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!

Southern Hospitality - A Tough Act To Follow

In 2011, my fiance and I travelled to Atlanta to see my parents and brother, Tim.  While I had visited during the summers when I was studying for my A-levels and degree, I never properly lived in Atlanta.  Tim, however, had gone to the Atlanta International School and had made lots of interesting friends, who I was very rarely allowed to meet.  I have a brilliant story about one such unique occasion, but I shall save that for another time.

Despite Tim's concerted efforts to stop his big sister embarrassing him in front of his American friends, the infamous southern hospitality persevered through the pond-shaped wall that separated us and, during our visit, Tim's friend Claire invited us to join her, her family and some other friends for a weekend in Tybee Island, a very short drive from Savannah.

The weekend was spectacular.  Claire's family home is a quintessential colonial house that you would hope to find in the deep south.  Its back garden led onto a private, white sandy beach, and there was a sheltered deck on the edge of the beach at which we could eat.  The house was 3 stories tall and on one level was an outside porch area, complete with wicker chairs and a bar - perfect for enjoying a refreshing mint julep!  I didn't have the opportunity to try that particular drink on this trip - Bloody Marias were on offer instead (Bloody Marys made with tequila instead of vodka).

You could tell that Claire's family was one that liked to cook and entertain.  The kitchen had a u-shaped counter, surrounded on the outside by stools so friends and family could be part of the action.  There were 2 large American fridges and 2 dishwashers - all of which we managed to fill at the beginning and end of each day!

When we arrived, we immediately got stuck in to making cocktails then helping Claire put together a fantastic feast.  We had BBQ'd pork ribs that had been covered in sauce, sealed in with bacon and half-BBQ'd half-steamed in some special contraption in the garden.  There was the ubiquitously American mac and cheese, sticky pork chops with pineapple and a tasty salad along the lines of a bacon and cheese theme.  Meat, cheese and a few of your five a day thrown in for good measure - there was no way to go wrong!

This first evening was just a taster of things to come.  We ate very well, had good chat around the kitchen hub, and spent a peaceful weekend relaxing at the beach.  One evening we went to Savannah and had oysters in a karaoke bar.  It was that same evening that we'd had to leave Tini at home to suffer her sunburn in peace.  Tim, in his slightly merry, gushingly affectionate way, gave Tini a big, painful hug as we left for the evening.  The whole room cringed and held its breath as poor Tini did her best not to scream.

Not having brought a swimming costume, I enjoyed the sea from the comfort of the beach.  We played bocci, hunted for jellyfish for a salad - which, unfortunately for us, some wee scamps helped to regain their freedom - and generally enjoyed each other's company in the idyllic surroundings.  Later we made po' boys and Cajun coleslaw.

The Whole Chicken And Nothing But The Chicken

Well, definitely the whole chicken, but nothing but the chicken would have made for a very short post and a very long title.

To those of you who've been reading attentively, I am embarking upon a challenge to cook at least one recipe from each of my library of cook books within the year.  And it started off well this week with a recipe from Thomasina Miers' 'Mexican Food Made Simple'.

If, like me, you watch every food show on television until they become one gigantic Great British Masterchef Kitchen, you will know Tommi as the winner of Masterchef 2005.  The time she spent in Mexico seems to be a big influence in her cooking and, as well as doing chefy things like appearing on TV and writing books, she also runs a group of Mexican street-food restaurants called Wahaca.  You can read more about the chef and her projects at ThomasinaMiers.com.

Dave and I  - I don't know if I've introduced you to Dave yet, but he is my long-suffering fiance.  So, Dave and I, every couple of weeks, buy a chicken from which we make at least 3 dinners, with a few chicken wraps for lunch chucked in.  The usual formula is roast chicken on the Sunday, chicken pasta of some kind on the Monday and fajitas on Tuesday.

