(no subject)
Sigh. Uploading to archives is like actual work... especially those posted to flocked communities which can’t be imported easily. Though it is fun to revisit my fics all the same.
It’s properly miserable here. Rain, wind, cold, dark - you know it’s winter when the Christmas lights actually look welcoming at 2pm. I’m also typing this wearing a new woolly hat, cos my heating is taking ages to come on. And also because I love my new woolly hat, oh dear.
But this is as it should be, and I’ve just started a stew which is one of my favourite winter dishes. I don’t post recipes as a rule, but as I wait for AO3 to chug along, I thought I’d share a few: two light ones which have been good friends for the late summer/autumn, and one rich one filling my kitchen with cinnamon scents right now.
Lemon pasta sauce
This is really a simple sauce base, of one egg per person, plus parmesan to taste, and a really good squeeze of lemon (roughly half a lemon per person, but depends on juiciness). Mix this up and have to hand before you drain the pasta.
Chop at least one garlic clove and some chilli per person (very much up to you how much of each). Drain the pasta. Fry the garlic and chilli for a minute or two in the warm pasta saucepan. Then return the pasta, and the lemon/egg mix to the pan, and cook it to your liking (like a carbonara sauce. Some like it silky, I prefer the scrambled egg end of the spectrum). Then add lots of chopped coriander, a little more parmesan and black pepper and serve speedily.
The interesting bit is how you can customise this. Add raw chopped scallop or prawn to the garlic and chilli in the pan and cook it briefly; or else some crab just before you add the pasta, so it only warms through. I’ve also done it with blanched broccoli, which fries nicely with garlic always. But there are probably dozens of other good options.
Spicy chicken on toast
Really good for one or two; I imagine it would be a complete pain to make for more than four.
First: marinade one chicken breast per person (or even one between two if you want a snack), in some olive oil and lemon juice. Turn
Then grill the chicken (or bake it, if like mine your grill is useless and smelly. It’ll still be juicy thanks to the marinade). Keep the marinade in the cooking dish if you like, it adds extra juice to the bread later on.
Meanwhile, mix houmous and yoghurt (low fat is fine) in equal proportions. You need about a tablespoon of each per person.
Also mix a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon of cumin and ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper per person. (At this point you should add a teaspoon of freshly toasted sesame seeds per person to the mix too. This is delicious but fiddly; I have an alternative cheat below.)
Now, warm some bread or toast. Ciabatta is delicious and decadent sliced onto the roasting chicken dish to soak up juices; ordinary toast will do fine.
Now: assemble. Bread, then yoghurt/houmous, then (roughly sliced up) chicken, then occasionally so everything gets covered.
sprinkled spices. If you’re cheating, add a tiny dribble of sesame oil at this point.
Serve with rocket and tomatoes, eat hurriedly and messily, for it is delicious.
Pomegranate lamb
First, take your lamb. Something like neck fillet, with a bit of fat, but not real stewing lamb, this only gets 40 minutes cooking. Leg steaks might work if you want low fat, actually. The following quantities are for 1kg lamb, but this scales down perfectly well, and I tend to make less but with almost as much spice, because it’s a good mix.
Cook an onion till it’s transparent (or cheat with Eazy onions which I always, always do. I love them). Add some finely sliced garlic and an inch of ginger, also sliced, and cook lightly. Remove mix from pan.
Brown cubed lamb, in batches if necessary. Return onion mix to pan.
Take pomegranate juice (either squeeze your own or use some cheat’s 100% crushed pomegranate, not a mixed drink with sugar. M&S does some that works well), 350ml for 1kg lamb. Add it slowly to the lamb and onions in the pan, letting it absorb as you go. (NB Allegedly. I’ve never fully achieved this; it always ends up fairly wet, and it tastes fine at the end).
Then add your spice mix to the pan, in the ratio ¼ tsp nutmeg: ½ tsp cinnamon: 1 tsp cumin, plus some crushed cardamom pods. Let them heat through, then add 85ml yoghurt to the pan.
Now, cover tightly and simmer slow: 30-40 mins until the lamb is cooked. If you’ve achieved the absorption of the pomegranate juice, you might just need to check to see it doesn’t burn and add a splash of water, but I’ve never had problems here.
