Satisfying salsify

The thought of cooking last night was somewhat beyond me.  It was my last day at work.  For those who know me, this decision came as a shock, most of all to me.  My career has been everything to me, but for various reasons, beyond the scope of this blog (you will be relieved to hear!), I am starting a new chapter and it starts here.

Still feeling the effects of my leaving drinks the night before and looking after a feverish toddler.  I was grateful for the simplicity of this dish, "Salsify, toasted dill crumbs'.  See page 32 of the book for the recipe and this is without a picture, although hopefully mine below will help.

Now salsify is an odd thing.  It is not the first time I have cooked with these muddy spindly veg.  They look like a stick and to be honest one that has been hit with an ugly stick.

However, it is like an ugly duckling that turns into a swan, as once washed, peeled and dropped into some cold water with lemon juice they are beautifully pure white.  As Nigel says, it is often said that salsify is meant to taste like oysters.  I am a huge fan of oysters but have never felt salsify has tasted remotely like them. In the past I have cooked salsify in a gratin with potato, cream and garlic and to be honest, you lost the taste of the salsify completely.  This recipe is different.  We are effectively making salsify chips. Covering the salsify in some toasted dill breadcrumbs and preserving the flavour of the salsify:

As described in some of the previous blogs, I do not have all the kitchen gadgets and gizmos.  One that I do have is a mini chopper.  It is brilliant, super cheap from that online rainforest shop (you know the one I mean).  It is great for dicing veg, breadcrumbs, herbs, spices, etc, easy to use and keep clean to boot.  If you are thinking of investing in a gadget - this is one I would recommend.  If you do not have one, I have made breadcrumbs in the past by literally rubbing a slice between my fingers.

So, what to serve with the Salsify. It is Friday night, so either fish or steak.  I think salmon would be a nice accompaniment, perhaps it would bring out the oyster taste, but tonight I have plumped for steak, particularly as I have lovely Barolo which I am keen to drink this evening:

I also think steak for a surf and turf type feel as well.  Of course, it comes served with some green veg, tonight some wilted spinach with a squeeze of lemon juice and black pepper.  Here is the finished article:

The salsify was delicious, my husband said they tasted like crepes with lemon and bizarrely they did. They were a lovely consistency and if you are trying to skip the chips this January, it was an excellent accompaniment to the steak.  I must brag slightly here, although I know this is a very personal choice, but the steak was cooked perfectly...

The thought of it still makes my mouth water...

JanieCooksNigel

29/01/16

Crazy sausage lady

For those new to the blog, this started as a little project for me to do this year after deciding to quit my job towards the end of last year.  I am cooking my way through Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries Volume III a year of good eating aiming to cook on the same day where possible.  So far I am completely up to date and slightly ahead of the game as last night I cooked the Polish sausage, sauerkraut, onions and soured cream (meant to be cooked January 29).  See pages 28 - 30 of the book for the recipe and picture. 

I am ahead as I am unlikely to be able to cook at all next week...as it is my last week at work!  I feel like I am having some sort of mid life crisis.  I have quite my job, had a dramatic haircut yesterday and the sport's car is on order.  Ok, so I am joking about the sport's car but I do feel I am on the cusp of something.  My last 'Sunday night feeling' (I hope, but who knows what the life of a SAHM will bring).  Anyway, enough about me, on to the cooking.  'Tonight Matthew I am going to be...'

So I had a sausage nightmare - have you ever had one of those?  No me either. This recipe calls for a polish sausage called Kielbasa.  From my internet research some of the major supermarkets (including the new budget ones) stock this.  However, it appears none within a 10 mile radius of my house.  So, onto plan B.  After some research, I think Kielbasa is a fairly generic word for sausage and there are different varieties of it.  Anyways, the majority seemed smoked and when thinking of the other ingredients in this recipe, onions, sauerkraut, etc.  It made me think of a frankfurter so that is what I went with after a very odd discussion with myself over a bratwurst in the supermarket aisle (crazy sausage lady).

I bought two sorts (this is the first time I have ever purchased a frankfurter):

For the recipe I used the jumbo ones as they seemed more similar in size to the picture, so I thought the cooking times would be akin.  Sauerkraut was easy to purchase but only came in giant jars (I will be googling sauerkraut recipes after finishing this blog):

I know I have said this before, but this is a beautifully simple recipe and perfect for an easy midweek supper/Sunday evening tea.  I was thinking as I was dicing my onions, that I still dice my onions in the same way my home economics teacher taught me many moons ago.  Mrs Carter will be proud, I have come along way from the two jars of Canderel in a cake recipe (don't ask)...

