This section of my blog is all about food - sourcing, cooking, eating and sharing. You can read more about my intentions with my foodie blog in this introductory post.
A "Full English" Salad
The other day I needed to make a lunch - but found the fridge was a little lacking in supplies. Apart from the jars and juices, there were a couple of eggs, a few slices of bacon, a round lettuce and not much else.
And so, the Full English salad was born - Egg, Bacon, Beans and Fried Bread on salad.
Ok, the beans were flagelot beans from a tin in the store cupboard, and the egg is gently poached rather than fried. Posh people would call the fried bread 'croutons'.
You could have some tomato on there too - sunblushed? Maybe some mushrooms if you have them.
The overall effect was humorous - but very tasty.
Beetroot, Wensleydale and Walnut Salad
Busy today, so needed a quick lunch. Simply: round lettuce, cooked (but not pickled) beetroot, wensleydale and walnuts, drizzled with a little olive oil and served with a hunk of bread. Easy and tasty.
If you have more time roast the beetroot yourself - and toast the walnuts, which really brings out their flavour. This can be a nice starter.
Ok, I'm going back to work!
Quick and Easy Pizza
On a recent trip to Rome, the girlfriend and I vowed to learn to make pizza as deliciously thin, crispy and fresh as those we tasted there.
We'd been lucky enough to stay in a friend's flat in a residential area of the city, so ate at the pizza restaurants the locals eat in, rather than the tourist traps - enjoying fine food at budget prices (along with decent house wine at 3 Euros a litre!)
Now, a couple of weeks later, comes my first experiment. The hard bit to get right is going to be the dough. It has to be really crispy and thin. To start with, these are the measurements I'm trying:
- 350g strong white flour
- 225ml water
- 7g yeast
- bit of salt
- bit of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
I chucked all this in the breadmaker and put on the 'dough' setting. When it was finally ready (90 mins later) I took out the dough ball and let it rest for a moment. Then I tore it in half, and wrapped one half in clingfilm and stored it in the fridge for another pizza later in the week.
Next I rolled out the remaining dough on the floured worktop, roughly to the shape of my baking tray, and as thin as I thought possible. I didn't try any of that flashy throwing it up in the air business - that can wait until I become a pizza expert!
For the sauce I softened half an onion and some chopped garlic then chucked in 2 tins of tomatoes, some fresh oregano, roughly chopped capers and a slug of red wine. I reduced this down, and then blitzed it to a smooth paste. Half got spread on the pizza base, and the rest was stored in the fridge for the second pizza later in the week.
For the topping I used spicy pepperoni, chopped fresh chillis, red peppers and mushrooms, and then a generous amount of grated mozarella (this was a budget pizza so it was cheap supermarket own brand basic mozarella - not buffalo mozarella!), and freshly ground black pepper. I know Italian pizzas are usally very light on toppings, but I like a bit more - every bite has to contain the mix of flavours in my view. But I held back from my usual mountain of toppings as much as possible, and kept it fairly basic.
Once all this was assembled I put the baking tray into the oven at 200C for about 15-20 mins, until the cheese was browning (because the aim was for a really crisp base).
It was served with a green salad of cos lettuce, cucumber and avocado - and of course an easy drinking house wine (more on my search for the perfect house wine in another post).
The verdict? It was very tasty indeed - but the base still wasn't crisp enough. Next time I'm going to reduce the water measurement for the dough - and (maybe) go a little easier on the tomato sauce and toppings.
Until then, ciao.
St Geoge's Market, Belfast
The girlfriend and I are in Belfast for the wedding of some friends, and a bit of research reveals that the place to be on a Saturday morning is St. George's Market.
It's open between 9am and 3pm, but after the rest of the shopping the girlfriend requires we only get there after 2pm, so a few things are already packed away.
But we still manage some time browsing the cheeses, olives, bread and more. We pick up a few things for lunch (soda bread, some irish cheese, some delicious pesto and olives) and eat lunch while listening to some of the live music.
We also pick up some more food to make our own dinner that evening. If I visit Belfast again I'll be sure to allow more time here!
More information:
http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/St-Georges-Market-Belfast-P3230
Picture credit: Northern Ireland Tourist Board (I was too busy eating to take pics!)
Stuffed Courgettes
A simple and light dinner this evening - because there's work to do.
Slice the courgettes in two lengthways and scoop out much of the soft flesh with a teaspoon, leaving the rest intact like a boat. Soften some onions in a frying pan and add the chopped up scooped out courgette. Season, and add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a little tomatoe puree, and then some other ingredients of your choice: Tuna and sweetcorn, ham and mushroom, peppers and mushrooms - anything you like.
