Prawn and Vegetable Gyoza Dumplings with Marinated Carrot and Cucumber Salads
At our recent Chinese New Year dinner, our friends gave us some left-over gyoza wrappers in case we wanted to make our own. Which we did!
So this evening when I arrived home, Kerri had minced some prawns and mixed them with chopped spring onions, water chestnuts, carrots and celery in an approximation of this recipe. We wrapped these in the wrappers and pan fried them quickly to brown them before putting them into the oven for a while to cook through.
To eat with them, Kerri also made a marinated cucumber salad and a marinated carrot salad, both with toasted sesame seeds and both of which we have had before and liked.
It went together well, but the gyoza didn’t turn out quite as tasty as those we’d had at our friends. Clearly we need more practice.
Rosemary Lamb Chops with Sautéed Potatoes
Firstly before I forget, we recently decided to come out of the closet in a manner of speaking. I’m sure that regular readers have noticed the change in our names on the site. We’ve grown quite attached to our pseudonyms of Fred and Ginger over the past two years and a bit, but finally decided to change to using our real names. We just updated our about us page and didn’t post anything about it explicitly, but thought it worth a quick mention in case people thought they’d arrived at the wrong site, what with the recent semi-redesign too.
We weren’t sure what to cook this evening, but we had some lamb chops in the freezer so decided to use those up. We also had potatoes to use up, so that of course meant sautéed potatoes, which we often have with lamb chops. The lamb chops were defrosted and were a bit squashed up from being in the freezer, so don’t look very cutlet-like unfortunately. They did taste good though, which is what really counts in these sorts of situations.
We coated the chops in a mixture of salt, pepper and quite a lot of finely chopped rosemary. Then we heated up a little olive oil in a frying pan and pan fried them on medium (or even medium-high) for five minutes on one side, then three to four minutes on the other side. As they were quite thick chops, this left them nicely pink in the middle, but not too much so. Then we let them rest for a few minutes.
For the sautéed potatoes, we slice some potatoes into discs first, them steam them. When they are almost cooked, we remove them from the steamer, let them dry out, then cut the discs into cubes. We start by frying some chopped onion in some olive oil, then after that has softened for a few minutes, add some more olive oil and add the cubed potatoes. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and some chopped thyme. Agitate and flip them in the pan regularly so that the potatoes and onions don’t burn. Near the end, add some chopped parsley too and check to see if you need more salt and pepper (I usually find this is the case!). If they look too dry at any point, add some more olive oil (I usually find this is the case too!) This of course needs to be started well in advance of cooking the chops as it takes a while.
The potatoes can take a number of different herbs and you can probably put in whatever you like, varying it depending on what you are serving them with. Raymond Blanc put parsley and chervil into them once on television, which sounded interesting but we have never tried that. This time I think we steamed the potatoes a little too much before sautéing them, but that did result in some nice crispy bits so it wasn’t too bad. My mum used to cook these when I was younger and the first time I ever tried to cook them, I didn’t realise that you needed to steam or parboil the potatoes before sautéing them; needless to say my attempt wasn’t very successful.
The sweetness of the onion goes very well with the lamb chops, as does the general herbiness, olive oiliness and slight crispiness of the potatoes.
Beef and Two Bean Chilli
As UK readers will know, most of London had a Snow Day today. The last time I remember such a day I was eight and, running low on food supplies, we had to trudge to the top of the road to the local shop. It took us two hours to walk what would normally take 20 minutes and my poor brother had to trudge through snow that was almost up to his waist.
We don’t have a very large store cupboard but I like to think I’m pretty good at maximising the space available. Even though the chances of being stuck in the house and unable to leave are incredibly slim, I like to be well prepared for any culinary emergency. We weren’t housebound today but I was glad not to have to brave the cold and was able to find plenty of ingredients to use for dinner. Chilli seemed like an obvious choice given the arctic temperatures so I selflessly left Stephen working beside the fire and braved the chilly kitchen.
The recipe we use originally comes from the Waitrose website, it’s stored in the Our Recipes section of the site but I’ve copied it again here because I increased the spices even further this time to allow for the extra beans.
4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
500g lean minced beef
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 large red chilli, deseeded and chopped
3 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cumin
600ml beef stock
400g tin chopped tomatoes
15g dark chocolate
Salt and pepper
150g red kidney beans
150g black beans
(You’ll need to remember to soak the beans overnight. The kidney beans should be boiled rapidly for 20 minutes then rinsed thoroughly before being added).
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion with some salt and fry gently until soft (about 15 minutes). Then add the garlic and continue to fry for two minutes.
Next, add the mince and fry until browned. Now, add the chilli, tomato puree and spices and fry for a further five minutes, stirring often to incorporate the spices into the mince.
