Does a great kitchen a good cook make?

Not sure that it does, but I need a good reason to mention our's today 'cos it's up for sale. Not just the kitchen either, but the whole of the aptly named Pendenis House around it!
We're learning just how important the kitchen is by looking at other people's. We've decided that whatever its fittings and posh work surfaces, the first requirement is that it fulfills a role as the hub of the house. Ours is visible from the front door, inviting you in, it's the natural place to go when you arrive. And it runs into a breakfast room conservatory so that for informal eating the food has just seconds to the table and you can eat every meal with a wonderful view of the garden.
These are requirements that we won't want to give up.
Of course you need lots of work surfaces if you are to do decent stuff: but hey, my first bedsit had a sink and a tiny Baby Belling and still I did three course dinners! The fact is however that surfaces just attract junk in inverse proportion to their surface. And who's got room for all the appliances that you really need right there if you are going to use them?: ice cream making, espresso machine, toaster, juicer (citrus), juicer (vegetable), microwave and the Magimix.
While we have lots of storage cupboards, again, enough is never enough. So we'd really like a new house with larder (with a proper cold slab), utility room in which to store all the machines, the pots on shelves so they don't get bashed, and all the laundry junk. Wishful thinking? Probably.
Still we'll miss this one. Go have a look.
We won't promise a discount to Past Food readers, but we might manage a light lunch while you look round!

Cheats' Moussaka

A restaurant described Moussaka as a lamb and aubergine pie ... well, I suppose it is sort of, but of the many variations I've never had it topped with pastry. The whole fandangle takes some effort, so here's the quickie version - well, at least to prep, it still takes 40 mins in the oven.
You need a really rich lamb mixture: fry off the minced, lean lamb and put aside giving a chance to reduce the fat further. Clean out the pan and soften onions, peppers, maybe a slice or two of fennel, celery and when soft add the meat back. Add tomatoes, fresh skinned or tinned (passim) and a smidge of tomato paste. I usually add ginger, garlic, thyme, rosemary and parsley as the base flavours, pimento and chilli flakes can spice it up a bit. Leave to bubble away merrily.
Slice your aubergine, circle, cross lengths, long lengths, whatever will fit your deep dish. You can salt them and dry them but I've never noticed the difference. Fry them off and as you do so layer them in the dish: aubergine at the bottom, then the mince, more aubergine, more lamb, finally aubergine. Then my cheats' topping.
For a four person dish you need half a large pot of plain yoghourt (low fat's fine) into which beat three nice eggs (a couple if you use duck's), plus salt and pepper. Now pour the mix onto the last layer of aubergine - it should be quite thick. Slip a knife down the side of the dish at intervals to give the topping a chance to slither down the side - it looks very attractive if you are using a clear soufflé dish for example. Then - most important - lots and lots of grated nutmeg, and nothing but the real thing, ready ground is just sawdust.
Forty minutes at about 160 and the topping will brown, rising like a soufflé itself. You should be able to take out a slab in a whole piece, spooning out any reluctant lamb. Serve with steamed veg.

Leek and potato soup with bits

It sounds like an oxymoron, cream of leek and potato with bits, but that's how himself likes it: something to do with with childhood memories, which in his case ain't so far away.
I've tried in the past to get to the blending stage and then to take out some of the cooked leeks and big bits of potato, chop them up and put them back in. It doesn't really do it for me because they just end up mushy on reheating. A different technique is required.
First I cut most of the leek white off and sweated the rest in the pan. Then added some chopped potatoes and the home made stock from yesterday's poached chicken, a handful of chopped parsley and seasoning.
All this took place in the giant steamer/spaghetti pot so there was plenty of space to lodge a large seive on the top, fill it with bite sized pieces of potato, and add the saucepan lid so the spuds could steam. Concurrently I gently cooked the chopped leek whites in a pan until they were sweet and sticky.
When the soup was cooked - 20 mins - so were the potato cubes. All that was left was to blend the soup, add some milk (cream would be better, but diet you know), put in the perfectly cooked spuds and leeks, and Voila, cream soup with bits.
It actually tasted better for the additional fried leeks and the cubed spuds made the whole thing very robust.
With cold roast lamb sandwiches, rather a good, doing the chores Sunday, lunch.

