This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Oct-22: Dinner was Cambodian Hot and Sour Beef Salad (How2Eat, p429). This was easy and pretty tasty. Lots of protein for Ed. 

Tuesday/4-Oct-22: More meat tonight. Dinner was Steak & Asparagus Stir-Fry with Black Bean-Garlic Sauce (web; EW/apr21). This was good although the sauce was a bit salty. Served over trio rice. More protein for Ed. (Our doctor has told him to eat more protein.) A chocolate-covered madeleine for after.

Wednesday/5-Oct-22: More protein for Ed tonight. We had Omelette au Boudin de Nancy (DavidFrPro, p232). We each had an omelette filled with slices of sautéed boudin noir. Surprisingly good. Served with some sautéed apples. A chocolate-covered madeleine for after.

Thursday/6-Oct-22: Don't know when we're going to get to shopping this week. I'm not even started on plan or list. 

Dinner was Very Spicy, Delicious Chickpeas (WofE, p86), an easy and tasty recipe I apparently haven't made since 2018. I used half the chickpeas with all the spices. Quite filling. A chocolate-covered madeleine for after.

Friday/7-Oct-22: Scrounging around for dinners now, since I'm completely without a meal plan. Dinner was Easy Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies* (web; GDnotes). This is easy and tasty. A chocolate-covered madeleine for after. 

Saturday/8-Oct-22: Sam arrived today. Tonight's dinner was a repeat of yesterday's, but with merguez de volaille as the sausage. No bell peppers in house. Added some mushrooms. Served over polenta. It was good. A chocolate-covered madeleine for after. 

Sunday/9-Oct-22: Ed had choir practice today, so no time for a Drive run. 

Last minute dinner, using stuff from the freezer and cabinets: Sicilian Olive Chicken (web). I used turkey scallops, each cut into two bits, instead of kip filets. Served over whole wheat fusilli. Some cheese (fourme d'Ambert and Beaufort) for after. 

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 1; #2 PHOTO: no;
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG2: no; #6 BACKLOG3: no; #7 RECYCLE: 10; #8 NEW: 4

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Sep-22: We finished the leftover tamale pie for dinner, with some pretty tasty guacamole, for dinner. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Tuesday/20-Sep-22: Shopping is off track this week, and so is the meal plan. Dinner was something.

Wednesday/21-Sep-22: Realized today that our Intermarché Drive order was missing some critical bits for the next days' meals. 

Thursday/22-Sep-22: Dinner was Spicy Chicken Burgers (RezaSpice, p22). This made eight patties (to serve four). We ate seven of them. I didn't make the go-with Tomato and Ginger Chutney, so I served with sliced tomatoes and red onion on some hamburger bun-ish things I found at Leclerc on our last visit. And some Rice with Peas (MJ1, p149). 

Friday/23-Sep-22: A moldy-oldy for dinner, Sautéed Chicken in Lemon Cream Sauce (web). Served with Spaetzle (MW@Home, p203; HandyBook), which was great with the cream sauce. A chocolate-covered madeleine for after.

Saturday/24-Sep-22: Dinner was Lentils with Spinach (WofE, p93), served over "trio" Thai rice. Very tasty, comforting stuff. I don't think I ever had lentils as a child, but I sure do like them. Some mini ice cream cups for after.

Sunday/25-Sep-22: Dinner was chili from the freezer. I remember I didn't like this much when first made. Somewhat better tonight. I stirred into my serving a bit of crème fraîche topped with a bit of jalapeño tabasco. Also made some Vaqueros Jalapeno Beer Bread from a mix that Chris and Jacky brought us from Fredericksburg. This was surprisingly so-so. Not enough beer in-house, so used some stout that had been sitting around a while. I think Ed threw the rest of the bread away, while I was thinking of toasted cheese-and-onion sandwiches.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 PHOTO: no;
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG2: no; #6 BACKLOG3: no; #7 RECYCLE: 10; #8 NEW: 4

This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Nov-21: If we hadn't been able to find a lunch venue last Friday when Chris and Amy arrived, I'd planned to make a crockpot dinner for them. Instead we had that tonight. I made a full recipe of Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef* (web; GD; notes) and froze half for another time. Served with rice and (somewhat over-)steamed broccoli.

 

No dessert for me since I'll have a blood test in the morning.

Tuesday/2-Nov-21: Dinner was Chinese Broccoli (MC). This was easy and tasty, if a trifle salty. Served over long-grain brown rice. We finished the vanilla-almond ice cream for after.

Wednesday/3-Nov-21: Dinner was a half dose of Mediterranean Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Artichokes, and Capers (web; GD; notes). This was easy and yummy. Served with trio rice. Some store-bought crème caramel for after. 
. 
Thursday/4-Nov-21: Shopping today. Needed a cabbage, but there were no more of the nice flat ones. Too bad. 

Dinner was Tarragon Salmon (web), thank you, Nigella. Easy and very nice. Served with short-grain brown rice and Frosted Cauliflower, a recipe I got from EAT-L. We liked this well enough, that I'll type it up to save. For after we had an apricot and an anise cookie; the apricot ones are good, the anise ones are especially good, and I don't really like anise. 

Friday/5-Nov-21: Dinner was A Night in Tunisia Pasta (with Harissa, Broccoli, Cauliflower)* (web; GD). This was good and spicy. Then some Häagen-Dasz mini ice cream cups for after.

For a coming meal, I made a half recipe of Atjar Tjampoer (web). Made a pretty full liter jar's worth. Looks good. We'll see.

I really need to get busy recycling cookbooks. Have a lot of candidates, but need to do the job.

Saturday/6-Nov-21: Dinner was a half recipe of Nasi Fantasie (web; Allerhande; GD; notes). This isn't very highly rated on the AH site, but we thought it was very good, tasty and satisfying. I forgot to get some kroepoeky things which would have been nice as a go-with. Used brown basmati for the rice. Used this recipe for the Pisang Goreng. No bakbanaan this week, so I used a green banana instead. It was smallish, cut longwise, then in halves. Not sure the lengthwise cut was necessary. A bit more might have been nice, so a bigger banana, or two small ones perhaps.The atjar hadn't really set long enough, but wasn't bad at all.

