Fajita-Chicken Salad
While we didn’t have the camera, we made chicken fajitas which turned out rather well. The chicken in particular was really good, and we were wondering what else we could do with chicken cooked in that way.
Tonight we made salad, and decided that fajita-style chicken would go well with it. We sliced two chicken breasts into strips and marinated them briefly in lime juice, fresh chilli, chilli powder, ground cumin, salt and pepper and then stir fried. We fried them until they were just catching on the outside but weren’t dried out, then added to the salad and ate with pita bread.
Lentils
I’ve had my eye on this recipe from 101 Things for a while now and decided to make a version of it at the weekend. Our enforced holiday last week meant that our eating really suffered, it was partly due to busyness but I suspect the lack of camera and therefore focus for our cooking also had a lot to do with it. In order to ensure the same thing didn’t happen again this week, we decided to spend Sunday batch cooking and this was just one of the dishes we cooked for the freezer.
We don’t cook a lot with lentils, Stephen is a big fan but I’m not so keen. I don’t mind these puy lentils so much though as they remain firm when cooked and it’s the squishiness I don’t like. I really enjoyed this though, while it was bubbling away we both kept going back to the kitchen to “check for seasoning” and were pleased with the way it came out; it tastes even better a couple of days later too as the flavours have combined really well. We just ate it on it’s own (although I would really like to try the lasagne) but it would be a great accompaniment to chicken or even with just some interesting vegetables. Next time I think I’d tinker with the recipe further: some red wine would be a good addition and although this was tasty without any herbs, I’d like to try it with some thyme too.
As predicted, trying to make the photograph look interesting was a challenge…we’re clearly out of practice 🙂
Although the recipe doesn’t vary much from the original and full credit must go to Fran at 101 Things, I’m going to type it up so that next time we make it we can remember what I’ve done.
1 carrot, chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
100g smoked lardons
1 onion, finely diced
150g mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large tin chopped tomatoes (possibly add an additional small tin)
280g puy lentils
8 roasted tomatoes, chopped
1 pint vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
Sweat onions, carrots, mushrooms and garlic until soft, add bacon and cook until fat has rendered.
Add all other ingredients and bring to the boil, simmer for 45 minutes….don’t forget to “check for seasoning” 🙂
Nearly There…
I was going to post a picture of the chicken casserole we made yesterday and photographed with Stephen’s mobile but it’s not a great picture so I’ll wait until tomorrow when WE GET THE CAMERA BACK! You can look forward to seeing how we manage to make lentils look attractive then 🙂
Service Interruption
We went to visit Stephen’s sister on Saturday and left the camera there so we’re taking an impromptu holiday. Hope to be back soon!
Crispy Duck Breast
Stephen cooked dinner this evening using this recipe from the BBC website. We’d planned to have duck last week but couldn’t find the same recipe. It didn’t really matter because this turned out well, although he might have been a little heavy handed with the cloves 🙂
We served it with egg noodles and vegetables stir-fried in shallots, garlic and ginger finished with oyster sauce, soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine.
Thai Mondays Part 5: Stir Fried Pork with Beans and Green Peppercorns
Last week Kerri had lunch at a Thai restaurant and had a dish that she really enjoyed, which was beef with chilli, lemongrass, basil and a few other things. We had a look for recipe that was similar and, by happy coincidence, I had already bookmarked a recipe that contained most of those ingredients and we already had a large number of them. It called for pork rather than beef, but that was fine, so we bought some pork and some holy basil and were ready to go.
Although this is called a stir fry in English, it is actually a dry curry. Its Thai name is pat prik king muu bpaa, where “pat prik king” means a curry made from dried red chillies and cooked in oil (or rendered pork fat) rather than coconut cream.
First we made the curry paste by incrementally pounding together all of the following ingredients in a mortar and pestle: 10 long dried red chillis (soaked and drained), two tablespoons each of chopped galangal and chopped lemongrass and three tablespoons each of chopped red shallots and chopped garlic, along with one tablespoon of chopped coriander root. These are all in the following picture, along with a couple of other ingredients that come in later:
(After cooking this, we realised that we had left out crushed dried fish, so our dried fish will just have to hang around waiting for another recipe that needs them and hopefully they won’t feel too neglected).
We fried this paste in some oil; the recipe said 6 tablespoons which sounded like quite a lot, so we started with a lot less than that, but ended up adding some more as we went along we it looked like it needed it. When this had cooked for a while and become really fragrant, we added about 200g of thinly sliced pork loin. We stir fried this for about five minutes and then seasoned with a pinch of white sugar and a couple of tablespoons of fish sauce. Then we added chopped beans, julienned krachai, torn lime leaves, chopped long green chillies, some green peppercorns and a handful of holy basil leaves.
After a couple more minutes to heat all of this through, we served it with some jasmine rice. The flavours worked really well and Kerri said it was her favourite Thai dish second only to Green Curry, which is really saying something! The dish had a deep, rich base from the dried chillies and the fish sauce, but had some fresh and lifting flavours from the lemongrass and lime leaves too. The holy basil gave delicously basilly notes as only it can do. Last time we’d had green peppercorns, they didn’t blend in with the rest of the dish so well, but this time they were really good and provided little bites of bitter heat that complemented the other flavours rather well.
The recipe didn’t explicitly say so, but I am guessing that this dish originated in the north of Thailand, given that it includes pork and krachai and suggests that you fry the paste in pork fat (a suggestion that we took under consideration for only a second or so before ignoring).
