Spinach with Yoghurt and Spices

With the unlikely scenario of a sunny weekend - not hot necessarily (obviously) but proper full on sun with attendant clear blue skies I really fancied something spicy for dinner Saturday night. My friend David was coming to join us and I was really looking forward to seeing him. He loves to eat so I wanted make something special. I'd had to cancel last time we were meeting when I was making ginger cheesecake so I figured I could do another of those very easily, dessert sorted. And it fitted the spiced theme.

For main course I settled on spiced roast chicken from Christine Manfield's book, Spice which I've made a few times and always enjoyed. You marinate the bird for a few hours before cooking so it's a good dinner party dish - you're half way there by lunch time and all you need to do later is put it into a hot oven. Sorted.

To accompany my pretty golden fowl - flesh tinted with the aromatic mix of saffron and turmeric roasted on a bed of matching golden sliced onions - I definitely planned steamed rice. For vegetables I decided salady things rather than addititonal hot things as a nod to the notion of sunshine. As I have done often in the last 20 odd years I turned to Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook - a book I have used as a reference continuously for all that time. It was, in fact, the very first cookbook I bought in London, having owned and loved a version in Sydney before that. Solomon is a Sri Lankan woman who moved to Australia in the late 1950's and in essence altered the way Australians ate. Her books are full of interesting stories and titbits to go with recipes that are always accurate in their measurements and balance of flavours and textures. They are a joy to use.

This spinach and yoghurt mix is very easy and quick and without doubt transcends the sum of its parts. If you don't finish it all in one meal it will eat well again next day, best though if brought back to room temperature as it is a little stiff straight from the fridge.

Spinach with Yoghurt & Spices

500g spinach

1 tbspn ghee or oil

1 tspn black mustard seeds

1 tspn cummin seeds

1 tspn ground cummin

1/2 tspn nigella or fenugreek seeds

1 cup yoghurt

Wash spinach well and remove tough stems. Pull the leaves into pieces and put into a saucepan with just the moisture on the leaves. Cover with a lid and steam over low heat till spinach wilts - just a couple of minutes. Drain, squeeze out as much water as you can, and chop finely.

Heat ghee or oil in a small pan and fry the mustard seeds till they start to pop. Add cummin seds, ground cummin and fenugreek or nigella seeds and continue to fry, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the seeds are fragrant, but do not allow to burn. Remove from heat, stir in chilli and salt and allow to cool. Mix the spices into the yoghurt then stir this mixture into the chopped spinach.

Serve at room temperature with rice and curries as an accompaniment.

And this week I wanted ... I bought... I made

Thinking this week I want spiced chicken, aubergine salad, hot rice and maybe spinach and yoghurt for dinner Saturday, with cheesecake to follow for David is coming to dinner and it worked a treat. Sunday I'm out most of the day so an easy roast on my return, lamb perhaps - didn't end up going out but did make spiced lamb complete with parsnip pudding. Monday we are out to see the incredible Heston Blumenthal at an evening arranged by Sherry Institute of Spain and I am SO excited. The man is hoping he's cooking dinner for us but I have my doubts he made a series of simple tapas matched with a series of sherries and it was better than fabulous. Tuesday pasta or perhaps vegetable curry we had a chickpea and chorizo stew finished with spinach that worked well with cold lamb in lunchboxes too. Wednesday is the weekly french class so this week may well be omelette in fact fried rice using the leftover rice from Saturday night that I froze and then defrosted, Thursday I'm out so shall leave my sweetheart some little treat truffled sheep's cheese and some bread from St John's and Friday, frittata or salad or given that temperatures have plunged sausage and mash and the other half of the cabbage fried in the butter from the pot roast the other day that I have saved for a treat.

Saturday we woke to fog enveloping Stockwell. It's not often I get to write that but as this is indeed the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, it's literal translation in town as well as in country amazed me a little. It didn't seem to put off visitors to Borough Market any - it was really busy first thing. There was quite a queue in Ginger Pig, with everyone buying, not just looking. There was a big chalkboard sign out the front saying whole shoulder of lamb £10, a definited bargain and, magically, also on my shopping list so I had one of those, but cut in half dinner Sunday, the second piece for the freezer to eat another day. I also bought a chicken that the butcher spatchcocked for me with enviable skill for spiced chicken Saturday night and a pile of oyster bacon half in the freezer half in the fried rice, £28 the lot.

