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
Poached Salmon
After last night’s culinary adventures, we felt we should make the effort to be healthy this evening. We settled on poached salmon (salmon cooked in boiling water with wine, onion and mixed herbs) and green vegetables. I think it needs a little work as not a lot of the flavours made their way into the salmon.
I did appreciate just how much this piece of salmon actually looks like a fish though!
St John
Last night, Stephen and I went to St John for dinner. It’s my second visit there and, once again, the food was excellent.
We arrived slightly early and had a drink in the bar, their house Champagne (Jean Milan brut) which is brilliant and then a glass of Muscat Sec which smelt a lot like sweet Muscat but was actually dry.
We started with a selection of dishes because we couldn’t decide what to choose: cured beef with celeriac, shrimp salad, bone marrow and a gull’s egg. The beef had a real sweetness to it that went very well with the celeriac, which had a horseradish dressing on it. The shrimp were also quite sweet and served with sliced white cabbage, an unusual combination but one that worked well. The gull’s egg, according to Stephen, was tasty and more delicate than a hen egg. I’d not had the bone marrow before but I enjoyed it, it tasted a lot like gravy to me.
We followed this with just one main course each, I had the pot roasted Gloucestor old spot with prunes which was perfectly tender and full of flavour. Stephen had the smoked eel and bacon with the best-mashed-potato-in-the-world-ever which, although good, didn’t have a huge amount of flavour.
Even though we were full, we ordered some honey and whisky ice-cream and some cheese to finish. The ice-cream was brilliant and the cheese was good too, although we forgot to find out what we were eating.
We drank a very good Jurancon Sec, which we bought another bottle of to take home.
It was a struggle to walk to the tube station afterwards, but well worth it 🙂
G
Lamb Chops
A quick dinner this evening of lamb chops, marinated in garlic and rosemary, fried and served with some leftover tabbouleh and pitta bread. Tasty but two chops each would have been better.
Le Creuseted Chicken
On Sunday, we use our new casserole dish to roast a chicken.
We began by browning the chicken on all sides and removing if from the pot. Next, we sweated off some carrot, celery, onion and garlic. We then added the chicken back to the pot with some sage, thyme and bay. We added about a pint of water, a little stock, some wine and salt and pepper. The chicken cooked for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Once the chicken was cooked, we removed it from the pan and reduced the cooking liquid until it had thickened. We added three types of mustard and a little cream to make a really tasty sauce.
We served the chicken with crushed Jersey Royals, and some baby vegetables.
Cinco de Mayo
Being Cinco de Mayo today, we decided to have something Mexican.
So we started with Margaritas:
Which we drank with some tortilla chips (Poco Loco brand which taste much more like real Mexican tortilla chips than supermarket brands do) with some slightly too wet (even though I’d drained it once) but still tasty tomato salsa and some guacamole (which was really hot if you happened across a chilli seed, but again tasty):
Then main course… Mole Poblano de Guajolote! Lots of preparation. The recipe called for four types of chilli: Mulato, Ancho, Pasilla and Chipotle. The only one of these that we managed to find was Mulato, so we substituted some Kashmiri dried chilli for the rest of them. The result was good, but could do some some adjustment before it’s brilliant. It is on the right here, along with some rice and some black beans:
The Mulato chillis warrant a picture of their own, looking like a mutant crossing of chillis and giant prunes:
F
