Dish 11: Mushroom Sauce

The dish

If you do not like mushrooms, you'd best stop reading now, because this dish is not for you. To quote You've Got Mail (and technically Shop Around The Corner): 

"Well, if you don't like Kathleen Kelly, I can tell you right now, you're not going to like this girl." "Why?" 

"Because it is Kathleen Kelly."

The preparation

One takes mushrooms. Several kinds of mushrooms.

You chop and tear them up, and then you get to do what I love: chuck them in a pan. Naturally you add about 10 other ingredients to this pan, including some stock and you add your other ingredients in the order that Andy tells you to. 

You end up with something that looks like this (or at least, I did!):

I know, it may not look as appetising as you may have expected, if you expected anything at all. But, the proof is in the pudding and not in the way it jiggles.

And naturally there is something that makes everything look better. Tasty garnish! Add some parsley and voilà, a tasty looking mushroom sauce.

Not too shabby, right?

The result

If you have not realised this already: Andy Allen loves his citrus. Almost every dish I have made up until now has had lime/lemon juice or zest through it. Sometimes I find that the acidity can dominate the other flavours a little, but in this sauce, it is amazing; the saltiness of the stock combined with those delicious mushrooms and the freshness of the parsley just fits perfectly alongside the sour lemon juice..

And if, like my best friend and I, you like your mushrooms next to a good piece of meat, you could try combining it as follows:

A good piece of steak, oven baked potatoes and green asparagus. Delicious.

Next time

I don't think I can avoid the fried food for much longer, so get ready to get your deep fryer out of the garage or from the attic (because surely you can't use it that often?). It's time for some Popcorn Chicken with Lime Mayo (p. 106).

See you at our next elemental meal!

Dish 9: Rosemary Baked Hand-Cut Chips

The dish

Alright, let me start off by saying that I have been dreadfully negligent with regards to this here blog. Sorry, blog!

However, that doesn't mean that I haven't kept to my promise of trying out every Andy Allen recipe; it just means that you know nothing about it! Muahaha! Nah, just kidding. It just means that I will have to write a lot, and I will do so today, because my lovely friend Judith basically forced me into it. She is going to share a link to this blog on her own incredibly pretty and professional blog. Yeah, so by the by, if you are looking for an awesome and stylish blog, head over to Judy's Books and Bakery.

On with the actual blog. As I noted in my previous update, I hardly had any time for proper cooking, let alone documenting all that I did. And no, I obviously did not end up making those scones (they live to love another day). Instead, it was Oscar night! And what do you eat during Oscar night?

That's right! Nothing, because all those skinny women in beautiful dresses intimidate the hell out of you. Except if you're me, and all that intimidation just leads to you eating your way through your cupboards.

Actually, none of that is true. Well, not really. I just figured that a snack such as this one would be perfect. Why buy crisps/chips if you could also make them yourself?

The preparation

As you would expect with a dish called Rosemary Baked Hand-Cut Chips (p. 70), it is pretty straightforward.

You get your potatoes, and you slice them. If you are fancy you use a mandoline. If not, and you're like me, you create your own (slight more wobbly) version.

Once you have sliced as many potatoes as you need, you put them in a bowl, and add some seasoning.

Don't forget the olive oil and mix it all together. 

Then comes the lazy part if you're someone else, and tedious "it will fit perfectly" part if you're me: you put all the slices onto your baking tray.

Add your rosemary and your garlic. Add a little more olive oil, add a little more seasoning, and chuck the tray into the oven.

Because the slices are so thin, it only takes a short while before they're done. However, did I mention that you need to flip them over halfway through? Yeah.

But, in the end you will end up with some lovely hand-cut chips!

The result

They say a picture is worth more than a thousand words. So here:

And I only have one more to add: Yum.

Next time

Due to the fact that I'm writing this update after I've already done four other dishes, I can tell you, without any form of surprise or change of plan, that the next dish is something I have never tried before: Pork & Fennel Sausage Rolls (p. 120).

