food, reviews and of course coffee
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.”
This was quite a tasty dish, but wasn’t my usual recipe.
Take some braising steak or stewing steak, and in a hot pan, add a little oil (no need for olive oil as the flavour will be cooked out). The aggresively brown the beef. Only brown a little at a time, browning in batches and ensure that the pan is hot so that the beef does brown and doesn’t stew – as you don’t want it to stew at this time.
Once you have browned all the beef, remove the final batch of beef and add some chopped vegetables to the pan. I used carrot, parsnips, leeks and onions. You could also add celery (yuck) or swede or other root vegetables.
Once the vegetables have browned add some plain flour (just a spoonful) and stir.
Once it starts to stick add a splash of red wine and some beef stock, this should deglaze the pan.
Place everything into a casserole dish, lid on and cook in the oven (not too hot) for a hour or so, adding more stock if the dish starts to dry out.
In a frying pan cook some chopped bacon (I used pancetta) and cook off, then remove the bacon and add some button mushrooms and some freshly chopped parsley. Cook for a minute or two, in the main to soak up the bacon flavour.
Add the bacon and mushrooms about thirty minutes before you serve. I also addeda splash of balsamic vinegar as well.
Serve with crusty bread, mash or roasted potatoes with some fresh steamed green vegetables.
I had an excellent meal yesterday at the National Trust cafe in Swindon (next door to the STEAM museum and the Swindon shopping outlet). It’s part of their headquarters.
I ordered the pork chop with tomatoes and mushrooms served with vegetables and seasonal potatoes.
The chop (which was boned or boneless) was grilled to perfection, too often with this kind of dish you find some cafes cook it in advance and keep it warm which usually means that the pork dries out and is very tough. This pork chop was full of flavour, tender and delicious. The chop was covered with a chunky sauce made form tomatoes and mushrooms which was well flavoured and for me perfectly seasoned (which means it wasn’t salty).
The vegetables were okay, the carrots tasted as though they were cooked from fresh, but I have a suspicion that the peas and sweetcorn were cooked from frozen (which isn’t surprising and they tasted fine).
The potatoes were roasted new potatoes which were well cooked and very tasty.
My other half went for the red pepper flan (okay read quiche) which was served warm with potatoes and salad. She said the flan was really nice, I was almost too focussed on my pork to ask her for a taste.
For afters I had the treacle tart, too often these can be over sweet, but this was just right in terms of sweetness, but I did find the pastry somewhat tough.
The pork chop dish was very reasonable at £5.95, the flan was only £4.95. I did think the treacle tart was sightly overpriced at £3.25 (especially as other cakes were only £1.50). However overall it certainly was value for money.
Compared to the food offerings in the shopping outlet, if you are out Swindon way, pop over to the National Trust cafe and enjoy a delicious meal in peaceful and pleasant environment.