A Cook's Journal

MONACO

2011-09-25T13:38:00.001+01:00

Friday, 9 September 2011

Friday we went to Monaco. It was Friday, wasn’t it? We visited the aquarium at Monaco, this time without Perry. We got a little bit lost on the way; not really lost – we just missed our bus stop – but overall, the trip was a success. We arrived just before 2pm and decided not to look for a lunch spot but instead had sandwiches on a bench outside the aquarium entrance.

The aquarium was wonderful; sublime and peaceful, meditative in feeling. I have developed a taste for aquariums.

These days one is struck by the lengths to which the curators go to inform us about the watery world, its inhabitants and the dangers we impose upon them with our pollution and over-fishing. The Prince of Monaco, much like Charles in England, has taken the role as Nature’s Ambassador. I can’t help but think that in some ways royals must see themselves as part of Nature and thereby a threatened species like the ones they are trying to protect. But that’s me!

THE MUSEUM – The Royal Wedding and ‘Oceanomania’

This visit, the museum was dominated by two exhibits; one in its ‘foyer’ called ‘Oceanomania: Souveniers of Mysterious Seas From the Exhibition to the Aquarium’ by Mark Dion and the other was The (other) Royal Wedding.

The royal wedding was, as you would expect – a collection of the ingredients that go into such an affair; The Gown, his suit, the silverware and crockery; gifts they received from all over the world, etc.

‘Oceanomania’, on the other hand, was an attempt to ‘breathe life into this beautiful encounter between Art and Science’. It was an interesting exhibit and there was, for me, a thread of ‘Jules Verne’ woven into the fabric of the piece.

It also served to remind me of the methodology of 18th and 19th century science – explore and collect; a ‘souvenir’ hunt, of sorts. Very different from science nowadays, IMHO.

THE RETURN TO THE CITY

We ambled through the green space surrounding the museum high above the Port, looking at the scenery and taking photographs.

After some time, we made our way to the bus stop where we boarded our bus back to Nice. As the bus was rather crowded, we didn’t get to sit together for the first half of the journey – at least we were sitting, there were those who were not as lucky as we were…

DINNER

Back in the city, we we had a couple of beers in Garabaldi before deciding what to do for dinner. We had never had the pleasure of eating dinner at the Grand Cafe du Turin and this evening seemed the perfect opportunity. In fact, the cafe had been renovated since we last spent time in Nice and the tables for dining al fresco now spilled out into the street on all sides. With the lights and glasses on the tables and the hustle and bustle of families and friends enjoying fresh seafood in the Place, the decision to join in the fray was all too simple to make. Steve had a dozen no. 1 oysters and I was unable to resist getting a platter of ‘everything’ so mine consisted of oysters, clams, winkles, whelks and brown shrimps. As is always the case, it was far too generous a portion for me to finish! To our delight, although the Cafe was packed with diners, we were very attentively and well-looked after by our waiter. We shared a bottle of ice-cold Sancerre from which we drank seemingly endlessly – from even smaller glasses than the little ones I’d bought at Monoprix the day before. It was an excellent, indulgent and memorable meal!

Spicy Nights

2010-02-07T13:15:00.022Z

Chickpea and Okra Curry, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

It's been quite a while since my last post but that doesn't mean that my kitchen has been idle! Not at all, in fact, we have been cooking up a storm and I haven't had time to post! Rather than try and catch up with my posts, I'll start again - with last night's dinner...

Steve and I have been on a 'Curry Kick' lately. Long, cold winter nights benefit from the warm and sultry spices from the East. Our 3 masala dabbas are almost always in use as we anoint various dishes with different combinations of spices, whole and ground. Warm and exotic smells waft through the house - permeating my clothing and hair. Chillis, fresh coriander and curry leaves have become staples in our larder. It's an adventure and there's almost no food that isn't improved by the additions of cumin, turmeric and chilli powder.

Last month we were given some chat masala spices to try cooking with by our friends, Rupak and Kinnary who'd brought some back from their holiday over the Christmas break. The unassuming little boxes of masala, with brand names like 'Catch' and 'Tasty Treat' now sat on the shelf and even seemed to taunt me; I was intimidated by them! Every so often, Kinnary emailed me a recipe to use the spices in and Rupak would subsequently ask me if I had tried them yet. Friday I promised I would use them. (I lied, as it turns out - but more about that later!)

Yesterday I surveyed my vegetable boxes. Yet another swede (bringing the total to 2); I knew exactly one thing to do with swede - mash them up with carrots and butter. While it is a delicious dish, I didn't think it would go particularly well with my rice and dal. Right beside the swedes was a forlorn-looking butternut squash that hadn't made the cut when I cooked its younger, fresher brother in a pumpkin and coconut curry two weeks ago. The squash was beginning to show signs of aging and would need to be cooked. So I trawled the web, looking for help. I didn't find any recipes for swede curry but I found many for turnips which I have modified to produce what I'll call Swede & Pumkin Curry.

My larder also contains a growing collection of pulses (lentils). I've been experimenting with different lentils and different tarkas or seasonings. This time I tried making a Mixed Dal using three different dals; moong dal, toor daal and chana dal.

But now, back to the chickpea curry: we're in this thing together, Steve and I, so I asked him to cook it! We had a very busy kitchen last night with a mixed dal, a chickpea dish, rice and the swede curry all bubbling merrily on the stove. Steve's version of the chickpea dish was wonderful and was enhanced by the addition of baby okra, a vegetable we have taken to adding to various dishes as we to do with garden peas. The okra adds a wonderful texture (2 textures, really; the fuzzy somewhat resistant outer coat which gives way to the softer seeds on the inside) and flavour to the mix:

Recipe for Chick peas
From Kinnary Shah

Ingredients:
One small finely chopped onion
Chopped tomatoes (half tin)
1 bay leaf (divided into half)
2-1/2 tbsp of Chole masala
One tin of Chick peas

1 cup frozen okra
1/2 tsp of Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of ginger and garlic paste. (separately or together)
Salt to taste
Coriander for garnish (Fresh)
3 tbsp of oil
Small green Chile, cut from middle (optional)

Method:
1. Add oil in the pan, to it add cumin seeds, when the seed become brown add chopped onion, ginger garlic paste, bay leaf. (and Chile)

2. When onion gets light brown, add chopped tomatoes and to it add chole masala and salt, and stir till oil separates out (approx. 10 min).

3. Then add chick peas, okra and half cup of water and cover the pan.

4. Let it boil for 10 mins or till the gravy becomes thick (stir occasionally). If the water dries out, then add little water and let it boil.

5. Add coriander and serve...

Can be eaten with rice, or pullao.

Spicy Nights (II)

2010-02-07T13:00:00.004Z

Mixed Dal (chana, toor and moong) with Rice, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This was my first attempt to try mixing different lentils. I chose chana dal, toor dal and moong dal for this. The addition of green chillis, tomatoes and curry leaves helped make this a very tasty treat!

MIXED DAL

Ingredients:

1/3 cup moong dal
1/3 cup toor dal
1/3 cup chana dal
½ tsp Cumin Seeds
a pinch of Asafetida
1 large onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
2 tsp ginger pulp
2 green chilies, chopped
20 curry leaves
½ tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp red chilli powder
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
3-1/2 cup water (or enough to cover the lentils to a depth of 3 cm)
ghee, oil or a mixture of both, to fry
Salt to taste

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix all the dals and wash and soak in water for about an hour. Drain and rinse until the water runs clear.
2. Add the mixed dals to a pan of salted water, to a depth of 3cm, and bring to the boil.
3. When frothy foam appears on the surface, remove by skimming the surface with a slotted spoon, then add the turmeric.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oil/ghee in a separate frying pan until hot and add asafetida and cumin seeds. When the seeds begin to pop, add the onions, garlic, curry leaves and chopped green chilli. Fry this mixture for 3 min or until the onions take on colour and have softened a bit.
4. Add tomatoes and fry for about 5 min to soften. Next, add the red chilli powder.
5. When softened, add this mixture to the dal, cover and cook on a low flame until the dal is softened and is ready to eat.

Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Spicy Nights (III)

2010-02-07T12:45:00.009Z

Swede and Pumpkin Curry, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This dish is remarkably delicious! I was curious to see what swede would taste like curried, having never had it before. Too, I had 2 of the beasts in my larder and was not in the mood to have my usual mashedcarrotsandswede! The addition of the 'pumpkin' (in this case, butternut squash) was an inspiration born of necessity; one of those was rapidly ageing in the larder and needed to be cooked! My customary trawl of the interweb yielded quite a few good places to start (e.g. this one) which I took and modified:

Shalgam Curry (or, in this case, Swede and Pumpkin Curry!)

1 medium swede (500-600 gm or equivalent weight of turnips)

300 gms or 1 medium butter nut squash or pumpkin

1 medium onion, chopped

200-300 gms (2/3 can, approx.) chopped tomatoes

2 tsp ginger puree

2-3 cloves of garlic

2-3 green chillies, chopped

20 fresh curry leaves

1-2 tsp salt to taste

1 tsp. sugar

Chopped fresh corriander

ghee and/or oil for frying

1. Peel the swede/turnips and chop into 2-3cm pieces.

2. Boil the swede until soft or pressure cook for 3 minutes.

(I found this took around 30 minutes or so)

3. When nearly done, add the pumpkin/squash and cook with the swede until both are done.

4. Heat the ghee or oil in a frying pan and fry the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves and garlic until golden brown.

5. Add chopped tomatoes to the onion/garlic/chilli mixture, add salt to taste and 1 tsp. sugar. Mix together and cook for 20 minutes or so (adding water if necessary) until the gravy is golden in colour.

6. Add the swede and pumpkin, mushing gently with a spoon to create an uneven texture, cover and cook for a further 10 - 15 minutes or until the curry is well cooked.

Garnish with chopped corriander and serve.

(This amount will serve 4)

Reindeer sausage risotto

2010-01-03T17:46:00.002Z

Reindeer sausage risotto, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This dish was inspired by a trip to the butcher's shop in December. As always, everything looked delightful and Christmassy and these reindeer sausages were no exception. We bought them on impulse. As it turns out, we had so much food to prepare and eat over the Christmas break that we couldn't find a 'slot' to fit these in. So into the freezer they went to resurface in January when our cooking frenzy had abated a bit.

I used a recipe from Francesco da Mosto's 2007 book Francesco's Kitchen:

Sausage Risotto

6 best quality sausages
30ml olive oil
60g butter, plus extra to serve
1/2 white onion, finely sliced
350g arborio rice
half a glass of dry white wine
1 litre beef stock
75g Parmesan cheese, grated, plus extra to serve
salt

Cook the sausage in an open pan with the oil, butter and finely sliced onion. Add a little salt and then cook at a moderate heat until the onion is golden brown.

Halve and set aside two of the sausages and cut the others into small pieces. Return these to the pan and add the rice. Mix thoroughly for a minute or so, making sure that the onion and rice are well mixed together. Add a half a glass of white wine and cook, stirring frequently.

When the wine has been absorbed, add the beef stock, stirring it in a little at a time and making sure that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan,

When the rice is ready - it must be very smooth - remove from the stove, adding a knob of butter and a generous handful of the grated Parmesan. Stir in energetically. Bring the risotto to the table, already served in bowls, with each portion topped by one of the reserved half-sausages - and further grated Parmesan.

Serves 4

-- from Francesco's Kitchen, 2007

Fried scallop, borlotti

2009-11-12T23:15:00.002Z

scallops, borlotti beans, rocket, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Scallop season is here, or so I'm told and I need no further excuse to indulge in this delightful mollusc. I often find myself at a loss when it comes to what to do with them though - especially when I insist on keeping creamy sauces out of the picture. After all, the best examples of this beastie are rich and creamy enough on their own. No need for anything as dark and flavoursome as bacon nor as rich and cloying as cream or cheese.

So, when Steve produced his haul of a dozen of the biggest, freshest scallops I'd seen in my own home, fresh from the fishmonger in the Market Square, I went to my cookbook library for ideas. I finally settled on this deceptively simply entitled recipe from River Cafe Two Easy by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.

As usual, I adapted the recipe to my own taste and to the amount of time I wanted to spend preparing the dish. My biggest 'cheat' was to use canned borlotti beans and, although I am sure the dish would have been even better if I'd used dried beans, this was one amazing dish, indeed...

Fried scallop, borlotti

Ingredients:

Scallops 16
Dried borlotti 250g
Fresh red chillies 3
Garlic cloves 2
Rocket leaves 100g
Lemons 4
Extra virgin olive oil

Soak the bolotti beans overnight. Rinse, then
put into as saucepan with 1 chilli and the garlic.
Bring to the boil, skim and simmer for 45
minutes. Drain, season and add olive oil. Keep
warm. Slice the remaining chillies diagonally
into 5mm slices, leaving the seeds in. Wash and
dry the rocket. Halve the lemons. For the
dressing, squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and
combine with 3 times the volume of olive oil,
season.

Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan large enough
to hold the scallops in one layer.

Season the scallops on both sides. When the
pan is very hot, sear the scallops 30 seconds on
each side and remove.
(I seared for 1 minute as our scallops were very, very large)

Reduce the heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the
pan, add the chillies, Squeeze over the juice of
1 lemon and shake the pan for a minute.

Chop the rocket leaves and toss with the
dressing. Add the barloti beans and divide
between 4 plates. Place the scallops, chilli and
any sauce from the pan on top. Serve with lemon.

(From River Cafe Two Easy, R. Gray and R. Rogers, 2005)

Bangladesh in Cambridge

2009-08-08T16:55:00.014+01:00

A Vegetable Biriyani, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

I woke up late this morning to the tantalising, spicy, garlicy, oniony cooking smells coming from my next door neighbours' Bangladeshi kitchen. Oh! I was instantly hungry! I got up and looked out of the bedroom window - outside in Mrs Begum's footpath lay a metal bowl, overflowing with bright red chillis which she was leaving to dry in the sun.

I quickly dressed and went outside to have a closer look at her bounty; the little front garden which she uses to provide her family with familiar foods from Bangladesh was bursting with vegetables, courtesy of the very wet weather we've been having this summer. There were several types of squash and beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic and various leafy vegetables which I could not identify and which my Bengali-speaking neighbours could not give me an English name for. There was leafy corriander in various patches, some of which was being allowed to go to seed for planting and for cooking. And there were pots of chillis, now nearly bare of fruit at various locations in the garden.

All of this in a space intended for the off-street parking of ONE car! I looked but there was no one in the front of the house; loud laughter, shouting and talking poured out of the house through the open front door along with the spicy cooking smells - there was little question, then, where the family was!

Steve suggested I make fried rice with the leftover basmati rice from last night's Pomfret fry dinner. While I agree that left-over basmati rice would be fine in a Chinese-style fried rice, I was already hopelessly intoxicated by the smells of South Asia which had permeated my dreams and lured me from my bed. I started thinking about what I could cook that would satisfy both my hunger and my hankering for these flavours.

I built this dish using leftovers from the night before. It was simple to make and incredibly tasty:

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked basmati rice
2 handfuls frozen garden peas, thawed
1 cup cooked frozen (or left-over) mixed vegetables such as carrots, beans etc, diced
2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1-2 green chillis, de-seeded and sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, mashed
juice of 1 lemon
3 eggs, hard boiled, peeled and cut into quarters
2 tbsp butter

Spices:

1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
10 curry leaves
2 cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp garam masala
Sliced green chillis, lemon wedges and plain yoghurt (curd) to serve.

1. Measure all the spices EXCEPT the garam masala, curry leaves and salt into a cup or bowl.
2. Heat a wok or frying pan and add 2-3 tbsp oil or ghee to the pan. When hot, add the sliced onions and cook, stirring, until just beginning to colour.
3. Add the spice mixture to the oil in the pan and stir for 15 seconds in the oil before stirring into the onions.
4. Add the rice. Use the back of a spoon to separate any clumps into single grains. Continue to stir and fry, adding a splash of water if the mixture seems to be getting dry, until the rice softens.
5. Stir in the butter, chillis, salt, curry leaves and lemon juice.
6. Add the peas and vegetables. Stir fry for another minute or two.
7. When the vegetables have cooked stir in the garam masala.

Taste the rice and correct the seasoning adding additional salt, red chilli powder and garam masala, as desired.
Garnish with lemon wedges and sliced green chillis. Serve with a bowl of plain yogurt.

Indonesian Spicy Fish Curry

2009-06-19T22:37:00.004+01:00

Indonesian Spicy Fish Curry, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Another fishy weekend!

Friday I was again hoiking off to Cambridge market to see what the fishmonger had to offer. I found, as usual, several things utterly irresistible - for one thing, the mackerel was so fresh it was practically flipping around in the ice. I had a couple of those. Then, Lo!, he had cuttlefish! I love cuttlefish - for me, these are the 'rich cousins' of squid. They are buttery and rich-tasting and have a flavour that is more refined that that of squid. They lend themselves well to stews, too. So I got a few of the smaller ones on the stall. Finally, the red snapper looked mighty fine, so I got a big, chunky fillet for the two of us to share.

