Crisps
Last night we were very bad and had crisps for dinner. No picture either; the bag is in the bin.
Friday Barbecue
Gazpacho for Lunch…
I had a day off today, so had to look around for lunch. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t make it myself; I bought some gazpacho from our local deli. It was good and tasted a lot fresher than carton soups from supermarkets.
Thai Red Curry
Having cooked Thai green curry a few weeks ago, we decided to try our hand at red curry. The recipe we used was fairly similar to the green curry recipe except that it used red curry paste rather than green curry paste. And the main difference in the paste recipe was the use of red chillies instead of green. Lots more mortar and pestle action which I enjoyed.
I got the chilli ratio slightly wrong though. The recipe called for a certain weight of dried red chilli but we had fresh. So I attempted to estimate the correct amount of fresh chilli to be the same as dried, but got it wrong and the paste was not quite as hot as it should have been. It was still very tasty however, and slightly sweeter than the green curry. Kerri said it was one of the nicest things she had ever tasted, which I took as very high praise indeed.
Unfortunately, the dish in the picture is a bit messy because by the time we got around to serving it we were a bit tipsy.
Chicken
Today, we decided to cook something with chicken. After the elaborateness of yesterday’s meal, this seems a little plain and dull but it was actually very tasty and could easily be adapted into a number of different meals.
Chicken thighs, red pepper, red onion, courgette, mushrooms, garlic, rosemary and some disappointing wine that had been languishing at the bottom of the fridge for too long. All chopped up and thrown into a roasting dish…cooked for about half an hour and served with crushed Jersey Royals and purple sprouting brocolli. A tasty, quick mid-week meal.
G
Rib of Beef
As it was St George’s Day today, we decided a celebration was in order. We started with some Nyetimber, an English sparkling wine made in West Sussex:
We’ve had this before and this bottle has been sitting on the wine rack waiting to be drunk for a while. It’s a really good wine, easy to drink on it’s own but also great with food. It has a deep, nutty taste, a little like almonds or marzipan.
This was followed by rib of beef which we bought from the local butcher. After rubbing it with oil, salt and pepper, we browned it on the hob:
We then roasted it in the oven (15 minutes per lb for medium rare) and left it to rest for 20 minutes:
Stephen then carved it:
We served it with some Jersey Royals that had been crushed with horseradish, parsely and salt and pepper and some purple sprouting brocolli.
It tasted brilliant. The meat was perfectly cooked (well done Stephen!) and full of flavour, which is interesting because we stuck to a simple roasting method rather than using lots of garlic and chilli like we normally do. It further proves the point that if you buy good quality meat you don’t have to do very much with it.
G
Smoked Salmon
Yesterday we bought a really nice piece of salmon from our fishmonger and today we smoked it on the barbecue. Accompanied by smoked corn and crushed new potatoes. The salmon was really good, but not hugely smoky. Next time we’ll try a thinner piece and remove the skin from the bottom to get more smoke into the fish itself. A definite success nonetheless though!
Cheese and Ham for Breakfast
A quick breakfast of cheese and ham this morning, with some ciabatta rolls. It was just warm enough to eat outside.
Barbecue – Lamb Kofta and Chicken Kebabs
Another sunny Saturday; another barbecue. I’m starting to worry that we’re running out of luck and that next weekend it is going to be snowing. But hopefully that is just paranoia.
We made some lamb kofta on skewers, similar to our previous recipe (but with a heavier hand on the seasoning which worked out well) and also some chicken kebabs with vegetables. We marinated the chicken in olive oil, lemon juice, bay, garlic and salt and pepper. My favourite was the lamb but Kerri’s favourite was the chicken. Served with some tasty tabouleh.
We had some barbecued halloumi as a starter, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to it and it melted a bit more than was ideal and didn’t end up with nice, neat stripes. Still tasty though.
F
Cheese and Ham
On the left is a creamy Italian cheese the name of which I have forgotten. On the right is Comte. In the background are Serrano ham and a piccante Napoli salami.
