Saturday 16 August - Pork in Red Wine with Pappardelle

Fancied trying something new, so hunted through my books and found a recipe in 'Pig' for pork shoulder cooked in red wine, and served with pasta.

The added advantage of this recipe is that apart from having to buy a piece of pork, we had everything else in - the vegetables all came from our garden - onion, carrot and some rather thin looking celery.

These were all diced along with some garlic, and fried gently.

Then some big chunks of pork shoulder were fried and added to the vegetables.

Then in went some fresh thyme and juniper berries.

Finally some red wine, beef stock and a pack of chopped tomatoes - this was all then transferred to the slow cooker and left to simmer for the afternoon.

Once cooked the meat was shredded and returned to the sauce.

This was served with some home made pasta which we cut into thick strips.

For afters we tried another new recipe - a Hazelnut and Chocolate Dacquoise from Rick Stein.

This was layers of meringue, but with hazelnuts stirred in - Bob made a clever stencil for me so I could get three identical layers. The recipe was for three circles, but I only have two shelves in my oven so in order to fit them in we made rectangles.

The filling was a chocolate ganache made with creme fraiche and double cream and melted chocolate.

This was then left in the fridge for a couple of hours before slicing - we served it with some strawberry coulis and some cream to try and cut through the sweetness a bit.

Thursday 7 August - Shakshuka

Our chickens have gone through a spell of not laying due to hot weather, lots of broodiness and some moulting, but this week seem to have got back into production again - this means a kitchen full of eggs to use up.

I've never cooked Shakshuka, and found a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi that looked worth a try - the only real change I made was to use fresh red and green chillies for heat, instead of the suggested cayenne.

This recipe was also great to use up some of the tomatoes that we have grown in our new greenhouse.

Onions were fried with some cumin until soft

Then in went red and yellow peppers, some chopped parsley, thyme and coriander along with the chillies and some saffron.

Finally the chopped tomatoes. Once this was fairly 'saucy' in consistency the raw eggs were popped in and it was cooked gently until they were set. We sprinkled feta over the top and served with crusty bread. Not great to look at, but very tasty!

To use up some more eggs an apricot and almond sponge cake.

This was based on a recipe by Diana Henry, and the only change I made was to use almond essence rather than the vanilla essence in the sponge.

A caramel was poured into a cake tin - as I used a springform cake tin I lined it to stop the caramel leaking out - this didn't work so would use a plain cake tin next time.

Halved fresh apricots were arranged over the caramel.

Then a basic sponge made with some ground almonds was made (see below for photo of my favourite bit of kitchen equipment with new glass bowl...)

The sponge was spread over the apricots and then baked.
Once turned out it was brushed with honey, and served with cream. Delicious despite the caramel disaster, but probably would have been even better with more caramel left!

Saturday 28 June - Richard Corrigan Cookathon

Monthly Cookathon Time in the Facebook group, and this month the chosen Chef was Richard Corrigan.
I don't own any of his books, but a quick Google showed a wide choice of recipes available online.

We chose Duck with Apples, Calvados and Black Pudding, and two puddings - Creme Brulee (because I can never get this right), and a Flourless Chocolate Sponge. The other advantage of these two is that I can use up some of the egg mountain that is growing in my kitchen.

I started with the brulee as this needs to be served chilled.

Cream and vanillla were heated, and then added to egg yolks and sugar to make a custard

This was poured over some fresh raspberries and cooked in a bain marie until set but not firm, and then chilled until ready to add the crisp topping.

The chocolate cake was effectively a chocolate mousse, cooked for a very short time so it set slightly.  Melted chocolate was stirred into egg yolks and finally egg white folded in before baking

 

Next the duck, we had some frozen duck breasts from Lidl which weighed 450g, so rather than serve one per person, we had one between three of us.

I deviated slightly from the recipe here due to the size of the piece of meat, and started it off skin side down to crisp it in a frying pan, but finished off in the oven. Once cook it was rested and sliced.

For the sauce wedges of apple were fried in butter, before flambeeing in calvados, then chicken stock and cream were added.

