A Couple of Midweek Savoury Delights

Prawn and Coconut Satay Broth

From Jo Pratt’s In The Mood For Food, lazy section.

This was such a quick gorgeous soup. The base is garlic sauteed in a little oil before adding coconut milk, peanut butter and stock. It tastes so much more than that. I could hardly believe the difference a little peanut butter makes to this style of lightly simmered soup, - so good. I cooked this for lunch, but it would be good for supper as well. It’s light, yet substantial due to the noodles, delicate yet full flavoured. One I will cook again for sure.

Jo suggests in her introduction that a vegetarian version is easy by leaving out the prawns and adding in extra vegetables like sliced peppers and bean sprouts. For a meaty version use chicken or pork instead of the prawns.

2 strips medium egg noodles
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
200ml coconut milk
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
200g cooked king prawns
1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced
pinch dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon soy sauce
a squeeze lime juice
a large handful coriander, roughly chopped

Cook the noodles according to packet instructions.

While they are cooking heat the oil in a large pan and briefly fry the garlic. Stir in the peanut butter and coconut milk to make a loose paste before adding the stock.

Bring to a simmer and add the prawns, spring onion, chilli flakes and soy sauce, cook for 2-3 minutes until heated through. Add the noodles, return to a simmer and add the lime and coriander. Serve straight away. Serves 2 – 3.

Chorizo, Red Pepper and Manchego Tortilla

From Jo Pratt’s In The Mood For Food, Comfort chapter. It is just a few vegetables ( ½ red onion, 1 garlic clove , 1 cubed red pepper and cubed potatoes) cooked slowly in a tablespoon or two of olive oil for about 15 minutes, then the sliced (half hoop of ) sausage added for another 5 minutes before adding eggs, paprika, parsley and I sprinkled the grated cheese on top, instead of stirring it through. I turned it into a fritatta by baking it instead of doing the inverting the tortilla thing, which I once burned myself doing – so take the easier popped in the oven for 10 minutes route. Though to my mind a frittata is a bit lighter.

I changed Jo’s method a little by cubing the pepper and potatoes, sprinkling the cheese on top and baking it, but the ingredients are still the same. This was a really good supper, and a casual potter round the kitchen. It was a little different to others I have cooked because of the cheese, a hard Spanish one, it was salty and savoury but in a more reserved way than say Parmesan, a bit creamy tasting too, which was good once it had melted.

Mushroom Stroganoff , Parsley Rice & Exotic Chocolate Cups

Mushroom Stroganoff & Parsley Rice

An old favourite from Nigella Lawson’s Feast. This is a fabulous stroganoff. Earthy, gutsy with garlic, nutmeg and paprika, smooth and creamy with sour cream, comforting with a little sherry. We as a family all love mushroom stroganoff. I cook it once or twice a year on a Saturday night usually, because although you need a good quantity of mixed mushrooms (1,125g) and they are fairly expensive, it’s something that won’t tip me over the edge after a busy day and it’s quickly put together. It feels like a treat.

The only two things I part company with Nigella on is that I halve the butter to 50g instead of 100g and I can only get it to feed 4, not the 8 suggested in the book. I either serve it with plain basmati rice and parsley sprinkled over the mushrooms or as tonight with Parsley Rice.

Parsley Rice

The rice is based on a recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. This is cooked longer than any other absorption method I do, but it leaves the rice a nicely sticky and the stock makes it taste great. If your stock was not salted add a bit of salt as well, but mine is so I don’t bother. This is a slightly changed version of their recipe. The main changes I have made is to reduce the butter and parsley quantities. 4oz butter to 2oz and 1 1//2 cups parsley to 1 cup, but they can easily be upped again if you’d like to. It makes a very moreish delicious rice.

4 cups chicken stock (I use bullion and don’t add any extra salt)
2 cups white basmati rice
2 oz butter
1 cup parsley

Bring stock up to a boil, add rice, stir. Bring back to a boil stir then clamp on the lid and turn the heat down to low, then cook for 25 minutes.

When the time is up fork in the butter and chopped parsley. Serves 6-8

Exotic Chocolate Cups

From Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food, Romantic section. Before I start I must thank Kathryn (of From Page to Plate and Jamie) for pointing me in the direction of these pretty little cups. Some things you just HAVE to buy!

