The 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread - Part I

The Sweeper

Tonight started as a bit of a slapstick "use what's in the fridge" and has ended up as a banquet.

Marinated a whole chicken in tandoori marinade, that's just finishing off in the oven now. Made an aloo gobi to go with it, and then decided to do some spiced spinach as well (saag).

Then decided to have a go at a naan - which rarely works.

Well colour me happy - I used Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for plain naan bread, and the mix itself is perfect. The cooking is, of course, the hard bit. Our gas oven goes up to 270 degrees, but I have a cast iron pan with an iron handle - so after I shaped the naan, I put the cast iron pan on the wok burner and heated it until smoking. I slapped the naan onto the pan, then the whole lot into the oven for five minutes. That's enough to cook it perfectly, then (out of sheer badness) decided to toast the top side over the naked gas flame of the wok-burner using a tongs.

The result: that's the last time I ever, EVER buy a Sharwoods pre-packed naan. These were really, really easy and, while possibly only 80% of the way towards a naan cooked in a real tandoor, they beat the pants off any of the store-bought stuff.

Of course now I've fed me face with the 'test naan' and some aloo gobi, I've to wait for the rest of them to come in so we can have dinner and then I'll be cooking the rest of the naans. Think I'll try making them even skinnier than the first one.

Minder

Sichuan salt & pepper tiger prawns and a thai red chicken curry with jasmine rice. The rain hadn't started last night so I put the deep fat fryer in the garden to cook the prawns.

Dizzyblonde

We had Chinese last night, but I made the strawberry and mascarpone tart from the Avoca Cookbook 2 for dessert. I'd been intending to make it for ages, and it was amazing!

Toto Wolfcastle

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

We had Chinese last night, but I made the strawberry and mascarpone tart from the Avoca Cookbook 2 for dessert. I'd been intending to make it for ages, and it was amazing!

I made that tart when I catered a party and it went down really well. I'm not a fan of strawberries myself but I liked it.

The Hill Billy

I'm not on here too much these days, so here's a few day's meals.

Wednesday - Braised ray wings with a beetroot salad.
Thursday - Homemade crab cakes with stirfried veg with chilli & lemongrass.
Friday - Thai green curry soup with noodles.
Saturday - Lamb vindaloo. It isn't often that I really, really like my own food (grub always tastes better if someone else cooks I think), but this was quite possibly the best curry I have ever made.
Sunday - Sirloin Steak with rings of raw onion & slices of bread to mop up the juices.

Dizzyblonde

Last night we had roast beef, new potatoes, braised cabbage, and carrot and swede mash - with gravy.
Finished off the strawberry and mascarpone tart for dessert.

Toto Wolfcastle

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Last night we had roast beef, new potatoes, braised cabbage, and carrot and swede mash - with gravy.
Finished off the strawberry and mascarpone tart for dessert.

Look, can somebody just kill me now? It's been 2 months since I had a proper roast like this!

This week I'm just eating twice baked potatoes because I have so much packing to do to move that I don't have the time or the energy to do anything too complicated.

Minder

Hill Billy wrote: »

Saturday - Lamb vindaloo. It isn't often that I really, really like my own food (grub always tastes better if someone else cooks I think), but this was quite possibly the best curry I have ever made.

HB - Any chance of posting the recipe - I'm always open to a new curry!

kenco

Had some assistance with jnr yesterday so was able to do a roast fillet of lamd leg with some roast spuds and steamed veg (ok the ones that come in a packet that you nuke but not bad with a one week old!)

Previous night was fast pork chops mash and beans. Served to herself first and then me later on (very handy with mash!)

The Hill Billy

Minder wrote: »

HB - Any chance of posting the recipe - I'm always open to a new curry!

From memory...

1 tsbp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seeds
5 or 6 cloves
2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp black peppercorns
- Grind all of the above & then add 2 tsp of turmeric & 2 tsp of black mustard seeds
- Heat 3 or 4 tbsp of oil in a pan & add the spices. Fry for 2 or 3 mins. Add meat (I used diced leg of lamb) & brown off.
- Add a "thumb" of ginger, minced & 6 chopped cloves of garlic. Continue to fry for another few minutes.
- Now add 3 tbsp red wine vinegar. Cook for another few mins. Then add a tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 tbsp of tomato puree & a half pint of chicken or lamb stock.
- Throw in two hot green chillies that have been split down the middle, but stalk remains intact. (Easy to retrieve if you don't want to burn the gob off yourself by eating them accidently).
- Simmer for 90 minutes.
- Now add two onions, finely sliced in rings & 4 potatoes chopped into large bite-sized chunks. Add the chopped stalks from fresh coriander if you have it.
- Simmer on a low heat for an hour.
- Just before you serve, add the juice of half a lemon or a whole lime & chopped coriander leaves.

