My Blog List

Showing posts with label Uk sourced ingredients. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uk sourced ingredients. Show all posts

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Braised goose - 28 September 2010

Tuesday 28 September

I had friends staying and decided to make a last homecooked breakfast before Em went off on her travels.

In keeping with my "buy nothing" challenge, I used up the fresh ricotta I bought at the Market last Saturday.

I'd brought home two, so one was used for the previous night's veggie pasta bake, and one for ricotta pancakes for the troops this morning.

I've made these before - they're adapted from a Bill Granger recipe. Pretty foolproof, thought I may be a little out of practice at pancake flipping, so they turned out a little misshapen. No pictures unfortunately as I was in a total rush to get these made and get to uni on time! This is the recipe I used.

For dinner we had braised goose. I'm always up for trying new things in the kitchen, and I have never cooked goose this way before. In fact, other than one incident with a roast goose, it's not a meat I'd cooked before at all.

Braised goose (serves 4-6)


4 goose legs
1 goose breast fillet
10 cloves garlic
3 medium onions
1 carrot
Half bottle red wine
Leftover gravy (optional)
Leftover veg (optional, but I used steamed red cabbage and purple cauliflower from Sunday dinner)
2 tins plum tomatoes
Chicken stock

Chop onions roughly and lay on the bottom of a large slow cooker or cast iron oven pot.

Make slits in the goose flesh and push garlic cloves into the holes. Place on the bed of onions. Season. Pour over the red wine and the two tins of tomatoes. Add in any leftover ingredients and maybe some extra veg.

Cook on low in the slow cooker for 24 hours. Alternatively you could stick it in the oven at about 75'C for the same amount if time.

We had this with mash, and I think the meal went a long way to line my stomach before we went out for drinks for Em's leaving night!

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Steamed honey soy salmon parcels with rice noodle stir fry

We had salmon for dinner last night, which is a pretty big deal in my house as my boyfriend is not a fan of fish – childhood trauma, fish bone, choking etc. The topic has come up before how we should try to eat more fish, but we’re the kind of household that resorts to meat in a pinch, and to be honest I’m a lazy cook on days I work. So Monday to Friday we slap a slab of meat onto a plate with potatoes or rice, or pasta if I win that night. We don’t do much to the meat except grill it on the George with some balsamic.

Except last night, I had a big tail piece of salmon from Creelers calling my name in the fridge. Too often I buy fish and have to freeze it at the last minute because we’d totally forgotten about it, but I was determined that food I’d bought fresh would be eaten fresh from now on (dagnabbit!)), so into the oven it went. We even went all-out with the healthy eating and had loads of veg with it.

The fish and the onion came from the farmers market, the fennel from RealFoods (my regular stop off point in town on days I go to Pilates class), and the rest of the veg I picked up in Marks and Sparks yesterday on my way home – I don’t usually get veg from the supermarket, but their food hall is ok (I was there to return some clothes I’d bought in a moment of madness) and I only picked up produce sourced from the UK.

Oh, and I don’t always do measurements. I am a firm believer in seasoning to taste, so there will be no “tbsps” and “grammes” here. Where possible I’ve included the source of the produce)

Steamed honey soy salmon parcels with rice noodle stir fry

Honey
Soy sauce (I use Kikkoman or ClearSpring)
Chilli oil

Salmon tail end, cut into fillets

1 bulb fennel, julienned (RealFoods)
1 onion, thinly sliced (Phantassie – farmers market)
Rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest oils – farmers market)

Bok choy, shredded (M&S – UK)
English chestnut mushrooms, sliced (Phantassie)
Broccoli, in florets (M&S – UK)
Spinach (M&S – UK)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (W Christie’s butchers)
2 packets Ready-cooked rice noodles (M&S)

Preheat oven to 180ยบ C.

On the non-shiny side of a rectangle of foil drizzle some rapeseed oil. I folded a long sheet in half shiny side to prevent leakage. Make a bed of sliced onion and fennel. Place the salmon fillets on top, skin side down. Season

Mix up the honey, soy and chilli oil. At this point you could also add grated ginger or garlic but I just left it smooth. Brush or drizzle on the salmon fillets.

Wrap the parcels up – I found doing it in a triangle made it easier to open up and plate. Place on a tray and stick in oven – they should bake for about 30-35 mins.

About 10 mins before the salmon needs to come out, heat some rapeseed oil in a wok. Add the diced bok choy and stir fry. Add a splash of soy sauce and a little honey. Then add the rest of the ingredients in this order: mushrooms, broccoli, garlic, rice noodles, and finally spinach. By this time the salmon should be ready and the spinach should be wilted.

Plate the noodles and remove the salmon from its parcel. Serves 2 with leftover noodles for the next day