search blog
-
browse old posts
Food
Other Creative Folk
Other Good Things
Photographers
-
Categories
Category Archives: Shopping lists
Tommy sauce, tinned fruit and secret Santa
I found two rather damp shopping lists at Tesco this afternoon, always a nice little perk when out shopping. The one on the right shows the first mention of anything festive with the Secret Santa item.
A summer supper from shopping list 5
I think that this shopping list is for a spring or summer supper with good friends. It’s not a show off meal, just easy dishes which would be great eaten in the garden on a warm evening.
To start it’s obviously soup. I know very little about Mexican food, but the ingredients read like a classic Tortilla soup recipe to me. With a little help from some cookery books I have put together a recipe which I think sounds rather nice!
I have added the garnish ingredients as they are traditional and sound as if they would make a bit of a simple every day soup into something a bit for impressive to serve to friends.
*denotes ingredients I have added to the recipes which aren’t on the found shopping list, I may also be more specific about the type of ingredient than on the original list.
Mexican Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
Garlic – crushed
2 red peppers – finely chopped
2 red chillies – seeds left in or removed depending on how hot you like it!
jar passata
*chicken stock
sweet chilli sauce
tin kidney beans – drained and rinsed
bunch of coriander – chopped leaves and stalks kept separate
limes
tortillas
Garnish
*sour cream
*avocado – diced
Method
Cut the tortillas into strips and fry in a little olive oil until crispy. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper, you want them to be crisp.
In the oil remaining in the pan, fry the chilli, garlic, coriander stalks and red pepper gently without letting it brown, the mixture should be soft and melty; take your time. Add the passata and enough chicken stock to thin it down to a fairly thin consistency, this isn’t a thick soup, add the kidney beans and simmer for 15 minutes until all the flavours are well combined and the skin of the beans are soft. Season judiciously with salt and pepper. Just before serving add half of the crispy tortilla strips.
Ladle into wide soup bowls. Swirl some sour cream onto each bowl along with a sprinkling of diced avocado, tortilla strips, a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce and the remaining coriander leaves. Serve each bowl with a wedge of lime.
For the main course I think we are most definitely looking at an Italian dish, a bit of an unsubtle one, very much a man’s pasta, I certainly wouldn’t make this for myself! I’ve have a think about how it could work and here’s my recipe. I would make this with rigatoni rather than tagliatelle as I always prefer tubes for a chunky sauce and the grooves on the rigatoni are great for catching sauce too!
Tagliatelle carbonara with chicken, bacon and mushrooms.
Ingredients for 4
400g tagliatelle – dry
mushrooms – mixed, sliced
pesto
bacon, smoked streaky – cut into 1cm cubes
chicken breasts – skinned and cut into 1cm cubes
*olive oil
* 2 egg yolks
*100ml white wine
*200ml double cream
*handful flat leaf parsley – chopped
*Parmesan – grated or slivered
Salad
cucumber – scraped lengthwise with a fork, cut lengthwise, seeds removed and sliced into semi circles
cherry tomatoes – halved
*green leaves – washed and dried
Method
Put a big pan of salted water on to boil
Gently colour the chicken in a little olive oil in a frying pan and set aside. Lightly colour the bacon and mushrooms in the remaining oil.
When the water has boiled, add the pasta and cook for two minutes less than the packet instructions, then test it and if not perfectly al dente, cook for 30 seconds more and so on until good. When it’s done, drain and be sure to retain some of the cooking water.
Lower the heat under the mushrooms and add the wine and cream, simmer and add the chicken for 8 minutes or until the chicken is white all the way through (cut a fat piece in half to check – pink chicken is bad news).
Remove from the heat and leave for a couple of minutes, season with salt and pepper, then add the egg yolks one at a time and mix quickly so that they don’t scramble.
Throw in the hot pasta with a little of the retained water (this helps to thicken the sauce), mix well and leave to stand for a minute to absorb the water and become nice and moist. Sprinkle on the chopped parsley and some Parmesan.
Serve with the cucumber, tomato and green leaf salad, simply dressed at the very last minute with some olive oil and lemon juice.
Also posted in cooking and recipes
Leave a comment
A spring garden lunch imagined from Shopping List 1
I go food shopping several times a week, I’ve never been one to do a big weekly shop – I like to make my daily food depending on my mood and I’m often a bit wary of a full fridge.
While I’m at the supermarket or local shops I’m usually on the lookout for discarded shopping lists. Sometimes there’s a couple and sometimes none. It can be embarrassing to be leaning into empty trolleys or picking things up from the floor, but needs must! There’s something so revealing about them and I find it really interesting to be able to look at a list and (usually) see straight away the purpose of the shopping – an Italian supper, a Thai curry or a summer lunch – a little secret glimpse into someone else life.
I have found that I suddenly have a decent sized collection of lists, so I have gathered them together and scanned them and want to share them with the regular blog posts I plan to make where I’ll show a picture of the found list and I’ll imagine a meal and/or an occasion from what’s written.
Here’s my first one:
It looks like it’s a weekend lunch for quite a few people to me. I can see it being out in the garden and hosted by an older couple (the writing reminds me of my grandmother’s), from the items, I don’t think that they are great gourmets or cooks, more the sorts to buy from the deli counter and with a preference to meat over vegetables and healthy thing. I think there would be children present, grandchildren prehaps? I hope they have some good early spring weather for their party!
Here’s my interpretation of this list and what I’d do with it ‘ready steady cook’ style using the standard contents of a reasonably stocked larder and fridge for those essential extras.
New pototoes will be made into a salad with French dressing which I’d mix while the potatoes were still hot so that all of the delicious mustardy, herby garlicy flavours would work their way right it.
A nice simple salad with the lettuce and toms for any health concious guests with just a little olive oil and lemon dressing.
The eggs I’d hard boil, grate and mix with salt, pepper and some mayonnaise and serve on the buns which I’m interpreting as nice bread rolls – if there are children coming I’m sure these would go down well. I know I don’t exactly have much experience with kids, but I recall egg sandwiches being popular!
I’d make a nice platters with the pies and cold meats, I’d cook the crown turkey and thinly slice cold.
I’d make another nice big plate of the pizzas which I’d cut up into slices let everyone help themselves.
The chips I’d keep in the kitchen for emergencies in case any kids are irritatingly picky and won’t eat anything else!
To finish with, the gatau’s
The Bicardie Breezers would be served on ice……
Toilet/rolls will go into the guest loo and the flash and w up liq will go under the sink in the kitchen to clean up the mess when everyone has gone.
