Basic Risotto

A strange hybrid of Jamie Oliver and Mark Bittman, this risotto came about courtesy of a random dried mushroom purchase in Paris last Spring.  I may have promised mr416expat I’d make him a mushroom risotto…and now this winter I have made good on my promise.  This risotto recipe came about through watching an episode of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals online and through flipping through Mark Bittman’s app ‘How to Cook Everything’.  I like to think I took a little bit from both recipes.  The wine and stock suggestion from Jamie and the mushroom business from Mark Bittman.  I fully acknowledge this is not a hard core risotto fan’s risotto.  This is my go-to-work night-need food asap risotto.  See for yourself:

Many good things start with melted butter

Onions...could be chopped more finely, but it was a weeknight and I was in a rush

Rice not yet glossy, keep cooking

The cheat - not a bouillon cube, but close enough

On sale for 5GBP - a very easy drink..I mean helpful wine for risotto

Cooking down, adding water, cooking down repeat

Add much cheese..note, my risotto probably could've stood to have cooked down further, but I was hungry

Basic Risotto – adapted from Jamie Oliver and Mark Bittman recipes

3 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
300 g Arborio (risotto) rice
1/2 c white wine
1 bouillon cube – this is my cheat – regular recipes call for stock (approximately 1L)
1L boiling water
1/2 c grated parmesan

Put on your kettle and boil some water.  You’ll need the boiling water later.  In a high sided, heavy pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Add the chopped onion and stir, cooking until onion is softening.  Add the rice to the butter and onion mixture and stir occasionally until it is glossy (2-4 minutes).  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the white wine.  I usually add about a glass full.  Stir as the wine cooks off.  Add the bouillon cube.  Add boiling water 1/2 c at a time.  Stir the risotto.  When the water is nearly evaporated, add another 1/2 c (or so).  Watch the temperature, you may fluctuate between medium and medium-high heat (especially if your stove top is prone to wild fluctuations like mine).  Continue adding water until you taste the rice and it is tender.  Add the parmesan, check your seasoning, and serve immediately.

What happened to the mushrooms you ask?  Well, Mrs416expat isn’t a great lover of mushrooms, so I rehydrated them, used a bit of the leftover liquid in the stock, and added the mushrooms at the end.  Mr416expat didn’t seem to mind.

A weekend in Kent

Last weekend we hired a car (a GBP22/day, 3-cylinder Peugeot 107) and rocketed off to the Kent countryside.  Kent is a county that borders London to the north, and the English Channel to the south.  We stayed at the 1406-built Elvey Farm, which has about 10 rooms and an on-site gourmet restaurant.  Because January isn’t prime time prices were discounted to GBP100 per night over 2 nights.

Kent all about the countryside, and Elvey Farm is right in the middle of Kent (some might add in the middle of nowhere).  But there is a decent enough pub 15 minutes walk away, as well as a 2-hour loop walk that has a rendezvous with another country pub.  The county was at a time known for producing hops (a key ingredient in beermaking) and is known as the Garden of England (though, to be honest, I think every region tries to lay a claim to this).  Still, if you’re looking for real deal English countryside within easy reach of London, this is it.

So, here’s our room – as you can see, huge!  One queen sized bed; two twin beds in the back room; a single bed to the right; and a big bathroom dead ahead.  Coming from our 400sqft London flat this was quite a surprise.

As you can see, entry into the room was another matter.

English countryside!

This was the view from Pluckley (the town with the pub) back down into Elvey Farm.  The first building in the centre of the show is the farmhouse and adjacent barn.

So no one wants to go on vacation in January – in spite of flowers blooming, somehow its too cold to enjoy the great outdoors.  These look like snowdrops, which Canadians are used to seeing in April.

These pictures are from our longer 2 hour walk on the second day, along the Greensand way.

I was good and didn’t chase any sheep.

Apple buds!

It was just a 2 hour walk, but along these muddy paths it turned out to be a real workout.  Hunter boots seem a lot less silly when you’re slogging through mud like this.

If moss can grow on it, it will.

This is a ruined church, built 1506, destroyed 1943 by a Nazi bomb.  Rather than tear it down, the ruins have been left intact.

