#10 - Recipe: fail! Aka filo fun

So inspired by a Sainsbury's magazine section on cooking with filo pastry - i.e. the ready made stuff you can buy in the chiller section - I tried a few of the recipes to varying results!



Roast squash and blue cheese filo tarts

I've no pictures for these - but they were really simple, first roast the squash in cubes/chunks for about 20 / 30 mins in a 180 oven with some olive oil and rosemary (other herbs also work)

Then line some tart dishes, or in my case a low sided bowl, with the filo pastry, overlapping each layer at an angle to create a pretty layered effect.

Then fill the bowl with the roasted squash and crumble blue cheese over the top. Put back in the hot oven for 10 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted and the pastry cooked, et volia! easy peasy filo tarts!


Filo salmon en croute

So bouyed by the ease of the first recipe I decided to try the salmon en croute recipe for the first time I booked for PP.

The recipe involved taking a large salmon fillet, slicing it in half and filling with homemade pesto sauce, then wrapping with the filo pastry to bake in the oven.

So firstly I didn't get one large piece of salmon, but instead 2 pieces of similar size I could stack.

Then the pesto sauce was made with basil, toasted pine nuts, garlic, parmesan and olive oil all whizzed up in a hand blender together.

This pesto paste was then put between the two salmon fillets and the little remaining on top!

The whole lot was then wrapped in the filo pastry and cooked in the oven for c. 15 mins

The result however didn't impress PP!

The filo pastry wasn't the best pastry for a en croute as it managed to shatter everywhere when cutting in! And the thin but tall salmon fillets weren't as good as a flatter fillet would have been, but overall it tasted good, just the look wasn't the best lol!

Not sure there will be a next time after that recipe fail...

The Camden Road Cook

#9 - Oodles of noodles

Or the safari dinner gone wrong....

So the idea was for me and some friends to do a safari dinner one Saturday night.

The general gist of this is that you have a different course in each house scattered around Camden making an interesting night, bit like a restaurant pub crawl and pot luck mixed up.

First issue was lack of participants, despite J's best efforts it ended up being me and the 3 J's (who all share the same flat - so wasn't going to be much of a safari....)

Then the weather was miserable, so instead of even attempting the travel the 3 J's brought their dishes to mine...

We started with cava and canapes - blinis with cream cheese and smoked salmon & veggie vol au vents, very sucessful - went down a treat with X factor on the telly!

Then came my disasterous main course.... prawn noodles. This was a Sainsbury's recipe, for ginger marinated prawns with mange tout and baby corn and those thin rice noodles.

Now I have cooked rice noodles before, however it hasn't been for quite a long time... so cooking enough for 4 I followed the instructions on the pack, excepting one...

The pack said use a pyrex dish, but this wasn't big enough for all the noodles, so cleverly I used a ceramic oven dish.

You are supposed to soak the noodles for 5 minutes in the pyrex dish, before rinsing with cold water to stop them cooking and then adding to the stir frying rest of the ingredients...

The noodles were terrible, they stuck together, in one large lump, some were under cooked and al dente... some were worse than al dente, and then in desperation to make them work I over stir fried.

In short we ended up with one lump of noodles which was over cooked on the outside and crunchy in the middle - you couldn't have done this if you were trying!!

Everyone very politely tried the noodles and then gave up and just picked the veg and prawns out - so in short not a successful course.

J managed to save the meal with his cheese board and port, after the varied chocolate course from the other J..... and then some Jenga (to go with the J theme??)

So bruised from the bad experience I decided to test the cooking instructions for the noodles...

3 different set ups:

- a pan of water on the hob brought to the boil, noodles added and then removed from the heat
- pyrex jug with freshly boiled water poured over noodles and left for 5minutes (per pack instructions)
- plastic container with boiled water as above

The results?:

- Pyrex al dente noodles (but edible)
- Plastic cooked noodles, potentially overcooked and cooled to set in one lump (nice!)
- Pan al dente, but better than pyrex

Conclusion - do not follow pack instruction!! use a pan on the hob and treat noodles similar to pasta, but taking off the heat when brought to the boil...

