MPM: 30th March 2015

Much as I enjoy writing weekly meal planning posts, I am occasionally surprised when Monday rolls around and I realise that I haven't managed to write anything else.  I'm sure that I have more to say but at the moment I'm operating on cruise control and just trying to get through to the Easter break.  Which won't be that much of a break because I'm going to have to spend a decent chunk of it working towards my next exam.  Sigh. 

Still, it seems churlish to complain too much when Spring is most definitely in the air, roast lamb is on the menu for Easter Sunday and I have a box of L'Artisan du Chocolat salted caramel mini eggs tucked away to enjoy next week. 

On the menu in the meantime (taking us up to the weekend):

Kedgeree
Warm chicken liver and bacon salad with raspberry dressing
Roast pork with roast potatoes and leeks in cheese sauce
Cod BLT salad

A couple of lighter, salad based dishes on there to reflect the longer, brighter days.  Have a very happy Easter everyone, and head over to Mrs M's for more meal planning fun!

MPM: 23rd March 2015

This week is rather fishy.  In the sense that we will be eating quite a lot of fish - not that there is anything suspicious going on. At least, I don't think there is.  If anything crops up, I'll let you know.

So yes, lots of fish on the menu. Which is good news as far as I am concerned - I love fish.  I had a brief vegetarian phase when I was about sixteen but was one of those sort-of-fake ones who continued to eat fish because I just couldn't bear to give it up.  It turned out that I couldn't really stand to give meat up either - it was Christmas dinner that did for me in the end - but the point is that I could entertain the thought of being without meat but not without fish.

The meal plan:

Skate wings with brown butter and caper sauce  (one of my all time absolute favourite dishes.)
Egg, chips and beans (a bump from last week.  The frozen chips lived to fight another day but they WILL be despatched.)
Gnocchi with mussels (or prawns if the mussels remain elusive) and saffron
Soup
Fish and chips (D insists on this once a month and I don't put up much of a fight)
Roast pork with appropriate trimmings

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

Countdown

So D and I were chatting this week and I promised that I would go back to WW meetings after Easter that will be Wednesday 8th April.

I feel better that I've set a date in my head, and I'm aiming to not spend the next few weeks on one of those bonkers "I've got to eat everything now because I won't be able to have it soon" frenzies.  It's simply not true in any case - I've never had to be overly restrictive about my eating following the WW plan, just a bit more careful and considered.

I have another exam on the 22nd April, and part of me thinks I should wait until after that - it was trying to balance study, exam stress, work and dieting which led to me taking a break in December that turned into a three and a half month hiatus.  But, as I've said before, there's never an ideal time, so let's give it a go.

I'm not that interested in numbers at the moment, just getting back into good habits.  So I may ask the leader to not tell me my actual weight for the first few weeks, just to record it on my card so that I can look when I'm ready.  Sounds bonkers, but I know a few people from the message boards who have done just that and found it to be a helpful way of shifting the focus away from results and on to process.

I'd say wish me luck, but I think wish me a severe stomach bug to give me a boost for the first weigh in would be more useful at this stage....*

*Joke.  Honest.

MPM: 16th March 2015

It is Sunday afternoon as I write this and so may I take the opportunity to send all the mothers out there (and I know that many of the participants in MPM fall into that category) belated but heartfelt warm wishes.  I do not have children, nor any very strong current desire to change that status quo, but I must admit to feeling slightly misty eyed at all the pink posies and daffodil arrangements in the flower section of Waitrose.  The cat got me a card though, which also made me sniffle a little bit.

What is this Mummy's Day?

Anyway, meal planning for this week.  After yesterday's shockingly expensive leg of lamb (seriously, has it always been that price?)  most of the rest of the week is quite...restrained.  D is out on Friday and Saturday is yet to be decided.

Sea bass fillets with chraimeh sauce and courgette couscous (our take on an Ottolenghi recipe)

Egg, chips and beans (we have some oven chips in the freezer, bought for my father in law when he came round to cat sit, that need using up.)

Corned beef hash (bumped from last week)

Thai chicken soup

Coq a la biere with probably mashed potatoes (from the Le Gavroche cookbook).

And that's us!  More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

The Yorke Arms, Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale

I had been to the Yorke Arms once before, back when I could still see my feet and had yet to learn ten synonyms for foam.  I remember little about the food, just that the hearty portions meant that we had to undo our trousers to drive home.  This time, wise to this, we booked a room and embarked upon a strict programme of  pre dinner abstinence.  Which lasted until we arrived in situ and found home made cakes by the kettle.

