Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Prawn and Vegetable Strudel
Dinner tonight was supposed to be incredibly simple. I'm trying to empty the fridge again for a change in my ongoing attempt to defrost the freezer. It also seems like a good idea to use up the old stuff before my mum arrives in two days time. She likes her food (although Lofty and I are starting to doubt her understanding of it) and she loves to go shopping, two qualities that during her last visit resulted in overflowing cupboards and a packed fridge and freezer for us. I wanted to prevent such excess this time and hoped that a strikingly empty fridge might cause her to slow down in her raid of Dublin's food outlets. It didn't but that's a story for another day. Today, we are still blessed with emptiness. Apart from a few vegetables and a big load of condiments we really didn't have a lot. So, I thought, simply cook the vegetables with a dollop of cream cheese and some herbs and spices, defrost some filo pastry and wrap the whole lot up into a strudel. Unfortunately my pastry was not up to the job. Unlike the stuff I know from home, which tends to be quite dry and insubstantial, this pastry was quite moist and dough-like, which resulted in it going soft and soggy rather than crispy during the baking process. The roast tomato salsa did make the whole lot palatable, but if you are considering using Jus Roll pastry, be warned. You need very little of it, your filling should be as dry as possible (substitute the cream cheese below with crumbled goats cheese or some such thing) and it might be an idea to cook it on a paper-lined rack rather than a baking tray. If, on the other hand, you have proper strudel pastry or good quality filo pastry available, you should be fine following my recipe below. If neither is the case, use puff pastry and go for the dry option to prevent the dish from going soggy.For the strudel:
3 sheets filo pastry
melted butter, for brushing
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1kg mixed vegetables (I used broccoli, carrots, zucchini, spinach and cauliflower, but as with quiche absolutely anything can be used here)
a good handful of cooked prawns
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese (alternatively cream cheese or even goats cheese)
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
½ tbsp sage leaves, chopped
a pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
For the roast tomato salsa:
500g cherry tomatoes
250g zebra or heritage tomatoes (ordinary tomatoes will do, but I find that the green colour of the zebra tomatoes makes the dish more interesting)
2 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for the roasting tin)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tbsp fresh basil, chopped
a pinch of chilli powder
sea salt
The salsa needs a while, so start with that. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half lengthways and place them cut-side up in a lightly oiled, shallow roasting tin. Sprinkle with salt and some black pepper and roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour until they have shrivelled in size but are still slightly juicy in the centre. Remove and set aside to cool.
While the tomatoes are baking, chop the vegetables and prawns into bite-sized pieces. Heat the olive oil in a large shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Then add the vegetables in order of their cooking times. Hard vegetables go in first, followed by softer ones that may release a lot of liquid (such as mushrooms) and finally those that don't need long to cook. Stir-fry until they are tender and have released most of their liquid. Now add the prawns and herbs, followed by the cheese. Heat through and allow most of the liquid to evaporate again. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside to cool.
When the tomatoes are cooked, increase the heat of the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Lay one of the three sheets of filo pastry out on the kitchen countertop. Brush with melted butter, place the second sheet on top and repeat, then top with the third. Place the cooled vegetable mixture onto the filo and roll up to make a sausage shape, tucking the sides in as you go. Place on a baking sheet, brush with more butter and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes until the outside is well browned.
To finish the salsa, chop all tomatoes (dried and fresh) into chunks and mix with the other ingredients. Season to taste with chilli and sea salt. Serve alongside the sliced strudel.
Christine at 8:48 pm
Monday, May 29, 2006
Venison Patties with Red Wine Sauce
Some of you may have noticed that I disappeared for a full two weeks and then returned yesterday making a number of posts one after the other. This is not a sign of me having lost interest, all sense of time or even my mind. It just shows that sometimes life is not as straightforward as we wish it to be. A combination of a visit by my mum that I will tell you about in the posts that are coming up, an attack on my computer by a virus that took two days, 6 scanners and a whole lot of cursing before it was gone, and server problems at blogger prevented me from adding to Thought 4 Food. But now my mum is gone and I am back with a vengeance. But as I confused myself with my posts from Munich that had a date much different from that of the day described in them, I have opted to backdate the coming posts to make them easier to understand. So, now that all th
is is cleared up and I am well and truly confused, lets return to Monday, May 29th.Lofty and I had been invited to a barbecue on Saturday night, so I had bought some nice organic sausages and a couple of Finnebrogue Venison grill steaks in order to have something for everyone. But came the evening we decided against going. The weather was looking decidedly unstable and the venue was quite a ways away and neither of us are so big on parties that we would prefer travelling an hour each way for sausages in the rain to having fresh trout and a movie at home. But that left me with a fridge full of meat and only us two to eat it. I decided to go a bit posh just because it was Sunday and make the venison for Lofty. I had a fried egg instead. I'm not a big fan of venison, even the mild organically farmed kind we had. After not eating meat for such a long time I sort of 'lost' the taste of it and I am still not keen on any strongly flavoured meats such as beef or game and only enjoy pork and lamb in very small amounts. You could say that my taste buds are forcing my body to not eat any more meat than is healthy. One or two servings a week is all I like and even then the meat never takes centre stage. I need my vegetables and starch with it. And tonight these consisted of asparagus, runner beans, wild mushrooms and baby potatoes. The recipe below is only for one, I didn't think you needed help frying an egg.
For the venison:
1 venison grill steak (I think this is just a posh term for a burger patty, but if they want to make me believe that my off-cuts are something special, who am I to argue?)
2 tbsp oil
For the mushrooms:
2 tbsp oil
2 handfuls (wild) mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (I used chanterelles, morel mushrooms and shiitakes, but as per usual anything goes and the wilder and fresher the mushrooms, the tastier the dish)
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
For the gravy:
1 tbsp butter
½ red onion, chopped (white onion can be used, but the colour is nicer the other way)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
100 ml red wine
100 ml chicken stock (alternatively use vegetable stock)
1 level tsp cranberry or blackcurrant jelly
1 tbsp cream
salt to taste
To serve:
4 green asparagus spears, trimmed
2 runner beans, strings removed and sliced
4 to 5 baby potatoes
a small knob of butter (optional)
I also added some freshly sliced truffles to emphasise the earthy character of the meal, but a drizzle of truffle oil would work just as well
For the gravy, heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add the onions, cover and sweat until golden, about 10 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium, add the garlic to the onion and continue frying for another minute. Slowly pour in the wine and bring to the boil. Add the jelly and stir until melted. Purée and return to the heat. Add the stock and simmer until thickened, about 10 more minutes.
Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook until soft, about 15 minutes. When the potatoes have been boiling about 5 minutes, heat the oil for the venison in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the grill steak and fry until cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.
At the same time, prepare the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a large shallow frying pan. Add the mushroom and fry until golden brown and tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
For the vegetables, bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil. Add a good pinch of salt along with the asparagus. Boil until just tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Don't overcook it, soggy asparagus is not nice! The beans need even less time, about 2 to 3 minutes. You can cook the two in the same pan to make your life easier or, if you have lots of space and a dishwasher, just heat two smaller pans of water and proceed as described.
Just before you're ready to serve, stir the cream into the gravy and heat up again. Do not allow to boil. Drain the potatoes and add a small dollop of butter. This is very much optional though. With the gravy keeping the dish moist, you do not need the butter. We just like a bit of it on our spuds. Serve everything together on a nice, big plate.
Christine at 9:27 pm
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Trout à la Lofty
Among the many things I bought in town yesterday were a couple of lovely looking rainbow trout. We like trout, we like it a lo
t. I ate my first trout years ago with my dad. After my parents split up, I went to visit him many a weekend and he used to take me out of the city to get to know the surrounding areas. One of our frequent stops was Aumühle, a small trout farm in the middle of a nature reserve south of Munich. We used to have a bit of a wander around the ponds or the surrounding area, before getting some freshly caught fish from their little shop. These days you can get a whole range of great quality fish there, but back then we had a choice of fresh or smoked trout and both were wonderful. To this day I have fond memories of Aumühle. In fact, I think I should go back next time I'm in Munich.I'm not sure where Lofty got his love for trout from, but it must be even older than mine. When we first started eating trout, it was his job to buy and cook the fish. In L.A. trout was not really common. I'm not sure if I ever saw it anywhere but expensive restaurant menus and posh cookbooks. In Munich, however, they are quite common and reasonably cheap. When we first moved there, we were so broke that we ate soups and stews most days, but every once in a while, Lofty would go out and treat us to a freshly caught trout. Well, I say freshly caught; it should really be 'freshly killed', but that just doesn't sound appetising. Whatever the case may be, we had a fishmonger just down the road from our place where you could buy rainbow trout fresh from the tank. You pick the fish, he kills it right there and then and gets it ready to cook in front of your eyes. Fish doesn't come much fresher than this.
