improve my cooking skills

I haven’t cooked everything from my list below because just wasn’t feeling them, but I’ve been trying loads of new recipes in the past few months.

One thing I learned to cook is frittata and I make it now weekly (frankly, I don’t know why I hadn’t tried frittatas before). I just put in it whatever is in the fridge – mushrooms, leek, peppers, sweet potato, peas…. the more stuff the better and I top it with buffalo mozarella, mmmm….

Another thing I can’t get enough of is sweetpotatoes. I’ve experimented with different ways of making mash and I make sweet potato chips all the time. Sooo nice and satisfies my sweet tooth as well…

I regularly make a quiche for hubby for lunch, very easy once I realised I can use frozen ready made pastry ;-). I cook a lot of fish and been trying different varieties as well. I got some great ideas from the tv show ‘Caribbean food made easy’ recently, nom nom. Oh, and one of my favourite things – my super healthy burritos. I fill some wheat free pancake wraps (homemade of course!) with black bean chilli, top with buffalo mozarella and voila…

Couple of weeks ago I found a recipe for mixed bean and lentil hotpot. As I was making it, I realised it was very bland, so I put in some fennel seeds and coriander seeds and, omg, it was beautiful. I now make it all the time. Such an easy dish to make and perfect winter food.

I’m starting to feel very confident in the kitchen. I can now actually open the pantry, see what’s in there and whip something up, well, most of the times at least….

Warning: vegetarians look away now! :)

I’ve been wanting to make a terrine for ages but didn’t have a suitable dish. So I asked my dear mama for one for my birthday, which was back in July, and then periodically she’d ask me if I’d made one yet, and the whole thing turned into a dreadful guilt trip so eventually I thought the best way to overcome that was actually to make the damned thing!

The problem facing me was that although everyone (= Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) says that terrines are dead easy to make, the list of ingredients in all the recipes I could find was lengthy and full of things that would be difficult to get hold of and that I felt somewhat squeamish about, not having grown up in the sort of household that plucked its own pheasants.

But eventually I worked out an ingredients list that I could cope with, and made the terrine, and it was considered to be a great success by my advisor in all matters gastronomic, G. So I’m making another one today. NB it’s the sort of thing you need to make a day in advance.

Ingredients

• 2 duck breasts
• sausagemeat – best to buy sausages and take the skins off. Today I think I had about 450g of sausages
• streaky bacon, about 16 rashers
• prunes, soaked ovenight in armagnac :)
• last time I included duck livers, this time I forgot to get them, duh! Never mind!
• this time I am including pistachio nuts though!

Method

1. heat oven to 160C
2. chop up prunes, and duck livers if using, and combine with sausagemeat and pistachios if using. And anything else you feel like chucking in at this stage e.g. spices
3. cut the duck breasts up into chunks and brown them in a frying pan
4. line terrine dish with streaky bacon
5. layer the sausagemeat mixture and the duck until all used up
6. put lid on terrine dish, put it in a roasting tray and fill up to about half way with hot water, then bung in the oven for an hour and a half to two hours.
7. take it out, take the lid off, weight it down – I covered it with foil and then used some tin cans last time.

Allow to cool and put it in the fridge overnight. When ready to serve, the exciting bit is prising it out of the terrine dish – ta da!

It’s supposed to serve 8-10, and it probably would if you were serving it as a starter. Wonderful hearty rustic fare, excellent with salad, cornichons and a smidgeon of fig chutney. And a bottle of red wine, bien sur ;)

I shouldn’t really be writing this yet as I haven’t finished making it but I’ve made it before and know it’s going to be ace! The recipe is loosely based on one from Nigella, but don’t take against it on that account ;)

Ingredients

• damsons (apparently the things G brought back from Kittenville are actually opal plums according to his brother, but we’ve always called them damsons!)
• sugar
• spices
• double cream

Method

This is inspired!

• Put the whole damsons in a saucepan with 125ml of water and some sugar – am being deliberately vague about quantity because I guess it depends on your attitude to sugar, but you do need a bit.
• I added my spices (star anise and cinnamon this evening) at this stage too.
• Bring to the boil and simmer until the damsons are soft. This took about half an hour.
• Mush the mushy damsons through a sieve.
• Let the mushed up damsons cool (am doing this at the mo).
• Combine with whipped cream. Nigella adds icing sugar to her whipped cream but I’m not going to bother.

Looking forward to eating this for breakfast tomorrow!

i can cook but only basic stuff and would love to improve so that i can do more stuff with my home grown produce when i eventually manage that one :)

Strangely, I don’t seem to have posted the recipe for meringues which have been the hit of the summer, and when combined with strawberries/raspberries and cream, become Eton Mess! I almost wonder whether I should post this recipe as it may destroy the mystique, but in the spirit of public service and all that….

I have been using St Delia’s trusty recipe which is extraordinarily simple and takes 5 minutes. I strongly urge everyone to try making their own meringues as there is no comparison with the shop ones and they are dead easy! But you do really need an electric whisk.

