Recipe corner: Gymkhana's tandoori lamb chops

Halfway through February already - the days are slipping by at a frankly alarming rate and I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. 

Excitingly, it is entirely possible that we have already had our top dish of the year thanks to a fabulously foodie short break in Paris (abroad!) However, up until this last weekend, I felt my cooking mojo had been somewhat lacking. Looking back over our archived meal plan for January, I'm a little surprised at how much we cooked actually because I definitely felt that it was all a bit meh. It could just be the January blues (pernicious blighters) and the fact that after the Christmas festivities, things are always a little bit flat. 

Anyway, early on in the month we had a sneaky short break down in London, primarily to see my family for the first time since before the pandemic. And it was wonderful. My brother and sister in law are fantastic hosts and I don't think I have ever eaten a better Spanish omelette than the one that V cooked us as part of a tapas spread. The children, my gorgeous nieces and nephew, had, unsurprisingly, changed enormously in the last two years, but were as fun as ever, and super tolerant of their aged auntie. We spent a brilliant day with them. And the icing on the cake was the fact that the night before we had a superlative dinner at Mayfair's Gymkhana, a restaurant I have been keen to visit for a long time.

We were not disappointed. If you like Indian food (we do) then this is a must-visit. We had the tasting menu which, I must admit, defeated us in terms of sheer quantity but the flavours and skilful balancing of spices had us in full on plate-licking mode initially (until we got so full we could barely move!) We'd love to go again and maybe order a la carte to manage capacity issues. 

The star of the evening were the tandoori lamb chops which, D declared, ruined tandoori lamb chops for him forever - and I quite agree. While the starting point was undoubtedly meat of the highest quality, luscious and tender and tumbling off the bone, the flavours of the marinade were fantastic - recognisable to the Western palate as "tandoori" but with a complexity that is lacking in your bog standard order-from-up-the-road. 

Unfortunately, Gymkhana's kitchen has yet to produce a recipe book BUT the recipe for the lamb chops is online - when I discovered this fact they went straight on the meal plan and we cooked them this weekend. They did not disappoint; the only real point of difference we could discern was the fact that we cooked them under our grill, so they lacked the note of char produced by a tandoor over; the next time we make them, we will be firing up the barbecue. I made a few little tweaks as I went along - exceedingly minor - but the original recipe, along with some other stunning looking dishes can be found here.

Some notes - this requires two marinades, the first overnight, so you do need to prepare in advance. Some ingredients are a little obscure - I bought the kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) and mustard oil online. The original recipe called for red chilli powder; now I know that our chilli powder is EXCEEDINGLY hot and didn't want that here (it wasn't in keeping with the original). I also know that a smoked paprika / chilli powder combination is sometimes suggested as a sub for certain types of Indian chilli powder, so that is what I did. The resulting lamb had a tingle but was not overwhelming; if you like chilli heat then you may wish to adjust my quantities upwards. Oh, and, goes without saying - use the best possible meat you can for this because that really is the bedrock of the dish.

Ingredients

8 lamb cutlets (or 1 8 bone rack of lamb)

First marinade:

Tbsp salt

3 fat cloves of garlic

2 inch (approx) piece of root ginger

2 tsp chilli powder

2 tsp smoked paprika

Tbsp kasoori methi

Small red onion, crushed with a mallet or rolling pin

Second marinade:

Tbsp salt

3 tsp chilli powder

3 tsp smoked paprika

7 tbsp Greek yoghurt

2 fat cloves of garlic

Inch (approx) pieces of root ginger

2 tbsp garam masala

2 tbsp mustard oil

Serves 2 greedy people (with sides)

Assemble your first marinade. Make a garlic and ginger paste: crush or finely grate the garlic, weigh, and then grate on an equivalent weight of root ginger and squish together with the flat of a knife. Bruise whatever remains of the ginger with whatever implement you used to crush the onion.  Combine the paste and the whole ginger with the other ingredients and add the lamb, mixing well and ensuring the lamb is well coated in spice. You may wish to do this in a large plastic bag rather than a bowl. Refrigerate, covered, (or in the bag) overnight.

