oops, it’s been a while

quick summary of the last week for the record…

Wednesday 19th
Planning to eat the coc au vin this evening
Pret Lunch, ham and egg sandwich with a “vitamin enriched HIPPIE” drink.
Canteen breakfast (Sausage, fried egg, bacon, beans, etc…)

Tuesday 18th
Christmas party food & wine
Gormet Burger Lunch
Skipped breakfast

Monday 17th:
Cheese left over from Saturday.  Leak Pasta
Beef stew and dumplings, very salty
[cooked up coc au vin]

Sunday 16th: (in london this weekend)
Supper with Clare, venison sausage, spinach.  Made mince pies
Late Breakfast, scrambled egg

Saturday 15th:
Dinner party, CP, Pippa, Noz & Drew.  Roast Ham, mash, Cheese, Christmas pudding ice cream
Eggs for late breakfast, no lunch

Friday 14th:

Started to make mincemeat…
? Can’t remember.

Pork and Prunes with Butternut Squash

We had a couple of friends from work round for supper, an ideal opportunity to try out two new recipes. They are both quite rich dishes though so with hindsight you would only really want one of these with your meal.

Pork with Prunes

This is a dish my step mum does for us, there are quite a few recipes out there on the web, but the basic idea is the same. Pork is a very sweet meat, and goes well with a sweet sauce (often served with apple sauce). Thus basically doing a casserole where the the sauce is sweetened by the additions of prunes works very well. Here’s what we did (based on the BBC’s recipe) …

Ingredients:

• 4 fillets of pork
• 200g of pitted prunes (basically a packet)
• 3/4 Bottle white wine
• Dijon Mustard
• Redcurrent Jelly
• 200g Creme Fresh

Method: (Brown the meat, make the sauce, put together in oven for 30 minutes)

• Dust 2cm wide slices of pork (cut across the fillet) in flour and brown in butter. 3 minutes on each side over a medium heat should be fine. Once browned remove and place in a casserole dish. Season with pepper at this stage either directly on in the flour.
• In the same pan, add the prunes, wine, and a good dollop of mustard (1tbsp). Let this reduce by half, while this is happening a lot of sweetness will come out of the prunes. For this reason wait a while before adding the redcurrent jelly otherwise you will make it too sweet. 1tbsp should be enough.
• When the sauce has reduced, turn the heat down and add in the creme fresh.
• Once combined poor over the pork, cover and place in a medium oven.

Butternut Squash with cream and cheese

This is basically a Jamie oliver recipe, and is a slightly fancy roast butternut squash recipe.  You pretty much roast your squash as you would usually, then at the endpour over cream/wine/cheese and cook for a little longer…

Rub the slices of squash with olive oil and thyme, cover with greeseproof paper (scrunch up under a running tap) this will prevent the top from browning.  Roast on gas mark 6 for 30 minutes until the squash is just starting to soften.

Remove the paper and place back in the oven, meanwhile prepare the sauce…

To 200ml of single cream add:

• glass of white wine,
• a good heft of seasoning,
• 1/2 ground nutmeg
• and a couple of handfuls of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Stir it all together and then pour over the squash.  Cook for a further 10 minutes.

Steak and Mushrooms, stretched.

Well there were four of us, so four juicy rib eye steaks were purchased from Mr Sainsbury along with some sweetpotatoes, a box of mushrooms, and a bottle of Cotes du Rhone.  It doesn’t take much of a clairvoyant to see where things were heading…

However life is fickle mistress, and fate took a turn for the better by increasing the number of our impromptu crowd by one.  Calculating that i can take exactly a 1/5 of each steak and redistribute the available meat evenly would certainly have solved the problem from a mathmatical perspective, however….

Creamy mushroom strips of peppered beef

• Caramalise some onions.
• Flash fry the beef in the onions (add ground black pepper here).
• lower heat and add in chopped mushrooms.
• Wine.
• Creme Fresh.
• Seasoning.

Meanwhile chop the sweet potato (no need to peel), and roast in hot oven for 15-20 mins.

Meanwhile drink the wine.

Spicy lunch to fend to the winter bugs

After a spot of Christmas shopping with a colleague we pop into a local thai resturant for an ”express” lunch.  Manorom Too.

Spicy chicken soup with mushrooms

Green chicken curry with rice.

all for about £6. 

It must be December

Burger Joint “PJs” just off covent garden played host to us this lunchtime.  The silly season has yet to start in ernest, but for my immediate team we went out for a longish lunch to get the ball rolling.

“When in Rome” I thought…  so went for a real surf and turf menu selection.  Prawns in batter to start with, followed by a cheeseburger.  All good enough but the batter was a little greasy, and the burger surprisingly dry (although the beef was both tender and full of flavour).

We all washed it down with a dry cote du rhone.

Banana and Bangers

Simple banana today for breakfast.  No wonder i’m hungry by lunch!

Lunch in the staff canteen : Bangers and Mash with peas and gravy.  Simple and good.

Planning cauliflower cheese for supper, not had it for years and years….

Sunday – Late start, furniture, fire, roasted veg.

Up and at the day before noon, can’t be bad.

After some shuffling around and a good browse in the most excellent Aldeburgh Book Shop.  It’s back to the cottage to roast up some sweet potatoes, leaks and tomatoes.  A little garlic gives it some kick, and the left over feta cheese adds the much needed fat calories.

Warming winter fare.

Back in London, there’s time for a quick omelet before bed using up some old goats cheese I found in the fridge to give it some tang.

Saturday,

Breakfast : Yoghurt & Oats

Lunch : Shared two dishes at “Munchies” on Aldeburgh high street.

1) Cheeseburger in a Suffolk bap (£5.95).  Juicy.

2) Beef hot pot. (£4.95)

(Lashings) of ginger beer to wash it all down.

Over to the in-laws to pick up some furniture; Mother-in-law was cooking a simple tasty looking Sausage dish for supper.

Food:

• onion
• apple (any kind)
• sausage
• mustard

Method:

Slice onions & apples into rings (or whatever) and place in the sort of dish you would cook lasagna in.  Place sausages on top.  Spread a little mustard onto the sausages.

Cook in oven (med/high) for C. 1hr.

The onions and apples will caramelise and you will be left with a delicious “goo” along with your sausages.  Serve with mashed potatoes and savoy cabbage.  Or whatever….

Then it’s off to the badlands of Norfolk for a Christmas drinks party.  Details are a little hazy but I remember it being very wet.  Tasty snack food at the party (sausages, bread and cheese, sausage rolls, etc…) .  Late drive home.

Friday, Drive up to Suffolk – Late supper

Good drive, but late start means we don’t arrive until 11pm.  Quick supper of butternut squash ravioli in a tomato sauce with crumbled feta on top.

Glass of wine in front of the fire.

Perhaps it’s age? Spicy Chicken Pasta

We have a (semi) regular boys night. Meet at a pub, have a few ales, go for a curry. Some gossip’s exchanged, but mostly like most blokes we just talk a load of nonsense.

However we’re getting old, and one of our number has a baby to look after so this time round it turned into an impromptu gentleman’s dinner party.