The Sacred Art of Eating

It’s been a year since I finished The Challenge. I spent lots of time last year saying ‘this will definitely be cooked again’- so, one year on, what have we gone back to?

• Red Prawn and Mango Curry -a great many meals inspired by this, as well as ‘proper’ repeats.
• Caramel Croissant Pudding - about three times! Including just last night, in celebration of the acquisition of some bourbon.
• Rhubarb and Custard Gelato - when I found some pink rhubarb, and I even blogged about it!
• Steak Slice with Lemon and Thyme -at least once!
  
• Flourless Chocolate Brownies, and
• Hot Chocolate Sauce -when my cousin and her man came for dinner. Very well received :o)
  
• Goujons of Sole with Dill Mayonnaise- I am fairly sure we did this but perhaps without any dill. But I remember frying!
• Mango Split
• Home-made Instant Pancake Mix, - absolutely loads. It is our standard recipe for ‘breakfast’ pancakes now. We even did it for D’s parents and Granny on Christmas morning this year.
• Blueberry Syrup for Pancakes- sometimes, but not always, when we make the above. Ridiculously easy, ridiculously good!
• Maple Chicken ‘n’ Ribs- still can’t get them as sticky as I want. Still meaty and good.
• Moonblush Tomatoes
• High-Speed Hamburger with Fast Fries- fast fries, certainly. Not sure about the burgers.
  
• Tuna Steaks with Black Beans- yup, although we couldn’t get pinto beans in Leith, funnily enough!
• Nectarine and Blueberry Galette-right here!
  
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae- well the sauce anyway. Tis gorgeous!
• Chowder with Asian Flavours
• Rapid Ragù- winter warming fare.
  
• Jumbleberry Crumble
• Doughnut French Toast
• Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies- they don’t hold their own weight though, so are not to be advised for taking to parties!
  
• Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon- we haven’t re-cooked these. But D bought smoked salmon today. And the night is yet young!
• Duck Breasts with Pomegranate and Mint- again, I have not yet re-cooked. But I do have two duck breasts sitting in the freezer waiting specifically for the right occasion.
• Ice Cream Cake- for a party, it went down very well! So fast, in fact, that I got no pictures of the finished product!
• Mexican Hot Chocolate 1 2 Properly- Essentially whenever we have any kahlua!
  
• Rocky Road Crunch Bars- a LOT
  
• Sesame Peanut Noodles- quick, easy and very satisfying. Plus once you’ve bought beansprouts you might as well make a massive amount.
• Snowball- repeated a couple of times and then it dawned on me, the reason I didn’t rate it was that I don’t like lemonade! How obvious! Dougal has since introduced me to drinking advocaat with ginger ale. Much better!
• Festive Fusilli- is only festive if you serve it at a feast. Otherwise is sunblush tomato, vodka and mascarpone pasta!
• Marshmallow Crispy Squares- at least once. I needed to use the rice crispies up! And they are scrummy.
• Garlic Oil- eventually it dawned on me to use a food processor to cut the garlic up. We need a new bottle now, in fact.
• Salade Niçoise- even with the inclusion of anchovies!

17% repeat rate. I predicted at least 10 at dinner tonight, so I suppose I’m not wrong. Looking through the list tonight it is clear that I like making sweet things! I think the recipes we repeated were probably more representative of low-faff rather than those recipes we were most excited about last year. This might be because the biggest surprises came from recipes I would never normally have bothered with before…and which apparently I am not inclined to go back to! A revision of the list tonight was good though- now I have some fresh ideas for 2010!

One of those recipes I’d been half-dreading and wondering whether I could fob off on other people.

• Marsala Honey Pears with Gorgonzola

The reason for my dread was my mistaken belief that I do not like Gorgonzola. Strange, for someone who is generally a fan of their blue cheeses. Apart from various rather unpleasant Walnut and Gorgonzola filled fresh pastas, as far as I’m aware my only genuine experience of Gorgonzola was at a friend’s Wine Tasting Birthday Party last year. I’m certain that I came away from that firmly resolved to avoid Gorgonzola in the future.

Thing is, tonight, I loved this cheese. It was blue and creamy and had a varied texture. I honestly don’t know how I came to have this incorrect impression of Gorgonzola. It’s not as if my taste in cheese has changed over the last year. I can only come to the rather sorry conclusion that perhaps at this party last year I avoided the Gorgonzola, on the basis of dodgy pasta experiences in the past. I really hope that’s not the case. History does not relate.

