So what have you cooked lately? (Year two.)

This is the first time I've grown chili peppers - how do you know when to pick them? These are bright red and juicy and supposedly cayennes. Also, it seemed pretty hot when I tasted it raw, but was only mildly spicy after cooking. Typical?

Also, it seemed pretty hot when I tasted it raw, but was only mildly spicy after cooking. Typical?

I think so. My experience with cayenne peppers is raw, as above, and in pepper sauce.

Our farmers market has a chili pepper festival in mid-September (actually the weekend you are in Seattle...).

I made two babkas. It's perhaps too much for me to eat alone. They had a brown sugar and cinnamon filling that leaked and made a goopy mess everywhere. I am not complaining. I added some cardamom powder to the dough but it's completely undetectable, which wasn't surprising since the cardamom powder had no smell left. Oh well.

I'm still sorely tempted by a smoker, but the one I want am lusting after (the black one) is out of range for now.

RJM ate 4 though and pronounced them tasty. I still prefer the ones at House of Hong and Mee Sum Pastry. Rock Hardy, make note! Much much wonderful food will be available mere steps from your hotel.

I made these "Turkish sugar and pepper rolls" that came out kinda bland and were very annoying to work with. They were yeasted but the liquid added was 1/2c water and 1c vegetable oil. The dough was a crumbly mess, like certain cookie doughs that you have to pack together, and it completely failed to "rise". Or, say, have any decent flavor. I am growing unhappy with this Jewish desert cookbook.

the eggplant rotellini I made following the recipe in Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen was phenomanal, but a bit messy.

the buttermilk pie recipe I nabbed from Thursday's New York Times food section turned out superbly. The lemon/nutmeg combo works wonderfully, especially if you go a bit overboard with the citrus.

I guess I've been spoiled, having had the Real Thing. When it is made right, all it needs is a good simple tomato sauce and cheese (tho a heart beef ragu is also good. Kinda like a nice stew).

"eat their hearts to gain their courage! Their rich, tasty courage, mmm".

Any suggestions as to what I should cook up?

http://tinyurl.com/86kvp

This is my poor food (I'm saving up for trips to Dublin and Suffolk as well as a new bathroom). When I swallow it I feel dead virtuous because it cost next to nothing and it knocks off three portions of veg in one go. Also, as is often the way with big pot cookery, it improves with age, so days two and three tasted even better than day one.

Some catchup for me, with what I cooked a couple of weekends ago.

First off, the basil ice cream that was linked from allrecipes on these very boards a while ago. Definitely needed the mint liqueur that was described as 'optional' and was really quite pleasant, doing a passable impression of green tea ice cream.

Also, and my tip to everyone to COOK AT ALL COSTS was cassoulet. I'd always thought it would be difficult, but buouyed by the purchase of a half-price duck from the supermarket...

First brown a packet of sausages cut into chunks (I used cheap butchers sausages, 99p cheap) and transfer them to a big pot. Remove the legs from the duck and save them for something else (such as the confit above), then butcher it. Cut the breasts into thinnish strips, and remove as much other meat as you can. Add the duck meat to the pot, along with a packet of bacon (again, I just used cheap 99p stuff) sliced the same sort of thickness as the duck. Add two cans of beans (I used one can of butter beans and one can of mixed beans), a clove-studded onion, and some herbs (rosemary, oregano and a couple of bay leaves). I put in some duck skin (the skin off the breasts and the parsons nose) and both wings to add flavour. Add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, put the lid on and simmer quite hard for an hour. Turn down, and put on a slow simmer for 7 or 8 hours, stirring now and again. Remove the bits of skin and the wings, the bay leaves and the onion. Add a chopped, peeled tomato and simmer for another 30 mins. Eat with bread. PRAISE GOD FOR MAKING FOOD SO NUMMY.

Amazing sounding. Recipe?

How are you liking that food processor? Did you get a KitchenAid one?

Food processor seems great, and I'm starting to get the hang of it. It is the KitchenAid, 12 cup, with 10 and 4 cup attachments and lots of extras including a citrus juicer! Rah!

I am eating so much hummus at the moment. Really need to stop being such a lazy slob and make my own again, especially after the lemon and coriander flavoured one I bought from Waitrose failed to taste of a) lemon b) coriander or c) hummus.

Yes, I now have a food processor.

The fish was a bit overdone - I'm really wary of cooking fish, I think because I'm from the midwest and never actually ate fish until a few years ago. So I'm timid about it.

My biscotti are going very nicely with this vin santo.

