A phallic pea

My poor sister is coming for lunch and she hates peas and on the menu is Pea and Bacon Fritters.  This recipe is on pages 85 - 86 and there is no picture.  

My sister, had to suffer a fruit in food Nigel dish (see 14 January blog post) which she is equally not a fan of.  However, my sister is a complex and interesting woman and she does love Pea and Ham soup, so I am quietly confident I can win her over with this one.

In homage to all things Japanese Nigel talks of the use of Panko breadcrumbs which I use in this dish.  They are readily available in most supermarkets and are certainly easier than making your own.  

This dish starts with a pea puree.  Which is basically the crown jewel of this dish.  Think of emeralds.  I just used bog standard cheap and cheerful frozen garden peas and the colour is amazing.  So many of these recipes have wonderful colours.  

The mixture has smoked bacon added to it - that classic combination of Pea and Pig! Nigel recommends making 6 fritters but they ended up looking rather phallic.  Perhaps my dirty mind... Enough about that, so I decided to make lots of smaller croquettes.  The reason was two fold, as I was serving this for a light lunch with left overs for a toddler supper.

Here they are pre frying:

I fried mine and then popped them in the oven to keep them warm.  I served for lunch with a light salad for my sister who actually loved them and ate a third!  I think they needed a bit of sauce so I had some good quality shop bought mayonnaise with mine.  I think a nice homemade lemon mayo would be lovely with this dish and would help make this a nice grown up starter.  I also would put more bacon if I cook this again (which I think I might as this is a great dish).

Ps the kids had this with homemade potato wedges and baked beans and from a sneaky taste, also a delicious combination.  The bean juice adding that sauciness to a potentially phallic pea...

JanieCooksNigel

26/3/16

The human ice cream maker Part 1

A write this as I watch James Martin's last Saturday Kitchen.  A claim to fame I have is that I was on this show with my best friend, Sarah Benton many moons ago.  My then boyfriend, now husband, mocked me mercilessly for flirting with James Martin.  My friend and I ate and drunk so much that we rolled out of the studio came home, cooked a massive fry up  (in butter James would have been proud) and promptly carried on drinking.  A super happy day and a super happy memory.  Saturday Kitchen was my pre children hangover cure.  I have cooked so many dishes from the show and tried many of the wines and it always inspired my Saturday food shop.  Sarah is also the person who has and continues to inspire my cooking, not least with the inspiration and support for this wee blog.  So thank you! 

Right, enough gushing and reminiscing, back to the cooking! Although, this recipe is a homage to James Martin and Butter.  A browned butter, rosemary and honey frozen yoghurt. So, this is a catch up recipe and I have informed you I will not be buying a ice cream machine, I will be the said machine.  I think the effects are better in a machine, a smoother finished product but it is not half bad without one.  You may recall I made Nigel's lemon sorbet without one which was a lovely tart treat.

So on to the frozen yo-gurt (said with a full on American tang much to my guests distaste!).  This is a March 5 recipe and on pages 76 - 79 of Nigel's book, A Year of Good Eating, the Kitchen Diaries Vol III.  Picture here:

The recipe starts with a whole pack of butter (I told you James would love this).  Butter with rosemary and the smell is amazing!  I chose unsalted butter as I was not sure if my toddler would eat this but I think salted butter would also work well and take on that current trend of salt and sweet.

 

This is another wonderful simple dish of pulling the ingredients together.  I am not actually looking forward to this as I am not a fan of natural yoghurt.  I think it tastes like gone off milk but there are some big flavours here which I am hoping will overpower the taste of sour milk.

