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.
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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.
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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.
Pork Chops
Pork chops stuffed with garlic, bay and rosemary. Served with garlic mushrooms, braised lemony leeks and roasted butternut.
Very simple but very tasty.
Slutty Spaghetti with Asparagus
I couldn’t decide what to eat this evening but after the success of last night’s pasta, I thought I’d try something similar with asparagus. I love asparagus and am determined to eat as much of it as possible while it’s in season. I usually just have it with butter or parma ham so was keen to see what it would be like incorporated into a dish.
Sadly, it didn’t work out. I used similar ingredients to last night: garlic, basil, chilli, anchovies, capers, cherry tomatoes and tomato puree then threw the asparagus in towards the end. They just didn’t cook though and the sauce started to catch.
I think it could work, perhaps if the asparagus was griddled seperately and then added at the very end. I’ve just realised I forgot the parmesan too which probably didn’t help.
I did get to eat from my new green bowl though which I bought purely because I thought it would look nice with the asparagus 🙂
Slutty Spaghetti
Or Tart’s Spaghetti. Or Pasta Puttanesca.
I’ve never made this before, I’ve no idea why as I love pasta and all the ingredients contained within this dish. Stephen was out tonight so I thought I’d give it a try and I am so glad I did. This is officially my New Favourite Thing. It’s so quick to make, uses mostly store-cupboard ingredients and, best of all, is one of the tastiest things I’ve eaten for a very long time.
The anchovies and capers add a real richness which is balanced by the freshness of the basil, the chilli adding a further intensity and heat. It had an almost meaty taste and texture. I absolutely loved it.
I cooked too much pasta (surprise, surprise) but it didn’t matter as there was plenty of delicous sauce to coat it. It was a struggle to stop eating.
Stephen is out again tomorrow night, I may well be eating this again!
Smoked Chicken
Today, we attempted to smoke a chicken on the barbeque. We used woodchips to create a smoky flavour and cooked the whole thing with the lid on. It took much longer to cook than we expected but the flavour was very smoky. So smoky that it reminded me of bacon.
We also had boerewors and Grapetiser:
Fish Braai
Another sunny and warm weekend so another barbeque. Two actually.
On Saturday, we picked up some prawns, a rainbow trout, a red mullet and a sea bream to barbeque.
The prawns were marinated in olive oil, lime, chilli and garlic. The other fishes were brushed with oil and stuffed with rosemary, lemon and bay. It was interesting to eat three different fishes at once because the flavours were all so different. My favourite (other than the prawns) was the trout. Stephen favoured the mullet.
