An Early Christmas with a Basque Twist

Before we left for America for Christmas, we had a Spanish workaway volunteer staying with us called Elias.  He was from the Basque country in the north of Spain and assisted us in stripping wallpaper and sanding doors in our new home.  In return we put him up, fed him and helped him to improve his English - a challenge for us at times!  (Try explaining the difference between a floors and stories after a long day at work!)

As Elias would be spending Christmas in a flat in London with his girlfriend who would fly over to join him, we decided to have an early Christmas dinner on his last Saturday with us.  We also asked him if he would like to cook something that he would traditionally have at home at Christmas.

While our contribution wasn't quite the full-fat, guns blazing, frills and bells that we would normally have at Christmas, we pulled off a lovely roast chicken dinner for our main.  I took the opportunity to make some progress with my challenge and pulled all of the Christmas recipe books off the shelf.

We started with a Champagne cocktail courtesy of the Ritz.  The 'Christmas Carol' put a decadent spin on the traditional Bucks Fizz with the addition of Grand Marnier and Fraise de Bordeuax (or Chambourd in my case).  The Ritz London Book of Christmas was also an interesting read, providing insight into the history of Christmas and its traditions, as well as painting an enticing picture of the holiday for guests of the Ritz (one day...!)

Our cocktails were accompanied with canapes - Vermouth Scallops with Green Olive Tapanade from Party Bites.  I really like this book.  I love canapes, so it was always going to be a winner!  From this book, I've previously made Caesar Salad Tartlets; Fillet Steak on Toast with Mustard and Rocket; Warm Spice-Rubbed Potatoes with Rosemary Mayonnaise; Butternut Sqush Hot Shots; Coconut and Cardamom Chicken; Manchego Marinated with Thyme and Jumiper; and Flash-Seared Tuna on Rye with Horseradish and Tarragon Cream.  Yep, that's right, you've missed some gooooooood parties!

Scallops and chorizo are a classic combo and the tapanade was a nice addition.  It was a bit heavy on the garlic, which is fine if you want a kick, but you may want to tone it down.

I then spruced up our roast dinner with Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing, a recipe for which I found in Marks and Spencer Christmas.  The stuffing was made with pork sausage meat, chestnut puree (which was quite hard to find - perhaps I should have tried M&S!), walnuts, dried apricots and sage.  It was really delicious and added an extra dimension to the dish.  Although we had it with chicken, I think it would work well with turkey and, of course, pork.

For dessert, Elias prepared stewed apples for us.  A tonne (not literally) of tart apples, red wine, sultanas and a couple of figs, stewed for about an hour (with the lid on) and then cooled.  Elias had made so much of it that he ate it for breakfast for the rest of the week.  He was a little disappointed that the apples had broken down so much, but it was a very refreshing dessert following a rich meal.  And it was nice to have a taste of the north of Spain to add bring another dimension to our Christmas dinner.

Spice Season (November Foodie Penpal)

As the weather turns colder and the festive season starts to kick in, winter spices are now getting busy tantalising our taste buds and warming our souls.

We currently have a 'workaway' guest staying with us, helping us make our new house our own in return for food and lodgings. Elias is from the north of Spain and has come to the UK to improve his English.

We took him to the launch of the Hungry Caterpillar Play Cafe this weekend and I introduced him to mulled wine, my own first of the year. There is nothing that announces Christmas quite like hot wine flavoured with cinnamon, star anis, nutmeg and orange.

And the season of spice does not stop there. Ginger bread, minced pies, pickles and chutneys, clove-studded ham, boozy fruit cake, egg nog...  I have even plunged into my Turkish Apple tea, purchased from the amazing Anteaques in Edinburgh.

Thanks to Daniella aka Madame Gourmand (my foodie penpal) I have a little extra spice in my life at the moment.  To keep me inspired by my diet during a month of indulgence, she has sent me cous cous and various pulses, along with a selection of spices from her cupboard, including cardamom, dried chilli and, my favourite, cumin seeds.  I see some tasty, filling dhals coming my way in the next few weeks!

Blogger On The Move + Foodie Penpals October

Wow!  It has been a long time since my last post.  A lot has happened in the month and a half since I last wrote.  Dave and I bought a house and the past weeks seem to have been full of packing, moving, unpacking (repeat).  Followed by endless cleaning.  And then, of course, the inevitable shuffling around of everything you have just put away punctuated by brief pauses while you wait for new storage solutions to arrive.

Seeing just what a state my kitchen is in, and just what little progress I have made with my Challenge, I have made the decision to extend the time in which to complete said Challenge.  Instead of the year I was going to take to cook at least one untried recipe from my collection of books, I am now going to take a year.  And as 2 years is such a long time, I am now lifting my ban on cook book purchases!  Hooray!

Our new home used to belong to a little old lady with eccentric tastes in colour coordination and an inexplicable strategy of buying the best, but not following through with the tiny extras that would make her changes perfect.  For example, she recently installed the best boiler on the market but decided against the wireless thermostat that would have cost her a fraction more.

She also seemed to be a fan of gas, which, when it comes to hobs, I can say I am also.  But it seems (following our electrician's investigations) that she gave up an electric oven for a gas one.  This has made things interesting!  I shall keep you postedon how me and the gas oven find our feet.

The whole moving saga was pleasantly interrupted recently by a delivery from my foodie penpal this month, Emma.  Emma has a lovely blog (Adventures of A London Kiwi), which currently has some amazing-looking Halloween Afternoon Tea pics.  She has obviously got into the Halloween spirit (get it?!), because I received a big bag of ghostly marshmallows in my package.  Dave came home a little bit merry that night that I opened my package and I offered him a one of the tasty treats, but he replied robustly that he didn't like ghostly marshmallows.  The next morning, spying the package, he exclaimed "ooo! yum!!", but I had to remind him that he left me in no doubt the night before about his feelings towards the ghostly marshmallows!

The rest of my package from Emma also contained different rices, spices and a big back of dried chillis (which Dave was also very enthusiastic about).  I cannot wait to get settled into my kitchen and start cooking properly again.  Dave and I had a glorious week of student-style takeaways during the move, but that was thankfully short-lived.  Fast food is not a lifestyle choice I want to make.


Dave has been doing a great job getting my kitchen into shape.  I have a shelf for my jars, a rack for my pans and a spice rack.  I also made a very happy discovery when emptying a box when I found holes in my block of steak knives that would allow to hang them up!  Living the dream peeps!

Boo To Boring BBQs

La Manga Club in the South East of Spain has, on average, 315 days of sunshine every year.  Of course, one of those unusual rainy days had to occur on my wedding-eve, creating short-lived panic and a thankfully unnecessary Plan B for the beach ceremony followed by garden reception.

