Roast Chicken

It's been a long, long time since I've had a Roast Chicken, carving the white meat into thick slices and cutting through the joint to take a leg with crispy roast potatoes... mmm! Today's is even better as She cooks it! The meat is beautifully moist with the lemon tucked into the cavity, resting helps too - the best She's cooked a roast chicken and I agree, the accompanying carrots and parsnips are a bit undercooked, but the main event is perfect. Yum!

Roast chicken

Cheese on Toast

She wants to go out for cocktails tonight, so it's another quick dinner tonight, Cheese on Toast but not your typical. After toasting one side of the malt grain bread, I spread the other side with garlic cream cheese and topping with thinly sliced spring onion, strips of ham and blue French cheese, before melting under the grill. Tasty. I brush my teeth before heading out.

Cheese on toast

Chicken & Chips

While it's nice to eat in the pub, I couldn't possibly eat there every week and having given them my cash last week I decide to have Chicken & Chips before going out today.
I simply joint and marinade a couple of chicken legs in lemon, thyme, oil and seasoning before roasting for 40 minutes over some halved new potatoes. I should have quartered these really as they don't come out crispy enough, but no matter. I'll know better next time.

Chicken & chips

Steak & Ale Pie

I wish I had the time to make a Steak & Ale Pie, perhaps I'll get around to it one weekend, but once the stew is made I find it difficult to convince myself to do the extra work to put it in pastry. So this is a supermarket version, Asda's to be precise and it's not half bad, the pastry is crumbly and surprisingly good.

Steak & ale pie

Chilli Con Carne

At Hers for dinner tonight as she's promised to use the slow cooker to make Chilli Con Carne. I'm excited, as in general stews and ragus such as this love the slow cooking, being left to infuse all day over a low heat - brilliant.
She's a slightly unconventional cook is the the missus; she pre-warns me that she's added balsamic vinegar to the dish, but more than she wanted as it came out so quickly! Never heard of balsamic being added to a chilli and sure enough it is it's sweetness that comes through with just a hint of hotness - She likes her food quite mild. We ladle it onto our plates with the classic chilli accompaniments: rice, nachos and soured cream. I went back for seconds.

Chilli con carne

Griddled Chicken Sandwich

I have not a great deal of time for dinner today, but bashing out a chicken breast and griddling it for a Griddled Chicken Sandwich is the least I can do for quick, home cooked food. I have it in half a baguette, griddling the cut sides too before spreading with garlic cream cheese...

Griddled chicken sandwich

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ring the alarm bells and paint a red cross on the door as She is ill! I take pity on Her and make her a dinner of medicinal Chicken Noodle Soup, albeit a very simple version. I poach a chicken breast for 20 minutes in some chicken stock flavoured with lemongrass, ginger, spring onion, mushrooms and garlic, before tearing it into bite sized pieces with 2 forks. While I'm tearing, I cook the noodles before placing into bowls followed by the soup mixture and shredded chicken on top. I then garnish with more chopped spring onion and chilli, for a tasty, hot, subtly sour noodle soup.

Chicken noodle soup

Fillet Steak

Griddled Fillet Steak is definitely a dinner worth filling the flat with smoke for. Fillet is an expensive cut, so it is a very rare occasion when I buy it and knowing that I am careful not to waste it, I get the griddle hot and smoking before meticulously timing for a medium cooked steak. A shake of salt, a grind of pepper and a short rest later, I'm ready to eat.
Traditionally I would have chips with a steak, but instead I opt for mushroom and thyme lentils from Merchant Gourmet and those robust greens that I shred and steam.
The steak is beautifully juicy, almost velvety in a way that only fillet steak can be, which complements the lentils and of course a glass of red wine.

Fillet steak

Mackerel and Greens Pasta

Super! This evening we're going to one of Her friends for dinner, which means no cooking, or at least it would've if it hadn't had been cancelled at the last minute. Aah... with nothing prepared for dinner I have to improvise with ingredients in my fridge.
I put some pasta on to boil and at the same time shred some of the robust greens that are in season at the moment to pan fry. Once these are cooked I add them to a bowl with flaked smoked mackerel fillets (leftover from this morning's kedgeree) and stir it together with seasoning, a couple of tablespoons of Greek yoghurt, a shake of chilli flakes and a handful of pine nuts. Mackerel and Greens Pasta - not bad for a bowl of improvised dinner.

