Tour De Food

Last weekend I was away up north in Huddersfield for a Tour De France themed barbeque and also to watch a stage of the Tour as it came on a route near the town. The night before we went to see the Tour and have the barbeque we settled upon a spot of home cooking followed by an early night.

There was only one choice for the starter- French Onion Soup. As I was away from home I didn't have the usual wide range of cooking facilities so I started by frying in a wok two thinly sliced white onions with three ounces of melted margarine. I stirred the onions constantly while they were being fried and once they were translucent I added the leaves from five shoots of fresh Thyme together with half a pint of red wine.

I let the wine boil vigorously until it was absorbed by the onions and the Thyme. In doing this I ensured that the onions were soaked with lots of flavour. I then added a pint of beef stock to the wok and let it stew.

While the soup stewed on the wok I cut some white baguette into thick slices and put thin slices of Gruyere cheese on top of it. I then shared the soup out in bowls and put a slice of baguette with Gruyere atop it on each bowl so that the bread floated on top of the soup. Next I heated up the grill and put the bowls underneath it until the Gruyere had melted on top of the bread. Now the soup was ready to eat.

I've made French Onion Soup on a number of occasions and often utilised vegetable stock or chicken. However the beef stock made a real difference this time round and gave the soup a more earthier taste which complemented the rich Bordeaux Red Wine and Gruyere cheese I used in the recipe. The main course for this meal will be on the blog very soon...

  Rich Gruyere cheese on top of a baguette floating on a rich soup containing Bordeaux Red Wine all of which equal a dish that is as French as the Eiffel Tower.  

                                        

Sweetness and white

On Friday I felt pretty shattered after what had been a challenging March which contained some high points that included learning to drive a tank, quiet nights in with an important person and attending the wedding of a very good friend I have known for the passed twenty-six years. It had also been an intense month in my professional life and left me with some food for thought about my plans. I was therefore glad when the end of the working day came on Friday and my heart was gladdened by a phone call that meant I would have a special guest come for tea that evening.

I decided to bake some sweet potatoes and on my return home I found three large sweet potatoes in the pantry and topped and tailed them before washing them and placed them on a greased baking tray. I then added them to a pre-heated oven and cooked them in my fan oven at 210 degrees (220 degrees for non-fan ovens) for forty-five minutes.

While the potatoes cooked I top and tailed two red onions and sliced them finely into thin strips. Next I took three cloves of garlic and topped and tailed them. I then cut the garlic into small chunks around half a centimetre wide and two or three millimetres thick. I then fried the onion and garlic on a medium heat in a deep frying pan with some olive until the onions became transparent and the garlic was soft enough to cut with the edge of a tablespoon.

When the onion and garlic was ready I turned off the heat and left it on the side to cool down. I then added a tub of sour cream with chives, that was sourced from the local grocery in a rough part of town, to a serving bowl. After the onion and garlic cooled down I added it to the serving bowl with the onions and garlic.

By the time I had prepared the onion and garlic mixture the potatoes were ready. I took them from the oven and sliced each in half- lengthways. I then filled them with the mixture and served them. At this point my special guest arrived and we sat down to our meal. The sweetness of the potatoes was offset well with the sour cream, onion and garlic mixture which, with its thick consistency, transformed the meal into a flavoursome and filling main course.

Filled with sour cream, chives garlic and onion with some steamed carrots as a side helping.

Fritter and taste

The third weekend in January was very much one that was all about overcoming illness and generally taking it easy. However as the weekend wore on I began to feel a little fitter and on the Sunday evening I felt well enough to make some simple but tasty food in the shape of some sweetcorn fritters.

I first had sweetcorn fritters over Christmas when visiting a Thai takeaway restaurant out of town with some new company. I was impressed by their taste and despite feeling like I was about to fall to sleep at any time I resolved to work hard to make my fritters as tasty and flavoursome as those I had sampled over Christmas. I also wanted to ensure the fritters came out successfully this time round as  I once tried to cook potato fritters at a cookery class as a schoolboy and failed epically on that occasion.

I took a nine ounce can of sweetcorn and drained the water from it using a colander. I then put half of the sweetcorn in a food processor and blended it on a medium setting in the blender. Next I place two ounces of plain flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a well beaten egg and three tablespoons of soy sauce into the blender and blended the ingredients again on a medium setting.

