TWENTY-EIGHT & TWENTY-NINE : CRUSTED FISH IN ROMESCO W/ BAKED CELERY

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 29 2012

TWENTY-EIGHT : PARMESAN-COATED FISH WITH WALNUT ROMESCO SAUCE
TWENTY-NINE : CELERY BAKED IN VINAIGRETTE WITH PANCETTA & SHALLOTS
 
Why, oh why am I so darn bad at cooking fish?!? I can't understand it. Am I using the wrong pan? Is the pan not hot enough? Do I need a fancy fish spatula? I was determined not to mess up the fillets for dinner tonight. "I can do this! Just use lots of butter and get the pan super hot." Fish into the pan with a reassuring sizzle. Okay, lets turn these babies. AAARRRGGHHH!!! It's all sticking and falling apart and I start panicking and... ugly, ugly, ugly.

TWENTY-FIVE - TWENTY-SEVEN : LEMONY CHICKEN W/ LENTILS & ROASTED PARSNIPS

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 26 2012

TWENTY-FIVE : GRILLED CHICKEN WITH LEMON, GARLIC & ROSEMARY OVER LENTILS
TWENTY-SIX : PARSNIPS WITH A MUSTARD & MAPLE GLAZE
TWENTY-SEVEN : CHICKEN GIBLET STOCK
 
Dinner tonight featured a monster of a chicken, raised by a friend, that had been hogging space in the freezer for far too long. The very well-endowed roaster contributed two of the largest chicken breasts I have ever seen; each literally the length of my forearm! All I needed tonight was the breast meat, so I cut up the rest for a future recipe and turned the bones into a lovely, rich stock. Perfect!

TWENTY-FOUR : COLCANNON POTATOES

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 20 2012

TWENTY-FOUR : COLCANNON POTATOES
 
Hmm... what goes really well with left-over corned beef? How about mashed potatoes with sauteed cabbage and green onions stirred in! Ya!!

A stroke of genius inspires me to boil the potatoes in the corned beef broth (sorry, recipe) and infuse them with fabulous flavor.

TWENTY-THREE : STEAMED TREACLE SPONGE PUDDING

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 18 2012

TWENTY-THREE : STEAMED TREACLE SPONGE PUDDING
 
Steamed treacle pudding.. have you any idea!?! I sure didn't. How about the fact that "pudding" is actually cake. And Delia assumed I am blithely steaming puddings every holiday and therefore failed to mention exactly how to steam a pudding and what that even means. So I turned to my friend internet for more guidance and discovered it is basically a sponge cake cooked in a steam bath for hours and I should be able to rig up a steaming contraption fairly easily from my various pots and bowls. So, here goes!

TWENTY-THREE : TRIPLE TOMATO "RISOTTO"

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 14 2012

TWENTY-TWO : ROASTED AND SUN-DRIED TOMATO RISOTTO
 
Risotto is hard, right? It shackles you to the stove for 25 - 30 minutes of continual stirring and brothing and stirring and brothing, right? Wrong! Turns out, after just a few minutes of sauteing, I can stick everything in the oven and ignore it for 35 minutes and suddenly have risotto! Well... kind of risotto. More like baked rice. Which is good, but lacks that all important sauciness and texture contrast of risotto. The rice was flavorful, ooey-gooey and I ate it up, but calling it risotto is a bit of a stretch. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I can so I will.

TWENTY-TWO : ICED APPLE SOUFFLE

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 12 2012

TWENTY-ONE : ICED APPLE SOUFFLE WITH CARAMELISED APPLE

 
Reading through this recipe, I was initially perplexed as to how this could possibly be classified as a soufflé. Isn't a soufflé a stressful baked dish made light as air by folding in whipped egg whites and served immediately out of the oven before it deflates and everything is ruined? Apparently, that is only half true. According to a random internet dictionary, a soufflé can be defined as such:

soufflé [ˈsuːfleɪ]

n

1. a very light fluffy dish made with egg yolks and stiffly beaten egg whites combined with cheese, fish, etc.

2. a similar sweet or savoury cold dish, set with gelatine

While tonight's soufflés have no gelatine, they are fluffed with stiffly beaten egg whites and fall soundly in the category of a sweet cold dish. So fine, Delia, I accept that this is a soufflé.

TWENTY-ONE : OXTAIL BRAISED IN GUINNESS

Delia Smith's Winter Collection

MARCH 2 2012

TWENTY-ONE : OXTAIL BRAISED IN GUINNESS WITH CANNELLINI BEANS
 
Braised oxtail, another exercise in browning a strange, tough cut of meat before slowly and lovingly braising it for hours and hours in a flavorful (and often alcoholic) liquid. I am becoming very familiar with this technique as I cook my way through the Winter Collection. Admittedly, slow braised meat kills it during a cold, rainy evening. So we are eating it up! And, I do enjoy trying new flavors and stewing cuts such as oxtail, a first for me.