Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Japanese-Style Mackerel
Today dinner had to be quick and simple. I was just too tired for real cooking. So I decided to let the true masters of quick cuisine inspire me and made Japanese-style glazed mackerel with two kinds of salad and some fried rice.For the mackerel:
½ cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup dry Sherry
2 tbsp Demerera sugar
2 mackerel fillets with skin
For the avocado salad:
1 large firm-ripe avocado
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
For the cucumber salad:
1 small or ½ regular cucumber
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
salt to taste (optional)
For the fried rice:
4 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1½ cups boiled basmati, jasmine or sticky Asian rice (I always freeze the boiled rice I get free with Chinese take-out and defrost it for such occasions)
vegetables, if you like (for example peas, chopped mushrooms, corn or chopped carrots), blanched or fried if necessary
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 Oxo cube (alternatively, use uncooked rice and boil in stock rather than water)
Begin by making the glaze for the mackerel. Combine the vinegar, soy sauce, sherry and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium low heat and briskly simmer until glossy and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 20 to 25 minutes. Keep warm.
While sauce reduces, prepare the avocado and cucumber salads and make a start on the rice. Quarter the avocado lengthwise, then pit and peel. Cut into bite-size chunks, then gently toss together with lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
For the cucumber salad, seed and finely chop the cucumber. Toss with the sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce, and, if needed, salt to taste. Set aside and let the flavours mix.
For the rice, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium heat. Fry the onion until translucent and starting to brown. Now pour in the egg and fry, stirring constantly, until well set. Keep going until you would consider it overdone for scrambled eggs. You want them to be dry. Remove from the pan and set aside. Heat the remaining oil in the same wok and add the rice.
While the rice is frying, glaze and bake fish. Preheat the grill. Line a large shallow baking pan with foil. Arrange the fish fillets, skin sides down, in the baking pan. Pour off about ¼ of the glaze into a small bowl. Spoon about a third of the remaining glaze over the fillets, making sure they are coated evenly.
Grill the fish 12 to 15cm away from the heat, without turning, for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the grill, coat the fillets with another layer of glaze, then grill 2 more minutes. Apply a third coat of glaze, then grill for another minute. Remove from the grill and, with a clean spoon, apply reserved glaze. This is done to keep all traces of uncooked fish away from the final dish.
When the fish is done, add the scrambled eggs and vegetables (if using) to the rice. Season with soy sauce and crumble in the Oxo cube.
Christine at 8:18 pm
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Roast Monkfish with Wild Mushroom Sauce
Typical, yesterday I said that I was going to give you a photo blog and not much else for a few days and here I am writing a recipe. But for one I can report that I am feeling a lot better and therefore much more energetic about posting and for two, that last Sunday dinner in August was well worth sharing with the world. I got a nice piece of monkfish, wild mushrooms and some pink fir apple potatoes. It may sound weird, but it was the spuds that I was the happiest about because they were the first waxy potatoes I got my hands on since I came to Ireland. The Irish prefer floury potatoes and the shops tend to ignore everyone else. Don't get me wrong, I like floury spuds for such things as mash, but at times I like a potato that offers a bit of resistance when you bite into them. And the sweet flavour of the pink fir apples goes perfectly with the firm fish and a creamy mushroom sauce.For the roasted monkfish
1 tbsp olive oil
200g monkfish fillet, trimmed
½ tsp paprika
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the creamy mushroom sauce
1 tbsp butter
1 shallot, halved and then sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
75 to 100g wild mushrooms
50ml white wine
1 lemon, juice only
1 tomato, finely diced
2 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Season the monkfish all round with paprika, salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Seal the monkfish in the oil on all sides, transfer to a baking tray, and place in the preheated oven for 5 to 6 minutes.
To make the creamy mushroom sauce, melt the butter in the frying pan which was used to seal the monkfish. Add the shallots and fry over gentle heat until translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and the mushrooms and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
When the fish is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow to rest in a warm place. In the meantime finish the sauce. Increase the heat under the pan to medium and deglaze with the wine. Bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer. Stir in the lemon juice and chopped parsley and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Finally, add the cream and the diced tomatoes. Allow to heat through, then season to taste. Serve with the roasted monkfish and some waxy potatoes.
Christine at 10:38 pm
Saturday, August 26, 2006
A Slow Return
As you surely will have noticed, I disappeared for a while. I am very sorry about that, somehow life and my attempt to finally get my dissertation finished
while keeping a full-time job and my share of the household chores was too much. I still managed to relax in the kitchen, and I also documented the results of my cooking sessions photographically, but somehow I stopped short of sharing them with you. Silly, really, but I felt that simple pictures and short stories were just not good enough. But isn't that exactly what a blog is all about?So, I've finally overcome my pride and am clearing my archive of saved pictures and sound bites I saved as drafts on the blogger server. Please bear with me for a few days while I sort the whole mess out and I promise I will be back in old form with recipes and all. For now I will leave you with this lovely picture of grilled cod with mashed potatoes and saffron sauce. Good night!
Christine at 10:00 pm
Plum Tart After a Wild Night
It's been a while since I've posted a recipe here and I fear (and hope) that after all my talking about dinners during the past days you are eager for a more hands-on approach. I was actually going to experiment with the vegetables in my
fridge last night, which would hopefully have resulted in some post-able concoction. But as you can see I am talking in the conditional form and there is no post in sight for last night. But I do have a good excuse.My colleagues convinced me to break with my unsociable habit of heading straight home after work and go to the pub with them after work. Now, as you may have noticed, I rarely go out in the evening and I never drink alcohol. Both have partly to do with the fact that I have epilepsy and am technically not supposed to mix my medication with alcohol, but they are also due to my general laziness. If I drink half a glass of wine, I am well merry (and always have been - I have a very low tolerance to the stuff). So one sip of one of my colleagues' drinks combined with a late return home (I got in at 7.45 p.m., which is the latest I've been out in weeks) were enough to render me unable to function in the kitchen. (Yes, I am aware that this is ridiculous and you may laugh hardily at my expense... I can't imagine how I used to survive all nighters...) At first I was going to get take-out, but then I realised that in the time it would take them to deliver my food I could easily rustle up some fried rice with stir-fried vegetables. So that's what I did.
Today I made up for my failings, though, by getting busy with an almond and plum tart to go with my after-market tea.
2 rectangular sheets of puff pastry, about 40 x 60cmThis is not a very sweet desert, so if you like it sweet, serve it with a generous helping of vanilla ice cream or some sweetened whipped cream.
500g plums (or mirabelles, damsons, cherries or any other stone fruit you like)
125g butter
½ cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp dark rum
1 tsp almond extract
100g ground almonds
5 to 10 tbsp flour (more if needed)
1 small egg, beaten, for the egg wash
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking tray with baking paper or spread with a thin layer of butter and dust with flour. Remove the stones from the plums and cut into bite size chunks. If you are using smaller fruit, simply remove the pip and otherwise leave them whole. You don't want small bits that are going to cook down to a pulp and make the whole tart go soggy.
