Lily's Blog

I’ve been neglectful of the cookery experiment for a number of weeks. Various things, Christmas, busy at work, Young Scientist, etc all kept me from experimenting. Well normality now seems to be returning.

Though I’m always glad to get a break from cooking, I actually miss it a lot when I am away from it for any length. The break however helped me re-think my experiment. I’m going to change direction. Instead of doing all of the Avoca Cafe Cookbook, I’m going to emulate Kitchen Diaries Challenge and do about ten recipes from each of a number of books. It should be more interesting for both you, the reader and for me. I’m choosing books that have interesting everyday recipes. I’ll continue like before and serve them to whatever guinea pigs happen to be around and we’ll rate them using our new simpler rating system with just three categories:

The books I’ve identified for the moment are as follows:

Jim’s Kitchen by Jim Tynan

Eat Good Things Every Day by Carmel Somers

Roly’s Cafe and Bakery

Cornucopia at Home

Avoca Cafe Cookbook

I’ll finish ten from it, I’ve eight already done. I’ve posted a picture of this book before!

Please feel free to suggest others.

Let the experiment begin, I mean continue!

I liked the descriptions with this recipe:

Guinness is almost a national institution in Ireland: wholesome, healthy and rich. This stew is an Irish take on a traditional beef stew …

and

‘The beef in Guinness stew is as inky-black as a pint of the black stuff; sheer heaven. Together with a baked potato it makes a feast of a lunch …’

Plus I thought it was a suitable dish to have one night last week when the first emigrant had returned. The other mouse hadn’t yet arrived.

It was very easy to prepare. Beef was browned in oil followed by onions (separately) and then flour added and cooked for two minutes. The Guinness was mixed in along with sliced carrot, thyme, bay leaf, (both frozen from the garden, with the weather last week), garlic, red currant jelly (I used cranberry sauce as had just made it for Christmas), stock and tomato purée. It was cooked in the oven for an hour and a half.

We like Beef stew.
We, (well those of us who have tasted it), like Guinness.
We don’t like Beef and Guinness stew.

We all gave it the thumbs down.

‘We’, included the emigrant who had been admiring the pictures of niiiiice (as he says) food on the blog for the last few months.

That’s Murphy’s Law for you now!

Another good Irish tradition

The description in the book for this recipe was:

This is a full rich, rounded dish, the spices lending a refreshing tang to the meat. If the list of ingredients looks long, do not despair; the method is surprisingly short, and you’ll have your feet up in no time. Soon enough to enjoy a glass of wine while the house fills with the enticing aromas of the East.

This description fits the dish perfectly and I was perfectly obedient. I included drinking the glass of wine as it cooked.

Well the book told me to

This is where I love this experiment. I wouldn’t normally cook such a dish.

Lamb was tossed in seasoned flour and cooked in small batches. The recipe specified leg, I had bought lamb leg steaks, 50% reduced in Superquinn, so this was a very economical dish as well as very nice. Onions were sauteed, then garlic, finely chopped ginger, ground almonds, ground cumin, bruised cardamon pods, nigella seeds (hey I got to use them again!), green chillies, (I used a mixture of red and yellow), black pepper and chilli powder were added and cooked for five minutes. The meat was then returned to the pan and coconut milk and stock added and brought to the boil. I then transferred it to the oven and cooked it for an hour. At the end I was supposed to stir in chopped coriander leaves and stalks but I fell at this hurdle. I didn’t have any.

The result was delicious, straight into the ‘definitely repeat’ category. Middle mouse became middle guinea pig yesterday. It’s wonderful having him home. Eldest mouse comes on Christmas eve.

I now realise that my store cupboard is improving as a direct result of this experiment. I looked up the book to see if any recipe was suitable for the lamb I had bought, discovered this one and found that despite it having seventeen ingredients, I had them all except the fresh coriander.

One quibble with the recipe, it stated, ‘1 tablespoon cardamon pods, bruised’. I was in doubt but I obeyed since I heaven’t used cardamon a lot before. (My obedience gets the better of me sometimes!) The pods of cardamon are inedible.

