Cheese
As is quite usual for a Friday, Stephen and I both had big lunches. Unusually, there was a food fair near our office at which there was a good selection of cheeses. We bought Godminster Cheddar and Vacherin Mont d’Or. So, that’s what we had to eat this evening, with a selection of crackers and bread. And wine.
Lentils and Pizza Toast…
…but not together, obviously.
Stephen had the lentilly thing because they’re just too hippy for me, I had the pizza toast because, well…any excuse really 🙂 Pizza toast was just half a cook-at-home ciabatta loaf with cheese and the last of the birthday chorizo. As tasty as ever. Can’t remember what Stephen did to the lentils but I think they were green ones and there were some curryish spices in there with spinach.
Beef Burgundy
I cooked this on Monday night, we were supposed to eat it last night but we went out and there was food there. We had it for lunch today, it wasn’t bad as a first attempt but needs some more thought. This is the recipe I followed:
Burgundy Beef
1 pack braising steak
Butter
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
100g lightly smoked bacon lardons
Flour
1/2 bottle red wine
2 anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained and chopped
100g button mushrooms
Flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus extra to garnish
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Pat the beef dry on kitchen paper and cut into chunky pieces. Melt half the butter and half the oil in a large frying pan and fry a handful of the beef for 3-4 minutes, stirring until the meat is thoroughly browned. Drain with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large casserole dish. Fry the remaining meat in small batches, adding a little more oil, as necessary. Transfer to the casserole dish.
Add the onions and remaining oil to the pan and fry gently for 5 minutes until beginning to brown. Add the garlic and bacon and fry for a further 2 minutes then stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Gradually pour the wine into the frying pan and bring almost to the boil, stirring often. Add the anchovy fillets and pour over the meat. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 1½ hours or until the meat is tender.
Meanwhile fry the mushrooms in the remaining butter until softened. Add to the casserole dish with any pan juices and the parsley. Season and cook for a further 10 minutes. Serve, sprinkled with extra parsley.
I didn’t cook it in the oven, I left it on the hob. I also just threw in the mushrooms at the same time as the wine.
If there is a next time, I think more seasoning, more herbs, more bacon and more mushrooms.
So, the quest for the perfect beef casserole continues.
NOT Roasted Sweet Potato, Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes and Chorizo
Tonight, I attemped to cook roasted sweet potato, roasted Jerusalem artichokes and chorizo. I washed the vegetables, peeled them, steamed them and put them into the oven to roast….then promptly forgot about them while I was making casserole for tomorrow night’s dinner. By the time I remembered them, they were stuck and dried out and beyond rescuing.
So, instead, I had the chorizo that was supposed to go with the sweet potato and artichokes, some hummus with celery and breadsticks and a consolotary beer. It wasn’t the gastronomic delight I was hoping for, but it filled a hole and, on the plus side, tomorrow night’s casserole smells brilliant (and Stephen isn’t home to catch me “testing it for seasoning”) 🙂
Roast Chicken
Legend has it that Stephen’s roast chicken is responsible for turning vegetarians into meat-eaters. I can well believe it.
I travelled two and a half hours across London this evening, when I arrived home I was greeted by the inviting smell of a roasting chicken. It was a Waitrose organic, lovingly salted 24 hours in advance by Stephen, and stuffed with lemon, garlic and thyme. He served it with roast potatoes, parsnips, sweet potato, Jerusalem artichokes and broad beans. There was, of course, gravy too.
It was a taste sensation, and I’m really glad I didn’t have any lunch today because it meant that I could eat loads 🙂
Steak and Mash
I have a weakness for mash. Especially mustardy, buttery mash. So I am quite happy to have it with almost anything. Kerri was out yesterday evening, so I had steak with mustardy, buttery mash. The mash was really good. The steak was average; I should have been more selective when buying it and should also have paid more attention to it while it was cooking rather than spending all my time preparing the mash.
I put a bit of Blacksticks Blue cheese on top of it, which went well. In the background of the picture are mushroom ketchup (one of the finest sauces known to man) and Harvey’s sauce (okay, but too heavy on the molasses for my liking). I added splashes of these to slices of steak.
Beef Casserole and Baked Camembert
A couple of days ago we decided to make a casserole for future consumption. Where “future” means “after a night out and are really hungry but can’t be bothered to cook”. The night out in question was last night and I had a small helping then, but we ate the rest of it tonight.
The casserole turned out well, but not brilliantly. It was hearty and the meat was tender, but it lacked any sort of distinguishing features. Apart from beef and potatoes, it contained carrots, parsnips, thyme and various other standard ingredients.
After the casserole we had a baked Camembert, into which Kerri had put slivers of garlic and some rosemary. It was brilliant, gooey and cheesy and garlicky. We dipped slices of French bread into it. Mmmmmm cheese.
Unfortunately I deleted the casserole picture in a fit of misdirected house-keeping, so here is the Camembert one:
Chorizo and Curly Kale
Thursday is vegetable-box delivery day, which means Wednesday is inevitably using-up-last-week’s-vegetables day. Tonight, we had a surplus of curly kale (we have courgettes and spinach too but let’s not talk about that) so we combined that, with Stephen’s birthday chorizo, some cream, onions and salt and pepper.
It was good, quite similar to the Cabbage and Chorizo we had the other day actually.
Pizza Toast
After a very boring evening of ironing and packing away my summer clothes, there wasn’t much time left for cooking so, I made my very special cheese on toast. Organic white bread (unsliced so I can get just the right thickness) toasted, spread with a small amount of tomato pesto, topped with chorizo, mature cheddar cheese and black pepper; then grilled until the cheese has melted and browned slightly. It is perfect.
I think I’ve tried every frozen and fresh pizza the supermarkets have to offer and nothing comes close to this. It takes less than five minutes to prepare, is made from store-cupboard ingredients, and always tastes brilliant. I would eat it every week if I could.
And I managed to change the settings on the camera without Stephen’s assistance :proud:
G
Bubble and Squeak
Another of my favourite meals from when I was small, this time made with leftover roast potatoes and curly kale. Served with leftover pork belly. It was tasty but teeny. Stephen is raiding the fridge as we speak.
