April 2014 Food Roundup

I left it far too long to do these posts individually, so here's a summary.

31 March - 13 April 2014

Grilled swordfish with croquettes made from left-over mash. Very good, but the croquettes are a bugger to kepp in any kind of shape during cooking.
Salmon Teriyaki style. Always tricky to get a teriyaki sauce sticky enough without being too sweet.
Chicken "curry". Not really a curry but more of a oniony stew with a few spices. Quite good with the fresh coriander.
Pork cutlets and risotto with morels. Sadly not very good. Pork overcooked although tasty, crackling inedible, risotto strangely flavourless.

25 April - 27 April 2014

Rabbit in red wine and mushrooms with Pappardelle. Two rabbit legs cooked slowly with mushrooms, bacon, leeks and fennel. Tasted way better than it looks. The meat was deliciously tender and the flavour of the sauce just right.
Fish and black bread. Smoked salmon and matjes with a little horseradish. Great!
Pot roast pork with tomato and leeks and fries. Very tasty meat and sauce, but failed crackling again. My chips have not be very crispy lately but these still tasted OK.
Swordfish steaks on the teppanyaki. The only thing I had big enough to cook these huge steaks. A little overdone, to be honest. We had them with just bread and salad.

Iberico pork cutlets

Sunday, 1st January 2012

After finishing the old year on a bit of a culinary low-note, I managed to salvage some self-respect on the first evening of the new one.
The pork cutlets were simply pan-fried and finished in the oven for 5 minutes, then left to rest for 10 and served with a port wine sauce. For the sauce cook herbs and onion in a mix of red wine and port, reduce, add stock, reduce again. Then sieve out anything solid and gradually stir in some butter to make it glossy.
With the meat we had tiny roast potatoes balls and a mix of cabbage and leeks. I stewed the veggies in wine and then, just before serving, I added cream and mustard and heated through. The veg was very good but almost too rich and creamy for me. The mustard was just right, flavoursome but not overpowering.
For dessert we had the orange sorbet that should have been with yesterday's dinner. This was simple to make. Melt sugar in some water while heating it, then boil for a minute or two. Mix in the juice of 4 oranges and 1 lemon and freeze for a couple of hours until it goes mushy. Blend it in a chilled bowl and add some cointreau, then freeze again. It took longer to freeze to a useable consistency than I expected but turned out very good indeed.