New Year

So, daughter of mine, it was so much fun having you here in the Yellow Kitchen and now you are over there moving your household to Northampton and probably eating Chinese take away. I have been thinking about how much we cook in general and, of course, how much we talk about what we are going to cook, have cooked, would like to cook and will never cook. So, I thought I'd use this blogette to keep a record of what we cook. I look forward to your commentary
1st January: bacon and egg on home-made, toasted bread; lunch: soup made from left-over peas and carrots and some beef broth made from the rib of the Xmas roast - the soup was delicious and looked like the undergrowth in an orchard painting by Klimt. Unfortunately the picture I took shows that it looks like sludge, rather than green with discrete orange bits from the carrots. Hey ho.
2nd January: I made amazing 15 second mayonnaise - seriously, KK made vegetarian red beans for rice for the Krewe Epiphany celebration, we ate cold poached salmon with mayo for lunch and I made a very heavy and not very successful loaf with too much corn meal, pumpkin seeds and oats in it. It doesn't taste bad, but last week's was so good that I am a bit cross with myself. But my experimental galette wasn't bad - I used my seville orange bitters instead of orange blossom water and that was quite good.
3rd January: fresh, heavy bread, an amazing field trip to the new-to-me Halal International, where Mohammed was extremely friendly and gave us gifts and discounts. Then to the originally named Indian Store, where delicious samosa were fried to order and a couple consumed in the car on the way home. The rest, with beer constituted lunch - simple, tasty and very filling. KK made non vegetarian red beans twice and I cooked a delicious, unctuous lamb ragout with a hint of spice - so good. Tomorrow, I will make a galette des rois and a gateau des rois. More later

Mama

Moroccan store cupboard meal - the daughter

Sheffield

So it’s Friday night and I have frankly planned nothing. Usually we do an internet shop on the weekend but I have had an exhausting week so the Writer Upstairs has done most of the cooking – thanks be for his patience, but that means my meal plans are all gone.

There are two chicken breasts left in the fridge, no veg and an inordinate quantity of oranges (they’re not relevant, I just mention them so that my mum knows I eat fruit).

Quick survey of the pantry (seriously one of my favourite things about my cold and draughty terraced house) shows: a jar of Belazu chermoula paste (I’ve never had chermoula before but I brought this in a bogoff when I needed harissa – ah Waitrose, my downfall), couscous, dried apricots, dried dates (bought for the weirdest salad I’ve yet made, thanks Raymond Blanc), and tins of chickpeas.

So we had:

Chermoula rubbed chicken breasts (that’s it, that’s the recipe – open the jar, spread it, fry ‘em up. Although I did employ my favourite Food Network cooking technique of popping a lid over the pan so that they fry and steam at the same time. Juicy!)

A warm chickpea salad

Fruity couscous

Chickpea salad: 

I cooked some onions in butter, added cinnamon and cumin when they were translucent, and then the drained chickpeas and simmered for about 5 minutes. Then at the end, I  stirred in about half a table spoon (maybe) of pomegranate molasses and a squeeze of lemon juice. Then mixed in a handful of chopped dates and some parsley. Yum!

Fruity couscous:
Couscous, boiling water and some veg bouillon and about a tablespoon of orange blossom water. Plate over the top. Chop some apricots and grab the remnants of some flaked almonds, and the dregs of my last Christmas stockings’ hazelnut oil. Also yum! Though I think I would skip the orange blossom  water next time. It was an interesting experiment but it did not go well with the chermoula.

Belazu brand chermoula

So would I make it again? The chickpea salad, yes definitely, though probably for lunch as I don’t think that the Writer Upstairs loved it. Although I bet if I put bacon in it…Fruity couscous, sure why not but probably not together. The chermoula, I don’t love. Too heavy on the capers for my taste so it had that weird sour / salty / pickle  / fermenty thing going on. Wiki tells me it doesn’t have capers so maybe I’ll make my own next time.

South Carolina

Delicious looking chermoula

I looked up chermoula and it seems to be basically herbs, spices and garlic - why would they put capers in that? The Belazu brand has not only capers but preserved lemon and citric acid - yikes!  Not surprising you didn't care fo the acidity. And as far as I'm concerned 4% cilantro just doesn't cut it. This recipe from about Moroccan food, has a wonderful instruction - mix all the ingredients together - it's ready to use. Brilliant!   

It ought to be delightful. Let me know when you make your own. 

