Neither makes me feel terribly inspired in the cooking department.
A combination of late nights for work, poor sleep, and a half marathon have conspired to make me feel a bit drained of energy these last few days. I'm officially in a grump!
However, I have discovered a nice lunch salad recently which has made a good work packed lunch for a few days - continuing my exploration of Middle Eastern cooking I have been eating Persian rice and Pistachio salad. A bit more interesting than a soggy sandwich from the canteen!
Persian Rice and Pistachio Salad (for 1)
40g brown long grain rice (or white, I just happen to prefer brown in this as the nutty flavour complements the other ingredients well)
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
Pinch ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
15g dried fruit of your choice (sultanas or raisins seem to work well)
50ml freshly squeezed orange juice
A small amount of fresh mint leaves
15g shelled pistachio nuts
2 sticks celery - chopped finely
Small handful of salad leaves
Salt and black pepper
Put the brown rice in a pan with the spices, salt, and orange rind. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes (top up the water as it is absorbed by the rice - don't let it dry out). Once the rice is cooked take the pan off the heat and stir in the dried fruit, pepper, mint, and orange juice. allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before stirring in the pistachios and celery. Serve with a few salad leaves.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
A year in review
Given that I've been cooking a new recipe (at least 1) every week for a year now it seems like the right moment to review the high and low points of the Recipe-of-the-Week challenge.
Gallettes and Goats Cheese were early successes which I've made frequently throughout the year.
Other more than one-hit wonders:
Eggs Benedict
Mint and Cannellini bean dip (Bethan's favourite)
Goats Cheese souffle
Yorkshire pudds
Spiced red cabbage with apple
Salt and pepper squid
Dauphinoise potatoes (Dan loves this way of doing potatoes)
Cuban quail egg-stuffed meatballs
Guacamole - I never thought I liked guacamole, but the homemade one is great
Fruit in main meals has been a revelation - Salmon and mango sauce stretched our European tastebuds a bit far, but a range of Thai-style salads using mango were delicious, parma ham and figs has become a firm favourite, and both Duck with Mango and Duck with Cherry sauce were gorgeous.
Good week night dinners that have become regulars:
Steamed chicken spirals
Stroganoff
Fish cooked in yoghurt
Cauliflower risotto
Roasted new potatoes
Tomato and pepper eggs
Surprisingly good combinations:
Rhubarb and strawberries
Yoghurt can be used in cooking loads of stuff. Particularly surprising since I don't like yoghurt really.
Failures:
Crumpets. Boringly time consuming and fiddly.
Venison stew - the most disgusting meal of the year
Lamb stew
Aromatic Madura chicken
Occasion cookery which I enjoyed:
Christmas cake
Peanut caramel popcorn
Jam and chutney
Lobster!
Things I found an excellent recipe for, even if I have made them previously:
Bread
Custard
Things to refine:
Parkin
Steamed toffee pudding
Hollandaise sauce (not having good success rate with this of late! It keeps splitting at the last stages.)
Salmon en croute (try again using puff pastry)
Things I should definitely make again soon:
Terbiyeli Kofte (Turkish Lamb meatballs in lemon sauce)
Middle Eastern spinach with almonds
Zanzibar chicken
Crackers
Shahi Murg
Jerk Chicken
Torta di Spinachi
Aubergine Parmigiana
Steamed couscous with Fish
Frozen Yoghurt
Asian noodle salad with Cashew butter
Mexican one pot courgettes
Favourite recipe books:
A runaway winner, despite being a late addition to the shelf has to be the Riverford Farm Cook Book. Its simply excellent for lovely ideas for vegetables.
Silvana Franco has a great range of low-fat recipes that you'd never guess were low-fat recipes if you weren't "in the know".
Jamie Oliver has some lovely recipes and good tips but I don't find that his recipe books are all that user-friendly. I can't place my finger on why not. Perhaps its that they're very visual and chatty which is lovely for the coffee table, but a bit annoyng if you want clear instructions.
