Rachel Allen's Sushi

Today has been one of 'those' days.  Nothing terrible happened, just a day full of those petty frustrations such as a child who thinks sleep is for wimps and it's okay to watch the CBeebies Christmas Pantomime for the fifteen-hundredth time at 3am; a work laptop that only works when it feels like it; and "women's troubles"  

It's also the husband's birthday today.  If it was me, I'd love to go out to dinner or have someone cook me something really special.  But the husband's tea of choice is a Chinese takeaway and a bottle of Merlot so the recipe had to be a lunch thing.  Luckily, I work from home on Thursdays giving me thirty minutes to concoct something for lunch.

I actually started this morning's recipe early on.  As it's takeaway for tea and I'm still in January-diet-hell, I figured something fresh and healthy would be good so plumped for Sushi, Rachel Allen style.  This meant I could make the sushi rice and pop it in the fridge before I started work at 7am and then just had to do a bit of chopping and rolling come lunch time.

Now, in a post-sushi making haze, I understand why sushi chefs take seven years to train.  I figured it was because of all the different and often dangerous fillings and styles that they use.  But even the simplest California roll is a challenge to the novice.

Ready to roll!

Firstly, the rice is sticky.  So you take a handful out of the bowl and 'gently smooth it over the Nori'.  Except that most of it stayed stuck to my hands.  A lightbulb moment dawned and I figured that damp hands would be better.  Except this caused the rice to lose it's tackiness and then I couldn't shape it into little blocks for Nigri.

And when you read up on the subject and it says 'you need a sharp knife', they're not lying.  It's not just to cut perfect pieces of fish - it's to cut through the Nori, which I ended up taking a pair of scissors to when I was trying to cut through the very last bit of my California rolls.

Twenty minutes later, I had roughly the same amount as you'd get in a £4 box from M&S except they were all the same flavour.  Did they taste better and fresher?  It wasn't really noticeable as I only had smoked salmon and avocado.  I'd love to do fresh salmon and tuna ones, but when I was looking up how to buy sashimi grade fish, it all sounds quite scary if you don't buy quite the right stuff and horribly expensive when you do!

Would I make it again?  Maybe if I wanted to show off for a get together and had hours to make it.  But just for me?  Nah, I'll stick to the shop-bought stuff.  It may not be as good as the meal I once had at Nobu in another life, but I'm not that rich or pretentious to care.

Smoked salmon nigri, cucumber maki,
salmon and avocado California rolls

As for Allen's instructions?  I don't think it can even be dignified with the term 'recipe' and lunch time is over so I don't have time to type up her waffle for now.  She implies that she and her husband 'figured out how to make it between themselves'.  So they read the instructions on the back of the sushi packet, looked at how the box they'd bought from Marksies was put together and then became experts?  

She doesn't even describe the Nigri properly - referring to them as patties, which in my book means round and flat when in fact the picture in the book quite clearly shows them to be block shaped (as they should be).  I'm sure there are far better instructions for sushi shaping on YouTube.  This is the first recipe I've tried from Food for Friends.  I'm not sold on it so will have to make something else from her shortly.  

I bought the book based on the glossy TV series and imagined myself wandering around barefoot on a flagstoned kitchen floor in a big old country kitchen, cooking delumptious things for friends and family a few years from the date of purchase.  Instead I'm stuck on the edge of the 'burbs in a newish-build semi with a slight tang of disappointment from the book I thought would change my life.  Oh well, it only cost a tenner.

And on the health front, the small amount of sushi I made actually contained more calories than my usual working from home lunch of two slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter.  I know which I'd prefer next time!

Salt and Pepper Chicken

Following on from my homemade takeaway last night, I decided to have a go at salt and pepper chicken tonight.  Although I still have some prawns left, I figured that if the husband so much as saw a prawn anywhere near the dinner, he wouldn't try it.  Didn't matter in the end as he took the fajita option.  When will I ever stop cooking two different dinners?

Stodgy - but not as stodgy as takeaway...

Anyway, I've been wanting to try this one out for a while - whether chicken or prawn. The recipe is a Rachel Allen for Good Food one.  I don't think I'd waste prawns trying it out as I just couldn't figure the batter out.  Firstly it was so thin, it didn't adhere to the chicken.  But the merest addition of a half-teaspoonful more cornflour and it turned into a thick, claggy paste.

