Mezzy Chrimblenast.

Well that's it over for another year. We had a good one. I was delighted that the boy broke the "no more cookbooks" rule and brung me "Ottolenghi: The Cookbook" for Chrimblenast. I've long been an admirer of Yotam's weekly recipes in the Guardian; he cooks a lot of wonderful, inventive veggie food, but he isn't actually a vegetarian and the cookbook contains lots of great meaty recipes. He focuses on a few "star ingredients", including salt, garlic, lemon, olive oil, coriander, mint, yoghurt, pomegranate, tahini, sumac and Za'atar and feta cheese. What's not to like? I will be cooking something speshul for NYE out of this book, I am considering the seared duck breasts with blood orange and star anise, I'll keep you posted.
As well as a foody book, the boy's sister brung us a basket full of tasty bits and pieces, with the emphasis on spices, including caraway seeds, green cardamon pods, cinnamon, lime leaves, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, pomegranate seeds, kalonji onion seeds, saffron,and dried birds eye chilis. All of which will come in well handy for making my Yotam Ottolenghi recipes. I haven't got around to mentioning the fascinating book she gave me for my birthday, also a foody present. It's called The Flavour Thesaurus and is by Niki Segnit. It is a study of taste and an exploration of food combinations; those that do and don't work. Bacon and banana anyone? It is a really fascinating book and useful if, like me, you want to break free from slavishly following recipes and develop your innate sense of what works in the kitchen.
We stuck to the traditional flavour combinations for Christmas day, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Grilled streaky bacon cobs with bucks fizz for brekko, then a steady drip of olives and gherkins kept us going until the main event. As there were only two of us we didn't have a whole turkey, but a free range stuffed turkey joint from Sainsbury's was very good quality and loads of meat, enough for boxing day curry and sandwiches on the train up to mum and dad's on Monday. Trimmings consisted of pigs in blankets, sage and onion stuffing, honey and thyme roasted carrots, roast parsnips, crisp fresh sprouts and divine, garlicky, buttery roasties. A few hours after this delight we were tucking into the third bottle of red and a smorgasmic cheese board. The day was quite sedate apart from a short, late visit to see the smoggy round the corner, a far cry from last years pineapple mojito fuelled mayhem!
Leftovers fuelled hangover dispatching bubble and squeak patties served with bacon and eggs. Toast and honey? Nah! We revisited the cheese, and are about to tuck into a classic boxing day turkey curry. The boy's folks gifted us with a spice grinder, and the brother with an ingenious chopping device so it has been an all mod-cons curry, so convenient we've hardly had to cook! Well, I've been sitting here typing to you and swilling down shiraz; nice work if you can get it, and still more than a week off. Cheers, and Merry Christmas.

Another day, another dinner, well lunch actually.  Saturday 11 December was my actual birthday and the boy took me for a decadent, multi course, late French lunch. We went to Le Bistrot Pierre in Derby; yep, I know it's a chain but I wanted French food and they do it darn well, and it is really good value.  Plus, I didn't want the Christmas menu, and this is one of the few places they do a normal menu too. I have been to this restaurant many times over this years and have always enjoyed a fine meal.  The place was RAMMED, with it being Chrimbo an all.  Fortunately we managed to wangle a table tucked away in a corner, away from the paper-hatted hoi polloi :-).   We started with the obligatory basket of fresh bread, with lovely creamy pats of butter to slather on it.  This was followed by the Gousse d'ail roti; a whole roasted garlic bulb with (more) artisan bread, and balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping.  That wasn't even the starter, which came next and consisted of goats cheese, rocket, sun dried tomates, and more toasted bread (may have gone overboard on the bread).  Mains were Supreme de Poulet for me, and roast pork for the boy.  Again I couldn't manage a cheese board...what's wrong with me?!  Lunch was lovely, and at £9.75 for two courses,cheap at the price. We washed everything down with a few glasses of sauvignon and came over all sleepy like, we had to retire to the bat cave before an evening session in the pub.
http://www.lebistrotpierre.co.uk/userfiles/files/LunchPrixFixe3.pdf

Pampered at Perkins.

