What's everyone cooking this week?

[WWordsworth Profile]

I made a really basic mushroom soup for lunch today.
Onions, bit of garlic, mushrooms, couple of bay leaves, spoonful of cornflour and some veg stock.
Lots of pepper because I think mushrooms & pepper is a match made in heaven.

The soup was far better than the sum of its parts, really deep savoury flavour.
Maybe the mushrooms were particularly tasty or perhaps it's because I forgot to remove the bay leaves before I blitzed it?

Either way, I really enjoyed it.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Maybe it was particularly good stock? That can make a huge difference.

[WWordsworth Profile]

It was Marigold bouillon!

[Hickybank Profile]

Had Butter Chicken curry tonight, we both thoroughly enjoyed it, added to my favourites list
You need to trawl through the rubbish to get to the recipe
https://vikalinka.com/butter-chicken-curry/

[Pampy Profile]

Here you are Pampy:

https://www.mercerstraditionalmeats.co.uk/

You turn right as though you were going to Morrisons supermarket on Station Road, Bamber Bridge. The road bears round to the right and there are five shops, including the butcher, which have only been there for five years. A lucky find!

Thanks Renee - it looks brilliant - I'll definitely be taking a trip there in the very near future.

[Suffs Profile]

Various events conspired to cause a menu change today ... the Irish stew with neck of lamb will happen tomorrow ... tonight’s meal had to involve a wand

I remembered a recipe in Marcella Hazan’s Second Classic Italian Cookbook using tinned sardines in olive oil ... Pasta con le sarde alla palermitana .... I tweaked it a bit as I didn’t have pine nuts ... I popped a few capers in for a bit of zing. Another time I may well add a bit of chilli ... but there will definitely be another time

[KeenCook2 Profile]

That sounds fantastic, Suffs, please could you give us a rough idea of the recipe?
Thx

[Suffs Profile]

Will post what I did tomorrow KC2

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I like penne con le sarde but haven't made it for ages, I use Patricia Lousdada's recipe which adds anchovy

I made stir fry noodles with prawns and veg and quite a lot of chilli bean paste, which I don't think generally goes into noodles like that, but I wanted something quick before my history talk and couldn't be bothered to prep 3 or 4 flavourings

[Suffs Profile]

Marcella Hazan's Pasta con le sarde alla palermitana is over three pages plus diagrams in her Second Classic Italian Cookbook (which I highly recommend, and the First one too). So I'll just write out what I did yesterday ...

2 tins sardines in olive oil - drained and bones removed
handful of fennel leaves, chopped
generous dollop of good fruity olive oil
half a small onion, chopped finely
4 flat anchovy fillets, chopped
I tablespoon sultanas, soaked for 15 mins and roughly chopped
half teaspoon saffron threads
one and a half tablespoons tomato puree
Generous tablespoon capers
freshly ground black pepper
Some toasted breadcrumbs

Spaghetti

Put the spaghetti on to cook

soak the saffron in about one third pint of hot water and add the tomato puree and stir together

Put olive oil in wide pan and soften the onion.
Add anchovies and stir until melting
Add chopped fennel leaves, sultanas and saffron and tom puree mixture and simmer until liquid is reduced by half.
Add sardines and capers, turning in the sauce gently until coated and heated through. Add grinding of black pepper to taste.

When spaghetti is cooked, strain and add gently to the sauce, turn gently and serve with a sprinkling of the toasted breadcrumbs.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Thx Suffs! That looks lovely. Not sure what to do about the fennel leaves, though. I think I've got some fennel seeds but they're probably quite old. Maybe dill would be a good sub.
Sue, anything with anchovies is great! I wonder how similar Lousada's recipe is to this one?

We had this last night https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/n ... nd-harissa

But even though OH put in 2 tbsp of harissa instead of 3, he still couldn't eat it. It was far too hot for him. I struggled through it and after a while didn't notice the heat any more.

We don't use harissa very often so I guess we didn't realise how hot it can be. I've just got the ordinary one that is sold everywhere (phare du cap bon). On the other hand, should Nigel Slater have warned about it, do you think? Or are you just supposed to know?

A real shame as he'd been looking forward to it for a while as I kept forgetting to order the mushrooms. In the end he had brie and crackers and said he didn't mind eating a light supper for once

[smitch Profile]

That does look nice, what a shame. Three tbsp of harissa does sound like a lot to me, maybe he meant tea spoons? I like spicy food but don't think I'd use that much.

[Busybee Profile]

That does look nice, what a shame. Three tbsp of harissa does sound like a lot to me, maybe he meant tea spoons? I like spicy food but don't think I'd use that much.

I must admit that I would have thought three teaspoons too.

BB

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I agree, I do use harissa a lot, and a TBS is almost a third of one of those little tubes of Le Phare du Cap Bon, which lasts me a while

[Suffs Profile]

Thx Suffs! That looks lovely. Not sure what to do about the fennel leaves, though. I think I've got some fennel seeds but they're probably quite old. Maybe dill would be a good sub....

Or even just a splash of Pernod and a sprinkling of parsley with the breadcrumbs?

Or change the flavour and use lemon juice in the sauce and some zest with parsley and the breadcrumbs?

It's a quick and easy meal I'm going to play with quite a bit in the future ...

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I think Nigel made a mistake there. 3 Tbsps, even for a chilehead like me, would blow my head off.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

I think Nigel made a mistake there. 3 Tbsps, even for a chilehead like me, would blow my head off.

Hmm, maybe I should email him and tell him He'll probably just say you should have known better! From the sound of it you might even have balked at the 2 spoons we did put in, KKA

Unfortunately OH has expressed no desire to try it again, having been looking forward to it so much.

[OneMoreCheekyOne Profile]

We had lamb shank tagine with saffron coriander rice last night. Harissa went in but about a tea spoon!

We had prawn linguine tonight with lemon, tomatoes, kale, chilli, parsley, garlic, and a splash of vodka.

I’ve done quite a lot of excercise today so I’ve been eyeing up the quality street which I’ve decided I’ve earned

Breakfast tomorrow might be cinnamon French toast with raspberries.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I got a pack of rtc raw Scottish langoustines so tonight’s supper was risotto di scampi with Prosecco in it and on the side

[KeenCook2 Profile]

That sounds delicious, Sue! I've always been a bit scared to cook raw crustaceans