In a large mixing bowl, whip the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add the egg, rum and almond extract and beat until well incorporated. Don't worry too much if the mixture separates, it will come together again once you add the dry ingredients.
Gently stir the fruit into the egg mixture. Don't overwork it. Now add the almonds and stir until incorporated. Finally add just enough flour to form a soft, but not runny dough.
Place one of the pastry sheets on the pre-prepared baking sheet. Add the plum and almond mixture in a large heap in the middle. Brush the exposed edge of the puff pastry liberally with the beaten egg. Cover with the second pastry sheet and press down well to seal the edges. As you can see in the picture, if you're too gentle, your tart will split during baking. Brush the top of the tart with the remaining egg. Make a small hole in the centre of the tart at the top of your fruit pile to let the steam escape and prevent the tart from exploding in the oven. If you like, you can also draw a pattern in the top with a knife, just make sure not to cut through the pastry. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for about 25 to 35 minutes until golden brown.
Christine at 3:00 pm
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Roast Chicken Breast with Wild Mushrooms
Are you sick of wild mushrooms yet? I hope not, because the season has barely started and as you've probably realised by now I am crazy about them. From the day the first morel appears at the market to the day the last porcini
is dried I have 'shrooms on my mind. Pasta, omelettes, risotto, roast birds and many more will be the order of the day in the coming months.Tonight I felt like having something posh and I was really looking forward to a long, relaxing cooking session after work. So, on the way home I stopped at Fallon & Byrne for some wild mushrooms and swung by Hogan's and picked up a free-range chicken.
And to really go over the top, I opened a pâté of duck foie gras that my mum had sent me as a present. Well, I say I opened it. In reality I failed miserably because my posh can opener could not cope with such a posh can. So - yes, you guessed it - I freaked, I panicked and then Lofty couldn't take it anymore and, before I could come round again he grabbed a saw and simply took the end off the tubular shaped container. This did leave quite a bit of metal dust in the pâté, but I suppose it's better to lose some of it than to have it all but never be able to eat it.
In the end it was all worth it. Roasted gently on a bed of carrots, onions, garlic, dried mushrooms and herbs, served alongside the mushrooms and topped by a dollop of pâté the chicken was simply superb. I managed to resist the urge to make an elaborate sauce and simply deglazed the roasting tin with some white wine and homemade chicken stock and let the mixture thicken slightly before straining it through a sieve. When you do it, push down on the garlic and onion with the back of a tablespoon to push some of the pulp into the pan juices. Unlike a gravy which can easily distract from the flavours of the dinner, a sauce made only from the pan juices and a bit of stock helps accentuate the flavours of your dinner. Serve with boiled potatoes that you can use to mop up all the goodness on your plate and some mild green vegetables and I promise the result will be worth the effort.
Christine at 10:10 pm
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Unseen Runner Beans
On Saturday at the market, Jenny had a basket of runner
beans like I'd never seen before. They weren't flat and smooth, but thick and the outside had a ridged, almost stripy texture. At first I didn't believe that these were really runner beans, but Jenny assured me that they were. So, obviously, I had to get a bag of them just to find out what they were all about.They sat in my fridge until tonight when I was looking for an accompaniment for the sweetcorn that really needed to go. I know that this seems like the wrong way to go about it all. Normal people buy their meat or fish and then choose the accompaniments. But I am such an impulsive buyer, when I am at the market I tend to end up getting whatever seems interesting regardless of whether these things go together. Then I take them home, despair at the fact that I have spent all my money, wrecked my back carrying loads of stuff around town, and
finally try to come up with dinners I might make from these ingredients and patch-up the gaps in the recipes with the help of further trips to my favourite food haunts.Tonight's dinner was the result of one of those wrongly organised planning sessions. I first got the beans without knowing what I would do with them. Then I went out and got some more veggies, among them two ears of corn. And when both really wanted to go to tonight, I stopped at Marks & Spencer on the way home for some outdoor-bred Lincolnshire sausages. (Hmm... How do you breed a sausage?) Add to that some garlic roast potatoes and onion gravy and you end up with a very nice mid-week dinner.
Christine at 9:55 pm
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Oatmeal Biscuits and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Today was my first anniversary - at work. It was exactly a year ago today that I sat in the lobby worried that I would mess up on my first day only to find out that I was not allowed anywhere near a computer until I'd completed a week-long training session with thirteen equally worried new hires. I can't believe a year has passed since... Time flies when you're getting older.Anyway, last week a colleague had brought in some cake to celebrate her anniversary so I felt I had to do something different. My brownies are turning into a bit of an old hat and I did not have the ingredients for my other favourite for such occasions, banana bread. In the end I opted for something that brings out the child in anyone - cookies. I made two different kinds, oatmeal cookies and vanilla cookies with Smarties, and watched them disappear as quickly as the months had passed on the job. So, if you ever want to see a large group of adults turn into kids again, these recipes are highly recommended.
Oatmeal cookies:Both kinds of biscuits were nice, but I should have known that everyone was going to prefer the colourful, childish ones with the Smarties in them. And I should have known to take a picture while I still had them at home. I didn't and they were gone before I knew it, so there is only a photo of the oatmeal ones. You'll get the Smarties next time.
220g soft butter
1¼ cups light brown sugar
½ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
1¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2½ cups soft oats
1 cup raisins (or any other dried fruit of your choice)
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped (or any other nuts you like)
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate, larger bowl, combine the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts. Combine well. Allow to rest in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Using a teaspoon, scoop out chunks of cookie dough the size of a large walnut. Arrange them on the lined baking trays spaced at least 5cm apart. They will spread out a lot during baking. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes if you like chewy cookies and 12 to 13 minutes for crunchy ones. Leave them to cool on the baking tray for 1 minute before transferring them to a rack. These should be eaten as soon as possible, but if you need to keep them, make sure they are in a dry, airtight container.
Smarties cookies:
75g butter
75g caster sugar
75g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
175g self-rising flour
a pinch of salt
about 3 small tubes of Smarties (alternatively 100g chocolate chips - A bit of advice from a colleague of mine: Don't use M&Ms, they tend to lose their colour in the dough with less than pretty results.)
Combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until light and creamy. Slowly beat in the egg. In another bowl, mix the flour and salt, then gradually add it to the butter and egg mixture. Combine well. Stir in the Smarties.
Split the dough in two portions and roll each out into a sausage shapes approximately 5cm in diameter. Wrap them in cling film and rest in the refrigerator until ready to use.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Slice the log into slices approximately 2cm wide. Lay the circles on the pre-prepared baking trays spaced about 2cm apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to rest on the baking tray for a minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Christine at 11:44 pm
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Gordon Ramsay's Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
I must admit I am a great admirer of Gordon Ramsay. I know he swears much more than is necessary to make himself heard and the way he treats people at times leaves a lot to be desired.
