May cooking and eating

Yesterday I flicked through a few cookbooks for inspiration when planning this weeks menu. I take great comfort in menu planning. It makes shopping easier and saves me spending the whole day thinking about what to cook. For Monday I landed on Nigel Slater's Aspargus and Lemon risotto from Kitchen Diaries. Aspargus are in season at the moment and one must make the most of it. This risotto ticked all the boxes for us and the flavour was very satisfying.

Butter: A thick slice, about 50 g.

One small onion, finely chopped.

Arborio rice: 200 g

A glass of white wine or Noilly Prat (I used schloer, a sparkling grape juice)

Aspargus: 400 g (I used 320 g), chopped.

Hot chicken stock: 1 litre (you could use vegetable stock to make this a vegetarian risotto)

Lemons: 2 (I used juice of 1/2 and zest of 1)

Grated Parmesan: 3 tbsp

I used a mixture of olive oil and butter for frying the onion. Had half a red onion lying about so I used that. I also added a finely chopped stick of celery for more flavour. Then add the rice and let it get coated by the butter, and then your schloer. Then pour in a ladleful of stock and let it cook, when it is evaporated add chopped aspargus and more stock. Then proceed with adding stock, lemon zest and juice until rice is cooked. This will take approx. 20 minutes. When you are satisfied , add parmesan (and a nut of butter if you wish) and check seasoning. The recipe serves 2, according to Nigel Slater, but it fed 2 adults and 2 kids last night :)

Pasta with sweet tomato sauce

I had some lovely sweet British tomatoes that I wanted to use. Of course, they are quite excellent uncooked in salads or just for munching.. but I fancied a tomatoes-in-season-pasta-sauce. This is what I did:

1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp butter for frying

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp tomato puree

150 g sweet tomatoes

150 ml stock (vegetable, chicken or beef)

A handful of flat leaf parsley

Basil infused olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Parmesan cheese

110 g wholewheat spaghetti (that was what was left in the pack!)

Saute onion in olive oil and butter until soft, add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, then add the tomato puree and the fresh tomatoes. Let it cook for about 3 minutes. Put your pasta on, according to packet instructions. Now add your stock and let it simmer on medium heat. When the pasta is almost done and your sauce has thickened, add the parsley to the tomatoes and stir. Turn the heat off and stir in about 1 - 2 tsp of Basil oil (or if you have fresh basil that's all good). Check and adjust seasoning. Drain your spaghetti and add it to the sauce, give it a good stir and plate up! Grate some parmesan over if you wish. This served me and Miss 1 generously.

This will be my entry for Presto Pasta Nights (www.prestopastanights.com), which is hosted by Jacqueline over at http://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/ this week.

Greek lamb chops with lemon and potatoes

I am not awfully keen on lamb, but this is a surprisingly tasty dish which I have made a few times. It's from Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson. I love the spices used here and next time I am roasting potatoes I am going to use this as flavouring (garlic oil, dried mint, dried chilli flakes, sea salt, lemons - zest and juice- and parsley).




Southern potato curry

Another reicpe from I love Curry by Anjum Anand. I fancied adding some greens to this curry which went well. Served with roti and salad.

I'm still here!

I have been on holiday for a couple of weeks and thus not been able to blog. I was mostly ill whilst on holiday, sadly, but managed to do some cooking. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of what I made. I did however take pictures of yesterday's meal at home and my lunch today.

This is a paneer and pepper curry from Anjum Anand's 'I love curry'. I loved it, Miss 1 ate it though found it spicy, Master 10 ate it reluctantly (1: Where's the meat and 2: I already had curry at school) and hubby liked it (though..how come you didn't make palak paneer??). I served it with naan and a salad.

For lunch today Miss 1 and myself had the Corsican Omelette from Nigella Lawson's 'Forever Summer'. I am generally not too keen on omelettes.. they are so...eggy! But this one was lovely, with mint and feta cheese (should have been chevre, but didnt have any). Served with rocket, tomatoes and avocado with a drizzle of lemon oil and sea salt.

Attention sourdough bakers! I had a go at making sourdough during my holiday, but faced two problems:

1) It turned out like a brick

2) Too sour

What to do?

Danish Tebirkes, A Vegetarian Lunch and Lebanese Pasta Bake

Tebirkes Some of you might have heard about Danish Tebirkes before, some of you might be introduced to them this very moment! Birkes in Danish are Poppy seeds which the breads are topped with. I didn't have any and I'm sure any Dane would tell me off if they knew. I don't really feel that bad about it. So what are they? Tebirkes are made from a dough that has cold butter folded into it and has thus a buttery and flaky taste and appearance. Much like croissants, but these are much easier to make. It's all made in one go and left to prove, then baked. I felt that there was something missing in this recipe which is why I will try to adapt it a bit and post it when I am happy with it. It's very easy to put together for a weekend breakfast and also freeze well if you should choose to do so. Indian-style Chaat

I love a traditional Channe Chaat (chickpea salad), but this particular day I did not have any chickpeas nor any tomatoes, so I had to improvise. If you have tomatoes, do add it because it really tastes nicey-nice.