The reason for this meteorological detour is to set out the Casson-family credentials when it comes to BBQing - of which we have done much in our many days of Spanish sunshine!  Standard fare includes salchicas blancas (white sausages), fatty pork ribs marinated in ketchup, mustard and beer, and citrus chicken wings, all served with mixed salad and rice with mushrooms and pineapple.  So, tasty and filling but not too complicated - you want to leave yourself time to chat with your friends!

There is a place for the basic British BBQ of supermarket sausages and burgers, plonked from packet onto grill, turned under cover of an umbrella.  But for every other occasion I would urge everyone to make the most of the handful of days sunny enough to break out the barbie and put the same love and care into your BBQ as you would with any other meal prepared for friends.

I would most certainly recommend pinchos, which you will remember from 'Meatballs: Albondigas, Almondegas and Koftas'.  My friends actually keep the marinated pork cubes in the freezer ready to whip out and thread onto skewers at the first sign of nice weather.

And there is no harm in marinading your chicken drumsticks and wings.  For example, toss them in lemon juice, thyme, garlic, honey and a little cumin.  I bake my chicken in the oven first and then finish them off on the BBQ to ensure they're properly cooked but get that smokey taste.  If you're feeling a little more adventurous, you could try my Mum's marinade recipe:

Orange and Honey Marinade

1 Orange
100ml White Wine
50ml Orange Juice
1tsp Honey
Pinch of Ground Gloves
1/4tsp Chilli Flakes
Salt & Pepper

1. Peel the zest of the orange and cut into thin strips.  Remove the pith and then roughly chop the orange.
2. Put the zest and orange into a pan with the white wine and orange juice.  Simmer until the orange is soft and the wine is reduced.
3. Remove from the heat and cool.  Take out the orange pieces, chop them up more finely then return to the pan.
4. Add the honey, ground cloves and chilli flakes.  Season to taste.

As part of my challenge, for a recent BBQ I had a flick through 'Barbecues: Over 80 Recipes for Alfresco Eating' to try something new.  It has lots of ideas for marinades, salads, meat and fish, but also desserts, which are almost always a little bit of an after thought for me.

That said, I make a mean barbecued pineapple.  Cut a pineapple into big chunks, keeping the skin on.  Marinate overnight (if possible) in rum and brown sugar, then caramelise on the BBQ.  Careful, they will be hot!

In this book, I found a great recipe for Veal Escalopes with Artichoke Paste that I never got to try on the BBQ.  The rain came down and all cooking was moved to the kitchen.

Instead of veal (which I couldn't find in Asda but know I could have got in Waitrose) I used pork steaks.  You batter these flat and then fill with mozzarella, prosciutto and a paste made from bottled artichokes and sun dried tomatoes.  Roll them up, secure with toothpicks and then whack on the BBQ (or in the oven).  I can also attest that this goes really well with pasta and a little tomato, onion and garlic sauce.

There are lots of other great recipes I want to try in this book, such as grilled thyme-marinated goat's cheese with walnut bread (wrapped in vine leaves), spiced swordfish with fennel and mint salad, and steak and feta burgers with sun-dried tomatoes.  But that will all have to wait until next year when the sun peeks out again!

Reims, Dijon and A Box of Foodie Penpals Goodies

Phew - it has been a busy few weeks! My  fiancé and I got the legal bits of our marriage out of the way last week in preparation for the main event next weekend in La Manga Club, Spain. The small ceremony in Blackpool Registry Office was followed by a lovely few days in the Lake District.

Currently I am in a 4x4 packed to the tip top of its roof box leaving Dijon on day 2 of a 3-day journey down to Murcia, on the south-east coast of Spain. I say 3-day, but the journey usually takes only 2 days. This time, however, Mum and Dad have surprised me and Dave with a few unexpected stops along the way. Yesterday, our journey ended far earlier than expected in Reims (pronounced (ish) Rance) and a tour and tasting at the fantastic Mumms champagne cellars.

Today, our detour took us to Dijon, where my parents had arranged for a mustard-making class which included a mustard tasting with charcuterie, terroir, cheese, bread and, interestingly, gingerbread.

The mustard we made is not the kind we are used to, being much more bitter. We used a pestle and mortar to grind our mustard seeds, but the technique used to remove the bitterness (soaking for 24 hours in water and wine) would have made this impossible.

Happily, my mustard was not the only mustard on offer at the tasting at La Cuisine de Madeleine. There were a vast array, ranging from the traditional Dijon to hazelnut and vanilla mustard.

I learned that the original Dijon mustard did not use vinegar but instead used a green grape juice traditional to the area called verjus, made from grapes unsuitable for wine-making. This gives the traditional mustard from the area a less acidic taste and allows the mustard flavour to come through.

After WWII, Paris decided to capitalise on the popularity of the Dijon mustard by usurping its name. A court case followed that did a disservice to mustard lovers around the world. The Dijon aspect of the mustard was determined to be a recipe, not a geographical locator and (here is where the disservice is done) this recipe was broadly mustard seeds (from anywhere), salt and, not just verjus, but potentially wine, vinegar, or lemon juice.

We've now left Dijon and are on our way to Clermont-Ferrand. And, with everyone else but the driver asleep, this gives me the perfect opportunity to update you all on my travels and gush about the wonderful foodie penpals parcel I received from the lovely Elyse (http://www.sweetelyseblog.com).

Having rushed around in a mad panic, frantically trying to get everything ready for Blackpool and the Lakes, and facing 2 days of mad panic frantically getting everything ready for Spain, it really was fantastic to be greeted home by a package overflowing with goodies.

As you can see, my pack included popcorn, miso soup, olives, posh rice pudding, a bulgar wheat snack pot and a maple syrup recipe book!

Of course, I had to leave almost all of it behind to try upon my return in a fortnight, but I have taken the popcorn with me as a suitable pre-wedding travel snack. Hopefully, its claims of skinnyness will counteract the vast quantities of cheese, meat, bread and wine I have been consuming through France and undoubtedly will through Spain. I have literally no will-power when it comes to tasty food!

I would also like to say a special thank you to Elyse's little boy who insisted I must have something sweet, even if I am a savoury person. This meant the inclusion of a mixed bag of sweets, snack bars and drinks that Dave has his eye on!

I am very pleased with my package and I hope Julie is with the one I sent to her. While not as jam-packed as the one I received, I sent a few quality items, including an exceptional chorizo for which I also provided a recipe and some other serving suggestions.

With all the excitement of the wedding, I am abstaining from Foodie Penpals next month, but aim to bring back a whole bunch of tasty goodies for my penpal in October!

Marrow Marathon and Other Vegetarian Adventures

A few weeks ago, in attempt to be healthy, save money and further progress on the Challenge, I drew up a predominantly vegetarian menu, about which I intended to blog.  However, that weekend, events overtook themselves and I became the proud recipient of a generous supply of courgettes.

Thus, we entered Week 2 of predominantly vegetarian dinners.  It really is amazing how much you can do with a courgette - one of my all time favourite vegetables.  As I made so many dishes to blog about over the last fortnight, I am going to take a quick-look approach to this blog, with an array of pictures to peak your appetite.