Onto my finished article and I am quite pleased with this one:

Even dolloped on the plate in a haphazard fashion it still looks good.  Nigel is right, sometimes the best dinners are, "the food you throw together".  

This was super tasty and easy to eat and last night we did, on the sofa in front of the TV in our pyjamas.   I will be cooking this again and the frankfurter was sausage success. 

JanieCooksNigel

24 January 2016

A steamy old school Sunday night...aka Steamed bacon and sausage pudding

The excitement is high in my house tonight.  When telling my husband of tonight's dish, 'Steamed Bacon and Sausage Pudding' (pages 22 - 24 of Nigel's book) I can see he is thinking of a fry up in pastry.  In some respects he could not be more right, in other respects he could not be more wrong.  I am excited but also nervous.  I have never cooked a homemade pudding before and have never cooked with Suet.  I am excited because it reminds me of the dishes my grandmother cooked and it brings such happy memories, especially that the Suet box has hardly changed from the days when my grandmother used to cook puddings...

Making the filling was straightforward and the smells were amazing.  I used sherry instead of Marsala, only because my husband and I have recently become sherry drinkers (clearly too many episodes of Fraiser). I was a little distracted whilst cooking the first half of this recipe as I was preparing my handover notes for going on annual leave next week (still working my notice).  Anyways, so I forgot to take a picture of the filling before it went into the pudding.  I also forgot to tell my husband to leave the left over juices in the pan so I can save them for a gravy - instead he threw them away (I cried a little inside).

I found the pastry needed a little more water than the recipe suggests.  I could have mis measured somewhere but I needed nearer 200ml.  Pastry came together nicely though:

The pie was easy to assemble and it was a thing of beauty (to my mind anyway) when pulled together:

So, now for the slightly scary bit.  It gets 'wrapped up' and then steamed for 2 hours.  It looks like something that gets cooked in space at this point:

I was not sure my pie dish fitted in my pan but to my relief it did.  It also, as Nigel said it would, rattle and puttered away quite happily on the hob with the occasional top up, the smells filling the house.  The finished pie, looks like this:

It has browned a little but I recall from my grandmother's puddings that they never really change colour.  I suppose because it steams so gently.  It has definitely cooked through as it has a nice crisp top.

I would have served this with mash but as we are away from tomorrow and I had no spuds, oven chips it was!  Again, due to lack of fresh veg, enter frozen peas.  Actually it all kind of worked.  I am a proper southern Nancy but even I am an absolute sucker for chips and gravy. Comfort food at its best!

My husband was delighted with the outcome and finished off the extra portion.  It was absolutely delicious and surprisingly easy.  As we near the end of the first month and the start of our holiday my husband asked me what my favourite dish has been to date and I must confess this is definitely up there along with the Tartiflette and the Goose Fat Roast Chicken.  For my husband, this is the winning dish.  High praise indeed.

Finally, and talking of high praise, my best friend's mother commented on Twitter today about how this blog has inspired her to cook something different.  I felt very overwhelmed by this. This project started at as a self indulgent project for a new chapter of my life.  The fact that a) someone is reading this and b) it is inspiring them to cook more and try new things, fills my heart with joy.  I love cooking but we all get stuck in ruts, turning out our old faithful recipes, scared of the recipes containing we ingredients we do not have or can't even pronounce.  However, you know what, this month I have cooked an ox cheek I could barely touch, biscuits for cheese (who on earth bakes their own?!), cakes on a Wednesday night after a long day at work and you know what.  It is fun, it is escapism, the results more often than not taste good and our conversations over supper have increased.  Food is an adventure, a journey and one to be shared and enjoyed.  I hope you continue to enjoy.

Thank you

JanieCooksNigel

17/1/16

PS I am out of the office on annual leave for the next week but back to pick up the reigns with the next dish on 29 January.  I am otherwise up to date!

Peri Peri Party Pauillac Pie

Another Nigel Slater night and another involving guests .  My sister, her boyfriend and my mother's cousin and her other half aka, Chloe, Robin, Great Auntie Val (don't ask) and Great Uncle Bob (ask even less).  Tonight, the expectation is high.  Nigel refers to this recipe as, 'sometimes you just want pie' and what with it being the end of a long working week and the recent cold snap, we ALL want pie.