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 40g caster sugar

Yeah, this is my kind of ingredients list! This makes about 8 medium-sized meringues. 2 of these is a perfect (i.e. quite generous) portion size for Eton Mess.

Method

• Preheat oven to 140C
• Put the egg whites in a big bowl
• Whisk on low for 2 min
• Whisk on medium for 1 min
• Whisk on high, gradually adding the sugar, for 1 min.

You should be left with a lovely glossy white mixture. Spoon it out onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Bung in the oven for 30 min, then turn the oven off. At this point you’re supposed to leave them in the oven for 4 hours. However I have frequently succumbed to temptation and begun guzzling well before that ;) They are crunchy on the outside, and gooey on the inside, just bloody wonderful for so little effort!

If you’re going to keep them (e.g. to have for breakfast the next day) then I suggest you store them in a box of some sort – they last at least a day but am not sure how much longer than that as this has never been an issue here at Leopard Towers ;)

_{edit: just discovered I did already post an entry about these a while back! but they’re so good I think they deserve a second one ;)}

Made this a couple of years ago based on a Jamie Oliver recipe a friend gave me (I find him far too irritating to have any of his books, though I suspect his recipes are quite good). This time I also used another recipe here and took the bits I liked from both.

Ingredients

• leg of lamb (think mine was, er, 3kg! lots of leftovers!)
• 3 red onions cut up roughly
• 6 carrots, chopped into largish chunks
• 4 parsnips, ditto
• a bulb of garlic, split into cloves
• fresh rosemary
• 1 bottle white wine

Method

Heat oven to 200C. Chop up veg and lay in roasting tin with rosemary. Lay lamb on top. Roast for 30 min.

Take it out, turn oven down to 180, pour in wine, cover with foil. Roast for another 3.5 hours.

Take it out, take foil off, roast for another hour, same temperature.

The results were magnificent, even if I do say so myself! The lamb was great and the vegetables had caramelised very nicely. The wine had reduced to form a pretty good sauce. Very easy and very good for entertaining. Realistically serves 6 but we guzzled most of it between 4 of us and I have some leftover lamb which we are going to turn into a curry this evening!

The Jamie Oliver recipe includes potatoes and celeriac but not parsnips. The other recipe uses butternut squash and cherry tomatoes. Both use carrots, the parsnips were my own touch as I am something of a parsnip addict. So I guess you can pretty much use whatever veg you like! Highly recommended.

I made this yesterday, so here’s the report.

First I caramelised about 10 small organic red onions – I sliced them finely then slow-cooked them with some butter for about half an hour, then added a dash of the magic ingredient, Belazu balsamic vinegar (this stuff is expensive but worth every penny). Then decided the onions had mushed down so much that I’d better cook some more! Next time I would probably aim to use about 6 big onions. I did this well ahead of time and allowed them to cool.

For the pastry, I used M Roux’s pate brisee recipe, which worked well although it went very hard while in the fridge and was quite hard work to roll out, and I am dreadful at rolling pastry so I ended up with a shape that reminded me of France, as opposed to the perfect circle that M Roux always seems to achieve in his illustrations.

I then baked it blind – a new adventure! – which involved putting the pastry in the flan dish, then covering it with baking parchment and weighing it down with beans (I used dried soya beans) and baking at 190C for 20 min. Then I turned down the oven to 170C and took the beans out and put the flan back in the oven with no filling at this stage, for 10 min. Finally I added the onions and sprinkled some thyme on the top, and cooked at 170C for a further 30 min. We let it rest about 15 min before eating, as apparently tarts are supposed to be served warm not hot.

We ate it with a green salad and although it looked a lot, we finished it comfortably between four of us. I would have added some goats cheese to it had we not also been having a cheese course and also one of my friends doesn’t like goats cheese. I also saw a recipe for caramelised onion tart with feta which sounded quite good so that would be a possibility next time.

In terms of effort v. reward: I have to be honest and say it was quite a lot of effort to make the pastry. The whole thing took about 2 hours from start to finish with a few quiet minutes in between. It was very satisfying though, and it did taste extremely good. I would make it again, but probably only at a weekend when I have plenty of time and people coming round. I’d also say it felt like more of a lunchtime dish somehow. For wow factor, the meringues were much quicker and easier!

My friend LA is coming round for dinner on Sat and she let slip a couple of years ago that she loves meringues, so I thought it would be rather nice to have Eton Mess as a pudding (strictly speaking this involves strawberries, but I shall use frozen raspberries).

I discussed meringue-making with Mum while I was at home – she wasn’t convinced it was worth making my own as the bought ones are quite good these days. A fair point, but the aim is to extend my culinary skills.

I used a recipe from St Delia’s website here. I used 3 organic egg whites and 6 oz (170g) sugar i.e. 1.5 times the amount in the recipe. This made 11 decent sized meringues.

