Pea and Prawn Risotto
I really wanted to make pea and prawn pasta this evening because I liked the way it alliterated but, when it came to it, risotto was a much better idea. The barbecued octopus we cooked earlier in the summer generated rather a lot of leftover stock which has been waiting patiently in the freezer until we came up with something to do with it. The obvious answer was risotto and, being short on both time and imagination at the moment, obvious was about all we could cope with.
Obvious it may have been but it certainly wasn’t ordinary. When we’ve cooked fishy risottos before, we’ve mostly used chicken or vegetable stock which work pretty well, especially if they are fresh, but this homemade stock added so much flavour that we didn’t really need the prawns. They did add another texture to the dish though and lifted the colour from a sludgy brown to something more interesting. And, well, they taste good too.
Stephen cooked this while I was on my way home from work and he tells me that he found an unlabelled bag of what he thought was risotto rice in the cupboard which he added to the dregs of risotto rice that were in the correctly labelled risotto rice jar. On cooking the rice, he believes this was actually paella rice which meant that the finished dish didn’t have quite the same sticky, gluttinous texture that risotto is all about. I’m not entirely sure I believe him since jarring and labelling afore-mentioned jars are one of my favourite past-times (I know, evenings with me are a blast) and I can’t believe I would have overlooked this but he might have been right about the texture. I can’t be sure though since I was far too busy inventorying the store-cupboard to pay much attention to what I was eating.
Leftover Pork Wraps
We knew we were going to have leftover pork so planned ahead to make pork wraps. Unfortunately, we had a small domestic emergency while cooking and had to down tools for a while to deal with it. This left us both a bit flustered and meant we forgot to add the lettuce and cheese to the final dish resulting in rather puny looking wraps and a less than brilliant photograph. We realised as soon as we started eating that something was missing and things improved immeasurably as soon as these vital ingredients were added.
Continuing the theme, the broad bean salsa was supposed to be broad bean and corn salsa but it was far too late to cook the corn by the time we remembered it so they’re still hanging out in the fridge. We did remember the guacamole though which was good because otherwise they’d be partying with the corn cobs.
Despite not being quite what we intended, the wraps worked out really well, largely due to the excellent chilli sauce Stephen made. The pork was reheated gently in the sauce which did a good job of protecting the meat from becoming too dry and added plenty of sweet, smoky flavour.
This is definitely one for the make-again-soon list, domestic emergencies allowing.
Chilli Sauce
3 dried arbol chillies
1 clove garlic
Small tin tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
Splash red wine
Splash red wine vinegar
Salt
Soak the chillies in water until rehydrated, drain and reserve the water.
Add the chillies, the water and all other ingredients to a food processer and blitz until smooth.
Heat the chilli mixture in a pan, add the pork and reheat until cooked through.
Roast Loin of Pork with Rosemary Potatoes
We went to Tendido Cuatro for dinner on Friday night (camera battery was flat so no pictures) and, although the last time we went we vowed to return for the paella, we ended up eating tapas again. The couple on the table next to us had the paella though and it looked and smelt brilliant so we will definitely be going back soon.
Although we tried to branch out this time and try some new dishes, we ended up eating a lot of similar things to last time as we had enjoyed them so much (the lamb chops with padron peppers were as good as last time, the tuna was still amazing but the jamon was still sliced a bit too thickly). We did order the steak and rosemary potatoes this time though and while the steak wasn’t particularly interesting, the rosemary potatoes were brilliant. Tiny, perfectly round little potatoes that were full of intense rosemary flavour.
Wanting something lighter to eat today following yesterday’s flavour overload, we decided to roast a loin of pork and attempt similar potatoes ourselves. We didn’t know how they were cooked but they seemed similar to boulangere or fondant potatoes so we attempted something in-between the two. We used whole and halved new potatoes, so they were not as small as the ones that we had on Friday night. They also didn’t absorb so much rosemary flavour when cooked in chicken stock with rosemary in it – we’re thinking that they probably doused them in rosemary butter to give them that flavour.
Either way, they were still tasty, as were the broad beans and peas cooked with mint and annointed with lemon. The pork itself was simply roasted, then the crackling removed and roasted on its own at a higher temperature for a bit longer to crisp it up, which worked very well. Very crunchy crackling. The pork itself was tasty but not particularly adventurous as we hadn’t added much in the way of flavourings to it, but it went well with the potatoes, peas, beans and gravy.
