May 2013
1 post
12 tags
Tuesday dinner: Beans, mushrooms, courgettes, rice
Red, white, and black bean stew. Slice onions thinly and garlic thickly; sauté in olive oil until golden. Add quartered chestnut mushrooms; cook until liquid starts coming out. Add a splosh of white wine; deglaze.
Add previously-cooked soya beans, aduki beans, and black beans, along with cooking liquid from the aduki and black beans (I discard the cooking liquid from the soya beans as I’m...
April 2013
3 posts
8 tags
Thursday dinner: Eggs, mushrooms, kidney beans,...
Khis soko, lobio nigozit, buckwheat pilaf. As described at the link, except I missed the instruction to chop the mushrooms finely, I left the pomegranate seeds out of the bean dish, and I used buckwheat instead of the bulgar wheat.
The individual things tasted a bit boring while I was cooking them, but when they were all together on the plate they complemented each other very well and...
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: mezze
Chickpea and chorizo stew. Cook diced chorizo in a little olive oil, slowly, so it releases its own fat. Add diced onion, carrot, celery, and fennel along with thickly-sliced garlic; sauté gently until soft. Add tomato purée and cook a couple of minutes longer; add a splosh of white wine and cook off. Pour in some vegetable stock along with a generous quantity of paprika. Add cooked chickpeas and...
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: Duck, taro, rice
Roasted duck legs. Seasoned, skin pricked with a needle, 25 minutes at Gas Mark 8 (230ºC/450ºF), 35 minutes (this was possibly a little too long) at Gas Mark 3 (160ºC/325ºF), 25 minutes resting under foil.
Braised taro with dried shrimp. I used the whites of spring onions instead of shallots, saving the green parts to add at the end. I also cooked the taro in more water and for much longer than...
March 2013
6 posts
10 tags
Thursday dinner: Bread, sweet potatoes,...
Savoury bread pudding with sweet potatoes and aubergines. Tear up some slices of bread and mix them with previously-roasted cubes of sweet potato and aubergine (leftovers from a couple of nights ago). Add grated cheddar and parmesan cheese (leave out the parmesan if you’re feeding vegetarians), season with salt and black pepper, then pour over a custard made by whisking eggs with milk (I...
12 tags
Tuesday lunch: Lentils, tomatoes, peppers,...
Spinach and cheddar savoury muffin slices. Based on a recipe for spinach and feta muffins. I used grated mature cheddar instead of the feta. I also baked the mixture in the base of a silicone 1 kg loaf pan for 30 minutes at Gas Mark 4, to get a more easily-sliceable end result. Adults and 10-month-old baby ate this, plain or spread with cream cheese.
Puy lentil salad. Canned Puy lentils,...
7 tags
Saturday dinner: Tuna, celery, carrots, bread
A light dinner tonight since bob and I had dim sum for lunch.
Tuna salad. Mix drained tinned tuna with grated carrot and finely-chopped celery. Season with fish sauce and black pepper. Bind with mayonnaise. Serve in sandwiches or on toast.
8 tags
Friday dinner: chicken, rice, leeks, carrots, red...
Roasted jerk-marinaded chicken legs. Bought pre-marinaded from the supermarket.
Savoury rice. Wash basmati rice, put in rice cooker with an appropriate amount of water. Add Maggi cubes along with chopped leek, carrot, and red pepper. Cook as normal and stir before serving.
6 tags
Tuesday dinner: Veal, tomatoes, noodles
Veal ragù with Fuzhou slice noodles. Made as described there, though I think I put in too little wine and too much jaggery this time, as the acid-sweet balance was off.
7 tags
Friday dinner: Salmon, red peppers, broccoli,...
Salmon en papillote with sundried tomato and anchovy tapenade.
Red pepper salad. Slice a red pepper thinly, dress with seasoned sushi vinegar.
Steamed tenderstem broccoli.
Cold boiled potatoes. Left over from earlier in the week.
Olive ciabatta. Bought from supermarket and warmed in the oven.
February 2013
3 posts
6 tags
Thursday dinner: Mushrooms, red peppers, sour...
