Smoked reindeer, reindeer salami, roast veg and 4 cheese pizza

Last week went 100% to plan, maybe partly because I wrote the plan midweek.

I'm going to stop reporting the expenditure. I don't see the fun in that really.

So - lots of good food was had, a tasty chicken and chorizo paella, delicate redfish in white wine and an incredibly yummy reindeer pizza on Saturday night.

White wine baked redfish with lemon and dill

Husband helped with the pizza, he used to run a pizza restaurant, so he was making the dough and showing (off) how to knead the dough into portion sized tight balls that apparently should feel like an 18 year old's boob. The last time I felt one is more than a quarter century ago, so not so helpful. I should hope it has been a while for husband too. After he was done with the dough, he pointed at the mess on the worktop and said "You can clean now" and went to watch football in his superhero pyjama pants.

I made a tasty tomato sauce with lots of fresh herbs and smoked garlic - a new acquaintance. It smells lovely, but I'm not sure how much the taste comes through in something like this where in the end results there are so many strong tastes. I will be trying it in salads and dips where it might shine more. I also roasted some peppers, onion and mushroom for the pizza.

And then husband resumed his duties shaping the two perfect little boobs into thin pizza bases flamboyantly throwing them up in the air. I was standing by handing him instruments like an operating theatre technician admiring the skill of the surgeon - "Cutter" - "Meat tenderiser" (!?!) - "Flour" - "Pan" but remarkably no "Rolling pin" which I had ready on my instruments tray.

We must play this actually, I'll wear my little plastic nurses uniform and husband will wear something other than superhero pyjama pants.

We then topped the pizzas with my lovely sauce and veg, slices of smoked reindeer and reindeer salami, mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey Jack and edam finishing them off with thin slices of tomato and olives. They were awesome - we are going to do some this Saturday with kids, they sounded a bit jealous on the phone when husband told them what we were doing. And I'm totally going to embarrass them with their Dad's boob story. Sexual education is important, how the hell are they otherwise supposed to know what an 18 year old's boob is supposed to feel like.

On Sunday I did a cooking afternoon with a friend who wants to get more confident in the kitchen - we did some hummus. a blue cheese dressing, chicken two ways and an apple cake. I think there might be separate blog post in it when I get a moment.

Hummus

Chicken with lemon, feta and herbs, roast potatoes with Greek herbs

Apple cake with sour cream and clotted cream and honeycomb ice-cream. Cake home-made, Ice-cream shop-bought.

This week's plan is not super inspired, but hey ho.




Sharing with Mrs M and Org Junkie

On Sunday we did a cooking experience with my friend. I don't want to call it a cooking class exactly as I would be a ridiculously unqualified teacher, but we just cooked some foods together and I tried to give my culinarily challenged friend some tips. It's also all about confidence, so practising together is a great way to build her morale that has been crushed by collapsing Swiss rolls and baked cod disasters. Having been considerably clueless myself only a few years ago I can still relate.

One of her questions leading up to our Cooking Experience was How to cook chicken safely. Up to three quarters of our supermarket chicken is contaminated with campylobacter. And I’m sure there’s a bit of salmonella thrown in here and there for good measure even though that situation seems to have improved in recent years.

An infection like this can in the worst case be lethal and if it's not at some point you probably wish that it was. I had campylobacteriosis once (from a restaurant - not self-inflicted) and there aren’t many people in the world I would wish it upon. There are some, I can immediately think about a few actually, a list is suddenly forming in my head, hmm.

My friend has been so concerned about this that she actually never has cooked chicken at home. So I thought why don't I put some tips down as I have managed to cook chicken loads of times without killing anyone. If you follow these simple safeguards, you should have no concerns at all.

So here are my top tips
1. Don’t lick the raw chicken
2. Don’t massage your vegetables and work surfaces with the raw chicken

No seriously here we go:

How to cook chicken safely - 6 tips to avoid the risk of food poisoning

1. Be paranoid all the way from the supermarket

Sometimes bacteria can reside in the outer surfaces of the packaging as well, so my tip is to pack your chicken in a separate plastic bag at the supermarket so you don’t cross-contaminate your other food. I like to segregate the poor chicken even in the shopping cart so it doesn’t touch my other foods.