Marrow Marathon

Mushroom & Courgette Risotto - Once you've got your head round a basic white risotto, you can really do anything you want to it.  I got my basic recipe from Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie's Italy'.  It involves making a sofrito of garlic, onions and celery, adding the rice and cooking dry for a few minutes.  Then add a glass of white wine and allow the risotto to absorb it while stirring.  Continue this process with ladlefuls of stock until the rice is cooked then chuck in some butter and parmesan.  For this risotto, I rehydrated some dried mushrooms (courtesy of my Lithuanian foodie penpal!) and used the liquid as stock for the risotto.

Top tip: keep your stock warm while you're waiting to add it.  This will ensure the process doesn't take longer than necessary.

Marinated Courgette with Mozzarella & Garlic Flatbread - The marinated courgette with mozzarella and flatbread recipes are from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage Veg Every Day'.  This book is actually amazing.  So far this is the only book that I had bought and not got round to taking for a spin.  And boy was I missing out!  It took me hours to pick which recipes to cook because there were so many that I wanted to try.  I could do a whole year alone cooking from this book.

Tommaso's Penne with Zucchini - This recipe is from 'The New York Cook Book' by Molly O'Neill - hence the alternative vocabulary.  This is unique in that it is like a scrap book, full of stories and pictures.  The author, a food columnist for The New York Times Magazine, spent 5 years collecting and collating recipes from friends and restaurants all around New York, so is eclectic and cosmopolitan, much like the city of its birth.  I find it a touch difficult to use, but every now and then I flick through it and pick a recipe.  There's always something nice in cooking a dish and knowing a little bit of background to its creation or how others like to enjoy it.  With this recipe, there was a double page spread describing the bumper crop of zucchinis in the Italian communities in New York.  It painted a lovely picture and I forgave the prosciutto to include it in my veggie fortnight.

Pinto Bean Chilli - Another contribution from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's fabulous 'River Cottage Veg Every Day'.  I don't have any pics of this, but I can tell you that it was delicious!

Tahini-Dressed Courgette and Green Bean Salad - Yet another contribution from HFW.  I took this along to a BBQ and it went down a treat!

Meredith's Zucchini Bread - Think banana nut bread, but with courgettes instead.  This recipe is from Rachel Allen's 'Bake'.  You can eat it like cake, or toast it and spread it with butter.

Baby Courgettes and Chanterelles with Basil - A recipe that I adapted from Valentine Warner's 'What To Eat Now More Please!'.  Whereas his first 'What To Eat Now' book focused on Autumn recipes, his second book is packed full of Spring and Summer recipes.  His courgettes and chanterelles was meant as a simple supper for one, to be accompanied with a glass of wine.  I jazzed mine up with a bit of blue cheese, and bulked it up with a small amount of pasta, but kept the wine!

Other Vegetarian Adventures

Stuffed Squash with Leeks - A HFW recipe.  I couldn't find any little round squash like in the picture in his book, so stuffed half a butternut squash instead.

Warm Salad of Mushrooms and Roasted Squash - HFW again.

Roasted Baby Beetroot with Walnuts and Yoghurt Dressing - And my final HFW.  Although this was a veggie dish, I served it with a smattering of smoked trout, which goes really well with beetroot.

Thyme, Onion & Gruyere Tart - This recipe is from Simon Hopkinson's 'The Vegetarian Option'.  I was a bit deflated when this book arrived through the post.  The dishes seemed very simple and less aimed at vegetarians and more a celebration of a particular vegetable.  The book is divided into sections, such as 'Leek and Onions', 'Fennel and Celery' and 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme' (from which this recipe comes).  Upon further revisits, I feel that the book is growing on me.  It has some interesting little recipes that may just be that je-ne-sais-quoi element that you were looking for.

A point to note, the cooking times are dotted throughout the method.  I had a quick once over of the recipe earlier in the day and missed about 1 hour of cooking time.  We had a very late dinner!

Fresh Strawberry Champagne Cocktails - Pureed strawberries and mint.  Topped up with Champagne.  Simples!

A Box of Bites from the Baltic

This is my first month of Foodie Penpals run by a fellow foodie blogger and I was so excited about it!  The idea is simple.  You are given a person to put together a £10 box of goodies for, and someone else is given you to do the same.  On this occasion, I was paired with the same person, but that won't always be the case.  And you must include something written as part of your package - a note, a recipe, a poem...

My penpal this month was Lina from Lithuania.  After a brief email exchange to check out likes, dislikes, dietary requirements etc, I learned that Lina loves chocolate, but is on a health food kick at the moment, so no processed foods for her!  She loves tea and coffee and enjoys baking.  But she was really happy to receive anything new and interesting.

I wanted to put together a box of local ingredients for Lina, but being new to Bristol I had to go on a bit of a discovery mission myself, both in terms of local gastronomy and shops at which to spend my £10.  This general part of the country is big on apples and cider.  But other than that, and with the limitations of sending perishables to Eastern Europe, I found myself a little stumped, particularly as I am a savoury rather than sweet kind of person.

Still, I think I put together an interesting little box.  I found dried apples, local chocolate and regional cider in the Southville Deli, a local health food shop and cafe.  And then I topped the box up with some pretty cupcake cases and a bottle of maple syrup - because you can do so much with maple syrup!

Along with the box, I sent Lina a postcard with the famous Bristol hot air balloons with a little explanation of all the items in the box and a few suggestions on how to use the maple syrup and cider.  I also sent her a recipe for Apple Cider Cake with Marscapone from the BBC Food website, so that she could use the ingredients for some baking.

It's all sounding pretty great, right?  Well, Lina put me to shame.  She asked me what I liked, and I told her that I liked savoury things, and was really willing to try anything and everything.  With such a vast range of possibilities, she asked me to narrow it down a little for her and let her know what my favourite things were.  That's easy.  Cheese.  And cured meats.  I'd die happy if that were my last meal.

My box from Lina contained a variety of cheeses, meats and spices, including:
Dvaro (a dried curd cheese);
Su Kmynais (a smoked goats cheese);
Shashlik spice (onion, mustard, paprika, black pepper, tomato, basilica, oregano, thyme, marjoram, chilli & parsley);
Lizdeikos (a cured beef sausage); and
Baravykai (dried boletus - a type of mushroom)

Thankfully, Lina had put little notes on all of the items so that I knew what they were and the ingredients.  I have been nibbling at the cheese and meat (to make it last longer!).  And last night I used the spice mixture on some lamb kebabs - Lina recommended that I use the spice on something cooked over fire.  Well, it wasn't quite fire, but I did use a griddle pan...  I made a minty tzatziki and a tomato, red spring onion and oregano salad with balsamic dressing to load up the wraps before adding the spiced lamb.  It was a fab summer dinner.

Lamb Kebabs with Shashlik from Lithuania

With such an amazing introduction to Lithuania, I need to get myself over there - well, when all the studying, marrying, buying a house etc is finished with!  I can't wait for next month of my penpal experience.