As I am without an ice cream maker, you need to remember to keep stirring, about every half an hour.  I was actually rubbish at remembering so perhaps set an alarm to go off to remind you.  Really give it a good stir round.  Here are a couple of my attempts. Hope you can see the texture in the pic:

The finished results I served in bright summery cups.  With the advent of spring it does feel like summer is around the corner and this is a great summer recipe.  The taste of this dish is delicious.  You get the freshness of the yoghurt but with the richness of the butter, the sweetness of honey and the earthy flavour of the rosemary.  A really grown up frozen yo-gurt indeed, with a wonderful crunch of flaked almonds.  The texture was a little grainy, which I am not sure if was because of the lack of ice cream maker but it certainly did not ruin the dish.  Anyways, the finished product here:

JanieCooksNigel

26/3/16

A football match and Japanese street food

Confession 3000 - I do feel like I am constantly confessing to things I have not done for this blog.  I am a little behind.  It is the puddings that cause problems!  We do not really eat pudding in this house, unless we have guests and even then we tend to have cheese.  We are all cheese fiends in this house!

So, there are two puddings currently uncooked.  I will get to them.  Hopefully this weekend.  Both are ice cream and both require an ice cream maker and I do not have one.  I have debated buying one, but between the mixer, the coffee machine, bread maker, toaster, juicer, blender, I cannot face another piece of kit cluttering my kitchen or my cupboards.  Also in the spirit of winging it, not everyone has one and so when I get round to it I am going to give it a bash without!

To catch up, I cooked two recipes in one night.  The Grilled fish with soy and sesame and the Chicken with yuzu and sesame.  The grilled fish is meant to be cooked for breakfast on March 7 and the Chicken on March 12 as street food.

I cook both on March 13 as football match snack food.  I am sure that this is what Nigel had in mind...

I cooked the Chicken with Yuzu and Sesame first.  Nigel has no picture for this recipe so time to use the imagination.  Essentially this is making the marinade, mixing it with the meat, leaving it for a bit and then grilling it.  In the words of a famous meerkat, simples!

I have no pictures of the marinade but have a really rubbish one of the chicken grilling.  This has to be the worst blog picture to date:

The yuzu juice in the marinade has a wonderful citrus flavour.  If you cannot get this, I think you could probably use some jif lemon.  It does not have the complexity of flavour but I think it would still work.  The thing that really makes this dish is the shichimi togarashi.  You only need half a teaspoon but it provides more of that citrus flavour but also a real heat.  My two year old loved this chicken but stuck is tongue in some water after every bite.  It was clearly a pleasure pain thing for him!

I served the chicken on the skewers to the waiting football fans who were engrossed in the West Ham vs Man Utd game.

They were absolutely delicious and were really really moist and did not need any other sauce.  Perfect for eating on my mum's beige sofas...

On to the Grilled Fish with soy and sesame.  Once again I opted for the fabulous frozen mackerel fillets (apologies to my lovely fishmonger!).  I cut mine into small pieces to help with the finger food for the awaiting football fans.

Again you make the marinade which is very simple.  All with ingredients very easily purchased from the supermarket.

You pour this over the fish and top with sesame seeds and again pop under the grill:

The finished product is here and they were absolutely delicious.  Again really soft and succulent and again my two year old was a fan, as were the rest of the football fans.  It was a shame that the result did not quite go our way but at least our home crowd was satisfied...

JanieCooksNigel

18/3/16

Tempting yet terrifying Tempura

Here is the first of the Japanese inspired recipes.  This is perfect timing as Nigel Slater is currently in Japan.  No, I am not stalking him, he is providing a breathtaking view of his trip through some beautiful photographs on his instagram account.  It is making me what to go to Japan and these next few recipes will make you want to go too!

Now a little heads up on the ingredients.  These were not easy to come by.  I visited all the larger major supermarket stores where I live and our local international supermarket but I could not get all the ingredients.  You can actually get some of the ingredients on Amazon and also the brilliant Japan Centre in Piccadilly.  I appreciate this is London centric but they do have a website where you can order online for home delivery.

https://www.japancentre.com/en

So the first recipe is Tempura Vegetables.  I love Tempura but I have never cooked it.  I have never even deep fried anything in my life.  I am little bit scared.  My husband warned me not to throw water over a pan of hot fat or it will take my face off!  This is what I aiming for, well that and my face in tact:

This was meant to be cooked on 3rd March but I cooked it on 8th March.  Nigel suggests pumpkin, sweet potato, beetroot, large mushrooms and kale leaves as the vegetables.  I substituted butternut squash for pumpkin and also added some baby courgettes I had.  