Then to Booths, another shop with a queue, for potatoes roasted Sunday, mashed Friday, butternut awaiting it's fate, cabbage with Sunday roast and Friday sausage and mash, carrots, spinach spiced Saturday and stewed Tuesday, aubergine salad Saturday, peppers fried rice, parsnips pudding, fennel and endive not used yet but still okay for the weekend for £8.50

Lizzie's back at Wild Beef looking well again which is good news, bought some eggs a couple poached to top our chickpea stew and the rest as omelette in the fried rice and some sausages Friday treat, £5.50

Very busy over that side so we beat a hasty retreat and bought some sliced napoli from Gastronomica lunch with rocket from the garden! - £2

Then to Neals Yard for bread, milk, yoghurt and cream - £11.90

More bread for toast from Flour Power but no brownie as I was making cheesecake and that is enough sweetness for one week - £1

That was all for this week - £56.90 - definitely a cheap week!

I also bought spring onions, cream cheese, gingernut biscuits, salt and butter and one extra potato

This time last year we were mostly eating stirfried cabbage and the year before that courgette pasta, one of my regular quick dinners.

Chicken Noodles with Holy Basil

I bought a chicken last week at Ginger Pig - a hefty thing costing about £14. I stuffed it with barley and bacon and roasted it to perfect golden perfection with potatoes and steamed carrots and peas and lashings of gravy for Sunday dinner. Just fabulous.

Lots left over and so we had cold chicken and stuffing and salads all week for our lunchboxes, undoubtedly the highlight of my working day. Friday night the carcass remained, with a few skerricks here and there of remaining flesh. I had a couple more chicken carcasses in the freezer from before so I defrosted those. I cleaned all the remaining chicken from my bird then put all the bones into a big pot with various bits of veg and made a couple of litres of fine stock, which now occupies the space vacated by the frozen carcasses.

I had quite a reasonable amount of shards and shreds of flesh, had been thinking of making chicken and tarragon soup but we went out for dinner instead. So Saturday night I defrosted some egg noodles and stir fried them with the remaining chicken, lots of chilli and a handful of the rest of the holy basil, also from last week. A frugal meal that was full of flavour and colour, and quick and easy to boot. Feeling smugly satisfied and decidely well fed!

Chilli Noodles with Holy Basil

1/2 tspn fennel seeds

50ml shaoxing rice wine

50ml fish sauce

50 ml oyster sauce

400g fresh egg noodles

2 banana shallots, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 red bird's-eye chillies, finely chopped

1 red pepper, finely sliced into long thin strips

100g mangetout, finely sliced into long strips

1 cup holy basil leaves

1 cup cooked chicken, or raw thinly sliced

1 tbspn chilli oil

1 tbspn sambal oeleck - a chilli sauce available from any asian grocers

Mix the rice wine, fish sauce and oyster sauce in a little bowl.

Heat a wok till smoking then add the chili oil and fry the fennel seeds, chopped shallots, garlic and chilli until fragrant - a couple of minutes. Add the sambal oelek, red pepper and mangetout and toss with the mixed liquids. When it starts to bubble add the chicken and toss for a minute then add the noodles and half a cup of water. When it boils you turn the heat right down, cover with a lid and let it simmer for a couple of minutes till the noodles cook.

Toss through the basil leaves and voila!

Dinner is ready.

And this week... I bought + Want to be a tv star!?!

Friday night is chicken and tarragon soup to use the last of the week's chicken. No - the man and I went out to Ha Noi - a little Viet place we love and had crystal spring rolls and singapore noodles Saturday I'm thinking noodles and herbs and chilli with the last of the chicken and very fine it was too. Sunday roast pork had cauliflower cheese and roasted butternut to use up the veg from last week and cold in lunch boxes for a few days Monday barely risotto no risotto but a close to perfect meal of grilled lamb chops with buttered new potatoes and wilted spinach. Tuesday out. Wednesday french class so bean stew from the freezer actually sausages from the freezer with potato salad and green salad with the last of the lettuce. Thursday we're out and Friday I think sausage sandwiches zucchini fritatta perhaps. An easy week!