Last weekend was my birthday and I had a totally gourmetastic time.  Friday night I started the party in Nottingham town with the my good friend Joe, who treated me to a visit to Perkins restaurant in Plumtree, bookended by before and after drinks in Escabeche.  (Escabeche is buzzing and doing amazingly well, check it out). 
http://www.perkins-family.co.uk/restaurant.perkins-restaurant
I mentioned Perkins a while ago when I blogged about Escabeche and promised a bit more blog on this particular aspect of the Perkins empire.  Perkins is the original family restaurant, and has been open since 1982; that is centuries in restaurant years.  Despite this, it has a fresh, contemporary feel, you can see the same attention to detail as at Escabeche, little touches like fab toilets, and a welcoming bar which is the focal point of the restaurant.  Plumtree isn't far out of Nottingham but has a rural, off the beaten track feel to it.  However the quality of the food means that people make the effort, the restaurant was fully booked tonight and most nights into the foreseeable future.  We were seated in a conservatory area by a very pleasant and friendly member of staff.  A bottle of rioja was on the table as if by magic as we perused the special Friday "Steak Night" menu.  One thing which Perkins specialise in that I absolutely love are their "Sleepers"; railway sleepers converted into taster boards for two to share.  Perkins, as previously mentioned, have their own smoke house, and we went for a Christmas Sleeper, which consisted of in-house cured whiskey and fennel gravadlax, deep fried camembert with a homemade cranberry jelly, and a mustardy, hammy, leeky concoction which was a delight.
Next course was the steak and my rib-eye was spot on, cooked to medium rare perfection.  It was served with half a grilled, garlic rubbed tomato, a grilled portobello mushroom, chip-stick thin fries and a glorious, whiskey coloured home made peppercorn sauce, very far from the grey, packet concoctions that grace steaks in many a pub.  Plates were cleared and we were so full we couldn't manage a cheese board, which is quite unheard of.  Perkins isn't cheap a la carte, but they do loads of special offers and menus and it is so worth going for a special meal, there is a real sense of occasion, it started my birthday weekend in style.  Thanks Joe.

Laabour of Love....

Laab, or Larb, or Larp / Laap is a Thai minced meat salad.  Sounds a bit grim doesn't it?  Or even a bit boring and tasteless.  Minced chicken?  Bit too healthy.  What, no lashings of coconut milk?  Well, if you've never tasted this on your travels in Thailand, or your local Thai restaurant doesn't serve it (many don't, my favourite Thai restaurant in Derby, Thai Boran, does a pretty good version; maybe not as good as mine though), I have an easy peasy recipe to share with you.  I cooked this last Friday as a starter and it fed 5 of us, with a beef Mussaman curry to follow.  However, I have often had this as a main meal, serving two greedy people with lots of jasmine rice.  I started out just using minced chicken and have even experimented with mincing my own.  I find the packs of minced turkey you can buy work really well.  You can also make this salad with minced beef, minced pork, minced squirrel...whatever minced protein you can get your hands on.  Veggies could even try making it with minced Quorn or tofu; I've never tried it but both of those pick up flavours really well.
There are loads of different laab recipes out there, the one I give below is a sort of bastardised hybrid recipe that works well for me.  Really authentic recipes use roasted rice to give a nutty, smokey flavour, but this recipe uses sesame oil, which I find works just as well, and saves you messing about roasting rice.
This has so many levels of flavour and texture.  Hot chili, pungent lemongrass and lime leaves, the salty savoury kick of fish sauce, aromatic herbs, the crunch of lettuce leaves enclosing a parcel of tender, meaty morsels.  You suck all these flavours out of the stir fried meat.  Mouth.  Watering.  Quantities are ball park only; adjust according to taste.  Rick Stein uses 5 sticks of lemon grass with the same amount of meat.
Laab:
2 or 3 lemongrass stalks.
4 lime leaves
2 or 3 red chilies
3 garlic cloves
knob of ginger
Roughly chop the above then chuck into a food processor and blitz as fine as you can to make a rough paste.  Take the lid off the processor and inhale; it should be so strong and pungent it hits the back of your throat and makes you cough.
500g minced whatever
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
1tsp chili powder
50ml fish sauce
A couple of shallots, chopped finely
1 lime
A handful each of basil, coriander and mint, finely chopped.
Baby gem lettuce leaves and cucumber cut into strips, to serve.