  

A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Sunday/7-Nov-21: An early meal today so we could go to a concert. We had store-bought falafels with store-bought kebab breads, served with Tzatziki (O&C, p465), Tahini Dipping Sauce, Variation: Falafel Sauce (WofE, p360), and Green Pea Hummus (web; GD)

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: yes; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 11; #8 NEW: 4

This week in the kitchen

Monday/8-Mar-21: I'm doing quite well clearing out old recipes. Ran across the folder of recipes I've entered into Mastercook, bundled by year, and have tossed most of that. Ed might one day fix the computer where my old Mastercook would run, but I doubt I'd enter any more recipes there. Might be nice to correct typos, though.

Yogurt on overday. Should have made bread, but that didn't happen.

Got two Drive orders made for tomorrow. I'm out and about on Wednesday, so we'll pick them up tomorrow instead of our usual Wednesday.

Used up a surplus of bananas to make The Best Banana Cake I've Ever Had (web). It's good enough, but can't say it's the best ever. Anyhow a change from the yogurt things we've been having.

Dinner was Skillet Spanakoptia (web). It was quite pretty, but my camera was upstairs, and I was too lazy to go up and get it. My filo had been in the freezer for a while, so was a bit crumbly, but filo really doesn't mind. The whole thing was yummy. I like the way it's cooked in a skillet. My 9" skillet was perfect. We'll only have four servings, when there should have been eight; that must be with side dishes, of which there were none here. Banana Cake for dessert.

Tuesday/9-Mar-21: Made a loaf of Buckwheat Bread (Magic, p73) (Basic/Rapid/M/m/-). It looks lovely, but won't get eating till tomorrow.

Made a half dose of Simple Beijing-Style Marinated Cucumber Salad (HotWok, p153) to go with tomorrow's dinner.

Dinner was a half recipe of Chicken Fesenjan (EW sep/oct17; web). I forgot the pomegranate seeds in the end, which make it a bit of a dull dish to see. Served with (store-bought) Moroccan couscous. Some Banana Cake for after.

Wednesday/10-Mar-21: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Quick-Braised Fish Fillets in Black Bean Sauce (web). I don't really see what's braised here. The fish are breaded (or, really, flour-glue pasted), shallow fried, then rewarmed in sauce. My breading was a failure, not a skill I've mastered. Altogether, the bits of fish (cod falls apart at the least provocation) warmed in the tomato-y sauce was quite tasty, but nothing I'd want to again. Served with the cucumber salad I make yesterday and Zesty Onion and Peas (HotWok, p178), both trusty recipes, and some plain basmati rice. A pair of store-bought yogurt desserts for after.

Thursday/11-Mar-21: Yogurt on overday.

Leftover Spanikopita for dinner; still good. Then a big salad. And some Banana Cake for after.

Friday/12-Mar-21: Busy day today. Ed took the car to a muffler place to have the mounts replaced. And about 15.30 the electricity for the house went out. Ed couldn't find the problem at first (and no dead mouse in the fuse box). I went to a neighbor and she called one and left a message asking him to come soon; later she brought the number of another one and I left a message on his answering machines, land line and cell phone. Ed finally discovered that the problem lay in one wall socket, the one that runs the freezer. He took that off, expecting to find a dead mouse there, but no luck. Tomorrow he'll replace the socket and hope that fixes the problem.

I started dinner while there was light outside and none inside. We had about a 2/3 recipe of Stir-Fried Prawns with Fresh Asparagus (HotWok, p92), which it looks like I haven't made since 1996. It was good again, served over plain basmati rice. We finished the Banana Cake for after.

Started an Overnnight Boule.

Saturday/13-Mar-21: Baked the Overnight Boule.

Clearing off the peninsula today, I found bags of dried apricots, prunes, figs, and a sack with four dates. I used these to make Stewed Dried Fruits (WofE, p388), which I made during IHCC's Madhur Jaffrey season.

Dinner was Shawarma-Spiced Grilled Chicken with Garlic Yogurt Sauce* (web). This was yummy. The photo showed it being serving with sliced cucumber, but the fridge is bare of cukes, so I sliced some radishes and red bell pepper for our veggie bits. Served with some pita/kebab breads and some Shredded Zucchini (MW@Home, p87). All was yummy. Dessert was a bit of vanilla ice cream with Stewed  Dried Fruits. Have to remember to make that more often; it's really nice and must be healthy.

Sunday/14-Mar-21: Today Ed discovered the electric problem was in the lamp that stood in the cookbook area. Twisted wires shorted out. Now looking for a new lamp.

Yogurt on overday. Powercut in the middle, so I had to restart. I'll save the ones from the last batch to make the next batch.

Dinner was a halfish dose of Greek Artichoke and Potato Stew (Ready, p140). This was good, but nothing special. Probably it was the little purple artichokes rather than the big green ones, which are not completely edible. Better still would be to use frozen artichoke bottoms. The sauce was a bit thin; I think a whole can of tomatoes for a half recipe would have been been better, thus, two cans for a whole recipe. I thickened with a bit of potato starch.

For after, there was ice cream with Stewed Dried Fruits again.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 5; #2 PHOTO: yes; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: yes; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 11; #8 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Jan-20: Dinner was Spicy Sausage, Spinach, and Mushroom Gnocchi (web). This was simple to make and very tasty, a kind of comfort food. Also the last of my Italian sausage, so that's on the list to make again. I made a salad but neither of us felt like eating it — into the fridge with it for tomorrow. Three chocolates each for dessert.

Tuesday/14-Jan-20: Dinner was Raspberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken (MC, web, CL/jan98). This is really yummy; I've made it a number or times, but not in quite a while. The raspberry preserves were not seedless, but I won't tell if you don't. Served with trio rice, and fêves that I impulse-bought last week — the first of the season. Then we had the salad left from yesterday. Then we had three chocolates.

Wednesday/15-Jan-20: Dinner was a half recipe of Panang Curry Red Lentil Soup (web). This was easy and very tasty. It did want a bit more salt at the table. Served over brown rice. Then a half recipe of Asian Cucumber and Carrot Salad (web). This was a spiralized creation, quite tasty. I'm not really a spiralizer fan; it's fun, but wastes so much veg. We finished with, yes, three chocolates each. One more night of these, unless they're still on sale.

Thursday/16-Jan-20: Shopping today.

Dinner was James Beard's Swordfish-Olive Pasta (Tenth, p263, also BeardPasta, p101). I thought this was good; Ed thought there were too many olives, even though I cut back the amount a bit. Oh well. Then a salad. Then the last of the chocolates. And there were no more of them on sale at Leclerc. Too bad for us.

