Chicken liver pate

I recently made Delia Smith's Autentic Ragu Bolognaise again (it is still the most amazing ragu sauce recipe) and as per last time when I made chicken liver crostini, I had chicken livers leftover that I just couldn't throw out.

This time, I decided to try one of my favourite restaurant appetisers - chicken liver pate. Of course, I was completely disorganised, so had to find a recipe with ingredients I already had or could easily obtain in my local neighbourhood at 4pm on a Sunday (we have no large supermarket in the immediate vicinity). I decided to go with another Delia recipe, but with a few changes. I used nutmeg instead of mace, and despite going to 6 local shops, had to use prepared mustard instead of mustard powder.

The recipe required a bit of tasting and adjusting to balance the brandy, mustard and seasoning, but we were happy with the flavour in the end and I was particularly impressed with my cheat's version of clarified butter on top (I just held the spoon against the butter solids when pouring the melted butter from the frying pan onto the pates - worked really well!). The recipe made a lot, so we ate chicken liver pate several times for a week. Luckily, it was really good - smooth, rich and packed full of flavour. It was best with toasted brown bread (we also tried crackers) and was best once fully chilled but taken out of the fridge for 30 minutes to bring it up to room temperature.

I always suspected the reason this is on so many menus is because it is cheap, easy and really tasty. It definitely is all those things. The question now is whether I'll keep ordering it out when I know I can make it myself (and I know how much butter is in it)!

Chicken Liver Pate
Delia Online
Serves 6

225g chicken livers, rinsed, patted dry and trimmed
2 tablespoons cognac
2 level teaspoons mustard powder
1/4 level teaspoon ground mace
1 level teaspoon chopped thyme, plus extra for garnish
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper

To make the pâté, take a medium-sized, heavy-based frying pan, melt about 25g of the butter in it and fry the chicken livers over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep them on the move, turning them over quite frequently. Then remove them from the pan using a draining spoon and transfer them to a blender or food processor.

Now, in the same pan, gently melt 150g of the remaining butter and add this to the blender or food processor. Then pour the brandy on to the juices left in the frying pan (to capture all the lovely flavours), and pour that over the livers.

Now add the mustard, mace, thyme and garlic, season well with salt and freshly milled black pepper, and blend until you have a smooth, velvety purée.

Next, divide the between 6 ramekins (or pots). Then melt the remaining 50g of butter, pour a little over each one to seal, press in a sprig of thyme, and leave them to get quite cold.

Cover with clingfilm and leave them in the fridge till needed. Serve with toasted brown bread, cut into triangles.

Crispy courgette flowers with ricotta and mint

As I've mentioned previously, we visited the Stoke Newington Farmers Market on the weekend, which in a gross oversight considering how close it is, I had never been to before. The market is on every Saturday and is only for local producers, who come from within 100 miles. All the produce is organic, biodynamic or wild so is guaranteed to be seasonal, fresh and hopefully tasty!

While this is all good stuff, the best part for me was spotting these courgette flowers. I haven't seen courgette flowers since we were in Tuscany in 2007 and the owners of our villa also had a farm and provided us with some lovely produce. That was my first experience with courgette flowers and I had to ask Christine to show me what to do with them! That time, we just dipped them in flour and fried them quickly in olive oil. Crispy, fresh and delicate.

This time, I turned again to Jamie Oliver, that reliable guru of seasonal cooking. His recipe is relatively classic - I have had courgette flowers stuffed with cheese in restaurants - but with the twist of being deep-fried in a light and crispy batter.

To be fair, this was not an easy recipe. Opening the flowers, snipping out the stamens and then piping the ricotta cheese mixture in was all quite fiddly. I am still quite new to deep-frying, so that was also a little stressful. The outcome, though, was absolutely worth every minute and every bit of fuss.

The contrast in textures was spot on - the batter light but with a good crunch contrasted beautifully with the creamy, warm cheese. The chilli and mint provided a bit of bang and the courgette flowers were the vessel that brought it all together. Wow!

If you did want to make this for an impressive dinner-party starter, the courgettes and batter could both be prepared in advance, leaving only the 'dunking' and frying to be done last minute. The leftover ricotta mixture was also lovely on crackers, so little treat for the cook!