I hope that it works for you as well as it did me.

kenco

Very rushed tonight but managed to do a nice rissotto with some mixed salads

tSubh Dearg

Tonight I made a hot pot. Potato, leek, bacon and left over chicken covered in a cheesy white sauce and bunged in the oven for an hour.

Very tasty and good for lunch tomorrow.

Minder

Duck noodle soup.

The Sweeper

Pad thai noodle for lunch with a friend from work, followed by a lamb shorba for supper, which is currently bubbling away gently on the stove.

xzanti

I made spag bol last night, was quite nice, had no onions or mushrooms though, so was just meat and sauce, still nice..

r3nu4l

Mrs r3nu4l and I made a tuna and pasta bake last night.

Boil pasta, add some frozen veg to the pasta 5 minutes before the pasta is ready.
Fry some finely chopped onion in a frying pan (We used one large, whole white onion).

Make sauce:
600 mls semi-skimmed milk
25g Butter
25g plain white flour

Bring that to the boil (medium heat) while whisking constantly, simmer for two minutes.

Add 1 teaspoon of English mustard and approximately 50g of grated hard cheese (we used Gouda and Cheddar).

Drain pasta and veg, add onions and two tins of tuna. Mix well using wooden spoon

Pour into an oven-proof (lightly-oiled) dish, pour sauce over, sprinkle top with approximately 75g of grated hard cheese.

Bake in oven at 160C for ~25-30 minutes

sc317

Breaded Aubergine with home made alioli

Sole with potato dauphinose and a wilted spinnach, olive oi, lemon juice, serrano ham and diiced aubergine concoction that went very well thank you very much.

Minder

A lasagne of chicken, mushroom and asparagus and a green salad on the side.

Loopy

Seabass with salad and baby potatoes..

tSubh Dearg

Homemade burgers, laced with garlic. Yummy!

kenco

Last night was not great as jnr needed to be involved (and his sister was still awake)!
Tinfoil baked Salmon (few herbs, lemon, olive oil, salt & pepper). Baby spuds and some steamed veg.

Friday was better as we got a chance to sit down and dine! Marinated ribeye steaks (thyme, garlic, olive oil, worchester sauce), fired mushrooms and baby spuds

The Sweeper

Last night was bacon, mash and various veggies done in the bacon water. Tonight was rare roast beef, rested for 45 minutes before carving. Nice.

Minder

Grilled seabass, cannellini beans with garlic and parsley, spagettini with a jar of vongole sauce.

Loopy

Minder, you sure have some decent scram in your place:D

I had stuffed lamb with gratin potatoes and veg stir fry.

Minder

Linguine with tuna, chilli and parsley, dressed with a lemon and olive oil sauce. Char grilled asparagus.

tSubh Dearg

This evening I created a sort of Mediterraneany stew/soup concoction. Threw together a jointed chicken (browned first), chorizo sausage (again browned first), chopped courgette, red pepper and mushrooms in a pot with some chicken stock and a tin of tomatoes.

I added a mix of paprika, cinnamon, cumin and coriander which I ground up with some salt and black pepper corns in my pestal and mortar before chucking it in.

Bunged the whole pot in the oven for an hour and ate it with slices of batch bread.

watna

We had our housewarming over the weekend and I made dinner for a group of us. Made beef bourguignon and potato daupinoise (My favourite dinner in the world!). Luckily there was one pot of beef left over so I had that last night, heated up with really buttery mashed potatoes. The perfect dinner for a cold and wet night!

This weekend I'm going to make a big lasagne. Having a pot of something in the house that you just need to heat up has proved really handy when you come in after a long days work.

The Sweeper

Congrats on the new home Watna. I look forward to being in a similar situation myself (eventually, signing building contracts on Friday!)

The night after rare roast beef was beef stroganoff. Last night was thai-style chili beef wraps - lime juice, fish sauce, chili, beef, leaves, wraps.

Tonight I feel a desire for chicken wings with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing!

Minder

Home made chicken satay, peanut sauce and gado gado - the indonesian salad. Good under the grill, but it would have been better on the BBQ - if it ever stops raining:mad:

The only problem with this dinner is the huge amount of pots and pans needed to make it. Chicken satay: 1 blender, 1 bowl, 1 grill pan. Gado Gado: Steam green beans and carrots, 1 pot & steamer, fry potatoes, 1 pan, make prawn crackers, 1 DF Fryer, wash salad, 1 salad spinner. Peanut sauce, 1 spice grinder, the blender again, 1 pan, 1 bowl to serve it in.

All that before the salad goes into a serving bowl. Kitchen looked like we were burgled. Thank you to whoever invented dishwashers.

Minder

A thai yellow chicken curry, jasmine rice and some stir-fried veggies with lime juice & soy.