Roast chicken sunday lunch
Chicken fried rice (dinner and leftovers for lunch)
Chicken, bacon, redcurrant and maple plait (dinner and leftovers for lunch)
Chicken croquettes (made, to be cooked tonight)

Am I just eating less, or does that sound like an awful lot of food? So who buys chickens that size normally?

About three handfuls of leftover cooked chicken
4 mushrooms, fried in butter
Some very thick white sauce (about 3/4 of a pint of milk's worth) with two teaspoons of mustard stirred in

Combine these, shape into eggs, chill overnight

Dip in egg then breadcrumbs, chill for another hour or so

Deep fry at just over 180 (or whatever that is in the other temperature - 370?) till brown (about 3 minutes)

Un-frikkin'-believable.

I am now imagining that jaq has some kind of amazing mutant plant that produces both strawberries and tomatoes... :)

I cooked the tian mentioned herein last night. Although the sweet potato/spinach combo is one of my favourites, the sadly over-salty Tesco feta almost ruined it.

And dishes where you have to season a component (eg raw egg) rather than the whole thing, so you can't taste as you go, are tricky to get right the first time. Extra salt was with hindsight definitely NOT needed...

In fact, I'm off to start a thread about it.

It is, at that! A rogue tomato came up in the midst of the strawberry patch :)

One of my co-workers has a mutant zucchini - he keeps trying to pawn them off on me. Apparently, it crossed with a pumpkin, as the zukes are round and enormous, though definitely zucchini.

If you haven't had these you need to find them.

They are the SWEETEST pepper you will ever have. They are fantastic grilled whole but the work equally well chopped and stir fried.

There is no heat in these peppers.... none at all. Also they have none of the bitter taste that a green bell pepper has when grilled.

They ripen to a beautiful red but once you taste them it is nearly impossible to wait that long.... the immature green pepper also are excellent!

I am saving every seed from the peppers that I cut up before cooking so I have plenty to plant for next year.

So far I have used them in marinara sauce, beef chili, stir fry, grilled alone and as a garnish, sauteed with onions and garlic for fajitas, stir fried with onions garlic and crushed cherry tomatoes over pasta which was fantastic simple and quick!

I cannot overstate this..... these are the best peppers EVER! :)

Also, sweet potato french fries. Peel potato, cut into 1/2" wide straws, toss with 1tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp dried basil and some parmesan cheese. Spread out on lightly greased baking sheet. Cook at 425 for 30 mins, turn after 15 mins. Delicious!

One thing I am trying out, since our home-cured bacon was so good, is an air-dried ham. It's been curing this week, with juniper berries, cloves, peppercorns, and bay leaves mixed in with the koshering salt. On Sunday, it will go into a molasses bath for two days, then I will sew it into two layers of muslin, wrap it with butcher's twine and hang it from the basement ceiling for 12 - 18 months.

the taste greatly improved once i went to the indian store and got some good garam masala (should make it myself thought) and the addition of copious amounts of both garlic and ginger pastes.

at border's books they have a whole series of nice, full color cookbooks for $5, this was one.

made some chicken dishes, nothing too fancy. I'm just trying to get a spice mixture down that just feels *right*. whenever I go to a restaurant, no matter what I get, there's a sort of characteristic indian signature to everything. that's what I'm trying to pinpoint. im not quite there yet either :)

Have you been playing around with asafetida yet?

none of the recipies i've been trying so far have it.

Funny, I have been using more butter lately!

anyway, the taste was much closer to what i've been trying to achieve. And i think part of that secret is in the heat itself. I've been eliminating hot chillis from my dishes thinking that I'd nail down the more aromatic flavors first before heatin it up, but it seems that the hot peppers are an absolutely necessary component. not sure if they're just stimulating the tastebuds or whatnot, but from now on, my dishes will have some amount of heat to them.

Have you tried dry-roasting your spices before adding them?

Today, 13-bean soup, cornbread, and a loaf of wheat bread.

I started autumn stocking-up at the farmers' market yesterday with 10 lbs of enormous sweet potatoes and 5 butternut squashes. And our experimental ham is now wrapped in white cloth, hanging in the basement.

next time i am going to put it in a big chocolate cake.

Also: sweet potato + chick pea chili, stir-fried kale with garlic and breadcrumbs.

Baby, it's cold outside.

Also, a Spanish-influenced stew - rabbit, veal, some chorizo, white beans, carrot and tomato.

Chris, the directions I found on the web had me use a cloth, a plate, and a weight on top. I'm supposed to boil the cloth every few days. Another suggestion was to fill a garbage bag with 10" of water to seal it up and provide the weight. What have you done for the batches you've made?

However, last night my girlfriend made risotto gnocci in a tomato vodka sauce, it was off the chain.

Consumed: remains of the pumpkin pies I made last weekend.

