From the garden #2

These little toms have come on a treat over the summer. I picked a few ripe ones on Sunday morning and they were lovely with bacon and toast.



Cabbages aren't doing quite as well. This is the best of the lot, and I can only really describe it as struggling.

One of the best (starter size) dinners I've ever had...

I fried some chopped bacon with olive oil until nearly crisp, then added stripped courgette, some spring onion, and some red chilli. It was then all stir fried for a couple of minutes more with a little bit of water to create some steam, then finished with some black pepper, lemon juice and parmesan. It was wicked - there's just something so nice about bacon with greens!

From the garden

Our first of hopefully many. Some lettuce leaves and and nasturtium flowers (which to be honest, I didn't eat).

Making tomato sauce

A few months back I went to quite a lot of effort over a saturday to create a pretty amazing pasta sauce. I've done it a couple of times since, and again this weekend. It's quite a lengthy process and actually requires a bit of hard work. But it's well worth it. Pasta with a nice tomato sauce is one of my favourite things.



I want to share the recipe, but my friend Sarah fancies her chances in an arrabiata-off, so until that happens it's going to have to stay secret.

Fish Curry

Made with coley as an alternative to cod or haddock. Recipe to come...

This weekend

My girlfriend was away so I didn't bother to cook much, or do much of anything really. I just sat around the house in my pants, watched lots of Seinfeld and got pissed.



No, it's not something I sicked up as a result of too much beer, it's risotto with brocolli and parmesan.
Fry some garlic and onions gently in some olive oil, then add the rice, chicken stock bit by bit, then with the last bit of stock, add the brocolli. Season, then grate over some parmesan just before serving. Ooh, I forgot that there was some dried thyme chucked in just before I started to add the stock.




Fishcakes. Made from leftover mashed potato, the tail end of a smoked haddock fillet, some grated parmesan, and dried breadcrumbs.

Poach the haddock with a bay leaf for about 5 minutes in boiling water. Remove the skin and flake the fish into a bowl with the potato. The potato, if left over is presumably seasoned, but if not just add a bit of salt and pepper. Mix in the parmesan and attempt to form 'cakes'. Mine were supposed to be round but didn't really end up like that. Anyway, they were then rolled in some flour, then in some beaten egg, and then into the breadcrumbs (which were also seasoned). Then they got deep fried until brown. They were well nice.

River Cottage

This is another well late post as it happened back in November, but anyway. The company what I used to work at bought me a day at River Cottage, the main point of the day was to butcher a pig and learn about all the different cuts of meat and stuff. NICE.

And it was too. As the pig was dismantled, all the bits were laid out on a tray. Then at the end of the day there was a sort of raffle where people could choose which bit they wanted. As well as some sausages, I got to take home a pork fillet that was cut open, stuffed with paté, and wrapped in bacon and sage, all done by Hugh himself. I didn't get round to taking a snap after it had come out of the oven, but it was very good.

On the day we also had some wicked roast pork for lunch, washed down with Stinger booze.

Sorry

So, back in May I got a new job and moved house so I kind of had more important stuff to do then write about my dinner. I have also recently questioned any worth or point in writing about my dinner. I mean, who cares?

But anyway, I'll carry on as normal for now.

So these are the highlights since May...

Spaghetti with cod and leeks



My first yorkshire puddings



We got a garden with our house so it was nice to eat outside during the summer. Despite not actually buying a proper barbecue we managed to barbecue lots of nice things. Ribs, burgers, sausages, prawns and lots of fish.

This mackerel had a bit of curry paste smeared onto it. I can't remember exactly what I put in the paste, but I remember cinnamon. If that helps.



Some sea bass done very simply with just a few herbs. After a while I did learn that if you don't try and move the fish too quickly you won't end up with loads of skin all over the barbecue.



Some nice mushrooms that we bought at Broadway Market which made a very nice risotto.




A small paté made with one chicken liver, which, despite the picture, was very nice.



So, yeah, not loads of highlights it would seem...

Sort of pizzas

One with tomato and mozzarella, one with garlic and rosemary.

My first rotis

Chicken with coriander and tomato

This was a quick little curry for just me, but It should be quite easy to adjust for more people.



Ingredients
1 good quality chicken breast ('cubed')
A big bunch of coriander leaves
Fresh chopped tomatoes (whatever you see fit as being the right size portion for one person)
1 fairly large clove of garlic
2-3 small green chillies
About a tablespoon of garam masala
Olive oil
Salt

Chop up your garlic, coriander and chillies, combine with the garam masala, then grind it all down to a paste with a pestle and mortar.

Heat up some oil in a pan, add the coriander paste, and fry in the oil for about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and give it all a good stir, making sure all the chicken is coated. After a couple of minutes, add the tomatoes with a little bit of water and a pinch of salt. Keep stirring on a medium heat and after about 10 minutes or so you should get something that resembles the photo above.

Sausages with broccoli and garlic

Fry your sausages in a pan on quite a low heat. The low heat will keep any fat from the sausages burning and mean that you won't need to add any oil later on. Keep the sausages moving round so that they brown nicely all over. When they are just cooked, turn the heat down a bit, throw in some chopped garlic, then some broccoli. The fat from the sausages should be enough to keep anything from sticking. After a minute or so, add a very small amount of water, a little butter, and a bit of salt. Keep stirring everything round. The water will help to steam the broccoli and create an instant gravy from the sausage fat.

Sausage and mushroom lasagne

Right, I thought of this a while back, and thought I'd better write it down before I forgot. On the bottom layer, a mix of sausage meat and tomatoes. On the top layer, lots of mushrooms with thyme and oregano. Plus the white sauce in between, and lots of parmesan on the top. The good thing about this is that sausage meat is usually very well seasoned, so you can make a really nice meat sauce quite quickly.

The picture is of the second helping, hence the mess.

Pea and prawn risotto

Chicken with coriander and chilli

I'm not really in the mood for writing recipes at the moment, and in any case this is quite easy. Just fry a spoonfull of curry paste in some oil for a few minutes, add some chicken, then some chopped garlic, 5 or 6 sliced small red chillies (depending on how you want it, mine was double hot!), and a load of chopped coriander. Stir in about half a cup of water and keep stirring until the chicken is cooked.

Recent contrasting curry house visits

A few weeks back I went to The Cinnamon Club. It was SHIT. Shit service, shit food, shit everything.

The other night I went to Lahore Kebab House in Whitechapel. It was well good.

I will elaborate on all this at some point.

Sausage, eggs and tomatoes

I'm a bit hungover this morning. But this lot, plus a cup of tea, was the perfect tonic.

Beef burgers with what could be described as colcannon

I like to keep my burgers simple. They're just beef mince, some grated or finely chopped onion, and a good helping of salt and pepper.

The mash is easy too. Just fry up some spring onions and cabbage in butter, then add some cream and combine it all to the mashed potatoes.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Roast belly of pork

Another quick spaghetti...

...was all I got around to cooking over the weekend. Basically because of this.