Keep your chicken in this bag when you put it in your fridge so none of the potential bacteria in the packaging is transferred to any surfaces or other foods in your fridge.

2. Don’t wash your chicken

By washing the chicken you are not likely to get rid of the bacteria on the chicken, but actually just spread it around your work surfaces and wherever the water ends up splashing on. Probably everywhere.

3. Protect and wash your cutting board and utensils 

If you need to cut the chicken, don’t use your wooden or plastic cutting board uncovered. I often use scissors to cut the chicken into pieces keeping the chicken in the container it came in. Afterwards I just put the container in the bin and scissors in the dishwasher, no contaminated surfaces or cutting boards to worry about.

If you use a board, protect it with parchment paper and/or plastic bags that you then discard and make sure you wash the cutting board very thoroughly as well as any other utensils you use.

4. Marinate, don't cross-contaminate

If you marinate your chicken, make sure the container you marinate it in is clean outside and completely covered so you don't contaminate the contents of your fridge. I usually use a metal bowl which I wrap completely in a clean plastic bag. Once I'm ready to cook I just chuck the bag in the bin and put the bowl in the dishwasher. Also discard any extra marinade, don't use it as salad dressing. Duh!

5. Keep washing your hands obsessive compulsively

After handling the chicken before you touch anything make sure you always wash your hands carefully with water and soap so you don't spread the bacteria with your hands to door handles etc.

6. Make sure your chicken is cooked through

Test from the thickest part of the chicken cutting into the meat. Juices should run clear and meat should not be pink or opaque. Leg meat is a bit darker, so it may look a bit coloured even when it’s cooked. If in doubt use a meat thermometer, the temperature should be 165 for cooked chicken.

This week's #fishfriday meal was going to be whatever would catch my eye at the fish counter at John Lewis Foodhall. I often work Friday's at our London clinic just behind the Oxford Street John Lewis so I pop over at lunch or on my way home to get something nice that's not necessarily available at my own local not always so versatile supermarket.

This time I kind of had halibut in mind because I've never cooked it, but then saw these interesting looking Norwegian deep-sea red fish fillets which I have never tried before either. I asked the fish guy what kind of fish it is, like taste and texture-wise and he said it was like bream but fishier and meatier. After establishing how fishy and meaty exactly (not mackerel fishy or monkfish meaty) I asked for three fillets, two for husband and one for me and the fishmonger agreed that it sounded like a good plan.

I decided to gently bake them rather than pan fry. I'm sure they'd be lovely panfried with a little bit of butter. I just seasoned them with salt, lemon pepper, chopped fresh dill, lemon zest and juice and let sit in the fridge for an hour before pouring some Sauvignon Blanc on top and baking for 15 minutes. I served the fish with basil and tomato gnocchi. It was a lovely dinner and just light enough for us to go out for a sophisticated little drink to our favourite Soho cocktail bar and get completely hammered. Oops.

Recipe: White wine baked redfish fillets with lemon and dill (serves 4)

4 Redfish fillets
Salt
Lemon pepper
2 tbsp chopped dill
Zest and juice of half a lemon
Oil
100 ml white wine

Place the fillets in a baking dish. Season them with salt and lemon pepper, lemon zest and juice and chopped dill. drizzle over a little bit of olive oil and let marinade for a couple of hours in the fridge.


Heat oven to 200C. Pour the white wine in the baking dish and bake for about 15 min (depending on the thickness of the fillets).

Last week was a good one foodwise, mostly on plan. Also new personal best in spending; £115 for food, only excuse is an expensive lamb leg, otherwise I am a bit baffled as to how it came to that much.

I've been doing even more fish than normal in the recent weeks and we've had quite a few fully vegetarian days also. I am going to continue on this great path. Husband did point out that although he is absolutely loving all this and appreciating my culinary support of his cardiovascular health, he is also a man after all and will need a certain amount of meat. Manhood is a meaty business.

Here are some of the week's culinary escapades:

Creamy Finnish salmon and prawn soup

Moroccan chickpea, lentil and butternut squash stew

Mediterranean fish stew

Greek lamb kleftiko It looked more appetising after 6 hours in the oven

Pear and brandy cake with almonds

Pink raspberry cake at the Buckingham Palace cafe

This week started off quite busy and Monday night I resorted to leftover moose burgers from the freezer. Last night I did a sweet potato and chilli soup. Wednesday a friend is visiting so I will do a bit of a Spanish theme, it's a work day and I am picking her from the airport on the way home from the office, probably driving to at least two wrong terminals before eventually finding the right one, so I will keep it reasonably simple.