It was with trepidation, therefore, that I agreed with D that we would go for the tasting menu.  On the previous visit we had been floored by the a la carte.  Still, I was wearing a dress, so there was plenty of room for stomach expansion, and a stiff gin and tonic in front of the cosy lounge fire had sharpened my appetite.  And, in any case, my concerns lasted until the amuse arrived at the table – blood orange jelly, horseradish cream, raw slivers of rhubarb.  This demonstrated a kitchen with a much lighter touch than I remembered and one, moreover, which was capable of delivering enthralling and quirky flavour combinations. 

Indeed, the difficulty is picking a highlight.  Every component of every course - and on some plates this was quite a number - was sensitively handled such that they shone both singly and as part of the whole.  Cured salmon with langoustine, crab, caviar and tomatoes, for example, sounds like a cacophony of competing flavours but came together in delicate fishy symphony.  This was possibly my favourite dish of the evening.

Oh, but then there was truffled quail with raisins and delicate zips of preserved lemon.  And a fascinating vegetarian dish that used freekeh, a grain that neither of us had come across before but both agreed we would be happy to try again.  For D though the star of the proceedings was the braised oxtail wrapped in buttery puff pastry, sausage roll like, on the side of the venison main course.  The meat was so soft that it collapsed at the merest brush of the fork, darkly flavoursome and providing a wonderful coating of rich iron flavour in the mouth to cushion the tender venison.

The only misstep in the proceedings was the second of two desserts; I found the Grand Marnier soufflé to be overcooked and under flavoured.  But since it came with a chocolate and olive ganache which had me making all sorts of inappropriate noises, I was willing to forgive and forget.

So overall, a fantastic dinner with far more interest and complexity than I was expecting, Plus  a comfy bed within staggering distance whereto we could repair to compare food babies.  This is a little gem buried deep in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, a place that I thoroughly recommend if you're looking to head somewhere for some serious indulgence.  

The Yorke Arms
Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale
Pateley Bridge
nr Harrogate
North Yorkshire
HG3 5RL
01423 755243

Cheap Eats in Leeds: The Black Swan

D and I have a problem when it comes to eating out and it's called, "Can't-get-the-bill-down-to-two-figures-itis".  To remedy this we have set ourselves a challenge.  Can we find a series of venues in and around Leeds where two people can eat well for £30 or less?  The rules are simple: we each choose one venue a month.  It can't be a chain restaurant and it has to be possible for each person to have a meal and a drink for £15 a head.  Is there good food to be had for such a sum?  In an exciting new blog series, we're going to find out...

S's March choice: The Black Swan

I briefly mentioned this place when we visited the nearby Shears Yard - we popped in for cocktails and I fell in love with the espresso martini.  I was also very taken with the amazing looking pizza oven.  So my choice this month was clear.

The venue

The Black Swan, which I believe is a relatively new venue, is a three in one kind of deal.  They are a pub serving an impressive selection of real ales alongside the cocktail list, they have a downstairs pizza restaurant, which is in a room off the main bar, and an upstairs pub food bit (which we have yet to try but which looks excellent).  Sometimes these types of hybrids can get quite confused (or confusing) but the staff here are friendly and helpful and the operation seems to be quite slick - drinks we ordered at the bar were added to our food bill without any problems.

The order

3 pints of ale (D couldn't resist a second chocolate chipotle stout),
2 rather large and generously topped pizzas (pancetta, taleggio and capers and ricotta and spicy sausage respectively),
1 golden syrup creme brulee to share
.
The bill came to £35.50 - so slightly over budget, but if we hadn't ordered the dessert we would have been bang on.

The food

This was the best pizza I've eaten in a long time.  The sour dough base was crisp and charred on the outside with a beautiful flavour.  The toppings were generous and exceedingly tasty.  The menu itself was a delight for a true pizza lover - simple but thoughtful flavour combinations.  I will never again be likely to darken the doors of the Pizza Express just down the street when I have this little gem to visit.  I already can't wait to go back.