Buckfast: Sherry's Misunderstood Cousin

Having lived in Scotland for 11 years, I am very familiar with Buckfast Tonic Wine (or Buckie as we affectionately call it) - its easily identifiable retro yellow label; its sweet, sparkly taste; and its reputation as the cause of ALL Scottish anti-social behaviour.

The argument in favour of Buckfast is a difficult one to win.  Politicians like to be able to identify an easy solution to problems such as anti-social behaviour, and have so turned on Buckfast Tonic Wine, branding it as the inciter of Scotland's youth crime.  They have cited its high alcohol content coupled with excessive levels of caffeine as the reason for singling out Buckfast over other alcoholic drinks.  And, damningly, they present evidence to show the association between Buckfast and crime.

And yet this scourge of Scotland has a holy beginning.  The Benedictine monks at the Buckfast Abbey in Devon have produced this fortified wine, similar to sherry, madeira or port, based on an ancient French recipe for over 100 years.

I recently met Stewart Wilson, who has now taken over from his father, Jim Wilson, as spokesperson for J Chandler & Co, the distributors of Buckfast.  While obviously recognising that his support of Buckfast was likely to be somewhat biased, he made very clear, coherent and persuasive arguments in favour of the vilified wine.

For example, while Buckfast has been mentioned by name in 5,638 crime reports between 2006 and 2009, he points out that police specifically target drinkers of Buckfast, automatically inflating the figures.  Furthermore, when making their reports, police have the brand-name Buckfast as its own little tick-box, while using generic tick-boxes for other types of alcohol.  So, for drinkers of Glen's vodka (one of the cheapest vodka's on the market), they tick 'vodka', thus not subjecting Glen's to the same scrutiny as Buckfast.

As far as its alcohol and caffeine content go, Buckfast in the UK contains 15% alcohol - pretty standard for a bottle of wine.  A quick scout around the house shows that my port contains 20% and the bottle of Voigner in the fridge contains 13.5%.  By comparison, vodka in Europe must contain a minimum of 37.5% alcohol to be classed as vodka.  As for caffeine, Buckfast in the UK contains 37.5mg per 100ml, which is deemed to be equivalent to the caffeine content of black tea.

Of course, if you drink 750ml of black tea (about 3 cups) of tea in one go, then I don't imagine you're going to feel that great, but it does put the argument into perspective.  If I drink a bottle of wine and 3 cups of tea, I am not going to then go off and commit crime - there are obviously more complex issues at play here.

And that is assuming I drink the whole lot myself.  What usually happens with young people drinking Buckfast is that they club together to buy a bottle between 3 or 4 of them, meaning they drink 1/3 a bottle of wine (2 small glasses) and a cup of tea in an evening.  No more (and probably substantially less) than I would drink myself at a dinner party with friends.

All of this controversy will, I'm sure, be completely alien to readers living in England or the US, where Buckfast does not have the infamy that it does in Scotland.  In fact, Buckfast is developing a high-end reputation across the UK.  At the end of the day, it is a fortified wine, comparable with sherry and port, that is sweet with a light finish.

Because of the sweetness, it is also ideal for some imaginative cookery.  At the Bristol Foodies Festival, where I met Stewart Wilson, we tried a brownie where the sugar had been replaced with Buckfast that was really delicious.  Well, it should have been!  It was created by Michelin-starred chef Martin Blunos.  In fact, the celebrity chef has created a number of other dishes using Buckfast, including Mulled Pears and Boeuf Bourguinon.  And he is not alone in using the interesting ingredient in chefy creations.  I have certainly seen Buckfast ice cream and sorbets on menus and can imagine slow-cooking pork in Buckfast would produce as delicious a result as it does when cooked in cola.

I had intended to give you some Buckfast recipes in this post, but I find that I have gone on quite a bit about the background.  I shall, instead, save them for a second post about this misunderstood beverage.

As a final point, I would just say that I am by no means dismissing the obviously problematic relationship that Scotland and the rest of the UK has with alcohol.  I simply mean to suggest that the issue has deeper roots than the young person's choice of drink.

Guacamole! Ole!

I didn't really have a more imaginative title for this post.  As you will see, it is a short wee thing about that amazing South American dip and a pig.  And I shall start with the pig...

I had been wanting a salt pig for a while when it dawned on me that my pig should look like a pig too!  I found one that I liked and mum duly obliged at Christmas.  My piggy is cute as a button, but it turns out that he is a salsa pig, not a salt pig.  And you can't keep salt in a salsa pig!  I have tried to find a link for you, but I can only find a double salsa pig - well, if you're going to make one salsa, why not two?

The first opportunity that I have had to use my pig appeared this week, when I joined Dave and his colleagues for a work rounders and BBQ evening - which was really good fun.  I had a couple of ripe avocados and thought guacamole would be just the thing to take along.

My recipe for guacamole is a bit transient - it depends on what I have to hand, what we're having it with and what I fancy.  But before I give you my bare bones of the recipe, I shall tell you a little bit about its origins.

Mole is the Aztec word for sauce.  So, it was an almond sauce (mole) that went with Thomasina Miers' chicken and chorizo.  The Spanish for avocado is aguacate, which also derives from the Aztec language, so there you go - guaca (avocado) mole (sauce).

I have also recently learned that avocado is also a good alternative to butter to spread on bread.  It was the Spanish and other Europeans that brought cows to America, so before this there was no butter.  "Poor-man's Butter" (Mantequilla de Pobre) is a spread made of avocado, tomato, oil and lemon juice - although, if they knew the price of avocados here, they would probably need to rethink the name!!

And so to the guacamole...

Ingredients
2 ripe avocados
3 small tomatoes
1 fat clove of garlic
1 lime
Fresh coriander
Salt
1/4 tsp cumin
Olive oil

Crush the garlic in a pestle and mortar with a little salt.  This is extremely satisfying.  The salt draws out all the water and it makes a great paste. (Alternatively, just crush the garlic into a bowl in sprinkle in some salt).

Dice the avocado roughly and mix with the garlic paste.  Crush the avocado with the back of a fork so that it breaks up.  Personally, I prefer my salsa chunky, so don't squash the avocado too much.

Put your tomatoes in a bowl or cup and cover with boiling water.  30 seconds later, (carefully!) remove the tomatoes and the skin should peel away easily.  Discard the skin and chop the tomato.  Add this to the avocado mix.  Again, do some mushing, but don't be too keen.

Squeeze in the juice of half the lime, add a good handful of chopped coriander and sprinkle in the cumin.  Then taste.  This is important.  Decide if you like how it tastes, or if you want more lime, coriander, cumin or salt.

Stir through a glug of olive oil to loosen it up and your guacamole is ready.

Sometimes I also add onion for a bit of bite.  And I've read you could also add yogurt.  You might also like to add a pinch of paprika or some chilli to spice it up.  Get creative!

