Vietnamese lemongrass chicken: medicine in a wok

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Louise

Despite this blog’s positive transformation of my cooking and shopping habits I still have days when I can’t be bothered, usually in the dark of winter when I’m feeling a tad melancholy, or work has been uninspiring or, like tonight, when I am getting a cold. All I could think of this evening as I coughed my way towards home was hot toddies and toast. However, the WTF effect kicked in as I remembered this recipe. It’s one of the ones that inspired me to buy the newest Granger book (it was in the Saturday Telegraph back in the summer) and one of my colleagues at work had raved about it. As ever it offers a pragmatic approach: use lemon zest if you haven’t got/can’t get lemongrass and, in my version I am even more pragmatic: asparagus is out of season but purple sprouting is just back in so use that instead. It is unbelievably simple and made me feel so much better than the usual cold remedies. Obviously, I snuck in some hot whisky with honey and lemon afterwards… Continue reading →

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My favourite winter soup recipe: Locatelli’s chickpea and sage

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Louise

Once you’ve made a soup with the classic base of carrots, celery and onions, it’s very difficult to go back to any other style. I love a creamy soup, and a spicy one but this base makes something better, something which is more of a meal and, dare I say it, more, well, professional. It takes a bit of planning and work although you could speed it up, in this case, by using tinned chickpeas, and you do need fresh herbs. But the difference is remarkable. Continue reading →

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Using up leftovers: fried rice with chicken or pork

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Louise

Did I mention that I am a little obsessed with the likes of coriander, garlic, ginger and spring onions right now? Yes, thought I had. But there is a good reason for it. Last week I cooked pork belly and, using the leftover meat with these herbs and flavourings I had a quick noodle dish later in the week. Right now I have leftover chicken and I plan to make a simple Thai or Vietnamese soup plus some fried rice with the leftovers. Although that might seem a tad repetitive, last week was probably the first ever that I used up every last perishable in my fridge. All I needed was some rice, noodles, oil and eggs. And when you don’t want to cook, yet need something warming and comforting, there’s not much that beats a big bowl of fried rice. No takeaway menu required. Continue reading →

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Poached chicken with rice and ginger and spring onion oil

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Louise

I seem to be a little obsessed with two things right now: poaching meat and the flavours of spring onions, coriander, ginger and garlic. That’s possibly because poaching is simple yet, when you combine it with such herbs and spices, you get a complex result. I can safely say that this is the best thing I have cooked this year. Having made it on Saturday I want to make it all over again tonight and the only thing that is putting me off is the thought that I might get sick of it if I eat it too often. Apparently this is known as Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore and China which sounds much more complicated than it is. All you need to create this magical dish is a lidded pot big enough to hold a chicken, a lidded frying pan for the rice and a pestle and mortar or small food processor/blender for the oil. If you like gently spiced comfort food this is for you. Continue reading →

Posted in Bill's Everyday Asian, Chicken recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Glorious, sticky, weeknight pork belly

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Louise

Yes I know it’s not a lovely photo. But then pork belly, like most cheap cuts of meat, is untidy to look at, a bit lumpen to handle and unlikely to win a beauty contest compared to a fillet steak or organic chicken. However, it is cheap (even now that it is oh-so-trendy), easy to cook and bloody delicious. Not sure it needs much more to recommend it. This recipe, for example, is one that I have made over and over, especially when I really want some sticky pork from a Chinese restaurant but can’t justify the cost. A kilo’s worth of belly, which will feed four, can sometimes leave you with change from a fiver and you’re not going to get that in Gerrard Street. Continue reading →

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Quick braised chicory with cheese and ham

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Louise

The first time I ate chicory (sometimes known as endive) it was braised for a few hours, wrapped in ham, covered in béchamel, sprinkled with grated cheese and then baked for another 30 minutes. It was also made by someone French who had a cleaner and gardener. Lacking such help around the house and garden balcony, I have been looking for a quicker, more after-work-friendly version. This is pretty close to the real thing and, since Judith Jones was Julia Child‘s editor throughout her career I think it comes with a cast-iron, French pedigree. The braising takes about half an hour, so if you wanted you could probably squeeze in making a béchamel whilst that happens and bake rather than grill it. I didn’t but I might next time. And, if you don’t like chicory, apparently this works well with leeks too.

Continue reading →

Posted in Cheese recipes, Wheat-free, Winter vegetables | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Making Vegetables Sexy: Riverford’s Vegetable App

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Louise

There has been a lot of chat about vegetarian-only cookery books recently, partly inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s newest offering but also resulting from the financial and ethical requirements of our age: properly bred meat is expensive and who has £14 for an organic chicken these days? I know I don’t; I can reach the free-range level (even then you’re paying £8-9), but everything else is out of my reach. What’s more, vegetables generally keep longer and are more versatile. So, although I am unlikely ever to give up pork belly or squid, I do love new ways with the less sexy food groups. Continue reading →

Posted in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Riverford Farm Cook Book, Spring vegetable recipes, Vegetarian recipes, Web inspiration | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Possibly the best, certainly the easiest, biscuit recipe in the world

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Louise

I first came across a recipe for croquants in Dorie Greenspan’s book and it sounded too good to be true: thrifty, fast, easy. Then in her friend David Lebovitz’s book Ready For Dessert I saw another, but this time in grams not cups. Both of these cookery writers are massive Parisophiles (what is it about the Americans and Paris?) and, apparently, croquants are very common in France (croquant translates as crunchy). As a once-avid Francophile who was intimately acquainted with the local patisserie (I used to fetch Sunday morning pains au chocolat in my pyjamas), I can safely say I have never heard of croquants but perhaps they are a recent development, like the cupcake. Whatever their history, they are delicious and so satisfying. One minute you have these tiny piles of just-mixed stuff, the next you have a huge pile of macaroon-esque delights. Oh and this is a great way to use up leftover egg whites, instead of leaving them to rot in the fridge or the freezer. Continue reading →

Posted in Around My French Table, Biscuits and small cakes, David Lebovitz, Egg recipes, Ideas for leftovers, Ready for Dessert, The Cook Shelf | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Celeriac and apple soup and Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Louise

Although I am sure that a) if there was never another cookbook published, we would have plenty of recipes for several millennia, that, b) a bit like stories, there are only so many techniques and recipes that anyone can invent, use or need in a lifetime and finally, that c) most recipes are derivatives of others and simply repeats and reworks inspired by great predecessors (my own, obviously, included), I am still, eighty cookbooks down and counting, a complete sucker for a new one. My sister showed me her copy of Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook at Christmas and, although there is plenty in it I have seen before, there is plenty of new stuff too. I managed to resist buying it (January financial detox oblige…) but I ordered it from the library as soon as I could. And now I don’t want to give it back. Continue reading →

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I should be blogging about beef stew…

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Louise

…you know, the one I wanted to make with star anise? Well, I made it, ate it, adapted all my recipe ingredients for two, wrote all my notes ready for the blog and then, erm, I spent two days in bed with some stomach bug. I don’t think it was the stew, since I already felt a bit rubbish before I started cooking but do you know, although it was nice, it will be forever associated with illness which means it’s not going on the blog. In fact, right now, as I contemplate yet another bowl of plain, unseasoned steamed rice I hope I never see or taste a beef stew ever again. Give me tagine, pot au feu, any other foreign concoction that is a stew by any other name but not this. Forgive me stew-lovers but stew is now dead to me. As is most food. I hope to manage some soup later and to be back full of the joys of eating by tomorrow. And to think people pay for this sort of detox…

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