Carrots and Bacon

I'm on a roll, so a quickie before bedtime. A delish side-dish that got top marks back in 2006!

Name:
Carrots and Bacon

Book:
Nigel Slater, The Thirty-Minute Cook (Penguin, London, 1994)

Date(s) cooked:
19th November, 2006 and 25th November, 2006.

Comments:

"Made for a roast leg of lamb from Nigel Slater's latest book: The Kitchen Diaries: A year In The Kitchen with Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate, London, 2005). I'd use regular onions (rather than cocktail) and allow to caramelize. "Lissa raved".

"Ate with Nigel's deep-fried lamb. Reminds me of Beat (my aunt)".

Recipe:

For 2 as a side dish

25g/10z butter

450g/1 lb small carrots

100g/4 oz tiny bottled onions

100g/4 oz smoked streaky bacon

Melt the butter in a saute pan. Keep the heat moderately high. Add the carrots, kept whole, and the baby onions. Dice the bacon and add it to the pan with a little salt and pepper when the vegetables are beginning to brown. Turn the heat to low, cover and cook for 25 minutes till all is golden and meltingly tender.

Herbed Salmon with Garlic Cream Sauce

I know I said I hate to repeat recipes, but this is a family classic and whenever we're near decent salmon, this is (invariably) what we want to eat. For ten years, 'Lissa and I lived on the west coast of Canada...close to an abundant supply of great fish. Now, we're landlocked in northern New Mexico, so we don't get to cook this that often. Whatever, if you can get the salmon, you must, must, must cook this Nigel classic.

Name:
Herbed Salmon with Garlic Cream Sauce

Book:
Nigel Slater, The Thirty-Minute Cook (Penguin, London, 1994)

Date(s) cooked:
19th August, 2001/ 27th October, 2004/ 16 May, 2007/21st February 2005/21st October 2009/21st November 2001/11th March 2005/28th August 2007/8th February 2007/12th June 2004/25th June 2010/10th June 2004/10th March 2007/6th October 2008/22nd March 2009/8th May 2008.


Comments:
"Use the tail of nice piece of sockeye which I started (but couldn't be bothered to finish) filleting. Had just moved to Pearson College and so didn't have heaps of fresh herbs and so resorted to dried dill, chives, tarragon and thyme (marcapone used in sauce). Lissa raved and marscapone was definitely the guilding of the lily pad".



"Made again with basil, parsely and tarragon."



"Made camping at Port Renfrew on holiday from UWC-USA with Jenny and Dave. Excellent as always."



"Supper with Tessa."



"Again with green beans, almondine and basmati rice."



"Again for Dick and Antoinette."



"Again with sockeye and marscapone and basil from Trader Joe's in Santa Fe."



"Just basil with Delia rice."



"Again."



"Again."



"Again."



"Again."



"Made with rocket, basil, parsley and fennel from garden."

Recipe:

450g/1 lb salmon fillets
6 tablespoons chopped herbs tarragon, basil, dill, parsley, chervil
5g/20z butter
1 clove garlic squashed flat
4 tablespoons creme freche, double cream or marscapone
lemon juice

Cut the salmon fillets into pieces across their width, about 4cm/1.5" wide. Scatter the chopped herbs on a plate and roll the salmon pieces in them, pressing down on them to make them adhere to the fish.


Melt the butter in a shallow pan over a medium heat and add the garlic. When the butter starts to foam, place the herbed fingers of fish into the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes or just until the fish becomes opaque. By now the butter will be slightly brown in parts and fizzing wildly. Stir in the creme, cream or whatever and leave to melt in the butter. Season with black pepper and add salt if you wish.

Just before you scoop the fish out of the pan squeeze a little lemon juice into the juice. It will lift the flavour and prevent the sauce from becoming cloying.

Morrocan Chicken

I had all sorts of plans about how to order 'Lissa's food loving, but in the end she decided what she wanted to open the blog...sassy whatnot that she is. Having lived in Canada and The US, I'm all too aware of how English food is dismissed by North Americans. I don't consider myself an anglophile, but I do find myself defensive of English food, especially in US/Canada where there really isn't a strong culture of food appreciation. I agree, traditional English food (steak and kidney pie, spotted dick and toad-in-the-hole) isn't the greatest, but the notion that the English aren't interested in food is a fallacy. Nigel Slater is a case in point. Of all the big name cookbook writers in England -- Nigella Lawson, Deliah Smith, Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver -- Nigel Slater is 'Lissa's favourite. Mine too. He writes beautifully and his recipes are simple, unfussy yet divine.

