was it particularly Australian, more American really– hot dogs on the barbecue. Still, served with onions that were sweet from slow braising in beer and a warm potato salad with a bit of Dijon mustard for some kick, it was a tasty first outdoor meal. And most importantly, it was sunny!
Hot dogs with beer-braised onions
Serves 4
Delicious magazine – August 2009
4 large frankfurters
3 large onions, sliced
125ml beer
1 tbsp butter
4 hot dog buns, to serve
Mustard and ketchup, to serve
1. Light / preheat a barbecue and a large, heavy-based frying pan. Prick the frankfurters all over with a fork. Put them on the frill and the onions in the pan, in 1 layer. Keep turning the frankfurters every 2 minutes until they are getting char marks, and keep tossing the onions in the pan. (I just simmered the frankfurters)
2. Put the frankfurters in among the onions and pour a couple tablespoons of beer over the top, causing the pan to sizzle. When the beer has evaporated, keep adding a little bit more at a time to the pan until all the beer has been used up.3. When the onions are golden, add the butter and cook for a few more minutes until they turn an amble ale colour.
4. Split the hot dog buns (and I always think they should be toasted), add the frankfurters and onions and serve with mustard and ketchup (we also added some cheese).
Dijonnaise potatoes
Serves 2Delicious magazine – August 2007
300g baby new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
½ bunch spring onions
3 tablespoons of dijonnaise (I just mixed about 3 tablespoons of mayo with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard to make this)
Handful of wild rocket
1. Boil the potatoes in a pan of lightly salted water for 12 minutes or until tender. Drain, tip into a bowl and cool slightly.
2. Add the spring onions, finely sliced, along with the dijonnaise and the rocket. Season and toss together.
I had really been looking forward to seeing the Gypsy Kings at Kenwood House as part of the English Heritage Picnic concerts. The blurb on the website promised "a glorious summer's evening to remember" . . . "there's no better way to enjoy a perfect summer evening" they said. What they failed to mention is that there are probably better ways to spend a drizzly, cold summer's evening. Yes, of course, it rained. But in true stoic British fashion, we all packed our umbrellas in with our picnic blankets and went regardless!
Anyway, we did have a most unusual encounter. The family in front of us was big and loud and fun and had been eating all this wonderful looking and smelling lamb biryani all night. The contributor of the lamb biryani kept offering it around to the family and I couldn't help but think, mmm lamb biryani, I could eat some lamb biryani!
Imagine then how bad/excited I felt when towards the end of the night, she said we've got too much and turned around and offered us some. Of course, we declined, but she gave us some anyway along with a homemade chapati. It was delicious - better than any Indian restaurant she told us and she was right. Delicately spiced, soft tender lamb and amazingly for an outdoor picnic concert in the rain, still warm.
I was inspired. So, I decided to make some myself. A bit of internet research and I chose this recipe. The list of ingredients was long and the method even longer, but I was happy to invest the time. It paid off! This version was hotter and spicier than the first one and not as saucy, but the meat was meltingly tender. The depth of flavour was quite lovely and even though the rice looked quite dry, it was all very moist.
You would need to allow a good 4 to 5 hours to make this, but it makes a huge quantity (we have frozen lots of leftovers), so you get a bit of a return on your investment.
Lamb biryani
UKTV Food
Prep time: 1 hr, plus marinating and soaking Cook time: 1 hrs 50 mins
Serves 8-10
½ tsp strands Saffron
¾ tsp cardamom seeds
2 blades mace
4 Onions6 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for deep frying
8 cm Ginger, peeled
6 cloves Garlic, finely chopped1 tsp Chilli powder
1 lime, juice only
750g Lamb shoulder, cut into 4cm cubes
Green cardamom
6 Black cardamom
5 cm cinnamon sticks
½ tsp Cloves
2 dried Bay leaves
1 tbsp Garam masala
3 green chillies, deseeded and sliced200 ml Greek yogurt
450g Basmati rice
handful mint leaves
2 tbsp Butter
1. Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside until ready to use.
2. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the cardamom seeds and mace to a powder and leave on one side; you'll need this later when layering up the rice and meat.
3. Slice 2 of the onions then sprinkle them with salt and set aside for 20 minutes. Squeeze out any excess water from the onions and pat them dry with paper towels. Deep-fry the sliced onions in hot oil until golden and drain on paper towels. Set half aside for garnishing the biryani.
