SRD's recipe of the day

[SRD]

I'm not promising a recipe everyday, but occasionally if I'm doing something we particularly like I'll try to drop it in here.

Remoulade

This is technically a general term but we had an excellent dish of smoked chicken, new boiled potatoes tossed in butter and parsley and this celeriac remoulade:
For 2 people as a main veg, 4 as part of a general salad or as a garnish:
Half a medium sized celeriac, finely grated.
A few thin slices of red onion (it doesn't have to be red but the colour contrast is good)
Two or three slices of Jalapeno peppers chopped into 5mm pieces (more if you like). You could use chopped gherkin for those who are completely chilli intolerant but it should have some bite.
Two or three spoons of mayonnaise (we prefer Hellmans but others would do).

Mix all the ingredients together.

As I said; it was good with smoked chicken, we've also had it with smoked turkey and it's a fine accompaniment to burger and chips rather than coleslaw.

[SRD]

Stir fried pork and leeks

Every so often our supermarket has those long thin pork fillets greatly reduced in price, when it does I always buy a couple, cut them in half and bung them in the freezer.
One of the dishes I make with them is the following stir fried pork and leeks recipe.
For 2 people:
Take half a pork fillet, slice it across the grain (into rounds) about 5mm deep then slice each round into three strips, place in a bowl with a tablespoon of flavoured oil (I use the 'wok' oil that our supermarket sells, it's infused with garlic and ginger) and a couple of tablespoons of dark soy sauce.
If you can't get hold of flavoured oils crush a garlic clove and an inch of peeled fresh ginger into the marinade.
Marinade for an hour or so.
Slice a large (or two small) leeks into 5mm rounds, wash to remove any dirt, and drain.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok (or large frying pan) until it's smoking, drain the meat from the marinade, reserve the marinade and throw the meat into the pan, stir fry vigourously until the meat is almost cooked and has flecks of charred bits on it's surface, add the leeks, continue to stir fry for a couple of minutes then add the marinade. Bubble up and cook until the leeks are cooked (another minute or so), if it's getting too dry add a splash of water, but the sauce should be reduced to a fairly sticky, but still pourable, consistency.

Serve with plain boiled rice and a couple of handfuls of mixed frozen veg boiled up in some sweet and sour cook-in sauce with some prawn crackers on the side.

I'll let you have my recipe for the sweet and sour veg another day.

[Northern Lass]

That sounds fabulous! I will give that a try thanks SRD

[Annie]

That sounds fabulous! I will give that a try thanks SRD

I agree and will give it a try , so thank you SRD.

Annie

[snoopysue]

Sounds great.
Can you still get fresh noodles in the UK, always loved those with a stir-fry, the dried ones just aren't the same?

[BC Wench]

That sounds really tasty SRD. One for my recipe book. Thanks.

[SRD]

Monkfish fillets were cheap yesterday so I bought a nice one, cleaned it up a bit as the membrane can make it quite rubbery, it's a bit tricky but comes off eventually.
I finely chopped the leaves from a few of stems of tarragon, grated the skin of half an orange and added a good graunch of black pepper and a pinch of salt then mixed it with olive oil and brushed some of it over one side of the monkfish fillet.
I stretched a few slices of pancetta (you could use any form of thin ham like parma or jamon serrano or even streaky bacon but it needs well stretching) and laid them out, overlapping the edges slightly and reserving a couple for the ends.
I placed the fillet, marinated side down, on the pancetta and brushed the upper side with more marinade before using the reserved bits to wrap the ends of the fillet and then alternatively wrapping the ends of the pancetta over the top to completely cover the fillet.
Heat the oven to 200C with a suitably sized roasting tin in it then place the wrapped fillet, join side down, in it. Roast for 10 - 15 minutes 'til the top of the pancetta is getting crispy.
Soften a little shallot (about a teaspoon) in a little butter in a small fry pan and add the remaining marinade ingredients (you might want to add a little more chopped tarragon and grated orange peel).
When the fish is cooked place on a plate in a warm oven (no more than 90C), deglaze the tin with a splash of Noilly Prat or some white wine and add the contents to the cooked marinade in the frying pan. Manually squeeze the juice from half the orange (it doesn't matter if some bits of orange get into the sauce but retrieve any pips) and bubble up whilst your slicing the fillet into 3/4" slices. Arrange on the plates with the sauce spooned over.
Serve with sautéed potatoes and peas & fennel poached in cream.

