Random Recipes 19 - Chicken Satay Skewers and Noodles.

So I have put the above photo up to show you what it is supposed to look like.  This Jamie Oliver book certainly has lots of lovely, stylish photos in it.  I just still can't seem to organise myself to be able to do anything other than take a very rushed photo of a meal in among all the mess of cooking it so that we can dig in while it's still hot and before we get "hangry" (- a friend's description of her husband when he needs to be fed!).

I'm looking for tips people.  All you out there with impossibly stylish food blogs.  Do you cook something to be photographed at a time when noone is hungry, there are no children running about causing mayhem, you have a maid cleaning up after you as you go along? Do you have an area in front of a window all set up ready to accept pretty food for photographing? Do you have endless stores of pretty china for any occasion and beautiful linens? Is it is just that I am the worst housewife going?  

Here are my photos anyway of the meal I made for the 19th Random Recipe Challenge. I randomly selected Jamie's 30 Minute Meals.  I have never cooked anything from this at all.  My Auntie won it in a raffle a few months back and donated it to me.  I have been trying not to acquire any more cookbooks but I have heard good things about this one so I gladly accepted.  

The page I chose randomly was titled Chicken Skewers, Amazing Satay Sauce, Fiery Noodle Salad and Fruit and Mint Sugar.  I omitted the dessert due to a lack of time and the fact we have loads of cakes and chocolate and fruit and yogurts and all sorts of nonsense needing used up already.

I enjoyed making this.  Fairly low faff.  Bung everything in a food processor kind of stuff.  All quick and easy to make.  The end result was yummy. I would certainly make this again but it has also made me feel very positive about using this book again for easy teas for the kids.

Random Pistachio Cake.

This month's Random Recipe is Number 15 and celebrates Belleau Kitchen's 2nd Birthday.

Well, Dom, I have enjoyed a slice of this with a mug of tea and have raised my mug to you.  So many of my newly favourite recipes have been found by taking part in Random Recipes and this is yet another.  

I do so love a fairly simple cake and especially if it is not chocolate (I'm bored of chocolate cakes).  A good cake recipe is one like this which is simple but has an extra little something.  Here, you get the yielding bite and the distinctive taste of the pistachios which just jazzes up the beautiful, freshly baked vanilla loaf cake. 

I stacked up all my books dedicated exclusively to baking and used random.org to choose the book and then the page number.  The book was Cake Days from The Hummingbird Bakery.  I have previously blogged about the honey and pear layer cake and the grasshopper pie from this book and I think Steve has also made their whoopie pies.  Other than that, though, I have seriously underused this book which has many tempting recipes in it like lemon and thyme loaf; rose cupcakes; pea, ham and feta cheese muffins; walnut and honey loaf; butterscotch marshmallow bars - so watch this space for more!

Paella And Pudding.

Random Recipes is 1 year old!  I am proud to say that I have participated in every single one since Dom came up with the idea. 

Some of the more observant of you will have noticed that I have been struggling to find the time to update my blog.  Working more than usual at the moment but this should get back to normal at the end of this month.  However, I wouldn't want to miss a Random Recipe Challenge.  It is so easy and fun.  Dom sets us a challenge each month to choose a recipe from one of the many in the many cookbooks we already own.  It really is a winner of an idea.  You are likely to get something you would reasonably want to cook as you have chosen to have these books on your shelf.

For this challenge, Dom wanted us to go back and cook something from the same book as we cooked from for our first ever entry for Random Recipes.  My first entry was one I did for a "date night" along with Steve.  We both cooked something - Steve had to cook something from Moro by Sam and Sam Clark and I cooked something from "I Love Food" by Clare-MacPherson-Grant Russell. So, we went back to those books for a second lucky dip.

Steve picked Paella De Pollo Con Alcachofas Y Oloroso (Rice with chicken, artichokes and oloroso).  A regular recipe of Steve's from this book is the Pork, Chorizo and Spinach Paella which we both love so we were excited at the thought of a variation for him to add to his repertoire.

