Food and drink

Poached Egg and Asparagus

I like to think I can turn my hand to most basic cooking techniques after a few minutes research. I learn quickly and most techniques tend to work as described. But there’s one that has always failed me every single time I’ve tried it. Not just me either. This supposedly simple cooking method has ended in wails of frustration and an empty stomach for millions of us. Of course the technique in question is poaching an egg.

It’s gently cooking an egg in water. How hard can it be!? Yet every time I’ve tried it in the past I end up with an unpleasant pan full of eggy soup. Bits of cooked white floating all over the place while a single ball of yolk hides in a corner, doing its own thing. Even more frustrating is the fact that those people who have master this technique appear to be able to turn then out at will. Their number includes my brother. Frankly that was the final straw. I had to get back on the horse. Continue reading “Poached Egg and Asparagus”

Food and drink

Pork chop with garlic mushrooms and olives

I had some olives and a pork chop leftover (from separate meals) and was looking for something to use them up. So I came up with this simple dish of mushrooms with garlic, tomatoes and olives and a pan fried pork chop. Great for a quick midweek meal as the whole thing just takes 15 minutes. Continue reading “Pork chop with garlic mushrooms and olives”

Snapshots

Skelpt Lug

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Sometimes I buy beer because it’s been recommended to me. Sometimes because I’ve had a wee taste and want more. Sometimes I buy beer because I like the name. Guess which one this is!

Unfortunately it doesn’t quite live up to the billing. It’s a decent but slightly flat red ale. It’s, well, a bit dull. Still love the name though.

Snapshots

Roast Lamb with Lentils

I made this lamb dish a few weeks ago as a midweek meal then forgot to write down what I did. Now I can’t remember precisely enough to type it up properly! It was bloody delicious though. Roast lamb shoulder on a bed of puy lentils with pancetta, onion and cumin. I roasted the lamb with some garlic and rosemary. Then boiled the lentils according to the packet, drained them then chucked them into a frying pan with some onion that I fried until just brown and some crispy pancetta pieces. I seasoned the whole lot quite heavily and also added some cumin for flavour.

To be honest it probably doesn’t need a precisely measured recipe. It’s simple and tasted amazing.

News

New site coming soon!

I’ve been on wordpress.com for a while now. It’s fantastic and really makes it easy to get your blog off the ground however to grow the site as I want to I need to take it off the free wordpress and onto my own host. So in the next month I’m going to move the site onto http://www.minceandskirlie.com!

While I’m working on the new site I’ll put up a few posts on here to keep things ticking over but most of my time is being taken up with getting the new place tidied up and ready for visitors.

Hope to see you there soon!