More Marie Claire

As the old adage goes, if you want something done - ask a busy person. After the relative relaxation of being sick and in bed all over Christmas I'm back in the saddle and going at it at an alarming pace. There are simply not enough hours in the day to get everything done, I mean, I only managed to find time to throw away our long dead Christmas tree yesterday. Stress, but it means that if anyone asks me to do anything I sigh, add it to my list and stay up until 1am to finish it. Still I prefer this to lounging around on the sofa all day, exasperated because it'll be an hour before Cake Boss comes on. Between running around for work, family and housework I've still had to fin time to eat and this is what I've been having from the Marie Claire Food and Drink book.

Squid stuffed with risotto.
You start off by making the most delicious risotto I've ever had - simply fry onions with garlic and thyme, add the rice and some lemon zest, dribble n the stock and finish with fresh parsley and the juice of the zested lemon. It's really perfect, without the cheese you avoid the slightly cloying aftertaste some risottos have and the caramelised onions have it out with the tangy lemon juice for some sort of sweet and sour battle in your mouth - absolutely delicious, I would have been happy with a big plate of this for dinner. But of course risotto isn't really a party food any more than stew, or leftover soup is, no no no, you must be crazy. What you're actually meant to do is stuff the still warm rice into squid bodies and roast for half an hour. I cannot emphasize how difficult this is, my top tips are to buy really big squid so that you won't have to insert the rice into their openings GRAIN BY GRAIN! And inject your hands with botox before you begin so that you won't feel it when your skin burns off as you plunge your fingers into the molten risotto. This is almost impossible to do with a teaspoon and when I tried to employ a piping bag IT FRICKING MELTED which I had no idea silicone did - that's how hot it was.
Here are the pretty little squid out of the oven
And here they are even prettier cut up into circles ready to serve to all your fancy pants friends.
I will definitely make the risotto again, but will probably not go through the S&M of stuffing it into squid. This really tasted better freshly made, not after half an hour steaming in the oven. Oh and here's a little secret, if somebody serves this to you at a party there is a 100% guarantee that their hands were all up in your risotto up to the elbow.

Roasted pepper tortillas
I had to read the recipe all the way thorugh twice to realize you are meant to hide little bits of tuna in these tortillas. Annoying, but apart from that, this was really simple. You shove a couple of peppers in the oven, and while they roast mix up some sour cream dough sprinkled with cumin. Pinch off little balls and roll out (using a wine bottle still instead of a rolling pin, sigh). Fry in a dry pan for 15 secons on each side, sear the tuna in the same pan and wah lah!
Not nice. The mix or roasted peppers, balsamic vinegar and basil was wierd and a little synthetic, tuna was tasteless compared to it and tortillas were ok but a bit austere. All rolled up together it was strangely bitter.

Pickled salmon
You buy a little tub of sushi ginger, spoon off some of the pickling vinegar and chop a spoon of ginger, add this to freshly grated ginger, lime juice, chilli I think and mint of all things! Then pour over slivers of raw salmon and leave to marinade for 10 minutes. The salmon turns a little opalescent like ceviche and then goes to stuff some chicory leaves.
Quite nice, but tasted a little soapy because of all the ginger. I mean pickled AND fresh? Come on, there are other ingredients you know.

Spiced biscotti
Finally, I rounded off with some little biscotti biscuits. It's the boyfriend's mum's birthday today and since she always insists on no gifts and there is really only so much chocolate you can give someone I decide to make these from the recipe in the book - which turned out o be very very straightforward and hassle free. The spice comes from cinnamon and cardamon, as well as dried figs and apricots and mandatory sprinkling of almonds.
Apart from the ridiculous non-biscotti shape these are pretty good, I munched on a couple as I was carrying them to her house (and am eating another one now), she liked them and I'll make them again (maybe add a little almond extract next time).
Ok that's it, I recon Marie Claire has enough juice in it for another week and then I'll lose interest and move on.