Sausages and Mashed Potatoes
We spent the morning at a farmer’s market local to where my mum lives in Kent and, while we were there, picked up some sausages for dinner. Having used up all my cooking creativity over the last few days, I threw these in the oven while I made some mashed potatoes and some onion gravy. It was a relief not to have to weigh anything or consult any recipe books and while it’s not exactly gourmet, you can’t really go wrong with sausages and mashed potatoes
Rosewater Pavlova with Lavender Scented Rhubarb
When I realised I had nine egg whites in the freezer and plenty of people to feed over the weekend, I decided to make a pavlova. I divided the egg whites in half so that I had about 4.5 and adjusted the sugar, mixed it up, added some rosewater and some pink food colouring and then sprinkled the top with the lavender sugar.
Cooked for an hour and then left to cool overnight in the oven, it looked brilliant when I checked it on Saturday morning. And then I tried to remove it from the greaseproof paper and realised it was completely under-cooked. I thought about trying to rescue it but decided it would be easier to start again when I got to my mum’s.
The second version turned out OK but it cooked a lot quicker than I was expecting and went much browner than the original version. Still, it tasted good, topped with rhubarb that had been cooked in more of the lavender sugar. It didn’t look as pretty though.
Lasagne
We celebrated Mother’s Day on Saturday night and my mum requested lasagne for dinner. I actually made up the ragu (roughly according to this recipe) on Friday with the intention of taking it back to Kent with us on Saturday. Only we got halfway there and realised we’d left it behind. A short dash back to our flat and with the precious Tupperware safely on board, all that was left when we arrived was the assembly. And the salad preperation, that definitely included more than half a cherry tomato per person!
Mexican Bean Burgers
In keeping with the Mexican theme, we started with some chilli popcorn. Pop your corn and, in a seperate pan, melt some butter with some chilli powder and salt. Add that to the corn and eat. And eat and eat if you made as much as I accidentally did.
Next we moved on to the “burgers”. I don’t think this is a particularly authentic dish and we certainly didn’t follow any of the suggested recipes online. Instead, we took the Mexican Bean recipe we’ve cooked a few times, shaped it into burger-shapes and grilled them. They didn’t really hold together very well which I suppose means they were a failure but they tasted good, especially with some guacamole and cheese.
The really exciting part of the post though is: I MADE BREAD! REALLY GOOD BREAD! I’m not a natural baker and wouldn’t normally attempt this kind of thing but, the combination of reading about bread lately and a general lack of enthusiasm when it comes to shop-bought hamburger buns spurred me on. I followed this recipe and it worked really well. Not only did the buns taste good (yeasty with a slight sweetness) but they also looked like proper hamburger buns. Almost. I admit I have some work to do on my shaping and my sesame seed sprinkling could do with a little attention too but, overall I was happy with the result. OK, I admit, I was overjoyed and may have danced around the kitchen a bit.
Cauliflower and Potato Curry
We decided to go meat-free this evening and didn’t need to look much further than Camelia Panjabi for inspiration. This cauliflower and potato curry had caught my eye last week and since I had everything else I needed, apart from the cauliflower, it had the added bonus of being an economical dish too.
This recipe is slightly more complicated than the chana dal I cooked on Monday but still wasn’t that taxing, even when I had to dash out midway through for coconut milk (so much for having everything I needed). I had to tweak the recipe slightly since I’d been unable to track down a fresh coconut and I suspect this may have upset the careful balance of sauteeing and simmering that Camelia talks so much about. I also didn’t have any fenugreek so left that out too. Definitely not winning any points for careful-recipe-following tonight. Recipe below is therefore different to the version that appears in the book.
This was an interesting dish, since I’m really only used to coconut milk featuring in Thai curries. The sweetness of the coconut seemed to jar against the deep, earthy Indian spices at first but the more I ate, the more I found myself getting used to it and enjoying it. Despite that and while I know it’s not a very imaginative view, I would have preferred this as a side dish since the lack of meat (even though we had double carbs in the form of potatoes and rice) left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied.
