New Foodie In Da House

Its become quite clear in the last two weeks that my niece, who incidentally is the cutest of cutes, is digging food.  She’s just started eating mashed up fruit and veg as supposed to only milk.  It is pure brilliance, from the hilarious way she holds her mouth wide open in anticipation of the next mouthful to the contemplative expression she has when she’s trying to make sense of each taste and texture.  This contemplative expression is generally followed by this face.  

Which is awesome.

Tortilla II, with Serrano Ham

In an ideal world there will be a Tortilla in the fridge at any one time.  In my opinion its better served cold.

Sliced new pots and boil them for a little while.  Then in a non stick cake tin I layered up the potatoes, fried onions and Serrano ham.  I seasoned each layer, poured in 6 beaten eggs and baked in the oven for about 1/2hr - 45 mins.

It is the definitive spanish omelette and should look like a cake.

Potato Cakes

My mum is irish so I grew up with potato cakes after ever meal that involved mash potato (which is most).  This was a really tasty lunch of colcannon potato cakes, parmesan, panchetta and rocket salad with a nice dressing.  You make potato cakes by adding plain flour until the mash potato is the consistancy of a pastry dough.  Then roll out and cut out the cakes, freeze any excess.  You almost dry fry them, maybe with a touch of butter.  They are so good for breakfast too.  Great with a poached egg, bacon and maple syrup.

Barny does Sausages and Colcannon

And they were deelish.  Incase you don’t know, Colcannon is an irish potato dish which is basically mash potato, cream and kale.  Amazing served with boiled ham.  We made loads of it, far too much to eat, which made me deliriously happy as I knew we’d be making potato cakes the next day.

Poached eggs with chilli wilted spinach and panchetta on toast

Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms and a Basil and Broad Bean Salad

Broad beans are in season, so I am going to do my best to eat all of them.  I got two portobello mushrooms from the green grocers.  Then Gilbey came for dinner because I wouldn’t let him cycle home on a bike who’s breaks refuse to work in the rain.  So we shared the big ones and also used a few big little mushrooms we found in the shop on the way home.

I filled them with garlic butter, thyme, halved cherry tomatoes and started to bake them in the oven.  Then I mixed the stuffing which was ricotta cheese, pancetta, red pepper, salt and pepper.  I filled them with this after about half an hour and drizzled more olive oil and butter and added a little bit of white wine to the tray, then popped back in the oven.  This wine not only reduces cooking time but emulsifies with the butter and the mushroom juice for a scrumptious jus.

Served on a bed of wilted spinach with a rocket and broad bead salad which was dressed with a very garlicy and very basily dressing.

Smoked Mackerel with Horseradish Cream and Bean Salad

Inspired by my lovely old flat mates Justin and Becky who once made me something similar.  I bought some top notch sweet smoked mackerel, served it cold with crunchy radish and with some green and broad beans that i'd cooked and gently fried with butter and shallots.  I grated some parmesan, then plopped a big dollop of cream fraise which is well seasoned and mixed with horseradish sauce.  The spicy horseradish really cuts through the oily fish.  Deeelish. In smaller quantities, this would make a great starter.

Rib Eye and Salsa Verde Asparagus, Mushrooms & New Potato

Not really much to describe here.  I had a craving for steak and spring veg.  We had the steaks bloody and the veg covered in a salsa verde for extra punch.

Left over chicken idea

Got home really late from work and was starving.  Picked up an avocado, some cheese and some tortilla’s with no idea what I was going to do with them.

Then in 5 minutes I made such a satisfying lil’ snack, cheesy and crispy and slightly spicy.

I dry fried a tortilla, grated cheese on top, some avocado, the left over chicken, dried chilli salad and then the other tortilla on top.  I turned the whole thing over and dry fried the other side and pressed with a fish slice.  Just a tasty sandwich.

Roast Jerk Chicken

Love Jerk Chicken in the summer and also love roast chicken.  We had ours with a green salad on a hot night, twas super duper. The jerk run made a crust above the skin keeping it all moist but the skin was deliciously crispy and jerky.

