Week 5: Lamb's liver with orange

Sometimes it seems as though some dishes will hove themselves into view and push their ingredients upon you no matter what you do. This week, wondering how to follow on from last week's squid, I looked into my recipe books and three recipes caught my eye, including this week’s one of liver. As the rain battered against my kitchen window panes and the wind threatened to blow the whole house down, I mulled over which of the liver, smoked haddock or Thai salad recipes to cook.

While engaged in this gentle cogitation, thinking which would make me feel best while foul weather did its worst outside, I took a Skype call from good friend Shaun in Milan. He happened to be cooking lambs liver, and quite excited he was about it too. Later on that day I chatted to my mother in Torquay, who told me apropos of nothing at all, that she hadn’t had lamb’s liver recently but would really like a good bit for dinner. And then, going to the local Morrisons, which of the three key ingredients could I only find? Lamb’s liver. So, it’s with no great surprise that I go offal-side of the field this week and cook this recipe from Grandma’s Cookbook. Serves 4.

·  About 25g fat/lard/beef dripping	·  Zest of ½ orange, finely grated
·  1 large onion, thinly sliced	·  Juice of a whole orange
·  1 clove of garlic, crushed	·  150ml of strong beef stock
·  400g lamb’s liver, cut into slices	·  Pinch of chilli powder
·  20g plain flour	·  Salt and pepper

Pour a glass of wine to drink while cooking, especially if cooking in the evening after work.

Melt the fat in the frying pan and then fry the onion and garlic gently until translucent. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Dust the liver in flour and fry lightly on both sides, stirring any remaining flour into the fat. Now return the onions and garlic to the pan.

Stir in the orange zest, orange juice beef stock and the pinch of chilli powder. Also pop in a little salt and a generous helping of freshly ground black pepper. Stir well and cook over a low heat. Another good option is to cook it gently in a casserole in the oven.

If frying, test after five minutes (give it longer if casseroling) by inserting the end of a sharp knife into one of the liver slices – if the juice runs red, cook for another 5 minutes or so. It tastes best if the meat is just cooked. Add more seasoning as your taste suggests.

Serve with some creamy mash and another glass of a medium-bodied red (NB. In the picture I rather overdid the liver portion; I was hungry!)

Today’s learning:

Cut the liver thinly and stew it gently and with plenty of seasoning. This will help keep it tender and tasty. Fly in the face of this advice and you’ll end up with something rather leathery. Oh, and don’t be shy of liver; it’s really not bad at all. Great sauce in this one, too. 

Recipe taken from: Mason, L. & Paston-Williams, S. (2013) Grandma’s Cookbook: Recipes inspired by the National Trust. London: National Trust Books

Week 4: Calamari in Umido (braised squid with tomatoes)

And so we enter week 4, the first week that I cooked knowing that this personal resolution would turn into a blog (I wrote the previous posts retrospectively). Wanting to get the most out of my Pizza Pilgrims book, I scoured the pages for another recipe that would take me on journeys new. The weather was nice and after the heaviness of the Oxtail stew and the stodgy delight of the parmigiana, I decided to take a lighter dish in hand. 

Knowing that the local Morrisons usually had a good supply of fish and often had squid, I set out with the ingredients for this dish in mind. Sadly, Morrisons let me down. Luckily however, there's a fish monger's that's just round the corner (looks more like a closed down pound shop selling left-over goods from a freezer), and fresh squid they sold. I asked the chap to gut it for me but I think there was a breakdown in English communication because when I unwrapped the cephalopod mollusc, there was the whole thing in front of me. I went at it with a sharp knife, extracting black stuff and plastic-like cartilage, but if you'd like to see how it can be done more efficiently, watch this youtube video. Serves 4, although I only had half the required squid so it did me for two delicious lunches. You really need a good white wine with this one too.

·  1 onion, chopped	·  1 kg freshly cleaned squid
·  6 anchovy fillets	·  2 tins tomatoes
·  8 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole	·  Salt and pepper
·  Olive oil	·  Handful of chopped parsley
·  ½ glass of white wine	·  Juice of a lemon

In a large pan, gently fry the onions and garlic in some olive oil and add the anchovies. Once the onions have softened and the anchovies all but dissolved, pour in the wine and reduce it until the alcohol has cooked away.

Add the squid and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the tomatoes and salt and pepper.

Turn down the heat and simmer gently for at least an hour. For a gentler cook, do the above is a metal casserole pot and pop in the over at about 150ᵒc for an hour and a half. This option means you can also go out and do something while it’s cooking. Handy.

Cook until the squid is tender and the tomatoes have reduced to a rich sauce. Stir through the parsley and lemon juice and serve with fresh bread and/or spaghetti.

Note: When I first tried this, I wondered if some chilli would put a bit of a kick into it but then, on my third mouthful, I was transported to the coast of southern Italy, sitting outside a trattoria on a hot summer’s day, with the sun shining off the water and the sound of gentle, bubbling conversation around me. My recommendation: hold the chilli and transport yourself to a place in the sun!

