This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Apr-14: Forgot that I had a doctor's appointment today (quarterly checkup on ears, nothing serious), so the list for tomorrow isn't finished. Maybe I can get it done in the morning.

Nigel Slater again tonight, intended for IHCC but didn't make it. Made A Chicken Roasted with New Garlic and a Fresh Pea Pilau (Diaries, p184), served with haricots verts. Regular garlic instead of new. Was a good chicken, but didn't much like the sauce with way too much vermouth. Here's Ed trying to convince Sophie to get out of his chair and away from the chicken.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/8-Apr-14: Hmm...it seems the yogurt problem hasn't been resolved. It wasn't cooked this morning, but was finally done after several two- and three-hour extensions. Happened to glance in the manual for the old yogurt maker and discovered the lids are supposed to be off for the cooking with that one too. I've always had them on. Wonder why they should be off? Current theory for the crummy yogurt is that something is not getting sufficiently clean. Since the jars and lids go through the dishwasher, I'm guessing that the tupperware 2-liter measure that I use might have gotten contaminated somehow and handwashing is not getting it sufficiently clean. Only a guess, but I've ordered a stainless steel bowl with a pouring lip to give that a try (thank you, Amazon France) after not finding anything while shopping today.

Shopping today. Broke down and bought some fêves from Spain.

Dinner was Fish Fillets in a 'Curry' Sauce (100Curries, p39), a not-quite-Indian dish with a curried bechamel for the fish. The fish was soaked in milk and spices, then dipped in bread crumbs (chapelure or paneermeel), then baked at a high temp. Meanwhile the sauce is made from the soaking milk. That's finished off with chopped coriander and lemon juice, which was a nice touch. For a side there was Diced Potatoes with Spinach (WofE, p53; 100Curries, p140), which was nice. No dessert needed.

Wednesday/9-Apr-14: Ate out tonight before going to a concert in Cognac.

Thursday/10-Apr-14: Picked the chicken and made (more or less) Curried Chicken Salad (MC; Rosie, p34). No cabbage on hand, so I shredded some broccoli stems. This is my "standard" curried chicken recipe, not that I follow it exactly, but it's an outline for possibilities. Ate our dinner outside for the first time this year.

Friday/11-Apr-14: The stainless steel yogurt-mixing bowl arrived today, so I gave it a good hot wash and started  yogurt. We'll see how it is in the morning.

Sat outside and shelled the fêves this afternoon.

Dinner was Stir-Fried Crabmeat with Bean Curd (TLChina, p61). Relatively tasteless, but helped by liberal application of sambal. Recipe has the ingredients not in the order used, annoying. Since we have no scallions/green onions here, I used a shallot instead; the green of the tops would have been a nice addition of color. Somewhat less tofu would be fine too.

As a go-with, I made Cucumber Salad with Spicy Dressing (TLChina, p40). Spicy with one of our favorite Chinese ingredient, Tabasco. This was a hit. Would be good with any vaguely oriental dinner. Sorry picture is fuzzy, I only took one.

Saturday/12-Apr-14: May have licked the yogurt problem. I hope. At least this batch is good.

Dinner out tonight, so nothing much happened in our kitchen,

Sunday/13-Apr-14: Parboiled and peeled the favas. I do love these, but it is somewhat annoying that you've met each of those babies personally, once in the shelling, once in the peeling.

We had our main meal in the afternoon today, since we went to a  movie in the early evening. We had a half recipe of Fava Beans with Shallots, Fresh Herbs, and Goat Cheese (PeV, p132). Unfortunately there was no basil in the shop this week, fresh or frozen, so I had to use the dried kind. Still, it was quite a nice dish. Then a salad. Then some mini magnums.

Monday's meal was supposed to be for IHCC, but I haven't had time to write a post, so I'll have to skip it this week.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: yes; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/31-Mar-14: Nothing happened in our kitchen. We spent a Groupon night that included a delicious meal at a chateau near Perigueux. While we were ordering they brought us a covered dish of truffles to sniff and offered us a sliver on several menu choices for an an extra €10. No, thank you, we said.

Tuesday/1-Apr-14: Back home. Shopping.

Dinner was Émince de saumon au cidre et au safran (web), that's salmon chunks in a cider-saffron sauce; there's also cream in the sauce and it's served over pasta, but you'd never guess from the name. Ok. The plate was supposed to be trimmed with slices of peach and cucumber. No peaches to be found, so I used some mango slices from the freezer. The mango worked; the cuke was weird. Actually not a bad dish, although next time, I'd forget the cuke and stir the mango into the sauce at the end. That was enough for dinner.

Wednesday/2-Apr-14: Started the first yogurt with the new yogurt maker this morning. The machine is the same but different. They have you make the yogurt without the lids on the jars, not sure why, and there's a second level where the lids side while the yogurt is cooking. Instead of a knob to set the time, there's an electronic gadget to choose the number of hours, and it counts backward, so you know, more or less, how much time is left. Also it beeps when it's done, another nice feature. We'll see.

It was some pretty good clear-out-the-freezer chili tonight, with an odd bit of Hazan's Italian sausage, black beans, and blue hominy, along with a couple of ice cubes of chili-soaking liquid. And a dab of guacamole on the side. For dessert there were pots of store-bought riz-au-lait.

Thursday/3-Apr-14: This morning's yogurt was about as good as the new starter that I used. A new brand of yogurt, which wasn't my favorite.

Dinner was Harissa Quinoa with Shrimp and Chickpeas (web; cookbooker), which was tasty, but not really successful. And a salad.. Then we were full.