The Black Swan
37 Call Lane
Leeds
LS1 7BT
0113 827 2349

MPM: 9th March 2014

Some excellent eating last week - the tuna steak baguette was a resounding success as was yesterday's Empire roast chicken, both of which have been added to my spreadsheet of "Meals that I want to cook again" - a mammoth list if ever there was one.  This week, I am out Thursday and D is out on Friday so they're unplanned and likely to consist of prick and ping or beans on toast, and Saturday we hope to do a recipe book night but the dishes are still to be finalised.  Elsewhere...

Salmon with curried mussels
Roast chicken with leek fritters and a garlic and lemon yoghurt dressing
Corned beef hash
Roast lamb with various accompaniments - this is a trial run of Easter Sunday lunch on which I'll be sure to report back if it all goes to plan!

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

Recipe corner: Tuna steak baguette with Asian slaw

I think it is both a good thing and a bad that I have no particular expertise in any one cuisine (unless cheese on toast can be said to be a cuisine - in which case I am basically the love child of Ken Hom and Madhur Jaffrey.)  It means that I can't tell authentic from inauthentic which is a shame, and I put things together without due regard for tradition which would have matrons the world over wagging their fingers expressively.  But, equally, I am generally guided by what I think tastes good and unrestricted by a food's particular heritage. Which means that my cooking may be confused, but a lot of the time it is pretty yummy.

Take this dish.  At the outset it was just to be a steak sandwich, with all the traditional accompaniments, except the steak in question was to be tuna.  And then somehow it veered over to Asia with delicious results. The idea of using baguette was very much inspired by the Vietnamese banh mi, a wonderful collision of French and Asian traditions, and the crunchy side slaw was a perfect accompaniment - zingy, crunchy and jam packed with wonderful flavour.  This is definitely one to add to the dinner rotation list.

Ingredients

For the baguettes:
2 pieces of baguette, split lengthways
2 tuna steaks
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp wasabi

For the slaw:
Quarter of white cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, grated
Half a bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
Red chilli, deseeded and sliced
Handful chopped coriander
Handful chopped mint leaves
Handful chopped Thai basil leaves
2 tsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp olive oil

In a large bowl, combine the chopped veg (reserving the green parts of the spring onions), chilli and herbs.

In a separate bowl prepare the dressing, and reserve until required.  Whisk the sugar into the vinegar until complete dissolved and then add the other ingredients.  Check and adjust seasoning as required - remember, the fish sauce is very salty so you shouldn't need to add much by way of salt.

Bring a non stick frying pan up to a high heat.  Season the fish and then cook for around 90 seconds on each side.  Remove from the heat and allow to rest for a couple of minutes before slicing on the bias,

Meanwhile, combine the mayonnaise and wasabi, season to taste, adding a touch of lemon juice if it looks too thick, and then slather over one side of the baguettes.  Arrange the tuna on top and scatter with the chopped greens of the spring onions before bringing together in one messy, juicy sandwich.

Dress the slaw and serve on the side.

The elephant in the room [apart from me]

It occurs to me that this blog hasn't really been much about Weight Watchers lately.  This is probably because I have not counted a point since the beginning of December.  I initially thought about writing some sort of apologia, but then thought better of it.  The truth is, I just haven't been in the right place and if your head isn't in the right place then it doesn't work.

It's not a question of making excuses (they're boring to both write and read), it's just a question of not being there and I think anyone who has ever successfully lost weight - actually, ever successfully achieved anything worth achieving - will understand what I mean. 

Do I still want to lose weight?  Most days, yes.  Most days, I am vain enough to care that I would look prettier if I was a few stone lighter.  Most days, I am concerned enough for my (generally good) physical health that I think I need to make more of an effort.  But some days I am happy - or, at the very least, content.  And contentment is fine - contentment is good but the danger is it leads to complacency and I am not yet close enough to goal to be complacent.

There is a delightful freedom to not worrying about points.  As may be clear from this blog, I love cooking, and the ability to not have to measure every ingredient that goes into a dish is rather liberating.  To not have to plan my day's food to within an inch of its life is...well, it's nice.  The break has been nice.

It is temporary.  And when normal services resumes you will be the first to know.

Edited to add: This is my 500th post!  Goodness.  Not what I would have chosen but there you go...probably sums up the contrary nature of my writing here over the past few years.  As ever, beloved readers, thank you for popping by and maybe by the end of the next 500 rambles I'll be sylph like and sorted!!

Meal planning - better late than never?