Retro fishpate with twists

Who - at least of my age - hasn't made tons on smoked mackerel pate? And weren't we so taken aback when they started doing fillets encrusted with pepper so that this good old sixties stand by could take on yet another life! All those cheffy variations too - adding fresh horseradish seemed positively cuisine minceur .. or not.
Fact is it's good stuff, but it needs a bit of variation after fourty years. So I tried this one: the technique, as you all know, is simply to stuff the ingredients into the Magimix in order needing to be chopped. So start with some spring onions (half a red one would do nicely too) and a good handful of parsley (get of rid of the worst of the stems but don't pick off every leaf - this is meant to be easy!); zapp. Pile in a box of philly like cream cheese ('lite for us porkies) and a pack of smoked salmon pieces and two large or three smaller skinned smoked mackerel fillets (with peppers if you like). More zapp.
It should be spreadable, but with noticeable contents, not just a mush, so I use the zapp button rather than leave it to blend.
Put into brown dishes - yes, they have to be to be properly retro. If you are being posh and not dieting then there's no doubt that a layer of clarified butter doesn't do anything but good. Freezes great. But please, please don't eat straight from the fridge .....

Mediocrity reigns when away

I spend a lot of eating time away from the kitchen and always wonder, "could I do better?". Have to say the answer's often a grumpy "Yes" and today was no exception.
Marooned in Taunton's Holiday Inn - on the same car/park industrial/shopping/estate on the edge of the town as the Express by Holiday Inn - I had a least enjoyed the excellent pool. There didn't seem much prospect of eating anywhere that wasn't a taxi ride away, and I have had not bad experiences at other HI's including Bradford and Calais (well, I know it's in France ....).
At least the blackboard of 'specials' suggested that some of it wouldn't be boil in a bag, head office designed cooking. Wrong.
Ok, I chose 'rough pate' thinking no one can muck that up, and rough at least means it won't be 'Brussels Smooth and Pink'. Wrong. The three kinds of bread were interesting, but fridge cold. Butter, when provided, practically frozen. And the pate, well cold, tasteless and yes, Pink.
My chalky, handwritten special was described as "Whitby Scampi in a sweet and sour sauce on a bed of fragrant rice". Now that sounds like a delicate enough thing, fresh pieces of scampi in a spicyish sauce with rice and a side salad.
Now imagine: a microwaved pile of rice that lost its aromatic qualities - if it ever had any - some time earlier; a pile of breadcrumbed fishy pieces of doubtful provenance - Whitby, not likely - deep fried to an inch of their existence; an even larger pile, a monstrous pile, of previously frozen peas; a tiny dish of sweet and sour sauce that had been zapped. And a typically thrown together side salad of wet lettuce, cold peppers and onions.
What's to complain about? It was what it said - just. Each item was edible - just. It filled a hole - just.
So it didn't meet my expectation, who's fault's that? Mine I suppose for imagining that £20 bought you a decent meal, not one that was just ........

The shame of food miles

From last week's bargain shop a frozen half kilo box of prepared mussels for £1.25, all ready to reheat in their shells. The only problem - they were from New Zealand, half way round the world. And of course we have perfectly good mussels from just down the road in west Wales. So what price guilt?
In this case the only answer seems to be that we'll go on eating them until they are priced in a way that makes us conscious of the real cost. There's no way anyone can grow and prepare, package and ship these mussels 12,000 miles, and sell them at a profit for that price. £2.50, not likely; £4.50 maybe, but that would then make them competitive with local products so we might not buy them. In the meantime we just eat them.
I adapted an idea on the box: melted a large chunk of butter, added a couple of tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce, the juice of half a lemon, a finely chopped chilli, and a teaspoon of ready chopped garlic.
The mussels were placed in a single layer and the sauce spooned into each one. Under the hot grill for about eight minutes and ready to eat with a large salad and lots of bread to mop up the really delicious juices.
And the guilt?

