Tuesday, 11 January 2011

almost eating gone off chicken

i suppose could be one of my greatest fears in life. my mother has many irrational worries in life, the other day i was telling my boyfriend he wasn't allowed to hang pictures in frames above his bed as i have an ingrained conviction that in the night they will fall off and kill me. thanks for that one mum, in a room with little wall space this is somewhat restricting.

but, on a less irrational level, the fear of food poisoning is certainly founded. and this chicken smelt bad and had gone brown. even in my essay bound state, this was one step too far on the food level. i counter acted this predicament by buying a series of very reduced food items from tesco (the risk of gone off food did not appear to effect by desire to save money). this also facilitated me eating what was perhaps the first fruit of 2011 as well. joy.

other food adventures in the last week have included the absolute treat of Jesmond Tandoori, home made burgers, and fajitas. the take away was the highlight, this fact should really shame me i guess.

tonight i shall try and redeem myself with a pork and sausage casserole.
this really only involves:
- a large pot
-potatoes
- carrots
-onions
-celery
- actually, whatever veg you have to hand (after my trip to the reduced section, this now also includes mushrooms, plum tomatoes and parsnips)
- cider
-sage
-pork/sausage/both if you love your meat as much as i do
-canned tomatoes, salt and pepper, stock cubes- all that boring, necessary stuff that's a really pain to have to buy.


Get your pot hot, put in your ingredients, fry for a while, then add your liquidous items, and leave in the over for around 2.5 hours.

As its already half 6, and no attempts have been made to even start prep, it looks to be a late dinner for me...

Friday, 7 January 2011

My New Years Resolution is You.


Yes, I have vowed to post at least once a week. Ambitious, not really, Sustainable, i hope so.

Since my weary last few postings, my culinary adventures have been more lavish that should really be allowed of your average, 'pov' student, but exce
ptions must be made - in the grand age of third year, i stay in, drink wine and eat food whilst watching Mad Men, and then fall asleep around 11 o'clock. YAWN. i am boring myself by even writing that.

the food however, does help to spice things up, as does the occasional bottle of 'better than half price' Cava in the bath. whilst sitting there drinking in the bathtub, i thought to myself, what if this is the most ostentatious my life ever gets? lord.
the Cava preceded as well as followed a delightful sea bass dinner, on a bed of tagliatelli with prawns, garlic, lemon thyme, and tomatoes. I'd love to take the credit for this, but sadly i was merely the sous chef on this creation




My latest creation however was all my own work, and came out quite the treat if i do say so myself. With the stress of essays constantly looming over me, sad and middle aged as i am and with the option of alcohol sadly out the window for the next month, i opt for fat-depressives option of choice and have been de-stressing through cooking.

So here is the tasty recipe for my fish cakes,
with a slight thai persuasion:

-Potatoes
-Sweet Potatoes
-Ginger
-Spring Onions
-Garlic
-Pepper (i like red best,but that's merely personal preference)
-Chilli
-Lemon Grass
-Lime
-Coriander
-Fish of some variety
-Salt and pepper

The Fairly arduous process starts with boiling your potatoes in a pan (of water) then fry till golden and soft your spring onions, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, pepper and chilli. i find its best to cut this up finely as a little tip, unless you like chunks
(as a child i hated any food with chunks in, so i think this may explain my reasoning on a freudian level, but really it just cooks better that way)
make sure your fish is also in small bits so it will cook easily.

when the potatoes have gone soft, mash them up, add the fried veg into the pot, chop up your coriander and throw that in to, grate the peel of your lime and squeeze the juice and add some salt and pepper and your fish. MIX until it looks something like this



At this point it all gets a bit messy, lots of flour is needed and you have to shape your paste into little patties or 'cakes' as they have been known until they look like this



Not very most attractive uncooked food in the world but nevertheless persist, cook in a hot pan full of oil until golden brown (not textured like sun) normally will take about 5 minutes on either side depending how thick you like your cake.

i finished mine with a yoghurt dressing (very simple - yoghurt, the rind and juice of a lemon, coriander, a pinch of sugar and salt) and a salsa made from tomatoes, coriander (yes again) red onion and garlic (well i was supposed to put this in but i actually forgot, shush!)

and this is how it should look....


So good i'm having it for my tea again tonight, or maybe because my habit of not using measurements meant i made loads of them!