This week I wanted... I bought... I made

After the vast amounts spent last week this week I shall try and be a little more frugal. Saturday we may well go out for lunch (possibly not the best start to frugality) so dinner can be cold collation or in fact hot collation of chorizo, padrone peppers, feta cheese and olives all from last weeks tapas with some crusty bread. Sunday I have food chain so I think roast chicken and veg Sunday night will be lovely and easy. Monday a treat for the man - may well be beans on toast was in fact lamb and barley stew from foodchain with a lovely ginger cheesecake to follow! Tuesday bean curd and peppers or something similar much less similar in fact was duck breast with duck fried potatoes and chicory and blood orange salad. Wednesday pasta - maybe with bacon and chilli as it's quick and it's been a while made bolognese sauce Tuesday night with mince from the freezer and the smoked bacon and had spag bol both Wednesday and Thursday and enough left for the man for his dinner Monday. Thursday duck bit salad. Friday hot sausages an experiment with green peppers and eggs.

At Ginger Pig I bought a chicken, a big thing though smaller than the biggest, for Sudnay dinner and then cold for lunches till Thursday and it was £13.40

At Booths I bought potatoes, swedes, parsnips, leeks, carrots with Sunday dinner and cold in lunches - the root veg were cubed and roasted together with garlic, ginger and chilli in olive oil, blood oranges, garlic, beetroot and thyme for £8.20

At Brindisa I bought some sweet smoked paprika for £2.75

From Wild Beef I bought eggs dinner Monday and Fridayfor £1.50

Then peppers Friday from Tony - £1

Milk and yoghurt from Neals Yard - £5.90

And bread and hot cross buns from Flour Power - because I love hot cross buns! - £4

So a much more manageable £36.75

And bought almost nothing more apart from a loaf of bread from St John in the week, half of which is in the freezer, some onions and a couple of tins of cirio tomatoes.

Wild Mushroom & Hock Risotto

Wild Mushroom & Ham Hock Risotto

Am adding this post because it is where I used the last of my spoils from the hock I bought recently and also because it was really really good to eat.

I had a litre of thick jellied stock from the hock in the freezer as well as about 150g cooked meat. There was celery in the crisper and a couple of sweet onions in the vegetable rack that needed using soonish if they weren't to sprout. There was Parmesan in the door of the fridge as there almost always is. And butter of course. Rice in the pantry along with a jar of dried porcini. I had myself a deconstructed ready meal.

Wild Mushroom & Ham Hock Risotto

50g dried porcini, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes

250g risotto rice like vialone nano

50 g butter

2 tbspns olive oil

2 sweet onions or shallots, peeled and finely chopped

2 ribs celery, thinly sliced

150g shredded ham

1 litre of ham stock

Celery leaves from the centre of a bunch, finely shredded

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Bring the stock to a simmer in a pan. Drain the mushrooms, adding the soaking water to the simmering stock.

Melt half the butter and the oil in a heavy frypan and gently sweat the onions till they are translucent. Add the celery and stir to coat for a minute, then add the rice and stir thoroughly.

Add a ladle of hot stock to the rice and stir till it is absorbed. Keep adding stock and stirring till you've used about half the liquid. The rice will still be quite chalky.

Stir in the ham and mushrooms along with about half a tablespoon of salt and a good grinding of black pepper. Then continue to add the rest of the stock one ladle at a time, stirring fairly continuously - this is where it's good to have someone else who likes to help to do a little stirring too. The man is a joy at such moments.

The rice is cooked when there is only just the slightest resistance at the very heart of the grain - which should be about the same time as all the stock has been added and absorbed. If it is still a little hard, add some boiling water (NEVER cold) till the rice achieves the right consistency. Turn off the heat.

Stir through the rest of the butter, the grated Parmesan and the shredded celery leaves. Cover the pan with a lid and leave for five minutes before serving in deep bowls.

Now I had myself a perfectly reconstructed meal, taking about half an hour to make and costing about £2 with enough leftover for our lunchbox treat next day.

Date & Parsnip Salad

Saturday night I wanted to do a series of tapassy type dishes for dinner as the original plan had been to meet up with David for tapas and sherry at a place he'd heard about in Borough. Except then he couldn't find it again and he'd consumed an excess of sherry elsewhere in the meantime and, after waking with a dreadful hangover, was subsequently less convinced he wanted to repeat the experience. So they came to us instead but I still fancied a Spanish theme to the evening.

We started with a lightly chilled manzanilla with hot padron peppers and marinated olives. Then I had a whole collection of dishes, mostly cold, except for some saffron potatoes and tiny lamb balls, which I made up as I went along. The array of salads largely came from Moro type recipes I found on the web, particularly an incredibly beautiful blood orange and chicory salad from Helen's Food Stories blog and a richly textured chick pea and butternut dish made luscious with tahini dressing.

