Spiced Beef

With my previous recipe in the 365 challenge,  I got the dates wrong and made it a month early.    With this dish, I almost forgot about it altogether.   Luckily I remembered in time as it turned out to be delicious, very tender meat, lightly spiced and lemony, possibly quite different from the original recipe, but an interpretation I was quite happy with and would do again.   The original recipe said to slice the steak thinly before putting in the marinade and then barbecuing.   I don’t do a lot of barbecuing, but I would have thought if you kept the steaks whole and marinated them, you could then barbecue them, but if you slice them thinly before marinating, then griddling or stir frying is more appropriate.    I decided to stir fry, and in less than 5 minutes, the meal was ready.  I just served it with a little bread, but rice would be good too.

Apart from the method of cooking, I did make one or two other changes.   I don’t often cook with wine and the use of lemongrass and wine seemed a little odd and so I just added extra lemon juice as I felt this would add a more complementary flavour to the dish.    The final result was very lemony, which I loved, but if you’re not such a fan of lemon, you could just add the juice of one lemon and maybe a little white wine, as Reynaud suggests.

This dish is part of the 365 Challenge which is run by Murdoch Books.  The team are cooking their way through each dish in Stephane Reynaud’s 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.  This dish has been adapted from his recipe for spiced Beef.

Ingredients – Serves 2

350g steak

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

½ onion, sliced

2 birds eye chillies, finely sliced

1 red pepper, finely sliced

Dash olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

½ tbsp honey

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp thyme

Salt

Pepper

How to Make Spiced Beef

1. Slice the beef very thinly.

2. Combine all the other ingredients.   Add the beef and stir so the beef is thoroughly coated in the marinade.   Cover and put in the fridge for 24 hours.

3. Heat a wok with a little oil then, when it is very hot, add the beef and marinade.   Stir as it cooks.   It will be ready in about 2 minutes.

 

365 Challenge: Curried Pork

When I first looked at this recipe I have to admit that I was sceptical.  I like to make curries by adding different spices and experimenting to get different flavours.   If a recipe just says curry powder, I imagine that it’s going to be a bit boring.   Nevertheless, I’d chosen to make this as part of the 365 Challenge so there was no getting out of it.   I knew I had to make it.    Another problem was that my lovely husband does not like dried fruit, is not keen on nuts and loves really hot and spicy curries.   I knew this dish would not suit him and so I decided to adapt it to serve just one – myself, while I also made a one person sized serving of pork vindaloo for him.   At least we would both eat the same rice!

So how was it?   I love it when I am wrong about my expectations about a dish.   I loved this so much that I made a very similar version the next day to use up some of the cream.   If my husband liked dried fruit, it would become a regular dish.   Oh well, all that cream.   Maybe it’s just as well he wouldn’t like it.

This dish is part of the 365 Challenge which is run by Murdoch Books.  The team are cooking their way through each dish in Stephane Reynaud’s 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.  This dish has been adapted from his recipe for curried pork tenderloin.

Ingredients – serves 1

1 pork chop

1 small onion, sliced

1 carrot, cut into thin slices

10g sultanas

2 dried apricots

1 dried prune

10g flaked almonds

10g pistachio nuts

1 tsp hot curry powder

100ml stock

20ml double cream

oil

How to Make Curried Pork

1. Heat a little oil in a saucepan and add the onion.  Fry until softened.

2. Add the carrot, dried fruit, nuts and curry powder.   Stir then add the stock.

3. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 10 minutes.    Add the cream and heat through.

4. Heat some more oil in a frying pan.   Season the pork chop and cook for about 4 minutes on each side, more or less depending on the thickness.

5. Serve the pork with rice and top with the curry sauce.

 

Roasted Marinated Peppers

Now that summer feels like it’s here I really want to make lots of salads and healthy dishes.   I also want to eat cake.   But I’ll try to put that out of my mind!   The first good thing about this dish is that once you’ve made it, you just need to take it out of the fridge to eat.   The bad thing is that it needs to be prepared 24 hours in advance.  The second good thing is that when my husband saw it he asked, where did you buy this?   How smug did I feel answering that question!

