In the Bag: Risotto with asparagus and poached egg

In spite of a busy month for me, I was determined to find some time to do something with delicious British asparagus. As it happened the opportunity came last weekend, when our roast chicken didn't quite go far enough for two complete dinners, so with some leftover chipolata sauages from yesterdays potato salad to throw in the mix - a lovely risotto was born . While down at my local supermarket, Somerfields of all places, they had some very fresh and tender stems of asparagus, I had the perfect accompaniment for my bank holiday Monday lunch.

The risotto was made with onion and leaks and a bit garlic, with leftover roast chicken, sausages and some dried porcini mushrooms. For a touch of luxury I'd saved the chicken 'oysters' and popped them in right at the end and made sure that one each was served on each plate, one for me and one for my good lady, that and a generous handful or two of grated parmesan.

The asparagus was steamed quickly for just two minutes, plunged into ice cold water to stop the cooking. Next I sauted the stems in butter, before adding lemon juice. The asparagus was served on top of the risotto with a soft runny poached egg on top.

First Barbecue of 2008

The sun has been shining the last week or so and what with the weather sages telling us that yesterday would be the last good day of sunshine for about a week, the rallying call went out to the regular bunch of guys who enjoy unwinding with an after-work drink, an activity affectionately known as a 'midweek skirmish'.

This week's skirmish would be relocated to Southsea Common for the first barbecue of 2008. Armed with disposable barbecues, beers and coolbag full of food we embarked upon the field of battle - Southsea Common. Amongst other goodies purchased from Buckwell's of Southsea, I had 'jerked' some chicken - not entirely sure how authentic it was - my good lady's Mum does some nice seasoned West Indian chicken, but as she's from Trinidad it's not exactly the same as Jamaican jerk so mine may have been a curious mixture of the two. As always more inspired by a rummage through the store cupboard than any particular method, I kinda threw a lot of things into a blender and blitzed them up. Here's the ingredient list for my jerk seasoning.

4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of jerk seasoning
2 dried birdseye chillis
1 dried kashmiri chili
1 dried chilli (from my pot of home dried chillis)
1 tsp of hot chilli powder
good pinch of thyme leaves
1/2 cinnamon stick
juice and rind of 2 lemons
1/2 onion
2 sticks of celery (including the leaves)
sunflower oil
sea salt

I stabbed the chicken drumsticks a few times with a knife, poured the whole lot over and let them marinade overnight.

The finished article was very impressive and went down very well with the 'midweek riflers'. The spice was quite hot, more of a slow builder with a lovely tingle on the lips and a nice citrus zip - good job I didn't throw in the chopped scotch bonnet that I was contemplating.

Plans are afoot to get a proper barbecue and stow it with a rifler who lives near the common - so weather permitting more adventurous barbecue action should be occurring later in the year. Looking forward to doing my chilli king prawn kebabs again at some point.

Picture to follow.

Stuffed Aubergines - Morrocan Style

Have been meaning to get on a bit of a North African to Middle Eastern tip for sometime - I love the food - something that the Donner Kebab has done a great disservice too. So I've had some spices and rose fragranced paste and preserved lemons in my fridge for some months. Well the perfect opportunity came along at the end of the weekend. My good lady's Mum managed to grab some excess Aubergines from M&S intending to cook them for a relative this weekend, but when said relative couldn't make it at least half of the shiny bulbous veggies became mine. Here's what I managed to make with them - once again just sort of made it up as I went along. I guess I could have looked in my excellent Middle Eastern cookbook but didn't want to have to buy anymore expensive ingredients.

Will drop the recipe later on today when I'm back at home.

Gardener's Pie

This weekend included a trip up to Nottingham this weekend for some filthy techno action. On two previous occasions my friends have filled me full of very tasty curry, provided me with a bed for the night, well morning and are the perfect hosts - so it was only fair that I should invade their kitchen and provide them with some nourishing pie - there's a vegetarian in the house so I decided to just make this a total vegetarian meal. I was veggie myself for a few years (sadly not for me anymore) but one thing I do not like it all the fake meat - so this was going to be proper vegetarian - no Quorn or Textured Vegetable Protein.

So my dish was a veggie Shepherds Pie, which I've decided should be named a Gardener's Pie. I just kinda made it up as I went along - but here's the recipe.

Ingredients
3 cans of green lentils in vegetable stock
1/2 small can of tomato paste
1 veg stock cube
onion chopped
leak diced
carrot diced
courgette diced
aubergine diced
mushrooms sliced
stick of celery diced
6 plum tomatoes (deseeded, no need to peel though)
sprigs or two rosemary
chopped parsley
2 tsp paprika
glug of HP sauce
a load of creamy mash
strong cheddar cheese to top.


Method
Gently fry all the veggies, and garlic in olive oil until nice and soft add the tomatoes and keep cooking until it's all a nice marmade consistency.
Add the paprika and tomato paste and cook for a few minutes
Add the lentils, the stock cube and enough water to make a thick sauce suitable for covering in mash.
Pour the sauce into a shallow oven proof dish, top with the mash, coat with the cheddar and finish off under the grill.
If left to go cold before cooking, warm though in a medium oven - grill at end if cheese needs to be crisped up.
I served with a version of the spring salad I made recently.