This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Oct-19: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Spicy Peanut Noodles (web). This was easy and okay, but not the best of this kind of thing. Spicy it wasn't really. I used more of the chili paste with garlic than asked and it was still only mildly spicy. Serves six? As a dainty side maybe. The recipe as written is for two main servings. For a side we had the rest of Mom's Cabbage Salad, which was much tinglier than the noodles.

Tuesday/22-Oct-19: Dinner was a halfish version of Pollo a la Chilindrón—Sautéed Chicken with Peppers, Tomatoes and Olives (TLS&P, p58). Like many of the Spanish dishes, this wasn't highly spiced, but was still tasty. The tomatoes I bought this week were rotten, so I used some frozen, canned tomato pulp. And used all of the olives for my half recipe.

Served with trio rice and Green Bean Salad with Pickled Shallots (HeartArt, p131). I collected this recipe somewhere on the web and discovered that I have the book it came from last week. Having only a few green beans I cut the pickled shallots back to a third, but still have some left for a salad or a sandwich. Easy to make and very tasty. Some chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Wednesday/23-Oct-19: Dinner at quiz tonight. Nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/24-Oct-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Thai Fish and Corn Curry (Braises, p86). Seems like I made this just over a year ago, without a note in the book. It was okay if underspiced. For a starter we had store-bought nems, shrimp and crab; these were pretty good. Some store-bought riz au lait for after.

Friday/25-Oct-19: Leftovers for dinner tonight. We had the rest of the Mushroom and Leek Galette, followed by a really simple salad (lettuce and vinaigrette). Then we finished the Pet't Basque cheese. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines eat.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/26-Oct-19: Dinner was a half dose of Sara's Persian Chicken (Braises, p71; cookbooker). Pretty good stuff. As suggested, accompanied by Apricot Couscous (Braises, p116); easy and a nice variation on plain couscous. Also some String Bean Salad (Roden, p69), which was good. Notice this book is so old that it has string beans instead of green beans. Some chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Sunday/26-Oct-19: We went to a concert this afternoon, and I just didn't feel like cooking after. So it was pizza instead. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: n/a
Cookbooks of the month: none
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Apr-15: Without thinking very carefully, I planned an eggy dinner for tonight following last night's frittata. Maybe not, I thought last night. So a quick replan today. Grilled some merguez that I defrosted in the morning. There was an enormous sweet potato waiting to be used, so I made some smashed sweet pot (with oj and chipotle powder). Made Curried Carrot Salad (FastShulman, p284), without the capers since I seem to be completely without them, none in the fridge and none in the pantry (inventory failure). To use up a cuke and some green bell pepper, I smerged several recipes and ended up with a Cuke Pasta Salad: Boil up some tiny pasta (I used crozettes); peel, seed, and dice some cuke; shred some broccoli stems; finely chop some red onion; toss together with a dressing of crème fraîche, sherry vinegar, S&P. Not bad at all. No dessert needed.

Tuesday/21-Apr-15: Dinner was alfresco again. There was insata caprese, still early for real tomatoes, but it wasn't bad. Then some grilled bavettes that marinated most of the day. Served those with pasta tossed with Cilantro Pesto (PastaMach, p155). This pesto was a bit sharp, I guess from the garlic, but it was edible. That was all.

Wednesday/22-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday. I got up early to get it started, but forgot to push the Go button, so it will be done quite late. Oh well.

Shopping today. A big one. Lots of locally produced stuff on sale, including a fairly pricey bottle of cognac for Ed.

Really didn't feel like cooking tonight, so dinner ended up quite late. We had a half recipe of Merluza Merinera—Poached Hake Fillets with Tomato and Almond Sauce (TLS&P, p23).  (Hake is merlu in French, similar to the Spanish.) This was pretty good. Hake is a blandish fish, but has a  nice texture. Fairly easy to make, especially because ground almonds are readily available. Had planned to serve this with polenta, but found some new potatoes from the Île de Ré at the shop, so used those instead. Then a big salad. No dessert needed.

