Lamb Kofta Kebab

Saturday 10th January 2015

Monika wasn't convinced about this idea, having had only some rather chewy and dry kofta before. However these turned out very well. The minced lamb was mixed with coriander, cumin, mint and a very small amount of breadcrumbs. Then formed into sausages around skewers, which turned out to be much easier than I expected. I brushed them with a little garlic oil and did them under a very hot grill for 8 minutes, turning once.
The kebabs were juicy and tender, with a lovely flavour, and Monika's cucumber and yogurt salad was a perfect accompaniment.

Wild Boar Goulash

Friday 9th January 2015

I wanted a recipe that was predominantly a red pepper sauce with sour cream, so I used this one.
It certainly had a very clear red pepper flavour. The wild boar was tender but a little dry, with a strong gamey flavour. The sauce was sadly rather sour, which we later put down to the rather poor red wine I used at the very start of the recipe. A good reminder that a meal is only as good as the ingredients, and that it is a bad idea to use cheap wine that simply doesn't taste nice. No need to use the best Pomerol, but you should always use a wine you would be happy to drink.

Tandoori Poussin with Sag Aloo

Sunday 4th January 2015

200 Curries p.42. Mix yoghurt, garlic, ginger, garam masala, cardamom seeds, chili, paprika, tomato puree, lemon juice and cover the chicken. It was supposed to marinade for a day, but I only had 2 hours before it went into the oven.
For Sag Aloo (BBCGoodFood) cut potatoes into small chunks, parboil and keep the water. Heat oil and add cumin seeds then onions and soften. Add the potato, garlic, turmeric, ginger and garam masala and fry until the potato is cooked, stirring often and adding some of the potato water from time to time to keep it moist. When the potatoes are cooked add the spinach and mix until it has wilted.
Very aromatic and tasty, although the chicken missed the marinading. The sag aloo was excellent cold the next day, as a sort of chunky, potato chutney.

Glazed duck with apples

Saturday 3rd January 2015

This was a mish-mash of different recipes from the web, but was really meant for duck breast and the leg portions we had were not a good substitute. Even with fairly long and slow cooking they came out rather tough and sinewy. Nice flavours in the source and sauteed apples though.

Swordfish steak

Friday 2nd January 2015

Simply fried for 2 minutes on each side. This time without finishing in the oven. As a result the inside was still quite uncooked (good), but cold (bad). Need to find a way to heat the fish through without cooking it.
Great flavour and texture though.
With saute potatoes and lambs lettuce salad. Some kind of salsa would have been good.

Catching up with the rest of 2014

Spareribs - glaze including orange marmelade, devon fire chutney and other random store-cupboard ingredients. Excellent.

Pheasant with glazed onions. Good flavour but the pheasant was rather tough.

Venison loin. Tender, flavoursome and delicious. Not quite as underdone as the photo suggests.

Shepherds pie. Very nostalgic, but perhaps a bit too cheesy.

Pork fillet flambé with apricots. Delicious and with some spectacular flambéing.

Meatballs and pasta. Lovely, fluffy but flavourful meatballs. Chilling before cooking helped to retain the right shape.

Herb crusted rack of veal. Looks good, but disappointingly sinewy veal, that needed at least 10 minutes more cooking.

Slow cooked pork with orange. Slow cooking resulted in lovely tender pork. The skin went into the oven separately at the end to crisp up and got a little bit too burned.

Venison with blueberries. Very nice flavour with the fruit, but not as tender as I had hoped.

Grilled mackerel. Simple and good but more attractive with the head and tail still on!

Crispy-skinned mackerel

Saturday, 8th November 2014

We're fortunate to have a small weekly market in the town where we live, with a fresh fish stall. So fish is often on the weekend menu now. Monika bought two very nice fresh mackerel and I used a recipe of Jamie's.
It was a pretty spicy and very garlicky sauce, although mine seemed much less runny than Jamie's, but the balance with the richness of the grilled fish was just right. We both elected to leave most of the sliced red chilli, but it did look pretty.