Mushroom stroganoff. I made it exactly as stated in the recipe, except I added some squeezy garlic with the mushrooms, and I used sour cream instead of yoghurt.
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker (without the suggested addition of cloves).
8 tags
Tuesday dinner: Fish, eggs, greens, tomatoes, rice
Fish soup with pickled greens. Made with coley and home-made chicken stock.
Stirfried eggs with tomatoes.
Shredded kelp. From a packet. This was a replacement for dry-fried green beans, since I turned out not to have green beans in the house after all.
Jasmine rice. Done in the rice cooker.
6 tags
Friday dinner: Chickpeas, squash, bacon, bread
Chickpea and acorn squash stew with bacon and smoked garlic. Lardons and thick-sliced onions fried in the fat coming from the bacon until well-browned; thick slices of smoked garlic added, fried some more; Chinese cooking wine added and reduced; tomato purée added and stirred for a minute. Cooked chickpeas and cubed acorn squash added along with enough vegetable stock to cover; simmered until...
December 2012
3 posts
6 tags
Friday dinner: Veal, tomatoes, noodles
Veal ragù. I roughly followed Simon Hopkinson’s recipe.
I used olive oil instead of butter, and soya milk instead of cow’s milk, as I was cooking for lactose-intolerant bob. I used Touch of Taste vegetable stock concentrate, as I thought my own home-made chicken/pork stock would just be overwhelmed by the flavours of tomato and wine.
I added a small lump of jaggery to tone down...
6 tags
Tuesday lunch: Eels, prunes, sweet potatoes
Eels Landaises. Cooked entirely in the cause of my guest post for the Vintage Cookbook Trials.
Served with some leftover boiled sweet potatoes that I had in the fridge.
6 tags
Saturday dinner: Leeks, oats, duck
A solo dinner as bob is out at the rugby.
Leek and pistachio porridge. A variation on Eat Cheap Cook Well’s pork and leek porridge. Wash two smallish leeks, cut them finely, cook in 200ml stock (mine was chicken/pork stock) with a pinch of salt and a slosh of white wine until collapsed. Add a small handful of roughly-chopped pistachios, three heaped tablespoons of oats, and enough water to...
November 2012
1 post
6 tags
Saturday dinner: Sausages, bacon, lentils, bread
Sausage and Puy lentil stew. Sauté chopped onion and chopped bacon in a bit of olive oil until onion is soft. Add chopped carrots and leeks and cook for a bit longer, then deglaze the pan with a slosh of red wine.
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a handful of Puy lentils, and vegetable stock to cover. Season with soy sauce, black vinegar (Chinese or balsamic), and Worcestershire sauce; balance...
September 2012
2 posts
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: Sweetcorn, salmon, red peppers
Salmon en papillote with sundried tomato and anchovy tapenade. Pound sundried tomatoes, fresh garlic, capers, and anchovy fillets to a paste in a mortar (you could use an electric mini-chopper; I didn’t, because mine has died). Leave for an hour to let the garlic mellow a bit. Spread on top of skinless salmon fillets, wrap in a foil or baking parchment parcel, bake in oven until done (they...
6 tags
Wednesday lunch: Flageolet beans, bread
This is a version of a salad I’ve posted about before. My aim here was to make a version that will freeze well.
Flageolet bean salad. Cook lots and lots of finely- chopped garlic very slowly in plenty of olive oil, until the garlic flavour has mellowed. There should be enough oil to make a dressing in the next step. Mix the garlic and oil with some (canned, rinsed, drained) flageolet...
August 2012
3 posts
8 tags
Tuesday dinner: Mackerel, cucumber, tomato,...
Mackerel and cucumber salad. Simmer a mackerel fillet very very gently in Hugh F-W’s fish poaching liquid for 2-3 hours until it’s cooked and flavourful but still moist. Leave to cool, remove and discard the bones and skin, and pull the flesh into large flakes. Mix these flakes in a bowl with chopped cucumber, and dress with sushi vinegar.
Tomato and avocado salad. Peel and cube an...
10 tags
Monday dinner: Black beans, courgettes, peppers,...
