Delicious Kake Food

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.

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.

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.

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 done.

Served with bread and butter.

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 the acidity, and a slosh of soy sauce for extra umami. I used canned tomatoes and dried herbs instead of fresh, because that’s what I had on hand.

I served it with the type of noodles that are sold as “Fuzhou dried noodle slice”, because I like their thin, silky smoothness.

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 or 6 pieces each, a splash of red wine vinegar, and salt to taste. Leave it for a bit to let the flavours meld.

Vermicelli rice. Made with olive oil instead of butter.

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.

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.

Everything came from the freezer except the red pepper, parsley, olives, and Worcestershire sauce.

Puy lentil and sausage stew. Puy lentils from the freezer stash (previously cooked in bulk with onion, carrot, garlic, and tomato; portioned out and frozen), sliced previously cooked sausages from the freezer stash (if I only need a couple of cooked sausages, I cook the whole pack and freeze the rest), halved green olives, splash of Worcestershire sauce, chopped red pepper. Simmer all together with a splash of water until the pepper is cooked, then add chopped parsley.

Quinoa with preserved lemon. From the freezer, previously cooked in vegetable stock (from a bottle, Touch of Taste brand) and mixed with chopped spring onions and preserved lemons. This was left over from a large batch I cooked a few months ago.

Jollof rice. Also from the freezer, left over from the Nigerian dinner I cooked last month.

Chickpea and cauliflower curry. Chop red onion finely, fry in groundnut oil until very soft. Pound ginger and garlic to a paste with a bit of salt in a mortar, add to onion along with shrimp paste and hot curry paste. Cook for a few more minutes, then add tamarind paste, jaggery, canned tomatoes, coconut cream. Stir until mixed well, then add cooked drained chickpeas and cauliflower florets. Add water to nearly cover, then put the lid on and simmer until the cauliflower is cooked and the sauce is thick.

I had it with rice left over from last night, bob had it with parathas.