Category: Vegetables


Aug
2020

Steak Frites with Bearnaise Sauce – Dining with The Dame 5

categories: Dining With The Dame, Potato, Steak

“Hello crime readers and food lovers!  The Secret of Chimneys is Agatha Christie’s fifth novel and it is a standalone thriller even though in the tv version it is turned into a Miss Marple mystery.  Chimneys introduces us to Superintendent Battle who will return in future novels.  On the menu for tonight’s dinner is a classic Steak Frites with Bearnaise Sauce.  I have chosen the French nomenclature today because it sounds so much more classy than the English alternative of steak and chips!  I think the Dame would have approved!   

Steak Frites1

Oh, and just so you don’t get confused like I did over the title, Chimneys  refers to a country house, not actual chimneys!  The tv version was filmed at Hatfield house which was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth 1.  And totally gorgeous!

The Secret of Chimneys – The Plot

Oh Lord…where to start?  This one is complicated!

So, let’s start it in Zimbabwe where we meet our hero Anthony Cade. A friend gives him the memoirs of a Herzoslovakian (yes really) aristocrat to take to publishers in London along with some incriminating letters written by a woman called Virginia Revel.  Through a series of escapades, Anthony meets the real Virginia Revel and gets an invitation to Chimneys, but only after having disposed of the dead body in the study…

Rght about now, I usually do a bit of a summary of the novel.  Well, I bought a big pile of Agatha Christie novels on eBay and the back cover of The Secret of Chimneys has done it for me.  Here is what it says

“Stolen letters, a foreign envoy; a shot at one of England’s historic houses; detectives Britishm French and American; secret passages, a fabulous jewel, a mysterious rose emblem; an organisation called the Comrades of the Red Hand; an international jewel thief…”

I couldn’t have done it better myself!

Sadly, the Secret at Chimneys also contains some racial slurs and stereotypes that are definitely on the nose for the modern reader which diminished my enjoyment of this “light-hearted thriller”.  

 

The Covers

The first three on the top row are the one I read, my favourite and I don’t even know what is happening here!!!  As lovely as it is, I also feel the French cover looks like it was designed by someone who had never read the book!

Chimneys collage2

 

The Recipe – Steak Frites with Bearnaise

“He thought longingly of such things as rump steaks, juicy chops, and large masses of fried potatoes.  But he shook his head ruefully, glancing at his wristwatch”

The Mystery of Chimneys, Agatha Christie

Here’s the recipe.  I used oven fries but this recipe has all the instructions to cook your “mass of fried potatoes” from scratch if you so desire!  I also used dried tarragon in my bearnaise because winter!

Other Food Mentioned in The Secret of Chimneys

Have a great week!  Oh and I’m so excited, my next post will be a collab with Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers!  Stay tuned and stay safe!

 

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Jul
2020

Frizzled Artichokes with Gribiche Sauce

categories: Eggs, France, Vegetables

I have been wanting to make a Gribiche Sauce ever since I first read about it in an old edition of Gourmet Traveller which teamed it with some deep-fried Artichokes.  The other day in the greengrocer I saw some gorgeous artichokes that prompted my memory of this dish.

Frzzled Artichokes1

These looked so beautiful…but first, let’s talk Gribiche.  Gribiche is a French sauce…kind of like a tartare sauce with hard-boiled eggs.  It is really tasty.  I love the way the creaminess of the eggs offset against the sharpness of the vinegar, cornichons and capers.  These are my flavours!!!

And I also adore artichokes, but hardly ever cook them because let’s face it, they are not the most user friendly of veg are they?  Even if they are one of the prettiest!

Via Olivers Market

These were so fun to eat. I can just imagine, after the ‘rona, when we can entertain again, having a row of these down the table with little dishes of gribiche for people to dip into!  But wait!!!  The fun doesn’t stop there.  These are also incredibly fun to make.  Watch the leaves as they fry…

They move!!!!

How cool is that!  Have you ever seen anything like it? Also apologies for the sound of my podcast coming through – I was so excited and wanted to capture these moving leaves that I didn’t have time to turn it off!  And if anyone else out there listens to Kim and Ket Stay Alive – Maybe, Hey!  How are you!  I am a fellow fan!

Frzzled Artichokes2

The recipe for the Gribiche Sauce in Gourmet Traveller is pretty fancy in that it contains both chervil and tarragon, neither of which are currently available, it being the dead of winter here!  Also, I’m not sure if chervil has ever been available in the shops.  I feel it is something you need to grow.  And I used the last of my homegrown tarragon for Meredith Baxter Birney’s Tarragon Chicken.  So, I fried the artichokes according to the Gournet Traveller recipe but I made the Gribiche Sauce using this recipe from the New York Times.    I did have a little dill in the fridge which I added because I thought it might help to give a slightly aniseedy flavour which would have been present with the chervil and tarragon.