Well, it may be Tuesday but here we are with meal planning Monday.  We had a fantastic weekend (of which, more to follow) but got home very late on Sunday night which meant that yesterday I was attempting to chase my tail all day and not being very successful about it.

Still, there is a meal plan for the week.

Last night we had a delicious old favourite that was bumped several times in February - bumped, in fact, all the way into March - oven baked red pepper and chorizo risotto.  I love this dish!  It is simple, tasty and just the kind of thing that you want to sink into at the end of a tiring day. 

Elsewhere this week:

Chicken and mushroom curry (the result of a freezer dive)
Tuna steak sandwiches with wasabi mayonnaise and Asian inspired slaw
Black pepper tofu
Empire roast chicken with Indian gravy and Bombay style roasties

Quite a spicy week ahead!  I am so pleased to see a veggie dish in there - we definitely need to develop more of a repertoire of decent vegetarian friendly evening meals - it helps keep household costs down not to mention being environmentally sound.

Anyhoo, more meal planning fun, as ever, over at Mrs M's. 

MPM: 23rd February 2015

Colour me excited - this week D and I are off for my belated birthday meal at the very lovely Yorke Arms.  Then we are spending a night with my parents, and then we are off down to Herfordshire to spend the weekend with a couple of lovely friends.  D is due to be running a half marathon with them - I am due to be drinking copious quantities of coffee and, um, cheering them on.

Of course this means in terms of meal planning that only three nights are to be spent at home (get us with a social life) and one of those nights is likely to be freezer pot luck.  The two remaining are both pasta dishes, since D likes to fuel up the week before a race and I never need an excuse to eat pasta.

So, the rather curtailed plan goes like this:

Salmon fillets with pasta pesto
Lobster mac and cheese.

And that, my friends, is that!  Pop over to Mrs M's to see meal planning posts that actually involve a plan.

Recipe corner: Baked buffalo chicken wings

Chicken wings, popcorn and burgers consumed in front of an American football game (which I find utterly incomprehensible by the way, is that the idea?) may not sound particularly romantic but it was how we chose to celebrate our Valentine's Day nonetheless.  Ever since our New York trip in December 2013, certain items of Americana have become synonymous with...well, love, laughter and celebration.

I don't suppose that the buffalo wings we ate in the Third Avenue Alehouse were baked, so this recipe can't be said to be a true replica, however I thought that my wings, originally from Good Food magazine, were delicious and feel a lot more sinful than they actually are.  I can imagine doing these for supper with some salad, creamy dressing and crusty bread.  You could (in fact, you should) fashion some sort of blue cheese dip to go with them, but since I have yet to figure out how to make that anything less than a gazillion points I shall hold off blogging that one for now.

Ingredients

400g (about 4 large) chicken wings, halved at the joint

For the marinade:

2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tbsp cider vinegar
0.5 tbsp smoked paprika
0.5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp Tobasco sauce
1.5 tbsp clear honey

Serves 2, 8 pro points per portion

Combine the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl, adding additional seasoning to taste.  Add the chicken wings, toss well, and then leave, covered with cling film in the fridge - a few hours will do but overnight is optimum.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 (160 fan).  Line a large baking tray or roasting tin with tin foil or else you will be scrubbing at baked on Buffalo sauce for weeks.  Lightly spray the foil with oil to prevent any sticking.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the wings from the marinade, setting the bowl aside for the time being.  Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven.  After this time, drain off any excess oil that has accumulated and then pour the reserved marinade over the chicken, tossing well to coat.  Turn the oven up to 200 (180 fan).

Replace the wings in the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes, after which time the marinade should be mostly evaporated and the wings covered with a spicy, sticky glaze.  Try to avoid eating straight away as you will probably burn your chin.

Shears Yard, Leeds (with cocktails to start)

I'll be the first to admit that I bitched about our move to Leeds when it occurred.  But there is absolutely no denying, not even from a reluctant resident like me, that the city has a far more exciting bar and restaurant scene than is found in many other Northern cities - including, I'll concede, my beloved York.  The thirty billion (figure only slightly exaggerated) students gives it a perpetually youthful feel but even when their loan cheques have run out, there are plenty of young professional types ready to don high heels, sharp suits and hit Call Lane for a cocktail.

Well, I say young professional people - but last Friday saw me hitting Call Lane for a cocktail and I am neither of those things.  But I put on about five times more make up than I normally wear and played willing.

