48: Braised lamb with leeks and haricot beans, p57

Another of Nigel's hearty stews, where the recipe is 'enough for four' and even with slightly reduced quantites and served on its own without potatoes, extra veggies etc, quite clearly feeds six!

A good one though, with very simple, unfussy flavours - and the sweetness of the lamb really comes through, with the herbs, soft leeks and cream making a gorgeous silky sauce. Lovely and thumbs up from T too. I didn't mention to him the preceding paragraph in the book where Nigel is talking about fancying some 'bland' food, and this being a 'beige casserole'!! Doesn't exactly sell the recipe!!

30: A herb and barley broth to bring you back to health, p41

Don't really need to be brought back to health, but hey, can't beat a bit of broth... uses up lots of veggies too, which is useful because I slightly over-bought in Tescos yesterday and the fridge is overflowing...

Essentially stew without the meat, very similar in delicate sweet taste to the lamb stew earlier this month. I'm not sure that the specially-purchased goose fat really adds that much, but c'est la vie...

21: Chicken stew and mash, p80, and 22: Hot chocolate puddings, p52

Oh my... the pudding, the pudding!! But before that... the main...

I was going to make this yesterday, thinking it would be a nice warming tummy-pleaser to pop in the oven before going to the gym, but when I went to put the chicken in the marinade early afternoon, I realised the recipe said to leave it for 4-5 hours minimum, preferably overnight, before browning the meat and softening the leeks etc etc, and then two hours in the oven. Not really enought time, oops. So I popped the meat in the marinade and then left it in the fridge until this evening - and boy, did the orange infuse into the meat!!

I didn't use a whole jointed chicken in this, as per the recipe, since it's only the two of us and I'm rather enjoying cooking more recipes rather than having lots of leftovers... this may change once my new job starts on the 1st February :)

I always buy a whole chicken instead of chicken pieces/fillets and joint it - saves a lot of money, can buy better quality chicken in the first place instead of nasty water-filled pieces, and get the carcass at the end to make stock with. Yum! It's a bit of a faff but when I'm at work all week, it makes me feel productive on a Sunday afternoon, to joint a chicken, pop some in the fridge to use in the next couple of days and the rest in the freezer, and brew up a litre or two of good stock and then make soup for lunches during the week...

This recipe made a very tasty stew indeed, with the meat falling off the bone, with soft leeks and melting garlic, and cannellini beans breaking up the richness. It's always a good sign when T eats the pulses/lentils in a dish! There's a good amount of gubbins* left in the pot, which I will probably eat as a soup, I think, but not as much as in the lamb shanks dish the other night.

And then on to the pud... Which was a bit of an afterthought actually. I decided T needed a treat after a busy week, along with the bottle of Cab Sav to go with dindins. I've had some upsetting failures with whipping egg whites in the past - teeniest bit of grease/yolk in the bowl with the whites and they won't whip up... so didn't tell T that I was making a pud until it was definitely looking like it might work... But it did, and a lot of top notch dark chocolate, butter, and a blob of chocolate spread later, mmmmmm!!! Perfect gooey melty chocolate fondants out of the oven for afters! They were incredibly rich though, so maybe a dollop of fruit on the side, raspberries or something, perhaps gently stewed up, would be rather nice...

Update: The next day, the chocolate fondants are actually even better cold! They've sunk in the middle, but have taken on the consistency of dense chocolate fudge cake... mmmmm!!!! 

* gubbins - another family technical term, referring to the bits and bobs, veggies, oniony pieces, sauce, and juices, left in the dish after a casserole/pot roast.

19: Lamb shanks with mustard and mash, p44

Hmm, a mixed reaction to this one... I've never cooked lamb shanks, and I don't think I've actually had them in a restaurant either. The meat was amazingly tender and fell away from the bone after just an hour and a half in a low oven, and was beautiful, but there was still a bit too much connective tissue - meltingly soft but slightly slimy as T put it.

Smelt amazing whilst it was cooking away in the oven, and the juices were meaty and red winey but I think I'd prefer to thicken them up a bit. And although you need lots of liquid to slowly braise the meat in, because there's only two lamb shanks (yes - it's for two people!), there's about a pint of liquid left, which I guess I'll freeze to use in a gravy at some point.

I would probably also put in a good dollop of cranberry sauce or similar to add a fruity sharpness to cut through the soft, gelatinous tastes if I did this again. But not a disaster at all - nice warming, filling Winter food!

12: A velvety soup for a clear, cold day, p18

Essentially leek and potato soup... with parmesan rinds added during the brewing stage. I'm not sure if it added that much, a faint parmesany tang/whiff to the finished soup, but hey, leek and potato soup is always good, and there's loads for lunches this week. Also put some in the freezer for when I go back to work in a couple of weeks.

I think the most difficult thing with this challenge is stopping myself cooking things how I'd normally do them or how I would adapt recipes instead of following them really strictly - so I made a soup for what must be the first time without starting off by cooking up garlic and onions, and I blended it until smooth at the end. Strange times!

T thought it was quite okay too, which is high praise from a man who abhors vegetable soups (except tomato), but then I think it was sufficiently akin to a vichyssoise not to repulse, and he's being soooo supportive of this daft idea of mine (I think he's looking forward to the lamb shanks, duck, pheasant, etc later on...after a run of veggie meals, he might not be so keen).

3: Roast chicken with cheese mash and garlic gravy, p342

An easy peasy one now, although the difficulty is stopping myself roasting the chicken with the little bits and bobs I'd normally do - like rub the butter under the skin instead of on top, mixed with a little orange or lemon zest and juice and some chilli flakes, and popping the remains of the zested fruit up the bird's whatnots... I like Nigel's idea of popping the chicken upside down for the first 45mins, and the garlic halves tucked in the roasting tin are smelling gorgeous.

Because the recipe includes cheesy mash, I've skipped roasting potatoes around the chicken as well, fearing potato overload. Although I'd prefer roasties,  the 'with cheese mash' does seem to be an integral part of the recipe, so I'm sticking to that.

I've halved the quantities since it's only me and T eating. Ooooh, lots of lovely leftover chicken!! Very pleased about that - I usually only roast a bird when we've got guests so there's only usually enough left to do a chicken risotto and the carcass to make a great vat of stock. I may have to start doing roast chicken for two more often...

I love roast chicken. It can't possibly go wrong :)

...and it didn't, as predicted. Super crispy skin, meat cooked to perfection, and scrummy mash. Halfway through I realised I'd made a bit of a booboo, supermarket chickens (even the better quality ones) don't come with giblets so couldn't make the gravy with them, damn damn damn. So I snipped the wingtips off the chicken quickly, and brewed them up as per the recipe before adding them to the roasting tin (when the chicken was ready, and removed). Good save, I think.

Served up with a good serving of our family's classic 'Mozzie's Acid Leeks'. Nice bit of vitamin C to cut through those cheesy tatties. And a glass or two of a chardonnay-chenin blanc-viognier blend. Note my utterly in-expert carving...