Nasi – but not as we know it!

I mentioned in The art of disguise… fish about substituting the cooked chicken with thin strips of smoked salmon and/or smoked salmon flakes and the ham with 4-6 hard boiled eggs, chopped.

Here's an alternative “fish” Nasi recipe :

Nasi but not

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed or garlic paste

half tsp chilli powder

8oz (225g) cooked rice

6oz (175g) cooked salmon fillet, flaked

6oz (175g) smoked salmon, finely sliced

6oz (175g) peeled prawns, defrosted if frozen

2 tbsp Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce)

1 tsp soft light brown sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

4-6 hard boiled eggs, quartered

black pepper

Serves 4-6

Add the vegetable oil to a wok and heat gently. Add the onions, garlic and chilli powder and fry until lightly browned. Add the rice and cook for a few seconds then stir in the salmon and prawns.

Mix the soy sauce, sugar and lemon juice together, then stir into the rice mixture. Stir in the ham then season to taste with pepper.

Add the eggs, folding in gently, serve immediately, straight from the wok.

You can adjust the amounts of fish/seafood to your own personal taste – bearing in mind that you have two elements to replace from the original recipe – chicken and ham – 175g each plus 175g of prawns. You are adding hard boiled eggs but I see these as garnish but definitely an integral part of the dish since the sauce is quite punchy and the fish quite salty so they play an important part in the balance.

Once again though, make it your own – adjust to suit yourself, if you want more prawns then adjust the amount of salmon accordingly. The great thing about this recipe is that it is a “leftovers” dish i.e. everything in it, apart from the onion, garlic and chilli and the sauce, is already cooked.

Check out the summertime deals around at the moment – salmon fillets and smoked salmon are part of the picnic passion – always assuming we ever have any decent weather – a soggy bottom is not nice!

A little summerthing extra …

… for your strawberries and cream/ice cream

Strawberry & Almond Soup

250g strawberries, the riper the better

2 tbsp icing sugar

3 tbsp water

3 tbsp Amaretto liqueur

Top your strawberries and cut into quarters, straight into your blender. Add the icing sugar and the water and blitz until you have a purée.

Pass the purée through a sieve and then add the Amaretto liqueur. Cover and “fridge”.

Serve tipped over strawberries and ice cream, vanilla ice cream on its own or even over a plain cake.

Thanks to Niki Segnit and “The flavour Thesarus” where I came across this recipe. It didn't have a title so I gave it “soup” since it's messes with your senses - ice cream and soup!

It's a really quick recipe and here's what it looks like.

You could toast some flaked almonds and sprinkle over the soup for added texture!

What the girls said …

“the food is amazing, inspiration for cooking, food for thought”

“wonderful flavours and textures”

“quick, easy, tasty”

“always a sign of good food – silence!”

“soda bread was delicious with the goats cheese, sour cherries and honey – beautiful!”

“pretend risotto with pasta, it was lovely”

“orzotto even better than risotto – much easier”

… and back to the bread

The girls loved the speed with which the loaf went into the oven. No proving, no faffing around. We deliberated as to what additions could be made – nigella seeds, chopped walnuts, olives, to name but three. Continuing with the weekend treat theme, think also of the quality issues – how virtuous can you be?!

Give some thought to the E numbers in processed bread – there's one for colouring the crust, another for extending the shelf life, another for making sure the crumb stays soft – aka an emulsifier – added enzymes to ensure your overall loaf stays soft – I could go on!

“Artisan breads” are very trendy nowadays – one thing is certain, you'll pay for the privilege – you are entitled to ask, politely of course, how your “artisan” loaf was baked and therefore to make sure it is what is says on the fancy waistband wrapper you so often see.

I realise that the rapid soda bread recipe is not an authentic “sourdough” the real McCoy (i.e. the real deal) takes at least 16 hours – but whose got that sort of time?! Personally I'd rather know what ingredients – and the fewer the better – were in my loaf, humble though it may be. In the unlikely event that you have any of your loaf left I can confirm unreservedly that it toasts brilliantly.

A memo …

… to the BBC Good Food Show Summer and to whoever is responsible for doling out the fast food concessions.

To: BBC Good Food Show Summer – Complaints and Feedback

From: Me

Re: Visit to BBC Good Food Show Summer – Birmingham 16^th June 2016

I set down below an excerpt from my post entitled A Grand Day Out … take a tip, as follows :

... with limited choices we chose a crepe from a concession near the picnic areas – sweet or savoury – we opted for the savoury @ £6 per crepe – expensive, although tasty enough. What I didn't realise until it was too late was that the two small bottles of water purchased at the same time – at £2 each – gasp - was from Costco – for those not familiar, a membership based cash and carry which bears the Kirkland name. I can't tell you yet exactly how much they cost per bottle but rest assured I'll be backing up my mouth as soon as possible – if I had to guess probably in the region of 20p per bottle – watch this space.

I was very generous with “in the region of 20p per bottle”.

I have now completed my research. The bottles of water are sold in packs of 40 – each bottle is 500ml. Cost (including VAT) is 1.6p per 100ml – 8.025p per bottle which, if my arithmetic is correct, results in a mark up of 2492%.

Everyone is entitled to make a profit and lets not forget it's hard work but there's a limit and there's a vast difference between what is reasonable and absolute daylight robbery.