All in all, a satisfying Sunday meal and it gives us some left over pork to try something with tomorrow.
Yam Talay and Khmer Chicken Samla with Coconut Milk
Thai food used to appear in our kitchen very regularly since we both love the hot, sour, salty, sweet combination and Stephen is obsessed with buying catering sized bags of chillies and shallots and pounding them up in the mortar and pestle. Our local Thai supermarket has closed down and while it’s easy to find the staples like ginger and lemongrass in the supermarket, the more unusual things like galangal and lime leaves can be harder to source.
Coupled with that, the complex dishes that we enjoy the most take time to prepare and cook. The ingredients need to be peeled and chopped and pounded to a paste before being fried slowly to release the flavours and then cooked with meat or fish and coconut milk for a long time so that everything comes together in a cohesive way. Time isn’t something we’ve had a lot of recently and when we have had it, there have been other things needing attention that we’ve had to prioritise over spending whole afternoons in the kitchen. Luckily for us, yesterday wasn’t one of those days which meant we had time to gather our ingredients and make two Thai dishes for dinner.
We started with a seafood salad that was a great way to awaken our taste buds and prepare us for the main course. Despite the long ingredient list, this was very simple to put together but the quality of the fish was important. It seemed a little wasteful or extravagant to boil the scallops and then drown them in lots of aromatics and they did lose some of their flavour but they worked brilliantly as little sponges sucking up all the flavour from the lime juice and fish sauce. The prawns, cooked in their shells, retained their sweetness and added a firmer texture while the squid, although good, mostly bulked everything out.
While we were eating, the khmer chicken samla was simmering away on the hob ready for us to eat once we’d finished with our starters. This is a dish we’ve cooked a couple of times before and is one of the first Thai dishes I really enjoyed; Stephen’s sister cooked it for us years ago and then bought us the book as a gift. Consequently, it holds happy memories for me as the dish that really introduced me to one of my favourite cuisines and is the one I crave most often when thinking about Thai food.
There’s no messing about with this, there are 10 cloves of garlic in there, the same amount of lemongrass and two tablespoons of shrimp paste – the really stinky stuff that you have to fry and can still smell days later even though you’ve scrubbed your entire kitchen. Four dried chillies mean it’s hot and it’s spicy with a huge amount of flavour going on but it’s also perfectly balanced and fragrant. Just don’t get stuck into the Gruner Veltliner like we did and leave it to cook down too long because there’s a fine line between punchy and over-reduced. We were just about okay but had we started on the Riesling too then we would have been in trouble.
Yam Talay (from the Blue Elephant Cookbook)
Serves Two
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 large red chillies
2 bird’s eye chillies
Seafood (we used four prawns, four scallops and one squid)
1/2 tsp sugar
5 tbsps fish sauce
5 tbsps lime juice (original recipe states lemon juice)
2 stems lemongrass, finely sliced
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
Half a red onion, finely sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced
8cm carrot, cut into julienne
10 mint leaves
6 stems coriander leaves, chopped
Lettuce leaves
Pound the garlic into a paste with the chillies.
Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the seafood, boil for one minute.
Drain the seafood and put into a bowl. Mix in the chilli and garlic paste, sugar, fish sauce and lemon juice.
Add the remaining ingredients, toss together and then serve on top of the lettuce leaves.
Mexican Fish Fajitas with Broad Bean Salsa
I can’t remember how we came up with the idea, but we decided to try making fish fajitas and see how they turned out. We have made chicken or beef fajitas many times but never tried anything like that with fish. Kerri was back late from work, so that meant I had some time to potter around the kitchen and try various things. One of those things ended up being broad bean salsa.
The fish was a whole whiting which I rubbed with chilli powder, ground cumin, salt, lime juice and oil and stuffed with coriander leaves before roasting in the oven. I also made pretty standard guacamole using our usual sort of recipe. Then the broad bean “salsa” which was an experiment that turned out rather well:
broad beans (however many seems appropriate)
half a red chilli, finely chopped
half a red onion, finely chopped
lime juice
olive oil
salt and pepper
Pod the broad beans, then boil them until just done, wait for them to cool and skin them. Skinning them can take a while (especially after you’ve probably spent ages podding them!) but does make them nice and green instead of greyish and makes them a lot nicer to eat without the slightly tough skin. Then simply mix the broad beans with the chilli and onion, adding enough lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper until it is well balanced and flavourful. Taste as you go a lot of course.