4. Transfer the remaining fried onions to a food processor, pour in 3 tablespoons of hot water then purée; you should have about 2 tablespoons of onion paste.
5. Finely grate half of the ginger and combine with the garlic, chilli powder, and lime juice in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the onion paste and add the lamb. Mix everything together and leave to marinate for 1 hour.
6. Dice the 2 remaining onions. Heat 6 tablespoons of oil in a large casserole pan set over a medium heat and soften the diced onions for 5 minutes, without colouring.
7. Slice the remaining ginger into fine strips and set aside. Add the green and brown cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaves to the pan. Fry for about 30 seconds, until you get a warm, spicy aroma.
8. Tip in the meat and its marinade and add the garam masala, green chillies, and ginger strips. Bring to simmering point and gradually add the yogurt, a tablespoon at a time. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the lamb is tender and the masala thickened; the sauce should be well-reduced and almost clinging to the meat.
9. Cover the rice with cold water and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Ten minutes before the meat is ready, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drain the rice and add to the pan then cook for 5 minutes - it should be half-cooked and still have bite to it. Drain the rice in a colander.
10. Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3. Put half of the hot meat in the bottom of a clean casserole pan. Cover with half of the freshly boiled rice and sprinkle with half of the ground cardamom and mace spice mixture and half of the mint.
11. Top with the remaining meat and rice. Scatter over the rest of the spice mix, mint leaves, and the sliced browned onions that you fried in step 3. Dot the surface with butter and drizzle over the saffron and its soaking liquid. Cover the biryani with wet greaseproof (waxed) paper and a well-fitting lid.
12. Bake for 40 minutes, until the rice is perfumed and perfectly cooked. Gently fluff up the grains with a fork and serve straight from the pan.
One of my favourite British vegetables is broad beans. They are a bit of work, by the time you pod them, boil them and then remove the outer coating, but they are such a glorious bright green, so summery, with a lovely fresh flavour. This was a lovely recipe to highlight the broad beans. The pork and potato kebabs were fairly plain, so the broad bean, feta and mint salad was the star (it would be a great bbq salad). Just remember to allow enough time for all that broad bean prep!
Pork kebabs on minted broad beans with feta
Delicious website
Serves 4
1 pork tenderloin3 baby new potatoes ½ lemon2 tbsp olive oil 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oilSmall handful of chopped rosemary500g broad beansGood handful of mint leaves150g crumbled feta Method
1. Trim your pork tenderloin and cut into 12 pieces. Thread 3 chunks of pork and 3 cooked baby new potatoes alternately onto each of 4 skewers. 2. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and a small handful of finely chopped rosemary and use to brush the kebabs. 3. Cook under a hot preheated grill (or barbecue) for 10-12 minutes, turning once. 4. Meanwhile, boil broad beans in salted water for 4-5 minutes until just tender, then drain and refresh. Toss with a good handful of mint leaves, plenty of extra-virgin olive oil, seasoning and feta.
5. Divide between 4 plates and serve with the kebabs on top.
I actually made this pie ages ago, but didn't have a chance to blog about it before we went to NY. It was so tasty and easy to make, that I didn't want it to be forgotten. This is the perfect 'Summer' pie to make when you feel like pie, but the warmer weather doesn't justify heavy meat sauces and thick pastry. If you go lightly on the butter (and don't add cheese like I did), it is even quite healthy!
Chicken, Ham and Asparagus Pie
Olive magazine, May 2009 Serves 4
4 skinless chicken breasts
butter
100g asparagus
100g peas
100g ham, torn into pieces
100ml creme fraiche
1 tbsp gainry mustard
50g breadcrumbs
Brush the chicken breasts with a little butter and grill, turning once, until just cooked (I pan-fried them, but I think this would also be a great recipe for leftover cooked/roast chicken). Slice into chunks and tips into a shallow dish.
Blanch the asparagus and peas until just tender, then drain and scatter over the chicken with the ham.
Mix the creme fraiche with the mustard and dollop over the top, then scatter with breadcrumbs (I also grated some parmesan cheese over the top, but it probably didn't need it).
Dot with a little more butter and grill for 5 minutes until golden and heated through (I actually put this in a 180 degree oven for about 20 minutes and then under the grill to brown the top).