The batter is very easy to make and the addition of an egg white really helps it stick to the vegetables.    I had my assistant chef chopping veg this particular evening:

In addition to the tempura vegetables you need to make the dipping sauce.  I got most of the ingredients from the Japan Centre.  Making up the dashi stock (which smells like fish food) was tricky.  My Japanese is poor (shame on me)...

It came in individual sachets which I used to make the 100ml of stock required which seemed to work!  More luck than judgment! The dipping sauce looked weird but tasted lovely.  The ingredient you can see is the daikon radish.  I wondered if you could use the common english garden radish as an alternative but I think it would be too strong.  The daikon radish has a much milder flavour. 

So, onto the truly terrifying bit, deep fat frying.  I used a deep heavy bottom pan which has featured heavily in this blog.  So here goes...

It was surprisingly easy and you get into quite a rhythm doing it and knowing how long the different vegetables take.  Courgettes and mushrooms are fairly quick (and really keep their heat so watch the roof of your mouth!).  The beetroot, butternut squash and sweet potato takes a little longer.  The kale is super quick and it is great to mop up the last of the batter:

The Kale was one of my favourite.  It almost goes like crispy seaweed.  It was lovely with some sea salt sprinkled on top.  So here is a picture of a selection of the final tempura vegetables:

The vegetables were delicious and would make a great relaxed dinner party.  All sat round the kitchen  table chatting and dipping! 

Footnotes:

1. You only need some small slices of the butternut squash and sweet potato, etc.  I roasted this at the same time I was cooking the tempura and then made a soup, with vegetable stock, cumin, coriander, garlic and chilli.  A good winter warmer!

2. What to do with the left over oil - once cooled, I poured the oil into a measuring jug and back into the bottles as you can take it to your local recycling centre.  

3. I still have a face - phew! 

Hope this helps!!

JanieCooksNigel

18/3/16

Totally 'Winging It'

My son bought me a jumper for Mother's Day that is emblazoned with the phrase - 'Winging It'.  When I say my son, I mean my husband.  My son is 2 and whilst frighteningly adept at using an iPad and actually having his own online bank details (seriously) I am not sure he is quite at the point of uniting the two.  There is always next year.

Anyway, I love my sweater.  The reasons are threefold:

1.  It is from the Selfish Mother shop, where all profits go to charity.  Meaning £15 of the cost of my jumper goes to helping others.  You can read all about it and buy one here:
http://shop.selfishmother.com/collections/women/products/grey-pink-winging-it-scoop-neck-sweatshirt

2. It is comfy, stylish and it is from my son (ok, husband).  I love them both.

3. I am actually, 'Winging It'.  Saying this out loud actually feels very liberating.  I am new to the Stay at Home Mother (SAHM) scene and it has come as a real shock to the system.  I am currently finding my feet, understanding my son and figuring out some sort of routine for us both.  We have good days, great days in fact and other days are more challenging, for both of us.  I think even he has found it weird to have at me home.  The previously fairly consistent absent mother is now hanging around like a bad smell.

What has all this got to do with this project.  Well, cooking is something I have always done and it is where I go to escape, reflect and get lost in the smells, tastes and process of cooking.  Notwithstanding a long passion for cooking, I still find myself 'winging it' through the recipes.

As you will have seen recently I failed to leave myself enough time to marinate something and again I have failed to leave something long enough to set.  On Mother's day of all days when we had 15 people turning up for lunch.  Thankfully (I think this maybe the first time I have been thankful for this) my son is an early riser and despite the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake needing at least seven hours to set, I sacrificed my Mother's Day lie in, leapt out of bed and decided to wing it!