Also, fish this fresh doesn't really want much messing with. Trout has a very mild flavour, so I'm all against overdoing the flavours that accompany it, and fresh trout like this should be allowed to speak completely for itself. Basically, all Lofty used to do was buy a fresh lemon and a few waxy potatoes and serve the fish grilled and stuffed with the former, accompanied by the latter. My trout weren't quite as fresh as those used to be, so I dared serve them with fresh spinach as well as buttered spuds, but as far as the cooking method went, I stayed true to Lofty's recipe:
2 fresh whole rainbow trout, cleaned and patted dry
¾ organic lemon (if you can't get organic, at least try to buy unwaxed and untreated, you really don't want wax and/or pesticides in your fish)
a pinch of sea salt (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Slice the lemon. Arrange the lemon and a sprinkling of salt in the stomach cavity of the trout. Wrap them in tin foil leaving a bit of air above the fish. Seal the edges well; you want the fish to steam in its own juices. Bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes until tender. Remove the lemon slices and serve immediately drizzled with the juices.
Christine at 11:28 pm
Treacle Tart
This morning I found some bread that was going stale in the back of the fridge. Theoretically you're not supposed to keep bread in the fridge,
but this rule only goes for real bread. The stuff we have cannot really be called bread. They are part-baked rolls from Tesco. Now before you leave this blog in disgust because true foodies should not really get anywhere near such things, let me explain. Lofty and I are generally quite fussy about our bread. Germany to us was paradise in that respect. You have an ample supply of good quality bread at reasonable prices and, what's more, you have true choice. From white breads like baguette and ciabatta to dark, almost black, pumpernickel you can find it all there: Whole grain breads of all sorts, smooth sour dough breads, seedy, nutty and flavoured loaves, rolls, pretzels, cheese covered breadsticks, we love it all and we very much miss it.There is no German style bakery anywhere near our place. We do have a good kosher bakery in Dublin, but it's so far away from where I work, I never make it before closing. Some good bread can be had at the various markets as well as at Liston's, but I can only get there on the weekend. I was also told that Superquinn have some good bread, but the closest one is so far from here, they don't even deliver to our address. So, on a day to day basis we have a choice between the soft flabby stuff that is often called bread by the supermarkets in the English speaking world, the dried-out bricks sold in the cheap nasty bakeries in our area or part-baked breads and rolls. Faced with these options, we generally take the latter.
And this week I had two small soggy rolls left and no clue what to do with them. My search for ideas led to the usual bruschetta and crostini first, but then I came across something that seemed much more interesting: Treacle tart. The recipe was incredibly simple, it sounded quite tasty and I had all the ingredients I needed to make it. And I had never made it, which I see as a definite plus. I love to play with new recipes. And while I much respect the author, I must say that this one needed a lot of playing with. In the end, the tart still came out a little less tasty than I had expected. I tweaked the recipe again a bit and am now confident that this is the way to a quick, tasty tart. But if you have any more input or ideas, feel free to comment!
For the pastry:
180g flour
90g butter, chilled and diced (plus a little extra for the tin)
a few spoonfuls of water
For the filling:
200g fresh white bread
550g golden syrup (more to taste)
a pinch of ground ginger
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of ½ lemon (more to taste)
Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the water drop by drop, adding just enough to bring the pastry together. Knead quickly to a smooth dough. Do not stick about too long, you do not want the butter to warm up too much. Roll into a ball, cover with clingfilm or a damp cloth and leave to rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
To make the filling, blitz the bread in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Combine with the other filling ingredients in a large bowl. The mixture should be a thick, sticky sweet goo. Adjust the texture and sweetness by adding more lemon juice and golden syrup if needed.
Butter a tart tin. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Lay over the tin and firmly press in the edges. Trim the edges and prick the bottom with a fork. Leave to rest in the fridge again for about 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line the pastry base with baking paper and fill with baking weights or dried peas. Blind bake the pastry until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 180 degrees Celsius. Remove the weights/peas and the paper and pour the filling mixture into the pastry shell. Return to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold with thick cream or ice cream.
Christine at 9:01 pm
Saturday, May 27, 2006
House Special Chow Mein - My House That Is
Last night was a bit strange. A
friend of ours had invited us round to her place, and as we hadn't seen her in months we accepted gladly. We should have known that this was not going to be a straightforward dinner invitation, but we did not expect to spend the evening watching crime dramas on TV and eating mediocre Chinese take-out. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. I used this one as an inspiration for today's shopping and cooking. Before even going down to the market, I made my way to the Oriental Emporium on South George's Street. And unlike the last few times I actually bought more than the usual staples of soy sauce and bok choi. I filled by basket with kai lan (Chinese broccoli), galangal, bean sprouts, baby bok choi, banana leaves, Chinese coconut buns, fresh egg noodles, fish sauce, tom yum soup paste, a few noodle pots for quick easy lunches, some lovely jasmine tea... The list goes on. In fact, I bought so much, I arrived at the market with a full bag.I really wouldn't have needed to buy anything else, besides maybe a few more bits and pieces to go into the chow mein I was going to make for dinner. And in my defence, I did get a few shiitake mushrooms, some carrots and onions, but somehow I managed to fill another shopping bag with a bunch of entirely unneeded, albeit very nice looking foods. That left me spoilt for choice tonight. But I still opted for chow mein, this time with slightly more authentic ingredients than the times I posted here before. So, let me bug you with another recipe for fried noodles Asian style:
5 tbsp vegetable oil
2 portions fresh Chinese egg noodles
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 to 3 cm fresh ginger, grated
½ onion, sliced into wedges
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 6 ounces), cut into thin strips
a big handful of prawns (fresh or frozen defrosted)
1 carrot, cut diagonally into thin slices
6 to 8 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
a handful Chinese broccoli
6 to 8 heads of baby bok choi, cleaned and halved lengthways (or 3 big bok chois, sliced)
2 handfuls bean sprouts
3 tbsp dry sherry (Chinese cooking wine is more authentic, but I rarely have any at home)
2 tbsp lime juice
1 to 2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce (plus extra to taste)
a few spoonfuls chicken stock (plus extra stock granules to taste)
chilli powder or ground pepper to taste (optional)
I needed, boil the noodles according to package instructions. Drain well and set aside.
Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and fry, until lightly browned, about 1½ minutes. Now add the onion and mushrooms and continue frying for another minute. If you are using fresh prawns, put them in the pan now. Then add the broccoli, carrots and a few splashes of chicken stock and stir-fry until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the sherry, lime juice and fish sauce, followed by the noodles and frozen defrosted prawns, if you are using those. Toss to combine, adding chicken stock if the mixture appears sticky. Stir in the bean sprouts and remove from the heat. Season to taste with extra stock granules, soy sauce and chilli or pepper.
Christine at 1:16 am
Thursday, May 25, 2006
An Easy Way to a Great Trifle
This evening, I went out for dinner. Or rather, I went out with dinner. A few months ago, two of my colleagues and I decided that we should get together every once in a while, cook dinner, eat, chat, just be a bit girly. That is one of the things I really miss here in Ireland. I have yet to meet someone who prefers dinner and a chat to going to the pub. Anyway, the big plans we made didn't really materialise because we couldn't find a day that we all agreed on. We managed to meet twice, once in each of my colleagues' place and then the whole think just stopped. But last week we decided to start again, and this time it was my turn to cook. Unfortunately, my place is quite far from, well, just about everything and our table is packed full with computer equipment, so dinner is a rather unromantic affair. The solution was incredibly simple in a kind of complicated way: I brought the food and one of the others provided the kitchen.I was going to make lemon and basil risotto with grilled fish fillets and, depending on what I found at the greengrocer's today, vegetables or a salad of some sort. But then my magical freezer spat out not only the basil pesto, but also those strawberries I told you about yesterday. And as I still had some chocolate Swiss roll left, I spontaneously decided to do desert too - chocolate strawberry trifle.
And what sounds difficult to make now was actually incredibly simple. In fact, I strongly believe that the more you mess with your trifle, the worse it gets. All it needs is sponge cake, (possibly) booze, fruit, custard and cream. On the other hand, I am far from a trifle purist. Trifles do not have to be made vanilla sponge, sherry, berries and vanilla custard. On the contrary, as tonight's desert proved, a bit of creativity goes a long way. Try whatever you like and, more importantly, whatever is in season. Just before Christmas I made a citrus trifle, for which I substituted lemon Swiss roll for the chocolate Swiss roll, sherry for the Marsala, a mix of grapefruit, oranges and tangerines for the strawberries and lemon marmalade for the raspberry jam. Other possibilities are apple and calvados, mixed berries and Marsala, pears and almond with amaretto, banana and toffee with a toffee flavoured custard, mango and tequila with lime... the list is endless. But tonight it was strawberry and chocolate. The recipe below is for two to four people, but it is easily adjustable for any size group. The citrus trifle was made for a party of 25 and contained 3 Swiss rolls, 2 litres of cream, 1½ litres of custard, and over a kilo of fruit. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of either. Sorry about that.
