Stuffed Peppers

Roasted stuffed peppers stuffed (filled?) with fried rice and currants.

Sides of courgettes and an aubergine mash.

Stewed fruit and cheese.

Wine:
Sweet german one.
2001 Pomerol.

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.

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.

Sweet Potato Laksa

Laksa – lak.sa (plural lak.sas) noun. Noodles in a coconut-based gravy. See also “yummy”.

This has become something of a recent favorite “round our way” almost competing with the spicy sausage pasta dish a couple of years ago for winter popularity. Very quick to prepare…

NB this is a Nigel Slater recipe from “Kitchen Diaries”

Peel and cut up into 2cm chunks 2-3 sweet potatoes or pumpkin or squash – or mix of the three. Steam until cooked. This will take about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile make the base of the sauce with: (all fresh ingredients)

• Lemon grass (2 stalks – or good 1 tsp of the jar stuff)
• Red chili (up to 5 birdseye ones – with or without all the seeds – for you to make the judgement)
• Ginger (1/2 a thumbsize chunk)
• Garlic (1-3 cloves – again, one is plenty but you can go all out if you want to)
• Coriander (couple of fist fulls) stalks as well as leaves (they are the most flavourful bit of the plant)

Blitz all the above – except for handful of the coriander leaves – into a paste using a blender otherwise get busy with the chopping board then pestle and mortar.

Gently fry the paste in some groundnut oil (or similar) for about 2 minutes. Then add 1/2 pint of vegetable stock and gently bring to simmer stirring gently for about 5-10 mins for the flavours to cook and blend. Then add in halved cherry tomatoes – about 20 – and gently simmer and stir for another 5 mins. Meanwhile cook some noodles as instructed on the packet. Then add in can of coconut milk to your main laksa and simmer for about 2 mins. Finally add in your cooked sweet potato or other vegetable. To serve, put some noodles in each bowl and ladle the laksa over the top. MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm.

Beans on Toast, it must be Tuesday.

Simple, fast and underrated, the underdog of the snack supper world it must be time “beans on toast” made a comeback. As simple or effete as you care to make it it’s always quick and always great.

Pub Grub for supper

Wife is in the countryside for the evening. Cupboard is empty so the local pub (Fentiman Arms, Vaxhall) will be providing my supper. Kitchen opens in about 1/2 hour so i’m just refreshing myself with a Pint of Bombardier.This is not pronounced like the French (?) Trains to Airplanes manufacturing behemoth, but rather takes its name (and pronunciation one presumes) from the military role. The member of a bomber crew responsible for using the bombsight and releasing bombs on the target. Fine stuff, or “whatever”, depending on what sort of person you are.tick tick tick 7pm rolls by and the kitchen deigns to accept the supper order.1 x Glass Rioja Crianza 2004 Marques de la Concordia. Well we’ll start with just the one…1 x rump of lamb with dauphinoise potatoes.