Friday/17-Jan-20: I cooked up some chicken sausage today for tomorrow's meal. And started some Cabbage Kimchee (WofE, p379) for a meal early next week; unfortunately there was no Chinese cabbage to be had, so this is regular white cabbage.

Dinner was, very vaguely, a halfish recipe of Double Corn Cakes with Black Beans (VT, web). Having no access to pre-cooked polenta, which I probably wouldn't buy anyhow, I meant to make polenta earlier in the day and put it aside to cool for grilling. But that didn't happen so we just had the bean mixture over slightly cooled polenta. Instead of corn, I used hominy from the freezer. This was okay, but nothing special. Some mini Häagen-Dasz ice cream cups for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/18-Jan-20: Finished the kimchee this morning. Now it will ripen for several days.

Early meal today. There was a halfish recipe of One-Pot Cream Orzo with Chicken Sausage (web). This was pretty good. It might be even better with broccoli rather than zuke. And crème fraîche or even pyramid cheese instead of cream. But good. I have some extra sausages for lunch in the next days. Then a salad. Then some of the other on-sale chocolates I bought.

Sunday/19-Jan-20: Spent some time today going through my pending "bird" recipes stack. Managed to toss a few. This is hard work; there really are too many good things to make.

I forgot to defrost for tonight's dinner, so we had pizza instead. Instead I made Chipotle Apple Pecan Cake (BH&G/sep05, web). Pretty good it is. (I used sucre de canne for all; reduced sugar in cake to 1-1/4cup.) Also the pizza.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 BACKLOG: no
This month: #3 GUESTS: no
This year: #4 SHORT: no; #5 LONG: no
On-going: #6 READ; #7 RECYCLE; #8 NEW

This week in the kitchen

Monday/8-Oct-18: Tonight was supposed to be a beef with coconut from Floyd, but we left the coconut out of the fridge and it turned yucky pink. Instead there was a halfish recipe of Goan Beef Vindaloo (Floyd, p135). We thought it was pretty so-so. There's a bit left, which Ed insists I put in the freezer, rather than tossing. And plain basmati rice. And a halfish recipe of Spicy Sweetcorn—Makai tamatar nu shak (Floyd, p169). This is pretty good, but not wonderful. We finished a bottle of Larou with the meal, which went quite well, although it may have been we couldn't really taste it. Mini ice cream bars for after.

Tuesday/9-Oct-18: Dinner was Thai Black Pepper Chicken (MC), with Broccoli in Oyster Sauce (Delightful, p58) and Cucumber Salad (Delightful, p51), all tried-and-true recipes. I forgot to take the mango ice cream out as we sat to eat, so we had chocolate-covered madeleines instead.

Wednesday/10-Oct-18: Shopping today. No fish for dinner, but leftover Cabbage and Leek Gratin, which gratedGruyère on top. Still good. Such a simple thing. Mango Ice Cream with fresh mango chunks for dessert.

Thursday/11-Oct-18: My day for the ENT today, which means shopping at Grand Frais and Biocoop (health food). Decided I couldn't face another Floyd recipe this week, so we bought some veal scallops (on sale) and some corn on the cob (not on sale, but looked good). Ed saw someone with a jar of jalapeños and thought he'd like some nachos, so I ran to get some English cheddar. Later I discovered tomorrow was Floyd night, but I moved tonight's meal to tomorrow. After the nachos, neither of us were very hungry so we just had the corns on the cob. Then some chocolate-covered madeleines for dessert. (These were a summer sale thing, made locally, and really delicious and chemical free. We've only got one more sack left. :-( )

Yogurt on overnight.

The kitchen mouse seems to have ceased its activities. Can't really explain. Thinking of refilling the cabinets. Did see a mouse running along the house as we returned from doctor/shopping trip.

Friday/12-Oct-18: Early meal today, a half dose of Garlicky Chicken with Lemon-Anchovy Sauce (web). Cut my chicken into bits and didn't bother with the oven bit. Very yummy. With "short spaghetti" that looks like graminge and steamed broccoli topped with lemon juice. (Went to put this on my DoMeAgain list and discovered that it was already there. We had this in March. Liked it then too.) We've eaten well.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/13-Oct-18: Dinner was a half dose of Pasta with Sausage & Sun-Dried Tomatoes (web). My tomatoes were oven-dried and frozen, so I warmed a bit of olive oil with some finely sliced garlic and red pepper flakes. Used casareccia for the pasta. Then a big salad. We were full.

Sunday/14-Oct-18: Made a Tarte Poire Chocolat (VPG). This was okay, but nothing special. Used a store-brought graham cracker crust rather than a pâte sablée.

For dinner there was Very Spicy, Delicious Chickpeas (WoE, p86; cookbooker). Very delicious, yes. Served over round-grain brown rice.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 2; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: Floyd's India
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Sep-17: Froze up four 1-cups of tomato purée.

Dinner was Pork with Mango Ginger Sauce Topped with Curried Phyllo (PotPies, p104; cookbooker). Think this is the first thing I've made from the book. Quite good it was. Served with steamed broccoli with a squirt of lemon juice.

Tuesday/12-Sep-17: Earlyish meal today. Used up yesterday's phyllo with Spanikopita in Pastry Cups (Desperation, p206; cookbooker). This was good, although we had enough for three, so we're a bit stuffed. Then a bit of a salad.

Wednesday/13-Sep-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Thai Salmon and Bean Curry (web), served over rice. Yummy, although it might be better to put the green beans in for a minute or so before the salmon chunks since they were still a bit crunchy. Store-bought riz au lait for dessert.

Thursday/14-Sep-17: Yogurt on overday because I was too lazy to make it last night.

Picked the rest of the chicken. Used most of the meat for Mu Shu Chicken Lettuce Wraps (web; CL jan/feb14). Made the whole recipe for 4 and of us ate it all, although Ed did more than his share. Quite good, this was. The suggest go-with dessert was Poached Fruit over Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (web; CL jan/feb14). No frozen yogurt sold here that I've seen, and I didn't have enough yogurt to make this, so it was plain vanilla ice cream. Still good.

Friday/15-Sep-17: Lunch out today, nothing happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/16-Sep-17: Finally had our felafel dinner today. Store-bought falafels and store-bought pitas/kebab breads, with lettuce and sliced tomatoes. Served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359), which was a bit odd; it was the bottom of the tahini jar and pretty stiff. Also Cacik/Cucumber and Yogurt Salad (Roden, p64); I made about a half recipe of this with a quarter of the yogurt and it was still a bit soupy. Discovered my stash of garlic was all bad, so had to use garlic powder for everything. Not really a satisfactory substitute. All in all it was a tasty meal in spite of problems. For dessert there was Whole Egg Almond Milk Custard (web), trying to use up the almond milk I bought for something else. I kind of liked this, Ed not.