150g chocolate Swiss roll (alternatively chocolate sponge cake)The main course was equally simple: I made a portion of my basic risotto, and, before pouring in the wine, I added the juice of half a lemon. Then, before dishing up, I seasoned the dish with 2 heaped teaspoons of basil pesto. It was served topped with two fillets of sole each, pan-fried over medium high heat for 2 minutes on each side, and a salad of ruccola and baby tomatoes. It did turn out a tad gooey again, but was no less tasty for it. Along with a bottle of lovely Italian white wine and a great conversation it made for a perfect evening.
2 to 4 tbsp Marsala wine (alternatively Madeira or port)
150g strawberries, sliced
2 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam
sugar to taste (optional)
125ml whipping cream
125ml custard
strawberries, cream and grated chocolate to garnish
Slice the Swiss roll into 1½ cm thick slices. (If you are using chocolate cake, break it up into bite-size chunks). Slowly heat the jam in a saucepan big enough to hold the strawberry until liquid. Remove from the heat and add the fruit. Stir well and, if necessary, add some sugar. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks, then gently fold in the custard. Do not over-mix, you do not want the cream to collapse.
To assemble, put the Swiss roll/sponge cake chunks in the bottom of a bowl and drizzle with the Marsala wine. Pour in the strawberries and spread them evenly over the cake. Finally cover the whole lot in the custard and cream mixture. Cover and chill for several hours, preferably overnight.
When you are ready to serve, top the trifle with a dollop of whipped cream, a handful of strawberries and some grated chocolate. If you want to be completely decadent or are cooking for chocoholics, serve a chocolate sauce alongside it.
Christine at 9:04 pm
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Roast Chicken with Creamed Leeks
I think I have a magic freezer. Every time I
empty it to get something out I have trouble getting everything back in. Honestly, it's getting beyond a joke now. In the past few weeks I have pulled out two portions of sausages, a packet of Chinese snacks and a litre of milk, and not replaced them with anything new. Still, when I got a tub of basil pesto and a bag of sliced strawberries out for tomorrow's dinner, I was left with two chicken breasts on the bone that would not fit back in the gap they had come out of. Why is that? Do I have a self-refilling fridge? Or is it now finally time for that defrosting session that I have been planning for the past three months? The first option definitely sounds more desirable albeit less likely. I guess I'll have to empty the freezer after all.Watch this space, you can expect a few cooking experiments in the near future. But don't worry, even though I love his approach to "Kitchen Chemistry", I'm not going to follow Heston Blumenthal's advice and try to make such 'unexpected pleasures' as sweet ice cream with bacon and egg flavour. - And if you think I'm kidding check out the menu of his Michelin star decorated restaurant The Fat Duck.
Today I was faced with a big block of frozen raw chicken, hardly the sort of thing you want if dinner has to be on the table in only 2 hours and you are not planning on serving chicken tartare ice cream with raw potato carpaccio. Although, coming to think of it, it does have a certain posh ring to it. Do you think that I could find someone out there with more interest in pretence than food who might eat it? Better not, I wouldn't want to poison anyone. Instead, I enlisted the help of my much-hated microwave (hated because I find it unpredictable, not because I have some strange spiritual/ideological objection against modern technology) to thaw the chicken breasts before roasting them smothered in herb and garlic butter and slinging them on top of a pile of creamed leeks.
For the chicken:
2 chicken breasts left together on the bone
a large knob of butter
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used a mix of rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage and basil)
a pinch of salt
For the creamy leeks:
1 tbsp butter
2 large leeks (or 4 small ones), chopped
55ml cream
3 tbsp grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Mash the garlic and herbs with the butter. Cut the chicken skin between the two breasts along the central bone. Gently ease it away from the meat, leaving it attached at the very outside to make two pockets. Spread the butter evenly between the meat and the skin and rub the skin with a bit of salt. Roast in the oven until tender, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes in a warm spot to let the meat re-absorb the juices.
Meanwhile, for the creamy leeks, heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Fry chopped leek until tender, about 5 minutes. Pour in the cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until thickened, then add the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Heat through for a couple of minutes. Serve with the chicken breasts and boiled potatoes (and, if you're greedy like me, butter-stewed spring vegetables).
Christine at 11:05 pm
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Saffron Risotto with Prawns
O sole mio...! I'm getting myself back in the happy summer spirit and thought a bit of Italian-ness would help. In fact, I find it shocking just how big the differences are between my (German) team at work and the It
alians who sit next to us. Our corner is relatively quiet (boring, they say) while their area is always full of life with people chatting, laughing and singing (annoying, some of my colleagues say). And although I am part German and I do my fair bit of bitching, I must admit I prefer the Italian lifestyle. It's good not to take anything too seriously (definitely something I have to learn) and to just live your life to the full rather than constantly worrying about tomorrow (fortunately, not I problem I have, if you believe my parents I should worry a lot more). And it's definitely good to deal with food as many Italians do: Take something quite ordinary and turn it into a yummy meal.I wasn't even going to cook Italian food tonight, but such thoughts of culture, identity and happiness tend to inspire me in strange ways. It's a bit like a song you hear subconsciously on your way to work and then can't stop whistling it the rest of the day. So, somehow, after a conversation about coffee and croissants with one of my Italian colleagues, my mind was stuck on an Italian theme that was to stay with me for the rest of the day. I had initially planned on cooking Asian food for dinner. Liston's had had beautiful fresh prawns on special on Saturday that were supposed to form the basis of a big stir-fry. But now this seemed like the wrong thing to do with them - don't ask me why I thought cooking Asian prawns in an Asian dish was wrong; it is very much like walking down the street whistling a Britney Spears track you heard earlier, I had it in my had and there was no convincing me that I might be making a fool of myself.
And while I am now ready to admit that I might have been wrong in my initial claim, I am happy to say that the result of my misguided pigheadedness, a saffron risotto with asparagus, cauliflower and prawns was nothing like a Britney Spears song. It was actually quite enjoyable. I made mine slightly differently - I replaced the prawns and cauliflower with buttered fennel and oysters - but the result was no less satisfying and unlike my image of Lofty's oyster free version above, it was actually documented in a way where you can make out what it is supposed to be. I will try to give you the recipe for both dishes below. Bear with me if it appears confusing.
4 tbsp butterAnd just in case you are just as confused as me now, simply make a portion of my simple creamy risotto (really, the only difference is that you add all the liquid at once and cook the rice with the lid on rather than adding it slowly and cooking it with the lid off, which results in a stronger flavour because you use more stock and makes the result easier to control), add a little bit of saffron about 2 minutes before you're done and top with the grilled stuff of your choice. Hmm... I suppose I could have just said that from the beginning. I guess my slightly pretentious Italian notion of Britney Spears tracks has had some form of after-effect. Sorry.
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped, 1 sliced
1 cup risotto rice (or paella rice or, if you have nothing else at hand, pudding rice)
½ glass white wine
about 1 litre mild fish stock, kept hot
a pinch of saffron strands
a few green asparagus spears
200g peeled prawns (I used cooked ones, but obviously fresh prawns are better)
a few cauliflower florets
¼ fennel, sliced
4 tbsp grated Parmesan
1 ball of mozzarella, torn into rough chunks
2 fresh oysters, shucked
salt and pepper to taste
Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add the shallots and fry until translucent, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and fry for another minute before adding the rice. Stir to coat with the oil and toast the grains thoroughly without browning. After about 3 minutes, add the wine, bring to the boil and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add the first 3 ladles of hot stock and stir it through. Continue to add the stock and stir it in whenever the mixture begins to thicken up. Add the saffron with your last ladle of stock (after about 15 to 18 minutes).
After about 12 minutes, which is 8 minutes from the end of the cooking time, bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and the asparagus spears, and to cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Also add the cauliflower and blanch for about 2 minutes. Refresh in cold water and drain well.
At the same time, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a shallow frying pan over medium heat, and heat the olive oil in another pan, also over medium heat. When the butter is bubbling, add the fennel and fry until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. When the oil in the other pan is hot, add the sliced garlic and fry for a minute until fragrant. Then add the prawns and cauliflower and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes.
When the risotto is cooked, remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan and mozzarella. Cover and rest for 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve topped with the asparagus and prawns/cauliflower or fennel/oysters.
Christine at 10:36 pm
Monday, May 22, 2006
Lamb Steaks with Roast Root Vegetables
We had a visitor yesterday - my great great granduncle's great great grandson has just moved to
Dublin from Canada and came over to see us. I was quite excited to meet him not only because I love to meet new people. I don't have a very big family and as a result I feel close to anyone I'm even remotely related to. It was absolutely pouring down again today so we decided that it was probably best to meet in our place. I'd bought some lamb steaks for dinner that I marinated in olive oil with garlic, onions and fresh herbs. But then we found that he had never had Irish fish and chips. I couldn't let him move on without having sampled Ireland's national dish so, as soon as there was a break in the rain, I headed out to get food from Leo Burdock. I think he was a bit surprised to find that the cod came with the skin on, but in all he seemed to enjoy it.As a result Lofty and I had today's dinner nearly ready prepared. All I had to do was fry the steaks along with some mushrooms, roast some root vegetables and reheat the mustard sauce I had made to go with the pork chop. I also had some spinach that needed to go, so I cooked that too, but in all that was probably too much. With hindsight I can say that I should have skipped the mushrooms, but you're always smarter after you've made your mistakes.
