15 Easy Ways to Improve a Bland Meal!

Before I get into the ways to make a bland meal taste so much better I’ll just explain what inspired this post.

I have been experimenting with Quora and am getting quite hooked. If you’re not familiar with Quora it is a very interesting and useful site where people ask questions and other people answer them! When I signed up I said I could answer questions on food, cooking, recipes, leftovers, ice cream and the British Virgin Islands. Having done this I can then answer any questions related to these subjects and some of them are pretty weird, I can tell you!  My favourites so far have been ..

What if any person’s shoes you touched turned to cheese, would you eat those shoes?

And …

Is it unethical to eat vegetables when they are unripe?  I mean as in being below the age of vegetable-puberty. What if the vegetable really wants to be eaten?

Some of them, however, have been sensible and one has inspired me to write this post! 

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What are some tips and tricks for turning a bland meal into something delicious?

Below are my ideas …

1.  Firstly and most importantly a little salt helps everything, even sweet dishes (salted caramel – yum!) if used abstemiously.  Crunchy sea salt such as Maldon or Cornish Sea Salt are extra delicious when you bite on a crystal!

2. Flavoured salts add a new twist, smoked salt, chilli salt, lemon salt etc. are easily available or try making Bacon Salt, it’s great on all sorts of things, try it with maple syrup for instance!

3. A squeeze of lemon juice or other citrus will brighten the flavour of fish, vegetables and in some cases chicken dishes.  Or, here’s an attractive idea, serve on a bed of sliced citrus fruit and it will not only look pretty, the flavour will infuse into the food.

4. Add a drizzle of vinaigrette to fresh vegetables eg. mint vinaigrette with peas.  Lots of vinaigrette recipes and info here.

5. A little sugar will help tomato dishes or, even better …

6.  Gastrique

This is a useful thing to make and keep in your storecupboard, it can add flavour to all sorts of things.

60gwater

60g sugar

225 (leftover!) red wine

~   Slowly heat together the water and sugar till dissolved and then cook without stirring, although you can swirl a bit, till caramelised.

~  Add the red wine (carefully, it will splutter) and then stir over low heat till the caramel, which will have hardened, has melted back into the wine.

~  Simmer over low heat till the mixture has reduced back down to about 60ml.

~  Cool.

A little gastrique adds a great boost to tomato soups and sauces and is also great drizzled over blue cheese, added to pan juices, added to fruits especially peaches or strawberries and even topped up with sparkling water as a different sort of spritzer.  Here’s some drizzled onto a baked pear stuffed with blue cheese.

7. Whisk a little butter (flavoured if you like and as appropriate, e.g. garlic butter) into a sauce to improve both flavour and texture.  See here for some flavoured butter ideas.

8. Flavoured oils also work well stirred in at the last minute;sesame oil  is a good addition to Oriental dishes or make your own infused oils. Holy Lama  make a great range of oils specifically designed to add to finished dishes.  Here’s my review and some ideas for them. 

9. Drizzle a dish with a suitably flavoured oil or glaze or sauce.  This is balsamic glaze drizzled over fried leftover polenta.

10. Add grated Parmesan cheese to boost umami (savouriness).

11. Sprinkle dishes with fresh herbs chosen in accordance with the dish – these are Flowers of Scotland on simple potato soup but something less stunning will taste good too!

12. Speaking of sprinkling, Pangrattato is a delicious and crunchy addition to almost anything!

13. Freshly ground spices will perk things up; black pepper with most things, nutmeg with potatoes or spinach, paprika (smoked or otherwise) with whatever you fancy.  A little chilli not only enhances savoury dishes but can be great with sweet dishes too such as fruit salads or chocolate mousse and so can cinnamon.

  

The flower thing in the front is for display purposes only! It is the wotsit by which a coconut is attached to the tree.

14. Sprinkle flavoured sugars such as cinnamon or lemon on sweet dishes, vanilla sugar is great of course or see here for a wonderful thing!!! 

14. Make the food look appealing – this gets the old gastric juices flowing and so helps with both digestion and enjoyment of the meal.

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Lovely Romantic Glazed Shallots

Recently my romantic darling brought me home a small bag of shallots which were reputedly almost past their best before date. 

I removed the plastic bag so they could breath put them in my basket of various onions and forgot about them for about a week. When I remembered them they were still in prime condition so I decided to glaze them.

Glazed Shallots

~   Don’t peel the shallots just remove any loose papery skins.

~   Put the shallots into a small pan, cover with boiling water and simmer for 2-3 minutes. This has two useful effects:

1.         the skin is now easier to remove and doesn’t make you cry.

