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.
This is very late. Migraines got the better of me last week.
Sunday
… It was Easter Sunday, I don’t celebrate Easter in a religious sense but I do like to use the time to have family over. Lamb was on offer somewhere so we got a large joint for the main course. As a starter I created a smoked salmon and cream cheese/chive layered terrine which I prepped on the Saturday. For dessert I wanted to make a lemon curd pavlova but my husband put his foot down, exclaiming that I should not try to make EVERYTHING from scratch, ALL the time. He said he would get a nice dessert from the supermarket during the week before Easter Sunday, so that if he couldn’t find anything special, we could fall back to my pav. Anyway… For the terrine I loosely followed a recipe, using less smoked salmon as 600g seemed excessive. The terrine turned out very well, but I cut the slices too thick. I only ate half of mine. I served the terrine with lightly pickled cucumber and tiger toast.
For the main, I just roasted the lamb after seasoning, aiming for a medium roast. As far as the accompaniments went, I boiled a shed load of baby new potatoes because my steamer is too small for potatoes for four (and the rest of the street it seems). Next on the list was roasted very garlic zucchini. I use one clove per zucchini and chop into large chunks before tossing in the garlic and olive oil, and a little seasoning. Another favourite with lamb is sliced sweet potato layered with a little oil and rosemary, then roasted too, hence the plain potatoes. I made a mint sauce with fresh mint and also created an onion dish as a side. My idea was ‘onions in white sauce’, but luxurious. I used shallots, and after peeling I gave them a little colour in a pan then added a glug of white wine, reduced that then added a little chicken stock. I reduced that until it was almost syrupy then added a splash of cream and cooked that for a while. The end result was delicious, and my father in law said that they transported him back to a meal he had in the US, so that was good! Of course there was also gravy made from flour and the lamb juices.
Now dessert… C came home with a lemon and mascarpone cheesecake. It looked spectacular at first glance. A biscuit base, the lemon mascarpone filling, then a thin layer of lemon jelly on the top. I didn’t expect it to be the bees knees in actuality though, but it was. The biscuit base was the lightest and crispiest I have ever eaten, the lemon mascarpone filling was just the right side of acidic, and the lemon jelly layer looked so beautiful, and in real life I could see it was crowned with a couple of slivers of candied lemon. It would have taken me ages to create that and I probably wouldn’t have got the perfect finish. So there you go, some shop bought desserts are amazing!
The guys went on to have a cheeseboard too, I just stuck with the coffee. I forgot to take pics, sorry… I was a tad busy!
Monday
… It was a bank holiday and as I’d had a cooking marathon the day before C plated up leftovers in the form of a roast lamb dinner. It went down very well as I hadn’t spent all day cooking it!
Tuesday
… I can’t remember… I’ve slept since then… !
Wednesday
… WedJ was visiting and I wanted easy, and there’s nothing easier than my sardine pasta. I know you’ll be thinking “WTH??” but this dish is amazing. I used a large tin of sardines in tomato sauce (not ketchup) for the main part of the dish. At dinner time I boiled macaroni, and in the mean time decanted the sardines into a pan and smooshed it all up whilst warming it through, I then added a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes. Once the pasta was cooked I added it to the sardines, mixed it up and served with a spritz of lemon. Sometimes if I feel I haven’t got enough to do I’ll sauté onions, maybe peppers and fresh chillies but it’s not necessary. With three or four ingredients it’s a brilliant, healthy dish.
Thursday
… I think we had a take-away, kebab, salad, and pita. Yum!
Friday
… I made lentil and lamb curry which is a favourite with leftover lamb, and this time it was actual lamb instead of the usual ‘essence’ because there was a reasonable amount of lamb left over from Sunday. I also used Sunday’s leftover potatoes and created a Bombay aloo type thing with sautéed onion, black mustard seeds, turmeric, paprika and garam masala, and a little water. We had leftover mushrooms too so I chucked panch phora (a mix of five(?) whole seeds) into a pan, then added onion and cooked that for a while. I then winged it with the spices, adding ground coriander and cumin, paprika, and chucking a few other things in as I went along. The mushrooms were delicious, I just wish I had written everything down so I could replicate it! I also made flatbreads and we served the meal with basmati rice.
Saturday
… We had leftover curry. YUM!
The More You Think... 