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food+drink

Culinary Adventures #118: Sunday Cookathon

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Not so much an adventure this time around, but a big session cooking some staples, as occasionally happens here on a Sunday.

  1. I started off at lunchtime with tomato soup. I’d sweated and simmered down a panful of soft tomatoes and some salad onions (with garlic and a small piece of chopped ginger) on Friday afternoon, these had then been left to mature. So for lunch today I finished the soup. I sieved most of the liquor to remove the majority of the tomato skins and seeds. It was all then blended, with a good squirt of garlic paste and tomato paste. I added a tin of lentils, some Worcs. Sauce and some dried mixed herbs; reheated it and cooked for some minutes. Served with bread rolls and some added shaved cheddar cheese. And there’s enough for lunch tomorrow as well.
  2. This was followed later in the afternoon with an very tasty roast chicken (Waitrose higher welfare, slower growing bird) with garlic potatoes and roast veg (a mix of onion, yellow pepper and fennel). The chicken was full of flavour and very tender. And there’s plenty of cold chicken for during the week.
  3. For pudding I did a rustic mixed fruit tart. Puff pastry filled with some nectarine, raspberries, strawberries and a few plums – with just a splash of peach schnapps. No need to trim off the excess pastry, just fold it over.
    Rustic mixed fruit tart ready for the oven

    As you’ll see from the photo below, this turned out rather juicy, but was also very tasty served with double cream. And again there’s enough for a breakfast or two!

    And here’s the fruit tart just out of the oven

So nothing really out of the ordinary, but some rather tasty meals nonetheless.

food+drink

Culinary Adventures #117: Gooseberry Fool

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It’s summer, so the supermarket have gooseberries. Mostly green gooseberries, although the other week they did have some gorgeous red desert ones. Anyway they need to be encouraged to these seasonal (and local) fruit and veg options, so we try to buy them when we can; hence the enjoyment of English asparagus (see many earlier posts). The supermarket also already have English plums – blimey they’re early even for Opal – so we’re on those as soon as they arrive.

Before anyone says it, no I can’t be doing with growing my own (I wish I could); if nothing else my back won’t do it. Besides gooseberries are always destroyed by sawfly; ours were at home when I was a kid, and the couple of bushes we had when we were first here were destroyed too; there really isn’t room in our garden for a fruit cage (we could have done it instead of the pond, I guess) and I won’t use “industrial” pesticides.

Anyway, back to gooseberries. Having made gooseberry tart the last couple of weeks, this week I decided to try something I’ve never done before: Gooseberry Fool. As usual I merged several recipes and then made it up as I went along. So this is how it went.

Gooseberry Fool

Serves: 4 for a normal size sweet course
Preparation: 10 minutes and 15 minutes, plus chilling
Cooking: 10 minutes

For the Gooseberries

  • 300g of topped & tailed gooseberries
  • 4tbsp caster sugar
  • 2tbsp good Gin (or water if you want to avoid alcohol)
  • 2tbsp Elderflower Cordial (optional)

For the Cream

  • 220g Greek Yoghurt
  • 220ml Double Cream
  • 2tbsp (heaped) icing sugar (but caster sugar is OK)
  • 1tsp Vanilla Extract
The gooseberries looked really emerald green in the pan

What to do …

  1. The day before you want to eat, start by cooking the gooseberries. Having topped and tailed them, put them in a saucepan with the caster sugar, gin and elderflower cordial. Simmer gently until the fruit is soft and beginning break apart.
  2. Remove from the heat and mash the fruit down a bit more with a fork. Transfer to a box and when cool fridge overnight.
  3. A few hours before you need to eat, put everything together.
  4. Put the yoghurt, sugar and vanilla together in a bowl and beat gently until smooth. Now gently whisk in the cream (I used a fork for all this) until everything is well mixed and the cream is beginning to thicken. Add the gooseberries, combine gently and spoon into glasses (or dishes).
  5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving with (crumbled) Amaretti.
The finished fool, just out of the fridge and waiting for a spoon

Notes

  1. Don’t worry about the gooseberry pips. Some recipes insist the gooseberries should be sieved, but in my view this is an unnecessary waste of time (and fruit goodness). You’ll hardly notice the pips in the finished product.
  2. The gin and elderflower cordial add some depth of flavour, but are entirely optional. If you omit them use a couple of tablespoons of water in their place.
  3. Crumbled Amoretti sprinkled on the fool makes a nice crunchy contrast.
food+drink

Culinary Adventures #116: Lemony Prawn & Asparagus Stir-fry

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For a multitude of reasons I’ve not written anything foodie for a while, so to make up here is last night’s stir-fry. Yes, it’s another variant on one of my ever adaptable recipes. And this is a stir-fry with no soy sauce or the like, so it’s low salt, light and fresh – and quick.