When I bought the pigeon breasts recently, I also bought a whole rabbit from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have cooked a whole rabbit once before but I bought it pre-jointed, so I must confess to being a little disturbed by the look of a whole rabbit when I took it out of the bag. Now, I do know that it is good for meat-eaters to understand that meat is really an animal and I agree with that. I'm not even adverse to it - I've been to an abattoir and a feedlot and I've jointed a chicken before, so you know . . . I'm not too bad. But this was a whole new level and probably one of the most unpleasant 'cooking' activities I have ever undertaken. I won't go into details, though.
It does, however, make the resulting meal even more disappointing. I chose this recipe for Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce from Valentine Warner, author of What To Eat Now, thinking it sounded very French, very slow-cooked but reasonably summery for a casserole style dish. In reality, the rabbit was dry and tough and the sauce was fairly bland. I served it with ever-reliable Jersey Royals - they were good. Otherwise, this was far from successful. Very sad.
We recently went to the Foodies Festival at Hampton Court Palace as a poor substitute for the Taste Festival (we'll be in Toronto when Taste is on). While the weather was stunningly amazing, the festival was quite disappointing, mainly because there was nowhere to just sit and enjoy the food and drinks on offer - rather defeats the purpose, I would have thought.
Anyway, enough complaining! While I was there, I bought some pigeon breast from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have eaten pigeon before, but never cooked it and it seemed like a good opportunity to try a more unusual meat.
After a bit of internet searching, I decided to use this recipe for Pigeon Breast with Sweet Potato Rosti and a red wine sauce, but substituted baby spinach for the cabbage.
Unfortunately, I overcooked the pigeon slightly, but despite this, we enjoyed it. The meat is (obviously) very gamey and rich, so doesn't need a lot of strong flavours to accompany it. The red wine sauce just lifted it nicely, but with the downside that it made the rosti a little soggy. Overall, I would get pigeon breast again, but would probably try a different recipe.
This was certainly an unusual combination for a risotto. I've never made risotto with red wine before, but this was really delicious. Rich and creamy, as good risotto should be, but with a punch from the sausage meat and fennel. Yum!
Sausage, fennel and red wine risotto
Delicious magazine - May 2007
Serves 4
1L (4 cups) vegetable or chicken stock
1 tbs olive oil
50g unsalted butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 skinned pork sausages
2 tbsp tomato paste
small bunch of thyme, leaves picked1 1/2 cups (330g) arborio or carnaroli rice
150ml red wine
75g parmesan, grated
baby rocket leaves and extra parmesan, shaved, to serve
Place the vegetable or chicken stock in a small saucepan and keep at a low simmer.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and half the butter in a large, wide, non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the fennel seeds and stir until fragrant. Add the chopped sausage meat, tomato paste and thyme leaves and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until meat is browned. Add the rice and stir for 1 minute to coat the grains in the butter. Pour in the wine and cook for 2 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.
Add a ladleful of stock to the rice and stir continuously until absorbed. Continue adding the stock, 1 ladleful at a time, stirring frequently and making sure the stock is absorbed before adding the next ladleful, until the rice is al dente. This will take about 20 minutes (you may not need all the stock). Sir in the remaining butter, cover and set aside for 2 minutes.
To serve, stir in the grated parmesan and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. Divide risotto among plates and top with rocket leaves and shaved parmesan.
The Asian food cravings continue and this time I decided to try and make my own Dim Sum. I found an Asian supermarket on Seven Sisters Road recently - about 20 minutes walk away, so close enough to support any significant Asian food shopping requirements.
My Dim Sum menu was:
I have never made dumplings before, so it was a 'fingers-crossed' dish, but both turned out well. It was a bit time-consuming to make, but my always helpful kitchen hand and I managed to make about 30 odd dumplings without really knowing what we were doing and amazingly, they all held together! The dumplings are fried for a couple of minutes (the 'potsticker' part of the name) and then effectively steamed in the frying pan with a bit of water until cooked through. This is such a great way of cooking dumplings as you get a real contrast of textures - crispy on one side and soft and chewy on the other. You also don't need any fancy equipment, although this meal did necessitate the use of literally every pan and plate we own!
The dumplings tasted pretty authentic, I think! The prawn dumplings benefited from the strong flavour of the coriander, so stood out more than the pork dumplings, but both were really enjoyable.
