I’m very pleased with my monkfish today. It came from Ocado yesterday with no clear idea of what it will be cooked with, but after a little research I was pleased to discover I had everything I needed to do it justice, but not in a curry.

I blanched and took the skin off about 12 cherry tomatoes. Finely chopped 2 small shallots, 2 garlic cloves, a small piece of fresh ginger and most of a small red chilli, fried it on olive oil, added the chopped tomatoes, a splash of water ( the recipe for called for white wine, but I didn’t have a bottle opened and didn’t fancy opening any of my good chardonnay or pinot gris for a sauce, even a good sauce).  I reduced it a little, then added a bit of a chilli garlic paste, some butter, seasoning and finished with coriander.  The small chunks of monkfish were quickly pan fried, then coated in the sauce and served with some garlic bread.  We loved it. I think I’ll cook it in a week when Ken and Alice come over.  For Ken, obviously. 🙂

I’ve never cooked venison before. I’ve had it in places, liked it a lot, but only today decided it is time to broaden the horizons. Ocado brought me two venison steaks, I flipped through GF mags to see what I could do with them and opted for a porcini mushroom sauce and mash. First cooked the mushrooms, picked in the woods of southern Poland, let them cool and drained the stock. I fried a shallot, added chopped mushrooms, some of the stock and then finished with a mix of the remaining stock+ flour+ double cream+ seasoning, mainly pepper. And a touch of coriander, there was no parsley in the house.

I fried my steaks, like I would do with beef fillet, then coated them in the sauce and served with mash and tenderstem broccoli.  Very much enjoyed the gamey taste of the meat with the mushrooms and pepper, a glass of Argentinian Malbec  helped too. Yum.

This week we eat only scraps, hehe, fillet steaks on Wednesday,  lamb shank yesterday,this evening scallops, tomorrow tuna tartar again. 🙂

That’s my first cauliflower puree, so I researched it first and decided not to go with Hairy Bikers, who suggested cooking the cauli and then leaving it to dry and then blitzing with cream; I went with fucking Gordon- I cooked the florets in milk, then blitzed, but with gruyere cheese, seasoned well with salt, pepper and nutmeg. My panfried scallops sat on the puree, crispy bacon on top, a few rocket leaves.

That was also my little Pizia’s  first taste of cauli, she licked quite a bit off my finger. 🙂

The name for those dumplings I just made up, as pyzy n Polish would be similar, but stuffed with meat. The kind that nobody on earth makes better than a certain Bozena in a distant Stronie Slaskie.  I’m so fond of them, that when I affectionately call my daughter “Pizia”, it does have something to do with a lovely dumpling as well as her own name.

The dough is made with cooked and riced potatoes, cooled and mixed with plain flour and an egg. The amount of flour is difficult to get right, as the dough must be soft and springy, too much flour and one ends up with heavy, unpleasant thing in the stomach.  If I were to say roughly how much, I’d say a bit more than a quarter of the amount of potatoes, but carefully applied. More flour can always be added, can’t be taken off though.

The stuffing, super simple, a shallot, chopped cup mushrooms, a bit of pancetta, all seasoned, lots of pepper.

Ready dumplings are thrown into boiling, salty water and cooked for a few minutes, until floating and a bit longer, raw dough is not pleasant. Finished with crispy pancetta. Very enjoyable.

A very good idea for a quick dinner, that can be prepared ahead and then chucked in the oven.  My cod was simply seasoned and then covered with a cosy duvet of  breadcrumbs, parmesan, a clove of garlic and some coriander, plus a touch of seasoning. A drizzle of olive oil and in the oven it went, sitting on a bed of chopped cherry tomatoes.  What was in the oven already, sitting there  for a good 40 minutes, were dauphinoise potatoes, but sweet potatoes. That was the nicest thing that happened today, easily. Will be repeated this Saturday, Ewa and the chap are coming over.

🙂