Chicken in Spicy Yoghurt

We are on another attempted health kick. This, i guess, is when i should start advocating a healthy balanced diet etc etc but if you want that kind of chat then this may not be the place for you. If i'm having to eat healthy 90% (wishful thinking) of the time, then my weekly blog will be my calorie slip up. One of the reasons for the said health kick (apart from my favourite belt getting too tight) is the because The Houseboy is competing in his first half marathon in Bath and followed swiftly by his first full marathon in Copenhagen. Needless to say i will not be running but i will be standing at the finish line waiting for him with a shiny foil blanket thingy & a sandwich.

The Houseboy is a bit of a junk food prude & can ignore a plateful of biscuits easily, i on the other hand find it a little harder. For one, this is partly down to my workplace which seems obsessed anything to do with sugar. Cakes, biscuits, robinson's fruit juice, sugary tea... There is always something tempting lurking on the meeting table. Some things i can say no to - rich tea biscuits & ginger nuts to name the very few, but when someone brings in treats from Ottolenghi it's completely impossible to resist. I also have to confess now that i baked a carrot cake to take in tomorrow. The Houseboy is right - i am a feeder and i have no will power. 

                                                               Temporarily banned...

                                          

Don't be fooled by the substandard picture, this is actually a lovely recipe full of flavour & takes no time at all to rustle up. I originally saw a version of this on salmon & green chillies in place of harrisa paste & thought that i would try it out with chicken instead. You can omit the harrisa paste if it's not your thing.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breast
• one large yellow pepper
• 250g of spinach
• 300g low fat greek yogurt
• one tablespoon of harrisa paste
• 2" knob of fresh ginger
• two cloves of garlic
• one bunch of coriander
• s&p

Method:

Take the ginger, garlic & coriander - pulse together in a processor or mini chopper (or finely chop by hand if you're old school). Add the yogurt & harrisa paste, mix well, taste & season. Slice up the chicken and the pepper setting the pepper aside for a moment, take the chicken and cover with the yoghurt mixture leaving a couple of table spoons spare. Add to a medium hot pan or wok & begin to cook gently (you don't want to curdle it) until the chicken is cooked through. Throw in the yellow pepper & cook for a further three or four minutes (you don't want them to get soggy) and finish off by stirring in the remaining yogurt dressing. I served this with couscous but it would go equally well with rice. 

Ottolenghi Raspberry Cheesecake

                                                     

Smoked Salmon Pate

I feel like i've just completed a foodathon, but i'm not sure if sure if i came first or last...

We ate so much food over the weekend that i should really do a 24 hour self imposed famine like i did as kid for charity (was tough but a lot easier than a sponsored silence) It's probably not going to happen though. Anyway the reason for eating so much was a good one - catching with friends & going to a great restaurant. For the first time in ages we headed to The Hardwood Arms in Fulham which sports a Michelin star, a menu to make a meat lover swoon & a lovely atmosphere. It's well worth a visit - just make sure & book. After our fantastic meal we headed round the corner & over the road to Vagabond to samples some wines. A great place where you can buy wine by the snifter, the glass or the bottle its perfect or people who like me who love wine, but doesn't always know where to start. The Houseboy felt nice & smug when one of my favourites turned out to be an  South Australian Shiraz called Sitting Spider.

When ever i make pate, i always seems to do either chicken liver or smoked mackerel, but given the fact that that we still have a whole side of smoke salmon in the freezer the decision was a simple one. I originally found this recipe on the BBC Good Food site but changed it as i thought it didn't have enough smoked salmon in it & i prefer chives instead of fennel.  

Ingredients:

• 300g smoked salmon
• 150g creme fraiche
• 50g cream cheese
• handful of chopped chives
• juice of half a lemon juice
• a little cracked black pepper
 

 Method:

Take all the ingredients, place into a food processor & pulse until combined. It's that easy folks.

...Crisp Brawn with Jerusalem Artichoke Puree & Bread & Butter Pickles... 

  ...Ruby Shirt Steak with Potato,  Spinach & Mushroom Puree...

 

...And finally the Yorkshire Rhubarb Eaton Mess...

