Monday 27 February 2012

Silicon based disaster

This weekend was a mixed bag with the cooking. It was my partners birthday last week, and so Friday I decided to make a birthday dinner. I really struggled to think of what to make, I knew I wanted to do mussels, but if we eat mussels for starter we usually end up eating so much bread with them that the main becomes a lacklustre chore instead of a delcious follow on. Aside from the bread problem, I really need to start buying smaller portions of mussels. 1kg between two for a main is probably too much for a starter, anyway......
I went to the market to try and get a bit of inspiration, and found some pigeon. I knew I had a nice recipe at home from this beautiful book...





...and so I decided to go for red wine and rosemary risotto with pigeon breast for the main. I also spied some oysters whilst buying the mussels, and as we'd never tried them before, I bought two as a canape experiment.
My partner isnt a fan of cold savoury food (including sandwiches with cold fillings!!!), but I'd seen a suggestion before to grill them with a little worcestershire sauce. They werent too hard to open, surprisingly, but they did look very bizarre.


I thought it tasted ok, a little chewier than a mussel, but not bad overall. My partner said it 'tasted like the sea', which wasnt really a compliment, and wasnt meant as one.
once again I DID overdo it on the mussels, but they were really nice. I fried off some rosemary, leek and pancetta, then added the mussels and some dry cider and let them steam open. When they were ready I poured over a little cream (possibly too much considering I wasnt trying to make the dish too heavy) and served with far too much bread.



As you can see, the bowl was overflowing a bit, I blamed the size of the bowl, my partner blamed my propensity for what he calls 'granny portions'.
The pigeon only took a few minutes in the pan as I wanted it quite pink. That, coupled with the risotto was delicious. I love gamey meat, and thought it was lovely, really well paired with the risotto, though I imagine any poultry would go quite nicely alongside.




And finally....the birthday cake.
Now, I'd been given one of those silicon giant cupcake cake tins for my birthday, and had been desperate to try it out. In hindsight it probably would have been good to have a trial run, but sometimes that just wont do.
I made up a standard sponge recipe, adding some lemon zest and juice, and popped it into the tins and in the oven at the stated temperature. It seemed to take FOREVER too bake, but came out looking reasonable. I left it to cool before I started to decorate it, which was the part I was dreading, as though I can knock up a fairly decent (or absolutely delicious) cake, they never look like much, as I'm not much of a dab hand with icing.

I tried really hard, and it seemed to be going ok, until I moved it to a different bench and my stupid colander handle made a dent in the icing, argh! I managed to cover it up and it ended up looking half decent (half decent because the other side not shown in this picture was an absolute mess).




Lorraine Pascal, I am not.

At least  I was pretty confident it would taste lovely. Oh how presumptuous. Ive never cut into such a dense cake. It tasted fine, the flavours were all there, but it was so thick, no light, fluffy texture. I was heartbroken. The leftover will make a nice trifle Im sure, but bloody bollocks! I think baking with silicon may take a little more work to get it right.

On Saturday I made breakfast pancakes, as my partners birthday had fallen on shrove Tuesday this year, and he hadnt had any, so it seemed a shame not to.
I used
12 tablespoons of Buckwheat flour
Salt,
2 tablespoons of oil
And enough water to make it into a loose batter.

I also added a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard to perk them up a bit.
No sea monster style disasters this time, I served them with sausage, scrambled egg and beans. And they were wonderful. I made 6, and I still have enough batter for about another 6, so the recipe is easy to scale down if needed.



Saturday evening we went out for dinner to Kayal http://www.kayalrestaurant.com/NottinghamMenu.aspx, a great Keralan style restaurant in the city. The food there is so flavoursome.

We had the Adipoli Aadu / Kozhi with chicken, and Kidilan Konju Varuthathu to start, and ordered the Kayal Fish Curry and Cheera Erachi lamb curry for main. Everything was great, one of my favourite things about Kayal is the fantastic little chutneys that they serve alongside the dishes, they are yummy!

For dessert I was unadventurous, and ordered the mango kulfi, as usual. My partner decided to branch out and try the Panchamrutham, with '5 secret ingredients'. It looked like a bowl of mango chutney with bits in, and it was pretty clear that the five 'secret' ingredients definitely contained a large heaping of cardomom. Blergh! I could see my partner shaking his head as he resigned himself to eating most of it as so not to appear rude. I felt slightly smug after he'd mocked me about being so boring with my choice of dessert.


Sunday I got on with making my soups for the week, one the same as last week (thai red lentil) and I also made a curried butternut squash, which consisted of
Fried onion and chopped squash
Added curry powder
Red lentils
Veg stock
And when it was all cooked and blended, some creamed coconut.
Lovely.


I also had a go at making some spelt soda bread, ala the wonderful Mrs B, you can find the recipe, and her gorgeous blog here http://afteralltheworldisabeautifulplace.blogspot.com/2012/02/daily-bread-x.html


The bread was one of the easiest things I have EVER made. The tip about the dough staying quite wet was great, as otherwise I would have definitely been tempted to add more flour. I made my own buttermilk with lemon juice and milk, mixed it, popped it in the oven for 20 mins (and then sat on the floor watching it through the door willing it to hurry up). It came out a lovely golden brown

And I immediately cut a chunk off, covered it in butter and some mature cheddar, and ate it with a lovely cup of tea, as suggested. This is one to make again and again.




It was very well deserved after a hard afternoons work.xx



Tuesday 21 February 2012

Soup-er weekend

This weekend the bf was away, and so Friday night was instead spent at a friends house for dinner,where yummy homemade sushi and katsu curry were on the menu, as well as TWO birthday cakes! All of it was delicious, though maybe a little too much cake was eaten that day (I'd already had a small piece after lunch,eep!).





