Monthly Archives: June 2011

Dessert

Yuzu pannacotta

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Yes, another pannacotta, but as my lemon one was all eaten by The Chief on Monday morning (he said the flavours were good, but a bit too sweet), I was asked to try and make one with yuzu and if approved ….it might go on Dinings menu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was given some yuzu juice and followed fucking Gordon’s recipe yet again, decreasing amount of sugar, replacing lemon juice with yuzu and skipping lemon zest. So for 7 little ones, I used 350 ml of double cream, 100 ml of milk, about 120 g of sugar and about 50ml of yuzu juice. And 2,5 gelatine leaves. Neither this one nor the lemon one wobbles like those Gabor makes at work, but Gosh, do they taste awesome!

Nothing to do with modesty, but I LOVE THIS ONE. I served with a very simple passion fruit sauce, it’s going to be tasted tomorrow by Nick and Masaki, but even if they decide not to use my recipe, I will do it again and again, I think it’s delicious. We’ve had 2 each tonight.

Good Food, Room for improvement

Chilli garlic shrimps

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One of my favourites on Dinings menu. Goemon kindly gave me some chilli garlic paste and two other ingredients I always have in my cupboard, so I purchased some lovely shrimpages from Waitrose this morning and got to it. 3 measures of the paste, 2 of soy sauce and 1 of sesame oil, which I followed roughly for my marinade. maybe too roughly, as they turned out to be rather hot. I marinated them for nearly 4 hours, while busy gardening and then fried them on my griddling pan – those at work are char grilled, which makes them phenomenal. I served them with a nice veggie- fried rice, drizzled with sesame oil and finished off with fresh coriander. Florian, who is not massive on shrimps at all said it was  a great dish. Thumbs up.

Ps. Those at work are better. 🙂

Good Food

Sunday afternoon in the garden

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Ewa and Kris came over today to dine with us, so I slaved in the kitchen for the first time in a while. The weather was nice too, that’s why the dining table was taken outside again. The starter this evening was a cute little onion and cheese tart. I made a quick shortcrust pastry from flour, butter and water, blind baked it and then filled with spicy onion chutney, blue stilton and baked off. Served with rocket and parmesan salad. All the diners enjoyed it and there was nothing left.

The main- lamb shanks, this time done properly in red wine and chicken stock with veggies, in the oven for nearly 3 hours, nicely came off the bone  (speaking of which, Ewa’s dog enjoyed all the bones some hours later). I served it with mash mixed up with some fried leeks – Nick’s suggestion.

We finished off with lemon pannacotta. No stress here, but I’m taking the remaining one for The Chief to taste tomorrow. Bit nervous, but looking forward to some constructive criticism.

Dessert, Uncategorized

Krówka Cake

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I hardly ever have time to cook, bake and blog these days, such is the down side to having a cool job again. This afternoon though I thought I must make something nice and sweet. So I did. A krówka cake. There will be no recipe here today, as this is the cake made of half ready products, that Jana sent me once, knowing Florian’s affection for toffee.

So I made it and it’s lovely. Half of it will be taken to work tomorrow.

Good Food, Room for improvement

Triple cheese and onion soufflet tart.

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Sounds posher than it looks?… 🙂

Another one from the latest Good Food. The original recipe calls for goats cheese, which I’m not a massive fan of, but might actually give it a chance next time. The idea is awesome, but if the cheese was more flavoursome than the ricotta I used tonight, might be even better.

I blind baked the base of shortcrust pastry, which had an X-tra factor of some grated parmesan rolled into it. It made the kitchen smell lovely when it baked, as well as added crunch and flavour to the base. When baked, I spread some nice spicy onion chutney on the bottom and left it await the filling. The base of it is basically a nice thick bechamel, to which I added a tub of ricotta- nice and light but it lacked some chemistry I thought- a good handful of parmesan, some fresh chopped thyme leaves, some grated cheddar – no enough- and seasoned with nutmeg and pepper. Then in went 2 egg yolks, followed by 2 whipped egg whites. All mixed nicely, into the base, some parmesan and thyme on top and into the oven for 35 minutes in 200 degrees until nicely risen and brownish. Only after it baked I trimmed off the edges of the pastry.

I served it with a green salad with pancetta lardons and cherry tomatoes and the last bottle of Iona sauvignon blanc. It was nice and light. Loved the chutney’s contribution to the dish, but will experiment with different cheese next time.

 

Dessert

Little pistacchio delights.

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I saw these in the latest edition of Good Food and wanted to make them straight away. They reminded me of the little pistacchio financiers Gabby use to make in Ubon. She even gave me the recipe, but it included some mega posh pistacchio paste that could be obtained from confectioner’s shops, preferably in France, so I never made them. This recipe calls for no such nonsense, it’s nice and simple and the effect is nearly as good as Gabby’s. Hers were finer. 🙂

I melted 200 g of butter and let it cool slightly. The pistacchios were whizzed until fine, mixed with 85 g of ground almonds, same amount of plain flour and 200 g of icing sugar. I then added the melted butter and 5 egg whites that were slightly frothed with a fork. All nicely mixed together went into the piping bag – what a convenient and mess saving invention- and then into the silicone form especially obtained from TK Maxx for this purpose. I sprinkled the top with a bit of roughly chopped pistacchios as well, looks nice. They baked in 200 degrees for around 25 minutes each batch. I made about 30, we’re half way through them  and I’m glad they’re quite filling, cause I want to take a few to work tomorrow.

They’re lovely, soft in the middle and ever so slightly crunchy on top. Will definitely be made again!