Grilled Tuna and Rice

Wednesday, 1st August 2012

An old favourite for a quick evening meal.
In this case, I had prepared some Japanese grill sauce by reducing a mix or soya, sake, mirin and sugar to a thickish black sauce. This was used to coat the tuna before frying it hot for a few minutes on each side, so it was still a little pink in the middle.
The spring onions are just fried in sesame oil and served with a little ponzu sauce and some pickles. Delicious.

Lamb chops

Sunday, 29th July 2012

The lamb is simply seasoned and grilled, hot, with rosemary for a few minutes each side.
The red cabbage is a special kind with a pointed shape, that you don't seem to get in England. It's called Spitzkohl in Germany, and is quite tender when you remove the core. I cooked it with onion in butter for 10 or 15 minutes and added some beer vinegar and sugar after it has started to soften.
The pseudo-chips are actually boiled for a few minutes and then roasted in the oven in a mix of oil and butter. I've tried to do them this way before and the problem is they need more time than I expect. These were better than the last lot, but could still have done with another 5 or 10 minutes of cooking to brown properly.

Veal escalope

Monday, 23rd July 2012

Pan fried the veal escalope and served with pasta with a simple tomato and onion sauce.
Although the veal is quite thin, I almost didn't cook it long enough.

Leg of Veal

Sunday, 22nd July 2012

Got a thick slice of veal leg with the bone in from the local deli.
After searing the veal on both sides I added some marsala and let it mostly boil away. Then I casseroled it with small onions, tomatoes and sage, for about two and a half hours.
Pretty simple, but the flavours were fantastic and the meat tender and juicy.
Served with small roast potatoes and (not enough) bread to mop up the sauce.

Chicken and rice

Thursday, 19th July 2012

I don't really remember cooking this! I think the chicken was stir-fried in some thai grill sauce. Note to self - blog more promptly!

Burger

Tuesday, 17th July 2012

Lots of simple meals this month.
You can't really tell, but there is a burger made with 250g of beef under there. I mixed the meat with onion, some breadcrumbs and some japanese umami.
A little unhealthy with all the trimmings but it went down well with a beer.

Fish and rice

Thursday, 12th July 2012

A chunk of white fish pan fried in some soy, mirin and sake, with rice, spring onions and sesame. TV Dinner.

Barbecue

Saturday, 7th July 2012

First barbecue of the year. Just the two of us, so this was plenty.
The lamb was very good and the white grill-wurst are excellent on the barbecue.

Saucisse

Thursday, 5th July 2012

Simply grilled saucisse with rice, caprese salad and home-made tomato chutney.
The saucisse were frozen and not nearly as good as fresh ones, but still good. For a meal on the balcony this was pretty good.

Lemon chicken casserole

Sunday, 1st July 2012

I casseroled the chicken pieces in a lemon and white wine sauce.
The flavour was nice and lemony, but should have been richer.
Pasta with tomato and basil was nice in itself, but not a good accompaniment to the chicken.

Slow Cooked Lamb

Sunday, 24th June 2012

Lamb shoulder cooked in the slow cooker, with onions and tomatoes, and pasta.
This was only OK. The slow cooking didn't do much for the flavour of the lamb and the sauce was far too liquid and without sufficient intensity of flavour.
Pasta was the wrong choice to accompany it.

Gooseberry Pastries

Sunday, 24th June 2012

Oh dear! More than a month since last posting - a bit of catching up to do. Hope I can remember enough details.

This one is simple. Fresh gooseberries on squares of puff pastry, with a little melted gooseberry jam and icing sugar.  Very nice with a cup of tea.