Eight Meals That I Cooked
Nov. 28th, 2018 08:32 pmYes it's that time again, the time when I describe food I made.
Truffled Mushroom Risotto With Hazelnuts and Cheese Tuiles
This has an air of wearing its poshness on its sleeve, you know like when things are "jus" instead of "sauce", that sort of thing. A tuile is basically a baked slab of grated cheese (this happens accidentally whenever cheese leaks out of my sandwich in the George Foreman, I had no idea I was doing something cool). The truffle oil is kinda of unnecessary. However I did like the lightly roasted crushed hazelnuts. One problem with a risotto is that it can be a bit monotonous in taste and texture, and the hazelnuts provided a suitable contrast. But really, it's just an ordinary mushroom risotto under all the faff.
Tuna Lemon and Caper Spaghetti
This is simple to make and tasty enough. I say simple, but it does tell you to "peel" the cheese and I'm still not sure what that means. I just grated it.
Creamy Mushroom Pie, Balsamic Roasted Sprouts and Mash
Where do you stand on roasted sprouts? I dislike them, they are woody and tasteless. I am a steamed sprouts man. Otherwise this was fine, if a bit odd. You bake some puff pasty separately, make mash and a cheesy mushroom sauce and then kind of assemble a fake pie as the last step. I feel like you could just not bother with the pastry.
Prawn and Courgette Noodle Soup
Quick and spicy, though I'm not sure why I needed to do the noodles separately, they could have just gone in with everything else and absorbed water from the stock.
Blue Cheese Potato Cakes and Cranberry Sauce
OK so firstly, you make cranberry sauce by adding dried cranberries to redcurrant jelly and sugar water and heating it up. Honestly I'd have been fine with just a little pot of cranberry sauce, it seems like one of the things that doesn't benefit from being made from first principles. Now onto the cakes. You stir the blue cheese along with some panko into mash and then roll the patties in polenta, then shallow fry them, which is also slightly more faff than I would have liked. I wouldn't have cared if they tasted amazing, but they were rather stodgy and overbearing and it took me three meals to get through them (and that's with half the polenta not sticking to the cakes and having to be thrown away). I probably wouldn't make this again.
Lamb Keema Pav With Turmeric Roast Potatoes
This was tasty. You toast brioche halves and top them with curried mince.
Sausage and Shallot Pizza With Rocket
As the title suggests, you make your own pizza with the innards of a sausage.
Classic Beef Chilli Con Carne
This has some nerve calling itself a classic chilli, especially as the nearest it comes to having any chilli in it is a sachet of chipotle paste. It was tasty enough, though basmati feels like the wrong rice, too sticky and dry.
Truffled Mushroom Risotto With Hazelnuts and Cheese Tuiles
This has an air of wearing its poshness on its sleeve, you know like when things are "jus" instead of "sauce", that sort of thing. A tuile is basically a baked slab of grated cheese (this happens accidentally whenever cheese leaks out of my sandwich in the George Foreman, I had no idea I was doing something cool). The truffle oil is kinda of unnecessary. However I did like the lightly roasted crushed hazelnuts. One problem with a risotto is that it can be a bit monotonous in taste and texture, and the hazelnuts provided a suitable contrast. But really, it's just an ordinary mushroom risotto under all the faff.
Tuna Lemon and Caper Spaghetti
This is simple to make and tasty enough. I say simple, but it does tell you to "peel" the cheese and I'm still not sure what that means. I just grated it.
Creamy Mushroom Pie, Balsamic Roasted Sprouts and Mash
Where do you stand on roasted sprouts? I dislike them, they are woody and tasteless. I am a steamed sprouts man. Otherwise this was fine, if a bit odd. You bake some puff pasty separately, make mash and a cheesy mushroom sauce and then kind of assemble a fake pie as the last step. I feel like you could just not bother with the pastry.
Prawn and Courgette Noodle Soup
Quick and spicy, though I'm not sure why I needed to do the noodles separately, they could have just gone in with everything else and absorbed water from the stock.
Blue Cheese Potato Cakes and Cranberry Sauce
OK so firstly, you make cranberry sauce by adding dried cranberries to redcurrant jelly and sugar water and heating it up. Honestly I'd have been fine with just a little pot of cranberry sauce, it seems like one of the things that doesn't benefit from being made from first principles. Now onto the cakes. You stir the blue cheese along with some panko into mash and then roll the patties in polenta, then shallow fry them, which is also slightly more faff than I would have liked. I wouldn't have cared if they tasted amazing, but they were rather stodgy and overbearing and it took me three meals to get through them (and that's with half the polenta not sticking to the cakes and having to be thrown away). I probably wouldn't make this again.
Lamb Keema Pav With Turmeric Roast Potatoes
This was tasty. You toast brioche halves and top them with curried mince.
Sausage and Shallot Pizza With Rocket
As the title suggests, you make your own pizza with the innards of a sausage.
Classic Beef Chilli Con Carne
This has some nerve calling itself a classic chilli, especially as the nearest it comes to having any chilli in it is a sachet of chipotle paste. It was tasty enough, though basmati feels like the wrong rice, too sticky and dry.