Cannellini Bean Bruschetta
Isn’t the Internet brilliant? Not only can you check the weather (which I do at least 10 times a day as soon as the clocks change) and buy shoes but you can talk to people online about a whole host of subjects. While I’m not sure how I ever lived without it, I am sure that if it wasn’t for the Internet then today’s dinner would have been a whole lot easier.
This was a pretty straightforward dish to put together: cook the beans, soften the onions, mix together, cook a bit more then season. Except, just as the beans were on the verge of being cooked, I got sucked into reading about the eating habits of the Amish in Pennsylvania and the whole lot were ruined. I tried to save them but the fact that the entire flat smelt like burnt hair meant they had to go in the bin and I had to start again. Another two hours of cooking time (and I hate the smell of beans cooking almost as much as I hate the smell of burnt hair) and I was ready to get on with finishing things off.
Mostly I’m glad I persevered but I think the beans lacked flavour when eaten on their own. Since we weren’t planning to eat them on their own, I suppose this doesn’t really matter. The sweet ham and the sharp, salty goats cheese soon sorted that out though and this made for a good, quick dinner. Well, it would have been quick if it weren’t for those damn Amish folk.
Cannellini Bean Bruschetta
Serves Two, generously
250g cannellini beans
2 spring onions
2 medium leeks
1 clove garlic (2 would have been better)
Salt
Olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Mint, finely chopped
Cook the beans until they are just becoming tender. CHECK CONTINUALLY THAT THERE IS ENOUGH WATER IN THE POT. Set aside and reserve any remaining liquid.
In a separate pan, fry the spring onions, leeks and garlic until soft.
Add the leek mixture to the beans (add more water if necessary, or in fact stock) and cook until the beans are soft – ideally for about 10 minutes but this can be difficult to judge depending on how well cooked the beans were to start with.
Remove from the heat, season, dress with olive oil, lemon juice and the chopped mint.
At this point, you could just eat them but the longer you leave them the better they will be since they will continue to suck up any remaining cooking liquid, as well as the oil and lemon juice.
We chose to eat these on top of some toasted bread which is why I’ve titled the post “bruschetta” but really the beans should have been squashed first. They would work well as a side dish too, served alongside some meat or fish.
Beef Stroganoff
I arrived home this evening to the smell of onions and mushrooms cooking, which was very welcoming. The reason was that Kerri was making beef stroganoff. She had checked a few recipes but the end result was an amalgamation of them rather than any one in particular. The result was good although could have done with a little more paprika and a little more soured cream. The recipe went something like this, with estimated amounts for the soured cream and paprika:
Ingredients – serves 2 rather generously (as it turned out, we weren’t that generous with ourselves and I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!)
500g button mushrooms, sliced
a few dried shitake or porcini mushrooms, soaked in warm water until soft and then finely sliced
250g beef fillet
splash of brandy
4 tablespoons soured cream
half teaspoon of paprika
salt
black pepper (freshly ground)
squeeze of lemon
chopped parsley
cooked rice or pasta for serving
Method
Fry the onions in a frying pan or wok in a little olive oil until soft and golden. Remove from the pan and fry the sliced mushrooms until soft, seasoning with black pepper. These steps will probably take 20 minutes or so. Slice the fillet into thin strips and season with salt and pepper. The turn up the heat, add a little more oil to the pan and stir fry the beef strips for a couple of minutes. Add the splash of brandy and very carefully flame it, then wait until the alcohol burns off.
Add the soured cream along with the mushrooms and onions and paprika. Turn the heat down and stir, letting it all combine and heat through. Test for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed, and a squeeze of lemon. Stir in the chopped parsley.
Serve with rice (which is traditional) or pasta (which we did because I accidentally bought too much spaghetti last time I went shopping…)
Tortilla Casserole, aka Mexican Lasagne
When paging through Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, we found something which we initially thought was a bit odd but strangely interesting – a Mexican version of lasagne, layered up with tortillas instead of lasagne sheets. We became determined to try it and thought that it would be a good way to use up the left over chilli-roasted pork that we had in the freezer. We took the general concept and made a recipe up around it rather than following an actual recipe.