Here is the photo - the lack of colour is entirely my fault as I forgot to pick up the parsley.

We had this meal as a family on a Saturday night and it was very tasty and went down well with the boys.  This recipe was very flavoursome and a great excuse to buy a nice bottle of olorosso but I must say that if you are going to choose a Moro paella recipe to cook, I would recommend the pork, chorizo and spinach one over this one.  I think it has more flavour and much more punch.  I might suggest to Steve the next time he makes the pork one, though, to try adding some of the olorosso as he might be able to enhance it even more!

For pudding, I made the cold lemon souffles with almonds from "I Love To Cook".  I over whipped my cream so these weren't as smooth and light and pretty as they could have been.  They are really just a mousse but the way they are presented in the book makes them look like souffles and really rather impressive.  Alas my ones were not impressive at all and more faff than they were worth.  I would like to try them again, though, to see if they are worth the faff if I get it right.  They certainly had a sharp lemony taste and I do love lemon desserts.

Anyway, I would just like to say Happy Birthday to Random Recipes and a big congratulations to Dom for setting up such an enjoyable challenge, for keeping it going all year and for all his amazing work on the brilliant round ups. 

Poached Salmon with Herb Dressing.

Now this is a lovely light, healthy and refreshing dish to counteract all the excesses of Christmas.

For Random Recipes this month, Dom asked us to make space for new Christmas pressies by choosing a cookbook to donate to charity and cooking a random recipe from it before giving it away.  I did have a look at all my books but as we moved house this year, we had already done a massive clear out and the only books we had left were ones we really wanted to keep.  

I did, however, remember that a friend of mine had been clearing out some of her old copies of Everyday Food magazine by Martha Stewart and had given me a great big bag of them.  I had intended to go through them all and pass the ones I had finished with to another friend of ours.  Well, it had been some time since I had passed any on to her so I thought I could use one of them for this challenge and get started passing on the magazines again.

The recipe randomly chosen was from Issue 51 of Everyday Food from Martha Stewart and I have changed it quite a bit. The original recipe can be found on the Martha Stewart website here.

Recipe - Poached Salmon Salad with Herb Dressing.

Serves 4.

Ingredients.

4 skinless salmon fillets

zest of 1 lemon, peeled into strips

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

sea salt and ground pepper

1 clove of garlic

200g creme fraiche

1 handful fresh tarragon leaves

1 handful fresh parsley leaves

1 packet of baby salad leaves

1/2 cucumber diced or handful cherry tomatoes, halved

Method.

1. Place salmon in a pan and cover with cold water.  Add lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.  Bring to the boil over a high heat.  Cover, remove from the heat and let stand until salmon is opaque throughout, about 15 mins.

2. In a blender, combine creme fraiche, lemon juice, garlic, tarragon and parsley.  Season with salt and pepper.  Blend until smooth and set aside.

3. Divide salad and cucumber/tomatoes over four plates.  Top with poached salmon (leave whole or flake) and drizzle with dressing.

Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge 3 - My First Ever Cookbook.

This month Dom asked us to cook a random recipe from our first ever cookbook.

I was tempted to go to my parent's house and choose a book I would have cooked form in childhood.  The most appropriate one would have been my Mum's old domestic science jotter as that is definitely the one I used when I first ever started baking.  My favourite is the rum truffles and they are the first thing I ever remember baking.  I still love them.

Steve felt that the first book he bought himself was Leith's Cookery Bible but when we went to get it from the shelf, it seems it was a victim of our clearing out for selling the house.

So we looked on the shelves and chose the books we felt were the earliest books we had really cooked from that we still owned.

Steve chose Fish by Sophie Grigson.  He has a signed copy.  We went to see her demonstrating her kedgeree recipe from this book in Glasgow when we were students and certainly he made recipes from it for me when we were dating all those years ago.