Thursday/23-Apr-15: In the afternoon, I made Yogurt and Fresh Pear Coffeecake (MC and GreenBook). This recipe is from an old newspaper clipping and makes and a really moreish cake.

Dinner was Tagliatelle with Provençal Red Pistou (web; cookbooker). The recipe says it serves 4-6; I made a half recipe, and it would have served three. Really yummy. Too bad I didn't make fresh pasta. Then a big salad, bigger than every because Leclerc had no 100g sacks of salad this week, so we ate all of 125g. We got a new box of cheeses-of-the-month today, so we started in on those after dinner. Then finished up with some coffeecake. We're full.

Friday/24-Apr-15: This afternoon I made Chicken and Pistachio Pâté (Ballotine de Volaille aux Pistaches) (BEFCC, p127; cookbooker). It's for a "do" tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see how it is then.

Dinner was an assortment from the freezer, beef and pork curry things, plus rice, plus some steamed broccoli. Then more from the cheese box.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/25-Apr-15: Well, the ballotine was a hit. Very good it was. I'd planned to make a salad for dinner, but neither of us were hungry, so we had a carrot each instead.

Haven't had a big session on clearing the recipe backlog lately, but have been going through assorted piles and tossing many recipes. I work on the pile beside my bed (collected in the first few years after we moved here) once or twice and week and am starting to see it dwindling at last. 

Sunday/26-Apr-15: Finished off the pear coffeecake for breakfast.

We had our main meal in the afternoon today, Curried Split Pea Soup (VegPress, p46). Served with Coconut Rice, as suggested, but didn't make that in the pressure cooker. The soup was pretty good, but desperately needed salt, which wasn't included in the ingredients.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: yes (split peas); #4 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: no for March/April

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-Mar-14: Dinner was Ervilhas Guisadas à Portuguêsa—Peas Portuguese (TLS&P, p69). I used only half the butter for sautéing the onion. Served the last bit of Jody's harberno pasta on the side. All was good. We split a magnum classic for after. (I had about a third; Ed was happy to have more.)

Tuesday/11-Mar-14: Shopping today.

Haven't made a dessert in a while. Found the recipe for Pear-Almond Upside Down Cake (VC4E, p704) on the way to the grocery and bought the required two pears. Made dinner while this was in the oven.

Dinner was Pesce con Funghi Porcini—White Fish Fillets with Ceps (TopItal, p83); no cêpes (wrong season, isn't it?) so used shiitakes. This was pretty good and easy. I used the odd bits of shrooms and a shallot to make a kind of trio rice pilaf. And then there was (sort of) Broccoletti in Padella—Broccoli with Garlic and Chilli Pepper (TopItal, p55). Followed by too much upside down cake. I cut it in eighths, but should have done it in sixths. We ate a quarter, then Ed wanted more, so we ate another quarter. I had small pieces both time, but still.

Wednesday/12-Mar-14: Made a half recipe (i.e., only one chicken) of Garlic Roast Chicken (MC) for dinner. Put it in the oven about 18.30 and used the turn-off feature of the oven to turn it off at the proper time. We went to the "election information" evening that lasted till 20.00. Tiring. Came home and ate the chicken and veg right out of the roasting pan. Almost finished the upside down cake; just a bit left for breakfast.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/13-Mar-14: Expecting to be tuckered out from line dancing this evening, I planned Slow Cooker Pork Paprikash (web; cookbooker) for dinner. Line dancing was cancelled, so the plan was for naught. Served the paprikash over a full dose (probably the first time ever) of Spaetzle (MW@Home, p203); this is part of a recipe for Cauliflower Paprikash. The pork paprikash was good and we have another dinner in the freezer. Ate some carrot sticks for a veg. No dessert. (I bought this pork on sale, 1.8kg of sauté, which seems to be chunks of shoulder. Usually I divide it up into smaller bits, but this time I didn't so we'll have to repeat a pork dinner soon.)