The jerk rub consisted of:

Scotch Bonnet Pepper

Ground Corriander

Dried Thyme

Dried Oregano

Dried Basil

Nutmeg

Allspice

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Tomato Ketchup

Soy Sauce

Ginger

Garlic

Shallot

Spring Onion

The Best Burger

I went for lunch in the new Byron in Islington.  I had never before heard of Byron or of its burgers, I therefore had no idea that they are a small London based chain.  This information would probably had put me off had I heard it before we ate.  Anyway, we arrived and were greeted with water in frosted glass, beers in frosted glasses, some really bloody good red wine and a simple menu.  

I ordered a medium rare cheese burger (with american cheese) and Byron sauce on the side.  We also had onion rings and fries.  Lets start with the fries.  It’s not hard to get fries wrong, keep them small, keep them crispy and keep them salty.  They were exactly all of these things.  The onion rings were made with an amazingly crunchy batter which didn’t get soggy for the entire meal and it seemed that each ring of onion was carefully picked and considered, they too were a triumph.  

The burger however. Was so perfect I am still dreaming about.  The patty not too thick, when I bit into it it was cooked to perfection, bit you could tell it wasn’t straight off the grill because the blood wasn’t going everywhere.  The bun wasn’t too sweet and was the perfect consistency.  The lettuce, the processed cheese, everything you could tell had been thought over and given the attention it so deserved.  Nothing was over complicated or fussy just really really good.

I want to go back very soon.

For when you are feeling fat.

Naturally after the last post I was feeling pretty guilty about my food intake, especially after a week in France eating pretty much only cheese prior to that.  So while Barny prepared the oven for his pizza I made this:

Steam or quickly boil, mange tout, tender stem broccoli and green beans.  Warm oil in pan add a crushed garlic clove.  Add fresh chopped tomatoes, grilled red peppers (from jar), salt, pepper, sugar and basil.  Then my new favorite friend, harissa paste,  but if not, some dried chilles.  I had some very stale french bread from which I torn a little off and popped on the plate.  I then crumbled feta into the sauce, quickly put the sauce over the bread, with the green vegetables on top and a little more feta.

And it wasn’t all that bad.

Highbury Fields BBQ

There is little more satisfying than having a day off, going to your favorite food shops and spending money on fine cheese, meats, veg and wine with the intention of slowly grazing all day on it.  This is how we spent our day off when the weather was good last week.

We started with cheeses, marinated anchovies, bread and homous.  Then a friend turned up with a pretty awesome celeriac salad and a chicory and orange salad.  There were artichokes, grilled peppers, pate and Burgundy.  

Then it was about 5pm and we lit the Barbeque on which we obviously has some excellent chipolates, halloumi (no bbq complete with out) and corn cob.   The absolute stars of the day however were the british asparagus, which we rubbed with butter salt and pepper and put on until warmed through and a beautiful steak from my favorite butchers, Godfreys.  It saw a couple of minutes each side and we left it to rest while the blood started to bead on the top.  One of the most perfect food days ever.

Chicken Tagine

Easy as pie.  Although, pies aren’t actually that easy, especially if you’re planning on making your own pastry.  So easy as stew, which is technically what I did here.

This was really quite quick and very enjoyable.  Great I think if you have people round last minute.

I rolled the chicken legs and thighs in some of the spices and browned them in the pan a couple at a time. The in the same pan, fry onion until softened then add garlic, ginger, paprika, cumin, tumeric and cinnamon.  Then add stock, some fruit (dates here), rinsed kalamata olives, Harissa paste, honey, preserved lemons if you can, bring to the boil and add the chicken again. Simmer for about and hour, maybe a bit longer.  Then at the end I bunged a l load of herbs in it and served with couscous.

I love the fragrant spices with the meat and the sweetness the sauce takes on from the fruit.  I can’t imagine that this isn’t really healthy either which is a bonus.

