Hot and Sticky Quail (or Chicken) [#182]

As mentioned before, I have an aversion to eating whole little birds - so I followed Nigel's suggestion and used chicken instead. I used organic chicken thighs marinated in the spiky dressing of cayenne pepper, grain mustard, loads of crushed garlic, lemon juice and some light soy sauce. They were cooked under a hot grill for about 20 minutes and then served with stir-fried egg noodles and shredded vegetables. Delicious supper - easy recipe, quick and gutsy, and one to do again.

Roast Pork Loin with Onion and Marsala Gravy [#181]

Another lovely pork roast from Nigel - instead of the leg he suggests, I went for a boned loin. I also didn't make the gravy separately, as he suggested, but used the pork juices from the roasting tin and deglazed with the Marsala (and a little Madeira) and water. Lovely with a big dish of baked root vegetables and Delia's most wonderful Braised Red Cabbage - absolutely delicious, especially with an Italian Barbaresco to wash it down.

Christmas Puddings [#180]

Well, this recipe was a wee bit of a gamble as I have used the same Delia recipe for well over 15 years, but actually, Nigel's isn't that dissimilar. The biggest change I made was to use creamed unsalted butter instead of suet (as I do with Delia's recipe as well). This is to ensure that the veggies in the family can eat it, and I don't use so-called 'vegetarian' suet, as it contains hydrogenated fat - not nice. Usually, with Delia, I mix the puddings up and leave them overnight. This time, following Nigel, I left all the dried fruits to soak overnight with a mixture of brandy, rum and ginger wine. This morning, they were plump and glistening and ready to be mixed into the spicy cake mix. I made 7 puddings in total this year, and most of them are entering their final hour of steaming as I write. They smell gorgeous. I shall report on the taste on Christmas Day! Now, I just have to make Nigel's cake.......

Celeriac and Walnut Remoulade [#179]

Nigel's recipe suggested using creme fraiche instead of the usual mayonnaise, which seemed a bit too rich and creamy to me, so I did half-and-half, using Hellmann's and half-fat creme fraiche instead. It needs a bit of poke, with Dijon and grain mustard, lemon juice and salt and pepper. It was very good, although next time I'll cut the celeriac even finer (I don't have a mandolin grater) to avoid having to chew QUITE so much! I served it with smokey applewood ham and lots of watercress for a healthy salad. We started with vegetable and barley broth to get some warmth into us!

Duck Fat Potatoes with Garlic [#178]

What's not to like? Duck fat makes just the best roast potatoes, even better than goose fat, in my humble opinion. The garlic (and some thyme) introduces a nice twist to the usual recipe. However, I did change the cooking method here - rather than pan-frying for 40 minutes (splattery and messy) I cut into dice, par-boiled, drained, mussed in the pan, then crisply roasted them, with chopped garlic and thyme to season them. Lovely with roast lamb with rosemary, savoy cabbage and braised carrots. Mm-mmmm! (note that the online recipe here, from the Guardian, also included Pumpkin, which would be an excellent variation, I should think).

Coffee and Walnut Cake [#177]

As Nigel says, this is SOOOOO much better than a bought cake. Using his now familiar variation on a pound cake recipe (usually 175g each of buttter, sugar and flour with 3 eggs) these cakes from Nigel are always reliable. I made this in a loaf tin rather than as two round sponges, as in my memory, coffee and walnut cake with buttercream icing was always a loaf. I had planned on taking the remainder into work, but Hubby's face dropped, so it will be eaten during the week - I, of course, won't touch another slice.......... ;o) yeah, right!

Braised Lamb with Leeks and Haricot Beans [#176]

A lovely warming dish for a chilly November night. I left out the cream that the book's version of the recipe has (although, oddly, the online version doesn't have this addition) and used lamb leg and chump steaks rather than shanks or neck fillets. Lovely with fluffy mounds of creamy mash. Nice to get back to Nigel after a haitus, caused by a very busy week with Hubby hardly in during the evenings.

