Friday 10 March - Fennel and Sausage Ragu with Tagliatelle

This is a recipe from the Rick Stein Long Weekends book, which we've cooked a few times now. As Friday is our busy night, I bought some fresh tagliatelle rather than making it myself. I also make one change to the recipe in the book - instead of using celery, I use chopped up fennel bulb - cooked celery is one of the few things I really dislike.

I've made this before using Italian sausages from Asda, but wasn't able to get them, so I used some good quality sausage meat this time round.

This is quite an unusual way round of doing things, as the first stage is to start frying the sausage meat

Then in with chopped fennel (or celery), onion, garlic, chilli flakes and some fennel seeds

This was cooked for around 15 minutes, and then in with some white wine, which was left to reduce by half

Finally, some chicken stock and cream went in, and it was left to simmer, lid on for around 30 minutes

The first time I made this I had to text my brother who had made it the week before, because to me it looked far too wet, but I was assured that the pasta would suck up the sauce, and it did.

We served in large bowls with some grated parmesan  - absolutely delicious, and one that will be cooked many times in this house.

Saturday 26 February - Pork in Milk

Having had a bit of a break from blogging due to various events, I'm hopefully back on track with trying some new recipes.
We've been trying out a lot of Rick Stein recipes recently, and this meal was mainly from his Venice to Istanbul book - I've started to try out recipes that don't really appeal when I first look at them, and I've been pleasantly surprised by a lot of the results.

We started the meal with some Pide - Turkish bread, served with olives.

The dough was flattened out after proving, and then drizzled with olive oil infused with garlic and chopped rosemary, before baking in a really hot oven.

We ate this while the pork was cooking. The pork was sealed in butter and olive oil, then garlic, lemon rind, fennel seeds and sage were added to the pan.

Then for the milk - the whole milk was scalded, and added to the meat along with lemon juice, and it was left to simmer slowly for a few hours - it all looked most unappealing, but the smell was wonderful.

The pork was thickly sliced, and served over polenta, along with the curdled milk sauce.

I served a salad on the side, made from chicory, watercress, walnuts and sliced pears, with a balsamic dressing

To follow, a Tiramisu from the same book - this started with a fat free sponge, which I cut to size to fit into the serving glasses

The marscapone was mixed with egg yolks and sugar, and the the whites folded in to make the creamy layers.

The sponge was then dipped in strong coffee mixed with marsala and it was all layered up and then chilled before serving.

Sunday 13 December - Sri Lankan Cashew Nut Curry

We've never tried a Sri Lankan Curry before, and found this one in one of Rick Steins books after spotting him making it on TV. We were an ingredient short, and strangely were unable to source Pandan leaves in Gosport - so we just left them out, figuring we wouldn't know what it was supposed to taste like anyway.

The first stage was to make the roasted curry powder - I did half quantities as it seemed to make a huge amount. The first stage was to toast some rice

Then the spices were toasted - cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom and mustard seeds

 



Finally the dried chillies went in the pan, then all the spices and rice were ground up

The main body of the curry was cashew nuts, and these were soaked in hot water, almost as if they were pulses, so soften up prior to cooking.

Then the curry sauce was made in the usual way, with onion, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, curry leaves and coconut milk - it was all left to simmer for around 30 minutes

Then in with the soaked nuts, and another 30  minutes to soften them up

 

 

The final addition was some green beans. We served this with plain boiled rice, and some homemade naans. Quite tasty, but could have done with a lot more heat for us.

 



Friday 11 November - Pearl Barley Risotto

I made pearl barley risotto once before, and George hated it, so I was surprised when he asked me to make some again - the reason he hated the last lot though was because I used mushrooms in it. A quick google came up with a recipe for Chorizo and Rosemary risotto which met with approval.

This was really easy to make, but did take a while for the barley to cook.

The recipe started of with slicing the chorizo and frying until crisp, with no added oil.

As with a normal risotto onions and garlic were softened, and then the grains were added, and stirred until coated in fat.

Then in with a tin of tomatoes, some chicken stock and some chopped black olives, and it was left to cook until the barley was tender - no need to add the stock a bit at a time as you have to with rice.

Just before serving the fried sausage was added along with some chopped fresh rosemary.

Will definitely be experimenting with different flavours in the future, absolutely delicious, and three completely clear plates.

Saturday 29 October - Devilled Crab Mousse

This is one of Mums recipes - the one I requested for every birthday or special event. I've tweaked her original recipe slightly, as it was all mayonnaise and cream, so I've replaced some of this with yoghurt to make it a bit lighter - it's the sauce that really makes this dish though .

Tinned crab is perfect for this dish - we've tried making it with fresh crab, and it's nowhere near as nice, and also makes it rather expensive .

I couldn't find anchovy essesnce, so replaced this with anchovy paste.

The eggs were hardboiled and chopped, and then the yoghurt, creme fraich and mayonnaise were mixed together with some cayenne, anchovy paste and Worcestershire sauce. Then the crab and eggs were stirred in Finally, in with some gelatine soaked in a bit of chicken stock.

This was poured into a mould and left to set in the fridge.

The sauce, which is the 'Devilled' part of the recipe, is very simple.

Tinned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, tomato ketchup and salt and pepper, all blended in the liquidizer and then chilled.

We ate this as a starter, but Mum used to serve it with salad and new potatoes - it's delicious either way

Wednesday 7 September - Pork and Apple Shepherds Pie with Rosti Topping

This is a recipe from a Waitrose recipe card, that my Mother made several times. I borrowed it from her as it was something that she had persuaded George to eat back in the days that she used to look after him.
My only change the recipe was to make my own rosti, rather than using the long life one recommended in the recipe.

Onion and garlic fried in oil, then a pack of pork mince was added and browned off

Then peeled cored and grated eating apple, and some sliced mushrooms were also cooked through.

In with some flour, then a tin of tomatoes and some stock, and it was simmered. I always think you can never simmer mince for too long, so it was left for around an hour, then added to the serving dish

While this was cooking I made the rosti, I used the Delia Smith method of parboiling the potatoes in their skins, then peeling and grating. I added melted butter, and lots of mature cheddar to the potato, along with seasoning

This topped the mince, and it was baked for about 40 minutes.

I had actually forgotten about this recipe, but one to add to the regular list as it all got eaten!

Tuesday 6 September - Butternut Squash Risotto

We have a bit of a glut of tiny butternut squash off our allotment, having made an interesting beetroot risotto last week, we thought we'd try a butternut squash one. This was based on a recipe by Tom Kerridge, but I roasted the squash cubes with some sage, rather than frying them.

The recipe was just a basic risotto, made with vegetable stock and white wine, but then all the extras were stirred in at the end.

I roasted cubes of squash with olive oil, and finely chopped sage, until tender.

Then made the risotto.

Once this was cooked in went cubes of mozarella, toasted pine nuts, the squash, chopped sage and grated parmesan.

We served this with ready made olive bread, but as it was quite filling this wasn't really needed.