Add the stock, tomatoes, kidney beans and chocolate and season. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 40 minutes until the meat is tender.
Add the black beans, bring to the boil again and simmer for a further hour.
[Stephen says:] With this we drank a Trimbach Alsace Riesling 2005. Riesling has a reputation for matching spicy dishes well and often it does, but this time it didn’t quite go; the depth and meaty, spicy, chocolateyness of the chilli was a bit too much for it. Then vainly tried some dry Amontillado, but too alcoholic to go with the spice. As an afterthought, now trying a splash of Banyuls, which might have gone well, but not sure of the sweetness.
Roast Chicken Ballotine and Perfect Roast Potatoes
Last week, one of the Maaaaasterchef contestants cooked chicken ballotine for his main course. It was a lot to take on and, given that he also had a starter and a main course to make, he sadly didn’t quite get everything finished in time. However, out of that sadness came some good because it made us decide to cook chicken ballotine.
So, I picked up our copy of Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Techniques and turned to the appropriate page. It told us that after boning, stuffing and rolling the chicken, we should wrap it in foil and poach it, then serve it cold. As an afterthought, it also mentioned that it’s possible to braise it and serve it hot. Being the type of people who really love roast chicken with roast potatoes, we ignored both of these and decided just to roast it.
I intently studied the section entitled “Boning the Bird”. Half an hour or so later, the bird in question was boned and ready to be stuffed. According to the recipe, the stuffing should be made from chicken breast, herbs, shallots and garlic. We went with sausages instead of the chicken breast. Once it was done, we tied it up tightly with string. This went into the oven on top of some vegetables until cooked through (we used our meat thermometer for this since it was hard to calculate).
We also did roast potatoes, in half goose fat and half vegetable oil. Like last time we did roast potatoes, they turned out very well indeed. In case we forget in future, or if someone else is interested, here is a vague recipe as to what we did both times that turned out very well:
– Peel and chop potatoes into smallish roast potato sized pieces
– Steam these until fairly soft but not completely cooked though
– Swish them around in the steamer with the lid on to fluff them up
– Leave them to dry out for a while
– Put half goose fat, half vegetable oil into a metal roasting dish (about a tablespoon of each)
– Put the dish into the oven to heat up
– When the fat is hot (you can sometimes hear it start to spit), remove it from the oven and put it on the hob with the burner on
– Put in the potatoes (careful of hot splashing fat!) and turn them in the hot fat to coat them
– Sprinkle the potatoes with a couple of generous pinches of salt and turn them again
– Put them into the oven for about an hour and a half, turning a couple of times during cooking
– Enjoy!
We were very pleased at how moist the chicken was. We had been worried that as it was stuffed and needed to roast for quite a while to cook all the way through, it would be dried out, but our fears were unfounded. We had roasted it “upside down” to start with, the turning it breast-side up for the last 20 minutes to half an hour. We also served it with braised leeks (in the top picture), steamed cabbage and roast celeriac.
With it we drank a Hamilton Russell Chardonnay from South Africa. This wine was intense but still elegant, and with a bit of oaky toast and spice which went particularly well with the crispy roast potatoes and the herby sausage stuffing.
Chinese New Year
Last night, we celebrated a belated Chinese New Year with some friends. We knew the food was going to be good but we didn’t realise just how good.
We started with gyoza which were cooked in the Japanese style: browned in a frying pan before being transferred to the oven. These were outstanding, crispy skins filled with prawn, celery, carrot, water chestnuts and spring onion. We were lucky enough to come home with some leftover gyoza skins so we can make our own later this week.
We then moved on to a selection of dishes which included pork belly (yay! I’ve been craving this for weeks) which was cooked with sezchuan pepper and was both tender and crispy.
We also had some scallops (another craving I’ve had due to the frequency they appear on Masterchef) and squid cooked with some bitter melon. Neither of us had eaten these before and they were indeed bitter but not unpleasantly so, they worked particularly well with the sweet scallops.
We both ate far too much but it would have been rude not to!
Coffee and Walnut Cake
I was quite pleased with how this worked out, despite it’s somewhat lopsided appearance. I’m not a very experienced baker so I’m not sure why this happened, perhaps I had the oven too hot?
I followed a Delia Smith recipe, best to stick to basics when you’re not that confident in your ability was my thinking. It actually seemed quite complicated when it came to it though, the recipe wasn’t laid out particularly well and there was lots of unnecessary waffle that was confusing. It went pretty smoothly though and, most importantly, it tasted good.
Pizza Fiorentina
Friday night is pizza night! Not always, but sometimes. This was one of those sometimes. Often we have fantastic success with pizza, but this wasn’t one of those times.
