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Glad you've discovered oxtails, debkellie - a firm favourite at my house and I love your idea of using them in pies; great texture and so flavourful.  Nigel Slater has a lovely recipe which is quite a departure from the conventional oxtail treatment from Tender I,  A stew of Oxtail and Onions for a Cold Night.

This week, I'm tempted by several recipes from Jill Dupleix's Very Simple Food.  Some of them include Thai Corn Cakes, Spanish Cafe Salad and/or Salmon & Egg Tarts are all contenders; depending how the week unfolds, it may be just one of them or all.

With plenty of sunshine and the garden awash in tulips, I'm in the mood for light-ish, delicous and fun food.  My arugula is bursting forth in the salad garden along w/mesclun.

I've long been a fan of Jill's approach to food and recipes and really enjoy her unfussy approach to great meals.  I followed her column in The London Times for years and still regret her departure.

The Spanish Cafe Salad was a big hit for me.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoy a main-course salad and how convenient for busy mid-week dinners.  This recipe is eminently flexible and could be considered a springboard for your favourite salad ingredients.  I stuck reasonably closely to the recipe, but roasted my asparagus instead of simmering in water.

The star ingredient for me was the Serrano ham such a nice change from prosciutto with everything. You could add cheese, favas, fresh peas, slices of chicken or hard-boiled eggs (which I will certainly do next time - probably this evening).  I would also double the amount of dressing because it's nice to have a flavourful basic vinegrette around.

This isn't a game-changing recipe, but a really well-balanced combination of good ingredients for a satisfying and hearty salad. 

i've got lots of Serrano ham, roasted asparagus and chilled, al dente green beans left over which will form part of a couple more salads over this upcoming gorgeous weekend.

At a garage sale this morning, I scored the following brand new, never opened cookbooks - $10.00 for all four!

• Risotto - Maxine Clark


• Pure Desserts - Alice Medrich


• Feast - Nigella Lawson


• Barefoot Contessa At Home - Ina Garten

Lots of possibilities for Cooking From Your Books...

Okay, so I did get around to making the Spicy Beef Slices with Tangerine Peel from Fuschia Dunlop's Land of Plenty last week. Let me begin by saying that I have been craving tangerine beef ever since I moved to France far, far away from anywhere serving good Chinese food. After trying a few other recipes that missed the mark, I had high hopes for this one. Here, the beef is deep fried twice, then all but 1/3 cup of the oil is drained from the wok. The dried chiles and szechuan peppers are added to the oil, followed by the sauce ingredients and the beef and the whole shebang is simmered for 20-30 minutes until the sauce is reduced. Personally, I would cut back on the oil next time as I found the sauce on the greasy side. In addition, I would try rewarming the beef in the reduced sauce as mine was a bit tough after simmering away for 20 minutes. The flavor of the sauce, however, was quite good and very fragrant. So I am hoping with the adjustments above I will be at least one step closer. I also think part of the key is to dry your own tangerine peel but that will have to wait.

I served it with the Stir Fried Rice with Pork and Shiitake Mushrooms from Fuschia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. I substituted Chinese sausage for the pork as I had them in my freezer and was looking for an excuse to use them. This was so good that my SO (who usually avoids rice like the plague) went back for fourths. Will definitely make it again and maybe throw in an egg next time. Yum yum!

If I'm lucky enough to find morels this week, I'll try the Crêpes with Chicken and Morels from Bouchon. If not, maybe I will tackle one of the quiches.

I seem to lack the stir-fry gene, Miquette, which is too bad as I really like the sound of your Beef w/Cumin!  I've always loved the beef/orange combination in Chinese cooking and good for you to still want to tinker w/that one.

My Thai Corn Cakes were only ok, but maybe I had unrealistic expectations of this pretty simple recipe.  I think I was hoping for something more fritter-like.  I know I've made something far better, but remembering where I got it from is another thing.  Time to do an EYB book search!