The chilli salt squid was also a new one for me. I have always been a bit nervous about deep-frying, but after a successful first attempt with some corn fritters a few weeks ago, I was excited to give this a try. It was quite a simple recipe - squid coated in seasoned cornflour, deep-fried and tossed with salt, pepper, chilli, coriander, spring onion and fried garlic. But it was absolutely delicious. I really like calamari and this was fresh and full of flavour with a really great texture. My only complaint is that it got a bit cold while cooking the squid in batches.
Finally, in the spirit of eating the occasional vegetable, I used a Nigel Slater recipe for asian vegetables in oyster sauce. This was the easy part of the meal with the chinese broccoli and pak choy boiled and mixed into a sauce of sauteed garlic and ginger with oyster sauce. Simple, but tasty. The only problem was that the leaves were full of water, so after they were drained and the sauce mixed in, heaps more water came out and diluted the sauce. Next time, more emphasis on draining!
I am really quite proud of this meal - a few new techniques, lots going on and some serious timing concerns, but it all turned out pretty well. Dim Sum (or Yum Cha) is probably one of those things that you're just better off going out for, but it is nice to know you can do it yourself, if you want to (if you can be bothered!).
Prawn and Chilli potsticker dumplings
New Entertaining (Donna Hay)
This recipe makes 30 dumplings - I made half.
500g green (raw) prawn meat, finely chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon shredded galangal or ginger
1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
1 tablespoon chilli jam (I used sweet chilli sauce)
2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
30 round wonton wrappers
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup vegetable or fish stock (I just used water)
Combine prawns, shallots, galangal, coriander, chilli jam, wine and soy sauce in a bowl. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture onto each wonton wrapper. Mix cornflour and water to for a smooth paste and brush edges of wonton wrapper with paste. Fold wrapper in half, gather up edges like a fan and squeeze with fingertips to enclose filling.
Heat oil in a frypan over high heat. Add dumplings and fry bases until they are golden. Add stock (or water) and cover frypan. Allow dumplings to steam in stock for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Remove lid and allow stock to evaporate. Ensure bases of dumplings are crisp. Remove dumplings from pan and serve immediately with extra chilli jam.
I have been craving Asian food recently. Perhaps it is the hint of Summer in the air, perhaps it is an excess of British food, but I decided I had to cook some sort of Asian meal this weekend. And if you're going to cook an Asian meal, why not make it a Thai feast?
We started with Pork Larb in Little Gem Lettuce cups. This was really tasty - lots of typical Thai flavours, such as chilli, fish sauce, lime juice, mint and coriander, so was packed with flavour. The lettuce made for a refreshing almost juicy contrast and the toasted ground rice (something I have never had before) provided perfect crunchy texture. Fun to eat, good to look at and tasty to boot, this is a great starter.
Main was Noodle, Chicken and Aubergine Laksa. I'm not a huge fan of laksa, but this really appealed and was also delicious. The red curry paste we used could have been stronger (or we could have used more) and we added some dried chilli flakes to boost the heat. The chicken was meltingly tender, the aubergine sweet and soft and the fresh basil really leapt out of the dish. This could have changed my mind about laksa.
After all this richness, a light dessert was all that was needed, so the Fresh Pineapple with crushed mint and lime sugar was perfect. It really was just fruit +. Unfortunately, I made the mint and lime sugar a bit too far in advance so it went a bit brown and clumpy, but still tasted good. Seeing as this takes, oh, 30 seconds to make, there is really no need for advance preparation.
I was very pleased with my Thai feast - lots of strong, fresh flavours and some really different dishes (for me, anyway). Unfortunately - or is that fortunately? - I still don't think it has cured my Asian food cravings. Stay tuned . . .
Inspired by the leftover onion gravy from the Easter roast lamb and also by the steak sandwich from Smiths of Smithfields, we made these awesome sandwiches with roast beef from the butcher, rocket, parmesan and onion gravy on granary bread. Really, really good!
In the weeks leading up to the Easter long weekend, I was bombarded with magazine articles and emails about roast lamb. Clearly it is the thing to eat over Easter in the UK. So, as an Australian eating in London, I felt a certain obligation to follow the trend.
I'm not a big cooker of roasts. I have a habit of overcooking them, perhaps because I buy smaller ones for less people, but I generally find it all a bit disappointing. So it was with some trepidation that I selected my leg of lamb from the butcher on Easter Saturday.
With the recent mint sauce triumph in Venice in mind, I also decided to make a mint sauce. I selected a recipe from UKTV Food, which seemed appropriate.