Apple & Raisin Cookies

So this weekend past i made ice cream, which happened to coincided with the coldest weather London has seen in a long time - great timing. The Houseboy was pretty against my choice of dessert, requesting a wintry pudding possibly featuring apples & pastry, but i couldn't get the idea of ice cream out of my head, so i just locked myself in the kitchen & got with it. The Houseboy despite his misgivings still managed to eat quite a hefty portion...

Apart from some weekend ice cream & soup making, cooking took a nose drive last week due to a nasty bout of flu which left me not giving a fig what i ate as i couldn't taste anything. The highlight had to be a Swedish/German dish cooked up by Miss Crabbie involving ham, sweet red peppers, cheese, cream & potatoes. It was delicious (possibly the last thing i tasted before my senses went into lock down) despite Crabbie claiming she forgot what she was doing half way through. This week will filled with more hearty fare to try & combat this cold (i don't why i'm moaning, it was waaaaay colder growing up in Scotland as a kid) so cottage pies, soups & goulashes will all be making an appearance. 

Everyone loves cookies, & if they don't, they're not worth knowing. This recipe was an attempt at recreating an Apple Strudel Slice which i saw in being sold in a dodgy shop in Battersea. I was going to buy the slice but then i read the ingredients list & realised it would take me several spin classes to work off the 'trans fats'. So i made these instead. They may have butter & sugar etc, but at least you know whats gone into them. Next time i make these i will be throwing in a handful of chocolate chips & hazelnuts instead of apples & raisins. Just to mix it up.    

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g caster sugar
• 200g soft brown sugar
• 170g melted butter
• a handful of chopped dried apple
• a handful of raisins 
• one egg
• one egg yolk
• one tsp vanilla essence 

Method:

Set your oven to 170C, grease a baking tray & set aside.

Take the melted butter & cream together until blended.

Add in the vanilla essence & eggs & blend till light & fluffy.

Carefully sift in the flour, salt & bicarb & gently mix.

Add the raisins & apple & fold in.

Place roughly one tbsp of the mixture onto the baking tray - don't flatten them.

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack & keep in an air tight box.

Smoked Mackeral & Beetroot Salad with Salsa Verde

It's Friday night, it's after ten pm & i'm still writing this bloody blog. It's not all glamorous dinner parties & perfectly risen cakes, it's more sweating in the kitchen, trying to write things that sound vaguely interesting & attempting to take artistic pictures while your food grows cold. Bah. Saying that i still love it, i still think about food all time, i still think about lunch while eating breakfast & i still plan dinner menus while cycling to work. I'm classed as a 'hobby blogger' i believe & i very much doubt i will ever give up the day job & sit gazing out the window while writing a daily blog about how maaaaarvelous everything is while being paid. I may sound a little bitter, but i'm not, even an old gas bag like me would eventually run out of words.

My culinary hit list for twenty twelve seems to be growing rather shrinking & that's annoying. I should be happy that i'm full of cooking inspiration, but instead, i'm getting cranky that i can't keep up with it all. There are fifty two weeks in a year so i should really just shut up & get on with it. Over all not the most positive sounding waffle this week, but even the most cheeriest people are cranky on the odd occasion. 

This is more a collection of ingredients rather than cooking, but again what qualifies as actual cooking? Stop thinking about & just make then eat it. This dish makes me hopeful that January is going to end & the getting up in the dark, leaving work in the dark & general gloom of the first month is going to end. I hate January.

Ingredients:

This serves two people

• three mackerel fillets
• three raw beetroots (you can buy them already cooked & in sweeten water if you like)
• one large avocado
• one bag of rocket

Salsa Verde

• one bunch of parsley
• one clove of garlic - crushed
• two tbsps of capers - roughly chopped
• four anchovies fillets
• one shallot - finely chopped
• zest & juice of a lemon
• olive oil

Method:

Take the beetroots, slice the tails off & put them on the boil as you would potatoes, cook until tender - this should take about 30 minutes. Once they are ready, put them into cold water to cool & carefully peel off the skin which will come of easily. While the beetroots are cooking make the Salsa Verde which is ridiculously quick & easy. Either take all the ingredients & pulse in a food processor until roughly chopped then mixed with enough olive oil until you achieve the consistence or chop everything by hand & combine with olive oil. 

Take the beetroots & avocado & quarter then lay round the plate then take the rocket & place in the middle of the plate. Lay the mackerel fillets & top with a dollop of salsa verde.