Was very glad I have an electric whisk thingy! Anyway, it all went to plan and took less than 5 minutes! There was a slight hitch when it came to putting them in the oven, as I had 2 trays which meant one had to go higher up.

I totally failed on the “leave them 4 hours to cool” bit. I managed to wait 1.5 hours before I ate the first one, and 3 hours till I ate the second. Wow. I mean, like, wow. These are seriously seriously good. Not only really easy to make but also miles better than bought ones – crisp on the outside, then there’s a chewy bit, then a softer bit. The only question now is how do I not eat the whole lot before Saturday? ;)

The only thing I would change next time is I might try to use less sugar, as it seemed like a lot and they are very sweet.

I’m cooking a lot these days and I’ve become much more confident and creative in the kitchen than I was a year ago. I can now improvise a little and make small changes to recipes and it’s good fun. Recently I’ve felt a bit bored, however, so it’s time to find new recipes and ideas to try. Last night I spent an hour flicking through few cookbooks and made a list of nice sounding recipes that I want to try.
This is going to be a loooong list, so apologies…

Brunches

Mushroom & tomato frittata (or leek) (fd58/87)
Omelette with beans (fd140)
Gramflour pancakes and salsa (gi106)
Sweet pepper and cashew nut flan (d79)

Lunches (or light meals)
Mash toppers (fd66)
Avocado and quinoa salad (fd93)
Tomato & red pepper soup with avocado (gi34)
Egg fu yong (gi60)
Mixed wholegrain salad with miso dressing (d118)
Sweetcorn chowder (d105)
Lentil and carrot soup (d38)
Beetroot, rocket, apple and cashew salad (d31)
Beans with creamed avocado dressing (d25)

Dinners (or protein dishes)
Chestnut and vegetable burgers (cv77)
Ginger, aduki bean and celeriac cakes (d38)
Thai beancakes with sweet pepper sauce (gi94) .
Tempeh burgers (gi151)
Butter bean and coriander potato cakes (d73) .
Quorn korma (i38) .
Coconut quorn (fd84)
Spicy millet and roasted hazelnuts (+quorn pieces) (cv80)
Leeks in red pesto and tofu sauce (fd106)
Butternut and squash risotto (cv67)
Garlic & chilli split pigeon pea curry (i115)
Bengali style aubergine cooked in yoghurt (i104)
Moroccan chickpea casserole (gi119)
Keralan potato curry (gi59)
Millet pilaff with baked aubergine (d128)
Tofu and pineapple stirfry (p124)
Corn enchiladas with tofu, spinach and salsa (d119)
Grilled lemon sole (d69) .
Asian fishcakes (fd118) .
Coconut and coriander fish (fd122) .
Bengali style baked fish (i77)
Coconut and chilli panfried halibut (i74)
Simple north Indian fish curry (i70)
Coconut mackerel curry (i69)
Tandoori monkfish (i64)
Haddock fishcakes (pf122)

Sides or snacks .
Leek compote (fd95) .
Split yellow peas with spring onions (fd132)
Coconut rice (i123)
Toasted spiced chickpeas (i109)
Fried spiced okra (i101)
Spinach with tomatoes (i94)
Five seed potatoes (i92)
Potato rosti (pf62)
Tofu &hijiki balls (gi160)
Veggie sushi (gi122)
Cabbage thoran (gi61)
Spinach curry (gi60)
Cumin roasted sweet potatoes (gi46) .
Crispy sweet corn fritters (d72)
Twice baked sweet potatoes (d70) .
Gujerati carrot salad (d62)

Dips, dressings etc
Green salsa (fd94)
Red salsa (fd95)
Yoghurt sauce with green herbs (fd95)
Salad dressings (fd114)
Marinades (fd126)
Sweet corn and avocado salsa (cv60)
Mango and avocado salsa (cv57)
Soya mayonnaise (d112)
Roas pepper and basil dip (d29)

Baking
Gingered carrot cake (pf50)
Date flapjacks (p42)
Date and walnut cake (pf42)
Banana muffins (pf34)
Sticky date bread (gi183)
Banana and cashew slice (d135)
Spiced baked bananas (d82)

I’m not going to set any deadlines for this, because I want it to be enjoyable and more about the cooking than beating a deadline, but I’d like to try at least 2 new things every week. It’ll still take a while (and I still have about 10 more cookbooks to go through and lots of recipes bookmarked online – i think i’ll try to finish this list first.)

I’m making corn chowder right now and later tonight I’ll be making twice baked sweet potatoes and some fish, maybe try one of the fish recipes above. Might even make spiced bananas for dessert….

perfect the art of pellkartoffeln mit quark.

it may sound boring, but i’ve just realised it’s by far my favourite german dish: potatoes with quark and linseed oil. as served in the spreewald, delicious with a bit of raw onion and lots of fresh herbs. when i’ve mastered that, i can move on to frankfurt green sauce. they sell the appropriate herbs at our local purveyor of fine foods.