The duck was sliced and  served with some fried black pudding (the recipe called for Morcilla but we used Bury Black Pudding) and some shredded blanched leeks along with the apple wedges.

Although not in the recipe, we served some veg along with this as we had been to the allotment earlier and picked loads of beans and courgettes.

After this the Creme Brulee was finished off with a blow torch.

The chocolate cake cut into big wedges, and served alongside.

As my ramekins are quite big, the brulee would have been better with a few more minutes cooking, but considering the previous disasters I've had with this I was pretty pleased with the result!

Sunday 8 June - Spicy Bean Burgers

These bean burgers are based on a Jack Monroe recipe, but with a few little twists.
I was delighted to be able to use the borlotti beans that we grew on the allotment last year and dried. They cooked loads quicker than supermarket beans too.

The beans were mashed with grated carrot, onion, garlic, chillies, chopped pepper, and some cumin and chilli powder which were fried together until soft.

The mix was chilled, then formed into burger shapes, and  dipped in egg and panko crumbs before frying

I made burger buns, topped with sesame to serve them in

and some potato wedges, tossed in semolina and cajun seasoning before oven roasting

The burgers were chilled and fried, then served in the buns with cheese, mustard, tomato slices and gherkins, with the wedges  on the side

We made enough to be able to freeze both the buns and the burgers for another meal later in the week.

Friday 30 May - Chicken In A Cashew Nut Sauce

We have made a tradition of having curry every Friday, and getting a bit bored with the same ones every week. So I invested in a couple of Reza Mahamad books from Amazon. So far three recipes have been attempted, and all of them have gone down really well.

Tonights choice was Chicken in a Cashew Nut Sauce, and once I'd started cooking it I wondered what I was letting myself in for...

First stage was cashew nuts soaked for a couple of hours, and then blended to a paste

 

We also had to obtain the food of my nightmares -  a fresh coconut, which was grated

 

The next stage was to dry fry various spices, along with garlic, ginger and onions, and then add the grated coconut and fry for about 10 minutes.

 

The spice mix was blended to a paste with water, and then fried for 10 minutes before adding the cashew nut paste, and some fresh green chillies

 

 Finally, in went some diced chicken -  I used boneless breast here. The whole lot was simmered with some water added, and garnished with toasted cashews and fried onions.

I served with some dhal, and some greens cooked with fennel and cumin as recommended by Reza, and also some parathas - I buy these uncooked and frozen and we cook in a dry frying pan.

 

Wednesday 30 April - Pasta Puttanesca

I can't believe that I've never blogged this before, as it's one of our standby meals for when we can't think of anything else.

If I have fresh chillies and basil to hand I use those, if not dried ones work just as well.

Although I'm no fan of anchovies, they are vital in this as they add a salty and rich flavour to the sauce. I don't follow quantities here, I fry some garlic, chilli and basil, and then a big spoonful of anchovies are melted into these.

Then in with lots and lots of chopped olives and capers, and a pack of chopped tomatoes. If I'm not in a hurry I'll add a cup of water and a squeeze of tomato puree here too, and leave it to bubble away until thick.

Served stirred into hot spaghetti (dried is best here), and topped with a big handful of freshly grated parmesan. We served it with homemade garlic bread as we are greedy.

Saturday 5 April - Fish and Chips

In a bid to try and eat more fish, we thought we'd have a go at proper fish and chips. We based this meal on a recipe from Tom Kerridge, but didn't make pea puree - nothing but proper mushy peas will do for us.

These were soaked  for the afternoon, and then cooked gently with a big sprig of mint.

 

Tartare sauce was made from scratch, the addition of grated boiled eggs was something I've not done before, and it worked really well.

Next the fish - the batter was made using Bass No1 and a couple of eggwhites whisked into self raising flour.

Tail pieces of cod were dipped into this and then deep fried.

And finally the chips - these were parboiled and then fried twice - I'm not convinced that the chips taste any better for the first boiling, but it saves having to dry the potatoes.

Everything got eaten, but we all thought the batter was a bit thick and could have been crisper.  The fish was delicious though.