Kerri was out this evening and on the way home I wondered how to use up the few pieces of purple sprouting brocolli that we had left over. Somehow in these situations I often end up craving a Thai or Chinese style stir fry and that’s what happened this evening too. To go with the brocolli, I bought some mushrooms, cashew nuts and spring onions.

Turned out very well and although I was a bit over-full afterwards, I still found myself wishing there had been more.

Everything was quite approximate, but the recipe went something like this:
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
small piece grated ginger (I used half a teaspoon of powdered ginger actually as I didn’t have fresh)
200g mushrooms, sliced
half a pack of purple sprouting brocolli, cut into thirds and thick stalks sliced lengthways too
3 spring onions, chopped, both white and green bits
handful cashew nuts
half a teaspoon of corn flour, made into a paste with a little cold water
1tbsp oyster sauce
2tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp Chinese cooking wine

Heat a little vegetable oil in a wok over medium to high heat and add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 seconds or so, then add the brocolli and mushrooms. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and add one tablespoon of soy sauce. Add the spring onions and cashew nuts and keep stir frying for another minute. Then turn the heat down, add the other tablespoon of soy sauce, the oyster sauce and the Chinese cooking wine. Give a good stir and place a lid onto the wok. Leave it for 3 or 4 minutes until done. Serve with some rice and enjoy!

This was originally going to be something and watercress pizza but something went wrong with out shopping order and we ended up with peashoots instead. I had selected watercress because the English stuff is just coming into season, these peashoots were from Portugal so not exactly food-mile friendly but tasty nonetheless.

We tossed the raw peashoots in some pesto before adding them to the cooked pizza, a technique we’ve used before with rocket. We also reserved some of the mozarella and added that with the peashoots, a good way to lighten everything up.

Yesterday’s leftover chicken reheated and served with vegetables that had been roasted with chilli, cumin and garlic. A handful of coriander and some warm wraps and that was tonight’s dinner. Perfect Monday food.

This was supposed to be mussels but when we came to clean said mussels, most of them were open. It was 7pm by this point so we quickly returned the mussels and exchanged them for some prawns. One of the major benefits of stir-frying is the speed at which the meal comes together so the fact that it was getting late wasn’t too much of a problem.

Our recent stir-fries have been a bit haphazard, basically throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pan and hoping for the best. They turn out fine, good even, but there’s nothing authentic about them so this time we tried to stick to a more Thai-style dish. This was also good and probably no better than our throw-it-all-in-and-hope-for-the-best efforts but at least we felt a little more authentic.

Thai Prawn Stir-Fry
Serves Two

2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped
200g prawns, shelled
Generous splash light soy sauce
Generous splash Thai fish sauce
Handful baby corn, sliced lengthwise
Handful pak choi, prepared and separated

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Add the spring onion, garlic, chilli and lemongrass. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add the prawns. Stir fry for 2 minutes. Add some soy sauce and fish sauce. Add the baby corn. Stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the pak choi. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add a dash of water and white wine and a little more soy sauce and fish sauce. Turn down the heat and cover, cooking for another 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in chopped coriander leaf and serve with rice or noodles.

So, having waffled on yesterday about meal planning, I’ve broken the first rule and gone off-menu. I had planned on stuffing the leftover lamb into pitta bread or transforming it into moussaka but, in the end, neither appealed so it’s gone into the freezer (actually that should be the first rule of menu planning: make sure you have adequate space in your freezer for when you inevitably change your mind).

I’m not sure if it’s the change in weather (although I admit it’s only a small change) or just a normal response to a weekend of heavy eating but I was craving salad. Obviously, salad has it’s place but it’s rarely my first choice when it comes to organising dinner. Despite the craving, I knew I would ultimately be unsatisfied with just a few leaves and a little celery so I opted for the Dinner Diary favourite: Things on Toast.

These little crayfish are handy to keep in the fridge as they have a long shelf-life and can be transfomed into something interesting without much effort. We always have avocadoes around so one of those got squashed up and spread on the toast with some lentils to bulk everything else out. There was indeed salad and very welcome it was too but this was really all about the toast.

I went to Borough Market on Friday, primarily to stock on some Mexican ingredients we were running low on but also to buy some springbok. We ate quite a lot of it when we were in South Africa and were keen to cook it again at home.

While I was there, I also spotted some pheasant breasts that were being sold off cheaply. At least I think they were pheasants. I got home and couldn’t remember what I’d bought so had to email a picture to some friends to check. These were cooked quite simply (with some garlic and shallots and then flamed with some brandy) and served on toast as a starter. Really though they would have worked better in a salad, cooked the same way but with a mustardy dressing added at the table.