2.         the shallots are slightly cooked so the rest of the process takes less time.

~   Drain and rinse.

~   Now peel them. If you cut off the stalk end and squeeze gently from the root end the shallot should slide out but this is a tiny weeny bit wasteful and could shoot across the room and take someone’s eye out!

~   Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan large enough to hold the shallots in one layer and sauté them, shaking and tossing from time to time till they are turning golden.

~   Add a light sprinkling of caster sugar, a little salt and enough hot water to just cover.

~   Simmer till tender when pierced with a sharp knife. If you run out of water before they are tender add a little more, if they are tender before you run out of water increase the heat and continue to cook, shaking the pan till there is just a little sticky goo left.

~   It’s a nice idea to add either a glass of “leftover” red wine or a splash of balsamic vinegar towards the end of cooking and simmer till it is reduced to almost nothing.  I chose red wine this time.

Nice pinnable image, don’t you think!!

The first thing I made with my glazed shallots was a rather lovely pizza. Instead of a tomato sauce on the base I used an abstemious amount of balsamic glaze and the topping was simply glazed shallots, lovely St. Agur cheese and lots of black pepper.

Then, last night, I made myself a delicious dinner using a small piece of fillet steak which had been reduced from £2.50 to £1.53 so I’m not being extravagant here. I cut it into strips and sautéed half of them with some of the shallots, made a quick pan sauce with red wine and served it on top of fried mash.  Awfully good and I think this must have cost me about 90p or so!

The other half of the steak?  I marinated ready for a Bulgogi tomorrow night. 

I still had four shallots and two halves plus a small piece of St. Agur.

What would you do?  I made a …

Compound Butter

I creamed the cheese with about twice as much softened butter, added the shallots, coarsely chopped, plus a little salt (the cheese and the butter being already salty) a lot of pepper. This will be great on steak, in jacket potatoes or to make hot flavoured bread, like garlic bread only different. 

Flavoured butter is an excellent way of using up small quantities of all sorts of leftovers; (see here for all sorts of ideas for flavoured butter) and this is a good way to store it …

~   Spread a square of clingfilm or baking parchment onto the counter.

~   Scrape the soft and tasty butter into sausage about 30mm from and parallel to one edge.

~   Lift that edge and use the film or parchment to roll and shape the butter into a cylinder.

~   When satisfied roll the butter in the rest of the clingfilm and twist the ends to secure.

~   Chill or freeze until needed.

~   Use a hot knife to slice cold or frozen butters.

By the way, if you are thinking that a bag of cheap shallots isn’t that romantic – think again, he also bought me this!

  

… and three of these!

A Bit of Summer in the Fridge

On Wednesday 1^stMay (you probably remember it; this year’s summer) I picked some wild garlic and when I got it home washed it and puréed the leaves in my mini food processor together with some soft salted butter. See here for lots of delicious flavoured butter ideas.

I often find that the best way to clean out the food processor is to firstly wipe it out with something edible before washing it.  So having a couple of small crusts (a bit of ciabatta and a tiny crust of multigrain) I made some croutons – tear up bread, wipe out processor with it, spread on baking tray and, next time oven is on, bake till crisp and golden – good with soups, salads or as a nibble. More information on making croutons here.

I put the Wild Garlic Butter in the fridge and waited for inspiration.  So far this is what I have used it for …

Spicy Noodles with Salmon and Wild Garlic

I had a bit of salmon skeleton in the freezer.  You might think this is odd but we bought about half a salmon from which I cut some meal sized pieces and froze the remains for later use.  I just poached the skeleton for a few minutes and then carefully removed all the flesh from the bones – more than enough for me, in fact I finished it on toast the next day!  Economical or what!

I also had a few cooked noodles in the fridge so made myself a lovely sudden lunch. 

I just melted some wild garlic butter and tossed in the noodles and salmon till hot, added a squeeze of lemon and finished with an extra knob of garlic butter to keep my cholesterol up!

A Wild Garlic Hasselback Potato

I think I cooked hasselback potatoes about 30 years ago but if I did the details escape me.  A friend jogged my memory by putting a picture of one on FB so I thought I’d have a go and I have to come clean and say … it was not quite as nice as a jacket potato, in my opinion.  This is not to say that it was at all unpleasant, mind you.

~   Preheat oven to 400ºF/200ºC/180C fan/gas 6 

~   Wash a handsome baking potato and cut into thin slices BUT NOT ALL THE WAY THROUGH.  Leave them attached by about 10mm at the bottom.