A Caribbean Staycation in Berkshire

I am currently on my own in the middle of a 3 week stay in rural Berkshire, looking after the family dogs while the rest of the family is away.  The countryside is beautiful, the weather is as good as its going to get, and its always nice for a change of scenery, but there is not much going on here.  The three closest pubs to the isolated cottage have recently closed down and my farming friends have embarked upon silly season in preparation for harvest.

Me and my brother, Tim in St Vincent and the Grenadines

With the upcoming wedding putting the kibosh on summer holiday abroad, I did the next best thing, and brought the summer holiday to me!  Having spent many summers (and a Christmas) exploring the Caribbean by boat, nothing says holiday to me like a warm salty breeze, rum punch and the fresh, zingy flavours of the islands.

So to holiday-up my stacation, I took with me my Levi Roots 'Food with Friends' cook book.  In retrospect, considering I am on my own, bringing a book aimed at "making fabulicious food for your mates and family and getting the island vibe around the table" was not really the appropriate medium for my first spin of this book, but at least it gave me a chance to try some of the recipes out first.

I picked 5 recipes from the book.  Despite only cooking for one, the shopping bill wasn't too high because there are some key ingredients in Levi's cooking, including limes, ginger, chilli, demerara sugar, thyme and allspice, which meant I did not have to buy lots of different ingredients that I would use once and waste the rest.

My dinners this week have included Calypso Pork Chops with Roots' Rice; Okra, Cashew and Tofu Stir-fry (with prawns instead of tofu, because no matter how hard I try, I am just not a tofu person); Lime & Thyme Lamb Chops; Lime-Escovitched Sea Bream with Tiger Prawns; and his Sunshine Kit Cooking Sauce.

Lime-Escovitched Sea Bream with Tiger Prawns

Every dish was really delicious.  The balance of ingredients managed to achieve both depth and lightness of flavour at the same time.  I would really recommend that you buy this book.  There are so many more recipes that I want to try from it, including the Crispy Corn Bread, Cuban Roast Pork and Lamb with Cherry and Rum Sauce.  The only thing I would say is that the recipes' cooking times didn't work for me - but I think that was because I was quartering the recipes and thus needed to make adjustments to the times.

Obviously, with copy right laws and the fact that I firmly believe you should go out and buy this book, I can't divulge any of these recipes to you.  However, I can share two of my own.

Firstly, Levi's book inspired a south american style salad.  I used some of his core ingredients, including thyme, chilli and ginger, and added cumin and paprika to season chunks of squash.  I then roasted these in the oven at 200C for 35 minutes with olive oil and maple syrup (instead of demerara).  Once cooked, I added the warm squash to a mixed salad of spinach, peppers, tomatoes, capers and lots of avocado.  The creaminess of the avocado made for a great balance with the caramelised, spicy squash.

As I said, I made Levi's Sunshine Kit Cooking Sauce, which was a tomato based sauce with chilli and lime and other herbs, spices and seasoning.  The Sunshine Kit is made up of Levi's core Caribbean cooking ingredients - see his very short video.  Using just 2 or 3 of these ingredients will give a Caribbean flavour to your cooking.  Levi recommends using the sauce in a Bolognese sauce or in a chow mein (recipes for both are within the book) to give an island slant to our regular go-to recipes.

Sunshine Kit Cooking Sauce

I did just that, except with my own Bolognese recipe - or rather, that of my Grandpa Mickey.  I also then used the sauce for a marinade for chicken wings and ribs to take advantage of the hottest day of the year so far!

Grandpa Mickey and Grandma Pat
Note the cigarette in Grandma's hand, located
very closely to the exposed engine!

Grandpa Mickey's Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients
1tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1kg lean beef mince
3tsp salt
ground black pepper
4 tins whole plum tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 pinch sugar
2tsp oregano
3 bay leaves
1 tin button mushrooms, halved
1 tin pitted black olives

1. Soften the chopped onions, celery and garlic in the olive oil.  Add the minced beef and cook until brown.

2. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, pepper, sugar, oregano and bay leaves.  Adjust the seasoning according to your tastes.  Then add the mushrooms and olives (I tried to leave the olives out once, and the sauce just didn't taste the same.  Even if you don't eat the olives themselves, make sure they're in and giving body to the sauce!)

3. Turn the heat down so that the sauce simmers, then place the lid on the pan and leave to cook for as many hours as you can - at least 1 hour, but 4 hours is better!  Keep checking on the sauce, stirring it and adding water and adjusting seasoning if necessary.

Cooking the sauce for so long will ensure that the meat breaks down and is fully integrated.  In fact, just as you rest a steak or other meat after you've cooked it to allow the fibres to relax and take in the juices, the same principle applies with the Bolognese sauce.  This is why the heated up left-overs always taste better.

This recipe makes enough for about 8-10 servings - so plenty to stock up the freezer.

Adding about 4tbsp of Levi Root's Sunshine Kit Cooking Sauce gave the Bolognese a little bit of heat and a fruity zing.  I've gone so far beyond authentic now, that Italians will be queuing up with an EU petition against me calling the sauce Bolognese, so I've renamed it Caribbese.  A spag carib ('spag cab' if said quickly) is a great addition to my weekday staples!

Making My Wedding Cake Part 1

Never one to do things by half, I am actually having 2 weddings this year.  The official legal stuff is happening in Blackpool (where my Grandma lives) at the end of August and then it's off to Spain for the ceremony and breakfast at the beginning of September.

The original plan was to have one wedding cake, this would be for the Spanish event.  But two factors have brought us to the decision that we should also have a cake in Blackpool.  Firstly, my Grandma is unaware of the wedding in Spain and the wedding in Blackpool is as much for her as it is for us, so should mirror a normal wedding as much as possible.  I shall have a dress, Dave will have a chance to wear his kilt (because it will be too hot in Spain for the kilt), we're having a small party afterwards and now we're having a cake!

Secondly, Spanish cake is quite different to British cake.  In Spain, the cakes are sopping with syrup or booze and come served with fresh fruit and cream.  There are, of course, British cake-makers living in Spain, though unfortunately not close enough for us.  We were, however, lucky enough to find a Spanish-American lady who makes the beautiful tiered wedding cakes that we love, but she is not au fait with the traditional fruit cake.  Therefore, to have the kind of wedding cake that you can freeze until the birth of your first born, we need to make it ourselves.

For our fruit cake, I used a great Waitrose recipe that I've used for a number of Christmases now.  It is always moist, packed full of truit and tastes fantastic.  But, you have to start early because it regular feeding with booze.  In fact, when I get back from the wedding in Spain I shall probably need to start the Christmas cake!

The recipe calls for the cake to be fed every few weeks with Drambuie.  I have chosen to feed mine with Amaretto.  It's my wedding, I can do what I want!  I intend to spread cherry jam on the cake before icing it to achieve a cherry-almond flavour, which is a delicious combination.