Before I move on to the main event - dinner at the delectable Shears Yard - I first have to give a quick mention to the Black Swan bar/pub/restaurant type place that we visited for a pre dinner drink and that subsequently has leapt straight in to our favourites list.  The espresso martini would have made me weep with joy if it hadn't been for the fact that my mascara was not waterproof.  I am going back very soon to check out the pizzas that smelled, as they emerged from the beautiful bespoke pizza oven, like manna from Italian heaven.

Espresso martini!

So, Shears Yard. We've been meaning to go for a while and if you pop over to the website you will probably understand why - we figured that if the food ate half as well as it read it was bound to be amazing.  It sounded eclectic, slightly eccentric and with a tick list of ingredients designed to appeal.

The setting itself was gorgeous and bang on the current trend for exposed brick work and slight industrial aesthetic, but sufficiently full of  twinkly lights to make it a romantic setting on Valentine's Day Eve (NB: not a thing).  And the well sized bar, which allows patrons to relax with a drink both before and after the meal, was a lovely bonus - I am a big fan of having an area in which to linger in an establishment.

Twinkly!

But, as ever, the important thing was the food - and the food at Shears Yard gets a big thumbs up from me.  I think we knew that we were on to a winner when the bread turned up - black pudding brioche with beetroot butter - tasty and alliterative!  We were so fulsome in our praise that the waiter brought us over a second plate and while my usual policy is to avoid filling up on bread prior to a meal, this was way too good to resist.

An early review of the place found the dishes to be a little try hard, and while chatting with the owner after dinner, he mentioned that they had tried to dial it back.  That said, the kitchen seemed very keen on creating dishes with multiple component parts.  Often, this meant that the individual constituents were slightly muted in flavour - I'm thinking particularly now of a chicken liver parfait definitely situated at the lighter end of the offal spectrum - which nevertheless came to life when matched with the mini smoked chicken kiev and home made brown sauce.

I went veggie for my main course and absolutely loved my cauli cheese spring rolls with charred romesco and curly kale coleslaw.  Good vegetarian food is a thing of beauty and this was original, well thought out and sensitively treated.  D was not impressed (he is a committed carnivore) - preferring to get stuck in to a pressed pork belly dish which he deemed very tasty indeed.  A shared dessert of chocolate parfait with chocolate orange sorbet and a brownie was...well, as chocolatey as it sounds on the tin and beautifully made, even if it didn't push up against any flavour boundaries - quite frankly I don't want anyone to mess with my chocolate.

Chicken liver!

Chocolate!

All in all, a fantastic evening.  As ever, it is an absolute pleasure for me as a diner to come across an independent local restaurant doing exciting, tasty food and I look forward to a continued acquaintance with Shears Yard.  If Leeds keeps on yielding little gems like that, I may not ever be able to leave.

MPM: 16th February 2015

Mmmm, you know how sometimes you look at your meal plan and you just want to eat all those gorgeous sounding dinners in one go?  It's one of those weeks!  Just writing this post is making my mouth water a little bit.

We're not planning to be out and neither are we planning on any freezer diving so it is going to be slightly more labour intensive than has been the norm in recent times.  But the sad truth is, I rather look forward to my hour or so in the kitchen at the end of the day, pottering around with the radio burbling in the background.

Oh, and don't forget people - Shrove Tuesday this week which means it is practically obligatory to have PANCAKES!!

And on with the meal plan...

A Madhur Jaffrey creamy, tomatoey, beautifully spiced prawn curry
As above - pancakes
Pork chop with gnocchi in a mustard sauce
Soup
Sausage and parsnip risotto
Roast chicken with appropriate trimmings

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

MPM: 9th February 2015

Greetings meal planners!  And, for those of you who celebrate such things, happy Valentine's Day for Saturday.  I know it's goofy and commercial but I don't care!  We're out on Friday evening to a local restaurant that we've been meaning to try for ages - the food menu looks really promisingly delicious.  And then on the day itself we are cooking up a romantic dinner inspired by our New York trip (now well over a year ago.  Sigh).  We've even recorded the Superbowl to play in the background and really set the scene.

Now, what else is going on this week?  Tomorrow we are off to Liverpool for a training course so tea is likely to be something quick and light when we get in - sardines or scrambled eggs on toast, something of that ilk. That leaves just four days for the meal plan proper.