Frzzled Artichokes4

The Recipe

Deep Fried Artichokes with Gribiche

Other Ways To Use Gribiche

If you happen to have some Gribiche sauce left over after making this, you can use it up in the following ways:

  • With Asparagus – this seems to be a very popular combination.
  • And speaking of toast, Australian Gourmet Traveller has a recipe for  grilled cheese with speck and gribiche.  It looks spec(k)tacular!
  • Heston likes it in a salad
  • It goes well with chicken
  • And fish
  • Even beef can take a bit of Gribiche sauce!

So no shortage of options for any leftovers!

That’s me done!  Have a wonderful week everyone!

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Jun
2020

Simply The Best Carrot Cake

categories: Cake, Carrot, Pineapple, United States of America

I don’t think I have mentioned this before but I absolutely hate cooked carrots.  I don’t mind them chopped up really small in a Bolognese or Shepherd’s Pie but to this day, if I go to my mum’s for a family dinner I get raw carrots on my plate instead of cooked.  This hatred of cooked carrots meant that I did not eat carrot cake until well into my thirties and even then, my first taste was by stealth!

Carrot Cake1

I clearly remember my first taste of carrot cake.  It was someone’s birthday at work and I was too busy to attend the celebration but one of my friends brought me back a piece of cake.  Still concentrating on what I was doing, I took a bite.

“OMG…this is delicious!!!!  What on earth is this?”

My friend looked rather non-plussed.  “It’s carrot cake…”

“This is carrot cake?”

“Yes”

“Is there any more?”

 

Carrot Cake2

Since then I have been making carrot cake on the reg so I was a little surprised  when I mentioned that I was going to blog my “Classic” carrot cake recipe  and the fussiest eat in the world said

“I don’t think you can call it classic”.

“Why not?”

“Well….it has pineapple in it…It’s delicious.  But it’s not classic carrot cake”

“Carrot cake has pineapple in it”.

“No other carrot cake I ever ate had pineapple in it”

“It’s based on a recipe by Tina Turner”

“That doesn’t make it a classic”

Well, I beg to differ.  I think that absolutely makes it a classic.  And you can argue with me all you want.  Try arguing with her!

She will kick your ass all the way to Nutbush City Limits!  Anyway, I changed the name so it homaged Tina a bit more!

Carrot Cake4

The Recipes

As mentioned my recipe for carrot cake is based on a recipe by Tina Turner from the book “Cool Cooking” by Roberta Ashley.  I have adapted it in minor ways:

  • My version uses butter not margarine
  • I leave out the currants
  • I add some rum.  Pineapple and rum is a great flavour combination and the rum works really nicely with the brown sugar and cinnamon too!  Plus, now more than ever, what isn’t better with a little bit of booze!
  • I prefer cream cheese icing rather than the cream suggested by Tina

The OG Tina Version

Here are the original recipe and the front and back covers of the book it comes from.

Carrot Cake Collage

 

My Tweaked Version

Print

Simply The Best Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake4
Print Recipe

A delicious cake, based on a recipe by Tina Turner.  This cake is easy to make and keeps beautifully!  This will last for a week if kept in the fridge – if you don’t eat it all first!  

Ingredients

Scale

For The Cake

  • 120g butter
  • 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
  • 3 eggs, well beaten
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 400g can crushed pineapple (drained)
  • 2 cups grated raw carrots
  • 3 tbsp dark rum
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

For The Icing

  • 80g icing sugar
  • 250 grams cream cheese
  • Zest of a lemon
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • Additional walnuts, toasted and chopped to decorate

Instructions

For the cake – Preheat your oven to 170C (150 Fan forced).

Lightly grease a 20cm (base) round cake pan and line with non-stick baking paper.

Cream the butter with the sugar until pale.  Add the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly between each addition.

Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon.

Mix again until all the ingredients are well combined.

Add the carrots, pineapple, walnuts, rum and vanilla. 

Stir through so that all the ingredients are well combined.  

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Set aside for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely

For the icing – place the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Beat together unitl well combined.  

  • Spread over the cooled cake.
  • Top with addtional chopped walnuts and lemon zest.

Carrot Cake 7

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Stay safe!


May
2020

Not Quite Seeni Sambol

categories: 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Onions, Sri Lanka, Vegetables

Seeni Sambol is a Sri Lankan side dish, served as an accompaniment to rice, curries and hoppers as per the photo below.   It is an integral component of lampries, which despite Covid-19, mum and I made this year at Easter, as per our normal habit.  I made the seeni sambol this year, something we never really do as it takes so many onions!  I used 8 onions to make mine and in the end, there was not enough for all our lampries and we ended up having to use a shop-bought version as well!

Please don’t judge my hoppers, I am playing with a recipe which I will post on here as soon as I have it right!  The main ingredient of Seeni Sambol is onions.  Put very simply you caramelise them down add some spices and voila – there you have it.