Today’s learning:

Adding some anchovy fillets to a tomato sauce at the ‘onion softening stage’ adds wondrous depth  of flavour. Do try it. Please, really do!

Recipe adapted from: Elliot, J. & Elliot, T. (2013) Pizza Pilgrims. London: Harpercollins

Week 3: Parmigiana di Melanzone

Would you believe that I'd never cooked a parmigiana before? I feel a little embarrassed admitting this but, now that I have cooked one, I don't mind saying as much. If there's something that will put a smile on your face in the winter months, it's got to be a decent parmigiana. This one was adapted from a recipe in a present my brother Matt and his fiancee Rachael gave me, the Pizza Pilgrims book (full source at the bottom), although I'm told by Ri Willoughby that another amazing version can be found on the Guardian's 'How to cook the perfect...' website. This recipe serves 4 -6, depending on how much you want to gobble down and enjoy. It lasted me three sittings only (remains can be seen in the pic).

·  3 large aubergines	·  1 tbsp red wine vinegar (or red wine for a richer flavour)
·  Olive oil	·  Pinch of caster sugar
·  1 onion, finely chopped	·  Handful of basil leaves
·  1 clove of garlic, finely chopped	·  3 handfuls of grated parmesan
·  1 celery stalk, finely chopped	·  125g mozzarella, cut into bite-sized pieces
·  2 tins chopped tomatoes

Pre-heat the oven to 200ᵒC and top and tail your aubergines. Now slice into rounds about 5mm thick. There’s no need to skin them. When skinned it gets a bit too sloppy.

Brush the aubergine slices with oil and season with salt and pepper – use a griddle pan to get the ‘charred marks’ on them; this is also better than cooking in a normal pan where the aubergines will just soak up litres of oil if you let them. Well, maybe not litres, but you get the idea. Griddle the slices until they’ve got a good colour and are soft, then set aside.

In a large pan, soften the onion, garlic, and celery in a couple of tbp of oil. Do this on a low heat for up to 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, red wine vinegar (or red wine) and simmer for 10 minutes to bring the flavours together. Season and add basil. I couldn’t get hold of basil so just left it out. The final thing was still very tasty, though.

Now we can put the parmigiana together. Put a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a pie/gratin dish, sprinkle over some parmesan, then some mozzarella (just dot some around), some pepper and then a layer of the aubergine slices. Repeat this process until you’ve used all your ingredients. If you’re lucky you’ll have enough for another small dish. Drizzle a little oil over the top and then pop in the oven for 30 minutes.

Eat straight away while bubbling hot with crusty bread and/or some fresh rocket or have it cold when you come in from the pub.

Today’s learning:
You don’t need to salt aubergines to draw the bitterness out – the bitterness has long since been bred out of them. You can also bake the aubergines before cooking them, but griddling them is better. Brushing with oil and putting in a griddle pan will use far less oil than putting oil in a normal frying pan and cooking them that way.

Recipe adapted from: Elliot, J. & Elliot, T. (2013) Pizza Pilgrims. London: Harpercollins

Week 2: Oxtail Stew

The second week of January brought lots of rain, a return to work and cold weather, although not the -35 degrees the Americans were enjoying. Shame about the woman who scolded herself trying to turn boiling water into snow by throwing it into the icy cold strong wind outside her home. Point of safety to reflect on there.

So it was while strolling round my local Morrisons supermarket mulling over international weather conditions that some oxtail caught my eye, and I realised that I'd never cooked with oxtail before, despite the fact that I like its rich, meaty and somewhat fatty flavour. So, in the trolley it went and the second recipe in this challenge was upon me before I could say, "How do you cook oxtail?".

·  1kg oxtail, cut into chunky pieces (normally sold like this in the shop)	·  3 tbsp plain flour
·  salt and freshly ground black pepper	·  3–4 tbsp olive oli
·  2 medium onions, sliced	·  2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
·  2 medium carrots, diced	·  2 celery stalks, diced
·  4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried thyme)	·  2 bay leaves
·  300ml red wine or a healthy glug of sweet desert wine	·  500ml good beef stock
·  2 tbsp tomato purée

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.

Wash the oxtail pieces and pat dry. Trim off the excess fat as possible. Roll the oxtail pieces in well-seasoned flour, and brown them in a casserole dish (already containing heated oil) for about 10 minutes, turning every now and then, until dark brown all over. You may need to add extra oil if the pan looks dry at any point during the browning step.

Remove the oxtail and add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Add a little extra oil if necessary. Cook gently for 10 minutes, or until softened and lightly browned, stirring occasionally.

Put all the veg and oxtail back in and add the thyme and bay leaves. Stir in the wine, beef stock and tomato purée. Season with salt and pepper, put the casserole on the heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover the casserole dish with a lid and cook in the centre of the oven for 3 hours. Stir after 1½ hours, turning the oxtail in the sauce as necessary. This should smell very good. hearty and warming for the winter.