Heat a wok over a high heat and add the vegetable and sesame oils.
Chuck in the paste and fry briefly before adding the minced meat and chili powder.
stir fry for 4 minutes then add the fish sauce.  Turn down the heat and allow to bubble for another 4 minutes.  Add the shallots and allow to cook a minute longer.
Turn off the heat and stir through the herbs and lime juice.
Serve with lettuce and cucumber, and preferably a crisp, cold bottle of Singha beer.

Winter Stodgefest.

Winter has truly set in during the last week or two.  Snow and everything!  So much snow in fact, that the country has (as usual) just about ground to a halt, and the 10k run I've entered for this Sunday (foolish, I know) has been postponed until 9 January, meaning I've been carb loading for nothing!  (Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).  I just want to eat spuds and stodge at the moment, and lurk around the house in a hooded dressing gown when I'm not out running in the snow.  I have eaten some magnificent stodge in the last couple of weeks, including a plate-piled-high carvery at this place:
http://www.thespottedcow.co.uk/
I have been a few times over the years but I really don't remember the carvery being as delicious as it was last Sunday.  The Kir Royal I had as an aperitif certainly put some extra bubbles into the proceedings, followed by a nice glass of shiraz with my carvery; a mixture of gammon and beef, so nothing wrong with a red.  If you want a cosy, family orientated pub in the Derby area this is miles ahead of any of the city centre pubs serving roast dinners.  Booking is advisable, especially as there were close to fifteen of us meeting and greeting the latest addition into the extended family of reprobates, baby AnnaWilliamson-Bach-Nielson, all of 8 weeks old.  What a cutie!

I actually did some cooking on Friday and set out on a rather ambitious mission to make Choucroute Garnie, aka sauerkraut garnished with loads of pork products.  There are a multitude of recipes out there and each one is different so I came up with my own broad interpretation, maybe not strictly authentic but really delicious.  I limited the pork products to two, some have about 5 different types.  First of all you want sauerkraut, I bought a kilogram of it from the Polish stall in the market hall (not the Eagle Centre).  If you go into the entrance where the Tiger bar is and turn right the Polish stall is the last stall on your right.  They sell loads of excellent pork products, including, oddly, the best Chorizo sausage in Derby.  I picked up some smoked pork belly while I was there.  A kilogram of sauerkraut is enough for 4 people easily, although I cooked it all there was loads left over.
I sliced an onion and cooked it gently in butter (lots of recipes ask for goose or pork fat, which I didn't have to hand; like, who does.....!) then added the sauerkraut with the chopped pork belly, bay leaves, juniper berries, garlic and salt and pepper, and poured a couple of glasses of white wine over the lot (and one for me, I used Pinot Grigio although most recipes ask for Riesling, but I doubt one could tell the difference) this simmers away for as long as you've got, anything up to two hours.  Word of warning, don't bite into whole juniper berries, unless you really really like straight gin.  Served with grilled sausages - I used  Toulouse, and sliced fried potatoes, this was Christmas Market type street food-tastic.

Finally an honorary mention to Helen G who served up totally wonderful and hearty Caribbean fare at book club on Saturday.  Mutton curry, yam, rice and peas, washed down with a little bit of wine, helped to fuel plenty of book related ranting and later some hazy gyrating to Salt n' Pepa?  Oh dear.....