I used to work in a  restaurant last year, that claimed to be making Italian food. What I thought about it was best illustrated by a couple of Italians storming out of there, having been served lasagne…The only two good things I learned in that place, that shares the name with my current boss, was the idea of sweating off the vegetables before blitzing them into a soup, which improves the flavour dramatically ( works with cup mushrooms wonderfully as well) and- Massimo’s meatballs.

I walked into the kitchen at work this morning when Tom was chopping a large amount of mint and I knew exactly what I felt like cooking tonight.

For the meatballs I use the ground beef, preferably not the lean one, it has to be nice and moist. I add a bread roll soaked in water and milk, a generous handful of grated parmesan, an egg, chopped shallot for the bite and 2 garlic cloves. Then comes the mint. Some of my Italian friends reckon it’s got to be parsley, I stick with the mint, ever since I tasted Massimo’s polpettine. It needs to be worked well with your  hands, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and then shaped into small meatballs. I toss them in flour and boil for about 10 minutes in a beef stock, just enough to nearly cover them. That floury stock is later used for the sauce, as all the goodness stays in it.

The tomato sauce is best kept simple, so quickly fried shallot and celery, a couple of cup mushrooms, a can of chopped tomatoes or passata, some fresh herbs, some port or sweet wine, if there happens to be some open(which is not too often as it gets drunk right away 🙂 ), I like it quite sweet. In go the meatballs and all there is left to do is  cooking the spaghetti, setting the table and opening some good red wine.

Serve with extra parmesan and black pepper.

That British classic still has some space for improvement, as I use  a shop bought custard( vanilla one from Waitrose or good old Ambrosia), the minute I crack the art of making custard that does not curdle, I will announce it to everyone who would listen.

Rhubarb is in season, so best to quickly roast it off in the oven with brown sugar and honey, but not till completely cooked, as it will be baked under the crumble.

The crumble itself; soft butter, plain flour, dessicated coconut, ground almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon, all worked with your fingers until the texture resembles a crumble.

Top the rhubarb with it evenly and bake for about 30 minutes in 170 celsius, till bubbling and slightly golden. Serve warm with custard and enjoy, cause it’s bloody yummy!!! 🙂

This recipe is ripped of Gordon Ramsay’s , slightly changed by me, as usual.

I normally use two types of fish, can be frozen, can be fresh, salmon is a must and some kind of white fish, a fillet of each will do. I poach the fish in milk with  a bay leaf, a shallot and some peppercorns, then flake it onto a bowl. About 4 boiled and mashed potatoes and a crucial ingredient, fresh coriander. If I don’t have any, I don’t bother making fishcakes, it simply makes the dish outstanding( plus I’m a coriander freak, would have it with anything!). I add finely chopped shallot, season it all very well, ground coriander, pepper, some paprika to give it a kick and then mix it all up nicely. You want to make sure you can tell the ingredients apart, don’t mash it all to death, it’s not supposed to be baby food.

Now shape them into cakes, a table spoon is a nice sized cake, roll in flour, then in egg and finally in breadcrumbs. Messy and lots of work, but well worth the effort, as the cakes will keep the shape and won’t fall apart when frying.

Fry them on both sides until golden and lovely.

Serve with harissa mayonnaise( mayo mixed with harissa paste) and a nice green salad.

This Easter we’re not in Poland, so there will be no eggs colouring and all the unnecessary stuff, what there will be however, is a gorgeous piece of beef, lovingly trimmed for me by a nice guy behind Waitrose’s meat counter.

It’s the first time we’re making chateaubriand, the first time I coughed up 40 quid for a piece of meat as well. But it was well worth it.

We took it out of the fridge 3 hours before cooking, seasoned well with salt and pepper, massaged some good olive oil in it, sealed on the frying pan all over and put in the hot oven (180 celsius) and cooked for about 15-20 mins. Both us and our guest Jedrus, huge beef enthusiast, like our steak medium rare to medium, so I’m proud to say we succeeded big time, as shown on the pictures, the meat was beautiful, juicy, tender like cotton and very, very tasty.We served it with a selection of sauces provided by Jedrus’s work as well as good old bearnaise.

Great company for the beef were  roasted potatoes-according to Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, the best method is to quickly boil them for about 5 minutes, put a tray with some olive oil in the oven to warm the oil up and then toss the spuds in the hot oil, so that it sizzles.Season them with rock salt and pepper, as well as thyme or oregano and roast off, until gorgeous and crispy on the outside and soft inside.

Nice green salad a must.

Dessert tonight was a chocolate mousse, which,when first made, Florian described as “better than Gu”. Now that’s a compliment! 🙂

It’s probably not the healthiest of options, taken the amount of double cream needed to make it, but we love it.

• 50 g of good cooking chocolate, as good as one can get
• 150g double cream
• 25 g sugar
• 1 egg white
• some amaretto
• a few amaretti biscuits, crushed.

Heat up half of the cream, melt the broken chocolate in it, careful not to burn it. Stri well and cool down above the pan of cold water.Add the other half of the cream and amaretto.

Beat up the egg white with sugar, fold in the chocolate mixture.

Generously sprinkle crushed biscuits on top.

Chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

Julka loved it….