His food, however, is simply divine, as I had the privilege to find out first hand in January on a visit to the newly re-opened restaurant at Royal Hospital road. His critics have pointed to his excessive reliance on truffle oil and my mum complained about the lack of proper burgundy glasses, but to me all this is a sad attempt to find some fault, any fault, to bitch about. The food I had there was the best I have ever eaten. What amazed me the most about it was the fact that chef Ramsay did not simply source posh ingredients, combine them in outrageous ways and give the concoction some trendy name. Instead he used many every-day items, such as chicken breast and cauliflower and made them into something special. This, to me, is the sign of a great cook - to be able to create something extraordinary from completely ordinary ingredients.Whatever the case may be, the new season of Gordon Ramsay's F-Word is on Channel 4 at the moment and I watch it religiously. I not only find it incredibly entertaining, but also appreciate the input I can derive from it. A while back I saw chef Ramsay cook a bacon-wrapped chicken legs stuffed with pork and pistachio served with pea and broad bean risotto and swore that I was going to make my own version of the dish. And tonight was the night. I changed the basic recipe very little. All I did was to substitute the pistachios with pine nuts and wrap the bacon only around the outside edges of the roulade in order to keep parts of the lovely chicken skin exposed. And the result was great. Thank you, Gordon Ramsay, for inspiring a divine dinner.
Christine at 10:53 pm
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Pork Chops with Roast Vegetables
The past few days have brought good weather and I felt quite lazy when it came to cooking in the evenings. As a result we were back to summer fare of pasta and salads that, while tasty, were not exciting enough to warrant posts of their own. But tonight things were different. It's Saturday and the rain is back, so it was time for me to get out there and cook some good old-fashioned home fare.This morning, I had actually made my way to the market and got some vegetables and stopped at Hogan's butchery for some meat. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to get all the way home before the big downpour. When I was about 500 metres from home the heavens opened and I was absolutely drenched. But neither me nor my food melted, so dinner was still on for tonight - grilled pork chops with roast vegetables.
2 pork chops
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 carrots, halved lengthways, then cut into large chunks
a handful small button mushrooms
6 garlic cloves in their skin
2 shallots, quartered lengthways
1 romanesco, cut into florets
a few springs of thyme
50ml white wine
coarse sea salt
3 tbsp olive oil
Preheat oven to 250 degrees Celsius. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil. Briefly blanch the carrots - about 2 minutes - then drain and refresh under cold water. Place them in a medium roasting tin, drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven. Roast, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes.
Now add the mushrooms, garlic, romanesco and shallots along with the thyme and white wine. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, mix well to coat with the oil and wine and return the vegetables to the oven. Roast for until the romanesco is soft, about 12 to 15 minutes.
Heat the sunflower oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat. When the oil is quite hot, add the pork chops and fry without disturbing them until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn them over and brown the other side. Reduce the heat slightly and continue frying, turning occasionally, until the chops are cooked, about 10 minutes. If you are unsure about this, lightly push down on the pork chop with one finger. If it springs back into place and feels about as firm as the back of your hand, it is ready.
Christine at 10:08 pm
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Chicken and Mushroom Roulade
On Saturday I had a long chat with Dennis Healy about mushrooms and mushroom picking. This is a very common past time in most parts of Germany and an absolute obsession in the Czech Republic where my mum is from. Especially during communist time foraging was a great way to enhance the family diet during summer and autumn and my grandparents were true masters at this art. It is with great joy that I remember my grandmother's roast chicken or duck with wild mushrooms, wood pigeons with herb stuffing and endless variations of fruit-filled dumplings, to this day one of my favourite deserts.So when Dennis had a box of lovely chanterelles for sale I not only had to get some, but also pick his brain on where to find my own here in the Dublin area. And much to my surprise, he shared readily his secret location: the Wicklow mountains. And after Jenny confirmed that there are indeed mushrooms to be found there I am determined to rent a car some time soon and head out there to revive my childhood obsession with all fruits of the forest. But until then, I will use what is on offer at the market to experiment. I want to use my grandmother as an inspiration, but I would never try to imitate her. In my memory she is the best cook on earth, so any attempt to be like her would appear like delusions of grandeur. But having been raised during the war in occupied Czechoslovakia and lived in a communist country all her life she lacked the variety of ingredients and the foreign input necessary to become inventive. She was a master of old-fashioned home cooking, but she never experimented with flavours. I sometimes fear that I am the opposite - I experiment before having mastered the basics. Occasionally, however, I get the mix just right, for example tonight when, using my grandmother's roast chicken as a base, I came up with a chicken and mushroom roulade with garlic gravy. Yum!
2 chicken breast fillets
1 small onion, cut into wedges
1 carrot, cut into chunks
4 garlic cloves, left whole and lightly crushed in their skin
a few springs of thyme
1 bay leaf
75ml white wine
a drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
a handful of dried mushrooms (for best results use mushrooms that you picked and dried yourself, they are much more flavoursome than the store bought ones), soaked in 100ml hot water
100g button mushrooms, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
a pinch of cumin
wild mushrooms of your choice (the more the merrier), thickly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
200ml chicken stock
if you prefer a thick gravy, you will also need 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp flour
your choice of accompaniments
Warm a large shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the chopped mushrooms to the dry pan and cook gently until they have released all their liquid and have turned into a thick pulp. Remove the dried mushrooms from the soaking liquid and squeeze thoroughly, saving the liquid. Chop finely and stir into the mushroom pulp. Also add the thyme and cumin and season with a little salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place the onion wedges, carrot chunks, garlic, thyme and bay leaf in a medium roasting tin. Pour in the white wine.
Lay the chicken breasts out on a cutting board, skin side down. Cut a pocket into the thicker part of each breast starting from the centre and working out toward the edge. Stuff the pockets with the mushroom mixture and roll up the chicken breasts into tight roulades. Tie them into place with cotton strings. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken breasts on top of the vegetables in the roasting tin and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven, basting occasionally until the skin is crispy and the centre of the meat is cooked, about 40 to 45 minutes.
In the meantime prepare your gravy. If you want a thick gravy, make a roux. Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it is beginning to bubble stir in the flour and cook until you have a golden brown paste, about 2 minutes. Pour in the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms, stirring well to prevent lumps from forming. Add half of the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Cook gently for about 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside. If you like your gravy thin, simply mix the mushroom liquid and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Cook to reduce by about half, then set aside.
About 2 minutes before the chicken is done, begin preparing the wild mushrooms. Heat some olive oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and fry until golden and soft, about 5 minutes.
When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the roasting tin, remove the string and leave the chicken to rest in a warm place while you are finishing the gravy. Pour any excess fat out of the roasting tin and place it on a medium hob. Deglaze either with the reserved chicken stock (in case of a thick gravy) or half of the mushroom-stock-mix (for a thin gravy). Bring to the boil, then pass it through a sieve into the rest of the gravy. Press down on the vegetables, especially the garlic to squeeze the pulp into the gravy. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve alongside the chicken and vegetables.
