The other night we shared a wedding anniversary present - an excellent meal at The Apothecary 1878 in Hindley Street. Lovely old venue, excellent food and wine. Great staff.
Darren Percival was the runner-up on The Voice last year. We didn't really watch the show, but managed to catch a couple of Darren's performances and were very impressed. He's been touring with a Ray Charles tribute on the back of an album. This was the last night of a six month tour. It was a fantastic evening. Great songs, great band. Darren invests his songs with his being in a way that I've rarely seen, transparently joyous and melancholic, effervescent and infectious. You can't help but delight in seeing someone so happy in sharing their gift. [BTW he also does amazing stuff with loop pedals...] Here's a taste of the show...
I adapted a pie recipe today and it worked brilliantly. I used Maggie Beer's easy sour cream pastry recipe, and took inspiration from here. I blind-baked the base (just saying this because last time I didn't. (This is the third time I've ever made a meat pie!)
I stewed some lamb chops on low heat on the stove top with diced carrots, celery, garlic, leeks and green peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme and tarragon. Strained them, kept the stock, and cut up the chops, discarding bones and fat. I ended up with about 600g cooked lamb. I put the stock back on the stove to reduce.
I had part-cooked 1 cup of freekeh (green wheat grains) to go into a salad. I'd tried to microwave them and they were still undercooked. The lamb itself needed more cooking. So I ended up putting the lamb, freekeh and stock back in a pot together with 1 chopped leek and 2 chopped spring onions to simmer for another 1/2 hour. (Exit the salad idea.)
The strained lamb and freekeh mixture was mixed with 150g fresh spinach (blanched and chopped), 100g crumbled feta cheese, 1 cup ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, a large handful of chopped parsley and juice of 1/2 lemon, salt and pepper.
There was too much mixture for the pie. So I took 2/3 of the above and mixed through 2 whisked eggs. I put this in the pie case and put the remaining 80g of crumbled feta on the top of the filling. Then added the pastry top and brushed with beaten egg.
The pie case turned out fine, the filling wasn't too wet, and it tasted really great! I actually made a pie that didn't fall apart. Most of all, the freekeh was fine in the pie, well-cooked and tasted good within the filling.
Now I'll try to write it up as a proper recipe for one pie. We have enough leftover filling to make some smaller pies for lunches.
These are in a syrup that I half-turned into toffee when I was trying to brown the pears - 1/2 vanila bean, 2 cloves, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, water, white and brown sugar. Served with marscapone.
I'm helping out Rev Dr Avril Hannah-Jones who hosts an annual "Church of the Latter Day Geeks" service at the intersection of gospel and... err... sci-fi geek culture. She's after some meme-type images to use in the service. Here are my contributions so far... For those who can't see the obvious... Doctor Who, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Lord of The Rings ... Not sure how many of these will make the cut...
Here's something I've never made before, or indeed eaten! Pho Bo is apparently a staple Vietnamese soup. Beef stock is made from beef brisket, cinnamon, star anise, ginger, spring onions, fish sauce and salt and pepper. (Some recipes use cardamom, cloves, coriander seeds...) Then, thin noodles and sliced beef (I used the brisket, but you can use thinly sliced raw beef) are placed in each soup bowl and boiling stock poured on top. The diners then get to add their own toppings - bean sprouts, coriander, thai basil, vietnamese mint, sliced red chilli, sliced spring onions, lime wedges. The result is that each mouthful tastes different. Simple but very effective.