This is no ordinary pie, this is a pie with a punch.  A peri peri punch: 

For those following the recipes it is pages 10 and 11 of Nigel's book) I actually used chicken breast in this recipe as I had some in the freezer to use.  The results were fine but I think thighs would have been better, being a tastier and more moist cut of the chicken.  I also slightly increased the quantities of everything as whilst the pie says it serves 4 - 6, there are some rather large appetites around the table this evening (mine included!).  So, three (small!) pies were made and this is the filling before the pastry top goes on:

Now, this is the point where I love Nigel, he refers to using puff pastry for the crust but there is no recipe to make it and so I have assumed he used shop bought.  On this Friday night and already a couple of glasses down I am eternally grateful for this.  This is not the evening for rolling and folding!  I always buy the all butter puff pastry.  Slightly more expensive but a more natural recipe and better flavour as a result.

The pastry also causes immense debate around the dinner table.  Can it really be a pie without a pastry bottom?  Is this, 'just not a stew with a lid!' one of my guests cries!  Either way it did not end up mattering as no sooner were the pies on the table they were being served up.  I was just in time to take a quick snap of the finished article:

I served it with a rich creamy mash to offset the heat of the spice in the pie.  Think lots of butter and double cream.  I also served with (surprise surprise) green veg, frantically trying to get through the huge bag of kale bought last week.  Likely to be Kale soup in this household for the next few days...

The pie/stew with a lid was a huge hit.  It was comforting (anything with pastry is) but the filling was like a hidden surprise.  It was really quite spicy.  Not in a, 'I need to stick my tongue in a glass of milk kind of way'.  But in a really warming cuddle kind of way.  The celery seeds and oregano also shine through which reminded Great Auntie Val of a school dinner pie (in a good way).  I think a pie does that, it reminds you of your childhood and all that is comforting.  I also think the peri peri marinade/sauce could be used in a whole host of other recipes, I am thinking kebabs grilled on the bbq in the summer with a fresh salad.

For pudding we had cheese and biscuits (left over from new year festivities) served with this lovely wine bought from France by Robin.  A winning end to a winning meal.  A lovely family supper, thanks Nigel.

Cooked and eaten 15/1/16

JanieCooksNigel

Fruit in food

Tonight we have a guest for dinner, my first 'Nigel Supper'.  My sister is coming for dinner and she does not like fruit in food.  By that she means she does not like fruit with savoury food which is really unlucky for her as tonight I am cooking Pork Chop with Rhubarb Chutney.

Once again, I am extremely jealous of Nigel's serving plate for this.  Smashes my M&S plates out of the park.  Anyway I have lined up my ingredients and I am raring to go!  The smell at first of the chutney, according to my sister, is of salt and vinegar crisps.   It slowly matured and the kitchen began to smell like Christmas.  

As always, well, as to date, the recipe is simple and easy to follow.  I am intrigued by his idea of trimming the pork fat to crisp up the fat.  A midweek crackling - what a treat!  As the chutney simmered away my sister informed me that it reminded her of the time Bridget Jones made the blue soup.  I quite like the fact I was cooking something that was pink, I do not cook enough pink food.

The chutney gets set aside and its on to the pork chop and for me the sides.  Nigel is clearly having a low carb day when he cooks this.  I ended up cooking this with rice and green veg (see earlier blogs for details of my 'unhealthy' obsession with green veg).  I chose rice as we are due to have potato tomorrow and despite being a carb fiend I like to mix it up.

The finished product is here.  My fat could be crispier, but enough about me...

I am sorry Nigel but the chutney had mixed reviews.  My husband did not like the aniseed flavour of the star anise and my sister was all kinds of freaked out over the fruit in the chutney.  I did not like the chutney on its own but it was the perfect with the pork.  There is some left over and we have friends for dinner tomorrow and a cheese board planned so I am going to try out on another audience and see what they say.

Notwithstanding the mixed reviews this evening, I love that my sister is reading 'The Book', looking at the recipes and informing me of the dates she will be coming back for dinner.  Despite the chutney, she obviously likes a 'Nigel Supper'.  Don't we all...

JanieCooksNigel

14/01/16

Sorry Madeleine it is a Fairy

My son loves cake.  He loves to bake and eat cake and we eat a lot of cake in this house.  However, I have never baked madeleines and I do not own a madeleine tray.  So today I will be cooking 'a frost of sugar and citrus' fairy cakes (sorry Nigel).  I will also be cooking them a day early (January 13).    I should have cooked a chicken pie yesterday but it serves 6 and there is two of us, so it will be cooked and served on Friday, watch this space...it sounds amazing!

So onto a Frost of Sugar and Citrus...