We also roasted some sliced red pepper and red onion. So it wasn’t a real fajita where everything is stir fried quickly – we roasted everything in the oven – but the end result was similar. We flaked the fish off the bone once it had cooked and made up the wraps with the fish, some roasted vegetables, guacamole and some of the broad bean salsa.
The texture of the fish worked very well, softer obviously than chicken or beef and a lot easier to eat. The flavour of it was good too, with the taste of the rub coming through well and combining well with the guacamole and roasted vegetables. The broad bean salsa was a very successful experiment and we’ll probably try a few more variations on that theme before the season is over.
Marinated Herring and Crisp Bread
Kerri was out this evening, so it fell to me to organise dinner for myself. Ever since we got back from our recent holiday to Sweden, this situation has resulted in my eating marinated herring. Which happened again this time too!
I found this herring in dill marinade in Waitrose, produced by Elsinore. It is apparently Danish but tastes very close to the Swedish style. Probably all the dill. Anyway, I had this with some crisp bread (which we bought from a Scandinavian shop in London a while back and is not actually very crisp any more), some cream cheese and some sliced tomatoes and cucumber.
Simple, but I found it rather delicious and had to stop myself just eating the herring from the jar with a fork. The cream cheese mellows the sourness of the marinade and the cucumber and tomatoes freshen it up, with the crisp bread giving it a bit of crunch. Good combination.
Veal Lasagne
I planned this as a lighter, summery alternative to the rich, meaty lasagne I usually make. I love lasagne but it can be a bit heavy when it’s warm, standing in the kitchen for hours making a ragu and then turning the oven on to bake the lasagne is not something I really want to do when it’s hot either. So I thought I’d use veal because it’s lighter than beef, white wine instead of red, lots of fresh, fragrant herbs and vegetable stock instead of beef.
Of course, when it actually came to the cooking, the skies darkened and the rain fell in one of the biggest downpours I’ve seen for a long time. Suddenly, the comforting beef lasagne full of red wine and cheese was very appealing and my lightweight version seemed like a stupid idea. Rather than turn the ragu into lasagne, I put it into the freezer and ate cheese on toast with a blanket wrapped around me.
Until tonight which, admittedly, hasn’t been the warmest or sunniest of days but it felt more like a veal lasagne day and, well, I’ll be honest, there wasn’t anything else in the freezer. It was just right though, the ragu was lighter and more fragrant than the beef version and the white sauce and cheese topping provided just the right amount of comfort for a slightly dreary August day. I’m looking forward to making a winter version of this, just not too soon I hope.
Veal Lasagne
Serves Four
300g diced veal (I got this from Waitrose, it didn’t specify which cut)
300g minced veal
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sticks celery, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
Large handful chopped herbs (I used parsley, oregano, majoram and thyme)
2 bay leaves
1 large glass white wine
1 tablespoon tomato puree
Salt and pepper
Scraping of nutmeg
1 large tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock
3/4 pint milk
1 tablespoon worcester sauce
Brown the meat in batches and then remove to a plate. In the same pan, soften the onions, garlic, celery and carrot with the herbs and the bay leaves. Return the meat to the pan and deglaze with the wine.
Add the tomato puree and allow it to caramelise slightly. Season, grate in the nutmeg and then add all the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for around two hours or until the meat is tender.
I made this ahead of time and then froze the ragu. To make into lasagne, make a white sauce and then layer up with the pasta and ragu so that you have plenty of white sauce for the top. Sprinkle with grated cheese, cook on 180 degrees for 45 minutes and then rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Lamb Rogan Josh
“Isn’t that a waste of lamb?” my mum said to me when I told her I’d used the half-leg of lamb I found reduced in Waitrose to make a curry. I didn’t think so but then I love Indian food and lamb is my favourite of all curried meats. I have successfully used leftover meats for curry before but you don’t get the deep, meaty flavour that comes from using raw meat that has been browned and left to cook down with the bones. I suppose I could have used neck fillet or shoulder but that would probably have worked out to be more since the half-leg was reduced to £5.