Angela Hartnett is fantastic, but unless you want to gain several stone its probably best to keep her dishes as occasional treats.
Lessons learnt:
Most recipes don't need as much fat or oil as they say.
Quite often poaching, steaming, or baking will do just as well as frying.
Often recipe books play it safe on amounts of spices - the quantities should be increased a bit if you like food to have a bit more punch.
I enjoy eating vegetarian meals fairly regularly, and they can be as varied and satisfying as meat/fish based dishes.
Meringues are unbelievably simple.
Homemade pasta definitely needs a pasta rolling machine.
A good fruity olive oil is worth paying more for. But keep it for moments when you can actually taste it - salad dressings, dipping bread.
I'm rubbish at making cakes.
Dishes still on the list:
Beef Wellington
Onion Bhajis
Chocolate steamed pudding with custard (Chocolate duff)
Cranachan
Rice Pudding
Semifreddo
Gravlax
Pear Jam
Future Ideas:
Make more Middle-Eastern recipes. I adore the warm spices and aromatic flavours that are used in the cuisine.
Explore some Japanese cooking. I might have to do this at times I'm eating on my own if I'm seriously considering tofu. Dan would be horrified. I've managed to get him to eat both lentils and pulses, but fear this would be a step too far!
Cook some old-fashioned recipes from Mrs Beeton's old fashioned cook book.
Shopping list:
Pasta rolling machine
Bread mixing bowl that holds enough douch for 3 loaves.
Icecream machine (a bit over indulgent - How often would I really use it?!)
Build a pizza oven in the garden!
Gallettes and Goats Cheese were early successes which I've made frequently throughout the year.
Other more than one-hit wonders:
Eggs Benedict
Mint and Cannellini bean dip (Bethan's favourite)
Goats Cheese souffle
Yorkshire pudds
Spiced red cabbage with apple
Salt and pepper squid
Dauphinoise potatoes (Dan loves this way of doing potatoes)
Cuban quail egg-stuffed meatballs
Guacamole - I never thought I liked guacamole, but the homemade one is great
Fruit in main meals has been a revelation - Salmon and mango sauce stretched our European tastebuds a bit far, but a range of Thai-style salads using mango were delicious, parma ham and figs has become a firm favourite, and both Duck with Mango and Duck with Cherry sauce were gorgeous.
Good week night dinners that have become regulars:
Steamed chicken spirals
Stroganoff
Fish cooked in yoghurt
Cauliflower risotto
Roasted new potatoes
Tomato and pepper eggs
Surprisingly good combinations:
Rhubarb and strawberries
Yoghurt can be used in cooking loads of stuff. Particularly surprising since I don't like yoghurt really.
Failures:
Crumpets. Boringly time consuming and fiddly.
Venison stew - the most disgusting meal of the year
Lamb stew
Aromatic Madura chicken
Occasion cookery which I enjoyed:
Christmas cake
Peanut caramel popcorn
Jam and chutney
Lobster!
Things I found an excellent recipe for, even if I have made them previously:
Bread
Custard
Things to refine:
Parkin
Steamed toffee pudding
Hollandaise sauce (not having good success rate with this of late! It keeps splitting at the last stages.)
Salmon en croute (try again using puff pastry)
Things I should definitely make again soon:
Terbiyeli Kofte (Turkish Lamb meatballs in lemon sauce)
Middle Eastern spinach with almonds
Zanzibar chicken
Crackers
Shahi Murg
Jerk Chicken
Torta di Spinachi
Aubergine Parmigiana
Steamed couscous with Fish
Frozen Yoghurt
Asian noodle salad with Cashew butter
Mexican one pot courgettes
Favourite recipe books:
A runaway winner, despite being a late addition to the shelf has to be the Riverford Farm Cook Book. Its simply excellent for lovely ideas for vegetables.
Silvana Franco has a great range of low-fat recipes that you'd never guess were low-fat recipes if you weren't "in the know".
