February & March Roasts of the Month

In an effort to catch up on my blogging (I am horribly behind), I’m combining my final two roast posts. As you’ll know, I pledged in November to cook and share a roast a month. While I’ve been slightly off on the timing sometimes, I’m pleased to say I followed through with my plan. I did pork shoulder, roast beef, duck, and I’m finishing off with beef brisket and lamb shoulder.

FEBRUARY: THAI BEEF BRISKET
I’m cheating a bit with this as I guess it’s technically not a roast, but a braise. I spotted the recipe in delicious magazine and it had my mouth watering immediately. Thai flavours, peanuts, beef, are all things we love. It’s also a good combination of comforting winter food and fresh spring-like flavours. The sauce makes for a really juicy dish and the added crunch from the peanuts and heat from the chiles is perfect. With the beef we had veggie egg-fried rice, a recipe from my beloved Thai bible that I’ve posted about before.

 

MARCH: EASTER ROAST LAMB SHOULDER
Over Easter my sister and her boyfriend visited us in London. I had never done a roast lamb before. In fact, neither H. nor I count lamb among our favourite meats. But we decided to give it a go. I am really glad I did because this roast was absolutely delicious. It exceeded my (admittedly on the lower side) expectations. I used a recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Everyday. I followed it pretty closely. The lamb was in the oven for about 5 1/2 hours and came out juicy, falling off the bone, and sooo tasty. I was nervous about this one, especially as we were cooking for guests, but it turned out extremely well. I’d definitely recommended it as a fool-proof method!

Roast carrots & potatoes

 

So what’s the verdict on the roast project? Well, I cooked 5 roasts and I have to say that while I’m still slightly trepidatious about them, I have learned a lot through this process. I am very proud of both the pork and lamb shoulder, my two best roasts to date. I bought all of the meat from local butchers and so feel positive about supporting local shops as well as local products.

Not sure what my next ‘project’ will be, but stay tuned. 😉

Families and Food

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about family — likely because I’ve spent every day with them for the past five weeks, and my mum, who came back over to the UK with me, just left us today. My time with my family tends to be in short and intense bursts. I live thousands of miles away from my mum’s side, who I was closest to growing up, and although most of my dad’s side are in the UK, I’m only usually able to see them a couple of times a year.

Sandy Cove seems a world away now that we’re back in crazy London, but H. and I were lucky to spend a full two weeks there in August. For most of the time we were in the village, there was lots of family, both extended and immediate, around. And what better to do together than EAT! On this particular evening there were 7 of us: my father, grandfather, aunt, uncle, sister, H., and myself. I wanted to keep it very casual so we decided on a BBQ and several salads.

Snacks
Goat cheese dip and hummus with crackers

Main
BBQ meat
Garden salad (like, from a real garden!)
Roasted potato salad with pecan & mustard vinaigrette
Peanut slaw

Dessert
Raspberry pie (homemade, but not by me, I confess)

Now the commentary
The goat cheese dip was fairly underwhelming. Not bad, but didn’t wow by any means. Too bad. I’ve preached before about House & Home’s website but I might have to revise my statement a bit!

Onto the salads… it’s so funny to me that I am writing about cabbage and potato salad, neither of which I ate until I made this meal for years! I have never liked cabbage – I’d eat it if it was put in front of me, generally, but I’d never buy it or order it on a menu. I’ve also never liked traditional coleslaw which always seems to be doused in (too much) mayo. This is also the reason that I’ve stayed away from most potato salads. Mayo just does not appeal.

I am happy to report that I’m becoming a convert to cabbage and will not paint every potato salad with the same brush from now on.  The peanut slaw from the Bite House was just the thing I needed. I made it with cabbage from my uncle’s garden and it was lovely — the vinegar, peanuts, and (swoon) cilantro combine together perfectly. The same goes for the potato salad, which I modified to mustard-pecan due to an allergy. Everyone really enjoyed the salad and particularly the fact that the potatoes were roasted. I don’t think I’ll go back to just plain boiled!

If you do decide to prepare either, I would let them sit for as long as possible before serving. 🙂

Friday Night Chinese Feast

H. and I have been living in London for just over a year now. While we like living here, there are some parts of everyday life that are made much more complicated in a city that is as crowded and massive as it is. Running errands is one of them. Anything that goes beyond bank/post office/groceries tends to involve a lot of chaos and miles on public transport. On this particular Friday afternoon (Friday the 13th, of course!), I was feeling quite defeated after a whole afternoon of frustrations and one setback after another. The whole time I was out I was looking forward to relaxing at home with a glass of wine and preparing this meal. For me, time in the kitchen tends to heal a lot of wounds.