This turned out very well indeed, which we were obviously very pleased with. The other Thai curries that we have cooked so far have been “wet” ones with a lot of sauce, whereas this one was a lot drier. If we cook this again, we might accompany it with a soup to complement its dryness, but it was really good nonetheless and definitely a favourite.
Chicken with Olives and Poorman’s Potatoes
We weren’t intending to eat at home on Saturday night but a bought of illness meant a change of plan. We needed to find a recipe that used ingredients we already had, Stephen suggested using one of our new Spanish books as the recipes are straightforward and don’t require lots of complicated ingredients.
The chicken was very easy and resulted in a tasty and comforting dish. This recipe comes from the Andalucian region and is considered a homely dish and not something you’d necessarily find in a restaurant, it’s from Jenny Chandler’s The Real Taste of Spain.
Serves Two
Two chicken legs, jointed
Salt
Olive oil
1/4 tbsp rosemary, chopped
1/4 tbsp thyme, chopped
Five mint leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
One onion, thinly sliced
Three garlic cloves, whole
1/2 small dried red chilli
35ml dry sherry (we actually used about 60ml altogether, most of which was wine with a little sweet sherry as, somewhat mysteriously, our dry sherry has run out)
75g black olives
1/4 lemon
Season the chicken with salt then fry until the skin is crisp and golden. Remove from the pan and toss with the herbs and paprika.
In the same pan, brown the onions and then add the garlic and chilli and allow them to colour.
Add the chicken back to the pan, pour in the sherry and transfer to the oven for 40 minutes.
Add the olives and lemon and cook for a further five minutes.
Even though we increased the amount of liquid I think we’d increase it further next time, the juices in the bottom of the pan were delicious but scarce. More olives wouldn’t hurt either.
The recipe suggests serving this with crusty bread but we opted to make the potato dish instead, from the same book.
Olive oil
450g potatoes, thinly sliced (we used Maris Piper and a mandolin)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 green pepper, thinly sliced (we used red but would probably leave this out next time)
One garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tbsp wine vinegar
Handful fresh parsley
Add half the oil to a frying pan with a lid, layer up the potatoes, onion and pepper seasoning as you go. Add the rest of the oil, cover with lid and cook over a gentle heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove the lid and add the garlic then increase the heat to brown the potatoes. Sprinkle with vinegar and parsley before serving.
These turned out really well and were particularly tasty given the few ingredients (this recipe is also from Andalucia and hails from poorer times before the influx of tourists). Next time we need to remember to stir more often (we were watching a movie…Psycho if you’re interested) and brown for longer…there were some deliciously crunchy, gooey pieces of potato stuck to the pan that we fought over!
We both really enjoyed the dishes and look forward to experimenting with more Spanish cooking.
Fish Pie
Being Good Friday today, Kerri wanted to cook fish pie. We found a tasty sounding recipe in a newly acquired cook book called Fish, subtitled “Recipes From a Busy Island”. It’s a National Trust book and is geared towards responsible and sustainable fish recipes.
The recipe was called “Tweed Salmon, Smoked Haddock and Langoustine Pie with Cheese and Mustard Mash”. We didn’t have Tweed salmon specifically, but we bought some salmon, some lovely undyed smoked haddock and a couple of langoustines, along with some off-plan pollack from our local fishmonger:
We poached all the fish with in milk and some cream, along with onion, black peppercorns and a bay leaf. The langoustines didn’t need to be cooked at this stage, but we shelled them and put the shells into the pan with the other ingredients to get some extra flavour into the milk. Once the fish was just cooked (only about 7 minutes), we removed it from the pan and flaked it. We let the flavours of the other ingredients infuse into the milk for a while longer before straining it.
We made a roux with butter and flour, then slowly added the infused milk to it to make a white sauce before adding chopped parsely and seasoning with salt, pepper and nutmeg. We distributed the flaked fish and the raw langoustine tails into an oven fish and then covered it all with the sauce. This went into the fridge for an hour to cool.
We steamed potatoes and mashed them, then added cream, butter, salt, pepper, mustard and cheese. It didn’t look quite pliable enough to spread on top of the fish, so we added a little milk. We spread it onto the fish and sauce, then sprinkled more grated cheese over the top. Into the oven for 40 minutes, until the top was nicely browned.
Having tasted the fish (which was good), the white sauce (which was good) and the mashed potato (which was good), we fully expected the final result to be good too. It was very good indeed, which we were rather pleased with after last weekend’s string of not-quite-there dishes. The fish was firm and flavourful, the sauce was lovely and not too liquid and the mash was really good; well seasoned and included just the right amount of cheese. Brilliant!
Beef Casserole
Stephen cooked this last night to our usual recipe (although he forgot the tomatoes) which meant that all we had to do tonight was reheat it and add some vegetables. The lack of tomatoes gave the casserole a really deep, meaty flavour which was lovely. The chestnut mushrooms really stood out flavour-wise and added to the deep flavour.
Salad
Monday is gym night so dinner needs to be quick and easy (or lovingly prepared by Stephen but he selfishly decided to go out this evening). Rather than reaching for the toast which is what normally happens when I’m eating alone, I decided to “be good” and eat salad. I usually have this for lunch a couple of times a week but today I had the leek and potato soup (ok but not brilliant) so had everything I needed in the fridge including my two favourite ingredients: avocado and smoked mackerel.
The avocado breaks all the food-mile-rules but having only recently discovered I like it, I can’t get enough of it. Smoked mackerel is my favourite protein to add to salad because the oiliness means there is no need to make dressing. I like the contrast of the peppery mackerel with the cool, crunchy salad too.