Sunday/17-Sep-17: Early meal today of Mustard Chops (Diaries, p129). The chops didn't get to marinate the hour that he asked, but they were still quite good. Served with spinach, as suggested, and the little square French pasta of buckwheat, whose name I've forgotten right now.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Dec-16: Picked the leftover chicken, then froze the bones and the meat.

Didn't really feel like a fancy meal today, but we had one anyway. For a starter there was the terrine de pigenneau (squab) that we got at the marché de noël. Put a bit of arugula on the plate, topped with a vinaigrette, then some dried cranberries and walnut pieces. This was all very good. The main was veal marsala, broccoli alla romana, and the last of some nettle pasta I bought at a marché gourmand. Dessert was pears with gorgonzola. All tasted good.

Tuesday/27-Dec-16: Early dinner with a mix of leftovers. Shepherd's pie, the cauliflower curry, and a dab of orzo. The shepherd's pie held up quite well. And a slice of raspberry bûche to end it all.

Wednesday/28-Dec-16: Shopping today. Still disliking new Leclerc arrangement/design. Such a mess.

Dinner was unexpectedly good. I made a halfish recipes of Down by the Sea (Wraps, p61). The filling was lots of onions, softened in olive oil, then simmered with lemon juice, champagne vinegar (not—regular white wine vinegar did the job), and dried tarragon. This is mixed with chunks of grilled swordfish, chopped arugula, and chopped black olives. Wrapped in lavash tonight because there were some to use up. Very yummy.

Thursday/29-Dec-16: Dinner was a kind of polenta lasagna from Time-Life. Very delicious. Served with a salad. That was enough.

Friday/30-Dec-16: In the afternoon, I roasted some eggplants to use tomorrow.

Friends invited us for apèros this afternoon, so we had are rather small dinner. There was an Italian steak accompanied by some peas with shallots and some crozets mixed garlic butter-olive oil. That was all.

Saturday/31-Dec-16: Spend most of the day in the kitchen today.

• Started yogurt, thinking I might use much of what's in the fridge to make tzatziki (but didn't in the end).
• Used the roasted eggplants to make Baba Ghanoush (WofE, p334) for serving with veggies this evening.
• Started the rabbit dish for tomorrow's meal. Left it in nature's refrigerator overnight.
• For lunch, sautéed some onion, garlic, and leftover shiitakes, plopped this on slices of bread, topped with some blue cheese, and toasted to melt the cheese. Yum.
• Stuffed two mini peppers in the fridge with a little filling of cream cheese, chives, onion flakes, black pepper.

Dinner was a half recipe of Scallop Sauce with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Hot Pepper (ClassicItal, p185). I've made this before on new year's eve. It's good. Then a salad. 

For our late-night munchies with had the baba ghanoush with carrots, cukes, and radishes, along with the stuffed mini pepper. Looked like a lot, but we ate all of the veggies; didn't quite finish the dip.

Sunday/1-Jan-16: Dinner was delicious. Rabbit Ragu with Pappardelle (Essential, p352). Made a full recipe and froze about half. Served over some wide tagliatelle, home-made!, but not wide enough to call it pappardelle. Then a salad. That was all

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no for December; yes for January; #4 BREAD: no; #5 FotW: yes for November/December

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Jan-16: Tasty dinner tonight. I steamed some eggs to hard-boil them (setting the time, but forgetting to press Start, it's amazing I got them right), then made Hard-Boiled Eggs in a Spicy Cream Sauce (MJ1, p84). Accompanied by Gujerati-Style Green Beans (MJ1, p102) made with snijbonen (whatever they may be called in English), since haricots verts didn't look good this week, and Simple Buttery Rice with Onion (MJ1, p140). The egg dish was made without tomato paste, but was still extra yummy.

Tuesday/12-Jan-16: Late change of dinner plans. Dinner turned out to be Prawn, Leek & Lemon Risotto (web). Sort of. I didn't bake it, but made it on the stovetop like a regular risotto. Interesting thing about this recipe is that no wine is added. Instead, fresh lemon juice is stirred in to start things off; then more is added to finish it off. Ed thought it was a trifle too lemony.

Went to inventory some drugstore stuff prior to making an order and discovered that we seem to have had a mouse in the bathroom chewing labels. I've just recently cleaned that cabinet, so it must have happened recently. At the same time, Ed discovered mouse activity in the kitchen on the cookie shelf. The Figalous are okay; this time it's the chocolate-covered cornflake piles that were attached. We've got a live trap set tonight.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/13-Jan-16: Ed set the live trap in the bathroom. The mouse (assuming there's only one in the house) was busy in the kitchen last night. Trap has been moved now. Don't understand why the cats aren't interested. Guessing it might be one Oscar brought in. The bathroom is one of the places he likes to carry his prey to finish them off. Maybe one escaped.

Shopping today. Dinner was Salmon with Anchovy-Garlic Butter (web), which was quite yummy. The anchovy flavor goes away, leaving a delicious bit of sauce. Served with polenta and steam broccoli.

Thursday/14-Jan-16: Oops, went to put the goat on to marinate for tonight's dinner and realized that I goat the forequarter out of the freezer instead of the hindquarter. (I think I marked the hindquarter off the freezer list too. A roasted forequarter, no sure how that's going to work.

So, we had Roasted Goat with Mountain Herbs and Potatoes (O&C, p395) for dinner. Turned out pretty darn good. The hindquarter would have had more and better meat on it, but the forequarter was fine. The meat was easy to shred after cooking. I was out of the room and didn't hear the timer, so it might have gone slightly over an hour. But it was good. Followed by a big salad (with feta, of course, to go with the Greek goat). Followed by a concert in Limoges.

Friday/15-Jan-16: Ed says he noticed Sophie being interested in the shelf where I keep the dried fruit. Thought I'd better give it a look. Pulled out the box with the dried fruit. Apparently woke up a cute little mouse (female?) who scooted down between shelves and disappeared behind the shopping boxes. I cleaned off that shelf good. Doesn't look like she got into the fruit, but seems to have explored the basket with spices, chiles, etc. All boxed up, but lots of poop. Ed might put some peanut butter on the bait for tonight. Sure would like to take it off far far away from my kitchen.