Cauliflower and Potato Curry
Serves Three
Oil, for frying
4 small onions, chopped (Camelia has the same habit as Madhur in referring to onions by weight, this is roughly equivalent to the 300g stated)
5 dried red chillies (I used 3 fresh chillies)
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1/8 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 1/2 cm cinnamon stick
4 peppercorns
2 cloves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon tamarind juice
1 tin coconut milk
2 cm piece of ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large potato, chopped
Salt
1 medium cauliflower, divided into florets
Saute half the onions for 2 – 3 minutes and then set aside.
Next, saute the chillies, coriander, mustard and cumin seeds, cinnamon, peppercorns and cloves for 30 seconds then remove.
Transfer the onions and spices into a blender, add the turmeric, paprika and tamarind and the coconut milk and blend until smooth.
Saute the ginger and garlic for 15 seconds, followed by the rest of the onions for 7 – 8 minutes. Add the spice paste, cook for 2 minutes and then add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the salt, 100ml water, cover and cook for 6 – 7 minutes.
Finally, add the cauliflower, cover with water and cook until tender.
The original recipe calls for the onions and spices to be blended with the fresh coconut to make a paste. Not really paying attention, I also added the coconut milk at this point which meant I didn’t really end up with a paste, instead rather a lot of liquid with some bits floating in it. In hindsight, I would add the coconut milk at the end of the cooking, at the same time as the cauliflower.
I’d also reduce the amount of water, since I needed to reduce the sauce quite drastically towards the end of the cooking time.
Or, perhaps, next time I’ll just follow the recipe.
Chicken and Pearl Barley Casserole
A recent cupboard audit unearthed a number of long-forgotten ingredients, including pearl barley which we used in a risotto last year. I don’t have very fond memories of it which probably explains why the rest of the bag has languished in our “pantry” (or, very small cupboard) ever since.
Not wanting to throw it away, I decided to combine it with the chicken I recently butchered and make a casserole. Sadly however, I don’t think I’ll have very fond memories of this either. Despite the flavour of the casserole being good, I can’t get past the rubbery texture of the barley. Stephen enjoyed it though and, although I persevered for a while, I gave up in the end and had cheese on toast instead.
I’d already made a note of the recipe before I tasted it so I’ve included it below, I doubt I’ll make it again though but perhaps my mum might need some instruction on how to use up the rest of the bag of barley I intend to pass on to her next time I see her.
Chicken and Barley Casserole
Serves Two
Chicken pieces with bones (we used two thighs and two legs)
3 tablespoons flour (2 tablespoons to be mixed with the salt and pepper to make the seasoned flour, 1 tablespoon to be stirred in before the chicken is returned to the pan)
Salt and pepper
Oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 carrot, diced
2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
Bay leaf
250ml chicken stock
75ml vermouth (or white wine, if you have it. I had it but wanted to drink it)
150g barley
Button mushrooms (I had half a packet of these left over from Saturday’s pie)
Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil and brown chicken on all sides – about 10 minutes.
Remove the chicken to a clean plate and add more oil to the pan if necessary.
Add the onions, celery, carrot, garlic and bay leaf and cook slowly until soft – about 10 minutes.
Add the herbs and cook for two minutes.
Stir in the excess flour and cook out for a couple of minutes. Return the chicken to the pan, deglaze with the vermouth and add the stock, the barley and the mushrooms.
Season, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for one.
Check for seasoning and serve.
Chana Dal
Having worked our way through many of Madhur Jaffrey’s recipes, the arrival of Camelia Panjabi’s “50 Great Curries of India” was well-timed. We’re currently employing a one-in-one-out policy when it comes to cookery books and since I find it so difficult to part with any books at all, especially cookery books, we haven’t bought anything new for a while.
