April 2011
17 posts
8 tags
Friday dinner: Aubergine, pork, glass noodles,...
Steamed aubergine with glass noodles. I think I cut the aubergines a bit too big — will cut them smaller next time. Also might use more chilli oil.
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.
6 tags
Monday dinner: Aubergine, winter melon, rice
Fish-fragrant aubergine. I steamed the aubergine pieces instead of frying them — simpler, and still delicious.
Winter melon with dried prawns. I used some tiny tiny dried prawns that I spotted in the Chinese supermarket today, not the larger ones that can sometimes end up a bit hard and chewy.
Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.
8 tags
Monday lunch: smoked fish, salad leaves, tomato,...
Mixed salad leaves dressed with vinaigrette (extra-virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, bit of mustard, pinch of salt, pinch of sugar, few grinds of black pepper, all shaken up together in a jar). A fresh tomato, cut into eighths. A fillet of smoked trout, broken into large pieces.
And then a small bowl of plain rice. Bread would have worked too.
8 tags
Sunday dinner: Tofu, rice, mangetout
Spicy salty steamed tofu served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker, and plain stirfried mangetout (just oil and salt).
6 tags
Saturday supper: Salmon, cucumber, double cream
I had a late lunch and then an afternoon snack (both provided by the Bermondsey Brazilian Shop), so I didn’t have a proper dinner tonight. Instead I had a late-night supper of salmon tartare, following Anthony Demetre’s mackerel tartare recipe.
The tartare is flavoured with ginger, capers, citrus, and parsley, and it’s served with a honeyed cucumber pickle and some...
7 tags
Friday dinner: Greens, glass noodles, tofu,...
Pointed cabbage and glass noodle stew with mushrooms and tofu. I followed Oyceter’s recipe for 大白菜粉絲 (Chinese leaf with glass noodles — scroll down for this recipe) except that I used pointed cabbage/hispi instead of the Chinese leaf. I used quite a lot of ginger, so there was noticeable heat in the finished dish. I included a shredded dried scallop, sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms, and...
6 tags
Friday lunch: gnocchi, red peppers, tomatoes
I had some of the red pepper salad left over from Wednesday (just finely-chopped red peppers, tomatoes, and spring onions; all seasoned with a bit of lemon juice), and I also had the end of a packet of gnocchi in the fridge. So for a quick lunch today I cooked the gnocchi, tossed them with olive oil, and mixed in the pepper salad. It was pretty good — I might make it on purpose some time.
7 tags
Wednesday dinner: Sausages, chickpeas, peppers
My original plan for tonight was to make a sausage, red pepper, and borlotti bean casserole using the sausages Bob got from the farmers’ market at the weekend. The sausages were quite interesting: lamb and lamb liver flavoured with orange peel and various spices. The weather today has been nice and warm, though, so the idea of casserole seemed a bit heavy.
Instead, I made some hummous...
7 tags
Monday dinner: Morels, wild garlic, rice
Wild garlic and morel risotto. Started with finely-chopped onions and the chopped stems of the wild garlic, deglazed with white wine. I cooked the morels separately and added them into the risotto near the end, along with the finely-sliced leaves of the wild garlic. Lots of black pepper, optional parmesan.
13 tags
Saturday dinner: Smoked fish, ham, aubergines,...
Picnic-style dinner tonight:
Smoked fish selection (trout, mackerel, salmon) with tartare sauce
Polish “feast ham”
Aubergine salad (cut into wedges, brush with oil, cook slowly in frying pan until soft, dress with a little more olive oil and some seasoned vinegar)
Stewed green beans (with finely-chopped onion/garlic/tomato, ground cumin, ground cinnamon, pomegranate molasses)
...
6 tags
Thursday dinner: Prawns, asparagus, rice
I still had many prawns left over from the ones I defrosted for yesterday’s dinner, so I invited a friend round to help me eat them.
The prawns were head-off but shell-on. I cut along the backs with kitchen scissors, and extracted the “vein” (intestine). Then I marinaded them in a mixture of chopped garlic (lots), chilli honey (which I found lurking on our chilli sauce...
7 tags
Thursday lunch: Pork and rice
Congee. Made with leftover rice from last night; I added more water and gave it another 40 minutes in the rice cooker, adding some chopped char siu pork (left over from a takeaway a couple of days ago) shortly before the end. Sprinkled with chopped spring onion before serving.
Unfortunately it seems my rice cooker (Tefal) doesn’t cope very well with congee — some of it escaped out the...
7 tags
Wednesday dinner: Prawns, greens, rice
Garlic fried prawns. Not entirely sure about this recipe. It was OK, but not delicious. Perhaps it’s just not to my taste.
Served with choi sum with garlic (left over from a takeaway a couple of days ago) and plain rice done in the rice cooker.
7 tags
Tuesday dinner: lamb chops, peppers, squash,...
Roasted lamb chops with vegetable stew. Fry chopped peppers, courgettes, patty pan squash; mix with a home-made tomato sauce; spread in an oven dish; place lamb chops on top; bake at 180˚C until done (about 20-30 minutes).
Stuffed mushrooms. Remove the stems of large mushrooms, chop them (the stems), sauté them with chopped garlic, mix in chopped capers, finely-chopped fresh basil, ground...
6 tags
Monday dinner: pak choi, eggs, aubergine, rice
Baked omelette with pak choi and fermented tofu. Chop and stirfry a quantity of pak choi with garlic, ginger, and Chinese rice wine, then place in a wide flat oven-safe dish and spread out evenly. It should be about 2-4cm deep. Whisk some eggs with a few cubes of fermented tofu, and pour evenly over the vegetables. Bake in a low oven until the eggs are set.
Mashed aubergine salad. I love this...
12 tags
[bob cooks] Saturday dinner: scallops, asparagus,...
I’ve decided to start posting the meals that bob cooks here as well. He shops from the farmer’s market most Saturdays, so he usually cooks at least one of our weekend dinners. He’s more into meat than I am, so these meals are rarely vegetarian.
Grilled asparagus and scallops. Both done on the griddle pan, just plainly cooked. The asparagus was very tasty. The scallops were a...
4 tags
Friday dinner: A ready meal and some vegetables
Another busy week, another ready meal for dinner. Bigham’s again: fish pie this time. It’s pretty good for a ready meal, though expensive.
To go with it I did garlic bread (ready prepared from Ocado) and some caponata that I cooked on Tuesday and put in the fridge. My caponata recipe doesn’t use a full can of tomatoes, so I put the rest in the leftovers of Tuesday’s...
