Pigeon Casserole
This didn’t turn out brilliantly as we over-cooked the pigeon, shame because everything else was brilliant.
Brown pigeon and remove from the pan (we forgot to do this)
Saute lardons, onions, garlic, celery and carrot
Return browned pigeon to the pan, add red wine, stock and herbs (we used thyme, bay, parsley and parsley stalks)
Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes
We served this with brown basmati rice and some green vegetables.
Oysters and Red Mullet and Clam Casserole
We both felt like fish last night and decided on a fish casserole using red mullet and clams (as you can see from the handy blackboard Stephen made last weekend).
We’ve done various similar things in the past so just did this from memory: sauteed some onions, celery and garlic for about 20 minutes before adding some sliced red pepper and paprika and cooking for another 10 minutes. Add some cherry tomatoes, new potatoes, parsley, sherry and fish stock and cook for a further 15 minutes. Add the red mullet and cook for another five minutes before adding the clams just before the end. Finish with some extra parsley.
The finished dish was really tasty, the paprika gave it a kick but it was otherwise a delicately flavoured and gentle dish.
We also picked up some oysters while we were at the fishmonger and ate those raw with a red onion vinaigrette.
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Wow, it’s been almost a week since we last posted. Combination of lots of things happening this week and eating boring things.
Last night, I cooked spaghetti bolognaise as it was cold and we both felt like something hearty. Served with some interestingly shaped spaghetti I found in the deli. Nothing new or exciting about it but it hit the spot.
Mackerel Salad
To save space for the mince pies and mulled wine, we had salad for lunch 🙂
Mince Pies and Mulled Wine
Today we made mince pies. I can’t remember making my own since I was small but I certainly eat enough of them every year (not until 1 December though).
We made mincemeat to this recipe (which I think is Nigella’s):
Hettie Potter’s suet-free mincemeat
Makes about 2kg
250g soft dark sugar
250ml medium dry cider
1 kg cooking apples, peeled, halved and quartered
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
250g currants
250g raisins
75g glace cherries, roughly chopped
75g blanched almonds, finely chopped
rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
6 tbsp brandy or rum
In large saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the cider over a gentle heat. Add the roughly chopped apples to the saucepan. Add all the ingredients, apart from brandy/rum and simmer for around 30 min until everything has a pulpy consistency. Take off the heat and when it has cooled slightly stir in brandy/rum.
I left out the glace cherries because I don’t like them and just added extra fruit and nuts to make up for it. The end result was really tasty although next time I’ll chop the apples smaller.
With the mice pies we served mulled wine, made to this recipe:
Mulled Wine
750ml red wine
300ml smooth orange juice
150ml brandy
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp allspice
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp whole cloves
generous pinch of grated nutmeg.
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced orange
1 diced apple
1) Place all ingredients (apart from the fruit) in the saucepan. You can either tie all the spices up in a piece of muslin or strain the wine at the end.
2) Heat gently for about 30 min to let the flavours develop. Don’t boil it. Put in fruit about 10 mins before the end of cooking, this will allow the fuit to absorb the mulled wine but won’t get to mushy. Probably the best bit about mulled wine is fishing out the alcoholic fruit from the bottom of your glass at the end!
Dinner at Friends
Last night, we went to visit friends for dinner and enjoyed a veritable feast.
We started with prawn crackers, accompanied by some rather good Champagne:
Then came the spring rolls which were filled with (if I remember correctly) pak choi, bean sprouts, rice vermicelli and mushrooms:
Then came the main courses, which included…
Scallops with asparagus:
Squid:
Salt baked sea bass, which was succulent:
We had some relish (iirc, ginger, chilli, garlic and spring onion) which went very well with the fish and I rather enjoyed adding it to everything else too:
All in all, a delicious dinner.
Steak with Mushrooms and Onions
Last night, after a long week, we cooked steak with mushrooms and onions. The steak was a rather large rump steak from our local butcher that we pan fried and shared between the two of us. The mushrooms were a combination of some ordinary chestnut mushrooms and a selection of wild mushrooms, also fried with some salt and pepper; we had planned to include some thyme but forgot. We also roasted some onions in the oven on a high heat and left them in until they had gone crunchy. Just in the picture as well are some red pepper pieces that we also roasted. We also had some green beans but they didn’t make it into the picture.
Jerusalem Artichokes with Green Beans and Hazelnuts
We had some jerusalem artichokes left over from the weekend and decided to use them up this week. A few years ago, in a gastropub, I had a salad that contained green beans, jerusalem artichokes and hazelnuts. It may have had something else in it too, but I couldn’t remember what it was so when it came to recreating it, there wasn’t anything else in it other than olive oil and seasoning. We peeled the jerusalem artichokes, then cut them up and roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes. We roasted the hazelnuts with them to give them a bit more flavour and some crunch. The artichokes could have done with a little longer actually, as some of them were a little crunchy still.
We had this with lamb loin chops. The combination was very good indeed. The flavours of the salad ingredients went well together, and all of the salad ingredients went well with the slightly salty, slightly garlicky lamb. We are now planning to stuff lamb with hazelnuts.
Black and White Tuna
Actually, the tuna wasn’t black and white, it was brown (on the outside) and red (on the inside). It was the sesame seeds that were black and white. Friends of ours cooked something like this recently and it looked so good that we had to have a go too. They had a really brilliant plate to present it on though, so ours doesn’t look quite the same, but it tasted really good and we’ll try it again soon.
With this, I opened a bottle of Galpin Peak Pinot Noir “Tete de Cuve” 1999 from Bouchard Finlayson in Walker Bay, South Africa. I’ve had it on my wine rack for a few years and have been keeping it for a special occasion. I felt it would go with the tuna, so opened it tonight. It was brilliant. Elegant red fruits accompanied savoury notes, filling the mouth in the most smooth and wonderful way. A medium garnet colour, very slightly tawny but not as brownish as I thought it might be after almost nine years. I wish I had more bottles of this, but sadly this was the only one.
Stir Fried Beef and Basil
We haven’t posted for a few days as we were away over the weekend. When we got back, cooked roast beef but didn’t end up taking a picture of it because we were rather hungry and just started eating. Luckily we managed to restrain ourselves enough to leave some beef for a stir fry today.
We did a style of stir fry that we’ve had a few times recently: beef (or chicken) with chilli, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce and basil. We added a number of vegetables to it today – baby corn, red pepper, orange pepper, spring onions and cavolo nero – and served it with a bit of jasmine rice. We used normal sweet basil rather than holy basil as the holy basil needs to be added a lot earlier if you’re using it and therefore you can’t use it if you forget. It turned out rather well, although the cavolo nero soaked up a lot of soy sauce and became rather salty.