After last week’s boulangere failure, I made sure to get these in the oven much earlier and with less stock and three hours later we were rewarded with perfect potatoes.

The springbok was fried simply and then served with an espresso sauce, something we ate while we were away. The sauce was simple to cook: soften some shallots and garlic, then add some red wine and allow the alchohol to cook off. Add a little beef stock, the brewed coffee and then season. Add just a little red wine vinegar to balance and then serve. We opted for some cavolo nero cooked with lardons as an accompaniment which worked well. Springbok is lean and needed some extra fat. The moist potatoes were a great partner here too.

I didn’t think I’d eaten Barnsley chops before but, as it turns out, I ate them once before with a salad very similar to this one. The salad was slightly different this time, I par-boiled the peeled Jerusalem artichokes before leaving them to cool and then slicing them. I then fried them and added them to some cooked grean beans and some toasted hazelnuts. Some goats cheese was then squidged on top. I was planning to crumble the goats cheese but it was too ripe for that.

The “salad” was really good and worked well with the lamb chops but I think it has potential as a stand-alone dish or as a starter. We added a drizzle of oil after taking the photos which brought everything together.

The boulangere potatoes were not so good. I thought since I was cooking them in smaller dishes I could get away with a shorter cooking time but it seems I was wrong. An old post tells me I usually cook them for 3.5 hours which seems a really long time but I do remember them as being very good so next time I’ll remember not to rush things.

Potjiekos (according to Wikipedia) translates as “small pot food” and is the traditional South African method of cooking outside using a small, cast-iron, three-legged pot. The pot sits on the ground and heat is provided by a small fire that’s lit under the pot (or potjie).

I’ve never had potjiekos before but have heard a lot about it. With Stephen’s Aunt and Uncle visiting, it was the perfect opportunity to dust off the pot and light the fire. Stephen’s Mom has a couple of potjiekos recipe books which we paged through but, in the end, decided to do our own thing. We settled on lamb as the meat and started with the usual onions, celery and garlic as the base. Nutmeg, cloves and bay leaves provided the aromatics with butternut squash and baby onions going in later. There was also dried fruit (South Africans are OBSESSED with adding fruit to savoury dishes which can be a challenge for haters of the sweet and savoury combination) and both potatoes and rice (they’re also obsessed with double or even triple carbs, which I didn’t find so challenging) to finish things off.

So, it’s basically a simple stew or casserole? Well yes, I suppose it is but it’s quite a difficult thing to cook. First off things need to brown so the fire needs to be fierce and then you want the stew to simmer for a long time so the heat needs to be kept constant. Stephen opted to keep some charcoal burning on the braai that he could add when things looked like they were cooling down. I think technically that’s cheating, according to what I read in the cookery books but it seemed entirely necessary to me. There was also a lot of discussion over whether the pot should be stirred or whether ingredients should just be added in layers according to their cooking time. We chose to stir.

And what of the taste? Well, it did taste a lot like a simple stew or casserole (apart from the fruit, I definitely don’t put fruit in my casserole) but that’s no bad thing. More than that though it was a really enjoyable way of cooking. We all sat outside while Stephen tended to the pot and, much like the fondue, it was all very sociable. The one thing that really stood out for me was the addition of rice to the pot. I normally serve and cook rice on the side but cooking it with the meat meant it worked as a natural thickening agent and it soaked up all the lovely flavours from the rest of the pot. Something I’m definitely going to try now we’re home and back to cooking indoors again.

I know, it sounds a bit novelty doesn’t it? Like I was trying to come up with a festive pizza or something. I wasn’t (although it’s got me thinking) but was instead wondering whether it would be as good as our favourite pizza of the year: the cavolo nero pizza. It wasn’t as good but we both enjoyed it anyway.

The Brussels sprouts (which had been previously sauteed in olive oil and butter) weren’t as deep and earthy as the cavolo nero but they did have a bitter edge that added an interesting flavour to the pizza. The salami balanced that bitterness nicely, as did the sweet tomato sauce.

While this clearly doesn’t look particularly appetising, it was actually really good. We cooked it the first time at my mum’s house but the pictures didn’t come out very well. One could argue that this picture didn’t come out particularly well either and I wouldn’t disagree but I’ve temporarily suspended my quest for a decent picture and am posting it anyway.

The sauce is obviously what makes this so interesting and it was very simple. Make it while you’re frying the chops and mashing the potatoes and the whole thing will take about 25 minutes.

Whisky, Mustard and Mushroom Sauce

5 shallots, finely chopped
200g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
50ml whisky
2 tsps wholegrain mustard
150ml cream

Start by softening the shallots until they just begin to colour. Add the mushrooms, season with pepper and cook until any liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated. Pour in the whisky, cook until it has almost evaporated, add the mustard, the cream and season.