Friday night we had the Indonesian curry. I trawled the web for quite a while before I found a recipe that I thought would rival our favourite mackerel recipe - Mackerel with polenta and tomato sauce. I chose well, too, because this dish was beautiful!

Indonesian Spicy Fish Curry

Fish is given a hot, piquant twist in this flavourful dish.

Ingredients

1 kg (2 1/4 lb) fresh mackerel fillets, skinned
30 ml (2 tbsp) tamarind pulp, soaked in 200 ml (7 fl oz) scant 1 cup water
1 onion
1 cm (1/2 in) fresh galangal, peeled
2 garlic cloves
1 - 2 fresh red chillies, seeded, or 5 ml (1 tsp) chilli powder
5 ml (1 tsp) ground coriander
5 ml (1 tsp) ground turmeric
2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) ground fennel seeds
15 ml (1 tbsp) dark brown sugar
90 - 105 ml (6 - 7 tbsp) oil
200 ml (7 fl oz) scant 1 cup coconut cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh chilli shreds, to garnish

Method

1. Rinse the fish fillets in cold water and dry them well on kitchen paper. Put into a shallow dish and sprinkle with a little salt. Strain the tamarind and pour the juice over the fish fillets. Leave for 30 minutes.

2. Quarter the onion, peel and slice the galangal and peel the garlic. Grind the onion, galangal, garlic and chillies or chilli powder to a paste in a food processor or with a pestle and mortar. Add the ground coriander, turmeric, fennel seeds and sugar.

3. Heat half of the oil in a frying pan. Drain the fish fillets and fry for 5 minutes, or until cooked. Set aside.

4. Wipe out the pan and heat the remaining oil. Fry the spice paste, stirring all the time, until it gives off a spicy aroma. Do not let it brown. Add the coconut cream and simmer gently for a few minutes. Add the fish fillets and gently heat through.

5. Taste for seasoning and serve scattered with shredded chilli.

We served this with Thai Coconut Rice:

The rice is prepared with 50% water and 50% coconut milk and cooked as normal. This rice is the perfect accompaniment for the spicy curry.

Try this - knock your own socks off!

Poached Turbot with herb butter

2009-06-15T00:08:00.002+01:00

Poached Turbot with herb butter, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

What a weekend! We had beautiful weather - sunny skies and warm air - and I'd had the foresight *smirk* to buy some fish for our weekend meals. Actually, I went to the fish monger stall meaning to get only one or two fish dinners - but I ended up accounting for every dinner this weekend! I got a squid (a rather sizeable specimen, in fact) a bunch of very fresh and delicious sardines (which we ate that very Friday evening) and... a turbot!!! We'd only ever bought turbot, at the most, twice - be we adore the fish. I find it difficult to get a fish that's really suitable for 2 people. This time, though, whilst I was (very vocally) admiring the (huge) turbot (pl.) on display, my eyes were directed to the smaller, more manageable-sized turbot. Well... the scallops I'd selected went back into the display (the fishmonger was very gracious in putting them back in the case!) and the turbot was weighed, priced and put in my bag. Off I went - without any idea of what I was going to do with it.

Ah... Rick Stein is my hero! I knew I'd find something, within the pages of one of the several books of his that I own, that would do this fish some justice. And so I did. His recipe for "Poached Turbot with Herb Butter" was, unusually, not accompanied by a photo, but we went ahead with it as it really sounded good!

The recipe itself is pretty straight forward. The ingredients are too - you just need a turbot, some butter, herbs (I used parsley, bay, thyme and chives) and salt and pepper. The rest was preparation: The oven was pre-heated to 230 ˚C. The turbot skin was lightly scored around the base of the dorsal and ventral fins - evidence of that can be seen in the photo - this made skinning the cooked fish a LOT easier. Next, the fish was placed in a baking tin and 600 mls of water was added. After a 20 minute poach in a 230˚C oven, the fish was removed from the cooking water and the top, darker skin was carefully removed. The cooking water was reduced to 2 tablespoons and added to the melted butter and herb mixture. The final 'flourish' was to pour the hot butter and herb mixture over the fish, in a serving platter. Finally, sprinkle any remaining chopped parsley over everything, for effect.

Wow!

At the table, remove the flesh from the bones - carefully with a spatula. First lift the flesh recently revealed by removing the dark skin away from the bone yo a plate, then remove the spine and serve the lower portion of the flesh.

We served this lovely fish with organic new potatoes and a lovely, fresh and juicy"rainbow" tomato salad.

Awesome.

Enjoy eating and food and life!
xx

Burger Night!

2009-06-11T01:28:00.002+01:00

Burger Night!, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Today was a tough day, one way and another. Necessitated a good old-fashioned, easy meal to finish it off. Even though we'd been out for burgers just the night before - as a prelude to a night at the theatre - I really craved A BURGER! This, after politely (I hope!!) bowing out of a meal out with friends. All i wanted was to get home, kick off my shoes, cook and sink my teeth into a home-made burger. Well, I had my wish:

We made a short stop on the way home to pick up some minced beef and some rolls. By the time we got home, of course the cats were starving (and so had to be 'seen to') I set to preparing the burgers and condiments (tomatoes, lettuce, red onion, mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, mayonnaise, pickles) and, when given the signal, some of the above went into the hot grill pan, to be sizzled to perfection, whilst the rest of the ingredients were arranged in such a way as the burgers could be quickly assembled.

In the end, it all went pretty well. All was devoured, with much enjoyment (at least as far as I could tell!)

Bon appétit!

Bean thread noodle soup with prawns and vegetables

2009-06-07T00:16:00.012+01:00

Bean thread noodle soup with prawns and vegetables, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

My friend A. is transforming herself:
Not under the knife of a high-priced plastic surgeon, not by going to a spa and being massaged by well-muscled and sweet-talking men while being fed, what amounts to nothing, served up by 'nutritionists' at exorbitant prices - but by sheer force of will. I talk with her nearly every weekend and I marvel at her tenacity and determination; I listen in awe as she gives me an almost overwhelming account of calories in, energy out; nutritional information such as fat, sugar and salt values in everyday foods; the intervals and reps, the miles, the sweat, the fears, tears and pain. I listen with envy (and with some shame, perhaps) as I lie in my bed at noon on a Saturday trying to think of reasons to get up. She gets up much more easily these days for she has lost some 80-odd pounds at this writing.

These days, her voice betrays her newly acquired energy and her excitement - sometimes sounding like a stretched bow, waiting - waiting to be released and give wing to that arrow; sometimes breathless with anticipation of overcoming the challenges that she faces every day. I am both relieved and envious - relieved because, not long ago, I thought I might never see the friend I knew back in graduate school again. Relieved because I know when I see her, we'll be able to do things together - the way we used to before she fell into that hole of loneliness and despair that made her twice the size of the woman I knew, once. And envious, perhaps, of her strength and perseverance in the face of this challenge she set for herself. I cannot imagine what it must take to do what she is doing.

Brava!

This time, as so often, our talk turned to food and eating and by the time we hung up, I was ready for lunch. But, Lo! I didn't want to consume loads of calories and I craved something spicy and full of flavour. So I came up with this:

Bean thread noodle soup with prawns and vegetables

Ingredients (for two servings):

1 100 gm packet bean thread noodles
1 courgette (zucchini)
8 very large prawns (shrimp)
8 dried black Chinese mushrooms (or fresh Shitake mushrooms, if you can get them)
8 asparagus spears
6 spring onions
fresh galangal (or ginger)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
juice of 1 lime

1 stalk fresh Thai lemon grass, smashed and cut into 1 inch pieces (optional)

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp instant Dashi powder (optional; available from Asian shops)
1 tsp chicken powder (or 2 cups good home made clear chicken stock)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 red chilli, sliced
small handful of fresh coriander leaves

To serve:
lime wedges
Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
fresh coriander sprigs

Method:

First prepare the ingredients:
Remove the tough bottom ends of the asparagus and discard. Split the asparagus spears in half, length-wise then, finally, in half, on the bias.

Put the bean thread noodles in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for 20 minutes.

Place the dried mushrooms in another small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for 20 minutes. If using fresh mushrooms skip this step.

Slice the spring onion/scallion into 2" pieces. Keep the most green parts for a garnish (thinly sliced) and use the rest as large pieces.

Wash and peel the prawns, remove the dorsal 'vein' and split in half, length-wise (they really curl up beautifully AND you are left with twice as many pieces of prawn, of course!)

Prepare the courgette by slicing first length-wise then into thin rounds, approximately 1/4" thick.

Prepare 3 slices of galangal or ginger, approximately 1/4" thick and cut into matchsticks. Cut the garlic into thin slices and roughly chop the coriander.

Juice the lime.

Now get cooking:

1. Place the noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside.

2. Bring 1 litre/4 cups water to the boil (if using chicken stock, replace half the water with the stock). Add the instant dashi and chicken powder or stock cube. To this add the courgette and the asparagus and blanch for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove to a bowl of cold water. Keep the cooking water simmering and...
3. Add the garlic, ginger, ground white pepper, the nam pla, a few slices of red chilli, the soy sauce and the lemon grass. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Remove the lemon grass stalks. Drain the mushrooms, remove the tough stalks and cut into quarters (If using fresh mushrooms, cut into quarters. Add these to the broth, along with the prawns and spring onion (white part).

5. When the prawns begin to turn pink (which is almost immediately), add the blanched vegetables, the soaked bean thread noodles, and the sliced chilli to the broth.
6. After 2 minutes, stir in the chopped coriander and remove from the heat.

To serve:

Serve the noodles first then divide the vegetables and prawns between the bowls. Ladle the dashi broth over the noodles and vegetables.

Garnish with coriander sprigs, lime wedges and sliced chilli or serve the soup with no garnish and let your guests help themselves to garnishes including:

Lime wedges

nam pla

thinly sliced spring onion (green part)

chopped chillis

chopped coriander

This tasted delicious! In spite of the long list of ingredients and lenghy-looking preparation, it all went together rather quickly and was ready to eat in about 30 minutes. We loved the spicy/minty taste of the chillis, the crunchy barely cooked freshness of the vegetables and the exotic slimyness of the noodles. Mmmmm!

Celebrate friendship and achievement.

Brunch Primavera

2009-05-30T18:54:00.000+01:00

Brunch Primavera, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Spring!!

A blaze of sunshine, at the start of what would become the warmest weekend of the year so far, prodded us out of our bed and into the garden where we spent the late morning and early parts of the afternoon. A fridge bursting with fresh organic vegetables. Some lovely fresh organic eggs. What should we do? We did the simplest thing possible:

I just washed all of the vegetables and cut them into equal-sized pieces. A list of some of the vegetables I had at my disposal included:

green beans
mange tous (snow peas)
courgette (zucchini)
shitake mushrooms
carrots
asparagus spears
spring greens (or use Savoy cabbage)

I boiled some water, added some powdered chicken stock and blanched the vegetables - each one separately so I'd avoid the risk of over-cooking any of them. The carrots, the smallest ones in the box, of course took the longest. I cooked the vegetables until they were bright green and still slightly crisp. As I removed them from the water with a slotted spoon I plunged them into a bowl of cold water.

When the vegetables were all cooked Steve whipped up some eggs, seasoned them with salt, pepper and in no time served us both some of the most delicious scrambled eggs I've eaten in a long time.

We ate on the patio with the sun warming our skin for the first time this spring. This set us up nicely for the bicycle ride we went on later in the afternoon.

Enjoy Spring!

Wagamama-style Chicken Barbecue

2009-05-17T14:34:00.005+01:00

Wagamama-style Chicken Barbecue, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Another sunny Saturday, another barbecue! The idea to use Wagamama salad dressing as a marinade for tonight's chicken was inspired by having left-over dressing from our afternoon brunch salad! It is very tasty as a dressing with flavours that work very well together; soy sauce, oil, vinegar, shallots, tomato ketchup - here's the recipe:

Wagamama Salad Dressing

Makes about 125ml (4fl oz). Can be kept in the fridge for a few days.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons finely chopped shallots 
2.5cm (1in) piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and grated 
1 small garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped 
1½ tablespoons rice vinegar 
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup 
1 tablespoon water 
100ml (3½fl oz) vegetable oil 
3 tablespoons light soy sauce

Method:
Whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl or screwtop jar and set aside.

I usually make a double batch because it keeps for much longer than suggested in the refrigerator. Naturally, it's at its very best when fresh. I like the soy flavour (which really comes through) and the sweetness of the tomato ketchup - these flavours work surprisingly well together. Dead easy to make, and a little goes a long way.

I first skinned the chicken pieces (leg and thigh - the most flavourful part of the bird, in my opinion) and slashed them with a sharp knife to ensure that the meat cooks thoroughly and the marinade penetrates the meat. The chicken was left to marinate for about an hour, while the briquettes were heating up in my Weber kettle barbecue. Once the fire was ready, I shoved the coals to the sides of the grill, and put the whole, un-jointed chicken pieces in the centre of the grill so that they would cook more slowly by indirect heat. I covered the grill and went to watch Steve make his Lemon-Saffron rice:

Lemon Saffron Rice

Ingredients:
4 tbsp. butter
2 c. long grain rice
5 c. chicken stock
2 generous pinches saffron
2 tbsp. lemon zest (finely grated peel)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 c. chopped cilantro

Method:
1. Melt butter in large heavy saucepan. Add rice and cook, stirring until rice is opaque, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add chicken stock, saffron, salt, garlic and lemon zest. Stir well to dissolve saffron.
3. When stock begins to simmer, lower heat and cook, covered 20 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove garlic.
4. Before serving, gently stir in cilantro.

Now, back to the chicken: After about 30 minutes, I liberally dosed the pieces on both sides with the marinade and turned them over. I turned the pieces once or twice more after that.

When I brought the chicken pieces indoors, I knew I had something special. The chicken was well cooked and tender and smelled delightfully smoky, as though I'd used wood chips to flavour it - wonderful!!

This recipe is a 'keeper'.

Experiment with your food!

Eggs... anyway!

2009-05-17T01:21:00.004+01:00

Eggs... anyway!, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

One cannot live by sprouts alone... so be sure to add some protein to your meal. In this case I used a couple as a foil for a VERRY VEGGIE salad lunch meal thingy. It was a very close call as to whether it tasted or looked better...!! Simply barely hard-boiled eggs, salt, pepper, chopped tomato and chives.

Salad al Fresco

2009-05-17T00:58:00.004+01:00

Salad Daze, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

A sunny Saturday afternoon and what could be better to eat than a fresh salad of chick peas, (home-made) mixed bean sprouts, and tomatoes? Yep, was *real good". mmmmm!

Eat with your eyes...

Sprout and hummus burrito

2009-05-17T00:46:00.005+01:00

Sprout and hummus burrito, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Mmmmm! This is just 'drop-dead' good - a flour tortilla (110 calories), two tablespoons of store-bought hummus (75 calories) as many home-grown sprouts as will fit in the burrito (er... maybe 10 calories??) and 2 tablespoons of low-fat cottage cheese (about 50 calories, max) ... well, go figger... maybe 240 calories??? That's 240 calories of goodness! We had one of these for lunch today along with a hard-boiled egg each and a salad of lettuce, tomato and sprouts (approx 2 tablespoons of home-made dressing, each, MAYBE).Mmmmmmmm!!!!!

I'm cutting back on fat and calories for a while. It's Spring, after all - no need to stock up on fat calories to stay warm! My best friend from grad school is coming to visit us in September and she is both a lover of food AND health conscious so I'm looking to develop recipes that are both pretty fricking delicious AND healthy to offer her. So a lot of my posts will reflect my attempt to be more health conscious. So there.
But they won't *all* be that good... :b

Lazy weeknight bean burritos

2009-05-12T23:17:00.004+01:00

Lazy weeknight bean burritos, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Oh, dear... I've been feeling tired *all week* - and it's only Tuesday! Sheesh! Well, a woman's got to eat - and so does her husband. Not being the sort to go out every time we feel too lazy to cook, we try to figure out ways to make weekday meals fun and tasty and, most importantly, not very hard to put together.

Jazzed up frozen or chilled pizzas and stuffed baked potatoes are favourites and recently, bean burritos have been topping the charts. Part of the fun of the burritos is shopping for them. Tonight we got the cilantro, an avocado and the refried beans from one shop and the tortillas, guacamole and salsa from another.

The real fun is to be found in the assembly of the burritos - I always mess around with the ingredients, adding lime juice, crushed garlic, olive oil and cilantro to the salsa and lime juice, garlic and fresh avocado to the fresh avocado guacamole I get from the market. Then we heat up a black iron pan and brown the tortillas (on both sides) before piling on the refried beans, guacamole, sour cream salsa, fresh cilantro and freshly grated cheddar. Pop these into the microwave for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes et voila! Messy, munchy, scrummy bean burritos!
Hasta luego muchachos!