As for salt and pepper.  Well it was really quite tasteless - only saved by the flavour from the 'sauce' although next time I'd double the quantities of the sauce ingredients as it was both stodgy and dry.

I did try thinning the batter back down again on the second batch of chicken and it was better - but still not what I expected.  More research needed.

In it's defence though, it wasn't greasy like you'd get from the takeaway and the chicken inside was beautifully soft.

I can't find the recipe online - it was from the November edition of the magazine so will post it later.  But I wouldn't recommend it anyway.  Fingers x'd something better happens my way soon!

Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Yeah, yeah, it's red - not green.  More carbs.  Here comes the justification.

The child doesn't eat much meat.  But she'll eat meatballs hence today's red-not-green carb-filled fiesta.  For now.  I don't hold out much hope that this will be a long-term association but while the going is good, I'm happy to run with it.

*Sings* On top of spaghetti, not covered with cheese...

Being a busy working mum, I succumbed to the lure of the shop-bought meatballs but to be honest, they taste like balls of papier mache, no matter how good the sauce you put them in so I am going to try to find a really good, tasty recipe from somewhere.

I know a lot of people make them with half beef and half pork mince or a beef/veal combo but I only have beef and lamb mince at the mo so have gone with the pure beef option this time.  So I chose a recipe by the lovely Rachel Allen from Saturday kitchen.  I have several of her books somewhere, but can't find them.  Maybe they got lost when we moved from London?  But as they're all about entertaining, and I've not done any in the past five years, it's not a loss that has been too keenly felt so far.

I cheated and made the tomato sauce yesterday afternoon as I just knew that if I left the sauce simmering for thirty minutes while Miss A was still about, some disaster would occur and I'd end up burning the sauce and giving in to the husband's demand for chicken and packet rice (again).

Taste wise, I'm still not convinced these are the tastiest meatballs ever.  The sauce was really tasty (not bland enough for the husband) and so eaten all together, it disguised the lack of taste in the meatballs.  Am now wondering if all meatballs just taste bland and it's the quality of the tomato sauce that goes with them that makes the difference or if I should just use Masterchef quantities of seasoning?  Whilst I love that show, it's another one (like Saturday Kitchen and anything by Nigella) that should carry a warning that watching the programme may just cause your arteries to harden.

The recipe can be found here

Chorizo Pasta

The husband has just asked me why I want to bother to stay up this evening baking pirate cupcakes to take to one of my oldest friends.  He suggested that I just hit the sack early and 'buy some in Sainsburys like everyone else'.

*Sigh*

He really doesn't appreciate food.  He's definitely eating to live rather than living to eat.  I'm the other way round.  Which is why, after being awake since 3am, running at 5am, getting to work at 7am, having a pretty stressful day, coming home to make tea for Abigail (scampi, peas and pasta), playing with her and sorting out bedtime, I then found myself cooking two more different dinners - which, lets face it is a frequent occurrence in our house.

See tonight I'd planned to have a go at Carbonara.  Yet something else I've never made.  I thought the husband would go for that as he likes spaghetti, cheese and bacon and I offered him garlic bread with it which would ordinarily seal the deal.  But he just looked at me sceptically and said 'Have I had that before?" Yes, in a restaurant, many a time.  "Can I have something else instead?'  Do I have one toddler, or two?

Red pasta in red bowl = bad presentation

So despite me being absolutely shattered, he got sausages, egg and bacon and because I didn't have to please him, I made Rachel Allen's fab chorizo pasta.  Thank you to Ocado for delivering me Unearthed Mini Cooking Chorizos and all the other bits and bobs my fridge was devoid of shortly before the critical dinner decisions were made.  I shall be noshing on the rest of those divine little sausies, simply baked with some home made bread on Sunday.

Made a couple of changes to the recipe.  Used chilli oil instead of dried chillies, didn't add rosemary as I didn't have any and used Garden Gourmet parsley as I'm tired of those 'Growing Herbs' dying on me before the week's out.  I also served it with spaghetti instead of the recommended rigatoni - but pasta is pasta is pasta some days in my book.  In truth, it's probably easier to serve with spaghetti for one portion - I'd probably use pasta shapes if I was serving to more people.

In fact, this was so lovely and 'inoffensive' that I shall be making it for tea on Saturday for the hubby with a mix of chicken and chorizo.  Top marks.  Here's the recipe.