Christine at 10:34 pm
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Vegetable Korma to Inspire our Dreams
What did I say yesterday about hoping to feel fresh and reinvigorated today? Whatever it was, my hopes were dashed by the reality of the day. The weekend is long over, but I felt like it had only just begun. For some strange reason I was walking around all day thinking it was Friday. Too much relaxation? Or the delayed after effect of an overdose of German bread? Or maybe I'm just not made for working life. It's been a year this week since I started in my job here in Dublin and getting up in the morning has got no easier. Why do we do this to ourselves? Too many of us spend the best years of our lives doing something we do not much enjoy at a time we are barely awake. But maybe this is done on purpose because if we were thinking straight we'd change it all. Who knows...One thing is for sure though, lofty and I will not be living like this forever. We have a dream. A big dream of going to India for a while. But that is a project for the distant future, so at the moment all we have to inspire our imagination is Indian food. Or at least my interpretation thereof. I know that what we get served as Indian food in restaurants in Europe probably has very little resemblance to what they actually eat on the sub-continent, but if we like it and if it teaches us to be open towards foreign cultures and cuisines, I am more than happy with it. And while I at times doubt my own ability to recreate things I have eaten in restaurants, tonight I was more than pleased with the result. I think the clue lay in the spices. I used to use relatively small amounts of the strongly flavoured specimens such as cumin and ginger because I was afraid of it turning out overpowering. Then I did some research on the subject and realised that, unless you have ultra-fresh spices and grind them yourself just before you start cooking, you will have a hard time making a tasty curry and no chance whatsoever to produce anything so flavoursome it becomes unbearable. So I decided to be adventurous and simply go by my feeling of what's right - with great results.
For the korma:
2 tbsp butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
spice mix (see recipe below)
1 tsp tomato purée
2 tsp brown sugar
75 g chopped tomatoes
150 ml vegetable stock
3 large handfuls of vegetables (such as green beans, carrots, parboiled potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms), cut into large chunks
1 small can (165ml) coconut milk
75g ground almonds
salt and pepper to taste
a good pinch garam masala
For the spice mix:
1½ tbsp powdered ginger
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground green cardamom seeds
2 fresh bay leaves
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of chilli powder or cayenne pepper
Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Add the onion, cover and fry until golden brown. This will take about 15 to 20 minutes, but be patient and let the onions brown, it is well worth the wait. Add the spice mix and continue frying, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mix well before stirring in the sugar, chopped tomatoes, the liquid part of the coconut milk (reserve the creamy top layer for later) and the stock. Bring to a simmer.
Add the vegetables in order of their cooking time. In total, they will be in the pan about 20 minutes. A good rule of thumb is that when the potatoes are cooked, so should be the rest of your vegetables. Cook until reduced to the consistency of thick cream. Now stir in the coconut cream and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Finally, add the ground almonds and garam masala and cook for a further minute or two to let the flavours mix and the sauce thicken slightly more. Serve with rice or Indian bread, such as chapatti or naan.
Christine at 9:26 pm
Monday, August 14, 2006
Chow Mein on Monday
I am a bit lost for words today. What can I say about the day? It's Monday and I really don't
like Mondays at the best of times. But rainy Mondays that seem to laugh at you calling out that summer is over for good are definitely not my thing. Work was surprisingly uneventful as were, luckily, my trips to and from the office. Dennis Healy told me the other day that he has already lost two cycling friends to the dangerous Irish traffic, a statement that definitely made me think twice about going out there in the morning.I tried to cheer us up this evening with a fresh, summery dinner of chow mein with crunchy vegetables. It was just what we needed - colourful, fresh, and quick and easy to make. But despite all attempts to close our eyes and think of countries far, far away we had to face the truth: It is a grey Monday in Dublin and not much happened in our lives. Never mind, maybe there will be more tomorrow.
Christine at 8:55 pm
Saturday, August 12, 2006
How to Survive a Bavarian Breakfast
No, don't worry, I have neither run away from Ireland and settled back in the land of beer and Lederhosen, nor have I gone raving mad imagining Teutonic delights in the early hours of the day. I did, however, eat a serious overdose of German bread yesterday. My boss had gone to visit our Munich office during the week and returned with two humomgous loaves from my favourite bakery - Hofpfisterei. Unfortunately I had no camera at work with me, I would have liked to share the source of our delight - and her agony, as she had to carry 4 kilos of bread in her hand luggage - with you.Why? Simple, Germans tend to be obsessed, in a very positive way, with bread. Our bakeries
are an important part of everyday life. They can be found in most underground stations and many busy shopping areas as well as a number of tiny residential street that look so quiet you would think that they could support any business. Bakeries are often the first places parents let their kids shop on their own - I remember how proud I was the first time I was allowed to get rolls for breakfast from our local bakery - and they are among the few businesses that have permission to open on Sundays. And, as many of my Irish colleagues can attest, when we are abroad we can spend hours bitching about the lack of "proper" bread in our host country. So, whenever our boss wants to treat us to something special, she organises German bread for the whole team.Yesterday, the 10 of us nearly managed to finish the 4 kilos of bread in one sitting. But only nearly. A little was left over for me to take home to lofty. I also defrosted a packet of original Bavarian Weißwürste, a white pork sausage that is traditionally eaten for breakfast in my home state. They are
gently heated in a pot of simmering (not boiling) water and then served with whole grain mustard and bread or pretzels and a pint of beer. You have to peel the tough skin off before eating them otherwise they are inedible - a bit like a banger wrapped in a condom. As kids we had a whale of a time watching tourists trying to chew their way through the whole sausage wondering why they were the only ones struggling.Today it was lofty and I who were struggling, though. Even though we skipped the traditional accompaniment of Weißbier (wheat beer), after breakfast we were full and lethargic enough to contemplate going back to bed and simply forgetting about the rest of the day. We managed to resist the urge, but shopping was a short affair today and dinner was merely a simple sausage burrito with salsa and guacamole.
Christine at 9:58 pm
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Finally - My Lasagne
As I promised earlier, this post is all about yesterday's dinner - lasagne. Remember, a while back I promised you a recipe for lasagne. I have made a few promises before that I didn't keep (keyword: Mongolian food), but this one was sure to be fulfilled not only because lofty and I both love the dish, but also because my recipe has actually grown quite nice with time and many past errors. I know, it was a bit unfortunate to make a baked pasta dish the day after a baked pasta dish, but where I had a problem of overabundance of food until a few days ago, I was now faced with an empty fridge again. I really need to learn to plan my shopping better. But now is not the time to change my ways. Rather, I will share the result of endless fights with burnt béchamel sauce and runny Bolognese - my lasagne.For the Bolognese sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely diced
200g mushrooms, sliced (or, if you don't like chunks in your sauce, finely chopped)
1 can (425g) chopped tomatoes (or, if they are in season, 5 large diced tomatoes)
250ml red wine
400g ground beef (or an equivalent volume of mixed vegetables - I can't give any fixed quantities here as it all depends on the stuff you chose; just think of how much they shrink down in the cooking process and use as much as you would like in the tomato sauce)
1 tsb sugar (if needed)
1 tsp fresh basil, roughly chopped
For the béchamel sauce:
5og butter
50g flour
550ml full fat milk (if you are on a low fat diet, you can use low fat, but be warned, the sauce may not thicken properly; or at least mine did not)
1 tbsp fresh Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
To assemble:
2 tbsp crème fraîche
8 to 10 lasagne sheets (Make sure you use pasta made from durum wheat otherwise they will fall apart, but don't worry about getting anything expensive. I always use Tesco Value, which cost 49 cents, and they are perfect.)
about 200g grated mozzarella (or enough sliced mozzarella to cover the lasagne dish you are using)
For the Bolognese sauce, heat the olive oil in a large shallow saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and lightly sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and continue cooking until soft, about 1 more minute. Now add the carrot and mushrooms and cook until the carrot bits are tender and the mushrooms have released all of their moisture, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook down to a paste. This may take a little while depending on the amount of water in your tomatoes, but be patient the end result is well worth it. The tomatoes gain in flavour the longer they are cooked. When you sauce has thickened, pour in the red wine and reduce it so it becomes a syrupy glaze coating the vegetables. Add the mince or vegetables and sweat down to a rich sauce.