Assemble your second marinade, making the garlic and ginger paste as before and this time discarding any of the ginger that you don't use. Combine the paste with all the other ingredients and then, in goes the lamb. Marinate for a further six hours or so.

To cook - grill (or barbecue), turning every few minutes until the centre of the cutlets has reached around 58 degrees (this should give you a medium result which is perfect for this dish but, of course, cook for longer if preferred).

The Food Wot I Ate - a 2021 retrospective

2021 was the year that started with a lockdown and ended with not-a-lockdown-but-most-of-us-choosing-to-stay-indoors-anyway. It did a good impression, in parts, of being normal but it really wasn't. It was the year where many of us queued up like dutiful citizens to get not one, not two but three jabs in the hope it would grant us freedom but then realised that freedom was slightly scary. A funny old time.

In the latter half of the year, as reflected in my occasional blog posts, D and I tried to get back into the swing of eating out and we were rewarded with some absolutely fabulous meals. Whether it was because after twelve months of home cooking and takeaways the novelty of restaurant food triumphed over all critical faculties, or that the restaurants we visited were just that good it is impossible to be entirely sure, but we were blessed with some truly superlative dishes. And I haven't even told you about our trip to Roots yet at the back end of the year, where Tommy Banks's team is doing fantastic things on the banks of the River Ouse.

It's been tough to narrow it down, but there are definitely a few dishes that deserve an extra special mention:

Starter / Snack of the year:

It faced stiff competition, but the "prawn toast" at Lake Road Kitchen wins the day. A heady combination of fresh, bouncy prawn, garlic butter and a crispy brioche coating. The whole table could probably have just sat and eaten a bucket of these and been perfectly content. Nothing outlandish going on with the flavours and ingredients, but flawless execution shows that it isn't always necessary to push boundaries - garlicky, buttery seafoody goodness will always be a pleasure to eat.

Bread of the year:

Not just of the year but probably ever - the brioche at Raby Hunt has to be tasted to be believed. It really says something that in a magical multi course tasting extravaganza, the bread course is still the memory that really lingers. Special mention, though, to Roots where the warm sourdough was served with what they described as "cheese custard" and I will describe to you as "grown-up Dairylea". Yum.

Meat / fish of the year:

Often, the meat and fish courses on a menu are slightly less exciting than the beginning and end of the meal - don't you think? The snacks and starters and desserts are where much of the innovation and fireworks tend to take place. I say that - but then, am reminded with a smile of the amazing lobster ravioli at Raby Hunt, or the doughnut stuffed with venison and damson jam at Roots. Still, the stand out for me is, I think, the amazing lamb shoulder at Le Cochon Aveugle. A buttery potato pancake, topped with shredded lamb, yoghurt and black garlic. I might be a little biased, since lamb is my absolute favourite meat to eat, but this was a really high quality piece of cooking.

Cheese course of the year:

D and I absolutely love it when restaurants do something a little different for the cheese course. I mean, we love it when we're presented with a big cheese trolley as well (who isn't?) but it's exciting to see something else - and the soufflé at Raby Hunt is the perfect case in point. The vin jaune sauce and walnuts added different flavour notes and textures but the star of the show was the fluffy, cheesy cloud trembling in the middle - at once both incredibly light and fearsomely rich. Bliss.

Dessert of the year:

Again, in the face of stiff competition, Lake Road Kitchen triumphs here for me. I still think about that Savarin-Brillat cheesecake on a fairly regular basis. Simple - a plain cheesecake and a couple of fruity twiddles - but perfect. A special mention, though, to Inver's rice pudding which...well, suggested to me that maybe rice pudding isn't the worst thing in the world after all but that in the right hands can be a lovely, lovely thing. Well played, Inver.