I did try to pass my research to “Contact Us” “For complaints and feedback regarding the show see our CUSTOMER CHARTER”. Sadly “File or directory not found … might have been removed … name changed or is temporarily unavailable.”

So, my final effort is to email general enquiries bbcgoodfoodshow@riverstreetevents.co.uk – I'll keep you posted!

Back to work … dessert

... is based on a quick and easy recipe using a fruit that is in season – apricots.  If you're using fresh fruit then you'll need at least 8 apricots i.e. 4 halves per person, stones removed – more if you want!  Apricots have a short season and can be unreliable, so here's a recipe that uses a store cupboard ingredient i.e. the tinned alternative.

Caramelised Apricots

Serves 4

1 x 420g tin of apricots, drained

40g unsalted butter

50g soft light brown sugar

25ml Amaretto liqueur

8/10 amaretti biscuits, crushed

Pre-heat oven 180 fan/200c/Gas 6

I used my trusted frying pan that is suitable to use in the oven.

Melt the butter on a medium heat, add the apricots and then the liqueur.  Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the fruit and place in the oven for 15 minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or sorbet works well too.

Verdicts to follow with “what the girls said”.

Back to work – Main

Orzo

Anyone out there heard of orzo?  No, it's not some fancy swordsman, that's Zorro, nor is it a spirit drunk in Greece – that's ouzo!  Orzo is in fact a type of pasta.  It looks just like large grains of rice.

Do we like risotto – yep, I think we do.  There's only one major problem with risotto – to cook it properly you need time to give it tender loving care.  Not a quick supper dish.  Well, recently reading a copy of delicious. I came across a recipe called Summer minestrone and pancetta orzotto.  Give a recipe a fancy schmancy title and I automatically think complicated – in this case not at all!

Orzotto

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped finely

260g orzo pasta

500ml vegetable stock (or chicken)

juice of 1 lemon

200g frozen petit pois

2 tbsp fresh pesto

bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

extra pesto and slices of lemon to serve

salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat and fry the onion for 2/3 minutes.  Stir in orzo and cook for 1-2 minutes and then add the stock all at once.  Simmer and stir occasionally for 7/8 minutes until nearly cooked.  Stir in the lemon juice and the frozen peas.  Simmer for 2/3 minutes until the peas are cooked then add the pesto and the parsley.  Season to taste and serve with extra pesto and a squeeze of lemon.

This dish lends itself – serve as above as a vegetarian dish topped with grated parmesan.

Add 80g of diced chorizo or cubed pancetta with the onion at the beginning of the recipe for meat eaters.  The original recipe contains pancetta and uses chicken stock.

  

Sprinkle with bacon bits and parmesan – if you serve the bacon bits in a separate bowl then everyone can help themselves - you can serve vegetarians and meat eaters too.

I made the vegetarian version but served it with a chicken breast on the side – it vanished.  You can't say it isn't versatile!

If I've ever had risotto leftovers I've turned it into arancini (aka rice balls stuffed with cheese) but whichever way you look at it it's a lot of work especially for a quick supper.

Anyway, waffling over, I divided the orzotto leftovers into foil trays with lids and “fridged”.  I ate my portion two days later, warming it through in a 160fan/180c/Gas 4 oven for 15 minutes (only because I was warming something else) and tipped it into a warmed bowl – the orzotto was as good as the night I made it, sprinkled liberally with parmesan of course – it would be rude not to!

Note to self – next time I'm going to add chestnut mushrooms with the onion.

Orzo pasta is on my permanent pantry staple list – make it your own, whatever you fancy, you will not regret it – in addition it makes a great lunch box – cold or hot.

If by any chance you do have leftovers you can't use it will freeze, boxed or bagged for up to a month.

I make no apology to the risotto purists out there – there's plenty of room orzotto too!

P.s. You can buy gluten free orzo.

Back to work!

It's all very well gadding about all over the place but it's time to get back in the saddle.  It's a bit like waiting for a bus – you wait for hours and then two come along at once – a London trip and then Birmingham in the same month!

So lets crack on – it's Class time again

Remember the Soda bread rapido mentioned in Beautiful bread - this will be my appetiser.  I shall make a loaf late afternoon so that it is still pleasantly warm, ready for my guests to enjoy and then demonstrate another.  Just imagine the aroma when they walk into the dem room!

It would be pretty miserable just serving up slices of bread – fresh though it may be.  So I decided to have two options to taste test.  The first is lemon curd – the microwave version.  A small gift – a pot of their own to take home if they don't want to use it during the evening.  My alternative is soft goats' cheese and tart montmorency cherries chopped finely – enough to sprinkle over the cheese and finally an optional drizzle of clear honey.  You could use fresh cherries at the moment since they are in season – don't forget to stone them!  The cheese and cherries would make an excellent crostini topping.

Oh, by the way – re the soda bread - instead of dusting your baking sheet with flour, try semolina.  Likewise sprinkle semolina over the top of the loaf before baking to give a really crusty loaf – deep joy.

Freshly baked bread always makes me think of home-made lemon curd – a little strange since I don't really have a sweet tooth – I think it's the satisfaction of producing jars of it – comfort food at its best.

Here's a photo of my luscious lemon curd.

What a great weekend treat – turn the oven on to pre-heat on your way to the kettle - it only takes 30 minutes.  If you weigh out your flour, salt and bicarb the previous day you just add the buttermilk and in it goes – it'll be ready before your second mug of coffee or tea!