The initial inspiration for this meal came from this Saveur recipe, and I based the other dishes around it.

Kong Bao Ji Ding (aka Kung Pao Chicken): Peanuts, in pretty much any form, go down very well in this house. I knew the moment I saw this that it would be a good options for us, and H. is still raving about it. The  recipe looks complicated but is actually quite simple to prepare, and absolutely delicious. I’ve also since made it in veggie form using tofu which worked too.

Eggs noodles with sesame dressing: The noodles were probably the weakest part of the meal – still very tasty, but they did not pack as big a punch taste-wise as the other two. I probably won’t use this recipe again.

Broccoli & shiitake mushrooms: This is a great recipe from the NYT‘s Martha Rose Shulman which I modified to just include broccoli and mushrooms. The hoisin sauce mixture  is really delicious and would work with all sorts of veg combinations I think.

* * *

The meal came together quicker than anticipated. I started by marinating the chicken, and by the time that was done (30 minutes), I had all of the other sauces prepared and was ready to cook. Once the chicken is in, the noodles and broccoli combined take under 10 minutes, so it all came together really quickly. I think the key is definitely having everything pre-mixed before you cook.

As a first go at a 3-part Chinese meal I think this turned out really well and I was pleased and proud of the result. Add H., a shared bottle of wine, and some Arrested Development and you have the perfect cathartic end to a hectic day!

Chicken in wok

A true feast!

Thai Spring Rolls (Veggie)

I recently tried my hand at making spring rolls for the first time. As usual, I turned to this book, which has become my bible of Thai cooking. Nothing in it has disappointed me yet, and this was no exception! Easier to make than I expected, I served the spring rolls as an appetizer alongside a main of pad Thai.

As Wandee says, “there are three phases to spring-roll heaven: the filling, rolling, and frying.”

FILLING: I modified the recipe for chicken spring rolls and made my own veggie version. As it turns out, spring rolls lend themselves well to improvisation; it didn’t matter that I didn’t have all of the ingredients. I used glass noodles (instant ones), red pepper cut into tiny strips, lettuce cut into tiny strips, and green onion, along with 1 tbsp chopped garlic, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp soya sauce, and 1 tsp fish sauce. It also called for oyster sauce, which I didn’t have and so slightly increased the amounts of fish & soya.
The ingredients of Wandee’s recipe that I left out were dry black fungus(!), shredded cabbage, white onion, grated carrot (thought I had this but didn’t so substituted the red pepper), and shredded chicken, obviously. To make the filling, you simply prepare all ingredients and then throw them into a wok along with 125mL vegetable oil. They do not need to be in there very long — 3-4 minutes at most. Afterwards, drain the mixture in a colander over a bowl, allowing the oil to drip off.

ROLLING: Assembling the spring rolls wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Make sure you get skins that can be used for frying, as opposed to cold spring rolls (I got mine from Taste of Siam in Camden). To make, place a dollop of the filling in the middle, tuck part of the skin under it, roll the other part up, and then fold over the edges. The rolls are fastened together with a paste made from flour (1 tsp) and water (1 tbsp).

FRYING: To fry, make sure there is more than enough oil in the pan to cover the spring rolls, and, once the oil is hot, fry them in the wok for approximately 7-8 minutes until crispy and brown. Enjoy!

I served them with two dipping sauces, both made in advance:

Sweet & sour: Heat 250mL rice or white vinegar along with 250mL sugar until it dissolves (3-4 minutes). Add 2 tbsp soya sauce and 1/4 tsp salt. Continue cooking until the sauce thickens (recipe said 10 minutes but I found it was more 15-20). Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in 2 tbsp chili-garlic sauce (we used regular chili sauce) and 1 tbsp chopped garlic, or more to taste. This recipe makes enough for leftovers and it can be kept in the fridge.
Peanut: See recipe here.

Not my photo – didn’t have a chance to snap one! {source here}

NB: Although I won’t be doing much cooking in the next week, expect regular posts as I am behind on my updates.

Finally, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to each and everyone one of my blog readers!