When only Chocolate will do

May 10th - I'm really enjoying trying out new recipes, especially since my son is back home, passing through between an exchange year in Canada and summer in Spain! It makes a great difference to cooking and experimenting if you have someone appreciative to cook for.  In all the years, he has always been complimentary, asked about ingredients, begin interested in recipes...and only disliked one thing- moussaka, which had cinnamon in it! I was in serious need of a chocolate hit but he only likes dark chocolate and did not want any added refined sugar so I found a quick and easy recipe for Cinnamon Chocolate Mousse! It was cinnamon or bust then! The chocolate 250g was melted over a pan of simmering water and allowed to cool. Then 250ml of creme fraiche was stirred in followed by 250ml of double cream which had

been lightly whipped with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  After a dust of cocoa powder we were good to go!  Personally I would have liked it a tad sweeter but it was certainly quick and easy ......and the cinnamon was fine too!

Cracking the Crisp

May 9th - I love watching cooking programmes on TV and the Masterchef series was in full flow.  I watched in awe as competitor after competitor put out one fish dish after another, all with beautifully crisp skin.  I've tried...and failed miserably....to get a crispy skinned fish on many occasions but with a new frying pan thought it was worth another go. A recipe for Crisp skin salmon with Sweet Chilli Dressing looked straightforward. Mangetout, spring onions, coriander and cucumber were mixed into a light salad. 2 tablespoons each of soft brown sugar, caster sugar and water were heated until dissolved and cooked until lightly golden (supposedly, though I think I missed that!) Then, off the heat, I added 2 tablespoons each of fish sauce and lime juice and a finely chopped red chilli, adjusting to taste. I heated the pan, added the oil and as the recipe said put the salmon in skin side down...then resisted the urge to poke and prod....the result was indeed crispy!! Success at last! Feeling a bit cheffy!

Maiden monkfish

May 8th - We have a really good fish van here on Wednesday to Friday....but the trouble with working late is that if you get to it at all then you just get what's left.  However I had an afternoon off and managed to get to the van...and saw some monkfish.  It's probably available all the time but I had never seen it before so that called for a bit of a new recipe.  Scouring the Internet yielded a recipe for Monkfish wrapped in Parma ham which looked easy and tasty....just the sort of recipe I like.  And easy it was...overlapping the slices of Parma ham, laying the fish on it, seasoning, rolling and then drizzling with olive oil before baking.  I made a sauce with leeks an cream - I'll admit it could have been a tad more delicate and refined but ..... here's the result.

Speedy Satay

May 5th - Feeling guilty about giving Jamie's speedy meals a bit of a bashing so I decided to have a go at another recipe.  This time I chose Chicken Skewers with Amazing Satay Sauce. To make the satay sauce all I needed to do was whaLck 1/2 a small bunch of fresh coriander, a red chilli, a clove of garlic, 3 heaped tablespoons of peanut butter, soy sauce, a 2cm piece of fresh ginger , the zest of 2 limes and juice of a lime into the food processor and blitz. You then need to thin with a bit of water and adjust the seasoning to taste - I added more lime and chilli. Half of this mixture was put into a bowl to be a really nice, zingy, fresh satay sauce and the rest was put over the chicken skewers, which took 10 minutes to grill. I had stir fried veg with mine rather than the noodle salad in the book but it was yummy.

Bare Essentials

April 30th - I was in the mood for comfort food...and you can't beat a good homemade macaroni and cheese.  However I had spied a recipe I wanted to try in one of my cook book trawling sessions so Ricotta and Parmesan lasagne it was. First the cheese sauce - melting 80g of butter in a pan and softening a finely chopped onion (brown shallot in the recipe) for a couple of minutes.  Then adding flour, milk and bayleaf  and cooking until the sauce was thick.  I did not allow the problems of getting ingredients put me off and I substituted a tub of lightest Philadelphia for the ricotta which was stirred into the sauce off the heat, then seasoned.  This was then layered up with the pasta and baked.  Give this a go - naked lasagne is a revelation!

30 minutes eh?!

April 26th - You have probably gathered by now that I'm prepared to give cooking a go but I'm often rushed/starving/late home/on my own or a combination of these! Nonetheless, cream cheese bagel notwithstanding, I do like home cooked food and have never really gone in for ready meals bar the odd pizza! I bought Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals and thought this would make my life easier still - he makes it look easy on TV.  I had frozen seabass and sweet potatoes in the fridge so decided to try Sea Bass and Crispy Pancetta with Sweet Potato Mash. I got all the ingredients and equipment ready, he kettle was on, the saucepan  (with lid!) was on standby....... Ready Steady Cook.....slammed the sweet potatoes in the microwave.....the dressing was made for the Asian greens...skipped the pancetta because I had none....then I had to put the fish on....by this stage I was stressed and the glasses were going on and off and I was getting confused which part of the recipe that I was following and trying to do bits that I wasn't even making! Time was marching on ....thankfully I decided to check the sweet potatoes and they were still hard!  By now my timings were all out and I thought I'll never manage to do all that peeling and mashing of sweet potatoes while sea bass cooks.....then I missed a step and it said 'carefully tip the sweet potatoes on top of the mango chutney mixture' and there was me thinking "what mango chutney mixture is that?"  When it got to the 'Drink' step I was in severe need of a large gin and tonic! Completed dish took longer than all my other meals....though it did taste good.  And I even did a bit of a Jamie and stuck the lot on a board!

Beans on the side

April 20th - Sometimes you just want something simple for dinner.  In younger student days I would be quite happy with beans on toast with some grated cheese on the top if I was really pushing the boat out.  I'm not letting on how long ago that was but now that I'm a grown up I have extended my bean cuisine beyond Heinz in tomato sauce! I saw a nice simple recipe for Steak with Cherry Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans in Bill Granger's Everyday cookbook. 2 tablespoons of oil, a tin of cannelini beans, a garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes, a small sliced red onion and cherry tomatoes were put into a baking dish, covered with foil and cooked for about 25minutes covered then 5 more (less in my oven which is very hot).  The steaks were griddled,  rested and then sliced on top.  My picture does not look anything like his....but it tasted great!

Super Speedy Supper

April 19th - Jetlagged but hungry, seeking easy but tasty tea.  Also needing to keep up with my resolution.  I had a quick scan of the fridge and then flicked through a couple of cookbooks and I came across a recipe for Chicken Paillard with Spring Onions and Prosciutto. I'd never heard of 'Paillard' before but apparently it's a scallop of veal or chicken that has been pounded flat and cooked quickly! The chicken was cut into three pieces lengthways before being bashed, which was quite therapeutic! Then the pieces were added to a pan with olive oil and lemon slices for just a couple of minutes before being joined by some butter, finely sliced spring onion and some chicken stock.  Finally 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche were added to make the sauce.

I don't know what my mother would think of cooking chicken so quickly - but it was honestly cooked and tasted delicious. Try it.