Monthly Archives: March 2019

For the science

Pork cheeks.

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They seem like a trend  now, Masterchef contestants are cooking them,  Jason Atherton in Saturday Kitchen did too,  so it was time for me to make my way to the butcher’s and place the order.  I’m a big fan of ox cheeks, even managed to convince Florek to them, but my last night’s effort with pork cheeks was not a triumph, I must say.  They didn’t look the part  when I was preparing them, I’ve removed quite a lot of fat and sinew and them proceeded to braise them they way I would do ox cheeks, but for less than 2 hours, as the size was considerably smaller. While they were braising, I’ve made a side of roasted, grated beetroot and some dauphinoise and then when I tasted them shortly before serving- I quickly panfried 2 eggs for Florek, I knew he would not be enjoying pork cheeks. There were 2 or 3 pieces of beautifully tender meat that I ate and rather liked, but mostly I ended up with lots of fatty pork, the texture of which did not appeal to me at all. The sauce was lovely and rich and I saved it, but the pork went to the bin, sorry to say.

I’m glad I tried, for the science, but will not be running back to Toby’s for some more.

Baking

Blueberry macaroons.

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I bought some particularly delicious blueberries this morning in M&S. They taste a little like the wild blueberries available in Poland in late summer. I’ve baked a spontaneous batch of macaroons and they turned out perfect, not a single one cracked, stuck, had a boob, nothing, 3 trays of great macaroons. I filled them with a simple combination of whipped cream with blueberry puree, good splash of lemon juice really brought it together. Each macaroon has a blueberry in the middle, sitting in the nest of whipped cream. I’m really chuffed with these, so chuffed I sent a photo to Dorota from mojewypieki.com and I’m also giving 6 of them to the lovely people who deliver fresh farm eggs to us for the last couple of weeks. Brawo ja! 🙂

Good Food

Duck. From A to Stock.

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Ocado delivers my shopping on Tuesday mornings. I already had 2 duck legs on order, then watched Masterchef, where a dude cooked a duck breast, the look of which made me grab my laptop immediately and edit my order.  2 duck breasts cost £9, 2 legs £4.50. The whole duck, just under 1,5 kg was on offer at £6.70. I hesitated for a few minutes, as I’ve never taken apart a bird and I’d hate to make a mess of it. But there’s youtube.com, so I watched 2 videos of how to do that and ordered the bird.

I have to say that butchering the duck was not as difficult as I thought it would be and it made me feel like I’ve just learned a new skill, saved some money and ended up with both breasts, legs and extras as well. My mum often makes soups on turkey/chicken wings, so I saved mine and froze them for that purpose, then decided to use the carcass to make some duck stock. Another 2 minute video helped with that- never done my own stock before. I whacked the carcass in the hot oven for 25 minutes till browned.

When cooled a little,  it went in  the pot together with a shallot, some green celery, carrots, bay leaves, peppercorns, a few porcini mushrooms and cooked nice and slowly for over 3 hours.

Strained, it now cools in the fridge and will be used for sauces, especially to accompany duck legs.

I then went on to reward my good housekeeping by dining on a pan fried duck breast with fabulous daphinoise potatoes and green beans, washed down with a large glass of Argentinian malbec.  Yum.

Baking

Lime and mango drizzle.

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Shelina Permalloo’s recipe from Good Food mag.  Beautiful on the picture, even though I had no dried mango to pile up on top. I had 2 relatively ripe mangos on the windowsill and enough limes, so I baked it last night. Florek reckons it’s better the next day, I rather liked it warm after dinner last night too.

Easy. 150 g of caster sugar creamed with 150 g unsalted butter till fluffy and pale. Zest of 2 limes in.  3 whole eggs, one by one. 150 g of self raising flour. About 200 g of fresh mango, chopped in small pieces. All this into a baking tin and into a 180 degrees hot oven for about 45-50 minutes.  While it baked, a juice of 2 limes previously zested was made into a drizzling syrup, alongside 75 g of sugar, gently heated up until sugar dissolved. Right after the cake came out, I punctured it with a skewer all over and poured the syrup on top with a little help of a pastry brush.  Finally a touch of icing sugar.

I do like the limey flavour, but I was thinking a bit of custard, last night, while it was eaten slightly warm would make it a very lovely dessert. Will keep in mind for 2 loads of guests due to come over later this month.