Of course by Saturday morning things were a little different. The sun was shining even if the air was cold and Borough Market was remarkably easygoing. Started at Ginger Pig where John was sporting a new haircut in preparation for his holiday in southern Spain, lucky him. I bought a boned piece of pork shoulder Sunday roast and cold for lunches, a couple of chicken breasts in the freezer and, as sheer indulgence, some lamb chops to grill magnificent Monday night. We don't normally have them, even though I love them to bits, because they are a hefty price but I am so looking forward to eating them with buttered spinach and new potatoes that it is worth every penny. Spent £38

Then to Booths for potatoes and spinach, mangetout, carrots, spring onions, didn't buy tomatoes as they were a little soft for a very reasonable £4.20 total

Cheese from the new guy at Gastronomica - I needed parmesan and they were also selling sheeps cheese studded with truffles - £10 the pair

Olives from Taste of Turkey - £2.80

Coffee from Monmouth - £9

A pork pie for lunch - £5

Milk and yoghurt from Neals Yard but no bread as I'd taken half a loaf from St Johns from the freezer and that was enough for us to toast for the weekend - £6.90

So a quick and easy trip for us - and a total spend of £75.90

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Lemon Cheesecake

No bake!

No gelatine either.

I have to say that this is one of the nicest things I've made in a while. Certainly it tasted vastly better than I was expecting, possibly because it was so very simple. The photo does it no justice - in real life it is a palely creamy thing of beauty.

When I was in my early teens my mother first made ginger cheesecake. For me it was love at first bite. It was my automatic dessert of choice for birthdays and any other opportunity I had to determine any element of the menu. Mum always made it the night before. It may be false memory syndrome, but I seem to recall that she would make the base and then refrigerate that for a few hours to make it set before adding the filling. I'm sure I do remember one night the base fell out of the loose bottom pan when mum was halfway between bench and fridge and those buttered crumbs were everywhere. Then in no time at all they were back in the pan, only myself any the wiser.

Looking for a quick and easy dessert for food chain this month I recalled those lovely cheesecakes my mum makes and thought I'd have a go. On the principle that lemon sets cream, this is what I came up with. This version adds filling straight after crumb base and so takes no time at all.

Lemon Cheesecake
250g packet ginger biscuits
125g butter
400g philadelphia cream cheeese
2 lemons, preferably unwaxed
50g icing sugar
250ml double cream

Put the biscuits into a food processor and blitz to crumbs. Alternatively put them in a bag, fold over the end to prevent escapes, and bash ferociously with a rolling pin till you feel much better and, again, have crumbs.


At the same time, have the butter in a small pan over a low heat till it is completely melted. Mix butter and biscuit crumbs and press into the base of a loose bottomed 20cm/8inch pan. Check it is firmly locked.

Whip the cream till you have soft peaks.

In a separate bowl whip the cream cheese with the juice and zest of the lemons. It will be a bit lumpy to start but it soon smoothes out, just keep beating. Add the icing sugar and mix it in. Have a taste - you want sharp but not mouth puckeringly so.

With a spatula slowly incorporate about half the cream into the lemon cheese mix then add the rest of the whipped cream in one go and mix it to a lovely smooth cream. It will be fairly stiff rather than runny.

Cover with clingfilm, refrigerate till you want to serve it. Cut into generous slices.

Devour.

From go to whoah this took me 20 minutes. And the final cheesecake really was utterly fabulous - tangy light little creamy cloud mouthfuls leavened with a tiny hint of lemon zest and a bit of ginger crunch to finish.


Definite keeper.

And this week I bought

I didn't get it together to make a plan on Friday so I had to wing it a little though I'd thought about it too. The man was a sickie boy so thought something spicy would be good. I found a recipe for a rather wonderful sounding chicken poached in spiced coconut milk salad, and that was the starting point.

Borough Market was remarkably busy first thing - queues everywhere. Not sure why - maybe people are cooking fab at home rather than putting it on the plastic pretending all is well. Who knows. At Ginger Pig I bought pork chops grilled Tuesday night with bali salad, chicken breasts poached in lime and coconut milk with a herb salad Saturday night as well as a whole chicken roasted Sunday stuffed with barley and cold for lunches then finally tarragon soup Friday night and a pile of smoked bacon for a cost of £27.70

Then to Booths for potatoes, bananas, cauliflower, cucumber, spring onions, mangetout as a change from sugarsnaps, baby spinach leaves, butternut and a lemon and a lime - £9.70