His random recipe was Roast Cod With A Lemon, Garlic And Parsley Crust.  I did the shopping so I bought haddock loin instead of the cod because it's local and I prefer it.

It was a delicious and kid-friendly tea.  We loved the tang of the garlicky and lemony crust.

Here's the recipe -

Recipe - 

Serves 4.

Ingredients - 

700g skinned, thick cod fillet (or haddock, coley, pollack, hake, bass, toothfish, red mullet - this is one of the great features of this cookbook - she gives you alternative options for EVERY recipe)

85g white breadcrumbs

3 generous tbsps finely chopped fresh parsley

2 garlic cloves, crushed

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

60g butter, melted

lemon juice

salt and pepper

lemon wedges, to serve

Method - 

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/GM 7 .

2. Season the cod with salt and pepper.

3. Mix the breadcrumbs with the parsley, garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper then add the butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Mix thoroughly with your fingers.

4. Place the cod in a greased, shallow ovenproof dish and press the buttered crumbs firmly onto the upper side to form an even crust.  

5. Bake for 20 mins, until the crust is browned and the fish just cooked through.  If the crust is still pale, pop under a hot grill to finish browning.

6. Serve immediately, with lemon wedges.

So, onto my random recipe challenge.  From the shelves I chose Grub On A Grant by Cas Clarke.  This book doesn't even belong to me but was lent to me by a friend who had finished university by the time I started in 1996.  There are some quite weird studenty dishes in this book so I was a bit apprehensive about what I might end up having to make.  Luckily it was Tarragon Chicken which is a really simple dish to serve with pasta.  And uses chicken thighs so hopefully Dom will give me extra brownie points!

I served the chicken pieces on the tagliatelle and the following day I stripped the remaining chicken and stirred it through the pasta like a sauce.  Both versions were yummy.  I love the flavour of tarragon and just don't use it enough.  Although I do make a creamy tarragon chicken hot sandwich from Nigel Slater's Fast Food which is a real treat.  Anyway, this was a nice easy supper and certainly a great dish for students.

Recipe - 

Serves 8.

Ingredients -

2 large onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

75g butter

8 chicken pieces

1/2 bottle dry white wine

salt and pepper

2 tbsp tarragon

250g sour cream

1 tbsp paprika  (Ooops - have just realised I completely forgot to sprinkle on my paprika)

Method - 

1. Fry the onion and garlic in 50g butter until soft.  Place in a large casserole dish.

2. Fry the chicken in the same pan in 25g butter.  Fry until golden.

3. Pour half the wine over the cooked onion.  Season with salt and pepper and lay the chicken pieces on top. Sprinkle with tarragon and pour over the rest of the wine.

4. Cook at 170C/325F/GM 3 for 2.5 hours.

5. Add the sour cream just before serving. Serve the dish dusted with paprika.

Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge 2 - Part 2.

Hi, this is Steve – Lou’s better half. I have been involved in the Belleau Kitchen random recipe challenge and have actually found it very interesting in that it’s made me make things from our cookery books which I would balk at as being outwith my comfort zone. It’s like when you have loads of books that you keep meaning to get around to reading but never do and then end up donating them to charity because you have no room left in the house. I feel I’m finally getting value for money!

Anyway – about the recipe: the pesto bread was fine, but not mind-blowing. I do make quite a bit of bread but have never tried mixing pesto into the dough. I used jarred pesto so it may have tasted a bit sharper if I had either made my own or even just bought some fresh pesto.

To be honest, I prefer a bit more texture in my bread and the pesto bread didn’t really have this. It might go very well with pasta and sauce, given the similar type of flavourings.