Braised Squid

I ate a St John Bread & Wine a few months ago and possibly the best dish I had there was the wine braised cuttlefish.  I could get any cuttlefish so I bought some squid.  Which I marinated with garlic, lemon rind and oil over night, probably unnecessary but I did it regardless.  Then I fried off some chorizo and lots of sweet red onions.  When they had softened I added garlic, dried chilli, two anchovy fillets, paprika, lemon zest and juice, seasoned well with salt pepper and some sugar. Then threw in about half a bottle of red wine.  I put it in the oven for about three hours on a really low heat.  Added at the last minute capers and lots of parsley.  The fish was cooked perfectly but I wasn’t entirely happy with the consistency of the sauce, which was still pretty watery.  Next time I’ll probably leave the lid off and/or dice some potatoes.  I really want the sauce to be quite sticky and dark.  It was really tasty however and great with some crusty toasted bread.  

I also served it with some stuffed aubergines.  I halved, removed the flesh and boiled these in water for about half and hour.  then stuffed then layered them in a gratin dish on top of a spicy tomato sauce.  Filled them with fried onions, the flesh, garlic, spinach and feta.  Then topped with bread crumbs and parmesan.

Rib Eye with Rainbow Chard

I have been craving bloody red meat for about two weeks.  I must be low in Iron or something.  Anyway with a big steak, you don’t need potatoes, just something green and delicious.  I sauteed the rainbow chard stalks and half an onion for a few minutes while the meat was resting.  Then added a little chopped garlic, grated lemon rind, a little lemon juice, the Chard leafs, seasoned and cooked for 2 more minutes.

Eggs Benedict

I’d actually never made hollandaise sauce before believe it or not.  The eggs we bought for this had unbelievably dark and orange yolks which explains the colour of the sauce.

I have to say, I was worried this wasn’t working until I seasoned it and everything fell into place.  It was a massive treat.

Tortilla

Pre boiled the potatoes this time to create a layered gratin effect.  Layered with sauteed onion and chorizo and baked in a cake tin.

Not enough egg. Work in progress.

Pizza

Boys like pizza and when there is more than one (boy) staying at our house, I tend to make them.  Maybe its the scale of it, a large pizza doesn’t look like it will run out and this makes them (the boys) feel safe.  

I also really like to serve pizza as a starter when there are lots of people round for dinner. Assuming the dough has already been sorted the morning before.

Toppings: 

Chorizo and Courgette

Artichoke, Parma ham & Capers

Quick Pasta Supper

No time or inclination to leave the house and try to throw together anything more complicated than this.  Its rapid prep is one of the reasons why people love pasta in this country.  This took 15 minutes from opening my front door to sitting down at the table.  Italian cooking is to me, ingrained in my cooking knowledge.  The first type of food I cooked, like many I'm sure, was pasta sauces.  Its such a good way of understanding seasoning and getting different flavours into food.  I think once you’ve had a pop at a few dishes, you can just mix and match ingredients as you deem appropriate.

For this one I raided the fridge and larder (don’t have a larder, wish I did).  We had egg, parmesan, courgette, spinach, shallots, a jar of artichokes and a glug of white wine to be equally shared between me and the frying pan.

As the pasta was cooking I gently fried the shallots and courgette.  The pasta is nearly done, I added the artichoke and the glass of wine to the frying pan and seasoned as the alcohol cooked off.  I added the spinach, drained the pasta and added to the frying pan and took off the heat.  Then I added the grated parmesan and the beaten egg and tossed to make a creamy sauce (if I had cream, there would have been a splash).

Giant Lamb Chops with Feta and Lemon

I’m pretty sure that this is a Nigel Slater recipe.  I marinated lamb chops in lemon zest, chopped garlic, fresh thyme, a squeeze of lemon juice, olive oil and seasoned.  Then cooked them on each side so the fat was charred and they were still a little pink inside.  I let the rest, dressed my salad leaves, used up the last of the pink coleslaw.  Then crumbled feta and squeezed lemon over the lamb. 

Tapas

Alright, pink coleslaw isn’t strictly spanish.  Dinner didn’t start off being tapas.  I made the coleslaw, then took a look at all the rest of the ingredients and the sunny evening and decided that it would be kind of spanish.

So I made Chorizo Patatas Bravas which involved roasting or deep frying cubed potatoes and making a spicy chorizo tomato sauce to pour over.