We had bought the ingredients for making tortillas and were half thinking about making it today, weighing it up against getting out and doing some healthy outdoor pursuits. However, the weather in the morning looked rather grey, dreary and blustery so we figured that outdoor pursuits were out of the question. It did brighten up later, but by that time we were already elbow-deep in tortillas, pork and beans.
So we defrosted the pork. We also cooked some pinto beans to make typical Mexican frijoles (recipe here) and some slightly Mexicanised tomato sauce, but we were a little lazy with this one and didn’t go to great lengths to toast, soak and liquidise chillies, etc. Then we made up some home made tortillas.
When these were all done, we layered it up with a layer of tortillas as a base, followed by the pork, some of the tomato sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese, then another layer of tortillas and then the beans and some more tomato sauce. Topped off with a final layer of tortillas and some more sauce and a generous sprinkling of grated cheese. Baked in the oven for 30 minutes and it came out smelling really good.
The pork was really good, but we knew that already because we had had it before and the beans were good too, but then we knew that they would be beause that recipe makes nice beans. So it was tasty, but not necessarily any more tasty than if we had just used the pork and the beans and wrapped them up in tortillas as usual and saved ourselves a lot of work. One thing that you don’t get when doing that though it the toasted cheesy crust on top, which was really good. It seems that this sort of dish does have potential though – maybe next time we should follow a recipe properly rather than just making it up as we go along.
PS We added a dash of guacamole on top of it since we love guacamole so much…
Watercress and Wild Garlic Soup and Rack of Lamb
I went to Borough Market on Friday, primarily to replenish some Mexican ingredients we’ve run out of but also to find something for Sunday’s dinner. While I was there, I also spotted some wild garlic which I’ve never seen before. I wasn’t sure what to do with it but at some point it struck us that it would make a good soup with the watercress languishing in the bottom of the fridge. It did make a good soup but the flavour was more delicate than we would have liked. I had considered also using some of the fresh garlic I bought at the same time but decided against it on the basis that the leaves of the wild garlic tasted reasonably strong.
One of the other things I bought was a rack of lamb. This is one of our favourite things to eat and it’s been a while since we last cooked one. We kept this very simple and served it with some sauteed potatoes and some asparagus. The lamb was good but not as big on flavour as the lamb we had from Allens. The asparagus was perfect though, much better than the early season stuff we’ve been eating recently.
Springbok Fillet and Jersey Royals
Kerri went to visit Borough Market on Friday to buy a few things and she asked if I could think of anything else that I would like her to get while she was there. I racked my brains for something interesting that was hard to find elsewhere and eventually thought of springbok, which Gamston Wood sell – they mostly sell ostrich from their farm, but they also sell various other “exotic” meats.
Springbok are members of the antelope family that live in southern Africa; their distinctive curved horns and attractively striped pelt make them very recognisable and they are the emblem of the South African national rugby team. They are also very tasty.
We went for simplicity here – simply seasoned the two steaks with salt and pepper, rubbed them with a little oil and dropped them onto a hot griddle pan. After a couple of minutes per side we popped them into the oven for a little longer as they were quite thick. This seemed like a very restauranty type of procedure, but we weren’t that used to it and ended up cooking the steaks a little more than we had planned, but that didn’t seem to matter much – after resting they were still tender and delicious.
Very delicious in fact. The taste was similar to a very deeply flavoured cut of beef, with a lightly gamey or livery note to it that complemented the meatiness rather than overpowering it. They were very lean though, more so than a beef fillet, so quite different to the beef steaks that we have had lately which have mostly been aged ribeye with lovely yellowish marbling. Kerri commented that regardless of this, she thought they were the best steaks of any sort that she has tasted for ages and I had to agree.
We had made a quick redcurrant and red wine sauce with a good grind of black pepper in it and added a little splash onto the steaks here and there, and it did match very well, but they didn’t need much to go with them really so we didn’t use that much of the sauce in the end.