Hake Steak & Puy Lentils

2009-05-09T17:31:00.020+01:00

Hake Steak & Puy Lentils, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

A Friday afternoon, a trip to the market, a visit to the fishmonger's stall... a meal to remember. There was sooo much gorgeous fish to choose from but only 3 meals in the weekend! I had to decide. I settled on a couple of hake steaks (they looked fantastically fresh!), some tiny baby octopuses and a couple of rainbow trout.

When we got home I decided I was really in the mood to cook the hake and I was soon trawling the web for a recipe to guide me. The search was made especially easy because I knew I wanted to have lentils with the fish. The recipe I found, from Delicious magazine (via Channel 4) is reproduced below (and includes my recipe for spring greens, an inspired addition):

Roast cod on spiced Puy lentils

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
2 tsp mild curry powder
4 x 200g pieces thick cod fillet (I used hake steaks)

For the spiced Puy lentils:
275g Puy lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
2 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium-hot red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 small red onion, finely chopped
4 tbsp fresh chicken stock
Lemon juice, to taste
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Low-fat natural yogurt, cayenne pepper and fresh coriander sprigs, to garnish

For the spring greens:
Enough spring greens for 4 people
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
100 g panchetta or bacon, cubed
3-4 tbsp water
salt and pepper, to taste

Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C

Make the spiced lentils: Cook the lentils in a pan of simmering water for 20 minutes, or until tender.

The spring greens were an inspiration and they worked very well with this dish. Prepare them now:

1. Rinse and dry the spring greens and cut them into 1 cm wide strips.
2. Heat a large sauté pan and add the olive oil, garlic and panchetta. Saute until the panchetta is lightly cooked but not browned, around 3 minutes.
3. Add the greens to the pan and use some tongs to lift and turn them in the oil/pancetta mixture, to coat.
4. Turn the heat to medium, sprinkle the greens with salt and pepper, add the water and cover.
5. Cook over medium heat, checking to make sure the greens don't dry out (add water, if necessary) for around 10 minutes or until the greens are limp.
Check seasoning.

For the cod (or hake!):
1. Once the lentils are ready, mix the olive oil for the fish with the curry powder.
2. Brush the oil and curry powder all over the cod and season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat an ovenproof frying pan over a medium-high heat.
4. Grease the pan with a little oil and add the cod, meaty-side down.
5. Fry for 2 minutes until light golden in colour.
6. Turn over and and immediately transfer the pan to the hot oven. Roast for 5 minutes.

Once the fish is in the oven, finish preparing the lentils:
1. Drain the lentils.
2. Heat the oil in a clean pan. Add the garlic, chilli and cumin.
3. Once sizzling, stir in the lentils, onion and stock, until warmed through.
4. Add lemon juice and seasoning to taste. Stir in the coriander.

To assemble:
Spoon lentils onto warmed plates, top these with spring greens and perch the cod on top of the mound to achieve an artistic effect. Garnish with coriander sprigs and a dollop of yoghurt.

Serve, with additional yogurt in a separate bowl, inviting your dinner guests to help themselves.

Enjoy shopping, cooking AND friends!

Roasted Artichoke "roses"

2009-05-07T20:38:00.001+01:00

Roasted Artichoke "roses", originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

I finally got artichokes in my vegetable box this week and I was quick to try out a simple method of cooking them which I got from the cooking blog "Tamarind and Thyme". They were a doddle to prepare and didn't upset my husband Steve (who can't bear the smell of boiling artichokes!)

As I am an inveterate tinkerer, I couldn't resist embellishing the final effect. Using a sharp knife, I first cut the tops off of the artichokes then cut the tougher outer leaves so that they resembled roses. Then, as per the method I was following, I drizzled them with olive oil before sprinkling with coarse sea salt. Into the hot oven they went and 40 minutes later we had them as a starter, dipping the tender bases of the leaves in home-made vinaigrette.

And the verdict? Well, I found them a little bit dry but that could be attributed to the artichokes themselves which were small - there really wasn't much yield there. I think I'll try the method again but the next time I'll try using bigger, more 'globular' Globe artichokes!
It was fun, though - and Steve was alright with both the smell of the roasting vegetable and the fiddley eating ritual. Two out of 3 ain't bad!

Explore new cooking methods for old favourites.

Moroccan-Style Braised Beef with Carrots and Couscous

2009-05-04T00:11:00.003+01:00

Moroccan-style Beef Couscous, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Today, in a moment of madness, I decided to give my pantry a 'spring clean'. This entailed climbing up on a step-ladder and pulling down pots and pans and things, sorting through them all and going through bags of beans and boxes of crackers to determine what would stay and what needed to be got rid of. I also decided to deploy my newly-acquired second-hand label maker and labelling my shelves as I reorganised things. In doing this I discovered a package of handmade couscous that my Algerian friend Miyyada had given me a couple of months ago. She'd brought several kilos of the stuff with her when she moved to the UK to study at Cambridge. It is remarkably fine-grained - finer than any couscous I've ever seen before.

As we had some beef in the fridge to cook tonight (the same cut as we roasted last weekend...) I thought it would be nice to cook the couscous with the beef for a dinner that was slightly out of the ordinary.

Google is my unofficial 'best friend' - always there when I need a recipe or instructions on how to do something I've never done before. And so it was. I found this recipe for 'Moroccan-Style Beef Couscous with Carrots' on MyRecipes.com and after reading it through, I decided to try it. I modified the recipe very little, as noted:

Moroccan-Style Braised Beef with Carrots and Couscous

Dried apricots and North African spices render a hearty stew. Use an immersion blender to thicken the braising mixture gravy--no need for a roux.

BEEF:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound lean beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 cups thinly sliced onion
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin (I might use a tad less, next time)
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika (I used 1/2 tsp chilli/cayenne powder, 1 tsp paprika)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 (14-ounce) cans less-sodium beef broth
1/4 cup packed dried apricots (didn't have any so I substituted a handful of mixed dried fruit)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups diagonally sliced peeled carrot (about 4 - 5carrots)
2 tablespoons water (optional) (didn't need it)
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I only had the curly kind... *sigh*)

COUSCOUS:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/3 cup less-sodium beef broth
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup uncooked couscous
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Our home-made, fine-grained Algerian couscous required twice as much water as suggested so 1:1 couscous and water.

REMAINING INGREDIENT:
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided

METHOD:
To prepare beef, heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle beef with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add beef to pan, and cook 4 minutes or until beef is browned on all sides, turning occasionally. Transfer beef to a bowl; cover and keep warm.

Add 3 cups onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add 4 garlic cloves and next 4 ingredients (through ginger); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 2 cans broth; bring to a boil. Add apricots; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 30 minutes. Using an immersion blender in pan, puree onion mixture. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

Return beef to onion mixture; cook over medium-low heat 1 hour or until beef is tender. Add carrot to pan; cover and cook 15 minutes or until carrot is tender, adding 2 tablespoons water, if desired, to loosen sauce. Season to taste (I needed to add quite a bit more salt for my taste...)

Stir in 1/4 cup chopped parsley.

While beef cooks, prepare couscous. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add crushed garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. Stir in 1/3 cup broth and 1/3 cup water; bring to a boil. Gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 5 minutes; fluff with a fork. Stir in green onions.

Spoon couscous onto plates. Top evenly with the stew, and sprinkle each serving with 1 tablespoon parsley. This amount serves 4.

The resulting dish was delicious - full of exotic flavours and made just a bit spicy by the addition of chilli powder. Wow! And the couscous itself was sublime - very fine-grained and with a lovely, delicate flavour. For my part, the beef dish, although it required a bit of preparation before actually putting the dish together, the individual steps were very easy. Steve says that he had to add more liquid to the couscous than the recipe suggested - but I don't think the recipe was for hand-made Algerian couscous!

Be adventurous in your kitchen... tonight!

Bread for friends

2009-04-26T22:22:00.002+01:00

Bread for friends, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Woo hoo! I felt like baking bread today and so I devised an 'excuse' to do this...

I've recently joined a new lab group and the people in the group are real 'foodies'! We eat together at lunchtime and guess what the topic of conversation almost invariably is? Yup! FOOD! We are Chinese, German, Indian, Algerian and African-American and we all love our food. Today I made some bread to share with them.

As usual, I used the 'Bertinet Method' of 'kneading' the bread - but this time the recipe came from Paul Hollywood's book '100 Great Breads'. I chose to make a variant of his 'Sesame Rings' but, instead of coating the bread rings in sesame seeds alone, I coated them in a mixture of sesame, poppy and caraway seeds and rock salt. I wanted bread that would be flavourful enough to be eaten alone, without butter. I'm hoping that the seeds add a lot of interest and flavour to the rings.

I hope my new friends like them!

Share food with friends.

Seafood Ramen

2009-04-26T22:03:00.004+01:00

Seafood Ramen, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

I've been in a noodle mood lately and this noodle bowl is a result of this feeling.

I've recently 'discovered' fresh Ramen noodles - what a different foodstuff this is from the instant variety! And they barely take longer to cook than the instants...

I bought a pack of noodles one evening along with some frozen mussels and prawns (can't readily get the fresh variety in this land-locked part of England I live in...) and a couple of bunches of fresh pak choi. At home I combined these with chopped spring onions, a bit of shredded garlic and a crushed clove of garlic,. In an inspired moment, I added a little instant Japanese dashi and a scant handful of seaweed. I crumbled a bit of clear pork broth stock cube in there along with a slug or two of light soy sauce and the same amount of Thai fish sauce (nam pla). The effect was a simple, clear fresh soup.

Salt, freshly ground black pepper and a teaspoon of sugar were added at the end, to taste and the resulting dish was soooo tasty!

Devine!

Enjoy food.

Lentil Stew with Smoked Sausage

2009-04-26T18:39:00.002+01:00

Lentil Stew with Smoked Sausage, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Mmmmm! Now here's a quick and easy mid-week stew that practically cooks itself!

I had some nice smoked sausages from the Farmer's Outlet in Lensfield road (they turned out to be very much like coarse kielbasa sausages) and some carrots, onions and potatoes from our weekly organic box from Abel & Cole and lentils (in our store cupboard!). First, I fried off the onions and sliced and fried the sausages. Then I poured about a pint and a half of water into the pot, added the sliced carrots, chopped potatoes and about 250 grams of lentils (any type would be fine but I used green lentils). To this I added a crumbled stock cube, a little salt, 4 chopped plum tomatoes (which were going soft from last week's organic box!) a couple of bay leaves, 10 whole black peppercorns and a couple of smashed garlic cloves.

I let this simmer over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the lentils and vegetables were cooked and the sauce was red from the tomatoes (about 30 minutes - longer would be fine too - just keep and eye on things in case you need to add more water) and we were good to go.

Yum!

'Cheap' can be fast and easy too!

Roast Beef

2009-04-26T18:20:00.003+01:00

Roast Beef, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

I don't often (rarely??!) post blogs featuring meat as the main photo (in deference to my vegetarian friends...) but this piece of beef was simply gorgeous! Once again, I got this from the Farm Outlet in Lensfield Road here in Cambridge and I used Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's technique from his book, Meat, and was really pleased with the result.

In brief, for a one kilo piece of beef, the method calls for a 30 minute 'sizzle' at 220 ˚C, followed by 20 minutes at 160 ˚C (10 min per 500 grams) and finished with a 20 minute rest period. The result is a beautifuly cooked piece of beef that's evenly rare throughout and very juicy indeed.

Steve made some very good roast potatoes - in the skin - which he flavoured with rosemary, garlic and olive oil. These complemented the beef very well. Instead of a cooked vegetable we had a salad with a home-made garlic cream dressing.

Simple fare and very satisfying, too.

Simple is good.

Croque Monsieur

2009-04-19T18:46:00.003+01:00

Croque Monsieur, revealed, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Here's a recipe I got from Richard Bertinet's book,"Bread"- it can be made with any type of sliced bread. Traditionally, it's made using pain de mies which is as close as the French get to "sliced bread", as we know it:

Prepare a recipe of béchamel sauce (Steve used 25 gms butter, 25 gms flour and 15o ml milk) then, season it with salt and pepper and allow it to cool. While it is cooling, preheat the oven to 200˚C. When the sauce is cool (and it will be quite thick and not saucy at all!), slice the bread and spread some béchamel on one side. Sandwich 1 or 2 slices of ham between two slices of bread, béchamel facing the ham, then thickly spread béchamel sauce on the top of the sandwich. (We added a little smear of Dijon mustard to the ham a nice touch, I think...)

Continue until you have either used up all the béchamel sauce or have run out of bread slices! Sprinkle the sandwiches generously with grated cheese (Gruyère is recommended but having none we used a 50/50 mix of cheddar and emmental) and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, until browned on top.

Devour.

Steve's Roasted Potatoes

2009-04-19T18:04:00.002+01:00

Steve's Roasted Potatoes, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Friday night's repast was pork chops, oven roasted with 20 cloves of garlic (!). The pork chops were from the Farmer's Outlet (8, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, UK) a fantastic shop which carries locally sourced produce, baked good, meat and other goodies. We served them with potatoes roasted with olive oil, rosemary and sea salt. This turned out to be an easy and delicious Friday night dinner. As is our wont, we finished it off with a fresh salad made with lettuce from our organic vegetable box. Not a bad way to end a week!

Treat yourself well!

Monday night baking: pain de mie

2009-04-13T23:02:00.005+01:00

Monday night baking: pain de mie, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Tonight's rather moody, atmospheric post comes to you via Richard Bertinet, my bread 'guru" - I took the recipe from his book "Dough' and followed it faithfully:

Today I baked something different to carry us through the week - pain de mie - the French version of a plain loaf bread. 'Mie' means 'crumb' and this bread is one that, unlike almost every other kind of bread baked in France, is NOT about the crust. Here, the crumb is the star of the loaf. This is the bread used in the French toasted cheese sandwich, croc monsieur and other preparations requiring a soft-crusted bread. I have designs on it - tomorrow's sandwiches, to be specific!

The recipe differs from the bread we regularly make in that it contains a small amount of milk in addition to water, flour, salt and yeast. What distinguishes pain de mie, which is baked in a loaf tin, from other French breads is the de-emphasis on the crust so the bread is baked in a loaf tin with a heavy lid on top to prevent the formation of a crust. I used a cast iron pot lid on top of a baking sheet to prevent the dough from rising above the level of the tin.

The result is a soft loaf (a consequence of the addition of milk to the recipe) with a lovely crumb and (guess what?) a very soft crust!

Enjoy sandwiches and croc monsieur and toasted cheese sandwiches!

Lasagna!

2009-04-12T00:01:00.003+01:00

Lasagna 1, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

What do you do when you have fresh lasagne pasta, tinned tomatoes, minced beef, ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella in your larder? How about making... lasagne!! So we did.

I made the meat sauce and the béchamel, chopped the tinned tomatoes very finely (alright, I used the food processor!) and flavoured it with onion and garlic (sautéed in olive oil) oregano, thyme, a bay leaf and salt and ground pepper. This cooked on a low heat (covered, for about an hour), until the oil separated from the juices from the vegetables. I tasted the sauce for seasoning and then assembled the lasagne in an oiled lasagne pan.

But not before we discussed the best sequence of layers! We finally decided on: pasta, meat sauce, béchamel, and cheese...pasta , meat sauce béchamel and cheese... ending with cheese.

The whole thing went in a 180˚C oven for about 40 minutes - until the dish looked toasted and browned on top. We took it out of the oven and let it rest on the stove-top while we prepared the salad and dressing.

It was lovely. We'll be cooking this again!

Eat. Love. Laugh. Live.

Cauliflower Gratin

2009-04-09T10:27:00.002+01:00

Cauliflower gratin 2, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

I'm not too sure where the inspiration for this dish came from - could it have been inspired by the *two* heads of organic-box cauliflower that seemed to be conspiring to ambush us at the first opportunity? I don't really know for sure... but I do know that we were very, very aware of that cauliflower and constantly of interesting ways to prepare them.

Finally, Friday evening (Good Friday, in fact) presented the perfect opportunity - we were well-rested and refreshed having had a long lie-in and, towards the end of a mellow, relaxed day, we were wanting something relatively simple yet rich, warming and interesting to eat. Cauliflower gratin seemed the perfect thing - once we'd established that we had everything we needed to make it, in the store-cupboard, of course. Best of all (at least for me!) we had rigatoni - my current favourite pasta - in the cupboard!

So we set about preparing the various components of the dish I had in mind - We prepared the béchamel, the cheeses (grated cheddar and emmanthal). Once ready, everything except the pasta was put in a gratin dish and baked in a 180˚C oven for approximately 45 minutes (until the crust was well-browned). Ten minutes or so before the gratin was ready to come out of the oven we cooked the rigatoni, as per the directions on the packet.

Once cooked, the pasta was served with generous lashings of sauce and cauliflower spooned over the top. Absolutely *devine*... rich... decadent, almost!

Be generous with the sauce...

