187: Slow-cooked duck with star anise and ginger, p345

I was really looking forward to this one, served with the Chinese broccoli. Unfortunately, although tasty, it didn't quite live up to my expectations... I think I was expecting a thicker, richer sauce/stew - it was actually rather thin and (unsurprisingly, with duck cooked with its skin on) rather oily. The duck was cooked beautifully though, pink and moist, but cooked through. I think I'd want to reduce the liquid down by about half, maybe thicken it, and definitely leave it in the fridge overnight to solidify and remove a lot of the fat (and/or remove the skin from the duck, but then you wouldn't get the lovely crispy bits from browning the meat at the start).

179: A squid in the fryer, p276

I like squid a lot, but this wasn't a success. I don't have much luck when recipes call for ingredients to be tossed in flour - worse still when they are coated in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, turns into a sticky cleggy mess. A Cleggy Mess being nothing to do with the current government, of course. Ahem.

These (not so) little baby squids were fresh from the fishmongers two bus rides away, to whom I dashed away from work early tonight (red mullet tomorrow, hurrah!). Undercooked squid is disconcerting, overcooked is pretty horrid (like eating rubber bands, as Nigel says in the book), and I skillfully managed a bit of both here. The combination of ingredients promised much but sadly my execution of this recipe was a bit of a let down. A lighter touch, no flour, stirfrying, and a good squeeze of lime would have made all the difference. Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

99: Steamed sea bass with ginger and cucumber, p180

Not a whole seabass, as per the recipe, and not for one person - but two seabass fillets for a light lunch for two of us. And it was scrummy! More clean simple asian flavours, with the nam pla, soy, lime and coriander, served with jersey potatoes, very Nigel... And very simple. Never having cooked seabass before, one thing this book is definitely doing is teaching me to cook fish I wouldn't normally cook, which is quite fun. Yummy.

90: Broad beans in their pods with dill and yoghurt, p191

Again, not too bad at all... I think I put too much water in, missed the '250ml water' in the ingredients, and boiled the beans in more than that and had to pour quite a lot out near the end, oops. Was very dill-y, a bit too much for me - a little is good, but it's a very strong, overpowering herb and without any other strong flavours to go with it, rather overdominated...

I did all of these last three recipes in one evening, making c.1/4-1/3 of each recipe, which was enough for a little bowl of each, and a dinner for me  - T was out again this evening, but on his return tried the tomatoes (which he quite liked), and the orecchiette (which he thought was odd), but turned his nose up completely at these yoghurty beans :)

83: A radish, mint and feta salad, p195

Nope, didn't like this. Glad I only made a quarter of the recipe. Blurgh. Don't like radishes. Wish I did, they are one of the few things I can grow in the garden without fail, everytime, but they aren't for me. T turned his nose up at proferred bowl of salad, declaring that there was nothing of interest to him there... Me neither, even with the use of very cute British 'purple' radishes. So pretty. So radishy. Ick.

79: Lamb chops with oregano and tsatziki, p255

More nice fresh, summery flavours again tonight - not exactly complementing the grey storm clouds and drizzle that's accompanied the rest of the day, but we can try to pretend it's summer. Sitting inside in jumpers.

A simple tsatziki recipe - T surprised me with a revelation when I served this, saying 'I really do like tsatziki'. Which I immediately took as being sarcastic. Bizarre. Turns out he was being serious. Yoghurt? My husband likes a dish made mostly of yoghurt? Wonders may never cease.

The tsatziki of revelation was served with the very simply griddle pan fried lamb steaks, which were quite thick and the packet said '8-12mins', turns out 8mins is more than enough, and pinkness just about lost :( but the fat did go deliciously sticky and crispy. Served with steamed green beans and new potatoes. And a glass of white wine. It IS summer!

77: Grilled chicken with lemon and couscous, p258, and 78: Zucchini cakes with dill and feta, p228

Another nice, fresh tasting, summery salad to go with recipes 75 and 76. I didn't have a preserved lemon. I did have some - I bought a whole jar of the damn things some time ago (they only come in huge jars...) but the wretched things had gone a little... furry... at the back of the fridge (note to self: look inside jars at back of the fridge when cleaning aforementioned fridge...), so ditched that idea midway through the recipe (too late to turn back now!) and added a bit more fresh lemon, in the form of a bit of the flesh, not just the juice. I can imagine the salty, intense lemony flavour of the preserved lemon would have been better and would have been good, but there are limits. Esp when grilling chicken, roasting aubergine, frying zucchini cakes, and toasting pine nuts, all at the same time...

Now, the courgette cakes. Not great. Ultimately I wouldn't make them again. Nor choose them on a menu. However, if served them at a vegetarian friend's house, I believe I would be able to eat them. They weren't as bad as I thought they might be, so was pleasantly surprised. Too courgettey, too dill-y, and too feta-y, if I was asked for specifics, but that rules out all the main ingredients, which is a shame... On the plus side, they didn't fall apart as easily as the recipe suggested and I made nice little round cakes, only slightly 'chargrilled' on the one side (see above mentioned multi-tasking issues). The chutney they were served with was a good thing, went really well, but possibly because it disguised some of the courgette taste. And feta. And dill. Apricot jam probably would have had a similar effect.

56: Bean shoot salad with corianer and mint, p378

Jeepers!! I only used one chilli instead of two, and left it all for 5mins, not 15mins, and this was darned fiery!! Served with garlicky chilli prawn linguine, this made enough for at least four as a side dish. Can't think of an enormous amount to say... crunchy, tasty, but not the most substantial or filling of dishes so don't think I'd make this as a main course on it's own.