With the steaks we also had another simply prepared but delicious ingredient – our first Jersey Royal potatoes of the season. They were wonderful too, served with just some salt and pepper and butter. A lovely combination of nutty and creamy and of course very potatoey and slightly earthy, they were just what we had been looking forward to. And served in a newly purchased special Jersey Royal bowl that Kerri had picked up at Borough Market too.
With the springbok it seemed right to drink a good South African red wine, and we had just the thing waiting on the wine rack – a Fairview “Solitude” shiraz from 2001 that has been biding its time for several years waiting for the opportunity to be enjoyed. It turned out to be just what I had hoped – smooth, full elegant fruit with well integrated oak and spicy notes, its relatively high alcohol going unnoticed as it was so well balanced by fruit, tannin and just the right dose of acidity.
So a really good meal all round – hopefully we haven’t used up all of our culinary luck for the weekend as we have a few more things planned and would prefer them to turn out well too!
Sort-Of Nicoise Salad
Eeek, doesn’t that look dryer than a dry thing? It really wasn’t though but perhaps that’s because I added lots of extra dressing when I sat down to eat.
So, I wanted to eat asparagus tonight because, you know, it’s in season and we love it and it doesn’t hang around for long. Then I remembered we had potatoes in the fridge that needed using up so I thought I’d put the two together. I was going to add some smoked trout but then I suddenly remembered tuna. I hate the tinned stuff but love the fresh kind, we just don’t eat it because it’s so unfriendly to the environment. I thought about reverting to the trout but there was no way that was going to cut it when the tuna was looming so large so, I ignored the little monster sitting on my solider and scurried to Waitrose to pick up said fish.
We’ve done something similar to this before but without the olives. Stephen’s a big fan of the nicoise but I’m not so keen, largely due to the eggs. I keep on trying to love them but I don’t think it’s going to happen so I just left them out. He didn’t seem to mind, I added some tomatoes which is another thing we fight over and that seemed to please him.
So, tuna, new potatoes, asparagus instead of green beans, olives, tomatoes, lettuce and a Dijon vinagrette. No anchovies because they’re also on the banned list and my conscience couldn’t cope with two unfriendly fishes in one night. Similar to a nicoise salad but not really. Just as good though, or better really if you don’t like eggs. Chicken would work here too (free-range, obviously), if you’re not as environmentally irresponsible as I was being this evening.
Chickpea Curry
As we weren’t lounging in the sun yesterday, we decided to make the most of the time and prepare something for tonight’s dinner. We hadn’t planned on cooking anything so had to make do with what we had in the cupboards. Stephen suggested a curry made with pulses and this, from Camelia Panjabi’s book, fitted the bill perfectly.
We’ve made chickpea curry before but it wasn’t a huge success. It was a quick and easy recipe from the BBC web site and it suffered from the lack of slow-cooking. This dish was the polar opposite, with lots of blending and browning and frying and simmering but it was definitely worth spending the extra time because this dish was far superior to the previous incarnation. The onions cooked down to form a deep and delicious sauce with a lot of woody spice character.
We served it with basmati rice and some moong dal that we had cooked a few weeks ago and frozen.
Chickpea Curry
Serves Six
250g dried chickpeas
3 large onions
15g fresh ginger
15g garlic
250g tinned tomatoes
2 black cardamoms
8 cloves
2 bay leaves
15 peppercorns
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Pinch of asafoetida
65ml oil
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Soak the chickpeas overnight in five cups of water (we just soaked ours for four hours).
Chop two of the onions and reserve. In a food processor, blend another onion with the ginger and garlic. Puree the tomatoes separately.
Place the chickpeas and soaking water into a pot with the last chopped onion, the cardamomsa, cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns, cumin seeds, one teaspoon of salt and the asaofetida. Bring to tbe boil. Cook for 50 minutes. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid.
In a separate pot, heat the oil. Add the reserved onion and saute for 25 minutes until brown. Add the pureed onion, ginger and garlic and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder and pepper and stir. After one minute, add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.
