I’ve always strayed away from baba ghanoush on menus because I thought it would be slimy. Last weeks vegetable box included a pair of big purple aubergines and I didn’t want them to go to waste.
This week the content of our veg box lead to a super dinner. Firstly we had a tonne of garlic (2 nets, 12+ bulbs) and we had fresh aubergines, avocado, tomatoes and a massive loaf of bread.
I’ve written about shin beef chilli in the past, but when a big chunk of shin landed in our meatbox I couldn’t resist giving it the InstantPot treatment.
I saw this Mongolian Beef recipe this morning and it ticked all the boxes, sweat, sharp, crispy fried bits and such lovely colours, so it went on my mental list to make.
This week we got a great delivery from Grainger Market, salad, fruit and an Indian Cookbox from Hector Hall. I’ve always loved dhal, it’s great comfort food.
driving home this afternoon I caght a bit of Radio4s Food Programme about pasties and couldn’t resist cooking some up this evening. I’ve spent a week in Minsk with work and one of the things I’ve really enjoyed (and that reminded me of eating in Czech Republic in the late 90s) was the use of cumin, so I decided to break it out tonight.
This week I ran across The Cury Guy’s spicy chicken wings and couldn’t resist. Whenever I buy chicken breasts from Block’n’Bottle the wing is still attached.
Beanbeans are a staple of Mexican and texmex food, but they’re not that common in the UK. You can get them in tins but they’re faily expensive and they’ve never had the texture I remember.
I’ve love pastrami ever since I first ticked a food tourism box by going to Katz Deli, being overwhelms by it all but managing to order it on rye, and fell in love.
Early this week I saw a tweet mabout a Smitten Kitchen post from last year for braised ginger meatballs in coconut broth which looked excellent and I was excited to try it when I got home.
I love a real Christmas cake, a dark fruit cake, slightly too soft, a little booze, and disproportionatly more mazipan than strictly neccessary. This year I decided to to follow the very excellent Completely Perfect by Felicity Cloake.
The more I use the Instant Pot, the more I appreciate being able to easily use different cooking techniques without doing more washing up. Recently I’ve used it a few times to make curries and uncovered the left-right-left of Instant Pot cookery: saute - pressure cook - saute.
Whilst noodling through John Whaite’s very excellent Comfort I ran across his fig, prune and port tart tatin. I’ve alwaysrather enjoyed tart tatin, with it’s unctuous and gooey fruits and pleasingly crisp base/top, and it’s the time of year when dired fruits are often on offer in the supermarkets.
I remember this from growing up, but didn’t know where it came from. A bit of googling suggests it was probably from Nigella Christmas. The original reciepe calls for snipped sage leaves.
You will need For the dough 200g of plain flour 60g fat (I used some lard) About 6 tablespoons of cold water For the filling In total it should add up to a couple of big handfuls
Instance I joined the Cult of Instant Pot I’ve become a fulltime convert. The thing I love about it most is having everything in one pot which does everything.
This is an enriched bread dough, with a bunch of seasonal fruit, a dose of spice and some light brown sugar. I threw in a tangarine too, which lead to too much moisture and to load sinking in the middle, but it tasted great.
Roughly this time last year I made 5 ingrediant tomato meatballs for the first time and it is excellent, we’ve had it numerous times. Tonight I decided to enrich it a little with some leftover double cream and tweak the spice mix a bit.
Yet more Completely Perfect for a Saturday tea, but this time I went off piste when following the perfect sausage rolls. I love a sausage roll, they’re much better than the sad limp party food they are thought of as.
I’m continuing to work my way though Felicity Cloake’s excellent Completely Perfect and for a Saturday night what’s more fitting than the perfect chicken tikka masala with the perfect naan.
I got a copy of Felicity Cloake’s Completely Perfect for my birthday and I’ve been working through it for the last few months. It’s brilliant, you should absolutely buy a copy.
The airfrier came into its own this week when I discovered I could use it to make tiny cubed roast potatoes. Delicious in their own right, but excellent as part of the bulk of a meal.
Another Friday night fake takeaway, though this time probably just as unhealthy as the bought variety. I realised I’d never had a vindaloo before, always writing them off as too hot (and thus generally not very flavoursom), but the combination of pork and mustard always sounded good.
I love Chinese food, especially dim sum and Sichuan hot pot, but when it comes to takeaway, naff English style dishes are my weakness. There’s something about crispy fried things in a slightly gelatinous sauce that really hits the spot.