Lamb biryani (using leftover meat from the Sunday roast)
Oven baked red pepper and chorizo risotto (bumped from last week)
Soup (of course)
Beef and ale stew with mash and veg

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

Time to Talk Day 2015

Today, some of the UK's leading mental health organisations are asking people up and down the country to take five minutes to talk about mental health.  The good news is that by reading this blog post you are doing just that - so have a gold star from me...

  

I've made no secret on this blog that I have had wobbly patches over the years and I have been blessed by great GPs and people around me who were willing to hold my hand when I needed them.  So I thought it important to acknowledge this campaign.

The thing about suffering from depression, or anxiety, or similar disorders, is that they are intangible.  You break a leg, you wear a plaster cast.  You catch a cold, you cough and sneeze.  Even something less immediately obvious, like diabetes - you have a blood test and then you are in possession of a piece of paper that says that there is something wrong.  When I was first diagnosed, quite a long time ago now, I requested a full gamut of tests because I was desperate to find a physical cause for the fact that my mental faculties were all over the place.  I remember almost crying when they all came back normal - a dicky thyroid, low iron levels, these were medical problems.  Being too anxious to function properly - that was not.  Which meant on top of feeling god-bloody-awful I felt incredibly guilty as well.

Depression can be triggered by a traumatic event, by grief or by stress but it is separate and distinct from all of these things.  And while everyone, sufferers most of all, want to hang on to a straightforward idea of cause and effect I don't think that ultimately it is helpful to focus on that to the detriment of coming up with coping strategies.

I don't really know what the point of this post is.  Just, I suppose, to encourage anyone who may stumble across it to take a moment to look at the Time To Change website, or to think about someone in their circle who may be struggling with some of these issues.  There is a wealth of information and help out there - and a good GP should be your first port of call if you or anyone you love is not waving but drowning.

And thank you, dearest reader, for taking five minutes from your day to read this post.  Normal service (whatever that may be) will be resumed shortly.

MPM: 2nd February 2015

January is always such a miserable month that I, for one, am glad to see it retreating into the murky distance.  Bring on February!  I can see blue sky out of the bedroom window, and Pancake Day is just a couple of weeks away.

This week we're launching our inaugural Recipe Book Night.  You see, D and I have an absolute mountain of recipe books - we collect them obsessively, and yet with one thing and another very seldom get round to using them.  We have therefore decided to have regular evenings where we make a point of dipping into the bookshelf for a special meal.  Hopefully some of these will be good enough to get into regular rotation and pep our meal plans up a bit.  This Saturday, I will be cooking a fish dish from Nathan Outlaw's "British Seafood" and D will follow up with a meat dish from Tom Kerridge's "Proper Pub Food".

Also this week, we work on our middle class credentials by going to the opera!  We have been listening to the CD over the weekend and nodding very earnestly at the bits that we think are dramatic.

Elsewhere on the meal plan:

Mussels with cider and bacon (and garlic bread)
Spaghetti carbonara (bumped from last week)
Soup
Oven baked red pepper and chorizo risotto
Roast lamb

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's!

Holy smoke

Apologies for the slightly random and rambling nature of the posts at the moment - I'm just trying to get back into the physical habit of blogging.

Anyway, we had a really quite exciting moment in our kitchen on Saturday evening when we tea smoked some mackerel.*

It is made still more exciting by the fact that these were mackerel that we ourselves caught off the coast of Tobermory in the summer.

Mackerel, just out of the sea.  Sorry guys!

The last few had been languishing in our freezer (seriously, the bloody thing is bottomless.  If we ventured far enough in we would probably find the Holy Grail.)  Having been frozen for so long the texture of the fish was likely to be rather compromised, so we decided that smoking and then blitzing them into pate was a fitting send off.

It turns out that smoking food inside is surprisingly easy.  You need a sturdy pot with a big surface area, some tea leaves and some foil and that is it!  Line the pot with foil, spread out the tea leaves and then take another piece of foil, pierced all over, and lay it on top.  Then add your fish, like so:

Prepare to smoke!

Top with a lid, turn the heat on and leave for...well, I think it took about forty five minutes all in all for ours, but we went back and prodded them at regular intervals to check that all was well and nothing was on fire.

And voila!  Smoked mackerel!  D slipped the flesh from the bones and then we blitzed it with cream cheese, chives, lemon, horseradish and a hefty dose of salt and pepper - this needed quite a lot of seasoning to wake it up.