Later I looked up various recipes including a Waitrose recipe which stated, ‘Remove the black seeds from inside the cardamom pods and lightly crush them in a pestle and mortar. Discard the pods.’

I don’t think this recipe gave sufficiently clear instructions for cardamon. What do the cooks out there think?

Another quibble with the recipe is the quantity. The recipe called for 1.6kg (3.5lb) lamb – 14oz lean lamb per person which seemed enormous to me, so I halved the recipe. We had loads and a good bit left over. I decided to test our dogs who eat everything to see how they liked spicy food. They loved it. Who says we have plain dogs.

But they’re too good at ‘wolfing down everything’ to be discerning recipe testers though!

Final quibble would be that had I followed the recipe exactly, using 2 tins of coconut milk with 3.5lb of lamb for the 4 people, the calorie count per portion for just those two ingredients alone would have been 1,326 calories per portion, (938cals for 14oz lamb and 388cals for 200ml coconut milk).

Interestingly the can of coconut milk states under ‘Nutrition Information’ Servings per pack 8, Serving size 50ml. Interestingly the manufacturer suggests using much less than Avoca.

I feel like an undercover detective. In this experiment, I have discovered that Avoca savory food can be quite calorie laden. We all know that many desserts can be fattening but they mightn’t be the biggest offender in the meal!

Despite all the above, I will definitely repeat the amended recipe.

Next date with Avoca Cafe Cookbook was with Normandy pork.

This was a dish very much along the principles of the recent Lakeshore pork. A very suitable dish for the very cold and frosty morning outside as I was cooking it!

Horses (from a neighbour’s field), keeping me company when no one’s about.

Plenty of frost, but later the sun breaks through

A shining example of primula!

Anyway back to the Normandy Pork.

I diced fillet of pork, tossed it in seasoned flour, sautéed until golden brown, and then transferred it to a casserole dish. Diced onions and chopped cooking apples were then sautéed

and added to the meat. Apple juice and chicken stock were added,

covered, into the oven for an hour.

Cream was added before serving.

Verdict straight into the ‘Definitely repeat’ category. I made this early in the morning and it was perfect that night and next day.

I intend using this recipe (and/or maybe Lakeshore Pork) over Christmas as both very easy and great for preparing ahead.

“Don’t just think about your meals as a succession of one-night stands. You’re in it for life. You’re here today and tomorrow, and all of next week, so you might as well get your head around basic planning.”

I’m quoting from an interview with Allegra McEvedy by Louise East in last Saturday’s Times.

That’s a new way of thinking about planning what to cook for the family. Family cooking planning!

Anyway back to the cooking! Chicken marinated in …

The packet contained four chicken breasts so I did the recipe in the title for two of the chicken breasts and a suggested variations for the other two.

I like making work for myself …

Main recipe was chicken marinated in honey, wholegrain mustard, lemon juice and olive oil, then baked in the oven in the marinade. Then the chicken was removed from the roasting tin and the sauce reduced over heat.

The second marinade was chopped fresh rosemary, garlic, shallot, lemon juice and olive oil.

Denis and I have come up with a new simpler rating system. There’s just three categories:

Exceptional
Definitely repeat
Forget about

The chicken marinated in honey and mustard went straight into the ‘Exceptional’ category

The chicken marinated in rosemary, garlic etc went into the ‘Definitely repeat’ category. This is shown in the photograph.

I served it with creamed potatoes and purple carrots – I hadn’t seen these before.

A simple yet win meal.

John came back from an exchange in Spain some years ago raving about this dish.

I have never cooked a proper Spanish Omelette before. The ingredients were simplicity itself; diced (un-cooked) potato, onion and eggs.

It was lovely but next time I’d add slightly less potato. (I did weigh the potatoes for this recipe. Probably a first!) Next time I’d probably add some of the suggested variations – smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill; cherry tomato, rosemary and goat’s cheese or my suggestion – some bacon or my recently discovered pancetta!

We voted it between 3.5/5 and 4/5. I will definitely cook this again.

A great dish when you’re in a hurry.