Home cooked dish of the year:

Like all good (obsessive) foodies, we keep records of what we cook and eat and scrolling back through 2021 I can see lots of comfort food type dishes on there which is probably indicative of our state of minds whether we realised it or not. We don't very often cook the same dish regularly, which suggests that Diana Henry's teriyaki salmon was a real favourite (made twice within the space of a month). I also recall absolutely swooning over the smoked haddock hash that we made at the start of the year and then never got around to repeating - definitely one to have again soon. However, I think the most representative dish of the year must be the humble meringue. Since lockdown #1 D has been making all the household mayonnaise from scratch and, as a result, I have been regularly making meringues to use up the surplus egg whites. We eat them with Chantilly cream and whatever fruit we happen to have to hand, and they have been one of the great simple pleasures of the year. Not one that I appear to have taken a photo of though - so please accept a picture of the cat instead, enjoying her dish of this and every year, chopped fresh prawns. 

MPM: 4th March 2019

In a vain attempt to recapture my blogging mojo I thought that I would do a meal planning post.  Meal planning has still continued chez nous over the last few months - some weeks have been more successful than others.  Some weeks I have been half woman, half Giant Hula Hoop.  What kind of monster invented the Giant Hula Hoop, by the way?  I'm obsessed with the bloody things and I've managed to make D obsessed with them as well.

Anyway.  Meal planning.  We have no plans this week - we're off on holiday at the end of March and are making vague attempts to be slightly frugal until then - so hopefully nothing should throw us off track.  Apart from Giant Hula Hoops.

Monday: soup.  A hangover from our 5:2 days, we've got into the habit of having a pot of soup on a Monday night.  It's quick, easy and a light start to the week.  I should really make my own but the whole point of soup night is the lack of cooking. 

Tuesday: Pancake Day!  We like our pancakes piled up in a stack, like the American style ones, and then served with crispy bacon, chilli flakes and lots of maple syrup.  Although lemon juice and sugar is always good too...

Wednesday: a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's "Simple" - fettucine with spiced cherry tomato sauce.

Thursday: mushroom risotto.  Keeps getting bumped, but I'm determined that it will get made this week.  If we've got any bacon leftover from Tuesday, I might bung some in for a bit of extra excitement.

Friday: smoked haddock rarebit with mashed potato.  I saw a contestant make this in the first round of Masterchef the other week and was immediately determined that I was going to do it too. 

Saturday: homemade pizza.  We haven't done this for ages, so it's about time.  D is planning to go entirely off piste, muttering about Merguez sausages, hummus, feta and pomegranate.  So I will keep mine super simple.  Maybe just a scant scattering of capers and chopped anchovies.

Sunday:  something with roast lamb.  Elaborateness levels to be determined by levels of energy and enthusiasm come Sunday.

Have a happy week all!

2017 - the year in review

And so, Christmas has been and gone and with it the final hurrah of 2017.  I spent most of the year’s dying days snuggled up at home doing little more than watching crap on Netflix and eating chocolate biscuits.  I weighed myself this morning; up 5lbs from the beginning of December which I am quite peaceful about considering that we abandoned 5:2 and any pretence of moderation right at the start of the month.  I am hoping to get most, if not all, of it shifted by the end of January.  Today sees me on my first fast day since…well, weeks ago, and there are even rumours that the Treadmill in the Garage will be grinding back to life very shortly.  As ever, I will keep you apprised.

Before we venture forth into 2018, as always, it is worth having a quick look back.  Firstly, weight loss and health matters – I committed to 5:2 at the start of the year on the basis that:

a) I still need to lose weight

b) Weight Watchers did not agree with me anymore – the constant counting and measuring and weighing and planning was, ultimately, not doing my mental health any good and

c)  Any other formal “diet plan” would likely be just as bad. 

5:2 seemed like the answer to the problem, in that it would require fierce commitment for 2 days of the week, but the rest of the time I could pootle along as I pleased. 

Well, it has worked in the sense that I am 2 stone down over the course of the year.  It’s not what you would call an amazing result, but it is a result nonetheless, and given the number of weeks where we’ve sacked off one or both fasts for reasons both spurious and genuine, I am pleased.  I have genuinely eaten well on non-fast days – aiming for moderation rather than restriction has really helped me develop a peaceful relationship with the food that I eat for the first time in my adult life. 