After 3 hours, the meat should be falling off the bones and the sauce should be fairly thick. Remove the casserole dish from the oven and transfer the oxtail pieces to a plate, set aside and keep warm. Stir any fat that’s on the surface into the stew – makes it nice and flavoursome. Alternately, skim it off if you’re on a diet. But let’s face it, if you’re on a diet, you won’t be eating this.

If making dumplings (and I would), add them to the stew 30 minutes before the end remove the top from the casserole for the last 15 minutes so the dumplings crisp up on the top.

Serve with mash and some seasonal veg to add colour and make it look a little healthier. The end result will be rich and taste delicicious.

Recipe adapted from: BBC (2014) Oxtail Stew [online]. Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/oxtail_stew_91956>. Accessed10th Jan 2014.

Week 1: Walnut Crumbles

So there we were on New Year's Day, recovering from a night of entertainment and excellent company, feeling a little worse for wear. And where better to retreat to when a little worse for wear than the comfort of the kitchen? As a treat to both me and guests Shaun, Al and Francesca, I thought I'd try something simple and sweet and so reached for The Great British Bake Off book and found these easy Walnut Crumbles.

I've always been wary of baking biscuits every since every effort when I was a child results in wafer-thin burnt sugary crisps, but this recipe is easy, fast and produced delicious biscuits. The flavour's really good and if you fancy, you can throw in a few other ingredients: they carry herbs of your choice quite well too, adding another dimension to the taste! This recipe makes 24 biscuits. 

Ingredients:

·        100g unsalted butter	·        ½ tsp of vanilla extract
·        100g caster sugar	·        250 g self raising flour
·        40g Demerara sugar	·        85g chopped walnuts
·        1 large egg (free range, of course)	·        15g walnut pieces to finish

Pre-heat the oven to 180ᵒC. Put the soft butter into a mixing bowl with both sugars and beat well with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer. Lightly beat the egg with the vanilla, then beat into the butter mixture. Sift the flour into the bowl and work in with a wooden spoon or your hands. Add the chopped nuts and work in. If adding other flavours/herbs, do this now.

Using floured hands, divide the mixture into 24 even-sized pieces and shape each into a ball. Set the balls well apart on the prepared baking sheets (sheets already lightly greased) and flatten with a fork. Scatter the walnut pieces over the biscuits and gently press in. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden with light brown edges.

Remove from the oven and leave the biscuits on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Store in an airtight container and eat within five days.

Today's learning:

Biscuits are surprisingly easy to make!

Picture from: http://elizabethryan-bakingcakes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/week-10-biscuits-walnut-crumbles.html

Recipe adapted from: Collister, L. (2011) The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake. London: BBC Books

In the beginning...

Welcome to my kitchen challenge blog, 2014. Here I shall attempt to describe the how and why of what this is all about:

Between 2006 and 2008 I embarked on a journey of discovery, not of new lands and distant shores (although this did feature somewhat in my life) or of personal reflection and introspection (which again, did happen to some extent), but of a journey in the kitchen. In most weeks, after reading the Saturday Guardian magazine, I'd pick out one of the recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Dan Leopard or Hugh Ferningly-Stanley-Whittington-Davies that featured in the magazine, sandwiched somewhere between the horrific fashion section and the curiously-calming gardening pages, and make it. Over the two years there were seasonal gems with lettuce or beetroot and oriental classics with 'modern twists' (the triple tofu satay being one memorable meal).


And so, over this period my range of cooking skills and knowledge of ingredients and their properties increased, helping make me fairly competent in the kitchen.

After 2008 my culinary exploration didn't stop, but I wasn't as relentless in trying new recipes and boldly cooking [or baking] what I hadn't cooked [or baked] before. I came to rely on some tasty old classics which I began to notice, came out again and again. I only really tried new things when friends came round to eat, enabling me to have willing guinea pigs to give valued feedback on the success, or not, of what had been made. And so this went on.

Then last year, a good friend of 12 years (Fi Aish) blazed a trail of inspiration with her New Year's Resolution to bake a different cake every week of the year, the results of which can be found on her encouraging blog. Added to this was a recent present of a pizza cookbook and pizza stone from my brother and his fiancee, a present which found immediate use, taking me into the new, delicious and fun world of homemade pizzas. Now seeing bright light where once they had simply been a warming glow, I realised that I had been resting on my bay-leaf laurels for too long and should once again stretch and challenge myself in the kitchen, making dishes and plates I had not yet created. And so my challenge was framed: to cook something new, something I hadn't cooked before, each week of this very year, 2014.

OK, so not as difficult as baking a cake each week of the year, but a challenge all the same and one that I initially started on quite lightly. It wasn't until attending Jo Tomlinson's birthday drinks one week ago, that I was persuaded and motivated by the triumvirate of Penny, Fi and Jo to turn this resolution into a public record: and hence the blog. As I'd already cooked three new things, the pictures for the first three are lacking, or mostly: week 3 has some leftovers and that's what you get a picture of.

And finally to put this all into some kind of personal context, pictures of my kitchen where the cooking takes place and my local Morrisons, provider of most of my ingredients. OK there we are. 

Let's cook up!