Saving Myself

I'm going to be a bit quiet for the next week. I'm going to Spain on the 28th and in anticipation of much eating, drinking, and photo-worthy food, I thought I'd show some restraint. Which hasn't really worked, but I just won't be telling you about it!

"Mexican"

I love Mexican food. Even the "Mexican" that would have a Mexican person saying "Oh you English make such strange food". The doubtless inauthentic combinations of mince, beans, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and avocado are so tasty that I don't really care if it is not quite how the Olmecs would have done it.

Last night it was rainy and miserable and perfect for seeing a film. We'd been told about a multiplex not too far from us that had a cheesy Mexican joint as part of the complex, which sounded just perfect.

We were really lucky with our timing. We were seated in a nice booth at 6.45, but within about 15 minutes the place was heaving with people being asked to wait in the bar with electronic beepers to alert them when a table was ready. The loud (and very infectious) soundtrack was a bit odd in a half-empty restaurant, but when it had filled up it gave a real party atmosphere. I had a bottle of Magners cider, but I think that on another occasion I would insist on a jug of Lynchburg Lemonade (Jack Daniels, triple sec and lemonade) and skip the movie.

We started with a favourite - green chillis stuffed with cream cheese, crumbed and fried. In a perfect world these are filled with goats cheese, or something a bit more flavourful, but these were excellent. Not at all greasy, very crisp and nicely filled with extremely hot cheese. A sweet chilli jelly for dipping them in was a good accompaniment.

I had quite a hard time choosing my main course. I was very tempted by the ribs and the bison burger, but I settled on prime steak fajitas. My husband had single-mindedly pursued enchiladas, but was thwarted. In his opinion enchiladas must be beef, and he couldn't be pursuaded by the chicken ones, so he had a burrito instead.

My fajitas were impressively presented, on a wooden board with built-in sizzling plate and terracotta tortilla dish (don't know how our perky, pint-size waitress managed to carry it - it was twice her size) but the sizzle didn't really add flavour to the meat, which looked like it had been cooked and sliced and then just put on top of the onions and peppers. It was a reasonable effort - the tortillas were very good and the meat was quite nice, but I do like the slightly sticky, smokey sauce that usually coats the meat, which was missing in this case.

I think my husband liked his burrito. He certainly went very quiet and ate very quickly.

The restaurant was so busy by this stage that my husband suggested that we order dessert to prevent them kicking us out too long before the movie. We shared a banana taquito - banana wrapped in a cinnamon tortilla, fried and served with icecream and caramel sauce. You certainly wouldn't want to eat one by yourself: it was a generous portion.

By the time we'd finished, managed to get the bill and pay, it was the perfect time to stroll into the cinema. A very good night out.

Offley good

I know it is not for everyone, but there is something about a dish of liver that is very comforting. I went to a funeral yesterday (lovely Pat Webb, rest in peace dear lady) and I just wanted something nourishing and comforting for tea last night. A hearty soup - pea and ham, mutton and barley, minestrone - would have done the job, but they all take quite a bit of time (and I end up eating them for a week).

So I decided that it was to be liver, bacon and onion gravy.

At my husband's insistance, I sliced an onion into fine half-moons. I would probably have diced it, but he was right. I cooked it very slowly in olive oil until it was entirely floppy and yellow and beginning to caramelise. Then I added some dried rosemary and cooked it a bit longer. Then I added dry-cured smoked bacon, cut into chunky lardons, and when that had browned and was about to crisp, I added 2cm pieces of lamb's liver. When that was cooked through (but before it could toughen) I added a slosh of dry sherry and some freshly ground white pepper. We had it with some M&S veg (asparagus, runner beans and broccoli; cauliflower cheese) and some extra onion gravy I'd had in the freezer. Perfect. A warming end to a sad day.

Dinner Menu Debriefing

I haven't actually cleaned up the kitchen yet (it's wonderful living in a country where cockroaches are not a problem) but I thought I would debrief on how dinner went.

The guacamole was wonderful, although it needed more chilli. Such deceptive things! The other chilli from the same package contained the fires of the sun, so I was really wary with this one and it was barely warm. Big thumbs up to Doritos for their "touch of lime" flavour tortilla chips. I was drinking Carl Jung brut de-alcoholised bubbly (trying to cut down on alcohol consumption and corresponding calorie intake) which was very pleasant really. I've definitely had worse sparkling wines.

My pork was excellent, although the crackling wasn't up to my usual standard. I think there was just too much liquid in the tin. But very flavoursome. Gee that fennel pollen is a wonderful ingredient! The potato celeriac boulangere was very good too. And sugar snaps are always wonderful unless they are overcooked.

The pudding was a disaster. I reached the point where it said "Chill in fridge for 2 hours. Whip the mousse with an electric beater until it peaks" and there was no chance at all of it peaking. It wasn't even thickening slightly. I started to panic. I put a few spoonfuls of the mixture back into a small pan and melted the rest of the box of mints into it, and added a leaf of gelatine, beat it back into the rest of the mixture and chilled it again. Still not the slightest sign of thickening. So it went into ramekins and into the freezer and was served as chocolate mint icecream pots. Even so, quite unrewarding. Not a particularly strong mint flavour and very sweet - although the texture was lovely. I had 4 spare pots, so 2 went home with our friend and 2 will sit in our freezer until a day when I crave sugar.

Dinner Menu

We've got a friend coming around for dinner tonight, and I am not in love with my menu. I love the individual elements, but it just isn't hanging together for me.