And talking of eating, D and I have agreed that some of our favourite ever meals were consumed in 2017.  We were lucky enough to visit several amazing restaurants and to pick a favourite is very, very difficult. 

The stand-out, in the end, is The Raby Hunt, which we visited at the beginning of November.  It has two Michelin stars and it is not London based – the conjuction of these two facts do tend to imply quality – but we have learned that Michelin stars do not always make for the best eating or for the best dining experiences (in our opinion.  Clearly not in the opinion of the mysterious Michelin inspectors who I fondly imagine cruising the country’s dining scene in pinstripe suits).  Raby Hunt, which I wrote about here, is just absolutely fabulous.  And the dish of razor clam and celeriac and almonds is probably, probably the best thing that I ate all year.

Razor clam and celeriac at The Raby Hunt

But there are honourable mentions to be made too: the thought of the lamb at Lake Road Kitchen in Ambleside still makes my mouth water all these months later.  And we had a last minute contender in the form of scallop with fermented celeriac at TheBlack Swan at Oldstead just the other week.  It’s rather odd – I didn’t even think that I liked celeriac that much, but in expert hands, it turns out that it is rather sublime.  I probably need to cook with it a bit more.  We also absolutely adored 64 Degrees in Brighton – another superlative lamb dish, this one served with gochujang.

Lamb at Lake Road Kitchen

Dessert of the year probably, again, goes to one of the offerings at The Raby Hunt, but I can’t help but remember with very great fondness the fabulous miso caramel ice cream that we ate at Skosh in York.

Miso caramel ice cream at Skosh

Our own home cooking has, naturally, encountered new influences and ideas throughout the year (gochujang and sushi rice are now both permanent fixtures in our storecupboard), but I honestly think that one of the nicest things that I made was this summery broad bean dip.  I am already looking forward to broad bean season rolling around again so that I can make this dip by the pint.

Broad bean dip at home

We managed to make a bit more use of our extensive recipe book library, but want to ramp this up for 2018 and are aiming to cook a new dish at least once a week.  What with that and plans to visit (among other places) Joro in Sheffield and Where The Light Gets In in Stockport, I think 2018 will shape up to be pretty damn fine itself.

Lake Road Kitchen, Ambleside

Great cooking is, in my opinion, an art form – possibly unique in the fact that to be truly great it has to work across nearly all of our senses at any one time. Thus it is that when you are trying to assess an excellent meal, you have a certain amount of responsibility to try and separate the subjective from the objective. Except that when it comes to Lake Road Kitchen, I’m having real trouble because I loved it so much. It was one of those occasions where I felt that the chef and I obviously shared a sensibility with regards to food which meant that, with the exception of one dish which happened to be based around an ingredient that I don’t much like (sweetcorn), I adored everything – and even the exception I appreciated and admired.

The owner and head chef James Cross, as appears to be de rigueur these days, did a stint at Noma and the influence is exceedingly apparent: the ingredients are as local as possible with many coming from the restaurant’s own kitchen garden, others foraged from the local countryside (which, given that the place is in the heart of the Lake District is both beautiful and bountiful). The restaurant’s interior has a stripped back, Scandi feel – clean lines, pale colours, plenty of wood. But although the dishes often appeared to be similarly simple and even ascetic in their presentation, this was entirely deceptive and most ate as well as any food you will find in this country at the moment.

Hard to pick highlights, but I would walk back to Ambleside to eat the slow cooked octopus again. I have never had octopus like it – the slow cooking had enhanced the firm, meaty quality of the flesh before it was brought to life by a robust searing on the outside to give it texture and smoke. The fermented wild garlic puree accompaniment had us both swiping our finger around the plates to catch every drop.