The Camden Road Cook

#8 - V's first oyster...

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

So tradition goes you only eat oyster's in months with an R in, so Sept through April.

This stems from eating native oyster season, i.e. not wanting to upset the breeding cycle or eat immature oysters, but is now more a tradition as you can eat non native oysters pretty much all year round...

One of my favourite places for oysters is Riddle and Finns on a little lane in Brighton (they also do great lobster!), generally I think its fabulous to get the taste of the sea whilst smelling the sea (even better if its in sight)

http://www.riddleandfinns.co.uk/

A great oyster should be just that - a clean fresh taste of the sea. Some are variations on this - large creamy succulent oysters that you have to chew, or smaller down-in-one swallow varieties, but they have to have that juice with the taste of the sea.

So whilst in Sydney V and I decided to go out for sea food - you can't really not on a coast location!



We went out in Kirribilli to the local fish restuarant - Garfish

http://www.garfish.com.au/


Where I discovered V had NEVER had an oyster. This was just not right, so I decided to rectify the situation right away!

We ate a lot of seafood and fish that night - but we started with the oysters, I made V taste them plain before trying the mignonnotte (red wine vinegar and shallot) dressing, and unsurprisingly she liked them: another convert!

The Camden Road Cook

#7 - EZ BBQ

This is I's favourite BBQ style, perfectly offset by the location - a park bench over looking Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House....

First buy premarinated fish skewers - we had salmon with sweet chilli and prawns with herbs and garlic

Next buy premade salads - we had greek salad and tabouleh,

Then get extras: corn on the cob, plus humous and crusty bread

chuck corn and fish skewers on BBQ - when cooked eat

Simples....

The Camden Road Cook

#6 - Gourmet weekend in Mackerel

So during my stay in Sydney we spent a weekend at the beach....

it started at midday Friday with the trip to Palm Beach (apparently home of summer bay lifeguards...), and lunch at Barren Joey's House

http://www.barrenjoeyhouse.com.au/

Not a quick lunch - we had bacon wrapped dates to start with our champagne cocktails, then steak (ummmmm) with 2 lots of chilli chips (they were good!), and then finished with desserts - knickerbocker glory for me (which has been raved about by many so I dont need to add much, except I should have left more room for it!), and chocolate Nemesis.....

Then we rolled ourselves to the ferry quay and loaded up enough food and drink to keep us going for the next month (probably!) and headed for Mackerel...

On arrival we filled the main fridge and the beer fridge (very important) and settled down to digest... and wait for the others who couldn't get the afternoon off. Unfortunately it then turned cloudy and wet - boo! So everyone crossed their fingers the weather would be better.

The vanguard turned up after 8pm - having taken the water taxi over... and having to turn back to pick up the roast chicken they left in the car - apparently they decided that they could have left it there - we did have enough food - but after 2 days in that weather they wouldn't fancy coming back to the car!

The serious cooking and eating started the next day when the sun was out - yeay! Breakfast was from B&S, gourmet blueberry pancakes with lashings of maple syrup and fruit salad, see the stack:














Then lunch was roast lamb with rosemary and garlic, saved from the attack cookaburra who vainly tried to distract us to get to the meat (who knew they were carnivorous?!). This was served with E's family recipe potato salad which went something like this...

potatoes (dur!)
dressing with a grain mustard, dill, parsley and possibly some other green herbs & mayonnaise
boiled eggs and crispy bacon pieces to dress

and a large greek salad with lettuce and balsamic dressing

This was only lunch and already everyone was full!! Dinner was brushetta and garlic bread - I's speciality, followed by meatballs and pasta and then vodka jelly which made it game over really!