Mackerel and greens pasta

The Burleigh Arms, Cambridge

Friday and I have no desire to cook, so it's a trip to The Burleigh Arms who have now started doing Pieminister Pies, one of which I have. I'm not sure how to feel about this - I like Pieminister pies, which you can buy in the supermarket, but the fact you can means that they are definitely not homemade, which I'd rather they were. Doesn't stop me tucking into a chicken and mushroom pie with chips though with a couple of pints of ale.

Lamb and Mushroom Flatbread

I was supposed to make this last week instead of the Moussaka but today is the day for one of Nigel Slater's beautifully simple and tasty recipes, Lamb and Mushroom Flatbread.
In essence this is pan cooked lamb mince with garlic and chilli with quartered mushrooms, piled onto salad leaves atop a warmed flatbread. The key tastes here are soft, warm bread, hot lamb and cooling mint yoghurt and olives spooned on top. Not a sensation I usually have but a very pleasant one to add to the repertoire.

Lamb and mushroom flatbread

Roasted Vegetables

I often wonder how vegetarians do without the savoury taste of meat. Maybe one day in the future meat will be too expensive to eat on a regular basis and we'll all be vegetarians, or perhaps the only meat we'll be eating will be synthetic. However until then I'll still be eating meat, which doesn't mean that I don't try to have one vegetarian dinner a week, in fact this is my second this week, this time dinner is Roasted Vegetables. New potatoes, carrots and onions roasted in the oven, how do vegetarians eat this kind of thing everyday? They bury it in grated cheese!

Roasted vegetables with cheese

Veg Stir Fry

Simple, simple, simple... Every now and again it's good to eat cleanly, simply without meat and today's the day. As robust green leaves are in season I slice them and stir fry them with onion, garlic and noodles for a Veg Stir Fry. I add oyster sauce at towards the end of the cooking process and a generous glug of fruity chilli sauce to the plate. Refreshingly clean.

Veg stir fry

Stuffed Peppers

After the gorgeous food in Rome over the last two days, I was quite sad as I ate my miserable cheese sandwich this lunchtime...
I keep dinner pretty basic too stuffing rice cooked with pancetta, mushrooms and onions into peppers before baking for 30 minutes for Baked Stuffed Peppers.

Stuffed peppers

Ristorante Crispi 19, Rome & Feta Cheese, Olive & Rocket Salad

For my last day of a beautiful weekend in Rome I cannot resist having one last great meal, this time at lunch, before returning home. Again I ask the hotel receptionist (a different one) for a recommendation, who points us in the direction of Ristorante Crispi 19 and makes a reservation for us.
As it turns out we didn't need the reservation as we are the only name in the book when we arrive and indeed the only patrons in the restaurant. An empty restaurant at 1pm on a Sunday lunchtime? Hmmm... this doesn't look promising. The friendly front of house man shows us to the corner of an unremarkable room, with a fish tank containing lobsters and a sea bream in the window. Learning the lessons of yesterday, we cut out the appetiser and head straight for the primi piatta, where I have spaghetti with clams, bottarga, shrimps tartare and a hot carrots cream and She has spaghetti alla carbonara.
My pasta was a beautifully cooked, swirl of al dente spaghetti in the carrot and clam sauce with a little pile of prawns at it's summit - this is really tasty and paired up beautifully with the house white wine. I could not help soaking up the sauce left in the dish with the freshly cooked bread we also had.

Seafood spaghetti with carrot cream sauce

It's only at this late stage that I come to the realisation that despite the emptiness of the place, this is a genuinely good, mostly seafood restaurant, which makes my choice of beef fillet medallion steak for the next course a bit foolish;

Beef fillet medallion

She's not much better with her pork tenderloin, but these transgressions pale in comparison to the middle aged American couple who come in, eat a mixed salad, refuse any other courses, refuse to sample the freshly cooked bread, refuse the wine and eat in silence before settling the bill and leaving. Fittingly the staff hit them with a 15% service charge presumably for being such miserable bastards!