Before I cooked my rabbit stew I figured some would be nice for leftovers on Sunday, with some decent bread and some cheese. Since we were going into Bath anyway, I thought I would pick up some manchego at the Fine Cheese Shop (which I thought we'd discussed here before but Search doesn't find).

WHY IN GOD'S NAME DO I EVER THINK GOING THERE IS A GOOD IDEA?

Some mature manchego
a gjetost
a cerney pyramid
a la tur
some vacherin

Umm. £25.

STOP ME BEFORE I DO IT AGAIN.

I was thinking it was some subliminal advertising in the Wallace and Gromit movie, but maybe it's cheese flu!

I must be getting better though, I once spent over £70 in there in one go.

Tonight - lamb shanks and green beans sauteed with toasted sesame and chili oil.

I did a chicken casserole this evening, the important feature of which was lifting the chicken pieces out before serving and crisping the skin up under the grill. Also, more chilli than is healthy

I used a good wedge of Garstang Blue in a venison hotpot on the weekend, it went fabulously with some homemade redcurrant jelly (the finishing touch was a little bit of dark chocolate - warming).

I haven't got the 2nd Moro cookbook yet, but I cooked the lentil soup with braised spinach from the first one last night. We ate it with harissa smeared on ciabatta, which also got given to the local trick or treaters, with hilarious results.

What's The F Word?

You can't go wrong with a big bowl of Chickpea Thing.

For additional liquid I use goo that comes in a can of kidney beans, then add the beans -- just to heat -- at the end. I like me some fairly crispy beans.

The balance between cinnamon/chocolate/cumin is what's mole-reminiscent, and it's much less time consuming.

Last night I just improvised a nice mix of Italian Eggplant, yellow and green squash, sweet onion and red pepper sauteed with garlic, rosemary and a couple other herbs and finished off in some chicken stock and white wine.

Tonight we made another great Bittman dish - salmon in red wine sauce. You skin salmon fillets, dredge in flour, brown in butter and olive oil, remove, cook up some carrots onions and garlic, add parsely, add stock, add red wine, and then throw the fish back in. And of course, you use a decent bottle of red wine and then drink a glass of the same with it, making it extra complimentary.

I made pumpkin bread (in fact, the recipe was from HtCE) and I think it might have ended up with too much moisture in the batter. It took a long time for the toothpick to come out clean and there's still a certain overmoistness to the bread. But also I decided to try using garam masala instead of the usual pumpkin spices. I haven't decided how I feel about that yet, although I think it might have been something of a success.

With your pomegranates, you could juice them and sell it as ultra-fresh hand harvested antioxidant ever-young juice - only $5 a shot!

Last night I made buternut squash and red pepper soup. I wasn't sure about when to put the peppers in, I didn't want soapy soup, and they were romano peppers and I didn't want the flavour wasted. So I made the butternut soup with just onion and water, and blitzed the pepper in the food processor. I added the soup, blitzed again, then poured back into the pan through a sieve. It's sweet but with a clean taste.

Added about 300ml of stock (made with Marigold vegetable bouillon powder), brought to the boil, added a dash of Marmite, added the chicken, turned down the heat and simmered for 30 mins.

I am also having some chicken this evening, baked with some brie, and I'm roasting some cherry tomatoes with some balsamic vinegar to mash up over the top. Yum.

I do eat predominately 'vegetarian' food, but every so often Matt decides we need an extra dose of protein (I am scared of preparing meat myself, ever since student days in salmonella-ridden shared kitchens). As long as it's not processed and I know where it's come from I don't have a problem with birdies. I haven't eaten red meat for about 15 years though, and I doubt my digestive system would thank me if I went back to it.

Still debating whether to have a meat or veggie Christmas dinner this year...

I found the lime in my work bag this morning. No idea how it got there.

GOOSE

x-post, in your bag?

Oh no, I couldn't eat a goose. I like geese. GOD I AM SUCH A GURL. FEEL FREE TO MOCK MY LOGICLESS DIET CHOICES.

thanks everyone for your help upthread!

I'm not sure I fried the eggplant properly, though. Or, rather, I'm not sure I fully understand the goal of pressing water out of eggplant.

For Christmas, I got all the things I needed to make fresh mozzarella, and just finished kneading the first batch. It is amazing to me that you end up with less than a pound of cheese for a gallon of milk. And what looks like a full gallon of whey.

Clean up continues.