Black bean stew with courgettes and peppers. Simmer a chopped yellow courgette and a chopped red pepper with a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of Maggi cubes, a finely-chopped scotch bonnet pepper and a bit of water, until the vegetables are soft and most of the liquid has gone. Add some smoky chilli sauce (I used Mad Ass Double Smoky) to taste. Stir in a drained can of soft black beans and...
8 tags
Friday dinner: Flageolet beans, peppers, artichoke...
Flageolet bean salad. Cook lots and lots of chopped garlic very slowly in plenty of olive oil along with chopped capers and sliced red peppers, until the garlic flavour has mellowed and the peppers are softened to your liking. There should be enough oil to make a dressing in the next step. Mix all this with some (canned, rinsed, drained) flageolet beans, some (canned) artichoke hearts cut into 4...
July 2012
1 post
7 tags
Saturday dinner: Pork belly, blood, and liver;...
Dinuguan. I decided to make this Filipino pork belly and blood stew after noticing that my local Filipino supermarket sells frozen pig blood.
This recipe worked OK, but I’ll probably try a different one next time. I’m not sure about putting the garlic and ginger in before the pork, since they were on the verge of burning well before the pork was “starting to brown at the...
June 2012
3 posts
7 tags
Saturday dinner: Mackerel, potatoes, courgettes,...
Grilled mackerel. Fillet, bought frozen, defrosted and patted dry, grilled on a piece of foil, skin-side down first then turned to crisp the skin. (Note that “grilled” in UK English means the heat comes from above.)
Mashed potatoes. Peeled, cubed potatoes, boiled until soft, mashed with Eastern European-style sour cream.
Caponata. Made with courgettes and cherry tomatoes instead...
8 tags
Friday dinner: Chickpeas, potatoes, chorizo,...
Chickpea, chorizo, and potato stew. Sauté chopped onions and chopped cooking chorizo in olive oil until onions are soft; add peeled chopped potatoes, de-stoned black olives, tomato purée, garlic purée, cider, veg stock, paprika; simmer until potatoes are soft; add finely-chopped parsley and celery leaves; simmer 1 more minute; serve with nice bread.
8 tags
Sunday dinner: Chicken, radishes, courgettes,...
Chicken and summer vegetable stew.
Sauté finely-chopped onion, celery, and carrot in olive oil until soft. Push to the edge of the pan, add a little more oil to the revealed space, then add chicken meat (I used thighs, deboned, skinned, and cut into bite-sized chunks) and let it brown.
Add a splash of white wine, some finely-chopped capers, a splash of liquid from the caper jar, a good squeeze...
May 2012
2 posts
9 tags
Wednesday dinner: Cucumber, tomatoes, noodles,...
Tomato and mung bean sheet casserole (蕃茄粉皮煲).
Smacked cucumber salad (拍黃瓜).
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.
7 tags
Sunday dinner: Lentils, sausages, spinach, onions
I have been under the weather for the past week due to food poisoning, and I’m only just getting back to the point where I really feel like eating. Last night, bob made pork sausages, Marmite roast potatoes, steamed green beans, and anchovy gravy. Tonight I used the leftover sausages and anchovy gravy to make…
Puy lentil, spinach, and sausage stew. Cook Puy lentils in vegetable...
April 2012
4 posts
7 tags
Friday dinner: Fish, peppers, aubergine, rice
Salmon and pepper stew. Chopped onion and sliced garlic, softened in olive oil; red peppers, chopped; canned chopped tomatoes; capers and green olives; balsamic vinegar and honey; cubed salmon fillet; fried chopped aubergine.
Served with vermicelli rice.
4 tags
Friday dinner: Fish, peppers, rice
Fish and red pepper curry. Filleted and cubed red bream; sliced red peppers; finely-chopped onion; thickly-sliced garlic; hot curry paste; shrimp paste; tamarind paste; fish sauce; palm sugar.
Served with basmati rice.