Roast Chicken Dinner Provençal

2009-03-21T19:23:00.000Z

Roast Chicken Dinner 2, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Our first full day in Nice was very domestic - we went shopping in the local supermarket and cooked and ate at home.

On our first shop this visit at the local Monoprix, I was very impressed with the Meat and Poultry section - the meat was very fresh-looking (and included veal, fresh brains and pig trotters among its many delights) and the poultry didn't look anything like what I've become accustomed to living here in Britain: besides the usual chickens (which were all 'corn fed') there were chickens from several different farms. While I didn't spot any 'poussin', (the British equivalent of the 1-2 person Rock Cornish game hen we have in the States), there was something called a "coquette" which was just a little bit larger and perfect for 2 - 3 people.

Duck (both mature and duckling) appeared in several forms in the poultry cabinet - there were, in addition to whole duck and duck breast, duck drumsticks and duck wings (the latter, presumably, used to make stock). I was in heaven!

I can't overstate the freshness and delights of the "wet fish" counter - everything 'delivered daily'... or the deli counter with its salami, saucisson and fois gras... or the meat counter - a groaning board of veal, fresh farmed rabbit, pig tails and things I'd never even seen before (but wouldn't shy away from trying to cook).

Hmmmm... I digress.

To sum up this particular evening: we bought a regular, farmed chicken, some (really good, La Molisana) pasta, and some screamingly fresh-looking lettuce and tomatoes for a salad.

Once home we decided to prepare the chicken simply with salt, pepper, butter and herbs de Provence. We ended our meal with a fresh salad, simply dressed, with home-made vinaigrette...

Voilà!

Ham hocks and beans

2009-03-15T23:14:00.002Z

Ham hocks and beans, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Okay! Last post of a heavy day of blogging and Twittering and all that...
In amongst all the internet activity, I managed to cook dinner for us. This was thanks, in no small part, to the pressure cooker (once again):

Because I've recently been so distracted and doing too much at once, I hadn't soaked the red kidney beans beforehand, so I cooked them in the pressure cooker with an onion and six peppercorns before I started cooking the ham.

Once they'd cooked for 10 minutes, I let them cool at their own pace until the pressure dropped and I could remove the lid.

Then I added the ham and some bay leaves and 4 cloves of garlic. I let them cook (with slow rocking of the weight on my cooker) for 15 minutes and let them cool. This turned out to be insufficient time for the meat to be 'falling off the bone" so I put the pot back on the heat and let it cook an additional 10 minutes. That seemed to do it.

I served this with rice and Romanesco cauliflower (from the vegetable box!) and my "must have " side salad/salsa of chopped tomatoes and red onion mixed with olive oil, vinegar and salt.

Scrummy!

Have some.

Lemon Sole à la Lisa

2009-03-15T01:20:00.013Z

Lemon Sole à la Lisa, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Tonight's repast... Lemon sole from the fishmonger in Cambridge Market, baked on a bed of lightly sautéed chunks of vegetables - Zucchini, tomato, red onion, scallion and garlic seasoned with lashings of (very good) balsamic vinegar and olive oil:

Cook the vegetables until they begin to 'give'. Once softened, use them to line a baking tray and lay the fish on top. That done, 'garnish' the fish with a flurry of freshly ground black pepper and flakes of sea salt. Scatter everything with a half dozen fresh bay leaves and a generous handful of flat leaf parsley and the zest of a lemon. Anoint the tray with further lashings of olive oil, the freshly squeezed juice of a lemon and some more balsamic vinegar. If you're feeling frisky, add a splash of white wine, too!

Bake in an oven (pre-heated to 200˚C) for 17 minutes. Test for doneness - the fish should separate from the bone when poked - and allow to rest for 2 minutes.

Serve with roasted Jerusalem artichokes and sautéed vegetables.

Mmmmmm! Now, isn't that good?

Love, laugh, cook, eat.

Wednesday's Chicken

2009-03-11T22:50:00.008Z

Wednesday's Chicken, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This could almost be called "Kitchen Sink Chicken" or "Chicken Whatever" but that wouldn't do it justice, really. This was an invention necessitated by the need to use up sweet red peppers and onions - and a taste for an easy, warming and fresh-tasting chicken dish. The basic elements of this repast were:

Chicken legs and thighs
1 large red pepper, sliced into strips
2 medium onions, sliced
250 ml white wine
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3 cloves garlic, bashed with a knife
100 ml olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves, crushed

These are the basics - see what you make of it OR tune in a few days time to see what I did with them!

Cooking is such good fun!
--

A Provençal Daube

2009-03-10T20:10:00.002Z

A Provençal Daube, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

More midweek madness - made possible by the miracle of pressure cooking!

This lovely recipe appears in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's comprehensive book about meat called, well, "Meat"! Quick and ridiculously easy if you've got a pressure cooker - it just takes a little bit longer if you haven't got one. We keep returning to this recipe so I think it ranks as a 'favourite'. Unusually, Hugh recommends macaroni for the starch -and we think it works well. The ingredients are very simple and we like to raise the stakes (!) by using organic topside of beef cut into 2 x 3 inch chunks instead of stewing beef.

Marvellous! Bon Apétit.

Sunday Dinner

2009-03-08T22:08:00.009Z

Sunday Dinner, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

It's been a good weekend, full of fun and food and, er, photography!

Yesterday we went to the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens so that I could try out my new camera on something other than food. The trip was a success and we both enjoyed our day out in the fresh air. After uploading a (very) small selection of my photographs to my Flickr site, I decided that the best way to keep track of the photos was to start a new blog. Sorting through 300 photos didn't leave any time for that this weekend. When I get the new site up and running I'll post a link here.

Today we did somewhat of a reprise on last weekend's Chinese style meal:
Steve bought, at my behest, a piece of belly pork from the Farm Market on his way home from work on Friday. It was the last one on the shelf and it turned out to be quite big so I decided to separate the belly from the rib portion and have the ribs tonight. I did them Chinese style (again!) and served them with a medley of stir-fried vegetables - mange tous (snow peas), bak choi and bean sprouts. The verdict from Steve was "delicious!" It wasn't bad, really...

Plenty of left-overs means that we're due a quick meal during the week - something that we both appreciate with our hectic schedules.

Enjoy cooking, eating, drinking and living!

Calamari and Linguine

2009-03-07T00:09:00.013Z

Calamari and Linguine, originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

The weariness that we feel at the end of a long week spent working and keeping the cats happy is no excuse not to cook a really great meal to celebrate the beginning of the weekend!

This afternoon I sneaked off to Market Square to do some shopping for the weekend: First stop - the fishmonger. Stephen Wright's stall is our first stop for really fresh and delicious fish in Cambridge. Recently, too, they've been undergoing something of a renaissance; the range of fish on offer has expanded and the fish seems even fresher and more delectable than it has been in the past (if that is indeed possible!) As the week before, I found myself almost overwhelmed by the rich variety of seafood on offer - in weeks to come I shall list some of them here...)

I eyed the fish and chose a beautiful wild bream for Saturday and a huge, incredibly fresh-looking squid for this evening.

Squid is an easy meal from my point of view - I only really know one way to cook it:

Squid and Linguini

First, clean the squid and slice it into thin rings.

Then, finely chop 4 cloves of garlic and a handful of flat leaf parsley and set them aside.

Heat a large pot of water to cook your pasta (we recommend linguine or buccatini). Cook your pasta before you cook the calamari and drain it while it is al dente. Chill it down with cold water before you begin cooking your squid.

Heat an iron skillet 'til very hot and add 4 tbsp olive oil, heat until nearly smoking and immediately add the chopped garlic and the calamari rings.

Stir-fry these, briskly and when the calamari start releasing their fluid, continue to stir fry until about half of the fluid has been absorbed (about 1 minute longer).

Add 150 mls of dry white wine and salt and pepper to the pan.

Stir fry for a further 2 minute then add 1tbsp butter to the calamari, and a handful of chopped parsley.

Stir and fry for an additional 1 minute. Check seasonings and....

Serve!

Saturday Night Chinese Feast

2009-03-01T20:00:00.033Z

Sichuan Stir-fried Aubergine Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Saturday night at our house means more time for cooking! After a very lazy day (too lazy for words...) we were inspired to cook something out of the ordinary. A careful examination of the refrigerator revealed lots of ginger, garlic, an aubergine ('Eggplant' to you 'mericans) and a head of Chinese cabbage. Together these ingredients suggested the perfect foil for the belly pork I'd picked up from the Farm Market in Lensfield Road Friday evening.

Braised Pork Belly Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

We decided to braise the belly pork Chinese style and in the absence of a recipe I winged it - based on having watched our friend Emma prepare this this dish for us one evening. As I've been trying my hand at using the pressure cooker lately, the belly pork seemed a perfect candidate for this method - it would cut the cooking time down considerably.

To accompany this darkly flavoured, meaty dish we made Spicy Sichuan-style Aubergine (top) - a quick and easy dish that has become one of my favourite dishes from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian Cook Book.

White-cooked Chinese Cabbage Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

We needed a simple vegetable dish to round off the meal so I chose White-Cooked Cabbage from Kenneth Lo's New Chinese Cookery Course cookbook.
The resulting meal was very good and I'm committing the recipes herein - so I don't forget them!

Hot and spicy Sichuan-style aubergines

450g aubergines (the best ones to use, according to MJ are the long thin Japanese kind)
3 tbsp vegetable or groundnut oil
2 spring onions (white and green parts) cut into fine rings
3 thin slices fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine dice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
5 tsp soy sauce
2-3 tsp chilli bean sauce
2 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt, if needed
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

Roll cut the aubergines or simply cut them across, at a diagonal at 4cm (1-1/2 inch) intervals.
Put the aubergines in a colander or on a steaming rack and steam for 15 -17 minutes or until tender*.
Put the oil in a large well-seasoned (or non-stick) wok or frying pan and set over high heat. When hot**, put in the spring onions, ginger and garlic, Stir-fry for 1 minute. Put the aubergines in the pan and stir for another minute, Next add the soy sauce, chilli past, sugar and vinegar, Stir and cook for 3 minutes, Taste and add a little salt, if needed, Add the sesame oil and stir once.
Remove from the heat, Sprinkle the coriander over the tip before serving. Serves 4.

*I found the aubergine too soft to retain their shape during the subsequent stir-frying step after this amount of steaming so I recommend reducing the steaming time to 12 - 15 minutes.
**Make sure the oil is very hot (but not smoking) before cooking commences.

White-Cooked Cabbage

1-1/2 tbsp dried shrimps
1 medium Chinese white or Savoy cabbage
2 slices fresh root ginger
4 tbsp vegetable or groundnut oil
20g butter
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
8 tbsp good stock (I used some pork stock from a cube)
1-1/2 chicken stock cubes (or equivalent of powdered stock)
1 tsp sesame oil

Preparation:
Soak the dried shrimps in hot water to cover for 15 minutes.
Drain. Remove the cabbage stalk (I didn't!) and any discoloured leaves before cutting to 6X5 cm pieces. Finely shred the ginger.

Cooking:

Heat the oil and butter in a wok or large saucepan.
When hot,. stir-fry the ginger and shrimps for 15 seconds.
Add the cabbage and sprinkle with salt, pepper, stock and crumbled stock cubes. Bring to the boil.
Toss a few times and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes, turning occasionally.

Sprinkle with sesame oil before serving.

Braised Pork Belly (Pressure cooker method)

2 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce
300 ml stock (I used pork stock)
3 slices fresh ginger, finely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 small or 1 large onion, sliced
4 tbsp chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
2 tsp castor sugar
2 pieces star anise
salt to taste (approx. 1/2 tsp, to start)
freshly ground pepper to taste

Wash the pork belly and cut into large 3X4 cm (or larger) pieces. If the meat contains ribs, cut the ribs away from the main meat, cut into 2 or 3 pieces and cook with the rest of the meat.
Put the pork into the pressure cooker, fill the pot with water to cover the meat and bring to the boil. Boil for 8 minutes.
Remove the pork from the heat, pour the meat into a colander discarding the water, and wash the scum from the meat.
Return the meat to the pressure cooker and add all of the remaining ingredients. The liquid should come 1/2 to 2/3 the way up the meat in the pot.
Close the lid of the pressure cooker and turn the heat on high to bring the pot to the boil. When boiling rapidly, turn the heat down until a steady rocking of the weight is achieved. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the pot to cool gradually. This will take an additional 20-30 minutes, during which time the meat will continue to cook.
Once cool and returned to atmospheric pressure, remove the lid and poke the meat. It should be soft enough to break with a pair of chopsticks. [If not, return to the heat, boil again and cook under pressure for an additional 10 minutes.]
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings.

Serve in a heated casserole with the juices poured over the top.

Rigatoni Bolognese

2009-02-24T23:46:00.007Z

Rigatoni Bolognese
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Tonight we had left-overs. Bolognese over rigatoni - my current favourite pasta! It had been a long day and I was in no mood to cook - in fact, I was going to msg Steve that we should skip the whole 'dinner at home' thing altogether and give ourselves over to the convenience of eating out. Alas, I ran out of energy and enthusiasm to do even that! So I resigned myself to the tender mercies of whatever was in the fridge at home.

Ah! But I reckoned without recall of an earlier conversation with Steve, only the day before - we'd planned to savage the left-overs of the bolognese from last week. No sooner had I got home than Steve arrived and our plan was reconstituted. Talk about 'easy' - this was... well, easy! I tweaked the sauce a bit (okay, quite a bit - I just can't help it, honest!) and Steve boiled water and timed the rigatoni perfectly. I made dressing and we had a simple green salad to go with the meal.

Delicious and comforting. Mmmmm.

More later... Cook. Eat.

Leek & Pea Risotto with Baked Chicken Drumsticks

2009-02-23T00:29:00.003Z

Baked Chicken and Leek & Pea Risotto
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Tonight!
This was a kind of 'store cupboard' meal - chicken drumsticks from the fridge, seasoned, floured and roasted in olive oil and Leek and Pea Risotto. Yum.

I confess I didn't feel 'up to' cooking this yesterday but today, it was a breeze. The risotto was made even more creamy by finishing the risotto with 3 tbsp double cream and 1 tbs butter. The addition of the usual dollop of more parmesan cheese than was necessary at the very end didn't hurt, either... The risotto was very good with the chicken, and, well, I'd do this again...

Happy eating!

L
x

Parsley Root Soup

2009-02-22T19:31:00.002Z

Parsley Root Soup
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

I must blog. I must blog. I must blog - now!
I've been remiss in keeping up with my blog. As the weeks slip past, the idea of getting back into the swing of it becomes more and more difficult to contemplate. A friend of mine suggested I restart my blog with a fun topic of mine - FOOD! Since we were talking on the phone I couldn't see her tongue wedged deeply in her cheek - as it must have been! But I got the point - a week later and here I am - writing my first post in many months:

Several months back, our Able & Cole vegetable box contained a surprise - deep in the box was a bunch of what looked like immature parsnips. On closer inspection, we noticed that the tops resembled (very closely!) flat-leaf parsley. What was this? There was a slip of paper in the box that promptly put 'paid' to the mystery - these were parsley roots! WTF?? The piece of paper as helpful as we could want - herein was a recipe - for Parsley Root Soup. Alas, the recipe has been recycled! Not to worry, though, if you're a cook you can see what's involved: Carrots, potatoes, kielbasa sausage, celery, tomatoes, vegetable or chicken stock and, of course, parsley root. Suffice it to say, it was unusual and very tasty. I'm grateful to know, too, what to look for under the earth when my parsley plants get woody, leggy and shuffle off this mortal coil finally - they have more to offer, yet.

Home Cooking with Friends

2008-10-19T20:41:00.014+01:00

Pork and Leek
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

This weekend we had another "Come Cook with Us" dinner party. The theme today was Chinese food and our friends were two graduate students in the department where I work - both from Taiwan and both working in the same laboratory. We'd originally invited more people but for one reason and another the others hadn't been able to come. So ours was an intimate affair and all the more relaxing for me as a result.

Braised Pork Ribs
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Steve and I got a late start on Saturday as Friday had been a particularly intense work day for me and I'd been on my feet for the better part of 10 hours. We got up, dressed, had a cooked breakfast and went out foraging on Mill Road for supplies for the dishes I'd decided to prepare for the party - braised pork ribs, home-style stir fried aubergine and slow-braised chicken.

I am a great lover of meat but for reasons unknown to us we seldom eat pork. Pork is a very popular meat in Chinese cuisine. So we came away from our trip to Andrew Northrop Butcher's with a whole lot of pork ribs and pork mince (made from the meat under the ribs). Our next stop was Seoul Plaza where we bought some tofu and spring onions. From there we went to Al Amin and got a small chicken.

Back at home I started on the ribs. Chinese-style ribs are usually cut into 1.5 - 2.0 inch pieces for ease of eating with chop sticks. I set to chopping the ribs with my cleaver with glee - what a racket I made! After I'd finally chopped them all I froze some and plunked the others into a pot of cold water and brought that up to the boil. These were boiled for 3 minutes and the water then poured away and the ribs rinsed of any residual scum. Then I added some water back to the pot, tossed the ribs in, added some seasoning and let that come back to the boil. I simmered the ribs in the sauce for about an hour, partially covered, stirring every so often so that all of the meat spent time in the sauce.

