Creamy Lettuce Soup – yes, Lettuce!

 

I had a head of iceberg lettuce but it was a little cool.  A little research threw up a traditional French dish – lettuce soup.  So I gave it a go.  The flavour was subtle but pleasant but I don't think my better half really liked it.  He is so forbearing about my experimental food.

 

Ingredients:

Iceberg lettuce

Spring onion (scallion)

Small amount of white onion

Butter

Oil

Nutmeg

Lemon zest (of 1 lemon)

Salt & pepper

Chicken Stock (about 25ml)

Cream (about 250ml)

Dill for garnish

 

Method:

Melt the butter together with a few drops of oil in a large sauce pan.

 

Chop your onioin and spring onion finely and add to the pan.

 

Chop the ribs of the lettuce up and add them to the pan.

 

Season with nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper.

 

Cook this on low for 10 minutes.

 

Slice up the rest of the lettuce.  When the stuff in the pan is nice and soft add the lettuce and the chicken stock.  Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes.

 

Blitz the soup up until it is smooth.  This won't work unless the lettuce has softened enough.  Try not to spray your kitchen with hot liquid (fail)

 

Stir in the cream and then bring the soup up to hot – but don't boil it!

 

Serve with a sprinkle of nutmeg and a piece of dill.

 

Lamb Shoulder Chops with Lemon & Basil

 

 

So this dish is a little less rustic than my usual.  I hope you like it.

 

Ingredients:

Lamb shoulder chops

Oil for frying

 

For Marinade:

Garlic oil

Basil

Lemon juice

Salt/Celery salt

Pepper

 

For sauce:

As per marinade plus some cream (and some sugar or maple syrup if it's too lemony for your taste)

Method:

Put the marinade ingredients into a plastic bag and mix them around.  Add the lamb and then massage the marinade into the lamb – leaving it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Heat your oven to low/moderate.  Heat your frying pan to screaming hot and then sear the chops for a couple of minutes on each side – doing one or two at a time so the pan stays hot.

Transfer to your oven dish, cover with foil and finish in the oven.  If you like your lamb a little pink this won't take long.

Deglaze your pan with lemon juice, add cream and the remains of the marinade (I had to add more ingredients – it might have been better to marinate in a bowl).

I tasted the sauce which had a nice consistency but was mouth puckeringly sour – and I like sour – so in went a splosh of maple syrup.  It was still lemony but less overpowering.

Chicken & Lentils – One Pot Wonder

This Chicken and Lentil dish was pretty simple to make and very tasty.  I recommend it to you – with your own tweaks, of course.

Ingredients:

Oil

Chicken breast

½ can of lentils

Pickle juice – a splosh

Cream – say 100 mils

Paprika – to taste

Dijon mustard – 1 large spoonful

Salt and pepper

Tomato paste – 2 teaspoons

2 slices of ham

Small amount of onion

Cream cheese – 1 tablespoon

½ red chilli for garnish

Method:

Cut up the chicken into serving sizes – I left mine a bit largish.

Dice some onion

Heat your frypan, put in the oil and then fry off the onion for a little while.  Add the chicken and cook it on each side for a minute or two.

Slice up your ham into strips and add it to the chicken along with all the other ingredients.  Stir until the chicken is cooked through.  If it gets a bit thick just add a little water or cream.

Garnish with some red chilli.

Omelette filled with leftover salmon and sour cream

Ingredients:

4 eggs

4 tablespoons of cream

Pepper

Oil/butter

Leftover salmon – flaked

Sour cream

Herb garnish

Method:

Whisk the eggs and cream together with the pepper.

Melt the butter and oil and heat the pan

Pour the egg mixture into the pan and wait for the bottom to set a bit.

Add shards of cheese – I used some gouda and parmesan

Add your salmon and the sour cream

When the top is almost set try to turn the ends over neatly – luckily my new pan is still non-stick.

Garnish with some herbs.

A nice lunch but quite rich.

Salmon with a tasty but split sauce

I was very pleased with the texture of the salmon but the sauce was a bit of a fail – tasted ok but looked terrible.

Ingredients:

Piece of fresh salmon

Oil

Salt

Sauce:

Chopped olives (mix of black and green)

Cream

Yuzu sauce (could use lemon juice)

Pepper

Knob of butter

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to moderate

Heat your frying pan to really hot.  Salt the skin side of the salmon.  Put the salmon in to the pan skin side down.  I cut the salmon into 2 – one bit was much thicker than the other so I put that thicker piece in for a couple of minutes first.

When the salmon has done about 5 minutes in the pan, transfer it to the oven to finish off gently.  This took about 15 minutes.

Make your sauce in the pan.  I think I should have let it cool down a bit and also should have poured out most of the oil.

I added the chopped olives, the cream, lashings of pepper and a splash of yuzu sauce (Japanese citrus). When it was clear that the sauce was splitting I added a knob of butter which didn't help the situation at all.

Caper Cream Chicken Tenders - Revisited

I recommend these delicious Caper Cream Chicken Tenders to you.  They were simple to make and had only 4 ingredients other than the chicken – all of which I had on hand.

Ingredients:

500g approx. of chicken tenders

Butter for sautéing

Cream

Limoncello (or just use lemon juice)

2 tablespoons of rinsed capers

Sautee your chicken tenders in butter until just cooked (you could add a drop or two of oil to the butter so it won't burn).  Take them out of the pan and wrap them in foil to rest.

Whisk your cream into the pan – just enough to create enough sauce.  Add your lemoncello – a good splosh.  Simmer this until it has a sauce like consistency.  I like my sauces reasonably thin.

Take it off the heat and then stir in the capers.  Pour the sauce over the chicken and voila – a good looking and very tasty dish