The eating continued with a full fry up the next day courtsey of B&S again, and then quiche (from scratch - very impressive) from K&R (although it was mainly K's effort :P). She made bacon and cream cheese and spinach and feta - very tasty!

After that we rolled back onto the ferry carting what we couldn't eat..... all in all a great weekend at the beach!

(ps just to note that we did do other things than just eat! There was swimming, fishing, digging a sea wall, and a volleyball match to the death (nearly!))

The Camden Road Cook (having gained a few pounds...)

#5 - BBQ Sydney style...

So as I'm currently chilling out in beautiful Sydney I thought I would share with you some of the eating experiences so far....

Jet lagged brunch on Saturday was an interesting affair on the Kirribilli ferry wharf - one small coffee shop, 5 special dishes = result a great 'non-birthday' celebration. We had salmon tarts, spinach and feta tarts, ricotta pancakes, cupcakes, coffee, tea (in the smallest tea glasses you have ever seen), toasted with Australian champagne from the Orange area - really tasty stuff!

Settling into the laid back lifestyle V and I took a bottle of chilled white down to the park to drink whilst catching up. After some chucking a rugby ball around and demonstrating how not to 'touch' when playing touch rugby we were off to the next eating event... very Aussie - rugby watching & BBQ

(It was the Australia - NZ game, H&M might like to know that me, C and V were supporting NZ, whilst the boys were supporting Australia - and we were supporting them from the start, not just when they were winning lol!)

But back to the most important stuff.... food!

C&T definitely put on a spread for us - we had freshly fried squid rings (made by T's own fair hands), brushetta with melted mozzarella and feta, and then the center piece - lamb kebabs

The lamb (back strap??? what is that in English?? answers on a postcard please!) was marinated quite simply with cinnamon, cumin & olive oil, it was served with a simple salad with spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, avocado, feta and a balsamic dressing.

In addition C made a tasty sauce which I think I can remember the ingredients for:

Yoghurt

Sweet chilli sauce

Garlic

Chopped coriander

So will definitely have to try this out on the Camden Crew when I'm back (as long as I can work out what cut of lamb to get and do a coriander free version for J!)

Other culinary dishes tried in Sydney so far include:

Morton bay bug linguine (on day 3 - pretty good going, hey Mum!?)

Laksa noodle soup

Pizza on the park bench (its my friend's 'dining table' and it overlooks the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge - such a hard life...)

To look forward to: weekend at the beach, with an attack cookaburra targetting the barbie!

The Camden Road Cook (temporarily not in Camden Road but instead Kirrbilli Avenue, and eating instead of cooking!)

#4 puy lentils (as promised to a few people..)

This week I have been mostly eating puy lentils (except for kebab night that is lol!)

I made a huge vat after reading a great recipe in the Sunday Times for roast squash with lentils and goats cheese:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article6844128.ece

The butternut squash is roasted with the skin on - which is fine for small squash, mine got a little crispy as some of the pieces were a bit too thin, so check them at 30 mins to avoid cremation..

I also like roasting squash skin on with a pinch of chilli flakes and some cumin - the spice and the chilli works well together and is a lovely warming snack on a colder autumn day.

When cooking the lentils the sweating of the onions and celery basically creates a good stock with loads of flavour - very yummy - and my packet also recommends cooking them with half stock and half wine which would give flavours similar to a classic risotto - definitely worth a try.

I also have a friend who does a great puy lentil 'salad' with olive oil, lemon juice, feta cheese and roasted red peppers, which is great cold for a summer BBQ veggie option or hot as a side dish.

The Camden Road Cook

#3 possibly the poshest kebab in Camden?

So this blog is all about the good cheap eat in Camden..

The current jewel I've found is the possibly the poshest kebab shop in Camden.

Not sure I want to advertise it fully, but its located on York Way, and is a great place to go for a cheap and cheerful dinner.

T and I shared the mixed grill this time, at a table set with napkins, proper cutlery and with glasses for our soft drinks - see I said posh!

