Memorable meals

Ever had a meal that really stuck in the memory?

You try to recreate it at home, you find opportunities to return to the restaurant. You hope it will live up to the almost mythological status it has attained in your mind.

A happy collision of right place, right mood, right order.

For me its not necessarily the flashiest of meals. In fact, it almost never is. Just an inspired combination of superb ingredients allowed to speak for themselves.

Barbequed fish on the beach in Malaysia, served with rice and a lemongrass sauce. Sitting at a little table as the night fell on an island you could walk across in half an hour. I've been trying to recreate that lemongrass sauce for nearly 10 years. Simple, delicious, and perfect for the time and place.


A meal-deal of calamari and french fries with a mini bottle of prosecco; A winter picnic for a late lunch on the dock at Burano on new year's eve. Dry and subtly sparkling the wine was an inspired addition, cutting through the grease and lifting the meal from just another fish'n'chips to something we still reminisce about 2 years later.


Langoustines in Scotland. Caught that day. A mountain of them dished up in the harbour-side pub with freshly baked bread, garlic butter, and free-flowing wine. Sticky fingers. Pouring with rain outside, but snug and cosy in. I'm looking out for an excuse to return.

Scampi and chips from the fish market on the dock in Bergen. The perfect seasickness cure. Caught that morning, battered and fried in front of me, then straight into a box to takeaway. Salt and vinegar, and beautiful Norwegian surroundings. I'm looking for a reason to take Dan to Norway, just so that he can experience them. An unlikely reason for a holiday, but it'll do!


Then those meals which are delicious and memorable, but for some reason don't ever attain that lusted-for status. Looking at my list above, it could simply be that they're not fish!

Thin and crispy Italian pizza topped with smoked swordfish, rocket and wonderful milky buffalo mozzarella. Sitting in the autumn sunshine with nothing to do but relax for the rest of the day. Chicken with spices and dried fruit in a french restaurant that was really all about the wine. A sweet white I would never normally choose, but the perfect compliment to the food. Fresh bread rolls spiked with chocolate and strong espresso for breakfast in Dubrovnik. A meal of many courses in a restaurant carved into the rock in Matera. Wonderful and surprising - the host chose a selection of local specialities for us. My stomach hurt but it was worth it! My first ever taste of fresh buffalo mozzeralla. Gorgeous.

So many of the meals are really holiday memories...Of course I have my favourite bites and haunts closer to home. But perhaps because they are more easily attainable they are just that - favourites rather than legends.

Pickles, pears, and puddings

Well the weekend cookery didn't quite go to plan as I forgot to buy chocolate for the chocolate dipped fruits. They will have to be done later - maybe on Christmas eve.

However, I did manage to make a lovely crumbly vanilla fudge without 1. burning the whole of the bottom of the saucepan 2. burning me 3. setting off the smoke alarm 4. swearing. It was even edible!
I felt this to be a significant achievement.

I also experimented with a new pear recipe. I think pears are my favourite fruit.
Well, actually that's not true as I love strawberries more, but they're certainly my favourite autumn/winter fruit.
I've been exploring ways to preserve them for nibbling throughout the year. A few weeks ago I tried drying them in a cool oven, which was pretty good. They turned out chewy, a bit grainy, and very very pear-ish. Nice.

Over the last week or so the BBC have been running lots of Christmas food & drink programmes. In all honesty they're a bit irritating on the whole, but I did watch the Hairy Bikers christmas programme last week, where they made pickled pears. I'm not usually bothered about pickles but the combination of spices in their recipe sounded lovely so I gave it a go this weekend. I made half quantities, as 20 pickled pears seemed a little excessive for just 2 people. They'll be ready to eat in a week, so I'll keep you posted on whether they're edible. They smelt like vinegary mulled wine as they cooked, so I have high hopes.



On the otherhand, my jar has sprung a leak, so I hope that being 100% air tight isn't crucial to the recipe.
I do rather like the Hairy Bikers recipes - their baking programme was good last year and I like their sense of irreverance. Did you see the wedding cake they made? So fun.


But I digress; here's the link to the recipe.
I also fancy having a go at their pretzels recipe. We saw some proper German-style pretzels in Merano, in Northern Italy when we were there this autumn. They were massive and doughy, rather than the biscuity variety we get here. Could be interesting to try.