Keeping in mind last time where the dough was very sticky, we added a bit more flour this time, but it just made the base rather doughy and it didn’t crisp up much, tasting rather flat. Given that the pizzas that we made from the sticky dough last time actually tasted rather good, maybe we just need to practice working with it rather than playing with the recipe.
Trying to do something different to usual (usual is usually salami or ham, sometimes with olives or artichokes or sundried tomatoes), we made a Fiorentina pizza with spinach, pine nuts and an egg. Nice idea, but it didn’t taste like a lot – I blame the dough. We also had a plain Margherita.
One thing that was good though was the brilliant mozzarella. We really love the one that we usually get (Fattorie Garofalo), but Kerri found a different one (La buona cremeria di Nonna Vincenza) in an Italian deli today and it was even better. Yum. Maybe even worth having a failed pizza to discover it.
We drank a rather nice Vacqueyras Blanc with this. White Vacqueyras is just one percent of the Vacqueyras production, which I why I bought it – for interest sake and the fact that I rather like Rhone whites and this should be a bit more refined than some of them. I had an idea it would go well with pizza, being fully flavoured with savoury notes and a slight smokiness, but still acidic enough to match up to tomato sauce. It didn’t work that well, but I think that was the pizza’s fault rather than the wine.
Lentil Cottage Pie
I’m really pleased with the way this turned out, especially as it was a very last minute decision. Stephen and I had decided that we would have something meat-free tonight as our meat intake has been so high lately. We didn’t have anything specific in mind but, while browsing other food blogs this afternoon, I came across Rachel’s recipe for Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie which looked really good.
I followed the recipe almost exactly apart from adding some celery at the beginning, some rosemary a little later on and doubling the amount of tomatoes (this was by accident actually but it turned out well).
I’ve always maintained that I don’t like lentils very much because they tend towards the mushy side, that was exactly what was required for this dish though and I loved it. I think it would work really well layered with lasagne sheets and topped with bechamel too.
Although this is Rachel’s recipe, I’m copying it below so that I can remember the (small) changes I made when it comes to making that lasagne.
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 stick celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
100g red lentils
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
200ml red wine
1 can chopped tomatoes
500ml vegetable stock
Tablespoon tomato paste
Sautee onions, celery and carrots for around 10 minutes before adding the garlic
Stir in the lentils.
Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil.
Simmer for 40 minutes.
Chorizo and Butterbean Soup
On the way home from dinner last night, we realised that we didn’t have anything planned to eat this evening. I suggested we soak some butterbeans and find something to do with them today.
It was doomed to failure from the start really, I like to plan meals in advance and don’t really work very well under pressure. I spent some time looking for a recipe that appealed today and, not really finding anything that hit the spot, settled on this Delia Smith recipe.
We didn’t have any bacon so I substituted that for chorizo. On looking through the recipe properly, it seemed a little disjointed with lots of elements being cooked separetely. I started by frying off the chorizo before removing it from the pan and then frying the rest of the ingredients while the beans cooked. Delia’s 20-30 minutes cooking time for the beans was optimistic to say the least, they took over an hour before I could combine all the other ingredients and add the milk and parsley.
I’d love to say it was worth the wait but it really wasn’t. The end result was thin and watery and, even though I’d tried to combine the ingredients in one pan, the dish just didn’t come together.
There’s loads left which I was planning to pack off with Stephen tomorrow for lunch, perhaps he won’t read this before he leaves for work in the morning.
The Cabin
We had planned to eat leftover lamb this evening but we didn’t actually have any left. Plan B saw us defrosting some chicken breasts and eating those with salad and pitta bread instead. It just didn’t feel right though; admittedly today was a mild and sunny day that gave me hope spring was on it’s way but it definitely wasn’t warm enough to be eating such summery food.
Luckily, Stephen had some good news and suggested we go out to celebrate so we began looking for a local restaurant to visit. We’re lucky enough to have some really good places nearby but, having lived here for over two years, we’ve been to many of them and were looking for somewhere different this evening.
A quick Google search led me to The Cabin which seemed to have only good reviews, an added bonus being 50% off on a Monday so this was our Plan C.
I quickly decided on the wagyu beef burger and Stephen did the same. We also couldn’t resist the calamari and opted to share that between us as a starter. We were both glad we did as it was really tasty; tender squid coated in a peppery batter served with a piquant tartar sauce, a huge serving that was more than enough for the two of us.
We both enjoyed our burgers too; cooked to medium on a char grill and served in huge, floury buns with crunchy, potatoey fries and a pickle on the side. I didn’t notice any discerible difference between this and a standard burger but to fully appreciate the flavour of this fine meat then a steak would have been a better choice.
The other thing I learnt is that I really need to learn how to use the new camera 🙁
