Red Reign

The day after trying some new local cuisine in the form of my local town's only Tapas Restaurant I decided to try something new myself by cooking a tomato risotto. The weather remained muggy and the ground was still damp from the monsoon-like conditions that had pervaded the nighttime drive home from the Tapas Restaurant as I began by preparing five hundred grams of tomatoes.

Today's record to cook with was by a local band called the Seventy and it comprised of a cover of David Bowie's excellent 1977 song Heroes. The song is difficult to cover as the original version is flawless, however the band (whose bassist I have known for the passed 19 years after meeting him at the start of secondary school)  do a brilliant job. Definitely an act worth seeking out.

I cut the tops of the tomatoes and then boiled them for two minutes in a pan of water. After the two minute period was up I carefully removed the tomatoes from the water and used my fingers to peel off the now very loose skin from them and discarded the skin. I quartered the soft, fleshy and skinless tomatoes and fried them gently in some olive oil in my Le Cresceut dish with two bay leaves which served to give the tomatoes a sharp flavour.

As the tomatoes cooked I boiled two hundred and ninety grams of risotto rice until most of the water had been absorbed into the rice and the rice became soft. I knew it was important to soften the rice early on in the cooking process as there is nothing worse than eating crunchy, under cooked rice in a risotto. Once the rice was properly softened I added it to the tomatoes and then removed the bay leaves as they had served their purpose.

The juice from the cooking tomatoes and the remaining water from the rice created some flavoursome juices to cook the rest of the ingredients in and to aid this cause I added a quarter of a pint of white wine and half a pint of vegetable stock. I let these cook on a medium heat until the rice and tomatoes had absorbed them while always ensuring that there was enough liquid in the dish that it did not boil dry.

I added a pinch of white pepper and a teaspoon of chili powder and stirred them in. I find that chili goes very well with tomato dishes. Next I plucked ten leaves of basil from the pot I had grown on the window sill and after shredding the leaves I put them in the dish. The fresh taste of this basil was ten times better than its dried counterpart found in the supermarket and enhanced the already strong flavours of the food considerably.

After adding twenty-five grams of butter and melting it into the risotto I finished it by melting twenty-five grams of Parmesan Cheese on top of the risotto which gave the top of it a glazed look. The risotto did not disappoint and the rich taste of the Parmesan and white wine, always a winning combination, was kept in check by the sharpness of the chili powder and the fresh basil. As the weather remained warm I ate the risotto out on the back garden in the pleasant Sunday evening sun; an optional extra when eating a dish that tastes that bit better in the summertime.

A rich but sharp mix of flavours makes this Risotto what it is

Chard-tastic

The hot weather still hadn't let up and after an enjoyable recall to the cricket team in some sticky heat the day before I sought out something fresh for Sunday dinner on the last Sunday in July. The inspiration came from a recipe originating in Greece a country with more warm weather than this country; most of the time. The plan was to make a dip using some white chard that I had been cultivating for the passed two months. Chard is a vegetable that is often overlooked by many as it is not regularly available in the supermarkets and therefore the only exposure to it is likely to be if you grow it yourself.

The Chard looks very similar to spinach or lettuce when fully grown and ready to harvest and either the stems, the leaves or both can be used in meals. The taste of Chard is slightly less gravelly than spinach but less bland than most lettuce.

For this dish I harvested enough leaves to fill a small teacup and then covered them with boiling water in a bowl to kill any germs that wild insects may have placed on them during their time in the garden. Next I added them to a pan of boiling water, simmered them for five minutes and after draining the pan left them on one side in a colander to cool.

As I finely cut two cloves of garlic the rather dated drum sounds of Roger Waters' 1987 album Radio KAOS beat out of the stereo. The album was Waters' first after leaving Pink Floyd and is a typically ambitious work which deals with the negative impacts of Monetarism in the form of Ronald Reagan's and Margaret Thatcher's Policies. Although the references to these long since departed leaders could make the album even more an 80's relic its concerns still ring true today albeit that they apply now to different world leaders.

After the garlic was dealt with I added it to a small bowl with two teaspoons of cayenne pepper, a tablespoon of juice from a lemon and seven tablespoon's of fresh, plain Greek Yoghurt. I then added the Chard and whisked all the ingredients together until the Chard had thoroughly blended with the yoghurt.

I served the dip with some raw carrot, cheese and biscuits which the dip's fresh yet spicy taste complemented perfectly.

