Ok, so it’s been ages. But having a food blog, it’s so over, you know? And I can’t possibly do anything that’s not on the cutting edge. Come to find out, however, that TB is actually using my defunct food blog, trying to find things to cook when I’m away (heaven forbid he detach himself from a device and read a cookbook but whatever). Poor boy is living on 3 pages of content two years old. Also, he needs a cheat sheet in case I surprise-question him about his favorite meals. B, this is for you.

Sweet and Sour Ham

Makes 3-4 servings, with rice and steamed green veg:

• 2 t peanut oil, divided
• 1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1 small head green pointed cabbage, shredded
• 1 large red chile, sliced
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 300g ham, in chunks
• 1/4 small pineapple, in chunks
• 1/4 C sweet chili sauce
• 2 T soy
• 2 T rice vinegar

Blanch the onions and peppers for 30 seconds and drain well (be smart and use the same water to steam your veggies). Heat a wok over high heat until almost smoking, then add 1 t of the oil. Swirl. Working quickly, when oil is hot, add onion and pepper, stir, then add cabbage and chili. Stir and flip constantly for a couple of minutes until cabbage is softened and charred. Tip out of the pan and reserve. Heat pan again and add second t of oil. Swirl. Again working quickly, add garlic, stir for a couple of seconds, then add ham and pineapple. Flipstir until a little brown and heated through. Add sauces and toss. Allow to bubble through, then add cabbage mixture and toss together. Serve immediately.

Southwestern Turkey
free range turkey, chipotle-honey glaze, caramelized onion gravy

Cornbread Chestnut Stuffing
homemade chipotle cornbread

Roasted Seasonal Veg

Four Cheese Brassicas
romenesco & standard cauliflower florets in creamy cheese sauce

Sweet Potato Casserols
buttery walnut crunch topping

Apple Crumble
cardamom custard

Brazilian Cheese Breads

Seafood Etouffee
On a particularly cold and rainy day in Brazil, we ate a dish of “shrimp and cheese in a pumpkin.” I’ve attempted it before.  The fish man at the market yesterday had mussels (his are always gorgeous, huge and sweet, and all alive) and some tiny shrimp (rock shrimp? I’m not sure if that’s what they are). He also had some really lovely crabmeat which we splurged on. I wanted something spicy and comforting, and I remembered etouffee. None of my cookbooks really covered it, and I couldn’t find a recipe I really liked on the web, so I sort of made it up as I went along. In the end, it came out too thin to put in the squash “bowls,” but it would have been exactly the right thickness to go over some hot fluffy rice. Please source your seafood sustainably!

Makes 4-6 servings (more with rice).

• 1 large winter squash (I used kombucha)
• 1kg raw mussels, cleaned
• 250g raw shrimp or crawfish, if available, shelled
• 100g fresh crabmeat, picked over (or more, if you can afford it!)
• 2 T oil
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 C flour
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 4 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 2 t paprika
• 1 t dried thyme
• 1/2 C dry white wine
• 1 C stock, fish or chicken
• 1/4 cream (optional)

Heat the oven to 400°F. If you want to try the bowls option, cut the squash in half along the “equator”. Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. Rub the cut sides with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Put in the oven. Check for softness starting after about 20mins. You want the squash to be soft enough to scoop, but not so soft that the “bowl” collabses.

Meanwhile, heat the butter and oil together in a heavy cast iron pot over medium heat until the butter melts. Whisk in the flour and let cook, stirring occasionally, until the flour takes on a golden hue. This will take about 10 minutes. When the flour looks ready, add in the chopped leeks, onions, pepper and celery all at once. Stir well to coat in the flour and add the paprika and thyme. Let the vegetables sweat a while, stirring occasionally. When the vegetables are soft, add the wine. Stir continuously, scraping up any bits stuck to the pan, until the wine evaporated. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the mussels and shrimp. Stir well and simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes or until all the mussels have open and the sauce has thickened slightly.

(This is a good time to put your rice on)

If you are planning to use the squash as bowls, scoop out as much of the squash as possible without breaking the bowl and add to the fish mixture. If you are going to use a more traditional bowl, just get as much squash as possible into the soup. Toss in the crabmeat and heat though.

If you like, you can (carefully, it’s hot!) shell the mussels before serving.

Line bowls (squash or otherwise) with rice and top with a generous serving of the etouffee.