Our 2020 lampries.  This is a SriLankan meal consisting of ghee rice, lampries curry, eggplant pickle,seeni sambol, prawn blachan and frikadeller which mum and I cook annually.  We make enough to last the year, packing individual servings into foil packets and putting them into the freezer to reheat and eat whenever the mood takes us!

Lampries

What I am trying to say is, that I know a bit about Seeni Sambol.  So, when I saw that there was a recipe for it in the Good Housekeeping World Cookery Book, 1972 I was intrigued.  My gut feel is that books this old do not do justice to “ethnic” recipes.  But for the sake of the blog, I was willing to give this one a go.

But, because WordPress loves a subheading,  let’s break it down a little.

The Title

The actual title is fine.  In that, all words are spelt correctly.

It’s the subtitle that made me pause.

And call my mum.

“Are you meant to just eat Seeni Sambol with prawns?”

“No.  Why?”

“No reason”.

So fail on the title.  Seeni Sambol actually means sugar sambol and relates to the sweetness of the caramelised onions and the sugar you add towards the end of cooking to balance out the flavours.  No prawns at all.  Whatsoever.

Seeni Sambol 4

The Ingredients

There are two very non-traditional additions in these ingredients.  Tomatoes play no part in seeni sambol and neither does milk.

You probably could not have got fresh milk in Sri Lanka in 1972 – it would have either been evaporated or coconut milk.  Either way, I inadvertently left the milk out of my version.  I added the tomatoes though.

There is also an ingredient that is used in a traditional Seeni sambol called a Maldive Fish which is a cured dried fish which adds protein and umami flavours to the Seeni Sambol  If you want to make this, and you cannot find Maldive fish, you can substitute Asian fish sauce.   Or you can leave it out altogether which is what they do in vegetarian versions.

Overall though, the ingredients are pretty close to home.  Just forget the tomatoes and the milk if you want to keep it real!

Oh, and btw?  No prawns.

Seeni Sambol 61

The Method

Seeni Sambol

So, it all seems legit until…WTF why are they talking about Prawns? There were no prawns in the ingredients so why are there prawns in the GD recipe???

There are no prawns in Seeni Sambol.  And that’s not just me saying that.  That comes direct from my mum.  And I may be an idiot who knows nothing but she knows Sri Lankan cooking!

So, this is kind of a shambolic recipe.  However, if you ignore the magical prawns that do a disappearing act in the ingredients and reappear in the method and the milk which has no place here what so ever. this is not a bad recipe. I didn’t even mind the tomatoes in the final dish!

Here is the full recipe:

Seeni Sambol 11

And here is a better one from chef Manu Fieldel.  This is a vegetarian version so does not contain the possibly hard to find Maldive Fish.

Hope you are having a good week!  Stay safe friends…the light at the end of this tunnel seems to be appearing!

 

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May
2020

10-Minute Autumn Salad

categories: Chestnuts, Salad, Vegetables

Autumn is truly here.  Most days are bright and sunny days but with a little chill in the air to let you know that winter is on its way.  The nights are getting cold and darkness is falling a little bit earlier each day. It is very pretty when I am out on my daily walk with the dogs.  And it is perfect weather for an Autumnal Salad.  

Autumn salad not only makes the use of one of my favourite autumn ingredients, chestnuts but the colours of the dish are meant to resemble the colours of autumn.

Autumnal Salad

One of the paradoxes of living in iso is that, just when I have more time to cook, half the time I can’t be bothered.  I feel like I can’t remember a time when I didn’t feel anxious or scared. And whilst I am trying to enjoy the pleasures of the little things such as the turning of the leaves, TBH, a lot of the time I just want to sleep and/or play mindless games on my phone.  Another weird thing is that I am sleeping more than ever but constantly feel tired.

Anyway, for the days when I am feeling blah, this salad is a lifesaver.  Not only does it only take around ten minutes to prepare but  Autumn Salad  looks so colourful and pretty, is healthy and can be varied to fit what you have in the fridge or what you feel like eating on the day!

Back in the days before the ‘rona I used to regularly stock up on little vacuum packets of roasted chestnuts from the Japanese department store Daiso.  I usually have a few of these in my pantry to make this salad and other things requiring chestnuts.  I used my last pack to make this one so, for future rounds, it looks like I will be roasting my own chestnuts!  Good thing they are in season!  This will take this recipe out of the 10-minute realm but it will be worth it!

Autumnal Salad2

The Recipe

The original recipe for the Autumn Salad comes from the May 2003 Delicious magazine.  The basic recipe is this:

Autumn Salad Recipe

However, the joy of this salad lies in the variations.

Make it vegetarian

  • Substitute the Proscuitto for Blue Cheese (This is my favourite). 
  • Throw in some chopped up pears if you like.  Fresh or dried, both a great!

Make it vegan

  • Substitute the Proscuitto for Roast Pumpkin or Sweet Potato

Autumnal Salad 4

You can serve this Autumn Salad on its own or for a larger meal, it is fabulous with a baked potato, loaded with butter and chives,

That’s me done for today.  Stay safe!

 

 

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