[SRD]

We had the remains of a roast chicken in the fridge, not enough to make a lunch for two but enough to pad out a rice dish.
Shred the chicken meat.
Thinly slice half an onion, keep a couple of slices of rings (or 4 half rings depending on how you've cut your onion in half) and chop the rest.
Very gently fry the retained rings in oil until caramelised, but not burnt, and keep to one side. Add a knob of butter to the oil and turn up the heat to medium.
Once the butter has stopped frothing put in quarter of a cup of sultanas and fry 'til they change colour and puff up. Using a slotted spoon to drain them take them out of the fat and put them with the chicken.
Add quarter of a cup of flaked almonds to the fat and fry 'til lightly browned. Using the slotted spoon add them to the chicken and sultanas.
Turn the heat down on the fat a little and soften the chopped onion.
Meanwhile crush a small garlic clove and finely chop a chilli (optional) add to the softened onion.
Once the onion, garlic & chilli mix is softened add half a teaspoon of ground cumin and a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon and stir round.
Add 2/3rds of a cup of long grain rice and stir to coat the grains with the fat.
Add a cup of chicken stock and cover the pan. Turn to low. Check every so often to make sure the rice isn't drying out (if it does add a bit more stock). Just as the rice is cooked, stir in the chicken, sultanas and almonds and a little more stock. Turn up the heat to medium to heat the meat through and to cook out the remaining liquor, scatter the caramelised onion slices over the top and serve.

[Antie Em]

Ooohhh SRD - that sounds lovely. I will print this off for my Son in Law, he's the family cook and loves something a bit different.

Maggie

[SRD]

I tried out a new salad last night; I'd had it at the White Lion in Bourton where they used it to accompany smoked salmon but I thought it would work better with a white fish, so, as I had bought a nice pollack fillet, I gave it a go.
I skinned and de-seeded a couple of large tomatoes then chopped the flesh into 5ml dice. I added a couple of tablespoons of small capers (if using the large ones they'll want halving). Then I sliced half a bulb of fennel horizontally, chopping the core bits into 5ml dice and halving the 'rings' and added it to the tomatoes and capers. With a tablespoon of lemon juice and salt & pepper to taste, that was it. I left it to marinade whilst preparing new boiled potatoes, simply grilled the fish with a bit of butter and chucked it all onto the plate with a bit of extra butter for the potatoes. It worked pretty well but the pollack was a little light in flavour, next time I'll try the salad with monkfish or salmon.

[SRD]

Beef with baby onions and red wine for those of a more sensitive nature.
Bordelaise sauce is one of the classic French sauces based on a very strong beef stock and, if made properly, requires an awful lot of fannying about. It's more usually used as a dressing sauce for steak but I had around a pound (400g) of stewing beef in the freezer and decided on a cheats version to make a casserole.

I topped, tailed and skinned a dozen shallots (baby onions would do but shallots have a better flavour) and fried them in butter 'til lightly browned (it doesn't matter if they're over browned but will fall apart if cooked too much) then placed them in a casserole.
I diced and browned the meat in batches in the pan before adding it to the casserole.
Then I deglazed the pan with a good cup full of red wine (technically this should be Bordeaux but I used a cheap French country wine) and reduced the liquor by two thirds adding it to the casserole.
I added a scant cupful of strong beef stock made from a whole Knorr stock cube and a teaspoon of Bovril which I poured into the casserole then topped it up with water until the ingredients were just covered.
The casserole was covered and placed in a cold oven then the oven was turned up to 120C and cooked for a couple of hours. Timing will vary depending on the meat; I started checking it at around one hour and judged that it needed another half hour or so after two.
I slaked a teaspoon of cornflour in water and stirred it well in then returned the covered casserole to the oven for another half hour. Given a good stir it can be served straight away but will keep until required when it can be reheated.
I served it with carrots, broad beans and plain boiled potatoes, but, as the oven is on, one could bake the potatoes.

[snoopysue]

Sounds good SRD

[Rob]

Beef with baby onions !! I've printed the recipe and i'll try that.
SRD have you got any Black Country recipes please.

[dudleytaylor]

you men are so good at cooking ,lucky wives

[SRD]

Beef with baby onions !! I've printed the recipe and i'll try that.
SRD have you got any Black Country recipes please.

I'm not sure there are any specific to the Black Country, my BC grandmother & great aunts used to cook in much the same fashion as my Sussex ones, and, like most working class areas, a lot of offal was used which tends to be less popular nowadays.

Although there are local products to play with that are made with specifically local recipes, unfortunately many of these contain wheat in some form or other so I don't use BC sausages, black pudding etc. When I could eat wheat I used to love the hot pork and stuffing sandwiches from the shop in Cradley Heath.