Jamie Oliver has some lovely recipes and good tips but I don't find that his recipe books are all that user-friendly. I can't place my finger on why not. Perhaps its that they're very visual and chatty which is lovely for the coffee table, but a bit annoyng if you want clear instructions.
Angela Hartnett is fantastic, but unless you want to gain several stone its probably best to keep her dishes as occasional treats.
Lessons learnt:
Most recipes don't need as much fat or oil as they say.
Quite often poaching, steaming, or baking will do just as well as frying.
Often recipe books play it safe on amounts of spices - the quantities should be increased a bit if you like food to have a bit more punch.
I enjoy eating vegetarian meals fairly regularly, and they can be as varied and satisfying as meat/fish based dishes.
Meringues are unbelievably simple.
Homemade pasta definitely needs a pasta rolling machine.
A good fruity olive oil is worth paying more for. But keep it for moments when you can actually taste it - salad dressings, dipping bread.
I'm rubbish at making cakes.
Dishes still on the list:
Beef Wellington
Onion Bhajis
Chocolate steamed pudding with custard (Chocolate duff)
Cranachan
Rice Pudding
Semifreddo
Gravlax
Pear Jam
Future Ideas:
Make more Middle-Eastern recipes. I adore the warm spices and aromatic flavours that are used in the cuisine.
Explore some Japanese cooking. I might have to do this at times I'm eating on my own if I'm seriously considering tofu. Dan would be horrified. I've managed to get him to eat both lentils and pulses, but fear this would be a step too far!
Cook some old-fashioned recipes from Mrs Beeton's old fashioned cook book.
Shopping list:
Pasta rolling machine
Bread mixing bowl that holds enough douch for 3 loaves.
Icecream machine (a bit over indulgent - How often would I really use it?!)
Build a pizza oven in the garden!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Cooking from the 'Axis of Evil'
Ridiculous statement. I do hate that kind of label. "War on Terror" also bugs the hell out of me. You can't wage war on a feeling for God's Sake!
But anyway, even if it is from the 'Axis of Evil' (please read Iran) the Chicken Fesanjan recipe which we had for dinner tonight was very delicious indeed. So at least they're eating well over there while we make our stupid sweeping statements about their nation.
Fesanjan is a stew of coarsely ground walnuts, a lovely subtle but warming mix of spices (cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom) and pomegranate molasses (you can get this quite cheaply in Sainsbury's), with chicken and onions. I served it up with rice and spinach and a few fresh pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top. You can use duck instead of chicken.
Must make more middle eastern recipes - I just love the mix of flavours.
I got the original idea to make this when I had Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern recipe book from the library. Sadly, I had to return the book, but it turns out the internet is full of recipes for this dish, so just do a google hunt.
Sorry - rather short post! Turns out training for a half marathon is rather tiring, so I don't have much energy just now! The run is on sunday.
But anyway, even if it is from the 'Axis of Evil' (please read Iran) the Chicken Fesanjan recipe which we had for dinner tonight was very delicious indeed. So at least they're eating well over there while we make our stupid sweeping statements about their nation.
Fesanjan is a stew of coarsely ground walnuts, a lovely subtle but warming mix of spices (cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom) and pomegranate molasses (you can get this quite cheaply in Sainsbury's), with chicken and onions. I served it up with rice and spinach and a few fresh pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top. You can use duck instead of chicken.
Must make more middle eastern recipes - I just love the mix of flavours.
I got the original idea to make this when I had Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern recipe book from the library. Sadly, I had to return the book, but it turns out the internet is full of recipes for this dish, so just do a google hunt.
Sorry - rather short post! Turns out training for a half marathon is rather tiring, so I don't have much energy just now! The run is on sunday.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Artichokes
Gosh. There's an awful lot of an artichoke you don't eat.
I peeled off an awful lot of leaves and chopped off a lot of stalk, then scooped out a lot of hairy choke before I ended up with really a rather small amount of artichoke heart to roast! It tasted good roasted in olive oil with a few potatoes, but is it worth the effort?!