Recipe

Pesto Bread – for 2 loaves

20g fresh yeast

500g strong white plain flour

1-2 tsp salt

250ml warm water

2 tbs olive oil

100g pesto

Activate the yeast in the water – should take no more than 10 minutes. In the meantime, mix together the flour and the salt. Then, add the water and yeast, the olive oil and the pesto. Bring together until all combined and then turn out onto a work surface and knead. Once the dough is quite velvety and smooth, put it in an oil-lined bowl and cover. Leave to rise for about 1 ¼ hours. After it has risen, knock the air out gently and then divide the dough in two. Place on a baking tray, cover and leave to rise for about ½ hour. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 8. Once risen for the second time, put in the oven and immediately turn down the heat to gas mark 6. Bake for 30-40 minutes. When ready, the bottom of the bread should sound hollow when tapped (apparently).

Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge 2 - Part 1.

Steve joined me for this challenge again but we weren't as organised as last time when we cooked together.  I have, however, managed to persuade him to write up his own challenge so he will be guest posting here tomorrow.

This month Dom told us that we had to count along our bookshelf and choose recipe book number 18 and pick a random recipe from there.  Our book number 18 was The New Penguin Cookery Book by Jill Norman.  This is one of these very useful books that will have a recipe for just about anything traditional you care to look up.  This would be an excellent book for someone learning to cook.  And of course, although we do use it quite regularly, we haven't cooked a fraction of the many many recipes in here.

The page Steve randomly opened for me had some onion recipes on it.  The first couple were side dishes and the last one was onion tart.  I decided to go with the tart recipe so it would do a meal without too much thinking on my part!  This is a recipe for a basic onion quiche.  Nice, simple, family food and actually very tasty and satisfying.  I made it even easier by using shop-bought, pre-rolled pastry.  Well, I'm a busy Mum.  The tart has gruyere in it so it is that classic "cheese and onion" taste - much yummier than the synthetic crisp taste!  We served it with a leafy salad with balsamic dressing and I must say it was a rather delicious and satisfying meal.  Adam ate all of his up.  His little brother didn't even deign to taste it but he's going through a phase and hasn't actually really eaten anything in the past week or so.  I still find it most soul destroying when a child doesn't eat what you have lovingly prepared for them.  They both even sat and watched me make it and asked questions the whole way through.  Oh well - one day I'll show him this blog post and he'll see what he missed. Hee hee.

Recipe - 

Ingredients - 

Shortcrust pastry (About half a packet of pre-rolled stuff)

100g butter

750g onions, sliced thinly

2 eggs

200ml double cream or creme fraiche (I used the creme fraiche and it worked well - wouldn't have noticed the difference)

70g grated gruyere

salt and pepper

Method - 

1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/GM 5.

2. Roll out the pastry thinly and line a 28cm tart tin.

3. Prick it with a fork and blind bake (Line with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans, cook at 200C/400F/GM 6 for 10 minutes then lower heat to 180C/350F/GM 4 for another 5-6 mins.)

4. Melt the butter in a heavy frying pan and cook the onions slowly, covered, for about 30 mins.  Stir from time to time to make sure they aren't sticking.  The onions should be soft and pale gold.

5. Beat the eggs with the cream, stir in the cheese and season.

6. Put the onions into the tart, cover with the egg and cream mixture and bake for 30 mins.

Read about this challenge here if you want to join in.

Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge 1 - A Perfect Date Night.

Dom at Belleau Kitchen has started a new challenge this month - see here if you fancy joining in.  

I wasn't going to join any more challenges as I do four in a month as it is but this one is perfect and is also nice and relaxed - no pressure to do anything - just join in as and when you like.

But the best thing about this challenge is that Steve is going to join me doing this one.  It's always lovely having company and, of course, spending time with my husband.

The idea is that you find a random recipe among all the recipes in all the cook books that you already own.  I, for one, constantly have that guilt that I still buy more cookbooks even though I haven't made a fraction of the things in the books I already own.  So, this challenge is going to give me the clear conscience which will allow me to buy more books!  Well, I'll try not to for a while yet.  Especially as we are moving house in a few months and we have far too much junk to transport as it is!

Anyway, Steve and I have date night every Saturday when the kids are in bed.  Yes, one of those date nights at home.  We usually watch a film, play a game, chat over a few drinks, whatever - as long as we spend the time together.