Teriyaki Salmon
ethically farmed salmon, sweet gingery glaze, thai sticky rice

Vietnamese Slaw
green pointed cabbage, organic carrots, english cucumber

Teriyaki Salmon
I don’t think it’s possible to get tired of the English summer. Maybe because it’s not overly warm, maybe because the humidity never reaches beads-of-sweat-on-your-arms levels, maybe because it’s so fleeting, maybe because I spend my working days in a basement, maybe because, for the first time in years, I have access to a garden. Whatever it is, it almost seems a crime against nature to eat indoors in good weather. This is an excellent menu for a close-to-the-kitchen kind of picnic since it’s easily plated and can get a little cold before serving. I think it would be nice vegetarian as well, with some tofu used in place of the salmon. I’m pretty sure I’ve read that marinating in vinegar isn’t supposed to be a good idea, breaking down the meat etc., but it seems to me that a 10 minutes didn’t do it any harm. However, maybe next time I should try lemon juice instead, or not marinate at all, just use as a sauce.

For me and TB, with enough for TB’s lunch:

• 500g salmon fillet
• 1 t oil
• 2 T rich (dark) soy sauce
• 2 T thin (regular) soy sauce
• 1 T kejap mantis (sweet soy)
• 2 T rice or other mild vinegar
• 2 t sugar
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and minced
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

Whisk together all ingredients but the salmon and oil. Adjust to taste, but don’t make it too sweet. It should be quite sharp. Pour over the salmon, in a shallow dish just large enough to hold the salmon.

Meanwhile cook sticky rice according to package instructions (my pack suggested cooking equal parts rice and water, covered, 8 minutes on high in a microwave and 5 minutes on medium, then letting stand 5 minutes. Surprisingly, it worked pretty well, tho I think a longer standing time would have improved the stickiness — what we ate after 5 minutes was still slightly goopy).

When the rice is cooked and standing, heat oil a heavy lidded skillet until hot but not smoking. Lift salmon out of marinate and carefully shake off most of the liquid. Throw into the pan (stand back), and allow to sear, about 30 seconds. Turn the heat to medium high, add marinade and cover. Cook about 5 minutes (make sure marinate is brought to a boil), depending on the thickness of your salmon, but be very careful not to over cook. Serve over the rice, with lots of extra sauce.

Vietnamese Slaw
Another great recipe, taken almost verbatim from this month’s Olive magazine. I make asian slaw all the time (eg), but in our quest to eat less processed food (brought about by this book), we’re trying to avoid low-fat mayonnaise. Thus, I was delighted to read that this recipe has no oil AND no mayo. It’s surprisingly fantastic and fresh tasting too, with fresh cilantro and mint from our tiny garden (3 strawberries and counting!). I made some substitutions to the original recipe because of different things I had on hand; because I also want to try it as written sometime, I’ve put the original ingredients in parentheses below.

For me and TB, with enough for my lunch:

• 1 head green pointed cabbage (1/2 head chinese cabbage; 1/4 head summer cabbage)
• 1/3 english cucumber (2 sticks celery)
• 2 medium carrots (1 medium carrot)
• 1 handful each mint and coriander leaves, chopped
• 6 T cider vinegar (6 T rice vinegar)
• 1 T brown sugar (2 t caster sugar)
• 1 T fish sauce
• 1 chili, finely sliced

Mandolinize all the veggies, slicing the cabbage thinly and julienning the cukes and carrots. Add remaining ingredients and toss well until sugar dissolves. Let stand a couple of minutes before serving.

Sauteed Spinach
farmer’s market spinach, extra garlic

Roasted Potatoes
charlotte new potatoes, garlic, rosemary, thyme flavoring

Summer Fruit Crumble
organic box fruit, oat butter crumble

Wild Boar Chops
We went to Borough Market yesterday (the Jubilee line is out this weekend, so we went by boat, how exciting!) and were unable to resist the lure of the Sillfield Farm stall with it’s promises of wild boar and heirloom breeds of pig. We bought two wild boar chops. Seemed like a good way to celebrate the 2nd birthday of this page and the just over 2nd anniversary of us moving in together. I looked around for a recipe and found the most promising in the Joy of Cooking. I marinated the 2 chops for about 2 hours in:

• juice and zest of one lemon
• 2 T olive oil
• handful of fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 t Dijon mustard

The weather was too windy for grilling, so I pan-fried them instead. I used a very hot cast iron pan and seared them on both sides, then cooked for another 5 minutes on medium low heat, covered. When they finished cooking, there was some nice bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. I made a quick pan sauce with a splash of white wine and some apple juice.