Additionally, we tend to find a lot of inspiration and recipes online so the purchase of yet more books we don’t really use seems doubly futile. This book was leant to us by a friend of Stephen’s and as I read through the opening chapters in bed one night last week, I remembered just how much more pleasurable it is to read through a book than open a web browser.
The introductory sections of this book are very detailed and give both a history of regional Indian cooking and a useful guide on how to put together a curry; what I’ve found most useful so far is the information on how to select spices for their flavour and/or aroma and for their colour. Also interesting is the importance of cooking spices for varying amounts of time, a distinctly different approach to my “throw-it-all-in style.
As I read, I remembered the bag of chana dal sitting unopened in our cupboard and made a mental note to cook it at some point soon. Feeling a little delicate after Octopus-gate, the meat-free nature of this dish was instantly appealing so I got on with it early this morning giving it plenty of time for the flavours to develop before we ate it.
What surprised me most about this was just how much flavour there was given the relatively short ingredient list. Obviously, some of those ingredients have strong flavours but I’ve struggled at times to produce an Indian dish that’s rounded and deep in flavour, which this definitely was. I may just have to have another look at those book shelves and see if there is anything I can part with to make way for this book.
Chana Dal
Serves Two
250g chana dal
Salt
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1cm piece of ginger, chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
1 bay leaf (or cinnamon leaf if you can get it)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
3/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tomato, chopped
Pinch of asofoetida
1 tablespoon chopped coriander
Wash the dal and soak for 20 minutes. Drain and add to a saucepan with 500ml water, cook for 20 minutes.
Sautee the garlic, ginger, chilli and bay leaf for two minutes. Add the cumin, chilli powder and turmeric and stir well. Add the tomato and continue to stir for a further two minutes.
Add this mixture to the dal and add the asofoetida. Bring to the boil and cook until the grains are soft but retain some shape (about 1 hour). Add the coriander and serve.
The Octopus
There’s been a sense of unease in our little flat today. We slept well, had a good breakfast and completed all our boring domestic tasks early. The sun is shining and the day was ours to do with as we pleased so the little black cloud following us aroung puzzled me until my mind turned to dinner plans. The octopus. Two octupuses in fact, whole ones, squashed into our tiny freezer tenderising as we cleaned the oven and swept the floor around it.
We ate a brilliant octopus stew at a friend’s place just after Christmas and quickly resolved to do something similar at home, just as soon as we could find the necessary creatures. Finding them wasn’t a problem but there just didn’t seem to be any time. Until yesterday when we made the trip to the fish market, handed over our £4.50 and came home to research recipes. Yes, a little backwards and the reason the octopuses went into the freezer and we had pie last night instead. They need to be tenderised and one of the best ways to do that is via the freezer.
Having just been on a butchery course, I was confident that I could handle the cleaning and portioning until I did some reading. Firstly, there was talk of beaks which resulted in a full body shudder (I don’t really like birds or anything flappy) and then other horrible words (slime, for example) started to appear which further compounded my squeamishness.
It turns out that Stephen, having recently dealt with a couple of whole squids, was feeling similarly anxious about the prospect of turning our cephalopod into something resembling dinner, hence the dark mood spoiling our Sunday.
It seemed to me that the best way to deal with this slippery situation was just to get on with it and start hacking away but, of course, the creatures were frozen and in no state for butchery. Stephen threw them into some cold water to speed up the process while we took our mind off things by cleaning the windows (the presence of octopus in the kitchen is a great way to get through those little jobs you’ve been putting off).
And then it was time. We donned our aprons and with a glass of wine in one hand and a freshly-sharpened knife in the other, we got down to business. Since there were two, we decided we would handle one each. Stephen, ever the gentleman, went first and it soon became apparent that our squeamishness wasn’t for nothing. The tentacles were easy to remove but as soon as he reached the head (and, horror, the beak) the previously mentioned slime was everywhere and made the slippery little suckers somewhat difficult to handle. After turning the body inside out* he removed the guts and gave everything a good clean.