Pork tenderloin

But back to the food, both meats were beautifully cooked, Her's probably a tad better than mine. In fact her dish edges mine with the fried almonds and tangy apple, the meat almost falling off the fork. My medium rare cooked beef with it's marvellous pink inside, has a parmesan crisp on top of it and a brittle net of sweet wine(?) reduction. Both our dishes have a mixture of seasonal vegetables and tasty savoury gravy.
Dessert is a shared affair of 3 cold items, orange ice cream covered in dark chocolate, pistachio ice cream and some other kind of cold cake with sultanas and a swirl of burnt cream on top. Some nice touches by the staff here: they beautifully arranged the dessert on a large serving plate and noticing that I am left handed, put my dessert spoon to my left side, you cannot ask for better service than that! All these desserts are very good, my favourite being the in-season pistachio ice cream.

Dessert

We each end with a coffee and consider the bill, which comes to €135 in total including service charge, which equates to under £60 each, very reasonable for the quality of food and friendly service received. We chat with the owners as we leave praising them for the excellent food, shaking them by the hand and leaving them my email address to send me some recipes. We walk happily away up the street.
My actual supper was a hastily thrown together Feta Cheese, Olive and Rocket Salad with garlic flatbread when I got home. This was something of a let down, but Rome lovely Rome, I shall return to you one day!

Feta cheese and olive salad

Osteria St. Ana, Rome

The Italians know a thing or two about food, they are renown the world over for their dishes, for the care of and use of fresh, tasty local ingredients. However, in common with the rest of the world, they are more than happy to take advantage of tourists with lazy, poor quality, expensive fayre situated within a stone's throw of major tourist attractions. A lesson I know take with me everywhere is: Never eat or drink at an establishment on the edge of a square. Never. The atmosphere would have to be out of this world to counter balance the shite, expensive food served and I have yet to find a place where the ambiance is that good.
With that in mind and after a delightful day taking in the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums, I ask the receptionist at our hotel to recommend somewhere for dinner. In her unique brand of Italian English she recommends Osteria St. Ana, where she goes to eat with her friends, with the caveat that it is not expensive and not touristy. I believe I said something along the lines of 'Perfecto!'
We walk through the balmy evening and across Piazza del Popolo, down a side street to the restaurant and sitting at one of the intimate outside tables. We start with an appetizer, a selection of antipasto including Parma ham, a mozzerella ball, parmesan cheese shavings drizzled with honey, warm ricotta, fresh gala melon slices and peeled figs. The quality of each and every ingredient is beautiful. It's at this stage we realise, having ordered a primo course each, a seconda course each and a bottle of Rose wine, we have ordered too much.

Antipasto

Since I'm in Rome I want to eat, not only Italian, but as the Romans do so I have Bucatini all'amatriciana a lovely thick spaghetti in a hearty pancetta, tomato and chilli sauce, the al dente pasta showing it's quality as opposed to anything you usually get in the UK. So after finishing this with gusto, I know I still have one more course to go...

Bucatini all'amatriciana

 which is another Roman classic: Baccala alla romana, salt cod in again in a hearty tomato, onion and olive sauce. I'm really enjoying the flavours of the typical Roman dishes, but I know I'm almost sunk in terms of stomach capacity as I just manage to finish the fish, but unfortunately have to leave most of the sauce.

Baccala alla romana

I have to turn down dessert. I just about manage the espresso and settle a very reasonable bill which came to around €40 per head (around £35) and stagger down the street very satisfied.

A Tourist's Pizza

So this was the start of my weekend in the beautiful Italian capital of Rome! After taking the early evening flight out of Stansted, Her and I get waved through passport control and head out for dinner, absolutely ravenous, with the time approaching 11pm. We walk the short distance from our hotel to Piazza Barberini and after checking out a few places settle on a place just off the square a little way along Via Sistina towards the Spanish Steps. I don't remember the name of the place, but I do remember it was half full and a reasonable looking, if clearly catering for tourists; a particularly remember the fake vines adorning the walls. I had a Pepperoni Pizza with a thin base with a couple of glasses of bianco della casa (house white wine) with tiramisu for dessert. It was fine if unremarkable; filling enough for a couple of hungry new arrivals.

