Fish and Potatoes
While looking through my “things to cook soon” file yesterday I came across this “speedy fish and potato dish” that I’d clipped from Prima magazine. I don’t recall ever buying a copy of Prima magazine so I have no real idea where or when I clipped this but it sounded like it was worth trying.
Fry some potatoes, add some parsley and garlic, add tomatoes, deglaze with wine, add fish then put the lid on and cook for 10 minutes. When I came to actually cooking it tonight it looked too simple and I was worried there would be no depth of flavour. I cooked the potatoes for 10 minutes and they were brown (as the recipe said) but rock hard which worried me again. I persisted though (with some encouragement from Stephen) and continued to follow the recipe. I’m glad I did because it worked like a dream.
The end result was a rich, tasty dish that was cooked perfectly and full of flavour. The best thing about it was that the whole thing took about 20 minutes which is perfect for a mid-week dinner. Did you hear that Mum, it can be done!
We served this with our usual brocolli but any green vegetable would work. I think next time I’d use more fish and possibly more tomatoes. The variations could be endless though, peppers would be brilliant, olives, almonds, capers would all work. I think you could adapt it to use chicken too if you wanted.
Thank you Prima magazine!
Spaghetti with Meatballs
I was out tonight and when I got home, Kerri had cooked meatballs and spaghetti. We’ve had these once or twice before. Kerri didn’t like them this time, but I didn’t think they were too bad; needed a bit more seasoning and depth of flavour perhaps. Funny how you can try the same recipe more than once and get different results.
Sausage Pasta
I did a mini freezer audit today and found some sausages lurking at the back that looked like they needed using up. Stephen was out watching the rugby so I thought I’d use them in a pasta sauce. I don’t think I’ve used sausages this way before, I removed the casings, fried them with some garlic and chilli before adding some wine, tomatoes and basil. It was horrible. It tasted like sausages and pasta and tomatoes which just seemed like all sorts of wrongness. Still, there’s a small space in the freezer now which is always good.
Panini
Mozarella, Proscuittio di Speck, sundried tomatoes, basil and rocket.
Butternut and Chorizo Risotto
While looking through our folder of recipes to try we came across a Waitrose recipe for butternut and goats cheese risotto which we thought we could adapt to include chorizo. When we came to cook it though it seemed to be a bit of a cheat’s recipe as it required the stock to be added all at once and the rice to sort of boil in it. We decided to just use our normal recipe as it’s always worked well in the past. And work well it did. The butternut worked really well with the chorizo and the rocket at the end balanced everything perfectly. Sage would be a good addition too I think.
2 small chorizo sausages, chunked
3 sticks celery, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
200g risotto rice
600 ml chicken stock, hot
125ml white wine
Handful rocket
Pizza!
We’d been planning pizza for tonight for a week or so. So we got home this afternoon and made the pizza dough, kneaded it and left it to rise for an hour while we wandered off to the local wine shop where they had some Australian winemakers visiting to show their wines. They were from Jane Brook and we particularly liked their verdelho and shiraz.
Verdelho always reminds me of Italian or Spanish wines and this one was particularly good, with a slightly savoury nose with notes of asparagus. The Shiraz had an intense nose and full palate without being overwhelming; the 14.5% alcohol was well hidden by all the other flavours.
When the pizza was ready, we had it with some of the verdelho mentioned above. The pizza topping included bruschetta topping, mozarella, olives, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes and fresh rocket leaves. The verdelho went particularly well with the pizza; probably because of the artichokes and olives.
Lemongrass Beef Stirfry
We’ve been rather fond of grilled marinated lemongrass beef in the past and today we decided to try including marinated lemongrass beef in a stir fry and we were pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.
We mashed up two thirds of a stalk of lemongrass in the mortar and pestle with a clove of garlic. zest of half a lime and half a chilli then added a tablespoon or so each of lime juice, soy sauce and Thai fish sauce with a splash of sesame oil. We sliced up a sirloin steak into short strips and marinated it in this mixture for about half an hour. When this was done, we stir fried the steak in a wok until it was just done. Emptied the steak onto a wok and then stir fried our vegetables. The vegetables we used were red pepper, mange tout, baby corn, mushrooms and pak choi. We added a tablespoon or so of soy sauce, fish sauce and rice wine to the vegetables while they were cooking and when they were done, we added the beef back into the wok, mixed it all up and then served it. Served with some jasmine rice, it was delicious.
Japanese Scallops
Having been to Bincho Yakitori last week and had many very, very delicious Japanese style bits of meat and fish on sticks, we decided to try our own. We tried with scallops and marinated them in soy, honey, sake and a little oil. We lacked a charcoal grill, so cooked them in a frying pan. They were tasty but nowhere near as tasty as those we’d had last week which are definitely something to aspire to. Served with a simple mixed vegetable stir fry.
Cool Stuff
Today was pretty difficult to get excited about, it was dark when I woke up, it was raining and of course, it was Monday. I would have preferred to stay at home in my pyjamas but I did the right thing and went to work.
Imagine my delight when I got there to be presented with these two exciting packages – some cool chocolates and some roasted broad beans which friends of ours bought us from Oriental City. Stephen and I have resolved to visit next weekend so we can see what else is on offer – we currently have chopstick rests and a bamboo steamer on our list.
I’m trying to wait until Stephen comes home to open up the beans and the chocolate but I’m not sure how long I’m going to survive!
Rocket Pesto
I wasn’t sure what to eat tonight, Stephen is out and usually when I cook something just for myself it turns out badly. I spent a while looking for easy pasta dishes but didn’t find anything that excited me so I decided on cheese on toast, my usual cooking-for-one standby. On the way home though I started thinking about how yesterday was our one year anniversary and cheese on toast was a bit lame for our one-year-and-one-day anniversary so I decided I’d make pesto.
Stephen and I attempted pesto once before but it was a huge pain without a food processor and the end result was inedible anyway, far too garlicky and completely over-powering. Now we have the new Magimix though I thought I’d give it another go. There was no basil in the shop so I bought rocket instead and resolved to use a lot less garlic than last time.
I got home, checked a few recipes online for quantities and decided on:
100g rocket
60g pine nuts
60g parmesan
100ml oil
1 garlic clove (the recipes I looked at ranged from none to three)
So I got out the Magimix and got to work. Except the Magimix didn’t seem to want to work. After twenty minutes of changing blades and pulsing and chopping I finally gave in, threw a few things around the kitchen and got out the trusty mortar and pestle. The whole thing ended up taking about half an hour (instead of the predicted five minutes) but it was worth it. The resulting pesto was creamy, not too finely chopped and had a peppery and not too garlicky flavour.
Now I just have to wash up all the pieces of the Magimix and the various bowls, spoons, spatulas and mortars and pestles I used trying to create this quick and easy supper.