Cooked chicken for enchiladas, but didn't feel like eating or assembling them. Picked the goat bones (and froze them up, waiting for me to cook the other quarter). Made up a hash sort of thing with onion, garlic, potatoes, broccoli, and goat, sauced with some Tikka Massala from the fridge. Not bad. Peaches with a toefje whipped cream from a can (too sweet!) for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/16-Jan-16: Peg&Jim sent us some tortillas for xmas, so it was back to the Great West tonight for Enchiladas de Jocoque—Tortillas Filled with Chicken and Sour Cream (TLWest, p124). Served with Mama's Spanish rice and some guacamole. The enchiladas were okay, a bit bland, nothing special. No pimiento, so used some roasted yellow and red bell peppers from a jar. Used Greek olives, were probably the bland American black olives would have been better. One cup of stock and three cups of sour cream (crème fraîche, but I won't tell) made way too much sauce and it was too thin. I think it might have been better to reduce the stock to 1/2 cup (instead of 1 cup) and add to only two cups of sour cream. Then add only about 3/4 cup of this mixture to the chicken for stuffing.

Sunday/17-Jan-16: Scratched the falafel itch with some Crockpot Falalels (web). They weren't bad, although I'm not sure what the crockpot added. Better, I think, would be just to make them up, put them on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven. Served with lettuce and tomato and the falafel version of Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359). The crockpot recipe is rather similar to Jaffrey's recipe in WofE, spice-wise, except that Jaffrey starts with a cup of dried chickpeas that have been soaked for 24 hours, the chopped up in the food processor. Maybe I should try this next. There's also a hand-written not to bake "in oven for 20min@375F, loosen from pan & shake during baking." Might be healthier and easier than frying.

The kitchen mouse is still around. Last night she (I think it's a she) found the Figalous, a favorite of a previous mouse.

Progress on tiling continues. Much of the wall behind the sink is done; missing the bit in at the far right and the bits on the wall above the level of the window floor. And the trim. Steady progress.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/29-Dec-14: The beans I put on after lunch for tonight's dinner didn't want to get cooked in time, so they're sitting outside freezing their booties off until tomorrow. Instead I defrosted some chipolatas (sausages); need to note the brand because they were a bit on the salty side. Roasted some broccoli and cauliflower, along with one sweet potato for Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Cream (web), which I saw in the CL I read through this morning. (One sweet potato was plenty for two.) For dessert, we split the last mango ice cream sandwich, which was a reasonable amount (as opposed to the whole one per person recommended in the menu).

Tuesday/30-Dec-14: Late start, then shopping today. Very crowded again, and all the checkout lines weren't open, so there was a bit of a wait.

Cooked yesterday's beans some more, then finished off Pork Stew with Red Chiles and Black Beans (web), about a 2/3 recipe. Red beans, since I discovered I was out of black beans; the red beans seem to be Dutch, so they could be quite old and that could be why they took so long to cook. It was good, but nothing special. Didn't much care for the added honey. Chocolate mini magnums for dessert. Ed was still wanting some chocolate, so I made some Angel's Dreams (TLWine, p33), which were quite good, even though we don't have proper glasses for such things.

Wednesday/31-Dec-14: Ed's been busy hanging new lighting over the kitchen sink. He spent the morning and afternoon occupying the sink area, meaning I couldn't start cooking till much later than intended.

Knowing we're eating out tomorrow, I planned a lightish food for tonight.  For the meal, there was Gingery Cauliflower Soup (Q&E, p13) and (more or less) Easy Potato and Pea Samosas ( web) with Fresh Green Chutney (Q&E, p113). The soup is an old favorite; usually we eat most of it, tonight only about half. This is not the same baked samosa recipe I've made before; couldn't find that one. I made six samosas (I ate one, Ed ate three) to use up the packet of filo that I started with strudel; now I've got some filling leftover for something else. The chutney used mint from the garden. Very unusual for there still to be mint in the garden at the end of December.

Ed thought we needed a picture of me making the samosas.

And I thought we needed a picture of him eating one.

For our late evening munchies, I made a half recipe of Baba Ghanoush (WofE, p334) using some roasted eggplant from the freezer. This turned out especially good. As go-withs there was a plate of carrots, cukes, red and green bell peppers, radishes, cherry tomatoes (for me). I defrosted a second batch of roasted eggplant to make a recipe from WS, but didn't have the oomph. Twas OK in the end because we didn't quite finish the first batch, but will have to do something with it in the next days. For some reason I was exhausted after dinner and Oscar and I took a nap in the rocker. Polished off a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream in the course of the evening; Ed and I were both a little loopy.

Thursday/1-Jan-15: Splendid lunch out today at one of our favorite restaurants. No further food needed.

Friday/2-Jan-15: Tonight was Carrot Ginger Soup (web; cookbooker) with the two extra samosas. For dessert we finished off the last bit of pudding with slogs of crème de cacao and cream.

Saturday/3-Jan-15: Went to mail a package this morning, only to discover that the post office closes at noon, not at noon:30. Stopped at boulangerie for bread and a three king's cake.

Oops, forgot to notice that the chicken for tonight's planned dinner wanted to marinate for four hours. Instead we had Chile-Lime Veggie Noodles (web; cookbooker). Three king's cake for dessert.

Sunday/4-Jan-15: I actually got the chicken on to marinate this morning so dinner was a half-recipe of Grilled Chicken Piquant (CL92, p166). Easy and really good. You're supposed to boil the marinade at the end to use as a salad dressing, but since I made a half dose, there really wasn't enough to boil for five minutes. I just made up another small batch to drizzle my store-bought greens (frisée, carrots, beets, cabbage, and whatever else). A nice plate. We finished the three king's cake and may try to get another before they're gone.

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

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/2-Dec-13: It was Baked Orzo with Tomatoes, Roasted Pepper, and Zucchini (VeryBest, p217; cookbooker) tonight. Good it was. Thought to make a salad as a go-with, but decided there was plenty of veg in the dish. Recipe supposedly made 6 servings. Maybe as a side. Two of us ate it all as a main; might serve 3 with a salad.

Tuesday/3-Dec-13: First there was Green Soup from the freezer, an Indian-ish cream of pea soup. For the main I halved a recipe, Tartelette aux Crevettes, Curry, et Courgette (VPG, although I've found it on several different sites with the same picture). Instead of a proper tartelette, I used the last bit of the pumpkin pie crust to make "lids" for the filling. Easy and pretty good, it was.