Saturday I attempted to make buckwheat pancakes, suing buckwheat flour,salt,water and oil. The first was an utter disaster, and looked like, what my mum described as, a sea monster. The second was almost perfect, and both tasted fine with some cheese and grapes. Not a convetional breakfast, but its not the oddest thing Ive had.
Saturday evening I made a creamy chorizo and pea pasta. I fried the chorizo and added cream and parmesan, then threw in the pasta and peas with a little pasta water. So simple and really tasty. Brown rice pasta cooks well, and is a great gluten free option.




The biggest success of the weekend, though, has to be Sunday. Ive been experimenting with soups, and decided to make a Tomato and Basil, an a Thai red lentil.
The tomato and basil is made up of

1-2 Red onions
A couple of cloves of garlic
3 tins of tomatoes
Pinch of sugar
Seasoning
Basil
Cream

Fry off the onions and garlic, chuck in the tomatoes and sugar. Add water or veg stock and cook until all nicely soft. Then add basil, blend, and add cream.

The Thai red lentil was by far my favourite though, I found the recipe in an old copy of good food magazine.

1-2 red onions
Spoonful thai red curry pasta
300g red lentils
Stock

Fry Onions and curry paste, add lentils and water, and cook until soft, Then add

Creamed coconut
Chopped spring onions

And its ready to serve. I had mine with a homemade pasty. This weeks flavour was roasted squash, feta, spring onion and pea, with a little tomato and chilli chutney. Heaven


Monday 13 February 2012

Pastry glorious pastry


Ive gone a little pastry mad this week. The success of the pastys led me on to bigger (and better) things, and so this Friday's ofering was a pie. I filled it with chicken, leek and a variety of other vegetables, and decided to road test the 'Heston' way of making cheese sauce. The outcome was delcious. The sauce was easy to make, light and a good consistency, not too runny, but not too thick. I think the skipping of making the roux and instead adding cornflour to the cheese is a really good idea, though maybe isnt thick enough for something like a lasagne.
The pie itself had a pastry hat, but no bottom, as the filling was quite wet and I felt it would go a bit soggy.
Here is the pie in all its glory




I did attempt to present it a little nicer, but as you can see, still not quite a masterchef.

Saturday I was supposed to be having a pre-valentines dinner cooked for me, but it was decided instead that we should go out. We went to Chai-yo (http://www.chaiyonottingham.co.uk/) which is a favourite of ours. Nottingham has some really good thai restaurants, and this is definitely one of my favourites.
For starter we had the mixed Chai-yo platter, which was yummy, if a little greasy. Most of the starters are deep fried, they could do with a couple of more fresh options, but they're still nice.
For main I had the sea bass in red curry sauce, and my partner has the prawns in red curry sauce. Both are wonderful, especially the sea bass. It comes cooked whole and is absolutely great, the sauce is full of flavour. I would recommend any of their sea bass dishes.
Its a really reasonabley priced restaurant, the staff are friendly but dont hassle you, and its got a really nice atmosphere. Definitely somewhere I would recommend.

Friday 10 February 2012

Weekday cooking surprise

I had a bit of a rare moment in which I decided to break the brown rice habit this week. I REALLY fancied a pasty, and, in my effort to stop being so afraid of making pastry, I decided that I was going to make some myself.

I remembered I had some leftover roast pork in he freezer, so in went that, along with a potato, some frozen mixed veg (peas, carrots, etc), so onion, curry powder and homemade chicken stock.
For the pastry I did 500g of flour, along with a 250g mix of butter and some homemade lard (the solidified fat from the chicken stock, yum). I mixed the pastry in the food processor, and it was very easy.

The rest was 7 surprisingly delicious pastys, and now I cant wait to make more. I feel like the pastry world is now my oyster. Im not saying that Im going to attempt a croque en bouche tomorrow, but its a start.


Wednesday 8 February 2012

Lauren and Tim's Carrot and Parsnip soup

I had to put this recipe on here because its too delicious (plus cheap and easy) not to share.

I used:
4 carrots
4 parsnips
2 veg oxos (but any veg stock should be fine)

Put all in a large stock pot with enough water to cover and cook until veg is soft, then blend.
Once blended add some chilli (flakes or in oil) to taste, and salt and pepper
Pour in half a pot of cream, et voila.

BE WARNED: This makes rather a lot of soup, so make sure to have some tupperware on hand (Ive started using empty plastic milk bottles to store soup, and they work a treat).

Monday 6 February 2012

First Post



Ive started this blog as a scrapbook to document the things I cook, places I eat and how they turn out. So this weekend has been a pleasant little whirl of cooking and baking. Friday nights dinner was pesto coated mozzarella, pesto and roast chicken pasta, and garlic ciabatta, rounded off with (a little too much after all that) cherry frangipane tart. It was the first time I'd made the tart, and it was surprisingly easy. Had a bit of an issue trying to roll out the gluten free pastry case, and in the end just gave up and shoved it into the pastry dish in the shape of a tart. It baked a lot better then I expected. I try to mostly eat a mostly gluten free diet, but sometimes just cant resist (the whole meal, aside from the ciabatta, was gluten free, using brown rice pasta, etc), Im always my own undoing. My food, sadly, isnt often very well presented, no matter how I try.








I rounded the weekend off by trying out a new recipe I found in Olive magazine, for an orange and cardomom loaf cake, which turned out really well. not usuall a fan of cardomom, as I find it quite soapy, but it gave the cake a lovely aromatic edge. Until next time..