To make the béchamel sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Turn up the heat and add the flour. Stir to incorporate well. Continue cooking for about two minutes to make a golden roux. Reduce the heat again and slowly pour in the milk whisking well between additions to prevent the sauce from going lumpy. Slowly return to the boil, stirring almost constantly. If you know what you are doing, you could probably speed up the process, but I have not found a way to get the sauce thickened quickly without burning it. Cook until the sauce has reached a creamy consistency. Remove from the heat and add the parmesan. Mix well and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Bring a large saucepan full of water to a rapid boil. Add a pinch of salt along with the pasta sheets. Cook until pliable, about 3 to 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside in a single layer to prevent the sheets from sticking together.
To assemble, cover the bottom of a large baking dish with a layer of béchamel sauce. Top with a layer of pasta sheets and pour over some more béchamel sauce. Cover with a layer of Bolognese sauce at and top with another layer of the pasta. Repeat the procedure until all ingredients are used up, finishing with a thin layer of béchamel. Dot the lasagne with small dollops of crème fraîche. Cover the whole dish with grated cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Christine at 8:32 pm
Salmon & Pasta Bake
The day before yesterday I finally caught up with my food - hmm, that sentence did not make
sense at all. Let's start again. The day before yesterday, I finally managed to use up the last of the bits in the fridge that I feared might go off if they aren't used soon: the last of the corn and some salmon trimmings that I had got nice and cheap from my fishmonger. The fish was obviously not the kind of lean fillet you can use for most fish dishes. It was cut from the side of the belly where all the fat is stored, so it needed a bit of work to prevent dinner from being so greasy it'd be worthy of being sold in a cheap kebab shop.But trim off the fat before frying the fish in a dry pan over medium heat to release most of the fat and you have a great base for a bake or pie. I didn't have any potatoes, so I opted for a pasta bake. This is so simple, it doesn't even warrant a recipe, so here are some quick instructions:
Use the salmon drippings to make a basic béchamel sauce (you can find the recipe here), add some herbs of your choice (dill, chives, oregano and basil work well here) and a pinch of paprika, season with the usual Oxo cube, salt and pepper, return the salmon along with some cooked vegetables (I had onion, garlic and sweetcorn today, but bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, asparagus and many more go with salmon), then toss the lot with some cooked pasta.I was originally going to move straight on to yesterday's much more sophisticated dinner, but in the end I decided that maybe the pasta was nice enough to deserve its own post. So yesterday will be right along in the next post.
Place the mixture into a baking dish, top with grated cheese and bake at 180 degrees Celsius until the cheese is golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Christine at 7:51 pm
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Thai Fish Cakes with Asian Vegetables
Here I am again, running behind on the blog and, more importantly, running behind on the cooking too. I've got way too much food again, which means that dinners are dictated by the fridge rather than our stomachs. I simply have to use up certain things before others. Today it was the remaining smoked cod's turn. It wasn't fresh enough for eating raw and the weather was too good for traditional British poached fish and a creamy sauce. At first I was ready to start my routine of freaking, despairing and screaming, but then I decided to jump straight to the finish of having an idea followed by a broad smile on my face.The inspiration was, strangely enough, a spice box my dad had given me a few months ago. It was a selection of fair traded spices from all over Asia that I had buried in the cupboard somewhere under the cling film and baking paper and promptly forgot about. Yesterday's cleanup had brought it back out again and now it was sitting on the counter top calling out to me: "Cook some Asian food!" The call was answered by the bok choi and mushrooms in my fridge and before I knew it, I had no chance, but to make an Asian-inspired fish dish. Frying or grilling the fillet was out of the question, it was definitely too flaky for that, so the only solution was a home invented semi-Asian concoction that I would call Tine's Thai fish cakes. And, although I am sure that no one from South East Asia has ever tasted or cooked anything like it, accompanied by some stir-fried vegetables in a sauce inspired by Nigel Slater the fish cakes actually tasted quite good.
For the fish cakes:
2 tbsp oil
400g white fish fillet, flaked (I used the smoked cod because I had it, but most white fish works here)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 cm ginger, grated
½ lime, juice only
¼ tsp lemon grass powder
chopped chillies or chilli powder to taste
2 tsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)
2 tbsp nam pla (fish sauce)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 medium egg, beaten
flour to bind the mixture
For the vegetables:
1 tbsp oil
4 to 5 spears of green asparagus, trimmed and halved (alternatively use broccoli or Chinese greens)
8 to 10 baby bok choi (or 2 to 4 normal bok choi, depending on size)
a handful of button mushrooms (or shiitakes), halved or quartered if they are large
1 to 2 tbsp flour or corn flour
if you don's have any of the above vegetables, this recipe also works well with bell peppers, onions, carrots, baby corn, water chestnuts and bean sprouts
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp dry sherry or rice wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 vegetable Oxo cube (or enough stock granules for 150ml liquid)
For the fish cakes, mix all ingredients except the oil and the flour together in a large bowl. Add enough flour to bind the mixture together into a firm paste. Rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes to set.
When the fish mixture is firm, divide into quarters and shape each into a 2.5cm (1 inch) thick patty. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the fish cakes and fry without moving them until golden, about 3 minutes. Turn them over and cook the other side. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking, turning occasionally until they are cooked through. They will be firm to the touch and bounce back into shape when squeezed gently.
For the vegetables, blanch the asparagus in boiling water until tender crisp, about 2 minutes. Refresh under cold water, drain well and set aside. Toss the mushrooms with the flour until well coated. Shake off the excess.
Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and fry until lightly cooked. Drop in the remaining vegetables fry for about two minutes. Pour in the liquids, add the garlic and ginger and crumble in the Oxo cube. Stir well and continue cooking until heated through and lightly thickened. Serve alongside the fish cakes.
