Home grown

Inspired by Anne and her green thumb, I thought I'd update on the house and garden.

Ever since we moved into Rochester Square just over a year ago, our back pantry has been stuffed with clutter. Not just any clutter - boxes of J's psychology textbooks, bags of elderly computer equipment, camping gear and so on. Not much that we actually want to get rid of (apart from maybe a mouldy suitcase or two) but general stuff taking up three times more room than it should. And since we moved our bed from the front room to the box room (finally repainted and dry after the Great Floods of '09) that room's been filled with a collection of clutter and Anne's furniture.

After a nicely lazy Saturday (three football matches, a quick trip to Proud Gallery in Camden Market to see our friend Giles play guitar and two movies), J awoke on Sunday with a peculiar light in his eyes. "Come on," he said, poking me, "let's sort out the house." And once we got started, it became kind of addictive. We threw out so much crap from the pantry we had room to store some of the furniture in there. The front room is now a light and airy space, ready for me to turn into a home office, with plenty of room for J's guitars. Anne's loveseat is in front of the only big window in the house which gets enough light. It's become Mojo's new top spot and a lovely place to while away a few hours reading.

We also cleaned the place from top to bottom, which we'd neglected to do for a while. I'd been doing rooms piecemeal here and there but a proper spring (well, summer) clean was in order.

So, when we finished, slightly sore of back but light of heart, I wandered out into the garden for a cigarette, only to realise with the heat and rain of the last couple of weeks, the garden has gone completely bananas. The slugs/snails have eaten all my marigolds (little bastards), but thankfully left most everything else alone. I've got some copper tape for the tubs which should mean I can replant without fear of slug theft again, but I was faintly amazed by how completely they'd managed to decimate what had been fairly large plants - whilst the begonias in the pots next to them were completely untouched. Luckily, the slimy villans do not appear to have cottoned onto the raspberry and blueberry bushes and strawberry plants yet, so our al fresco lunch between room-tidyings came with a warm-from-the-sun, sweet, homegrown treat. The fuschia I was so worried about has actually budded and the clematis montana is about to take over the back fence.

So the next big task (next weekend) is to lop the overgrown buddliea and lilac bushes into shape and give the garden the sun it should have. I swear that lilac has grown four - six feet in the last 12 months. The buddleia seems to do the same in three; more to follow with some additional pictures.

And to finish with a recipe, given the nature of this blog: I made this lasagne this week, much to J's delight. It's rationed to once every couple of months as we can't help but eat the whole pan over a couple of days...

For the ragu sauce:

1 large onion
4 – 6 cloves of garlic
Splash olive oil
500g beef mince
Handful of dried mushrooms, rehydrated (keep the juice)
Large glass red wine
2 x tins chopped toms
Large squirt tomato puree
Splash balsamic vinegar
Glug Tabasco sauce
Glug Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Marmite (special secret ingredient)
Pinch of sugar
Oregano (big pinch)
Basil (middling pinch)
Fennel (smallish pinch) (You could use a scant tbsp of Italian seasoning in place of the three herbs)
Salt & fresh ground black pepper

Chop onions and garlic and fry in the oil til softened, stirring well, in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the beef mince and stir until browned. Add the mushrooms, red wine and mushroom juice. Stir well and add herbs. Heat high until bubbling well. Add chopped toms and tomato puree and dash of balsamic, Tabasco, Marmite and Worcestershire sauce. Add pinch of sugar. Leave over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. (You can add chopped bacon and/or chicken livers at the mushroom stage if liked).

For the béchamel:

1 tbsp plain flour
c. 50g butter
2 pts milk
½ a nutmeg, grated
100g mature cheddar
S&P

Melt butter in the saucepan over a medium heat; add flour and stir like crazy til it bubbles a little (needs to cook off a bit). Add the milk bit by bit, stirring well, medium – high heat. It should thicken as you do it (if not, add 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsps water at the end, but do wait a little while). Whisk it if it gets lumpy. Stir in nutmeg and S&P. Take off the heat and add the cheese – stir in til it melts.