1 400g can tinned blackeye beans

3 medium potatoes, cooked and cubed

1 avocado

1/2 red onion, sliced

2 tsp (or to taste) Chaat Masala (should be fairly easy to obtain)

Chilli powder (to taste)

Salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Juice of 1 small lemon

A handful of fresh coriander , chopped (optional)

Mix all the ingredients and and season to taste. I love eating this as a simple lunch. It is very easy to prepare, you just have to wait for the potatoes to cook, which can be hard if you are starving. This serves two adults. It can be kept in the fridge to the next day if you are eating alone (cover with clingfilm or else the smell will poison the rest of your fridge!).

Lebanese Pasta Bake with chicken and mushroom w. vegetarian option

We had some leftover roast chicken (as one has) and I wondered (as one does) what to do with it this time. Then I remembered a dish suggested by one of our Lebanese members @ www.throughtheovendoor.com and I decided to make it.

Basically, you make a roux and then add chickenstock and milk powder to make the sauce. Fry some mushrooms and add whichever spice you fancy (I really like thyme and parsley with mushrooms) and then season. Boil some pasta, tagliatelle is good, although this time I had farfalle. When it is al dente, drain and mix with the sauce along with fried mushrooms and shredded cooked chicken. Top with a generous grating of parmesan and bake at 200'C/Gas 6 for 30 minutes. I haven't specified quantities, but it all depends on how much leftover chicken you've got and how many you are cooking for.

I would quite like this as a vegetarian dish too, which I am intending to try. I am thinking.. obviously swap chicken stock for vegetable stock, perhaps griddle or grill some vegetables, such as courgettes, aubergine and peppers (You might have had roast vegetables earlier that you need to use up?) and add a generous amount of mushrooms, and parmesan-style cheese. If you belong to the meat-substitute-quorn-eating group, then you could always try it with chicken-style quorn pieces. Although I think it would taste fab with vegetables.

Some of the pictures in the wrong order.. I will try to upload them reverse to how I intend to post next time.

I'm still trying to figure out how to make the pictures come where I want them to be, so please bare with me. Also.. I do appologise for the quality, viritually no daylight in grey wintery Northern England to take nice pictures, so I kind of have to move the food where there is a little bit of light. One is also lucky enough to get a glimpse of the bin in the background here.

I love pilaou and recently I made channe pilaou (chickpea pilaou) from black chickpeas. It's only I and little Miss 1 who are keen on this because Master 10 does not care for rice that has been fiddled with (plain boiled thank you) and hubby doesn't jump for joy because 1) there is no meat and 2) meat has been replaced with chickpeas (or beans/veg/etc). But I adore this and can eat a large plateful with salad and mint chutney (fresh mint, fresh coriander, greeen chillies, onion, more salt than you think - mix it in a blender/processor and mix a small amount with natural yoghurt. The rest can be frozen and you can break a piece off whenever you need it and dissolve in yoghurt).



Channe Pilaou
225g basmati rice (ideally soaked for 30 minutes prior to cooking)
1 tin chickpeas (any kind)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, cut into half moons
4 -5 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cm piece of ginger, finely grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 cinnamon stick
5 cloves
5 black peppercorns
5 green cardamoms, bruised
1 black cardamom
1 1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt
Stock powder (such as Marigold) to taste, or salt if you dont wish to use stock powder)

Method:
1) Fry onion in oil until it starts to brown
2) Add garlic and ginger and fry for about 30 seconds, making sure the garlic does not burn. Now add the whole spices and fry for a minute.
3) Rinse the tinned chickpeas in water and add them to the pan along with 100 ml water and the Maldon salt and cook until water has evaporated.
4) Now add the drained basmati rice and pour over water so it just covers the rice and chickpeas. Bring it to the boil and turn it down to a simmer and cook for 10- 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it though, you dont want it to stick to the bottom of the pan.
5) When the water has evaporated, turn the heat off and let it cook in it's own steam for 5 -10 minute with the lid on. This will make the rice nice and fluffy.
6) Check seasoning and serve with salad and chutney.


Leftover chicken suggestion:

Yesterday I made a all in one herby chicken dish, which had vegetables and chicken cooked together in the oven with herbs and garlic. It gave us some leftover chicken and I always use leftover chicken for sandwhiches, even if it is in a curry, I pick the chicken pieces out and transform them into something that can go inbetween slices of bread. This time was no exception, but it needed some spicing up.

I'd say this was probably about 250 - 300 g chicken. I added 3 tbsp mayo, 1 tsp Tandoori Masala, pinch of salt, good grinding of pepper, 1/2 tsp chilli pepper flakes and a small handful of fresh coriander. If I was to eat this at once I would have added red onion and tomato, but since this was for hubby's lunch today I didn't want any soggy tomatoes and I thought I'd spare him for raw onion breath at work. The result was really yummy!