Back on track!  Solid ground was a relief after the inch-deep mud.

This tree made me think of the Sam Roberts tree from We Were Born In A Flame.

English countryside!  Hunter boots!  Waterproof jacket, and a smile!  This is how we do it.

Chicken Fingers That Taste Like Chicken

Always in search of a quick last minute dinner, this week I turned to one of the more helpful apps on my iPhone, “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman.  You may know Mark Bittman from his work in the New York Times.  He’s written a nifty little app that has an easily searchable database of recipes, the ingredients for which, you likely have in your kitchen.  I have recently taken to searching the app on my way home, grabbing any last minute ingredients (you may or may not count chicken as a ‘need to have in the freezer’ ingredient), and making dinner at home.  This last night was a slightly odd mix of risotto and the above mentioned chicken fingers.  Why chicken fingers?  Because Waitrose had chicken priced down from 4GBP to 2.69GBP.  That my friends, means we’re having chicken for dinner, regardless of how it pairs with risotto (surprisingly well).

Breadcrumb mixture, ready to be combined

Ready for the oven

Ready for dinner

Roasted Chicken Cutlets (or Chicken Fingers) – adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything App

2 tbsp olive oil
1 c bread crumbs
2 tsp oregano
1/4 c grated parmesan
400g chicken cutlets (or chicken breasts cut into strips)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 400F.  Combine the oil, bread crumbs, oregano, and parmesan.  Stir until combined.  Season with salt and pepper.  Dip the chicken cutlets, first into the egg white, then into the bread crumb mixture.  Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a silpat baking mat).  Repeat until all your chicken pieces are breaded.  Press any leftover crumbs onto the tops of your chicken.  Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

 

 

Apple Skillet Cake

One of the reasons I wanted to participate in this blog stems from my own lack or organization.  I find recipes everywhere, in magazines, on other blogs, and even in cookbooks (who does that really?).  The difficulty lies in that in finding recipes everywhere, I often can’t find them anywhere when I go back searching for them later.  This happened with my favourite soft ginger cookies and this week, nearly happened with the Skillet Apple Cake recipe from an issue of Canadian House and Home.  I had made “Mom’s Saucy Apple Cake” from the October issue of Canadian House and Home several times, each time thinking, I’ve got to put this in the blog or I’ll lose it!.  Well here it is, the issue is on its way to the recycling bin in the sky, but the recipe is here for good. This cake is addictive.  Warm from the oven it tastes amazing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Once it cools down it’s equally tasty with a cup of tea after work.  I have modified the recipe from the original, splitting the sugar 50/50 white and brown to give it more caramel flavours.  The original called for a full cup of white sugar.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt to butter mixture and combine

Sliced apples ready for the skillet

Ready for ice cream

Apple Skillet Cake - based on a recipe from Canadian House and Home (October 2011) 1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c butter (room temperature)
2 eggs
1 c flour (all purpose)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 c chopped, peeled apples
Preheat the oven to 350F.  Prepare a 9″ skillet (oven friendly) or cake pan.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, and eggs until fluffy.  Add the vanilla.

Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Arrange the apples in the skillet (it doesn’t have to be pretty, just evenly spread).  Pour the batter over the apples.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cake springs back when pressed. Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream.

Anniversary in Amsterdam

Finally, after nearly 2 years on this soggy little island, we were able to ride the rails 4 hours to Amsterdam.  The ride via Eurostar (with a stop in Belgium) costs about GBP130 and, given it goes from city-centre in London to city-centre in Amsterdam, is about as easy as intercontinental travel can get.

We took a 3-day long weekend, and given the small size of the city (about 1 million people with a famously compact pedestrian-friendly core), it was just enough time.  Hotels are a touch expensive (not much choice under EUR100) but the beer was cheap and the food was great!

We stayed in the Jordann, a gentrified neighbourhood just outside the old central area.  In Amsterdam the old centre is the capital of vice (reminded me a but of Queen & Bathurst) but the Jordann is more grown-up, less pott-y, more quiet, and filled with gorgeous shops and cafes.

We’ll be back.

Koning Bridge?

