HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY ANNABEL!

Quite an honour that Annabel chose to have her birthday lunch with us, my traditional roast chicken is one of her favourites.  Keeping this honest I must say that she had her sleepover birthday party last night, but I will take what I can get!  I still remember the evening that Julia told me she was pregnant, we had not known each other that long - another blog......!
Perfect day to eat lunch outside, it was warm but not sunny, so very comfortable.  You will have no trouble finding various roast chickens on this blog, but the star today was the lemon cake Godfather Uncle Iain brought for the celebratory dessert.  Quite delicious, and perfect for Annabel's sophisiticated taste buds at the grand old age of 10!
I used to do an orange and almond cake years ago that I had forgotten about, it was a middle eastern recipe. Apparently this cake was a variation of a similar recipe, adapted because of Annabel's love of lemon cake.  The link is to a Martha Stewart cake which looks ok BUT when Iain sends me the recipe for the real deal I will add it......

SALMON FOR JOSEPH

Alan has been traveling lately and I am feeling very hard done by as a single working commuting parent! Last weekend Joseph and I only managed to have dinner together once and I wanted to cook something he likes that would also be healthy! Came across a salmon recipe when I was browsing through my various cookbooks for inspiration. I had printed it from the Weber site a couple of years ago and had never made it.  The recipe seems to no longer be on the site, but it was short and easy:

Pepper-Crusted, Maple-Glazed Salmon
Marinade:  In a freezer bag, mix together  3/4 cup of maple syrup and 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Add 4 skinned salmon fillets, about 6 ozs each. Press as much air out of the bag as you can and squish around to make sure all fillets are coated. Marinate in fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally 24 hours, turn occasionally.   Remove fillets from marinade and brush or spray both sides with oil, then coat top side only with 1/4 cup cracked pepper, divided between the 4 fillets.  Cook as per your favourite method.  We did not BBQ, I start the fish off in a very hot pan on the stove top for a couple of minutes then put into the oven til it is done through, mine took about 5 minutes but of course the thickness of your fish will determine the time.

Notes:  Can marinate for up to 48 hours but only prep with pepper just before cooking.  Easy to adjust the marinade for however many fillets you are cooking, keep proportion 3 parts syrup to 1 part soy; there was quite a lot of marinade,  I'm sure the above amount would be fine for at least 6, so if you are doing more do not increase proportionately.

I bought wild Scottish salmon from FishTails in New Canaan, which no doubt contributed to why it was so delicious!  I also bought a jar of cracked pepper, saved time.....  Apologies for picture being soft, taken on my phone as Alan has our camera with him - how sad is that, a shared camera......

SUMMER DESSERT.

No Bake Berry Pie

Have made this several times and enjoy it each time!  Usually wait til later in the summer for the best berries, but this year could not wait.  It is a Cooks Illustrated recipe, so I cannot post the link but it is pretty simple, here it is briefly:

• Make crumb crust with 9 Graham crackers and 2T butter, bake at 350 for 15 mins, cool.
• Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 3T cornstarch, pinch salt in medium saucepan.
• Puree 2.5 cups mixed berries in food processor (then strain if you like, I don't)
• Add puree to saucepan, mix, bring to boil over medium heat, stirring, til thick.
• Remove from heat add juice from one lemon, set aside to cool slightly.
• Melt 2T redcurrant jelly. Mix with 3.5 cups mixed berries.
• Pour puree onto base, top with berries and put in fridge for at least 2 hours.
• Serve with whipped cream, I add 1T sugar to 1cup cream and 1t vanilla.

Difficult to cut small slices with this pie, so really only serves 8.  Can easily make 'fuller', more graham crackers, more fruit and glaze, you should get 10 slices at least that way.