Enjoy.

Lemon Curd

It's no surprise that i love cooking shows & luckily the Houseboy is happy to watch them. One of our current favourites is Heston Blumenthal's show which is great despite the fact he's completely bonkers. His wacky enthusiasm does give me inspiring ideas - not quite to his madcap scale but it has given me lots of ideas about pairing flavours & textures, my next book purchase will definitely be The Flavour Thesaurus for this very reason. A Salted Caramel Tart will be one of this first things i bake - i love things which are both salty & sweet. Heston love a gadget but I have to say the most dangerous kitchen item i have lurking around is a blow torch (i never ever tell the Houseboy i'm about to use it otherwise he gets really nervous) I would love to have lots of gadgets & pointless but fun things like a melon baller or a little thingy that makes butter curls but unfortunately our wee kitchen is so over loaded that there is a current ban on buying anything new. That will last approximately until i next walk past a kitchen shop.

With my recent promise to myself to do more creative things in twenty twelve i have written a list of things to do & achieve. Firstly a weekend photography course, secondly to make cushions using the beautiful tweed fabric Mrs Rhodes gave me for Christmas, thirdly - actually do something with all the vintage scarves i have collected & fourthly cook a list of dishes that i have been putting off or ages which includes: Marshmallows, Chocolate Truffles, Eccles Cakes, Border Tart & Cornish Pasties. I'm exceedingly good at starting things & not particularly good at finishing things but i am going to endeavour to change that. Hopeful yet realistic on that one...

After making this Nigel Slater recipe i will never buy Lemon Curd again, it's just too easy to make & so delicious. It's ridiculously good on toast, amazing with Meringues & Cream, great as a Lemon Tart filling & fantastic when you just stick your finger in the jar. You can also substitute the lemons for either oranges or limes.

Ingredients:

Makes two jars.

• zest & juice of 4 unwaxed lemons
• 100g butter
• 200g sugar
• 3 eggs & 1 extra egg yolk

Method:

Put the lemon zest, lemon juice, the sugar & butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water - making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir with a whisk from time to time until the butter has melted. 

Mix the eggs & the egg yolk lightly with a fork then stir into the lemon mixture. Let the curd cook stirring regularly for about ten minutes until it's thick & custard-like. It should feel heavy on the whisk. 

Remove from the heat & stir occasionally as it cools. Pour into spotlessly clean jars & seal. This will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge. 

Onion Marmalade

I'm almost hesitant to say this out loud & it's doubtful that the Houseboy would back me up just yet, but i think, think, that i may have the beginnings of my bread baking mojo back. When i first learnt to bake bread i was (in my opinion) pretty good at it. Then BAM, i suddenly i could only produce heavy, dense, unappealing lumps of unhappiness. But this weekend past i made a Wholemeal Loaf which not only was i able to slice with the bread knife, but it's even edible without toasting! Yip-bloody-yee. I have to say this is mainly down down to the shorter of the two on the Fabulous Bakers Brothers which has recently started on Channel 4. A butcher/chef & a baker brother duo  who are passionate about all things culinary it looks like it's going to be a great series. His biggest piece of advise was to kneed, kneed & then kneed some more, and i think in hindsight that's been my problem. So on Saturday morning i set to it & threw in some serious muscle, the result was heartening and i will be baking bread every Saturday until i get it just perfect.

i didn't make this but i wish i did

I spent Sunday wandering through Brick Lane & Spittlefield markets indulging in my love for vintage scarves with an old school friend Miss Crabbie (a funny hybrid of Scottish & Swedish, i wouldn't be surprised if she deep fries her herring) Admittedly it's it had been months & months since i last headed out East to hang with the cool kids (and they are so cool - embarrassingly so) but i couldn't believe the change it's gone through. It's almost clean & tidy! Gone are the towering piles of food wrappers in dingy corners, no more bizarre people sitting on pavements trying to sell you a teapot with no spout, there are even loos in the Sunday Up Market! The charm of old & broken v new & shiny is all part of he feel & i'm all for improvements but i'ts now hovering on the line of just becoming another bland enterprise. A bit like poor old Camden Market, (which i still like i have to say) once a quirky, strange place were you could buy something that no one in earth would wear (or want to) is now overrun with mass produced nylon dresses & knock off watches. 

