chorizo, pea and lemon cous cous

And we're back.

Berated by Brenda and Clokey over the past month, with supplementary encouragement from Ana, I've sorted-of caved.

To be honest, I've also realised there's a massive hole in my search mechanism for the past year which means I can't find anything tasty that we've cooked since last summer. And I'm fairly sure we've had some top-hole scran since May last year.

So, what better way to reboot the blog than with a post-Evesham trip fridge-emptying left-over bonanza. Choices on offer once we'd ground our way through the M4 traffic was:

• Donna Hay's pasta with cherry tomatoes
• Delicious's chorizo and cous cous (with extra cherry tomatoes)
• Mildred's Mee Goreng (told you you'd missed some recipes)

On the basis due to six-pack issues Ana is now pasta-intolerant, and her and Milo pull faces like they've been sucking lemons in the car for the past 4 hours on the option of thai noodles, we go with the chorizo. Classic.

Basil was a on the edge of being slimy, but otherwise a great success and for some reason an easy way of injecting peas into Milo, who obviously won't touch them unless they're teamed with chorizo.

sources 

chorizo, pea and lemon cous cousDelicious, October 2012, p28

left-over chicken and salad

heston's pea and pancetta spaghetti

I don’t know why I’ve not thought of this before, but living in a pub is brilliant!

I say 'living' but what I actually mean is 'temporarily staying' at the rather fab Hampshire Hog in the rural countryside, for an equally fab 40th birthday party.

Having finally lived the dream, I can’t believe we’ve spent so long kipping on people’s floors, or struggling back to inaccessible B&Bs in the dead of night when we could've been staying in actual, real live pub. Who else would have a foaming nutbrown ale and maybe a scotch egg and a burger ready for when you’ve checked in? Who else would have a full English on a hotplate (‘help yourself!’) prepped once you’ve dragged yourself (and hungover wife) out of bed? And where else could you then sit for three hours, having more foaming pints of nutbrown ale bought to your table along with – oh go on then – a chicken and mushroom pie for lunch? Pubs are genius!

The only downside is, that there isn't one. And it only gets better if you forget your glasses and lenses so you can't drive home! I do have to cook dinner when we get home as 'punishment' mind, which does turn into a unique sort of torture as once again we've got almost nothing in the cupboards meaning we have to make do with a version of Heston's pea and pancetta spaghetti:

Obviously what we lack in peas and pancetta, we make up with sweetcorn and bacon.

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

fried rice with squash, chestnuts and chard

There’s an element of luck to tonight’s dinner. We’ve never had the chicken and chorizo pie before, but in the same suggested Bonfire night meal planner is this rice and squash dish. Not that we’re planning to have it, but the ingredients are made up of the usual odds and ends we have going spare: half a squash, half a tub of cream cheese, rice, spinach or chard (okay, spinach) and parsley. All I need to do is get some chestnuts in the cupboard and we’re sorted for any future occasion when the pantry is bare. Even better, and completely coincidentally, Ana come across the same recipe whilst tidying up earlier in the week and said it looked tasty.

This is very lucky as not three days later I’ve inexplicable under-planned the week’s meals by a day, and we’ve got the following in the fridge:

· Half a squash left-over from the vegetable biryani

· Half a tub of cream cheese

· A bag of spinach and chard salad

In fact the only thing we’re missing is the parsley, and I’m not convinced at the very first attempt making it whether I can simply swop in the tarragon lurking in the salad crisper.

As it turns out, tarragon might not have been a bad addition. It’s a pretty easy thing to knock together and is quite nice, but it lacks a certain punchiness to make it really delicious. Ana’s suggestion of adding soy sauce is pretty inspired and certainly lifts it up, and I think melting some cheddar cheese on top would also add some more flavour, and maybe some chilli and/or ginger. Even better, I’m fairly sure you could use a variety of handy, left-over ingredients to make this – aubergine, courgette and mushrooms would all definitely work.

sources
 fried rice with squash, chestnuts and chard - Delicious, November 2011, p76

spiced chicken and lentil soup

sources
spiced chicken and lentil soup - Waitrose Kitchen - January 2012, p89

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's vedgeree

It turns out we’re still married after all. And what better way to consign last night’s chicken chettinad of hate to the bin (damn you Rick Stein!) than with a sunny walk along the river, via the pub, followed by a vegetable biryani of love, care of the floppy-haired lord of love, St Hugh?

