food, reviews and of course coffee
Well you know how just after Christmas the large supermarkets start getting the creme eggs and other easter eggs in! They also get in the hot cross buns too!
Well Easter has just finished so guess what?
Tesco have now got in their Christmas poultry!
Hopefully it will stay fresh long enough.
This is how I make a quick chicken curry.
In a hot pan add some sunflower oil, ghee would be better, but I never use it enough to justify buying it, so I use sunflower oil.
To the oil I had some cumin, coriander, ginger, tumeric and some chilli.
Cook the spices for a short while before adding diced chicken, chopped onions, red pepper and mushrooms.
Cook on a medium heat until the chicken is cooked.
Add some coconut milk and cook for another five to ten minutes.
Add some freshly chopped coriander and serve with rice or naan bread (or both).
There is a skill in cooking a steak on a griddle, especially if you want it to turn out well and tasty.
My technique is not perfect, but I get some good results.
Firstly I heat the pan, the heat will be the guide to whether I am cooking a rare, medium or well done steak, though it must be even with a well done steak quite hot.
I take the steak, preferably at room temperature and rub seasoning and oil into the steak. This could be just olive oil, or oil and black pepper or cajun spices and sunflower oil.
I do not add oil to the griddle.
Once the pan is hot, I then griddle the steak.
This ensures I get the nice chargrill lines on my steak.
I have also used this method with lamb and chicken.
This week my book choice is NOT Delia’s How to Cheat at Cooking.
Normally I would recommend a book of recipes that I have either enjoyed reading or using to cook from.
This book is one I would not recommend.
Why?
Well can using frozen mashed potato really be called cooking?
The whole process reminds me of a 1970s cookbook I found at my mother-in-law’s which had wonderful recipes which required white sauce mix, frozen pastry cases and tinned vegetables.
That is not cooking that is food construction.
Delia’s How to Cheat at Cooking
You can get it from Amazon
Too much chocolate in the house?
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recommends in the Guardian this week to turn them into a cake.
Freaked out by the mountain of Easter eggs knocking around the house this weekend? Never fear – turn them into a cake instead
To be honest, nice idea, but the picture in the magazine looked foul.
Happy Easter and all that.
I have been trying some different variations on the coleslaw I usually make.
One variation was to use savoy cabbage over the pointed or white cabbage I usually use which worked well and looked very nice as well as tasting slightly different.
My latest variation was to use red onion as well as a traditional onion and add some finely grated parsnip to the mix which added a subtle difference to the flavour.
You can add a variety of root vegetables and brassicas to coleslaw so why not try something different to the usual cabbage, carrot and onion.
Cooked a nice simple pasta dish tonight.
In a hot pan, cook off some pancetta, now add some diced (or sliced) pork and brown.
Now add some finely chopped red onion and add some Italian herbs.
In another hot pan, add a splash of olive oil then cook some sliced mushrooms, they will cook and taste much better than cooking them with the pork and onions.
Cook some fresh pasta in a pan of rolling boiling water.
To the mushrooms add some freshly chopped parsley.
Then add the mushrooms to the pork, add a tub of creme frache, some grated parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.
Drain the cooked pasta, and add the pork and cream mixture on top.
Add some more grated parmesan to taste.
Serve.
I quite like spare ribs but after eating some from the local chinese last night, decided I much prefer making my own.
The ones from the chinese were nice and meaty, but two major things wrong with them, firsty they were re-heated which means that they certainly don’t taste as good as they could, secondly the sauce was too sweet and lacked flavour.
The ones I have made are freshly cooked and that makes a (huge) difference. I also make my own sauce and that generally can be a lot tastier (and lots less salty) than other sauces you can buy.
My sauce is made from honey, balsamic vinegar, sunflower oil, tomato puree (though ketchup works just as well) and I add spices, usually Cajun to add heat and flavour.
I cook them with some chopped red onion in a hot oven for about twenty minutes.
I do need to find a better source for my ribs as I much prefer meaty ribs.
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.