Another lovely example of Nigel's nice earthenware.  

I must confess, I am very much looking forward to baking and eating these but it has been a very busy day in the office and I slightly wish I had a team of Brownies to come in and cook for me.  However, the show must go on.

One Kitchen gadget I do have, and love, is my mixer.  This is a god send for this recipe which requires 10 minutes of mixing to make the butter and sugar light and fluffy.  

Adding the eggs is tricky and as Nigel warns, mine starts to curdle slightly.  I think I manage to save it and here come the fairy (cakes)...

Not my prettiest but the proof is in the pudding.  Whilst the cakes bake (in the quickest of moments) I prepared the deliciously lemony syrup to spoon over the hot cakes when they come out of the oven which gives them a lovely sheen.

The icing is made with lemon juice which is something I will definitely do again.  A lovely sweet light frosting which sinks into the cake with that fantastic twist of...black pepper.  

So, my slightly ugly looking fairy (cakes) with a hidden dark secret of a twist of black pepper.  Whilst  my son loves cakes, these are distinctly grown up and I am not sure there will be many left for him in the morning.  Nigel ate his accompanied by a lemon verbena tea, my husband ate them after coming back from the pub...

JanieCooksNigel

13/01/16

Turn the other Cheek

Rule bending alert!  On January 15 I should be cooking the Pig's cheeks with apples and cider with Kale Colcannon from pages 16 - 18 of Nigel's diaries (http://www.nigelslater.com/the-kitchen-diaries-volume-iii-_bk_36).  However, I am still working full time and this takes 3 hours to cook so the likelihood of me cooking this on Friday night is slim to none! Also this feels like a Sunday night supper after a hat trick of soft play parties.

This is what I am aiming for (very grateful for the picture on this one!).

I will be honest, I am not sure about this dish.  This is odd as this is the girl who grew up loving her grandmother's stuffed hearts.  However, a cheek, I don't know, I seem to have a mental block against it.   Further, I throughly dislike celeriac.  The first time we had it was in a veg box.  My husband and I came home three sheets to the wind one Friday night and my husband opened the box declaring there was a brain in it.  Accordingly, this supper feels like Hannibal's finest, cheeks with a side of brain. However, in these circumstances, it is mind over matter and I have started this journey with Nigel so I will finish!

I was sort of unable to get Pig's cheeks.  I did ask my butcher and he could get them but only in larger quantities as there is currently not much demand for them.  As you read on you will see why I say currently.  However, he had Ox cheeks in stock so I bought two, not knowing quite how enormous they are...

I had previously researched alternatives to pig cheeks just in case and Ox cheeks appeared to be a legitimate substitution so I went for it.  Surprisingly expensive at £16 for the pair.  As you can see they are sizeable and all meat but I always assume that the less common cuts will be at bargain bucket prices.

I thought about cutting it into smaller chunks as Nigel's recipe assumes the smaller individual pig's cheeks but it was quite hard to find the grain, so I just bunged it into the pan whole for browning.  One thing I have always noticed about Nigel's recipes, but more so since I have been cooking them with greater frequency, is how beautifully simple they are.  Despite their simplicity, they are always full of flavour and wow factor, but more of that in the moment.

After the browning and the adding of the rest of the ingredients, it then needs to go into the oven for the magic 3 hours.  This is what it looks like before it goes in:

It looks slightly anaemic but partly due to the chicken stock and cider.  The meat as you will see has also shrivelled somewhat.  I must confess, at this point I am not feeling any more confident about the dish! So, in the oven it goes with a few prayers.

I must confess I have had some assistance with this dish.  I had to run some errands in the 3 hour cooking time so my husband was charged with turning the cheek at 40 minute intervals.  By the time I returned to take it out of the oven, the meat was falling part.  The transformation was amazing, from ugly duckling to a beautiful swan and my husband was already stealing the meat from the pan.  Think a rich beautiful cheeky stew!

The sauce, gets reduced and in the meantime my celeriac has been boiling away.  The whole dish comes together and looks not too far from the picture:

My husband LOVED this dish and had second helpings and I have frozen the rest for another supper for him.  I enjoyed it but I think my mind got the better of me.  Had I not known what the meat was I would have wolfed it down, commenting on how soft and tasty the meat is and how the sweet slightly tangy sauce slightly offset the richness of the meat.  On the upside, I enjoyed the celeriac and kale mash immensely and have officially got over my aversion to celeriac.  One out of two is not bad and I still have the other cheek in the freezer...

JanieCooksNigel

10/1/16