Also this weekend, my very first attempt at roast beef and yorkshire pudding. The perfect dinner according to Dan. Feeling smug at acheiving perfect yorkshires on the first attempt I decided to use the remaining batter the next day and do sausage and mash with yorshire puds. Sadly it seems that it was beginners luck. The pudding still rose but it was somewhat soggy in the middle. Ah well, you win some,you lose some....

Christmas

There's something about the last week or so before Christmas which puts me in the mood for baking. I want the smell of cinnamon and ginger and citrus wafting through the house and snowy dustings of sugar and flour on the kitchen surfaces.



I made my Christmas cake a couple of weeks ago, to Nigel Slater's recipe, and this weekend I will need to put the marzipan on it in readiness for icing on Christmas eve. That will be my contribution to the family Christmas food as I know my parents never have time to make their own cake. I have to confess I've never made anything for the Christmas meal before - my job has always been to peel, stir, chop, and lay the table. This year I'm spending Christmas at Dan's parents' place, but I still wanted to do something helpful for the Greenaway family Christmas preparations. So the cake won't be there until Boxing Day, but who needs Christmas cake on Christmas Day anyway?! After all that other food the Christmas cake always ends up being a post-walk Boxing Day nibble.

I'm breaking with tradition and doing mulled white wine on Christmas Eve this year. I had it at the Christmas market in Lille last December and it was lovely, so I'm going to recreate it at home with a bottle of Riesling, apple juice, cinnamon sticks, orange peel and a sprinkle of other Christmas flavours. Yum scrum.


I like to make foodie Christmas presents where I can, although I do worry that despite the fact that plenty of thought and effort go into them alot of people might consider homemade items to be a 2nd class Christmas present. Nonetheless, I'm taking the risk and baking this weekend. Tubs of miniature shortbread biscuits for my new neighbours, dried pears and apricots dipped in milk and dark chocolate as semi-healthy festive nibbles, and a second attempt at fudge. Christmas is the only time of year when I fancy sweeties.


The fudge has disaster-potential written all over it. Last year I tried to make fudge and all I ended up with was a very burnt saucepan which took 2 days to clean. Its taken me a year, but I'm now good and ready to do battle wth the sugar syrup again. Lets hope I can succeed on the 2nd go, as I don't think I would have the determination to go for 3rd time lucky!
Wish me luck.....

UPDATE
The fudge worked! My neighbours said they finished it in one sitting because they liked it so much. They might just be flattering me, but its still nice of them to say so.

Messing with tapas

I decided to get my recipe in early this week. I'm meant to be running the pre-Christmas cross-country race in Hook Norton on Sunday, so doubt that I'd be feeling like cooking anything that requires attention on sunday afternoon. 6 1/2 miles of up-hill muddiness will do that to a girl!

So, last night's dinner was a slightly amended and beefed-up tapas recipe: Cod and mustard seeds. I upped the amount of fish and ham to make it a main meal rather than a tasting dish. It was lovely - a real winter warmer, comfort food dinner. Perfect for a cold night, and it was certainly that!

Cod and Mustard seeds serves 2 as a main meal

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
300g potatoes - peeled and diced
2 slices serrano ham - shredded
1/2 red onion - thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves - finely sliced
1 red chilli - deseeded and finely sliced
300g white fish - skinless, cubed
100ml vegetable stock

Put the cubed potato in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Drain.
Heat the oil in a heavy based frying pan, add the mustard seeds. When they begin to sizzle and pop add the onion, potato and ham. Cook at a high high for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, then turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes until the potatoes are browned and almost tender. Keep stirring frequently.
Add the garlic and chilli and stir fry for a further 2 minutes.
Add the cubed fish and cook for 2-3 minutes until the fish is opaque.
Add the stock, salt and pepper. Cover the pan and leave to cook without stirring for 5 minutes.
You can add a handful of grated cheddar cheese to the top and of the dish and briefly heat it under a hot grill if you like.
Serve.

Just one note: as cod is one of the fish we're not meant to eat due to worries about overfishing I used pollack instead.


For a current list of which fish to avoid because of sustainability issues take a look at the Marine Conservation Society list here
And for a list of alternatives to try click here

up to date!

I've caught up!

My post here is what I cooked this weekend - Zanzibar chicken.

And very tasty it was too. I got the recipe from the BBC website ages ago but hadn't tried it out. Here it is.
It was quick, which was handy as I have been ill this week so didn't fancy making much effort. It was easy - even better. And it was filling, nutritious, tasty, warming. A keeper.