This date night we decided we would spend time together in the kitchen, each of us making our random recipe for the challenge.

Steve chose my recipe first.  He shut his eyes, pulled a book from the shelves, opened it a random page and there we are - chicken liver pate!  The book was 'I Love Food' by Clare MacPherson-Grant Russell. I got it for my Christmas so have only made three recipes from it so far.  I have never made chicken liver pate in my life as I don't have a food processor.  But after reading the recipe closely I discovered that it is a rough pate and no processor is required.  If it weren't for this challenge I would have continued to skim over this recipe and would have never made it!  It is such a quick and easy recipe - so simple - doesn't even feel like work at all.  It has prunes in it which give a lovely sweetness to balance the rich livers.  This pate is indulgent and deceptively easy to make - I know I will make this a lot now that I have tried it.

I then chose Steve's recipe and I ended up choosing his favourite cookbook - Moro.  But not a problem - I LOVE everything he makes from this book.  The recipe was Tortillitas de Camarones - prawn tortillitas.  These looked like a gorgeous little nibble and turned out to be ideal for date night.  This date night also happened to be Steve's birthday so we opened a bottle of Prosecco which we sipped while cooking and these tortillitas accompanied the last few glasses perfectly.

Again, these probably would never have been made otherwise.  Steve doesn't get a lot of time to cook - just at the weekends and he does look through the books for something to make but will go for a meal dish with lots of veggies so his wife doesn't nag at him for not feeding the kids enough good stuff.  So, we probably wouldn't have ever bothered to make these wee snacks before.  He'll definitely be making them again though - we both loved them!

Now, the only problem is that I will have to type out two recipes.  I wonder if I can persuade him to guest post on here and write out his own challenge next month?!?

Rough Chicken Liver Pate (from 'I Love Food' by Clare MacPherson-Grant Russell).

Ingredients - 

(I doubled the recipe.  We had one dish for lunch the following day with crusty bread, oatcakes and salad. I have another dish which I will serve to the girls when they come over for book group.)

8 oz (225g) chicken livers

4 rashers streaky bacon (grilled)

2 finely chopped onions

8 prunes, stoned

5 oz (125g) butter

Salt and pepper

Method - 

1. Fry onions and chicken livers in butter.

2. Add stoned prunes, chopped grilled bacon and seasoning.

3. Mash roughly with a fork and place in a pate dish.

4. Leave in fridge to set for at least 2 hours.

5. Cover with melted butter and cool.

6. Serve with hot French bread.

Tortillitas de Camarones (from 'Moro' by Sam and Sam Clark).

Ingredients - 

200g peeled brown shrimps, or 300g prawns in their shells, peeled and thinly sliced (we just used peeled, cooked prawns)

approx 200ml olive oil for shallow-frying

1 lemon, quartered

For the batter - 

55g chickpea or gram flour

130ml soda water or water

1/3 teaspoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika

a pinch of bicarbonate soda

sea salt

Method - 

1. To make the batter, sift the flour into a bowl and slowly add the soda water, mixing in with your fingertips or a wooden spoon, trying to avoid lumps forming.  The batter should have the consistency of something between single and double cream.

2. Add the paprika, bicarb and salt to taste.  Chill the batter, covered, for at least 20 mins.

3. When ready to eat, stir your shrimps or prawns into the batter.  Pour enough oil into a large frying pan to cover the bottom liberally.  Heat the oil to a medium to high temperature for about 3 mins.  Now with a dessertspoon scoop up a heaped spoonful of the mixture, carefully pour it into the oil and gently and quickly spread it out with the back of the spoon.

4. Create two or three more tortillitas (depending on the size of the pan) in exactly the same way.

5. When your first batch reaches a beautiful light brown colour, carefully turn over using a metal spatula and fork.  Finish cooking the other side.  

6. Do this with all the mixture, lifting each tortillita out onto kitchen paper when ready. Serve immediately with some lemon on the side.