Not all of the buildings in the city are totally vertical. Most of the city was built in the 1600s when the Dutch economy was Europe’s largest

Lovely weather!

Electric car. These things were everywhere…

…as were these Dutch bikes!

Public art exhibit. Oddly, most the the Dutch we encountered spoke fantastic English, only a few had the characteristic Dutch accent

Can you import a street? To Toronto? Wholesale?

Check out these guys, schlepping a crate of bananas up to the 4th floor.

Bike garage outside the central station! Look at ‘em all!

A typical scene – this may be the largest hill in Holland!

Inside Antwerp’s rail station (we had a bit of a detour on the way!)

Anne Frank House

View from out hotel room!

The sun came out for us – autumn is a great time to enjoy European cities, with leaves changing color and tourists at a (relative) lull

Note the size of the windows in these places. Many of the street-level apartments do without window coverings, so you can see the lovely things locals have in their kitchens and living rooms

Canals everywhere

The Vondelpark, a huge greenspace just south of the old city centre

Scene in the Vondelpark

Wooden shoes! We only saw one person wearing these – the guy giving the tour at the wooden shoe factory. Needless to say we chose not to pick up a pair…

We went on a bike tour with a couple of New Zealanders (yup, they were potheads)

Flowers galore

And the high-speed Thalys train in the bizzare Antwerp station (note the bi-level rail lines)

Ottolenghi’s Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Figs

Summer has arrived.  We haven’t seen much of Summer this year, the days have been cool and frankly, up until this last week, I hadn’t actually felt hot.  Yes, it may be October, but the mercury has finally climbed above 25 and the sun has come out, Summer is here and it must be celebrated.  What better way to celebrate than to go to the local park with a few friends and a few tasty beverages.  Yesterday, after going to our local market, we went to London fields to enjoy some of our bounty.  Turns out, some other folks had the same idea.

It seems all of London was at the park this weekend

Not to be put out, mr416expat and I are heading to Regent’s park to meet up with some of my co-workers this afternoon.

In last week’s Yotam Ottolenghi’s weekly Guardian column, he posted this fabulous recipe for Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Figs.  I can attest to its deliciousness both warm from the oven and served cold as a tasty salad.  We made it last week and if it wasn’t too warm to turn on the oven, I would love to make it again for the park this afternoon.

Perfect for the park

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Figs – Yotam Ottolenghi

4 sweet potatoes
75 ml olive oil
sea salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp white sugar
spring onions, cut into 4″ slices
red chili, thinly sliced
6 figs, ripe, quartered
soft goat’s cheese

Prehead the oven to 425F.  Wash the sweet potatoes, cutting them lengthwise and then into quarters.  Toss with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for 25 minutes until soft but still holding their shape.  Remove and cool.  Arrange on a serving plate.

Combine the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until it thickens.  It will thicken further when it cools, so don’t leave it on the heat too long.

Heat a medium saucepan with a bit of oil, combine the chilis and spring onion in the sauce pan and fry quickly on medium heat.  Spoon over the sweet potatoes.

Scatter the figs and goat cheese over the sweet potatoes, then drizzle the whole salad with the balsamic reduction.

Open House London – Carradale House, Glenkerry House, & Robin Hood Gardens

While cycling to the earlier tour at Balfron Tower, I got a little lost and stumbled upon a couple of other estates in the neighbourhood – Robin Hood Gardens, as well as the nearby Carradale House and Glenkerry House.  One good turn deserves another, and London city planners loaded up these council flats in the unluckiest bits of London, especially the East End and South London.

These high walls were everywhere – tall barricades with viewing slats. It reminded me of a medieval castle, and not in a good way.

Imposing walls!

What could be nicer, than living in a garden?

It’s sometimes easy to think these estates are built on terrible land – but a 12 minute walk away is Canary Wharf, London’s new financial district, which the global HQs of more than a few heavy hitting banks and consultancies.

Carradale House – with its regal missing letters, and inviting walkways

Masonettes on the ground floor

Glenkerry house – completed in 1979, by which time the Brutalist style was well on its way out.

View of Robin Hood Gardens from above (mid-left of photo)

What a beaut!

I wanted to get in on the shuffleboard game but they didn’t take Canadians.

More of Carradale House