These were exotic tasting. I doubled it up as well to make 4 portions. They were rich and full of chocolate, orange, spice and rum. I almost expected them to taste a bit Christmassy, but they didn’t at all – a taste of the Caribbean I thought. Just the thing to perk up a March evening. These were delicious - I could probably have made a bit of a pig of myself on these, so it was a good thing they were in little portions! Jo sugggests in her notes that Malibu could be used instead of the rum and I’ll give this a go as well.

They are made by heating cream, sugar and orange then adding chopped chocolate, egg yolks, butter and rum. They are similar in style to Nigella’s chocolate pots from Nigella Bites, but I have room in my reportiore for (at least!) two good chocolate pots.

I had a little fiddle with the recipe, but only a little one. I used half milk and half dark chocolate, golden caster sugar instead of white and mixed spice instead of allspice.

I’m wondering how quickly I can justify making the Malibu version now…

Vanilla Melting Moments

From Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home, by Rachel Allen.

These are such crumbly, sweet, comforting, cute, and of course vanilla and melting biscuits. I used to like them when I was little, either as a single biscuit with pink or blue icing on top or sandwiched as here with a butter cream icing. I used to make them a lot when I was a teenager and then they must have fallen out of the cooking habit, replaced with the pursuit of caramel and chocolate. I have ordered them with coffee when out, but these are not a biscuit that fairs well in tea rooms or coffee shops, well not any I’ve found anyway!

Last year before Christmas I was watching Rachel Allen on her TV series of the same name and she made these. It was like a light bulb lighting up a food memory and I thought ‘I’ve got to make them NOW’. So I did and they disappeared so quickly I had to make more. So last night the urge came again, and here they are. I hope that my little girl will grow up with the same fond memories that I have of these delicious, often forgotten, gorgeous vanilla biscuits.

Vanilla Melting Moments

Biscuits:
175g self raising flour
125g cornflour
50g icing sugar
225g butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla Butter Cream:
50g butter, softened
125g icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160 C/ (325 F) Gas mark 3. Place the flour, cornflour and icing sugar in a food processor and whizz briefly to mix. Add the butter and vanilla and whizz until it comes together (a minute or two, I do it slowly). Roll into 40 small balls the size of a large marble. Place trays on (no need to grease or line) and flatten down a bit with a fork. Bake for 10-15 minutes until still very pale in colour but, slightly firm. Remove carefully and cool on a wire rack.

Keep the same bowl in the processor and whizz the ingredients for the butter cream until they come together. Sandwich the biscuits with the butter cream. Makes 20.

Chicken Curry Sauce

This is a Chinese chicken saucy curry from China Modern by Ching-He Huang.

I have a real thing for Chinese and Malaysian curries, they are just so aromatic and delicious! This one is from the Modern Takeaway Favourites section of the book.

The chicken (4 sliced skinless breasts) is mixed with seasoning of salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon cornflour and stir fried in 2 tablespoons oil, then kept aside while the sauce is made. It begins by stir frying 1 chopped clove of garlic, a tablespoon grated ginger and a chopped green chilli, then adding 1 sliced onion (I used red for colour), 1 small sliced carrot and a handful of broccoli flowers. After a few minutes 500ml chicken stock is added along with 1 teaspoon turmeric, ½ to 1 teaspoon hot curry powder, 2 star anise and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. After a little bit 1 tablespoon of cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons water is added to thicken it a bit. The chicken is then added back in at the end just before you serve it to warm through (although I kept mine warm anyway) and sprinkled with spring onion

It was very light and I served it with plain basmati rice to keep it that way. The star anise gives the curry a wonderful fragrance and flavour. It is in no way gloopy with the cornflour, just thick enough to coat the chicken and vegetables. I’m a chilli wimp and I wouldn’t have wanted it any hotter, but it had a nice warmth and slight tingle. Will make this one again, Keith loved it too. Oh and as an added bonus our house smells lovely!