 

Not only is this onion marmalade great with cheese & biscuits but it's also a fantastic filing for a Onion Tart. If you suddenly find yourself with people over at feeding time it's a quick & easy starter or main with a hearty salad. Garnish with savings of parmasan cheese and bake in the oven till its melted and the pastry is crisp. You can use either red or white onions, bearing in mind that red onions are sweeter. 

Ingredients:

• 110g butter
• 675g onions - either red or white
• 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
• good pinch of pepper
• 155g caster sugar
• 7 tbsp red wine finger or sherry vineger
• 255ml red wine

Method:

Start by putting the butter on to gently melt, while it is, slice the onions thinly & add to the pan with the sugar & s&p, cover & cook until soft & caramelised. Add vinegar & wine & cook until it thickens. 

 

Sausage Pasta

Sausage Pasta

Happy twenty twelve! Wowsers i can't believe how the last few years have flown by. It's been twelve years since i celebrated the millennium in Malaysia with school friends, my first big trip without parents it kicked off my love for spicy food & taught me that humid weather is not kind to curly hair. It's been at least seven years since i spent a ski season in Saas Fee, Switzerland where i learnt how to drink every night for six months while not getting liver failure & the beauty of Swiss food. And most fun, it's been almost four years since i swept the Houseboy off his feet while sailing around Croatia, since then i have learnt the joys of Cherry Ripes & Bundaberg Rum & not worrying so much. Fun times. 

Home

We had Christmas in Scotland which was brilliant as usual, Mrs Rhodes loved having the brood all back & spent the week flapping round the kitchen producing amazing meals & feeding us all till we couldn't move. Luckily the Scottish Borders is a pretty place so there was lots of long walks to be had, despite the fact it was blowing a gale for most of the time. We joined Mr & Mrs Robinson for a night out in Edinburgh starting with an amazing evening trip round Edinburgh Castle, then on to dinner at Maison Bleue where i had a lovely venison dish. We finished up at The Whiski Rooms on the Mound for a nightcap, there i tried a 'Smokey Mary' a twist on a traditional Bloody Mary with the addition of 10 year old Ardbeg...i couldn't drink more than one at a time, but it was very good. New Year was spent at the Piano Bar in South Kensington, London which was Mr Bird's great choice. Small & intimate it was a fun evening of Champagne & piano playing, although we all relatively behaved ourselves i did wake up on January the 1st lying on a pile of clean washing in the spare room (apparently i went to turn off a light) while the poor Houseboy suffered the worst hangover in a long time. Not even homemade soup & sympathy could save the poor soul, so i ate all the soup & left him watching cartoons. 

Home

I've never really been a new years resolutions time of girl, it always feels like jumping on a band waggon which everyone promptly falls off. But, this year i have a few which i would like to undertake. Firstly to blog more (poor you) i initially decided to blog twice a week, but then downgraded to a solid once a week & anything else is a bonus. I guilty of setting goals which are unreachable which then annoys me & i give it up. I'm excellent at starting things but not very good at finishing things. You can see throughout our flat which is littered with half made cushions, half painted pictures & pieces of knitting that could be the start of a scarf. Losing a little weight is also kind of a goal (ironic given i'm writing this while eating Mrs Rhodes' excellent Christmas Cake) so there will be more spinning classes & less baking. 

After all the festivities January should be filled with healthy options, but the does the current weather really make you want to have a salad (it's tipping down with rain in London Town) so gently ease into the healthy food with a warning sausage dish. Use decent quality sausages as it makes all the difference, also you could add vegetables to this dish, Courgettes, Mushrooms, anything that takes your fancy. 

Ingredients:

• 6 good quality sausages
• 160g sun blushed tomatoes
• a good splash of red wine
• 7 shallots 
• 1 clove of garlic
• 300g of rigatoni pasta
• s&p

Method:

Put the pasta onto boil in salted water, while its bubbling away slice the sausage into chunks add to a hot pan with a slug of olive oil. After a few minutes quater the shallots, crush the garlic & slice the sun blushed tomatoes. Add all three ingredients to add to the pan along with the wine. Let it simmer away for a couple of minute & then turn the heat right down. Check the pasta & when it's ready, drain & add the sausage. Mix well & serve straight away. You could throw caution to the wind & sprinkle with some grated cheese. 

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