I need to mention the lamb as well because I have genuinely never, ever had lamb like it. It was stunning. Herdwick, a local breed had been dry aged for 50 days (a technique more commonly applied to beef) to give a depth of flavour that I have simply never encountered before, not to mention a texture as silky as butter. The couple at the table next to us sent it back for being undercooked and, yes, the rack turned up at the table far rarer than is, perhaps, commonly seen but one mouthful would have confirmed to anyone that not a further second of cooking was required. It was utterly magical.

I’m often a bit anti modern puddings, being firmly of the opinion that the sticky toffee has yet to be bettered. But even here I was to be confounded – the buttermilk pannacotta with blackberries and foraged herbs was a perfect marriage of dreamily soft, barely set cream and the deep, darkly sour punch of fruit with sorrel, lemon verbena and chervil adding a completely new note that spoke of the autumn and the damp, delicate scent of the hedgerows. This almost has me convinced that pannacotta is a dessert worth ordering.

Lake Road Kitchen are only open Wednesday – Sunday and they only offer a tasting menu (five or eight courses with cheese supplement available). The menus change to make the best of the ingredients on offer, although we were told that they keep a note of what customers have eaten to ensure that when they return they get an entirely different set of dishes. This strikes me as above and beyond the call of duty, but is in keeping with the charming and extremely attentive service that we received throughout out time there. I honestly can’t recommend this place enough – the Lake District has always been somewhere to go to seek out culinary gems (L’Enclume, anyone?) and this is one of the shiniest that I have encountered so far.

Lake Road Kitchen
Lake Road
Ambleside
LA22 0AD
015394 22012

MPM: 4th September 2017

During my drive to blog every day in September, Mondays should be the easiest because I can just stick in a quick meal planning post and be done.  Hurrah. 

That being said, the plan for this week is a little bit vague and back-of-a-fag-packety.  Partly because it is my first week back at work after a month of post operative rest and recuperation and I am expecting my evening energy levels to be extremely low and up to little more than making tea and toast - hence the midweek freezer dive.  I am, hopefully, back to two full fast days this week so that means soup (on Tuesday and Thursday).  And we are going out for supper on Friday to, er, celebrate the fact that it is Friday.

Monday: We were originally intending to be out tonight and now we are not.  So tea will likely consist of leftovers from yesterday's roast.  We have cold roast chicken, we have some carrot and ginger mash, we have four roast potatoes - I am feeling some sort of bubble and squeak-esque patties coming on.

Tuesday: Fast day - soup

Wednesday:  Braised beef cheeks from the freezer, jazzed up with some blue cheese that's been lurking round the fridge for a while and needs using up.  Possibly mash on the side, possibly some crusty bread.

Thursday:  Fast day - soup

Friday:  Out

Saturday:  We are going Stateside and having Buffalo style chicken wings.  I am in charge of the side dish and am currently researching wedge salads - have you heard of these?  They sound odd to me but am prepared to try anything once.

Sunday:  Nduja lamb with a couscous salad - how this will work exactly remains to be seen.

Happy cooking (and eating) folks and have a wonderful week.

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.

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).

64 Degrees, Brighton

We were told, while on a walking tour of Brighton, that the seaside city has more restaurants than anywhere else in the country outside of London. Whether this is in actual terms or just per capita, it is undoubtedly true that Brightonians take their food pretty seriously and I would definitely recommend it as a destination for people who like to eat.

In fact, an early contender for Meal of the Year emerged while we were there and let me tell you – whichever other restaurants I happen to visit in 2017 have an awful lot to live up to. Were it Leeds based, 64 Degrees would have reduced D and I to penury. I am almost glad that it is so far away. The restaurant is a tiny, casual space dominated by the open kitchen. You eat at close quarters to your neighbours; the layout is such that litheness is a prerequisite of the waiting staff. It verges on the claustrophobic which can make this anxious diner a little uncomfortable. But the moment that the first plate arrived at the table all such considerations were entirely forgotten.