Culture clash- the freshly prepared Greek Style dip which was served with cheese and biscuits that most English of dishes. 

Squashed Sage

After a warm and entertaining evening at the house of some friends and a pint at the local on the Saturday night the second Sunday in July kicked off with a garden party at a house with a back garden the size of a small village while the afternoon saw the preparation of something light and fresh to counter the fatigue I felt as a result of boiling heat.

I first made some wholemeal pastry from eight ounces of wholemeal bread flour and four ounces of low fat margarine. I rolled out the pastry so that it covered a 25 centimetre wide and two centimetre deep flan case.

As the aggressive opening guitar/ synthesizer riff of Pink Floyd's excellent 1972 offering Obscured by Clouds pushed its way out of stereo speakers I fried half a butternut squash, which I had first cut into cubes the size of a dice used in a board game with a thinly sliced red onion. I fried the squash and onion for around twenty minutes until the squash was soft enough to cut with the edge of tablespoon and the onion was translucent. I then took the dish off the heat and allowed it to cool.

In meantime I broke two eggs in a bowl and beat them hard before adding 250 milliliters of creme freche to the eggs. Next I spread the squash cubes and sliced onion evenly throughout the pastry case and then repeated the process with the eggs and creme freche. I then took several leaves of fresh sage I had obtained from the garden, washed them, shredded them and scattered them over the top of the pastry case. To finish I grated one hundred grams of Shropshire Blue Cheese onto the topping.

I cooked the flan in the oven at 180 degrees (more like 190 degrees for non-fan ovens) for twenty minutes until the creme freche had begun to harden and the edges of the flan had begun to turn golden-brown. Like the Linguine and Leeks dish this one was substantial but the creme freche took the edge of the heavy flavours of the squash and sage to make it fresh enough to eat outside in the garden as the hot summer sun beat down.

Bright and garish to match the summer flowers in my garden

Leeks of Summer

At this time of year, bearing in mind that my part of the country is at present basking in some of the most extreme temperatures it has experienced since summer 2006, it's a good idea to cook main meals that are very light and have lots of fresh ingredients. With this in my mind I set out to cook a leek and lemon linguine dish during the early part of the heatwave that took place on the first Saturday in July.

For me the taste of fresh peas and broad beans cannot be beaten at this time of year and although it was a chore shelling them for this recipe their taste was worth it as it was a far superior taste to that provided by their frozen counterparts.

The CD that played in the background of the afternoon's cooking was Pink Floyd's 1969 soundtrack to the french hippy movie More. It was certainly the case that spaced out Hammond and Farfisa Organ licks of tracks like Cirrus Minor sounded even better with cloudless summer sun coming in through the kitchen windows.

I added enough oil to the bottom of my Le Cresceut dish to just about cover it and fried two diced cloves of garlic, a pinch of white pepper and two well-washed leeks that I'd first halved and sliced length-ways prior to adding to the dish. I fried them on a medium light until the leeks began to soften and turn a very slightly rusty brown colour.

While the leeks, garlic and pepper were cooking I steamed around 150 grams of fresh peas and 150 grams of broad beans for five minutes with a generous helping of fresh mint that I'd previously plucked from the bottom of the garden. When the leeks were cooked I added the broad beans to the Le Cresceut with the juice and zest of two lemons and half a pint of dry white wine. Once I had stirred these extra ingredients into the dish I let them cook in the juice of the wine and lemons for around five minutes so as to soften the vegetables further and make them ultimately taste fresher.

I then added a small tub, about 290 millelitres worth, of creme freche together with 25 grams of grated Parmesan Cheese and the fresh peas that now smelled of fresh mint.

While these ingredients cooked on a low light I boiled in a pan 300 grams of Linguine Pasta, which is like a slightly thinner version of spaghetti, for fifteen minutes until it had softened enough to be added to the Le Cresceut Dish. At the same time as I added the Linguine I also added five stalks of fresh basil from the window box and some ground mint. Once I had stirred the pasta, basil and mint into the other ingredients the dish was ready to serve.

Although the Parmesan made the meal a little rich, as Parmesan does when you add it to any food, the wine, lemon juice and homegrown mint added a real freshness to the dish that meant it was ideal to help cool down during what was a very warm day.

The finished dish; substantial enough to fill you up but light enough to help you cope with the hot weather.

