Fish Pie

It was at about 11 o'clock this morning that I realised that Z and I had, once again, managed not to discuss our evening meal.  Rather than contact her directly I told the world of twitter, or at least that part of it that chooses to follow me.

The responses and suggestions that I received were varied to say the least.  Slow cooked Chinese beef stew and spaghetti and meatballs stood out as worthy meals but I knew the answer had to lie at home.  I eventually made contact with Z and got the ball rolling.

She found, in our second freezer*, a decent sized portion of leftover fish pie.  It would have made a great meal for one but it wasn't quite enough for two.  Armed with this knowledge I went shopping on my way home from town.

I managed to find some cod to add body to the pie and some nice looking tender stem broccoli.  Unfortunately the broccoli was imported from Kenya.  Sometimes you have to be a bit flexible with your standards but I'd rather not see food go to waste after it has travelled so far.

*we all have two freezers, right? I don't think we could function without our second freezer.

Chicken Miso Soup

...Or The tale of two soups.

I was in a rush leaving the house this morning.  I hadn't left myself enough time to make lunch before I set off, so I grabbed an emergency packet of soup and went on my merry way.  It wasn't until lunch time that I discovered that the packet that I had selected was "chicken noodle".

This is one of my preferred flavours and on any other day it would have been very welcome.  Not today however.  Today we had planned chicken noodle soup for our evening meal.  As luck, and a fair amount of nous in the kitchen, would have it, the two soups were as different as chalk and cheese.

The soup I had for lunch was a Chinese style chicken and sweetcorn soup and consisted of rehydrated powder and noodles.  The soup that we cooked for tonight's menu was made with fresh ingredients and miso paste.

Vegetable Curry

For some reason, having had a foodie* weekend we find ourselves culinarily embarrassed this evening.  We simply forgot to think about what we were going to cook for tonight's meal.  Having got home and inspected the contents of the fridge and store cupboards we settled on a curry.

We cook quite a few curries these days.  Most of them have an air of authenticity about them.  Tonight was not one of those days.  This curry took me back to my student days, days when a curry was made of the contents of the fridge and a generous shake from the packet of supermarket-own-brand curry powder.

Some things have changed since graduation.  The fridge now has more contents.  This means that throwing together a coherent meal is easier.  The store cupboard is also much better stocked.  There is no packet of curry powder, in its place are a variety of spices which make every curry an adventure.

Having cooked the curry with cabbage, peppers, onions, celery, a tin each of tomatoes and chick peas, the only decision was bread or rice.  We went for bread but only because we had a naan in the freezer.

*I hate that term.

Mackerel with Rhubarb

We spent yesterday at the Wakefield Food, Drink and Rhubarb Festival, seeking out some of the finest produce the region has to offer.  We didn't find much of it but what we did find was top draw.  This included rhubarb from E Oldroyd & Sons.  I love rhubarb but always have it as a dessert, which is why it hasn't featured too often on Tonight's Menu.

I had noticed the combination of fish and rhubarb on Food and Biscuits' review of Create, a restaurant with a concience in Leeds.  I loved the sound of the sour, sharp fruit cutting through the oily salty fish.  I didn't have to think twice about what we were going to cook.

Simply fried mackerel served with roasted rhubarb, boiled potatoes and mixed stir-fried greens made a great Sunday lunch for the three of us.  I don't know why I've not used rhubarb with savoury food before.  It would go equally well with pork as fish and I'll be trying it out a lot more.

Cheese and Biscuits

It's been a foodie kind of day in one way or another.  This weekend saw the annual Wakefield Food, Drink and Rhubarb Festival take place and I was not going to miss it.  The fact that I didn't know it existed, until somebody on twitter mentioned that it was happening, is neither here nor there.

At a food event in Leeds last year I tasted Chocolate Orange Chilli Jam made by The Chilli Jam Man.  At the time I was financially embarrassed to the extent that I couldn't justify purchasing the small jar of delight.  This weekend I was on a mission.