The last one made, and I almost didn't, was date and parsnip salad from a very old article in the Guardian. I read the instructions, looking for how to cook the parsnips and realised - you don't. Just grate them and mix with everything else. And I doubted it deep inside, even though it was a recipe from Moro, from Sam and Sam Clark, and I love their food. It just didn't seem right. Their intro suggested it was half salad, half relish and that kind of put me off too. I love salad but I loathe relish - which half would triumph? And the man doesn't much like mint. It was Lebanese rather than Spanish. And I'd already made enough food to cover the table with jeweled plates.

But hey, what the hell. I had the ingredients, no cooking only chopping means it would be quick to make, disaster or no. Dinner should be an adventure. Good call - it turned out to be my favourite dish of the night. Savoury, sweet and decadently rich with a myriad of textures it really was the perfect accompaniment to the lamb and the rest of the vegetables.

Parsnip, yogurt and date salad

600g parsnips

10 dates, stoned and roughly chopped

2 tbsp fresh mint, roughly chopped

150g Greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon, or any slightly sour yogurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp runny honey

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper

Peel the parsnips, cut in quarters lengthways, and get rid of any woody centre. Grate coarsely and place in a bowl. Add the chopped dates and mint, followed by all the remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper, toss well and taste. Serve immediately.

Utterly divine. Suspect it would be even better with barbecue...

I wanted...I bought...I made

Chick pea, butternut and tahini salad

Saturday night the lovely David and his friend Michael are coming over for a little tapas chez nous - definitely including padron peppers, potato tortilla, chorizo had the peppers but with saffron potatoes, lamb and bulghur balls, chick pea and butternut salad, blood orange and feta salad and parsnip and date salad - think when I was planning I was imagining a tapas menu and tiny plates of food so may have slightly over catered...- and other stuff... Sunday may be an easy day, roast chicken perhaps it was easy but in the form of out for lunch and lots of lovely leftovers for supper. Monday I'm out so will need a little treat for the man steak 'n' kidney pie, Tuesday the turnip risotto we didn't have last week actually leek and bacon pasta, Wednesday the chilli from the freezer, Thursday Chinese a seriously good wild mushroom and hock risotto, and Friday probably sausage sandwiches spinach omelette and lentil salad...

At the Ginger Pig I spent almost no money. Really. I bought some minced lamb for balls, some smoked bacon ends for pasta and pork steaks for the freezer for spanish rice dish another time and it cost £8.35

Then at Booths I bought Padron peppers, pink fir apple potatoes, aubergine, endive, celery, red onions, parnips all for Saturday night and Sunday, courgettes, tomatoes with some peppers for roasted vegetables for a lunch for friends Monday at work, blood oranges and leeks pasta for £18

At Brindisa I bought a tub of spiced lardon because the woman was cubing it at the time and it looked amazing thought I was making a rice dish but didn't so it's in the freezer as well as a pack of chorizo thought I was making hot grilled chorizo but didn't so another treat for the freezer and a couple of large dried peppers for the rice but they will keep - £8.35

From Lizzie at Wild Beef I bought eggs omelette Friday night and porridge oats breakfast for £3.50

At Gastronomica I bought Parmesan some in the risotto, some on the pasta and some still in the fridge for £4

At Monmouth I bought coffee for £8.50

A medium tub of big fat juicy green olives Saturday supper from the Good Olive stall - £3.50

At Mrs Elizabeth Kings I bought a pork pie Satruday lunch - £5

Back at Ginger Pig I bought a scotch egg breakfast snack and a steak and kidney pie for the Man on Monday for £7.50

From Tony's veg stall I bought peppers that I roasted for lunch Monday for £3

At Neals Yard I bought milk and a couple of baguettes one with supper Saturday and one in the freezer till Friday for garlic bread - £7.60

Flour Power sold me two cottage loaves for weekend toast and then toast Monday night for me after class for £2

And there was a packet of chocolates still in the fridge but will take them to work Monday to cheer up those left behind from Artisan du Chocolat - £2

There was also a charming young French woman selling various sweet treats, the best of which was undoubtedly the tart pruneau which we gobbled Saturday night - £5.50

So, after starting so well I ended up spending a grand total of £87.65


And then I spent some more - buying spinach, parsley, coriander, mint, a pomegranet and butter.


A hundred quid this week - and two dinners from the freezer. Will try harder...

Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

That which doesn't kill you makes you stranger. Sometimes I love grafitti.

This week's bite club has a new set of rules - a process still in the making - but what I gathered is one ingredient of the week is broccoli. I'd planned to make some kind of stirfry -serendipity. Only my initial idea was making two dishes (never knowlingly make it simple), one chicken and one veg. Bought both. Then I was struck by a brainwave - chicken and broccoli stirfry. Quick, easy, less washing up!