Found some langoustine at the supermarket and snapped them up. I fried them in a skillet with garlic butter for a few minutes then put a glass of white wine and popped them under the grill to finish them off.  I’ve never had langoustine before not over cooked, they were so sweet, I cannot stress how gorgeous the meat was.

Also made a bread and tomato salad with some stale bread, chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil leaves, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.

Breakfast

Sausages with caramelised red onions in a baguette and tea.

Its all gravy

I found myself boasting the other day that it had been 2 years since I was sick last... 6 hours later I came down, very dramatically (fainted) with a bug.  Its been exhausting, made me feel like crap, I even had to take off work to get better and was wracked with guilt.  The night after it broke I only wanted mash potato, green vegetables, chicken and gravy.  So this is what we had.

Feta & Courgette fritters

Quite possibly the best thing ever. I was Introduced to this Gilbeys step mum. Its actually a turkish disk called Mucver, which is fairly appropriate because my grandfather was actually turkish. So its in the blood, I was meant to eat it.  Basically you can have this at anytime of the day and it will always taste timely, Barny had it the following morning for breakfast.

Grate two courgettes, salt and leave them in a sieve to drip for half an hour, this removes the water.  Then finely dice a shallot and 4 spring onions. Add quite a bit of thyme, some parsley, mint, a teaspoon of ground coriander, two beaten eggs, season and three table spoons of plain flour.  Mix together and then crumble in the feta cheese.  

You either shallow or deep fry the fritters.  Shallow fry and they look like patties like mine or deep fry and dollop them into balls.

I had mine with corn cob, chutney, salad leaves and sour cream.

Tacos.

I am developing an obsession with Mexican food and I want to nail the basics.   I thought tacos would be a good place to start because you can put whatever in them.  I made a guacamole, with the usual lemon, chilli, some grated garlic, salt & pepper.  Then a salsa (which incidentally was so much better the day after) with chilli, red onion, tomato flesh, garlic, cucumber, mint, parsley and lime juice.  Then I prepped the tacos, I couldn’t find any corn tacos so I bought flour tortillas and (wasteful) cut them into smaller circles then dry fried them on each side and laid them folded so they kept their shape.

The tricky bit was frying the chicken so that it tasted seasoned in the right way.  I mixed pepper, dried thyme, dried oregano, ground coriander, paprika, salt, grated red chilli and garlic, then a little tomato flesh and tomato puree and fried until it was all pretty dry on the outside but the chicken strips were still moist.

Served with cheese, rice, lettuce and sour cream with everything on the table so we could make our own.

Good Idea

This is a great food blog, Food Stories.  One of the things I like about it is she’s a witty writer.  I kinda feel that when I look back at some of my posts that a lot of them have a back-from-the-summer-holidays-and-writing-a-story-in-my-jotter-for-primary-school quality about them.  The other thing I love about her blog is that she writes about sandwiches and burgers.  I god damn love good sandwiches and I cannot think of anytime in my life when I haven’t picked up a menu and though “yep, I could definitely eat the burger”. 

Anyway a great idea that I thoroughly enjoyed was a soft boiled egg and hot butter soldiers with anchovies squished in on them.

Thai Prawn Curry

Note the naff Thai restaurant style sugar-bowl-come-rice-mould.

Roast Chicken, Fennel and Orange Salad

I’m not good at salads, I’m not entirely sure how they work, but we’ve been eating so much lately I needed something relatively healthy.  The fennel and orange were really good together and the salty crispy chicken made me feel like it was half substantial.  The best bit though were the crispy croutons which were bits of ciabatta that I rolled and browned in the chicken juices.  This salad may encourage me to eat more salads.

Italian Sandwiches

A very tasty sandwich.  I rubbed garlic onto each slice of ciabatta, then olive oil, the laid basil leaves, italian salami, parmesan, capers, salad leaves and mayonnaise.  It annoys me that you can't get a good sandwich like this on every street corner.  The food/lunch options in the area that I work in is so very dire.

Pork Tenderloin with Cider, Mustard and Mushroom Sauce and Celeriac Mash.