There is no way to make pate look pretty,,,,

More by luck than judgement, we managed to achieve a gratifyingly delicate smoke flavour that didn't overpower the fish itself,  I was also pleasantly surprised at the relative ease of the process and would definitely give it another go - home smoked salmon anyone?  D and I have both said that we want 2015 to be a year where we attempt some new kitchen projects and this was an excellent place to start.

*(I have just read back that sentence and realised how very tragic it sounds - Saturday night, party night, and we're at home smoking fish.  In our pyjamas.  Is cooking still the new rock and roll?  If not, there is no hope for us.)

MPM: 26th January 2015

It's that time of the week again when we cast our minds over what we hope to be scoffing and quaffing in the coming days.  Hurrah!  It's a quiet week for us - January, in general has been a sleepy, torpid kind of month, but since I'm a sleepy, torpid kind of person you won't find me complaining.

This week is a wee bit meat heavy - I must make an effort to bring more veggie based meals into the rotation.  The excuse, as ever, is that we are continuing to freezer dive and you will be pleased to hear that we are actually reaching a point now where defrosting the bugger is becoming a possibility.

Meal plan:

Haggis with neeps, tatties and onion gravy (we were supposed to have this last night to celebrate Burns' night but it got bumped)
Oxtail with rioja and chorizo
Spaghetti carbonara
Soup night
Fish and chips (at D's plaintive request)
Chilli con carne
A Sunday roast of some sort

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

Leftovers

Our Christmas was pretty quiet which, after a trying end to the year, was exactly required.  There were several days where I didn't make it out of my pyjamas.  Unrivalled sloth, that's me.  My birthday falls on the 28th December and, as I said to D, you couldn't have designed a more perfect day if you'd tried - I got up late, had my favourite breakfast washed down with stiff mimosas, then went for a nap (drinking in the daytime makes me sleepy), then watched a couple of films, then ate my favourite dinner, then went to bed.  Not for nothing is my nickname based on Enid Blyton's Sleepy Sloo.

As ever, a big part of the celebrations was the food and we had some unparalleled successes this year, including a sublime Christmas pudding ice cream on the day itself, and a majestic rib of beef at my parents' house on New Year's Eve.  But some of the very nicest things were those meals that were thrown together from the leftovers.

I'm considering buying a turkey breast joint soon just so that D can make another turkey curry.  This was a thing of serious beauty: the meat simmered alongside cubes of potatoes in coconut milk, a splash of cream and mild spices.  We ate little else for two days running.

Traditional Boxing Day sandwiches were a highlight:

Turkey, gammon, sausage meat, strong Cheddar, lettuce, cucumber and a generous swipe of mayo.  We didn't even have turkey on Christmas Day - we just cooked one so I could construct this beast of a thing.  Excuse the photo by the way - bad even by the standards of this blog - this was taken quickly just so I could send it to my Mum.  Who immediately responded with "Wow, that is a sandwich".

Speaking (sort of) of gammon, one lunchtime D constructed little ham hash cakes, fried until crispy and topped with a perfectly poached egg:

A perfect brunch dish.

And as a final hurrah, a couple of weeks ago we used the last of our Christmas cheese to make a tartiflette, that classic apres-ski dish.  If you haven't, y'know, actually been skiing this is almost (almost!) too rich, but with a hefty spoonful of sauerkraut on the side we powered through and D has already requested a repeat performance.  This Hairy Bikers' recipe is a close approximation of the one I used - highly recommended, but go for a good long walk beforehand.  And, possibly, afterwards.

An apology

Dearest, dearest readers of the blog.

I'm sorry that it has been a sad, neglected little thing lately.

I don't see any point in making excuses.  Although I could use the word my beloved sometimes uses and blame it on the ennui.  January seems a good month for ennui.  It is supposed to be the month in which we get going with all of our resolutions and new goals and new challenges.  And, for me, it always feels like a month to hide away.  I don't want to do new things.  I want to sleep and drink tea and wish for brighter weather.

But I am going to make a concerted effort to change.  I love this little blog.  It is a corner of the internet that I can call my own and I love the people who have stopped by here and made it such a convivial place to be.  I will therefore try and post more regularly, even if I don't feel like I have much to say.  The nice thing about blogs is that they are so entirely personal that you can be upfront and talk about things like the fact that January is horrible and crap, and that you miss sunshine and that you love your cat and that you are having trouble getting your 2015 weight loss campaign up and running and you know that there are people out there who will support you.