Christine at 11:50 pm
Pork Chops and Red Chard
Mum left us on Sunday and Lofty and I reverted back to our usual weekend schedule: Do as little as possible. I spent some time re-organising the kitchen cupboards, fridge and freezer in an attempt to create maximum choice in minimum space. I am always torn between trying to keep as few unnecessary things in the house and wanting to have a kitchen that is stocked well enough for me to be able to tackle any reci
pe without having to go shopping for staples. I suppose the whole thing comes down to the different definitions of a staple. What should you always have in your kitchen? Herbs and spices? Definitely. But do I really need three different kinds of salt? The same goes for grains and pulses. Lentils, rice and pasta are definitely important, but should I really keep 3 different kinds of lentils, 4 different varieties of rice (none of which is long grain), beans, chickpeas, polenta, spaghetti and South African samp (dried white corn)? One day my answer is yes, the next I am strongly against it. Oh well, at least I do use all of my part time staples so I do not end up with a kitchen cupboard like my mother's. Last year I found a jar of cranberry sauce there that had expired in 1989. I could hardly believe it. That stuff was made at a time when the Soviet Union was still a force in international politics. I wonder how many revolutions the current contents of that cupboard will outlast...One thing I knew for sure, though, was that the chard in my fridge would not last another day, so I had to find a way to use it up in our dinner. We had bought it the day before at the market because mum had never had chard before, but with all the fish we never got round to eating it. It went perfectly with tonight's dinner, though: Pork chops with mashed potatoes and mustard and onion gravy.
For the pork:
2 pork chops
2 tbsp sunflower oil
For the mashed potatoes:
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks (if you have time it is better to boil them with their skin on and peel them later, but I often start dinner too late)
a knob of butter
a few spoonfuls of milk
salt to taste
For the gravy:
20g butter
1 medium onion, halved and then sliced into rings
1 tbsp flour
75ml Masala wine (or Madeira, sweet sherry or port)
250ml chicken stock
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp whole grain mustard
salt and pepper to taste
For the chard:
2 large handfuls of red chard (alternatively Swiss chard, spinach, bok choi or most Asian greens)
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
Start by making the gravy. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the sliced onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they begin to soften. Reduce the heat, cover and continue to cook until truly golden and soft, about 10 more minutes.
While the onions are cooking, bring the potatoes to the boil in enough salt water to just cover them. Cover and boil until soft, about 20 minutes. As I said above, if you have time you should boil the potatoes in their skin and peel them just before mashing. This reduces the amount of water in your mash. I generally peel the spuds before boiling though and simply put the saucepan back on the hob while I am mashing to make sure all the water evaporates. Just be careful not to burn the mash on the base of the pan.
When you put the potatoes on, heat the oil for the pork chops in a large shallow frying pan over medium heat. When it is truly hot, add the pork chops and fry without disturbing for at least two minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low, turn the chops over and brown the other side. This will obviously take a little longer on the lower heat, about 3 to 4 minutes. Continue to cook the chops without turning them too often until the outside is nicely sticky and caramelised and they are firm to the touch. Do not overcook them or they will go dry.
When the onions for the gravy are done, stir in the flour and continue to cook for another minute or two until it has lightly browned. Now pour in the liquids. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Worcester sauce. Bring to the boil and allow to bubble gently for about fifteen minutes. Finally, stir in the mustard and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Finish the mash by draining the potatoes and placing them back into the pan. Add the butter and season to taste, then mash until smooth adding a few drops of milk if needed.
A few minutes before you are ready to serve, bring some water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the chard and blanch until the stems are just tender but retain a bit of bite, about 2 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water. Drain well again and return to the pan. Add the butter and toss to coat the leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If you are not serving a strongly flavoured gravy, chard tastes great if you toss it with some sweated onions and/or garlic or a bit of ginger or grated lemon zest.
Christine at 8:09 pm
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Fish Day
I found something today that I haven't seen in years: fresh hazelnuts. When I was a child, we
had hazelnut bushes all around our house. My friends and I used to pick them the moment they looked even remotely nut-like, crack them directly on the rocks out there and eat the young, pale fruit. Those were the days... Then the city grew, the bushes were replaced by the orderly hedges of suburbia and I did a runner as soon as I could. But I do miss it all - the apple and pear trees, the berries that grew in the bushes by the side of our street, the herbs and edible wild greens in the fields behind 
the house, our neighbour's cornfield that we used to play hide and seek in and occasionally nick a cob or two for snack from, the forests full of mushrooms that in a time before Chernobyl were actually edible... The markets and small food shops of Dublin have often brought back memories of those times, but when I saw a big basket of lovely pale green hazelnuts at Fallon & Byrne, for a few seconds I was really there again. But then I noticed Lofty's face and came right back to Dublin. I managed to sneak in a quick picture to document my trip down memory lane before we were off to the market.After buying nearly one of every kind of vegetables that Jenny had on offer today, we moved on to the fishmonger. He had some
amazing seafood and we once again bought nearly one of each: tuna, smoked cod, fresh cod and some huge scallops. I was going to make mixed sashimi for dinner, but mum told us in no uncertain terms that she was not going to touch, let alone eat raw fish. Oh well, I'm flexible. There's always something else to do with great food.In this case I opted for a combination of tuna sashimi (I wanted to do carpaccio, but found no way to slice the steak I had bought thinly enough) and smoked cod tartare served with sliced limes for Lofty and me. Mum was not to be convinced that raw fish is neither poisonous (if you know who you are buying from, that is) nor slimy (if it is fresh, that is), so she had to make due with a bowl of my creamy pumpkin soup.
Next came a small second course of grilled scallops with garlic butter and parsley and some freshly baked baguette. Ok, I admit, it was part baked from a package; we had lunch at La Boulangerie, but we forgot to pop into their bakery afterwards for some real fresh bread. Oh well, these part baked things may not be perfect, but they're not bad. And I must say, the baguette went perfectly with those lovely, tender scallops.
After these two courses, we were almost too full to think about a main course and were seriously considering skipping straight to the desert. After a small break and a look at the nice, fresh cod fillet sitting on the kitchen countert
op, we could not help but have more. There was no way any of us could handle a full meal though. So I just lightly grilled the cod, seasoned only with a pinch of sea salt, and served it alongside a green salad and some boiled baby potatoes. That wasn't exactly the most spectacular culmination of a seafood meal, but it was definitely the right thing for us tonight.After all this food we really didn't want any crumble anymore. All we wanted was to pass out on the sofa. So instead of desert I made a round of coffee and we spent the evening lounging in the living room. I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a day.
