190: Mushroom lasagne with basil and cream, p348

Wow! A truly yummy, tasty, filling vegetarian main - and it was absolutely delicious! I'd been saving this one for my ex-boss from work since she's a vegetarian and I've been trying to get a good date for her to come round for dinner for most of the last year... finally made it, with a day to spare before the end of the challenge - phew!

And what a success. Will definitely repeat this recipe - even the confirmed non-vegetarian husband really liked it. I actually made the mushroom layer and the pesto last week whilst I had plenty of time, although both were quick and easy to make, and popped them in the freezer until assembling the dish and popping it in the oven this evening. The mushrooms went deliciously velvety, and the porcini mushroom liquor almost tasted alcoholic, like brandy or Marsala, whilst we were eating I actually thought the recipe had included alcohol and was surprised when I checked the book later on and found it hadn't. As per the book, I cheated a little and used bechamel sauce from a tub, although again I'd popped this in the freezer and it looked revolting - as though it had split - on defrosting, so I was a bit worried about it, but it was absolutely fine when cooked. The pesto was easy and lovely, can't beat homemade pesto, nothing like the bought stuff... although 50g basil seemed like an enormous amount - I bought a living pot of basil and used that (maybe 15g at a push, when I defoliated it and weighed the leaves), bought another (seemingly bigger) pot (which only added another 10g, annoyingly), and gave up there...

Excellent. Definitely a keeper, and one for all veggie guests in the future, at least once...

**Disaster! I know I took a picture of this one, but it seems to have gone awol. Rats**

120: Braised oxtail with mustard and mash, p63

A little visceral, this one...  Hunting down an oxtail, I found one rather quickly in Waitrose, who apparently have a range of 'forgotten cuts' - well done them! A bargain too, under a couple of quid for a whole oxtail. People seem to be incredibly squeamish about the idea though - the number of 'eughs!' and 'yuck, really??' responses I got when I mentioned I was making this, you'd have thought I was cooking a rat. Stupidly anticipating an oxtail to be long thick lump of meat, at the meat counter I was momentarily taken aback by the fact that the 'oxtail' sign was sitting on a little pile of neat, medallion-like rounds, before realising that they were all different sizes, about 1/2 inch through to 3 inches in diameter - and are of course each of the vertebrae of the tail, already chopped apart and ready to cook... doh!

An easy stew to throw together, and with the addition of a whole bottle of wine (no stock!) and the mustards, really meaty and rich and scrummy. After 2 1/2 hours, the meat was falling off the bones, and the next day, as per the recipe, I finished it off and served it with creamy mashed potato. The meat was lovely, but a little thin on the ground, and a little slimy still for T's liking, so maybe a bit longer in the oven to reduce the collagen down a bit more might have been a good idea.

111: A really good spaghetti Bolognese, p21

Service resumed after a particularly busy week or so of conferencing and camping, and a lack of proper home cooking!

And a nice easy comfort food dish to ease us back in, and use up some of the contents of the overflowing fridge (post-Tescos delivery... how do I always overestimate the amount of fridge/freezer storage space we've got and have to cram it all in and/or use lots up within a couple of days of delivery??).

Almost the same as my usual basic plus throw-in-whatever-I-think-of-off-the top-of-my-head spag bol, but for one crucial difference - the addition of a large amount of cream near the end... The result was very different to usual! I'm not entirely sure it was for the good... Very tasty (cream tends to have that effect), but not quite spag bol to me - which should be really meaty and tomatoey and rich and strong, with the addition of lots of red wine, beef stock cubes, worcestershire sauce, etc. T liked it a lot (possibly more than mine??!!) but although it was nice, it tasted more like the contents of a lasagna to me - with the bechamel mixed up with the mince. An interesting experiment though, and as ever good to try different ideas... :)

46: A curry of aubergine, tomatoes and lemon grass, p132

Partway through, this looked like it was going to be a terrible disaster, as the aubergines just floated on top of the simmering curry below, looking like they'd never cook, but again, the final result was really surprisingly tasty. Creamy coconutty sauce, with a good garlicky kick, and perfectly cooked aubergine. Oddly the mushrooms seemed to vanish... and I made a cheat by using a tin of tomatoes instead of fresh as somehow I completely underestimated how many tomatoes I needed in the supermarket the other day... instead of counting for this recipe, plus the other curry I did tonight, I just counted the one tomatoey recipe. Doh.

So, with the chickpea curry, spicy potatoes, dal soup, and naans, this made a pretty fab meal. And a total of four Nigel recipes done in one meal. I did manage to use every single pan and dish we own in the process though...

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...

29: Stir-fried mushrooms, spring leaves and lemon grass, p100

More winter leaves than spring leaves, so perhaps not as tender as Nigel intended when he made this in March, but resulted in a simple but tasty, garlicky stir-fry, served on basmati rice. Easy peasy and virtuous too - lots of greenery and no meat! And the bunny rabbit enjoyed demolishing the stems/midribs from the greens...

27: Mushroom pappardelle, p283

Not really a recipe this, very similar to the kind of thing I do for a quick mid-week super, garlic 'shrooms on pappardelle (actually the fresh linguine I made last week, dried now). Chestnut mushrooms gave it a nice nutty taste, and the parsley and Parmesan added a little extra flavour.

20: Chicken with mushrooms and lemon grass, p107

OOOOOOOOOOOOhhh, this was good. The name of the recipe is somewhat uninspiring and does this little stirfry a great disservice - it's a scrummy, zingy, fresh-tasting mixture, with lots of garlic and ginger, plus a little red chilli and a good kick of lemongrass, and that delicious but-don't-inhale-too-deeply salty-meatiness given by a good glug of nam pla. Served on steamed basmati rice, and many contented 'mmmm's all round...

 

13: Baked mushrooms with tarragon mustard butter, p279

He's trying to kill us!! With butter!! I thought this would be less cardiac-arrest inducing than 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' but I'm not so sure... :)

These are yummy, really like the combination of butter, tarragon, mustard, lemon, and 'shroom... and worked well with nice simple basmati rice and tomatoes sprinkled with balsamic. But soooo much butter mix - have popped the rest (c.50%) in the freezer, will either make these again, or use it when roasting a chicken.