I was meant to cook this recipe on February 13, but this dish needs a crowd.  Far too rich and indulgent to eat between two of us midweek.  This is what it is meant to look like:

In order to get this cheesecake baked and ready to set, I did not take any photos of the process. Actually for this recipe the process was more fiddly than Nigel's usual recipes.  But it is worth the effort.  It gets baked in the oven in a springform tin in water.  As Nigel advises please make sure you double wrap your tin in tin foil to prevent water getting in.  I also tied string around the foil.  No water leaked in, but some of my cheesecake did leak out and I was worried I had ruined it (and promptly dispatched my husband to the supermarket for a replacement cheesecake).  I think I slightly over baked it in the oven but this was actually a good thing as it meant it set in time for pudding.  What a 'winging it' result!

I am pleased to report this was a huge success and went down a storm.  Let's just say that there was no need for the supermarket cheesecake which still sits largely uneaten in my fridge.  Oh hail Nigel Slater again! It definitely has that 'cloy and clag' texture that Nigel refers to and it has that wonderful salty, sweet and bitter trilogy of flavours.  Here is my finished result:

JanieCooksNigel
8/3/16

1, 2, 3 Pizza!

Everything seems to be coming in threes at the moment.  My trio of blogs yesterday and last night a trio of homemade Pizzas, what will the third 'third' thing be?!?

So, last night March 1, was Pizza Night! Same day as Nigel and his recipe is on pages 67 - 70.  He provides a recipe for the dough and an express recipe for Hemp Seed Pizzas with Egg and Rocket.  Picture here:

I have made pizzas before and always have the dilemma about the yeast as I do not have an airing cupboard.  Fear not fellow homes without airing cupboards.  I am always amazed how effective it is when you just warm the bowl, use warm water and then pop the bowl (covered in tea towels) on a chair in front of the radiator.  Look at the results!  This is like one of those before and after bikini body shots you find in trashy magazines (although from thin to fat rather than fat to thin!)

Moving on, I did make Nigel's Pizza's, but we had guests for dinner so rustled up a couple of others.  Both with my homemade pizza sauce, made by frying some minced garlic and onion, tipping in a can of chopped tomatoes and mashing them:

To this you add a teaspoon of sugar, some salt and pepper and then letting it simmer for a good while to reduce down.  You do not want it too watery.  Finally, you add some fresh basil.  I usually add some oregano when adding the seasoning but I appear to have run out! Toppings tonight included pepperoni, parma ham, mushrooms, more basil, chills, etc:

Ok, so onto Nigel's, Hemp Seed Pizzas with Egg and Rocket.  I still cannot locate hemp, so used the seed mix I added to a previous Nigel recipe that called for it.  This gets added to the dough and kneaded into it.  Once rolled out cheese is added and cooked in the oven until starting to brown:

You then separate the egg yolks and add to the Pizza.  As we were all feeling rather stuffed at this point I did one medium pizza to share rather than Nigel's individual ones, which actually worked really well.  Here are the pizzas before the final bake and the finished product:

The eggs were cooked perfectly:

To be honest this was odd.  A runny egg is always delightful but none of us were quite sure on it.  There is nothing to dislike about it and the seeds in the dough added a lovely texture and flavour.  We thought this was probably better as a brunch dish rather than a dinner.

One thing I will say though is that Nigel's recipe and method for pizza dough is foolproof and delicious.  As mentioned I have made pizza before but going forward this will always be the recipe I use for my dough.  So thank you Nigel!

