Second time I’ve ordered halibut from Ocado, very tasty, a tad expensive though. But I figure if we’re to eat fish once a week, let it be a good fish.  I saw a nice recipe which uses pesto, but I had none and no basil to make it, what I had was a jar of “truffle pesto” from Sacla.  A nice enough condiment, the amount of truffles in it rather modest, to be frank.

I seasoned my fish, covered with a thin layer of the “pesto”, then a bit of a chestnut mushroom duxelle and a few cherry tomatoes. Into the oven, 200 degrees, 15 minutes. Served with green beans and crushed new potatoes. Nice.

Ken made it last weekend, I took the recipe straight away. Had to pop out and get some red wine good enough to marinate the chicken in, but not necessary my favourite Catena cab sav, that was sitting on the rack.

I used boneless chicken thigs, so that certain people had no reason to complain. Seasoned them with salt and pepper, crushed 2 cloves of garlic and threw it all into the dish alongside some bay leaves and rosemary sprigs. Quite a lot of wine to cover the chicken, but none was wasted, as the next day we enjoyed a rich, lovely sauce. It marinated in the fridge overnight, today I took it out, drained the chicken, saving the marinade, dusted with flour and quickly pan fried together with 2 sliced cloves of garlic. Then onto the baking dish with 3 fillets of anchovy, a handful of black olives, a can of tomatoes and the marinade. Covered, baked in 180 degress for 1,5 hour filling with the house with wonderful smell.

Served with rice and asparagus( I saw British asparagus on sale already today, £4 per bunch, won’t be long now!). 🙂

Tom Kerridge’s.

Appealing from the moment he added powdered porcini mushrooms to this shortcrust pastry. It works! It fills the kitchen with a lovely smell, adds to the flavours of the pie.

The fillings’s made of fried chestnut mushrooms, fried red onion, chopped, good quality ham, all this brought together by a thick white sauce flavoured with chicken stock and dijon mustard. Filling cooled before assembling with the pastry.  Baked in 190 degrees for about 40 minutes, served with green salad.  Very good indeed.

By far my most favourite of all taco fillings, since my Mexican craze began.  Chicken tinga tacos were the first dish brought to the table when we dined in Wahaca and it blew me away. I made it 4-5 times since, but tonight I think I hit the spot. Previously I used the mixture of recipes from foodnetwork.com and others, I consulted Tommi’s book of course too.  I once poached the chicken breasts and used the stock to make the sauce, which is apparently The Right Tinga Way, I cooked the thigs in the sauce too, but today I used a shop bought roasted chicken thighs, made the sauce the way I like it and I thought it rocked. Chicken breasts don’t excite me, I love thighs, but I never roast the whole chicken, as my husband-to-be hates meat on the bone(!!!!!!!!!).  Luckily Waitrose and Co-Op sell very tasty roast chicken thighs and that’s what I’ll be sticking with from now on. Dustin too is a dog for roast bird, he will approve!

For the sauce I gently fry a shallot or a red onion, 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic, a chili, then chuck a can of plum tomatoes in, some chicken stock, season well with salt, pepper, brown sugar, 2-3 tsps of chipotle paste, some liquid smoke, fresh oregano and simmer for up to 20 minutes to reduce and thicken it.  Chopped roast chicken goes in, lots of coriander in the end. This evening I stood by the pan and licked the spoon. What I love about it is the combination with good red wine, the palate just goes nuts!

Good chunky guacamole would be grand here, but my avos are slightly, ekhm, crunchy, so tonight it was tomato salsa with lots of lime juice- another one that enjoys a renaissance in my cooking.

Fab. 🙂

“Dry soup”, from “Mexican Food at Home”, Florek bought for me. When Tommi made it on telly it looked very appealing, so I had to try. It didn’t wow us though. I really liked the idea of frying my vermicelli before placing them in the sauce to rehydrate.

That was fun. The recipe didn’t specify whether the final texture should be slightly crunchy or should the pasta be left in the sauce until completely soft. I left mine a bit crunchy and rather liked it that way.

The rich tomato sauce ; a shallot, a garlic clove and 1 birds eye chili were gently fried. A can of plum tomatoes added, salt, pepper, allspice, brown sugar, a sprig of thyme and 2 bay leaves, gently cooked down for 20 minutes. Then a mug of chicken stock added and 2 tsps of capers- new for me too, I never use capers in my cooking, but absolutely adore them in the steak tartare they serve in Brasserie Blanc. The last thing- the sauce got blitzed into smoothness, the vermicelly nests placed in to take all the flavours in.  There should be dollop of sour cream on top, which I forgot to buy, my shaved cheese was Grana Padano, not Pecorino, but I was generous with coriander. It tasted nice, nothing wrong with the flavours, but not astounding.

Back to the book, which, by the way is one of the best cook books on my shelf, it’s a good read alongside the recipes.

I’m still into Mexican food big time. Every now and then I manage to catch Thomasina Miers of Food Network doing something exciting and that was the case with these empanadas.  I’ve never tasted an authentic Mexican empanada, but what I made this evening tasted a bit British, apart from a slight chili kick.  The filling was simple, but delicious. Chopped ham, grated cheddar, some spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, salt and pepper, a small red chili. Wrapped in all – butter puff pastry, brushed with egg yolk and baked till dark golden brown.  Enjoyed with green salad and tenderstem broccoli.  Excellent, filling, simple.

Saturday Kitchen gave me this idea for a Sunday evening meal, plus I happened to have some venison in the freezer. My neighbour Dave gave me some, as he hunts and fishes, but doesn’t seem to have an idea about cooking meat or fish, I think he simply chucks it at his wife and that’s that.  The venison he gave me must have come from some ancient animal, cause although I cooked it for nearly 2 hours in small pieces it was still rather tough- the weakest link in the whole meal, which is a shame, it should have been a star of it.  But the reason this plate of food is being written about is my naan. I forgot to buy it, never made it before, so I thought, it is time to have a go at it.  And it was brilliant. I’m pretty confident I will not be buying naan again, when there’s curry, there will be proper naan from now on.

Easy to make; 50 g of Greek style  yoghurt( grams, not ml), 90 ml of milk, 250 g of plain flour, 0,5 tsp of baking powder and 2 tbps of oil. All this kitchen aided until combined, then left to rest for an hour. After an hour 2 minced garlic cloves and lots of fresh coriander worked in, then rolled out and cut into  about 5 medium size breads. I have no special naan pan, but pancake pan did the great job. About 3-4 minutes on each side, dry pan, medium heat. They were lovely, even Izzie had some.  Will play with more flavours, cumin seeds next, methinks.