Trifle

Andrew and Jo for dinner tonight. Lamb stew from last week (because it's easy) to start, followed by a trifle from Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts, possibly the first time I've used the book. It was splendid but over fussy in his detail. It's just: crushed Amaretti biscuits soaked in Framboise covered in a layer of sliced peach (he would have you skin them, but life is surely too short), then a layer of raspberries. Top with Creme Anglais and a dollop of thick double cream.

Harissa Chicken with Leeks and Garlic Mash

So straightforward is the chicken that if I were writing a cookbook I would be embarassed to include this as a recipe. That said, the recipe comes from Moro by Sam & Sam Clark (a book I do recommend):

Smear harissa on a chicken. Put it in a roasting tray, sprinkle with olive oil and roast it. An hour at 200C should put you in the ballpark. Baste with a little more oil after half an hour.

The leeks are my own invention:

Cut the leeks into 1cm clices. Melt some butter in a frying pan and add the leeks. Add 2 tsp harissa. Splash in 2 tbsp sherry vinegar and a little salt. Cook until the leeks are just beginning to soften.

The garlic mash doesn't deserve instructions. It's obvious.

Use the oil / juice from the bottom of the roasting pan as gravy for the chicken and potatoes.

No Dinner

A very late lunch of heated-up pre-cooked nibbles from M&S, so couldn't get up enough enthusiasm for dinner.

I should mention that yesterday's recipe for chipotle paste is derived from a recipe in Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless. It's not a book I could recommend wholeheartedly. I find it terrifically overcomplicated.

Unless otherwise attibuted, the recipes which I describe are my own, or are as far as I can remember. They are also for two people unless otherwise mentioned.

Chipotle Potatoes

Last night we went to Texas Lone Star in Chelsea with my sister's family to say goodbye to her daughter who is leaving for university tomorrow. The food was unexceptional, but the Margaritas were awful - sickly sweet with hardly any lime juice.

Anyway, as promised yesterday, with no recipe from last night I return to Chipotle Potatoes.

First you need to make the chipotle paste. This is a staple in my kitchen and keeps forever in the fridge provided that there is a layer of oil on top.

Heat half a pint of water and stir in 3 Tbsps soft brown sugar. In the meantime heat some (groundnut) oil in a frying pan. When hot, drop in 3 batches of 10 chipotles. When the chipotles have puffed up and softened (about a minute) transfer them with a slotted spoon to the sugar water. Once you have cooked all the chipotles transfer them, along with the sugar water into a blender and blend into a smooth paste. Return the paste to a high sided frying pan or saucepan. Add 500ml of groundnut oil and cook very gently for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool then drain off as much of the oil as you can into a separate container. You've now got some delicious chipotle oil as well as a container of chipotle paste. Pour enough fresh groundnut oil over the chipotle paste to cover completely then store in the refrigerator.

Now peel some potatoes and boil for ten minutes. Remove, drain and slice them about 5mm thick. Pour some chipotle oil onto a baking tray and add a Tsp of the chipotle paste. Lay all of the potato slices in the oil, not overlapping. Sprinkle salt over them. Bake in the oven at 200C for about 7 minutes. Remove and flip over the slices. Sprinkle with salt again and put them back in the oven for another 7 minutes.

The result should be crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and with a delicious chipotle flavour. They aren't as spicy as you might think.

Skate Wings with Hot Sauce and Chipotle Potatoes

More appropriate for the time of year than yesterday's dinner, this was a success except that the hot sauce was too hot for any normal human being. It might have been a better idea to have seeded the chilies or to have used only one.

1 Skate wing chopped in half
2 Tomatoes
Juice of 3 Limes
1 Tbsp sugar
2 red Habanero chilies (these are lethal. Be careful!)
1 clove garlic
1" of garlic, peeled and sliced

Put everything (except of course the skate) in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and warm over a low heat.

Dust the skate with flour. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the skate, turning once. How long this will take will obviously depend on the thickness of the fish. Probably in the region of three minutes on each side. Serve with the hot sauce.

Delicious and simple. Skate is relatively inexpensive too. We had chipotle potatoes (K's favourite) as an accompaniment, but I'll leave the recipe for those until another day. Also a salad of rocket, spring onions and roasted cherry tomatoes - no dressing needed. The roasted cherry tomatoes came from Borough market (in London). At £3.50 a tub they are ludicrously expensive, but they are unspeakably delicious. Today is market day, so I'll be back for more.

Lamb Stew

The idea was 'Coq au Vin' with lamb and it worked pretty well.

400gms of lamb neck fillet cut into bite size chunks
Shallots, peeled
Portobello mushrooms
Small carrots
Red wine (I used a quite drinkable Australian Shiraz, for what it's worth)
1/2 Ltr Chicken stock
1 clove of garlic, finely sliced
2 red chillies, finely sliced (these will be a recurring theme)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
salt to taste

I heated up some olive oil in a casserole dish and put in the shallots. The garlic occurred to me at this stage and I sliced a clove while stirring the shallots. When they were beginning to turn brown, I added the lamb and the garlic. Once the lamb was browned, in went about a third of a bottle of the wine then everything else except about half of the chicken stock. I covered the dish and put it in a pre-heated oven at 170C.

After about an hour an a half I checked on progress and found that the liquid level was getting a bit low, so added the rest of the stock. Then it went back in for another hour.

K and I ate it without accompaniment. Delicious comfort food, perhaps better suited to a winter evening. Some good bread to mop up the sauce would have been nice, but a spoon worked fine.