New paintings and regular art updates.
Tasty lunch, doubled portion (just flipped photos). It was very tasty with a fresh salad. I was taken out for lunch by my friends and I really enjoyed it. It’s been a while since I went out and socialised. I’ve been a bit up and down recently. This was at the Glebe pub in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
One day hubby turned up from his work at a pottery with a very large casserole pot. He’d bought it and wanted to cook for friends.
We decided to make a chicken casserole and invite a few friends over. I was working that evening so he said he would prepare it. I told him what to do, put the chicken in the casserole pot, add carrots, potatoes, onion and a clove of garlic.
I came home to hubby and our guests. He opened a bottle of wine and we decided to serve the food. Unfortunately the smell of very pungent garlic wafted from the pot. My hubby had put in a whole bulb of garlic in by mistake. We were only young and were not used to the strength of the garlic. The flavour was too strong for us. I think we ended up having fish and chips from the chips shop.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
I guess the worst thing I ever did was to burn a cake! I took the risk of making it up as I went along, but I didn’t think of the oven temperature. I set it at has mark 7 and cooked it for an hour. More than slightly crispy even after I cut the outside layer off.
That’s why it’s good to follow a recipe. You can learn from your mistakes. But once you have the basic idea THEN you can add your own twist. But remember not to over spice things. Especially if you know nothing about chilli and the varying types that you can get. I also didn’t know about deseeding them and not to touch your eyes if you have chilli on your hands!
One meal I wasn’t responsible for was a chicken casserole. I left my hubby detailed instructions and friends came round to enjoy the meal (not). I didn’t realise that he would translate my clove of garlic into a BULB of garlic. Not a pleasant meal!
I just made a vegetarian stew for dinner. I could have made Staffordshire Lobby which is a beef based stew, lobbing all sorts of things into the pot. But I used a meat substitute, Quorn pieces.
Basically I put two small chopped potatoes, two small sliced carrots and half a sweet potato, peeled and sliced, into a pan and covered them in boiling water. I let them simmer for a few minutes, then chopped up a small red onion, chopped some slices off a cabbage (about a sixth of it) and two sticks of celery sliced up. Then I added half a pack of Quorn and a couple of teaspoons of Lazy Garlic. I let everything simmer for about twenty minutes. Then I added a couple of vegetable stock cubes. Let it cook for a few more minutes before serving with a hunk of brown bread and vegetable spread. I didn’t add salt, but if you do add it on top of the stew when you serve, that way it sits on the food and doesn’t get absorbed into it. That means you don’t eat too much salt. You can also add pepper at the end.
Oops, just made the mistake of adding too much chilli to our tea. My mouth has that bitter burning sensation that makes you want to drink something long and cold (possibly a pint of milk). I only intended to add a little flavour, and I deseeded the chilli (I only ever use one), perhaps it was very ripe. It certainly was a flavour enhancer with added oregano and garlic. I think my stomach is regretting my spice choices. Oh dear!
I was cooking an evening meal and decided to open a bottle of rosé brut wine to go with it. It was very warm in the kitchen, but I didn’t think much about it as I took the wine out of the fridge. I peeled off the foil round the neck and loosened the wire around the cork. Then I had to check the food, stir it, add herbs. Suddenly…
BANG!
The cork had come flying out of the bottle, wine started to bubble out of the bottle all over the kitchen counter. I had to mop it up. I think about a quarter of the bottle was gone! It just shows how hot it was. Next time the wine is staying in the fridge till the food is ready!
This is a lovely ceramic pestle and mortar I bought at a craft Market a few years ago. I was crushing some garlic for a chilli last night and decided to use this instead of my garlic press which falls apart every time I try and crush more than one clove of garlic.
But thinking about it there are a couple of coincidences linked with it. Last Monday I was wearing a mortar board. Not much of a coincidence, but then after our meal I did a quick crossword clue ‘pounding tool, used with a mortar’? Of course I got the answer
I decided to cook some salmon and I usually use a tomato pasta sauce and cook fuselli pasta. This time I made my own sauce from scratch. I don’t know if its the right thing because I’m not a chef, I just cook.
Recipe (serves two)
Two salmon fillets
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 large flat mushroom
A handful of green olives, de-stoned
Half a tin of tomatoes
Olive oil
Half a teaspoon of lazy chilli
Dried Basil.
Method (how I did it)
Crush the garlic cloves and fry gently in the olive oil (other oils could be used)
Put a pan of water on to boil for the pasta
Once the garlic is softened I placed the salmon skin side down in the pan. You can skin it first if you don’t like it.
Chop the olives into small pieces and add to the frying pan with the chilli.
If the saucepan of water is boiling add the pasta (a couple of handfuls) and lower to a fast simmer.
Slice the mushroom in thin pieces and add to the frying pan. Make sure all the pieces of veg and salmon are turned frequently so they don’t burn and stick on the pan.
Add half a tin of peeled plum tomatoes or chopped tomatoes.
Sprinkle in some basil to taste (not too much).
Then get some fresh cherry tomatoes and add them to the pan. Turning all the ingredients and cooking long enough to soften the fresh tomatoes. The salmon should be cooked through but not overcooked.
Drain the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste (I didn’t bother) I like my pasta slightly Al dente (a bit chewy).
Serve the Salmon/sauce mix on top of the pasta.
I hope it’s nice, spicy and edible?
What to cook for tea?
Beefburgers, roasted in the oven because my grill is broken and I didn’t want to fry them. Chilli pepper, garlic, a sweet pepper, an onion, all chopped up and sautéed. Then I added half a tin of tomatoes, some fresh basil and a stock cube. In the last four or five minutes I popped the store bought Yorkshire puddings into the oven to heat them through. I put the veg inside the puddings and put the burgers on top… The only thing missing? No mustard!
While the salmon and courgette with pasta sauce was cooking on the stove the mushrooms with garlic remained still and solid? It was only after ten minutes of stirring them with chopped garlic and olive oil that I realised that the gas hadn’t lit, even though I’d switched it on! Luckily it didn’t take too long to heat them through once I did ignite the gas.
I also added some tiny pasta flower shapes into the sauce to thicken it slightly. It ended up very tasty with the pasta being slightly aldente. It was good to have the mushrooms seperate. I would normally have just thrown them into one pan, but I wanted to seperate the textures and tastes. It was a good meal when I finally switched on the gas ring!
Mallaband-Brown