Prawn & Asparagus Stir-fry with Lemon & Noodles

Serves: 2 for a generous main course
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

For the Stir-fry

  • 2 nests of fine noodles
  • 2 160g packs raw king prawns (more if greedy)
  • 1 bunch of English asparagus
  • 2 banana shallots, finely sliced
  • 3cm piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
  • 3-6 cloves of garlic (according to taste), thinly sliced
  • knob of butter
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

For the Sauce

  • 1 heaped tsp cornflour
  • juice & zest of a lemon
  • 50ml dry sherry
  • pinch chilli flakes
  • black pepper

What to do …

  1. As always with stir-fry, have everything prepared before you start cooking.
  2. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
  3. Prepare the asparagus. Break off the lower part of each spear (it’ll break where it wants to) and discard the lower woody piece. Cut the top of each spear into 5cm-ish pieces.
  4. Sauté the shallot, ginger, garlic & asparagus (yes, really!) in the olive oil & butter for about 4 minutes until the shallot is going translucent.
  5. Meanwhile cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
  6. Add the prawns and continue cooking until they’re all pink and cooked through; about another 3 minutes.
  7. Add the sauce to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes more to thicken and coat the prawns & asparagus.
  8. Drain the noodles and divide between warmed bowls.
  9. Top each bowl of noodles with stir-fry.

Sorry, no photo – we ate it all!

food+drink

Culinary Adventures #115: Cod and Orange

This was a real adventure as it’s not something I’ve tried before and I wasn’t at all sure it would work from a taste point of view. However even though I’m not a huge fan of cod (I find it too bland and boring) I thought it worth trying. As usual this is based on, but doesn’t slavishly follow, a recipe online.

Baked Cod with Orange & Ginger

Serves: 2
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 good sized cod loins/steaks
  • 3-4cm piece of ginger, peeled & grated
  • 3-4tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • juice & zest of an orange
  • 1-2tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 1tsp cumin powder
  • pinch of salt
  • black pepper
  • orange slices/wedges to garnish (optional)

plated cod with orange

What to do

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (or a bit higher if not using a fan oven).
  2. Pat the cod pieces dry and place in a baking dish, leaving some space between. Season with a very small pinch of salt.
  3. Mix orange juice & zest, shredded ginger, olive oil, herbs, cumin and a few grinds of black pepper in a small bowl. Stir to combine.
  4. Brush the cod generously on both sides with the orange mix.
  5. Cover foil and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
  6. Then remove foil and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the cod is cooked through and slightly crispy on top.
  7. Serve, garnished with orange slices if desired (I didn’t).

I served it with garlic roast potatoes (I must write them up sometime as they’re one of our favourites, and dead easy) and a fennel slaw.

Conclusion

Well it worked and was edible, the cod was only just overcooked (it had an extra 5 minutes to try to get it crispy), and the combination of flavours worked well together. But it needs work and improvement …

The cod wasn’t really crispy, partly I suspect as it ended up with too much liquor in the baking dish. In part that was probably because I had used a large, very juicy, orange. I should have kept a couple of slices of orange for garnish as there would still have been plenty of juice.

The other thing was that for me the orange and ginger didn’t really come through to the extent I thought they should. Again that may have been down to too much liquor and the orange not adhering enough to the cod. Maybe try reducing the orange juice and using a bit less oil, so it’s stickier?

I do wonder if another time I will try coating the cod in breadcrumbs with orange zest, ginger and herbs and pan frying it. Maybe served with a small amount of sharp (not sweet) orange sauce. Something to try when the supermarket next have good cod on offer!

Nevertheless it was a worthwhile experiment and something different.

food+drink, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links, October

So once more, somehow, another month passes and we come around again to this month’s selection of links to items you didn’t know you didn’t want to miss!

Science, Technology, Natural World

Starting here, it’s all downhill, because it seems that a lot of science is actually faked.

Fly brains may be tiny in size but they’re still stuffed with very complex inter-weavings of thousands of neurons, so it’s amazing that researchers have managed to map every neuron. Two reports, first from BBC, and second from Scientific American [££££].

At a different level, scientists have analysed ancient DNA to unravel how the endangered Iberian Lynx avoided extinction.

Some fish in the sea are so bizarre … here’s one that walks on six legs, and those legs can smell its prey in the sand. [££££]

Still at sea, but now above the water, research has found that the windless doldrums around the equator are caused in a completely different way than previously thought.

