Summer Braised Beef
I found this recipe in a magazine a little while ago, it was described as being a good alternative to the traditional Sunday Roast. The weather wasn’t all that summery today but we thought we’d give it a go anyway. The result: disappointing. The flavours (pale ale, red onion, garlic, celery, bay, peppercorns) were good and the six hours of marinading meant the meat was well penetrated but the end result was slightly tough meat.
Barbecued Burgers
This afternoon we had burgers on the barbecue. We bought some beef mince and Kerri made up some burgers with onion, parsely, salt, pepper and mustard.
To start, we had some salad with borage, which was apparently “herb of the week” at Waitrose. Normally, I’d be quite put off by such blatant marketing tactics, but the purple flowers were so seductive that we just had to have it:
Next, some corn on the cob that had been coated with butter containing garlic, chilli and lemon zest before being barbecued. We served these with some more of the same butter:
Next, the burgers themselves. Served on sesame burger buns with lettuce, tomato and roasted red onion. They were really good and luckily (due to my lack of attention) not overdone:
With all of this I drank some Campo Viejo Gran Reserva 1999 Rioja which a friend of mine had given me for my birthday last year. Kerri drank some white Burguny (Rully 2005).
Baked Potatoes with Smoked Trout and Horseradish
Mmmm baked potatoes. They take a long time to do, but they’re worth it. We baked some potatoes, then scooped out the insides and mixed in flaked smoked trout, parsely, grated cheddar, butter and horseradish. Then we put some more grated cheese onto the top and put them under the grill. The result was really good; definitely something to try again soon when we feel in need of comfort food, with different fillings. Actually horseradish mash will be good as an accompaniment to various things – we often have mustard mash but haven’t tried horseradish mash.
Thai Green Curry and Curry Puffs
Last night we had Thai green curry again. I enjoy making the curry paste in the mortar and pestle; I’m sure I’ll get bored of it one day but I haven’t got there yet. And we had a friend round who was really sweet and brought Malaysian curry puffs which we had as a starter. As we had decent weather for the first time in a while, we ate outside.
Fish Pie
This morning, we were set on using up the chorizo in the fridge that we bought back from Barcelona but by the time we got to the supermarket we had decided to make fish pie; funny how that happens. We haven’t made this for a long time, in fact I don’t think it’s featured anywhere on here so it must be a really long time.
We started off by infusing some milk with shallots, garlic, peppercorns, bay and sage; then adding the cod, salmon and prawns and cooking through. We used the milk that the fish had been poached in to mash the potatoes (with butter and salt and pepper, obviously), added some brocolli, topped with cheese and grilled until brown.
This was our attempt at a slightly healthier version of the classic fish pie, hence the lack of bechamel. I think it worked quite well although the fish itself could have benefitted from some additional flavours, we forgot the nutmeg and/or cloves for one thing. We’ll work on that for next time.
G
Fried Halloumi…
…with Delia’s lime and coriander vinaigrette. But without the coriander because we didn’t have any. I was secretly pleased because I don’t really like it anyway, I think it tastes like washing-up liquid. We used mint instead and it worked well. Stephen said it was a bit like a savoury mojito.
We served the fried cheese with roasted vegetables to lend an air of healthiness. And white pitta bread because we’re trying to empty the freezer. Healthy? Not at all. Tasty? Most definitely.
Meatballs and Spaghetti
We decided that since we had some mince in the freezer, we’d made meatballs similar to the ones we’ve made before. So yesterday Kerri made up the meatballs and today we made tomato sauce and then started frying the meatballs before putting them into the sauce. When we were frying them though, we realised from the smell that the mince was actually lamb mince rather than beef mince as we’d thought. Kerri checked our freezer inventory and of course it said “lamb mince” on it. What is the point of having a freezer inventory if we never look at it?
Anyway, we continued cooking as usual and the result was different to what we’d planned, but really tasty. I think I’ll search for some recipes that include both lamb and tomatoes, they make an interesting combination.
Vegetables
There was a really bad storm while we were away and unfortunately the majority of our vegetables didn’t survive, which is a real shame because everything seemed to be coming on well before we left. We did manage to salvage two broad beans which we steamed and added to our bean salad earlier today. Shame about the storm because they were really tasty.
Luckily, our herbs didn’t suffer and we still have some carrots and brocolli to look forward to later in the year.
G
Barbecue
It was a warm and sunny day today so we decided to barbecue some fish. Stephen went off to the fishmonger and came back with a bumper bag of prawns, langoustines, sea bass and bream.
We started off with the prawns (marinated in onion, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil) and langoustines and some garlic butter:
and then moved on to the fish, stuffed with sage, thyme, lemon and garlic:
which we served with baked potatoes, salad and a bean salad dressed with a vinaigrette:
To wash it all down, we drank some really nice pink wine:
And, if we feel like it later on, we have some sweet English cherries for dessert:
Happy Sunday 🙂
G
Chicken and Vegetable Stirfry
We had a fair amount of left over chicken from last night to use up, so we decided on a stir fry. To the chicken we added two cloves of garlic, some ginger (dried unfortunately; we didn’t have any fresh), a sauce mixture (soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and sesame seeds) and a Marks & Spencer bag of stir fry vegetable mix (carrots, snow peas, baby corn, spring onions, brocolli, pak choi and spinach). Normally I’m not a fan of M&S pre-prepared bags of things as they tend to be rather prescriptive, but this one worked a treat and the result was a rather good approximation. A handful of bean sprouts and a few mushrooms would have made it perfect though.