The next challenge will be decorating the cakes (with the help of one of my many cook books!)  But I won't have to do that until a few days before the August wedding - because I like to make things easy for myself.

Meatballs: Albondigas, Almondegas and Koftas

The first time I tasted a meatball was at school in Spain.  Ironically, the meatballs were not actually Spanish albondigas (with a b), but Portuguese almondegas (with an m).

My brother, Tim,  and I went to a very small American international primary school (there were 4 people in my class).  One year we were set a project to write a report on a particular country each and this culminated in a presentation.  Tim had chosen to learn about Portugal and, as part of his presentation, wanted to serve national cuisine.

Mum has this amazing set of Reader's Digest cookery encyclopedias, which I believe was built up letter by letter over (I assume) 26 months.  The set contains recipes as well as being a resource in the traditional encyclopedic style.  If you were to look up a country, the books gave recipes for 2-3 traditional dishes for you to try, one of which under Portugal was the almondegas that Tim chose.  As with most Iberian dishes, the ingredients are few, but the flavours are full.  Other than minced beef, tomatoes, onions and garlic, I believe that the only other seasoning it called for was oregano.

As part of my Challenge, I revisited Iberian meatballs in the form of Spanish albondigas from my Tapas Cookbook.  This recipe called for lamb, but was made in a similar way to the Portuguese almondegas.  The meatball mixture contained minced lamb, breadcrumbs, eggs, garlic, nutmeg and seasoning.  The sauce contained onions, green peppers tomatoes and garlic.

As the base for my sauce started to cook, it occurred to me that I should reevaluate my disparaging attitude towards what I saw as the sweet red pepper's poorer cousin.  As the aroma of cooked green peppers filled the kitchen, I was suddenly transported back to a small tapas bar in a village near our home in Murcia, and I decided it would, in fact, be Spanish food that would be the poorer without the bitter balance that the green pepper offers.

While I am talking about the Tapas Cookbook I thoroughly recommend this book on the strength of one recipe alone.  The 'pinchitos morunos' (small Moorish kebabs) are happily authentic and very popular at summer BBQs.  When we lived in Andalucia, the summers were full of 'ferias', progressing through the villages.  Local flamenco competitions, live music, the ubiquitous fairground rides and games, and food stalls.  A particular favourite of mine was the open grills at which north Africans would cook rows of 3 inch kebabs, turning them 10 at a time, with the smell of garlic and warm spices filling the night air.

Pinchitos Morunos on the Griddle
I appreciate the irony of the only food picture in this piece on meatballs being of kebabs - what can you do?!

Back to my meatballs...

Both the recipe from this book and the Portuguese recipe from 20 years ago followed the same technique for cooking the meatballs.  First make your meatball mixture.  Breadcrumbs are vitally important in ensuring the balls hold together, and don't forget to season the meat as well as the sauce.  Form the meat into balls, roll in flour (which will also help to thicken the sauce), and set aside, ready to cook.  It takes longer than you think to make about 30 meatballs from 1kg of meat, so it is best to do it in advance, otherwise your sauce is likely to burn while you're still making spheres between the palms of your hands.

Soften the onion and pepper in the pan, then add the meatballs, and brown on all sides.  When this is done, add the tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic, stock, red wine and seasoning, and then simmer for 40 minutes.  The albondigas will be melt-in-your-mouth and the sauce will be thick and rich.  Serve 2-3 meatballs as a tapa with a hunk of bread to mop up the sauce.

You'll find, particularly with lamb-based meatballs, that this way of cooking meatballs can make a fatty sauce.  While fat does mean flavour, if you want to be healthy, you can bake the meatballs in the oven, allowing the fat to run off before you add the balls to the sauce.  With lamb koftas, as the meat has a strong flavour to start with, this does not undermine the dish at all.

The final recipe that I would recommend for meatballs is a low-fat Greek-style kofta, cooked precisely in this way.  I discovered it in my pink 'Cook Yourself Thin' book (which you will remember from The Trial of a Tiny Fridge).  The meatball mixture is made up of minced lamb, fat-free Greek yoghurt, cumin, ginger, chilli and chopped cooked spinach.  It is key to squeeze all of the water out of the cooked spinach before adding it to the mixture, but be careful to wait for it to cool down so that you don't burn your fingers!

Once the koftas have been baked, add them to a tomato sauce that you've been cooking down and serve with a fresh salad, rice or pasta.  While this is meant to be a skinny recipe, I would hazard that a bit of feta would be lovely in these koftas!

So far I have cooked Spanish, Portuguese and Greek meatballs.  But across Europe each country seems to have its own national recipe.  I shall have to work myself across the continent, trying out Swedish meatballs with gravy, deep fried Polish meatballs, big fat Italian meatballs in soup or Finish reindeer meatballs with jam and pickled cucumber.  I shall keep you posted!

From Blackpool to Bondi

As it is Father's Day this weekend, it seemed only fitting to tell you all about my Dad and his evolution from a meat-and-two-veg northerner, to a card-carrying connoisseur of international cuisine.  In fact, such was the fervour of his development that he even managed to bring my Grandma and Grandpa along with him.  Grandma's eating out treat is always Chinese (or Thai - she's not quite that discerning!) and Grandpa moved on leaps and bounds from the days where he turned his nose up at Camel steaks.

The stages of my father's progression can be measured by reference to how he has liked his steak cooked.  When I was really young he would only eat a steak if it was a dreary well-done.  He has since learned that this is a sure way to waste a good piece of meat.  Mum worked hard on him at the beginning and got him down to medium-well and he himself made the last few steps to medium-rare.  He's not quite on the same page as the rest of the family, who prefer our steaks mooing, but he is not shy of carpaccio or steak tartare, indicating that medium-rare is an informed choice and not something he has been bull-ied into (Ha ha!! A pun!).

Mum has told me some classic stories from the early years.  Like the time he tried to woo her with corned beef hash made from gelatinous tinned corned beef, baked beans and an onion.  Luckily for me and my brother, mum forgave him this inexperienced attempt to impress.

Dad also naively fell for a colleague's 'magic' cheese on toast recipe.  The principle was that you grilled one side of the bread, flipped it over, put the tomato on the bread, followed by cheese, then turned the grill off.  This 'magically' gave you the perfect cheese and tomato on toast, with slow cooked tomatoes and perfectly melted cheese.

Of course, experience tells us that a turned-off grill is never going to melt cheese.  What his colleague actually did was sneak back into the kitchen and turn the grill on again to finish the toast off.  So when Dad, not having been let in on the joke, tried to make 'magic' cheese on toast for some friends, he presented them with half cooked bread, cold tomatoes and sweaty cheese.

Things started to change when we moved to Spain, where an appreciation of good food vanquished his traditional British sensitivities.  At first, he was reluctant to order fish for fear it would be served with its head still on and he was horrified by chipirones (a tangle of tiny baby squid legs).  But, within no time, he was ordering whole fish baked in salt and tearing heads off prawns.  Now his favourite dinner is sushi and together Dad and I have tried kangeroo in Australia, king crab in Malaysia, oysters in Scotland and, unfortunately, grits in America.