I added the contents of the blender to a mixing bowl with the rest of the sweetcorn and two teaspoons of ground coriander. I then took a medium-sized frying pan and covered the bottom with olive oil which I then heated lightly. After the oil had reached the right temperature I added three separate pieces of the mixture, each was about three centimetres by three centimetres, and fried them for around five minutes until the underneath had solidified and began to brown.

The key part of preparation was about to follow as I used a wooden spatula to flip the fritters and fry the other side. The test with the turning of the fritters is to make sure the underneath is solid enough that when it comes to be flipped it does not fall apart. After frying the fritters for five minutes on the other side I served them as a starter to my main course of artichoke and tomato frittata.

The fritters were everything they had promised to be and more as the sweetcorn and egg made them substantial without being too filling while the coriander and soy sauce provided a taste as authentic as that to be found at any Thai or Chinese Restaurant.

Golden Brown- these fritters certainly turned out better than those I made at school several years previously

Let the Barley Grow

The penultimate weekend in November saw me make a typical winter soup to match the cooler weather that was now starting to arrive my area. In times gone by Pearl Barley was a staple ingredient of many winter soups made in this country and I decided to honour that tradition by making a soup using this interesting foodstuff.

I peeled, top and tailed and diced two carrots, two white onions and a leek which I proceeded to gently fry in some olive oil in my Le Cresceut dish with six ounces of Pearl Barley and the leaves from five stalks of fresh Thyme. I stirred the ingredients constantly for around fifteen minutes so as to ensure that they did not stick to the bottom of the dish before adding a pint of chicken stock to it and letting the ingredients stew on a medium heat for a further half an hour.

After this I let the dish cool, blended the contents, reheated it and then served it. Despite having no actual meat in,other than an essence of chicken with the stock, the presence of the Thyme and Barley brought back memories of the rich chicken casseroles made by my Grandmother in years gone by. This in turn in my mind pushed the clock back to the tastes and smells of meals produced in the kitchens of Old England.

Chicken Casserole Puree anyone?

Parkin of the North

Towards the bank end of November having digested the memorable, albeit a little over-complex, fiftieth anniversary episode of Doctor Who I elected to make something suitably fortifying to keep my energy levels up in the form of Parkin.

I had rediscovered my love for Parkin the previous summer when I received some from some good friends based in Shipley as part of a Yorkshire Hamper that they very kindly got me for my birthday present. I tried with this recipe to emulate the excellent Parkin I found in the Yorkshire Hamper.

I stirred together in a mixing bowl four ounces of self-raising flour, four ounces of porridge oats, four ounces of caster sugar and one teaspoon of ginger. Next I stirred in four ounces of margarine, which I had first allowed to get to room temperature so it was easier to mix in, which made the mixture resemble a thick paste. In order to soften up the ingredients a little I added a tablespoon of Golden Syrup, a beaten egg and a tablespoon of milk and stirred them all into the mixture. Once all the elements were properly stirred together I put them in a high-sided thoroughly greased baking tray and cooked them for 20 minutes at 170 degrees, or 180 degrees for non-fan ovens.

After turning the Parkin out onto a wire rack and letting it cool I cut it into medium-sized squares to prepare it for consumption. Its taste was sweet due to the syrup and sugar but also a little stodgy due to the flour and the oats which made it perfect material to fuel long winter walks with my dog.

                                     
                                          Thick, full of oats and ready to eat.

Risotto from the East

Yesterday was a funny old day but one that was typical of how I have spent a lot of January days over the years as during the preceding week I had picked up a bit of a chest infection that had caused me to have a rare day off work and this weekend had still laid me low and disrupted my plans.

Apart from a quick and necessary trip to the hairdressers and a short walk round the block with my dog to try and get my bearings, I was stuck inside. However this didn't stop me from trying out a new cooking project and to help me overcome illness I opted for a risotto using several infection- busting ingredients.

