Shaun Hill's Chicken Escalope with Tarragon and Leeks

In our house we have a bookshelf absolutely full of cookbooks. They have usually been bought for us as gifts and, as lovely as they are, we are both guilty of not really putting them to much use. Very often they get forgotten about and we just use the internet as our source of foodie inspiration. With all these great recipes and ideas just lying around, we thought we should make a greater effort to put them to good use. I took the first one I came to (which was literally right next to me on the coffee table) and decided to choose one recipe to cook. The book I picked up was by Shaun Hill and is called "Better gravy and other kitchen secrets". We haven't eaten chicken in a while and so I went straight for the poultry section and went for his "Chicken Escalope with Tarragon and Leeks".

Guest Post - Prime 16 - New Haven, USA by Brendan Walsh

Picture taken from www.prime16.com

The main reason for Liz's first blog's success was the fact that we were travelling around Asia during the time that she was writing. We had so many amazing and unique food experiences that she was never short of interesting writing material. With this blog, we are keen to carry on in a similar vein, but we are restrained by the fact that we are now permanently based back in the UK. To get around this, we have approached the friends we made during our 2 years living in South Korea and asked them to share with us some of their favourite foodie moments. Located in America, South Africa, Mexico, Dubai and many more to add, by sharing their experiences through our blog we hope to show some really interesting posts from around the world.

The first is from a great friend of ours, Brendan Walsh. We met Brendan in Korea and instantly found that the 3 of us shared a great passion for food. We were really happy to hear that he would write a guest post for Food All Ways. Brendan has a great way with words and I hope you enjoy his contribution as much as we did.

Lemon and White Chocolate Souffle

For Liz's birthday meal, I of course had to come up with a tasty dessert. We have a surplus of lemon curd in the fridge following Liz's exploits last week - I wanted to create a dessert that could use this in a refined and spectacular way. Whenever the word souffle is mentioned on TV, magazines or cookbooks, it is met with trepidation. However, after my unorthdox aubergine souffle last week, I thought a more conventional chocolate version must be relatively simple.

Roast Duck with Passionfruit Sauce

It was Liz's birthday at the weekend and so I did my best to prepare a birthday meal worthy of the occasion. Since her recent conversion from vegetarian to carnivore, Liz has been very adventurous with her food - a whole new gourmet world has opened up to her! One animal that we haven't tried together is duck. So I bought a crown of duck and made a lovely passionfruit sauce to go along with it.

Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is something that I remember eating only a handful of times as a child, but I remember those little moments well and with pure enjoyment! Whoever thought of making a spread using lemons and dairy is a genius of ginormous proportions.

There is a bit of debate surrounding lemon curd and its cousin lemon cheese. The ingredients of both are the same, however the cooking process and balance of ingredients appear to be slightly different and this results in a thinner lemon curd over a thicker lemon cheese.

The recipe I have used is from a book accompanying the first series of the 'Great British Bake Off'', a fantastic BBC competition program featuring some marvellous bakes and some huge bake mistakes! Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood make a critical dynamic duo with an almost good cop/ bad cop essence. The challenges are very British indeed.

The recipes in the 'How to Bake', book were developed by Linda Collister and may I say, isn't she a dear. This lemon curd came out very nicely and I dare say it is simple and easy for anyone to make.

Ingredients makes 500g

125g butter
225g sugar
3 unwaxed lemons, grated and zested.
3 large eggs (preferably free range).

Method

Place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice into a heatproof bowl.
Place over a simmering pan of water, but don't allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water below.
Stir gently with a spoon or spatula until the butter is melted and the consistency smooth.
Remove the bowl from the pan, pour the beaten eggs into the mixture and stir well.
Replace the bowl back over the water and stir continuously until the mixture thickens. Don't be tempted to increase from a low heat as the eggs will cook too quickly and scramble! Oops.
The curd is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Transfer to a storage container, allow to cool and keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Mutton Curry with Cauliflower "Rice"

 

I think that behind traditional British cuisine, Indian food has to be our next favourite food. Here in England, Indian food is extremely popular due to the large population of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi people who live in this country. There are huge cultural ties between Britain and this part of the world and this is undoubtedly the reason for our fasciantion with this kind of food. The key to this food is in the spices used and it is these spices which came to our shores with those returning from the Crusades. Using and combining these spices can be a little daunting at times. But it doesn't need to be difficult to create a rich, deep and spicy curry and making something simple like my Mutton Curry with Cauliflower "Rice" would be a good place to start.

Oat-rolled Herring with Beetroot Puree

Last week in the supermarket was a big pile of reduced fish for sale. We decided to buy bags and bags of different fish including cod, bream and these herring. Most of the other fish went into our fish pie but the herring remained in our freezer. Although Liz really loves any kind of fish, cooked in any way, I am a little more cautious when it comes to oily and pungent varieties such as mackerel, sardines and, in this case, herring. As such, I prefer to fry these kinds of fish in plenty of butter and serve them with plenty of little side dishes so as the flavour blends in with the other food and is less empowering. We all know that fish can be battered in either breadcrumbs or a wet flour mix (as in our traditional fish 'n' chips) but I wondered if something different could be used - oats.