Roasted cod loin

The Woo was out with the girls this evening doing a recce on the El Mariachi restaurant in Tonbridge.  I dropped a few of them in town and then back home for supper and a glass of vino as Alan (of friends Gill and Alan) was going to be picking them up.

I'd picked up a lovely piece of cod loin when I finished work and decided to curry it up a bit and have it with some pillau style rice.

The cod was rolled in a dry mix of polenta, garam masala and cumin seeds.  This I started of by pan frying on all four sides in quite a bit of butter for about a minute each side.  The whole lot was then popped into a 180* oven for about 15 minutes.  Every five minutes or so I took it out and gave it a good basting with the hot butter in the pan.  I rested this for a few minutes when it came out of the oven.

For the pillau rice I used a mixture of basmati and wild rice which we have become completely addicted to.  It has the freshness of basmati with a lovely rustic bite from the wild rice.  I cooked the rice and then gently fried it in loads of butter with softened red onion, chilli, garlic, turmeric, mushrooms and peas.  A good sprinkle of chopped coriander and some seasoning finished it off prior to dishing up.

I sprinkled the cod with sea salt and had it on a bed of the rice.  On the side I had some curry mayonnaise.  This was simply some nice oily mayo with a bit of hot curry powder and chopped fresh chilli stirred in.


I think it worked.  Next time I might try fennel seeds instead of cumin, though.

Paprika chicken

The Woo fancied a bit of spicy chicken and, as her word is more or less my command, I stopped off at Hayward's on the way home from work and bought a couple of chicken legs.  We love our chicken but we're not great fans of breast meat.  We prefer the thighs/legs for their much deeper, chickeny flavour.

I marinated the legs in some olive oil, loads of garlic, chopped chilli, half a teaspoonful of smoked paprika and a touch of salt and pepper.  They were then briefly pan fried to colour and whacked in a hot oven for about 20 minutes; basted frequently with the oozy paprika butter than developed in the pan.  The skin goes quite black but it doesn't taste at all burnt...just lovely and spicy/sweet.

I served this with some spicy mushroomy, garlicky rice with a little chopped spring onions (found in the fridge) stirred in at the last minute.  It was fresh and spicy...and CHEAP!

Braised red cabbage

Yesterday I picked up a free range rack of pork that my work colleague, Ros, had reduced to only five quid a kilo.  Bargain!  With my discount... Bargain Bargain!!  We decided to save it for tonight as The Woo had a night out with the girlies yesterday evening and Sam and I opted for the chippy instead of me cooking.  A very nice cod and chips from The Diamond fish shop in Martin Hardy Way certainly set me up for the evening.

The pork was roasted on a bed of onions, sage and garlic with a good lug of red wine to get the gravy started.  With this we had roast potatoes and my braised red cabbage.  I do this quite often and with the addition of some chopped apple near the end of cooking time it goes so well with pork.  It's just as good with cold meats and cheese too, freezes well and keeps for a good while in the fridge due to the slight pickling effect caused by the balsamic vinegar and sugar.

So for braised red cabbage...

In a large pan I slowly cooked a couple of largish red onions in about half a bottle of red wine.  To this was added about half a teaspoon of ground coriander, a teaspoon of ground cumin, some sea salt, a good lug of balsamic vinegar and about an equal quantity of sugar.  I didn't taste it until the red onions had gone completely soft and gloopy after soaking up some of the red wine.  This took about 30 minutes on a slow simmer with the lid on.  How vinegary/sweet you want it is really a matter of taste so now's the time to adjust with a little more of either the balsamic or the sugar.  I had mine just about right as we prefer a slight tart edge to cut through the roasted pork.

At this point I added a finely sliced red cabbage, stirred it around a bit and then bunged the lid back on and forgot about it for an hour or so.  The idea is that the cabbage slowly braises in the wine and soaks most of it up so you end up with a lovely soft cabbagy, oniony, winey pan of goodness.  After an hour I checked it, tasted it in case it need a little adjustment of seasoning and then turned the heat of until just before serving time when I warmed it through with a chopped apple stirred in.  With the pork this evening I wanted the apples still with a little crunch to off-set the softness of the cabbage.  As a late night snack with cheese or tomorrow with whatever---the apple goes soft too and the whole thing is the epitomy of unctuousness!

Finally...spring!

What with one thing and another it has been a miserable winter and the recent wet weather has dampened spirits even further here at Quincewood Farm.  Thank goodness for the sunshine of the last few days.  I did my Tuesday voluntary kitchen thing today, picked up a bit of shopping afterwards and then headed home for a lovely long dog walk over the fields.

It was glorious out in the fresh air.  I soon took off my fleece and was more than comfortable wandering around in just a T-shirt.  My primary object was to seek out a couple of suitably secluded and suitably mature silver birch trees.  I didn't find any today, though, as The Woo met me halfway round the route and we ended up searching for her iPod that Freya managed to dislodge in an over-enthusiastic welcome!  I'll hunt further afield tomorrow and then let you in on what my plans are!

Here are a few photos from today.  I'm soooooo glad that something of a spring is finally with us!

Looking a teeny bit green!

The first I've seen this year

Favourite spot of all

So pretty in the sunshine

This pond is lovely and clear

Such a blue sky today

Racing to meet The Woo

Marinated lamb chops with minted cabbage and leek champ

Seems it's been a while since I did a bit of proper blogging so hello to any readers still left in the melting pot!  I've been busy with this and that and had my hours extended at work so all I seem to do at the moment is get home, cook, eat and fall asleep!

No more slacking, Georgie - get back in there and blog!

This evening we're in lamb chop mode.  I have used chump chops from Waitrose but cutlets would work as would Barnsley chops or any other quick cook cut you care to use!  These have been simply marinated for about an hour in some olive oil, garlic, rosemary and thyme.  A bit of salt and pepper slung in to keep things sweet (or should that be savoury?).  Pan fried on a high heat in just the marinating oil for about a minute each side in an oven-proof pan and then bunged in a 180* oven for about 5 minutes.  We like it pink at QFK!

For the champ I softened a couple of sliced leeks in a disastrous amount of butter and oil.  Sea salt and white pepper added to taste.  These were left to cool in the pan and soak up all the fatty goodness.  When I was ready they were reheated and in went a finely sliced savoy cabbage and a little chopped mint.  Once the cabbage was cooked (but still crisply al dente) I stirred the mixture into some creamy mashed potato.

The rested (for a few minutes) chops were served atop a pile of champ with a liberal libation of red wine gravy.