Friday/14-Mar-14: Dinner was Chile-Lime Veggie Noodles (web). OK, but neither of us really liked it. We split a magnum classic for afters.

Saturday/15-Mar-14: Used up the rest of the pork tonight with Pork in a Mustard Spice Mix (100Curries, p99). When I read through the recipe I somehow missed that it needed to simmer for an hour. Oops. But I remembered that in Q&E, Jaffrey gives the option of pressure cooking (to be quick) or simmering. So I got out the pressure cooker and away we went. The organic tomatoes I bought were really blah, so the dish might have had more flavor they had been better, but it was pretty darn good as it was. For a side there was a half recipe of Spiced Broccoli and Tomatoes (IndLight, p175). This wanted plum tomatoes, which are summer things. I have some oven-dried plum tomatoes in the freezer, so used them instead. Pretty good, this was. Served with rice. And a waffle with mixed berries (from the freezer) topped with crème fraîche for dessert.

Sunday/16-Mar-14: Yogurt on overday.

Have some green beans that don't like like they'll get used in the next days, so I made a small batch of Kaye's Pickled Green Beans (MC). This is sort of my own recipe, smerged from a couple of others. I like; Ed doesn't. (He's not a big pickle eater.)

Made some Figos Recheados—Dried Figs Stuffed with Almonds and Chocolate (TLS&P, p103) from Portugal. One day too late with these, but hadn't had time to make them. They're stuffed with a mixture of ground almonds and shredded chocolate. There are actually two fig "candy" recipes given, both say they are traditionally served after dinner accompanied by glasses of port. I've tried one of mine, and, yes, I think that would be a good combination. Our bottle of port is so old, though, I wonder if it's drinkable? Will check it out this evening. I suspect either of these fig things would be a nice little go-with for after dinner of afternoon coffee. Pretty easy to make too.

The yogurt, which should have gone off at 22.30, was off about 17.00. Don't know when or why that happened. Guess it might be time to break down and get a new yogurt maker. Now, do I get another Moulinex so I can use the same jars? Or do I get another brand that has eight jars per liter, which is a better amount for breakfast

Dinner was a pasta fantasy using up bits of broccoli, shiitakes, and zucchini, along with some tomato sauce from the freezer. Then a bit salad. Then some port with stuffed figs. The port (tawny) is still drinkable. The figs are a good go-with.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Mar-14: Didn't much feel like cooking today, so I defrosted some merguez de volaille (bird sausages), made a bit of potato salad with lots of leftover bits, and steamed some broccoli. Had the last two natillas for after.

Tuesday/4-Mar-14: Out of milk, so we did our shopping today instead of tomorrow. The store was relatively empty and the shelves largely stocked, so we may change to Tuesdays. There were hogs' heads in the meat department today.

Dinner was Saumon Écossais aux Spaghettis et aux Câpres (VPG). Twas supposed to have big capers, but I haven't found any of those here. Small ones are just as good no doubt. Then a salad. Then a bit of Delice de Poitou, a cheese from our xmas dinner that we especially liked. This is the first time I've seen it since then.

Set pork marinating for tomorrow's dinner.

Wednesday/5-Mar-14: Yogurt on overday. Used a new starter again, since the last batch didn't seem to be "cooked" properly; i.e., it was still pretty runny. Maybe I miscalculated the stop time. Today's batch seems OK, even though there was, yet again, a power blip that caused the machine to turn off.

Sunshine today and I just happened to have planned a meal that was really meant to be grilled, so Ed cranked the bbq up. We ate inside, of course, since it really wasn't that warm out by dinnertime. We had Honey-Lime Pork Tenderlion (web), which was easy and good, but the two of us ate what was meant for four people. Thank you, pig. Served with some smashed sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Thursday/6-Mar-14: Line dancing this afternoon, then off to the doctor's open hours to renew a prescription. Two hours later I emerged. Didn't feel like cooking what was on the plan, so got some comté-basil fagottini from the freezer and made a salad. We split a magnum classic for after.