Serve with plain boiled rice, mixed with lots of parsley and pomegranate seeds.
It’s properly miserable here. Rain, wind, cold, dark - you know it’s winter when the Christmas lights actually look welcoming at 2pm. I’m also typing this wearing a new woolly hat, cos my heating is taking ages to come on. And also because I love my new woolly hat, oh dear.
But this is as it should be, and I’ve just started a stew which is one of my favourite winter dishes. I don’t post recipes as a rule, but as I wait for AO3 to chug along, I thought I’d share a few: two light ones which have been good friends for the late summer/autumn, and one rich one filling my kitchen with cinnamon scents right now.
Lemon pasta sauce
This is really a simple sauce base, of one egg per person, plus parmesan to taste, and a really good squeeze of lemon (roughly half a lemon per person, but depends on juiciness). Mix this up and have to hand before you drain the pasta.
Chop at least one garlic clove and some chilli per person (very much up to you how much of each). Drain the pasta. Fry the garlic and chilli for a minute or two in the warm pasta saucepan. Then return the pasta, and the lemon/egg mix to the pan, and cook it to your liking (like a carbonara sauce. Some like it silky, I prefer the scrambled egg end of the spectrum). Then add lots of chopped coriander, a little more parmesan and black pepper and serve speedily.
The interesting bit is how you can customise this. Add raw chopped scallop or prawn to the garlic and chilli in the pan and cook it briefly; or else some crab just before you add the pasta, so it only warms through. I’ve also done it with blanched broccoli, which fries nicely with garlic always. But there are probably dozens of other good options.
Spicy chicken on toast
Really good for one or two; I imagine it would be a complete pain to make for more than four.
First: marinade one chicken breast per person (or even one between two if you want a snack), in some olive oil and lemon juice. Turn
Then grill the chicken (or bake it, if like mine your grill is useless and smelly. It’ll still be juicy thanks to the marinade). Keep the marinade in the cooking dish if you like, it adds extra juice to the bread later on.
Meanwhile, mix houmous and yoghurt (low fat is fine) in equal proportions. You need about a tablespoon of each per person.
Also mix a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon of cumin and ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper per person. (At this point you should add a teaspoon of freshly toasted sesame seeds per person to the mix too. This is delicious but fiddly; I have an alternative cheat below.)
Now, warm some bread or toast. Ciabatta is delicious and decadent sliced onto the roasting chicken dish to soak up juices; ordinary toast will do fine.
Now: assemble. Bread, then yoghurt/houmous, then (roughly sliced up) chicken, then occasionally so everything gets covered.
sprinkled spices. If you’re cheating, add a tiny dribble of sesame oil at this point.
Serve with rocket and tomatoes, eat hurriedly and messily, for it is delicious.
Pomegranate lamb
First, take your lamb. Something like neck fillet, with a bit of fat, but not real stewing lamb, this only gets 40 minutes cooking. Leg steaks might work if you want low fat, actually. The following quantities are for 1kg lamb, but this scales down perfectly well, and I tend to make less but with almost as much spice, because it’s a good mix.
Cook an onion till it’s transparent (or cheat with Eazy onions which I always, always do. I love them). Add some finely sliced garlic and an inch of ginger, also sliced, and cook lightly. Remove mix from pan.
Brown cubed lamb, in batches if necessary. Return onion mix to pan.
Take pomegranate juice (either squeeze your own or use some cheat’s 100% crushed pomegranate, not a mixed drink with sugar. M&S does some that works well), 350ml for 1kg lamb. Add it slowly to the lamb and onions in the pan, letting it absorb as you go. (NB Allegedly. I’ve never fully achieved this; it always ends up fairly wet, and it tastes fine at the end).
Then add your spice mix to the pan, in the ratio ¼ tsp nutmeg: ½ tsp cinnamon: 1 tsp cumin, plus some crushed cardamom pods. Let them heat through, then add 85ml yoghurt to the pan.
Now, cover tightly and simmer slow: 30-40 mins until the lamb is cooked. If you’ve achieved the absorption of the pomegranate juice, you might just need to check to see it doesn’t burn and add a splash of water, but I’ve never had problems here.
Serve with plain boiled rice, mixed with lots of parsley and pomegranate seeds.