Last week was one of those weeks. Despite getting off to a good start with goulash made over the previous weekend, and char-grilled tandoori spatchcock with a vegie biryani and dahl, the rest of the week was a bit of "mother hubbard" week, pulling random left-over ingredients together for dinner and in the end, a Thai takeaway (which we thoroughly enjoyed and as everyone in Erskineville will tell you, "Maggie's Back").This week is another story. We picked up an order of meat Saturday morning - some beef chuck tender, lamb shanks, a free-range Glenloth chicken, veal bones and chicken carcasses. We then headed off to Chipping Norton to investigate Warwick Farm farmers markets. Run by a company owned by farmers it is one of the (rare) genuine markets. I particularly enjoyed the approach by the stall selling carrots - "to see how fresh they are we've left the leaves on" and offering to trim them on purchase.
Recently I have heard a few people say they haven't learned to cook and putting meals together doesn't come naturally. Apparently saying cooking "is not hard" is condescending and demeaning so I have decided to share with you my thoughts on how this week's "menu" will come together.
The Menu
Beef RendangAs you can see, things aren't finalised; they're not set in stone. There's a good chance we'll deviate for a couple of these meals - that and the fact that the pumpkin soup won't survive to see a school night. I've also got some beetroot and half a white radish in the fridge and I'm keen to serve them with some grilled salmon (Mr Grocer, please get the bbq ready).
We've got the chuck tender and this is perfect for the rendang. In light of so many of our other ingredients lending toward the European end of the food spectrum, and our love of this Charmaine Solomon recipe, rendang is a good fit. I'll probably start it today and if not, one afternoon during the week (advantage of a home office) for the following evening.
I'll serve it with longrain (jasmine) rice, and either the handsome broccoli acquired at the market or some asian greens & bean sprouts I'll pick up during the week.
Jamie Oliver's chicken in milk
A gem of a dish first executed by Mr Grocer, a whole chicken is cooked in milk with sage, lemon, garlic and cinnamon. Usually this would be served with some wilted greens and mash but I'm thinking some braised red cabbage (picked up at the market) is going to replace the greens.
Lamb shanks
I started these yesterday after getting all excited in the kitchen. After browning the seasoned shanks they've gone into a casserole dish with pickling onions, whole cloves of garlic, some finely diced celery, pitted kalamata olives, a tin of tomatoes (mashed up a bit) and 2 glasses of red wine. We'll pick some rosemary on our walk today to throw in as well.
They've been cooked for at least an hour so during the week I can pop them in the oven when we go on our dog walk. I'm undecided what we'll eat them with as we've already got mash going on elsewhere.
Avgolemono
I've never made this before and found it in Good Living - winter. It's a Greek soup made with chicken, rice and eggs by Brigitte Hafner. We'd bought a mountain of chicken carcasses to make stock, yet some of them had enough flesh on them to be useful, so I thought this could be a tasty experiment.
Curried Pumpkin soup
I've used the butternut pumpkin I bought at the market yesterday. I haven't made pumpkin soup yet this winter, so this baby was earmarked for soup from the outset. I was delighted when I cut into it as the tiny bubbles of syrup started to ooze out. This was going to be one sweet pumpkin, and that's when I decided I'd spice up the soup
The soup isn't going to last long - whilst typing this update I've managed to eat a bowl of it, Mr Grocer has come home from touch football and devoured a bowl, and I've put some aside for my brother. Each served with a dollop of sour cream. We'll be lucky if this baby survives to see Monday lunch at this rate.
Home-made pasta
Because I felt like it. Really!
I have some eggs I'm keen to use up and so I've made a batch of pasta dough by mixing 5 eggs into about 400g flour. I'm thinking of making orecchiete - surely this will be more fun than getting out the pasta mangle, and it'll go superbly with the handsome broccoli.
It's not a rigid meal plan, but we've got a framework of things to eat with the stuff we've got. They'll be plated up with veg and perhaps some grains - all as yet undecided. Unlike a meal plan (which is notionally a good idea) I've worked backwards picking the best seasonal produce and knowing I should be getting through 2&5 each day and creating meals around that.
I've also got a soy and linseed loaf from sonoma, some parmigiano reggiano, some peppery cabanossi, 2 kranski, half a sourdough baguette and tomato jam, oats, milk, apples, bananas, mandarins and a bunch of carrots that I haven't even mentioned in my plan that will invariably work their way into our diet for the week.
Do you have challenges putting together meals, and if so, what are the obstacles? Let us know using the comments form (below).
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment