Made in Oldstead

We can't eat out at the moment but fortunately some restaurants are making it possible to eat out at home.  That sentence makes NO SENSE.  But you know what I mean - some restaurants have moved into the takeaway business.  Or perhaps, more accurately, the posh ready meal business.  I, for one, am glad and wish that I was rich enough to buy from all of them all of the time.  I want these places to survive and be around when we emerge, blinking, into the sunshine of non-lockdown.  Although knowing Britain, the end of lockdown will coincide with a period of monsoons.  Our weather systems tend to have a finely tuned sense of irony.

Anyway, back to the point.  This weekend we donated £70 of your English pounds to the "Save the Local Restaurant" fund that is The Black Swan at Oldstead's food box scheme.  Another cracker of a sentence there. 

We love The Black Swan.  Well, I say that.  We've been twice.  We loved it on the second occasion and liked it very much on the first.  The food that they are making for the food boxes is not the equivalent of the food that you would get in the restaurant.  Of course it's not.  It needs to be packed and transported and reheated.  It needs to be plated up at home.  This all calls for dishes that are robust and simple with minimal garnishes.  Not necessarily adjectives that you associate with Michelin starred chefs. 

Having said that, if your expectations are set at the correct level, this is a very enjoyable experience indeed, and it was nice to have a weekend "off" from cooking.  I've been cooking a lot during this period; the kitchen has become even more a place of solace and escape than usual, but it is still nice to be cooked for.  And when it is Tommy Banks and team who are doing the cooking, it is especially nice.

As I said, the cost of the box was £70 but for that you get two lots of two three-course meals.  We decided to have the starters for lunch and then the main event and puddings in the evening which meant we effectively got four meals out of it.  That is pretty decent value to my way of thinking.

On Saturday, there was a tartiflette made with Ogleshield - a fabulous British cheese that rose to the occasion admirably.  There was bacon and caramelised onions and creaminess.  The dish required a smidge more time in the oven than specified in the instructions (the potatoes were sliced quite thickly and weren't quite as yielding after 20 minutes as we might have wished).  And we roasted the accompanying asparagus rather than boiling and dressing in butter as were directed to do.  Yeah, rebels.

This was followed by a beetroot treacle tart served with a schnapps-laced marscapone.  The tart looked beautiful (I am quite the fan of pink food) although the beetroot didn't seem to add much to the flavour profile that I could discern.  The marscapone was excellent.

As for Sunday's meal: I would say it was pretty much the definition of British comfort food.  There was ox cheek pie with the most gorgeous beef dripping crust.  On the side, a portion of pickled manglewurzel which is apparently, is a type of beet commonly eaten by livestock.  Lucky livestock, say I - this was lovely.  Reminiscent of sauerkraut.  We may, may have snuck some mashed potato onto the plate as well because I am from the East End of London and it is practically treason to not serve pie with mash. Also, we are greedy.  But I've upped the exposure on the picture so that you can barely see it.

The theme of comfort food continued with the dessert of elderflower cake with duck egg custard.  Cake and custard is pure school dinners as far as I am concerned.  Actually, (and here is a sad tale) I never had school dinners when I was at primary school.  My cruel mother insisted on making me a packed lunch every day.  So while I know of the concept of school dinner cake-and-custard I have never experienced it firsthand.  I suspect TBS's version was considerably superior to St Mary's RC Primary School.

An indulgent weekend then but worth it.  For anyone reading who lives in the Oldstead, York, Harrogate or North Leeds area and wants a treat then I would recommend this most highly.  For everyone else, I hope that the restaurants round you are similarly rising to the challenges faced by the industry.  I don't think it is possible to quantify how much joy these pubs and restaurants bring to our lives and we will miss them if they go. 

Recipe corner: A springtime trout tray-bake

A momentous thing happened today: D bought his first ever umbrella. Up until this point, he has claimed to be agin them. Unless they are made by Aquascutum and cost several hundred pounds and, short of a lottery win or an elderly, hitherto unknown eccentric millionaire relative leaving me their fortune, I am NEVER going to think that is a good idea.

Anyway, he now has an umbrella which is useful, as it looks as if Easter weekend was a temporary aberration and we are back to the chill, damp days of the English spring. And to celebrate, last night we ate a meal that was extremely springlike, a celebration of all of the wonderful produce around at this time of year. If you have a jar of Hollandaise lurking in the back of your fridge (as we did for some reason) this is the work of minutes. You could make your own if you like. Or you could sub in a nice, rich mayonnaise or creme fraiche or even plain yoghurt.

This is seriously easy, low effort (difficult sauces aside) and a delicious Friday night fish supper.

Ingredients

2 x trout fillets
Heaped tsp of Dijon mustard

250g new potatoes
Pack of asparagus, woody ends snapped off
Tbsp vegetable oil
Tsp dill

2 heaped tbsp Hollandaise sauce
Small handful of mint leaves, finely chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice

Serves 2

Preheat the oven to 180.

Cut the potatoes in half and place in a pan of cold, salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes, before removing with a slotted spoon into a large bowl. Bring the water back up to the boil and then throw in the asparagus spears and simmer for one minute. Then drain and run cold water over the spears until they have cooled down.

Toss the potatoes in the oil, dill and season well. Transfer to a large ovenproof tray (I used my flat Le Creuset casserole but a baking tray would do as well). Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pat the asparagus dry and put it in the potato bowl. Swish it around so it gets coated in any remaining oil. You might need to add a drop or so more at this point. Season the asparagus.

Brush the underside of the trout with the mustard. Season the skin well.

After 15 mins, remove the tray from the oven. Push the potatoes to the edges and then bung in the asparagus and lay the trout fillets, skin side up, on top. Return to the oven for another 12 minutes. While this is cooking, stir the chopped mint and lemon juice through the Hollandaise.

After 12 mins, the trout should be cooked through, and the asparagus tender. Serve, with dollops of minted Hollandaise sauce on the side.

Meal planning (Bank Holiday) Monday

I don’t really know how to cope with a sunny Bank Holiday weekend. It seems so non British somehow. I managed to burn my left arm on Saturday while at the first Eat North of the year and have retreated indoors subsequently. The sun and I are not the best of friends and I will never, never understand the appeal of just lying around stewing in one’s own sweat.

Anyway, we are due storms this week so hurrah. Although, come to think of it, I don’t much like rain either.

Meal planning. Tonight, I’ve thrown together a supper to use up some odds and sods in the fridge. Potato and watercress frittata. A slaw flavoured with the remains of a basil and mint pesto. Fresh baked bread. Tomorrow, I’m out. Wednesday, D is out. And on Thursday we are going to see The Avengers straight from work. I’m not usually bothered about seeing films the second they come out but we decided that it would be practically impossible to avoid spoilers unless we completely eschewed the Internet.

Next weekend, the plan is: 

Friday: trout fillets with Jersey Royals, asparagus and minted hollandaise

Saturday: homemade pizza (this got bumped last week)

Sunday: sticky pork belly with noodles. Although I’m wondering about doing the pork stir fry per the recipe and serving it with rice instead. I’ll see how I feel at the time.

Whatever the weather decides to do this week, have a good one my lovelies.

MPM: 1st October 2018

As I write this on Sunday afternoon, I am full of cold and feeling most grumpy about it. I do not feel ill exactly - certainly not poorly enough to spend tomorrow at home, more’s the pity, but stuffed up and sniffy and sorry for myself. I have spent the majority of the day in bed, in some sort of vague protest against germs, kept company by the cat (when I am not making too much noise sniffing and sneezing) and one of Stephen King’s recent doorstoppers which is very bleak and apocalyptic and exactly suits my mood.

Meal planning then; on Friday D will be out on the first of his many birthday celebrations, so I will probably opt for prick and ping, and on Saturday we are going out for dinner with D’s sister and her husband - probably to The Reliance because my brother in law, who is an absolutely lovely chap, appears to have quite a limited range of food that he will consent to eat and The Reliance serve fish and chips. I must admit I do struggle to deal with the concept of otherwise sensible, intelligent adults who have the palate of toddlers but hey, I like The Reliance so it’s no skin off my nose. Recently we had a delicious bar snack there of roasted peppers with ricotta and capers piled onto crusty bread which is something I must recreate at home at some point.

Elsewhere on the meal plan:

Monday: Spinach, ricotta and roasted tomato gnocchi bake. I have so enjoyed rediscovering some of my older blog recipes in this latest crack at WW - there’s some really lovely stuff in those archives. This is exactly the kind of stodgy deliciousness that I’m going to need if this cold carries on into the beginning of the working week.

Tuesday: Mushroom risotto. D is in charge of this one. He promises that there will not be too much butter and Parmesan, but he may need close supervision...

Wednesday: Potato, bacon and asparagus salad topped with Epoisses. The original recipe called for green beans (which D detests) and Brie (we have Epoisses in the freezer leftover from last Christmas that needs using before we start buying cheese for this Christmas). I do enjoy a substantial warm salad for supper and have high hopes for this one.

Thursday: Salmon with pasta pesto. Haven’t had this in a good six weeks and it is one of our absolute favourite things.

Sunday: Fish pie - perfect Sunday fare.

Have a fabulous week all - stay warm and avoid germs!

MPM: 6th August 2018

There are only so many times that one can write “Monday again” or, “Where did the weekend go?” or, “Can’t believe we’re eight months into the year!” without it becoming ineffably tedious. Suffice to say, please take all the above as read.

If nothing else, my returning to Weight Watchers has refocused our attention on meal planning which is excellent news. We’ve more or less completely stuck to the plan these last few weeks and have been eating extremely well. We’re also getting more of a sense of what works well with the current WW ideal – NB: if you like fish, chicken and pulses and can make them the main constituents of your dish, you’re going to be laughing all the way to the (Smart Points) bank. I also continue in my efforts to stick an egg on top of pretty much everything I eat.

This week, we again have no particular plans, other than Tuesday night, when we’re off to the cinema and I am angling to fit in a cheeky Nando’s, having discovered that a double chicken pitta is a mere 8 Smart Points. I have to admit I secretly quite adore Nando’s and yes, I know that I could cook something just as nice at home and not pay ridiculously over the odds for it, but I maintain that it is worth the occasional splurge, especially since there is a branch located very handily for our local multiplex. D is out for lunch on Thursday (probably Nando’s again, the lucky sausage. Fortunately, he is very partial to chicken) so keeping things light on Thursday evening.

Monday: Crab scrambled eggs with pan roasted asparagus.

Wednesday: Prawns with sweet potato mash and chilli vinaigrette

Thursday: Tuna sandwiches

Friday: Twice baked cheese soufflés, roast courgette and spinach salad with balsamic dressing, garlic bread

Saturday: Momofuku chicken wings

Sunday: Butternut squash, sage and amaretti ravioli

MPM: 15th May 2017

I feel quite aggrieved that it is Monday morning already – I am sure that the weekend wasn’t long enough. Mind, what there was of it was very pleasant – I caught up with my Mum over coffee, got an overdue haircut (more of a mow when you have a curly mop like mine), watched the Masterchef final (Alison was robbed! Robbed!,) and Eurovision (the UK was robbed! Robbed!) and did some cooking.

Our feast of asparagus on Saturday night was absolutely gorgeous. As well as the frittata, D made a batch of asparagus soup from this recipe which I would highly recommend (but with the addition of a pinch of white pepper at the end to make the flavours really sing). Making asparagus into soup has always felt slightly sacrilegious but this was enough to convert me.  D removed the tips, as suggested in the recipe, and we roasted these separately and served them drizzled with an intensely flavoured garlic and herb yoghurt dressing. Gorgeous.

This week is shaping up to be just as yummy. One thing though – the weight loss has definitely stalled a bit recently; there have been too many missed fast days, too much laxness on non-fast days and my daily hops onto the scales have dwindled which is always a bad sign. So today marks a bit of a reboot: I want to make it into that elusive next stone bracket which is 4.3lbs away – a couple of good weeks could see that off. Game face on!

Monday: Fast day – soup

Tuesday: We have lamb left over from Sunday’s slow roast shoulder, so I am going to do an approximation of this Nigel Slater lamb and apricot tagine and serve it with couscous and a drizzle of the remaining yoghurt dressing from Saturday which should add a bit of zing.

Wednesday: Fast day – soup

Thursday: I’m out for the evening, so we’re going to freezer dive for a pot of something that we can eat early. Not sure what this will be yet but we’ve definitely got some chilli in there, some curry and some moussaka so plenty of options.

Friday: I’m making mackerel kabayaki which is a dish that I ate out recently and adored. I’m planning to serve it with sushi rice and a carrot, ginger and sesame salad – all new to me and it’s probably not at all authentic to bung them all together but I think it sounds tasty.

Saturday: D is cooking pork with risotto and a sage and walnut pesto in an attempt to use up some of the sage that is currently taking over the back of our garden.

Sunday: Sausages (homemade, from the freezer), mashed potato, red onion gravy. Perfect Sunday fare.

Recipe corner: A spring frittata

I always think of frittata as the slightly coarser cousin of the omelette. An omelette, to my mind, is a delicate, buttery thing with minimal ingredients. A frittata is far less rarified and a fantastic way to showcase whatever produce happens to be in season (or lurking at the bottom of the fridge). I once read that it is not the done thing to treat a frittata like eggy waste disposal but (and I feel the same way about pasta bakes) sometimes throwing in whatever you happen to have on hand produces a thing of great beauty and, even if it doesn’t, it will be perfectly and agreeably edible.

For all that, here a little bit of advanced consideration has been applied to produce something that sings of the season. I first saw a recipe for this particular combination in a Waitrose magazine, but have tweaked the method slightly to suit.

Cook's notes: if you asparagus is very slender, you probably don’t need to worry about pre-cooking it but we've been getting some MONSTER stalks here. You could switch out butter for oil if you don’t want to faff around with melting it but I do happen to think that when butter and eggs are brought together, good things are bound to happen. With regards the herbs, I used dill because I love it, but any of the softer, milder, greener herbs (parsley, basil, even mint) would also work – your rosemarys and sages and thymes would probably overwhelm. Your frittata dish could be a large, ovenproof frying pan or a cake tin (NOT loose bottomed) would work fine - I plumped for a 24cm Le Creuset pie dish which was PERFECT.

Ingredients

250g new potatoes, thickly sliced
Bunch of asparagus
15g butter
Tsp dill
Heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
6 eggs
75g Gruyere cheese, grated

Serves 2 - 4

Heat the oven to 180 (160 if, like ours, your fan oven is somewhat enthusiastic).

Put the new potatoes in a large pan, cover with cold, salted water and bring to the boil over medium heat.

Meanwhile, prepare the asparagus by snapping off the woody ends and chopping each stem into 2-3 cm lengths. Set a large bowl of ice cold water to one side. Once the water has come to the boil, set a timer for 6 minutes and, once it goes off, add the asparagus to the same pan for a further minute. Then you can drain and put straight into the cold water to stop the cooking.

Melt the butter (the microwave is probably the easiest option for this). Using a pastry brush, thoroughly coat the inside of the dish.

Drain the vegetables, pat dry and evenly distribute across the bottom of the dish.

Whisk the eggs, season well and stir through the mustard and the herbs. Pour over the potato and asparagus mix and then place in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove, sprinkle over the cheese and return for another 15 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbling and the frittata is cooked through.

MPM: 8th May 2017

Hello friends! It seems daft to open posts with apologies for going a bit quiet, especially when the Internet at large probably neither cares nor notices when the lights of the WW Foodie temporarily go out. My Mum has been texting me asking for blog posts though so…

I do, in fact, have things that I want to say including a couple of gorgeous meals out recently and a fridge bottom pasta bake that turned out to be a thing of such absolute beauty that it needs recording for posterity. But before all that, let us turn our attention to meal planning since it is, of course, Meal Planning Monday.

As is so often the case recently, it is not a long plan. There’s two fast days in there and a night when D is out and so I’ll be home alone (I think there is some tortellini in the freezer which I will toss in butter, Parmesan and black pepper – bliss!) But what of the other nights?

Tuesday: Smoked haddock and leek fishcakes. Don’t know much about this dish – D is in charge. I am making him cook smoked haddock and leek fishcakes because a few weeks ago we went out for my father in law’s birthday. We went to a pub for dinner and D ordered at the bar. I requested smoked haddock and leek fishcakes and, for some reason best known to himself, he ordered me scampi. It was not the end of the world since I am quite partial to scampi, but scampi is not smoked haddock and leek fishcakes. So this week’s fishcakes are recompense fishcakes.

Thursday: A freezer dive – most likely chilli con carne which I will accompany with rice and cucumber in herby yoghurt.

Saturday: Asparagus night! I am going to make a delicious sounding asparagus frittata which also makes use of the new season potatoes, and D wants to do an asparagus whip. I also think some sort of lightly dressed salad will be in order, with raw asparagus shavings. We will follow this seasonal feast with some little cups of lemon posset.

Sunday: Slow cooked shoulder of lamb on boulangere potatoes. We’ve been making this recipe for years and it never disappoints. Some sort of green on the side (I quite fancy the idea of doing a petit pois a la francais which is basically peas and shredded lettuce lightly cooked in stock).

MPM: 27th April 2015

Greetings everyone, and welcome to a more summery meal planning Monday than I can remember for a good long while.  The weather is, quite simply, GLORIOUS.  Which means that meals are tending to be a bit lighter and a bit fresher.

 

D and I are out Friday at a colleague's retirement drinks, out Saturday at a local event and leaving Sunday and Monday plan free at the moment until we decide how the long weekend is going to pan out.  So, not many meals to think about in advance this week.  Here's what we we will eating chez WWF...

 

Brown crab risotto with crab and chilli cakes and Parmesan crisps - a dish inspired by our recent trip to Whitby, where all along the seafront you can buy fabulous dressed crabs.

 

Bacon, egg and roasted asparagus salad with a honey mustard dressing

 

Trout with cauliflower and pickled mushrooms with brown butter sauce - D will be cooking this, an approximation of one of the dishes cooked in Masterchef finals week.  We are both in a very fishy mood at the moment!

 

Pea and ham soup.

 

Mmmm, looking forward to that little lot.  As ever, more meal planning fun over at Mrs M's...

Italian inspired stuffed leg of lamb with Spring on the side - Easter Sunday chez Foodie

For all that Easter is the arguably more significant religious festival (to Christians, at least) it is Christmas Dinner that has become the biggest occasion in the home cook's calendar.  This year, D and I wanted to try and redress the balance a little bit.

It had to be lamb.  You can't not cook lamb at Easter.  And,to be honest, if you're going to cook lamb, it is very hard to go wrong with Tom Kerridge's superlative lamb shoulder on boulangere potatoes. If you've never cooked that little beauty, dear Reader, then you need to give it a go.  But I wanted to do something a little bit different this year, and took to t'Internet for some alternative inspiration.

I ended up, thanks to some inspiration from a dear friend, with an approximation of this recipe, courtesy of the Jamie Oliver magazine.

I started with a leg joint that my friendly local butcher boned out and butterflied for me.  It is worth asking a professional to do this if you possibly can, although a husband with access to You Tube and a sharp knife will make a jolly good attempt if you're pushed.  I smeared a couple of heaped teaspoons of green pesto across the meat then added roughly chopped artichoke hearts, still golden and peppery with oil, anchovy fillets, a thick coating of Parmesan breadcrumbs, a carpet of flat leaf parsley and plenty of seasoning before rolling the beast up and securing with string.  There are some powerful, salty ingredients in that stuffing, such that it sounds like it might be slightly too much - but rest assured that in conjunction with the sweet, fatty lamb it works like an absolute dream.

To accompany, I wanted some side dishes that would incorporate the same sort of robust flavours as the meat but might be slightly lighter than the Sunday dinner norm.  I revisited an old friend, a cannellini bean puree flavoured with lemon and roasted garlic which provided a soft, flavourful blanket on which to build the plate up with roasted new potatoes, pan roasted asparagus (still not local alas - I'm waiting for the start of the season with bated breath) and a delicious braised fennel gratin with lemon and Parmesan.  Minted peas would be another excellent addition here if you felt so inclined. 

Recipe corner: I take enormous pride in my asparagus and goats' cheese tart

I had such a proud moment last weekend.  Well, two if you count the rather pathetic pride I took in going for a walk.  Let’s not shall we – just between us friends let’s pretend that I’m not so needy that I require praise for enacting the basic human function of putting one foot in front of another for a prescribed length of time.

Anyway, the other proud moment was – I made a tart!  With pastry and filling and everything!  From scratch!  And it was scrummy and didn’t have a soggy bottom and didn’t leak and it made a fantastic spring supper.

Now, this is notable for two reasons.  The first is that, as long time readers who have held on through the various ups and downs of the scales and my emotional stability respectively will know, my cooking mojo upped and went a little while ago and has proved a slippery little bugger ever since.  Hence my recent ode to sandwiches and the lack of many recipes on the blog this year.  So me getting back in the kitchen is always worthy of a mention these days.  But the second is that pastry is one of those things that I’ve never really tackled.  Like bread, pastry makes me furrow my brow in…not fear exactly, but certainly a little trepidation.  I think it’s because whenever you see someone on television make either bread or pastry they say something along the lines of “It’s nowhere near as hard as you think it is!” or “There’s no need to be scared!” which…I don’t know, it just sows the seed of doubt doesn’t it?  Plus the fact that my Mum makes the best quiche ever in the history of the world gives me some pretty high standards to which to aspire.  But, nevertheless, I had some asparagus in the fridge and a yen for an asparagus tart.

Look Ma!  I made pastry!

I knew that I wanted the pastry to be savoury and crumbly – perhaps flavoured with Parmesan for extra saltiness.  And I knew I wanted the asparagus to be softly suspended in a custard with just a hint of nutmeggy, peppery warmth so that the iron flavour of those beautiful green shoots would be predominant.  And I quite fancied a scattering of goats’ cheese on top – a young, fresh goats’ cheese that had a touch of lemon to it for some much needed acidity.  And so that is what I made.  Warm (not hot) from the oven, it was perfect with some crispy garlicky roast potatoes and a lightly dressed salad.  Cold, it made a most excellent lunch.

 

Ingredients

140g plain flour

85g butter, cubed
3-4 tbsp cold water
75g Parmesan, finely grated
Salt, pepper, whole nutmeg
Bunch of asparagus
4 eggs
140ml skimmed milk
125g soft goats’ cheese

Serves 6, 9 pro points per portion

OK, first pastry.  Deep breath.  The one thing I have gleaned from years of intensive foodie telly watching is that when you make pastry, everything needs to be cold.  So, I chilled in the fridge at every stage.  First – measure out the flour, the butter and two thirds of the Parmesan into a large bowl.  Put in the fridge, alongside a glass of water for half an hour.

Now you want to combine the fat and the flour.  I used the Kitchen Aid paddle for this but you could equally just rub it in with your fingers.  If you do, try to make sure you use just the finger tips.  When the mixture resembles dry sand, add the chilled water a tablespoon at a time.  Again, I did this in the mixer but you could equally use a spoon or a palate knife.  When it looks like it is thinking about coming together, use your hands to form it into a ball – if it is damp enough it should do this without effort but, equally, without feeling sticky.  I found it took exactly four tablespoons of water.  Wrap in cling film and return to the fridge. 

During the second chill, prepare your asparagus – snap off the woody ends and slice in half lengthwise.  If it is particularly thick you may consider blanching it for a minute or so just to take the edge off (blanche – plunge into boiling water, then remove and transfer immediately to a bowl of cold water, or run the cold tap over until cool to the touch).

Now – rolling the pastry out.  I used a Rachel Allen tip which is: instead of rolling out on a floured work surface, roll between two sheets of cling film.  This worked beautifully and means you don’t risk adding to much flour to the mix and upsetting the ratios in the pastry.  Transfer to a 20cm diameter tart dish.  Trim any overhanging ends and use the trimmings to ensure that there are no holes and that the crust is even all the way around.  Return to the fridge for a final half hour blast.  Preheat the oven to 180.

Using baking parchment and beans or rice to line, bake the case blind for 15 minutes then remove from the oven and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until pale gold.  Pause for a moment to congratulate yourself on your skill.