Onto Wild Beef where once again Lizzie was away due to a bad back so Richard was on his own, bought some eggs £1.50

Needed olive oil, went back to the Italian guys as the last lot was good to cook with - £15.90

Over to Neals Yard for milk, yoghurt and cheddar - £11.20

Bread and a chocolate brownie from Flour Power - £4

And that was all in our fairly truncated shop so we could get the man home in one piece - a perfectly even £70 for the week

But already I have bought more - cream cheese, cream, gingernut biscuits and icing sugar from waitrose, long beans, holy basil, coriander, fish sauce, tree ear fungi and a coconut from chinatown

This time last year we were mostly eating pork and veal terrine and before that zucchini tomato dahl.

Squash with Cep and Cream

A few months ago my second cousin Jaey and his lovely wife Marie gave us some seedlings that they had grown in their greenhouse from seed. Some lived, some didn't but part of the reason has been the generally appalling summer and the subsequent early onset autumn/winter. For example I have tomatoes, but they are green and, I suspect, unlikely to ever be red. I had early hopes for the cucumber plant but it died without bearing fruit. Most magnificent has been the bonbon squash vine curling round the back corner of our tiny garden, producing lots of huge buttercup yellow flowers. It is a pretty thing even if there had been no promise of food.

My inexperience as a gardener was also undoubtedly the cause of some of our general low yield. When the first squashes appeared on the vine I was very pleased and watered them religiously morning and night with a whole can of water each time, figuring they'd drink it up and swell into fine fruits. The next time I saw Jaey and Marie I told them of my devotion to be met by a quizzical glance. Seems that rather than make them swell lots of water makes them rot on the vine. Killed quite a few this way.

But...

We did have one that managed to survive my excessive care and it grew and swelled and produced a smattering of stripes radiating out from the fat white button on its bottom just like a proper exotic vegetable. And it filled me with joy. I made elaborate plans for its consumption. I have had a recipe from Sally Clarke's Book for about 8 years that I had wanted to try and, finally, here was my chance. Admittedly it called for smaller squash than my lovely bonbon - gems the size of tennis balls rather than lawn bowling balls but I was sure I could compensate for the difference. I boiled them (I'd bought a second squash at the market so we could have one each) for 10 minutes rather than the 3-5 recommended then baked them for 40 minutes rather than the 25-30 suggested. Sadly it was not enough and the flesh was undercooked, which was a real shame. It was a beautiful deep orange colour and the filling, of cep and cream and rosemary was brilliant.

So I give you the recipe anyway - do it with tiny squash perhaps or test the flesh of a bigger beast before adding the soup. Or just make the soup - it was lovely, and very autumnal. We ate it with lots of hot buttered toast for a fine meal.

Roasted Gem Squash with Cep, Cream and Rosemary

6 gem squash, the size of tennis balls

100ml olive oil, plus a little extra for frying

3 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste with salt

2 tsp finely chopped rosemary

300ml double cream

500g fresh cep brushed clean or use other wild mushrooms, and slice thickly

1 tbspn chopped parsley

Scrub the squash thoroughly and cook in a big pan of boiling salted water for 3-5 minutes. You don't want them to crack or burst open. Drain them and allow to cool naturally. Use a large sharp knife to slice off the top quarter of each squash, keeping the tops to one side. Scoop out the seeds and fibre and bin them. Put the squash on a baking tray.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.

Mix the olive oil, a third of the garlic, salt and pepper and half the rosemary together and spoon into the cavities of the squash and replace their tops. Roast for 30-35 minutes until the flesh has softened.

Meanwhile, simmer the cream with half the remaining garlic and all the remaining rosemary in a small pan over a very low heat. Season to taste.

In a heavy-based frying pan heat a drizzle of olive oil and the remaining garlic until sizzling and add the sliced mushrooms. Toss over a high heat until golden, season and add the parsley off the heat.

To serve you place the squash into individual soup bowls and spoon the cream into the cavities. Scoop the mushrooms on top and the 'lid' decoratively to one side.

Crusty bread or toast an absolute necessity to miss nothing.

I would make this again, despite the fact it didn't really work this time. Sally Clark normally has very good recipes so the fault probably lies with me. The filling was wonderful and I am still very taken with the idea of the sweet depths of roasted squash flesh wrapping round the earthy mushroom filling. Got to be worth one more go in what looks set to be a vey long autumn.