6 tags
Sunday dinner: Artichokes, cheese, gnocchi, olives
Gnocchi with artichokes and olives. Cook gnocchi, drain, put on plate. Top with finely chopped artichoke hearts (from a can, rinsed and drained), a small handful of grated hard cheese (Parmesan is good, though not vegetarian), a dollop of black olive paste (or some finely-chopped black olives), a drizzle of olive oil, and plenty of freshly-ground black pepper.
12 tags
Sunday lunch: Artichokes, bread, carrots,...
Buffet lunch for various friends.
Roasted carrot pate.
Cucumber, edamame, and kelp salad. Scoop out and discard the seeds from a cucumber; cut the rest of it into chunks. Cook some edamame, take them out of the pods if they didn’t already come that way (I used frozen depodded ones). Mix with a packet of spicy kelp. Season with a little white vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar.
Chickpea,...
March 2012
4 posts
7 tags
Thursday dinner: Gnocchi, prawns, spinach, tomato
Gnocchi with prawns and spinach. Gently cook some finely-chopped garlic in plenty of olive oil, without browning. Add defrosted frozen chopped spinach and continue to cook. Add a dollop of tomato sauce (I used Loyd Grossman brand). Add cooked peeled king prawns, season to taste, and heat through. Serve with cooked gnocchi (I used ready-made ones).
8 tags
Tuesday dinner: Black beans, chorizo, red peppers,...
Black bean, red pepper, and chorizo stew. Render fat from cubed chorizo, add chopped onion, soften. Add garlic purée and tomato purée, cook 2 minutes. Add cooked black beans with their cooking liquid, along with stoned quartered black olives, plenty of paprika, and a slosh of vegetable stock concentrate. Cook down until the liquid has reduced, then add chopped red peppers and broccoli florets,...
9 tags
Monday dinner: Artichoke hearts, broccoli,...
Gnocchi with broccoli pesto. Cook broccoli florets in boiling water until soft; chop very finely and reserve. Blanch chopped red pepper in the same water for a minute or two; remove and reserve. Cook gnocchi in the same water until done; drain. Mix chopped broccoli, blanched pepper, drained gnocchi, quartered canned artichoke hearts, a couple of spoonfuls of ready-made pesto, a glug of olive...
7 tags
Saturday dinner: Squid, tomatoes, peppers,...
Squid and tomato stew. Tomato sauce made with sautéed onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, red wine, sugar to balance the sourness of the wine and tomatoes, little bit of African fish sauce to add spiciness, bit of soy sauce to add umami. Simmered some chopped aubergines and peppers in this, adding frozen squid rings a few minutes before they were done.
Served with plain polenta.
February 2012
11 posts
6 tags
Tuesday dinner: fish, tomatoes, peppers, rice
Fish and pepper stew. Onion and garlic, chopped and softened in olive oil; tinned chopped tomatoes; red and yellow peppers, sliced; white fish (coley), cubed; balsamic vinegar; sugar; celery salt; veg stock concentrate; capers; pickled chillies.
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.
9 tags
Sunday lunch: Puy lentils, courgettes, aubergines,...
Puy lentil stew. Finely-chopped onions, cubed aubergines and courgettes, tinned tomatoes, veg stock, squeezy garlic, puy lentils, bit of sugar and salt.
Sweet and sour leeks. Sliced leeks wilted in olive oil then braised with balsamic vinegar, jaggery, veg stock, and a pinch of salt. Made up while staring at the fridge contents an hour before lunch guests were due, turned out even better than...
8 tags
Thursday dinner: squid, prawns, scallops, rice
Spicy seafood stew. Made with the puréed tomato/bell pepper/scotch bonnet/onion mixture left over from the Nigerian cooking day I hosted last month (it’s been in the freezer since then). These were all ground up together with a blender. I simmered this sauce for a bit to cook out the rawness, then added (previously frozen, now defrosted) raw squid, prawns, and scallops in that order, and...
7 tags
Wednesday dinner: Mackerel, courgettes,...
Shallow-fried mackerel. Skin-on.
Courgette and aubergine stew. Made with the end of a jar of pasta sauce, a bit of dairy-free pesto, and a few spoonfuls of home-made tomato and chilli dipping sauce.