I have also been told that I am not allowed to just post pictures of Minx and let that count as communication.  Fairy nuff. But, I ask you, if you had this little sweetie on your knee while you overdosed on Netflix, would you be inclined to move her?

No, exactly.

MPM: 12th January 2015

I feel more than a little bit like some sort of woodland creature who has been hibernating for the winter and is only now beginning to stick its nose out of its hole and emerge, blinking, into the light.  Although the weather here in Leeds has been so ropey that it is more akin to blinking into the gloom and drizzle.

What better way to tentatively dip my toe back into the whirlpool that is blogging than a meal planning post?  Hopefully to be followed soon by a few quick Christmas catch ups and a look to the year ahead - I'm not promising anything, mind, because there is still tea to be drunk, a blanket to be snuggled under and episodes of "The Good Wife" to mindlessly binge on (damn you, Netflix).

This week (I'm away Saturday and Sunday, so only five meals to plan...)

Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs
Chicken, mushroom and spinach Madras curry
Reuben sandwiches
Soup
Chinese braised pork and plums with noodles

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

Have a merry, Minxy Christmas

All best wishes to all the lovely people who have stopped by this blog over the past year.

With lots of love from Seren, D and Minx

Now, what to write next year.....?

Recipe corner: super quick cucumber pickle

I hesitate to call this a recipe.  More of an extended tip.  But it is absolutely perfect for this time of year when, if you are anything like us, you will have a fridge groaning with cold cuts and cheeses.  It is a wonderfully simple, sweet-sour foil to anything from leftover turkey to gammon to wodges of Cheddar.  And, unlike most chutneys, it is quick to make.  Just allow about an hour for the salting and, if possible, a half hour at room temperature for the cucumbers to soak up some of the liquor.

Ingredients

1 cucumber
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp dill*
Salt and pepper

Serves 4, 1 pro point per portion

*I always tend to use dried dill because the real thing is so delicate that is doesn't last. Considering its delicacy, the dried stuff is really pretty good and provides excellent flavour.  I wouldn't be without it in my store cupboard.

Using a potato peeler, or an appropriate attachment on a food processor, reduce your cucumber to fat ribbons (rather than slices or shreds).  Peel down until the seeds just about start peeping through - the seeds themselves can be discarded.

Place the ribbons in a colander and sprinkle over several hefty pieces of good salt.  Toss well/  Then, cover the ribbons with kitchen paper and weight down with a bowl or plate and a couple of tins.  Leave for about an hour so the salt can draw the water out.  Meanwhile, you can whisk together the vinegar, sugar, dill and a couple of grinds of pepper.

When the cucumber is ready, rinse off the salt and then wring it out as thoroughly as you can - I tend to do it in small fistfuls, transferring it to the vinegar once it is, er, wrung.  Then, stir through and, if you have time, leave it to sit for a while to absorb the dressing.

That's it!  C'est tout!  You could try varying the herbs, perhaps adding a pinch of dried chilli flakes for background heat, and you may wish to alter the ratio of vinegar to sugar to suit your own tastes.

Let the Christmas feasting commence!

Hibernation and a tremendous steak sandwich

When a blogger goes quiet for a while it is traditional to start the next post with an apology.  Since I doubt very much that the dearth of ramblings in this little corner of the internet has impacted anyone adversely I am sure that my beloved band of readers will forgive me and allow us all to move on.

So, nearly Christmas: how on earth did that happen?  For me, the majority of presents are wrapped, the lights are up in the living room, giving it a pleasingly grotto-esque feel, but we haven't yet started prep for the lunch we are cooking on Christmas Day.  We'll be getting on to that tomorrow.  How about you?

If you're looking for something a little different but incredibly indulgent to nibble - perhaps on those grey old days between Christmas and New Year, then I have a lovely recipe to commend to your attention.

Basically, you hollow out a loaf of bread, fill it with layers of seared steak and a garlicky mushroom duxelle, smear the lid with mustard before replacing and then press it for a good few hours.  The result is a kind of cross between a beef Wellington and a steak sandwich.  Fabulous.

More precise instructions to be found here.  You're welcome - and merry Christmas!