Another Food Blog

Tonight’s supper was a good, quick one that would come in handy if hob space was scarce: I cooked salmon steaks in the kitchen sink.

First I put the salmon into a re-sealable food bag with a good dousing of dark soy sauce, two large spoonfuls of ginger paste, finely minced garlic, and a dash of cayenne pepper. I pushed as much air out of the bag as I could and put it in the kitchen sink, stuck the stopper in the drain, and proceeded to pour over two kettles of boiling water. (The bag sort of floats in the water, which is fine.) After about ten minutes, I drained the water and added another two kettles of fresh boiling water. In twenty minutes, the fish was completely cooked (no ruby red centre, which I often like in my salmon). If you are nervous about serving the fish straight from the sink, you can give it a couple of turns in a hot pan if you want, but it does revoke the no-cooker-no-dirty-pan benefits. Sprinkle with fresh chopped coriander to serve.

We had with this portabella mushrooms with minced garlic, which I’d cooked in a hot oven for 25 minutes, steamed broccoli, and cooked green beans tossed with Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Vintage Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, which is a delicious steal at £11.99 a bottle. Cheese (gorgonzola, cheddar, poacher) followed, with fruit for dessert.

Last night, my fiancé’s best friend, Tim Evans, came over for dinner with his wife, Helen, and their baby daughter, Petica. I was fairly relaxed about this, because sometimes when we go to their house for dinner, we end up ordering a takeaway; so I knew that, if worse came to worst and I didn’t feel like cooking, they wouldn’t be offended if the food didn’t come from our own kitchen. Everyone’s friends should be like that, really.

Tim has always had a thing for the meringues that my boyfriend’s mother makes, so I told her that she had to make some for our dinner. Not only did she make a batch of the most perfect meringues I have ever eaten, but also a chocolate raspberry pavolva. She left the chocolate meringue base with me, and just before serving it I smoothed on a tub of extra thick cream and sprinkled over two punnets of raspberries. The surface of the pavlova is very dry and meringue-like, but the interior is moist and rich, like a chocolate mousse cake. I went from having a small sliver out of politeness to having…well, let’s just say I had seconds.

And I did end up cooking, in the process discovering the easiest, most stress-free dinner for guests: Curries. In the afternoon, I made a chickpea curry (which takes seven minutes, tops) and mixed cubed chicken with fat-free Greek yoghurt, turmeric, fenugreek, ground coriander, ground cumin, cinnamon, chilli powder, and green cardamom pods to marinate. A half hour before our guests were to arrive, I stirred a large spoonful of rogan josh paste into plain fromage frais and added 1.5 pounds of jumbo king prawns to that marinade. I then put the rice (brown) on to cook, and combined some non-fat Greek yoghurt with fresh mint and a bit of salt to serve alongside the curries. As Tim and Helen parked their car, I put the marinated chicken on to cook and started heating up the chickpea curry, and the prawns went on the heat just after our champagne toast.
Everything came together quite quickly and without stress; it was all very tasty, and we have plenty of leftovers for lunch today. If you’re ever invited over to our house for dinner, I think you should plan on eating the meal I’ve described here.