Reduce this mixture so it's not too liquid, then scoop it back into the courgette boats - which should now be arranged in an oiled baking dish. Then grate some cheese over the top, and pop into the oven for about 15 mins until the cheese is nicely brown and crisp. Serve with chunky bread.
Globe Artichokes and Lemon Butter
As usual a trip to the market unearths some unplanned treasures. Globe artichokes are favourites of mine, and although I really do like more creative recipes like artichoke farci (or stuffed artichokes to you and me), I find it too hard to resist the quick and simple pleasure of plain old lemon butter. It seems to be the perfect match.
I simply trim off the stem, and boil them in a large pan for a while, until one of the outer leaves peels easily away. I make the lemon butter very very lemony.
Then I pour a glass of crisp white wine, and enjoy tearing the leaves off and dipping them in the butter, then sucking
If you have more time or less interest in lemon butter than me, here are some stuffed artichoke recipes:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/a...
http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=396&catid=5
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/a...
http://www.studentrecipes.com/recipes/chicken/stuffed-artichokes/
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/Whole-Stuffed-Art...
Lamb Chops, Aubergines and Broad Bean Salad
Today's bargain was a big bag of lamb chops for a fiver. Most have gone into the freezer, but the rest are being grilled for tonight's dinner for the girlfriend and I.
The chops were marinated for the afternoon in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and rosemary, then grilled in my treasured grill pan on a high heat. They ended up a dark colour on the outside, but soft, melting and pink on the inside.
The aubergines I grilled in the pan first and then kept warm in the oven.
For the broadbean salad I got some fresh broad beans and shelled them, then mixed with spring onions, chillis, yellow pepper and a light dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.
Some chunky homemade granary bread was perfect for mopping up all the juices at the end.
And as lamb is one of my favourites this was a special meal - so deserved a special wine. The bottle of Medoc was given to us by my father, and was a subtle, high-tanin wine, perfect for lamb.
A Storecupboard Lunch
It's a nice sunny day today, but there's lots to do and no time to nip out to stock up on treats - yet there's not much in the house.
There's a bit of lollo rosso lettuce and some cucumber, and the last few slices of a loaf of bread - but no real main ingredient.
It's store cupboard time! I dig through the tins and root out some chick peas - aha, humous! But then there's no tahini paste. But there is a tin of flagelot beans. Then I realise there's some marscapone in the fridge that needs using. It's uncoventional, but all this could make some kind of bean pate!
I blend up the beans with some olive oil, garlic, black pepper and lemon juice. Then I stir in the marscapone (it's just creme fraiche essentially). I add some chilli powder and some lime juice to taste.
There's no time to let it set, so here it's more like a kind of humous, but what we don't serve for lunch is put into the fridge and sets into a more pate like consistency for the next day's lunch too (and the day after that!).
Sardines on a sunny day
The girlfriend was out this evening, so I was planning an evening of work - which meant dinner needed to be quick and easy. It also needed to suit the mostly sunny day (okay, there was a lot of rain too, but I like to think the sun had the edge when it was out).
I had to nip to the post office during lunch, so I took the opportunity to call by the market on the way back.
At the fishmongers, I couldn't decide what I fancied... The tuna looked good, but I'd had that quite a bit recently and fancied a change... The Sea Bass was glistening and fresh, but I'm going to cook that for the girlfriend later in the week.
I gave up dithering and went to the greengrocer's stall, where the tomatoes and other salads caught my eye. I stocked up on summer salad ingredients for the week, and plenty of fruit. Then it was back to the fishmongers - and that's when the sardines caught my eye. Perfect. Two of them would be enough for just me, and they set me back 94p. Yes, 94p for the main ingredient!
Back home, and I simply dropped them in a pan with some olive oil on a gentle heat, while I dug out some leftover new potatoes from the fridge. Stirring in some mayonnaise and horseradish brought them to life, and gave them a kick to compete with the strong flavour of the fish. The salad was simply chopped tomatoes, cucumber and a little onion with rosemary leaves (from the plant that's now recovering in the sun on the balcony after being a bit neglected during a recent move), olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Total cost - less than two quid. Cooking time - six minutes tops. Taste - delicious.
I took it out to the balcony with a glass of Pinotage (more on that another time), and watched the world go by as I enjoyed my summer fast food. Once I was done (and only a cat could have got more of the meat off the bones than me) it was back to work.
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