Sauteed Spinach
Take a bunch of spinach, rinse it a bit, and steam it for about 5 minutes. Rinse it thoroughly in cold water and drain. Heat oil very hot in a wok and throw in 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced. When the garlic is golden-brown, add the spinach. Toss spinach for a couple of minutes until warmed through.

Steamed Green Beans

Summer Pasta
Our box this week came with tomatoes and broad beans. I’ve been on the lookout for new things to do with broad beans, and this recipe seemed like a good way to use both them and the tomatoes. I was surprised by how good it was though. Really excellent on top of fancy noodles. And with grilled chicken, but you can leave that out if you’re feelin’ veggie. By the way, I mostly stuck to the recipe, but I halved the proportions of some of the ingredients and not others.

For 2 generous servings or 2 normal plus lunch:

• 2 large, very ripe tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, slivered
• 1 T olive oil
• As many broad beans as you got, up to about 1 C shelled
• 1/2 C fresh basil, roughly chopped
• splash of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425/180. Slice tomatoes into 4 large slices. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic, and place in a roasting tin sprayed with olive oil. Roast 15 – 20 minutes until they’re soft looking.

Meanwhile, remove the beans from the first shell. Cook them in boiling salted water 5 minutes, then cool slightly and remove the second shell. Put the pasta on to cook. Mush the still-warm beans up with the basil, olive oil and a splash of lemon juice. When the tomatoes are done, add them too, chopping and mushing as much as possible.

Serve the pasta topped with the sauce.

Optional Chicken
I’m not usually a huge fan of chicken breasts. In fact, the only reason we had them is that TB had made and unauthorized breast purchase them when left on his own. Brined and grilled and served on top of the pasta, it really was very good (and simple). Heat the (gas) grill at max heat for 10 minutes. Rub the breasts with olive oil and pepper (use salt as well if you haven’t brined the breasts). When the grill is very hot, turn it down to moderate and cook the breasts on the covered grill 5 minutes per side. Slice and serve on top of the pasta.

Steamed Golden Sprouting Broccoli

Rhubarb-Apple Crumble
lemon zest, oatmeal crunch

Roast Chicken
Recipe for a truly fantastic dinner: take Micheal Pollan seriously and pay far too much money for a grass pastured, organic chicken. Cook as simply as possible with early spring potatoes and veg. Enjoy tremendously.

• A 2kg/4lb chicken
• several parsnips
• lots of potatoes
• fresh rosemary & thyme
• lemon, halved
• fresh ground salt & pepper

Scrub the potatoes and peel the parsnips. Cut them into chunks if they are large. Toss with a tablespoon of olive oil, about 2 sprigs worth of rosemary leaves, several sprigs of thyme, and salt and pepper. Season the inside of the chicken well and stuff it with the lemon halves and the rest of the rosemary. Place chicken, breast side down, on a rack over the vegetables and roast at 475/200 for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn the chicken over, and toss the vegetables with the accumulated juices. Roast for an additional 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest as long as you can resist or 10 minutes.

Rhuarb-Apple Crumble
This is another recipe without a lot of specifics. I just recently read that rhubarb has an affinity for lemon zest (I’d heard about ginger already — the Brits seem quite keen on the combination). Anyway, it came off brilliantly, much better than ginger. But then, I’m not that keen on ginger in desserts.

• several stalks of fresh rhubarb
• a couple of apples (optional)
• granulated sugar
• 1 lemon’s worth of lemon zest
• butter, softened
• brown sugar
• rolled oats
• salt
• flour

Wash rhubarb and cut into bite-sized chunks. Core the apples and do likewise. Arrange in a pyrex dish and sprinkle with sugar. I used about 1/2 C sugar for my 9×9 dish, but it could be more or less depending on the proportion of apples to rhubarb and the sourness of the rhubarb. Zest the lemon and toss it with the fruit and sugar. Squeeze about half of the lemon over the rhubarb.

Mush together a good hunk of butter with some brown sugar, a whole lot of oats, a pinch of salt and a large pinch of flour. It’s crumble, have fun with it. Keep mushing until the texture is crumbly and there’s enough to cover the top of the crumble. Err on the side of too many oats.