Finishing off:

Lasagne sheets
100g cheddar, 75g parmesan

Now: assemble a large lasagne dish. Put half the meat sauce in the bottom. Put a layer of pasta sauce over the top. Pour a reasonably thick layer of cheese sauce over the sheets. Then put on the rest of the meat sauce carefully so it doesn’t mess up the cheese sauce layer below. Then another layer of pasta and another layer of cheese sauce. Sprinkle over both cheeses evenly over the top. Bake at gas mark 4 for about an hour until the cheese is browning on top and bubbling slightly.

Serve with a side salad (I use peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, red onion) dressed with homemade salad dressing (1 part balsamic, 2 pts red wine vinegar, 4 pts olive oil, pinch of herbs, pinch of sugar, clove of garlic whisked together).

Anne's last supper - well, lunch

My friend Anne, after a number of happy years in London, announced a couple of months ago that she was moving back to Vancouver (sniff, sob). She came around to mine for a final meal before I took her to the airport. The day's challenge was to make something light enough that wouldn't make her feel too full for sitting around and waiting a while for a flight (pesky ash cloud) and would be suitable for brunch - and also didn't take too long to cook or too much attention when I wanted to talk to her.

I'd tried Nigella's Red Prawn and Mango Curry before a couple of times, but never felt the recipe got it entirely down pat. This is my take. I also dislike her preference for pre-cubed veg, lazy devil, and this is much cheaper. Serve with steamed or boiled jasmine rice (in small quantities - curry to rice ratio should be about half and half).

1/2 tsp of sesame oil, 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
4 - 6 spring onions chopped roughly
2 large tbsps of red thai curry paste (a non-salty one if poss)
1 400g can organic coconut milk (not low fat or it comes out too runny)
150ml chicken stock from homemade (if making with concentrate or stock cubes use half recommended quantity)
2 tsps nam pla (fish sauce)
1 smallish butternut squash or half of one and most of a sweet potato, cubed small-ish
Around 300g fresh prawns (much nicer than frozen)
Juice of half a lime
1 large mango, cubed small-ish
Generous shake of green tabasco (red will do)
Chopped coriander, generous handful.

Heat up the oils in a large pan; when hot fry the chopped spring onion. Stir in the paste; add the stock, fish sauce and coconut milk, stir til mixed well. You can start cooking the rice now. Bung in the squash (and/or) sweet potato to the sauce mix and simmer for about 10 mins - should still have a slight bite to it.
When veg are ready, throw in prawns and bring back to boil; add mango and lime juice and heat through. Serve on the rice with coriander chopped on top. Tabasco to serve too.

I find the variation in flavour in this recipe great - it gives you lots to play with; this version is very saucy and fragrant without being overpowering, but there's barely any heat, even though I've upped the curry paste. Definitely one to play with and I think she really liked it.

(We had Gu ganache for pudding which was gorgeous - I can't do desserts from scratch when we're due to eat at 12.00pm).

Saturday night, Sunday morning

The challenge this weekend was to cook a Saturday evening meal for sister and self, followed by three course Sunday lunch with one of my best friends who has just announced she's departing these shores.

After perusing Nigella, Nigel, Gordon and Delia for some inspiration, I decided that duck was the order of the day for the Saturday evening meal. I've never cooked duck before so was looking for something fairly simple and hard to mess up - no time constraints, as I had all afternoon to get sorted out. I decided on roast duck with cherry sauce, accompanied by braised red cabbage and a simple side dish of kale. It was nicer than I could ever have hoped for. To make this, you'll need:

1 duck, free range (roughly four lbs)
1 jar cherry conserve
1/2 bottle red wine
1 red cabbage
1 large baking apple
1 large or two small onions
1 clove garlic
Red wine vinegar
Duck fat (either from the bird or from a jar)
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Cloves
Brown sugar
Packet of kale
Salt and pepper

This will serve 4 people (add more ducks if you need to - the sides and sauce make plenty).

