The D, E and F of things

It's not been the most exciting few weeks in the kitchen - there's been a lot of open a jar of pasta sauce and bung it over some spaghetti going on and that's been just fine. However, by sheer chance I realised that over the last week I had actually cooked some stuff that would fill in the next few letters of the #ConfinedAToZchallenge. Last time I did A, B and C, so this time, as will be no surprise given the header, we're on D, E and F.

D is for Daube

Daube is of course usually a version of a vaguely Frenchish stew/casserole. This is a Jamie Oliver recipe I found on the interwebs a few years back and cook fairly regularly and being Jamie Oliver, he can't help footering (good Scottish word), so this is a Mauritian Chicken Daube.

It called for fresh ginger, which I discovered the husband had used up when he made some spicy lentil soup the day before, and I didn't have any dried ginger, but after a bit of thought I realised I had some organic ginger t-bags, so decided to use one of the them as a kind of bouquet-garni - see strategically placed t-bag in photo below...

Anyway, ginger problem solved, fry off enough chicken for your needs (this recipe is for four so scale accordingly) - breast or thigh, until they're coloured up and remove. Finely chop a small onion and couple of garlic cloves and saute for a couple of minutes. Add 1 tbs of chopped thyme (I only had dried, so added a little less), 1 chopped chilli (red or green), 1 cinnamon stick, 1 chopped fresh tomato and saute all those for another couple of minutes.

Add a 400 ml can of chopped tomators, about a tbs of chopped coriander stalks, 1 tsp of sugar, 150 ml of white wine and crumble in a chicken stock cube. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes. 

Add the chicken back in, cover and simmer for at least 20-25 minutes.  (note t-bag string draped elegantly over the edge of the pan...)

Remember to take out the cinnamon stick and in my case the ginger t-bag and garnish with the chopped coriander leaves you've got left when you chopped up the stalks. The original recipe has you cooking the potato in the sauce with the chicken which works fine, but in this case I did some scalloped potatoes and some collards and cauli to meet the husband's vegetable needs.

E is for Eggs

I had some smoked salmon scraps in the freezer, so I made a smoked salmon and dill quiche. No recipe for this - frozen pie shell which I partially precooked with egg wash for about 10 minutes so I didn't get seepish when I added the filling. 

The filling was four eggs, a liberal dollop of sour cream. I'd sauted some sliced red onion and let it cool, then layered the onion, smoked salmon with dried dill (I had no fresh), egg and cream mixture, more onion/smoked salmon/dill/pepper, then more egg/cream mixture, rinse and repeat until it's all used up. Cooked at 400F for about half an hour until set, then cool for 5 minutes to make it easier to cut. It was pretty good if I say so myself. It also freezes really well.

Finally, F is for Fish.

Specifically, F is Aberdeen Fish Pie, which I know technically begins with A if you're going to be picky. Why is it Aberdeen Fish Pie as opposed the Edinburgh, or Dundee or Inverness? I have no idea, but this is one of my mum's recipes I remember vividly from childhood and she always called it Aberdeen Fish Pie, so who am I to argue with tradition.

I don't make this very often because it features smoked haddock which is quite hard to get here. You can get salmon until the cows, or indeed the fishermen come home, but smoked haddock is a rarity, so making this was a nostalgic treat.

Boil and then mash enough potatoes with butter to stack up the sides of a dish, but not the bottom, so you make a well for your fish mixture.

Poach the smoked haddock in milk, then drain and flake the haddock, removing the skin. Use the poaching milk to make a roux for a light cheese sauce (or as cheesy as you like - I used cheddar and a bit of parmesan). Add the flaked haddock, a bit of English mustard and some pepper. Pile the cheesy fish mixture into the well in your dish so it is surrounded by the mash but not covered by it. Put in the over to bake for about 20 minutes to get some colour and a bit of skin on the sauce. (You could obviously make this look like a more traditional fish pie by putting the fish mixture in the bottom of your dish and putting the mash on top, but my mum always put the mash up the sides, so that's the way I do it too.

Not the prettiest looking dish in the world, but great for a wet winter day. And prepare to argue over who gets the crispy bits of potato that adhere to the side of the dish! This is also really good reheated as leftovers for lunch the following day.

So that's D, E and F.  Who knows what G will bring...