Thai Style Trout, Greens and Mushrooms
I’m calling the trout “Thai Style” because it contains typical Thai ingredients (it was marinated in chilli, garlic, lemongrass, lime and coriander), but it doesn’t come from a recipe so probably isn’t authentic in any way. The greens were steamed and the mushrooms were fried (with a sprinkling of chilli and a dash of fish sauce) and then tossed together with some oyster sauce and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Served with jasmine rice. All very tasty – quite a success – we’ll definitely be doing more of this sort of thing in the near future.
Chorizo, Broad Bean and Sage Risotto
In another attempt to use up our ever-expanding sage bush, tonight we made risotto. This is normally Stephen’s domain but I’ve long felt it was something I should conquer. It turned out ok, despite the fact that the shallots and celery caught, as did the chorizo.
Normally, we’d use rosemary for this but the sage worked well. And the broad beans added a nice freshness too.
G
Very Sagey Roast Chicken
Our herb garden is growing very successfully and one of the best plants is the sage. We’ve neglected it somewhat though so today decided to use some with our chicken. We filled the cavity with some of the bigger leaves, pushed some under the skin and chopped some up to make stuffing. The result: perfectly cooked roast chicken with a fragrant, sagey flavour.
Of course, we had to have roast potatoes too. Stephen has stolen my crown and he is now in charge of the roast potatoes (as well as the chicken) and he cooked these perfectly crunchy, tasty potatoes.
We also had some roasted butternut which was sweet and looked really pretty, both in it’s dish and on the plate.
Gravy, runner beans and cabbage completed the feast which brightened up a rainy Sunday.
G
Salami, Cheese and Olives
Last night we had a simple snack of salami, cheese, olives and bread while watching television. The cheeses were mature cheddar, smoked cheddar and an ash-rolled goats’ milk cheese. I’d bought the smoked cheddar and goats’ cheese at the farmers’ market in Hammersmith on Thursday and both were really good, which meant that the supermarket cheddar was rather neglected. The salami was Brianza salami, which was very tasty indeed. All washed down with a Corbiere rosé.
Lemongrass Beef and Thai Curry
Last night I came home to the smell of cooking, Stephen was busy mortaring and pestling lots of different ingredients for our Thai feast.
We started with lemongrass beef, which we’ve had before.
We grilled the beef rather than frying and, along with the extra marinating, it really seemed to help the flavour.
This was followed by green curry, which actually turned out more orange as we didn’t have enough green chillies and had to add some extra red ones; quite a lot of extra red ones. It was very hot but really tasty.
G
Risotto with Chicken, Bacon and Mushrooms
We were both really hungry at work today and fancied risotto. Kerri had been going on about it for a few days and it had affected me too. We bought lardons, chicken and mushrooms and picked some rosemary from our fledgeling herb garden and set about making the risotto. Everything was going swimmingly until it came to measuring the rice: we only had half as much as we theoretically needed. The result was that we had a very additive-rich risotto which was very tasty.
Catalan Fish Stew with Chicken instead of Fish
Last week, we cooked Romesco de peix and today we did the same with chicken instead of fish. The effect was quite different; partly due to the chicken vs fish difference but also due to the fact that this time we actually had enough almonds. Served with some new potatoes and spring greens.
Arbroath Smoked Salmon and Cheese Salad
Stephen and I went out for lunch today so decided on fishy salad for dinner. When we got home though, we both changed our minds. I felt like spaghetti with my salmon and Stephen was craving a cheese salad. So, that’s what we did. I can’t comment on the cheese salad but the salmon spaghetti was good, would have been better with lemon juice though.
G
Fish Stew with Peppers, Almonds and Saffron
Otherwise known as Romesco de peix. We cooked this from a recipe in the Moro cookbook. Onions, thinly sliced red peppers and garlic, cooked down together. The aroma of these ingredients cooking together is delicious and comforting in a savoury but distinctly unFrench style. Added bay, rosemary, paprika, saffron, tomatoes, white wine and finally ground, roasted almonds. Let that cook down for a bit before adding fish pieces (we used sea bass; can’t remember what the recipe recommended) and prawns (the recipe recommended clams but we couldn’t get any at the last minute) and letting it cook with the lid on for a few minutes until the fish and prawns were done. Served it with simple boiled rice.
Really tasty and comforting on a rainy, grey day that should be spring but is really not making much of an effort in that department. Eating prawns this way with the shells on can be really messy though, but the shells do give a lovely flavour. Next time we’ll try some sort of compromise. Or maybe use clams (which have convenient handles) instead and serve prawns as a starter if we feel compelled to have them.
F
Steak and Dauphinoise Potatoes
On Friday night we had steak and dauphinoise potatoes. We were worried that we wouldn’t get to our butcher before they closed on the way back from work, so I called them and they were nice enough to cut us two nice ribeye steaks and leave them at the deli next door for us to pick up when we got there. A good thing we did that rather than relying on supermarket steak, because they were really tasty.
The dauphinoise potatoes didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped. They were both dry and a bit undercooked. Our timer is a bit broken and plays tricks on us, but I’m sure I double checked. Also, I was a bit worried about making it too wet (because that’s what happened last time we did it) so probably put in too little cream. We did get to use our new teal Le Creuset dish though, so it wasn’t entirely a disaster.
We also had some sauteed mushrooms and caramelised onions. And I had mushroom ketchup on my steak. Mmmmmm steak.
F