Sweet potato and chilli soup

Sunday another friend is coming over for a cookery experience. Cooking has not really been top of her agenda and she would like to learn more. So we are going to have a fun afternoon learning to cook chicken a couple of ways and some other things. I'm still working on the ideas, we might even bake a cake. But we also just want to sit around the table, eat and gossip.

Weekly meal plan

Monday             Moose burgers and salad
Tuesday             Sweet potato and chilli soup
Wednesday        Chicken, chorizo and seafood paella
Thursday           Leftover paella
#fishfriday        Best of what the John Lewis foodhall fish counter has to offer
Saturday            Seriously this time I am bloody well gonna make the Pizza
Sunday              Chicken two ways

Sharing with Mrs M's meal planning Monday and Organising Junkie.

This is kind of a rough version of Bouillabaisse. I love the elegant French soup with it's beautiful velvety broth, but this time for our #fishfriday last week I thought something a bit chunkier and less refined was in order. Like sometimes George Clooney would be more fun if he wasn't quite so smooth, profound and political, you know. With a flawlessly smooth, profound and political wife. I mean, a human rights lawyer, seriously, who does he think he is? Bridget Jones? Sometimes something a bit more ruffled and earthy is the way to go.


I love saffron in these kinds of tomato based soups and stews. And this can be either a soup or a stew. If you want to make it thicker and stewier, you can serve it with rice or pasta. I made mine more soupy and we ate it with warm ciabatta rolls.

My friend's cat is staying while my friend is on hols and he joined us at the table lured by the lovely fishy smell emanating from the kitchen. He naturally got his little share of the fish.



Recipe: Mediterranean fish stew or soup (serves 4)

1/2 leek
3 shallots
2 garlic cloves
4 tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 cup (or more) fish stock
4-6 new potatoes
1/2 aubergine
1/2 courgette
2 tbsp fresh basil
pinch of saffron
400 g fish, one or two different kinds (I had cod and fresh tuna steak)
400g other seafood, I had scallops, prawns and mussels
fresh basil for garnish



Chop your leeks and shallots and mince the garlic. Heat oil in a pan. Fry leeks and onions for a few minutes until they start to soften, add the garlic, chopped aubergine, courgette and sliced new potatoes and continue frying for a few minutes, add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and white wine.

Soak a pinch of saffron in boiled water for a few minutes. Once wine has evaporated a little add the fish stock, basil and saffron. Season with salt and pepper and leave to cook until the vegetables are done.In the meanwhile devein the shrimp and cut the fish to bite size chunks. Once vegetables are done add the basil and saffron and your fish and seafood, and cook just until all the fish is done, don't overcook.

Lamb kleftiko ready for oven! Completely forgot to take pictures once it was done and was also blinded by hunger because it took forever.

Lots of cuisines have something called a robber's roast or similar. At least the Finnish and Greek cuisines. It is a dish that is cooked in a pit in the ground covering the stolen piece of meat and slowly cooking it over several hours.

I'm a very law abiding citizen so I paid for the leg. The only thing I've ever stolen in my life is a licorice bar when I was about 5. I was so burdened by guilt I had to confess to my parents before I even ate the bloody thing. My parents made me go back to the store, apologize and return the bar or maybe I paid for it. I'm not sure it was fit for returning after all the clutching in my sweaty distressed fist and tears shed over it, I can't remember. It was the shop my granddad used to run when my mum was a kid, so it was also a case of family honour. So after that I pretty much abandoned my criminal ways and have stayed on the straight and narrow ever since.

I did use to smuggle bottles of booze into music festivals with my sister in the flared legs of our jeans, thank God for the 70's revival, but other than that, not so criminal. I swear that's why people go for ecstasy and all that shit nowadays, you can't fit an honest bottle of vodka anywhere in these silly skinny jeans.

Anyway this kleftiko thing, stolen or paid for, is a wonderful way to fill your house with a homely smell of slow roasting meat and feed your men with a massive slab of tender animal flesh. YAM.