Oranges and Pomegranates

The penultimate Sunday in June was one that gave a chance to relax after over a month of being on the road to catch with a wide range of good friends, have a holiday, play cricket and attend a stag do. That morning the rain dropped heavily from the sky but it was still quite warm so I took the dog a walk round the local wood and after drying out on my return I decided to make a cake.

As it was now officially summer, despite the rain, I made a cake with the juices of two summer fruits in the form of oranges and pomegranates. The choice for music for cooking was equally summery and took the form of the Eagles' 1980 live album titled Eagles Live. The album covered the last tour before their original split and it was a tour that after its last gig saw two of band members having a fight backstage after winding each other up during the gig with numerous insults between each number.

I added 175 grams of low fat margarine and 150 grams of caster sugar to a mixing bowl, I would normally add more sugar however a recent funny turn during a midweek cricket match had convinced me I may become a full-time diabetic if I do not cut down the sugar in my diet. I creamed the margarine and the sugar together for around five minutes until there was no loose sugar left in the bowl and it had been absorbed into the margarine.

I then added gradually the yolks and whites of three large eggs to the margarine and sugar which resulted in the mixture becoming exceptionally sloppy by the time I had stirred the eggs into it. So as to solidify the mixture I added 50 grams of ground almonds and 125 grams of self-raising flour to it gradually by stirring the ground almonds and flour in a little at a time until I had a mixture which was the consistency of partially melted butter.

I poured the mixture into a pre-greased 25 centimetre wide and ten centimetre deep cake tin and then added the grated skin of an orange on top of it. I cooked the mixture in the oven for forty-five minutes at 150 degrees (160 for non-fan ovens).

While the cake was cooking I made some syrup by using the juice of two freshly squeezed oranges, six tablespoons of pomegranate juice and four tablespoons of caster sugar. I stirred the ingredients together in a measuring jug and left them to one side.

After the cake was cooked I pulled it out of the oven and poured the syrup mixture onto the top it so that it soaked into the top half of the cake which in turn gave the cake the texture of a semi-damp sponge.

The cake was ideal food for a summer meal and had a very sweet and fresh taste which was enhanced by serving it with a large pot of plain Greek Yoghurt.

This moist cake tastes even better with a spot of Greek Yoghurt

Cob of Olives

It was a Saturday in mid-May and after having some enjoyable banter with my hairdresser and picking up some Chard Seeds for use in future cooking projects I headed home and started work on some bread rolls or if you come from my part of the country, bread cobs.

With the sounds of aggressive jazzy horns from the opening track of King Crimson's challenging 1970 offering 'Lizard' spitting out of the stereo speakers I stirred together 225 grams of  strong white bread flour, 450 grams of strong wholemeal bread flour and a 7 ounce sachet of yeast in a large mixing bowl. Once these dry ingredients were properly combined I added half a pint of cold water and mixed it thoroughly into the flour and yeast which created a very soft, sloppy and sticky dough.

I realised that I needed to toughen the dough up so I put around four ounces of white bread flour into the bowl and kneaded the dough into the flour until it was dry enough to be flexible but not stick to the work surface when I rolled it out. Sometimes, depending on how well the water has been mixed into the flour and yeast, you may need a little more flour than I have suggested to dry the dough.

Now that the dough was prepared I took it in the bowl to the warmest place in the house, which is a window sill in one of the south-facing rooms, and left it to rise for one hour by which time it had nearly doubled in size.

After the hour had passed I rolled the dough out on a work surface covered in flour and then spread ten baby tomatoes, which I had halved, fifteen black olives (also halved) and the leaves from three sprigs of rosemary evenly onto the top of the dough. I then took the sides of the dough and pushed them to the centre of it so the dough resembled a huge ball filled with tomatoes, olives and rosemary.

I then cut the dough up into eight individual balls that were as large as a standard supermarket bread cob and  cooked them in the oven at 190 degrees (180 for non-fan ovens) for twenty minutes. After this period the cobs were clearly ready as their edges had become brown and crisp.

The positive thing about the taste of these cobs was that although the black olives could potentially have made the cobs taste too bitter, the edge was taken off the olives by the sweet tomatoes and the tangy rosemary which made the cobs appeal to those who do not normally enjoy olives. I took them to a gathering at the house of two of my friends that evening and the cobs complimented their excellent homemade chili con carne; which we both consumed as we sat down to watch the gripping and unpredictable series finale of Doctor Who.

Above and below: road testing the cobs with a spot of cheese

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