Spaghetti, Prawns and Rocket
We both popped out after work for some social business today, so when we got home we needed something quick and easy for dinner. Kerri bought some prawns on the way home, so we made spaghetti with prawns and rocket. Much like this. Quick and easy and tasty.
Hemp Seeds
Welcome to the first in a new series entitled The Dinner Diary Top Tip….add some toasted hemp seeds to your salads for extra crunch and flavour.
Lamb Kofta
Yesterday afternoon, while we were cooking lamb, we also made up some lamb kofta to have this evening. I like to have something quick and easy for a Monday evening, sort of a homemade ready-meal.
I used the same recipe that I always do but the results weren’t so great. We used some new-season lamb mince that we bought at the butchers and the flavour of the meat was good, the spicing was just a bit off. Stephen seemed happy enough though as he finished mine too.
Rack of Lamb with Sauteed New Potatoes and Asparagus with Pine Nut and Herb Sauce
A long title today because it all deserved mention.
We started with asparagus with a pine nut and herb sauce. It turned out as more of a relish than a sauce really. It contained pine nuts (obviously), red onion, parsely, mint, olive oil and vinegar. This went very well indeed with the asparagus; next time we’ll use more nuts and a little less onion though.
For main course, we had rack of English spring lamb, roasted quite simply, which was all that it needed:
With it we had some sauteed new (Jersey Royal) potatoes:
And some home made mint sauce. In our little blue and white jug that we’d bought on holiday in South Africa. You can’t see much of the sauce in this picture, but the jug looks more interesting than the sauce really:
We also had shelled broad beans, runner beans (very fresh and very beany tasting) and green cabbage. Three green vegetables to go with our roast lamb and potatoes.
With it (actually, mostly before it) we drank a bottle of Springfield “Wild Yeast” Chardonnay which was good and went well with the asparagus. I fancied red with the lamb though, so opened a mini bottle of Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon which we had in the cupboard for cooking: it was drinkable but not particularly interesting. I usually fancy pinot noir with lamb and have a few bottles of decent Burgundy and also some new world pinot on the wine rack but figured that opening a whole new bottle at that point would have been a waste. However, given that we opened another bottle of white Burgundy after dinner anyway, I think that I should just have gone ahead. Next time definitely.
Boiled Egg
Not just any old bolied egg but a goose egg. Stephen had it for breakfast this morning, with soldiers. He said it was tasty, like a very good chicken egg. It needs to be boiled for 11 minutes meaning the white went quite hard but the yolk was nice and soft.
Seafood Paella
After having a really good paella at Taxidermista in Barcelona last week, we bought a paella pan and brought it back with us. Tonight we tried our own. We had a seafood paella with langoustines, prawns, mussels and squid.
The raw ingredients:
In the paella pan:
Served up:
And with it we drank a really nice Cava and a white Rioja:
We followed this recipe but left out the monkfish because we added various other bits like langoustines and squid. It tasted really good, but lacked a bit of sweetness that we’d had before. Next time we’ll use fresh red pepper with the onions and garlic, rather than the jar version added later in the process that the recipe specified.
The Cava we’d brought back from Barcelona because it was one that we’d had there. It tasted “light but mature” which is an interesting combination that I’ve not found in Champagnes or other sparkling wines before. Because we’d brought back about five bottles of Cava, we only had one bottle of still wine and drank it a few days ago. So we went with whatever we could find with the paella today. Cune Monopole white Rioja – quite oaky and a little off-dry. No ideal, but good enough.
Bocadillos
While in Barcelona we ate some brilliant baguettes that were rubbed with tomato and garlic, filled with jamon and drizzled with olive oil. We decided to recreate them for lunch today with some Spanish ham we bought from our local deli. They were really good but the weather could have made more of an effort.
Broad Bean and Pancetta Salad
Broad beans are so good when they are in season and we bought a load of them this evening. We both had big lunches so felt something light tonight would be enough. Broad beans and pancetta salad with rocket, served with a simple vinaigrette and some toasted olive ciabatta. It was good, but the rocket was a bit too strong and overpowered the broad beans unless you ate them separately. The tasty little nuggets of pancetta were brilliant. Next time we’ll use milder leaves and maybe add some feta.
We drank a Premier Cru Rully with it, which was good. And good that it was good, since we still have eleven bottles of it.
Chocolate Brownies
I was quite flattered today to be asked to bake something for a colleague who is leaving on Friday. Flattered but frightened because I’m not much of a baker. Something about the preciseness of the measuring and the weighing and the mixing and the folding. I like to taste as I go along and add whatever I think is missing, you can’t really do that with baking.
Anyway, the colleague in question likes chocolate so I thought brownies would be appropriate, and I’ve heard that they’re quite well behaved. So brownies it was, using this recipe.
Stephen assisted me with the measuring and the weighing and the mixing and the folding and I crossed my fingers as they went in to the oven. We checked them along the way and, when we thought they felt right, we took them out and left them to cool. They smelt good and the texture seemed right. I just had a small taste and I think they actually taste good too. Chocolatey and gooey and nutty, which is how brownies are supposed to be. I think. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow.
Stir Fried Fish
Continuing our quest to ear healthily, we chose stir fry for dinner this evening. Stephen took control of the wok, while I chopped and made marinades. We used a random recipe we found online which involved the usual soy and oyster sauces, ginger, garlic, onion etc. The haddock marinated for a short while, then was quickly woked and removed while the vegetables (mushrooms, baby corn and some past-their-best spring greens) cooked and the second marinade was added.
We served it with jasmine rice. It was good but lacked something; salt maybe, possibly chilli.