We took the train to Wakefield, so that the "beer" part of the festival could be enjoyed, and made for the Cathedral precinct where the stalls where laid out.  I won't lie to you, I was a little underwhelmed.  regardless of the range and quality of the purveyors' stalls, they were situated far too close together.  Fighting through a tight crowd with a pushchair is tricky at the best of times, but also having to negotiate stairs was a pain too far.  There is a lot of Wakefield that has been pedestrianised and this should have been used to spread the stalls out and give everybody the chance to partake, I'm certain the stall holders would have appreciated more time and space to interact with us punters.

Back home, Z had plans to go out and leave me holding the baby.  Sadly her plans were scuppered by the onslaught of a cold that had been festering all week.  We were going to have a quick pasta dish before she hit the tiles but eating, as well as drinking, was off the menu.

We decided, in the end, to tuck into the cheese we bought in Wakefield.  Cryer and Stott were at the last Homage 2 Fromage with their wonderful Ruby Gold rhubarb cheese.  I had waxed lyrical at Z about just how good it was, so finding their stall at the festival was a stroke of luck.

Friday Night Take-away - Piri Piri Chicken

Yesterday we went around to a friend's house for our evening meal.  Out of politeness and good grace I decided not to post about the meal.  This is only fair as before the meal they did not know that I had a blog, never mind a daily food one*.  Of course the subject came up over the course of the evening.

Host "What have you been doing lately?"
Me "Nothing much, spend most of my time writing about the food we eat on my food blog."
Host "What? You're kidding right? You have a food blog?"
Me "Yes, really.  It's not recipes, just the story behind the evening meal.  Why we've cooked it, where the inspiration comes from etc."
Host "You're not going to write about this meal are you?"
Me "No. That would be unfair."

So having only broken a promise a little bit, I'll move onto tonight's menu.  As it's Friday we're sticking to the cook at home take-away tradition and tonight we're having piri piri chicken.  The piri piri is a relative new comer to the take-away menus that flop with all too regular an occurrence through our letter box.  This is due to the success of one national chain of restaurants who, believe it or not, are South African in origin.

My first experience of said chain was through a friendly Portuguese who recommended them, not on the strength of the chicken but on the authentic custard tarts that you can order for dessert.  Sadly they are all too often sold out of these cracking little puds to make it worth visiting these days.  The fact that they now cover Leeds like a rash also puts me off**.

The marinade for the chicken can now be bought off the shelf in supermarkets up and down the country but I prefer to make my own.  It is more like making a hot vinaigrette than most marinades; lots of oil and vinegar, garlic, a sweet red pepper and oregano, all simmered together.  Only once the pepper is cooked do you remove from the heat.  At this point add lemon juice and as much chilli as you and your loved ones can handle.

Once the sauce is completely cool blend it to within an inch of its life then pour over whatever piece of chicken you have to hand.  We had a couple of chicken legs left over from our last Swillington Farm meat box.  To keep with the restaurant experience we had our chicken with skinny fries, corn on the cob and coleslaw.  The chips and corn were from the freezer, the coleslaw was home made so that I didn't feel quite so dirty.

*For the record we had a cracking beef stew with great roasties and a chocolate bread and butter pudding for dessert.  Thank you Laura and Mark.
**Give me an independent restaurant any day.

Thai Green Prawn Curry

I've been looking back over the Tonight's Menu archive.  Not to see what we haven't eaten recently but to check how often we eat certain food types.  In my head we eat Thai curries quite regularly.  The reality is far from the truth.

The last time we cooked Thai it was a red curry and I noted at the time that we normally cook green curries.  Two months later and this is the first time we've eaten green curry since Tonight's Menu began.  We used to buy ready made curry pastes but they were always disappointing, neither hot or sour enough.  These days we make our own from scratch.

We make a paste by grinding together garlic, ginger, chillies, lime juice and zest, spring onions, coriander and a little oil.  We then add this to fried onions and green peppers to cook out the raw ingredients.  After a couple of minutes we add a tin of coconut milk and let everything simmer together with some soy and fish sauce.  The final ingredient is the prawns, which take no time to cook.