Then it was my turn. Having watched Stephen, I managed to avoid puncturing the guts as he had done and so there was less slime this time. I did inadvertantly squish an eye though which wasn’t particularly pleasant and made me very grateful for my 79p Ikea rubber gloves. Things went rather more swimmingly after that though and, after 24 hours of anxiety, we were in posession of two portioned octopuses ready for the pot.
After a quick pounding with a meat tenderiser, the pieces went into a pot of boiling water for an hour to tenderise further. And then we were on rather more familiar ground, softening onions and frying herbs to form the basis of the stew.
And the result? It was OK but not mind-blowing. The octopus itself was beautifully tender but we overdid it with the tomatoes which meant we couldn’t taste much else. More wine was required too and perhaps adding the liquor we used to tenderise the octopus with would help too.
Octopus Stew
Serves Two
2 octopuses
Oil, for frying
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Tablespoon tomato puree
Glass of red wine
500ml stock
Bunch of parsley, finely chopped
1/2 bunch oregano, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 potato, diced
If your octopus isn’t frozen, then freeze it. Wr froze ours for 24 hours but online guidance suggests 48 hours is preferable.
Once frozen, joint the octopus and boil it for 1 hour. We added onion and a bay leaf to the water.
Drain and reserve the water. Once cool, chop the octopus into small pieces and tenderise with a meat tenderiser.
Soften the onion, pepper and garlic in some oil. Add the tomato puree and allow to caramelise.
Deglaze the pan with some red wine and allow the alcohol to cook out. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil and then simmer for 1.5 hours.
*If you want to see what an inside-out octopus looks like then there are more pictures on our Flickr stream.
Beef and Oyster Pie
This week is British Pie Week and with not a lot planned for dinner this weekend, we were grateful for the suggestion. This was actually supposed to be tomorrow’s lunch but we ended up swapping things around since tonight’s planned dish needed to spend some time in the freezer to tenderise, more on that tomorrow.
We considered various different fillings for our pie but eventually settled on beef and oyster since it’s been on our “to cook” list for some time. In the 1800s oysters were traditionally used in pies since they were cheap, plentiful and were a good way to add flavour and it’s something that’s always intrigued us. We had originally planned to use red wine but since we were making something typically British, changed our mind at the last minutes and opted for stout instead.
The stout added a distinctive bitter note to the pie that was slightly tempered by the sweetness of the carrots, we both agreed that we would have preferred the flavour of red wine though. The oysters had a pleasant, silky texture but didn’t add much in the way of flavour. Having not cooked with oysters before, we left out the juice, fearing it would make everything too salty but, in hindsight, this would have added an extra dimension.
Beef and Oyster Pie
Serves Two
Vegetable oil, for frying
Flour, for frying
500g braising steak
1 large onion, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 carrot, diced
1 stick celery, diced
250g button mushrooms
Bay leaf
4 stalks thyme
Tablespoon tomato puree
Salt and pepper
150ml stout
150ml beef stock
Tablespoon worcester sauce
8 oysters
Puff pastry
Start by tossing the beef in seasoned flour. Shake off the excess and brown the meat in batches. Remove to a plate and reserve.
In the same pan, soften the onion, leek, garlic, carrot and celery in some oil. Remove to a plate and reserve.
In the same pan, soften the mushrooms.
Return the meat and the vegetables to the pan and add the thyme and bay leaf. Add the tomato puree and season, cook for two minutes.
Add the stout and allow the alcohol to cook out. Next, add the stock and the worcester sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 1.5 hours.
If the liquid hasn’t reduced, remove the meat and vegetables and boil hard until there is just enough liquid to coat the meat.
Transfer the contents to a pie dish, (leaving to cool first will prevent the pastry from becoming soggy), add the oysters and top with the pastry. Cook until browned, about 25 minutes.