Next I chopped up the chicken and following the recipe in my favourite Chinese cookbook, the New Chinese Cookery Course by Kenneth Lo, I prepared the Slow-Braised Chicken dish.
While I was cooking, Juching and Chantal arrived. They'd brought their supplies and had between them 3 dishes they wanted to cook.

Beef Mince with Barbecue Sauce
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Chantal was first up at the stove and she prepared a very tasty fatty pork and leek stir fried dish while Juching prepared her vegetables and assembled her ingredients. Juching's contributions were a beef mince and barbecue sauce dish AND a sticky rice cake and vegetable stir fry. I'd never had sticky rice cakes before and these were a real revelation! They were chewy and tasty and very satisfying to eat. Chantal's pork dish was 'to die for' - subtle and very moreish. Juching's beef with barbecue sauce was very unusual because the barbecue sauce was nothing like American barbecue sauce. It was spicy and contained fish sauce or fermented fish. It was delightful and strange to eat.

Stir-fried Pak Choy
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

All in all we had seven dishes between us - including a wonderful Korean tofu dish, from the book Korean Cooking by Young Jin Song. Steve has made this subtle, deceptively simple and stunning dish one of his specialities and it is one of my favourites. The vegetable box gave us bok choy so I made stir fried bok choy, naturally. In accordance with the sheer volume of food before us, we spent quite a long time eating - going back again and again to the dishes arranged at the centre of the table. The chat was about food and cooking and they paid me the best possible compliment in the world - they said that my dishes tasted very Asian and that they wouldn't have guessed that they had been cooked by a Western person. Wow... that was indeed a fantastic compliment!

We chatted long after we'd finished eating, lingering over the drying rice grains and solidifying pork fat. Slowly we extricated ourselves from our reverie; I served chocolates and tea. We were so buoyed up by our evening together that we all agreed to have a repeat performance of the dinner sometime soon!

Vegetarian Potluck Dinner!

2008-10-05T16:50:00.015+01:00

Aubergine and Tomato Curry 3
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Where do I begin? This was an idea that all of us had one night, walking back to the department after a celebratory meal in town. The occasion was Anbu's successful thesis defence. Steve and I wound up walking with a group of Indian friends and talking about food (my favourite topic!). It was then that we decided to have (and host!) a vegetarian Indian potluck dinner. As we were all merry and buoyed up by Anbu's success, Steve and I were quick to agree - it would get us started on, what we hope will be a sociable Winter. It was only later that I got nervous - cook curry for Indians... was I nuts??!! I guess I was.

Cavalo Nero, Carrot and Coconut
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Steve sent out an invitation to this 'event' to friends via Facebook. Unfortunately Anbu, whose party had inspired us, couldn't make it. But he sent me a recipe for a spicy Aubergine (a.k.a. Brinjal, Eggplant) and Tomato curry (above). I decided to make that and having received a bunch of Cavalo Nero for the THIRD straight week, I substituted it into a recipe for cabbage and carrot and coconut. I decided to make coconut ice cream, too, since I didn't really know who would be bringing what, as well as some fragrant rice and a pot of dal.

Vegetable Rice by Saroj
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Steve and I shopped and cooked for most of the day before our guests arrived. In the evening, Saroj (who seems to be the 'elder brother' of the group!) arrived first with his contribution of a vegetable rice dish ('pilau rice') and a large tub of rice pudding for dessert. The others dribbled in a bit later. Once we were all together, we got busy warming and assembling our dishes and taking photographs.

Vegetarian Indian Potluck dinner
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

One by one the dishes made their way to the dining area until we had a veritable 'groaning board' of different dishes on the table; the melange of colours delighted the eye while the aromas wafting up from the table sharpened our already-keen appetites. It looked like a Thanksgiving day spread. As it happens, this day was the first day of Navratri a 9 night/10 day Hindu Festival celebrating the female divinity. Our gathering could hardly have been set for a more auspicious date.

We gathered around our table and passed dishes around, talking and laughing together like old friends. The dishes were remarkably different in style and flavour and complemented each other (while the diners complimented each other's efforts!). What looked like much too much food for six turned out to have been rather well-judged.

Swetha, Saroj and Samir
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Sriram
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

After the meal, our guests surprised us by taking over the kitchen and doing the dishes! (Thanks, guys!) They left us the left-over food, too, so we will be having a reprise tomorrow evening. A request for a 'pause' before dessert was agreed to by all after which we devoured the desserts; Saroj's rice pudding was fragrant and delicious and my coconut ice cream, a nice addition to the pudding.

All and all we had an excellent time and, judging by the smiles and laughter, so did our guests.

Enjoy food and friends!

xxx

Anbu Paramasivam's Aubergine and Tomato Curry

Ingredients:

1 large aubergine (or 4-5 smaller aubergines, in large chunks)
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, finely chopped
6 tbsp vegetable oil
2 green chillis, de-seeded and chopped
20 curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 - 1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp fennel powder
4-5 fresh tomatoes, chopped (or 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes)
water of tamarind pulp (see below)

---

For the Tamarind water:

2 tbsp dried tamarind
3 tbsp hot water

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 min.
Mash the pulp till the water turns brown.
Discard the pulp and add the water to the recipe, as above

(ALTERNATIVELY -
Mix 1 tsp tamarind paste with 2- 3 tbsp hot water and add this to the recipe...)

Method:

1. In a heavy cast iron frying pan heat 1 tbsp of the oil then add the mustard and cumin seeds and fry for 10 seconds. Once they are popping, cover quickly and remove from the heat for a moment. Return to the heat and add the onions, chillis and curry leaves.

2. Stir and fry until the onions have softened then add the turmeric, chilli powder (depends how hot you like it) garam masala and ground fennel.

3. When the spices become fragrant and have lost their 'raw' quality, add the chopped tomatoes and tamarind water.

4. Add the tomato purée and bring up to the boil and stir to combine the flavours.

5. Add the diced aubergine and salt. Cover and simmer until the aubergine pieces soften and absorb the flavour of the spices, about 20 minutes.

Check the seasoning, adding more garam masala, salt or pepper if required.

Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve.

Fried Rice and Spareribs

2008-10-02T00:11:00.008+01:00

Fried Rice
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Today was 'shopping day' for us - we went up on Mill Road (on a week day, for a change - we are still in 'vacation mode'...). I bought a long-desired (very garish!) striped broom and dustpan set, a teapot (red!) and a much-needed new tea cosy (and learned that they don't sell tea cosies in Switzerland and so are kept in stock at small shops all over Britain!). After a day spent cleaning and shopping, I wanted to cook something that was easy (but not necessarily 'quick'...).

Pork Spareribs and Fried Rice
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

I had some spareribs that we'd bought on Saturday from Andrew Northrop and, digging around in the fridge discovered some left-over rice from several days ago. I rarely cook fried rice because it's supposed to be a dish to be prepared from leftover rice (which Steve and I rarely have!). So on discovering this 'rare' ingredient in our fridge, we just knew we had to make fried rice. More rummaging turned up some panchetta (destined for a cabonara, no doubt!) and a couple of lovely "golden yolked" eggs; these are produced here as a speciality item and are recognisable by their (very) bright yellow yolks which distinguish them from the usual, anaemic-looking, pale-yolked eggs that have become the usual fare here. We combined these ingredients with some onions and green peas and created a beautiful fried rice dish to accompany our slow-cooked pork spareribs. The spareribs themselves benefited from a seasoning mix brought back from China by a friend. I browned the spareribs (which I first seasoned with salt and 5-peppercorn mix) in oil, garlic and ginger. Once browned, I added boiling water to cover, Chinese cooking wine, Chinese sugar "candy" - a dark brown sugary substance - dark soy sauce, a bit of MSG (which, I read recently, is widely - and shamelessly - used in Chinese cooking in China) and some salt. This was left to gently simmer for about 1-1/2 hours, and checked regularly to make sure nothing stuck and the level of the cooking liquid was sufficient to keep everything cooking together.

After this time, the meat looked about ready to leap off of the bones. I checked the seasoning and adjusted according to taste, thickened the sauce a bit with a couple of tablespoons of corn starch (corn flour) mixed with cold water and served it with the rice.

And was it delicious? :)
Of course.

Eat!

Lisa
xx

Chicken in Tomato and Sweet Red Pepper Sauce

2008-09-30T15:05:00.011+01:00

Chicken in Tomato and Sweet Red Pepper Sauce
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

This evening's offering is an invention involving chicken, tomatoes (the canned variety), Ramiro peppers and dry white wine. An "invention" because I had something in mind but couldn't find a recipe that really seemed to fit the bill. We had these two gigantic free-range chicken legs - far too big for two people (and which seemed perfect for a richly flavoured casserole) and a couple of (equally gigantic!) Ramiro red peppers that really wanted using. I suppose another time I might use a whole chicken. The rest of the ingredients are store-cupboard items for those of us who host a larder. So that I can refer to it later, I reproduce the recipe here - written down by Steve while we were cooking!

Here it is:

Chicken (Legs) in a Tomato & Red Pepper Sauce ("Chicken 52")

Ingredients:

4-5 tbsp olive oil
1 free range chicken, skin on, cut into 8 pieces
(or 4 chicken thighs and 4 drumsticks, for 4 people)
2 thick-cut rashers of smoked streaky bacon or pancetta
2 medium onions, cut into eighths
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 400g cans chopped tomatoes
2 "Ramiro" red peppers, deseeded and cut into 2cm pieces
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp herbes de Provence
1 handful flat-leafed parsley, chopped
6 oz/200ml dry white wine (vin de pays d'Oc chardonnay)
3 tsp five-pepper mix, ground
2 tsp rock salt
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp tomato purée (paste)
3 anchovy fillets

Method:

1. Coat the chicken liberally with the salt and pepper.

2. In a good sized sauté pan, heat the olive oil until shimmering and brown the chicken pieces, in batches, if necessary. Remove with a slotted spoon when golden and set aside.

3. In the same oil, fry the onions until soft and translucent then reduce the heat, add the garlic and the bacon or pancetta and continue to fry until the onion is just golden.

4. Add the wine to the pan along with the herbes de Provence and the bay leaves. Turn up the heat under the pan and reduce the volume by half.

5. Stir in the canned tomatoes and the sugar; add the chopped red peppers and the remaining ingredients and bring up to the boil. Stir well, reduce the heat and gently simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes.

6. When the chicken is tender, remove the chicken to a plate and strain the cooking liquids into a bowl. Retain the solids, return the liquid to the pan and boil rapidly reducing by about a third or until the sauce just coats the back of a spoon.

7. Return the chicken and the solids to the pan and stir them into the sauce and warm through.

Serve on a bed of coarse old-fashioned polenta with buttered French beans.

Serves four.

Happy eating!

Autumn Leaves

2008-09-28T23:37:00.012+01:00

Autumn Leaves
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Happy birthday to me! Today is my birthday. How to celebrate? Well, if you're me, you want to be outdoors - but not stressing yourself too much! So we got up late, had brunch (scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and home-baked bread rolls) and set off with "No Particular Place to Go".

We walked into Fen Ditton, then back along the river as far as the Cambridge Museum of Technology, continuing along the river to Midsummer Common, returning along Maids Causeway. We called in at the Zebra pub on the "home stretch". It was a lovely afternoon.

As we set out, I was in the mood for colour - and I found plenty of it. Late berries, leaves, trees - all contributed to the spectral symphony. I snapped away for a while before admitting that I could never capture it all. We walked along the river, looking at the narrow-boats and wondering about the life inside them; watched the Colleges' early-arrivals get their first taste of the oars - some would go on to race in The Bumps in May, no doubt - and artfully dodged joggers and cyclists - all of whom seemed to have woken up this day and realised its potential.

Steam Cylinder of Headly Mill Engine
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Before we knew it, we'd been walking for over 2 hours. Up ahead, the Cambridge Museum of Technology was showing signs of life - in times previous, it has seemed dormant - our curiosity got the better of us and we couldn't resist the urge to go inside. We bought tickets in the little gift shop attached to the site and went in to explore. What an adventure it was! We were transported to another time, another era. The age of mechanical things; the smells of oil and gas mingled with those of the WD-40 and metal polish used to restore the titans to their former glory. It was immense and a real testimony to the art and science that was the industrial era of the 19th century.

Soon the sun began to recede and it was time to think about winding up. We headed homeward with the intention of stopping at a pub along the way for a pint. We wound up at a place called the Zebra - one we'd passed by, on many occasions, but never gone into. It turned out to be a kind of 'ageing hippy' kind of joint - the staff and clientele ranged in age from 30's to 60's. The music was FABULOUS - The Stones, The Who, The Faces, Hawkwind, Fleetwood Mac and Simon & Garfunkel, to name but a few. Before we knew it our 'pint' had turned into two. We left after our second pint, our steps more determined now, as our thoughts turned to our plans for dinner.

Steak, Mashed Potatoes with Cavolo Nero
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

For dinner we had a couple of fantastic sirloin steaks from our trusted local butcher (thanks Andrew Northrop!!) with potatoes and Cavolo Nero from our organic box - which we decided to mash together with butter and olive oil. The result was exquisite! With this, we drank a bottle of 2005 Château Haut-Nouchet, an organic Pessac-Léognan claret. Wow.

And so, it was, that I celebrated another year gone by.

Fig, Prosciutto, Orange and Parmesan

2008-09-27T16:01:00.003+01:00

Fig, Prosciutto, Orange and Parmesan
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Today we woke up to a glorious Autumn morning - it was sunny and warm... a world away from the weather we'd experienced for most of the so-called Summer. We put together a brunch of prosciutto, orange and parmesan which I had bought presciently on the market the day before. Just to draw a line between the early Autumn and the late Summer mood I was feeling, I paired the dish with a bright and summery salad of fresh, organic vine tomatoes, mozzarella, olives and basil. The olives were Nicoise olives I'd been saving from our trip to Nice last March.

Tomato, Mozzarella, Basil, Olives
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

All of this was accompanied by olive grissini from the shop attached to the new branch of Carluccio's restaurant that recently opened in Cambridge's Grand Arcade. The prosciutto San Danielle was also bought from Carluccio's; the figs came from the local market. This was Steve's first experience of fresh figs and as a result he is now as confirmed a fan of them as I am.

It was a really fresh, lively and tasty way to start my birthday weekend!

Cavolo Nero Risotto (Black Kale Risotto)

2008-09-22T00:33:00.006+01:00

Kale Risotto
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

What! O, what - to do with cavolo nero? These organic vegetables boxes; they do try us! Okay, so today, Steve suggested this - and we also got to use some leeks from LAST week...

Risotto With Tuscan Kale

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
3 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 lb Tuscan kale (also called cavolo nero or lacinato kale)
1 1/4 cups finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 oz)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3/4 oz)

Preparation:

Bring broth and water to a boil with 3/4 teaspoon sea salt in a 3- to 4-quart saucepan. Meanwhile, cut stems and center ribs from kale and discard.

Stir kale into broth in batches and simmer (all of kale), stirring occasionally, until tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer kale with tongs to a large sieve set over a bowl and gently press on greens to extract more liquid. Add liquid in bowl to simmering broth and keep at a bare simmer, covered. Chop kale.

Cook onion in oil and 1 tablespoon butter with remaining 1/4 teaspoon sea salt in a wide 4-quart heavy pot, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to moderate, then add garlic and cook, uncovered, stirring, 1 minute. Add rice and cook, stirring, 1 - 2 minutes.

Add wine and simmer briskly, stirring constantly, until absorbed. Stir in 1/2 cup simmering broth and simmer briskly, stirring constantly, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until rice is creamy-looking but still al dente (it should be the consistency of thick soup), 17 to 18 minutes. (There will be leftover broth.)

Stir in kale, cheese, and remaining tablespoon butter and cook, stirring, until heated through and butter is incorporated, about 1 minute. Season risotto with sea salt and pepper and, if desired, thin with some of remaining broth.

It was a fine risotto - we used this recipe (from the web - Gourmet magazine - Sept, 2002) and modified it by adding 1 sliced leek, after the onion had softened, Later on we pureéd a portion of the kale after softening it and adding it to the risotto after it had softened a bit. That was a good idea as it prevented the risotto from becoming overwhelmed by the leafy kale and added colour to the dish, in general. The chopped kale and the rice were both 'al dente'. It was oh-so-very flavourful - and the flavours balanced very well. We had it with a salad of lettuce, radiccho and red onion.