Start by getting the braised cabbage started. Set the oven to GM2. Shred the cabbage, throwing away the tough central stalk. Peel and core the apple, chopping finely. Chop the onion(s) finely. Mix together in a large casserole dish; grate over 1/2 a nutmeg, about 1tsp of cinnamon and a few whole cloves; mince the garlic very finely and mix thoroughly. Add about one large glass of red wine, a slug of red wine vinegar and some fat (butter would be okay, but I had some duck fat in a jar so added that). Also add a good handful of brown sugar (probably about 3tbsps). Sit in the oven for an hour.

At the hour point, you need to prep your duck. Remove the giblets (reserve for stock if you want). Then break the backbone by putting it breast side down on a chopping board and pushing till you hear it crack (this will help the duck cook evenly). Turn right side up, prick the skin carefully - the aim is to let the fat run away but not to pierce the meat. Season liberally with sea salt and black pepper. Set in a roasting rack in a tin (I didn't have one so scrunched up some tin foil and placed the bird on that - an excellent Delia tip). Take the cabbage out of the oven, shift it up to GM8 and stick the duck on the middle shelf for about 20 - 30 minutes until the fat starts to melt. At this point, take the duck out and spoon out the fat from the tray into a jug (keep to one side for later). Turn down to GM4, put the cabbage back on the bottom shelf and the duck on the middle shelf. Check the duck every 20 - 30 mins (1 hr 50 mins in the oven from start to finish) spooning out the fat and basting. Also use the interruptions to stir the braised cabbage (I added some of the hot duck fat to this too). When the duck is cooked (usual skewer to check the juices are running clear) take it out of the oven to rest under a tea towel for 20 mins or so. Now put half a jar of cherry conserve in a pan, and add a large glass of red wine. Simmer for ten mins. Wilst stirring, boil the kale for 6-8 mins or till cooked.

Plate up slices of duck breast with the cherry sauce, a generous portion of the red cabbage and lightly cooked kale. This was absolutely gorgeous! For pudding, I settled for ripe strawberries with whipped cream and a very little bit of dark chocolate in shards over the top.

Even better, tonight's dinner formed the basis for some of tomorrow's lunch. After I'd washed up and said goodbye to Hani, I shredded the rest of the duck from the carcass (1 very large soup bowl's worth) and boiled the de-skinned bones with water, garlic, ginger, a chilli (deseeded) lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, nam pla, rice vinegar, soy sauce and a generous handful of coriander. I'm leaving it to simmer on the stove for an hour tonight before straining. Tomorrow, I'll add the duck meat to the clear soup and season - a nice Thai-inspired starter.

To follow, it's a roast topside of beef with the red cabbage (this is always better the second day and freezes amazingly well if there's any leftovers) and roasties with some more green veg (probably sugar snap peas and the rest of the kale).

Roast potatoes are always a top topic and bone of contention in the office. My method is to peel, parboil til soft (about 15 mins); strain, put back in the hot and empty pan and shake around to fluff up the edges. Put in a roasting tin and cover with duck fat (handily conserved from yesterday) and cook at a medium heat for at least an hour and a half until crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I also season with a lot of sea salt to really crisp up the outsides.

So most of tomorrow's work is done - it's just the potatoes and searing the topside joint before putting it into the oven. Not bad for an afternoon's work. All I really have to worry about is what to make for pudding!

Easy evening meal

Tonight I tried a variation on my sister's low carb standby, baked chicken with mozzarella and yummy veg. As this is to feed a non-Atkins partner, I particularly liked the fact that you don't miss a starch when making this and it's delicious. While it takes a little while to cook, it's not particularly labour intensive and you can vary it depending on what you have in the cupboard - I'm sure this would be just as nice with a root veg and goat's cheese mash, for example, and it works with or without the olives, jalapenos, coriander and mushrooms. You could substitute the stir fried savoy cabbage with nutmeg and mustard seeds for steamed asparagus and kale, too.