Hazelnut oil from Les Vergers du Marquis

Did you ever use that preserved lemon paste that I bought from Gastronomades last year? It was good on fish and I think it would be good mixed with a whole lot of cilantro and cumin. 
Having any kind of a pantry is a happiness, especially since your actual kitchen is so tiny. I love the sound of the chickpea salad but probably would use apricots instead of dates - too sweet for my taste. And without having tasted it I completely agree about the orange flower water - there's way too much indiscriminate use of orange flower water. The other evening at a large buffet dinner with a north African/Middle Eastern flavour to it, there was a boiled beetroot salad with OFW in it - too flowery and sweet in a way that beetroot doesn't need. And do you need me to bring more hazelnut oil? I think I got you a tiny can from the US last time but I could be very kind and bring you one from Pillac. I just made myself home sick by looking at online photos of Pillac! Here I found photos of the hazel harvest - doesn't look like a barrel of laughs.

I have become a fan of pomegranate molasses thanks to you and Ottolenghi. One of your surrogate aunties has three kinds in her cupboards - pomegranate, barberry and something else - I only remembered the barberry because it is so exotic and I felt quite pathetic as I only had one kind of fruit molasses in my otherwise enviable pantry. (Today, you could freeze a pig in there.) I googled fruit molasses and came across this recipe for cranberry molasses which I think could be really good - I'll let you know. It's obviously that time of year here in the US. This week will be heavy on the turkey, alcohol and sugar. 

I have some things to say about chickpeas too - socca  is one and have you made Ottolenghi's hummus? Also chicken breasts - left over chicken potpie filling this evening, with local gritsssss!

More later
Mama

We talked the other day about the venison you had bought - where on earth did you get it? And buying venison liver is pretty brave. I've never cooked venison liver - we used to feed it to Pepper the Wonder Dog and I don't care much for live in general except the fatted variety.
So I said marinate the liver like I would do tuna steaks - seems to me the texture is about right and dry like good tuna.

And you did this: Lightly seasoned flour, high heat, fried the steaks for about 2 mins each side in olive oil. Rare and delicious. Added the liver (marinated for a day in lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary and garlic) about half way through. Very nice. Still quite livery but a nice contrast with the steak.  Deglazed with red wine, beef stock and some redcurrant jelly. Served with oven roasted new potatoes and carrots.

Sounds opulent and your gravy sounds divine - where do you keep all those ingredients in your tiny kitchen??
In the freezer we have some venison burger meat and perhaps some mystery parcels which must be quite old. As long as one of them isn't Guido...
I looked for venison liver images online and most looked quite revolting (and many are for dog food) the most appetizing one was from a slimming journal - really??
I have a project - or a continuation of a project, which is to empty the large freezer.
More later

Mama

Sylvie,

You mentioned making arancini: I made arancini this weekend. Actually not that delicious. Don’t know why. Good risotto, stuffed it with mozzarella and a little Bolognese, seasoned the breadcrumbs, and it came out a little blah. I blame the mozzarella. Next time, goat.

I completely agree about the mozzarella and as you know I rarely use it. Goat cheese would be good. Or sharp cheddar. Also feta.

This is what Wikipedia says:

Wikipedia - Arancini

Arancini or arancine are fried rice balls coated with breadcrumbs, said to have originated in Sicily in the 10th century. Arancini are usually filled with ragù (meat sauce), tomato sauce, mozzarella, and/or peas. There are a number of local variants that differ in fillings and shape. The name derives from the food's shape and colour, which is reminiscent of an orange (the Italian word for orange is arancia, and arancina means "little orange"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arancini



I usually make them from left over risotto - probably too heavy and wet and of course I don't breadcrumb - the ones pictured above look alarmingly perfect. Which means that I tend to make them like cakes instead of balls - so perhaps rissolles (?!)
Apparently classic versions also include arancini con burro (béchamel), or specialty arancini, such as arancini con funghi (mushrooms), con pistacchi (pistachios), or con melanzane (aubergine).
I have some left over rice in the fridge and some stale bread so I'll give it a go the right way.

More later
Mama

Hello lovely daughter,

So, here we are, an ocean apart again - Columbia, South Carolina and Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

My eye was caught by this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi.

We went to his Islington restaurant together when you took me to the Royal Opera house to see the ballet - do you remember which ballet it was? It turned out that I had been there before but wasn't paying attention. I thought the food was wonderful, fresh and inviting and unusual. We ate some kofta and gorgeous salads and a spectacular passion fruit meringue pie. And you waxed lyrical about his cooking. I keep looking at his recipes and thinking about trying one but they often seem to have a lot of ingredients. But then we watched an episode of his BBC show on Moroccan food - piqued my interest again.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/20/black-garlic-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi?CMP=twt_gu




and you said: Num. not sure I can get black garlic though.

So, I did a quick internet search and came up with roughly 30 million results including several dedicated websites - www.blackgarlic.com for one, then there's Wikipedia's article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_garlic_(food) - most informative! But actually you can buy it online from Ottolenghi or http://www.blackgarlic.co.uk/where-to-buy/. I think it will be more of a problem for me but I'm going to go up to Decker Boulevard to see if the Korean stores have it. Slightly scary field trip!
More later

Mama