Today: Ginger Chicken (from Thailand, came out really good -- first time I ever used Thai fish sauce, also the only time I've ever sliced up fresh ginger); Escarole with Olive Oil, Anchovies, and Pepper (from Italy; totally followed instructions and came out *tasting* okay, though rather oily, and I was somewhat discouraged by the extent to which a pound of escarole is diminished to almost nothing in 45 minutes of cooking -- did I do something wrong? I've never cooked escarole before; I *was* supposed to discard the hearts from the escarole middles, right?); rice (which I have almost never cooked before either, believe it or not! Though I cook pasta almost every day.) First two dishes from Mark Bittman's *The Best Recipes in the World.*

Yesterday, from same book: Stir-fried chicken with walnuts, from China.

A couple days before that, also same book: Chicken in Garlic Sour Cream, from Romania (only time I've ever cooked potatoes and chicken together; weird, but it came out better than I would have guessed. Doubt I'll do it again though.)

Other successful meals in the couple months since I started cooking (i.e., I barely cooked AT ALL before my kid moved to NYC in September, except for salmon and pesto with noodles which is my all-time comfort food): Mustard Chicken, Sauteed Chicken with "Chardonnay" (well, white cooking wine actually); pork tenderloin with noodles (really pork stroganoff), rosemary chicken salad sandwhiches (a great use of leftover chicken by the way), chicken with 40 cloves of garlic; gemelli pasta with brocolli and bread crumbs; penne pasta with prosciutto and butter (or sometimes bacon or sometimes pancetta instead of prosciutto -- pancetta seems to work best, but probably it's too fatty no matter what); spaghetti a la carbonara (even fattier); cajun chicken pasta (have to watch the cajun spices though; too much = bigtime heartburn for me); greek-flavored turkey burgers (w/ feta cheese and bell peppers).

Less successful, as in I doubt I'll do them again since they kinda sucked: sage-rubbed pork chops; oaty chicken; sesame chicken; Guiness-braised chuck steak; vidalia onion and steak sandwhiches; fusilli pasta with fennel, sweet sausage, and pecorino; fussili with sausage and leeks (last two almost seem like the same thing, but from different cookbooks).

Right now I am marinating tomorrow's chicken in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and hot pepper flakes for "two-way chicken" from Southeat Asia (also from the Bittman book above, which I got for a Christmas present; if anybody wonders where to find any of the other recipes I've mentioned, ask and I will say. I take a lot of them from *Cooking Light* magazine, and lot of the other ones from *The 5:30 Challenge: 5 Ingredients, 30 Minutes, Dinner on the Table* by Jeanne Besser and Susan Pucket.) whew!

Also (as if you haven't already figured this out) I don't cook vegetables enough. Hopefully that will change. But I've become pretty great at brocolli I think (trick is boil small florets and salted water for two minutes flat, scoop out with skimmer, then rinse in cold water IMMEDIATELY to retain green color), and I'm okay at those little baby carrot things.

Have also gotten pretty good at keeping chicken tender. Ask for hints if you need them.

Right now all my holiday baking has caused me to run out of salt (well, table salt; I still have plenty of kosher and pickling salt) and flour (bread flour; I still have a dozen other kinds) and that makes my kitchen feel naked. But I am a little too busy now for going out and shopping.

from Giuliano Hazan's Evernight Italian? That cookbook is full of great simple recipes. I use turkey/chicken sausages, still good.

I steam vegetables mostly. But I just posted my brussel sprouts on ILE. Quarter the sprouts and plop in a baking pan w/chopped shallots or garlic, salt & pepper. Roast at 400 or higher for half an hour, pull em out and pour about a quarter cup of chicken stock (storebought)on top and scrape the crunchy bits off the pan (they come right off). Could change your mind about b-sprouts.

When I'm feeling energetic I do broccoli rabe. Chop off the bottom stem part and then boil the tops for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile saute a shitload of garlic w/ extra virgin olive oil in a big pan for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the steamed broccoli rabe w/salt peppper & red pepper flakes, then saute and stir for 10 minutes or until it gets good and almost-mushy. By then the bitterness is gone.

Having planned for it to be a two day meal, I left half of it out overnight - on lifting the lid, I found the fat had solidified like a coating of caramac on the top and the stock had turned into a fantastic jelly. Num.

I have recently been eating an inordinate amount of broccoli, sliced thin and stir-fried in sesame oil with chilli and garlic. So good.

Nah, from the aforementioned *5:30 Challenge* book above (but I didn't like how it came out.) (But tonight's pre-supermarinated Two Way Chicken came out EXCELLENT, yay!)

been far to lazy with cooking recently. through a quick sauce with clams and mushrooms together with fussili on sat and have been living of it since...

i'll get back on track tonight.

