This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Mar-12: First bbq tonight, not very successful. Used the marinade from Bottle o' Beer Chicken Thighs (Weber, p199) to marinate a spatchcocked chicken. Ed had the fire too hot so the skin was burnt black as can be and the meat was tough. Won't bother to pick the bones, and will put everything except the black skin into the stockpot. Then there was Spicy Potato Salad (MC), a rather forgettable recipe. Think I'll delete it from MC. But the dessert was good, ice cream with (thawed) frozen raspberries.

Looks like Sophie will spend the night out tonight, very worrying. Ed left the new cat flap opened outwards, so she went out again after having a small bite to eat. We're having problems getting her properly fed, since Oscar wants to eat everything. If he ate everything he wants, he'd have to be called Snowball.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/27-Mar-12: Whew, Sophie came in in the night, having figured out how the cat flaps work.

Made Authentic French Bread (out of head) today with the stone-ground bread flour. Brown but tasty.

Dinner was more or less Turkey Black Bean Tamale Pie (MC), a favorite. Used pintade from the freezer. And a salad. Ate outside although it was getting a bit cool. Crescent moon and Venus visible before the sun really set.

Wednesday/28-Mar-12: Grocery shopping today.

Dinner was Spicy Grilled Peppered Lamb Skewers (BigFlav, p142). Accompanied by Green Grape-Parsley Relish (BigFlav, p77), except with purple grapes, because that's all there was the grocery. Green grapes are definitely prettier, but don't really find a taste difference. Stuffed some globe zucchinis with a bit of rice and some leftover black beans. The end of some goat cheese for afters.

Thursday/29-Mar-12: Nice dinner tonight, but poor planning, since it finished up too late for me to get to line dancing. Made up for it by doing a load of ironing.

For our main, we had Fish Masala (web), with basmati rice and Oven Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Ginger (web). For after, I made a Ginger Panna Cotta with Mango (MC), scaled back to the amount of evaporated milk I had needing to be used and served with the last of the frozen mango and frozen raspberries

Friday/30-Mar-12: We took Lesley and Toby out for a meal today to thank them for all their work with Sophie and Oscar. Nothing much happened in our kitchen, except for yogurt on overday.

After we got back from lunch Ed discovered that Sophie had a big open sore on her tail, plus some smaller ones. Off to the vet. She stayed overnight so they could anesthesize her to shave her tail and clean up the sores.

Not looking good for pasta for March, since that's not on the plan for tomorrow. Maybe need to reconsider. And won't get anything published for an unused cookbook either, since Sue will be closing the linky for this week's version tomorrow before I'm ready.

Saturday/31-Mar-12: Ed picked Sophie up this morning. She was goofy as can be, stumbling, unable to focus, etc. We think that when we took Oscar in for his first checkup, they recorded his weight on her record and gave her an extra 1.5kg of anesthesia.

Made some smokey flavored chicken stock from the rest of the bbq bones.

Had the idea to make some pasta today, but ended up spending a lot of time with Sophie, so was short on time. Went with the planned Salade de Quinoa au Thon (PRMTurmeric, p73). Used a package of pre-cooked quinoa, first time I've used such a thing; awfully handy, but not sure I approve. My radishes had to be tossed, so I substituted cuke. The whole thing was edible but boring.

Made some of Mama's Healthy Cookies, 5 dozen too big. Should have made them smaller.

Sunday/1-Apr-12: Sophie's back to herself this morning, and she's insistent that she wants to go out. Little does she know she'll be ten days inside! Maybe more togetherness than Oscar will appreciate.

For dinner we finished off the leftover tamale pie, along with some fresh guacamole. Then finished off the Ginger Panna Cotta with some defrosted mixed fruit.

Having run into a cilantro bonanza at the store this week, I chopped a bunch and froze one tablespoons in ice cubes, used some in the guacamole, made some Cilantro Zucchini Hummus (also using a lot of shredded zucchini from the freezer), and still have a bit left.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, but not posted, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: no, #4 MIDDAY: yes, #5 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #6 PASTA: no for March :-(, no for April

Clafoutis aux Carottes

Mes petites recettes magiques au curcuma
Pascale de Lomas
Leduc (year?)
ISBN 2848994495

This little book was a bit of an impulse buy. There's a whole series of Mes Petites Recettes Magiques books available at the grocery store, but I managed to limit myself to just this one that stars turmeric. It was a fun read, stretching mon pauvre français, and I used quite a few stickies on such a small book. Previously I tried a vinaigrette (lemon, oil, S&P, turmeric, and a pinch of sugar). This time I opted for something a little more substantial.

A clafoutis is usually known as a dessert with fresh fruit (classically cherries, but most any fruit that's not too soggy can be used) cooked in kind of a pancake batter. This version, with carrots, can be served as a side dish or as a dish on its own, accompanied by a salad.

The recipes in this book are limited to one per page, so that means the instructions are sometimes less thorough that you might like. Given that you're already comfortable in the kitchen (and all French people are, aren't they?), this really isn't a problem. More annoying is that the ingredients are not given in the order used, but in an apparently random order. This is an annoying problem I see frequently in both French and Dutch recipes.

The carrot clafoutis uses oignons primeurs, which are young onions, looking like green onions with a bulb. Those weren't in the shop, so I used shallots instead, minced, then sautéed in olive oil and drained on a paper towel. Eggs are beaten and milk added, little by little, until it's all well mixed. Then salt, pepper, turmeric, basil, and piment d'Esplette are added. Flour is sprinkled in, then grated carrots and the onions are stirred in. The mixture is put into a buttered dish and baked for 35 minutes. Well, for me it took longer than that, but I often find that eggy-custardy things take longer than stated. My oven's at the right temperature, but it was still at least 45 minutes till this was done through. You can see where I poked it quite a bit in the middle to encourage it to finish cooking.