Crispy courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and mint
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4 (we made half)

200g good quality crumbly ricotta cheese
pinch of ground nutmeg
small handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
grated zest of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
1-2 fresh red chillies, halved, deseeded and very finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g self-raising flour
350ml decent white wine or sparkling water
8 courgette flowers, with courgettes still attached
vegetable oil
optional: a small piece of potato, peeled
optional: a few sprigs of parsley (highly recommended)
2 lemons, halved

Beat the ricotta in a bowl with the nutmeg, parmesan, lemon zest and most of the chopped mint and chilli. Season carefully to taste.

To make a lovely light batter, put the flour into a mixing bowl with a good pinch of salt. Pour in the white wine and whisk until thick and smooth. At this point the consistency of the batter should be like double cream or, if you dip your finger in, it should stick to your finger and nicely coat it. It it's too thin, add a bit more flour; if it's too thick, add a little more wine.

Open the courgette flowers up gently, keeping them attached to the courgettes, and snip off the pointed stamen inside because these taste bitter. Give the flowers a gentle rinse if you like.

With a teaspoon, carefully fill each flower with the ricotta mixture. Or, as Jamie prefers to do (me too!), spoon the ricotta into the corner of a sandwich bag. Snip 1cm off the corner and use this as a makeshift piping bag to gently squeeze the filling into each flower, until just full. Carefully press the flowers back together around the mixture to seal it in. Then put the flowers to one side (the leftover ricotta can be smeared on hot crostini as a snack).

Now for the deep-frying bit. Have tongs ready for lifting the flowers out of the oil, and a plate with a double layer of kitchen paper on it for draining. Pour the oil into a deep fat fryer or large deep saucepan so it is about 12cm deep. Heat it up to 180 degrees or, if using a saucepan, put in the piece of potato. As soon as the potato turns golden, floats to the surface and starts to sizzle, the oil is just about the right temperature. Remove the potato from the pan.

One by one, dip the courgettes with their ricotta-stuffed flowers into the batter, making sure they are completely covered, and gently let any excess drip off. Carefully release them, away from you, into the hot oil. Quickly batter another one or two flowers and any parsley leaves - but don't crowd the pan too much otherwise they'll stick together. Fry until golden and crisp all over, then lift them out of the oil and drain on the kitchen paper. Remove to a plate or board and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and the remaining chilli and mint. Serve with half a lemon to squeeze over. Eat them quick!

Homemade Dim Sum

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:

• Prawn and chilli potsticker dumplings
• Pork potsticker dumplings
• Chilli salt squid
• Asian vegetables in oyster sauce

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.

Asparagus Dip

I really do love the seasonality of food in the UK. It seems every week there is a new food-to-be-eating-right-now and the food to be eating right now is asparagus. Well specifically English asparagus, but beggars can't be choosers.

I came across this recipe for asparagus dip and it seemed a good way to embrace the food of the minute. It was actually a really nice, healthy starter and the asparagus was most certainly star of the show. I am keeping an eye out for English asparagus, so there maybe more asparagus in the future.

Asparagus Dip
For the dip:

• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 bundle asparagus
• 6 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For dipping:

• 2 bundles of British asparagus for dipping

1. Snap the woody ends off all 3 bundles of asparagus and wash in a sink full of cold water to remove any soil and grit.
2. Steam for approximately 8 - 10 minutes until tender.
3. Set aside 2 bundles for dipping.
4. Place a single bundle into a blender with the chopped garlic, yoghurt and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
5. Serve with the 2 bundles of asparagus spears.

DIY Thai

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 . . .

Crostini and Bruschetta

I couldn't let those leftover chicken livers go to waste now, could I? And I found a stray tomato in the fridge, so crostini and bruschetta seemed an obvious choice.

No real recipe here. I diced the chicken livers into really small pieces, melted some butter in a frying pan and cooked the liver really quickly with some finely diced shallot, adding a splash of brandy, finely diced fresh sage and seasoning at the end.

The bruschetta was de-seeded chopped tomato, with basil and olive oil and left to marinate for about 30 minutes.

I brushed some ciabatta slices with olive oil, baked them in the oven for 10 minutes, piled the toppings on and hey presto (is that the Italian version of et voila?), a really tasty appetizer.

The final home-cooked meal

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!

Mum & Dad come to London

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.

A Valentine's Day feast

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 raspberries

I 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 salad
Serves 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 artichokes
Serves 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 hearts
1 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 raspberries
Makes 4

125g caster sugar
125ml strong espresso
100g dark chocolate, chopped
250g marscapone
cocoa and icing sugar, to decorate
raspberries, 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.