I’d been meaning to try my hand at making a cassoulet since I’d seen Rick Stein explore its origins on his French Odyssey programme. I’d spent a while getting various ingredients together and (although I know this isn’t something you use a recipe for) I’d decided to use Stein’s own cassoulet as a guide. So, I’d picked up ingredients from France, and soaked the beans, got the pan yada yada, and even chosen a few bottles of Lichine Premier Bordeaux 2005 (Sovex-Woltner). In it went, pretty much exactly as Stein had said to do – the only exception being the lack of earthenware pot.

Oh dear! I’m sorry to report it fell way short of expectation: I was really hoping for more taste, but frankly it was bland. I think I might try some of the real thing when we next go to France – maybe take an expedition over to Castelnaudary and make sure that it’s not just my cooking skills! Suffice to say though, I feel I will not be awarded my cassoulet hat on this occasion.

Still, the wine got drunk and so did we 🙂

I was catching up on back episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s series The F-Word last night, where he’s been asking people to send in (or even just state) the most useless recipe books they had. The finalists were Ainsley Harriott, Anthony Worral-Thompson, and Delia Smith.

The first two I can understand – Harriott’s recipes don’t feel particularly accessible and even given a well-stocked Sainsburys it can be quite a slog getting hold of ingredients. I’ve never owned or tried a Worral-Thompson recipe so I can’t comment on his technique but I can imagine they’re much the same. What did surprise the erstwhile Mr Ramsay was the presence of Delia in that list.

I’m not surprised in the slightest. I own several Delia books which I’ve picked up at car boot sales, etc. over the years, and of all the recipes I’ve tried I’ve never had one success. Now I consider myself a competent(ish) home cook – not a professional or even approaching professional level, but I like to tinker and potter around the kitchen. I find that if I treat a recipe by chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay with a bit of ‘bucket chemistry’, I can extend it – sort of like an open-source kitchen I guess – but the space isn’t really there with Delia recipes and they’re such an arse to get right in the first place it’s nigh-on impossible to do it properly. Come to think of it, the last time I referred to Delia was when I needed cooking times for a goose, and that sort of stuff gets looked up in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s meat book.

We do have a lot of recipe books though, and some magazines. I should go through them and chuck out the crap, but they’re always good to browse through for ideas if nothing else. If you’re curious I occasionally note down recipes I’ve discovered/invented in my recipe archive – I strongly recommend Rachel’s dad’s chicken recipe, it’s great if you’re entertaining friends for an evening.

<%image(20060730-chilli.jpg|120|99|)%>There’s not a lot that’s as easy or stodge as chilli-con-carne, but having defrosted the freezer I’d got some mince which needed using and I fancied a bit of an experiment – so I started to sod around with the basic recipe. So, before I forget it, it needs noting.

Gently fry the mince in olive oil together with two chopped fat green chillis. Add a chopped onion and a tin of kidney beans and a couple of sploshes of red wine. Once that’s in, get it bubbling then crack two Oxo cubes in and some hot chilli powder. Then comes the more interesting stuff – a glass of red wine, a small (half square) of 99% Lindt chocolate, a small splosh of port, a squirt of tomato puree, and a squirt of garlic puree. Let that lot reduce for a bit, and pop in a stick of cinnamon for 5 minutes (any more and it’ll overpower the taste). Once the cinnamon has been removed, add another chopped green chilli and about half a teaspoon of curry powder. Finally, rip up a handful of coriander and add it in (do this at the last minute so it’s got some colour).

My presentation is getting better too – quite proud of the whole thing really.

Edit: Memo to self, don’t rub eyes after chopping chillies. *cry*

The day didn’t quite pan out with the hard-working completion of another milestone, since the main development server at $contract took a nosedive and I found myself with nothing to do. Now one of the things which galls me is that I wander through Leeds Market and want to buy stuff for dinner but by the time I get home the kids are getting ready for bed and everyone’s eaten. Today was that exception.

I spent a good hour wandering up and down the fish and meat market, thinking about tea and what we could have – there were some good exotic fishes including catfish and strawberry grouper but I settled on some fresh tuna steaks which I could do up in a Thai marinade. At that point I turned my mind to a starter and bought two fresh rabbits.

Pondering what to do with the rabbit I did a bit of digging on the ‘Net and aside from variants of rabbit stew there was little to do – the closest thing I used as a guide was this recipe, but that’s all it was: a guide.

The eventual recipe I invented went something like this: Cut off the rabbit’s legs and take off the meat from the carcass in large chunks as much as you can (rabbit is very bony so it can be quite a labour of love). Fry in hot olive oil in a casserole dish – just enough to seal the meat and for it to start to brown on the outside. While it’s frying, add some slivered almonds and some fresh ripped basil leaves, then put the top on the dish and slam it into an oven at around gas mark 5. Leave it there for 20 minutes while you warm a barbeque up (or a cast-iron skillet would do). When you’re ready to serve, give each piece of meat about 2-3 minutes either side on the bbq and serve with a couple of fresh basil leaves to garnish and a small amount of rocket if you want.

I also tried a bit of a reduction to go with it but it didn’t quite work: I used the olive oil and almonds when I’d put the meat on the bbq, added about 10cl of red wine and a dash of apple schnapps. It reduced really nicely and I liked it as a very light touch onto the rabbit but Nicky wasn’t too keen.

Finished off with an espresso and an amandine biscotti as the sun set over the trees. Feeling charged up for a weekend of Sorting Stuff Out now 🙂

On the way to the bus stop tonight I passed by Salt’s Deli in Leeds, where being a football widow tonight I consoled myself with some Pecos Blue, a bag of their own Espresso blend, and some Green+Blacks 80% chocolate.

Add a glass of port to that, and I’m feeling a bit better now!