Cheese Bubble and Squeak [#175]

What a good idea, I thought. Why is cheesy bubble and squeak not better known? Because IT DOESN'T WORK, that's why! Sorry Nigel, after all your recent triumphs, this was a failure, and I think I know why. Firstly, your measurements were imprecise. 'One or two handfuls of cheese' added to leftover mash and cabbage, but no mention of how much of either. Secondly, mixing the cheese into cold leftovers (which IS the point of bubble and squeak after all) meant that, before the potato had time to warm up and be receptive to the melting cheese, it had split and gone all oily. We were left with a slick of cheesy, slimy potato in the pan, that seemed to ooze and suppurate a never ending quantity of oil from the cheese. Yuk! Here's the science bit. I think it needs to be made with the cheese mixed into HOT mashed potato, so it becomes an homogenised mass which can then fry and form a crisp outer, encasing the softly melting cheesy mash insde the crust. I feel churlish complaining at length, especially as there have been so few disasters in this otherwise tremendous book, but....Nigel, Nigel, you spoilt me tea! There is no online recipe which is just as well, and it was too awful looking to photograph, so here's a pretty bunny rabbit instead.

Nigel's Very Good Chocolate Brownie Recipe [#174]

And very good it was, indeed, although much more suited to being a 'dessert' brownie, given its extremely gooey nature. I've never made a brownie by the 'creaming fat and sugar' method before - all the other times, I melt the chocolate and butter together, and mix this, with the eggs, into the dry ingredients. So, this did make for a longer method, and a more 'cakey' mixture, but very good served warm with vanilla ice cream! I used Green and Black's Espresso Chocolate which gave a lovely subtle mocha flavour to the finished dish. Rich, decadent, divine - lovely for the dinner party to follow the pork.

Roast Pork with Grapes, Juniper and Vin Santo [#173]

Another one that went straight into the Top 10. We roasted a lovely free-range pork loin with good crackling, and the resultant sauce, made from the pan juices, roasted Italia grapes, garlic, juniper berries and a mixture of dry Madeira and Marsala (Vin Santo is just too expensive, sorry, Nige!) was totally delicious. We made this round at our lovely friends', Jonathan and Jess, and it was a perfect dinner party dish. We drank a delicious light, fruity Barbaresco with this, which matched the slightly sweet sauce and the succulent pork marvellously. This is a definite candidate to make again, and is special enough for Christmas, I think. Sorry, no pics taken so I have 'borrowed' one to give an idea of what it looked like. photo courtesy of tamarindandthyme.wordpress.com

Pumpkin and Tomato Laksa [#172]

Well, folks, this shot into the Top 10 faster than the latest Vera Lynn release. Totally yummy - udon noodles, tender chunks of steamed butternut squash, chopped tomatoes and (my addition, this) some cooked prawns added at the last minute, all in a coconutty/chilli/lime leaf/lemongrass/garlic/ginger/minty broth. And can I just say a word here about Waitrose's 'Cook's Ingredients' frozen herbs - all of the aforementioned 'aromatics' and herbs come in handy little zip-lock frozen bags from the wonderful retailer, and this means you can whip up an authentic Thai taste quicker than you can say 'The King and I'. Do try this recipe as soon as you can. Heaven.

A Crisp Salad for a Cold Day [#171]

A sparky little salad, this, made for Hubby's lunch tomorrow. Using left over roast chicken from Sunday (in addition to a potato-topped pie and Cock-a-Leekie Soup), mixed with cucumber, tomatoes, carrot and salad leaves with a lime, sweet chilli, ginger and coriander dressing to toss through at the last moment. Can't find this online, but scarcely a recipe anyway, more of an idea

Baked Red Mullet with Pine Kernel Stuffing [#170]

"The fishmonger has Red Mullet!" came the cry from Hubby. In land-locked Oxford, this is a rare thing indeed, so all hands on deck to get this lined up for tonight. Hayman's in the Covered Market in Oxford (I've mentioned them before) did a marvellous job with a handsome big mullet, deboning it, yet leaving it whole and ready for the rich, Sicilian-inspired stuffing of garlic, shallot, sultanas, rosemary, capers, black olives, lemon zest, breadcrumbs and parsley - I know, sounds too much, but it was delicious, almost sweet and sour, and complemented the flaking flesh of the fish beautifully. Another surprise this, as I would not normally have gone for this recipe, but the flavours really worked. If the mullet cry goes up again, we would repeat this recipe, definitely.