For the lamb:I personally find pan-frying lamb quite difficult and when I do try it, I often get wrong. I'm still looking for a sure way of getting it tender every time. So feel free to leave me a comment if you have any ideas on the subject.
2 lamb steaks (alternatively 4 lamb chops)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 to 6 tbsp olive oil
½ onion, cut into wedges
3 to 4 garlic cloves, sliced
4 tbsp mixed herbs (I used sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano and bay leaves), roughly chopped
about 1 tbsp sea salt flakes
To serve:
roast root vegetables (today I used potatoes, taro, garlic and beet roots, but as I said in the initial recipe, anything goes here from parsnips to onions)
fried mushrooms
spinach
mustard sauce
In a medium sized bowl, mix the olive oil with the onion, garlic and the herbs. Add the lamb and coat well with the marinade. Season with the sea salt and set aside. Leave to marinate in a cool place for a few hours or in the fridge overnight.
When the roast vegetables are almost done, heat a shallow frying pan over medium heat. You do not need to add any more oil, the marinade from the steaks is enough. Fry the lamb steaks in the pan until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Turn and cook the other side until brown here and there while the inside is still lightly pink.
Christine at 9:56 pm
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Pan-fried Salmon with Mussels
I've decided to start a second post for today's receipes, because dinner on such a beautiful day obviously had to be exceptional too. And I did not want my descriptions of either
to distract from the other. The starters were exquisite, but simple. I had 4 of the oysters with nothing more than a drop of lemon juice, a dash of Tabasco sauce and a bit of whole grain bread on the side. I know some people like to give oysters a twist by serving them with things like shallot vinaigrette, but in my opinion, the gentle flavour of these fresh oysters from Clare would be drowned out by too many additions. They are harvested freshly the night before they are sold and you can really still smell and taste the crisp freshness of the Atlantic.And while I had the enjoyment, Lofty - who doesn't even like oysters - had all the work. We left our oyster knife in Germany along with everything else that we classified as kitchen 'gimmicks' rather than tools. This was a mistake, for getting into these incredibly fresh oysters is proving hard work even for Lofty. We have tried to get a replacement here in Dublin, but this quest has so far proven futile. The oyster man has now given me a tip on where to go - apparently there is a brilliant kitchen shop just off Grafton Street - but in our laziness (or shall I say weather-induced lethargy) we have not yet gone down there. Instead, I asked my mum to have a look in Munich where, even though they are far away from the sea, such utensils are relatively easy to find.
Lofty started his dinner with a bowl of creamy pumpkin soup before we both moved on to a main course of pan-fried salmon with mussels and asparagus on a bed of mixed greens.
For the salmon:And although the whole lot was a bit poncy again, it was quite tasty. I'm still not convinced that I made the right career choice. Should I maybe get my backside in a kitchen and learn to chop onions at that phenomenal speed that Paul Rankin achieves. Maybe I'd smile a little more often...
2 salmon fillets, about 200g each
2 tbsp light olive oil
a pinch of sea salt
For the mussels:
400g mussels, cleaned
125ml white wine
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp thick cream
For the vegetables:
8 white asparagus spears, peeled
a handful of green asparagus spears (I had Irish wild asparagus, but that is incredibly hard to come by and ordinary asparagus works just as well)
1 tbsp butter
1 shallot (or ½ onion), finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 good handful beet leaves, stalks removed (alternatively red or Swiss chard or baby kale)
3 handfuls young spinach, cleaned
salt and nutmeg to taste
To cook the mussels, place them in a warm pan with the white wine and bay leaf, cover with a lid and cook on a high heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until the shells have opened. Drain the cockles in a colander set in a bowl. Set the liquid aside. Pick the mussels from their shells.
For the asparagus, bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil over medium heat. While you are waiting, season the salmon fillets with sea salt. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Place the salmon skin-side down in the hot pan and fry until the skin is nicely crisp. This should take about 5 minutes.
When the water for is boiling, add the white asparagus and cook until just tender, about 8 to 10 minutes depending on the thickness of the spears. 4 to 5 minutes before it is done, add the green asparagus. (Wild asparagus will only take about 2 minutes, or even better, just steam it for 4 minutes or gently fry in butter for 3 to 5 minutes.) Drain thoroughly.
For the greens, warm some olive oil in a deep pan over medium low heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and continue frying for another minute. Now add the beet leaves, followed about 2 minutes later by the spinach. Cook until both are wilted, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and nutmeg.
To serve, place the greens in the centre of a plate, spoon over the creamy mussel juice and top with the salmon. Arrange the asparagus around the plate and scatter with the mussels.
Christine at 9:16 pm
At Last - The Arrival of Summer
It's the weekend and my spirits are lifting again. I have great plans for the day: Read some food stories, go shopping for food, read some recipes and cook. It all started perfectly too. I spent the morning studying the list of what's in season on the BBC website and reading a few food blogs (and making big plans again of revamping this blog). People have asked me if I don't get bored with doing nothing but work
, surf the net and worry about food, but so far my answer is a firm no. I would not mind not having to work, but under no circumstance would I be willing to live without the Internet or to never cook again. I am as sad as that. To me food is bliss.I'm sure you can imagine just how happy I was when I went to the market and not only was it not raining, there was a definite feeling of summer in the air. Bleak disillusionment had given way to cheerful expectations and rich abundance. Even though I arrived quite late, the stalls wer
e still laden with food and the aisles packed with people. There was music and laughter in the air and even I was nearly seduced to buy a snack. The colours, too, had changed. Where only two weeks before the predominant tones had been dark green, brown and grey, I now found tender pink asparagus, light green leaves, lush green herbs and plump fruit in any shade of yellow, red and orange you can imagine. Dennis Healey's stall smelled like Mediterranean garden on a mild summer evening and I felt like kid in a candy store. I just didn't know where to look first. In the end, I think I ended up buying 
one of each of the things on offer. Or that's at least what my bag and my wallet made me believe. But that did not stop me from buying up half the fish stall along with a dozen oysters and then moving on to the butcher's and Liston's and - believe it or not - Evergreen's greengrocer on Wexford street.I arrived back home two hours later with two big bags full of fresh food and a big grin on my face. What a day! I unpacked my loot like a big pile of Chrismas presents, grinning the whole time and still feeling like a kid in a candy store. Sad isn't it? But at least in being sad I was for once completely happy again.
Christine at 6:00 pm
Friday, May 19, 2006
Creamy Pumpkin Soup
It's Friday once again and I was really looking forward to an evening in the kitchen. I had nothing to cook so I was going to go shopping during my lunch break. I had a very romantic image in my head: Cycle through sunny Clontarf stopping at the fishmonger's and the greengrocer's along the way to pick up some asparagus and sea trout and, for a while, forget about the rain and work and everything else that is dragging me down. The mere thought of crunchy green asparagus spears and deep pink trout fillets lifted my spirits.But, as my use of the past tense in this first paragraph indicates, life had other things planned for me. By late morning the soothing morning sun had disappeared and thick clouds were brewing overhead. At lunchtime the sky looked like an angry giant about to explode in a deafening roar. The appeal of the food was still stronger than my reluctance to get soaked, but I must admit that my enthusiasm for a shopping trip was waning. All the easier it was for me to abandon my plans when a colleague offered to drive me and my bicycle into town after work (so I would still make it before the shops there shut) in return for me joining her for lunch. This decision turned out to be a bad mistake. Lunch was horrible and as it turned out I could not ride with her after all. 5 minutes before I was due to clock off she remembered that her car was packed full of gardening tools. So there I was again cycling home in the pouring rain with no dinner and too late to shop. I was slightly frustrated, but what can you do? Get out the leftovers and get on with it!
400g pumpkin, roughly grated
a good pinch of salt
30g butter
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
20g tomato paste (about 1 heaped tablespoon)
1 tsp paprika
a few dashes of white wine vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 litre chicken stock
grated nutmeg and salt to taste
100 ml cream
1 bunch of dill, finely chopped
roasted pumpkin seeds or fresh croutons to serve
Lightly salt the pumpkin and set aside for about ½ hour, then squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can.
Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sweat the garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Do not allow it to brown! Add the pumpkin and gently fry for 1 minute. Now stir in the tomato paste and continue frying for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Be careful not to burn the tomato. Dust the pumpkin with the paprika and immediately add the vinegar. Don't be slow here, otherwise the paprika might go bitter. Now add the bay leaf and slowly pour in the chicken stock.
