Dinner party: Sweet chilli tomato tarte tatin & Eton Mess

Returning from watching the Lions heroic effort in the first test against South Africa, a new element was added to the challenge today. About four pints before starting to cook. Measurements a little sloppy as a result.
The tarte tatin was pretty good. A savoury delight. There wasn't enough tomato sauce to cover everything. It didn't seem to matter. Buying puff pastry seemed to be cheating, but apparently it's very hard to do right. Speaking of which I tried my first ever hollondaise sauce (well a very quick variant courtesy of Delia) to make eggs benedicte for brunch this morning. Borderline disgusting, I think my hand must have slipped with the vinegar as it was tart to the point of making my mouth pucker as if I'd sucked a lemon. I'll have to look wider for recipes next time. Strangely compelling though and we polished it off with relish.

The main course was a repetition of the dish which kicked this whole thing off. The remarkable tuna with aubergine chutney. Again we barbecued the tuna steaks which gave them an absolutely glorious flavour. The chutney was just as good as before, sweet, with rich varieties of flavour from roasted pine nuts, coriander, muscavado sugar and raisins. I forgot to whip out the camera for this so it remains undocumented.


The eton mess was outrageous. I think I pulped everything too much to a powder rather than moderately crushing everything. Ainsley's variation on this classic features the absolutely inspired step of crumbling malteasers on top. The chocolate and malty crunchiness works brilliantly.

The dinner party guests who drove across from Sheffield to join us, paid the ultimate compliment of asking for the recipes. They can't have the book for a while yet. We've many more to make before this is over.

Chicken in a Pot with lemon and thyme dumplings

L: Oh my goodness my first time as a 'blogger' What do I write? What makes me sound interesting and witty? Well not a lot to be honest so I will just go for the facts and hopefully that will work out. To be honest I didn't think this was as much as a success as the previous recipes. The stock didn't reduce so was too liquidy and runny and the carrots were too crunchy for my liking. Probably because it was a meal from the 'meal in minutes' recipe book - it really needed to be stuck in an oven for an hour or so to really get the stock into the chicken and cook everything that little bit longer. Nevertheless the dumplings were pretty good if I may say so myself (having made them myself), and were rather tasty! Out of ten I would say maybe about a 6 or a 7. I will pass you on the masterchef himself......

J: I agree with L. The cooking time left the carrots and leeks distinctly al dente, which I personally love, but is not to everyone's taste. It was more like a very chunky broth, although that may have been down to lax measurements. The broth was sweet, probably as a result of the wine. The chicken itself was pretty bland. It'd make a good winter warmer dish or chicken soup to recover from illness with a few hours in the oven. Even though it's supposedly summer we both cycled home from our respective workplaces through the driving rain, and something comforting and fast seemed appropriate. The dumplings were indeed the highlight. Yummy doughy things with the taste of lemon and home-grown thyme poking through to the fore saying "Notice me!". Cooking time came in at well under the hour, but perhaps a bit longer would have helped matters. Mind you I'm not dissatisfied, in fact I'm full, contented, and very much looking forward to the leftovers tommorrow.
Washed down with a Cotleigh Buzzard dark ale from the real ale collection. Now that was beautiful. Warming, dark, sweet, with a satisfying bottle conditioned fizz. As close as a real ale ever gets to fizzy pop.

Stir Fried Ginger Pork with Squeaky Greens

J: There were options with this recipe. I chose to go for pak choi, green beans and spinach from the window box for the greens, and saki instead of sherry for the alcohol. I can't think of a use for sherry other than as a cleaning product anyway to be honest. I also did a variation on the stock, as there was a lot of fat and bone on the chops I bought I fried them off and boiled the offcuts up to get some of the flavour out. This worked out better than I'd imagined. Again Mr Harriot has discovered the secret of guaranteed successful cookery is too much fat. The recipe calls for multiple tablespoons of oil. I substituted those for little splashes to no detrimental effect.

All in all a great dish, ready in under the hour. I cycled 25 miles to work and back today so the protein from the pork was much appreciated. It comes out succulent and flavoursome, and even with just 15 minutes the meat is steeped in flavour. This works because of the combination of saki, soy sauce and sesame oil. In fact I find that a little dash of sesame oil can make something taste "authentic" to this style of cuisine in a way not much else can. An hour later the flavours are still hanging around in my mouth, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we get to devour the remainder.

I washed it down with a real ale from realale.com which my sister and her husband got me for christmas last year (Oakleaf Bitter from the Oakleaf Brewery in Gosport. Unexceptional, but would make a reasonable session ale for a night).
L: Subtle flavours, tasty meat, crunchy vegetables, a good choice.

J: She's so much more succint than me, but no less eloquent don't you think?
Sorry this blog isn't turning out to be more critical, but the food is genuinely great so far.

Squash and pinenut risotto with rocket pesto

We finished doing the play Amadeus last week so suddenly have a little more free time.
There was a butternut squash in the cupboard so this one was the obvious choice.





L: I am left with a deep feeling of satisfaction after eating this meal. Comfort food at its best. The risotto was enhanced by the squash so much so I want more - though my tummy won't allow it. A delicious meal prepared by my lovely boyfriend, only downside now is that I have to do the washing up! Damn need to be preparing the next meal me thinks...

J: Today it was my turn to cook as L. wrote up school reports for her class. I had the brainwave to bake some millionaire's shortbread too, but I may give that a miss tonight. What L. doesn't know is the extreme quantities of fat that this recipe demands. I can feel it solidifying in my guts right now. The recipe itself is a good one. The risotto is standard fare, but the other bits and pieces frame it beautifully. The rocket is bitter as hell. I think that bit didn't go 100% to plan as the parmesan I used was pretty old. Fresh ingredients next time I think. And less fat. No butter stirred in for instance. The bitterness was easily offset by the lovely sweet squash and dry roasted pinenuts. L. said the rice alone was bland - maybe because she was drinking a nice Pinot Grigiot with it which will have tempered the flavour. I ate it with a hearty Batemans Combined Harvest, which didn't detract. Eaten whilst listening to Götterdamerung. German music for a fake Italian dish.
Enough left over for lunch tomorrow. Time will tell whether it will congeal in the tupperware and come out on the fork in one block.

To begin with

Have you ever bought a recipe book? How about received one as a gift?
Did you use it?
I have a shelf full which sit there mournfully neglected. Covered in dust and the fine layer of grease which eventually coats uncleaned kitchen surfaces. A tragedy.
Now I love cooking, but I'm pretty time poor. I tend to belong to the fry random stuff school of cookery, seasoning to taste. I'm not bad at it, and the food I produce tastes pretty good to me, but it doesn't lead to the finest repertoire in the world. I was single for years and tended to either rush things to get out of the house or cook to impress my diabetic housemate. I now find myself in a lovely relationship, and we both enjoy a bit of good eating. We were pouring over the recipes books on her shelf one day looking for inspiration and we opened this one:

All New Meals in Minutes by Ainsley Harriott

I hardly watch any telly, but I'm vaguely aware of this guy from the pantheon of celebrity chefs. I've no idea about his style mind you.
Anyway, the girlfriend (hereafter known as L.) made the recipe from the book, Seared Tuna with Aubergine Chutney.
It was astounding. One of the nicest things I've ever tasted, in or out of a restaurant.
Flicking through the book, the whole lot looks pretty appealing. So we decided to methodically go through the book, making every last dish in it, as accurately as possible.
That's what this is all about. Hopefully this blog won't fall by the wayside like some I've attempted in the past...

By the way I don't have any commercial angle at all. I've never worked for the BBC, and I don't want this to turn into some kind of advert. I just thought it was a nice idea.