Bean Shoot Salad with Coriander and Mint [#169]

This salad was super-quick to knock up with the remains of a packet of beanshoots from Saturday's stir-fry. Mixed with matchsticks of carrot, spring onion and cucumber, it was tossed with a dressing of soy, lime juice and sesame oil. I remembered the mint but forgot the coriander - doh! Still, Hubby says it was a very nice lunch, accompanied by strips of the Sticky Chicken Thighs left over from Saturday. No official online presence for this recipe, I'm afraid..........

Ham and Butter Beans [#168]

The title of this recipe really doesn't do it justice - a lovely piece of unsmoked gammon, cooked in a rich tomato sauce spiked with hot smoked paprika and chorizo, with big fat Spanish butterbeans. Perfect for an Autumn evening with a mound of creamy mash and some bitter, bright green spring greens and savoy cabbage. I have been looking forward to this recipe for ages, and it really didn't disappoint. Loads of leftovers too. Another one for the Top 10 (there are about 25 recipes in the Top 10, by the way.........). I really can't believe that such a fine recipe hasn't appeared in Nigel's newspaper columns or on the BBC, so I can't give it here....but if you have the book, go and dig it out and turn to the October pages right away - you will want to cook this too!

Hot, Sour Beanshoot Salad [#167]

This recipe had been put off time and again since we came across it in the May section, as honestly, raw beansprouts really don't appeal to me. However, Nigel suggested something similar to accompany the chicken (see previous post) so we took the plunge. As always, with me, I slipped in some variations. For a start, I quickly stir-fried the beansprouts and spring onion with some julienned carrot, and I also cooked some slim ramen noodles to give some carbs. Along with a handful of spinach and lots of cucumber, mint and coriander, this came together into a very nice salad/stir-fry hybrid. The dressing was a revelation - the sourness of lime juice, the salty lick of nam pla and the kick of red chilli went very well with the sweetness of the honey-glazed chicken. Low fat too, as hardly any oil, other than a teaspoon or so for the stir-fry. Nom-nom.

Sweet and Sticky Chicken Wings [#166]

...or skinless chicken thighs in my case, as I'm not hugely keen on the skin and bones of chicken wings. Lovely, sticky coating of lemon, honey, mustard and garlic, and the chicken cooked to a glossy umber succulence. Nigel suggested a salad of beanshoots and cucumber to follow, so we went back to the May section of the Diary for a very nice Hot, Sour Beanshoot Salad (see next entry). Washed down with Vintage Somerset Cider, this was a yummy Saturday supper! One tip if you cook this - you should fastidiously and copiously line the baking sheet with foil, or else you will be washing up for a week.

Haddock with Crumbs and Tarragon [#165]

.....except I didn't have any tarragon. Instead, I made breadcrumbs mixed with chopped chervil, lemon thyme and parsley. Nigel adds quite a lot of anchovy fillets to this mixture too, but I added just a little, which was then used to egg-and-breadcrumb some lovely fillets of line-caught haddock. Rather than fry them, as Nigel does, I sprayed the fish with some olive oil and baked them in the oven next to some home-made oven chips and a dish of vine tomatoes. The result was a lovely healthy variation on fish and chips, with bags of flavour from the herbed breadcrumbs. Nice, relaxed Friday night supper with a bottle of Bourgogne Chardonnay from M&S - very nice. I'm afraid I can't hunt down an official online presence for this recipe, but you get the picture - either that or go get the book!