JanieCooksNigel

2/3/16

Monday marinating mackerel

I am telling a slight porky in the title of this blog.  Yes the mackerel is marinated, but in the most quick and effortless way.  Nigel has an excellent way of making what feels like the impossible, possible and this recipe is no exception.  It is called Mackerel Toasts and is meant to be cooked on February 28.  I cooked this February 29 (not my fault it is a leap year) and you will find the recipe on pages 64 - 66.  Picture here:

This is meant to be a light lunch or starter but after an indulgent weekend, this is going to be a light supper to be accompanied by a salad.  I have recently discovered this salad of baby kale, pak choi and baby leaf salad which is delicious and I think it will go perfectly with this dish:

I had a struggle getting Mackerel as I forgot that my fishmongers (like all good fishmongers) does not open on a Monday.  I struggled to get fresh Mackerel from my local supermarket and the packet smoked Mackerel will not work for this recipe.  I ended up getting frozen mackerel.  I usually shy away from the freezer sections of supermarkets, reminds me too much of my mum's 9 freezers, packed full and ready for nuclear war at any moment.  However, once defrosted these fillets had bright shiny skins and succulent flesh which appeared fresh enough to even be used for sashimi.  The fillets get grilled to a light golden colour:

You make the marinade by bringing the ingredients quickly to the boil on the hob.  You then pour the marinade over the grilled fillets.  Simples:

The ingredients for the marinade are easy to come by and having been cooking all of Nigel's recipes from this book we had all in the cupboard already.  The little flecks you can see are the celery seeds which have the most wonderful flavour.  Celery is viewed as mostly water but when you taste celery seeds or my personal favourite, celery salt (particularly on a warm runny quails egg) the flavour is immense.

Back to the recipe and the homemade toast.  This was a great excuse to have french bread with cheese for lunch.  The left overs were sliced expertly by my husband in his very organised fashion.  I am currently nursing a knife injury and did not feel up to the task:

Onto plating up and cannot help but think this would make excellent canapés/bowl food.  There was a trend after canapés became a bit passé to do bowl food or slightly larger canapés.  I think during the recession to make sure you would not drink as much expensive wine or a way to provide food to guests without the cost of a sit down meal (and more wine).  Anyways, they look very inviting and the soured cream adds the base it needs without detracting from the flavour of the beautifully marinated mackerel which made for a very happy Monday supper.

JanieCooksNigel

1/3/16

A dinner party for toddlers, why lamb shanks and beer...what else?!

When I cook Nigel's lamb with beer and shallots on February 27 (meant to be February 25 see pages 61 - 63 of the book) I have two toddlers planned to be at my dinner table that evening.  So, lamb shanks and beer may not sound like the best dish for them.  Both the toddlers at the meal table were baby led weaned and I am pleased to say they are both currently happy and adventurous eaters.  I have previously been nervous about cooking with alcohol but regularly consult The River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Nikki Duffy.  Whether you puree or baby led wean this book is a must for any family home.

The guidance here is not all alcohol will be burnt off.  A long slow cooked stew, like this, will retain very small amounts of alcohol and accordingly she advises not to do this for children under 12 months.  To assist with reducing the amount of alcohol in this recipe, I cook the beer on the hob for a bit longer and watch it evaporate off and even cook it for a little longer in the oven than Nigel suggests.  I also do not serve the children with any of the sauce.  The meat is so tender and succulent it really is not needed.

Whilst on a toddler cooking moment, I often use Rapeseed Oil instead of Olive Oil unless the recipe really demands the flavour of Olive Oil.  Again Nikki Duffy advises that this is a good source of omega 3 essential fatty acids and Vitamin E.  Also, that where possible you should buy a British Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil and I find this one from Aldi (other supermarkets available) excellent.

Right, back to Nigel and the Lamb Shanks.  My husband was charged with purchasing two small lamb shanks.  What he returned with was something more akin to, two legs of lamb...