Today I read an article by Paul Flynn from the Tannery restaurant and cookery school (and lately The Tannery Blog) in the Irish Times magazine. He opened his piece with ‘I have had enough of this air of depression for one year, thank you very much. It got to the stage where I stopped watching the TV in case I saw the news and stopped listening to the radio in the morning. It was all too dispiriting …’

I couldn’t agree more with the man. For the exact same reason, I too have stopped watching The News and Prime Time on TV. Morning Ireland has also been shafted. If it’s important enough I’ll get to hear about it.

Being less dispirited means that I’m in a far better place to contribute positively to my work.

Anyway my reading of yesterday’s Times got in the way of writing this blogpost.

Last night I cooked dinner for ten friends and the three of us guinea-pigs. I set a teddy-bear at the table, thirteen seemed too unlucky a number!

I was busy at work all week and away Thursday and Friday so my choice of recipes had to be heavily based on ease of preparation. Thus I only got to test two dishes from the Avoca Cafe Cookbook; Lakeshore pork and Carrot and courgette salad.

Carrot and courgette salad

Basically just grated carrot, courgettes, fresh coriander, french dressing, seeds, orange juice and orange zest. Easy out.

As long as you have someone good with a grater, adds my husband!

In all the chat last night, I didn’t get the votes. So today we ate the leftovers. I always cook too much food but the up-shot is I had an easy day cooking today. Denis and I voted it 4/5. Straight into the ‘Cook again’ department!

Lakeshore pork

One thing I am doing in this experiment is if I’m suspicious of a recipe, I’ll adapt it, (mentioning here that I did), rather than slavishly following the book. I have cooked this recipe before.

When I was flying to the States to see the lads, I had my laptop out and was writing. (I write blogposts when and where I get a chance). The plane was far from full so I had a few seats to myself. I had the Avoca salads book beside me. The air hostess picked up the book and commented that she had the Avoca Cafe Cookbook. She said she had cooked Lakeshore pork from it but it had been a disaster. ‘Much too much lakeshore mustard in it’, she said.

Armed with knowledge from:

a) Having myself cooked this recipe before and thinking it was wrong
b) That comment from the air hostess, and
c) My realising that ‘Even Homer nods’ having cooked my way through the Avoca salads book,

I adapted this recipe.

The recipe for four people calls for 1.3kg diced pork, (I used fillet), seasoned flour, olive oil, 600ml apple juice, 300ml chicken stock, 300g Lakeshore mustard or other wholegrain mustard and 300ml cream. I was doubling the recipe but was also cooking fish as a main course for non-pork lovers. (I hated pork as a child!)

The error in this recipe, in my opinion, is the amount of wholegrain mustard, 300g for four people. I was using Maille wholegrain mustard. The jar below contains 210g. The recipe calls for approximately one and a half such jars for four people!

In doubling the recipe I used only two tablespoons of mustard and there was plenty of mustard flavour. The guests and guinea pigs all enjoyed this dish. Some who chose the fish even had some pork to taste afterwards.

Us guinea pigs rated the dish 4, 4 and 4.5 out of 5. This adapted recipe will also definitely go into the ‘Cook again’ department. Next time I will add slightly more mustard but nothing near what the recipe suggests.

As the Meatloaf song doesn’t go, two out of two ain’t bad!

Kicked off cooking experiment part 2 with Baked chicken with Parmesan and wholegrain mustard.

This was a really simple recipe, chicken oven-baked with wholegrain mustard, Parmesan cheese and chicken stock. I didn’t add the cream until the end of cooking. Secondly I left the breasts whole, not dicing them as per recipe. I lengthened the cooking time because I hadn’t diced the chicken. Finally the recipe left it optional as to whether to thicken the sauce, (with a roux). I didn’t.

Served it with salad and fresh crusty white bread.

The chicken was delicious – really tender and flavorsome. Denis and I voted it win, at 4 out of 5. Youngest mouse reminded me that he has gone off chicken, (though he did eat it). Thus I wont include a vote from Junior.

This recipe is typical of why I do this experiment. I probably would have passed this recipe by normally, it didn’t sound interesting. Well I have this cookery book nine years and never cooked this recipe. Mind you that applies to a lot of cookery books, the number of actual recipes I have cooked from them is small.