Friday/7-Mar-14: Made some Butternut Squash Gnocchi (web) this evening. We ate a fourth of it, and I'll freeze the remaining in batches. Can't say it was a success; I just don't have the gnocchi technique. Then a salad. That was all.

Saturday/8-Mar-14: We had Barbara and Shirley for a simple dinner before going out for a loto evening. Two kinds of zucchini soup from the freezer were accompanied by a Tortilla de Patate (TLS&P, p67).

We didn't win anything at the loto, but Barbara won a jambon sec and gave it to us. Wonder what we'll do with that?

Sunday/9-Mar-14: Yogurt on overday.

Off to a concert this evening with pizza for dinner afterwards.

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

The Cooking of Spain and Portugal: Arroz con Pollo

Another meal from The Cooking of Spain and Portugal. Starting with Arroz con Pollo—Chicken with Saffron Rice and Peas. This is a one-dish meal, simple to make and quite tasty, if not highly spiced.  I served this with salad.

I made some changes to accomodate our kitchen:

• Used one kilo of chicken thighs rather than cutting up a chicken, since we like thighs. This was a new brand and there were only seven thighs, five biggish ones and two smallish ones. If you used a whole chicken, it would be  best to cut it into eight smaller pieces rather than four big ones.
• Used olive oil rather than lard.
• Used 100g lardons instead of 4 ounces of salt pork.

I used lardons nature (rather than fumé) and regular paprika (rather than the hot or smoked kind). I think I might try smoked lardons and paprika when I make this again.

Annoyingly, the stove ran out of gas in the middle of browning the chicken pieces, but that was only a delay not a real problem.

The recipe calls for "1-1/2 cups raw medium or long-grain regular-milled rice or imported short-grain rice". I found that as clear as nothing, and used basmati rice since that's the only long-grain rice I have in-house. What a strange ingredient listing!

Although this is a not spicy dish, like we usually enjoy, it was quite tasty and looked pretty in the pot. The recipe serves four as it says; we will have a second dinner for two.

For dessert there was Natillas—Soft Custard from Portugal. This is a nice custard, made with cinnamon rather than vanilla as the flavoring. It wasn't too sweet, as can happen with American recipes. For the ladyfingers, I had to break into my stash that I save for make tiramisu, so I might have to made a reduced version of that one of these days.

This indeed made six servings, not big (about 3/4 cup each), but just the right amount to top off the meal.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Feb-14 - Tuesday/25-Feb-14: Travelling home from the Netherlands. The kitchen was empty.

Wednesday/26-Feb-14: Grocery shopping today; I made the list before we left. This week's sales have an American theme, with squares of sliced cheese like Kraft American, ready made hamburgers and hot dogs, and English muffins made in the UK. We bought a package of those, but passed by the other stuff.

Dinner was Afsha Mumtaz's Dry Masala Fish (Sookhi Macchi) (100Curries, p43), using cod that was on special today rather than a whole fish. Not bad, if not a favorite. Served with a short third recipe  Moghlai Spinach (TasteIndia, p36) (finishing off a sack of frozen spinach) and Simple Buttery Rice with Onion (MJ1, p149). Second time I've made this spinach; it's pretty good. The rice is an old favorite.

For dessert we had some store-bought salty caramel custards. I tripped up the step from the kitchen while carrying them to the table—ouch! Two bruised shins and very sore first joint on my left pinky. Sigh. The custards survived and were good.

Thursday/27-Feb-14: Yogurt on overday, during which time there was a power cut. Simple-minded yogurt maker machine doesn't remember it has been on when this happens and simple-minded people forgot that it needed attention. Not sure how this batch, with a new starter, will turn out.

Dinner was a half dose of Tagliolini with Prawns (Shrimp) and Zucchini (Courgette) (TopItal, p13) with, yes, homemade pasta. Tagliolini seems to be a "round" version of tagliatelle, however that would work. I used my fettuccine cutters and rolled only to 5, so it was fairly thick, nice and chewy. Then a salad. Then some mini magnums for after.