I have to say, I was pretty happy with how this turned out. I ignored all instincts to keep it in for longer and it was a lovely rosy pink colour. I served it with goose-fat roasted potatoes, beans, the mint sauce and an onion gravy. The mint sauce tasted nice, but the one in Venice must have been boiled and reduced to be as thick and sticky as it was. I'll have to try again.
Happy Easter!
I have made these Beef and Bean Burritos before, but they are really easy and tasty and even seem reasonably healthy, so I thought they deserved a mention. Good mid-week meal.
WARNING: The images in this post may disturb viewers who don't like rare meat!
In my ongoing experiment with beef recipes, I decided to try Seared Beef Fillet from John Torode's Beef cookbook. The first good thing about this recipe is that you only need a small amount of a very expensive cut of meat and it goes a long way.
The recipe was surprising simple - cover the meat in ground pepper and thyme, sear quickly in a very hot frying pan, slice thinly. You definitely need a very good knife and some interim sharpening, but I was expecting it to be much harder (even if I did outsource the slicing to my sous chef!).
I really enjoyed this - the meat was really soft and flavoursome and didn't taste raw at all. The flavours throughout were really simple, but you could taste every one - the meat, the lemon, the cheese, the pepper, the olive oil. Really delicious. Probably not for anyone a little queasy about rare/raw meat, but for me - winner! This would make a great starter - quick and easy to prepare and tasty and light to eat.
Seared Beef Fillet with Thyme
From 'Beef'
Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main with some bread
12 black peppercorns
1/2 tbsp sea salt flakes
a few thyme sprigs, leaves picked
200g beef fillet
100ml extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon, plus 4 wedges, to serve
2 handfuls mixed leaves, cress and salad sprouts
60g pecorino cheese
Grind the peppercorns and mix with the salt and thyme leaves. Rub the fillet lightly with some olive oil, then rub the pepper mixture into the beef. Heat a ridged griddle pan until very hot and sear the beef on all sides. remove from the pan and leave to cool.
Use a long sharp knife to slice the beef as thinly as possible. Place the slices on a board and press along them with the flat side of the knife blade to extend each slice.
Cover the serving plates with the beef. Season, then drizzle over half the lemon juice. Toss the leaves, cress and sprouts with some olive oil and a little more lemon juice. Scatter the leaves over the beef, and then shave the pecorino on top. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with the lemon wedges.
I am conscious that the forced rhubarb season will end soon so am cramming in all the rhubarb recipes I want to try. High on the list was Jamie Oliver's Hot and Sour Rhubarb and Crispy Pork with Noodles from Jamie at Home. This is a great book to have in London, as it is organised by the British seasons, so has really improved my knowledge of the seasonality of food here.
The recipe is an unusual one. Chunks of belly pork are slow cooked in a marinade of rhubarb, soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, chilli and five spice. After 1 1/2 hours, the pieces are removed from the marinade and 'wokked' until crispy. Served with noodles and fresh herbs, it promised to be something very different, which it was as well as being really tasty. At first we thought you couldn't taste the rhubarb, but the sauce was really tart, which was probably the rhubarb coming through. I really like that quite sour flavour, but if you're more of a sweet tooth, it might be a bit of a shock! Unfortunately, because of the soy, you lose the lovely pink rhubarb colour, but the fresh herbs gave the dish a lift and cut through the richness of the marinade and the pork.
We paired the dish with an unusual Argentinian white wine - a Gougenheim Valle Escondido Torrontes. Apparently Torrontes is a particular Argentinian wine. I really enjoyed this - it was light and fruity, similar to a Sauvignon Blanc, but not as sweet. The tartness went really well with the pork, again helping to cut through the fattiness.
Jamie's favourite hot and sour rhubarb and crispy pork with noodles
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4
1kg pork belly, boned, rind removed, cut into 3-4cm cubes (my lovely butcher did all this for me!)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
vegetable or peanut oil
375g medium egg noodles
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 punnets of cress
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
2 limes
For the marinade
400g rhubarb
4 tablespoons runny honey
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 fresh red chillies, halved and deseeded
1 heaped teaspoon five-spice
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
Preheat the oven to 180. Place the pork pieces in a roasting tray and put to one side. Chuck all the marinade ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth paste, then pour this all over the pork, adding about 250ml water. Mix it all up, then tightly cover the tray with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender, but not coloured.
