This evening I tried my newly acquired ceramic pizza plate.

For the dough I used the recipe from some dude on the net, who went on for 10 minutes on how awesome stone baked pizza is. Mmmm. ;-/

For a small pizza for 2 I used 200 g of strong white flour, a pinch of salt, tbsp of olive oil, all this in the bowl of my beautiful Kitchen Aid. Then, in 130ml of luke warm water, sweetened with a tsp of muscovado sugar I dissolved half a sachet of instant yeast. The hook of the mixer was going all the work, while I stood there, added the liquid and admired. 🙂

The dough was left close to the radiator to rise, while the ceramic plate went to the oven, upwarming simultaneously, otherwise, I was warned,the plate would crack if put into a hot oven.

It was a joy to assemble, I must say, as the plate was hot, the rolled dough started to puff up slightly, as I topped it with tomato sauce, mushrooms, tomatoes, red onions, blue cheese and after 12 minutes in the oven- parma ham and rocket. Nice one!

For dessert little lemon pots, recipe from GF with very enthusiastic reviews, a bit too enthusiastic, I thought it wasn’t very special. Pleasant, but a dessert a 5 year old would make. Just a whipped cream, with some lemon curd added and lemon zest, frozen for 40 minutes and then topped with lemon biscuits. Maybe if the biscuits were a lemon shortbread of some sorts, home made, then maybe it would wow me. This was just ok.

I’ve been craving some of those lovely dumplings for quite a while, on Dinings menu there is veggie gyoza, with some greens and tofu ( is tofu another word for shit? ), but I wanted mine really good, shrimpy, maybe chickeny . My former Chief came up with a nice quick recipe, with stuffing of blitzed raw shrimps and same amount of minced pork, some lightly cooked and chopped cabbage, all this seasoned to taste plus some garlic and soy sauce, put into gyoza skins and stuck together like pierogi. Then pan fried with a touch of sesame oil and towards the end a good splash of water, lid on and about 3 mins to make sure that pork inside is cooked. Served with sweet chilli soy. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Since the last post a few things happened, most importantly my adventure with Dinings came to an end. I will be popping in there again to collect papers, tips and what not, grab a take out and I think take one more final cake for the guys, I feel I owe them for a nice send off.

I had no time to take this fact in, as right on Sunday afternoon Moka and Ivan came to visit, they left a few hours ago, I’ve done all the cleaning and laundry and can now post my soup. Florek and I are both experiencing a nasty flu, mine milder than his, lost of disgusting coughing going on, a basket with drugs next to the bed and so on. I thought a nice hot soup would be in order for my man, so I roasted off some tomatoes, red peppers, shallots and garlic, seasoned and topped with dried oregano, when roasted I threw it onto some chicken stock with half a chopped sweet potato for the texture and after about 20 minutes I blitzed it all into a nice soup. Must be said, that I used my new Bosch hand blender. I was treated by my Dinings colleagues to a 120 pound Divertimenti voucher, which I have spent on 2 decent knives, the said blender, a ceramic pizza baking plate and a microplane grater, recommended by Cathal. Topped my soup  with parsley and parmesan, served in a cup, as per request. It was lovely.

I am proud!! I spent a nice hour in the kitchen with Ludovico Einaudi’s music and my lemon sole, that I bought only because it was on offer, I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it at the time. I looked into GF website for some ideas, the sides are mine though. Skinning the sole was a bit tricky, but I reckon I’d done a decent job, seen it done a few times, so I managed. I made the crust by whizzing the breadcrumbs, parsley, chives and seasoning together, I covered my fillets with flour, egg and then the crust, quickly panfried them and served with sauteed potatoes and grilled courgettes, which I seasoned with a drop of soy sauce and sesame oil. Served with some lemon mayo and excellent Pinot Gris, which is still being enjoyed.

This evening we finally opened the bottle of Margaux, that was waiting for a while. We were planning to do it before Christmas, having received a particularly meaningful letter from Cheltenham, but there was no time before we went on holidays. Today I’m turning 26 again, so some good vino must have been drunk with the scallops. Last night I got some truffle soy dressing from The Chief, I was hoping to recreate Goemon’s scallops, but if one’s a amateur, one can only dream of cooking like Goemon.

Nevertheless, I panfried my scallops and topped them with crispy pancetta, sat them in the truffle dressing and served some asparagus as a side.

Florek liked the sauce so much, that he did what is normally impossible in Dinings….

🙂