I think it would be just as good with chunks of white fish instead of chicken, and I would be inclined to use cubes of skinless chicken in future rather than putting in whole joints of the meat. That would make it even speedier.

I had intended to make sweet potato pie for pudding, but after having had a tummy bug for a couple of days I wasn't feeling the need for a two-course dinner, so that one has been postponed.

Further forays into Latin American cooking

....Guacamole. Not technically cooking, just lots of chopping, mashing and mixing.

I don't like avocado. Not at all. So I should probably explain why I bothered to make this.

Firstly our vegetable box yielded an avocado this week.
Secondly it was a busy week so the thought of a no-cook recipe was distinctly appealing.
Thirdly, in homage to Carisa's love of Mexican food.
And fourthly, I wondered if I might like avocado this time.

I think that's enough reasons. My guacamole recipe, taken from a cook book stolen from my mum (sorry Mum) turned out nothing like the green goo you buy in the shops.



I don't think I will be eating avocado on its own anytime soon, but I'm not averse to making this guacamole again. The combination of crunchy red onion, zingy lime and the softness of the avocado was quite pleasant. It made a good addition to what I very loosely describe as prawn fajitas (really just stirfried prawns, peppers and onion with a bit of tomato sauce and some mexican-inspired spices wrapped in a soft tortilla).

I wouldn't go out and buy avocado, but if it makes an appearance in my veg box again I will not be completely disgusted. Progress of a sort I suppose!

Guacamole

1 avocado
1/2 red onion - finely sliced
1/2 red or green chilli - deseeded and finely sliced
1/2 garlic clove - crushed
grated zest 1/2 small lime
juice of 1 small lime
100g fresh tomatoes - deseeded and diced
1 tbspn chopped fresh coriander
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
salt + black pepper to taste

Cut the avocado in half and prise out the stone from the middle.
Scrape the flesh out of 1/2 of the avocado and mash it with a fork. Add the onion, chilli, garlic, lime zest, tomato and coriander and mix it all together.
Next add the cumin and seasoning and stir through before drizzling the olive oil over the mixture.
Peel the rind off the remaining half of the avocado, dice the flesh and mix in with the other ingredients. Squeeze the lime juice over.
Leave to stand for 15 minutes to let the flavour develop before serving.

I think my next Latin recipe will have to be Brazilian cheesy bread. I remember Yu Chen getting me some from a Brazilian cafe at the end of the Oxford Road in London when they were still warm from the oven. Although not usually a major fan of cheese I did enjoy these. I spotted the recipe in my Cuban book last week, so watch this space. I need to find Tapioca flour first though - anyone got any ideas where that can be bought?

Souffles

I thought souffles were meant to be tricky beasts, but this recipe was super-simple. Naff photo - sorry about that! Once again, I was hungry, so it was just a quick snap before I gobbled my dinner!



I love the fact that it seems so impressive, but was actually easy to make. I had extra high levels of smugness for this dinner as they were goats cheese souffles made using my very own home-made goats cheese. Oh my goodness, even I hate me when I read that sentence back!

We had them with smoked haddock and leeks, but that could be changed depending on the season - I think they would be lovely with tomatoes in the spring, or with prawns, white fish and peas for a lighter fish pie.

But seriously, SO EASY!

Goats' Cheese Souffles
Enough for 6 small souffles or 4 larger ones

150g soft goats cheese
1 teaspoon cornflour
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and black pepper
Freshly grated parmesan (optional)

Butter 6 oven proof ramekins. Set oven to preheat to 200C.
Mix the goats cheese and cornflour together thoroughly with a wooden spoon (don't know why it has to be wooden, but figured I should obey the commands!).
Separate 2 of the eggs and mix the yolks into the cheese mixture until it is smooth and well amalgamted. Put the whites into a large bowl and set aside for now. Add the oregano to the cheese mixture, as well as the salt and pepper and stir in.
Separate the 3rd egg and put the white in the bowl with the other 2 egg whites. (You won't be usig this yolk, so you could just use it in some other recipe or have an extra egg yolk in your scrambled eggs the next day.) Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the egg whites and then whisk them with an electric whisk until they form soft peaks. Fold them carefully into the cheese mixture with a metal spoon. Don't be too heavy handed or over mix or you will knock all the air out of the egg and the souffles won't rise properly.
Spoon the mixture into ramekins, sprinkle the tops with parmesan chees if you want (I didn't for mine but did for Dan's, both were tasty). Place the ramekins on a baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes until well-risen and slightly browned.
Serve immediately. They start to sink quite quickly once they come out of the oven, so you need to dish them up and get them on the table reasonably fast for the full impact of perfectly risen souffles.