I peeled off an awful lot of leaves and chopped off a lot of stalk, then scooped out a lot of hairy choke before I ended up with really a rather small amount of artichoke heart to roast! It tasted good roasted in olive oil with a few potatoes, but is it worth the effort?!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Lobster - at last!
Week 52 of this project seemed to call for something extraordinary. Who'd have thought it would last a year?
And so, given that Lobster Thermidor was the first recipe onto the list it was time to finally cross it off.
Lobster is not a meal that you can just throw together easily - it required planning and skiving off work early to make it to the fishmonger before they closed. (I didn't think my colleagues would appreciate live lobsters crawling round the communal fridge all afternoon if I bought them at lunch time!)
So lobsters procured, I headed home to start the preparation.
Fortunately Dan had been away for a few days, so he wasn't there while I was preparing the lobsters. Which saved me from enduring him laughing himself silly when I jumped about 6 foot from shock when one of the lobsters wriggled as I picked it up. I'd put them in the freezer for an hour and expected them to be alot more lethargic than they were!
I decided to go with the Hugh F-W version of Lobster Thermidor, which uses bechemal sauce instead of double cream. I made a good thick sauce, then fried some shallots in a little butter until they were softened and added a glass of white wine. Once the wine had mostly reduced I added the bechemal and some tarragon, stirred everything together and allowed it to bubble for a minute or so. After that I seasoned it, added a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a small handful of grated gruyere. This can be set aside until needed.
So to the lobster.....I plunged it straight into a pot of rapidly boiling, heavily salted water, slammed the lid on and felt like a murderer.
It died fairly fast though, so I wasn't too badly traumatised. I don't imagine the lobster appreciated it much though. 12 -15 minutes later...voila...cooked lobster.
Then I had to dismember it - twist off the claws, crack them, and haul out the meat; cut the lobster in half, fish out the inedible bits; Mix the edible parts (including the claw meat) with the sauce made earlier, then pile it back into the lobster shells. Grate a little more gruyere over the top then whack it under a hot grill for 5 minutes.
I served it with crunchy bread and salad.
The occasion seemed to demand a fire in the room and a glass of champagne...
And then a treat for pudding. I have to confess that I didn't make it, but it was all the better for that. Passionfruit mousse cake from Patisserie Blanc.
Yum.
And so, given that Lobster Thermidor was the first recipe onto the list it was time to finally cross it off.
Lobster is not a meal that you can just throw together easily - it required planning and skiving off work early to make it to the fishmonger before they closed. (I didn't think my colleagues would appreciate live lobsters crawling round the communal fridge all afternoon if I bought them at lunch time!)
So lobsters procured, I headed home to start the preparation.
Fortunately Dan had been away for a few days, so he wasn't there while I was preparing the lobsters. Which saved me from enduring him laughing himself silly when I jumped about 6 foot from shock when one of the lobsters wriggled as I picked it up. I'd put them in the freezer for an hour and expected them to be alot more lethargic than they were!
I decided to go with the Hugh F-W version of Lobster Thermidor, which uses bechemal sauce instead of double cream. I made a good thick sauce, then fried some shallots in a little butter until they were softened and added a glass of white wine. Once the wine had mostly reduced I added the bechemal and some tarragon, stirred everything together and allowed it to bubble for a minute or so. After that I seasoned it, added a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a small handful of grated gruyere. This can be set aside until needed.
So to the lobster.....I plunged it straight into a pot of rapidly boiling, heavily salted water, slammed the lid on and felt like a murderer.
It died fairly fast though, so I wasn't too badly traumatised. I don't imagine the lobster appreciated it much though. 12 -15 minutes later...voila...cooked lobster.
Then I had to dismember it - twist off the claws, crack them, and haul out the meat; cut the lobster in half, fish out the inedible bits; Mix the edible parts (including the claw meat) with the sauce made earlier, then pile it back into the lobster shells. Grate a little more gruyere over the top then whack it under a hot grill for 5 minutes.