I am somewhat constrained by Ye Olde January Weight Loss Campayne and can't cook exciting things like CAKES yet, but this will come in mid-February if all goes according to plan.

beef mince with chilli, lemongrass and holy basil

braised pork ribs, done in soy, fish sauce, chilli and onions

plain rice

pretty good all in all, and yes, I may have paid a visit to chinatown this afternoon :)

Is that The Kitchen Diaries? Got it at Christmas and have done little more than flip through it but it does look rather uninspiring.

(Also, 3 stone? In what universe do you need to lose 3 stone? It's fatties like me that need to lose that much.)

xpost to Mädchen

We had the last of the bean soup I made on the weekend for dinner last night. With a little grated cheese. I made cornbread, but grabbed the whole wheat flour instead of the white, and it came out more graham-like and wheat-y than cornbreadish.

Peeled broccoli stalks (ate the florettes yesterday) cut into thinnish sticks with olive oil and fleur de sel.

Carrots boiled al dente served with olive oil and salt.

Pea sprouts sauteed in the wok with garlic and a dash of sesame oil.

Halved brussel sprouts browned in a wok in olive oil then poached in lemon juice and chicken stock.

Kale/Mustard Greens/Spinach poached lightly in beef stock and meyers lemon juice.

Zucchini gratin made with shallots, herbes de provence and gruyère.

Leeks vinaigrette.

Leeks cut into thin strips, lightly drizzled with olive oil and put in the oven on a cookie sheet while the roast is cooking until crispy then used as bed for the carved roast.

Hearts of romaine tossed in champagne vinegar/walnut oil dressing then grilled and served with dolce latte gorgonzola and pears.

Magret de canard, aka duck bacon, cut into quarter inch thick slices and fried served on rocket with mustard vinaigrette.

Thankfully I had made pound cake earlier and that made up for the fish disaster.

Diners exchange puzzled glances.

I like to saute or just bake shaved fennel with fish. Don't do cook them in conjunction with lemon, though, 'cause it comes out tasting troublesomely close to apple.

The other flank steak I thawed out was sliced thin and tossed with olive oil and some Kansas City steak dry-rub. After the football game I'll see what Kansas City-style beef stew turns out like (I'll start it tonight and finish it with taters and carrots tomorrow). I have a client who likes to just buy loads of random stuff at Trader Joe's for Xmas presents whether she knows if they're any good or not, which is where the KC steak seasoning came from. She also sent some Chinese 12-spice rub, which I'll massage into a chicken and put on the rotisserie later in the week.

Also I've made egg fried rice three times already this year, and it's turned out pretty great so far although I cannot for the life of me get the rice to cook right (and this after buying a rice cooker! Y u gotta foam up on me, rice?).

And- YAY CHARLIE!

Leeks cut into thin strips, lightly drizzled with olive oil and put in the oven on a cookie sheet while the roast is cooking until crispy then used as bed for the carved roast.<

I just made leeks vinaigrette yesterday!! Though not as a bed for roast, and I never knew you were supposed to cut the leeks into thin strips which makes sense now that you mention it. I steamed them for ten minutes (per cookbook instructions) before putting the vinaigrette on, but they were clearly not yet cooked, so I steamed them for maybe seven more minutes with the vinaigrette still on them (+ salt + pepper) at which point they were quite tasty, but the minced garlic I'd substituted for minced shallots (since I had none of the latter) for some reason turned blue! What's up with that? Is it dangerous? 'Twas weird.

Had to improvise and make onion gravy as I hadnt done roast meat. Nick gets his plate: "hey this is sausage sauce!". Dude, just eat it, its gravy ok.

Lori

balsamic vinagrette chicken: 3 chicken breasts split.

combine 1/2 cup cheap balsamic vinegar, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1/4 cup dijon mustard, juice of one lemon salt& pepper in baking dish.

whisk in 1/3 cup light olive oil, add chicken and let marinate a couple hours or more, turning occasionally.

bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so. at the same time, I made a pan of roast new potatoes, cut 3 lbs of little ones in half, tossed with chopped rosemary and more garlic, salt & pepper. put 'em in 1st.

when the chicken's done, remove and set aside on a platter. dump the sauce in a pan and boil for five-ten minutes, then pour some reduced sauce on chicken and serve w/the potatoes green salad and red wine.

I am searching for the meatloaf recipe that was in the October or November 2005 issue of women's world magazine.

Thanks
Steve

Those are two separate things. I use the crispy leek strips as a bed for roasts.

My leeks vinagrette consists of 3 to 4' long leek whites quartered into strips, sweated in butter and simmered until really soft and then dressed in a red wine/walnut oil/dijon mustard vinaigrette and refrigerated until cold, preferably overnight.

Tonight, the rest of the packed of hunting sausages in a stew of sorts with tomatoes and lentils (from the new Nigel Slater).

