During my very short and not well remembered career in Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food, I served lots of these, the regular ones, with ham, their version with smoked salmon was called Eggs Royale.
We’ve spent last week in Center Parcs Longleat and finally returned for breakfast to Cafe Rouge, especially for these. I must learn to make hollandaise and make poached eggs a regular thing, they’re absolutely delicious.
The idea from mojewypieki.com. Lots of work, but ended up with macarons that looked better than they tasted. I didn’t fill them in with nutella, as the recipe suggested, as they’d be far too sweet, mascarpone and lemon curd filling instead was used. First ever go at the royal icing, I only needed it for the eyes, made far too much, but now I know how to make it. For the tongues- halved chocolate eggs.
Happy 3rd birthday Kiddo. 🙂
Postie brought 2 parcels this morning, one was the birthday present for Iz from her favourite Gadek Ron, the other my pistachio paste. Having seen a few exciting recipes in Laduree book, an order was placed and it was delivered today. It’s very, very sweet, but also nutty and luxurious. 
It is so sweet, that I only used 1 tsp of vanilla sugar for the brulees, in the recipe that normally takes 3 tbsps. As usual, 4 egg yolks, left from making the batter for pistachio financiers- with the enthusiastic help of Izzie-
-as well as 250 ml of double cream, 75 ml of milk heated up, slowly added to creamed egg yolks with that little sugar I added. The cream and milk combo took about 3 large tbsps of pistachio paste.
The cremes baked in bain marie for 35 minutes, 140 degrees. Nutty, rich and delicious. 4 more in the fridge, waiting for Florek, who this evenings recovers in hospital from an ear surgery. :-/
I’ve never tasted the real thing, but as Paul Hollywood visited Palermo with a camera and munched on some cannoli, I knew the time has come to try and make them. Florek has ordered the special tubes for me a few weeks ago, so yesterday, instead of maybe colouring some eggs for Easter, I started with the cannoli. What a freaking project that was.
I used the recipe from mojewypieki, had a bit of read around a look at youtube, did my research. Husband Florek took Izzie for a walk and I got to work.
In the bowl of kitchen aid I put 250 g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, 1 tsp of cocoa, 1 egg yolk, 20 g of icing sugar, 30 g of soft butter and 5 tbsps of vodka- the original recipe calls for Marsala, I had none and Bea told me to use vodka. There is no mention of using any water to bind the pastry, I found it necessary.
I ended up with seriously thick dough, that rested for an hour and still rolling it out was a very ungrateful job. I got our old, crappy pasta machine out, immediately remembered why it’s so crappy, swore at the whole thing some more and was 5 minutes away from chucking the whole cannoli idea in the bin. And then Husband came home, approached the pasta machine with calm and patience and rolled it all for me nice and thinly. Shortly speaking- he saved the day.
The dough was cut out with a cookie cutter, folded around the tubes, stuck on top with egg white and fried in 180 degrees till brownish. After about a minute each cannolo had to be removed from the tube and put back in the oil. All easy to do, when one person rolls out the pastry, the other does the frying.
Once cooled, I piped the filling made of ricotta, which I drained off on the sieve for about an hour, mixed with some whipped cream, lemon curd and icing sugar. Flavoured and sweetened to taste the way I liked it. Finished off with raspberries, crushed pistachios and icing sugar.
Absolute revelation.
And this morning Florek ordered a new shiny pasta machine. :-)h
Second time I’ve ordered halibut from Ocado, very tasty, a tad expensive though. But I figure if we’re to eat fish once a week, let it be a good fish. I saw a nice recipe which uses pesto, but I had none and no basil to make it, what I had was a jar of “truffle pesto” from Sacla. A nice enough condiment, the amount of truffles in it rather modest, to be frank.
I seasoned my fish, covered with a thin layer of the “pesto”, then a bit of a chestnut mushroom duxelle and a few cherry tomatoes. Into the oven, 200 degrees, 15 minutes. Served with green beans and crushed new potatoes. Nice.
Ken made it last weekend, I took the recipe straight away. Had to pop out and get some red wine good enough to marinate the chicken in, but not necessary my favourite Catena cab sav, that was sitting on the rack.
I used boneless chicken thigs, so that certain people had no reason to complain. Seasoned them with salt and pepper, crushed 2 cloves of garlic and threw it all into the dish alongside some bay leaves and rosemary sprigs. Quite a lot of wine to cover the chicken, but none was wasted, as the next day we enjoyed a rich, lovely sauce. It marinated in the fridge overnight, today I took it out, drained the chicken, saving the marinade, dusted with flour and quickly pan fried together with 2 sliced cloves of garlic. Then onto the baking dish with 3 fillets of anchovy, a handful of black olives, a can of tomatoes and the marinade. Covered, baked in 180 degress for 1,5 hour filling with the house with wonderful smell.
Served with rice and asparagus( I saw British asparagus on sale already today, £4 per bunch, won’t be long now!). 🙂
I have to say I’m blown away by this one, I will not try to be modest, it really is one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever made. I saw a recipe on mojewypieki.com, but did not follow it all the way, the glaze on top is Gregg Wallace’s toffee sauce, with a pinch of sea salt. I only had one slice of the cake- Lisa is bringing her mum over for coffee later, but I know it will not last beyond tomorrow evening. Which is fine, because the next in line in black forest cake, Florek’s request for his birthday followed by our wedding the day after. I also have duck ragu slow cooking on the stove, lots happening in Oluta’s kitchen.
So the cake itself sits on a base made of 125 g of crushed digestive biscuits blitzed with 40 g of melted, salted butter. Salted butter really makes a difference here, I love it. Having visited Polish deli yesterday I was able to use some great quality quark cheese, still lots left. I used 350 g of the cheese, 60 ml of double cream, 3 whole eggs, 4 tbsps of vanilla sugar ( Dorota’s recipe called for more, I thought white chocolate will do the job nicely), 100 g of melted white chocolate and a splash of vanilla extract- all this worked by kitchen aid, not for too long. According to Dorota, too much air in the cheesecake makes it rise too much in the oven. I poured it onto the base, secured it additionally by some alu foil and baked it for about an hour in 160 degrees- in a water bath.
After it cooled I generously poured toffee sauce all over- 150 g of double cream, 75 g of brown sugar, 25 g of salted butter and a pinch of sea salt, all heated up. Finished with chopped, roasted peanuts. 10 out of 10, standing ovation and sending myself some flowers. 🙂