Boil gently for about 15 minutes. Purée. (Don't skip this last step. Once I was too lazy to purée the soup and thought that it would make no difference. It did and I had the extra work of puréeing after I had already dished up once. The flavour of the pumpkin is much better in a smooth soup). Add the dill and season to taste with nutmeg and salt. Pour in the cream and gently reheat. Do not bring to soup to the boil again. Serve with pumpkin seeds and crusty white bread or homemade croutons.
By the way, if you do not like dill and/or nutmeg or are cooking for a special occasion, omit the dill and nutmeg and add a teaspoonful of truffle butter to the bowl right before serving. Don't add it to the soup, the flavour is too volatile to last.
Christine at 12:23 am
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Loaded Chicken Burger
I'm starting to really struggle with my new, positive attitude. The sun has barely come out at all in a week and I can feel my spirit sinking with every overcast minute. "Why am I here?" I ask myself more and more often. I would love to just move back to South Africa, but Lofty and I are not skilled enough to get a work permit in a country with 40 percent unemployment and definitely not wealthy enough to live without working, so we're pretty much stuck in Europe. And as far as this cold continent goes, Ireland is far from the worst place to live. We tried the Netherlands, but failed to even find an affordable place to live. Prague was great, but with the low wages we would have earned there, we would never have been able to finance our planned trip to India. I could go on, but I won't. I'm determined not to start going all negative again - even though I had to leave my clothes at work today and cycle only in my rain suit and underwear to prevent me from ruining the silk dress I was wearing. Now I understand even less how anyone can wrap their entire body in rubber and have sexual pleasure of any kind. Yuck!But on the positive side, I got to be lazy tonight and still cook a ni
ce dinner. There is cooking that relaxes me despite being hard work, there is cooking that stresses me despite being incredibly easy and then there is simple cooking that is relaxing too. Tonight's dinner was a classic example of that last option: Freshly grilled (albeit shop bought) burgers with all the trimmings. In our case this meant cheddar cheese, sliced tomato, beetroot, sliced shallots (I was out of onions), black forest ham (for lack of bacon), fried mushrooms, potato wedges (made from baby potatoes because I was out of big ones) and guacamole. There are lots of other options, so be inventive. Whatever you do, as long as the basic ingredients are good quality, the result will definitely be better than any burger you can get in a fast food joint. And, as you have seen in this post, it is a great dinner if you have lots of odd bits and pieces.Christine at 9:56 pm
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Grilled Pork Chop with Apple and Mustard Sauce
People who live in cities for too long often react in one of two ways: Either they forget that nature exists and live happily ever after or they become gloomy and start believing that we are completely destroying nature with our urb
an sprawls and that it will all end in disaster. Well, I say people. Most of my friends fit in either category. I tend fluctuate between the two, but am definitely more of a doomsday prophet. So it makes me incredibly happy when I come across indications that man is by far less powerful that I make him out to be and that nature continues to survive even in the face of fierce competition. Flowering trees, squirrels playing in the park, even the odd mouse in the underground really make me smile. Imagine how I felt this morning when, on my way to work, I cycled past a beautiful flower that was growing right there by the side of a major road between two lamp posts slowly, but powerfully, pushing aside the stone slabs of the sidewalk and a metal rod someone had dropped on top of it. The sight absolutely made my day.With memories of the beautiful red blossom, I happily faced even the most boring tasks. And I couldn't wait to get home and use
my newfound energy in the kitchen. On the way, I stopped at the butcher's and got a pork chop for Lofty and a chicken breast for myself. Lofty really loves pork, so he was in heaven in Munich and Prague, both of which have a strong tradition of cooking pork. In beef and lamb loving Ireland, however, something is missing. I haven't made a roast leg of pork with crackling in over a year. But tonight I wanted to share my delight and got the closest thing I could get my hands on in a hurry. I, on the other hand, don't like pork, hence the chicken. Lightly fried with buttered fennel (something that Lofty can't stand) and baby potatoes it made the perfect treat for a beautiful day. Lofty's dinner was a bit more complicated. I grilled the pork and served it with buttered cauliflower and baby potatoes and a sweet and savoury mustard-apple-sauce.For the pork chop:I also added a buttered beetroot to the plate, but that was a result of me over-reacting in the face of abundance rather than necessity. I had pre-cooked them for tomorrow night and in my cooking enthusiasm I couldn't resist to serve at least one tonight. Also, this is really too much sauce for one person, so if you are cooking for two, there is no need to adjust the quantities.
1 thick pork chop (go for at least 1 inch/2½ cm to reduce the risk of your chop drying out)
1 tbsp oil
salt and pepper to taste
For the sauce:
15g butter
1 shallot (or ½ onion), finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
½ tart apple (such as granny smith or bramley), cut into 3 to 4 wedges
50ml white wine (or cider if you like you sauce fruity)
50ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tomato, finely chopped (Many people skin and de-seed their tomatoes for cooking. Feel free to do so if you want, but I tend to just use the whole fruit)
100ml cream
salt and black pepper to taste
To serve:
boiled baby potatoes
cauliflower sweated in butter (don't boil it, that kills the flavour)
To make the sauce, heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and continue frying for a minute. Add the apple and fry them, turning them only once or twice, until golden brown on both sides. This is a bit of a balancing act. You want to caramelise the apple and release the juices and flavour without burning the onions.
When the apple pieces are cooked on the outside, remove them from the pan and set aside. Pour in the wine and bring to the boil. Then add the chicken stock, mustard and tomato and heat the sauce through again. Purée until smooth. Return to the saucepan and add the cream. Heat the sauce through again, but do not allow it to boil.
To cook the pork chops, preheat a griddle pan or shallow frying pan over medium heat. Brush the pork chops with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Griddle for 4 to 5 minutes on both sides. Half way through the cooking, add the reserved apple wedges and grill them until golden and tender. Serve the chop with the sauce, vegetables and grilled apple.
Christine at 8:22 pm
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Dinner Stress with a Happy End
I was gonna go shopping after work tonight, but the Irish weather had other plans. Shortly before I left the office, the skies opened and I knew that even wrapped in my bright yellow full-body rain suit I was going to get home absolutely soaked. I don't know why that still
bothers me. You would think that after a year in this country I would be used to being wet and dirty. But I'm not. I have still not accepted that being a cyclist means not only putting your life on the line every day, but also going through piles and piles of clothing every week.Don't get me wrong, I was happy enough to be cycling again. Again? Yes, I forgot to mention that, on Friday, I had cycled over a drawing pin and punctured my rear tyre. We didn't notice until Sunday afternoon when Lofty went down to fix a different problem with that tyre. He could have just fixed it, we have a repair kit. But after we let the air out, we realised we'd lost the pump. It was just gone (and has still not reappeared). So I had to ride the bus to work on Monday while Lofty went and got a new pump. And believe me, after one day of having to rely on Dublin's public transport system, I was more than happy to get soaked on my bike.
The crisis only started when I got home and realised that I had nothing to cook for dinner. So, - yes, you guessed it - I panicked, I cursed, I nearly burst into tears and then I got on with it: Defrost some sausages, boil some of the old spuds that are growing shoots in the bottom of the cupboard, chop some garlic onion and herbs and get a gravy going. And a mere half-hour later the stress was gone and we were sitting down to a plate of beautiful buttery mash with bangers and garlic and herb gravy.
Christine at 10:27 pm
Monday, May 15, 2006
Creamy Pasta and Vegetable Bake
Lofty wasn't feeling too good today so dinner had to
be something soothing and comforting and at the same time something that was not too hard to digest. If I had known before coming home, I would have got a chicken from the butcher and made him a proper bowl of Jewish penicillin - a strong chicken stock with vegetables and noodles. But I didn't, so I couldn't. Instead I decided to take an evening off from cooking fancy food and opted for an easy pasta and veggie bake instead. It's really quite simple: Cook a bunch of pasta, sweat some vegetables, combine the two and add a creamy sauce. Top with cheese and bake until golden. And here's the more detailed version of the recipe:enough pasta for 2 people (short, hollow shapes worAs you may have guessed, this is a relatively unexciting (some may say bland) dish. If you want to give it a bit of depth, add some dry cured ham or bacon, a few fresh herbs, a tad of grated nutmeg or a pinch of chilli powder. I omitted all that on purpose tonight, because when you feel rough as Lofty did, you sometimes need something plain and simple. And I think this was the right dinner to make for the occasion.k best, but I only had spaghetti, which I broke into smaller pieces)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove (or 2 small ones), finely chopped
4 handfuls of chopped vegetables (I used a mixture of butternut squash, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower, but I can't think of anything that would not work here)
1 can of Campbell's cream of chicken soup concentrate (this is the lazy option; obviously it's healthier and tastier if you make a creamy sauce yourself)
a few spoonfuls of milk
salt and pepper to taste
250g grated mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and fry until translucent. Stir in the garlic followed by the vegetables. Add the vegetables in order of their cooking time. They want to be nearly cooked by the time the dish goes in the oven.
