food, reviews and of course coffee
For breakfast these days I seem to be eating an inordinate amount of brioche.
Brioche is a highly enriched French bread, whose high egg and butter content give it a rich and tender crumb. It has a dark, golden, and flaky crust from an egg wash applied before and after proofing.
I find I eat them plain, without butter or jam, but with coffee.
Here is a nice supper dish for these cold and wet March nights.
Roast some chicken thighs (or half a chicken or whatever cut you like) with some pancetta on top to baste and add flavour. I did roast the chicken on a bed of veg including carrot, onions, mushrooms and red pepper.
Roast some vegetables, I roasted sweet potato slices.
Serve with puy lentils, for these I softened in a frying pan, some finely chopped onion with pancetta. When the onion was nicely soft, I added some red wine and beef stock before simmering it down. Beef stock over chicken stock just because of the colour rather than flavour. I then reduced and reduced this.
When I was happy with the sauce I whisked in some butter (with a fork as it happens rather than a whisk) and then added a tin of Epicure Organic Puy Lentils. I needed to add a bit more stock at this point.
This is a really nice salad, and very quick to put together.
In a frying pan cook off some cubed pancetta, though any smoked bacon will do.
Slice some Romaine lettuce (or use leaves from your favourite).
Cube some avocado.
Place the lettuce in a bowl, add the avocado and drained bacon.
Dress with some white wine vinegar, olive oil and ground black pepper.
Serve.
Last night cooked some text-mex style food, I say tex-mex style as it was more of a homage to Cajun and Mexican cooking than authentic cooking.
We had Jambalaya, which I have a technique for, which I picked up from a programme on Cajun cooking some while back.
In a large frying pan, I fry off some smoked bacon (I use pancetta as I have it in the house) with some onions and red pepper.
When the onions are softened I add some Cajun spices. I am currently using and enjoying Fiddes Payne Cajun Seasoning, there are other seasonings
I cook off the spices before adding some spicy sausage, I used a Polish Kabanos, partly as that was available and yes I know it is not very deep south, and after that has cooked off slightly, I go ahead and deglaze the pan with some vinegar (usually balsamic vinegar).
I then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some tomate puree and leave to simmer for about twenty minutes.
Whilst that is cooking I cook some rice, I use basmati, partly as it only takes ten minutes to cook and mainly as that is what I have in the cupboard.
When the rice is cooked, I stir the tomato mixture and the rice together and serve.
You could make it spicier by adding fresh chillis, I don’t.
Today I ate the bolognaise sauce I made yesterday, always helps to leave it overnight, helps the flavour no end.
I have a simple recipe which works for me.
Take some minced beef and brown it off in the pan, vital to get some browning on the mince for flavour.
The next stage will ensure you have a delicious and not a greasy bolognaise sauce, drain the mince in a sieve and then ensure there is minimal fat left in the pan.
Now add some chopped onion, red pepper and pancetta and cook until the onions are softened. Add back the drained mince and add a tin of finely chopped tomatoes.
I then add black pepper, balsamic vinegar and some tomato puree.
Cook for at least forty five minutes.
I served mine with spaghetti and grated parmesan.
Eat with a good Italian red wine.
This was a Chinese meal with some additional extras.
The chicken was roasted in the oven with mushrooms, onions and spring onions (scallions) with honey and coriander.
I served the chicken with home made egg fried rice, basically take some cooked rice and fry with chinese five spice, spring onions and beaten egg.
I also cooked a selection of mushrooms including shitake and oyster mushrooms.
Had a real nice dinner today , lots of different homemade salads, coleslaw, rice salad, cannelli bean salad and teriyaki chicken wings.
These are very simple to cook, marinade some chicken wings in a teriyaki sauce and roast or grill in the oven for about twenty or thirty minutes.
I served mine with lime and chopped parsley (as I had run out of coriander).
Delicious.
Tonight we had some really nice kebabs.
Took some cubed pork tenderloin and on wooden skewers interspersed the pork with onion, red pepper and mushrooms. These were grilled for about fiftteen minutes after brushing them with olive oil.
I served them with a nice selection of salads including home made coleslaw.
Very nice.
Simon Rimmer in today’s Observer reveals the secret to making the perfect porridge, poached eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes…
BBC reports that Tate & Lyle sugar which is to be sold to consumers will be Fairtrade only.
Granulated white cane sugar will be the brand’s first Fairtrade product but it says it expects its entire retail range to follow by the end of 2009.
Fairtrade Foundation executive director Harriet Lamb said:
“In terms of size and scale, this is the biggest ever Fairtrade switch by a UK company and it’s tremendous this iconic UK brand is backing Fairtrade.”