Christine at 10:32 pm
Fettuccine with Wild Boar and Mushroom Ragù
After yesterday's exhausting long distance run through the city, mum and I decided to take it easier today. We had largely ignored the north side the day before, so today we rectified this by heading straight across Ha'Penny Bridge to the Jervis centre. Unfortunately, not surprisingly, we did not find much of interest there. I know this sounds terribly arrogant, but I am not a big fan of the whole pedestrian area around Mary, Henry and Moore Streets. The Tesco isn't half as nice as the Dunnes Stores on George's Street and in St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, shopping at Marks & Spencer there is stressful rather than pleasant and I have yet to find a shop there (food related or otherwise) that I like. I know that some people love the traders on Moore Street, but to me they are a poor copy of what I have on Meath Street. Less friendly, more expensive and always out to hide a rotten piece of fruit or veg in the bottom of your bag. The Asian shops in the area are very good, but so far I have never needed anything that I have not found at the Asian Emporium on George's Street. I have heard that one of the Chinese restaurants on Moore Street is quite good and have read a very positive critique of an Indian
place there, but I have not tested either, so I can't really utter an opinion. But I have every intention of going there, so I will keep you posted.Mum wanted to invite Lofty and me for dinner in a restaurant tonight, but in the end we all decided that there was no point in spending lots of money on a dinner without knowing what we were going to get. Dining out in Dublin is a bit of a hit and miss affair. You can have great food for little money and very bad food for an outrageous price. We suggested L'Gueleton or one of the above-mentioned Asian restaurants, but none of them were really what we wanted. The solution came to us in the afternoon in Little Italy. Mum and I were lounging in a pair of huge beanbags on display outside a shop on Bloomes Lane resting our feet and looking back at the many Italian restaurants there when she told me how much she loved Italian food, particularly pasta. And once again it seemed ludicrous to go out if the perfect dinner could be made quickly and cheaply at home. I had the perfect ingredients at home already: wild mushrooms, some Austrian wild boar salami my mum had bought for us and even a truffle that I had frozen for a special occasion. All I needed was a can of tomatoes. And here is what you will need to recreate the dish:
enough pasta for 3 people (I used some fresh fettuccineBy the way, this is a perfect dinner to pre-prepare. A bit like a stew or a curry, the sauce actually tastes better when it has been reheated.that had looked too good to leave behind at Marks & Spencer on Wednesday, but any pasta, especially short, hollow types, will work here)
1 tbsp goose dripping
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped (or ½ tsp dried)
a 5cm piece of wild boar salami, finely chopped (alternatively use ground meat or ordinary salami)
3 large handfuls of mushrooms (you can use button mushrooms, but as usual with mushrooms, the wilder they are the better)
a few dried porcini mushrooms, chopped and soaked in some hot water (save the soaking liquid)
150ml full bodied red wine
1 can chopped tomatoes (if tomatoes are in season, use 600g fresh tomatoes)
1 tsp light brown sugar (if needed; at times tomato sauce can be quite tangy and brown sugar helps to mellow it out a bit)
1 vegetable Oxo cube
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated parmesan to serve
fresh truffle shavings or a few drops of good quality truffle oil to serve (optional)
Heat the goose fat and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large saucepan or a frying pan with high walls over medium low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden, about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, clean the mushrooms and cut off the stems. Chop the stems and any button mushrooms you are using into fine bits. Halve the rest or leave the small ones whole.
When the onions are cooked, add the chopped herbs, salami (if you are using ground meat, don't add it yet) and mushroom stems. Turn up the heat and continue frying until the mushrooms have released all of their liquid.
Pour in the wine and reduce to a syrupy consistency. This should take about 5 minutes. If you are using ground meat, now is the time to add it. Finally, add the soaked mushrooms in their liquid and the chopped tomatoes. Partly cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. If you are using salami, you might want to purée the sauce now to get rid of hard lumps. (I did.) Return to the stove, add the sugar (if needed) and Oxo cube and continue cooking until thickened.
About 10 minutes before you are ready to serve (longer if you are using dried spaghetti), heat the remining oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and fry until soft and golden. At the same time prepare the pasta according to package instructions. Serve with the sauce, top with the mushrooms and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan and truffle shavings.
Christine at 6:41 pm
Monday, August 07, 2006
Pork Fajitas and Colourful Tomatoes
Mum and I spent all day today running around Dublin. I'm surprised we lasted that long in this
heat, but honestly, I am not exaggerating if I say that we took a 6 hour walk today seeing everything from Camden Street in the south to the Ilac centre in the North and St. Patrick's Cathedral in the east to Trinity College in the west. We stopped for a very enjoyable lunch at Wagamama on South King Street. I know the place is so trendy it hurts, but I am just a sucker for their fried Udon noodles. Mum was very happy with her Ramen too. And much to my delight she discovered Amé, an incredibly yummy fruit flavoured sparkling drink that is a perfect alternative for the endless cups of coffee she usually drinks. Don't get me wrong, I like a good cuppa myself and I certainly don't want to patronise anyone, but I am, after all, on a mission to bring tasty, healthy food (and drink) to the people I love.I was going to do something incredibly complicated
and special for dinner to prove my point - don't ask me what, the fish an meat counters at Fallon & Byrne were closed so I didn't really have any basis for a big dinner. Luckily, it never came to that. For one we were both stuffed after our big lunch and really didn't want a big dinner, but more importantly, when at some point during the afternoon the subject of non-European cuisines came up, mum told me that she had never been to a Mexican restaurant. So why should I spend lots of time in the kitchen preparing a big dinner we don't want if I can create something in less than an hour that is at once tasty, healthy, new to mum and, most importantly, adjustable to each diner's
needs: Fajitas. The concept is much like that of a burrito, except that the filling is not rolled up in the tortilla in the kitchen, but served sizzling in a pan with the tortillas and condiments on the side. This way every diner can choose what and how much they want to eat. And all I had to do was fry some pork chops with mushrooms, bell peppers and sweet corn, chop up the tomatoes I had bought at Fallon & Byrne the day before for some multi-coloured salsa and make a quick guacamole from Dennis Healy's organic avocados (recipes for both can be found here).Christine at 11:52 pm
Sea Trout with Creamy Potatoes
My mother in law arrived from England on Wednesday and I was quite keen on showing of the great food we have here in Dublin. I spent most of the morning shopping for food - Marks & Spencer, Fallon & Byrne, Liston's, Meath Street, I left no food haunt unsearched. The outcome was a lovely dinner of fried sea trout with creamy potatoes and minted green beans.For the fish:
2 sea trout fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
For the potatoes:
1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme (or ½ tbsp dried)
¼ lemon, juice only
4 medium floury potatoes, cut into bite-sized cubes
about 200ml water
100ml double cream (if you want a lighter dish, you can use yoghurt or low fat cream cheese)
1 vegetable Oxo cube
1½ tbsp freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
For the beans:
2 handfuls of green beans, ends trimmed and chopped into small bits
2 tsp fresh mint, chopped
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
Begin by making the potatoes. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan (it should be just big enough to comfortably hold the potatoes in two layers) over medium low heat. Add the onion and garlic and fry until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the thyme and lemon juice and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Now add the potatoes and enough water to just reach the bottom of the top layer. Do not add too much water, you don't want to boil the life out of your spuds. Stir well, reduce the heat, partly cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally until the potatoes are almost tender, about 15 minutes. Now pour in the cream and continue cooking, uncovered, until the potatoes are cooked and the sauce is nice and thick. Finally, crumble in the Oxo cube and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Stir in the parmesan and butter at the very last minute to prevent any sticking, curdling or similar accidents that can happen when you mix cream, cheese, lemon juice and heat.
For the fish, heat the olive oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat. When it is nice and hot add the fillets skin side down. Sear them for 3 to 4 minutes then turn them over and finish them off by browning the other side, about 2 to 3 minutes. Do not overcook them, you do not want the fish to go dry.
