Friday 29 March - Japanese

Good Friday, so a nice few days off work to mess about in the kitchen. We decided on Japanese, as that is Georges favourite food.

I'm not very good at rolling sushi, so this was a bit of a half hearted attempt - we use smoked salmon to fill the sushi as I don't trust supermarket fish to be very fresh.

I did three different varieties - plain salmon, salmon and chive, and salmon and 'caviar'.

We served these as a starter with the usual accompaniments of wasabi, soy and pickled sushi ginger.

  

We followed this with chilli beef ramen - I used the Wagamama recipe for this, and the only change  I made was to add some sliced dried shitake mushrooms to the bowl.

The noodles and vegetables were placed in a bowl, and topped with some lightly cooked sliced beef - I used sirloin here - one steak was plenty for the three of us.

Finally, an oriental stock, flavoured with ginger, garlic and coriander, and with some chilli ramen sauce stirred through it, was poured into the bowls - and the slurping commenced!

Saturday 16 March - Tarragon Chicken

A visit to the fabulous butcher in Titchfield this morning, and we returned with chicken Supremes to make tarragon chicken with.

These were briefly fried, and then roasted for 20 minutes until cooked through.

The sauce was made with tarragon, white vermouth, chicken stock and finished with creme fraiche.
The chicken was served with crushed potatoes, green beans and carrots, and the creamy sauce.

 

We also popped to the allotment and came home with the first rhubarb of the year.

This was made into Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble ice cream - I based it on Delia Smiths recipe but made a custard base, and also added some chopped stem ginger to the mix. After churning the pre-baked crumble mix was stirred through.

To serve along side the icecream, we attempted to make some brandy snaps.

Tuesday 12 March - Baked Beans

Decided on making this earlier this morning, and for once was a bit organised and prepared for the main cooking.

A batch of cannelini beans were boiled for 10 minutes, then transferred to the slow cooker for 5 hours where they slowly cooked to perfection.

 

A batch of bread dough was put into the bread machine, but an experiment using fresh yeast which I activated before adding to the flour in the machine on knead only mode.

Once the dough proved, I shaped into rolls, popped into the fridge to slow prove and went and did a days work.

 

The baked beans were started on the stove top - onions, garlic, pancetta were sauteed then I added passata, tomato ketchup, dijon mustard, worcester sauce, some tomato ketchup and these dried chipotles which I soaked and chopped up.

The beans were added, and it all went into the oven with a topping of fresh breadcrumbs mixed with lincolnshire poacher cheese and butter. Once crispy it will be served with the bread rolls and a green salad with a sharp french dressing.

Saturday 2 March - Char Siu Pork

Another Saturday visit to the Chinese Supermarket in Portsmouth, so Char Siu Pork was on the cards, with an alternative of squid for George who isn't keen on roasted meats.

I have several recipes for Char Siu, but always end up going back to the Sophie Grigson one from her Meat book.

The main ingredients for the marinade are yellow bean sauce, hoi sin sauce and some horrible slimy red bean curd which gives the marinade it's amazing colour.

These are mixed with sugar, soy, garlic, and some rice wine, and the meat was left to marinade for as long as possible.

This was then roasted and drizzed with honey, and served with thai jasmine rice and some stir fried chinese greens and mushrooms.

For George I gutted and prepared 6 baby squid.

 

These were stir fried for a minute with garlic, chilli, salt and pepper and served with a pickled cucumber salad.

For desert, we made a big tub of mango sorbet, and served this with some fresh mango and lychees.