Just a weekly bit of fun whereby I can natter about any culinary ‘inventions’, successes and disasters in the kitchen, whilst trying to get the best out of leftovers.
Sunday
… Roast pork! My husband’s friend Ken had brought in a glut of cooking apples so of course I had to do pork and apple sauce. The pork took care of itself pretty much, but I had to take off the uncrackled crackling at some point and roast it on its own to achieve the desired crackle. As a rule I bake an eating apple per person instead of apple sauce because I don’t like the thought of adding sugar, and you have to add sugar to cooking apples. But these were Ken’s apples so I had to use them, and followed a BBC recipe which also adds butter… In for a penny eh?! I served the pork with baked potato mash, roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and gravy.
Monday
… We had leftover pork, see above. There was enough of everything to have almost the same meal. I cut the sprouts in half though and sautéed them with a little garlic and chilli.
Tuesday
… Minced lamb was on offer so I used half of a 500g pack to make lahmacun (Turkish pizza), I do have a recipe, but I tried it once and felt the need to tweak it within an inch of its life. This time I just used a recipe for bread machine pizza dough that I like instead of hand kneading the original recipe’s dough every five minutes for what seemed like hours. With the topping I whizzed it in the food processor instead of trying to chop it by hand, and I added fresh coriander and garlic to the lamb, turkish chilli flakes, salt, and lemon juice. After whizzing the lamb to a paste I fried a little off to check the seasoning and it needed a little more salt. When the time came I made two very thin pizza bases and smeared the lamb on before baking it in a hot oven. I served the delicious lahmacun with salad, and there was plenty lahmacun left over to eat cold!
Wednesday
… WedJ was eating with us so I wanted easy and upscale-able! Corned beef hash was the order of the day. Unfortunately I have to use tinned corned beef but until I can make my own we’ve found one we like. So… I peeled and chopped potatoes and steamed them until tender, meanwhile I sautéed onion in a little sunflower oil. A little way in I added crushed garlic to the onions, then the cubed chilled corned beef, Worcester sauce, Tabasco sauce (on this day I used chipotle) and seasoning. After stirring through the mostly cooked potatoes I shoved it in the oven to crisp a little on the top. I served the corned beef hash with roasted savoy cabbage, and if you haven’t tried that, you need to! I loosely used this recipe.
Thursday
… take-away! I had Singapore fried rice, C had a chicken curry.
Friday
… good old fashioned meat and potatoes… Well, not quite. The meat was tandoori chicken, and the potatoes were Bombay potatoes. I love making the tandoori chicken, I do cheat a little, but only a little! I could mix the spices myself, but my local Indian foods store sell a lovely tandoori masala so I use that.
In the morning I chopped the chicken breast into large chunks and put it in a bowl that has a lid. Next I added greek yoghurt, minced ginger and garlic, the masala, and the juice of half a lemon. After a good stir I put the lid on and chucked it in the fridge to marinate. After work I started on the potatoes by peeling and chopping the spuds and boiling them until mostly tender. Sometimes I cook them all the way through so the end result has some ‘mash-y’ bits. Whilst the potatoes were cooking I popped some black mustard seeds in a little oil then added chopped onion and sautéed the two for about ten minutes until the onions were soft. I tend to wing it a bit with the potatoes, sometimes I add curry leaves, and often panch phoran instead of just mustard seeds. Anyway, I added salt, turmeric, paprika and a little chilli powder to the onions and then the cooked potatoes, a chopped fresh green chilli and two fresh tomatoes. When combined I shoved it in the oven to finish.
Nearer dinner time I skewered the chicken, and also a couple of peppers to go under the grill. I know it’s not a tandoor but you can achieve char, which is all I’m interested in. I also knocked up a carrot salad. I served the potatoes with a lot of fresh coriander. My version of meat and potatoes is yummy!
Saturday
… We had leftovers! Tandoori chicken, peppers, and Bombay potatoes with cucumber salad.
Note: Only one pic, head’s been a shed! Will try and do better!
The More You Think... 