Originally we were scheduled to have another installment of Jamie’s venison stroganoff tonight as Milo has been asking for it all week, but given the veg in the crisper I was intending to use up later in the week for this was looking a mite peaky, we switched things around. As it turned out though, Milo’s disgruntlement was a small price to pay for an happier fridge and even better, a really delicious curry.

Okay, so it’s not as good as the Anjum green biryani, or Rick’s one, but it’s still full of delicate flavours and with the added benefits of using up as much random veg as you’ve got (in this case carrots, parsnips, celery, courgette and a random bit of squash) and having enough left over for lunch tomorrow. Not that we’ll be having lunch on fasting day of course.

Having waxed lyrical, I reckon there’s still scope for improvement. You could probably add some chutney to it I think, just to add a little more depth to the flavours.

sources
vedgeree - hugh fearnley-whittingstall, River Cottage Veg Everyday!, p276 

jamie oliver's chicken & leek pie

Maybe it’s the fact I did not end up face down on Milo’s beanbag, only to later purge my afternoon’s pie/beer/wine/sloe gin/curry like an enthusiastic bulimic, but tonight’s run home is legendary.

Fuelled by the first homemade ‘pot’ noodle (using a Kilner jar darlings), and tellingly not dragged down by a torrent of gin and beer, I fly home like Mercury. Or at least Mercury’s fatter brother, which not only gets me back in record time but it means I can get tonight’s time-heavy-but-delicious chicken and leek pie on the go early enough to eat it on our laps watching TV by 2100, rather than usual battle to get it cooked and eaten by 2300, ready for three uncomfortable hours digesting it in bed.

Oddly enough both lunch and dinner benefit from my current zeal for using up stuff in the fridge rather than having to lob a bag of food to make room for this week’s shopping: following Hugh’s lead, the ‘pot’ is topped up with red pepper, celery, carrot sticks, mushrooms, sweetcorn, and the pie is similarly bulked up with the remaining left-over mushrooms and sweetcorn, to great success even though I say so myself:

Even better, my unwarranted vim and vigour gives me further time to experiment with affixing pie casings to dishes (tonight: a beaten egg and back of a fork combo) and to get creative with some puff pastry boobs:

Is there anything better than a hot pie on a cold, drizzly night, accompanied by ridiculous costume drama? I do not think so… If only we were drinking during the week….

sources
chicken & leek pie - Jamie Oliver Christmas Special 2006

minestrone di orazio

sources
minestrone di orazio - Sainsburys circa 2004, now the black book. Although to be honest, I pretty much make my own minestrone up these days, and fill it with as much left-over veg as I can find in the fridge...

jamie oliver's chicken and sweet leek pie

sources
chicken & leek pie - Jamie Oliver Christmas Special 2006

spiced chicken and lentil soup

sources
spiced chicken and lentil soup - Waitrose Kitchen - January 2012, p89

simon rimmer's italian bean casserole

Having generally lorded it up over the last month or so how easy I’ve found fasting on Mondays, today it all comes back to bite me in the bum.
 

I blame yesterday’s Sunday roast-a-thon at JPs, complete with double-helpings of both lamb, roasties, red wine and sticky toffee pudding. I think in trying to offset today’s deficit a day ahead, I’ve accidentally opened a massively hungry can of worms. Fat worms that are really, really hungry.

Stomachs started rumbling within seconds of waking, and continued all day, all through the 1500 starvation witching hour, all the way home and right up until the point I’d heated up some of Simon Rimmer’s Italian Bean Casserole we’d carefully secreted in the freezer last time we had it.

It was a little soupier as I added a can of tomatoes, but not enough to deaden the flavours of the herbs. Obviously it’d have been nicer with some parmesan, but you can’t underestimate the value of having  dinner pretty much ready when you return home, when you would willingly eat your own arm off.

