165: Lamb-filled flatbread, p238

High praise from T, "You've certainly learnt how to cook lamb well during this [recipe challenge foolishness]" as he inhaled one of these wraps... :)

Wraps, or flatbreads? I was initially thinking of flatbreads as went with the taramasalata recipe last month, or perhaps pitta breads, until I read the recipe through and found that the last direction is to 'roll up' the flatbreads. Wraps! Or tortillas! Not flatbreads, surely? I used sandwich wraps. But think pittas would have been good too. 

Couple of pieces of lamb shoulder fillet, marinated in garlicky loveliness and then griddled on each side for a few minutes, before resting - leaving it beautifully pink inside and super tasty on the outside. With simple lemony rocket leaves, garlicky herby yoghurt sauce, and the meat, wrapped in tortillas and served. Messy (I can never work out how to fold these - I know the theory but in reality I always either tear them or they just keep falling apart and dribbling meaty juices and yoghurt all down ones front), but delicious. The sweetness of the meat, and the acidity of the lemon and peppery leaves, refreshing sharpness of the yoghurt, lovely jubbly, and a very nice Friday night supper.

130: A salad of red mullet with lime and ginger, p246

Delicious! What a weekend for food! Along with the clams, I also purchased two red mullet from Sandy's. Quite pricey, and with four red mullet recipes in the book to get through, lets hope red mullet doesn't have a short season...

I was a bit nervous about this one, and probably will be about all the red mullet recipes actually, it being pricey and me not having cooked it before - it's a bit worrying, trying not to ruin it! However, this was easy peasy, and the fish took 2-3 mins on each side in a pan before it was cooked just so - was very pleased! The 'salad' comprised a cooked up Vietnamese style mixture of thinly sliced carrot and onion, with allsorts of lovely flavours - the lime juice, chilli, white wine vinegar, ginger and star anise being particularly notable. It went beautifully with the fish, which was meaty enough to hold it's own against the salad, yet delicate at the same time. And again, T, who I expected to leave most of the salad (not liking carrot or onion much, in any form), cleaned his plate!

45: Chickpea and sweet potato curry, p102

Not the most appealing selection of ingredients, and definitely one to make T's toes curl... but this turned into a really rather tasty dish. This is one of the great things about this challenge - it's making me make recipes I wouldn't normally do, and surprising me with things like this. Who'd have thought (apart from an ardent curry-loving vegetarian...) that this would be greater than the sum of its parts?

I should have reduced the quantities, supposed to fed four as a main, with the other curry made tonight this served all four of us and left a good four lunches-worth for laters... Although perhaps the leftovers weren't a bad thing...

36: Chicken with mustard seed and coconut milk, p110

Another deceptive recipe title - this one is a lovely spicy, creamy chicken curry, with quite a kick to it! I reduced the quantities (a whole, jointed chicken, for a recipe serving three?), so used two red chillis instead of three, but it was still rather fiery. Gorgeous tumeric yellow sauce with chunks of red from the chillis and tomatoes, and dark green from the curry leaves. I used the legs/thighs/wings/the inner fillets from a whole chicken, saved the main breast meat for another day, and used the carcass to make a few bottles of good stock for the freezer (I use empty coke/juice bottles to store stock/thin soups in, fit nicely in the freezer and divides it up into c.500ml aliquots nicely). Apart from the fact there's only two of us, I couldn't fit a whole jointed chicken, plus all the other ingredients for this recipe, into my biggest casserole - a large Denby one. Nigel must have some pretty hefty dishes in his kitchen!

18: Spiced pumpkin soup with bacon, p58

Another easy one, and super scrummy it was too. I don't normally add cream to soups, nor blend them until smooth, but this one will definitely be repeated. No pumpkins around at the moment (even though this is from the February section of the book), could only get hold of butternut squash, but hey, that's close enough :)

Addition of bacon should hopefully make it hubbie pleasing too...

Update: And it did!