Brilliant Pizza
We have been making pizza on and off for a few years now, with varying levels of success. There were a couple of times when we did pretty well and thought we had definitely cracked it, but haven’t been able to keep it consistent. With our old not very hot oven we had a clever ploy to make it hotter by heating it up with the grill for a long time and that worked well, but we have a new oven now which is hotter and better for pizza so don’t need to do that. Inspired by a recent visit to a Pizza Express pizza-making masterclass, we decided to try again. We had two main aims: 1) nice thin, crisp base and 2) interesting toppings.
At the masterclass, one of the pizzas that was demonstrated to us had spicy sausage and salami on it when it was cooked and then afterwards had bits of fresh mozarella put onto it, along with what we thought was particularly interesting – watercress dressed in pesto. We were keen to do something similar and bought some watercress, but when we opened the bag it was rather squashed so gave it a skip and dressed the mozarella in the pesto instead, which turned out rather well.
We had success with our dough which turned out very stretchy and made it possible to make a nice thin base without it breaking. I had always thought it was cheating to use a rolling pin, but at the masterclass we had used one so did it at home too and it does work very well, so we’ll definitely continue to do so. We had some really nice salami which we put onto it – it can feel like a waste to put good salami on pizza, but this had a wonderful deep, slightly earthy taste to it and crisped nicely.
We added most of the pesto-marinated mozarella (British buffalo mozarella from Laverstoke Park) to the pizza before cooking and kept some of it for topping afterwards too. We made a quick tomato sauce from a tin of tomatoes, some garlic and oregano. After cooking for a short while, we put it into a sieve to allow some of the liquid to drain away – we’ve found that in the past our pizzas often end up soggy and figured it was probably from our sauce being too wet. The liquid that drained away tasted like delicious garlicky tomato soup, maybe we should have planned to have that as a starter!
So after we had rolled out the pizza and tossed it around a bit while trying not to completely cover the kitchen in flour, we topped it with some of the drained tomato sauce, some sliced salami, some pesto-marinated mozarella and a sprinkle of lovely fragrant dried oregano. Into the oven at 270C for as long as it took to look like it was done and then topped with a little more mozarella and served. Delicious.
The pesto worked very well on the pizza – its nutty, herby oiliness combined well with the sweet acidity of the tomato sauce topping. The salami was delicious – Kerri liked the taste but not the crispness, whereas I thought it was wonderfully crispy like the best bacon in the world should be. The base was thin and crispy too and not soggy in the middle like it sometimes is. Brilliant Friday night dinner… we’re sure that’s not just the prosecco talking! And as we had made two bases but only one pizza (we had loads of nuts and olives as a starter) there is another base to make pizza for lunch on Saturday.
Because this was the best pizza yet (again), here is the recipe for the dough in case we forget:
6g dried yeast
1tsp caster sugar
1tbsp olive oil
160ml warm (but not hot) water
1tsp salt
250g extra strong white / “OO” flour
Mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water in a small bowl, cover with a wet tea towel and place in a warm place for 10 to 15 minutes until foam starts to form on top. We put ours into the oven for this and turned it on very low – 50C – for a while then turned it off again.
When the yeast has grown and foamed up, put the flour and salt into a large bowl and pour in the yeast mixture. Mix together to form dough and knead by hand or with a dough hook (we did a bit of both here) for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough has become a bit stretchy. Removed it from the bowl, lightly oil the bottom of the bowl, form the dough into a ball and put it into the bowl. Cover with the wet tea towel and leave it for half an hour to an hour in a warm place (back into the oven on 50C again for us) to rise.
Then break the ball in half, form into two separate balls, dust with flour and roll out into a circle, then toss it a bit with some flour so that you don’t feel like you cheated with the rolling pin.
That’s the hard bit. The easy bit is: Put a pizza stone into your oven and preheat to as high as it will go. When the oven is hot, take the stone out (carefully!) and place your rolled out pizza base onto it (carefully!). Top with a selection of interesting toppings and put back into the oven. Then sit and watch it through the window until it looks done. Then take it out, cut it and eat it, trying not to burn your mouth of course. Then discuss how it’s the best pizza in the world and from now on all pizzas will be this good.