It's also a one pot meal, so there is no need to cook anything else. I did do some rice though because husband would be very shaken if there was lamb without rice and of course a big lovely Greek salad mainly for my own benefit.

I think my leg was from a 20 year old goat or something, it took forever to cook, but the result was great. The potatoes were also lovely.

Recipe: Authentic Greek Lamb Kleftiko

For the lamb
A leg of lamb, about 2kg
2 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
2 tbsp fresh chopped oregano

For the veg
1.2 kg potatoes
6-8 shallots
1 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
salt
black pepper
3 bayleaves

200 ml white wine
200 ml lamb stock
oil
zest of a lemon

If you can, marinade the lamb the night before. First crush the garlic and chop the herbs. Mix in with oil, lemon, salt and pepper.

Stab the leg with a sharp knife to create deep holes on both sides of the leg evenly. Methodically rub the marinade pushing it deep into the holes with your fingers. Yes, it is a bit erotic. Wrap the leg tightly in clingfilm (!) and place in the fridge overnight.

Next day take it out 1 hour before you plan to put it in the oven.

Heat your oven to 160C.

Peel and cut your potatoes into chunks or thick slices. peel the shallots and chop the herbs, Place in a bowl. drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Take a large roasting tray and cover first with two long sheets of kitchen foil forming a cross, or I actually used three long pieces to make sure I can wrap it all around the leg. Then take two long sheets of baking paper again placing them so that they form a cross. Pour the potatoes and onions onto the roasting tray and spread evenly, add the bay leaves on top.

Place the lamb leg on top pouring all the marinade on top also. Pour in the wine, and lamb stock, drizzle with olive oil and zest one lemon on top.

Wrap the baking paper and the foil around the leg leaving some space on top for steam but making sure it's closed everywhere. Place in the oven and bake for 4.5 - 5 hours until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender.

Up the oven temp to 200C. Take the lamb out of oven and place the leg on a separate roasting tray pouring the liquid on top. Leave the drained potatoes on the other tray. Put both trays back to oven and let the lamb leg get some colour and the potatoes to crisp up and get nice and brown around the edges turning them over halfway through. This should take about 45 minutes.

This is not fast food, but if you're still alive at the end, it is worth it.

This is one of my mum's recipes. Fish soup is a popular everyday food in Scandinavia and there are many versions. I'm not a huge fan of all of them, I remember the horrible burbot soup with the slimy fish that a friend of dad's, an avid fisherman, used to bring us. Just seeing him walking up the path to the house with the ominous looking plastic bag in hand would send shivers down our spines. The soup wasn't improved by mum using all the bits like the skin, bones and head to add taste to the stock and not always getting them all out before serving.


And the regular school lunch, a soup of grey frozen saithe that somehow managed to taste bland and bitter at the same time - not my favourite.

This soup is a totally different animal, creamy and mellow. No bones, skin or eyeballs, just tender cubes of salmon and pink prawns. You can leave the prawns out to keep it super simple, it is lovely without them also.

I think the key is the sour cream, you don't need much of it, so this really is a very healthy dish. But a couple of tablespoons of sour cream will transform it. And a knob of butter is not going to hurt. I left it out just to keep it healthy.

It's best served piping hot with toasted sourdough rye bread slices, but if you're not into sourdough, have a nice warm home-made crusty roll.

Recipe: Salmon and prawn soup with dill and sour cream (serves 2)

4 large potatoes or 8-10 new potatoes
3 shallots or 1 small yellow onion
2 cups of fish stock
lemon pepper
2-3 tbsp fresh dill
2-3 fillets of salmon (about 250g)
12 raw king prawns
2 tbsp sour cream (or more if you want to be decadent)
1 tbsp butter (optional)
dill for garnish

Cut the potatoes into about 2 cm chunks. Chop the onion. Place the potatoes and onion in a pan with the fish stock, lemon pepper and chopped dill. Cook until potatoes are soft.

While potatoes are cooking cut the salmon to 2cm pieces and devein the prawns. Once potatos are done add the fish, prawns and sour cream and cook gently until the salmon and prawns are done. This should only take a couple of minutes. Check the seasoning, garnish with fresh dill and serve with toasted sour dough rye bread.