Friday/4-Apr-14: A dinner to start off Nigel Slater at IHCC and work on the freezer inventory tonight. Lamb Sirloin Chops with Yogurt and Mint (RealFast, p240), Fragrant Brown Basmati Rice (RealFast p203). a cucumber salad with white wine vinegar and chopped dill (as recommended), and some broccoli with a squeeze of lemon juice and a grind of pepper flakes.

Saturday/5-Apr-14: Yogurt on overday. Still had a bakje (unexpired) of a better yogurt, so used that as the starter. Not sure why the lids can't be on while the yogurt is cooking. There's even more condensation in this one.

At dinner, our main was Sliced Pork with Tiger Sauce (Kuo, p330). (Hard to believe this is the first time I've reference Kuo here. Goes to show I haven't been cooking much Chinese food since we moved.) This recipe is the closest thing I've found to some Thai "Tiger Cries" that we used to get in Houston many many years ago, only with pork instead of beef. Served this with Stir-Fried Spiced Cabbage (TLChina, p34) and plain rice.

Sunday/6-Apr-14: Tonight's dinner was Linguine with Smoked Trout and Basil (XSpecCP, p101; cookbooker). Really has nothing to do with a crockpot. The sauce is kept warm for serving in the crock. Ho hum. I just tossed it with the linguine and served it right away. Good it was, though. Then a salad. And that was all.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: yes for March, no for April; #4 FotW: yes for March, no for April; #5 BREAD: 1 for March, none for April

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Mar-14: Bumped into a recipe for Tuna Melt during the morning and made that for lunch. Toast your bun, lay on a slice of tomato, top with a nice tuna salad, grate or slice some cheese on top, and plop in the oven till the cheese melts. Not for everyday, but nice.

In the afternoon I made some Zucchini-Lemon Muffins (MC), working on the zucchini backlog in the freezer.

For dinner, I went back to the Time-Life Quintet book. There was Dulma—Zucchini Stuffed with Lamb and Rice (TLQuint, p85) served with Salatit Batata—Potato Salad with Caraway (TLQuint, p101), both from Tunisia. Ground lamb has to be homemade and I had some cooked lamb in the freezer waiting to be used, so I ground that up with the onion, eggs, parsley, mint, and other spices. Made good use of the food processor here, where the 1970-ish instructions had you kneading and beating the filling.

A good filling, and I've got lots leftover. I'll get some brik or filo tomorrow and stuff some samosa-like things for baking. The potatoes were good too.

Then a simple salad, rocket and mâche with a dab of dressing. For afters, there was a dab of ice cream with a muffin.

Tuesday/25-Mar-14: Yogurt on overday.

Shopping today. There were fêves from Spain today; the season has moved northward from Morocco. I resisted, but it was hard. Did get some French strawberries, the first seen I've seen this year, today.

I've added a page with the Nigel Slater schedule for I Heart Cooking Clubs. With the Foods of the World thing going on, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to participate, but I do like him, so will try. I've gotten lazy about making separate posts for meals in the last couple of months, so will have to get back in the groove.

I've also added a page with a list of zucchini recipes I've tried in the last year. I hope this might make meal planning easier when the next garden bounty starts to appear. Might add separate pages for other veggies (eggplant?) if those explode in the garden.

Dinner was Mustard-Coated Salmon (web; cookbooker), along with some steamed broccoli (topped up with a bitter butter with garlic and red pepper flakes) and trio rice. For after there was the last waffle from the freezer topped with ice cream and, yes, strawberries. Good, it all was.

After ten hours, some of the yogurt pots were still runny. Think that it's not heating evenly across the bottom. Broke down and ordered a new one, same brand, newer model.

Wednesday/26-Mar-14: Wrapped the leftover lamb in filo and baked some samosas. Now in the freezer for another meal or snack or two or three.

Dinner was Curried Fried Rice (MW@Home, p226). I used the last of my Thai red curry sauce for the curry sauce; had the amount asked, but could have used more. This is a fried rice with tomatoes and spinach. Pretty good, if a bit off course. We ate more or less the whole recipe, so no dessert needed.

Thursday/27-Mar-14: Dinner was Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin (web). I had about a third of the meat, but used half of the rub; did cut the sugar back even further. Easy and good. Served with smashed sweet potato and some peas for a colorful plate. While we were eating, the ice cream maker made up some Crème Fraîche Ice Cream (MC) for after. Then off to line dancing for me.

Friday/28-Mar-14: Off to Limoges for dinner and a concert this evening. Nothing much happened in the kitchen. Running out of yogurt. Hope the new one comes tomorrow, please Amazon.

Saturday/29-Mar-14: No yogurt maker today. Only one yogurt left. Will buy more starter next week.

For dinner there was Stir-Fried Rice Stick Noodles with Shrimp and Vegetables (p47, TLChina). My shrimp were too big, so I quartered them rather than just halving them. The instructions said to soak the noodles for five minutes in cold water. After more time than that, they weren't very soft at all, so I drained and poured some hot water over them. But for only a few minutes so there were still a bit chewy. Instructions badly presented. Quite quick to make. Tasty, and improved with a bit of sambal.

Sunday/30-Mar-14: A really late start to the day with the time change. We ate lunch about 4pm (lamb-filled samosas from the freezer; they were good), and didn't really feel like a bit dinner. So made a salad similar to the pasta dinner I'd planned, a small can of tuna, some oven-dried tomatoes from the freezer, slivers of Parmesan. Pretty good it was. We split a magnum classic for dessert.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes?; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: yes; #4 FotW: yes; #5 BREAD: 1