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.

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.

2 Sausages in a roll, £2.50

Rushing back from buying a replacement battery for the car and not having long before I have to be up in town for Wife’s concert I just have time to pop into the local (farmers)market to forage for a spot of lunch.  Also find some fine looking Pak Choi.

A small queue has formed by the sausage seller, so on the basis that if somethings good it’s worth waiting for (Oh what it is to be English!)…

Salad for supper.

Time to taste last night’s pie. It is an impressively solid piece of cooking sitting on the wire cooling rack under a cloth in our chilly kitchen.

For the more mathematically minded the Pie is about 14cm in diameter with a rim hight averaging 6cm. Centre of the dome is nearer 8cm. Casting my mind back to prep school geometry I calculate the volume of Pie as follows (brace yourselves for some pie/pi punnage here)…

1 cylinder (Diameter 14cm, Height 6cm)

π x 7² x 6 = 924cm³

1 cone (Diameter 14cm, Height 8cm)

π x 7² x 2/3 = 103cm³

Thus we have a total Pie of 1027cm³, or about two pints of Pie in old money.

Cutting into the Pie reveals the crust to be satisfyingly solid and crispy, the glaze on the top is also most pleasing and random in both colour and thickness.  Unfortunately slicing also reveals that the pastry is only partially cooked.

First Post! Porky the Pie

Inspired by Nigel Slater’s “The Kitchen Diaries” I thought on my way home from work that I would start to record my foodie experiences throughout the next 12 months so that I have something to review this time next year. There will be a few differences…

Nigel can write well.

He can cook.

He knows about food.

He has the discipline to record what he eats throughout the year.

…