Sadly though, the casserole did not assuage our groaning tums, which continued to gurgle all through The Killing and deep into the night.

angela boggiano's rich beef ragu

sources
rich beef ragu - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, March 2007, p51

simon hopkinson's tomato curry

Rain rain go away, come again another day. What is it with this country and our extremes of weather? One week we’re sweltering in the hottest summer since we were riding BMXs in satin, split leg shorts and John McEnroe t-shirts, the next we have to get boats to work. I mean really?

Luckily for my usual lunchtime sandwich and reading routine outside of the Home Office, I have an invite to the prestigious Channel 4 canteen for lunch with DVD diva Ashley Smith. It’s good to see some things never change, and I include the fish and chips I had, which I’m fairly sure has been on the hotplate since I left five years ago…

After a post work beer for me, and post work wine for Ana and Milo, we all arrive home cold and bedraggled, and ready for something warming. Unfortunately the fridge doesn’t seem to agree, so whilst Ana reads to Milo in bed, I managed to knock up a version of Simon Hopkinson’s super-warming tomato curry using two packets of cherry tomatoes and half a can of coconut milk. It’s a pretty good approximation, and if anything the cherry toms give it a lick of sweetness you don’t get from their bigger brothers.

t’s also a perfect accompaniment to the last two episodes of Game of Thrones. And a bottle of vino. All in all, a pretty good end to a damp Friday night.

sources
tomato curry - Simon Hopkinson, Delicious, November 2007, p86

bill granger's goats curd and lentil salad with roasted beetroot

With only one day to go before the Whanau return home, it's time to remove all evidence of bachelor living, so gone are the copies of Razzle, cans of Special Brew, Gingster's chicken and mushroom slice wrappers. I've also got to somehow deal with the asparagus, curd cheese and beetroot cluttering up the fridge.

If only there was a delicious and simple meal that also handily uses up these stereotypically manly ingredients. Oh!

sources
goats curd and lentil salad with roasted beetroot - Bill Granger, Bill's Sydney Food, p83

nasi goreng with fried egg

Look at this - not only using up the prawns from monday, but a random yellow pepper (I can't remember what it's from) and the rest of the green beans, and all topped off with the last egg.

Man, I'm good, and whilst I'm taking one for the team and emptying the fridge for the good of the environment, Ana and Milo are getting into the holiday spirit:

sources
nasi goreng with fried egg - Waitrose Kitchen - January 2012, p86

jill dupleix's sesame chicken salad with celery and cucumber

The *other* best thing about roast chicken are the left-overs, and if you can resist picking the warm flesh off the carcass and chowing down on the still-crispy skin, box it all up - including any remaining gravy/juice - bung it in the fridge, and you'll find you've got everything you need to knock-up super Jilly D's fantastic asian-inspired sesame chicken salad.

It's obviously one of our favourites, but you should really give it a go. It's stuffed with crunchy carrots and cucumbers, along with juicy chicken pieces, zingy lime and a sweet-sour sauce made up from peanut butter and some other cupboard staples. It just lifts your mood, and is perfect for a warm evening. Go on,  give it a go - 'tis easy!

Wine Time
Generally with asian food, swirling as it is with acidity, spicy heat and umami flavours, you should look for a crisp, white with a little bit of sweetness in it. Classic matches include off-dry Rieslings, Gewurtztraminers, Moscato, and Prosecco. Luckily we till had some Viognier in the fridge from yesterday, which also fits the bill a treat.

sources
sesame chicken salad with cucumber and celery - Jill Dupleix, the Owl Book

rosemary salt-crusted roast chicken and salad

Having used half of the bird for yesterday's picnic lunch, the fridge is predominately full of baleful-looking mutant chicken, that's mainly two legs attached to a carcass.

Luckily for the fridge (and my OCD wife who takes a very dim view of any lurking unsavory dead animals), being a skiving dole bludger means I've got plenty of time on my hands to not only fully dismember the remaining body, but to turn it into one litre of delicious chicken stock on the one hand, and on the other, a second installment of last week's rosemary salt-crusted roast chicken legs.

