I am feeling totally uninspired in every way today, so I turned to my ideas book, and thought of doing a quickie kind of oddments post first. When I checked out my oddments list I saw that they were almost all recipes this time, so herewith just a roundup of recipes that caught my eye at the time, with a few ponderings on why they did.
Caramelized brown sugar oranges with mint This one (above) is from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, and even she describes as "my contribution to the “no recipes” movement, because you are not going to need one here." And indeed it is - you just peel and slice your oranges, top them with sugar, grill them, put in the fridge and then serve how you like. It doesn't have to be with yoghurt. I now wonder slightly why I noted this one. Maybe it was because I had a lot of oranges, maybe I liked the picture, maybe I was going to ponder on the notion of no recipe. And I might some time. But not today. A rather wonderful and amazingly easy dessert anyway. Why don't people cook?
Christmas rice pie No it's not a leftover dish - it's a special vegetarian main dish, and it does indeed look pretty special. I'm always on the lookout for fancy vegetarian dishes because I have a few vegetarian friends - and a granddaughter. Of course this is from Ottolenghi who introduces it this way:
"Inspired by a celebratory Azerbaijani shakh plov, which is a bit like a pilaf wrapped in crisp pastry, this centrepiece looks like the best of presents, all wrapped up. Don’t be put off by all the different elements: they can all be prepared a day ahead, ready to be assembled and baked on the big day. Serve with yoghurt."
And yes you might be put off by the list of ingredients and the four different parts to it - the filling consists of some fancy rice, and two mixtures of pumpkin and porcini, and mushrooms and onions - well there's more to it than that. Then there's the pastry and the sage and almond on top. Not for everyday, but for a special occasion very probably worth doing. Would get lots of oohs and ahs I think.
Bombay chilli cheese ciabatta This one is from Georgina Hayden who says it's inspired by a Mumbai street snack - the chilli cheese toastie. Personally I think it might also have something to do with Ixta Belfrage's Giant Grilled cheese with honey butter which I have made and is gorgeous. I am perhaps being unfair because the topping is somewhat different - there are potatoes in this one. It's a good template however, isn't it? When you have a crowd and want something to keep them happy whilst you get the main event on to the table this is the thing to do. Indian flavours of course to this one - with chaat masala as one of the ingredients. Not quite sure where you can find that. An Asian foodstore?
Preserved blood oranges I was directed to this one from the Smitten Kitchen newsletter. The link will take you to an Instagram very quick video which shows you how to do it. This picture is from elsewhere and shows one use for your pickled slices - on top of ricotta on toast, sprinkled with honey and black pepper. I imagine they could also be used in salads, and salsas and so on. It's another non recipe really - toss your quartered oranges in salt, with or without a few lemons too, top with lemon juice and leave to mature. Some add a bit of sugar too.
Chicken tartiflette from Mary Berry courtesy of the BBC. Tartiflette is a French dish of potato, bacon, onions and reblochon cheese. Mary Berry has added mushrooms and chicken to the mix to make something very creamy and warming looking. All it needs is a salad to go with it.
Chicken with bacon, lettuce and peas from Catherine Phipps. A variation on the chicken and bacon theme but this time the bacon is not wrapped around the chicken and the green vegetables make it look rather healthier. The liquid is wine and some cream - so less rich than the above. I could almost taste this one as I looked at the picture and decided I would like to give it a go one day.
Nigel Slater's Cream of onion soup which is certainly not out of a packet or a tin. I just fell in love with the photograph I guess. He calls it "a pale and calming soup to enjoy on a cold day", so not yet here in Australia I guess. Today has been just about perfect blue skies, mid 20s temperature. The bacon is speck, and as well as the onions which are softened not browned and form the basis of the soup he finishes the soup with roasted onions. Looks divine. I'm definitely going to make this one some time. When it gets cold.
Mincemeat frangipane turnovers from Benjamine Ebuehi. First find your mincemeat of course - the fruity kind, not meat. And David found me some last Christmas and I still have a couple of jars in the pantry, so I really might give these a go. They look just wonderful.
You can use mincemeat in other things as well. It isn't just for mince pies and it's an ingredient that somebody should rediscover and make the next big thing, because it can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. I should write a post on it someday. In the meantime, this, may well be my dessert the next time I'm cooking for others.
Mini burnt Basque cheesecakes - from my TikTok book and a lady called Chaheti whose TikTok and Instagram ventures have the #rootedinspice name. I suspect this is not really how you make one of these things, although it looked pretty authentic to me. No pastry casing - but then do Basque cheesecakes have one? Anyway - the mix is made in seconds and then it's cooked in around 20 minutes. Of course others have made these too. There are lots of recipes on the net. It's a bit of a craze really.
And last of all another soup - this time from Smitten Kitchen and another classic - Split pea soup which she probably quite rightly says "is never going to win the winter soup Olympics."
I chose to put it on my list, because I do actually like split pea soup - which she says is unusual. She also says that the classic addition of ham is not necessary - "The times I have made it with ham hocks, I didn’t find it life-changing." Although occasionally she tops it with crispy pieces of bacon. In the picture here she has topped it with a green sauce of parsley, lemon and garlic and a swirl of sour cream. And you would have to say it improves the look. Maybe the taste too.
Tonight I am making a tray bake based on chicken and fennel - maybe corn too - does fennel go with corn? Anyway here is my last recipe - another almost recipe from Sarah Hobbs in the Coles Magazine for roasted fennel, from which I might take a few tips for flavours - apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and brown sugar basically. Or I might just save this recipe for another day. It's not online but if you click on the picture you will be able to read the recipe.
And here ends my list. I hope you find something of interest here. I'm sure on different days I would have chosen different things, but at least I have whittled my list of oddments right down.
YEARS GONE BY
April 1
2024 - Nothing
2022 - Who is Canstar Blue?
2021 - Vegemite versus Marmite
2020 - Deleted
2018 - Nothing
Baked fennel Yum.
Strangely I nearly bought a basque cheesecake in Waitrose for Andrea and I's easy cook Mother's day lunch as we couldn't get into a restaurant. Jenny