Comfort pie and no work

It's been a theme of the week, raiding the freezer, but then that's what advance cooking and planning is all about.
So after a truly hectic day - all morning fighting a licensing application as the standard bearer for hundreds of residents opposing a 120 hour a week 'social club' extension, followed by a long telephone conference, a recording for a 30 sound bite for tv news, and then live radio for the drive home ... phew I needed easy.
And I didn't have to do anything, for which I was really pleased. The fish pie (previous appearance here) had defrosted overnight and was accompanied with steamed carrots and beans. And brown sauce of course.
Even the fruit salad was there, ready to eat. Perfect Friday. Plenty of time to think about cooking again at the weekend.

Observer status as beef stew hits home

A day rushing about ended by walking into a house filled with the smells of home cooking, for which I had not had to lift a finger. The day picked up no end!
In my absence a hearty beef casserole had been made from some really good looking chunks of English beef. I was too late to observe the work, so no recipe here, but what's there to say about making a fine casserole? Leave yourself plenty of time so that cooking can be slow and easy, otherwise you just have to decide whether it is basically going to be based on a red wine and root vegetables mix, or perhaps more tomatoes and summer veg like peppers. Or, of course, a pragmatic combi of both if that takes your fancy, or you're using up stock.
I was roped in to assist for a few minutes whilst a minestrone soup was being finished - cutting off the corn cobs and measuring the tiny pasta shells: these jobs I could be trusted with apparently.
Chilling down and boxing spares and leftovers was my job after we'd happily devoured the casserole - rich, tomatoey, and full of vegetables - with steamed potatoes.

Wrapping it easy

Turns out today was a double leftovers, so not much cooking involved, but non the less memorable for that.
We don't normally do lunches together when I'm working - the office is just five minutes walk - as our body clocks don't seem to say 'food' at the same times during the day. So my eye was caught by the two left over chapatis and the knowledge that there was leftover vegetable curry from last night. Wrap the two up and zap - scrummy indeed.
Supper, pasta and salad. Lazy is good.

Tuesday is Two Curry Night

Part of Monday's mega shop had included bargain vegetables like okra and aubergine so a vegetable curry was well in mind. We stopped off at the Indian supermarket where they had run out of fresh coriander of all things, so it had to be a bunch of methi instead. We also got tinned chick peas, what turned out to be a great new pickle, and the odd spices we'd run out of.
The heart of the meal was to be lamb curry - yep, straight from it's short rest in the freezer.
To go with it a vegetable curry of ochra, baby aubergines, a bit of onion and that can of chick peas. All the veg were put to sweat whilst I added some coconut milk to the base curry sauce that someone had already thoughtfully prepared from scratch. As soon as the vegetables were ready the sauce was sploshed on, the chopped methi and peas added and the whole left to simmer.
Even the rice had been precooked - seven portions of organic brown, white and wild rice mix, all ready for the freezer too. So all there was to do was to heat and eat: we just put a portion in a dariole dish and cling film for reheating in the microwave. The size of the dish btw helps avoid over large portions.
The ready made chapatis were unusually good, being reheated by placing directly on the iron heat diffuser we use on the cooker - a kind of mini griddle. The new chutney great. Plain yohourt to blob on and all is good.

Virtuous Sunday

Chaos still abounds so the soup came in handy for lunch: lots of cheese grated on top and chunky bread beside. Easy and a great comfort after yesterday's efforts. Masses left over too.
Supper, another one in the bag as it were: a particularly special dried pasta from our friends Napolina (passim) called torchietti, mixed plain and spinach, and a freezer box of home made meat sauce. Positively the last of the salad ingredients laying about: red cabbage, cucumber, grated carrot and celeriac all with a nice olive oil and a splash of balsamic.
Two very nice and very easy meals reaping the benefit of earlier hard graft: virtue rewarded indeed.