Last Sunday, we made our way to the cozy farmers market run by the Tobacco Factory in Bristol and bought our customary chicken.  With my challenge in mind, I went straight to the books when I got home to find a new way of cooking our familiar fowl friend.  And that was where I found Tommi's recipe for Chicken and Chorizo in an Almond Mole.

As an aside, in the process of finding a recipe for my chicken I have discovered the first problem with my challenge.  Having flicked through Mexican Food Made Simple to locate the recipe, I am reminded why I bought the book in the first place and want to cook everything!  I shall have to see how I get on with the challenge and may revisit my collection in The Challenge 2 in 2014!

Back to the chicken.  As it happens, I actually cooked 2 recipes from this book, because the recipe for the Chicken and Chorizo Almond Mole referred me first to a recipe for cooking the chicken.  But, for the purposes of this blog I'm going to work backwards.

The mole, while calling for a long list of ingredients, was simple to make.  And it didn't require lots of chopping, because it told me to chuck everything in the blender.  I first dry-roasted tomatoes (skin on), onions and garlic (skin on then peeled) and put these in the blender.  I then separately fried:

• raisins
• blanched almonds
• stale bread, chilli, thyme (I couldn't find fresh oregano and marjoram), and parsley
• sesame seeds

All this went in the blender.

Meanwhile, I had Dave pounding cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon sticks in a pestle and mortar, which also went into the blender with chicken stock (from the other recipe), tomato puree and chipotle puree.  There is also a recipe for chipotle puree in Tommi's book, but I was sure I couldn't get chipotles at Asda and thought 2 recipes from the book was enough for one day.  If I ever find chipotles, though, I will be sure to attempt the puree.

The recipe then involved frying chunks of chorizo, adding the mole, more stock, olives, capers and shredded cooked chicken.  Ta da!  Chicken and Chorizo with Almond Mole done!

As far as the chicken I had cooked earlier, I have never cooked a chicken like this before.  Sure, I've made stock from chicken bones, but I've not poached a whole chicken. It involved placing a whole chicken in a pan with carrots, onions, bay leaves etc, covered with water, brought to the boil and then simmered - all in all taking about 40 minutes.   Once the chicken is done, leave the lid on and let it cool in the pan.  This gives you a light stock and supremely moist chicken.

Dave asked why we don't cook the chicken like this every time, and my reply was that we'd miss the crispy skin - without a doubt the tastiest part of the chicken.  But, for those days when we can live without a roast, poaching the plucky fellow does seem to be the way to go for a succulent supper.

The result was a pleasure.  There was heat from the chillis, sweetness from the almonds and cinnamon, salt from the capers, olives and chorizo and spice from the... well the spices.  Well worth the small amount of effort to create such a complexly flavoured dish!

The recipe allegedly made enough for 6 but we had 2 huge helpings and bagged 3 more dinner-for-twos out of it.  I suppose it depends on the size of the chicken, but ours hadn't been particularly large.  We also tried to do some sums to work out the cost per portion, made difficult by the fact that I had a lot of the dried goods in my cupboard already.  Erring grossly on the expensive side, we figured the whole dish cost about £20, which makes it about £2.50 a serving.  We served ours with a bit of rice, and later in the week had it in wraps with some softened red peppers and onions.

With the challenge underway with a resounding success, I cannot wait to chose my next recipe!

Emasculating a Leader

As I was searching for a picture on my computer the other day, I came across a couple of photos of some plum and frangipane tarts that I had made in 2011.  The photos looked great, and the tarts themselves tasted pretty damn good, but it is the story associated with these little golden treats that will be etched forever in my mind.

It is a story of generosity, followed by horror, ending in relief and kindness.  The hero is Iain Gray MSP.  And the villains are all the bad people in the world who can just sod right off.

Part 1 - Generosity

Iain Gray MSP was, at the time, Labour Leader in the Scottish Parliament and, despite his hugely demanding workload, was thoughtful enough to regularly bring in fruit from his garden for his colleagues.  Often I saw the email come round offering bags of fruit to a good home, but would be working in the constituency office, so couldn't take up the offer.  One day, however, I was working in the Parliament when the email popped up in my inbox from Iain's office informing us of a bumper crop of plums free to anyone who wanted them.