Yum... E A T !!!
xxx L.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Butter

2008-09-20T23:17:00.013+01:00

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Butter 3
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Our weekly organic vegetable box is really stretching my culinary skills these days. I'm finding that, more and more often, I have to resort to recipes to be able to use these vegetables in interesting and unusual ways. This week (and the week before!) we got a butternut squash. My only experience with this vegetable is in pies - as a substitute for pumpin (and delicious, too!) - and in creamy soups. Today, I went for something completely different. I was in the mood for something like pumpkin ravioli - but wasn't in the mood to go through the complicated motions of making home-made pasta - and filling it. So I trawled the web until I found this recipe for Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Butter on the Abel & Cole website:

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

1 butternut squash, peeled
225 g peeled potatoes
1 free range egg yolk
125 g plain flour
Salt and pepper to taste
125 g butter
2 tbsp fresh sage leaves
Parmesan shavings to serve

Cut the squash and potato into small cubes and steam gently over simmering water until tender.

Once cooked, mash together in a clean pan and place over a low heat for a few seconds to 'dry out'. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.

Once cool, work in the egg yolk, flour, 1/2tsp salt and pepper slowly. Mix together to form a sticky dough.

Spoon the gnocchi mixture into a piping bag (like the one you might use for icing) and fit it with a large plain nozzle.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. When the water reaches a rolling boil, cook the gnocchi in batches.

Pipe about 12 bits of the mixture into the water, cutting them from the end of the nozzle with a sharp knife. Once the water returns to the boil simmer for around 1-1/2 minutes until the gnocchi start to soften around the edges. Remove and then cook the next batch in the same fashion.

Next melt some butter in a frying pan, add the sage leaves and fry gently until the butter turns golden.

Immediately add the gnocchi and stir over a low heat for around 30 seconds making sure all the gnocchi is covered in the sage mixture. Serve immediately on bowls and sprinkle generously with Parmesan shavings.

Okay. So there were problems - (1) No piping bag and (2) a pre-conceived notion that gnocchi are usually of the consistency of a soft dough which you can roll into a snake-like shape and cut into pieces for cooking.

Sceptically, perhaps, I followed the recipe as it was written. What I was left with was a mixture that would be perfect for either icing a cake or piping into a pot of boiling hot water - neither of which I planned to do. So I looked into other gnocchi recipes and began the process of adding more and more flour (and a second egg yolk) until I'd achieved the consistency I wanted. I also added about 1/4 tsp of grated nutmeg to the mix to bring out the flavour of the squash.

The upshot of the story is I can't tell you how much additional flour went into this recipe. I'd guess something like another 2-3 cups (I didn't weigh it). I achieved a light, soft dough that I could just barely roll out gently into a snake shape. I cut the pieces out with a knife, adding flour to the top of the 'snake' to help keep the knife from sticking.

We worked in batches, adding 12 - 15 pieces of the dough to a large pot of salted, boiling water at a time. When the gnocchi floated to the top, they were allowed another minute to cook before being scooped out with a slotted spoon. They were put in a dish and sprinkled with olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. This went on for a while as we had a lot of dough!

Finally, once it was all cooked, we melted the butter in a frying pan, added the sage leaves and made the sauce. Two to 3 portions of gnocchi were added to the butter, once it had browned, and stirred around to coat them with butter. Salt and pepper were added and then the gnocchi were served out onto pasta plates and liberally sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese.

It was very good. If I find a better recipe, I'll post it.

Enjoy eating!

Lisa
xx

Polenta with Cavolo Nero and Sausage

2008-09-14T00:20:00.008+01:00

Polenta with Cavolo Negro and Sausage
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

And this week's organic vegetable box surprise was...? Cavolo Nero!! Ding-ding-ding! (What is it? "Col nero. An Italian cabbage with very dark, elongated leaves.") What to do with it?? Consult your friendly cookbook - which in my case was the River Cafe Cook Book Green.

The recipe I used was polenta con cavolo nero e salscicce (which I'll post later in the year, when time permits). The result was a (very!) green, creamy polenta that was garlic-y and cheesy without being too rich. The sausages I used went well with it - but I would probably use a more sage-y, spice sausage next time. I compensated for the lack of seasoning in the sausage by using the full amount of bay leaves recommended for 6 servings in our 1/2 recipe. I also added some smoked pancetta towards the end because I particularly like a smokey taste with such dark green cabbage-y vegetables (my Southern American roots shining through and through!). It was delicious, certainly.

The moral of the story is, as always, use your cookbook as a guide for your cooking and always (always) make your own personal mark on everything you cook.

Enjoy cooking!
xx

Beef Brisket Pot Roast

2008-09-08T00:34:00.002+01:00

Beef Brisket Pot Roast
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

What a way to end a weekend - we've had quail and omelettes. home-made bread and Portobello mushrooms, and now... a beef brisket pot roast. It feels like Christmas at our place! All of this, possibly, because the weather's been bad and I've been feeling like making things...

I started the brisket yesterday - it all started, in fact, at the butcher's when I asked for the brisket and it was provided. We got plenty of it thinking that it would make great leftovers (and that's still in the cards...)

To make this we had nearly a kilo of meat, which we browned thoroughly to seal. We added 3 peeled carrots, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces, 1 large onion, cut into 6 pieces, a bouquet garnie (2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs of thyme, several stalks of parsley), 12 pepper corns, 3 bay leaves, around 600 mls of water, 1 beef stock cube, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 cloves of garlic (crushed) and 2 star anise. All of this was brought to the boil and then transferred to the oven and cooked, slowly (at about 100-125 ˚C) for approximately 6 hours. It can go longer - in fact I find it's the perfect thing to leave in a very low oven, overnight.

Well, it's been a blast - I hope to repeat it soon... Have a great week!

And happy cooking... xx

Ham and cheese omelette

2008-09-07T19:05:00.002+01:00

Ham and cheese omelette 2
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

This morning we took two of our three cats to the vet for their annual boosters and physical exams. Tomas (15) and Sofie (6) meowed in the taxi for all of the 5 or so minutes it took the taxi to get us to the vet's office. Their exams went very well, thank goodness and, as is usual while we are at the counter paying for the service, I wished there was an NHS for pets!

When we got back home we were ALL famished so while Steve was feeding the felines I cooked us some omelettes with cheese and ham and served them with a little of the left-over mashed potatoes from last night.

Pan-roasted Quail stuffed with Sage and Speck

2008-09-06T22:55:00.008+01:00

Pan-roasted Quail with Sage and Speck 4
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Today we were lucky at the butcher's and walked away with four fresh quail. It's game season again... hooray! After the initial flush had passed, I began to worry about what I was going to do with said quail. Predictably, I turned to Google and tapped in the appropriate key words. I found several kind of boring recipes, several very complicated-sounding ones and one that seemed just right. Interestingly, the recipe was on someone's Flickr page - he'd cleverly made a set of the photographs that went with the recipe and used the set description area to write out the recipe. Clever! I'll fill in the name of this wonderful person when I find it again!

That said, it was a very simple recipe - stuff the quail with pancetta (in my case, speck, a smoky, air-cured ham similar to Parma) and sage (growing wild in my garden), season and pan fry until brown, add 1/2 glass of white wine and cook an additional 20 minutes partially covered and keeping an eye on the liquid in the pan. While this was going on, my husband Steve prepared some of the most fluffy mashed potatoes imaginable and I prepared some quickly sauteéd spinach* with garlic which I dressed with olive oil and a very nice balsamic vinegar. The spinach and potatoes were from our organic box and tasted fantastic. The spinach was a variety I'd never seen before with both yellow and bright red stalks that were crunchy and sweet to eat. Awesome! (Well, um, that's because the "spinach" was chard, actually - thanks Anja...)

Happy eating! xx

Scrambled eggs, provalone, speck, home-made bread

2008-09-06T15:19:00.003+01:00

Scrambled eggs, provalone, speck, home-made bread
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Today we got up late - and hungry. Saturday mornings are usually bread-less as we've usually devoured all the bread made during the week by that time. Last night, however, I experimented with preparing the bread dough the night before, using both yeast and sour dough starter. Instead of my usual very energetic kneading of the dough, I simply brought it together and kneaded it very briefly - only until the ingredients were well incorporated. Then I covered the bowl with cling film and left it to rise over night at room temperature (about 23˚C for about 10 hours).
The next day, when I could wrest myself from the bed, I scraped the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and turned the oven on high - about 220˚C. Then I divided the dough into eight pieces and 'cloaked' each piece by drawing the edges of each piece into the middle while rotating the ball on the counter. Then I placed each ball on the seam created by the previous treatment (sort of like a 'navel', really!) and allowed them to rest for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, I put two trays in the oven to pre-heat and sprinkled corn meal onto two additional trays to be used as make-shift peels. I flattened some of the balls to form buns and stretched and rolled (very gently) others to form baguettes.
By this time, the oven was ready so I sprayed the insides of it with water to create steam for the crust and popped the dough inside. I left them for 20 minutes while I prepared the eggs and mushrooms.

Then we ate it! It was a nice breakfast...

Eggplant and Mozzarella Pizza

2008-08-31T23:25:00.006+01:00

Eggplant and Mozeralla Pizza
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Oh, my! Since I had the dough, I went crazyyyy with pizza too!!!
After a fruitless afternoon of trying to mount shelves in upstairs hallway (we SHALL return...) I turned my hand to pizza. We hadd everything necessary to hand so it was just a matter of warming up the pizza dough ( the remainder of the poolish dough baguettes...) and preparing the sauce and toppings. The organic eggplant was from our weekly vegetable box and the sauce was home-made - we keep mozzarella in the fridge as a 'staple'... Wow! The fermented dough made the absolute best pizza dough we have ever made (or possibly, had!)!!! Fantastic!! I guess there will be other 'weekend projects - which this most certainly was - to come! I'll keep blogging...
xx Lisa

Bread Crazy!!!

2008-08-31T22:49:00.002+01:00

Bread Crazy!!!
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Today I decided to step up to the next level in my bread baking - I tried making bread with a 'poolish' ferment. According to the recipe as described in Richard Bertinet's book 'Crust', it meant making a ferment with flour, yeast and water overnight and then adding flour and rising (and rising and rising) until the baguettes are finally formed and baked. It turned out to be a weekend 'project' (okay, well, the weekend project that actually WORKED...) and I made pizza with a small proportion of the dough that I stole from the baguette recipe! Wow! It was all pretty good... More to follow, for sure... xx

Carrot & Courgette Soup with Lentils

2008-08-25T16:45:00.005+01:00

Carrot & Courgette Soup with Lentils
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

One evening I had to work particularly late so I called Steve at his job and asked if he would cook dinner for us. "Sure!" came the ready reply. So I asked him to check his email because I'd be sending him a recipe that would use some of the wonderful vegetables that had come this week in our vegetable box from Abel & Cole. Then I sat at my desk and wrote off this recipe:

Carrot and Courgette Soup with Lentils

Ingredients
1 medium organic onion, chopped finely*
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 large organic carrots, chopped finely
1 large (or 2 medium) organic courgettes, chopped finely

3-4 tbsp olive oil

1 can chopped tomatoes
125g split red lentils

2 pints water, boiling
1/2 cube Vegetarian stock (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cracked black pepper

1-2 bay leaves (depends on size)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 (generous) tsp crushed red pepper

Method:
* You can either chop and crush the first 4 ingredients by hand...
or do what I'd do which is chop them each roughly then blitz them
(until chopped only, NOT too much, use "Pulse" setting) in batches in a food processor.

1. From there, put the chopped/processed vegetables in a large pot with the olive oil.
2. Heat and stir until they smell really good (approximately 10 minutes) then
3. Add all of the rest of the ingredients.
4. Once it's bubbling nicely, turn the heat down to medium and let it bubble gently, covered for at least an hour.

If you want to spice it up a bit more, you can add some cooked meat (beef, chicken, chicken frankfurter etc.) Serves 4 as a meal, with bread and a simple salad.

When I got home, the house was smelling wonderful. Steve was relaxing on the sofa and dinner was just about ready. It turned out to be better than I'd thought it would be. We enjoyed it so much, as an easy, inexpensive and simple meal to prepare that we made it again yesterday!

Hope you try it too - it's easy to make and so satisfying!
Bon Apetit!

Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

2008-05-31T22:11:00.001+01:00

Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Ah, Saturday! After a very lazy morning, we spent the day food shopping on Mill Road at Cho Mee, Seoul Plaza and Al Amin for things like Chinese vegetables & soy sauce, kimchee, tofu and laver and meat for a barbecue on Sunday (weather permitting!) After several (many!) games of "Ticket to Ride - Europe" (more on that later) we turned our hands to dinner.
As usual, I asked Steve to make the sauce and, this time, it was Teriyaki sauce. He did a beautiful job of this while I scrounged around in the fridge for stray vegetables to put in the stir fry. What a wonderful way of using up those odds and ends that skulk around in the far reaches of the fridge! In this case I found 1 large Pak Choi (which I ended up using only half of), a red chilli, some mange tout (snow peas) and a handful of Green Giant canned corn. This all went in the wok, along with the chicken strips (which had, by the time I'd gathered everything, been marinating in the Teriyaki sauce and sliced chilli for some time...), a large handful of bean sprouts and slices of red onion. I couldn't resist throwing in a handful of fresh, washed baby spinach at the very end. In the end. In the end, the dish we produced was wonderful but resembled the original Wagamama recipe very little!
I cooked quite a bit of extra rice so that I could make fried rice the following day. More to come, I guess!

Suzuki Amiyaki Soba

2008-05-11T21:57:00.003+01:00

Suzuki Amiyaki Soba-2
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Another Saturday night... We shopped on Mill Road - which is becoming a routine thing in our household. First we went to Cho Mee and, Lo!, they had fresh fish! Fantastic. Immediately our minds began to whir. What can we do with a fish? Who cares? Buy the fish - we'll figure it out later... so we did. We also bought a bunch of different Chinese vegetables (Kow Choi, sprouting broccoli) and soba and somen noodles.

Next, we went to Al Amin, the Mediterranean shop, and bought some meat from the Halal butcher there. We got a chicken, a couple of lamb neck steaks, some lamb kidneys and a half dozen Mergaz sausages. There was a mixed grill barbecue in our future... Our last stop was the Korean shop, Seoul Plaza to replenish our supply of Ramen noodles, imported Korean mushrooms, Korean pancake mix, Kimchee and seaweed laver. Nice.

We decided, after a flick through the Wagamama cookbook, to make Suzuki Amniyaki Soba. We started cooking before realising that we'd have to make a teriyaki sauce before we could make the Yaki Soba sauce. No matter. My personal 'saussier' Steve, attended to that duty with his usual finesse.

So, sauce made, it only remained to quickly fry the fish, briefly cook the noodles, sauté the vegetables and, voilá! Dinner, at last!

Bon appetit!

Korean Feast

2008-05-04T23:38:00.020+01:00

Korean Seasoned Tofu
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Wow! A new cuisine (for me)! Saturday evening we had Clemente and his wife Myunghee over to our house for a Korean meal. Increasingly these days we've been inviting people over to dinner to cook with us. Myunghee and Clemente were really keen to cook a Korean meal for us - and we were more than happy to comply! We arranged to meet them at the Korean Supermarket, Seoul Plaza in Mill Road, to shop for the meal. While choosing the various ingredients that we would need for the meal Myunghee introduced us to many of the exotic foods that I'd only wondered at in previous visits to the shop.

Korean Cucumber Kimchee
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Koreans seem to find uses for more parts of the plants they use for cooking than usual - they eat the stems, leaves, bark and fruit, in many cases. As it happens, Clemente and Myunghee are vegetarians so we had, I think, an opportunity to have a few more dishes on our table than would be the case were we having a 'meat-centric' meal.

Korean Bibimbab - Zucchini and Aubergine
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

We cooked more dishes than I thought we'd be able to do justice to - stirred rice (with aubergine, zucchini, beansprouts and sweet potato stem) and seaweed laver, Korean cabbage kimche, kimchee seasoned pancakes, cucumber kimchee and seasoned tofu. It was all so deliciously different and fresh-tasting.

I hope to post some of Myunghee's recipes in the near future - with her permission, of course!

Happy cooking!

kai sen udon

2008-04-26T19:21:00.007+01:00

kai sen udon
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Another 'noodle post'. This one is a (very) quick and easy dish that we prepared yesterday (Friday) evening. While cycling past Cho Mee, the Chinese Supermarket in Mill Road on my way home, a quick glance told me that they had taken delivery on some fish earlier in the day. Whee! This was exciting news because Cho Mee is one of the few places we can easily get really fresh fish here in Cambridge - at a reasonable price. I popped in and bought a very fresh sea bass and a handful of great-looking tiger prawns. While I was shopping, I tried to justify buying a bunch of razor clams too but failed - and left them where they were. Maybe next week... Anyway, when we got home I looked in my Wagamama Cookbook (I was in the mood for noodles...) for a suitable recipe. I found this one. As it happens, we didn't have all of the ingredients called for but we were able to improvise with things like Chinese fish balls and spring onions. Remarkably, just few minutes of working together in the kitchen yielded this very tasty and satisfying dish. I would have been eager to work far harder to achieve this result! I heartily recommend this recipe (and the book!) to my noodle-loving friends!