I have to say the enamelled pie dish is just about the best kitchen acquisition I've made this year: It's perfect for nestling chicken legs in for a thorough roasting, and due to the snug fit they rarely dry out. In fact there's usually the perfect amount of roasting jus at the bottom of the pan, for judicious tasting with any handy bread.

Even better, it provides perfect portion control for those of us attempting not to eat for England. Admittedly though, I had a sandwich whilst it was roasting, plus the judicious tasting, which explains why I'm full after dinner and Ana's still hungry. Keep that under your hat though...

Wine Time
The rosemary is obviously one of the bigger flavours here, but the rape seed oil is surprisingly power-packed: It's difficult to pin down, suffice to say it has a heavy, straw-like quality. Generally I'd go for chardonnay with the chicken, but the heaviness of the oil plus the punchy, resinous quality of the rosemary means you're looking for something with similar weight AND with herbal notes. Viognier is probably going to be a little too sweet, and a dry Riesling would be too green, but Pinot Gris combines the best of both worlds: Weight, aromas and it's a little off-dry. Perfect!

spinach, tomato and chick pea curry

Having spent yesterday running around the Tower of London with the Pitcher-Manwarings, today we're in recovery-mode. There's not much going on, we mooch around the flat and mow the lawn, with a side-trip to the supermarket and movie night watching the next-installment in Milo's ongoing superhero addiction.

Strangely enough despite going to the shops today, tonight we're in left-over mode as inexplicably there were some unloved tomatoes hiding in the fridge, alongside a bag of spinach. Well, the spinach is more explicable because I suspect most of us have salad sadly wilting away. Anyway rather than bin it, it's rescued in the form of one our favourite curries - Waitrose's spinach, tomato and chick pea curry.

Regular readers will note (other than my ongoing battle with tardiness), this is a regular meal chez Barnes. It's also unusual in that rather than making my own curry paste, it's probably the only recipe I make with a bottled sauce, and tonight it's Patak's Madras. I think it's one of the main reasons why we like it, because you can easily vary the flavours and spice level from week-to-week with a different sauce.

Tonight we also get Milo back on the curry bandwagon. He turns his nose up at the spinach - "It's slimy! - but everything else goes down a treat, accompanied by healthy dollop of yoghurt. To be honest, as he loves chick peas, rice and tomatoes, I'm not standing for much moaning.


Wine Time
Partly due to the aforementioned paste variations, this is a very adaptable meal to pair with wine. Generally you could team it with a crisp white with a touch of residual sugar as it can be quite spicy, think Riesling, Gewurtz, Pinot Gris or Viognier. We went red tonight, and Chile's heroic Carmenere is a great go-to with curry, but I'd wager a new wave young vintage Rioja would be a great alternative. Obviously no wine for Milo.

sources
spinach, tomato and chick pea curry - Waitrose Recipe Cards, Early September 2010

roast chicken & a weekend at the taylor's

Christ, if I thought it was cold in London it's nothing to the bone-chilling weather in the wilds of Worcestershire! Luckily for all concerned, the Taylor's are not short on massive fires and with the added bonus our suite has now been insulated.

We do the usual thing: arrive late on Friday night, eat an amazing selection of defrosted left-over curries, go to the pub for lunch, watch rugby, read magazines, let the children fight, do intensive youtube searches about barefoot running and suffer the usual floods of tears when we have to leave early because our rear-lights have given up the ghost. Future plans are also hatched.

Scraping in just before rear lights become legally necessary, we placate with another movie night (popcorn, duvets, scruffy dogs, central heating) whilst a chicken roasts away in the oven.

At least I didn't burn the flock out of it this time, although the potatoes aren't looking too plumptious... The random veg selection bespeaks an empty fridge.

spiced chicken and lentil soup

This is probably the least-photogenic dish in the world, and there's nothing you can do to tzuh up boiled chicken carcass, orange lentils and brown stock.

Tonight the muddy-concoction get's glammed up with some left-over spring onions, mini sweetcorn and a chili, but we're still very much in the realms of polishing a turd. It's a technical cooking term.

It is delicious mind, and I heartily urge you to try it... assuming I ever get around to sticking up any more recipes.

sources
spiced chicken and lentil soup - Waitrose Kitchen - January 2012, p89