This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Apr-21: Baked the Overnight Boule this morning.

Dinner was a half dose of Spicy Eggplant Stew with Potatoes, Mushrooms, and Chickpeas (WorldVeg, p196) served over brown rice. A half recipe, but all the spices and a bit short on salt, as is normal for Jaffrey's recipes. Some pear cake with cream for after.

Tuesday/13-Apr-21: Dinner was a halfish dose of Veal Scaloppine with Marsala (ClassicItal, p361). This was easy and good. Served with smashed potatoes and steamed veggies, cleaning out the fridge, asparagus, haricots verts, and broccoli stems. 

We both had a chocolate itch, so we had chocolate-covered madeleines for after. 

Wednesday/14-Apr-21: Dinner was a half recipe of Baked Salmon with Cucumber Relish* (web). Pretty tasty, although the cucumber relish needed salad. I tossed the red onions and dill with the relish. Served with a side of whole-wheat spaghetti. It was good. We're full, having had leftovers for lunch after Ed brought back groceries from two Drives.

Thursday/15-Apr-21: Easy dinner tonight. We ate (most of) the Simple Beef Curry I made last week. Served over plain basmati rice, with Cachumber—Tomato, Onion and Green Coriander Relish (MJ1, p172) as a side/relish. Some store-bought vanilla yogurts for after.

Friday/16-Apr-21: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Drunken Shrimp (web). Served over a bit of pasta. Not bad, not great. Followed by a bit salad. No dessert needed.

Saturday/17-Apr-21: Made up a half recipe of Red Pepper Sauce (Flavours, p11) for tomorrow's dinner.

Dinner was Thai Red Chicken Curry (web). This was pretty good. Recipe needs a bit of work: Way too much rice for two; I used 2/3cup but thought that was too much. Too much liquid; would match the 200ml packet of coconut mild with the chicken stock. We also thought it could have used 4tsp of red curry paste, rather than 2or 3, to be just the right heat. The recipe encourages you to use vegetable as available. I had green beans, so used those in place of the zucchini. Didn't have any basil, which might have been nice. Followed by Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (web), which is a favorite. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Sunday/18-Apr-21: For breakfast we split Manny's Lemon "Pancake" (CtryCityEgg, p85). This was like a Dutch baby, topped with lemon juice and a bit of powdered sugar.

Made a loaf of Dennis's Blarney-Stone Bread (Magic, p70) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-) this morning. It's a funny misshapen loaf. Curious how it will be when we cut into it.

Started to make the gnocchi for the sauce I made yesterday, but just didn't feel like it. Instead I used mafalda for the pasta and mixed a bit of the Roquefort that should have been in the gnocchi into the drained pasta. It was okay, nothing special. Then a big salad. Then a part of chocolate-covered madeleines. 

Seem to have decided on two more books to recycle, CtryCityEgg and Flavours (after copying a few recipes). The egg book is attractive, but not enough interesting recipes. Flavours should have been good, but most of the recipes I've tried have been decidedly so-so. Need to reduce.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: yes; #3 *DMA: yes    
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: no; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 1; #8 NEW: 3

This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Aug-10: Made up a whole recipe of Homemade Sausage (30MinPasta, p161), expecting to use it for dinner tonight, but finally noticed that it should sit in the fridge overnight to blend its flavors. Oops, we won't be having the planned dinner tonight, but I've got one lump in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner and one in the freezer for whatever. Yesterday there was sweet corn at Intermarché, for the second time this summer. (The label says sans OGM, without GMO, but one doubts if there's anything left in the world untainted by GMO nowadays. And the EU is getting read to cave in to the US on this. Boo.) We had that for dinner along with a big salad that included the rest of the grilled veggies that didn't get used on last night's pizza. For afters, there was a bit Reblochon.

Tuesday/24-Aug-10: This evening we had Cornmeal and Italian Sausage (GreeneGrains) made with Giuliano Hazan's sausage, accompanied by a big salad of rucola. The polenta pie was good. I froze half of it to cook another time. This was the last (I hope) recipe for the CookbooksEtc contest.

Wednesday/25-Aug-10: Tonight was Havana Prawns (MC 2BTried, not a keeper) and Hot Jamaican Rice (MC). The shrimp were tasty, but the sauce of rum and brown sugar was not. Too sweet, but what should I expect?

Thursday/26-Aug-10: Put the lamb for Tandoori Lamb Chops on to marinate before were were off to visit to the gardens at l'Abrègement. We lunched at Nanteuil, so we had rewarmed leftover pizza with our fruit in the evening.

It was hot today. 36C. I'm melting.

Friday/27-Aug-10: For breakfast there was Scrambled Egg Burrito (CtryCityEgg, p53). This was meant for camping, I guess, so definitely under "elaborated". But the idea of warming the tortillas right on top of the eggs was a nice one.

Lunch started with Onion Bhadji (Q&E, p20) and a half dose of the Fresh Green Chutney (Q&E, p113). I made the bhadji with the chopped onions as Jaffery asks, rather than the strips as they do at Anmols. We decided that we preferred the strips. The chutney was good as always. I used the frozen cilantro, which worked ok.

The Tandoori Lamb Chops (BH&G? mag clipping, soon to be MC) were quite good, a rub worth keeping. Served these with Zucchini in a Yogurt Dressing (MC, SpiceKitch, p58) and Rice with Peas and Dill (Q&E, p103), both recipes we've had before several times. Yum. A nice meal.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/28-Aug-10: Late lunch was a loose interpretaton of Courgette met Tijm en Bieslook (Allerhande, soon to be MC), zucchinis stuffed with goat cheese and herbs. Accompanied by a salad of romaine. Ended with mini-Magnums.

Have some plum ice cream ready to freeze tomorrow. Looks like the results of the CookbooksEtc ingredient contest won't be announced till the middle of next week.

We have a bumper harvest of assorted cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Sunday/29-Aug-10: We lunched at the Chateau de la Redorterie today, prior to a concert in the church in Lésignac. Only a bit of fruit in the evening.

CookbooksEtc Ingredient Contest 2010

1. 23-May/28-May: strawberries — Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula and Goat Cheese
2. 29-May/4-Jun: cheese — Spinach-Stuffed Anchos
3. 5-Jun/11-Jun: whole wheat flour — Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes
4. 12-Jun/18-Jun: ground pork or pork sausage — Curried Rice Noodles with Ground Meat
5. 19-Jun/25-Jun: blueberries — Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille
6. 26-Jun/2-Jul: salmon — Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce
7. 3-Jul/9-Jul: potatoes — Potatoes and Peas in a Yoghurt Sauce
8. 10-Jul/16-Jul: elbow macaroni — Macaroni Salad
9. 17-Jul/23-Jul: tomatoes — Eggs Baked in Tomatoes
10. 24-Jul/30-Jul: dates — Date and Onion Salad
11. 31-Jul/6-Aug: butterscotch chips — Chocolate Chip Cookies and the oven disaster
12. 7-Aug/13-Aug: pecans — Peppered Pecans
13. 14-Aug/20-Aug: mango or peaches — Grilled Shrimp with Green Mangoes and Red Lime Sauce
14. 21- Aug/27-Aug: cornmeal or Italian sausage — Cornmeal and Italian Sausage