It’s been ages since we made a Sunday roast. After a delicious roast dinner at a friend’s house last week (thanks Cheryl and Ben) we both really fancied a roast today.
We put thyme and garlic in with the potatoes, onions and english mustard with the beef and use aunt bessie’s yorkshire puddings.
This is my signature dish, its tried and tested many times. I make it whenever we have people over or sometimes I just whip 1 up for my husband.
Here’s the recipe:
1 person – melt 1 small dairymilk bar, add 1 teaspoon of butter, and mix in 1 egg yolk and leave to cool. In a separate bowl whisk the 1 egg white from the egg until stiff, mix into the chocolate mixture, stick in freezer for at least 1hr.
For 6 people use a larger dairymilk bar (I think it’s 280g or 320g – something like that), 3 eggs and 2 teaspoons of butter
For 8 people, around 500g of chocolate, 4 eggs and a tablespoon of butter
Served above with strawberries, raspberries and maltesers for a Maltese twist.
A few years ago an aunt gave me a Hamlyn’s All Colour Cookbook for Christmas, which has been my go-to book when I need a little inspiration. A few years ago I tried making this goats cheese salad which has now become something I make regularly.
To make it, put bread with goats cheese on under a grill to warm and melt a little. Serve with mixed salad leaves (I find that dark leaves like watercress or spinach work best), a few fresh basil leaves – maybe 3 so it’s not too overpowering. The dressing is made with 1 tbs white wine vinegar, 3 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp whole grain mustard and a little tarragon.
If I had some I would have also sprinkled some pine nuts or almonds on top.
Last night’s post-exercise (a British Military Fitness class is Hyde Park) dinner was cooked salmon flaked through spaghetti with a simple creamy sauce made with white wine and creme fraiche, plus plenty of chilli and garlic for a kick.
We had some friends over for dinner last Saturday night. I wanted to make something tried and tested and also that can be prepared in advance so I made my thai green curry.
I had done a cooking course in Thailand 9 years ago (that makes me feel old) which including a lot of grinding and making pastes with a pestel and mortar. The food was lovely but labour intensive enough that I could only be bothered to do it again a couple of times once I got back. A few years ago I wrote down this recipe which is easy enough to always make a curry paste from scratch (or freeze half for next time. (I think this originally came from the BBC food website although I can’t find it on there again.)
You first need to make the curry paste, which is basically blend all the following ingredients (I use the hand blender):
6 green chillies
2 roughly chopped shallots (or one small onion – white not red)
a 5cm piece of fresh ginger, chopped
2 garlic cloves
a small bunch of fresh coriander (stalks included)
2 lemongrass stalks – chopped
1 lime – zest & juice
1 lime – zest
1 tbsp crushed coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground peppercorns
2 tsp thai fish sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
Once you’ve made the curry paste the curry is really easy:
– heat some oil and add half the paste (2-3 tbsp), 1 tbsp brown sugar and a stalk of bashed lemongrass – fry for a couple of mins
– add diced chicken, zest of 1 more lime and cook for a bit
– add 1 tin coconut milk (or 2 for 4 people), a good dash of fish sauce and simmer for 30 mins
– right at the end stir in another bunch of fresh, chopped coriander and squeeze over the juice of 1 lime
yum!
As we had guests over I also tried out a couple of new recipes for starters, both not mine so I will link to them on the BBC Good Food website:
Thai spinach bites – Once I made this mix I was worried that the lime and the ginger in them would be over-powering, but I followed the recipe to the letter and the balance was just right. The half chilli I put in was a little on the large side I think and they had quite a kick.
Fragrant Thai Prawns – These have also got a kick and are so tasty. We served both starters up with prawn crackers and I almost wish we had some bread to dip into the sauce left in the bottom of the bowl because it was so yummy. I’ll definitely make these again and again.
While in Gothenburg this weekend we visited the Feskekôrka – the fish church. At this fish and seafood market, housed in a purpose-built hall made to look like a church, you can buy all sorts of seafood caught on the day.
The hardest decision for us to make was what to buy, so we of course bought way too much. Here are some of the dishes I made.
Mackerel is one of my favourite fish because it’s so tasty – I couldn’t resist buying some paprika smoked mackerel from one of the stalls and made us some smoked mackerel pate for lunch when we got in.