Pick the pieces of pork out of the pan and put to one side. If the sauce needs thickening, simmer on a gentle heat for a bit until reduced to the consistency of ketchup. Season to taste, add a little extra soy sauce if need be, then remove from the heat and put to one side.
Put a pan of salted water on to boil. Heat a large pan or wok and pour in a good drizzle of peanut or vegetable oil. Add the pieces of pork to the wok and fry for a few minutes until crisp and golden (you might need to do this in batches). At the same time, drop the noodles into the boiling water and cook for a few minutes, then drain most of the water away. Divide the noodles onto four plates immediately while they are still moist.
To finish, spoon over a good amount of the rhubarb sauce. Divide the crispy pork on top and add a good sprinkling of spring onions, chilli, cress and coriander. Serve with half a lime each.
When I bought the Beef cookbook a few weeks ago, one of the recipes that caught my interest was for oxtail. I've never cooked or eaten oxtail before and it looked delicious in the picture. So when the Highbury Butcher had some oxtail a few Saturdays ago, I decided to buy it and give it a try. Of course, when I went to cook the recipe, you also needed a pig trotter. Besides having no idea how I could get a pig's trotter at short notice, I'm not even sure one would fit in my saucepan! So that recipe was canned and I spent quite a bit of time searching the internet for an oxtail recipe for a disorganised person - i.e. I wanted to eat and cook it on one day and had limited access to exotic ingredients. I finally found this recipe for Oxtail stew cooked in red wine, which met the criteria.
The oxtail was pretty disturbing looking - I mean, it really looked like bits of chopped up tail!
Although it was helped by some cooking. The recipe was really easy, the kind where you chuck everything in a pot and come back a couple of hours later.
We served it with parsnip and potato mash and it was really delicious. A good beefy flavour, but the kind of meat that just falls apart. I would definitely cook this again.
We also got to enjoy it again the next day as a pasta sauce, so it is a dish that keeps on giving!
A couple of weeks ago I made a beef ragu to go with my homemade gnocchi. One of the great things about that sort of cooking is that it is so easy to make a large amount and then you get leftovers. Love leftovers!
So I had heaps of ragu left and when our friends Rhia and Andy were coming around for dinner after Rhia and I were going wedding dress shopping, I thought a lasagne with the ragu would be perfect - easy to make in advance and always a crowd-pleaser!
I used Gordon Ramsey's recipe mostly for directions on the bechamel sauce, but it also had the great (obvious?) suggestion of putting bechamel sauce on the topmost layer of the pasta, so it goes all brown and well-cooked rather than slightly crunchy pasta. Very tasty and with some salad and garlic bread and an Italian red, very nice dinner indeed. I kept the Italian theme going with antipasti for nibbles, asparagus with balsamic glaze and parmesan for starter and tiramisu for dessert.
Of course I forgot to take photos as we went (still getting used to this blogging thing!), but trust me - yummy and easy, which was good because the wine was flowing just as fast! Let's just say, Sunday was a very lazy day. Although I did make Rick Stein's American Corn Fritters for breakfast - deep fry and bacon for a hangover!
My all time worst ever cooking disaster would easily be the pumpkin gnocchi I tried to make a few years ago. It was complete gloop, no matter how much flour I kept putting in. We had pizza for dinner that night.
So you could say it was a bit surprising that I decided to try homemade gnocchi, but I felt like a challenge and something new. I also wanted to try something from my new Beef cookbook, but I wasn't very prepared, so the butcher didn't have the cheaper unusual cuts from the book. So gnocchi with meat ragu it was.
The recipe seemed unusual - no egg, lots of flour. In the end, I didn't use all the flour. The first few gnocchi tasted really doughy. I probably didn't roll the gnocchi small enough and after the first couple of batches, ended up cutting them in half and cooking them slightly longer, which was better. What was good, is that you can make them in advance, so I popped the cooked gnocchi in the fridge for a few hours while I went to the hairdresser.
I came back in time to make John's meat ragu. It should have been good - red wine, garlic, tomatoes, cook for 2 hours. I had also bought some bacon to add to the sauce, but somehow, it was still a bit bland. I topped the gnoochi with the ragu and some parmesan cheese and cooked it in the oven for 20 minutes until it was really hot. Don't get me wrong, it was tasty, just not incredible. And considering it was around 4 hours cooking altogether, it was a bit disappointing.
Chocolate always makes things better, so 'dessert' was a couple of those Leonidas chocolates we brought back from Belgium. Very special.