The menu consists of twelve dishes: four meat, four vegetarian, four fish, all priced between £7.50 and £14. The recommendation is up to six plates between a couple, which allows each partner to make one choice from each category; to be honest, I reckon that we could have managed one or two more as the portion sizes were not large. It is worth noting that the menu really does change daily – we glanced at it the day prior to dining there and a number of the dishes changed or disappeared. So if something catches your eye, order it. You may not get a second chance.

We started with octopus croquettes, rich and sweet accompanied by a Srirachia yoghurt and a spritz of lime to add fire and tang. The bar was set high and things only got better from there. Tagliatelle came doused in butter and truffle, draped with the golden ooze of an egg yolk. Squid, perfectly cooked served on the dreamiest, creamiest celeriac puree that you can imagine. Butternut squash, its sweetness balanced by the lactic cloud of accompanying goats cheese. All of these had us licking the plates.

Croquettes

Then came the meat, and the bar disappeared up into the ether. Firstly, a pork dish served with kimchi, sour and hot, and charred chunks of chilli infused pineapple. D declared this the winner. But my favourite was a cube of lamb shoulder that disintegrated into a heap of tender strands as soon as the fork hovered over it, the meat then rolled up in blanched spinach leaves with spring onions and gochujang.

Pork with kimchi and pineapple

Lamb with spring onion and gochujang

If I’m being strictly, strictly honest, dessert, while delicious and very pretty (you go a long way to beat a combination of lemon and rhubarb) did not quite match the dizzy heights of the savoury courses.

Lemon and rhubarb

And, what is interesting as I write about this a week or so after the meal itself is that the flavour combinations, when written down, sound slightly…pedestrian, perhaps? Flat? Which couldn’t be further from the reality of the food itself which was, to a bite, superlative. I particularly enjoyed the use of Asian flavours to punctuate dishes without feeling gimmicky or trendy or detracting from not only the quality of the ingredients, but also the precision with which they had been prepared. When the bill arrived, I was astonished at the value of the meal. Then I discovered that they’d missed off some of the drinks. Even so, this was still pretty decent value for food of this calibre and we are already trying to figure out if we can fit in another trip to Brighton later this year to experience more of this glorious little kitchen. 

MPM: 6th March 2017 - Cook My Blog!

Time seems to be getting away from me at the moment.  I still haven't got round to putting my up my tales of adventure in Brighton (for adventure, read gluttony - it has taken a week for my system to recover!) and yet here we are with another Meal Planning Monday.

As I mentioned last week, this month each week in March is dedicated to a particular recipe book or, as is the case this week, recipe blog.  Yes, in a supreme act of hubris, this week I will be Cooking My Blog - it's WW Foodie Week!

When I started reading back, it really struck me how many more recipes I posted in the early days of the blog.  I don't think that it is because I cooked more back then; I certainly might have been more blasé (or ignorant) with regards copyright issues...and, also, when I was following Weight Watchers, I was always keen to share recipes that worked particularly well while still being low in points, a USP which is now missing. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to revisiting some old dishes and keen to see whether they actually work or whether I end up tweaking them into something entirely unrecognisable.  As per usual, we are fasting on Monday and Wednesday, and we're out on Tuesday night.  The plan otherwise:

Thursday: Roasted tomato and ricotta risotto

Friday:  Pissaladiere with potato salad

Saturday:  Cardamom butter chicken, aubergine and red lentil curry, rice and flatbreads

Sunday:  Slow cooker shoulder of lamb with tomatoes and butterbean mash

MPM: 27th February 2017

During the month of March, we will be cooking our books. Which is to say, we've both selected two recipe books (or magazines or websites) and, each week, will pick a minimum of three recipes to make.

This week: Diana Henry's "A Change of Appetite". I love Diana Henry's writing and all of her books look utterly delicious but I don't think that I've ever made anything from this one so I'm very much looking forward to our selection of meals.

We'll be fasting for two days after a break last week, and D is out one night. So the plan looks like this:

Tuesday: it's pancake day! We will be having ours with bacon, maple syrup and chilli.