Having served this clafoutis as a side dish, I think it would be better by itself, either in small wedges as a starter or bigger wedges as a main, accompanied by a nice salad.

This recipe suggest using turnips or parsnips in place of the carrots, but these would make for a pretty monotone dish, while the orange bits make it quite pretty.

This post is linked to next week's Cookbook Sundays. (I'm at the late end of this week and Sue's in New Zealand, so I'm taken advantage of that to leap ahead here.)

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Jan-12: Finished off the last bit of bread, rather stale, for breakfast. Popped some Authentic French Bread (Magic) into the bread maker. This might count for this week's bread, even though is a moldy-oldy one.

Dinner was a half-dose of Risotto con Gamberi e Acetosa—Wild Sorrel and Prawn Risotto (WildCarluccio, p20), with sorrel bought on impulse last week. I really do need to widen my sorrel vocabulary, since this is a bit oft-repeated now. It's awfully good though. Then a bit of the St. Maure I bought for new year's eve that we didn't touch.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/3-Jan-12: Leftovers tonight, the potato casserole with smoked sausage. And a salad. And the rest of the St. Maure for afters. Leftovers are nice.

Wednesday/4-Jan-12: Shopping this afternoon. (On the way, we were treated to the sight of a hunting male hen harrier/blauwe kuikendief/marsh hawk. :-)

Dinner was a half dose of Roasted Salmon with Cranberry-Mustard Sauce (epicurious), a very nice way to use up that leftover holiday cranberry sauce. Accompanied by some roasted brussels sprouts (hanging around in the crisper since xmas) and broccoli, and some trio rice. Nice dinner.

Thursday/5-Jan-12: Dreary rainy day today. More leftovers tonight, the leek-bread casserole. (The last bit may turn up as a side tomorrow.) And salad.

Friday/6-Jan-12: Using some of the shredded zucchini from the freezer, this morning I made Carl Goh's Zucchini Bread (BeardBread, p169) for Cookbook Sundays.

For dinner, I made Pie's Succulent Spicy Pork Chops (MC), spice-rubbed pork chops topped with garlic-parsley-lemon butter, an old favorite. Accompanied by the last of the leek-bread casserole and Clafoutis aux Carrotes (PRMTurmeric, p100), also for Cookbook Sundays. All were good, but none went together very well, kind of a mismatched dinner. The carrots would be good with chicken or fish we decided, or as a main course with a salad.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/7-Jan-12: Munching on the zucchini bread throughout the day. Pretty good, this one.

Dinner was a half dose of Aubergine & Chickpea Curry with Tumeric (soon to be MC), a recipe that appeared recently in one of the expat magazines around here. Turns out it's from a cookbook published by a local person. On the strength of this recipe, I've ordered the book.

Sunday/8-Jan-12: Dinner was Lamb and Potato Curry (web), a kind of stewy curry. Edible but not especially good; not a keeper. A dose of lime pickle livened it up. Served with Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172), a nice quick side dish/salad.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: no, #5 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #6 PASTA: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Sep-11: Didn't get to that stack of tomatoes today, although we had big ones at lunch and dinner.

Dinner was Tuscan Vegetable Sauté (web, via PatM, soon to be MC). Made a half recipe and served over polenta, which of course is from Lombardy rather than Tuscany, but I won't tell if you don't. The half recipe should serve 3, and I expect it does since we had a lot leftover. Good stuff.

Tuesday/20-Sep-11: Deseeded another load of tomatoes and boiled them up for sauce. Buzzed and in the fridge overnight to freeze tomorrow.

Barbara gave us about two liters of freshly picked raspberries!

Having nothing on the plan for this evening's meal, I defrosted some duck scallops, floured and S&P'd, then sautéed. Deglazed the pan with a good slog of marsala and added a bitter butter when that was reduced. Voila! a sauce. With orzo, pine nuts and basil added. Then a salad of mâche.

Wednesday/21-Sep-11: Made the juice for some raspberry sorbet. Shopped. Pizza for dinner.

Thursday/22-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday. Froze up more tomato sauce. Made tomorrow's dessert.

Dinner was a half dose of Fettuccine con Merluzzo e Piselli (Fettuccine with Cod and Peas) (Lorenza, p111, cookbooker), which was quite good and very easy. Intended to make fresh pasta, but didn't have the time. That's two misses this month.

When I got home from line dancing, we froze up Raspberry-Champagne Sorbet (Scoop, p132, cookbooker), which I made with Clairette de Die rather than champagne. It made only 2 cups and we ate it all. Might make a double dose of this up tomorrow.

Friday/23-Sep-11: Made my meal for Cook the Books, just under the wire again. Started with Moroccan Zucchini Salad, which has been around several times this summer and is still a favorite. Then there was Papa's Posole. Then there was Crème Caramel (TLProvFr, p102).

Saturday/24-Sep-11: For dinner, I dredged a couple of turkey scallops in flour mixed with the last of the rub for the carnitas and sautéed then. Then deglazed the pan with chicken broth (from a jar), white wine vinegar, and dijon mustard. Meanwhile, I warmed up the unused fettuccine noodles from Thursday in a bit of oil and mixed with some cilantro pesto from the freezer. This worked quite well, but it might be better to mix the oil with the pasta just after it's cooked. Then a bit salad with Turmeric Dressing (PRMTurmeric, p55). The dressing was good, and healthy, of course. ;-) Dessert was another pair of crème caramels.

Sunday/25-Sep-11: Ate lunch at a lovely ferme-auberge this afternoon. No need for further food.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: no, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: not quite