Also, milk was on sale, so time to make more mozzarella.

We had some of the egg yeast rolls for dinner - very yum. Might make another batch or two of the dough today and freeze.

I made rum-glazed salmon last night. The rum syrup is great and would work really, really well on shrimp or mahi-mahi as well, I think.

Then cool the oil to maybe 170 degrees, put in a piece of fish, and give it 5 minutes or so. Or 20 minutes at 145 degrees if you want your fish not rare but crazy-tender.

I'll confit the duck legs at some point, and now I have 3 duck livers and one (suspiciously small) goose liver in the freezer. I flayed the skin from the carcass and rendered all the fat last night (still have to strain it today), and have enough little bits of meat to make a nice risotto. As well as the carcass for stock.

Also started a pot of beef stock yesterday. Will defat, strain, and reduce to jelly over the course of today.

Nigella tip: use a spot of balsamic vinegar in your egg white/sugar mix. From experience, it tastes heavenly with strawberries.

So good.

Also last night I finally used the black rice that Jaq sent me to try making black rice pudding, which didn't quite turn out ideal (the rice stayed really firm, I think I didn't let them soak up enough water at first? are there tricks to using this rice?) but (especially after running it through the blender a bit and then refridgerating it) it's not bad at all!

tonight I'm making spaghetti & meatballs for family & guests. ground veal w/breadcrumbs & a little parm, simmered in marinara sauce. simple to make, but every cook needs a surefire kid/crowdpleaser.

There was plenty much butter and parmesan, though. As well as a spot of milk. Sigh.

It was pretty darn good, ebven though I overdid the steak a bit it was still juicy and full of floavour.

Tonight it's soy glazed pork loin chops, with salad I think.

Can you guess that I started getting organic produce delivered to me?

I also gave my brother-in-law (who cooks) a pint of goose grease. I'm not sure he appreciated it enough.

how did it turn out, Ally?

I actually cooked mushroom chicken the other night which was a huge step for me because handling, or often just looking at, raw chicken sends me into dry heaves. i had to leave the kitchen a few times and about a million 'OMG OMG OMG OMMFG!!! this is some sick SICK shit!!!!' we're said but i got it done and it tasted SO GOOD.

Yesterday we had sardines, which I plain-grilled, then covered in a salsa of anchovy, cherry tomato, black olives, coriander, garlic and chilli, whizzed up in the blender with a goodly glug of olive oil and lemon juice. Served with wilted spinach and potatoes which were boiled, halved, scored the cut side and laid cut side down in olive oil with hot smoked paprika, salt and pepper stirred through, fried at a good clip until the cut side went crusty. Damn.

yes that garlic/ginger paste roast chicken sounds awesome.

time to make a year's supply of challah

I've been experimenting with freezing the challah dough in roll shapes. Which works fine, but I don't have the timing right for the baking. They are coming out too crunchy.

I'm trying to work up the inspiration to make a huge amount of egg noodles. They take so much physical work I just haven't been up to it. It's so disheartening to open the fridge and see all those egg cartons. The food bank won't take them because they are perishable. Every time I think about offering some to our neighbors, they start yelling obscenities at each other and their kids, so I chicken out. (I've never actually spoken to these people on the other side of our house, because they have been vicious to each other from day 1).

I made so much custard, I ran out of vanilla, so we hit up the Vanilla King this weekend. Now I'm thinking massive quantities of cookie dough.

You should make tea eggs! Hard-cook eggs in a strong solution of black tea, soy sauce, and star anise, shatter the shells in pretty patterns, then soak in the cooking liquid in the fridge for 48 hours. And preserved "1000-year" eggs -- I'll see if I can track down a recipe. It involves lime (the mineral, not the fruit) and ash.

What else? Flans, zabagliones, souffles. There's a technique of cooking eggs at 170 degrees for 12 hours that causes browning reactions in the white, so it becomes brown and sweet and creamy -- have fun!

in the shell or out? The tea eggs sound beautiful!

Also, Easter approaches. I may just hide 5 or 6 dozen around town and send an anonymous letter to the editor. "Have fun kids! They are all brown! And raw!"

http://www.infraredherring.com/pics/tea_eggs2-1.jpg

The super-slow-cooked ones I've never tried. I'd say definitely in the shell -- cook them in a water bath in a warm oven or maybe in a crockpot? I bet they'll be hard to shell though when they're done; that seems to be the way these things work. Now of course my curiosity is piqued so I'll have to do a batch soon.

I've heard of the water glass method but I definitely think of it as pre-refrigeration technology. Likewise coating in lard or burying in salt.