Friday/28-Feb-14: The English muffins were pretty blah. They had the taste and texture of plain white bread, in flat circles. What did I expect anyway?

Dinner was Moroccan chicken with olives from the freezer over couscous. As go-withs, I made half doses of Spicy Carrot Salad (MedLight, p114) and Tunisian Zucchini Salad (MedLight, p117). Both of these I've made before. We were full.

Saturday/1-Mar-14: Another Time-Life dinner, Arroz con Pollo (TLS&P, p59), followed by a salad, and then Natillas (TLS&P, p90) for dessert.

Put chickpeas and salt cod on to soak for tomorrow's dinner.

Sunday/2-Mar-14: Yogurt on overday.

Another Spain & Portugal dinner. There was Potaje de Vigilia (TLS&P, p6) from Spain, served with Broa (TLS&P, p83) from Portugal. The soup, traditionally served on Good Friday, is with made with salt cod, spinach, and chickpeas. Had 500g of chickpeas (instead of 1lb) and 360g of salt cod (instead of 1/2lb). Pretty good and lots for the freezer.

A long time ago Raymond Sokolov wrote an article on salt cod for his column in Natural History. That's one of the ones I'm sorry I neglected to save. Salt cod is a food that been used for hundreds of years all around the Atlantic. Mark Kurlansky has written a book about cod that's been on my read-me shelf for a long time.

The broa recipe attracted me when I first read through this recipe book, but I decided I didn't want to mess with zapping a chunk of my small portion of cornmeal (aka polenta) in a blender. But, when I was catching up on "exotic" shopping while we were in the Netherlands, I noticed a sack of fine-grain cornmeal next to my regular polenta. Aha, I said and added that to my overflowing shopping cart with the idea of trying this bread. The bread is about half and half cornmeal and regular flour, the highest percentage of cornmeal I've seen in a yeast-risen bread. Even though the grind is very fine, it still felt rather gritty to me while kneading. Generally an easy bread to made. Ed liked it a lot.

Another two of the natillas for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-Feb-14: Another dinner from TLQuint. For a main we had brik. For a salad there was Slata Mechouia—Roasted-Tomato-and-Pepper Salad (TLQuint, p102), which I liked, but Ed wasn't especially fond of. The bell pepper roasting instructions for last week's salad were better. For dessert, there was more Impossible Pie.

Tuesday/11-Feb-14: In the morning I made some Zucchini and Feta Salad (WorldVeg, p640) to take to a DORSOB get-together.

Defrosted some cooked lamb and smerged two recipes to use up the leftover brick. Sautéed onions, lamb, pine nuts, dried apricots, cinnamon, coriander, and parsley, then stirred in some yogurt; wrapped it all in brick and popped in the over to brown. Not bad, not great. Plus some steamed broccoli. Plus some leftover Zucchini and Feta Salad. We split a magnum classic for dessert.

Wednesday/12-Feb-14: Yogurt on overday. Sometimes it turns off properly sometimes not. Today was a good day.

First dinner from TLS&P today, Merluza a la Gallega—Poached Hake with Potatoes and Tomato Sauce (TLS&P, p21). Used smoked paprika instead of plain. Pretty good, nothing special. A side of steamed haricots verts, which went especially well with the tomato sauce.

Thursday/13-Feb-14: Woke this morning to find that the wind had ripped the tar paper off the roof of the shed. Argh.

Dinner was a half dose of Island Chicken Bites (web), which was easy and pretty tasty. Think it's meant a toothpick food with drinks, but was nice as chunks on the plate; might be good to flatten a kip filet a bit and broil that too. As a go-with there was some Black Beans and Rice (web) and some steamed broccoli. And some mini-magnums for after.

Friday/14-Feb-14: Valentine's day lunch at a very nice restaurant. Nothing happened in the kitchen

Saturday/15-Feb-14 - Sunday/16-Feb14: On our way to Amsterdam; nothing happening in our kitchen. We hope.

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