This was actually the first time I had removed skins from peppers.   Yes,  I’m lazy, and I’d always thought it was a lot of effort when the skins are ok anyway.  But, I may have become a convert.   It was very quick and simple to prepare and so I didn’t feel I was wasting time – maybe as I knew I wasn’t going to get to eat them that day anyway!  Although quantities are given in the original recipe, these aren’t necessary at all – just prepare however many peppers you think you want to eat within a week, as that’s how long they will keep for.  I served them as a side with some ciabatta, but you could put them  in a salad, in a sandwich or even on a pizza.  If I made them again I might be tempted to marinate a chilli pepper too.   The recipe didn’t specify dry or fresh herbs.  I didn’t have the right fresh herbs so I used dried ones but I think fresh ones would be much better as more flavour would come out into the oil.  You could also vary the herbs used. Basil would probably be really nice.

This dish is part of the 365 Challenge which is run by Murdoch Books.  The team are cooking their way through each dish in Stephane Reynaud’s 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.

Ingredients

2 peppers – different colours

3 cloves garlic

Milk

Olive oil

Black pepper

Salt

1 bay leaf

Pinch of dried rosemary

How to make Roasted Marinated Peppers

1. Put the peppers on a baking tray in the oven at about 200c for about 15 minutes or until the skin begins to turn brown.

2. Prepare the garlic by putting in a small saucepan and covering with milk. Simmer for about 10 minutes.  Drain and rinse in cold water.

3. Remove the peppers from the oven and put in a plastic bag.   Leave for 10 minutes.

4. Take the peppers out of the plastic bag and remove the skin and seeds.   Tear into strips.  Slice the garlic.

5. In a small jar put a layer of peppers at the bottom.   Cover with a few slices of garlic. Season. Repeat the layering until there is no more garlic and peppers.

6. Sprinkle with the rosemary. Add the bay leaf and then cover with olive oil.  Put in the fridge and serve the next day or within a week.

 

Duck Kebabs

This dish is part of the 365 Challenge which is run by Murdoch Books.  The team are cooking their way through each dish in Stephane Reynaud’s 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.  This time I chose to make the duck kebabs.

I was a little sceptical about how this recipe would work as some of the 365 participants have said that Stephane’s Asian food does not seem to work as well as his European dishes, that it sometimes seems as if something is missing.    With this in mind I looked at the ingredients and thought a bit of ginger would be lovely in the sauce along with the garlic.  But, there were not many ingredients anyway and I didn’t want to alter the dish too much – maybe next time, I decided.   The main thing I did change was that I marinated the duck in the sauce for about 2 hours before cooking it, whereas in the original the sauce is just brushed onto the duck when it goes in the oven or on the barbecue.    I would say this step is essential.   It allowed the flavours to get into the duck and made it really tender.   In fact it was absolutely delicious.   I enjoyed it so much that it didn’t need that extra ginger I was considering.  I served it with stir fried vegetables and noodles and added the leftover marinade to the stir fry.    Oh, and one more thing I changed.   I could never just leave it at a pinch of mild chilli.  The only chilli powder I have is hot, and of course I used a generous half teaspoon full.

Ingredients – makes 2 skewers

1 duck breast

1 green pepper

1 clove garlic

2 spring onions (bulb ends only)

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

1 tbsp mazola oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

How to make Duck Kebabs

1. Prepare the marinade.   Crush the garlic and put in a bowl with the chilli powder, oil and soy sauce.

2. Remove the skin and chop each duck breast into about 8 pieces.   Add the duck to the marinade.   Stir to coat well and put in the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Heat the oven to 200C.   Take the duck out of the fridge and thread onto skewers with the chunks of green pepper and spring onion.

4. Put the kebabs in the oven for about 8 minutes.   They should still be pink inside.

 

Melon and Cucumber Gazpacho

This is my second recipe for the 365 Challenge.   I’ve never made gazpacho before and the only chilled soup I have ever had has been a traditional tomato gazpacho in Spain.   I have to admit that I am not a big fan of cold soup, but there is something very refreshing about this.   It’s ok in my kitchen but it would be so much nicer to sip it on a sun-kissed terrace by the Mediterranean.   I can dream!