Pink pickled eggs might be nice for Valentine's day....

I'll probably use the remaining tenderloin for chilli tonight.

this afternoon I'm making a standby: turkey/tomato/mozzarella lasagne. after using no-boil lasagne noodles for awhile I switched to the old fashioned boiled kind. slightly unwieldy but the texture/taste is so much better, the no-boils stay all crunchy.

will be freezing the ample leftovers for future reference.

Tonight I'll be making beef bourgignon, as long as the lad procures some nice cooking shiraz that is. And then tomorrow I'm gonna try make some cupcakes and/or a nice choc sponge cake for my birthday. I feel in a bakey cakey mood.

barbeques...ahh to be somewhere other than cold and wet england, will this winter never end? Much as I love winter roasts and hearty soups I'd love to be out with the barby right now charring a steak or three.

I did my own freeform thing this weekend and it turned out way better. I just browned the chicken, then used the same oil to soften onions, garlic and leeks. Then I put them in a big pot with the chicken, some cannellini, carrots, swede, celery and bouquet garni. A pint of red wine and a pint of water, seasoned and then bunged it in the oven for an hour. Much, much better. Kind of a cross between cassoulet and coq au vin.

And to celebrate:

http://static.flickr.com/34/120631094_f94433f50a.jpg

Flaxseed bread!

Garlic bulb, cloves separated but not skinned, browned them and then browned the chops on both sides. Meanwhile heated the oven up, 220 degrees, warming a baking dish. Transfered the chops and garlic to the dish, so that the ends of the chop were sticking up the side, then deglazed the pan with apple white-beer, reduced to half and added that to the pan. In the oven for 20 mins, basting half way through. Served with spinach and beetroot salad and mashed sweet potatoes with fried onions. The skin on the thin end of the chops had turned to crackling, num num num!

We've decided that we're no longer buying supermarket meat, but getting it from the butchers on the way home, they were absolutely superb chops, and only £3.44 for two.

In the end I put 'em on the griddle - and as per Nigel Slater's instructions seasoned them half way through cooking. Cooked them medium rare. Ate them with roasted onions, potatoes and peppers and liberal splashs of balsamic glaze. Bloody delicious!

Not buying supermarket meat has made a big difference in the quality of our diet, along with attempting to buy as much produce as possible from local farmers. We've got a farmer raising a pig for us this summer (butchering in October) and OH YES YES YES!!!! the asparagus harvest started this week!!!! I've been dying for some fresh greens!

Vicky, I have to say that having a freezer is really wonderful. Ours isn't very big (16 cu. ft, so like 3 cu. m), but so so handy. The other thing I'm happy to have in this house is a cool, dark basement - the apples lasted until Feb. and the yams and squashes are still holding out.

tonight = opposite end of spectrum, Vic's out so I've had a pot of olive hoummus and 2 pitta breads.

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Salad of butter lettuce and almost julienned cucumber, yellow bell pepper, fennel, tomatoes, gruyere, scallions, slices of leftover roast and chunks of avocado.

Dressing: Whole grain Dijon mustard, finely crumbled goat cheese, red wine vinegar, pinch of herbes de provence, olive oil vigorously emulsified.

Dress lettuce first then layer on other ingredients. Salt and liberally pepper. Open bottle of Sancerre.

#1 my traditional, turkey/mozzarella/ricotta/tomato/basil

#2 a new one, radicchio/mushroom/smoked mozzarella, substituted my marinara sauce for the bechamel-esque white sauce called for in the recipe. added some extra (fresh) mozz to compensate. we'll see...

it could go awry, but I will post pics

.... is a fantastic idea.

maybe it should be blitzed then squeezed?

the thing we had there was kind of pale and kind of thick though - and went sooooo well with the shrimp canneloni

I wonder how hollandaise would be, made with the rendered chorizo oil?

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Note my hamfisted attempt at little pastry leaves atop :D

I also made a delicious buttery "Grannys cake" today, a fave from an old cookbook I havent baked in years. Yum. A slice of that goes great with a cuppa - a lovely dense, sweet buttery cake. And I have a chicken baking for dinner at the moment... tis the weather for it all - cold and homely.

I think I might attempt a pie with a tomatoey mince type filling next. Or maybe another french style chicken and mushroom.

Oh god, my weight really don't need all this pastry...

I can envision a delicious rhubarb chutney.

I wish I had been given 10 lbs worth of rhubarb!

Rub on skirt steak or market steak and let sit for a while. Delicious. We made that Saturday with cucumber yoghurt salad. Simple, but such great flavors together.

Also - rhubarb/apple/cranberry crisp/crumble. Mmmmm.