Wednesday/4-Dec-13: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half dose of Risotto de Quinoa, Courgette, et Saumon (VPG), a risotto with quinoa (I used red because the regular stuff was out of date and smelled off) instead of rice. Not bad. Glad I tried it. Don't need to do it again. Then a salad. Then we split a classic magnum.

Thursday/5-Dec-13: Yogurt on overday.

Leftover roast pork and the pasta/veg thing for dinner. That was all.

Friday/6-Dec-13: The planned dinner involved soaking quinoa overnight, and I hadn't noticed. (Soaking quinoa?) So that's been postponed. Instead, I scratched my felafel itch. In the Netherlands I used to occasionally buy packaged felafels, that only needed to be heated, at the the health food store. But I haven't found these at the health food stores here. But I finally found a packaged mix at Carrefour. I mixed it up, added some extra spices (ground roasted cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne), then followed Bittman's instructions for baking—10-15min each side at 375F. Pretty good, and not greasy-fried. Served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359). As go-withs, there was Michotela (Cream Cheese and Cucumber Salad) (Roden, p65)——and Eggplant with Tomatoes (Roden, p286). The first is an old favorite; the "cream cheese" of the title is feta. The second was new to us, OK, but nothing special. My copy of Roden is falling to bits, but I guess it a bit wasteful to replace it and lost all the notes and smells of my old book. It's going to become a rubber-band book to hold it together.

Saturday/7-Dec-13: Rubbed the Chipotle-Sage Rub (from last summer) from the freezer under the skin of a spatchcocked chicken, plopped it on top of some chunked potatoes, carrots, garlic, and shallots. Popped all in the oven for an hour or so. Pretty good. For dessert with had chocolate maquises from the boulager.

Sunday/8-Dec-13: In the afternoon, I took the leftover pitas from Friday and made Cumin Pita Chips (Spicy, p36). Haven't made those in a while. A nice munchy.

Not feeling too good tonight, not feeling like cooking, no appetite. Defrosted some chicken adobo and served with rice and a quick sauté of shrooms, asparagus, and zucchini. That's all folks!

Ed forgot to mention this morning that there was only one yogurt in the frdige, so I didn't make. And don't feel like it tonight, so it will wait till tomorrow.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Oct-13: Dinner was Bengal Red Lentils with Spices (Sahni2, p329) over rice. This recipe  has been well reviewed at cookbooker, so I thought I'd give it a try. Very good, yes! Served with the end of the Spicy Eggplant Stew with Potatoes, Mushroom, and Chickpeas, which was still good, if slightly past its use-by date. Oh well, guess we'll survive.

Authentic French Bread in the machine overnight.

Tuesday/29-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Pork Tenderloin with Plum and Juniper Sauce (collected EAT-L). Lots of the red plums I bought for these were bad, so I used the last of the yellow plums we've been eating. There was lots of sauce left so I buzzed it and Ed will have it on his morning bread (instead of the apple butter that I've been deficient in making of late). With it there were some pan-fried potatoes and some steamed broccoli. Jus a square of almond-chocolate for after.

Wednesday/30-Oct-13: Shopping today, but before that, the new kitchen counters were installed!

Dinner was some haddock filets à la meuniére, with the flour spiced up with some seafood spice, not Old Bay, but something similar. Served with White Wine Vinegar Pan Sauce (HowTo, p164). And some roasted broccoli bits. And some basic-ricotta tortellni. Followed by a salad. Then a a bit of hazelnut chocolate for afters (Lindt, too sweet it was).

Thursday/31-Oct-13: Dinner was Spaghetti Carbonara with a Poached Egg (MC) with a big salad. Good it was.

Friday/1-Nov-13: Yogurt on overday.

Our 40th anniversary together today. We ate out. Fruit for dinner.

Saturday/2-Nov-13: Had dinner at a restaurant with friends before going to a karaoke "do" there. No, we didn't sing. Now we can say we've seen that, don't need to do it again.

Sunday/3-Nov-13: Made Apple-Plum Butter (MC) during the day today. Also cooked up some tomato sauce from the 2.2kg of coeur de boeuf tomatoes that I got on Wednesday. Those make four cups of sauce, now in the freezer.

Meant to make an Indian lamb and spinach dish tonight, but couldn't find the lamb in the freezer. I must have used it at some point and forgotten to take it off the list. Went to the local butcher yesterday afternoon to get some, only to discover that he's on vacation this week. But, there's lots of pork in the freezer wanting to be used up. Strangely there seem to be no pork and spinach dishes. Major replan required. Made Pork Vindaloo (Q&E, p33), an old and easy favorite. (One of these days I need to make a proper vindaloo again, even better, but more work.) I think this may be the first time I've made this using the pressure cooker, which does make it quick, but you miss the lovely smells from the simmering pot. Served with plain basmati rice and a half recipe of Diced Potatoes with Spinach (WofE, p53), using only half the spinach I bought. Also made a half dose of our favorite raita (MJ1, p162), but forgot to serve it. Tasty eating.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: yes for October/no for November, #4 BREAD: no for October/no for November

IHCC: Dried fruit!

Finding an interesting recipe to try using dried fruit was more of a challenge than I expected. Of course lots of Indian dishes have raisins, which really aren't very inspiring and choosing between the recipes was hard. Then I found Stewed Dried Fruit in World of the East Vegetarian Food (p388), a recipe from the Caucasus. Plus it was going to help use up a recently opened box of dried figs.

You can't get much easier than this for the cooking. Plop your dried fruit in a saucepan, add water, bring to a boil, and simmer for half an hour. Stir in sugar and simmer till it's dissolved. As Jaffrey suggests, I removed the fruit and simmered the juice until it was reduced quite a bit. The recipe calls for dried prunes, figs, and apricots, plus slices of lemon. I'm sure you could use whatever fruit you have available. Serve warm or cold, plain, or with yogurt or cream. They'll show up over ice cream for tonight's dinner, I expect.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

IHCC: Appetizers!

Neither Ed nor I are party people, and on New Year's Eve we're big stay-at-homes. I usually make and buy a selection of little goodies we can eat throughout the evening while we watch a film or play a game. This year, with appetizers as the IHCC theme, I decided to do a selection of Jaffrey's finger foods for our evening fare.