When you're eating in they always give you a selection of meze type salads to start & some warm turkish bread before bringing your main meal - really yummy and enough to make you think its actually healthy.

The mixed grill was a good selection of kebabs - and came with more salad and rice - all for £4 each - barginest goldmine!

So, stated from stuffing ourselves with meat and salad (and lots of garlic sauce - might regret that later lol!), T and I found ourselves nursing some after dinner liquors over a chocolate fondant at the Lord Stanley on North Villas.

http://www.thelordstanley.co.uk/

This is a nice local pub that seems to be always open, and always serving, both food and drink!

The bar is in the centre of the room with an open kitchen at the back - the menu is short and sweet, but good (especially the puddings!). There is also a gem of a back yard, with strategically placed mirrors to bounce light around - perfect for drinks on a balmy afternoon or summer evening.

Just found out that they now serve brunch til 11.30am at weekends - so will check that out and report back to you....

The Camden Road Cook

#2 the merits of pot roast

So this blog is about pot roasting, something I recently tried for the first time on some unsuspecting friends... and it turned out really well

I was inspired by the Autumn weather and wanted to do a roast of some kind - already had the veg sorted (made butternut squash gratin from the Sunday Times Style section - really yummy as you would expect something with cream and cheese in it!), and was inspired by my friend who has done a pot roast for me before..

So I started by phoning her and asking how she does it - a basic recipe is:

take one pot
add one chicken
add flavours - I would recommend chilli and lemon, but I also added rosemary as I had some and my friend uses chorizo too - put the flavouring in, on and around the chicken
then add hot water to the pot - so its approximately 1/4 inch deep
cook in a 180 degree oven for about an hour with the lid on
take off lid and let the chicken brown for about 10-15 minutes
then serve with lots of crusty bread to mop up the lovely juices..

I also served the squash gratin, spinach and some roasted new potatoes with mine.

I think my friends liked it - the lemony chilli chicken was quite tasty and the pot roasting left it so tender that it fell off the bone when carving.

To follow that up I decided to go with another Sunday Times Style suggestion - baked figs (in season and my new favourite!) with a chocolate sauce made with cream and Green & Black's cooking chocolate = heaven!

So pot roasting = thumbs up, and the sauce that was made from cooking the chicken in the pot was a mixture of the liquid added, you could try wine or stock instead of water, and the flavours, and the result of cooking with the chicken bones.

This reminded me of an Anjum Anand recipe that I've done that requires boned chicken and a special masala spice blend finished off with tamarind paste, so next time I pot roast think I will go Indian in flavouring...

The Camden Road Cook

#1 chilli attack

Hi, first blog on the topic of food in general and my attempts at various recipes...

I think I'm an ok cook, however some things remind me that I still have to pay attention as not everything turns out alright!

Take today for example - I attempted curried aubergine from last week's Something for the weekend:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/curriedaubergineonto_92480.shtml

Unfortunately I didn't read the recipe before starting (thinking that a cupboard full of Indian spices would have it covered), and so had to subsitute fenugreek for fennel seeds, not ideal, but just the start things going wrong...

(I usually try to alter recipes to fit what I have in the cupboard anyway...)

But then I misread curry powder for chilli powder, and we had full on chilli attack - the recipe had already called for fresh chopped chilli (provided by my friend home grown from the seed pack you can pick up at Wahaca's), which I had neglected to de-seed, so the three times the chilli pretty much took away from most of the flavours..

(except perhaps the fennel seed :))

So a glass of milk later I've just about recovered from that! Also along the way with this recipe I had to overcome onions and aubergine sticking to the bottom of the pan - so go non stick all the way is my advice, or else use a lot of oil - not ideal for those on diets...

However not all my attempts at cooking/following recipes go so badly - and I would definitely try this one again as I love aubergine and curry, but next time will try to follow the recipe!

The Camden Road Cook