Giant couscous. Cooked in vegetable stock.
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: Haggis, greens, yam
Haggis. Cooked in a water bath in the oven for an hour.
Brussels tops. Leaves and sprouts, sliced and steamed.
Yam pottage. From the freezer, left over from December.
Red wine gravy. Onions, sliced thinly and caramelised in pork fat (rendered from the roast pork I did last week); garlic purée and tomato purée added and cooked for a few minutes; plain flour sprinkled over and cooked to get...
8 tags
Sunday dinner: Artichoke hearts, broccoli, pasta
Broccoli and artichoke pasta. Mix together: artichoke hearts from a can, drained, rinsed, and halved; broccoli florets, boiled until done to liking; pasta quills, boiled until done to liking; a good slosh of olive oil; a couple of spoonfuls of tomato pasta sauce from a jar; plenty of black pepper. Reheat if necessary.
I used gluten-free pasta, and it worked fine. I also put some grated...
9 tags
Thursday dinner: Pork, lentils, greens, radishes,...
Pork and lentil soup. Made with leftover roast pork from Tuesday, plus onions (fried in the pork fat that came off the roast), garlic, split red lentils, finely-chopped greens, chopped radishes, veg stock. Served with sourdough bread.
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: Pork, radishes, cauliflower,...
Roast pork shoulder. From the happy pig we bought from Yorkshire Meats. Left unwrapped in the fridge overnight for the skin to dry out, then sprinkled with salt and plainly roasted. Delicious.
Glazed radishes. Topped and tailed radishes braised in vegetable stock (Touch of Taste) and jaggery — I didn’t bother with the butter/oil mentioned at the link.
Roasted potato cubes with garlic...
10 tags
Sunday dinner: Aubergines, tofu, pork mince, rice
Mapo tofu. Made with pork mince.
Fish-fragrant aubergine. I steamed the aubergines instead of frying them, and used finely-chopped shiitake instead of the pork mince.
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.
8 tags
Saturday dinner: pumpkin, green beans, chickpeas,...
Pumpkin, green bean, and chickpea curry. Chop and sauté an onion and some garlic; add hot curry paste and tomato purée and cook for a few more minutes; add vegetable stock, tamarind paste, grated jaggery, coconut cream, cooked chickpeas, and peeled, cubed pumpkin; cook for about 20 minutes; add sliced green beans; cook for another 15-20 minutes.
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.
7 tags
Wednesday dinner: Bread, tomato sauce, tuna,...
Another quick dinner tonight: pizza toasts. This is sort of like cheese on toast with extra toppings.
Pizza toasts. Toast a thick slice of bread (I used sourdough) on one side, then turn it over and spread some tomato sauce (I used Loyd Grossman brand with wild mushrooms) on the untoasted side. Add flaked tinned tuna on top of this, then add cheese (I used sliced English goat cheese) and...
January 2012
12 posts
7 tags
[bob cooks] Tuesday dinner: Fishcakes, peas, red...
Working late this week; catching up after running a three-day event on the weekend. We had leftovers last night, and tonight bob picked up some ready-made stuff from M&S on the way home.
Fishcakes. Cod and salmon; the salmon ones had more flavour and more texture too.
Peas. Served with a knob of butter.
Red cabbage. Ready-braised with apples and redcurrant jelly.
And then I had a mini...
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: Black chickpeas, red pepper, okra,...
Black chickpea stew. Black chickpeas, red peppers, okra, onion, garlic, ginger, curry paste, tamarind, jaggery, tomatoes.
Fried plantains.
Parathas.
Tired tonight, so you don’t get instructions.
8 tags
Saturday dinner: Lentils, chicken, kohlrabi, bacon
Chicken and lentil soup. Render fat from chopped bacon, add chopped onion, garlic, and celery; cook until onion is lightly browned. Add red lentils and plenty of chicken or vegetable stock; bring to boil and simmer until lentils are softened. Add peeled cubed kohlrabi and simmer until kohlrabi is cooked; add cooked shredded chicken and heat through.
For the chicken, I used grilled spicy chicken...