I will post the recipe at a later date so 'stay tuned'!

Happy 'slurping'!

Pizza with Cheese and Anchovy

2008-04-20T22:18:00.003+01:00

Pizza with Cheese and Anchovy
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

I had a lazy weekend, punctuated, now and then, with bursts of activity. The activity was pizza-making - my first pizzas in a long, long time. Between working at my new job and my new-found love of bread baking, there has been little time to indulge in pizza-making. Today I managed to do it! It certainly helped that I made our bread on Saturday, leaving today free for pizza. The recipe was very simple and only the mozzarella was bought especially for this purpose. Everything else was in the store cupboard. (Hooray! My tendency to 'hoard' food pays off, once again!) The bottoms of the pizzas, with the exception of the one pictured above, were not cooked as much as I would have liked. They really needed another couple of minutes to be more crisp. I plan to solve that fairly soon by getting myself a stone to cook my pizzas on. I'll be sure to post when I get one!

I made 3 pizzas - plain packaged mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and anchovy and mozzarella and goat's cheese. They were all good and each of the steps involved were gentle and easy to execute. There was *way* too much pizza, though, in the end. We'll be having pizza tomorrow!

Happy baking!

Dorade with Fennel and Orange

2008-04-20T01:28:00.003+01:00

Dorade with Fennel and Orange
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

I been away too long - but that doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking! Today Steve and I went in search of fish - and we found it. Earlier in the week we'd received our weekly box of local, organic vegetables, which included fennel. What to do with fennel?? Well, Googling around provided the answer, as usual. This recipe is courtesy of Beyond Salmon. Thanks, Helen! It was very tasty, indeed.

More to come - I am a bit behind in my blogging! x

Choucroute Garnie

2008-04-06T17:08:00.005+01:00

Choucroute Garnie
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

This is one of the first dishes I cooked after getting back from France earlier this year. My mother first introduced me to this dish when I called her asking what to do with kielbasa sausage other than treating it like an overgrown frankfurter. She suggested this traditional Alsace dish of sauerkraut flavoured with juniper berries and 'garnished' with sausages. It was with much expectation, then, that I ordered this dish in an Alsatian restaurant. I was really impressed at the variety of the meats that were in this dish - an effect I tried to duplicate here. The 'authentic' dish also has pork and thick bacon in it. Next time I'll try adding more meats. All in all, it's a simple repast; easy to prepare, satisfying and warming. Not much to look at on the plate, though!

Bertinet Bread

2008-03-02T22:24:00.006Z

Bertinet Bread
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

This evening I baked some rolls using a recipe from Richard Bertinet's book Dough which I bought last week. This is a book that promises to provide countless hours of entertainment!

I started with this, one of the simplest recipes in the book. The tricky part of cooking from this book is that the author asks you to believe that, however wet you think the dough might be, it WILL turn into a 'proper' dough and make a wonderful bread. He's not wrong, of course, but it IS very difficult, indeed, to stay the course. My dough was very wet and sticky but, after about 4 minutes of 'working' it, a transformation took place and I had in my hands some of the most amazingly elastic, pliable dough I have ever touched in my hands. Amazing!

Bertinet Crumb
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Upon opening the oven I saw (before my eyes) the most beautiful buns I have ever made. The crust was golden and tight, the bread itself felt springy and light and, cutting it open after it cooled revealed a beautiful, even crumb. I really enjoyed working this dough and making this bread. I recommend this book very highly!

Happy baking!

Double Happiness Wonton Soup

2008-03-02T18:34:00.005Z

Wonton Soup
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

It was Saturday night. We were tired after a long, hard week at work and doubly tired from walking all over Cambridge earlier in the day. We were cranky. I wanted to make wonton soup for the first time. We were hungry. At first it was very quiet in our kitchen while we struggled with trying to wrap the filling in the wrappers - that was after the disagreement over how to interpret the instructive photos in the cook book. Then we fell into a rhythm and started talking again. Not long after that we were beaming at our accomplishment and fretting over whether they'd all stay together in the pot of boiling water. They did. Then we made the simple broth to go with them.

At the end of the meal, we were both stuffed full of wontons, chatting merrily away; our troubles all but forgotten. For this reason I'll call this dish 'Double Happiness Wonton Soup'!

P.S. - If you want to double your happiness, the recipe can be found here...

Big Saturday Loaf

2008-02-23T19:14:00.000Z

Big Saturday Loaf
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg

Now that we've gotten used to making (blasé, even!) our weekly bread for our lunch boxes, I thought it would be interesting to have a different sort of bread for the weekend. I wanted to try a large loaf from which we could hack slices as and when we needed to. So, this is it - funnily enough, the yeast wasn't super fresh so I gave it a longer time to prove. This resulted in a slightly sour, dense-ish loaf that was delightful to eat and kept well into the week.

Now I'm really feeling adventurous...

Thai Chicken and Galangal Soup

2008-02-05T21:06:00.006Z

Thai Chicken and Galangal Soup
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Mmmmm... getting carried away here with the East. The Far East, that is! I love making this soup almost as much as I love eating it. It's a favourite of mine at Sala Thong restaurant in Cambridge. This bowl of rich soup, crammed with chicken and mushrooms steeped in coconut milk which has been infused with galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime (rind and juice, in the absence of leaves...) is heaven on the tongue. The restaurant serves it with Thai sticky rice (and I do too, when I can!) but it's just as good with Thai fragrant rice. The tricky bit, I think, is getting the consistency right - you need to remember that the mushrooms don't require more than about 5 minutes in the soup AND they give off a lot of liquid in cooking. I always fumble with that but I've never been disappointed with the results!

Chicken in Coconut Milk Soup
250 gms chicken breast, slice
2 cups coconut milk
6 thin slices young galangal
15-20 closed-cup white mushrooms, quartered
2 stalks lemongrass, lower portion, cut into 1-inch lengths and crushed
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves, torn in half (or 3-4 strips of kaffir lime + juice)
4 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar (...or honey)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Garnish with a handful of coriander leaves, torn and the remainder of the sliced red chilli.

Method:
1. Combine half the coconut milk and half the sliced chilli with the galangal, lemongrass and lime leaves (or juice and rind) in a saucepan. Heat to boiling.
2. Add the chicken, fish sauce salt, sugar and white pepper. Simmer for about 4 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked, and then add the remaining coconut milk.
3. Heat just to boiling. Place the lime juice and fried chilli paste in a serving bowl and pour the soup over them.
4. Garnish with coriander leaves and sliced red chillies.

Serve with steamed fragrant or sticky rice. Serves 4, with accompaniments.

Udon noodle bowl with Chinese chives, bamboo shoots and roast duck

2008-02-05T18:24:00.008Z

Udon noodle bowl
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

After that scrumptious feast of a meal we had the evening before, my appetite was still hungry for more of the same the next day! We had a considerable selection of leftovers which meant "playtime" for me and my cupboard. It took very little time to come up with this - a noodle bowl with a delicate soup, soy sauce, mirin, Chinese chives and leftover roast duck. I served this sort of "semi-wet" - the ratio of noodles to broth was quite a bit higher than I normally do for a bowl, but it worked just fine. I have to repeat this dish before I can post a recipe but you have the basic ingredients list here should you want to try it:

Ingredients for Udon Noodle Bowl

Cooked duck meat, picked from the bone (about a cup)
3 packs Udon noodles (the soft, pre-cooked type work well)
a good handful of Chinese chives, cut into 3cm lengths (or any Chinese greens, roughly chopped
1 small can bamboo shoots
grated fresh ginger and grated fresh garlic (about 1-2 tsp each)
soy sauce (about 2-3 tbsps)
mirin (or honey or sugar) 1 tsp
rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp
2 cups good-quality chicken broth
ground white pepper
salt

Optional:
small handful of mushrooms, sliced

This can also be made vegetarian by substituting some nice mushrooms (shitake or oyster, for example) for the duck.

Enjoy!

Hot and Sour Soup

2008-01-29T22:10:00.002Z

Hot and Sour Soup
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Last weekend we had a few Chinese friends over for a kind of informal 'dumpling dinner party'. It was great fun hosting a party with people cooking all around us and being at their beck and call to provide everything they needed in the way of utensils, pots and ingredients. The result was a sumptuous meal of delicious pork dumplings, sautéed vegetables, hot and sour soup and a roast duck. The spread was enormous - a bit like Thanksgiving Day in January; the company convivial and appreciative. A good time was had by all - especially by us. I'll post more pictures very soon, I hope!

Coconut Fish Curry; Kerala, South India

2008-01-13T21:25:00.005Z

South Indian Fish Curry
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This is the first time I've tried cooking a fish curry. In truth, I've only ever twice had a fish curry - both times at The Rice Boat, a restaurant in Cambridge specialising in the cuisine of Kerala, South India. I'd never tasted anything like it before. On later perusal of our favourite Indian cookbook, Indian Essence (Atul Kochhar, Quadrille Publishing, London) I discovered a recipe that promised to be every bit as sumptuous. Had I not experienced the subtle tastes of fish and Eastern spices at the Rice Boat, I doubt I would have tried this recipe myself. The ingredients are relatively simple but the resulting dish is something not to be missed. I hope you agree.

For the fish, I used frozen Kingfish steaks, available from any good Asian market. I would say that, in my humble opinion, 'curry leaves' are essential to the full appreciation of this dish. Although they can be hard to find, being available only in specialist Asian food stores, they freeze well and keep for months.

Coconut Fish Curry

Ingredients
4 sea bass fillets, each about 150g (I used Kingfish steaks instead)
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1-1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil
2 medium onions, finely sliced
6 green chillies, slit lengthways
3 garlic cloves, sliced into thin strips
25-30 curry leaves
2.5 cm ginger shredded
400 ml coconut milk
2 tbsp lime juice
coriander sprigs, to garnish

Method
First, mix 1/2 tsp salt with 1 tsp turmeric and gently rub into the fish steaks.

Then, heat the coconut oil in a wide pan and add the onions, chillies, ginger and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes then add the curry leaves and keep cooking until the onion is translucent. Take out half of the curry leaves and set aside for the garnish.

Next, add the rest of the turmeric and salt to the pan, Pour in the coconut milk and heat through, then add the fish steaks and simmer very gently for 3-4 minutes until just cooked.

Serve immediately, garnished with the reserved curry leaves and coriander.

Chicken and Vegetable Couscous

2008-01-12T21:51:00.001Z

Chicken and Vegetable Couscous 3
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This was the 'second generation' of a meal we served when a couple of friends came over for dinner one night. One of them was a life-long vegetarian and I was looking for something that would be tasty, filling and warming to eat (it's January, after all!). Having cooked this for myself and Steve years ago, I trotted out the old recipe and tried it out on our friends. The result was so surprisingly good that I made it again, the following week - but this time with the addition of chicken pieces (jointed and skinned wings with bones). This, too, was very pleasant to eat.

Chettinad Chicken Curry

2008-01-08T22:01:00.003Z

Chettinad Chicken Curry
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This is an example of 'Midweek Madness' wherein Steve and Lisa get the urge to cook up a storm. We were, of course, both exhausted from a good day's work but were unable to resist the temptation of cooking a big Indian meal. We cooked this Chettinad Chicken Curry, Aubergine in Yoghurt (both from Indian Cooking Made Easy, my newest cookbook) and I made a tarka daal to go with these. We had this with plain white basmati rice. It all tasted as good as it looks...

"Refridgerator Suey"

2008-01-03T21:24:00.003Z

"Refridgerator Suey"
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

What to eat after Christmas over-indulgence when you're stuffed full of rich food, meats, cheeses and wine? Well, I looked through the fridge this evening and came up with a treasure-trove of vegetables to play with. What better foil for vegetables after troughing at the horn-of-plenty? I came up with this - noodles with shrimp, snow peas, spring onions, wakame seaweed, bamboo shoots, red (bell) pepper, leek and mushrooms. It's a good idea, I think, to have a well-balanced larder! Yin and Yang. Moderation. It makes sense, doesn't it?

However, I managed to get a lot of other stuff in my wok....

Like onion, garlic, soy sauce (light and dark), ginger, white pepper, Chinese cooking wine, ground white pepper, Japanese mirin, and...... lots o' luv! :) It wasn't too bad...

Happy 'Post New Year's day' ;)

xx

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T17:48:00.003Z

Brunch, New Year 2008
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Happy New Year, everyone!

This is our traditional New Year Brunch - and Christmas Brunch and Birthday Brunch and... We started our New Year celibrations with a dinner of quail and polenta. After dinner I called my good friend Mary-from-the-Bronx whom I haven't spoken to in quite a long time. just before midnight GMT, Steve opened the Prosecco and we raised our glasses all together. We sipped to Big Ben ringing in the 2008 on the radio. Hope your celebration was fun and we both wish you a healthy and happy New Year.

All the best for 2008!

New Year's Eve

2008-01-01T12:26:00.001Z

Quail and Polenta
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

As the title suggests, we had quail and polenta for dinner on New Year's Eve. Two quail each was probably more than we really needed (is it just me or are quail really getting bigger???) but that just means it was twice as good! Steve made the polenta with butter and parmesan (and he made the beans, too) and I roasted the quail, coated with sage, salt and freshly ground black pepper. The result was an uncomplicated meal that was relatively easy to make and simply delicious.

I probably will blog a lot less, now that the vacation is over - I'll be busy at work! See you soon!

A Provençal Daube

2007-12-31T17:10:00.003Z

A Provençal Daube
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

For the penultimate meal of 2007 Steve prepared this exquisite dish of beef and vegetables with Provençal herbs and seasonings. The original recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittenstall's 'Meat' cookbook and was altered slightly at the suggestion of a good friend who has retired to the South of France.

The recipe, in its adapted form, can be found here. The result was one of the best beef stews I have ever tasted! Chapeau, Steve!

Cloister ruins, Bury St. Edmunds

2007-12-29T19:52:00.000Z

Cloister ruins, Bury St. Edmunds
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Yesterday, Steve and I visited Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, E central England - about 45 minutes from Cambridge by train. It was a dreary day but we enjoyed the afternoon shopping and visiting the ruins of the old Abbey of the cathedral of St Edmunds Bury.

The town has a rich (and long!) history: In 903 the remains of King Edmund were interred here in a monastery, founded c.630, which later became a famous shrine and Benedictine abbey founded by Canute. In 1214, English barons struggling against King John took an oath in the abbey to compel him to accept their demands. The result was the Magna Carta (1215). Among the buildings of historical interest in the town are a Norman gate, ruins of St. James Cathedral, and a 15th-century church. Moyses Hall, a Norman residence, has been made into a museum.

We spent a while walking among the ruins and, I, marvelling at how such an historical structure could simply be part of the town, in a park amongst swings and slides and other playthings. The ruins were extensive, too, and we could have spent a lot more time there were in not for a noxious-smelling stench coming from what looked like smoke nearby. If a smell can be "spooky", this one was - it was acrid and unidentifiable. Most mysterious was the fact that although Steve and I were made very uncomfortable by it, others at the site didn't seem to notice it. Hmmmm...

Phalaenopsis ("Moth Orchid")

2007-12-27T19:37:00.001Z

Phalaenopsis ("Moth Orchid")
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

It's all happening here; I'm posting something that isn't food related - a somewhat remarkable occurrence - prompted by the "birth" of my first orchid blooms! It's very cool, indeed. Granted, these beasts are not all that difficult to keep but if you are not an orchid hobbiest having this small success is brilliant!

I've had this plant for almost 2 years now and after flaunting its blooms for over two months, when they finally fell off they showed no signs of flowering again. One evening last Spring, Steve and I went to dinner at some colleagues' of his and what did they have sitting in their windowsill (and under a skylight, which I'll admit, seemed an insurmountable obstacle) but a gorgeous Phalaenopsis in full bloom. I asked what their secret was and the answer surprised me: weekly submersion of the pot in water - that was it!

So I tried it... I got very regular about the watering and, wouldn't you know it, before long an new spike was asserting itself. It took many months for the spike to begin to show buds (around 8 months, in fact) and then another couple of months for the buds to open, one at a time, at a rate of about 1 bloom every 7-10 days. The whole process was a joy to behold - the plant seemed to 'spend' so much time and energy that it would have been heart-breaking had anything prevented the flowers from opening. Ahhhh... gorgeous!

Quail Risotto

2007-12-26T22:49:00.001Z

Quail Risotto
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Mmmmmm! Boxing day. We went for a long walk in the Fens and finished up with a pint at the Blue Lion. As soon as we got home we started this... The recipe is from my new cook book, Francesco's Kitchen by Francesco da Mosto, a Christmas present from Steve. Very simple, very elegant, and very delicious. It was lovely.