I may be browsing my newly acquired garage-sale books for inspiration on my next recipe selection.

Hi Foodelf,

I love Thai corn fritters! I have tried the recipe from James McNair Cooks Southeast Asian (not indexed). The batter contains garlic, lemongrass, fish sauce, and red curry paste. I found them to be pretty good but I want to try them again with fresh corn as I didn't like the texture of the canned corn. I have also been meaning to try the Corn and Coconut Fritters from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. The corn is pulsed in a food processor and then mixed with some coconut cream and the usual batter ingredients. I thought the addition of coconut cream was an interesting variation.

I don't think I have the stir fry gene either but my cravings are driving me to keep trying. Unfortunately after last week, I am now "banned" from stir frying inside. We have one of those useless "fake" exhaust hoods that vents right back into the room. So I have to wait for a break in the rain to use the side burner on the grill.

Not quite Asian corn cakes, but I recently made Mexican Corn cakes with avocado and prawns which is a Valli Little special.. I am sure that you could easily adapt her base to secure those Asian flavours with which you're both tempting the palate!

Oh debkellie, those look gooooood! Thanks for posting!

This week's recipe found me, rather than the other way around. OMG Recipe:  Dorie Greenspan's Armagnac Chicken - reviewed on Improvised Life, provoked my immediate curiosity when I saw it and it's from Around My French Table.  I felt I was being selected to choose this recipe - and, I'm really glad I tried it last night.

I'm something of a roast chicken snob, believing I already know and have the best recipes which is why I passed this one by.  But - I am now suitably humbled - this was fantastic.  All the more because it couldn't be easier and with very few ingredients, produced a chicken dish I'll be making for the rest of my life.  it was probably 90 minutes from prep to eating.  My kind of mid-week dinner, but it has depth and complexity; surprising for a one-dish meal.  By the way, I used brandy, not Armagnac.

Additionally, no browning the chicken, no browning/sauteeing the vegetables and easy prep and clean up.  I think I'm in love.

That sounds fantastic Foodelf - I'm off to bookmark it now.

I'm pretty philosophical about successes and failures in the kitchen.  I try lots of new recipes and techniques and usually the successes vastly outweigh the not-so-goods which outweigh the failures.  As a bonus, I learn along the way, embracing and enjoying the experimentation.  Most of my victims guests enjoy the process and like to try new things, too.

I made the Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake from a recent Saveur Magazine recipe and found it spectacularly awful.  I'd dithered somewhat, about baking it because it calls for shortening along with the butter in the ingredients for the cake, which I've never used before.  So I did a little research and learned that it's supposed to produce a lighter, airy result.

My result was a rather flavourless cake that was heavy, dry and dense - the caramelized rhubarb and its accompanying syrup were delicious but even that didn't sufficiently permeate the cake.  It could well have been user-error, but in retrospect, I can't see where I may have gone wrong.  The finished product actually looked pretty good. smelled heavenly and I suspect we might have enjoyed it a lot more, had there been vanilla ice cream in the house. 

The upside is the caramelized rhubarb, which I'll certainly use in a clafoutis and/or a tart.

Meanwhile, the local birds have been feasting on the rejected cake and aren't the least bit concerned about density or dryness - they LOVE cake.

It's been about a week since I made the Crêpes with Chicken and Morels from Bouchon. In typical Keller style, every component of the recipe was decadent, including the crêpe batter which is made with cream and chives. They are a bit more work than the typical crêpe recipe only because I found double-shelling the fava beans a little time-consuming. However, nothing about the recipe is at all difficult and they did come together beautifully. I poached and shredded chicken breasts and combined with the bechamel sauce, tarragon and chives. The morels are sautéed with butter and brandy before combining with the cooked fava beans and more chives.  I did think that they were quite rich and might be better served in smaller portions as a starter.   I think next time I would assemble smaller crêpes as bundles and garnish with the morel/fava mixture as it was a shame to hide the beautiful contrast of colors inside of the crêpes. 