I served it with crunchy bread and salad.
The occasion seemed to demand a fire in the room and a glass of champagne...
And then a treat for pudding. I have to confess that I didn't make it, but it was all the better for that. Passionfruit mousse cake from Patisserie Blanc.
Yum.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Yum Yum Dim Sum
Last night we had the best Chinese meal I've had in ages. Possibly ever. So although its not my cookery, I'm going to tell you about it anyway!
I had a race to run in Oxford after work and figured that it was more practical to have a meal out in town afterwards than to drive home and then start cooking late.
So, following up a top-tip we decided to go to SoJo; a very unassuming (and to be brutal, uninspiring!) looking place not far from the station. The word in cyberspace seemed univerally enthused, and everyone I mentioned it to in Oxford got a dreamy look in their eye, so it seemed worth a go.
You know the worst kind of chinese? The type that's swimming in grease? And where the noodles are soggy and over-cooked? And the flavours taste distinctly arificial? And you wake up the next day with a tummy that grumbles and is unhappy?
Well, SoJo is the polar opposite of all of that. It restores your faith in Chinese being interesting, flavoursome, and frankly delicious. Another thing - I would say that about 2/3 of the people eating at SoJo last night were Chinese, which is surely a good sign.
We shared a dim sum starter. I'd never had dim sum before, but I'll definitely be going back for more. We had a selection of steamed dim sum, and it all tasted fresh and delicious.
Then on to mains. Szechuan "Gan Shao" Seabass topped diced waterchestnut sauce for me - a pleasing contrast of soft textured fish and crunchy waterchestnuts, with enough chilli in the sauce to warm but not so much that it was uncomfortable. Dan had beef with aubergines and declared it amazing. (Whether he had more chilli I don't know, but it certainly cleared out the last of his summer cold sniffles!)
The portions were generous, but it was all so lovely that we just couldn't leave it...so we did go to bed feeling a little bit over full. Still once in a while that doesn't do anyone any harm I think! Next time I'm going back for a dim sum lunch. I'm already salivating at the thought.
Here's the link to the google page. The place doesn't have a website that I can find.
Seriously though - its my top tip. Go there!
I had a race to run in Oxford after work and figured that it was more practical to have a meal out in town afterwards than to drive home and then start cooking late.
So, following up a top-tip we decided to go to SoJo; a very unassuming (and to be brutal, uninspiring!) looking place not far from the station. The word in cyberspace seemed univerally enthused, and everyone I mentioned it to in Oxford got a dreamy look in their eye, so it seemed worth a go.
You know the worst kind of chinese? The type that's swimming in grease? And where the noodles are soggy and over-cooked? And the flavours taste distinctly arificial? And you wake up the next day with a tummy that grumbles and is unhappy?
Well, SoJo is the polar opposite of all of that. It restores your faith in Chinese being interesting, flavoursome, and frankly delicious. Another thing - I would say that about 2/3 of the people eating at SoJo last night were Chinese, which is surely a good sign.
We shared a dim sum starter. I'd never had dim sum before, but I'll definitely be going back for more. We had a selection of steamed dim sum, and it all tasted fresh and delicious.
Then on to mains. Szechuan "Gan Shao" Seabass topped diced waterchestnut sauce for me - a pleasing contrast of soft textured fish and crunchy waterchestnuts, with enough chilli in the sauce to warm but not so much that it was uncomfortable. Dan had beef with aubergines and declared it amazing. (Whether he had more chilli I don't know, but it certainly cleared out the last of his summer cold sniffles!)
The portions were generous, but it was all so lovely that we just couldn't leave it...so we did go to bed feeling a little bit over full. Still once in a while that doesn't do anyone any harm I think! Next time I'm going back for a dim sum lunch. I'm already salivating at the thought.
Here's the link to the google page. The place doesn't have a website that I can find.
Seriously though - its my top tip. Go there!
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