Staying with things geographical, apparently Mount Everest is still getting taller and not quite in the way we might expect.

It’s no great surprise that scientists have found that the asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs was not a one-off.

And talking of meteorites, there was a mega meteorite about 3 billion years ago which was at least the size of Greater London which boiled the ocean and created a 500km wide crater.

NASA has shut down one of Voyager 2’s five remaining instruments to save power.

And finally in this section, did the early universe balloon in size with “cosmic inflation“, or is there a much simpler explanation?

Health, Medicine

This month’s medical matters are all to do with reproduction, in one way or another …

There are many genetic changes that link puberty to other aspects of physiology and affect its timing.

Prof. Christina Pagel highlights why we need to stop ignoring period pain and heavy bleeding!

Why is it that many doctors don’t believe women about the menopause? [££££]

At which point the Guardian asks if wearing a bra makes breasts more perky.

Let’s segue away from “women only” … in a move labelled “bonkers” by many, an NHS hospital in Norfolk has instructed staff that they must not describe babies as “born” male or female [££££]

And finally to the morgue where pathologists have found, during an autopsy, that the deceased 78-year-old man had not two, but three penises – and it is only the second ever such report and the first in an adult. Two reports, from Popular Science and Gizmodo. And the published academic papers make interesting reading!

Environment

In the hope of re-establishing colonies right across Britain, a number of pine martens have been released at a secret locations in Devon.

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

It is being alleged that companies will no longer want to force people to change passwords every few weeks to counteract cyber attacks. I’ll believe it when it happens.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

An illustrator talks about how she went about a big commission.

Brits are forever complaining about the relentless invasion of English by Americanisms, but British English regularly invades the US.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

What?! So little history this month?!

Archaeologists have found a very rare Bronze Age wooden spade in southern England.

Archaeologists have found another tiny house in Pompeii which is decorated with erotic frescoes.

Going Medieval finds that medieval people were just as much into side hustles as their modern counterparts.

Food, Drink

White mulled wine seems set to be a thing in UK this Christmas, with Marks & Spencer taking the lead.

Why did European cuisine become so bland? Apparently because snobbery decreed the removal of all the spices and contrasting flavours from the cuisine.

Is it possible to make a commercial, ethically responsible, and tasty fish finger?

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

We should put down our mobile phones and get back into the habit of reading

So just why shouldn’t women propose marriage to men?

And last, but by no means least …

On discovering something wonderful when skint and posing as a nude model. [££££]

food+drink

Culinary Adventure #114: Black Pepper

This episode of Culinary Adventures isn’t so much an adventure as an observation and question to which I cannot find an easy answer.

I’ve been using freshly ground black pepper since I was a student – so some 50 years or more. And until a year or so ago, had you asked me, I would have said that I hardly noticed it imparting a great deal of flavour.

black peppercorns

But this last year or two I’ve noticed that freshly ground black pepper is much stronger, really peppery, and really fragrant. It’s a different hotness to chilli, which I like. And it doesn’t seem to matter how finely or coarsely it is ground.

So why am I suddenly noticing the change?

Sure, we could have unwittingly recently brought a different, better, brand – but it must have happened several times over the last couple of years. Or are the peppercorns we’re getting now from a new/different cultivar? Or from a totally different growing region? Does the terroir affect the potency, in the way it affects wine? Are the peppercorns being processed differently?

Or is it that my ageing taste buds and olfactory sensors have suddenly changed? (And no, it isn’t down to Covid affecting smell & taste.)

I don’t know the answer. Has anyone else noticed this? Or does anyone have good knowledge of peppercorn production?

food+drink

Culinary Adventures #113: Fennel Slaw

This one is so dead easy and quick that it almost doesn’t justify a post of its own!

I wanted something fairly plain but a good contrast to tonight’s barbeque-ish pork ribs – see my recipe of long ago. My first thought was coleslaw, but not only is it a bit hackneyed, we didn’t have the ingredients. Then I thought, if the supermarket can sell us a slaw made with celeriac … I wonder how well it would work with fennel. It did, and of course it’s so easy to do – so easy I’m not even going to write a traditional-style recipe.

I used two small “banana” shallots, finely sliced (but a small onion would do); plus a nice fat, fresh bulb of fennel, also finely sliced. Add a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs (I had mint and parsley), a good grind of black pepper, and a couple of generous tablespoons of (light) mayonnaise. Mix well, cover, and chill in the fridge until needed (but preferably not too much more than an hour).

It worked extremely well with the ribs and garlic roast potatoes.