Steamed fish with minced pork, mushrooms, ginger and chilli

Having fish at a chinese restaurant is an extremely expensive affair. It can easily go beyond 10 pounds (fish for three to four persons) depending on the restaurant of course. D said he hasn't had it for some time and I said me too, so I decided to cook it for lunch today. Did quite a lot of prepatory work for this dish. Went to Asda early in the morning to buy a sea bream (farmed in Greece!). The fish has to be really fresh or else it won't taste nice. Corresponded with my mom on how I should cook it. I knew the basics behind it, the problem was how long I was supposed to cook the fish for. Thankfully everything came out alright. For a sea bream around 15 cm long, I steamed it for around 14 minutes and it turned out just right. Not overly cooked. The seasoning has to be adjusted a bit,its a bit bland, but just a little. All in all, I am quite happy with it.

Tender and crisp chicken legs with sweet tomatoes

Another one of Jamie Oliver's recipes and a very good one at that, after I made certain modifications to it. Its really simple to make it and its pretty healthy as well especially if you are like me and you deskin the chicken. In a way, you can't call the chicken crisp in my case as there's no skin to be crisped up by the oven heat. So how simple is it? All you need to do is to place chicken portions in a casserole dish, add basil with the stalks, a variety of tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on its size, garlic cloves with the skin and chopped chilli. Season with salt and chilli powder. Add a bit of chicken stock and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 90 minutes. Serve with pasta and you get a full meal, meat and vegetables.

Spaghetti with tuna, mushrooms and tomatoes

To get the energy necessary for me to go through my gym routine, I started eating pasta for lunch. This is a really simple and quick pasta recipe, you just need around 15 minutes to prepare and cook it. Saute minced garlic, tuna and mushrooms. Add in canned tomatoes. Simmer till the mixture is heated through. Add cooked spaghetti to it. Mix well and season. Sprinkle some cheese over it. I am using leftover mozzarella cheese. Not too sure I am supposed to do that. I think we are supposed to use Parmesian cheese but oh well, I needed to get rid of my mozzarella cheese as M has spotted its expiry date. This is basically the core of the recipe as adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. You can add lots of stuff to it such as olives, anchovies and roasted peppers. It still tastes good without all these stuff though. Interestingly, M claims that she likes it as well.

Kitchen

Oh I should have done this a long time ago. This is a photo of our kitchen.

Cafe Rouge / Steamed egg with minced pork

Had lunch at another franchise restaurant, Cafe Rouge, a French restaurant. You can see it in most cities in the UK. L, you are probably sniffing or snorting, being the food snob you are but yes, in a way, you are right this time. I have had meals at this restaurant many many times, in Nottingham, London, Strathford upon avon but tt wasn't that good this time perhaps because of our selections. I had French onion soup, it was strangely thick, I don't recall onion soup being thick. It tasted alright at the beginning but as I drank more of it, I realised that it was too salty. I should cook onion soup. M's potato, leek and spinach soup was fine though. Note to one self, try using spinach, the next time you make potato and leek soup. My main was thankfully alright. Salmon fish cakes and chips. Nothing spectacular. M's bacon, onion and mushroom tart looked absolutely disgusting. It was brown and black. I don't think its actually burnt but it just doesn't look that appetising. It tasted alright though. However, when food doesn't look that good, M doesn't eat it. Its as simple as that.

http://www.caferouge.co.uk/



"My hair is drinking the soup!"

So its porridge day. I realised I have never taken a photo of my porridge despite us eating it on a regular basis so you can see it today. Oh, M is finally sick of it so we are having noodles every week from now on, with the chicken stock. Woohoo! I definitely prefer noodles to porridge. Had steamed egg with minced pork with it. Its a dish that I have eaten all my life with porridge as well. My mom has been cooking this ever since I was born.

Chicken with tarragon sauce / Potato and carrot mash

M has been really busy but on friday, she managed to get back on time to have dinner. I made another dish from the French cookbook, chicken with tarragon sauce. Have to admit, it wasn't very successful as in my attempt to save money ie using creme fraiche when I am supposed to use whipping cream since I have creme fraiche left over from my tomato soup, the sauce became too watery. Reminder to one self, creme fraiche is for pouring, its not meant to be heated. Anyway, for this dish, boil chicken breast in chicken stock, white wine, dried tarragon and garlic till the chicken is cooked. Remove chicken from pot. Boil the sauce till its 2/3 evaporated. Add WHIPPING CREAM and boil till 1/2 is evaporated. Add fresh tarragon, season and pour over the chicken.



The carrot and potato mash was thankfully much more successful. I am proud to say that I made this dish up on my own. Boil carrots, potatoes. oranges, with dried herbs, cumin and salt till the carrots and potatoes are soft. Pour away the water and mash the mixture. Add olive oil to ensure a smooth texture. Season with salt and pepper.


Oh and I tried sushi from Waitrose. California Roll, to be precise. It was horrible. Really really horrible as they used normal rice instead of japanese rice. Sushi is not supposed to be crunchy.