I started from a position of roast pork for the main. That was pretty easy - I love roast pork, she loves roast pork, my husband doesn't mind it on occasion. Further, a while ago at the Rose and Crown I had a piece of pork belly, which I suspect of having been cooked in liquid up to the top of the meat, with the skin left out to crackle, and I have had a piece of lovely pork belly waiting in the freezer for just such an occasion.

The accompaniments were a bit trickier. I eventually decided that, since I am having a lot of liquid around the meat, I should take advantage of it and do a sort of boulangere potatoes around it. I thought I was being clever and innovative and doing a celeriac and potato boulangere, but I see Antony Worrall Thompson beat me to it. Then some steamed sugar snaps with halved cherry tomatoes tossed through. Should be good.

What I intend to do is layer up the potato, onions and celeriac, leaving a bit of a divot in the middle of the tin, put the pork on the divot, (having first done the boiling water trick to the scored skin to help it crackle) so it is partly on and surrounded by the veg, then add a mixture of white wine and veg stock up to the level of the skin. I'm going to rub in a combination of fennel pollen, salt and crushed white peppercorns. A slow oven for 3 or 4 hours and all should be well, although I may need to remove the potatoes and turn up the heat to crisp the skin at the end.

Our friend is quite picky about puddings - she likes chocolate mousse, fruit salad and creme brulee. I am anxious about creme brulee and only really like fruit salad with loads of cointreau (our friend is teetotal) so that left chocolate mousse. I've been waiting for an opportunity to try an After 8 mousse similar to this one but without the brandy - a ganache of cream and After 8 mints. I am fascinated by how the gloop in those mints can become a mousse! I think it'll be tasty - and very rich - but I'm not sure really about how well it goes with my pork.

So that leaves something to start with. I decided not to do a proper starter, because that really is a lot of food, so we don't need 3 substantial courses, but there does have to be a little something to nibble while I finish cooking and while we chat and have a drink. I was also a bit anxious that the menu wasn't colourful enough - brown meat and potatoes, green sugar snaps, brown mousse. A beetroot or a carrot dip would have been ideal, but my husband is funny about beetroot and carrot didn't occur to me until just now. So we are having guacamole and tortilla chips. More green, but since it tastes fab, and has flecks of red and darker green through it, it'll just have to do. Anyway, due to the non-alcohol drinking of our friend, she'll most likely be on orange juice (she has a choice of apple, orange and diet coke) so that will make things prettier.

Truffled celeriac mash

After the lovely celeriac and truffle soup at Gilpin Lodge, I have been a bit keen on putting those flavours together myself - and last night had the opportunity. We go through phases where we cook loads of steak, but we haven't recently (and the few we have done lately have been dire; M&S needs to hire some proper butchers) and my husband decided that it was time for us to have a proper steak. He went into a huddle with the butcher, and emerged with the most enormous rump steaks I have seen. I can't imagine how large the animal must have been! They were cut about 3/4 inch thick, and were of a rich purpley colour. Only one would fit in our pan - and a good thing too, because there was no way we could eat any more than that.

When you have a really nice piece of meat, the accompaniments need to be good too. A warm green bean and cherry tomato salad in mustard dressing (I think the dressing is originally a River Cafe recipe - just Dijon mustard and lemon juice to make it runny) and truffled celeriac mash seemed to be just the thing. The mash was wonderful! I just peeled and diced the celeriac, boiled it in lightly salted water until tender, then mashed it with a potato masher (doesn't get it smooth, at home I like a rough textured mash, but if you like it smooth you can use a food processor, celeriac doesn't go to glue the way potatoes do) and stirred through 5 or 6 slices of truffle along with a slurp of the oil they were packed in. The steak turned out to be magnificent - very well flavoured with the most buttery texture - so the whole thing was very successful. In fact, we may do it all again tonight.

Another Friday Night

I think my problem with the new Delia Smith book is that it really isn't written for me. I have 3 of her books - Summer, Winter and Christmas, and they are all fab. The recipes work almost every time, they are delicious and the pictures are nice. But the new How to Cheat at Cooking is not for me. It is for people who don't cook because they think it is too hard, or for people who get put off by recipes because they have too many ingredients. By showing how you can add ready-prepared stuff to a recipe, and telling you exactly where to get these things, she's reaching out to the non-cook.

I, however, am not a non-cook. And I've been adding ready-prepared stuff to dishes for ages. Last night's meal was a case in point. We had some stuff in the fridge, but nothing I fancied or felt like cooking. We also have a pretty well-stocked pantry and freezer, so we added bits here and there and concocted a rather good seafood & chorizo stew. The only actually "fresh" things in it were half a bunch of slightly past-it coriander and the juice of half a lemon.

Seafood and Chorizo for Friday Supper

1 packet Sainsburys diced chorizo
1 packet Waitrose frozen seafood mix
2 tsp easy garlic
1 slosh dry sherry
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 tbs tomato paste
Handful chopped coriander
Juice of half a lemon

Heat a little olive oil in a large saute pan and add the chorizo. Sizzle it really well until it has given up a lot of fragrant, red oil and has browned and crisped at the edges. Add the frozen seafood (or you could be organised and already have it thawed) and stir well into the oil. Add the garlic (you probably won't want 2 tsp but we love garlic). When it has all begun to sizzle nicely add the sherry. When the sherry has almost evaporated add the chickpeas and tomatoes and tomato paste. When the sauce has thickened and the seafood is hot through, but before it starts to shrink and toughen, stir in the coriander and lemon juice and serve in large bowls. Serves 2 - 4 if you have rice or bread or another course.