But, before you rush off to make this, let me warn you that it is an acquired taste.   Bizarre was the verdict of my husband, not helped by the fact that he is colour blind and did not realise that there were two different flavours until he had finished it.   I don’t want to put you off but the vinegar and olive oil almost made me feel I was drinking vinaigrette.

I made half the amount of soup as the original recipe suggested and we ate it all between the two of us, although I would have preferred a smaller portion so would use this amount to serve four if I made it again.   I upped the proportions of mint and spring onion and missed out dill from the melon gazpacho as I couldn’t find any.    In retrospect the dill would have been good as, along with the lemon, it would have helped balance out the sweetness of the melon.

I hoped, when I poured the melon soup on top of the cucumber soup, that the two layers would sit on top of each other but I found instead that the melon soup sank into the middle and the cucumber soup remained around the outside, as you can see in the picture.  Now, I wonder if I tried to pour it as if it was an Irish coffee…

Ingredients – Serves 2-4

1/2 cantaloupe melon, diced

1 cucumber, diced

10 mint leaves

1 spring onion, roughly chopped

50ml white wine vinegar

70ml extra virgin olive oil

A few drops of Tabasco sauce

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt

How to make Melon and Cucumber Gazpacho

1. Put the cucumber, spring onion and mint into a blender.  Puree till smooth then add the vinegar, olive oil, Tabasco and a little salt.   Blitz again.   Taste.   Add extra seasonings if necessary.  Divide between the glasses.

2. Put the melon and lemon juice in the blender and puree till smooth.   Season.   Pour the melon mixture into the glasses on top of the cucumber mixture.

 

Roasted Sea Bream with Roasted Onions

A couple of weeks ago I heard about the 365 challenge in which the Murdoch Books team are cooking their way through all the recipes in Stephane Reynaud’s 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat which includes a recipe for every day of the year.   If you want to see what they have created so far and follow the challenge then go to their 365 Challenge blog at Murdoch Books.  This post can also be found there.

For my first recipe I chose red mullet with roasted onions.  I didn’t think this would be a problem.  I’d just seen red mullet on the supermarket fish counter and I assumed it was in season and I’d find it again easily.   How wrong I was.    When I was sent the recipe and went back to the supermarket there was no red mullet.    I asked the fishmonger if there was any fish that would be similar but he told me nothing was similar and he didn’t know when he would next have red mullet.   Not very encouraged, I went away and decided to try elsewhere another day.  I found a fresh fish shop on the internet and decided to do a detour there on my way home from work.   Unfortunately I’d picked the day it was closed.    Hoping for third time lucky, I went to another supermarket that I knew had a fish counter.    Deciding I would have to give up on red mullet I opted for sea bream instead.   I’m not sure if it has any similarities to mullet, but it was a very nice fish all the same with nice bright eyes and no fishy smell.

So, finally I could begin to cook.   As I hadn’t seen the recipe before deciding to make it, I hadn’t known that it required barbecuing.    Not having a barbecue, I deciding roasting the fish would have to do as a substitute.   After all, the onions needed roasting so I would be using the oven anyway.

I also decided to make small roast potatoes, roasted tomatoes and roasted fennel to go with the fish and onions to make a full meal.

Overall I was happy with this, it was a good meal, but it was essentially just roasted fish and roasted vegetables.   It definitely needed the potatoes and extra vegetables to make a full meal.

Ingredients – vary quantities according to number of people

Whole fish

Onions

Bay leaves

Thyme

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Assorted vegetables for roasting

How to make Roasted Sea Bream with Roasted Onions

1. Wash the onions well as you keep the skins on them.  Slice down in a cross shape but not cutting all the way through.  Push a little butter inside and sprinkle with dried thyme then wrap them in aluminium foil.

2. Season the fish with salt and pepper, and rub with olive oil.   Oil the roasting tin.   Put a couple of bay leaves under the fish, a couple inside and a couple on the top.

3. Put the onions and fish in an oven pre-heated to about 200c for about 20 minutes.

I also roasted potatoes, fennel and tomatoes with the fish.   The potatoes should be parboiled, salted and need to go in the oven about 15 minutes earlier than the fish.