Eurosceptic Beer

Tim Martin, the founder of Wetherspoons, seldom misses a trick! Enter "Veto Ale".
Morning Advertiser, 3rd January 2012

Potato & Mushroom Dauphinoise

I made this to accompany simple baked salmon and steamed oriental vegetables.

For the Dauphinoise (and blue cheese sauce):
Two medium potatoes and one handful of sliced mushrooms per person. To soften the spuds you can either par-boil them or follow my cheat's tip and slice them first and then nuke for about 3-4 minutes in a closed casserole dish. They do not require any additional water as they steam in their own moisture.

Grease an ovenable dish and put in one layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of mushrooms, finishing with another of potatoes.

A friend - one of the most inspired chef-restaurateurs I have ever come across - had given me a tub of blue cheese and mushroom sauce, made with dolcelatte; it was getting close to the end of its natural life.

If I'd cooked this from scratch I would have made a basic white sauce - milk and cornflour, probably - and crumbled in some blue cheese; as the sauce I'd been given was quite strong I diluted 3 dessertspoons of it with an equal amount of double cream and poured this over the potatoes and mushrooms, making sure it seeped into the gaps. This was then baked in a hot oven for about 45 minutes.

When I first met Hannah she had a lifelong aversion to fish and carrots - she's still allergic to shellfish - but is now happy to eat salmon (and battered fish from the chippy).

The salmon was wrapped with one rasher of bacon each, secured with a cocktail stick, and baked in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

 

Hannah also knew there was some shredded carrot in the vegetable bed but did not insist I pick the bits out before serving hers. I marinated a stir-fry mix from the supermarket  in 1 dessertspoon of olive oil, the same of sesame oil; 1 dessertspoon of soy sauce, 1 tsp of ginger puree and 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar. After about half-an-hour I drained the veg and steamed for about 10 minutes (washing my steamer reservoir out afterwards).

Braised Beef Casserole

I had some button mushrooms in the fridge which had seen better days; I also had some (pickling) onions - picked up at a reduced price on the first day of trading at the new Morrisons - plus some cauliflower, broccoli and some carrots given to me by Hannah's ma. Real stew (or casserole) fare...... What did suprise me, when I popped the 200 yards to the supermarket, was that silverside was a £1 cheaper per kilo than skirt. I cut the meat into 2cm-thick slices, sealed the steaks in a hot pan, deglazed with some lightly salted water, and into a closed casserole on a bed of mushrooms. Cook in a medium oven (Mark 5) for about an hour, add the peeled onions and top with sliced potatoes.

After a further hour, check that everything is cooked; drain the cooking liquor into a saucepan, season with gravy granules and thicken with cornflour. Return the gravy to the dish and serve. Yum!

Garlic Mushroom & Carrot Salad

I bought the mushrooms thinking that October was going to be stews and casserole weather......

The recipe itself was devised after being served something very similar recently by my old friend (and chef extraordinaire) Pete Horsley.

2 handfuls of button mushrooms, wiped clean, in a marinade of 1 dstsp of olive oil, 1 dstsp of sesame oil, 1 tsp crushed garlic, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar and a pinch of S+P.

Marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours and add 2 heaped dstsp of grated carrot about 15  minutes before service. Enough for 2 people.

Basket Case

The-girl-who-came-to-dinner was back on the unposh side of the Mersey tonight - scrounging tea off some old friends - so I was able to indulge myself with shellfish and carrots: one she's allergic to, and the other she simply has a phobia about! This was really just scampi and chips with coleslaw - but everything with a twist.

I can't take any credit for the breaded prawns with coconut - Hannah introduced me to this wonderful cut-price emporium in Old Swan, which I now find irrestible. I mean, 50p for a bag of scampi!

Instead of chips I went for home-made crisps, served hot. In one of those "do as I say, not as I do" commands, if you're not as impatient as me you will lightly-salt the cut potatoes about an hour before eating.

 Drain and pat dry before deep-frying on about 130 for 3 minutes, shaking well to separate the crisps. Drain again, whack the heat up to 180-190 and fry until golden-brown and crispy. Mine were a little too starchy and some of them stuck together.

The coleslaw used red cabbage as the base and was nicely spicy: one handful of shredded cabbage with one medium carrot grated or shredded - I use a potato peeler - and half a red onion, thinly sliced. For the dressing mix 2 dessertspoons of mayonnaise with 1 dessertspoon of Tommy K, 1 dessertspoon of sesame oil, 2 shakes of Worcestershire sauce and 2 shakes of Tabasco.

The dip for the prawns/scampi was created from 1 dessertspoon of sour cream blended with a few drops of coconut essence.

There you have it: bachelor's dinner for one!

Pot-roast rump steak & fake-fondant potatoes

Rump steak is one of those cuts that I don't think is usually good enough to grill or fry so I only tend to buy it when it's reduced - this batch from the Co-ey was £2.29 for about a pound; the potatoes and the green beans were heavily marked-down too!

The simplest dishes are often the best - I'd pot-roasted the meat two days earlier, kept it in the casserole dish in the fridge, and then cooked for a further half hour before serving with sort of fondant potatoes, braised celery and sliced runner beans.

Seal the meat in a hot wok, lightly oiled

 Put on top of some sliced onion and deglaze the pan with a little salted water. 

Cover and bake for about one-and-a-half hours

On the day of eating I set the meat on one side, fried some mushrooms in a little oil, added the cooked onions and stock before topping up with some thick gravy. Return the meat to the casserole dish, cover with gravy and with the lid on bake for half an hour in a hot oven. 

The potatoes were scrubbed, topped and tailed and cut into thick slices. They were baked (uncovered) in some fatty chicken stock, enough to just cover, for about an hour in a hot oven. I had to top the liquid up a couple of times. The celery was braised in a little water with added veg bouillon, covered, in a hot oven for about 45 minutes. The beans were just cooked to al dente in hot water. 

Another success!

Shepherd's Moussaka Delight

I've rather neglected this blog recently - too busy cooking and eating the results with my unpaid dessert-chefess, I guess. I do have the gastroporn pictures, however!

Dinner last night was constructed from leftovers - "the-girl-who-came-to-dinner" was back on her own side of the Mersey, with other fish to fry (metaphorically-speaking) - though I knew it was a dish she would have loved too. On Saturday night we'd had a duo of lamb - braised Barnsley chop and minty mince - with roasted new potatoes and a selection of fresh veg, but there was some mince left.

 
I fried up some more onions with a small handful of diced aubergine and sweet red peppers, and a good dollop of minced garlic.

When the veg were softened I added added the mince, a pinch more dried mint, some tomato puree and a little water to moisten. In the meanwhile I had boiled up some sweet potatoes in a little salted water, and when soft had drained and mashed them.

With the mince on the bottom, a layer of sweet potato above, I topped the whole lot off with some grated cheddar (as in Shepherd's Delight) and baked in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

Salad was built around olives and chick peas with a simple lemon, olive oil, garlic and sea-salt dressing.