food, reviews and of course coffee
A salad I made which included red pepper, lettuce and cherry tomatoes. It was dressed with some white wine vinegar, olive oil and a dash of freshly ground black pepper.
I do make variations, this just so happens to be one I remembered to photograph!
Additions in the past included:
Fresh Mozzarella Pearls
Pancetta
Avocado
Homemade croutons
Here’s a great kitchen tip. You know how bowls of soup in food magazines always have a few bubbles rising artfully to the surface, giving that freshly ladled-from-the-tureen appearance? Well, you can recreate this effect quite easily at home by lightly drizzling some washing-up liquid into your soups but, please, only use the best stuff; this is no time to cut corners. Next, take a plastic straw and gently blow into the soup, creating an entire bowlful of bubbles. Using a pin pop away until you are left with just those few artistic ones that will survive for hours. The taste might not be to die for but at least your bowl of soup will look just like it does in the food magazines.
This is my recipe, there are no exact quantities as I don’t use them…
Get some amaretti biscuits, you can use sponge fingers if you prefer.
Make up some espresso coffee, using decent espresso coffee. Add some Amaretto spirit. For those that avoid spirits, then just using coffee will be fine.
Dunk the amaretti into the coffee/Amaretto mix, and place into small bowls (or one big bowl).
Mix (say) three egg yolks with some caster sugar (say 3 oz), mix in a tub of Mascarpone cheese.
Spoon the mixture onto the biscuits.
Now you could do a layer of biscuits, a layer of the Mascarpone mixture, but it depends more on what you are serving them in.
Leave in the fridge to set.
Once set, dust with cocoa.
Serve.
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I do like mozarella, there is something about the texture and though the taste is not extreme, it is still there.
Cooked or raw it is a very versatile cheese.
Personally I like the mozarella pearls you can buy, but I am finding these difficult to get at the moment, sometimes they are in the fridge, most times they are not! When I do find them I add them to salads.
One way in which I do like using mozarella, is sliced with tomatoes and then dressed with some good olive oil, white wine vinegar and freshly ground black pepper, delicious.
If I am cooking with mozarella then I like to either cube it and mix it with the main ingredients or thin slices on top – especially good on pizza.
Before venturing into the STEAM museum in Swindon recently, we popped into the shopping outlet next door to grab a coffee.
We had a very nice coffee form the Lavazza coffee bar there.
Pity it was in a paper cup.
So organic free range chicken is twice the price of *normal* chicken.
Is it worth it?
A resounding yes.
The flavour and tenderness was superb.
I made chicken, mango and pineapple kebabs and served it with a mixed salad (with virtually all organic ingredients).
Recommended.
I am a great fan of Langoustine.
When they are just right there is something about the freshness and sweetness that makes them delicious.
It can be hard to find fresh ones, usually they are available either frozen or defrosted. In terms of taste, fresh is always best.
I like mine simple with a bit of mayonaise or aioli, but they are also nice split and grilled with butter and garlic.
Ingredients for four servings
4 boned-out chicken legs or thighs or even whole legs
pepper
approximately 12-16 rashers of pancetta bacon
dash olive oil
Stuffing
handful of sauasge meat, I used two (proper) sausages and removed the skins
half a handful of pistachio nuts,
half a handful of pistachio nuts, ground
half a handful of breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
herbs, parsley is fine
Make the stuffing by mixing all the ingredients together.
Open out the chicken legs or thighs, season with pepper and divide the stuffing between them. Roll up to enclose. Lay about three or four bacon rashers on a board, overlapping them slightly. Put one stuffed chicken portion on top and wrap the bacon around to cover completely. Repeat with the rest of the chicken.
Cut four very large pieces of foil. Wrap each chicken parcel tightly in foil, twisting the ends to seal. Roll back and forth to even the shape. Poach the chicken parcels, two or three at a time, in a large pan of boiling water for 25-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. Allow to cool in the foil, then refrigerate for 30 minutes (this helps the bacon to ‘set’ around the chicken). Remove the foil and pat dry to remove any excess moisture.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and carefully sauté the chicken parcels until the bacon is brown and crisp on all sides. Transfer to a warm platter and rest in a warm place.
You can make a sauce by deglazing the pan with say some wine or sherry.
You can serve with vegetables.
With thanks to Gordon Ramsey for the inspiration.
I also made this recipe this weekend, but used pork loin steaks and no bacon.
In an pan of boiling water add the linguine. This will take 11 minutes to cook, but check the packaging to be sure. No need to add salt or oil to the boiling water.
In a pan, heat some olive oil.
Add some cubed pancetta and a finely chopped onion,
Cook until the onion has softened.
Add some sliced mushrooms.
Once the mushrooms are cooked (how long this takes depends on the size of the pan, how hot it is and the quantity of ingredients) add creme frache and a few strands of saffron.
Stir on a low heat until the saffron has imparted a golden tinge to the cream mixture.
You could use cream instead of creme frache, I use creme frache as I like the flavour. You don’t need to use saffron, but it adds a wonderful flavour as well as colour to the dish.
Once the linguine is cooked, drain, add the cream mixture, a handful of grated parmesan, a good twist or two of ground black pepper.
Stir well and serve.
This dish was inspired by regular visits to a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Don’t recall the name or the address, but it was in the vicinity of Liverpool Street Station and you could see the Gherkin… anyway onto the recipe.
I did this for two people, but by increasing the quantities you could do it for more.
In a large pan heat some sunflower oil. Once hot, add some oriental spices, I used Thai Seven Spice, but you could use Chinese Five Spice or what ever spices you like.
Add some sliced onion and some red pepper cut into strips, stir fry for a few minutes. If you like your oriential food hot and spicy add some chilli at this point as well.
Whilst this is cooking fry the monkfish in a little oil, keep the fillets whole. You could use other fish and this could be fried or steamed depending on the fish.
Add some courgette (zucchini) cut into strips and sliced mushroom to the stir fry.
After this has cooked (after a minute or two) add some sliced spinach (I would have used pak choi, but I only had spinach in the fridge).
Then add some stock, plain water will be fine or chicken or fish stock, don’t add too much as you don’t want your soup too watery.
Add the noodles, if you are using dried noodles they will need some cooking, I used prepared wok noodles for speed. If you are using raw prawns add these now (also if using other shellfish such as mussels or scallops and using squid, add these now as well.
Once the raw shellfish and noodles are cooked serve into bowls, ensuring that there is sufficient broth in each bowl.
Take the cooked monkfish, slice into thick slices and arrange on top of the soup bowls, there should be sufficient vegetables and noodles to ensure that the monkfish doesn’t sink!