Here's most of the spread. Clockwise from the upper left, there's Baba Ghanoush (Creamed Eggplant with Tahini) (World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking, p334), pita quarters, Easy Kebabs (Tala Gosht) (Spice Kitchen, p34), Shrimp with Garlic and Chilies (Lehsun Vali Jhinga) (Quick & Easy Indian Cooking, p17), Ajwain-Flavored Chicken (Murgh Ke Mazedar Tukray) (Spice Kitchen, p32), and Sour Potatoes (Khatte Aloo) (100 Essential Curries, p11). 

The chicken, shrimp, and lamb are dishes I've made before, served as a main course, rather than as nibbly bits. I've not used this particular recipe for baba ghanoush before (or at least I didn't make a note of it), but what was most interesting about it is that I used frozen eggplant! A couple of months ago, I had an eggplant that wasn't going to get used. I roasted it, peeled away the charred skin, mashed it up, and froze it. And it worked great! If you like baba ghanoush (or other dishes with mashed roasted eggplant), this is something to do with your bounty. (I read somewhere that you can do this with or without the flavorings, but that it works best to freeze just the eggplant.)

The lamb was a bit that didn't get used for lamb biryani. I had about one quarter of the meat called for in the recipe and used about half the spices. The meat can be marinating for several hours, and the finishing is quite easy, taking very little attention, so it's a good party food. 

The chicken is one kip filet (skinless, boneless chicken breast half); this was about one third of the meat called for in the recipe. Again I used about half the spices. I left this marinating quite a while also. The finishing takes a little more attention than the lamb, but nothing is complicated, so it's also a good party food.

I made the shrimp dish with frozen cooked shrimp, rather than raw. To keep the amount parallel with the lamb and chicken, I should have cooked only half the shrimp I had, but opted to finish off the package. The rest will appear in another dish in the next days. This dish takes a little more last-minute attention, but could still work as proper party food.

The Sour Potatoes were delicious and a snap to make. You start with cold boiled potatoes, peel and cube them, then toss with salt, lemon juice, ground roasted cumin, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne, and chopped coriander. If you're in the habit of keeping boiled potatoes in the fridge (aren't we all?!), this could be a quick and healthy snack at any time.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs. It's hard to believe we're already half-way through six months of cooking with Madhur Jaffrey. It's been fun trying new recipes, revisiting old favorites, and finally making some of the treats that have been on my make-me-soon list for a very long time.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/31-Dec-12: How can it already be the last day of 2012? Not the bestest year ever, I think. Hoping 2013 turns out better for everyone all around. We had a dinner of appetizers for IHCC, including some carrots sticks for dipping the baba ghanoush.

Tuesday/1-Jan-13: A new year's luncheon feast at La Bellone today. For dinner we had some carrot sticks and apple slices.

Wednesday/2-Jan-13: Today's fun task was defrosting the fridge, which has been needed for a month or so. Luckily it was a sunny day, so I put all the shelves and drawers outside to dry. Next up will be the chest freezer, whenever we have a little cold spell since it's much fuller than the coolers we have.

For dinner, I gussied up some basmati rice and added the leftover Shrimp with Garlic and Chilies. And a half dose of Carrot and Onion Salad (MJ1, p171). 

Thursday/3-Jan-13: Grocery shopping today. Dinner was Thyme for Lime Salmon, a recipe I got from EAT-L. Quite good, it was, the salmon topped with some honey, lime juice, thyme, and oil. It was supposed to be baked, but I put it under the broiler. Served with some pasta with garlic butter and some steamed broccoli with lemon juice. Then a salad. Then a pair of nice chocolate truffle-y thing each.

Friday/4-Jan-13: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Confit Duck Leg Pozole (web, cookbooker), tasty but rich; followed by a salad; ending up with Chocolate Chile Bread Pudding (web, cookbooker) which was very yummy, although too much.

Saturday/5-Jan-13: Hippie dinner tonight, a half recipe of North Indian Stuffed Eggplant (NewMW, p98). Old recipe. Still good. Then a big salad. That was all.

Sunday/6-Jan-13: Made fresh pasta tonight. For a sauce there was a half recipe of Cremini Mushroom Pasta with Wilted Arugula, Goat Cheese, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Essential, p334). Long title for a fairly simple recipe. This was pretty good, but the goat cheese I had that wanted to be used up was a bit wimpy. Then we has slices of a three kings' cake from the Montemboeuf boulangerie. Ed got the fêve. (It was a dog, some kind of pointer. Weird.)

Yogurt on overnight.

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

IHCC: Red and Green

Red and green for the holidays. Well the tablecloth is red and the spinach is green.

Actually, red things were hard for me to think of, but the green was easy. Saag Paneer has been on my make-me-sometime list for way too many years. It's a restaurant favorite, although sometimes the paneer can be a tad rubbery. With this week's them, I finally had the excuse I needed to give it a try. I found recipes in a several of Jaffrey's books, but went with the one in World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking (p240; the paneer is on p238).

As the red go-with, I chose Red Split Lentils with Cumin from Indian Cooking (p122). Red lentils are strangely mis-named. They're orange when you buy them and a rather unappealing gold color when they're cooked, but they taste good. This is a simple recipe I've made several times before so there was nothing new here.

Making the paneer turned out to be quite simple. You simply bring the whole milk to a boil, remove it from the heat, stir in some lemon juice, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then you pour the curdled mixture into some cheesecloth and suspend it to drain overnight. (I used butter muslin, and have recently read that it's actually better for the job than what I know as cheesecloth. When I went to top up my stash of cheesecloth last year, not having found any in French shops nearby, butter muslin is what turned up in online UK shopping.) 

The recipe calls for 5 cups of whole milk; I used a liter and adjusted the lemon juice accordingly. It was strange to me that there was almost exactly a liter of whey after the curds were removed. And, actually, not much more liquid came off beyond the whey that originally formed. It could have evaporated, I suppose, but since it's been raining most of the time of late (we're building an ark), I would expect the humidity to be quite high already. The next afternoon the curds were very dry.

Because they were so dry, they didn't really want to hold together all that well, but after being pressed under a cast iron Dutch oven full of water for a couple of hours, the paneer was solid enough to cut up and cook with, although the pieces weren't all that pretty.

The dish itself is easy to make, although I was pleased to have help in stemming all that spinach. I had only about 500g of fresh spinach (rather than 1-1/2 pounds), but that's still a lot. (Next time I might try this with frozen spinach which will make it a really easy dish.) First you brown the paneer, then remove it from the skillet and sprinkle with with salt, garam masala, and cayenne. Using the same oil, you fry a paste of garlic, ginger, and a chile that you've already whizzed up with water. After 30 seconds, you stir in the finely chopped spinach and some salt, cover, and cook slowly for 15 minutes. FInally you add the paneer and some cream, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes. I cut both these times quite a bit short and it didn't hurt a bit.