To serve two

For the chicken:

1/2 can tinned tomatoes
Squirt tom puree
4 spring onions or half an onion, chopped medium fine
2 cloves garlic
4 mushrooms or 2 tbsps black olives or 2 tbsps chopped pickled jalapenos (depending on taste)
2 chicken breasts
1 ball mozzarella cheese
Bunch coriander (optional)

Saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil until smelling nice and softened. Add mushrooms at this point if using and fry until golden brown. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree, season to taste with herbs, salt and pepper; allow to simmer down to a sludgy paste. Take your chicken breasts and place in an ovenproof dish; stab with a big knife to make loose slits, spoon over the tomato mix (add in your olives/jalapenos/both at this point on top, if using - nice with all three optional additions); then slice the mozzarella ball into six and put three slices on each tomato mix covered breast. Bake at GM 5 for about 40 mins.

For the cabbage:

6 leaves savoy cabbage
2 oz butter
Splash olive oil
1/2 fresh nutmeg, grated
Tsp black mustard seeds or caraway seeds

When the chicken has 15 mins to go, melt the butter in the pan over a low heat. Add the oil to stop it burning. Toast the spices for a minute or two, then add the leaves, chopped into long shreds. Stir gently once in a while for 10 - 15 mins, or til cooked.

Meanwhile... steam enough broccoli per head to make up a portion each.

Serve each breast with cabbage on the side and broccoli on the plate with leftover tomato sauce from the chicken cooking dish.

Yum!

Low carb lifestyle, here I come

The time has come to do something. To do something about the extra two tires around my middle, my third chin and the fact I can no longer get into backless dresses without horrible shame (or in fact anything even remotely resembling a size I'd be happy to admit to in public). I guess all this cooking has come at a cost...

Part of the wake up call came on our recent trip to The Gambia - not to be harsh, but the majority of the tourists in our hotel were seriously obese and it made me think that if I didn't get to grips with them I could be there too in a year or two's time.

So, I've decided to follow the only diet that I can feel even remotely comfortable with and understand how it works - Atkins. For the uninitiated, this is a high-fat, medium-protein and very low-carb regime (visit the website if you're interested or can't see how this would possibly work). My joy in it is that it's a diet where I will probably reliably lose weight fairly quickly week by week, and I get to eat most veg, all meat, poultry and fish, and liberal helpings of eggs, butter, cream and cheese. I have to wave goodbye to all sugar and processed carbs like pasta, bread and mash. It's a fair trade. Some Atkins friendly recipes coming up... all serve one but can of course be doubled/quadrupled up for more people.

Marinated prawns (nice lunch recipe)

Generous handful of cooked prawns
Glug olive oil
Juice of half a lime
1/4 red onion or equivalent spring onions
1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped
1 red chili, finely chopped
2 tbsps freshly chopped coriander
Some chopped olives if liked (I skip this bit)

Serve over 1/2 a chopped avocado and some salad leaves with salt and pepper after chilling in the fridge for the morning (this is perfect for work if you make it, take it, stash it in the fridge and unleash for lunch). Recipe courtesy of my friend Anne.

Comforting chicken, mushroom and veg for dinner

1/2 chicken breast cut into 1" dice
6 mushrooms, roughly sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp butter

4 spears asparagus
Small handful mangetout
6 broccoli florets

1 small tub of M&S or similar hollandaise (if you're feeling virtuous, try Delia for a proper recipe... I was home from work and hungry!)

In a frying pan, gently fry off the diced chicken with the olive oil and a pinch of mixed herbs. Saute gently until mostly cooked through.

Meanwhile, set up a saucepan with a fan steamer inside and 1 - 2" of boiling water over a high heat. Place your green veg inside and place a lid firmly on top.

In a third, small, pan, put 1/4 - 1/3 (depending on taste) of the tub of hollandaise over a very low heat to warm through.

In the frying pan, your chicken should be looking mostly cooked and a little brown around the edges. Add the butter, when it's melted add the mushrooms and garlic and stir to avoid burning or over browning.

After 5 mins or a little less, everything should be ready: on a large dinner plate, arrange the veg to one side; cover with the hollandaise, and add the chicken and garlicky mushroom mix to the other side of the plate.

Who said dieting had to be miserable?

