128: Linguine alla vongole, p52

Apologies for the break in service, been in Singapore at a conference, and just got back to cooking this weekend. Mmm, chilli crab at the East Coast Park in Singapore has to go down in history as one of the best meals I've ever had. Elbow deep in sauce, bits of shell flying everywhere, and zero conversation as we all chowed down. Bliss! Don't get crab like those over here...

Om nom nom!!

Linguine alla vongole is one of my favourite dishes, I love clams and I love pasta with oil and garlic and chilli. Happy! Even better news is that my boss tipped me off about a wonderful fishmonger/butcher in Twickenham, 10mins down the road by bus, called Sandy's - and I finally made a trip there yesterday, only to find it's as close to foodie heaven as I've encountered in a long while - full of the most amazing selection of seafood, fishes, game, etc etc. And perfect for Nigelling! Big juicy English Venus clams purchased for this recipe and the next one, and not a single dud amongst them. Even T, who claims not to like clams, agreed that these were rather nice... The addition of the vermouth to the recipe gave it an interesting sweetness, not a bad thing, but unexpected - and you wouldn't get that if you used the alternative suggested, white wine. An excellent chilli hit too from the freshly ground dried chilli, lovely! To be repeated...

32: Pork ribs with honey and anise, p300

Oooooh, proper meaty tasty Chinese ribs, with sticky very-star-anisey sauce.

Made a bit of a boo-boo, after defrosting the ribs last night, and getting all the rest of the ingredients in the bowl, I found that the big bottle of oyster sauce in the cupboard was actually another bottle of thick dark soy sauce. There's a fantastic Asian supermarket not far from us in Richmond, and they sell great big bottles of soy, nam pla, oyster sauce, sesame oil, etc which I stock up on from time to time - and which last ages, hadn't realised that one had run out. Ooops... So I improvised with nam pla and soy sauce, so fingers crossed it wasn't too far from the actual recipe.

It's a really easy recipe, mixed up the marinade this morning and coated the ribs with it, leaving them in the sauce, and roasting the ribs this evening for an hour. Served with basmati rice and steamed winter greens, that was it! Scrummy.

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!

10: Sauteed chicken with spice, fennel and cream, p367

I bought a fennel bulb last weekend, hoping to make 'a salad of fennel, winter leaves and Parmesan', the second recipe in the book. I've scoured the shops and searched online and it looks like I'm going to have to buy some online which will take weeks what with the lack of post at the moment (serious ice here, and no post for 4-5 days now)... unless I make some! I have tarragon, I have cider vinegar/red wine vinegar/white wine vinegar. many many recipes for tarragon vinegar online, but they all take a couple 2-3 weeks minimum so the salad recipe will have to wait for a while (and another bulb of fennel). Trekking around West London seems like a lot of effort for 1 tbsp of tarragon vinegar, but it's used in the 'Chicken with vermouth, tarragon and cream' recipe later in the book, and I'm not going to substitute! So I've got a bottle of tarragon vinegar brewing gently in the wine cupboard... ready in a couple of weeks :)

So, what to do with a spare fennel bulb, Nigel? He clearly likes the stuff - there are 5 recipes using it in the Diaries. Unfortunately I don't like fennel - toooooo aniseedy - so it's going to be fun. Maybe I'll start to like it during the course of this year!

Tonight's dinner therefore, a mild spicy/mustardy creamy chicken dish. Very easy - well seasoned chicken legs/thighs panfried in a little oil until scrummyly crispy and golden, sauteed fennel, lightly cooked spice paste, and a good dollop of cream. Lovely jubbly. And the fennel added a nice texture and it's very distinctive flavour was definitely there but wasn't too overpowering. Success!

I didn't have any chilli powder (I have a huge range of spices and herbs, but only dried chillis, chilli flakes, cayenne pepper etc) - so I ground up some tiny dried chillis in the pestle and mortar, along wit the other spices. Probably made it a bit hotter than chilli powder would have done, oops!  

I also took the opportunity to try out my new toy from Lakeland. I love Lakeland :) It's a microwave rice steamer - woohoo! Okay, I know rice isn't exactly difficult to cook, but I find is a bit stressful trying to make it really nice and fluffy (ie. weighing and using the right volume of water, yadda yadda) as I'm often in the middle of something else and get distracted so it gets stuck to the pan... or if I do the loads of water and drain it at the end option, it just ends up a bit soggy and disappointing... All this is is a big clear pot with a removable pot inside, slightly raised up and with holes in it, and a lid. Rinse the rice in the inner pot, pop it in the larger pot, add boiling water from the kettle to just cover the rice, pop lid on, stick it in the microwave for 10mins, stirring halfway though. Ta-daaaaa! And it works perfectly! Nice light, fluffy rice, perfectly cooked, no mess, eaaasy peasy :) Am I lazy, or am I lazy?