When the vegetables are nearly done, add the pasta and the soup or creamy sauce. Stir in enough milk to make a nice, smooth sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake in the oven until the cheese is golden brown.
Christine at 10:00 pm
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Lime Cheesecake with Mango Compote
Look for the positive things in life - that was to be my motto today. And what can be more positive than a nice desert? So, even though we still had some of yesterday's pud left, I decided to make something that would go well with tonight's summery Mexican theme. Lime cheesecake came to mind and as I still had an organic mango that wanted to go, I decided to top it all with a fruity fresh compote. Forgetting that Lofty preferred dense, New York style cheesecakes, I opted for the fluffy creamy type. Also, my base is made up of chocolate Swiss roll, but that was the result of an accident rather than a planned personal twist. I did want to add chocolate in some way because of the Mexican connection, but that was supposed to be more of a finishing touch - a sprinkle of cocoa or grated chocolate for example.So I began making a traditional biscuit base: Coarsely crush your biscuits, the process them in an electric food processor until they resemble a coarse meal. Add the melted butter and continue blending until the mixture holds together. Push into the bottom of a cake tin and continue with the cheese mixture. At least that was the theory. My biscuits had been out in the Dublin air for too long and gone all soft and spongy as a result. Rather than crumbling, they simply bent when the knife blades of the food processor hit them. Lofty had the idea of forcing them down with a spatula, which worked well to start with, but then went horribly wrong. Without noticing it, he had been touching the plastic edge of the spatula against the rotating bit at the centre of the food processor, slowly grinding away at it and dropping the plastic shavings into the biscuit crumbs. So even though he had saved my base, I could not use it. What now? I had no more biscuits, no cookies, nothing remotely base-like. A baseless cheesecake is rather naff, though. In my despair I decided to just slice up a shop bought chocolate Swiss roll - with surprising results. The combination of chocolate and lime actually worked very well. For texture reasons I would have preferred not to have any cream in the base, but this was a minor flaw. In all, the dish was quite nice.
For the cheesecake:
½ chocolate Swiss roll, cut into thick slices
200 ml cream
100g mascarpone cheese
100g cream cheese
5 tbsp icing sugar (more if needed)
1 lime, peel only
2 tsp honey
For the mango compote:
1 tbsp butter
1 small sweet mango (or ½ large mango), peeled and diced
2 tbsp light brown sugar
Place the cream in the bowl of a food processor and whisk until thick. Stir in the mascarpone and cream cheese and continue blending until smooth. Add the icing sugar, honey and lime peel and stir until combined. Check for sweetness and add more sugar if needed.
Spoon the cheese mixture into a large metal cake tin or saucepan and smooth off the top. Refrigerate until set, at least 30 minutes. Cover the cheesecake with a layer of slices Swiss roll, packing it in tightly, but not too tightly. Push down to get the base to stick to the cake and refrigerate for another 15 to 20 minutes (or longer, of course).
In the meantime make the mango compote. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the mango and fry until beginning to go tender, 2 to 5 minutes depending on how ripe your fruit is. Finally, stir in the sugar and continue stewing until lightly caramelised. Set aside to cool.
To remove the cake from the tin, carefully heat the tin with a blowtorch to allow it to slide off easily. Slide a long knife along the edge of the tin, to ease the mixture off the walls. Place a plate on top of the tin and turn it over with one swift, fluid movement. If the cake does not drop down onto the plate, feel the temperature of the tin. If it feels too cold, torch it again. If it is at room temperature or not far below, stay away from heat to prevent melting your cake. Try giving the whole thing a single sharp shake up and down, holding the plate firmly in place. Do not shake or shuffle it side to side. This will only cause the cake to stick to the sides of the tin and come out a mess.
To serve, cut the cake into slices and top with the mango compote.
Christine at 11:03 pm
Mushroom and Spinach Quesadillas
The weather was horrible today. It was raining quite heavily for most of the day, so we were somewhat disinclined to leave our apartment, let alone go to Dun Laoghaire. I first had my usual grizzle about Ireland, the Irish weather and the lack of fun things to do here on a weekend. Then Lofty and I had a bit of a discussion about my attitude and finally, I had to admit that I had been just a tad negative of late. So, I've made a springtime resolution: From now on I will focus as much as I can on the good things in life and try to ignore everything else. We'll see how long I last with that... Although, coming to think of it, I used to be a very balanced and happy person. Dublin is somehow getting to me. I really miss the sun.Dinner was both a result of our decision to skip the market for this week and of my longing for warmth and sunshine: Mushroom and spinach quesadillas with salsa and guacamole.
4 flour tortillasQuesadillas are a brilliant snack for a relaxed summer evening. They are easy to make and, if you have the two basic ingredients - tortillas and cheese - they can be filled with just about anything (or just served plain) and still be yummy. Serve them as a starter before a barbecue with a Margherita or some homemade lemonade and you won't need to travel abroad anymore. Your holiday will come to you. -- Well, almost anyway.
1 cup grated cheese (any cheese that melts easily can be used; my favourite is a combination of cheddar and mozzarella)
½ onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 handful of mushrooms, finely chopped (I used button mushrooms, but oyster mushrooms are quite nice in this recipe too)
2 handfuls of spinach
1 tbsp lime juice
a good pinch of cumin
a pinch of chilli
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for frying
salsa verde and guacamole to serve (my recipes for both dishes can be found here)
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, shallow frying pan. Add the onions and fry until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms have released all liquid and are beginning to brown. Add the cumin and chilli, and fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add the spinach and limejuice and cook until the spinach has collapsed. Season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Lay out 2 of the tortillas on a flat surface. Spread a quarter of the cheese evenly over each. Top with the spinach mixture followed by the remaining cheese. Press to seal.
Heat a large shallow frying pan over high heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan and lower the heat to medium. Add a quesadilla and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Turn and fry the other side. Repeat with the other quesadilla. Slice into wedges and serve with salsa and guacamole.
Christine at 8:50 pm
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Baked Tapioca Pudding with Rhubarb and Orange Compote
Desert time! What would be most appropriate for a beautiful spring time evening? I had bought some rhubarb this morning, but the sticks were really too skinny for crumble. By the time the top is nice and crispy the fruit would be cooked to an unrecognisable mush. So what could I do instead?Last week a lady had seen me walk down the street with Dennis' beautiful organic rhubarb in my bag and told me to try a mixture of rhubarb and orange. "At first I was suspicious," she said, "with the sour rhubarb and the citrus and all. But then a friend cooked it for me and I won't have it any other way ever again." "Sure," I thought to myself, smiled and nodded and, after a bit of food talk, politely excused myself and forgot about the whole thing. But this afternoon I remembered the incident and, most notably, the passion in her voice and decided to give it a try. After a bit of thinking, cupboard scouring and recipe searching I opted for a baked tapioca pudding with rhubarb and orange compote - a time consuming dish, but a worthy finale to a yummy dinner.
For the tapioca pudding:
60g tapioca (alternatively, use pudding rice and adjust the liquid and cooking time accordingly)
400ml milk
100ml cream
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup sugar (plus a little extra for dusting)
1 orange, zest only (reserve the juice for the compote)
For the rhubarb compote:
5 to 6 thin stalks of rhubarb, chopped into 10cm pieces
5 tbsp sugar
1 orange, juice only
To serve:
something crunchy and nutty to complement the textures and flavours of the dishes; I used a Canadian pistacchio almond biscuit, but anything from biscotti to hazelnut shortbread would work)
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. For the rhubarb compote, place the rhubarb into an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with the caster sugar and pour over the orange juice. Poach for ten minutes in the oven, or until tender. Pour the liquid off into a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Place tapioca in a medium saucepan along with the milk. Bring to the boil over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until the tapioca is translucent and almost tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the pudding from turning into a burnt lump stuck to the bottom of the pot. When the mixture begins getting dry, turn off the heat and add the cream. Leave the pan on the stove until the pudding is thick and creamy.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and the sugar. Temper small amounts of the tapioca into the egg mixture. Continue stirring and adding tapioca until you have added at least half of it. Then add this back into the remaining tapioca in the saucepan. Add the orange zest and stir to combine.
Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the surface with sugar. Cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until the mixture has set and the sugar has caramelised. Finish it off with a chef's torch if it is not browning sufficiently.
To serve, put a few spoonfuls of pudding in the centre of a plate. Add some of the rhubarb and drizzle with the thickened rhubarb and orange syrup. Decorate with a biscuit.