The great Saturday clear out

The kitchen was a disaster zone, what with re-painting and stuff going on all around. Food planning as you have seen, had fallen off the radar, with meals out, and too often taken on the run. So a look in the 'fridge revealed any amount of 'left-overs' that needed attention and a couple of hours of serious food bashing.
First the chicken left overs: very substantial and a valuable carcass. So, meat stripped and back in the 'fridge the carcass goes in the stew pot with the ends of leeks, some garlic, a diced chunk of the lurking celeriac, carrots, a nub end of fennel that has been making chunky salads, and a handful of fresh and dried herbs. Now, I'm thinking, if I can just get enough stock for a big vegetable soup and a risotto ... Oh, and the French beans, I stick half in a sieve to steam over the stock, ready for a salad: forward planning or what.
There are two approaches I think to veg soup - the refined 'cream of' variety, and I had plenty of carrots say to do carrot and coriander, or the chunky, stand up your spoon version, like a minestrone, with or without pasta. I had so many bits and bobs of veg that I decided on the latter.
So I started chopping for sweating leeks, carrots, onion, mushrooms, bits of sundry peppers; then dicing potato, celeriac; shredding some red baggage, and top/tailing the rest of the French beans. Everything in little boxes ready for the stock. Then veg to sweat, added stock and cook a bit more, then add the 'boiling' veg such as the potatoes which we don't want to overcook, and finally the cabbage and beans. I beefed up the stock just a bit with a sprinkle of Marigold meaning I could leave out salt altogether, added lots of pepper and took off the heat the instant the vegetables were nearly cooked. Furthermore, I also plunged the pan into a sinkful of cold water, stirring every now and then to get the heat down as quickly as possible: this is soup for reheating, and we don't want overcooked mush.
Now, whilst doing all that chopping I also prepped the risotto - the leeks, peppers and a bit of carrot just remained to be sweated off, some chorizo sliced and the rice added and the stirring commenced. I honestly believe that a good risotto simply means hard labour with almost constant stirring (though I use a wooden spatula to lift the rice from the pan, rather than a spoon which bashes it about too much). The home made hot stock works a treat and near the end I add the frozen peas, although baby frozen broad beans are great too, and a quite excessive amount of the left over chicken which has been diced into mouth bite bits. Finally butter, cheese and a five minute rest.
Of course I had sorted out all the other lurking things in the 'fridge, so a chunky salad went on the table with the chicken dish, the forth in a row this week!

The Basque take on the chicken challenge

What's with the menu planning this week, if it ain't an ocean of fish, we get a farmyard of birds, and chickens anywhere we look to eat. This time though we'd left the meal to our host, naturally, of a delightful dinner that, as usual in her hands, managed to be serious scoff and wine without any of the social drawbacks of pompous, patronising guests or attempts at country house posh service. So, just great company and perfect food.
Starter - which vanished in a trice I noticed - was a decorous plate of salami, Parmesan and slow roasted tomatoes of unctuous sweetness and moorishness. It really was a little platter of such simplicity - although the tomatoes no doubt took hours of slow cooking - that got the taste buds slavering in anticipation and the food notes - all Mediterranean - should have given us a clue to the next course.
The one dish meal, in the ubiquitous Le Crueset (passim) - turned out to be Basque chicken. I don't know the recipe, but it seemed like a chicken paella ie the rice was slow cooked in the pan in the oven, with brown long grain rice still with a bite and yet wonderfully moist from the sauce. The chicken had been carefully portioned - no bones I think judging from the other plates - and the whole cooked with chorizo, peppers, olives, tomatoes and whole segments of orange, complete with peel. I suspect the blessed Delia at work here.
Seconds for the greedy, then attempts to eat the Gorgonzola that went wonderfully with the wine, brought back from its chateau just a few weeks ago by other guests.
Real pudding - well a cake of such denseness and taste that a slice needed the fresh orange and grapefruit slices to meliorate its richness, and the blob of creme fraiche went down well too.
Perfect then on every count? You bet.

Tasty roast on the run then toast on the lap

Straight off the train and only time for a rushed late lunch. Him indoors had roasted a handsome fowl the night before that had full happiness - and potential flavour - credentials - organic, free range. Generous chunks went on some handy leaves and a shared box of M&S pasta salad grabbed at the station. Very nice too, but what was the hint of flavour on the bird I asked? Lime pickle apparently - a not too hot one, generously slathered over the bird with the usual oiling and seasoning.
So, unwittingly we had a revisit to the Nandos of the night before, but much better.
It was such a late lunch that supper was a slice and a half each of Welsh rarebit, not even any more salad: sometimes enough is enough. Apparently "The spelling "Welsh rarebit" is a humourless euphemism" seems odd to me!

Did my chicken die happy?

