Cooking

Karate Chop

Lindsay — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:51:42 +0200

The alternative way to slice vegetable.

Wealthy Bakers

Lindsay — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:11:27 +0200

Yesterday my mother told her friends that I was rich. My little daughter had said to her that 'mummy was making pancakes', which she translated as 'mummy is making packets.' !!

Today we made pancakes. This is a very easy recipie to follow and is based on the Scottish 'dropped scone' rather than a thinner pancake that uses more egg. So...

4 heaped tbls SR flour
2 heaped tbls caster sugar
1 egg
milk

Mix/beat ingredients together and add milk till mixture is runny enough to pour off the end of spoon slowly. In a frying pan (traditional Scots would use a skillet) smear butter and leave pan till quite hot (med-high heat). Pour in pancake and leave till all bubbles rise and burst. Turn over and cook till brown. If the pancake is pale when it is turned then the heat is not high enough.

Serve with whatever.

Lemongrass Beef

Lindsay — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:31:55 +0100

This is another one of those comforter dishes, and was made in commiseration of the (anticipated) Scotland defeat by Ireland in the Six-nations Rugby tournament yesterday. Scotland have gloriously lost every single match so far, and are on their way to collecting 'The Wooden Spoon'. Perhaps they may redeem themselves in the Calcutta Cup, the Six-Nation match between Scotland and 'the auld enemy' England, in March.

Ingredients:
2 onions
5g whole allspice
1 cinnamon stick
5g fresh grated ginger
2 green peppers
750g stewing steak
2 tablespoons of fresh lemongrass
500ml stock
500g of cubed pumpkin/butternut squash
2 cloves garlic

Soften onions. Stir in allspice cinnamon and ginger. Add meat to pan and brown. Stir in lemongrass and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 mins. Stir in pumpkin/butternut squash and peppers and simmer for 20-30 mins. Stir in garlic, switch of cooker and allow to cook in heat.

I served this with pitta bread and fresh yogurt. The photo looks nothing like it did in the book; it tasted great, but I ain't no Domestic Goddess!

Athenian Lamb Hotpot

Lindsay — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:58:44 +0100

This dish is comfort food in anticipation that Scotland will loose (again) against Ireland in the Six-Nations Rugby tournament this afternoon.

Ingredients:
1KG of Boneles lamb, cubed
olive oil
2 onions (finely chopped)
1 green pepper
250ml tomato paste
185ml chicken broth (stock)
a few ground cardamons
cinnamon stick
ground black pepper
fresh coriander

Cook meat till browned. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Cook onion and pepper until onion softens. Stir in tomato paste and broth. Add cardamon, cinnamon and bring to the boil. Return meat to pan with coriander. Cover and simmer. I cooked this for around an hour then switched the cooker off to allow it to cook in its own heat.

In the picture I served this with couscous, and probably added a little to much tomato, but it still tasted fine...the last of this dish is waiting until after 7pm. Good luck lads!!

Steak and Onions

Lindsay — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:35:39 +0100

This weekend I had one and a half surprise guests who brought with them offerings of meat; so I thought I'd share this lovely picture of my medium-rare sirloin steak with onions, pepper sauce, rice, spinach and avacado. Unfortunately in my mind this looks more like entrails on top of entrails, but I can assure you it tasted lovely. We fried the steak with seasoning and a little red wine; the pepper sauce was not home-made, but a half a ready-made packet that I had floating around in the back of my cupboard. I have however posted a link here to Delia's version which includes the recipie for the sauce and uses a much more sophisticated cognac instead of the slosh of cheap red wine...her photo is also more aesthetically pleasing.

Lasagne

Lindsay — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:04:20 +0200

This dish was cooked yesterday evening for a fellow artist and occasional co-conspiritor on projects. It was served with garlic bread, rocket leaves, avacado and washed down with a crisp Pinot Grigio. Following our meal we watched 'The City of Lost Children' a film about an evil scientist who kidnaps children to steal their dreams. The film was directed by Jeunet of Delicatessen fame, and as you would imagine, was a darkly cinematic experience.

For the lasagne:
1 chopped onion
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 desertspoon tomato puree
250g minced beef
lasagne sheets
salt and sugar to taste

For the sauce:
large knob of butter
1 mug of milk
heaped desertspoon of flour
grated cheese

Method:
Soften the onions and garlic in a pan, add the beef and brown. Add the tomatoes and puree and simmer gently for 3/4 -1 hour. Add salt and sugar to taste. Turn the pan off and leave to cool. At this point you can add vegetables such as courgettes and peppers that will cook in the existing heat. As with alot of sauces, soups and stews this mix is better left for a while as it improves flavour.
To make the sauce, melt the butter then mix in the flour to make a paste. Over a lowish heat add the milk a little at a time, stirring continuously. Add the cheese until the sauce thickens.

In a square dish, alternately layer sauce, lasagne sheets and meat. Usual is two layers of meat and three lasagne. Pour the remainder of the sauce onto the top and cook in at gas 6, 180c for around 1/2 hr. Leave to stand for 5 mins before serving.

Tafelspitz and Pumpkin

Armin Medosch — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:40:46 +0200

The meat on the left is Tafelspitz for which my dictionary only gives a translation of prime beef boiled. This you can find everywhere in eastern Austria. But the more important part is the pumpkin stew here as a side dish which makes a good main meal by itself. This style of Styrian Pumpkin I love and it was cooked for me by my mother on 45th birthday.
I didn't have the chance to ask her for a detailed recipe, so for the time being take this one
Styrian Pumpkin It is from the official Styrian government homepage, the design is a bit stern. But what their recipe does not tell you is that the pumpkin dish is best cooked not with butter but with pig fat. This makes the difference in taste but is not likely to be savvoured by everyone the same.

Pan-fried Sea Bass with Lemon and Dill Seasoning, New Potatoes in Butter with Wild Rocket and Watercress Garnish

Lindsay — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:15:19 +0200

Food for Thought: Greek Lentil and Olive Oil Soup

doll_yoko — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:08:00 +0200

Background to the meal: A soup I am cooking tonight for Furtherfield mob. It's a soft exchange for being their house guest in their flat in Haringey, London--and for FF allowing me to interview them for my PhD research.

Furtherfield are a core of 2 - Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett - who for the past 10 or 11 years have established and nurtured networked art and cultural experimentation - via online and offline playful participatory structures.

Some of their projects are documented here:

http://furtherfield.org

Original recipe source: my Greek friend in Adelaide, Niki V.

Ingredients:
Brown lentils (1 or 2 cups), washed
Some onions, chopped
Some cloves of garlic, chopped roughly
oregano and bay leaf or 2
a stalk or 2 of celery (chopped or whole)
a carrot of 2 (chopped or quartered)
1 or 2 cups of olive oil
feta cheese (I prefer Bulgarian)

Program:
Throw all elements (except feta) in deep saucepan, cover with water, and then more water.
Cook for an hour or so.
If you have broccoli or spinach you can throw some in at the end.
Also you can add a bit of tomato paste if you like.

Serve with bread and a bowl of feta cheese, People can add their own cheese to their bowls of soup. You can present the feta by sprinkling it with oregano, and covering with a bit of olive oil.

This soup is tasty the next day, served with basmati or persian rice. It is good to freeze, and thaw/eat in those times when you are being crushed by deadlines and can't be bothered shopping and cooking.