Christine at 10:06 pm
Aubergine Mille-Feuilles with Warm Potato Salad
Our starter tonight was quite heavy and filling, so the main course had to be something light and refreshing. There was an aubergine in the fridge
that looked perfect for the job. I don't normally buy aubergines anymore. When I lived at home, I used to make a lot of Italian antipasti for my mum's dinner parties and they always featured grilled aubergine in garlic oil. But Lofty is not a big fan and I must admit I've gone off them a bit. I don't know why I got one last week, but somehow I felt compelled to try them again. I think after the extended Irish winter I'm just desperate for a bit of summer food. Stuffed aubergines were my first idea, but I really don't like them. Too much aubergine in that. So I decided on mille-feuilles, thin slices of aubergine with the stuffing between them. At first I was going to make it completely vegetarian, but I just didn't have the right vegetables. The outcome was a chicken and mushroom stuffing and a side salad of warm potatoes, young cauliflower leaves and Schwarzwälder Schinken, German dry cured ham.For the mille feuilles:
1 aubergine, cut into 6 slices lengthways
4 tbsp olive oil
½ onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 large handfuls mushrooms, finely chopped
4 small chicken sausages, meat only (alternatively, if you cannot get uncooked sausages, use minced meat)
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp pine nuts, roughly chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan to serve
For the potato salad:
8 to 10 baby potatoes
2 handfuls of shredded young cauliflower leaves (including the softer stalks; alternatively use Savoy cabbage or even baby gem lettuce)
1½ tbsp butter
2 tbsp cubed Schwarzwälder Schinken (alternatively Speck Alto Adige or one of the many kinds of dry cured ham from Austria or Germany; if you have to, use pancetta or bacon, but that really needs to be fried, which changes the texture of the whole dish)
salt, pepper and white wine vinegar to taste
freshly chopped chives to serve
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Heat a griddle pan over medium heat. Brush the 4 inner slices of aubergine (the ones that do not have a layer of skin on them) with half of the oil and place them in the griddle pan. Griddle until they're beginning to brown and soften. In the meantime, chop the outer two slices into small cubes. Turn the slices of aubergine to griddle the other side. Remove from the heat.
For the salad, boil the potatoes until just tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overcook them, you don't want them to fall apart. Drain and set aside until cooled completely. Melt the butter in a deep frying pan over medium heat. Add the cauliflower and gently fry, stirring occasionally, until beginning to go tender, 4 to 5 minutes. If you are using a different vegetable, adjust to cooking time. Baby gems for example literally need only a few seconds, so do not cook them yet. Cut the cold potatoes in half and add to the cauliflower. Continue frying, without disturbing them, until lightly browned, about 5 more minutes.
Heat the remaining oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cubed aubergine and mushrooms and fry until the mushrooms have released all liquid. Stir in the sausage meat and herbs and continue frying until the meat is just cooked. Add the pine nuts and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place 2 slices of aubergine on a baking tray lined with baking paper and top each with half of the filling mixture. Place another slice on top and bake in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes until the aubergines are golden brown and soft.
When the potatoes are lightly browned, remove the salad from the heat add the ham and season to taste with salt, pepper and vinegar. Remove the mille-feuilles from the oven. Place them on two plates and top with freshly grated Parmesan. Add a few spoonfuls of potato salad to the plates and scatter with freshly chopped chives before serving.
Christine at 9:38 pm
Chicken Livers with Marsala Sauce
My boss' leaving-do yesterday la
sted longer than I had thought and I didn't come home until 8 o'clock, too late for fancy cooking. At first I was going to make risotto, but changed my mind at the last minute. The stuff in the fridge looked a lot more Asian than Italian, so I opted for a quick vegetable stir-fry with fried rice. It takes less than 20 minutes from fridge to plate, so it was the perfect thing to save the evening. By 8.30 we were happily sitting on the couch dinner in hand, movie on the telly, enjoying a relaxed start to a relaxed weekend.Although I enjoyed an evening out, I must admit I did miss my kitchen and was dying to find out who had won this week's series of Great British Menu. I was determined to make up for these two deficits today. The repeat of yesterday's show was on BBC 1 this morning and I watched the whole thing sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee, which actually made a nice change from my usual listening and glancing over from the kitchen. Well, I say kitchen, but we actually have a kitchen/living room, a large living room with a sort of oversized kitchenette along the entire back wall. This is bad when I mess up like I did with the microwaved brownie, but comes in quite handy when I want to watch telly or am using a recipe from my computer.
In any case, this morning I was sitting there, watching Great British Menu thinking that life could not be greater when none other than Rick Wakeman proved me wrong. Before I switched to the telly, we had been listening to Rick's Place on Planet Rock, a weekly show hosted by the former Yes keyboard player. He holds a competition every week where he asks listeners to find a certain number of bands or artists with a common attribute. Today's challenge was to come up with 6 bands that were spin-offs of bands that Rick had been in. At first I wasn't even going to enter, that's how hard I found it. But then I decided that I was not going to give up this easily and got on with it. And guess what? I WON!!! I don't know what, but I won that's all that counts. The feeling when I heard Rick say my name was incredible. I felt like a child at Christmas.
And with these happy thoughts in mind I jumped on my bike and went shopping. Unfortunately, bad weather cut my excursion short. I was not in the mood for repeating last week's rainy market experience and instead grabbed my two boxes of crisps and the bagful of bits and pieces from my everything-you-never-needed-store on Meath Street and cycled home as quickly as I could. Somehow I felt more like an overloaded donkey than a young urban shopper, but who cares, no one saw me. Besides, there's plenty of time for looking good when we go check out Dun Laoghaire market tomorrow - if it's dry that is.
Tonight's dinner was a bit of a paradox. On the one hand I was all eager to cook something a bit special, on the other hand, I had to somehow construct it from what I had. And that wasn't really a lot. Inspired by today's viewing of four course dinners on TV, I decided to make several courses. As a starter I defrosted a package of chicken livers that I had frozen a few weeks ago. Lofty really likes his chicken livers and they're really quite difficult to get here in Dublin, so I put some effort into the dish and cooked them with sage and caramelised onions in a Marsala sauce. And apart from the fact that I was stupid enough to freeze what I had bought for three people in one package and now had way too much I was quite happy with the outcome. If you like chicken livers, I do encourage you to try your hand at this recipe. It's quick, simple, tasty and perfect for guests. Just make sure that the livers go into a nice, hot pan and do not overcook them; they tend to go tough if they stay in the pan too long.
2 tbsp olive oil (more if needed)
1 onion, halved and sliced into thin rings
200g chicken livers, trimmed
1 tsp fresh sage, chopped (or ¼ tsp dried)
75 ml Marsala wine (alternatively Madeira or port)
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a large, shallow frying pan over medium low heat. Add the onion and cook until golden brown and caramelised, about 15 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add a little more oil if the pan appears dry (it really shouldn't). When the pan is nice and hot (not smoking, you don't want to burn the onions!) add the chicken livers in a single layer. Fry, without disturbing them until browned, about 4 minutes. Turn and continue frying until the other side is brown and the livers are cooked, but still slightly pink in the centre. Do not overcook them, chicken livers are prone to going tough and leathery. Add the sage and Marsala wine and cook, stirring once or twice until most of the wine has evaporated and the sauce has thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately accompanied by some crusty white bread (or, as I did tonight, freshly made garlic bread - with the emphasis on freshly made, the shop-bought stuff is OK for a barbecue, but not for this occasion).
Christine at 9:12 pm
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Brownies with Walnuts and Dried Cranberries
My boss is leaving the company and some of us have been asked to bake some goodies for his farewell party. So what was I to make that is tasty, easy to eat standing up, affordable in large quantities and requires as little planning as possible (it is the end of the week after all and regular readers will know what my fridge looks like on Thursdays and Fridays)? I opted for something I've been making successfully for years (I wouldn't want to embarrass myself in front of the whole company, would I?) and that most people like - Brownies. But I wouldn't be myself if I just made straightforward chocolate squares. They had to have some sort of twist for me to be satisfied. So how about dark chocolate brownies with cranberries and walnuts?200g dark chocolate (you can use cooking chocolate, but do make sure it's of reasonable quality; I've used Tesco's own before, so reasonable can be defined quite broadly here)Right, now you know the theory of it all. The practice looked slightly different. I started way too late so the brownies weren't really completely cooked by the time I had to go to bed. I tried microwaving one while I was brushing my teeth, which resulted in a piece of chocolate scented charcoal and a kitchen full of smoke. Did you know that a brownie cannot be microwaved for 90 seconds without burning to a crisp? I certainly didn't and was thoroughly shocked at my latest creation. In fact, I was so shocked, I forgot to photograph the rest for this post. I think I'll stay away from the microwave for a while after this experience. Luckily my colleagues did not mind sticky brownies so I did not have to try and repeat the microwave trick at the office. But boy, what a cleaning nightmare!
¾ cubs butter (or margarine)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (these can be substituted with any nuts you like or even left out)
½ cup dried cranberries (again, there are loads of possible substitutes: cherries, strawberries, blueberries, chopped apricots or even chocolate chunks; just make sure they go with the nuts you've chosen)
a pinch of chilli powder (optional; it doesn't go with everything and not everyone likes it, so if you have a sweet tooth, simply omit it)
1 cup boiling water
Butter for the baking tin
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Butter a 20 to 25 cm square baking tin. Soak the dried fruit in the boiling water until soft. Drain well.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a large bowl either over a bain-marie or by microwaving them on high for 2 minutes or until the butter is melted. Continue stirring until the chocolate is completely melted. Now add the sugar followed by the eggs and vanilla. Stir until you have a smooth batter, then add the flour, nuts and fruit. Stir until all is incorporated, then pour the mixture into the baking tin. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the centre comes out ALMOST clean. Don't overbake, you want them to be gooey at the centre. Allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting.