Anyhoo! We had this pudding tonight as a sneaky ‘end of holiday’ late night treat, practically a midnight feast. We were both really impressed- with the soft fruity pears which went ever so well with the creamy cheese, and with the sticky sweet walnuts. Dougal remarked that he’d happily eat the cheese on its own, with just some oatcakes, but I have to say I thought the pomp and ceremony rather suited it. A nicely silly pudding, in a grand way. We may well revisit it, although we’re not great for having pears handy so who sadly I think it will have to be planned rather than a delightful impromptu meeting of flavours. Do give this a try!

A pudding that felt like an effort to eat and a mis-use of the ingredients.

• Peaches in Muscat

This recipe is exactly as the name suggests; peaches served in a glass of muscat wine. You let the two meld together beforehand, for flavours, but otherwise it is basically just fruit in wine.

Which is kinda weird. The wine was a bit overpowering (there was probably too much per person, we kinda ignored the proportions as we’d a half bottle of Beames de Venise left over from the Blackberries in Muscat Jelly) and the fruit didn’t seem to have been greatly improved by the wine. Neither of us were especially sure what to make of the serving suggestion either- we added some cream to the mix but it didn’t really work. Dougal gave up after the fruit and while I manfully finished mine it was a bit of an effort.

The other serving suggestion- ice cream- got us thinking. We agreed that if you used a good bit less wine, did the steeping bit, but then served it over a scoop of ice cream, it might be pretty good. Failing that, some peaches and cream, with a toty glass of dessert wine on the side!

Tonight we finally tackled a recipe which has been on the cards for months.

• Pappardelle with Escarole
• Clafoutis

Pappardelle with Escarole has been on the menu for sometime as an easy peasy vegetarian island in a sea of meaty recipes. However it has been off the menu for all of this time on account of it being nigh on impossible to source Escarole in Edinburgh. This lettuce is part of the endive family (Cichorium endivia var latifolia) and will in fact grow in Scotland- if only we’d thought when we first moved to this flat. It is possible we could have found one at Earthy but for my sins I’ve still never been there. I’d even had offers from friends to look for Escarole in London. In fact, it is so hard to find interesting lettuce in Scottish supermarkets or grocers that I couldn’t find any of the alternative lettuces that Nigella suggests.

The other day I spotted chicory in Waitrose, labelled as ‘also known as endive’. And I thought- that’s what I want! Turns out I was wrong. Same Genus, different species- chicory is in fact Cichorium intybus. Balls. Still, it seemed to work.

This pasta was interesting- undoubtably Italian- but not really to my tastes. It packed a potent chilli kick, which it needed seeing as it didn’t really taste of anything else. The white wine sauce was wetter than I would have liked and the parmesan melted together in big clumps. So while it looked fab at point of serving, and fitted the bill as a vegetarian main course, I don’t think we’ll be back here. If need be I’d be inclined to stick to a regular Spaghetti all´aglio, olio e peperoncino if I need something simple and meatless.

Clafoutis was a very easy pudding to make; mix it all together and off you go (cherries from a jar, so no stoning required). This is an express version, baked quickly at heat. It would have been pretty much perfect had I not put it too high up in the oven. It rose up and got stuck amongst the grill element. Oh No! Thankfully I was cooking for Dougal and my best friend from uni; a more sympathetic audience I don’t expect you’ll get so instead of swearing and weeping there was (swearing and) much laughter, as we used a wooden spoon to hold the top down as we pulled the dish from the oven. I’ve never ruined a dish so quickly!

Thankfully it hadn’t actually burned badly; once dusted with icing sugar who would know? However the wooden spoon shenanigans did mean it was in pieces on top, not exactly exquistite. However, once portioned up you couldn’t tell (sadly I didn’t take any portion sized pieces) and with a good slosh of cream (leftover from the over zealous allocation for the previous day’s Butterfly Cakes) this was cherry heaven. The recipe said this served 6-8. Technically I didn’t have enough cherries (I think I’d been planning on halving the quantities) but I felt the cherry to custard ratio was fine. We made it go three portions plus a second helping for two (four equal sized portions, in short). Heaven forbid this is restraint on Nigella’s part!!

I’ll do this again. Perhaps even as individual portions next time, for ultimate silliness?

There came a point where we just couldn’t keep buying all the boozes Nigella asked for. Amaretto is a drink neither of us have much desire to drink, but I knew some was hiding in my parents’ booze cupboard.

• Coq au Riesling
• Amaretto Syllabub

The occasion of this sweet little supper was a visit from afar (Aberdeen) of Em & El. Such glamorous guests have not graced Leith Walk for some time! (I might be kidding, I might not. You just don’t know!)

