Dead Ringer For Love and Other Hits

So Friday evening was beautifully rounded off with a flick through the music channels and a discussion about the gals music tastes, which are quite broad and I'm rather proud of them. Both would feel at home in school or nursery singing about the Nativity or other internationally recognised nursery rhymes, but they would also be able to sing about 75% of the words at a Fall Out Boy gig, and many things in between: Cher, Jimmy Eat World, McFly, One Direction, Tiffany and Jesse J are just a small selection. Anyway, we hit upon Cher and Meatloaf doing Dead Ringer For Love and before you could say 'Drunken antics' we'd found the karaoke version on You Tube and were re-enacting the video. Great fun. Begs the question, is there a bad Meatloaf song?

Saturday began in panic as I'd still not decided what to cook for the gluten free, seafood free and offal free brigade who were coming to tea. Steak was out as I can't cook a well-done steak. It's not that I won't, like a proud French chef who refuses the fool a burnt-to-a-crisp offering, I actually can't do it. I once tried for the in-laws and put their steaks on for almost 20 minutes longer than the rest (rare) and they still came out pink. So I just won't do steak if I know it needs any less colour than a medium rare.

I settled on Nigella's Roquamole dip for the Nigella Express book, with a version of my own Aubergine dip and corn chips. For the Aubergine dip I roasted two aubergines, took out the flesh, added the juice of a lemon, some spring onions, some tomatoes and chopped basil. Often I use coriander but I forgot to buy it. It was good and both dips went quickly, Nigella's was the favourite though!

This was followed by a Spanish meal by (Sir) Rick Stein, monkfish with rice and roasted peppers, except my non-fish eating guests demanded that I swap to chicken. It made little difference. The rice and peppers are the best part of the dish and taste out of this world. Sauté one onion (Rick says use shallots, but you buy a big bag and never use the rest) then add peeled tomatoes (Rick grates his, but I'm not as classy), as much garlic as you have time to chop (I did 10 cloves), about half a teaspoon of smoked paprika (I love it) and some dried chillies and cook for five or so minutes. Then I added a litre and a quarter of chicken stock, some saffron and a little salt and bring to the boil. Add 400g paella rice and boil vigorously for five or so minutes. Then lay some chopped, bottled peppers (or skin and chop your own if you have time) and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes. Rick doesn't stir his but mine needed a little just to unstick from the bottom. Finally take your chicken or monkfish (or whatever!) and cut into inch square pieces. 500g serves 6 nicely. Toss in some more smoked paprika and salt and sauté in olive oil until cooked. Once the rice is done, add the chicken or fish to the top and serve. A great recipe and would even be good without the meat or fish. Rick says to serve with aioli - it does add to the dish, but it is also tasty without. I'm having some difficulties with aioli and home mayonnaise type things at the moment, where once I had no issue and laughed in the face of those who relied on an adapted jar of Hellmann's.  Yesterday, and on recent but previous occasions I have had to do it up to five times before it has worked - a guest was on egg-buying stand-by yesterday, when luckily on my third and final egg I had something close to the required texture. It did the job taste-wise, just didn't look great...

To finish I made Nigella's flour less chocolate brownies, which were loved by all served with chocolate sauce and ice cream.

Gluten-free, Seafood-free, offal-free and well cooked. I can do it!