Carbs & Comfort

Because I have slightly more spare time than I really know what to do with (I am REALLY bad at doing nothing.  Four weeks off work. Zero boxsets.), we continue briefly on the Nopi train.

Or rather, I had some chicken drumsticks in the freezer and decided to randomly inflict Nopi on them.  Mostly in the form of  Twice Cooked Chicken .  Plus it gave me an excuse to make a big batch of Master Stock.

I mean I could have quite sensibly done them in a BBQ sauce or similar, but nooooo.  That would be too easy.

We paired it with a new (to us) Nopi recipe of Celariac and Potato Gratin which is exactly as carb-a-licious and creamy as you’d expect.

Continuing along the ridiculous carbs and dairy baking theme we made a Leek and Potato Pie, which actually wasn’t a filling as expected.  Bit of a disappointment that one and not exactly a looker. We mostly made it because Dan had harvested his potatoes and still had some leeks up on the allotment.

Awkward time of year this.  The allotment is pretty much winding down, but not dead enough that I can completely ignore it.

Continuing in my efforts to use up the leeks and eat all the comfort food we made a BLT risotto.  Obviously leeks not lettuce.

Lettuce just wouldn’t be in season darhhhling.

This is just fried leeks and bacon, with a risotto made on top.  During this we roasted a load on frozen cherry tomatoes until they didn’t look too runny and at the very end stirred them in.  It’s a good one for freezer clearance, although our habit of making large batches and freezing individual portions somewhat undoes this.

We ended the week on some very familiar favourites.  Along with leeks, the allotment also had some perpetual spinach and the last of the beetroot.

We roasted the beetroot some balsamic vinegar, rosemary and garlic as per River Cottage.  Then we topped it with Goat’s cheese and had it for lunches.

Then we made Cumin Potatoes with Spiced Chickpeas, which continues to be reliably brilliant.

 

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Catch Up

For some reason we appeared to get stuck in an upside tart rut.

First there was the River Cottage Upside Down Onion Tart, which is all slow cooked onions, balsamic vinegar and puff pastry.

Then there was Anna Jones’ Tomato Tarte Tatin.  Both of which were tasty, but we did overdose on puff pastry as a result.

In response/retaliation we made grilled harissa courgettes on tabouleh with goats’ cheese.  This is pretty much what it says.

The courgettes are sliced, tossed it oil and harissa and cooked on a griddle pan.  Then it goes with a basic tabouleh (bulgar wheat, tomatoes, spring onions, parsley, mint, lemon juice, and oil) and a crumble of goats’ cheese.

Because we both genuinely believe that everything is better with goat’s cheese.

 

Nopi, Nopi Nopi!

The above title is to be sung to the tune of “Ruby” by the Kaiser Chiefs.

As you may have guessed we have been getting down with the Nopi.  We did three Nopi dishes in one day! Well, technically we made the dessert the day before, but we certainly ate three Nopi dishes in one day.

We’ll start with Brunch (seriously guys, I’ve never been an early bird, and the chances of me being up at a time we can reasonably call “breakfast” is currently nil.  Dan had eaten breakfast and been productive before I’d even stirred enough to take my anti-virals).

We made French Toast with Orange Yoghurt.  Which, ridiculously, is eggy bread made with brioche.  It also comes with a fruit compote and star anise sugar.  The compote uses 300g of “frozen mixed berries”, which is ideal when you have a freezer full of soft fruit.  We used strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  All home grown obviously (smug mode).

It was all really rather lovely.  The recipe finishes the toast off in the oven which make them puff up fantastically.

Dan declined to use the star anise sugar, but I found it added a lovely warmth that worked especially well with the orange yoghurt.  I think we may well end up pulling this one out for guests.

For dinner we made Lamb Meatballs with Warm Yoghurt and Swiss Chard.  We’ve made this before (and, frankly, the photos were better last time), but it is a nice simple one that just works.  Very little thought required.

This does mean I go off on tangents quite easily.  Case in point; the pine nuts in the meatballs needed toasting, which smelled divine.  The immediately got me thinking about a very nice pine nut panacotta we made a few years ago, and how easy it would be to adapt that recipe to an ice cream.

Dan pointed out we already had a raspberry sorbet and a blueberry sorbet in the freezer and if, if, we were going to add to that collection, it should really use some of the massive collection of soft fruit we have in there.  Say, a strawberry and mascarpone ice cream?

I love lamb.  I think I might prefer it to beef.  I have also discovered that my podiatrist breeds and raises sheep and will sell you half a lamb at quite a reasonable rate.  Dan, again, poured cold water on my excitement by pointing out the current lack of freezer space.

From this I understand I must generate some freezer space.  This will allow me to get all experimental with pine nut ice cream and buy half a sheep.  It’s good to have goals.

For dessert we made Strawberry and Rose Mess (seriously we have one more recipe to do before we complete this link.  I’m expecting gold coins and stars).  Unusually for Nopi this recipe lies.  It clearly says it serves six, but then asks to divide the food between four bowls.  So apparently if you are serving six people two of them don’t get pudding.  Maybe they didn’t finish their main?

It is rather lovely, and did use frozen strawberries, but it was a spectacular sugar hit.  For those wondering about the fanciness of our lovely glass bowls…they are large wine glasses from Wilkos. Quid each.  Originally purchased for what turned out to be a very disappointing complicated Christmas jelly.

Due to recent Bake Off activity Dan is now eyeing the rose flavoured cream and wondering if we could turn it into a doughnut filling.  We’ve never made a filled doughnut before and I think he’s feeling inspired.

I never thought I’d say this, but, maybe start with the basic jam filled?

Clearly it wasn’t all Nopi this week.  We used the left over chard stalks from the meatballs, plus a big bunch of extra chard, to make a Chard gratin.  This was just the stalks fried up with a little garlic, sticking the chard leaves in to cook down a bit and then adding some double cream.  This bubbling mess was then topped with breadcrumbs and Parmesan and shoved under the grill.

Not our best chard dish, but a perfectly serviceable lunch for Dan to take to work.

Yes, that dish does say “Boron”.  It was a fifth wedding anniversary present obviously.

For dinners we made Leek Risotto with Chestnuts, which a delightfully simple dish that seems incredibly luxurious for the addition of chestnuts.  The leeks were homegrown, but suffered a little from marauding insect life which we got slightly less than intended.  We bulked up a bit with some shallots with no evident flavour impact.

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Catch Up Time

Clearly we didn’t learn from the last time we experimented with Courgette fritters that weren’t our beloved Courgette and Feta Fritters, because here we are trying again.

This time the recipe was Full of Green Fritters from Anna Jones’ A Modern Way to Eat.

Reader, it was so awful we ordered take-out.

Fortunately the next courgette dish was an old familiar super lazy one.  It requires courgettes, basil, pasta (ideally a long variety), sausages, and a jar of pasta sauce.  We personally have a preference for the Lloyd Grossman range, but we would like to make it perfectly clear that this is due to lazy familiarity rather than any kind of flavour superiority.

It is pretty much; chop up sausages, fry sausages, add chopped up courgettes, fry it all until the courgettes are browned, add sauce and a little bit of water and simmer until sausages are cooked/sauce looks about the correct consistency.  Add some basil.  Serve on cooked pasta and add a bit more basil.

Flavour nostalgia.

Bleh

Nom

Finally we used some of the nougat we made and some home grown blueberries (seriously, bumper crop this year) to make Nougat Semifreddo with Blueberry Compote.

It is lovely and tastes like a grown up sweet shop.  More desserts should feel this good.