We started out with Coq au Riesling, Nigella’s very pared back version of the Retro Classique. Again, this used chicken thigh meat and again, the effect was juicy and tender and gorgeous. We served it with buttered pappardelle (as akin to Alsation ‘noodles’ as I could envisage) and slurped it all up. There was quite a bit left over which I have frozen; I am VERY much looking forward to the day I get to come home to this.

Pudding felt properly fancy and I suppose that really, it was. Amaretto syllabub, using the specially requisitioned Amaretto and lined with amaretti morbidi (soft amaretti biscuits) from the fab Sicilian shop up the hill, then served in our lovely martini glasses with a couple of amaretti on the side.

The folks round the table took a lot of convincing that these weren’t seriously alcoholic. In fact there was only 20ml of Amaretto per person, so barely a shot. However, clearly in melding with the cream this stuff increased in potency…you would not want to try and eat two of these! We all fell into something of a stupor after pudding and couldn’t be perked up even with a pot of tea! Glamorous, but no stamina, what can I say?

If my mum and dad are very lucky I might just make this down at theirs one day!

A step outside our comfort zone, with limited success.

• Liver with Bacon and Charred Onions

I don’t mind liver. It is something I remember eating regularly if not at all often as a child. Both liver and kidneys featured on our menus and I don’t recall them seeming especially unusual. My dad particularly likes one of them, although I can’t remember which (perhaps it’s both!). Dougal, on the other hand, does not care for liver. I think he has probably only eaten it a handful of times in his life (chicken liver salad earlier in the year, for example) and finds the texture most off-putting. This meal was always going to be a challenge to pull off. I bought chocolate eclairs for pudding as insurance.

For what it’s worth I think this was quite a nice recipe. The liver was cooked in garlic oil that had previously had both bacon and onions cooking in it. The soft, slightly charred onions were themselves cooked in garlicky bacon fat. I took Nigella’s suggestion of a Radicchio salad as best I could with a bag of waitrose Italian salad dressed with a simple balsamic dressing and a generous scattering of pomegranate seeds (yum!)  which I felt was a nice juicy fresh contrast to the strong flavours of the meat and onions.

I probably over-crisped the bacon- it was more like pork scratching and didn’t, I felt, add much (apart from lots of flavour to the pan!) but otherwise this was all right. I was starving at tea time and so this filled a hole most satisfactorally. We probably won’t revisit it but equally if I were to meet a liver fan, I might point them in the direction of this dish. Can’t be ravingly foody enthusiastic all the time, it seems.

The second birthday of the year, and yet again, ice cream and peanut fudge sauce had a starring role.

• Prawns with Maryam Zaira Sauce
• Red-Leaf, Fig and Serrano Ham Salad (this time with Figs!)
• Lamb Cutlets with Chilli and Black Olives
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae

Well, it was my birthday. What was I going to do apart from invite some good friends round and cook for them till we all burst?

I’d aimed to start with Scallops-on-the-Shell but the fishmongers of Leith let me down. Instead I bought in a truckload of prawns with their tails on, fanned them out all pretty in my Phil Revells (last birthday’s present) and gave everyone pots of Maryam Zaira sauce to dunk in. Dougal provided faintly saffron-y bread and all in all it was a grand wee starter.

Main course saw us re-visit a salad that we made way back when on the 1st of January. However, at the time we were missing a key ingredient- the Figs! Right now they are in season and there are heaving shelves of them in Waitrose. I was really impressed by how they brought this salad together- a lump of fig flesh with some serrano ham is a gloriously sweet and salty combination.

The high point of the main course was an awesome feast of tasty garlicky (oh my!) chilli seasoned lamb cutlets- 12 in all- fried on the hob. I was really impressed that this didn’t fill the kitchen (and my guests) up with smoke. We left the meat marinading while we ate our first course and then I set to frying whilst the table got re-organised and folks chatted away.

For pudding I pulled out the big guns. I’d commissioned ice cream from AC’s granddad (he makes it for her parent’s chippie and Italian restaurant) and thus, as much as a birthday present to myself as as a grand dessert for my guests, I was able to serve up the Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundaes. These were wonderful; the salted peanuts on top really worked a treat and the three types of ice cream were definitely necessary. The only thing that wasn’t necessary was my doubling the volumes for the Peanut Butter Fudge Sauce. We had far too much- the amount specified for four sundaes would surely have done the trick. Sadly this means poor Dougal and I are on left-overs duty all week. It’s a hard life.

In other exciting news I got some heart shaped cookie cutters for my birthday so at least one more recipe is now in our sights! My parting shot is Nick, illustrating the theme of Ice Cream Sundae through the medium of interpretive dance…

Because unexplained sex reversal has been on my mind at work this week.