Beat the eggs briefly and then add the milk and whisk again until a little frothy.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on the base of the case, artfully arrange the asparagus and then pour over the egg mix – carefully to avoid overflow.  Finally, crumble the goats. cheese on top before returning to the oven for around 35 minutes until puffed and golden.  Allow to cool to just-slightly-warmer-than-room-temperature before serving.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

That’s it my friends. It’s all over.

I knew in my heart it must be. But still, a little quiver of hope arose in my breast when I saw Tesco were doing 2 for £2.50 on what I dared to believe was the tail end of the season’s harvest.

Not so. When my shopping arrived on Tuesday evening, the asparagus within was from Peru.

So, looks like British asparagus is done and dusted for another year. And, since I really wouldn’t bother with the Peruvian stuff as a general rule, that’s another ten or so months before I can enjoy it’s rich, greeney goodness again (to me, the best way to describe the flavour of asparagus is just to say it tastes “green”. You can understand why I don’t hold out any hope for a long-term career as a food writer). Anyway, to celebrate and commiserate in equal measure, (and to give me some inspiration next year) here’s a little retrospective of the whirlwind romance of the season.

It started off simple, classic. Egg, lemon, salty cheese, all classic asparagus adjuncts. But this dish was so much more than the sum of its parts.


I could never decide whether to steam or roast my asparagus until the lovely Mr Heston Blumenthal introduced me to a method that gave me the best of both worlds. Oh, and his soft boiled egg and smoked salmon and asparagus soldiers combo was pretty tasty and worked equally well when the smoked salmon was subbed for Parma ham.

Asparagus doesn’t always have to be the star of the show – it doesn’t mind playing a supporting role as long as you keep the accompanying flavours simple with a bit of zing. We’ve had it with simple roast chicken and lemon couscous (which is always a favourite dish in our household at this time of year) and also with some lovely, garlicky lamb and a fresh little potato salad.

And finally, this dish which I cooked the other night despite the fact that Tesco failed to provide me with the Real Deal. It was very simple and very tasty, and is recorded here for posterity so I remember to cook it again. Please don’t judge me for using a cream substitute (here, Elmlea) – there is simply no way I can build 70ml of full fat double cream into my daily points allowance without subsisting on dust for the rest of the day. And the dish itself didn’t appear to suffer overly much for my shortcomings – although I imagine should you use proper double cream you’d end up with something even more luxurious and decadent.

Asparagus Cream Pasta

Ingredients

1 bunch of asparagus
142ml reduced fat double cream substitute
2 small garlic cloves, peeled and slightly bruised
40g Parmesan, half finely grated, the other shaved
200g pasta

Serves 2, 19 pro points per serving

Put a large sauce pan of salted water on to boil. Meanwhile, snap the woody ends from your asparagus and slice off the tips.

Boil the asparagus stalks for about five minutes – I reckon that slightly overcooking them makes them softer and easier to blend later on.

Remove the stalks from the water and drain. Tip your pasta into the water, bring back to the boil and set a timer for 10 minutes.

Now put your cream into a small saucepan, add your garlic cloves and bring slowly up to the boil. When it gets there remove from the heat, stir through the finely grated Parmesan and put the resulting mixture into a blender along with the asparagus stalks. Whizz up into a beautiful pale green sauce. You could remove the garlic but I wouldn’t bother – it doesn’t overpower by any means.

2 minutes before the pasta is ready, thrown the tips into the boiling water.

Drain the pasta and asparagus tips, stir through the sauce over a gentle heat to warm through. Taste for seasoning – Parmesan is quite salty so you will need to be judicious with the salt, but I like plenty of scrunches of black pepper here, and then serve with the Parmesan shaving strewn over the top.

Three Star Asparagus

I mentioned yesterday how much we had enjoyed the combination of asparagus, smoked salmon and soft boiled eggs last week. Well, apparently one of us enjoyed it so much that he decided to go off to the supermarket and buy all the constituent parts so we could have it for tea again last night. And it was just as scrumptious second time around.

The real revelation has been the method that Heston Blumenthal suggests using to cook the asparagus which I am going to share with you here. It’s easy peasy and produces perfectly cooked asparagus with just the right amount of bite and a slightly “roasty” flavour (I initially put charred as the adjective there and then realised that not everybody wants their food to taste burned-by-any-other-name).