Christine at 10:20 pm
Mixed Seafood Burritos
We had a quiet day in the office today. Most of my colleagues were off to a meeting, but I stayed behind and continued to work. Don't get me wrong, I had volunteered. I much prefer a good day at work to sitting in a dark stuffy room
listening to presentation after presentation. And with the sun shining on my desk, a soft spring wind blowing through the window and no on distracting me, I definitely had a good day.Cycling home was a little less fun. The town was packed and people were behaving as if they had never been in busy traffic before. I don't know what influences it, but on some days the ride home is totally smooth, and then there are those days when you feel as if someone had offered money to every unlicensed idiot willing to drive their car into the city centre during rush hour. But I made it home all right, which is more than can be said about many other cyclists in Dublin. So I guess I should be happy, especially as I forgot to wear my helmet today.
The sun was still shining when I got in and I was ready to face the hardship of making the perfect summer dinner. I discovered a new cookery program last week - The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook. I think I only just caught the last two episodes of the season, but their trips through Mexico inspired me. When Lofty and I were living in LA, we ate a lot of Mexican food. Not just Taco Bell, although we did go there occasionally. I used to buy the odd bean and cheese burrito from small Mexican run kiosks, too, and believe me, despite their low price they are wonderful. So, if you ever go to Southern California and need a snack, don't be put off by the silly comments that Mexican street food is cheap, nasty, unhealthy, dirty or any other accusation that members of mainstream society occasionally lever towards snacks they are too scared to try. Have yourself a nice, big burrito; it's well worth it. We didn't only eat out though. In LA, I first learned to make my own Mexican food. We had a large supermarket just down the road that was catering mainly to a Mexican clientele. It was cheap and stocked things I had never seen before - the perfect combination for a learner to experiment.
In any case, today I felt inspired to dig up the experiences I had made back then and concoct a nice Mexican dinner. The result was quite pleasant, but then it is difficult to get the basics of Mexican food wrong if you've got good ingredients. So, for a foolproof, albeit time consuming dinner give burritos a try.
For the burritos:
2 large flour tortillas (I guestimate 1 burrito per person; if you're a big eater, I recommend you double that, but don't underestimate how filling they are)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ red bell pepper, chopped
1 handful of mushrooms, chopped
2 large handfuls of spinach, washed
150g cooked prawns
100g hot smoked salmon
(obviously this filling mixture can be adapted to match your taste; the beauty of burritos is that you can put almost anything in them as long as you make sure the ingredients go together)
¼ tsp cumin
a pinch of chilli powder
1 tsp fresh mint, chopped
1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
1 tsp fresh cilantro (coriander), chopped (optional)
½ lime, juice only
100g grated queso blanco or mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp sour cream (optional)
For the salsa fresca:
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
½ onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
2 cilantro sprigs, chopped
¼ lime, juice only
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and chilli powder to taste (if you like it spicy, use a chopped jalapeno instead of chilli powder)
For the guacamole:
1 ripe avocado
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
½ lime, juice only
For the salsa, combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Toss thoroughly. Let the mixture stand for at least 15 minutes before serving.
For the guacamole, halve the avocado and remove the pit. Discard the pit. Scoop the flesh into a small bowl and mash with a fork. Stir in the remaining ingredients, season with salt to taste, and set aside.
To make the burritos, heat the oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, bell peppers and mushrooms and fry until lightly browned. Add the chilli and cumin followed by the spinach. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach has collapsed. Add a few drops of water if the spinach is drying out. Stir in the prawns, salmon and herbs and heat through thoroughly. Season to taste with salt.
Warm the tortillas for 30 seconds in a dry skillet until pliable. Place some of the seafood mixture down the centre of a tortilla and top with sour cream and grated cheese. Roll up the burrito and serve with the salsa and guacamole.
Christine at 9:29 pm
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Mezze on a Summer Night
Our fridge is still full to the brim with food and I am still too lazy to cook. Luckily the sun is
shining and I feel as if someone had just beamed me to some Mediterranean country, so I have no problem with having cold Mezze - the Eastern Mediterranean's answer to Tapas - for tea. I won't try to make you believe that they were all homemade, although once in Prague, in a wild cooking craze I actually did make a full Mezze banquet - hummous, falafel, flatbread with goat's cheese, baba ghanouj, butter beans in tomato sauce and a few more bits and pieces. But today I took the lazy option and combined cheese from Germany (a mix of hard cow's milk and soft goat's milk cheese) with quince jelly and sunblushed tomatoes from the market and hummous and taramosalata from Marks & Spencer. Along with some freshly baked rolls, this actually made for a nice summery supper.Christine at 9:24 pm
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Pasta Night
We had our monthly Tesco delivery tonight and
as a result our fridge is overflowing with food. So what do I decide to make for dinner? Pasta! No, my creativity has not gone down the drain, nor have I finally lost it. The decision was influenced by a number of factors, all of which make perfect sense: the delivery time, the stuff already in our fridge and my mood.I wasn't in a bad mood, but I felt quite lethargic when I got home. We're very busy at work at the moment and I spend a lot less time that I would like drinking coffee and doing fun things. All that has been relegated to the time after 5. And tonight I just preferred surfing the net, watching telly and playing poker to cooking.
It didn't help that the delivery man didn't show
until after 6 o'clock - too late, really, for me to use any of the stuff he brought. And believe me, he brought lots of stuff. I had spent over €100 and filled our small kitchen with 5 crates of food and drinks: Spinach, onions, butter, cream, mineral water, canned tomatoes, spaghetti, Oxo cubes, puff pastry, filo pastry, dried pears, several different kinds of nuts... The list goes on and on. Plenty of things to make a number of yummy dinners. But not tonight. Tonight I had to start before I received anything.So I had to work with the things I had bought on the weekend. The choices here were simple: Mexican, Mediterranean of some sort or chicken burgers. The first takes quite a while, though, and the last is best with potato wedges, which again drags out cooking time and keeps me away from Great British Menus. This really only leaves the middle option. I decided to pull everything I had out of the fridge and just see what the jumble of stuff would inspire me to concoct. And, as you can see from the picture above, this looked very much like a good old-fashioned pasta. In fact, it looked like two different pasta dishes. Lofty was not too keen on the artichokes in oil from the market and I dm no fan of salami, even good quality Italian salami from my mum's fine food store. The solution was to cook enough noodles for two, but toss them with completely different accompaniments before serving - Spaghetti with leek and salami and spaghetti with artichokes.
enough pasta for 2 people
For the salami mixture:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot (or ½ onion), chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
½ leek, cleaned and sliced
a handful of mushrooms, sliced
4 to 5 cm salami, chopped
50 ml white wine
4 to 5 sunblushed tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped (these are only partly dried and retain a lot more moisture than sundried tomatoes; you can substitute them for one another, but remember that the latter are more intense in taste and not as juicy)
a handful of spinach, cleaned
1 tsp fresh basil (or ¼ tsp dried)
1 tsp fresh thyme (or ¼ tsp dried)
1 tsp fresh oregano (or ¼ tsp dried)
1 vegetable Oxo cube (alternatively enough stock granules for 200 ml liquid)
½ buffalo mozzarella, chopped or ripped into smallish chunks
salt and pepper to taste
For the artichoke mixture:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot (or ½ onion), chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
a pinch of grated lemon peel
50 ml white wine
4 to 5 sunblushed tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
a handful of spinach, cleaned
4 artichokes in oil, quartered
1 tsp fresh basil (or ¼ tsp dried)
1 tsp fresh thyme (or ¼ tsp dried)
1 tsp fresh oregano (or ¼ tsp dried)
1 vegetable Oxo cube (alternatively enough stock granules for 200 ml liquid)
½ buffalo mozzarella, chopped or ripped into smallish chunks
salt and pepper to taste
a bit of butter (optional)
Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain (do not blanch) and set aside.
Heat the oil for the two mixtures in two pans over medium heat. Add the shallots and leeks and cook until golden, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and, in the case of the artichoke mix, the lemon peel and continue to fry until fragrant, about a minute.
Pour the wine into the artichoke mix and bring to a simmer. Add the mushrooms to the salami mix and fry until they have released their moisture and are beginning to brown. Add the salami and fry for another minute before pouring in the wine. Add the tomatoes, spinach and herbs to both pans. Cook until the spinach has collapsed, then toss with the pasta. Crumble in the Oxo cubes/stock granules and stir in the mozzarella chunks. Add some butter to the artichoke mixture if that appears dry. Dish up before the mozzarella is completely melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Christine at 8:41 pm