This recipe is perfect because
1 It has a small number of easy ingredients
2 The method is simple
3 It is inexpensive

Also perfect for when one is working. I might try cooking it in advance and see how the flavour develops.

Afterwards we had Jim Tynan’s Lemon Drizzle Cake

Jim Tynan’s has just launched a new cookbook. Anyone who hasn’t been to Jim Country’s Kitchen in Portlaoise is in for a treat. It is worth visiting Portlaoise just to go to this great restaurant and delicatessan. I’ve written about it before here.

Now just have to think of name for part 2 of the experiment …

The day I stop learning, please throw me in the box. And you know which box I’m talking about!

I loved doing the Julie & Julia experiment because I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun cooking the recipes. Despite protestations, big, little and visiting guinea-pigs enjoyed the experiment.

A few people have mentioned to me that they are sorry that the Julie & Julia experiment had finished. In some ways I kind of am as well.

Reading Julie Powell’s book, led to my original idea. But it seems I certainly wasn’t the first with the idea!

Helen, one of my blog readers, recently told me of another blog with the same idea. Maggie set herself the challenge of cooking her way through Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries this year, about 200 recipes. She said, ‘… So, from the start of 2009, I shall attempt every recipe in his book, and will chart my progress on the blog, listing successes, failures, also-rans …’

Maggie is still alive and kicking. Last Wednesday, she posted recipe number 182!

As far as I have read on her blog, she is generally complimentary of Nigel Slater’s recipes. However I read with interest her severe criticism of one recipe in a recent post. Maggie said, ‘ … Why is cheesy bubble and squeak not better known? Because IT DOESN’T WORK, that’s why! Sorry Nigel, after all your recent triumphs, this was a failure, and I think I know why. Firstly, your measurements were imprecise …’

I smiled when I read this post. Nigel Slater too can get it wrong sometimes!

Maggie also referred to another blog, Helen’s blog. Helen completed a similar experiment in 2008 with Nigella Express. 189 recipes.

Helen too is alive and well and still blogging!

So guess where this is leading …

You are right.

I’m thinking of taking on another challenge!

I have lots of cookery books

But at the moment Avoca’s cookery books are the ones that most inspire me. I like their simple to prepare, honest-to-God, (not sure where He comes in), down to earth food.

I’m thinking of cooking my way through the original ‘Avoca Cafe Cookbook’.

While browsing through cookbooks in Easons Limerick, last weekend, one of the girls kindly offered to check their records for me. She told me that the Avoca Cafe Cookbook was their biggest seller after Clodagh Mc Kenna’s book, (which had been on special at €6.99) and two small inexpensive cookbooks, (costing less than €2). The Avoca Cafe Cookbook was first published in 2000. To still be a best-seller nine years later, says something about the book.

However I am open to suggestion if anyone can suggest a better book for the challenge.

I’m not setting a time limit. The challenge will be to complete the project in a reasonable length of time. I have to think of a name for the challenge yet!

I never want to write solely a food blog. As before, I will mix the food posts with other posts.

I’m thinking of cooking a special meal mostly at the weekend for whoever is around, for Denis and youngest mouse and/or whoever is visiting. They can rate the various recipes.

You will be glad to know Denis and youngest mouse have given the idea the thumbs-up. They realise they are guaranteed lots of hot food. And at least they are guaranteed to be well-fed, one day a week!

Plus, because these recipes are much more mobile than salads, I can do things like bring a cake to work or when visiting. There’s more scope.