5-a-Day Mixed Vegetables

I have to straight off say how much I LOVE this mixed vegetable stir fry. I bought China Modern by Ching-He Huang 4 weeks ago, and have made this three times as a mid week vegetable accompaniment. On the week I didn’t make it I craved it! It might seem like a bit of work, but after the first time this is something I would easily make when pushed for time. It is 5 minutes of chopping and measuring and about 4-5 minutes stir frying in my wok (my wok isn’t as hot as Hing-He’s I don’t think!). Here is the recipe. 5-a-day was never so easy or good!

2 tablespoons groundnut oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

5 Chinese dried mushrooms soaked for 20 mins in hot water, and water discarded
1 carrot, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
100g baby corn, chopped into 1.5cm pieces
100g mangetout
100g cashew nuts

50ml vegetable stock
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
dash sesame oil

1 tablespoon cornflour blended with 2 tablespoons cold water (optional)
1 spring onion, sliced diagonally

1. Heat wok over a high heat and add the oil. Throw in the garlic and ginger and cook for less that 1 minute. Add the vegetables and fry for 1 minute, add cashews and stir fry for 1 minute.

2. Add the stock, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil.

3. Stir in the blended cornflour if you prefer a thicker sauce, Add the spring onions and give a final stir. Serve immediately with noodles or steamed rice.
Serves 2.

My Notes: I have used fresh shitake and chestnut mushrooms in mine and only use a scant ½ tablespoon of cornflour to thicken. Also that I always thought I didn’t like oyster sauce, but I like it here.

Roast Chicken for Two in One Pan & Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

It’s funny how food goes in cycles, I haven’t roasted a chicken for so long, and now I’ve done two in two weeks, must be comfort food in the cold weather or something!

From Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food. I wanted to make this one as soon as I saw it, but felt a bit put off by the fact that the potatoes, shallots a and garlic were roasted in with the chicken. I was worried about the fat. Not that I’m a low fat bod by any stretch of the imagination, but I was thinking it might be a bit greasy. After reading in Kathryn’s blog that hers turned out really well I thought - going to have to do it. So I did.

The chicken was rubbed with garlic and lemon, new potatoes par boiled and put in the tin with shallots and garlic, lemon plus a bit of rosemary, seasoning and olive oil. Baked for an hour the chicken was really moist and juicy, and the vegetables were good. Next time I’m going to do them in a separate pan for 40 minutes instead of the 1 hour that the chicken needed because in my furnace 40 mins was just right for the vegetables. I covered the vegetable half of the tin up with foil or else they would have been way too dark by the time the chicken had cooked.

Then at the end there is the gravy - pan juices, sherry, honey, stock, cream and peas. Oh it was so good! There was a bit of gravy left which we spooned up as a kind of after supper pea soup! It would easily make any roast dinner. I think it would also be good with pork too.

So onto something sweet in the form of Brownies.

These are from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. After much trial and error and trying many recipes these are the ones that my family likes best. They are chocolate-y, moist, melting delicious!

They are also not too strong on the chocolate front because they are made with bittersweet chocolate. I use half 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate and half 30% milk chocolate. So this brings it down to an average of 50% cocoa solids which is both dark and sweet enough for me. It actually took me many months a few years ago of trial and error to find the right balance.

Although saying I have found the recipe for my family I’d still like to try Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa ones too!

Panna Cotta with Rose Syrup

From Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food, romantic section. Here one has syrup over it and one only under it, not sure which I prefer.

I didn’t make this for any romantic occasion, so doubled it up to make 4 gorgeous hearts. They are a basic panna cotta mix but made with half single cream and half natural yoghurt, vanilla, icing sugar and leaf gelatine (or lumpy, but I like the leaf better). Jo presents it in the book for after an Indian curry with spicy bits and pieces, and it would be lovely for after that. The natural yoghurt is quite noticeable and would be a real palate cleanser.

Then there is the wonderful pink rose syrup, which is made according to the recipe in the book. She says you can buy it, but home made is better. Well, I’ve never seen it to buy so making it was the only option, and I was so relieved for the recipe for the simple sugar syrup with a little rose water and food colouring. I think the syrup would be good with ice cream too.

In the book the pudding is pictured with a sprinkling of rose petals and some slivered pistachios. The rose petals would be a no-go at this time of year, but I have apparently run out of pistachios! There was a bag on the shelf that I thought were new nuts, but it turned out to be poppy seeds, which wouldn’t have done here at all!

I’m going to give this one a go again next time we have a curry, where it would really shine.