What's Cooking?

January 21, 2005
What’s Cooking?

Michael, over at Blogin Idiot, left a comment on my last post wondering what’s cooking.

Well to tell you the truth it is probably soggy preserves right now! It is January. It rains for days on end here on the West Coast and this is the wettest January since the 1940’s. I don’t like rain very much as it makes me feel very depressed. So, having given you that outline let me think about what’s cooking! I should check the cupboards of the brain and see if there is anything there or it is just empty space. If it is empty space in this cranium maybe I should advertise it “to let” – rental space available. Hmmm that would bring some extra income in wouldn’t it?

Oh no, back to the cupboards. There are some dry beans, which could cook up into a wonderful bean stew, with my new pressure cooker that works well for this task. But the main task at hand this weekend is the dinner which I have given as a Christmas present to the wonderful people I work for/with. I had no clue what to give them for Christmas and in the end decided to offer them one thing I can do, and that they enjoy – a rack of lamb dinner. Last night I sat eating my samosas and having a lovely glass of beer – yes beer and spicy food have a wonderful dance with the taste buds – and on my ottoman was a plethora of Bon Appetite and Cooking School books. What flavours blend well, what colours, what textures and then quantities. You don’t want people to be full at course #1 when you have 5 more to go!! So at the moment the menu looks like this:
· Prawns, butterflied, encrusted with pecans and parmesan on a bed of spinach with lemon sauce
· Proscuitto with grated Romano cheese in crepes with some slow roasted roma tomatoes
· Then a palate cleanser is required – a sorbet of lemon or lime
· Next we have rack of lamb based with a grainy Dijon and then Provencal encrusted. Some steamed potatoes, fresh green beans and banana squash. I like some wonderful mushrooms as well. I will make a white wine Dijon sauce. The key will be to have the potatoes at the right place in the middle of the plate to nicely fan the lamb round it.
· Of course a nice crisp white wine and then a full-bodied red have to be chosen as well.
· Ah desert. I hate making desert but I think just a plain ginger orange crème brulee will be okay
· Finally I believe we should finish with port and cheese. A fine British tradition I am fond of.

After all that I am not a dairy or meat eater on the whole so I don’t know whether I will dine with them or simply let them dine and I can dance round the kitchen keeping it organized and clean through each course.

So Michael, I have wracked my brain and no this isn’t brain stew that will be cooked up, nor is it bangers and mash but I hope to have fun and that my guests will too. Music of course is another ingredient. Personally I like some classical piano sonatas but maybe that will be while I cook and test the red wine! Who knows what will come from this kitchen!?

And thanks Michael for the kick in the butt, which dislodged me from the dullness of this rainy, depressing weather!