While the fish is cooking, briefly blanch the beans in boiling water until tender crisp, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat, add the beans and mint and continue cooking for a minute or two to let the flavours mix. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
I was a little anxious if I had made the right choice with this dinner, even more so when mum confessed that she was not a big fan of trout. But all fears were wiped away when she not only ate the fish, but actually cleared the plate. Now all I had to do was hope that all dinners would go this well.
Christine at 10:29 pm
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Doing Nothing in Sligo
The weekend of July 30th was entirely uneventful, both as far as activities go and from a
culinary point of view. In fact, it was so uneventful, it was great. A friend of ours was going surfing in Enniscrone, a small coastal town in county Sligo and had invited us to go with her. And being as Lofty and I have been in Ireland for more than a year now and have still not managed to get out of Dublin yet, we were more than happy to accept.We skipped the surfing and instead opted
for long walks on the wide, sand swept beaches of the west coast, collecting seashells and exploring the local wildlife. Unfortunately, there wasn't really all that much to explore and find: Some sea urchin skeletons (sadly, we found no live ones), mussel shells, 
lots of sea weed, surprisingly little rubbish (it probably all got blown into the sea), clam shells in every colour under the rainbow and crabs, lots of crabs. Most (including one that was nearly 30cm in diameter) had died a long time ago leaving behind only shells and legs, but two of them were actually still alive. One must have been attacked, for he was missing all his legs, the other one was perfec
tly happy and healthy, though. He was too small for eating, so we just had a good look and then took him down to the water line to prevent him from drying out in the gale force winds.Oh, and lest I forget, there was also that old Irish favourite - a shoe. If the litter in public places
is anything to go by, half this country's economic boom is fuelled by people's excessive loss and resulting consumption of shoes. They are everywhere, in the streets, on the pavements, in parking lots, in the shops... and on the beach. Lofty suggested we check if there was a leg attached to it, but the woman with us got so hysterical we abandoned the idea and left the mystery for someone else to solve.And what did we do apart from nothing? Not a lot. I read through the latest issue of Food & Wine magazine and we had some nice Chinese food at a nearby restaurant, but apart from that we just walked and chilled - which was just what I needed.
Christine at 9:48 pm
Lots of Work in Salad Weather
The Irish summer is really outdoing itself at the moment. The sun is shining all day every day invoking memories of California in Lofty and me.
Our workload is also contributing to this feeling of being back in L.A. as we are both back on relatively long hours and have so much to do there is barely enough time for coffee breaks. I've finally learned not to take this situation too seriously anymore. It used to be that if we were busy, I not only tried to skip lunch breaks or work endless hours of overtime without having been asked to do so and still get stressed to no end if I couldn't get everything done that I wanted to do. But I am slowly learning that this is in no one's interest. In the end, I'm a nervous wreck keeping it together only with the help of caffeine and TV and making silly mistakes that creating more work for everyone else.At home, my regime of easy to make dinners is
paying off and I am getting much more done in the household without feeling that I do nothing but work after work. We had two lovely salads on Sunday and Monday, one with bits of chopped speck - the last of the Tyrolian hams I brought over from Munich - and another with grilled mackerels from the fishmonger at Temple Bar Market. I bought those to offset the expense of the sea bass, a trick that I recommend to anyone who tends to overspend on food. When you buy pricey fish or an expensive cut of meat, ask your butcher or fishmonger if he can do you a deal on something else. Off cuts, stewing meat and fish scraps for pies and fishcakes are a perfect example, but it can work even on otherwise perfectly sellable items. In my case, the bass came to €8, so I suggested he throw in two mackerels and make it an even €10. In the end I left with 3 mackerels, which was more than decent of him, and shows that it can pay to support small local food merchants as opposed to doing all your shopping in large supermarkets.On Wednesday I decided to treat us to something slightly more complicated, albeit still firmly with the realms of 'simple dinners': Spaghetti with creamy tomato sauce. In fact, the concept is so simple, I'm going to trade the recipe for some instructions here.
enough cooked pasta for 2 people
some olive oil
as much onion and garlic as you like
a can of chopped tomatoes (or, if tomatoes are in season, lots and lots of fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped)
several spoonfuls of your favourite herbs (such as basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley and chives), chopped
chilli powder or fresh chillies for some bite (optional)
a pinch of sugar
a veggie Oxo cube or vegetable stock granules
a dash of cream
salt and pepper to taste
anything else you might find in your fridge that you think would go with spaghetti in tomato sauce (such as ground meat, tinned tuna, capers, dried tomatoes or vegetables)
grated parmesan to serve
Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent add the tomatoes, herbs, chillies and any bits you might want to add, but not leave whole (such as dried tomatoes) and bring to a simmer. Purée the lot until smooth. Add anything that you might want in the sauce, but don't want to purée (such as the ground meat). Return to the heat and season to taste with sugar, stock granules, salt and pepper. Pour in the cream and do not bring back to the boil.
Toss the sauce with the pasta or serve it poured over the top and top the lot with any bits that you don't want drowning in the sauce, such as grilled vegetables. Scatter with grated parmesan.
Christine at 8:56 pm
Lots of Catching-up and Some Sea Bass
It has been weeks since I've been online to update you on my ongoing battle in the kitchen and I am facing this post - that describing the food we had on the 22nd of July - with a mixture of anticipation and embarrassment. I am sorry that I disappeared on you all for so long, but my life was just getting so hectic, something had to give.It wasn't only the blog, though. As you will see during the coming days/posts, my cooking has grown a bit simpler as well. A lot more salad and pasta... And, of course, the grilled sea bass with butternut squash gratin I served for dinner the night of the 22nd. Before you scream out "Simple? If this is your idea of simple what does complicated look like?", give me a second to explain. My idea of simple is quick and fairly easy to assemble, not one-dimensional and flavourless. If I want that, I treat myself to lunch in the canteen. So while this dinner may not be as quick to prepare as a frozen pizza, I do guarantee you that you will not have to slave over a hot stove forever for it either. And it will be a whole lot tastier.
For the fish:
1 whole sea bass, scaled and cleaned
½ lemon, sliced
a few springs of dill
For the butternut gratin:
½ butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
100ml cream
2 handfuls of grated cheese (a mix of something runny and something flavoursome, such as mozzarella and cheddar, is perfect here)
salt and pepper to taste
butter for the ramekins
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Begin by assembling the gratin. Butter 2 small ramekins and fill about half way with sliced butternut squash. Scatter half of the chopped garlic over the top and season with salt and pepper. Cover with enough butternut to fill the ramekins. Pour in enough cream to come about 1cm from the top of the ramekin. Don't overfill them, you don't want to boil the squash, nor do you want it to spill over in the oven as my gratins do all too often. Don't worry about leaving the top layer of squash exposed, it will cook fine in the rising bubbles and steam. Scatter with the grated cheese and bake in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes.
Stuff the sea bass with the lemon slices and dill. Wrap loosely in tin foil and place next to the gratins for about 25 minutes.
And just in case you are wondering what the runner beans are doing in the picture as part of a supposedly simple dinner, I found them in the bottom of the fridge and they really wanted to go, so I cooked them up quickly as well.
Christine at 7:47 pm