PS I'm realising that the recipes that I've been most excited by as I've progressed through the weeks have definitely been the ones which I think are going to cause problems and then are easy. They must appeal to my lazy side - maximum impact with minimum effort.

Cuban cooking

I've been going on and on about wanting to go to Cuba for ages now, so this year Diane bought me a fantastic Cuban recipe book for my birthday. It is packed with lovely photos of the country and the people who live there, as well as some exciting sounding recipes.

I've had the book sitting on my shelf since August, and although I'd looked longingly at the pictures I hadn't actually cooked a single one of the dishes until this week. The recipes seem pretty authentic, which I think is fantastic as it gives a wonderfully evocative sense of how people might actually cook in the country, but it does make some of them quite tricky to do in the UK as we obviously don't have all the same ingredients readily available.

This week I was determined to use the book for its intended purpose, and flicking past whole roast piglet (a little impractical I felt, although maybe I'm being unambitious?!) I decided upon pork meatballs stiffed with quail eggs in tomato sauce.

Have you ever had a quail egg? I hadn't, but I found them in the shops fairly easily, and I was charmed by their prettiness - a lovely blue tinge to their shells and speckled all over with brown freckles.


The recipe called for them to be hardboiled and peeled. They were fiddly little buggers to peel! I got there in the end though, and they were certainly a lovely added touch to the meatballs. I did adapt the recipe slightly from the one in my book. A year or so ago I made this recipe for lemony meatballs which suggested just cooking the meatballs in tomato sauce without pre-frying them. It tasted good and cut out an extra step in the cooking (I'm all for simplifying) so I always do that with meatballs now. If you want to fry them though, go ahead!
I served this with rice and some spinach. It might work with pasta, or just a chunk of nice fresh bread. Please don't be daunted by the fact that this recipe looks long - its actually easy!

Here's the recipe (including my changes); enough for 2 people:

9 quail eggs (hardboiled and peeled)

For the meatballs:
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1/2 onion (sliced)
200-225g pork mince
1/2 beaten free range egg
1 slice of white bread (crusts cut off)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch ground cloves
about 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or a tablespoon of fresh if you have it)
salt and black pepper to taste

For the tomato sauce:
400g tin of plum tomatoes
100g passata
1/2 onion (sliced)
1 garlic clove (finely sliced)
salt + pepper to taste, plus a teaspoon dried oregano

Put all the ingredients for the tomato sauce in a pan together and cook over a low heat while you make the meatballs. The sauce can happily cook away for anything up to an hour (not that it will take that long to make the meatballs!)as long as you give it the occasional stir, and perhaps add a little water if its getting a bit too thick.

Turn oven on to heat up to 190C.

Put all the meatball ingredients for the meatballs into a food processor and blitz them to combine. Then take a small handful at a time (about the size of a golf ball), flatten it in the palm of your hand, place a quail egg in the middle and wrap the meat mixture around it. Repeat until you have 9 meatballs and have used all the mixture.
Place the meatballs in an oven proof dish and spoon over the tomato sauce which you have had cooking away. Its best to use a dish of the size where the meatballs fit reasonably snuggly in the base rather than having lots of room around them. Cover the dish and place into the preheated oven. Bake for 40 minutes.

The taste test:
I loved the flavour of the cloves in this - I would never have though to add that myself, but it enhanced the flavour of the pork.
The quail eggs were beautiful - a richer taste than hens eggs, but so small that it definitely didn't overwhelm the other flavours.
I realise that the pictures below do not make this look appetizing! What can I say? I was hungry so I just took a quick snap and ate! Don't be fooled by my poor photography - its delicious!




The meatballs could be roasted or fried and served cold as part of a picnic meal, a bit like scotch eggs, or served warm with or without the tomato sauce as part of a tapas-style dinner.

All I've got to do now is actually make it to the country! I've got my eye on this tour. I even have some vouchers. Fingers and toes are all crossed for the hope I might finally make it this spring.