Glazed Sweet & Spicy Chicken
I have to confess that this recipe, as originally titled, was completely unappealing. It was TB’s choice, but was incredibly, surprisingly, fantastically good (and easy). The epciurious reviews suggested adding garlic, onion, etc., but I (unusually for me) followed the recipe closely. Using chicken parts with bones takes a longer time to cook, but I think the taste is very worth it.

For 4-6 servings:

• 4 chicken legs or 8 chicken thighs, skinned
• 1 T olive oil
• 3/4 C orange juice
• 3/4 C good quality stock
• 1/4 C whole grain mustard
• 2 T honey (I used golden syrup)
• 1 tsp hot pepper sauce

Sprinkle the chicken thoroughly with salt and pepper. Brown chicken in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, then add orange juice and stock. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, 20-30 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm. Add remaining ingredients to the pan, bring to a boil and then simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Return chicken to a skilled and toss in the sauce until heated through. Serve chicken over pasta with steamed vegetables on the side.

Sorta-Singaporean Beef Curry
A delicious curry that is actually pretty healthy, I’m pretty sure that this would also be very tasty as a vegetarian curry, maybe using mushrooms or pre-cooked tofu. It’s not a very thick curry, so be sure to serve it with lots of rice. It has a pretty long list of ingredients, but once they’re all chopped its very straight-forward. Time-saving tip: make your other half do all the chopping before you get home.

• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 T grated ginger
• 2-3 red chilies, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 t tumeric powder
• 600g/21oz braised beef, cubed
• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 350g)
• 6 shallots, chopped
• 1 large cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 cardommon pods
• 400ml can light coconut milk
• 500ml chicken stock
• 410g can of chickpeas

Use a small food processor or a mortar and pestle to grind garlic, ginger, chilies and tumeric into a rough paste. Add a pinch of salt. Put all ingredients except chickpeas in a big pot and bring to a boil. Simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add chickpeas and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Serve with rice.

Party Salad
bibb lettuce, apple, blue cheese, glazed walnuts

Camarão com Queijona na Moranga
We had something like this is Brazil, and I’ve been really wanting to give it a try. I couldn’t really find any similar recipe on the web, though my Portuguese is poor so I was limited to English language sites. I sort of based what I cooked on this one although I changed it around a lot to make it more like I remember having in the little village we stayed in. I think it came out really nicely (TB liked it too), but I’m not completely satisfied. I’d like the “containers” to be bigger, and the squash to be a little chunkier. It’s definitely good enough to share with ya’ll but stay tuned: I’ll be trying this one again.

For 3 to 4 people:

• 200g shrimp
• 120g smoked salmon (a gratuitous addition because of a dearth of shrimp)
• 1 pt skim milk
• 3 T flour
• 80g cheese (mix of cheddar, jack, parmesean, etc)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 t oil
• 4 small or 2 large butternut squash (traditionally, you should use a pumpkin, as flat as possible)

Cut the squash in 2 pieces crosswise, right above the bulbous bit, so that you have a round bit and long bit. Remove the seeds completely but carefully from the round bit. Peel the long bit and cut into large chunks. Don’t peel the round bit! Bake both bits at 190°C/450°F for about 20 minutes until the chunks are tender and the round bits are almost tender.

Heat oil over medium heat, then gently saute onon and garlic until soft but not brown. Add a little water to prevent sticking if necessary. When tender sprinkle the flour over the onion/garlic mixture. Add the milk a little bit at a time, whisking constantly so that the mixture stays as smooth as possible. When the sauce comes to a boil, add the cheese and the fish. Allow to boil slowly 1 minute and then remove the pan from the heat.

Toss the cooked squash pieces in the sauce, and spoon the sauce into the round squash bits. Bake at 160°C/350°F for about 30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling.

Party Salad
This is my favorite salad in the whole and entire world. Its completely and totally delicious.

• 1 head soft leaf lettuce (eg. Bibb)
• 3 pears or apples, peeled and cored, cut into small pieces or 1/2 C raisins or dried cranberries
• 5 oz roquefort or bleu cheese, crumbled
• 1 avocado, in chunks
• 1/2 C thin sliced scallions
• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1/2 C pecans or walnuts
• 1/3 C olive oil
• 3 T red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 t white sugar
• 1 1/2 t prepared mustard
• 1 clove garlic, smashed and smushed
• 1/2 t salt
• fresh pepper

Over medium heat, stir sugar with a little water. When boiling, add nuts. Stir gently, until sugar caramelizes. Cool the nuts on wax paper. Shake the oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper together. Toss all ingredients together.