• Black Pasta with Red Mullet

or, in our case… Red Pasta with Black Bream.

What can I say, we had sourcing issues. The fishmonger said that you only get Red Mullet in supermarkets- he’s probably right as it is a Mediterranean fish. Nigella suggested Red or Black Bream as an alternative so we got bream….it doesn’t look especially red so we assumed it was black, and agreed we’d be having Black Pasta with Black Fish….very emo!

But then Waitrose let me down. They definitely used to do fresh squid ink tagliolini, but there was none to be had today. I did my best not to cry in the chilled aisle (it had been a crummy day) and then got the bit between my teeth and thought, well, if we’re having black fish then why not red pasta? And thus it was born.

This was a nice straightforward dish to cook- almost quick enough to merit a slot in the Against the Clock chapter and certainly what I would call Everyday Easy although I realise my ideas about everyday cooking are somewhat skewed by an upbringing with two excellent foodie cooks. The fish is firstly fried in garlic oil and spring onions and then you poach it in some rosé wine. You then remove the fish, make a sauce with the wine and some capers and tomatoes and butter and combine it all with pasta and basil. Delish! The fish was beautifully cooked, delicate to the bite yet richly flavoursome. Lipsmackingly good stuff this. Sadly there is only one portion for lunch tomorrow…

My Italian guru, Ariana, assures me that whilst polenta is quite trendy in the UK, it is somewhat looked down on in Italy as mere peasant food.

• Italian Sausages in Hot Tomato Sauce with Polenta

However our meal could not be classed as Peasants’ Fare, as we used very fine Valvona and Crolla peasano (damn!) sausages, taking it back into foodie realm. It simply wouldn’t have been right with any other sausage.

What makes this dish express is that, rather than slaving over a hot stove making a rich chilli-hot tomato sauce, you simply brown your sausages, add some marsala, and then throw in a jar of posh tomato sauce for pasta. I know, twice in one week, what is happening to me? This recipe called for seriously high end pasta sauce and I had wanted to use the organic Seeds of Change range but ended up shopping for this at closing time on Sunday night in our local Scotmid. It’s a huge shop but man do they have uninspired stock.

So we ended up with Lloyd Grossman Tomato and Chilli Sauce- I was particularly impressed when I bought it that the ingredients list read much as it would were you constructing such a sauce in your own kitchen. And do you know, I was actually really impressed. After a 20 min cook with the sausages in it, it really did taste as if I’d chopped garlic and chilli and made the sauce myself (admitedly opening a tin of tomatoes isn’t laborious). It was probably a horrendous waste of money (don’t tell my Granny but I have no idea what it cost) but as an express route to a tasty meal it was just fine.

On a final note; neither of us had eaten polenta in living memory before. It was a bit odd whilst we were cooking it, trying to work out what it would be like, and we had settled on grainy mashed potato. So you can imagine we were a bit surprised when it turned out to firm up! Nevertheless we were both quite enteretained by it and would eat it again, I’d imagine.

A good cold night meal all round.

I realise it may sometimes seem like all I do here is rave about how good the food has been. Not always, I hope.

• Spaghettini with Prawns and Chilli

Don’t get me wrong, this dish wasn’t unpleasant or anything. I just didn’t feel like it was any greater than a sum of its parts. The blurb in the book had bigged it up to some degree and I’d been looking forward to the dish for a couple of days.

Perhaps the failure was in the substitutions. Don’t tell anyone, but we used spaghetti instead of spaghettini. Stone the crows! More significantly, I didn’t manage to get sun-blush tomatoes (I stayed at work tonight till after half six and then there was an offer of a lift home…too good to pass up just to go to Waitrose rather than Somerfield) and so I used sundried toms instead. Now my dad’s always complained that most sundried toms you can buy aren’t proper sundried toms, so I’d hoped it was an acceptable subsitution, but in reality they were probably a bit robust, both in texture and flavour, for the dish.

The chilli kick was noticeable but I didn’t feel it added much. The prawns were big and a bit chewy. Perhaps I should’ve used little prawns; these were king prawns and tiger prawns being ‘used-up’ from the freezer (in preparation for our hopefully impending house move). They didn’t seem to be a part of the sauce; needed a longer slow cook, perhaps.

What else can I say? The flavour of the rocket gets completely lost, in all the heat and chilli and prawn. The fresh parsley on top, on the other hand, was authentic and alive and definitely not to be forgone.  All in all, however, a bit of a let down.

I’m glad there are some let downs to be honest; otherwise I feel I’d only ever be deciding to definitely cook things again. To be able to write certain recipes off gives me a bit of space and freedom for the future.