So, step 1: preparation. Snap the woody ends off your asparagus. Retrieve, from your slightly chaotic cupboard, a medium sized saucepan and attendant lid. Put two pieces of kitchen towel down beside the hob.

Step 2: pre-cooking. Place a scant tablespoon of olive oil into your pan, then bung (a technical term) the asparagus on top and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Lid on.

Step 3: apply heat. Put the lidded saucepan over a medium heat and set a timer for five minutes. This would be a good moment at which to pour a glass of wine. You may wish to shake the pan vigorously several times during the cooking process to redistribute the stalks inside – or simply to work out some of the day’s frustrations.

Step 4: remove from heat. Tip onto sheet one of the kitchen towel and use sheet two to absorb any excess oil.

Step 5: serve.

WW note: I would reckon on counting a single point per portion of this to account for any oil – remember that most of the excess is blotted off.

Meal Planning Monday 6 - and a weekend round-up

I was going to bemoan the fact that Monday always seems to come around far, far too quickly. And then I remembered that I actually wrote my last meal planning Monday post on a Tuesday. And didn’t really start following said meal plan until the Friday. Life gets in the way, you see! Well, a combination of life and langour (on my part).

The meals that I did manage to cook, following my previous post, were delicious. There was the asparagus with soft boiled eggs and Heston B’s tea smoked salmon, which combination I thought was an absolute treat (although getting the smoked salmon to co-operate and form elegant strips to wrap around the asparagus was challenging. We just had it on the side).

Then, in front of Dr Who on Saturday we had venison burgers, brought all the way back from Scotland, cooked until only just pink and slapped in a bun with a plastic cheese slice – I’m sorry, but regardless of the quality of the meat in your burger (and these were top notch) a plastic cheese slice is entirely necessary. In a fit of productivity, we whipped up a batch of home made mayonnaise which was perfect for chip dunking. It really was a team effort – D whisked while I trickled the oil – which seems to make the process easier. And Sunday, it was pork cheek stew, which deserves a post all of its own (although I have noticed that every time I comment that I’m going to do a separate post on x or y subject, it never tends to materialise. Bad, butterfly brained blogger!)

So, onto this week. And from Friday onwards we will be out, off down to London for my gorgeous little nephew’s christening, and, more importantly for the purposes of this blog, lunch at The Ledbury. Only four meals need to be planned. Tonight will be asparagus with something…probably eggs of some sort. One meal will be brought across from last week. And in addition, I plan to cook:

o Lemon salmon with minted crushed peas and new potatoes

o Aubergine and red lentil curry – I have blogged about this dish before here, it is a very simple but very tasty midweek veggie supper. If we have new potatoes left, I might do some sort of spicy fried potato thingy to go on the side.

Pop over to Mrs M’s blog for more meal planning fun and have a lovely, fun and food filled week!

(Not a) Recipe Corner - Roasted Asparagus

This weekend we paid a visit to our local farm shop and eagerly acquired some of the new season asparagus, picked just up the road.




We try and eat as much of this stuff as possible during it's all too brief season. Tonight's supper was simple but absolutely delicious; not so much a recipe as an assembly of happily harmonious ingredients.

Ingredients

Bunch of asparagus
Tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp of butter
Zest of half a small lemon
1-2 tsp lemon juice
30g Cornish Yarg (alternatively use Parmesan or Gruyere)
2 medium eggs
Tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Serves 2, 9 pro points per serving

Preheat the oven to 180. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus spears, then toss in the olive oil and season well. Place in the oven and set a timer for 15 mins.

Put a pan of water on to the boil and add the vinegar. Break the eggs into ramekins ready for poaching.

Use a potato peeler to reduce your cheese to a pile of shavings.

Melt the butter over a low heat and add in the lemon zest and juice.

As the asparagus comes up to the end of it's roasting time, slip the eggs into the boiling water for 2 minutes to poach.

Drizzle the lemon butter over the roasted asparagus, top with the cheese shavings, the poached egg and an extra scrunch of black pepper.

Consider having some crusty bread on hand to mop up the butter and egg yolk - or, if you want to save points, throw etiquette to the wind and use your finger.

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