And, made me consider a rhubarb clafouti.

spaghetti with anchovy sauce
linguini with white clam sauce (not from a can even!)
apricot walnut bars
bavarian chocolate cheesecake

and this weekend i am making a rhubarb/raspberry/blueberry crisp! plus we are fonduing on monday night, for which i have purchased emmenthal and gruyere cheese.

big salad of avocado, onion and petits pois dressed with lemon and olive oil, served with a baked mackerel

Just had for pudding - some weird Asturian cheese, quite soft and absolutely laden with pimenton so a big smoky flavour - very nice with oatcakes

Added to vegetables was a mixture of soy sauce, dry sherry, brown sugar, garlic and ginger. It was good.

We've been enjoying berries too, rasberries and strawberries, with vanilla sugar and maybe a dash of cassis. I love summer.

littleneck clams stir-fried with coconut milk, garlic, and jalapenos; giant sea scallops poached with butter, cream, and capers; grilled bluefish with mustard/lime marinade; grilled squid marinated with garlic, ginger, lime, and jalapenos; bibb lettuce/argula salad; kirby cucumber salad; asparagus broiled with olive oil.

and i made burgers the night before. they were wicked. i think that smoked paprika is the key secret ingredient.

The X factor seems to be the rice, having used leftover rice from Thai takeaway the other night. They add a touch of saffron and somehow give it a sticky consistency. V. num.

Anyway, all I added was a slosh of olive oil in the pan, threw in the rice, then some dried mixed herbs, before finally adding 1 tbsp of soy sauce. So so good.

Dinner tonight: roast cornish game hens rubbed with coarse salt, cayenne, and 5 spice; sauteed asparagus; fresh raspberry clofoutis with whipped cream.

Silly pic of my first baked bread. Kind of turned out okay...

I have not made a damn thing in ages. Sigh. I need to find my groove back. (By which I probably mean: I need to have someone to cook FOR.)

Yesterday I made poncy ballotine of guinea fowl and was all nonchalant about it.

Wow, Matt, you too! What did you bake? I'm very tempted to get some more ingredients. After the raisin bread, I'll probably try a wholemeal (?) bread. I'm gonna do one a week. Don't want to overdose on bread(making). :-)

I warmed up with some flatbreads before making a great big wholemeal loaf, very nice it was too. Chris is the man to talk to about baking, I think.

Did you make a smaller loaf than the recipe said? If so, then yes, you'd have to reduce the amount of baking time. The other possibility is that your oven is not accurate (which is very common) -- a little over thermometer would let you know and are not very expensive.

(This feels like I'm the only one cooking here.)

btw, I had a job interview today - it went well, but suddenly the guy says "So, what's the deal with The Lone Biscuit???" Hey, you - Reality? Stay away from my cyberself, okay??

Guess who's just got a new job?

Sorry, I think I just came.

;-)

We just ate duck ham, oh my

Duck ham you say? Goodness me.

Craftbar here serves a lovely pressed sandwich of duck prosciutto, taleggio, and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms.

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fuzzy pic of muffin.

gonna try a simply spaghetti w/julienned zuchini olive oil & fresh parmesan tonight.

Matt's new job feast (congrats) sounds fantastic and I'm in utter awe over the ambitious menu.

my nightmare job interview: Oh so you're lovebug from ILX?

I was craving a Thai hot/sweet combo tonight, so I made this:

Started some farfalle boiling. In another pan, I started frying some minced garlic and ginger in a Tbsp. each of butter and olive oil, then added half a thinly sliced vidalia onion. When the onion was soft, I added a teaspoon of hot chili paste, then a dozen large peeled shrimp. When the shrimp just started to go opaque, I added a palmful of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of lime juice and 1/4 cup of vegetable stock. Drained the pasta and threw that in, tossed it all together, and then added one rough-chopped ripe peach just as I turned the heat off. Tossed it all together for a few seconds to let the peach get hot, dished it up, and climbed in. Pretty yum.

Made a pretty standard chicken stock in the afternoon (chicken thighs, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, topped with water, simmered for an hour), strained the stock, shredded the cooked chicken.

Sauted spring onion, garlic, LOTS of ginger, and chiles in groundnut oil. After they're soft, added about a tablespoon of ground coriander, let that cook for a minute, then dissolved whatever stuck to the bottom of the pan with the juice from half a lime, a bit of fish sauce, and a spoonful of sugar.

Poured in my chicken stock and simmered for an hour, to let all the flavors integrate. At the end, added the shredded chicken, some cooked rice noodles, and tons and tons of chopped cilantro. A squeeze of lime at the table and you've got a hot, fresh, life-giving soup. Mmmm. I just had the leftovers for lunch.