As well as exploring food around the world, Dad is a keen cook.  So much so that he has actually become quite possessive of the kitchen!  We have traced this enthusiasm back to a book Dad had bought called Dinner with Juliet.  Of course, the beautiful, blonde Juliet Lawrence Wilson on the front cover will have had nothing to do with it!  Instead it was the impressive duck and beef recipes from Juliet's Stockbridge Restaurant in Edinburgh that sparked his interest.

Dad's signature dishes include pork in a whisky cream sauce, tilapia baked with a  herb crust and, of course, our traditional kedgeree breakfast on Christmas morning.  He is also fond of trios (or triages as he calls them - though they rarely are!)  For example, a trio of salmon will often include smoked salmon, salmon tartare with a mango and tomato salsa, and salmon poached in orange juice with an orange mayonnaise.

And anyone who has come over for dinner will tell you that Dad makes a killer cocktail.  From Martinis to Cosmopolitans, and Brandy Alexanders to Egg Nog at Christmas, Dad makes them all!  Most recently he introduced me to a sake, ponzu and chopped spring onion cocktail with a prawn garnish.  An odd combination, but really delicious!

As inevitably happens 3 times a year, I am stuck with the question of what to get for a man who has everything for Father's Day.  But this year, in recognition of his culinary progress, I've picked a cookery book for him: the Pitt Cue Co Cookbook.  Living in America, Dad is experiencing BBQ big time - I even sent him to the BBQ festival in Atlanta for his birthday last year.  This book is full of British-style BBQ recipes and cocktails to match.  The Pitt Cue Co restaurant itself seems to be very mysterious - they are too small to take reservations; serve BBQ, Bourbon and Beer in Soho; and facebook tells me that they try harder every day.  But there are rave reviews for the food and cocktails at the restaurant and also for the book itself.  Seems like a winner!!  Happy Father's Day Dad!

Quite Interesting Facts About Fruit

It has occurred to me that, if I am not careful, my Challenge posts will simply become a record of my weekly meals.  While I am sure some nutritionist somewhere will be thrilled to read such a detailed journal, and centuries from now historians may hold it up as an exquisite insight into the early 21st century diet, I am quite confidant that my readership (at least those who I want to be reading my blog) are not in the least bit interested.

I am therefore adopting a slightly new approach to my blog and have decided to make sure I apply a liberal helping of anecdote within and as well as my Challenge posts.  Starting with this piece about fruit.

This adapted approach to my blog coincided with an interesting fact that I learned about tomatoes last week.  Couple that with another interesting thing that I know about pineapples and the fact that last week's Challenge recipe involved oranges, fruit was really the obvious choice.

A Quite Interesting Fact About Tomatoes

Ever since my first science project at school on 'botanist fruits' I have been able to declare with confidence that a tomato is a fruit. In overly simplistic terms, this is because tomatoes have seeds, and seeds are what differentiate a fruit from a vegetable.  So are other 'vegetables' like courgettes (zucchinis for my American friends), which wikipedia tells me are "the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower."

I have since discovered, however, that there is another twist in this tale of scientific classification, which is the legal position of the tomato.  (This is where I become particularly pleased with myself because I am meant to be revising for my law exams and I have managed to combine blogging with revision - albeit nothing that I will be examined on.)

In 1893, the United States Supreme Court confirmed, contrary to science, that a tomato was a vegetable (Nix v Hedden).  The reason for the decision centred around the fact that tomatoes are more often used as a main course than a dessert.  Considering we often have fruit in main courses (see my previous post relating to orange-glazed duck breast) and vegetables in our desserts (see Martha Stewart's Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake), the reasoning seems somewhat outdated.

But, as with all things, it came down to money.  The reason why the classification was so important was that, at the time, tax was payable on imported vegetables not fruit.  Very much like the Jaffa Cake saga of 1991 when the Jaffa Cake was classed as a cake and therefore not liable for VAT.  Apparently, the Jaffa cake was assessed on 11 different criteria, including its consistency when stale and its attractiveness to children.

It is comforting to know that my future career and my gastronomic enthusiasm have realms over overlap!

A Quite Interesting Fact About Pineapples

Going back to my original point about identifying fruit from the presence of seeds, it struck me one day that I had never seen a pineapple seed, and I started to panic.  Could it be that the botanists are wrong?  Or is a pineapple in fact a vegetable?

I need not have worried.  Pineapples do, indeed, have seeds.  But we have never seen them because the pineapples with seeds allegedly don't taste as good as the seedless ones.  Much like grapes, I suppose - although seedless grapes are more about convenience than taste.

In carrying out my research I learned that a pineapple is a 'multiple fruit' and is actually a collection of berries.  So each of those wee knobbly bits on a pineapple is an individual piece of fruit.  I also discovered that the scientific word for pineapple, 'ananas', comes from the Tupi word nanas meaning excellent fruit - which is very fitting, and I think quite interesting!

And there we have it.  2 quite interesting facts about fruit.

Washing Up - The Sign Of A Cook That Cares

As it is meant to be bordering on summer, I flicked through my Marks & Spencer 'Easy Summer Food' for a suitably anticipatory supper and the subject of my next Challenge task.  This book is full of simple ideas for sunny days (paraphrased from the front cover) - over 100 recipes to be precise.  I would have found you a picture and link, but it seems the book is no longer on sale...  Which is a shame, because it really is full of good ideas.

Anyway, back to the Challenge...

Treating myself, I picked a duck breast recipe.  Whenever I have duck, I'm usually so excited about that decadent crispy skin and soft pink meat, that I can't bear to have it any other way than au naturale - i.e. sauce-less.  The book, however, called for a refreshing summer glaze of freshly squeezed orange juice, Chinese 5 spice, maple syrup and soy sauce.  And I can confidently say it was worth the deviation from my norm!  The balance of the flavours in the glaze was perfect and it was a lovely complement to the duck.

It was really very simple.  I mixed the ingredients for the glaze together, slashed the skin on the duck breasts and put them in the sauce, leaving them to marinate.  Later, I removed the breasts from the marinade, pan fried them skin-side down and then popped them in the oven for 5 minutes with the glaze.  I let the meat rest while reducing the sauce.  When we were ready to go, I served it all with steamed green vegetables.

Dinner was delicious, but there is one thing that I would change, and it has nothing to do with the recipe.  The thing I would change is more fundamental to me as a cook and that is the conditioning I have undergone to use fewer pans.

Dave does the washing up in the house, and over the years little comments here and there about the number of utensils and pots that I use have honed me into an efficient cook.  However, one of Michel Roux Jr's tips to his potential proteges this week has reminded me that a chef should use as many pans as they need to create the perfect dish.