For this week, I'm eyeing the Peruvian Roast Chicken recipe posted on Leite's Culinaria. The idea of serving it with avocado salad sold me!

I may just have to cook along with you on the Peruvian Chicken, Miquette!  Sounds very appealing and I'm in the mood for something spicy!

Hi Foodelf

I followed up you mention of Dorie Greenspan's Armagnac chicken and bought her book. It arrived this morning in a plastic bag iside a huge US  Mail woven polyprop bag - our postman was most  intrigued. Her name was new to me but the book is superb, and I have Saturday lunch lined up!

Ray S

I am probably getting chicken fat all over my keyboard as I type. We just finished our dinner of Peruvian Roast Chicken from Leite's Culinaria and it was finger lickin' good! I am usually not the type to pick the meat off of the bones (don't like to get my hands greasy) but I couldn't help myself. And the spice-encrusted skin is gooood! We ate almost the whole chicken between the two of us and all of the avocado salad.  The chicken reached 165˚F in just under an hour (vs. the 90 minutes estimated in the recipe) despite my oven being at the correct temperature and using a 4-lb bird.  Also, I marinated the chicken in a ziplock bag but the marinade is more on the paste side so I had a hard time getting it out of the bag to use for the basting. Next time I would just put the chicken in a large bowl. And there will be a next time!

Foodelf, I hope you try it too, I'm interested to see what you think!

Hi, Ray S - you won't regret the purchase of this book - I've had it for some time, but only began seriously cooking from it within the past 6 months or so and I've never looked back.  I hope you'll share your experiences here.

Hi, Miquette -

I have all my ingredients ready for the chicken, but realize that I have no dried oregano, only fresh - so I'm planning on using it.  Unless, however, you think it's vital to use dried.  I can hold off for a day and pick some up, but I'd hoped to be able to marinate overnight tonight and roast tomorrow evening.  If you have time, could you let me know your opinion?  At just 1/2 tsp. I can't imagine it would make a serious difference.

I loved your description and I've noted your suggestion about using a bowl rather than a bag which makes a lot of sense.

I'm assuming the paprika is the hot one, rather than sweet or smoked?

I'm really enjoying the anticipation for this and the avocado salad, too.

Back to chopping and mashing garlic...

Hi Foodelf,

I think it's fine to use fresh oregano. I used sweet paprika as I didn't have any more hot. That being said, I was thinking as I was eating that next time I would try it with the hot and maybe throw in a little smoked too. 

Thanks, Miquette - I did use fresh oregano, plus the hot paprika.  The beautifully coloured chicken is resting in the refrigerator and I'm wishing it was time to start roasting!

Looking forward to this evening.

After a challenging day at work, it was so nice to know that the Peruvian Chicken was waiting for me at home. 

All the work was already done and all I had to do was heat up the oven. take the chicken out of the refrigerator, squeeze some lemon quarters, set the timer and baste with savoury juices occasionally.

I prepared the avocado salad about half way through the roasting time to encourage the flavours to meld.  I was perfectly happy to use the red onions without the ice-water blanching - I like a little zip to my onions.  I used some of the baby greens from my salad garden to create a nest for the avocado salad.

The chicken was really delicious and had a nice zing from the hot paprika.  Mine was a larger, free-range chicken - probably around 4 1/2lbs and the roasting vessel I selected wasn't ideal; the skin didn't really crisp up and because of the size of bird, I could probably have extended the cooking time by about 20 mins.  Nothwithstanding, all the elements of this dish played beautifully together, especially accompanied by the avocado salad which provided a bright, citrusy, fresh accompaniment to this very handsome roast chicken.

An effortless and satsfyingly tasty Friday night dinner!

Thanks for the inspiration, Miquette.

I'm thinking of some sort of asparagus tart for next week and will be dipping into the books over the weekend.