Pepperoni pizza

Tiramisu

Chicken and Chips

C'mon now, what do you mean you don't get a hankering for simple Chicken and Chips every now and again? Well I do! Rather than paying an specialist like KFC for the pleasure of tonight's dinner, I do it myself; sort of. I rub chicken legs with oil, grated garlic and seasoning before cooking in the oven for 50 minutes. Halfway through I add oven chips, turning a couple of times in the period before everything turns golden and is ready to eat.

Chicken and chips

Moussaka

So I didn't quite go Turkish today, given I had to wear a jumper to work today and dash between the cold, drenching showers on the way home, I decided that Moussaka was a more appropriate use of lamb mince. You know the one, like Lasagne but with aubergine and commonly, but apparently not traditionally, with lamb mince? News to me, but I like it as a change from the Italian dish, it has slightly sweeter flavours all around.

Moussaka

Feta and Spinach Filo Pie

For some reason it's only today that I remember that I really enjoy this vegetarian dish, the Greek Feta and Spinach Filo Pie. It comes to mind, bizarrely, as I think about how to make a lamb flatbread (more of that tomorrow). Perhaps it's because the flatbread I'm thinking of is of Turkish descent of which this crispy, crumbly Filo Pie is a neighbour, if not always the most friendly. Anyway, wilted spinach and feta make for a refreshing non-meat alternative, but as nod to the region I put a little ground cumin into the mix.

Feta and spinach filo pie

Fish Finger Sandwiches

The only problem with spending the weekend out and about is that there is often a deficit of housekeeping items to be caught up with, so I have a quick dinner tonight of Fish Finger Sandwiches before getting on with it.

The Milton Arms, Cambridge

After cycling the 30 odd miles to and from Hemingford to watch the Regatta on this balmy afternoon, I really have no desire to cook so I have dinner at what is technically my Local (in this case my closest pub, rather than the closest pub I go in most often), The Milton Arms. It's okay, but is nothing special and the two roasts for £10, in this case both beef, hits the hunger spot for Her and I with the minimum of fuss. She passes comment that she has had worst in better places and I agree; this is Cambridge after all...

A Trinidadian Lunch

Dad eating Doubles

My auntie and uncle from Trinidad are in the country at the moment, so an invite to the folks house for lunch is an opportunity I jump at, as I have been promised that my aunt has cooked a Trinidadian speciality: Doubles. Each Double consists of 2 rough pancakes ('baras') made with flour, perhaps a little channa flour that has a tablespoon of a mild chickpea curry ('channa') between them with a dash of tangy salsa type sauce which contains a bit of chilli and tamarind and perhaps also a spoon of mango chuntney. Though this has the form of a sandwich, it is not eaten as such, instead with the top bara, the channa is picked up with fingers and eaten. This is repeated until the top bara has been eaten after which the remaining bara with the channa on top of it is picked up and eaten. The name Doubles comes from the two baras in the dish. My Dad demonstrates here the authentic eating style, though it appears a little odd being eaten of a delicately floral plate; in Trinidad these are often eaten off a piece of greaseproof paper on the street! And yes dirty hands afterwards are mandatory! These were really tasty, a really vivid jolt of the Trini experience.
After a few of those I also manage to put away some buss up shot, a torn up style bread seen on the left below with more channa and some Trinidad spiced oven baked chicken. Perfect for the balmy weather this early September weekend.

Buss up shot and Trinidad chicken

Griddled Chicken Sandwich

The Griddle. A magnificent implement for cooking meat. Some charring on the outside in the form of attractive brown stripes conceals juicy meat, in this case chicken breast in my Griddled Chicken Sandwich. After the chicken has griddled and is resting, I also toast the ciabatta roll on the griddle for a crisp finish on the cut sides before spreading with mayonnaise and inserting the seasoned chicken alongside some salad leaves. Tasty.

