Free-styling

This week I went off-piste a little.

I did follow a recipe for one of the weekend's experiments - houmous without the tahini. Personally I prefered this to the tahini'd version as you could taste the chickpeas and spices much more clearly without the sesame. I'll definitely do it that way in future. It was another recipe from the Claudia Roden book I borrowed from the library - its proving a great success!

Then after that I came over all over confident, with mixed results:

We had fish for dinner on saturday. Sole to be precise. Now, I thought it would be a good idea to pimp my sole a little.

So, I decided to make a sort of pesto with a handful of parsley, a couple of mint leaves, a squeeze of lemon, a few blanched almonds and a crushed garlic clove. Pounded it all together (good for the stress-levels!), spread it on the sole, the rolled the whole thing up and steamed it.

I felt like a culinary genius.

"I can do this" I thought.

"Lets have sauce too."

"Not just any sauce...I'll freestyle a hollandaise type of sauce."

"How hard can it be...?"

Oh yuck.

Too much lemon.

Too much white wine vinegar.

Not enough butter.

So sharp it made me wince.


(The fish with almond pesto was good though, so at least we didn't starve that night.)

not cheating with cannellini

So, flatbread felt like cheating.
Cannellini and mint dip was all new though. And given that Bethan loved it and asked for the recipe, here it is:

3oz dried cannellini beans
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 bunch chopped spring onions
1/2 handful of fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon of tahini
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt & pepper

Soak the cannellini beans in cold water over night. Then drain and rinse and put in a heavy-based saucepan covered in cold water. Bring slowly to the boil, then allow to boil rapidly for 10 minutes before reducing the heat, covering and leaving to cook for 1 1/2-2 hours until the beans are tender.
Drain the beans and put into a food processor with all the other ingredients - or mash it all up together with a potato masher - blend, but don't over process as its nice to have a bit of texture to the dip.
Transfer to a bowl and cover. allow to cool for at least an hour at room temperature before serving.

Moroccan flavours for winter warming

When I went to Morocco I didn't get to taste a single morsel of the food. I was playing on a cruise ship, we docked for less than 24 hours and I had to be back on the ship for rehearsals at lunchtime. What a shame that now seems.



This week's recipe was Moroccan roast lamb, so I decide to keep the theme running and have a go at homemade houmous too.
The lamb was good. Roasted with butter, garlic, and cumin, and served with couscous and roast Mediterranean vegetables. The only problem with it was that on a cold British sunday what you really want with roast lamb is rosemary, garlic, gravy and roast potatoes. A good dish for a springtime meal though I think.



The houmous on the other hand, I was proud of. Made from scratch, including soaking the chickpeas overnight, it was firmer and less oily than the shop variety. I expect that canned chickpeas would be absolutely fine, but it seemed not quite in the spirit of the project to use them. At least not the first time.

Houmous
100g dried chickpeas
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon tahini
1-2 garic cloves - crushed
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Cover the chicpeas in cold water and leave to soak overnight.
The next day rinse the chickpeas, put in a heavy bottomed pan, cover in cold water, bring slowly to the boil. Skim off any scum that forms on the surface, reduce the heat and leave to simmer with the lid on for 1 1/2 - 2 hours until the chickpeas are tender.
Drain, reserving a bit of the cooking liquid. Put into a food processor with the lemon juice, tahini,garlic and seasoning and blend until smooth. Mix in a little olive oil and some of the cooking water until the houmous reaches your prefered consistency.
Taste and adjust to your own preferences - personally I like my houmous fairly lemony but not too oily. I also added a little sprinkle of paprika at the end. A few toasted cumin seeds are also a good addition.
Enjoy!