In this case, by being efficient with my pots, I added my glaze directly to the pan in which I had been frying my duck breasts.  This meant it was full of rendered duck fat and I was therefore unable to reduce it down as I should have.  If I had removed the duck breast to a new pan (as the recipe instructed), then poured over the glaze before roasting, the resulting sauce would have been a million times better.

I shall need to add a picture to my kitchen wall of inspiration to remind myself that a big washing-up pile is a sign of a superior cook that cares!

Picture Adapted from The Radio Times

The Trial of a Tiny Fridge

Who invented tiny fridges?  I mean, what good are they to anyone who actually cooks in their kitchen?  I think particularly dark thoughts about the manufacturer of our pathetic excuse for a fridge.  Doubly so when it has stopped its incessant whirring just to start again 2 minutes later. (I know, you pedants! How can something incessant cease?  With a bloody hammer if I get my way!)

Although, to be fair to the manufacturers, they've been genius enough to create a tardis - an inverse tardis!  Genuinely, how can a fridge be so tiny?!  I'd buy a new one, but, for the same reason I haven't bought a sofa, I am sure I wouldn't be able to manoeuvre it through the warrenous* hallway of my flat.

*war · ren · ous
adjective /ˈwôrənəs/
1. Like a warren in size, shape and atmosphere
2. Giving the impression of dark, enclosed, depths

Rant now over, I should probably explain the relevance of the small fridge.  With limited space, and so many recipes to try, I've discovered I'm going to have to think smart when planning my Challenge activities.  So, deciding on this week's recipes involved using up what I had in the fridge and freezer.  When there's only 2 of you, a big pack of meat is going to last you a few days, so you've got to be creative to keep the taste buds interested.

The fridge ingredients around which I based this week's cooking were aubergines and turkey breast.  I picked a nice healthy recipe for the turkey from Cook Yourself Thin: Quick and Easy and not one, but two recipes from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

On The Menu

Southern Wild Rice and Cajun [Turkey] Salad (Cook Yourself Thin)

Grilled Aubergine and Lemon Soup (Ottolenghi)

Marinated Turkey Breast with Cumin, Coriander and White Wine (Ottolenghi)

Cook Yourself Thin

I have 2 of these books (a pink one and a blue one), so you'll hear about the other one later in the year.  I bought the pink one first and, although the concept sounds gimmicky, I found it so useful that I bought the blue one too.

One of the first things I did with my pink book was to set fire to it - accidentally of course.  I joked with Dave that I'd definitely be cooking myself thin using only half the recipe! Luckily, though, I only managed to singe the cover, and learnt a valuable lesson about paper and open flames.

Eating healthily is really important to balance out all of those indulgent dinners that I love the most.  But I've not always enjoyed healthy meals - feeling unfulfilled afterwards.  This book was the turning point.  It taught me about packing healthy food full of strong flavours (like anchovies in sauces) to make your dinners exciting and satisfy your taste buds.

The recipe I chose was actually a chicken recipe, but the handy tip in the corner told me that I can substitute fish or meat for chicken.  So I did - because turkey was what I had in the fridge.  It also told me that buying chicken with the skin on then removing it was cheaper than buying skinless - just an example of the helpful advice you'll find throughout the book!

The Cajun rub was really easy to make, giving a nice nose-running kick to the dish, and was a good example of packing healthy food full of flavour to ensure satisfaction.  The rub was made from cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, sea salt, black pepper, nutmeg and a bay leaf.  It called for me to pulverise these in a pestle and mortar, which I mostly did, but I can tell you that it is not easy to pulverise a bay leaf. So I ended up just tearing it into little bits.  (If you want to tone down the heat a little, add less cayenne pepper.)

This mixture was rubbed into the turkey and left to marinade.  I did it around 4pm, so about 4 hours.  Later, I cooked some basmati and wild rice with garlic, herbs and stock.  While the rice was steaming, I grilled the turkey on a griddle pan spritzed with oil.  I am not usually a fan of turkey because I often find it dry, but this method worked really well and the end result was quite a tender piece of poultry.  (You may wonder why I had turkey in my fridge if I am not a fan - simply, it was on offer!)  The turkey was chopped into chunks and added to a dressed baby leaf spinach salad with the rice.  A really refreshing summer recipe - if only I had the sun to go with it!

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

I bought this book on the recommendation of my friend Jenny, who gushed about the amazingness of the London restaurant.  If you'd never been to the restaurant or read any of Yotam Ottolenghi's articles, you might overlook this book in a shop in favour of one from a recognisable TV chef.  That, my friends, would be a mistake and you would be missing out on some amazing flavours that most British people never get the opportunity to try.

The savoury recipes are full of zing and warmth and spice, while the sweets are moorish and often combine unusual flavours.  There are plenty of sumptuous meat recipes, but Ottolenghi  also gives vegetables equal if not greater standing in the book.  Some of my favourite dishes include Lime and Basil Macaroons, Sour Cherry Amaretti and Cauliflower and Cumin Fitters with Lime Yoghurt, to name only a handful.  There is so much in it that I still haven't tried and not a single thing that I don't fancy.  I could spend a whole year cooking from this book alone and I would be a happy person!

The first new recipe I tried from it this week was the aubergine soup.  It made enough for 4-6 people, but Dave and I had 2 huge bowls for dinner.  The soup was tangy and rich and refreshing.  And there was added texture from the aubergines being cooked two ways - grilled and fried.  The grilled aubergines could have been cooked for 15 mins over an open flame if I had one (aubergines are not paper, so I'm safe!) or 1 hour under an oven grill.  While an hour seemed excessive at the time, once the deep purple skin had charred to a crisp, it still protected the inner flesh, making the insides soft and gooey.

We had the soup with bread from Mark's Bread in Bristol.  This is a great little bakery, with fabulous bread.  Walking into the small shop was walking into the kitchen itself.  3 women (1 pregnant) stood around a large wooden table covered in flour, kneading bread.  I chose their special sourdough, which was indeed very special.  In retrospect, though, I think something a little plainer would have gone better with the soup, which was sour enough on its own.  There were plenty of options at the bakery, though, so the fault was in my selection not in what they had to offer.

The second new recipe I tired was the marinated turkey.  I am afraid that I was not very faithful to this recipe.  I followed it closely for the marinade - a refreshing mixture of wine, fresh mint and other herbs, and spices.  I actually cooked the marinated turkey a day later than intended because I hadn't read through the recipe properly and didn't realise that it needed 24 hours to marinate - something I probably should have expected really!  On the plus side, there was a lovely clean smell of mint and lemon every time I opened the fridge.

After the marinade, I diverged from the recipe in that I had turkey steaks, not breasts, and I therefore felt that the meat would be better griddled (as I had done earlier in the week) than roasted.  I reserved the marinade and reduced this down, as the recipe suggested and served this over the seared turkey and courgette, green pepper and onion rice.

Well, this week has been a bit of a marathon, but a success for the Challenge... and for my diet!