This is an adaptation of a recipe from Charmaine Solomon that I have been making for years and years. It is a very subtle dish that makes brilliant use of both the stalks and the florets for their flavour and, especially, the contrast in textures between the smooth crunch of the stalks and the tiny flower heads catching the sauce. The meat, firm and juicy, is sliced thinly and then marinated in a little five spice which provides the encompassing flavour of the dish. The spice is rounded out and given depth with garlic and ginger and a hint of sweet from the shiaoxing wine.


Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

1 chicken breast
1/2 tspn five spice powder
1/2 tspn salt
500g broccoli
2 tbspns peanut oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbspn ginger, finely chopped
2 tspns light soy sauce
1 tbspn shiaoxing wine
2 tbspns chicken stock or water
1 tspn potato flour
2 tspns cold water

Bone and skin the chicken breast. Slice the flesh thinly and mix with five spice powder and salt.
Bring a little lightly salted water to the boil. Cut the broccoli into florets and the stalks into sticks about 3cm long and 1/2cm thick. Drop the stalks into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Add the florets and, when the water comes back to the boil, cook for another minute. Drain the broccoli and refresh under cold water. It will be crisp bright green.

Heat the oil in a wok and add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the chicken and toss over a high heat until the meat turns white.

Add soy, wine, stock or water and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.

Mix potato flour smoothly with the cold water, add to the wok and stir till it is thick and glossy.

Add the drained broccoli and toss gently to mix and heat through.

Serve hot over rice.

And cold next day for lunch.

Simple and fabulous.

And yours for less than a fiver.

I wanted...I bought...I made

Rocket

We're away for the weekend so think a simple roast beef very rare Sunday night might be easiest. Monday the man can have the pasty from the freezer and a little salad and I shall have egg on toast later. Tuesday noodles I think the man was out so I treated myself to a steak from the Ginger Pig shop on Lower Marsh, Wednesday the last of the chilli from the freezer chicken and broccoli stir fry with rice, Thursday risotto the last of the beef and mushroom stew from the freezer with sprouts and carrots and Friday, little culture vultures that we are, we're off to the theatre again.

Started as ever at the fabulous Ginger Pig where Charlie had found this blog and liked it so that was nice. I bought a hunk of topside Sunday dinner and lunches till Thursday and a chicken breast stir fry Wednesday night and spent £20.35 which felt like a lot

Then to Booths where I started out with the idea of leeks but they had brussel tops, and we had some with dinner a few weeks ago at the Anchor & Hope that were very tasty and I fancied trying to replicate them steamed then buttered with roast dinner - yum, also bought potatoes roasted, broccoli stir fried, spring onions, carrots, brussel sprouts with roast and with stew, small turnips intended for risotto but still there and a large bunch of parsley some with thyme for a white bean salad for lunches, the rest will do the turnips for £7.80

Just eggs fried on toast Monday night from Wild Beef - £1.50

A good lump of Parmesan for the fridge from Gastronomica - £4

Fennel salami Saturday sarnies before we set off from the other Gastronomica - £2.20

Chocolates for the parents of the man as we were off to visit them for the weekend from Maison du Chocolat - £2

Bread and milk from Neals Yard - £4.80

So a fairly reasonable total of £42.65 - and then decided we'd take some lovely cheese to the parents of the man as well so bought an ash covered log of goat cheese and a huge lump of sheeps cheese for £23.15

So finally spent £65.80

Didn't buy much extra this week, apart from some onions and a couple of tins of white beans and tomatoes, and of course rocket to steak on Tuesday...

Creamed Winter Veg

Winter Veg in Cream

Along with the roast pork we had on Sunday I wanted winter veg - it being winter with the weather to match. I had a parsnip in the fridge and I bought carrots and a lovely fat swede. I also bought a tub of cream - it being winter with the weather to match and so a little indulgence is allowed.

The process could not be simpler. Peel and cube each of the vegetables into dice about one centimetre square - half an inch in old money. Cook each one separately in boiling salted water till just al dente. This doesn't need to create vast amounts of washing up - do them one after the other in the same pan, preferably one that is big enough to hold all the vegetables together. When all are just cooked and drained warm a small tub of cream with a sprig of thyme and a single clove of peeled garlic - in the same pan - till the cream comes to a simmer. Take off the heat and leave to steep for ten minutes.

Remove the garlic and thyme, add the vegetables to the cream and gently warm through.

Serve.

I think the reason I like this so much is that each vegetable retains its individual flavour and because they are cooked in water they are very light, almost delicate. The cream wraps around them rather than soaking in - just lovely. Interestingly they are really nice cold next day in lunchboxes.

Seriously recommend.

Total cost about £3 - good cream ain't cheap.