Also this week: Dauphinoise potatoes with obscene amounts of double cream. Dan was a very happy boy!



They didn't last long.

Sugar monster

This week there was a programme on TV which highlighted just how much sugar there is in the average breakfast cereal. I didn't see it myself, but when Dan started checking the sugar content on labels I figured it must have been quite shocking!
There are a few articles around about it: see here for one example.

A few months ago after many years of being a toast eater for breakfast I switched to muesli. Given that I generally run about 25 miles a week and cycle about 30 miles I figured that my joints and bones could probably do with a little extra help of some milk in the morning. My muesli's sugar content was quite high as it has quite a lot of dried fruit in it, so it sort of passed Dan's steely-eyed scouring of the food packets, but it wasn't ideal. One outcome of all this label reading was that it made me realise it would be pretty simple to make your own muesli to your own exact taste.
Obvious I know, but I'd just never thought to do it before. So, homemade muesli this week.

I suppose I shouldn't really count this towards the project as its not really a recipe, more of a free-style little of this, little of that, BUT I'm going to anyway. Afterall, I've never made it before so I think it qualifies!

My Muesli:

100g jumbo porridge oats (toasted by dry frying for a few minutes in a hot non-stick frying pan, stirring regularly so that they don't burn)
25g hazlenuts (toasted as above)
25g sunflower seeds (toasted as above)
50g dried apricots
30g sultanas
Shake of cinnamon - have I mentioned how much I love cinnamon in the winter? I put it in everything!

I toasted the oats on their own, then the hazlenuts and seeds until the seeds started to pop, chopped up the apricots a bit. Threw it all into a box and gave it a good shake.

It made enough for 5 or 6 breakfasts - I usually add a chopped banana and some fresh berries along with the milk.

BUT - a note of caution! I think there may be nothing quite so terrifyingly wholefoods-ish than homemade muesli. Such an offputting thought that I may have to never make it again! Next thing you know I'll be sporting the amazing sartorial combination of jesus sandals with socks...

Week 10!

I am quite surprised that what started as a vague resolution to do one new recipe per week has actually reached its 10th week, and still going strong. In fact, I'm finding myself actively seeking out new ideas in my recipe books even when I've already done my recipe for the week. Its definitely reawakened my interest in cooking.

I think I'd got myself into a bit of a food rut - not that I was living on takeaways or ready meals or anything like that, but I was cooking the same few dishes week-in, week-out. Easy, but it gets boring after a while.

I haven't been buying any extra ingredients these last few weeks, but I've just used what I have in the cupboards in a more varied way. It helps that since we moved house we've had a vegetable box delivered each week from here. This forces me to be a bit more inventive as you don't know what you're going to get that week until it arrives on the doorstep. Sometimes we get things I would never have added to my shopping list (celeriac, corn on the cob, avocado) so I've had to find recipes to suit the vegetable selection. Its forced me to try vegetables I didn't think I liked - avocado being a case in point - and I've become a master vegetable soup maker!

In honour of week 10 I attempted quite a few recipes over the course of the week:
Steamed Italian chicken spirals with hazlenut pesto and pasta
Spinach gnocchi
Japanese steamed prawn custards
Shahi Murg (a creamy chicken curry)
Soda bread

Actually none of them were particularly tricky, and it was a bit of a cold, wet weekend so there wasn't a hell-of-alot else to do! (except DIY. Yuck!) No photos I'm afraid, as it was after I realised that I'd lasted 10 weeks that I started taking the odd snap of my 'masterpieces'.

Let's see if I last another 10 weeks on the culinary experimentation experience!

Soda Bread

This is much quicker to make than a normal loaf of bread. It has a slightly sweet taste and a texture closer to cake than most breads. It was nice warm with a bowl of soup (I had roast squash and red pepper soup with it) and kept well until the next day, but I wouldn't recommend keeping it much longer than that.

250g plain flour (not bread flour). I used 75g wholemeal, 175g white.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
200ml live yoghurt

Heat the oven to 230C.
Sift flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, then stir in the yoghurt and bring the mixture together to a dough with your hands. (This is another one where you get messy - its usually the way with baking!)
Kneed for a minute or so until its smooth, shape into a tall ball and place on a greased baking sheet.
Cut a deep cross in the top of the dough - going almost all the way through the ball of dough, but not quite.
Bake for 12 minutes at 230C, then turn the oven down to 200C and leave for another 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.