Scratch mid week meal

I really, really couldn't be bothered to go to the supermarket in the snow this evening. That and the fact that I had loads of root vegetables left from Sunday's feast and thanks to some decent advice in cookery books, a reasonable store cupboard, means that a really good midweek supper is possible in about half an hour. However you do have to be either a) organised enough to make and freeze your own meatballs (I mean, really) or b) a bit of an Ikea addict and have the habit of picking up a packet of their lovely frozen swedish ones whenever you need some new glassware. The latter is me. Especially given my frequent glass smashing habit.

So I started the meatballs first. 1 chopped onion, 3 cloves of garlic chopped fine *thank you God for food processors*, cooked til soft in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add your meatballs dependent on appetite of hungry man. Then I added half a glass of rose that happened to be hanging around in the fridge, a carton of chopped Italian tomatoes,a slug of tasbasco and a small glug of balsamic vinegar. Seasoned well and cooked over a medium to low heat for 25 minutes cooks the meatballs through and reduces off some of the sauce.

In the meantime, I chopped two large carrots, a palm sized piece of celeriac and the same size of swede to 1 cm dice and boiled til slightly soft - about ten minutes. This then goes in the food processor with some butter and quite a bit of goat's cheese, diced quite finely but not quite to a puree and again seasoned well. All the veg is organic and British (for about 5p more a kilo than imported and non-organic - well worth it).

It's now sat on top of the stove awaiting a last reheat when J comes home, smelling lovely and having had a sneaky mouthful, tasting pretty good too.

Update: That was amazing. The root veg mash was creamy with the goat's cheese (I have a feeling it was better reheated, giving a chance for the cheese to melt in and cook slightly) and a little bit sweet, making it the perfect companion with the sweetish tomato sauce, just slightly acidic with the balsamic. I'm definitely making this again.

Sunday lunch

So the cooking task for this weekend was a three course vegetarian lunch for five, with no lentils (that could be detected), blue cheese or mushrooms, to celebrate new year with Jonno, Anne, Ollie and Frances. I had a lovely hungover Saturday afternoon reading recipe books (my favourite way to spend an afternoon, bar virtually none...), before going with sweetcorn chowder to start with, chocolate brownies with hot chocolate sauce to end with and vegetarian shepherd's pie with goat's cheese mash in the middle. All three gave me a chance to try out my much anticipated and deeply exciting food processor, a thing of joy which will make my kitchen life much easier.

The sweetcorn chowder was lovely, especially in fairly small portions as a starter. It said it would serve six - more like 12 as a starter, so when doing this again, I'd halve the quantities. The soup was lovely as is without the tortilla topping if you're watching your diet - but I'd check the seasoning depending on what sort of stock you're using as this needed salt and pepper in quite large quantities with Marigold bouillon. It'd be loads healthier and just as nice with a little bit of chopped chili as a garnish rather than the crisps, and I added in a bit of extra garlic and a chili into the soup itself at the processing stage.

You can see the recipe for the shepherd's pie here . It worked fine as a main course for five and would probably serve six if pushed (as it's really filling, and if you're having a starter and pudding you can serve less of it with a green salad). It was incredible fiddly to do though, took up three pans, a mixing bowl and loads of implements and then into another dish to bake and serve. Definitely not one for a school night. I'll keep this as my veggie special meal for guests - but my pumpkin and mushroom four cheese lasagne is slightly less faffy to make. Good to have another option though, and if you have pulse-haters, they'll hardly notice anything in the filling other than the black-eye beans which are pretty and retain their looks during cooking.

These were lovely, especially served with some Mackie's vanilla icecream and a few strawberries. Don't make the mistake of trying to make people eat two, though, or only the men will make it to an empty plate.

It was nice to have the opportunity to think through a bit more about feeding people, and I realise I am quite lazy about relying on a decent cut of meat or fish to make an interesting meal. Now I've got loads of different pulses in I've got another reason for preparing a little bit more before getting to the stove - but it does undeniably take longer to put together. A small feeling of dread hits me when any recipe calls for overnight soaking...