Three French, two Japanese, a Scot and a woofy

So it was the boy's Japan gig last weekend, and as such we had a whole host of performers staying, including French and Japanese types, so I decided to prepare a light lunch of the very British ploughmans.

Cooper enjoyed the meaty leftovers and although they were quiet on the matter, the French seemed willing to try the British cheeses and even tucked into some pork pie & pickled onions.

The next morning I followed up with a hangover busting (or generating, depending on how delicate you're feeling) full English Breakfast. Except I guess it wasn't as it included tattie scones (at the boy's insistence). They scoffed the lot with only a few black pudding leftovers being passed down to the awaiting mutt.

Ruby Tuesday

My newish niece is actually called Ruby so I have to be careful now when I refer to curry as such. My sister happens to be going out with a chap called 'Hunter', so Ruby's surname is in effect Ruby Seal Hunter. Very very bloody good name. Even better if they slipped in 'the' as a middle name.

Anyway, the curry... blitzing garlic, onion, ginger and chilli in the whizzer (official name I'm sure) is always a good base, as is a glug of oil, some fresh coriander and fresh tomatoes if you want to make a quick one. Salt and a tiny bit of sugar are a must, as is Garam Masala, ground coriander and ground cumin. Fast. And decent.

Kebob Sir?

The boy loves turkish. Or whatever this type of scran might be. We were both starving and so needed something fast, tasty and full of flavour.

The cous cous was hydrated with chicken stock and bay, then a little marjoram, smokey paprika, mint, oregano was added with some fresh coriander and a little pesto. Then some red pepper and chargrilled artichokes were chopped and stirred through. The kebabs were brushed with oil, salt and pepper and a little more oregano. Then the tatziki was actually tatzucchini as I used courgette instead of cucumber, but plenty of garlic and a bit of sea salt.

It was washed down with an inappropriate but lovely glass of chilled Pinot Noir. Monday night loveliness.

Weekend brekkie in the garden...

Tinned tomatoes, happy eggs, paprika, garlic, dried chillli flakes, erm... owt else? Hmmm... oh yeah, lashings and lashings of hot buttered toast. Can you lash toast?

Spring chicken casserole

A lot nicer than it looks. Chicken, chicken stock, spring greens, new potatoes, spring onions and pesto. Yummity yumski yummo. It was really nice.

Catch up...

Pizza and a nice stir fry using wholewheat udon. Yum. The pizza was one of 6 made for our local community christmas party... at the end of Feb!

A good pizza base recipe is here:

1kg strong white OO flour

200g spelt flour

2x7g sachets yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

Enough water to make the consistency right.

Let it rise for an hour after some substantial kneading, then knock it back (punch it) and roll into little balls before rolling (or flinging) flat. Note: don't put too much topping on, wilt your spinach first and don't go overboard on fresh anchovies.

Trout, potato cakes and a lemony dill watercress sauce

Does what it says in the title really...

The sauce was a whipped-up, whizzed and throughly obliterated mixture of watercress (no shiz), dill, creme fraiche and lemon juice, warmed through. I put far too much watercress in it, and half as much or less would have meant it less bitter.

The potato cakes were boiled potato, finely chopped cabbage, leek, little cornichons chopped up and salt and pepper. They were then mixed with a little plain flour and patted into cakes in a cookie cutter.

The trout was fried with garlic butter.

That's it really.

Lamb & lentils

The boy was out watching the football so a solo supper of MEAT was in order.

I simmered the lentils in cider and stock, chopped some pak choi, herbs (I had coriander, basil, parsley and thyme left fresh) and put a frying pan on to heat up.

I seared the lamb with garlic, salt and pepper in a very hot pan until browned but still pink inside, then stirred the herbs and greens into the drained lentils with some lemon juice and lamb-pan juices. Yum, yum, yum.

Goats, squirrels and stem ginger

This month's supperclub menu was a pretty last-minute plan, having decided to do squirrel pie, the, the numbers fluctuating from 4 to 11 and back down to 7, and work taking priority over menu devising, it really wasn't prepared for what was to ensue.

Actually can't exactly remember the recipe for the starter of goats cheese puddings (which were really souffles, but who on earth wants to admit to making souffles in 2011?), but this Nigel Slater recipe is what I based it on.

135g of freshly grated parmesan

4 eggs

300g soft goats cheese

100ml double cream

chopped thyme

Whisk the egg whites separately to the yolks, and then mix the rest and fold together. Et voila. Goats Cheese & Thyme Puddings. I served mine with a seared pear salad of watercress, walnuts, seared pear (obviously) and a rape seed oil and pear cider dressing.

