Kitchen Chemist

The Week   Eiffel Tower The week started with a trip to France. Flying, but not quite a flying visit. Time for 2 dinners and 1 lunch, and a quick stroll to the Eiffel Tower. The food was okay, perhaps not the best choice of restaurants to highlight Paris's culinary leadership. The restaurant on the second night was the better venue, and they managed to pull a vegetarian option out of the bag for a colleague. My meal of mushroom and gnocchi, veal steak on the bone, and stuffed brie definitely surpassed his carrot mousse for started and assiette of vegetables (carrots again). An M&S microwave curry for the weary traveller, a particularly weary traveller with no quick meals of his own in the freezer. Note to self, don't bother with M&S microwave curries again. Friday - Or Fishday For the past few years I have tried various methods of getting fresh (or freshly frozen) fish. There is no fishmonger where I live, or where I work. Prior to the arrival of ...

Parsnip cake (tastes of oranges) As referred to in my weekly post, a mid-way carrot cake had to change course as I went to the cupboard only not to find a carrot. The cake is based on a couple of recipes, I didn't want it too moist as the cooking times go haywire. My wife tried a Jamie Oliver recipe once that said something like 40 minutes - 2 hours later it was cooked. This cake ended up moist and tasty, but could probably have looked better in a 1 lb loaf tin not a 2 lb. It got the thumbs up from all other cake eaters in the house. Ingredients 2 oz butter 2 oz sunflower oil 3 oz sugar or substitute (I used xylitol) 2 eggs 4 oz self-raising flour 2 oz sultanas 1 orange, zest and juice 1 oz chopped nuts (I used almonds) 4 oz grated parsnip (you need about 6 oz parsnip to yield this) 3 oz icing sugar for glacé icing Method Cream the butter and sugar, add the oil and continue to beat. Add the eggs and combine. Add the sultanas, orange zest, chopped nuts, p...

Onion soup hiding beneath giant cheese croutons Flu between Christmas and the return to work robbed me of the culinary fun I had planned. My wife picked up the slack, cooking through until the 5th when I made my return to the chef's role. Sea bass, roasted with garlic and lemon, and served with an uncomplicated tomato pasta. Saturday continued the revival, and a delicious but simple Onion Soup. 6 onions, sliced and sautéed in butter for 30 minutes. A pint of stock and a pint of cider. Slow simmering and reduction for 2 hours. The cheese croutons soak up most of the juice, and boiling hot from the broth and the molten cheese are somewhat tricky to eat first.    Raspberry lemon sauce pudding No weekend would be complete without a roast, and a delicious leg of lamb from Denstone Hall Farm Shop didn't disappoint. Enough left over for a curry. Pudding was the wonderful Raspberry Lemon Sauce Pudding . One of the many in the repertoire of my mother-in-law, ...

Not blogged for a while. New Year, New Start to recording my food fun. Christmas, a mix of visiting and suffering from flu, was not a great time for culinary adventures. Visits cancelled, Christmas cake unfinished, and no great rush to use up pounds and ounces of leftovers. The new Nigel Slater book, partially flicked, consigned to the shelf for next year. But away with the misery, there is still time for plenty of winter cooking. A lovely bowl of French onion soup, topped with cheesy croutons. A winter pudding, warm and soaked in custard, so accompany the Sunday roast this week. Tonight though, is the first fish meal of the year. Two whole sea bass and a fillet for my son, to be roasted with lemon and garlic.

We're hoping to move. It should have been in the next week or so, but as always there are delays. Since April I have been working to reduce the stock in the cupboard and chest freezer. Two months later and I still haven't finished. I don't think we'll have no frozen items, but there are a few more apple crumbles with frozen stewed apple, some more jam and a few more fish meals to go. Destocking the cupboard has been a much slower task. Somehow we had a few kg of different rices; we're almost at the point where all packets are open and in use. A house-moving fruit cake should help to use up a fair amount of the dried fruit in the baking cupboard.

There are many many tasty ice cream flavours but a few years ago I found an absolutely amazing fruit flavour. Normally the creaminess or sweetness of the rest of the ice cream makes fruit flavours like strawberry or raspberry inferior to the fresh fruit. Redcurrant ice cream is different. I found a Delia recipe for blackcurrant and substituted. It produces a lovely pink ice cream with a strong fruit flavour that goes well with many puddings. Delia Recipe

An easy dinner based on an idea from a colleague, who in turn got it from Jamie Oliver (I think). I adapt the meal to suit the time of year - the type of veg in the roasting pan varies. In winter it's root veg and in late summer it's home-grown onions, tomatoes and courgettes. But at the moment we're still relying on the veg box. Roughly chop your veg, I went for onion, courgette, pepper, tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with oil and add herbs of choice. In winter I use fennel seeds but this time I used oregano. Roast at 170 - 180 °C for 20 minutes. Add the pork steaks / chop and continue to cook for 40 minutes more.