Griddled chicken sandwich

Chicken Stir Fry

It's taken me this long to face and genuinely want to cook Chinese myself. Since coming back from Malaysia in June I haven't really had too much Asian food especially done by myself, but I really fancied a Chicken Stir Fry tonight, thinly slicing spring onion, sweet pepper and chicken, chopping garlic and chilli together with noodles, stir fried in my wok, even though I don't really have the heat for it. I feel I've missed this - quick and tasty.

Chicken stir fry

The Old Spring, Cambridge

Once upon a time The Old Spring pub was probably my favourite of the pubs around Mitcham's Corner in Cambridge, well kept ales, continental beers, good food, places to sit both inside and out, friendly staff and one of the closer hostelries to my residence. However the problem with such places is that once it finds itself well established, it can raise prices and people won't be overly discouraged from going, especially as there are a lack of similar alternatives in this corner of the city. So it's only for special occasions now.
After foregoing a dinner at home, Her and I take a walk down the River Cam in the fading evening light before stopping in for a drink and for me a bite.
Considering that it's a Wednesday night the place is busy with only 2 or 3 small tables free, of which we take Table #13. With one of the guest ales I have the Old Spring fishcake with dressed leaves and tartare sauce; the 'cake is satisfyingly heavy (and not as dark as it appears in the picture) with genuine flakes of fish, but is perhaps a little dear for what it is at £8.50. The Old Spring is still worth going to but a little more sparingly.

Old Spring fishcake

While we're on pubs, a big congratulations to a pub I'm in every now and again, The Cock in the Cambridgeshire village of Hemingford Grey for winning The Good Pub Guide's National Pub of the Year! Well done to them!

Pesto Wholewheat Pasta

Minimal effort in = minimum effort out. I try to pep this up by stirring in some watercress leaves and shreds of ham, but it's still really really boring...

Pesto wholewheat pasta

Chorizo Burgers

A summing up of tonight's dinner in two words would be: Failed Experiment. I make Chorizo Burgers, chopping and sauteeing onion and chopping chorizo into small pieces and mixing it with seasoned beef mince a dash of Worcester sauce and a dash of soy sauce, before shaping into burgers and leaving them to rest. I sometimes add breadcrumbs to the mix to allow the meat to retain some moisture, but adding the chorizo and knowing how fatty they are, I thought they weren't necessary. I was wrong.
So after heating up a griddle pan and smoking my flat out, I griddle the burgers for a few minutes on each side and serve up in toasted buns, one with ketchup and the other with mayonnaise, both with peppery cress, but both disappointingly dry and unseasoned. They look great, but don't taste all that. Fail.

Chorizo burgers

Chinese Roast Pork Belly & Mushroom Risotto

A little clash of cultures tonight as Chinese Roast Pork Belly meets Italian Mushroom Risotto. This takes a little preparation as I marinade the pork in oil, soy sauce, a crushed star anise and a squeeze of maple syrup for a couple of hours before readying a hot oven (200 degrees celsius) and cooking for around half an hour, seasoning each side and turning halfway through. I slice before putting on a plate.
The mushrooms take some preparation too as I soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for half an hour before straining and reserving the liquid for use in cooking the rice. I also add chopped fresh mushrooms too.
I wasn't sure how this dish would turn out, but I really really like it! Mushrooms are quite complementary to savoury dishes and the roast pork is no exception, the dark pork glaze beautifully complementing our fungal friends.

Chinese roast pork belly and mushroom risotto

Tuna, Potato and Bean Salad

I had intended to make that brilliant French staple Salad Nicoise today, but a lack of the right in ingredients (lettuce, the right vinegar and most damningly any eggs) in my cupboard, means that I have to make a poor cousin: Tuna, Potato and Bean Salad.
It may not be the same, but it is still fairly tasty as I stir basil pesto mixed with olive oil into cooked new potatoes and runner beans, before seasoning and scattering over halved cherry tomatoes and flaked tuna. I really like it apart from the tomatoes. I still hate the texture of those red ones.

Tuna, potato and bean salad