Tomorrow, duck with a prune and chestnut stuffing - and a day trip to Bury-St-Edmunds... And, maybe, rye bread! More later...
xx

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T18:25:00.001Z

Yeast bread, Christmas Day -2
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Today I baked bread (it was 'baking day'...) to have with Christmas dinner. It looked so attractive I had to photograph it before we tucked in! Finally, I've solved my problem with bread - I simply don't like to eat bread that's more than a day or two old (there are exceptions to that, of course!) and so now, rather than having to figure out how to get to a store with a decent bakery, I make my own. This bread here, for instance will probably last us a couple of days - some will be had tonight with our snails and garlic butter starter. Tomorrow's breakfast and lunch will account for the rest (unless we are more restrained than usual...)
Hope you had a happy Christmas!

Greek Style Octopus Stew

2007-12-02T22:11:00.000Z

Octopus Stew
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Steve bought an octopus from the Cambridge Market fishmonger on Friday. I have cooked this beast before but wasn't really happy with the results. This time I decided to try something based on a delicious dish I once had at the Eraina Taverna on Free School Lane, off Bene't Street in Cambridge. As is my custom, I looked in several cook books and Googled around until I found what I thought would be the perfect recipe. Using a combination of two main recipes, one for the tenderising technique and the other for the actual ingredients, I was able to produce a very tasty dish very close to my memory of the dish I had in the taverna. We had it with white rice and broccoli although it might have benefitted from a big bowl of Greek salad which would have been more in keeping with its cultural and culinary aspirations!

Feta cheese sandwiches -2

2007-11-29T20:57:00.000Z

Feta cheese sandwiches -2
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Today I made more bread (!) and more Greek Salad sandwiches. I took some photos to try and illustrate how they are constructed but no picture can describe how delicious they are! This is not an original idea - where I work there comes each day a sandwich van, filled with lovely, creative (and sometimes strange!) sandwiches, rolls and baguettes. The Greek Salad ones are a real favourite of mine as are the hummus and falafel baguettes. The Greek salad sandwich allows the bread to be really appreciated while being satisfying and full of goodness - it's the perfect foil for my homemade bread. As I described in a previous post the sandwich consists of slices of feta cheese, tomato and black olives with lettuce, good olive oil & vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano. Try it soon - you won't be disappointed.

I B Baking!

2007-11-29T08:05:00.001Z

Baps
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This morning I baked baps for the first time for my lunch. I've been so impressed with the baking exploits of my colleague Barney that I just had to try his recipe for the Scottish morning roll called baps. Although it required a few simple steps the night before (I used the 'overnight' version of the two recipes provided) and me getting up before dawn (well, it is almost winter here and the sun is as lazy as I am about getting up!) to finish up and bake the baps, the smell alone is worth the effort!
I'm going to make my sandwiches now...
Hope you have a great day!

Post-lunch update: The bread is wonderful! I made mine with 3 parts strong white bread flour to 1 part flour with 'kibbled bits'. Yum! For my lunch today I made some of my favourite sandwiches - Greek Salad sandwiches containing chunks of feta cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and black olives. I left out the usual slices of red onion in deference to my co-workers! (Although I am not always so kind...). The sandwiches are 'finished' with a slug of extra virgin olive oil, a dash of red wine vinegar, freshly ground black pepper and salt. For those of you who want to try this bread, visit Barney's blog now (click here to get to the post 'A simple Bread') and give it a whirl. One caveat, though - try not to panic at the consistency of this dough when you begin to work it - it really is very, very wet (and it is best to work it with a spoon...)! Stick it out, though, and you will not be disappointed.

Poached Guinea Fowl

2007-11-26T19:40:00.001Z

Poached Guinea Fowl
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

It's Sunday. The nights continue to draw in. It's cold. I'm in the mood for something warming... but light at the same time. I flicked through a half dozen cookbooks before finding exactly what I was looking for. This recipe comes from Rick Stein's 'Food Heroes' cookbook - one which we haven't used much in the past. It involved poaching (and skinning) a guinea fowl, poaching vegetables (leeks, fennel and carrots) in the resultant stock, preparing a salsa verde from fresh mint, parsley, anchovies, capers and olive oil and preparing a batch of puy lentils. I must be in the mood for this sort of cooking because I had good fun with the recipe! Steve and I enjoyed the results, too, with a bottle of 2001 Rioja Reserve.
Good food + good company + good wine = a great evening in!

Breakfast

2007-11-24T23:42:00.001Z

P1030790.jpg
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Ummm... well, maybe it was brunch! Eggs and tomatoes and cheese cooked in a pan and thrust under the grill for a minute or two. Mmmm. Just be sure to have fresh eggs, and butter or olive oil and add every good thing you can think of (in moderation!) to the pan as the eggs start to set. Cheese is always a good thing to add at the end, on top to create a kind of crust. Bon Appétit!

Coq au Vin

2007-11-12T19:40:00.000Z

Coq au Vin
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Sunday night and the evenings are chilly now. The casserole is in use every weekend now. Having cooked brisket of beef - several times - chili - another several times - and Coq au Riesling, I found myself flipping through my old faithful - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'Meat' cookbook - for inspiration. And inspired, I was. This came out beautifully and tasted even better! Mmmmm! Thanks again, Hugh!

Moussaka

2007-11-11T19:28:00.001Z

Moussaka
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Winter approaches and our thoughts turn to casseroles and warming food. This is one of our favourites to do, served with simple tomato salad and hearty, wholesome brown rice.

Mid-week Rabbit Stew

2007-11-10T23:08:00.001Z

Rabbit Stew-1
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

And here we have a fabulous mid-week indulgence - rabbit stew - with cream, mushrooms and mustard. It was wonderful with potatoes and vegetables... 'if we told you where we got the 'wabbit ' we'd have to kill you'...)

Rabbit with white wine and mustard cream sauce

This recipe comes from Chef Clive via the Mid North and North Coast NSW Afternoon Program:

1 fresh rabbit cut into 8 to 10 portions
25g plain flour 
Salt and pepper to taste
100g butter or margarine
100g streaky bacon rashers, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
500ml white wine
1 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
225g sliced mushrooms
1 tsp dijon or seeded mustard
2 bay leaves
100ml fresh cream
1 tbs chopped parsley

Method:
Season portions of rabbit with flour, salt and pepper.  Heat butter in a large pan, add seasoned rabbit and brown (this will take about 8 minutes).  Add the chopped bacon and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the chopped onions and chopped garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.  Add sugar, stir then add the mushrooms, white wine, bay leaves and parsley. Bring all of this to the boil and turn the heat down to simmer.  Finally, add the mustard and cream and simmer until rabbit is cooked (20-30 mins).  Fresh herbs can also be added, such as tarragon or chervil (but I didn't bother with that).
Serving Suggestion: Serve with boiled new potatoes,steamed carrots and fresh green beans.

Nigella's Coq au Riesling

2007-11-10T21:45:00.001Z

Nigella's Coq au Riesling
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Steve gave me Nigella Lawson's new cookbook 'Nigella Express' for my birthday (among loads of other things!) and I tried this recipe a couple of weeks ago. Yum! According to Steve, it really benefits from being cooked the day before it's eaten. I wouldn't know because I didn't get any leftovers... (!!)

Coq au Riesling

2 tbsp garlic oil
150g/5¼oz bacon lardons
1 leek, finely sliced
12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 fresh bay leaves
300g/10oz oyster mushrooms, torn into strips
1 x 75cl bottle Riesling wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
dash double cream (optional)
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh dill, to serve
buttered noodles, to serve

Method
1. Heat the oil in a large wide pan and fry the lardons until crisp.
2. Add the sliced leeks and fry for 1-2 minutes, until softened.
3. Add the chicken, bay leaves, mushrooms and wine. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes. Stir in the double cream for the last few minutes of cooking time if you like.
4. To serve, sprinkle with dill and serve with buttered noodles.

Paella-1

2007-11-10T21:38:00.001Z

Paella-1
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This Autumn we made a paella - it was mighty good too - chicken and ham and shrimps. It was an an ad hoc affair which rewarded our efforts by being scrumptious (as well as photogenic...) We'll do this again...

Summer!

2007-11-10T21:27:00.001Z

P1030941.jpg
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

This is as close to baseball as I get these days. But it's really a great game, after all - once you understand the rules (not a trivial thing at all!). Steve and I were lucky enough to see the England team play the West Indies - and, later, India - in Test matches at Lord's in London this summer. Fantastic days out and I took way too many photos. We plan to get back to Lord's next Summer for more. Americans find it hard to imagine a 5-day-long 'baseball game' with only 2 innings and hundreds of runs. Never mind that - think if it as a picnic (with lots of food that you bring with you...), a day at the beach (if you are really lucky, as we were, the sun will beat down on you all day long!) and a party (lots of people bring bottles of wine with them to have with their picnic food). If the weather is fine it's a whole day of watching a fascinating game while eating and drinking! A lot like baseball, then...

Rosemary-roasted cubed potatoes

2007-11-10T20:51:00.001Z

Roast potatoes
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Comforting Winter food - when made with duck or goose fat they are divine (but we confess to making them with olive oil!). Utterly tasty (and photogenic, too!) The recipe is from 'Cook with Jamie Oliver'. This recipe was so well-liked by us (and easy, too!) that we often had these potatoes with our meals. Recently (November, 2007) a representative from a London-based ad agency emailed asking for permission to use this photo. I gave permission. I'll know soon whether or not this request was bogus! Fingers crossed... it would just be a 'cool thing'!

Rosemary-roasted cubed potatoes

600g waxy potatoes, peeled or scrubbed and cut into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
olive oil or duck or goose fat
5 cloves garlic, skin on and smashed

Method
Preheat your oven to 220˚C/425˚F/gas 7. Place your potato cubes in a large pan of cold, salted water and bring to the boil. Drain them immediately in a colander and allow them to steam for a couple of minutes until the dry out a bit. Bash up the rosemary leaves in a pestle and mortar. Heat some olive oil, or duck or goose fat, in a roasting tray. Add the garlic cloves, potatoes and rosemary oil. Season and toss together until well coated. Place in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, shaking the try every so often, until the potatoes are golden and crispy.

Boats, Ville Franche

2007-11-10T20:28:00.001Z

Boats, Ville Franche
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

We enjoyed a lovely meal in Ville Franche with our friend Perry, an ex-patriot enjoying retirement with grace and style. We sat outdoors and looked out over the port during the meal. The cuisine of the South of France is one of my favourites - simple and fresh - using seafood and fish and a selection of wonderful, sun-filled vegetables. With ingredients like these, how could you ever go wrong?

Seafront in Menton

2007-11-10T20:18:00.001Z

Seafront in Menton
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

In March, we went to the South of France for a week and enjoyed the sun, food and beautiful seaside landscape that is Provence. I can't wait to get back there!

Tomatoes

2007-11-10T20:10:00.001Z

Tomatoes
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Actually, I haven't been as idle as my blog would suggest... This photo was taken in March 2007 when the combination of colour, thoughts of sunshine (and vitamin C!) was irresistible to me.

Beef Udon

2007-06-11T15:31:00.000+01:00

Beef Udon
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

A scrumptious bowl of goodness courtesy of my Wagamama cookbook. As with many of the dishes in this book, the preparation took longer than the cooking. But you learn to love preparation when cooking this way - enjoy a glass of crisp, cool white whine while chopping and changing. The rest is just a flash in the pan...

Spiced Beef Noodles

200g udon noodles
200g beef sirloin or rump, cut into strips 5mm thick
1 tablespoon cornflour
salt and white pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3cm piece of ginger root, peeled and grated
4 handfuls of baby spinach
2 spring onions, cut into 4cm lengths
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, briefly toasted in a hot, dry frying pan

Method

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, drain and refresh under cold water. Put the beef, cornflour and salt and pepper in a plastic bag and toss the meat to coat. set aside. Heat the oil in a hot wok, add the ginger and cook for 30 seconds. add the beef and stir fry for 2 minutes or until the beef is just cooked. Add the spinach, spring onions and 1 tablespoon of water and toss for 1 minute so everything is wilted. Add the soy sauce and chilli. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Add the noodles, toss to ensure that everything is combined and top with the toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds

Chicken and Dumplings

2007-01-30T22:43:00.001Z

Chicken and Dumplings -American Style
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Winter's here - I've had flu... Yuck! This evening - after having made it in to work (unlike some of my work-mates!)... and back home again - I decided to make a variation of what is fondly known in my NY-based African-American family as "Jewish Penicillin". Chicken soup, to you guys... We had some left-over roast chicken from the weekend, so....

I removed the chicken from the bones and added it to a pound-and-a-half or so of, skinned and jointed chicken wings, which had been boiled for about 30 minutes with some seasonings and vegetables (a couple of chopped onions, a bay leaf, 5 cloves of garlic, a leek, 3 carrots, 3 ribs of celery, a stock cube, some herbs (we're talking thyme, oregano, parsley, rosemary and sage - just a big pinch of each) and some salt and pepper. I tasted the seasonings and added a couple of tablespoons of butter to the 'soup'.

Then I consulted my Fanny Farmer cookbook for a dumpling recipe since I'd never tried making dumplings before. Fanny says:

Feather dumplings
1 cup self-rising flour (OR 1 c. flour with 2 tsp baking powder)
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used a bit of a stale loaf of French bread, grated)
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg, well beaten
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup milk
1 tbsp finely minced parsley
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine the flour, bread crumbs, (and baking powder, if using) and salt in a mixing bowl, and stir to mix. In another bowl lightly beat the egg, melted butter, onion and milk together. Stir into the dry ingredients to make a stiff batter. Stir in the parsley and pepper. When the chicken has had its 30 minute simmer, drop spoonfuls of dough on top of the bubbling broth. Cover and steam for 20 minutes without lifting the cover.

Depending on the size of your spoon (!) serve 1 -3 dumplings per person.

This was a surprisingly tasty and satisfying meal. Since both Steve and I were suffering with the tail end of flu, it was just the thing - leisurely to cook and easy to eat.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-14T19:20:00.000Z

Happy New Year!
Photo by Lisa Fagg.

We celebrated the New Year with my long-time friend Joyce. It seems that Joyce had such a good time with us last year that she wanted a 'repeat perfomance' to see 2006 out! This suited us down to the ground because, having had experience trying to share New Year's Eve with several guests, we realise our limitations - we are much better with just one or two people...

Our menu was simple but festive and included escargot in garlic butter (with all the accoutrements!), pan-roasted breast of goose with roast vegetables and roast sweet potato, and home-made lemon sorbet (made by Joyce) for dessert. We enjoyed champagne from Rheims with the escargot and Côte de Rhone with our main course. All in all we three dined royally and had a splendid time together.

May 2007 bring lots of joy, friendship and fellowship to you and your loved ones!

Happy Christmas!

2006-12-25T15:48:00.001Z

Happy Christmas!
Originally uploaded by Lisa Fagg.

Hi, all!

Merry Christmas and a Happy and healthy New Year!

Okay, so we've been 'away' for a while - it happens. Personal and work commitments have meant that I've spent a lot less time on the computer - more time DOing and less time TALKing about doing, if you see what I mean. In the interim we have had a new cat (Robbie, - posted here - dropped, almost literally, in our laps by some neighbourhood children!), I've picked up my guitar again and Steve's been keeping us organised. We've made a trip to Shropshire for a BIG birthday (mine) and some fresh air and walking in beautiful surroundings (photos to be posted shortly on flickr...)

Hope your year's been good and I hope to be blogging about cooking, which continues unabated, in the new year. New cookbooks, received as Christmas presents require rigerous testing and I'm sure I'll be writing about some of our culinary adventures soon.

Hasta luego, for now!

Berries & Pizza Dough

2006-09-17T16:48:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday we went cycling in what is arguably the 'hilliest' part of Cambridge - the Gog Magogs. We'd been there just the weekend before and I had spotted (on my rest break at the midpoint of one of the climbs!) some blackberry bushes lining the side of the road. Fantasic, I thought, just the thing - we can pick some and make jam! The only problem was we had nothing to collect the berries in. So we noted the spot and resolved to come back the following week. So we did. It was great fun too. We managed to pick a fair amount of berries between the two of us and got them home without too much bruising.

A shortage of jam sugar meant I had to put the berries in the freezer until we got some more! Anyway, today was the day. My first jam of the season is sitting on the counter cooling in jars. It's very dark and thick and I think it will be great in yoghurt and on toast. I'll be trying some tomorrow for breakfast!

We spent some time in the garden, tidying up a bit after several heavy rainfalls and not much gardening done. Entertaining and cycling don't leave much time for gardening - weekends need to be longer! While we were in the garden, our trusty bread machine was churning out some more pizza dough. Pizza is getting to be a regular item on our menu!

Pizza Dough
(makes 3 x 14" pizzas)

3-1/2 cups white bread flour
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon yeast

1. Mix the wet ingredients together in the bowl of your bread machine
2. Add the salt to the wet ingredients
3. Place the flour on top of the wet ingredients and make a small well in the flour
4. Put the yeast in the well in the flour
5. Run your bread machine on its 'dough' cycle

Once the dough is done you can either knead it a little, roll it out and use it immediately or you can knock it back and let it rise a couple of times for a more 'bready' crust.