So, at the request of 'Lissa herself, the first set of recipe's come from Nigel Slater's The Thirty-Minute Cook (Penguin, 1994) -- a brilliant, brilliant book, that is definitely in our "top ten" cookbooks of all time. Here goes, the first recipe that 'Lissa loves:

Name:
Flash-fried Moroccan Chicken

Book:
Nigel Slater The Thirty-Minute Cook (Penguin, London, 1994)

Date(s) cooked:
26th October, 2002/22nd March, 2003/15th January, 2004/5th May, 2005/16th December 2006/14th March, 2007.

Comments:
"Don't think I've ever heard 'Lissa rave quite so hard (even if she only gave it 9 out of 10). Never have raisins tasted quite so divine in a savoury dish. Sweet and spicy and ever so nicey. Again, again, again".

"My first Nigel Slater in Kuala Lumpur...to remind us of home."

"Auspicious day, so time for Moroccan chicken".

"Made again with a plate of sliced oranges, drizzled with olive oil, ground black pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. Very simple/tasty salad. Mmmmmm!"

"For 'Lissa at UWC-USA" (Where we work).

"Ran out of cinnamon...used Chinese five spice powder".

"A bizarre one really -- multiplied by ten for students staying on campus over Project Week. Only four people turned up. Bastards. Ate with orange couscous."

Recipe:

For 2

350g/120z chicken fillets or boned pieces
1 fresh red chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon crushed dried chili pepper
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sultans or raisins
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 tablespoon chopped mint

Place the chicken pieces in a shallow dish. Mix together the fresh and dried chilis, garlic, lemon, half the olive oil, cinnamon, sultans or raisins and pine nuts, and then pour over the chicken.Leave for 20 minutes or so. An hour would be better if you have it.

Heat the remaining oil in a shallow pan; when it sizzles add the chicken pieces. Heat over high heat until golden brown and then turn them over and cook on the other side. Pour in the marinade ingredients and bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper, and scatter over the mint. Serve hot with its pan juices.

Hope you like it!

Me!

'Lissa!

Twenty years in the making!

Here begins a culinary Odyssey -- a summary of twenty years of cooking for my girlfriend Melissa (aka "Jo-Jo", "Mama", "Saucey", "Mamacita" or "'Lissa").

The scoop:

• Melissa is from Midland, Ontario, Canada and I'm from London, England. We met (as passing ships in the night) whilst working as counsellors at a YMCA camp outside Victoria, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, way back in 1990.
• I was born into a family of cooks (though am not a cook myself) and Melissa comes from a family of simple eating tastes. When we first met Melissa was strictly a "meat and potatoes" kind of chick...nothing fancy. Whilst her palate has grown to include all sorts of new ingredients, there are still certain things I can't persuade her (or our three naughty children Ruaidhri 13, Rex 10 and Harriet 7) to eat: offal (boo hoo!), mushrooms (ahhh!) or squid.
• It is extremely hard to make Melissa gush about food.
• I have a variety of cooking obsessions, the most notable being: I can't stop buying cookbooks and I can't ever cook the same recipe twice (once in a while I will...more on that later). I have a warped conviction that one day (before I croak) I'll cook every recipe in every cookbook I own. I know -- uber-warped.
• Another weirdness is that I write-up every recipe I cook. Included in the write ups is the date; what was going on in our lives on that day; an analysis of how successful the recipe was (with suggested alterations/changes); and (most importantly) what the response to the recipe was like. Over twenty years, I am guessing I have cooked over 4,000 recipes for Melissa -- from the sublimely divine to the gaggingly foul. Every day, at the start each meal preparation it is my fixation that this will be the recipe that achieves the illusive honour of "'Lissa loved it!" For me this is bigger than Michelin stars, bigger than celebrity chef endoresments, bigger than anything that Julia Childs or Escofier may have to say about anything. I live to hear that "'Lissa loved it!"...in our house this is entry into the Culinary Hall of Fame.
• So, to my blog. I have been promising to collate all the recipes that have achieved the heady accolade of "'Lissa loved it!" for over a decade. Now (and for the first time) the first publication of all the recipes that Melissa Belfry absolutely adores. I intend to post two recipes a day. With each recipe comes the date it was cooked (not in the very early days, sorry), the name/author of the cookbook the recipe comes from and my write up.
• Remember the only thing that connects these recipes is that "'Lissa loved it!"
• I'd love to hear your thoughts on the recipes I post -- whether good, bad or ugly. Also, if you think you have a recipe that 'Lissa may love, please post and I promise I'll test it for you and write you a review. But be warned..."'Lissa loved it!" DOES NOT COME EASILY...believe me.