This is probably the first "summery" meal I've cooked this year. It's well and truly time the casserole dishes were left in the cupboard and the salad bowl was getting more use, but the weather hasn't exactly been normal. This is a quick and easy salmon dish for one - my wife (less fish-loving) had some chilli con carne from the freezer. 1 salmon fillet (or similar) 1 courgette 1 pepper 2 tomatoes or handful of cherry tomatoes balsamic vinegar Roughly chop the courgette, pepper and tomatoes (if using large, or leave whole if cherry). Add to a roasting dish, toss with oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast for 40 mins on 170°C (fan). 10 minutes before the veg is done, heat a little oil in an oven safe frying pan, place the salmon skin side down in the pan. Turn off the heat, allow approximately 1 minute and transfer the pan to the oven. Drizzle the veg with balsamic vinegar. Serve, pouring the balsamic glaze from the roast veggie...

A lovely way to enjoy asparagus A quick meal to enjoy what might be our last English asparagus of the season. That's steamed asparagus, a poached egg, grated cheddar and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Slightly late, as the box arrived last Thursday, but here's my soon to be weekly veg box post. This weeks veg box contained (in addition to the weekly potatoes, carrots and onions): Kale Leek (a whopper) Broccoli Cauliflower By now most has been used, but pretending I wrote this last Thursday... here's my planned menu. Rabbit stew Haddock with a tomato sauce Roast beef Chicken and leek casserole Pasta arrabiata Cornish pasty Wild Boar stroganoff Plus Stilton and Broccoli soup & black-pudding scotch eggs.

First meal to use up some black pudding. This one-tray-only bake is nice and simple and the mix of vegetables makes for a more colorful meal. 1/2 butternut squash 4 carrots (small)  1 onion 1 celery stick 2 potatoes (small) 3 sausages 2 oz (50 g) black pudding 1 tsp fennel seeds 1 tsp rosemary Dice the vegetables, season with salt, pepper, fennel & rosemary and drizzle with oil. Roast at 180 °C for 40 mins, stir to ensure it crisps after 20 mins. Remove the sausage meat from the skins and blend with the black pudding. Roll into approximately 16 balls and add to the roasting veg for a further 20 mins cooking.

No veg box to blog about until Thursday but I have the assorted leftovers of New Year to use up this week. Meat (not able to be frozen unless cooked) : bacon x 4, sausages x 4, black pudding 450g Veg : cabbage, brocolli, leeks, butternut squash, peppers, celery, carrots, spud and onions. Cheese : brie, camembert, stilton, black sticks, dolcelatta, cheddar 12 eggs The plan (subject to change). Stilton and brocolli soup Brie sandwich Bacon, cheese and pepper flan Sausage, black pudding and butternut squash bake Beef stew (what I bought the leeks for) Black pudding scotch eggs (baked, using recipe in new cookbook)

Perhaps this coming year I'll make better use of my blog.

I originally intended to write this on Sunday evening, but time didn't allow it. A successful weekend of cooking. My first proper soughdough loaf on Friday. The starter has been growing for 10 days on Thursday when I took ~ 100g and added 200g of white flour and 240 g of water. Left overnight, I added a further 200g of wholemeal spelt/malted grain, a tsp of salt and some olive oil. By the afternoon it was ready for shaping and it was baked a couple of hours later.

I've just taken advantage of an offer on Amazon for a returned Kenwood Mixer attachment for £37 in Like New condition.

24 hours after mixing 30 g of organic spelt flour with water and leaving to do it's thing. I've now added 20 g of organic white and a little more water.

New everyday crockery arrived today. Plain white, simple design, dishwasher safe. Perfect for food photos.

Now I've got Blogger on my phone perhaps I'll get back to blogging more frequently.

Autumn is Apples. So, with a little inspiration from the River Cottage Everyday series I created this. The surprise is the slightly wacky ingredient. Ingredients 4 free-range Pork Sausages 1 Onion 2 large Carrots 1 Apple 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar 100 mL Ginger Beer Method Peel or scrub the carrots, slice into batons, drizzle with oil and a generous grinding of black pepper. Put in an oven at 180 °C to cook for 1 hour. Lightly fry the sausages, just to add colour, for 1-2 minutes. Allow a little of the pork fat to colllect in the frying pan. Add to the carrots when there is 30 minutes of cooking time remaining. Peel, core and cut the apple into 8 pieces. Gently fry these in the residual pork fat until the sides have coloured. This will give them some protection against turning to pulp in the oven and also give them a meaty flavour. Add to the carrots and sausages 10-15 minutes before serving. Finally, fry the sliced onion in any residual pork fat, on a medium heat. Allow the onion to colo...

This is the second recipe. #2 Chicken, Onion and Peppers This was meant to combine what I love about Dopiaza, Jalfrezi, Madras. So it's got chunks of onion from Dopiaza and fresh peppers (bell and chilli) like a Jalfrezi. Then I think of Madras as hot with both pepper and mustard seeds. Again, I offer no guarantee of authenticity - this is a reverse engineering of the best of take-aways! Ingredients 2 or 3 Chicken breasts 2 Onions 2 Peppers 2+ Chilli Peppers (choose size and quantity to your taste, I used 2 mild home grown) 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds 1 tsp ground Tumeric (heaped tsp) 1 tsp ground Cayenne Pepper Method As with the other curry, slice the onion and fry in plenty of oil (rapeseed works well) for ~20 minutes on a low heat. The aim is to remove moisture and soften the onion without generating any caramel. Grind the whole spices and mix with the ground spices. Add to the onions and cook the spices for 2-3 minutes. Add enough boiling water to make a thick sa...