Glazed Look

Some people can get by on four hours sleep, others on eight hours sleep however on the evening of Saturday April the 20th I needed eleven hours sleep after entertaining some friends at a local restaurant on Saturday dinnertime and having a night on the town on the Friday evening.

When I woke up I brushed the cobwebs away with a walk in the local wood in bright sunshine before turning my attention to cooking the evening meal. The main course was something I had made before however one of the side dishes was something that's new to this blog and what I am going to focus on.

To help me through the preparation of some Glazed Parsnips I put Stevie Wonder's 1972 album Music of my Mind on the CD player. The album's synthesisers which, like most of the instruments on the album, are played by Wonder himself give it a lush and warm sound that gave glow inside like the late spring sun that shone through the kitchen window.

I first topped and tailed three large parsnips and then peeled them. They have a habit of being very stringy and therefore a lot of pressure needed to be applied to the skin as I peeled to be sure all the string had been removed. Once this task was complete I cut the parsnips into batons that were five centimetres long and one centimetre thick. I then steamed them for five minutes to soften them up before adding them to a frying pan covered with olive oil on a medium heat.

I turned the parsnips with a knife and fork and as they began to turn brown I added the leaves from four sprigs of fresh Thyme taken from my front garden and stirred the leaves into the parsnips until they coated them.

Once the parsnips had turned a pale brown I added around an ounce and a half of honey together with a pinch of black pepper. I stirred the honey so that it coated the parsnips and once the excess honey had been absorbed into them I turned the heat off and served them with the rest of the dish I had prepared.

As hoped the parsnips had taken on a glazed appearance and by adding the Thyme before the honey I was able to ensure the honey acted to lock in the Thyme to the parsnips and give them extra flavour. The addition of the black pepper meanwhile acted to ensure the honey did not make the parsnips sweet enough to spoil them or the rest of the main course.

As the excess honey evaporates so the parsnips move closer to being ready

Noodling around

One of the many new cookery ideas I brought back with me from my trip to Glasgow was to use noodles in some dishes, especially in dishes involving chili. The recipe I prepared on a Friday night after work in mid-April fulfilled both of these objectives.

The record of choice, bearing in mind I had just got back from an intense week at work, was a bit undemanding pop music in the form of Eric Clapton's 1986 offering 'August'. The album was named after the month his son Conor, who died in tragic circumstances less than five years later, was born is typical of where Clapton was musically in the 1980s and the album is very much a product of its time and a period piece without question. The evidence that points to this includes the presence of a top heavy drum sound, Phil Collins as producer and a duet with Tina Turner, the album is a period piece without question but has a few evergreen songs on nonetheless.

I started by taking some Quorn Pieces that had been frozen and fried them on the hob with a tablespoon of Chili Flakes and a teaspoon of Cumin Seeds. I mixed the Cumin and Chili with the Quorn Pieces until the spices coated the pieces and the pieces began to turn a golden colour. At this point I added a diced clove of Garlic, a finely sliced red onion, around two ounces of sugar snap peas and five thinly sliced pieces of baby sweetcorn.

While these items fried steadily on the hob I boiled a pan of water an once it reached boiling point I added ten ounces of dried noodles to the pan and boiled them for five minutes until they were soft. Once the noodles were soft I added them to the Quorn and the vegetables once the onion, pepper and garlic had softened sufficiently to have a fork pushed straight through them without any trouble.

I added a teaspoon of Chili Powder to the Quorn, Noodles and Vegetables and after they had cooked on the hob for a further five minutes I served the dish. The noodles were an enjoyable addition to my already varied diet and were a fine substitute for pasta or potatoes, which are the usual carbohydrates I consume with my main meals. Any risk of them being bland was quickly dispelled with the warming strength of the chili powder, cumin and the chili flakes while the peas and baby sweetcorn added the right texture to make this a meal to fortify for the night on the town that followed that evening.

A quick and easy meal to make with texture and taste to boot.

Stew of Italy

The first Sunday of April didn't feel like that, certainly not in terms of the weather which was cold enough to allow there to be still snow at the local cricket ground where I had volunteered to help out the day before and it was still cold that evening  when I ventured to the big city to sample some real bitters at niche real ale bar.

That said after a walk in the lingering snowdrifts with the dog on the Sunday morning I needed something warm and substantial for dinner. The choice for the meal was sausage, rosemary and puy lentil stew a dish which is a staple on dinner tables throughout Italy. 

The album I chose to cook to was the Happy Mondays' 1991 live offering simply entitled Live. It was recorded live at Elland Road Football Club at a time when Leeds United had a big rivalry with Manchester United, whose fans included several members of the band. The album is memorable for some sloppy but passionate performances as the band just about hold it together in a live setting. 

I heated some olive oil gently on the hob in my Le Cresceut Dish and then added four Marjoram Flavoured vegetarian sausages and a diced garlic clove. Once the clove and sausages had cooked for two minutes I added a finely cut white onion, two thinly sliced carrots, three sprigs of Rosemary and two celery sticks that were cut into pieces width-ways with the stringy flesh removed from them. 

I fried the contents of the dish on moderate heat for around ten to fifteen minutes while stirring it constantly to stop pieces of food getting stuck to the bottom of the Le Cresceut dish and burning. Once this period was up I realised the dish needed dampening a little so I added half a pint of white wine and half a pint of vegetable stock together with three tablespoons of Puy Lentils to give that extra bit of protein to the dish. 

So as to soften the lentils and finish softening the cooked carrots and celery I boiled the wine and stock fiercely for around fifteen minutes while topping it up with wine and water if it looked that the dish was in danger of drying up. Once the lentils had softened I turned the heat down on the hob and added a can of chopped tomatoes to the dish. After mixing the tomatoes into the rest of the dish I let it cook on a low light for a time while I prepared the potatoes. 

I used three white potatoes that were medium sized. I peeled them and sliced them width-ways so that at their thickets the individual pieces were half a centimetre deep. I fried them in sunflower oil in a wide frying pan turning them frequently until they were brown around the edges and I could put a fork through them. 

At around the same time I tested the stew and found it too was ready. The stew was very rich and the quality of the sausages meant that the lack of meat in the dish was not an issue, furthermore the lentils and strong tasting wine helped make this a substantial dish while the potatoes were crisp and had an extra kick thanks to the extra bit of Rosemary I added to them when they were fried. 

This was certainly a recipe to fight away the cold with. 

Spuds you'll like- the fried potatoes complemented this substantial stew.