In my kitchen tonight…
Tonight’s dinner is on its way (veggies look away): chicken in a lemon and olive sauce.
Tomorrow’s dinner (probably) is looking mighty pretty. Although I don’t really think the Romanescu cauli tastes any different from the usual kind, you’ve got to be wowed by the fractal patterns…
Some essential stuff in my kitchen:
The cookery books:
And the perfect baby-sized slow cooker for the single girl with the tiny kitchen (1 portion for me, 1-2 portions for the freezer…):
… Oh, and here’s the chicken 30 minutes later:
I love cooking. I never used to; the enjoyment increases as you get better at it, I think. Not that I go in for elaborate or complicated cooking. I don’t so much like anything that needs weighing out or finicky timing. (Or creates a lot of washing up.) It’s a great relaxing way to spend an hour (at most) a day. Good food doesn’t necessarily take long…
10 comments on “What’s Cookin’?”
I love “The Cookery Year” – it’s great! Try the recipes for Navarin of Lamb and French Onion Soup — they are very nice. Where’s your Madhur Jaffrey?
Mmm, Madhur Jaffrey! We have her veggie book, which my husband really likes but I’m too lazy/unadventurous to use. The chicken looks extremely yummy (and I love the little crock pot!).
Ooh — you have “Vegetarian Kitchen, too!”
I do have a little Madhur Jaffrey book of ‘curries’ somewhere… ah, it’s hiding behind the newspaper pullouts and stuff. My cookery book collection is a rather haphazard affair. I rarely buy them new, and just pick up ones that happen to take my fancy in the charity shops and secondhand bookstores, or going cheap in the remaindered book shops. I want more Sophie Grigson (my friend has her ‘meat’ book; some pure food porn) and Claudia Roden, but a ‘proper’ Madhur Jaffrey would be good too.
The chicken (free range, of course…) was delicious. I love the recipe. It’s a quick version of a dish that’s in the Claudia Roden Mediterranean cookery book, and takes less than an hour from start to finish.
all round.
Wow. That’s cauliflower? Seriously?
Yep. I saw it for the first time only about a year ago. Can I find something online… Well, photographers clearly dig it. And it’s sometimes also called Romanescu broccoli and (!!) broccoflower. But actually the picture of ‘broccoflower’ (which is indeed a cross between broccoli and cauliflower) I’ve just come across looks rather different, apart from the colour:
http://www.publix.com/wellness/notes/Display.do?id=Food_Guide&childId=Broccoflower
Anyway, you can cook it exactly the same way as either broccoli or cauliflower. I think I’m going to use it to make a version of my favourite cauliflower cheese soup.
MJ’s “Introduction to Indian Cooking” ia great.
I’m familiar with Broccoflower … but it scares me a bit. Used to see it in the stores somewhere that I lived. But where? Dammit, I’ve moved too much. I’m going to take a guess and say New England, but could be quite wrong.
Hey — how would the lemon/olive sauce (which looks and sounds yummy) be without the chicken?
Hmm. I haven’t tried it, I don’t know what it’d lose without the meat juices… I suspect it might go quite well with mixed roast veggies (which I’m having tonight but probably with lentils and tomato sauce), or maybe grilled tofu as a chicken substitute. My version of the recipe, BTW, has been adapted from a book by Nigel Slater (we heart Nigel Slater around here!) which I think was called The 30-minute cook. I don’t make it quite the way he does though (he reduces the sauce down to a really thick gloop; and I like a bit less lemon than he puts in).
ADM: just wanted to say that I did the Navarin of Lamb (slightly adapted) tonight and it was extremely good. A tub of it has also gone into the freezer for later. Thanks for the tip!