It is amazing how fast two weeks goes (and how much you can eat!), but it was already the second-last night of Mum and Dad's visit and time for the last home-cooked meal.
We had a (another!) bottle of champagne to start, so decided to go a bit special with Scallops with a minted pea puree. The scallops were unfortunately a little over-cooked, but the pea puree was delicious.
We had been struggling all week to make it home in time to cook dinner, so decided on a quick simple recipe that is also incredibly tasty - Sausage, red wine and olive penne. It also 'showcased' the excellent English sausages that we are becoming addicted to and Mum and Dad confirmed as much better than Aussie ones.
Mum had wanted to try dessert from a patisserie on the street, so we popped by The Fromagerie and bought an individual chocolate tart, lemon tart and apricot tart then the Italian deli for a caramel cheesecake. Unfortunately, across the board, these were disappointing and I definitely wouldn't get them again. Luckily, by the time dessert came around, we had had so much wine and so much food, it didn't really matter!
As I mentioned in my previous post, Mum and Dad were popping over from Oz to check out our London lifestyle. There would be much eating and drinking in the two weeks ahead!
After about 36 hours of travel time, they arrived at 10am on Sunday 15 February - which meant they had to stay awake for a quite a while or risk never-ending jetlag. We started our two week 'Food Fest' with Nigella's Christmas breakfast option of Triple Cheese and Onion Strata followed by a refreshing fruit salad of blackberries, raspberries and pomegranate with lime juice. It is prohibitively expensive to just eat berries in Queensland, so I knew this would be a treat.
After a trip on a London bus, the London Eye and a couple of drinks in a London pub, we headed home for dinner. I had given this meal an enormous amount of thought. I wanted yummy things that I could make in advance and also had the bottle of Billecart-Salmon champagne Kyle had bought me for my birthday to match with a starter.
I decided on Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese rolls to start, champagne and smoked salmon being a classic combination. As they were part of a Delicious magazine picnic article, these could also be made easily the day before and were on the table in minutes. They were very tasty and the Billecart-Salmon was every bit as good as I remember from my one glass in France.
I have to say - this picture does not do justice to the Lamb and Date Tagine with Pomegranate Couscous we had for main. I have made this dish before - it keeps very well made a day in advance. The lamb is so tender and the dates actually melt into the dish and make the sauce all sweet and yummy. I don't think you really need the pomegranate in the cousous, it would be fine just made with chicken stock instead. This is certainly a tasty dish and one of my new favourites.
Despite Mum and Dad really starting to flag now (Mum actually did that head dropping thing at the table and knocked over her wine while Dad started slurring his words - it is interesting to see how extreme fatigue resembles drunkeness!), we pressed ahead with dessert. One of my other new favourites since coming to London is rhubarb and particularly this Apple and Rhubarb Crumble with oats and ground hazelnuts in the crumble. It was served simply with single cream and a bottle of French dessert wine Domaine de Grange Neuve Monbazillac recommended by the very knowledgable Sean from Highbury Vintners.
Hopefully a fitting introduction to their visit - at the very least, I certainly enjoyed it!
Lamb and Date Tagine with pomegranate couscous (From Delcious magazine - Jan 2009)
Serves 6-8
Takes 20 minutes to make and about 3-3 1/2 hours to cook
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 large knob of fresh ginger, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds, lightly crushed
1.5kg boned shoulder or leg of lamb, cut into cubes (I use shoulder)
200g medjool dates, pitted
400g can chopped tomatoes
400ml lamb or chicken stock, hot
1 lemon and 1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve
For the couscous
500g couscous
1 tbsp olive oil
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Handful fresh mint, roughly chopped
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan and gently cook the onions, ginger and garlic for 10 minutes, until softened. Add all the spices and cook for 5 minutes, then add the lamb and cook for a further 10 minutes.
2. Add the dates, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer gently for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, until the lamb is very tender.
3. Place the couscous, oil and lemon zest and juice in a bowl and cover with 600ml boiling water. Cover and leave to cool completely, then use a fork to fluff up the couscous and stir in the mint and pomegranate seeds.
4. Serve the couscous with the tagine and garnish with citrus wedges.
Delicious recommends an Australian Shiraz with this - we had an Argentinian Malbec, which was also nice.