I first thought about leaving the lamb whole but I really wanted to make sure the flavours penetrated the meat so chopped everything up. And then I cooked it. And cooked it and cooked it. The instructions simply said “cook until tender” but I sort of forgot about it while I busied myself with other things around the house. Which meant that the meat was indeed tender but somewhat stewed. It didn’t affect the flavour but the appearance was rather reminiscent of bad curry-house dishes that have been cooked to death. The texture was different too but just different, not worse. We ate it with a kind-of saag aloo that Stephen made with some new potatoes and some methi rothi that a friend gave us. These were really good but I forgot to note down the brand unfortunately.
Lamb Rogan Josh
From Camellia Panjabi’s “50 Great Curries of India”
Serves Four
700g lamb, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt
2 teaspoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon paprika
100ml yoghurt
250g shallots (I used onions)
Oil
4 cloves
2 black cardamoms
4 green cardamoms
2 bay leaves
1 blade of mace
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Boil the lamb (and any bones) with the garlic and some salt in 2 pints of water for 20 minutes. Remove the meat and set aside, reserve the cooking water.
Fry the onions until lightly browned. Add the cloves, cardamom, bay leaves and the mace and fry for one minute. Add the coriander, fennel, ginger, turmeric, chilli powder and paprika with two tablespoons of water and stir continuously for two minutes.
Add the meat, cook for five minutes. Lower the heat, add the yoghurt and cook for another five minutes.
Add salt and the reserved cooking water (topped up with tap water if necessary to make 800ml). Cook until tender 🙂 Remove the mace and serve.
Broad Bean and Pea Soup
I picked up a couple of bags of reduced broad beans on Monday, intending to use them for dinner tonight. We ate some last night and they were definitely past their best so, not wanting to throw them away, I started to think of other things to do with them. Initially, I thought I’d make them into pesto but, at the last minute, changed my mind and turned them into soup.
I thought this would be fairly quick to make but it ended up taking quite a while, it was worth it though because the end result was delicious with all the flavour of broad beans (and peas) without the floury texture. The Gruyere croutons were of course really good too.
Broad Bean and Pea Soup
Serves Two
1 large onion, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 sprigs thyme
500g broad beans, removed from the pods and double podded
500g peas, shelled
Salt and pepper
1 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons yoghurt
Baguette, sliced
Grated Gruyere
Start by softening the onion, celery and garlic in some olive oil with the thyme. Add the beans and peas, season and add the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Just before the end of the cooking time, top the baguette slices with the grated cheese and grill until the cheese has melted.
Remove the soup from the heat and discard the thyme sprigs. Blend until smooth, stir in the yoghurt, top with the cheese slices and serve.
Veal Estofado
Leafing through a back copy of the Jamie magazine at the weekend, I came across this dish which appealed to me instantly. During our World Cup series, we cooked Greek stifado which we both loved, not only for it’s flavour but also for the ease in which it was produced. The Greek version used pork shoulder but this version uses veal which we’re both keen to eat a lot more of now that we’ve found a good supplier. Not only is it an industry that’s worth supporting but, if you can find it, it’s very cheap. This cut, known as osso bucco or shank, was just £3.04 and there was more than enough for the two of us.
As with the pork version, it was super simple to make and produced a rich, deep dish that you would be forgiven for thinking used lots of complex spicing or lengthy browning and simmering techniques. I cooked this in two stages, the browning and initial simmering with the lid on yesterday and the more gentle simmering tonight when we got home from work so there was some effort involved but nothing too taxing. The veal took on all the flavours from the spices and other ingredients, was meltingly tender and had the added bonus of producing some brilliant bone-marrow which we spread onto torn up bread while waiting for the vegetables to cook.
Jamie reckons you can adapt this for any time of the year by using seasonal vegetables which I don’t entirely agree with. We ate broad beans and peas with ours which were lovely and summery but this is still a fairly hearty dish, even with bread taking the place of something more wintery like mashed potatoes. It was however perfect for the damp and dreary weather we had today which was a lucky accident really but one I’m more than happy with.