The main was actually a huge disappointment. Who knew how hard it would be to fillet a squirrel...? There's little meat, less flavour and the million hours of casseroling it (and separately casseroling the game for the individual pies) did nothing to 'jujz it up'. I tried port, bay, thyme, onion, mushrooms and beef stock, glugging in some more red wine nearer to the end... the game pie was nice barring one meat (unspecified!) that went ultra-hard. The spelt pastry was nice, and the squirrel pie 'tail' of parsley was a funny (but I stressfully forgot to take a photo).

Dessert was double ginger cake, again a Nigel-based recipe, (this time I vaguely stuck to the quantities and ingredients) though I put blackberries in mine.

250g self-raising flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

half a teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

200g golden syrup

2 tablespoons syrup from the ginger jar

125g butter

2 lumps stem ginger

125g dark muscovado sugar

2 large eggs

240ml milk

A cheeseboard of british cheese, more pear and oatcakes (with some scottish ginger chutney gifted to the boy along with the oatcakes by his lovely aunt Maggie - of Maggie's Kitchen Menus - a fab blog on my blogroll).

So that was the last of the winter. Frankly, I can't wait for spring.

American style pancakes and crispy bacon

Nigella's got it going on. Yes, a mad stare, a clearly resentful brood of children and a bosom that clearly needs to be unleashed, but also a lovely recipe for american style pancakes.

225g flour

A tablespoon of baking powder

A pinch of salt

A teaspoon of sugar

30g of butter melted then cooled

2 eggs

300ml milk

Whisk the lot then leave for a bit before using (probably does some gluteny stuff that helps the texture), meanwhile put your bacon in the oven to crisp up (far better than frying) and dig out your sticky jar of maple syrup.

Works moderately well with faken (for the boy), but he declared it needed cheese (very little he eats doesn't) and so I'm not sure he agreed. Though much to my chagrin it did make me think that parmesan pancakes might be nice... so maybe he has a point.

Mango chicken

This was surprisingly lovely actually. So I made a pilau, which is kinda like Asian risotto without the creaminess and stirring. Finely chopped onions in oil, then bay, a cinnamon stick, cardamon, cumin seeds, basmati, garam masala and ground coriander, chicken stock and fresh coriander at the end.

I made a pocket with the chicken then stuffed it with mango chutney, sealed it with a cocktail stick and then rolled it in cumin seeds and a load of ground spices in a bit of oil. I oven baked it for a bit.

The salad was watercress with clementine bits. And was a very nice addition even if I do say so myself.

Flapjacks

The boy's aunt, (and the lady behind the fabulous Maggie's Kitchen Menus - Link on left) bought him a lovely food hamper for his birthday, and so we've been steadily getting through all the smashing scottish fare.

Tonight, I fancied something sweet after the sour and salty puttanesca dinner, so what better than oats, honey, butter and a nice brew.

Easy as anything, all you need to do is melt butter, sugar and honey then stir through the oats, spread out on parchment and cook on about 150øc for 30/40 minutes. Cool then scoff with rooibos.

Gnocchi

In a new year's resolution-type way, we've decided to alternate fish and cheese on each evening. That's mainly because the boy is moderately obsessed with cheese and in lieu of juicy meat (the man is meat-free... barring turkey on Christmas Day and the odd chicken kebab it seems), I NEED protein.

Anyway, we have a massive chunk of stilton left over from Christmas, and so tonight's tea was a homemade gnocchi with stilton sauce affair (and masses of salad to make it feel at least slightly virtuous).

So, the gnocchi... Delia's recipe was combined with that of yer man Locatelli, and so I basically guessed at the quantities, but I think it was about 100g of plain flour, 300g of potato, and 1 egg (plus a little salt and pepper).

I boiled the potatoes whole until only just done, then pealed them, whisked them until the steam steamed off and they were mushy but not glue. Floury potatoes helped.

I then mixed the lot with the egg and flour with more whisking (mainly because it's fun to choose the wrong vesicle and cover the kitchen with floury potato bits). I then learned that rolling sausages of the dough, cutting little chunks then pressing into shape with a fork is a very tedious affair.

I boiled the gnocchi in batches and scooped them out as they rose to the surface. Meanwhile, I made the sauce from a little lose roux, milk, and an obscene quantity of stilton. It was surprisingly lovely actually, and worked... which was a big surprise.

Holiday scran

We just went to Hell on holiday. I once went to a place in Norway that was actually called Hell, this wasn't, and this terrifying example of little Britain abroad will rename nameless. If only to protect the locals. Poor, poor locals.

Anyway, we had some nasty food, and some nice food (for which we searched far and wide). Here's an example of both. And just so you know, the greasy brown mess was an alleged national dish of unspecified animal steak with banana in chilli sauce. True fact.