I usually prefer to stay in and cook on Valentine's Day. If you go to a restaurant, you pay over-inflated prices for generally average food and are surrounded by couples with nothing to say to each other! Last year, we deviated from this typical course of action and did go to a restaurant and of course, paid too much for average food in an environment of contrived romance. So this year, I reverted to type and decided to cook instead.
I wanted to do something different and special but was somewhat restricted by the additional challenge of also pre-cooking the next day's meal for when my parents arrived from Australia. So with limited time (although at least it was a Saturday), dishes and fridge space, the menu looked like this:
Pancetta-wrapped scallops with hazelnut and rocket salad
Stuffed lamb breast with flageolet beans and artichokes
Silky chocolate coffee pots with raspberriesI don't normally cook scallops as they are quite expensive, so this was a special treat. The scallops were wrapped in pancetta and skewered with a rosemary stalk then pan-fried in butter. They were served on a salad of rocket and toasted hazelnuts with an olive oil and balsamic glaze salad and accompanied by a glass of an Italian Pinot Grigio. Yum!
I cheated a bit with the main meal and asked our lovely local butcher for some of his stuffed lamb breast rolls that I had seen in the window the previous week. The accompaniment was a very easy warm salad of flageolet beans, grilled artichokes, roasted garlic, creme fraiche, dijon mustard and mint. I had never tried lamb breast before and while it was a bit tougher than I expected, served sliced on top of the salad and drizzled with gravy made from the pan juices, the flavour was excellent. I would definitely try it again but perhaps cooked more slowly for longer. We drank a Spanish Pinot Noir with this one.
Finally, we finished the night with Silky Chocolate Coffee Pots - an absolutely brilliant dinner party dessert as you make them the night before and they just sit in the fridge. These were super rich but a really lovely balance of sweetness (all that sugar!) and bitterness (good strong coffee and dark chocolate). The raspberries were also a nice addition to cut through the richness a little.
Here are the recipes (they are all from various Delicious magazines):
Pancetta-wrapped scallops with hazelnut and rocket saladServes 2
6 large scallops
6 thin pancetta slices
6 small fresh rosemary sprigs, all but the topmost leaves stripped
Knob of butter
Handful of rocket
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic glaze (or vinegar)
1 tbsp of toasted hazelnuts, chopped
Wrap each scallop in a splice of pancetta and secure in place with a sprig of rosemary, skewered through the scallop. These can now be chilled until ready to cook. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add the scallops and cook for 2 minutes each side until golden and the pancetta is crisp and cooked.
In a bowl, toss the rocket with the oil, vinegar, hazelnuts and some seasoning. Spoon onto two serving plates, top with the scallops and spoon over any pan juices.Stuffed lamb breast with flageolet beans and artichokesServes 2
2 stuffed lamb breast rolls
olive oil
Half a small garlic bulb, top sliced off
1 tsp olive oil, plus an extra drizzle
Few rosemary leaves
400g can flageolet beans (cannellini would probably be fine too), drained and rinsed
130g grilled artichoke hearts1 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsps fresh mint, chopped
1 tsp plain flour
100ml chicken or lamb stock
Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and brown the lamb breast rolls. Move to a tray. Drizzle some olive oil on the garlic and add this to the same tray. Place in the oven. Remove the garlic when soft (about 30 minutes) and the lamb after 45 minutes. Set the lamb aside to rest.
For the salad, heat the tsp of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Squeeze out the roasted garlic (discard the skin) into the pan and add the rosemary. Fry for a minute. Add the beans and artichokes and cook over a low heat until warmed through. Add the creme fraiche, mustard and mint. Season and stir until combined.
For the gravy, heat the fat in the tray used to cook the lamb over a medium heat and add the flour. Mix, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add some stock to make a paste and then gradually pour in the remainder until combined. Simmer until thickened. Season.
Slice the lamb breast and serve on top of the bean and artichoke salad with the gravy drizzled over.
Silky chocolate coffee pots with raspberriesMakes 4
125g caster sugar
125ml strong espresso
100g dark chocolate, chopped
250g marscapone
cocoa and icing sugar, to decorateraspberries, to serve
Put the sugar and coffee in a small pan and heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave for a minute, then add the chocolate and stir until melted. Cool.
Put the marscapone in a bowl and beat until smooth. Slowly beat in the coffee and chocolate mixture, a little at a time. The mixture should be the consistency of thick pouring cream. Pour into individual espresso cups or small glasses and chill overnight.
Put the raspberries on top and sprinkle with cocoa and icing sugar to serve.
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