It’s really easy to make, here’s the recipe for four people:
The delicate mustard flavour of the cress actually complements the pate really well. As mackerel is quite ‘fishy’ the lemon juice helps to take the fishiness away, you can add more if you think it needs it. I love horse radish but in this pate you’re not meant to taste it too much, I once put it 2 tablespoons and it competely over-powered the flavours of all the other ingredients and went right up your nose – not too pleasant.
Buerre Noisette sounds a bit posh for the likes of me, but is the perfect accompaniment to any delicately flavoured fish (and scallops too).
To cook the sole I simply seasoned it and fried it for a couple of minutes on each side, then took it out of the pan and used the same pan for the sauce. I put around 3 tablespoons of butter in the pan and kept it on a high heat, stirring until it turned a nutty brown. Once the colour changes, you need to take it off the heat and add in a handful of freshly chopped parsley and the juice of one lemon – then, simply spoon onto the fish.
The lemon in this really lifts the sauce and gives it a fresh taste.
As you can see I served it with some langoustines which I bought ready-cooked, so just warmed up in the over and dressed with Rick Stein’s shallot dressing:
I heart clams and they are really easy to cook – fry lots of garlic (around 5 cloves) in butter until they are soft, add a large glass of white wine, parsley, salt and pepper and some chilli, bring to the boil and throw in your clams & mussels, putting on the lid and leave to open – this will take around 3-4 minutes. Then add approx. 150ml of cream and either serve with pasta and some chopped up tomatoes as I did below, or just in a massive bowl with lots of bread for dipping.
This sauce should be garlicky and creamy and as juicy as possible so you can mop it up with some fresh bread – yum!
N.B. With clams and mussels, if they are open before cooking throw them away, they are not longer good (because they have died). Likewise, if after cooking they do not open then DO NOT try to force them open and eat them – this will make you very sick – throw them away.
I’ve spent this weekend at my brother’s flat in Gothenburg, Sweden. Him and his girlfriend make their own granola and made some fresh on Saturday morning.
They put oats on a grease proof paper lined tray into the oven (150) with walnuts, linseed, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, dried fruit and butter (or oil). put it all under the grill, turning it a few times. Allow it to cool fully before eating.
You can choose whatever ingredients you like, just asking them while I type this vanilla essence, dried cranberries and almonds were added to what you can put in. I’ll be making my own mix when I get home, if for nothing else that the gorgeous smell while it’s cooking.
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These are the custard and raspberry tarts I made yesterday. Using rady-rolled pastry and ready made custard they’re a bit of cheat…but a nice little treat on a Tuesday night.
On Sunday night I attempted to make River Cafe’s Chocolate nemesis and all I can say is that it was a massive fail.
This is what is was supposed to look like:
This is what is actually look liked:
There are a number of things that made it go wrong…I substituted dark chocolate for dairy milk, baked it it too deep a dish at first and transferred to a more shallow dish after it was cooking for an hour and still nowhere near set (this will have lost a lot of the air from the mix). Although I set the oven to 160 as per the recipe, it must have been too high as I got a crust on the top.
Anyhow, this is now a challenge for me, I will rise to the challenge and hopefully soon will be posting about how I won.
My husband’s signature dish is pork in cider, which he made for dinner last night.
Somehow it’s never as good as his when I make it, he says the trick is cooking the pork for a long time, I might just not have the patience for it.
If you’d like to try it out, here’s how.
Ingredients:
– Using a large pan, put in some oil and mustard seeds.
– Once the mustard seeds start to pop, put in the pork, brown it on all sides, season, then add good dash of cider and cover with a lid on medium/low heat for 20 minutes (keeping an eye on it so it doesn’t dry up)
– After 20 minutes let any excess liquid evaporate, then add in the onions and mushrooms, half cover the mixture and again cook for about 20 minutes – adding more cider to stop the pan drying out.
– When the onions are clear and the mushrooms soft pour in the rest (around 500ml) of cider, season again and add lots of worchester sauce (and sometimes some dried, crushed chillis)
The longer you cook the pork in cider on a low heat the nicer it tastes, we serve it with rice and sometimes some peas.
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