There were going to be a bunch of kids at this event, my son requested chocolate covered strawberries. Seemed like a good idea to continue the berry theme and always practical to have something the teenagers can grab as they fancy.  Had not made them before so did a bit of research.  First recipe I came across added butter or shortening to the chocolate.  Did not like the idea of that at all so continued digging.  Soon found this recipe and it worked treat.  I read some of the comments added and used the directions for tempering the chocolate which someone had added, it was fun and a first for me.  I did not bother with the whole toothpick part. Recipe rather casually said to put them onto wax paper to cool.  I was a little concerned about this, having heard this is the tricky part of making these.  It worked a charm, they came off very easily and looked and tasted wonderful, well as wonderful as forced strawberries can be, which sadly we have all got used to! I did some of each milk and dark chocolate, hopefully pleasing all.
Took this to a Memorial Day dinner party at the Tavernas and had one of the beast meals I have had in a while!  We had a Mediterranean style meal, steak kebabs with a Tzatziki style sauce, orzo salad (courtesy of the Muirheads) and a green salad with peaches and Parma ham, thanks to Jules.  All brilliant, but the star of the evening was definitely the Grilled Chickpea Flatbread.  I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to plan to grill these in a dinner party situation, but that's the Tavernas for you!  It helps that both of them cook and so does their 15 year old son.  Another memorable day with friends.
If I find the recipe for the steak marinade I will post it as it was really excellent.  I have now added the Fine Cooking website and All Recipes to the webistes I use.  You have to create an account for the Fine cooking one, takes 2 minutes and is worth it.

SHRIMP & SALAD SATURDAY

I love shrimp,  can eat them every day of the week. Hopefully one day I will master Prawns Peri Peri, which I grew up with, will post when I do!  In the meantime, this was a Saturday evening supper, after a wonderfully busy day of tennis and gardening.
No recipe for the shrimp, little too chilly to BBQ so I skewered them, with some cherry tomatoes, as you can see, doused them with chilli oil and cooked under the broiler for about 10 minutes. Served with lemon slices, yum!

Have an actual copy of the current BBC Good Food magazine, which I love and the Pickled Radish & Cucumber salad was from there.  This was fantastic, I will definitely do it again.  Wonderful for a party too as you can do it ahead of time.

CURRY IN A HURRY!

Prettty much.... one of those unseasonaly cold May weekends and it just had to be a curry.   As usual had a lot going on, no time for a 2 hour simmered something spicy!  BBC Goodfood to the rescue, had the recent issue (thanks Annie): Lamb Keema with peas did the trick! It is a minced lamb curry so no need for long, slow cooking.  I got to the kitchen at 7 and we were eating at 8.30, and that included making my own Garam Masala!  Only because my local supermarket did not stock it, but pretty easy and very satisfying - not to mention wonderful aroma.....  Of course I made enough for us to have it mid week a few days later and it was even more delicious second time around. Picture is pre coriander addition,  as my son has decided he does not care for it, takes after his sister, subject of another blog! I served this with a brown basmati rice to which I added ginger and turmeric, pretty good, she says.

DINNER FOR ANNIE

The cloud of ash from the Iclandic volcano meant we spent some wonderful extra time with our dear friend Annie, who had come over for Chelsey's wedding.  She is a fantastic cook and we had done some recipe catching up over the couple of days we had been together. So, what to cook on our first night at home together.  Didn't have tons of time, got home early afternoon.  I had mentioned  OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS WITH CARROTS AND POTATOES and she requested it.  Have done this once before, exactly as per recipe and it was great.  Did a variation this time, used fresh rosemary insttead of dried thyme and roasted the vegetables and chicken separately to save time. Did not disappoint, a great, adaptable, weekday family meal.

SOMETHING FISHY WENT ON!

When I was planning the meal for some friends who were coming over for dinner last night, it was one of those freaky very hot days for April.  Had already decided to cook fish and remembered something I had done last year just for Alan and I that I mentally earmarked as a good dinner party dish.

GREEK STYLE MAHI MAHI was what I decided on. Only problem was that there was no Mahi Mahi to be found.  We have a pretty good fish monger in New Canaan and he had some Scottish salmon which had apparently flown in the night before! It worked really well and looked very pretty too.  Served this with TOASTED ORZO WITH SAFFRON AND FENNEL, as suggested in the fish recipe.  It was really good, little tricky to make as you do not drain once cooked, so you have to get the amount of water exactly right.  My quantities were different, so I calculated the amount of water, used a bit less and kept additional water just off the boil in the kettle.  I did need to add some more water and it all worked out fine.  Val did a delicious green salad to go with, which had a lemony dressing.  Her new trick was to add thinly sliced brussel sprouts which added some great crunch.

 Another delightful and delicious evening, around my table with friends.