~   Rub with olive oil, season and bake for about 30 minutes. 

~   Brush with Wild Garlic Butter and continue to cook till tender and crisp which could take up to another 30 minutes depending on the size of the potato.

I ate mine with salad, more wild garlic butter and a little freshly shredded Parmesan.

Crevettes in Lemon Ramsons Butter

We bought some reduced cooked crevettes yesterday and I have just eaten them warmed through in said butter together with a squeeze of lemon.  Yummy over rice.

Compound Butters – Garlic Butter and Beyond!

As we are moving tomorrow supplies are pretty scarce here.  I however did find a little leftover roast chicken in the fridge so made myself an old favourite for lunch, chicken salad.  My camera is packed (bad planning or what!) but here is a picture of one I ate earlier when I was in the islands.

Chicken salad is of course no revelation but what made it special was piling it onto crisp hot chili bread – an offshoot of yer actual garlic bread. I make lots of these variations.  As this blog and indeed my entire cooking philosophy are based on spontaneity and using what’s available these, once again, are not recipes but ideas and guidelines – use your own taste buds!   

Garlic Butter

Mix a little crushed fresh garlic (garlic is less bitter if you remove the green germ in the middle of the clove before crushing), salt and pepper to taste and perhaps a little parsley or mixed herbs..  Parmesan is good mixed into this too.

Roasted Garlic Butter

See here for roasted garlic details and mix not only a soft and delicious roasted garlic clove but also a little of the garlicky oil into the  butter. Add salt to taste and a generous amount of black pepper which goes well with the roasted garlic taste.

Roasted Garlic & Blue Cheese Butter

As above but crumble and mix in a little blue cheese of your choice.

Hot Chilli Butter

For this I add an abstemious tad of chilli pickle – I love this stuff and use it is all sorts of mouth watering ways.  Fresh chilli, hot sauce, cayenne etc. are all options – you get different results but they’re all good!

Lemon Butter

This one goes beautifully with fishy things; fish pâté, potted shrimp, crab paste etc. etc.   Stir the finely grated zest of a lemon and the juice of about half of the same lemon (zest first and then juice; it’s easier that way) into the butter and season to taste.  Pepper goes well with this – Lemon Pepper Bread – and parsley looks pretty.

Fresh Coriander/Cilantro Butter

Add a handful of chopped fresh coriander leaves and a hint of chilli (powder or hot sauce) – this is great with Mexican beany dishes.

Caramelised Onion Butter

Cook thinly sliced onions very gently in oil or butter till utterly soft then stir over higher heat till turning golden and sticky – see here for more on caramelising onions.  Cool a bit and then stir these gorgeous onions into the butter.  This is extra good with blue cheese and/or black pepper added to it.

Black Pepper Butter

Well, you know, just add a generous amount of freshly ground and preferably crunchy black pepper to the bread together with some salt.

Etcetera!

As you can see this is very flexible – just add herbs, spices, cheese, zest, mustard, tapenade or whatever to soft butter and go for it.

For hot flavoured breads either use the traditional method of part cutting a baguette, spreading with the butter, wrapping in foil and baking or, quicker and easier and crisper, butter slices of yummy bread and toast till lovely. 

These butters are also great chilled and used to top steak and grilled fish, mashed into potatoes or popped into baked potatoes.  

For sweet variations see my earlier post ~ Maple Sugar Toast, Cinnamon Toast & Other Delicious Variations.

It is high summer here, and probably elsewhere too – a great time to be in Cornwall but then most times are.

We are moving inland to “clay country” which is a strange kind of place.  This is the heart of the china clay industry where the landscape is much changed by mining but in some ways, in some places, is very lovely. Mining company Imerys have done a good job of grassing over tips (“sky tips” the pointy ones are called as they gradually got higher and higher towards the sky) and landscaping.  Travelling around the area is an exciting mix of “oh how pretty” and “wtf!” as we politely say these days.   In a couple of hundred years I think the whole place will be lovely so I’ll have to wait for another incarnation to really appreciate it. 

We have been living near Padstow on the North Coast of Cornwall which is a stunningly gorgeous area but the whole of Cornwall is great and I am looking forward to exploring the beaches, villages, lanes and pubs of southern Cornwall.  Also looking forward to having storage space, a hot shower, flushing toilet, running water, separate bedroom, working oven etc. etc.  Might do some baking!

PS.  I was going to post the above … um … post a few hours ago but it has been such a ridiculously golden evening we had to go down the pub and I even went to the trouble of unpacking my camera for the trip.