The 108 recipes in this book for this experiment are as follows:

17 Soups

Green bean and coconut
Courgette and almond
Tomato, celery and apple
Tomato and red pepper
Tomato, lentil and orange
Roasted carrot and red pepper
Petit pois and mint
Baked garlic and onion cream
Cauliflower cheese
White Winter vegetable
Aztec corn
Mixed mushroom
Spiced lentil and lemon
Tuscan bean
Parsnip, rosemary and olive
Sweet potato and lemongrass
Potato and fennel

15 Fish and Chicken

Fish pie
Smoked salmon frittata
Salmon and leek tart
Herb-crusted cod
Asian-style crabcakes with fruit chutney
Salmon and smoked trout terrine
Chicken, asparagus and ratatouille pancake stack
Baked chicken with plums, ginger and soy
Baked chicken with parmesan and wholegrain mustard
Chargrilled breast of chicken with celeriac mash and roasted cherry tomatoes
Nicki’s chicken curry
Thai chicken curry
Eimer’s spinach, chicken and creme fraiche filo parcels
Chicken marinated in honey and mustard
Chicken and broccoli gratin

13 Meat

Beef and Guinness stew
Braised beef in orange sauce
Pepperpot beef
Kilmacanogue meatballs with herb and tomato sauce
Avoca’s shepherd’s pie
Baked lamb with cumin, cardamom and coconut milk
Baked lamb with oven-roasted Mediterranean vegetables
Avoca’s Irish stew
Santa Fe pork stew
Pork and chicken terrine
Normandy pork
Spanish pork
Lakeshore pork

18 Vegetable Main Courses

Potato and celeriac gratin
Leek, blue cheese and rocket frittata
Spinach omelette
Spanish omelette
Tuscan pizza
Open pizza sandwiches
Raised Mediterranean vegetable pie
Mediterranean tart
Sun-dried tomato, olive and ricotta stuffed baked potatoes
Mediterranean lasagne
Lentil and nut loaf
Spinach, roast pepper and tomato roulade
Ricotta and sweetcorn roulade
Piperade tartlets
Aubergine, feta and poppy seed tart
Caramelised onion and three-cheese tart
Spinach, pecan and blue cheese pies
Asparagus, smoked bacon and Gruyere quiche

8 Breads

White yeast bread
Brown bread
Soda bread
Fruit soda
Multiseed brown bread with fruit
Focaccia
Tomato, cheese and black olive bread
Banana bread

24 Tea Time and Desserts

Avoca scones
Avoca brown scones
Apple streusel biscuits
Italian chocolate fudge biscuits
Bir’s biccies (Bakewell biscuits)
Muesli biscuits
Chocolate hazelnut cookies
Gertie’s shortbread
Baked cheesecake with lemon topping
Karen’s mango and raspberry cheesecake
Carrot cake
Chocolate orange cake
Strawberry meringue roulade
Chocolate roulade
Mixed berry tiramisu
Chocolate and amaretti mousse
Pecan and maple tart
Lemon tart with caramelised strawberries
Caramelised rhubarb and custard tart
Custard
Hazelnut and plum tart
Moll’s Gap apple pie
Mixed berry Normandy tart
Chocolate and raspberry tart

13 Salads (I might wait for warmer weather!)

Carrot and courgette
Beetroot, almond and yoghurt
Cauliflower, broccoli and roasted monkey nuts
Roasted herbed potato with balsamic vinegar
Chickpea, bulgur and wild rice salad with cumin
Chickpea, chilli and coriander with banana and mango
Spinach, sun-dried tomato, Parmesan, pine nuts and pasta
Smoked bacon, blue cheese and pineapple pasta
Tuna, fusilli, mixed pepper
Kilmacanogue curried rice
Triple rice salad with sesame dressing
Red cabbage with bacon and red onion
Butterbean, smoked bacon and garlic

The following 7 salads were also in the Avoca Salads Book, so I wont repeat them.

Carrot with roasted sesame seeds
Broccoli, feta, hazelnut and cherry tomato
Potato and mint
Moroccan couscous
Oriental bean sprout and egg noodle
Avoca three-bean
Summer fruit salad

I’ve left out Relishes and Sundries because it would be hard for my guinea-pigs to rate them. They include recipes for things like lemon curd, french dressing, spiced vinegar and shortcrust pastry. I’ll assume most of them are incorporated in the above recipes.

So this mad-woman here is adding a further 108 recipes to her previous 41, 149 recipes in all.

It appears I am somewhat less mad than Maggie (approx 200 recipes), Helen (189 recipes) and Julie Powell herself (524 recipes).

Only somewhat, though!