Add the cooked chickpeas and stir. Add the water in which the chickpeas were cooked and cook until tender. Add salt.
Shooter’s Sandwich
Stephen and I have been keeping a keen eye on the weather all week and when we realised it was going to be 23 degrees today, we started planning some outdoor food. We initially considered a barbecue but eventually settled on a picnic in the park: much less effort which would result in more time for sun worshiping. That dream was shattered pretty quickly when we woke up and it was raining and there was no sign of any sun.
Of course, having decided on a picnic in advance meant we had already started preparing the food and had in fact finished what was to be the main event: Shooter’s Sandwich. Having seen this fabulous looking specimen earlier in the week, I had been able to think about little else and I wasn’t about to let the lack of sun stand in the way. We therefore did what millions of Britons have been doing for years: we had a carpet picnic.
The sandwich was good, the mushroom mixture added an earthy flavour and the whole thing tasted really meaty with a gamey note. The bread had gone a little soggy though, it wasn’t a particularly brilliant loaf to start with and I think something like a sourdough would be better.
We also had a potato salad (new potatoes, dressed with oil, raspberry mustard, salt, pepper and spring onions) and a spinach, asparagus, blue cheese and walnut salad both of which worked well with the steak.
We also had some rose because, well, if you’re not having Pimms at a picnic then you have to have rose, right?
Asparagus and Trout Quiche
Since it was St George’s Day, Stephen suggested we cook some asparagus. Not needing much of an excuse to eat asparagus, I happily agreed but remembered that it’s still a bit early and the spears are a bit tough. I decided to use the asparagus in a quiche, hoping the baking would sweeten and tenderise the spears.
The baking did indeed tenderise the spears but that’s about the only thing that went right. I didn’t have enough of the egg and cream mixture but went ahead and poured it on top of the onions/trout/asparagus anyway. I thought I might be able to rescue it by adding some creme-fraiche and milk but it just sort of settled on top. I sprinkled on the cheese anyway and shoved it in the oven, hoping for the best. It started to puff up which encouraged me but it just didn’t seem to cook. After about 40 minutes, I decided to grill the top so that it was at least brown and slightly attractive looking.
I took it out of the oven and left it to settle while I busied myself with a potato salad. Stephen arrived home and said it looked great. Then we cut into it and the whole thing collapsed. The insides were a curdled mess and looked thoroughly unpleasant and inedible. Stephen, who admits he’ll eat pretty much anything, went ahead and tasted it and said something kind about how the flavour was good so we ate it anyway. With our eyes shut. He was right, the flavour was good but whoever coined the phrase “we eat with our eyes” was right too.
Needless to say, I’m not going to add the recipe. I might make this again though, principally because it is a good flavour combination but also because I got far too much pleasure than is normal from arranging those asparagus spears. If that works out then I’ll make another post, if it doesn’t then, well, it’ll be my little secret.
PS from Stephen – that’s a bottle of Chapel Down brut sparkling wine in the background. Most people drink some sort of English ale on St George’s Day but we decided to go with English sparkling wine instead. It was really good – we’ve had it a couple times before (along with Nytetimber which I used to think was a bargain but has risen in price quite a bit over the past few years). It had lovely yeasty and fruity (peachy and citrus) flavours along with a hint of floral aroma. Just the sort of thing you’d expect from a well balanced Champagne, and cheaper than most of them.
Spaghetti alla Vodka with Crayfish
A quick dinner this evening based on our recent success with spaghetti alla vodka. At the time, Kerri had commented that it would be good with things added into it and this evening those things were little crayfish tails.
We followed the recipe pretty much exactly as it is in the link above, except that we added the (pre-cooked) crayfish tails at the same time as the vodka and cream. And we didn’t have parsley, which was unfortunate. I didn’t think that the sauce had quite the same intensity as last time, but I do have a nasty cold at the moment and that probably dulled my senses – Kerri assured me that it was indeed very good.