Another cross country travel, with the usual Great Western delays meaning a grabbed hot sandwich of unmentionable grossness. I was running an afternoon into evening meeting that included two muslims making their Ramadan fast, so 6.37 pm assumed some importance and everyone indulging in a sugar rush of M&S goodies. That still left me with the usual late night problem: what to eat this late in Luton?
Everyone said chicken at Nandos, and I have been pleasantly surprised there before. It does grilled chicken, sloshed in their own peri peri sauce that ranges from tasty to very hot. That’s pretty much it in various combos.
I chose a simple half chicken, medium sauce and two sides: that’s coleslaw and chips in everyday parlance. It took about 15 minutes and arrived piping hot and didn’t take long to eat. A bottle of Stormhoek Pinotage 2006 held its own against the flavour. And the whole bill around 20 quid. What’s not to like?
Well, my chicken’s life causes me a bit of concern. The website says all the birds are fresh, never frozen. That would suggest they haven’t come too far, so low food miles - though the whole of Europe is within range of a ‘fridge lorry. But what of their lifestyle? There’s absolutely no option to buy-up and choose a free range or even organic bird. And since Nandos make no claims, we must assume the worst: intensively farmed, very short lived birds. Not very happy ones.
So do I boycott Nandos for ever? Do we need to inspire a MacDonald’s like customer revolt? Maybe, but I’ve other battles on my plate. Wouldn't it be better for Nandos to come clean and say: it’ll cost you £XX more to know your chicken had a happy life. Who wouldn’t want to pay?

Spanish omelette to the rescue

The plan said roast chicken, the realities took over as time and energy ran out. With a fridge full of vegetables and a box of eggs - oh and some left over potatoes, what about a Spanish omelette?
For me the spuds are a distinguishing feature of this dish: ideally start with raw ones, cube them small, fry in shallow oil until browned all over and cooked. Set aside on kitchen paper putting into the omelette pan when adding the eggs.
We however had some left over 'yellow' potatoes, so these were just cubed and got ready with the other veg. For four people you need a small non stick pan that is going to be full of veg before you add the eggs, but frying the veg is easier if you use another, bigger pan. So, start with some strips of bacon , lardons or bits of chorizo, then the onion, peppers, some finely sliced fennel, chopped aubergine and courgette (very small) and celery if you have it Sweat for a bit then add some mushrooms. When you think that everything is cooked add the potatoes and a good handful of frozen peas - for me these are as essential as the spuds.
Put the veg into the clean, smaller pan and bring up the heat. Beat your eggs - six will do for this sized pan - with some cream/milk, lots of seasoning, chopped fresh herbs, pour into the hot vegetables. You should now have a pan dangerously full! Stir the egg into the centre as it sets for a minute or two keeping the heat high. As soon as it looks as though it is setting, turn the heat down, smooth off the top and leave to cook for a few more minutes, the bottom should be nicely browned.
Did I say the grill should be on? Mmm.... You might want to grate cheese on the top of the omelette before you put it under the grill for final cooking. Unlike a quick omelette we are looking to get this cooked right through, so a few minutes under the grill may be needed. When done remove from pan onto a board or plate. Do not eat!
Why? Because like a lot of food it really tastes best neither hot - straight out of the pan, nor cold - straight out of the fridge. So leave well alone for fifteen minutes whilest you prep a big bowl of salad, it'll taste better for the anticipation.
PS: Of course leftovers go in the fridge to keep: if you haven't got time to let it warm up naturally, 20 or 30 seconds max in the microwave should do the trick but don't overheat 'cos it will be rubbery and horrid and such a waste of all that effort.

Mexican ad lib?

The chores had piled up and late home from the office means one thing, instant grub. There were two portions of vegetable chilli in the freezer and a pack of 'seeded' wraps. Maybe something with a Mexican twist, you know those tortilla things that go crunchy, what they called??
Oiled baking dish took four well stuffed, rolled up wraps quite snuggly. Lots of cheese on top and a hot oven for 30 minutes ish. I wanted them piping hot and a bit crunchy too.
Himself wanted boiled yellow potatoes - some sudden fancy, who's to say no?
And another crunchy salad of all sorts (what we going to do when the newly discovered pointy red cabbages finish?).
Big plates (it was really too much) and lots of not-too-hot lime pickle. Sour cream would have been good but that would have entailed planning, and the whole point was, it wasn't.