As you will see they just fitted into my pan for browning!! Accordingly, for the boozy reasons above and due to the sheer size of my shanks, I had to adjust the cooking times.  These are the lamb shanks before they go into the oven:

This is a great prepare ahead and forget about it supper with all the ingredients very easy to come by.  With the exception of the shallots we had everything we needed at home already.  I do have a slight confession here (I have had so many confessions in this blog I feel like a Priest!) I did not make the parsnip mash.  I HATE parsnips.  This is not like my earlier, I do not like celeriac but I will give it a go.  I genuinely detest parsnips.  Oh, I can hear you, "but at christmas with honey or maple syrup all sweet and crispy, they are delicious!" No, they are not and my mum spent many years trying to 'hide' parsnips as roast potatoes.  Imagine saving that roast spud till the end of your dinner to find out it is a parsnip.  I am not sure I have ever quite forgiven her...

Anyways, mine will come with a side of regular mash to which I will still add the butter and the cream for a little treat and to follow Nigel's recipe more closely.  The finished article is here:

I know I always say this but it was delicious! It was a cold windy February day and this is just what the doctor ordered.  Both the toddlers loved this dish.  Like Nigel, they are huge fans of the lamb shank.  The meat is so soft and tender it is easy for their little teeth and the flavour is excellent but subtle.  Nothing too overpowering here.  They both have extra portions as do my husband and I, plus there were still left overs for the next day.

JanieCooksNigel

1/3/16

Basting something other than a turkey

Unlike Nigel I do not baste, probably should, but dinners that are designed to be popped in the oven, generally get forgotten about and that is the beauty of them.  That magic when you triumphantly pull something out of the oven that is ready to consume and ideally in one pot to save on the washing up!

So, when I cooked this last week (I am up to date on the cooking but woefully behind on the blogging) I feel like this will be a very small labour of love.  Although I am excited about this as it gets cooked on the hob and I have an OCD type obsession of stirring something on the hob.  If there is a pot on the hob and even if someone else is cooking, I HAVE to give it a stir, or the world will come to an end... Perhaps this will work out after all...

Right enough waffling, on to basting and pages 58 - 60 of Nigel's Vol III Kitchen diaries.  The recipe is Chicken Wings with Barley and there is a picture here:

This recipe demands chicken wings which I actually bought in the supermarket.  However, I could not get fresh tarragon so had to opt for dried and could only get normal leeks not baby ones. Otherwise all was good on the ingredient front.  I have never actually cooked with Pearl Barley although have eaten it plenty of times in my mother's and grandmother's stews.  

As the leeks were quite large I did rings instead of cutting them in half:

My chicken wings browned nicely but I cannot help feeling this meal would have been more satisfying with chicken thighs.  Whilst wings cook quickly and easily, they are rather fiddly to eat. I am also not a fan of skin in these sorts of dishes.  No matter how much you crisp them up, they still seem to go soggy in the cooking juices.  I am wondering if a skinless thigh may be an alternative?  Too be honest, even a skinless and boneless thigh could work quite well if you want to remove all the hassle from eating (but where is the fun in that!)...

I should have clocked this before, but you cook the pearl barley in the same way you would cook a risotto, slowly, stirring on the hob (my OCD heaven), watching the barley plump up as it absorbs the liquid.  I needed quite a bit more liquid than the recipe said, but like a risotto I just ladled my chicken stock a small amount at a time to stop it getting water logged, or stock logged as it were.  

The other part of this dish and of equal importance is the field mushroom.  The big large flat earthy mushrooms that get slowly fried with smoked garlic in the chicken wing pan to soak up all those lovely juices.  It is a thing of beauty:

So, time to assemble the dish:

My leeks are not as prominent but my herbs are just as green.  The dried tarragon is actually of excellent quality and really lifted this dish.  It was absolutely delicious.  Whilst the recipe said it served 2, this served my husband and I for dinner with a left over portion for my lunch the next day.  My husband and I loved the pearl barley as an alternative to rice in a risotto and we will definitely do this again.  Barley is a good source of fibre, is very soluble and can help lower cholesterol, so some health benefits too, as well as a delicious nutty taste!

JanieCooksNigel

1/3/16