I needed some bright and positive music from my record collection to help me get in the right frame of mind to cook and looked no further than Stevie Wonder's 1976 masterpiece 'Songs in the Key of Life". The album is one the best of all time and you cannot help but love Wonder's infectious enthusiasm for the music and lyrics that comes across throughout its duration. It has everything from infectious funk ("I Wish" "As") to strong and emotive ballads ("Have a talk with God" "Joy Inside My Tears").

I peeled and cut finely a two inch by one inch piece of Ginger Root and then finely sliced two large Garlic bulbs after first topping and tailing the Garlic bulbs. These powerful and tasting fresh ingredients were just the sort of thing to cut through my blocked- up synapses. I then took a bunch of Spring Onions, washed the dirt from them and then cut the bottom parts and the superfluous long stems forming the top parts off them.

I added the ingredients to a frying pan I had first covered the base of with sunflower oil and fried them for around fifteen minutes with half a teaspoon of black pepper, two teaspoons of ground Coriander and the juice of one Lime. Having eaten at numerous oriental restaurants over the years I have found that Lime is a key ingredient of many dishes.

After around fifteen minutes I added eight ounces of risotto rice and stirred it thoroughly into the other ingredients for one minute. I also at this time poured half teaspoon of Soy Sauce into the ingredients. I then added half a pint of vegetable stock and mixed it continuously into the other ingredients. I repeated this trick with a further three half-pints of stock until the rice became soft and bloated but there was still enough liquid in the pan for the ingredients to float in.

The risotto was now ready and I served it with a side dish of Prawn Crackers. The unique, soft taste of the Prawn Crackers coupled with the strong flavours of the Spring Onions, Ginger, Garlic and Lime plus the rich rice and stock made this a dish with plenty of strength and also protein to help me start to shake off my traditional January illness.

The Risotto featuring some tasty Prawn Crackers

 

Boxing Day Clever

On Boxing Day it's a tradition in our house to have my grandparents over for a meal. As they're both in their eighties and my granddad is now diabetic it has become a little more difficult to prepare a healthy meal for him that he can still enjoy.

However this Boxing Day I was able to achieve this objective. The albums that provided the soundtrack to the preparation were Scott Walker's early seventies country rock excursions "Stretch" and "We had it all" which I had recently bought on a CD reissue which grouped them both together. Although some of it was cheesy MOR music the presence of Walker's un-matchless and rich voice lifted both albums above the ordinary.

The first part of the meal involved making a Yorkshire Pudding mixture using four ounces of flour, half a pint of milk and three ounces of dried sage all of which I stirred together and left in a mixing bowl to set.

I then took my Le Cresceut dish and soaked the bottom with olive oil. I next topped and tailed five carrots, peeled them and diced them. I did the same with three large parsnips and lightly fried them in the Le Cresceut dish with some fresh thyme leaves for around twenty minutes until the carrots and parsnips began to soften and could be cut into fairly easily with the edge of a tablespoon.

While the vegetables fried I topped, tailed and peeled ten shallots before slicing them thinly and adding them to the Le Cresceut dish. I proceeded to fry them until they became transparent and made sure I stirred regularly the contents of the dish to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.

I then added five frozen vegetarian sausages which were fried for twenty minutes, which was about the same length of time it took for the shallots and the other vegetables to be properly cooked.

While the root vegetables and sausages cooked in the Le Cresceut I boiled ten ounces of red lentils in a pan for around fifteen minutes until they were soft and had turned a pale yellow, which indicated they were cooked properly. I drained the lentils and added them to the Le Cresceut dish together with a pint of vegetable stock, as by now the root vegetables had softened enough to have liquid added to them. I then slowly stewed on the hob the dish for thirty minutes adding some frozen peas as I did so.

At the same time as adding the lentils and vegetable stock to the Le Cresceut I put the Yorkshire Pudding mixture into an oiled baking dish and cooked it in the oven at 210 degrees (220 for non-fan ovens) for 30 minutes which meant that that casserole I had created in the Le Cresceut and the Yorkshire Pudding were ready at the same time.

The resulting dish provided a rich and filling meal that contained enough ingredients to allow my grandad to enjoy it with the rest of the family and importantly have a meal that was of the traditional type that he enjoys but which is also very good for his health.

Casserole and Yorkshire Pudding: all for a Boxing Day Tea.