Friday: Burmese chilli fish with hot and sour salad

Saturday: Lamb scottaditto with fregola salad

Sunday: Roast sea bass with spiced aubergine, lemon and honey relish.

Have a fabulous week folks and I will report back with regards the book.

A summer barbecue

Oh, reader, I don't know whether it is the slightly oppressive heat or the fact that I am now on a mere nine day countdown to our holibobs but I am so TIRED. I am not one of nature's naturally energetic creatures. Long have my family suspected that my spirit animal is a sloth. But at the moment, I feel like I am crawling through my days.

Soon, we will be in Scotland and there will be bracing Scottish air and lie ins and seafood and whisky and, bestest of all, no work (apart from the studying that I need to take with me which I am choosing to ignore while in the midst of my bucolic daydreams). Only nine days, reader, only nine days. Surely it is doable, even for a full on human sloth?

In an effort to soothe our jaded selves, and also because we were promised sunshine, we decided to barbecue last weekend. Said sunshine didn't really materialise but, because we are British, we were undeterred.

We were potentially slightly ambitious, since I seemed to spend most of the day pottering about the kitchen but the results were all kind of lovely. And I do think that it's nice to think beyond burgers and sausages when it comes to barbecuing, much as I love burgers and sausages. Some of the dishes were inspired (or shamelessly stolen, depending on your point of view) by what we had eaten the week before at my brother's, including a lovely bruschetta recipe that I will post later this week.

So, all washed down by turbo Pimms, we start with king prawns, which had bathed all day in two teaspoons of oil (one of plain rapeseed, one of chilli infused) the juice and zest of half a lemon, a fat garlic clove, salt, pepper and a pinch of chilli flakes. A perfect match of zing and smoke.

Then lamb cutlets, again, marinaded all day. To make the marinade, D combined a tablespoon of olive oil with two tablespoons of runny honey, two tablespoons of pomegranate molasses and the juice and zest of a lemon, before adding a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, salt, oodles of black pepper and a decent handful of chopped fresh mint. The results were stunning - a really well balanced hit of sweet, sour and warming spice with the mint adding freshness right at the end. I would highly recommend giving these a go even if you end up cooking them indoors.

On the side we had humous drizzled with harissa, onions that had been caramelised for an age so that they were on the point of melting into a memory of sweetness. We also made flatbreads to this recipe and cooked them over the hot coals which was revelatory - who knew smoked bread could taste so good?

Have you been having any barbecue adventures this summer? Do share; you never know, I might rouse myself from my lethargy long enough to steal your ideas as well.

TWTWTW: vet, 80s, teriyaki

I've been quiet all week - full of cold and rather sulky.

Obligatory cute cat picture

Minx went to the vet this week for her yearly jabs and was an angel throughout. The vet commented that she was a "perfect" weight, a rarity in our household. She doesn't appear to be overly bothered by food and will graze from her bowls throughout the day as and when she remembers. A salutary lesson for us all.

I go back to the 80s

I am writing this before the week is truly over, prior to heading down to London for an 80s themed birthday party. I have packed fingerless gloves and blue eyeshadow and will probably need to be steaming before I set foot outside the hotel room. Being aged 0-9 in the 80s, I wasn't particularly au fait with the fashions so have spent some interesting sessions on Pinterest acquainting myself with what passed for style back in the day. I am hoping for proper retro buffet snacks - cheese and pineapple on sticks, Monster Munch...oooh, boil in the bag fish! Not really a buffet snack but I remember eating it a lot as a child - can you still get it?

I do not quite succeed at lamb teriyaki

There has been a dish on the Wagamamas menu for a while now of teriyaki lamb with wasabi and pea noodles of which I have always liked the idea. I tried to make something similar this week and although it was fine it didn't blow my socks off. Perhaps my mistake was, per this recipe, making the teriyaki sauce from component parts - perhaps it's one of those things that you just have to buy pre-made. If anyone has any teriyaki tips then please let me know - I am sure that this dish has potential but I need to have a bit of a rethink.

Have a good weekend dear readers (insert witty sign off here).

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.