It's Family Dinner Sunday

We had family dinner the other weekend, and I was on cooking duties.
Lana brought some Bloody Mary Prawns for the starter and they were delicious.

She found the recipe on the epicourious.com web site.

Click here to find out how to do it



Meanwhile I have been watching a programme called Simply Deliciso
Ingrid Hoffman is the host
I loved these Salt and Vinegar Roast Potatoes



Peel plenty of roasting potatoes and cut into chunks

Make marinade
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chilli

Pour over potatoes let soak 15 mins or so
Add ¼ cup olive oil mix well


Spread onto Roasting tray
Season with Salt and freshly ground black pepper
180C for 40 minutes

Peel and cut a red onion into chunks
Add to potatoes
20 mins @ 180C

The first time I made these potatoes I paired them with some beautiful fresh orange roughy.
I never used to buy it, as when we received at the fish mongers it was frozen and tastleless, but my fishmonger the lovely people at Catch a Fish Takeaways in Parnell assures me this is chilled not frozen.

It looks fab. So white and fresh.
I just seasoned it, lightly pan fried in a little olive oil.
Turned it over and added a little knob of butter.
About 3 minutes on each side not too hot. I didn’t want it crispy

A small broccoli salad to accompany these delights a meal fit for a king.
But back to the family dinner, my other contributions to the evening were;
Buttercup Squash pureed with butter and with a grating of nutmeg
Filet of beef, marinated in mustard and red wine
Cooked to perfection by Dan on the BBQ

Ingrid had a Chimi churri sauce recipe

This is a traditional sauce served in Argentina with their wonderful beef.
On a visit to Buenos Areas, I was knocked over with their meat. The way they cook the meat is superb. Not at all afraid of seasoning and it is wonderful.
Personally I was a little disappointed with her recipe but this week (as luck would have it)

Tyler Florence on The Ultimate TV Show made his version and this is what I am giving to you now.

6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
¼ cup red wine vinegar
About ½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
About ½ cup finely chopped fresh oregano leaves
3 limes, juiced
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Everything in the blender and whiz.

Makes a great marinade as well.

I also made
Mushroom sauce

Slice 700 gms brown mushrooms
Nice hot pan
Add 2 tablespoons olive oil
Add mushrooms toss around over high heat
Add good knob of butter
Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 sprigs of thyme


When the juice has been absorbed add
100 mls wine
Reduce down
Add 2 tablespoons flour
Cook the flour taste out
Add enough beef stock to make a sauce.

It can be made earlier in the day.
Just before serving, add marinade from beef.
Another 5 minutes simmering.
Don’t forget to add any beef juices that have been released from the meat.

All adds to the wonderful flavours.



Now to the pudding
I saw this on the Britain’s Best Dishes programme.
This contestant made it to the semi finals, but was pipped at the post, not too worry this is a great pudding and the judges were very keen on it.
It is called

Bramley Crump


INGREDIENTS •

100 g butter, at room temperature •
100g sugar, granulated •
4 heaped tablespoons organic plain flour •
450 g Bramley apples (I used Granny Smith and Braeburn mix.)

PRE-HEAT THE OVEN TO 170 DEGREES CELSIUS

METHOD

1. For the crump topping, place the flour into an oven proof bowl and add the sugar and butter. 2. Transfer the bowl to the oven for 10-15 minutes until the butter has melted 3. For the filling, peel, core and slice apples, place in another ovenproof dish and put in oven for 5 minutes.

4. Remove the crump mixture from oven and stir the ingredients together and spread over the part cooked apples. 5. Place in oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes.

You can make custard but I mixed equal quantities of marscapone and crème fraiche with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a dusting of icing sugar.
Half of the fun of Family dinner is having the grandchildren over
They are all growing up so fast.
Sophia and Joseph stayed the night at our place all tucked up watching TV in bed.
Miss Mia has just been a little French girl at her School Performance
And Miss Cleo just continues to delight.
The joys of my life.

Cooking and Experimenting With Food On the Boat.

French Bread Again
3 loaves are too much for 2 people so I decided to make 6 rolls.
Par cook 3 of them and then re-cook the next day

It worked well. Also my son Dan suggested that I try orange juice in the dough to get a sour dough feel. Not sure if that worked I may not have used enough, Trial and error again.
The problem on the boat is that the oven is not brilliant.
I don’t think it is hot enough.
It took a lot longer to cook the bread and I didn’t get the same colour as normal
It tasted excellent but was a heavier crumb than I achieved at home. I will try this again at home
Nice little ficelle!!! Pre bake

Par cooked

Made a tasty salad.
Baby Cos lettuce, avocado, hard boiled eggs, freshly ground black pepper and a

quick omelet made from the remainder of the egg wash. Cooked the Chinese way.
Hot oil and cook in seconds.
Fluffy and fabulous
Vinaigrette and topped with slivered Almond Accents

Served with terrine and fresh bread
Great lunch

I stupidly did 2 ridiculous things
One I used my old and loved quiche dish - over 20 years old
- as a water container, to provide steam for the bread, whilst cooking.
When I glanced in I saw the water had evaporated (funny that!!!)

I reacted without thinking and threw in some cold water and guess what it cracked!

Goodbye old friend

My next stupid mistake. I wanted to dip the strawberries in chocolate…so I popped a plastic bowl on top of the simmering water…luckily I discovered the bowl was about to melt just in time.
Well the bonus of this is I had to turn the chocolate into Ganache
And dipped the strawberries into that
Yum much nicer than ordinary melted chocolate

After the strawberries had been dipped some raspberries and blackcurrants were mashed into the Ganache.
Chilled and rolled into little truffles

I had made Gary Rhodes Crumble Topping

(I'll post it later, it's very good, it will keep in the freezer)
So I dipped the truffles in the crumble.
These are fantastic.
More excellent trial and error

For a crowd I would make smaller balls and pop the crumble in the food processor to make a finer crumb.
Dale has been busy with the boat. He has replaced new carpet in the cabins. Taupe… cut pile very attractive.

Lunches and Dinner of Leftovers

There is a new product on the market Round Turkish Bread wrapped and with a reasonably long shelf life good for boaties with limited fridge space.
Makes a good pizza base.

I made a quick tomato sauce, onto the base

Dobbed the left over fennel puree click here
on top.
Bacon on my half

Covered with grated cheese bit of fresh herb on the top.
An excellent quick boat lunch

Now for the re-cooked bread
Another lunch we enjoyed

Remainder of roast pork, smoked salmon, apple and ginger chutney (previous post)
Lettuce tomato, Castello blue cheese
Starting to feel really summery now.

Dinner was once again using leftovers.

I am reading a great book by Simon Hopkinson
a Chef from Britain. He is a new find and I highly recommend this book.
“Roast Chicken and other Stories” This is a book that along with Mrs. David, Mrs. Child, Nigella’s “How To Eat” should grace ones’ bookshelf.
He mentioned a sauce called an Old Fashioned Egg Sauce, using hardboiled eggs of which I had two…

It is a béchamel sauce originally flavoured with anchovy, bay leaf, onion etc and finished off with cream and parsley
My sauce was simpler, I adapted it using Mainland Chili and Garlic Infused Butter
No cream or anchovy. Tasty nevertheless

Roasted 2 pieces of buttercup squash
Sat that on the egg sauce.

Topped the lot with leftover meat sauce from the previous night’s spaghetti and meat sauce

This was delicious
The problem with experimental dishes...because I am always looking for something new... I rarely get back to these ideas…but the egg sauce and meat sauce with something in between is a keeper.

Lasagne maybe...now that’s an idea!!!