Ramen with button mushrooms, poached egg and crispy wild onion greens

This definitely isn’t David Chang-calibre, but totally acceptable for a lazy situation. Mushrooms and wild onion bulbs were panfried until suitably browned, then splashed with soy sauce. The onion greens were then fried in the hot pan with a bit of oil, until crispy. Instant ramen from Nong Shim was used, along with the broth powder. It was one of those nights where I didn’t feel like thawing out some stock to make a proper broth. It still tasted delicious, with aid from the liquid egg yolk, of course. 

Wild Onions

Found these while digging up the front garden. I’ve been using the bulbs like I would garlic cloves or shallots- whole and roasted, or cut up and fried in oil before other things go in the pan. I’ve been cooking the greens in a very hot pan with oil, so that they become crispy oniony garnishes. 

Goat cheese, fiddlehead, beet, rosemary and honey pizza

I am a madman. 

sage gnocchi, carrot purée, pan-roasted mushrooms, chives

Oxtail Stroganoff

Sometimes you feel indebted to your childhood eating habits and this was one of those times: a jazzed up version of childhood’s ubiquitous box-mix beef stroganoff. Oxtails were browned, then added with mushrooms, onion, garlic, tomato and celery and beer to a pressure cooker and cooked for an hour. The meat was removed, the stock strained and reduced. I thickened the stock with corn starch, and added the meat (pulled off the bones) back in. Finished with an excessive amount of black pepper and poured over egg noodles, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

radish salad with bacon, blue cheese, buttermilk and radish chip

 stress-cooking at it’s finest. 

Pork chops with sautéed apples

The chops were from a Tamworth pig. They were brined for an hour before cooking, and were very delicious. The apples were sautéed in butter, with brown sugar added later. 

“Thai curry noodle soup” with chicken and cauliflower

In quotations because nothing in here is authentic, just stuff I had on hand and that I like. The cauliflower and chicken were leftovers, thrown in just long enough to warm up. The soup was very spicy, but had some of that subtle coconut sweetness. A really great meal for this windy winter night. 

“Red Curry Paste”
17-20 Thai chiles
1 tsp white peppercorns
4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp lime zest
 2 tbsp cilantro root
1/2 head garlic
2 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
water

Cut up the fresh things, grind the dry things. Use an immersion blender or food processor to make a paste.

“Red Curry”

1 tbsp red curry paste
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
leftovers, or what have you. I used chicken, cauliflower and thin vermicelli.
 
heat a pot to medium, add the oil and curry paste, cook for 30 seconds.
Add everything else, stir, bring to a simmer. Serve. 

Roast Chicken

I think I’ve finally found a method worth repeating - I got crisp, nicely browned skin and very moist meat. The chicken was rubbed with a mixture of baking powder, salt and pepper 8 hours before cooking. An oven was heated to 500ºF with a 12” cast iron skillet in it. The chicken was rubbed with a mix of freshly-ground mustard seed, white peppercorn, cumin, and smoked paprika. It was stuffed with a lemon, cut in half, and a few garlic cloves. It was then put onto the skillet breast-up for 15 minutes, after which the heat was reduced to 350ºF until done (160ºF), which in this case was a further 45 minutes.  

Carrot Soup with yogurt and lime

This was good, although I think I will try roasting the carrots next time. I’ve been trying to keep my veg soups as pure as possible lately, not relying on stock and the like. The carrot soup was seasoned with freshly ground cumin, maple syrup, and a bit of soy sauce and miso. The yogurt-lime thing was just lime juice mixed with yogurt and swirled on top.