52: Five-spice quail, p169, and 53: A hot, sour bean shoot salad, p163

Quails. Possibly the most anthropomorphic little carcasses to cook with - especially when their little legs aren't tucked/trussed up as in a chicken you'd roast, but instead are sticking out in a slightly disturbingly human way - with little knees and calves - making them look like little decapitated bodies...

But oh so yummy when marinated in a garlicky chinesey spicy mix, and then roasted...

Very easy little recipe and surprisingly the meat didn't dry out at all and was deliciously moist, and the coating had quite a kick to it.

Went really well served with another lovely crunchy hot Asian-style salad (we're really liking these salads) with spinach and bean shoots, and a good dollop of chilli and nam pla.

42: Thai fishcakes with a deep sweet dipping sauce, p114

Back to the scrummy little patties again last night - how many more can there be?? This time much lighter ones, made with haddock, and they held together absolutely fine, contrary to the recipe which said they'd be quite fragile. Wasn't sure about the sauce to start with, incredibly gingery and hot (I did leave the chilli seeds out, inspite of the recipe, but it was still rather strong...), but it worked really nicely with the fishcakes. Served with basmati rice and the rest of the spinach salad from Friday.

33: Prawn and coriander rolls, p94

Another bottle-misidentification mistake tonight - rice vinegar was actually another bottle of white wine vinegar. Damn damn damn. Got to have a good look at what's in the cupboard and what's not... Annoyingly I can picture the label on the bottle of rice vinegar, and could have sworn it was there, but knowing me it ran out a couple of years ago and the bottle went in the recycling...

Not bad at all these, but still not a patch on the pork patties... Oddly, inspite of being chiefly king prawn, and containing no potato and just a smidge of flour to help bind them together, they had a strangely potatoey texture, more like traditional fishcakes. More chilli and lemongrass I think next time. The sauce was a bit sweet for my taste on its own but drizzled over the rolls and accompanying noodles worked much better.

The enormous iceberg lettuce which has been taunting me from the fridge for its bland wateriness, and which was purchased particularly for this recipe, was finally pressed into service, but we only needed about a third of the thing and now I've got to think of something else to do with the rest... And no, Kingsley the bunny cannot have it as bunnies cannot eat lettuce, it makes them sick, with horrid stomach cramps, and they can die. So there. Bet you didn't know that. Plus Kingsley is such a fusspot, I'm sure he'd think it was below him to eat such a thing.

I always remember my dad telling us how iceberg lettuce was developed specifically for McDonalds, for its texture and shelf-life in the fastfood business. Yum.

23: White bean and tarragon soup, p158

A bit of a meh recipe for us, 'too beany' according to T, who doesn't like beans. Unless they are of the baked variety. Too tarragony for me, and I think I prefer soups with beans to be chunky rather than blended, as I don't like the texture of the resulting liquid after blending, too coarse and thick for me, like eating pureed watery potato... or beans... Hey ho, used up the last of the limp but still green and tarragony tarragon at last, and a lonely looking carrot that's been kicking around for a bit.

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...

 

11: Pork burgers with lime leaves and coriander, p81

Ooooh, we are diiiiining finely this year!! Scrummy scrummy fiery little munchkins these. Lots of garlic, lots of chilli, lots of ginger... Easy peasy. I used the food processor as in the recipe, but I think next time I'd just use the handheld chopper as the whole mix doesn't go in (spice paste made first, then the bacon - no pancetta I'm afraid - whizzed up separately, and then the whole lot mixed up by hand in a bowl).

Even did the lettuce dressed with lime, coriander, mint, and salt, as in the intro, but baked some paprikay wedges in the oven instead of rice (T's request, two nights of rice in a row seemed a bit much for him).

1: Spiced crumbed mackerel with smoked paprika, p24 and 2: Grilled zucchini with basil and lemon, p259

Bought fish from the (supermarket) fishmonger's counter today for the first time ever, was a bit of a bargain and filleted for us in front of me. New-found confidence in buying over the counter - hurrah! If only we had a local fishmonger instead of having to use the one in the supermarket...

Nigel seems to adore mackerel, there are five recipes using it in his book, and he says he's on a one-man mission to make the world eat more of the stuff, and I've never cooked mackerel, so here we go...

...mmmm, midway through cooking and the flat is filled with a gorgeous fried onion and smoked paprika smell - I hope it tastes as good as it smells...

To accompany it we're having boiled new potatoes (with a smidge of butter) and recipe 2 - grilled zucchini (Nige thinks it sounds like more fun than courgette) - much to T's disgust. Poor T, there are three courgette recipes - and I'm not sure which he'll hate more: courgette and Lancashire cheese crumble, or zucchini cakes with dill and feta...

...and the verdict...

MMMmmmm!!! Mackerel went down very well, and hubbie really liked it. The crispy oniony paprika crumbs were lovely with the oily fish, and the acidity of the courgettes stopped it being too heavy. Yum! Amazingly T even ate the three/four little strips of courgette I put on his plate completely unprompted (hoping he'd at least try a few bites as promised). Only downside were a few pin bones in the mackerel fillets - having been traumatised by having a fishbone properly stuck in my throat when I was 16 in France, I get a bit nervous about fishbones...

Happy tummies all round.

Hmm, got a chicken to roast tomorrow...