We were both very pleased with the result. Although the paneer was not as pretty as what you might be served in a restaurant, it was definitely tender and tasty.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Dec-12: Dinner was a half recipe of Sea Scallops with Sweet Red Peppers and Zucchini (Essential, p409), which was very tasty and seasonal in appearance, all red, green, and white. Served with orzo, although possibly some spaghetti or linguine would have been nice. Then a salad. Then a small bit of a petit camembert.

Tuesday/25-Dec-12: Gloomy weather, and neither or us feeling xmas-y. Only got the tree up yesterday and haven't been playing our usual cheery xmas music. Dinner was nice, though, although the dessert was a bit of a failure.

Wednesday/26-Dec-12: Tweede kerstdag. Planned a bigger meal but scaled it back since neither or us were particularly hungry. The main was Pork Steak with Port and Figs (web; N.B.: This is from nigella.com, but Safari is giving a "watch out" message today; perhaps they've been hacked). Nice, but the sauce was strangely bland. Also odd is the she calls for 8 dried figs at 150g. I used 12 (which was too many) and they were only 125g. Accompanied by some trio rice and some Carrot Timbales following the recipe for Broccoli Timbales (BEFCC, p58). Possibly I've made this more often with carrots than broccoli, but either way it's good. Then a salad using up yesterday's arugula. Then some leftover chocolate dessert.

Thursday/27-Dec-12: Did our shopping today. The holiday season brings lots of exotic and out-of-season fruits and vegetable. In past years there have been lots of mini versions of vegetables. This year I had a recipe to use mini squash, and of course there were none to be found. Oh well.

Dinner was an old favorite, Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255), over rice. Then a big salad. Then some of the petit camembert.

Friday/28-Dec-12: Kitchen day today. Made a jarful of Apple Butter using the cheap sack of apples I got yesterday. Emptied the freezer to make a big pot of chicken stock. There was at least one chicken and two coquelets worth, plus, I think, some thigh bones, but I didn't count. Boned the last half coquelet to make a salad with leftover rice from last night, the cilantro sauce, some celery and radish bits. Pretty good lunch. Started paneer for tomorrow night's IHCC dinner.

Dinner started last of the foie gras-stuff magret and a bit of vinaigretted arugula. For a main there was Pumpkin Gnocchi with Crème Fraîche-Sage Sauce (web, cookbooker), which was good, although I still haven't mastered the technique for proper gnocchi. Then we had another bit of the chocolate non-cake. Nicely full now.

Saturday/29-Dec-12: A tasty dinner for IHCC tonight: Saag Paneer(WofE, p240), Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seed (MJ1, p122), served with rice and Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). All but the Saag Paneer have been made before. Finished off the chocolate non-cake for dessert. Whew!

Sunday/30-Dec-12: Made some Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (MC) to use up the pumpkin I defrosted and some of the cranberries that have been lingering in the freezer for quite a while. It's good.

DInner was Tuna with Macaroni and Mushrooms (Ackart, p183). I made half of a recipe that should serve six, and it made a not overly generous dinner for two. But it was good. Then a salad. Then the last of the petit camembert.

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

IHCC: Relishes, Chutneys and Pickles

Now, Indian pickles are something that took me a bit of getting used to. When I first tried them in restaurants, I thought they tasted like shoe polish. Yuck! But then I learned to eat them in tiny bits. My husband likes to chop up whatever pickle is on offer and mix it into his food. I tend to put a spoonful on the side and take a tiny bit with each bite. Pickles are usually salty, but they add a zing of special flavor.

At the beginning of the year, we visited the Indian/Pakistani food shop on our old turf in Amstelveen and impulse-bought a jar of green chili pickle. My oh my, did that turn into a favorite! But, just before the Madhur Jaffrey challenge started, the hall-full jar, along with a jar of Dijon mustard, took a leap from the refrigerator door and smashed to the floor. The mustard can be easily replaced, but not the wonderful pickle.

Well, I thought, this would be a very good opportunity to make my own pickle, something I've never tried before. When I searched all my Indian cookbooks, I found remarkably few pickle recipes at all. But, there in World-of-the_East Vegetarian Cooking was Pickled Green Chilies (WofE, p367), sounding like just what I wanted. This went directly onto my make-me-soon list. I asked a friend visiting from the Netherlands to bring me the 1/4 pound of green chilies I'd need to make a half recipe. Knowing that the recipe calls for the jar of ripening pickle to sit in the sun, and sun is very limited at this time of year while we're racing toward the winder solstice in the midst of an unseasonal grey, rainy spell, I decided to get this going as soon as possible. With the "Relishes, Chutneys and Pickles" theme coming up, and a sunny day in the forecast, I started on my pickle.

A (half) recipe calls for 1/4 pound, or about 1 well-packed cup) of fresh hot green chilies. As I weighed out my chilies, they largely filled a 2-cup measure, not packed, but more than I would have expected. (The unused chilies got added to the stash in the freezer.)

The chilies are sliced, then mixed with ground black mustard seeds, salt, cayenne, and minced ginger.

This was mixed with mustard oil that had been brought to the smoking point then cooled, jarred, and set in the sun. (As the mustard oil neared the smoke point, the color changed from very yellow to almost clear. This feature wasn't mentioned in the recipe, but is probably a good way to know that it's time to pay some good attention to what's happening.)

After a day in the sun, it's time add some lemon juice and shake it up. The pickle spends more time (seven days in winter) in a warm sunny spot, which was just a bit difficult because it's mostly been cool and grey of late.

Finally it was time to try my pickle. And the consensus was ... not a success. It is very hot and tastes strongly of mustard. But otherwise, there's not much subtle going on. I might add more lemon juice and consider stirring in some more spices, but I don't hold out much hope for this one. Disappointing, since this is my first real failure with a Madhur Jaffrey recipe, and she's been a favorite author for years.

(In the background there, is Spicy Cucumber Wedges (Indian Cooking, p172), a quick and easy sort of salad that I make fairly often when a meal needs a bit of fresh crunch.)

Meanwhile, having in mind that pickle week was next week, I found another pickle recipe to try. So, I was a bit non-plussed to find that this week is pickle week. But there's now a jar of Lime Pickle (Flavours of India, p211) waiting patiently on the shelf to be tried next week.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.