Oh dear. Pork again. Read on to see how this Next Elemental meal was received.

Dish 2, 3 and 4: The Crispiest Skin Pork Belly, Honeyed Carrots, Pomme Puree

The dish

Yesterday I prepared The Crispiest Skin Pork Belly (p. 92). I usually don't eat a lot of pork, because I don't like the taste of it very much, but I had never really had pork belly, so I was definitely keen to try this.

Other than pork I also prepared some Honeyed Carrots (p. 73) and Pomme Puree (p. 60), to accompany that slab of meat. I have prepared honeyed carrots before, but for those I took inspiration from Julie Goodwin's cookbook. I was curious to see how much these carrots would differ from that recipe. Naturally I have also prepared mashed potatoes before, but I have never actually pressed potatoes through a sieve, despite having seen it done on various cooking shows.

The preparation

A trip to the butcher's got me some nice pork belly, although I bought a little over half of what the recipe required, because I only prepared it for two people, whereas the recipe is for a company of four.

If you don't like handling meat or seeing that meat comes from "a real animal", keep in mind that carving the pork's skin may be a little daunting. In the broad daylight, seeing how much their skin and ours look alike, it really makes it sink in that this used to be a living animal.

Anyway, I carved the skin, which proved to be a little trickier than expected. I guess my chef's knife just isn't as sharp as I'd hoped, because it was quite hard to get through.

I figured that because the piece I bought was so much smaller than the one in the recipe, I would be fine putting it in the oven for a shorter period of time. However, because it was the first time ever I had made it, I wasn't sure what it was supposed to look like after the first scorching 30-40 minutes. Strangely enough, despite having salted both sides equally, only one side started to look like I know crackling to look like, whereas the other stayed white and dry. I still don't know what happened there.

Because it took the full 40 minutes for the better half to look crispy, by then I decided I would just follow the recipe as it was, overcooking the pork be damned. I'm fine with messing up a dish if it's the first time ever, so that I know what went wrong.

In the meantime I started on the pomme purée and the honeyed carrots. Luckily I had done both of these before, and since neither required the oven (whereas Julie Goodwin's honeyed carrots also spend some time in the oven), I could combine it perfectly.

First time ever I pressed boiled potatoes through a sieve with a tea towel. And yes, the purée was silky smooth and to my big surprise the pan I mixed the potatoes, milk and butter in stayed almost perfectly clean, and the purée began to look like a kind of dough. Perhaps it was a bit like gnocchi in that sense. Interesting.

Final result

Was the pork belly crispy? Definitely! You couldn't hear yourself think when chewing it, and I have proof in the form of a video which I may or may not post later.

The pomme puree was super smooth, and because I added extra butter, had a great flavour. All in all, however, I'm much more of a chunky mash eater, so although I know that I could make some of my friends really happy serving them this puree, I myself probably won't make it this way soon again.

As for the carrots, although I couldn't really mess up there, I do think I was a little overenthusiastic with the lemon juice. The carrots, although lovely, sweet and fresh, were a little on the sour side, thanks to this overdose of lemon juice. It did accompany the silky creamy puree and the fatty pork crackling perfectly, though!

If you do love pork, this dish is amazing. If, like me, you're not a big fan of the flavour of pork, I would give this dish a miss. Over all, for a cold and snowy day, such as the one we had yesterday (and today), why not prepare such a wintery meal?

Next time

Next time I will prepare an Andy Allen dish a little later than the weekend, because, as it goes, those days are already planned full. Instead I'm going to go for the Mid-Week Beef Curry (p. 51) on Tuesday or Wednesday. Perhaps it is a little easier than some of the other dishes, but I find that with limited time, one needs to make such choices.

You already know what I will prepare the week after that, and if the recipe is really simple, I will also attempt one of Kylie Millar's desserts. Which one, I don't know yet.

Stay tuned and see you at our next elemental meal!