Later that afternoon I dropped by his office and filled a bag full of lovely sweet-sour plums. More than I could possibly eat myself. So I decided I would thank Iain for his generosity by making tasty plumy treats for the Labour group.

Part 2 - Horror

That evening I found a recipe for plum and frangipane tarts - a deliciously simple combination of almonds and fruit in a pastry case.  As I had so many plums, I made one large tart and a few mini tarts, which kept me baking until midnight.

The next day, I struggled up the road with delicate pastries in hand and, having arrived at Parliament 30
minutes later with the tarts still intact, sent round an email to my colleagues advising them that there were sweet goodies available on a first-come-first-served basis 'made with Iain Gray's very own plums.'

In retrospect, given the political environment that I was working in, I should definitely have put more thought into the wording of my email.  But who would have imagined such an innocent act of camaraderie could have ended so badly?!

The tarts went down a treat, and all was good with the world.  Until the next day.  Unbeknownst to me, my email had been forwarded to a major Scottish newspaper and had been included in their daily digest under the heading 'Leader Emasculated by Aide', noting that I had served Iain's plums up to his colleagues.  I was mortified!

Part 3 - Relief and Kindness

Luckily for me, Iain is a VERY nice man and, when I called up to apologise, he told me not to worry about it at all and said that he in fact thought it was very funny.

I'm glad he did, because I was very miserable about it all.  I had tried to do something nice...  Anyways, while I can laugh about it now, I haven't made anything with plums since, for fear of any further unforeseen consequences. And biting into a sweet, juicy plum has more connotations to me than it really should in polite company!

A Recipe-Book-Holic's Challenge

Some people have an uncontrollable urge to shop.  They buy shoes and clothes until their wardrobes are bursting at their pun-intended-seams.  I do not have such a love.  I gasp in shock at the vast amounts of hard earned pounds spent on the latest must-haves.  And, in the past, it was easy for me to scoff at the self-indulgence of it.

But I have surprisingly discovered that I, myself, am an addict.  It was during our recent house move, as I carried my 4th box of cookery books up the stairs to our new flat, that I came to the realisation that I am a recipe-book-holic (and, after a 10th box for the kitchen was maneuvered into the tiny apartment, a sucker for all the paraphernalia that goes with it!)

Here you can see the current extent of my collection.  I say current, because I am in no doubt that it will one day need a room of its own.  In our previous home my books were organised by cuisine and author, with a special section for haute cuisine, but the organisational inspiration was not quite there as we desperately tried to clear floor space in the box room/office.

In a bid to justify the expense of my addiction - and regain my smug superiority over other shopaholics - I have set myself a Julia & Julia style challenge.  If you wear each pair of shoe at least once, they were worth the $600, right?!


The Rules

1. The thought of cooking every single recipe from every single one of my books is a daunting prospect, so I should start with a more realistic and achievable goal.  Bringing me to rule number one: I must cook one recipe from each of the cookery books that I own by 4th May 2014.

2. As I have not been totally neglectful of my books until now, there will undoubtedly be some books that I have already cooked a number of recipes from.  In these cases, I shall choose a recipe that I have not yet tried.

3. If I buy or am given a new book within the year, this book is included within the challenge (let's hope I don't have a sudden urge to splurge at the end of April 2014!)

4. I must blog about each cooking challenge (in the broadest sense) throughout the year, with photographs where possible (I love taking photos, but if it's a choice between a good picture and eating my dinner at the temperature it was meant to be, I know where my loyalties lie!)

And so the challenge begins!  I am particularly looking forward to the cocktail books.  And as my Heston Blumenthal book has a whole section on cooking sous-vide, I shall restart my campaign to get Dave to let me buy a water bath! (Though goodness knows where I'll put it...)