Sunday, therefore fresh pasta. Yesterday in Saturday Kitchen puttanesca was somebody’s food heaven, accompanied by fresh focaccia, so I looked it up. I looked at Nigella’s and read a nice little article comparing what Gennaro, Jamie and Angela Hartnett had to say on “whore’s pasta”. We gave up on focaccia this evening, we decided we’re not hungry enough for both, but it might still get done mid week. While Florek The Husband was getting on with fresh spaghetti, I made the sauce. Simple, delicious, flavoursome and moreish. 4 anchovies chopped and fried on olive oil, 2 crushed garlic cloves in. Half a tsp of chili flakes in( could have taken more), a handful of chopped capers. Kalamata olives, pitted, chopped, about twice as much as the capers. And then tomatoes; I used half a can of Italian tomatoes, a tsp of tomato puree and about 15 cherry tomatoes, blanched and skinned- all blitzed together into a flavoursome passata. Nigella just recommends tinned tomatoes, I didn’t see why not use the lovely, sweet cherry tomatoes. It all reduced for a few minutes, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, some basil and that’s it. We loved it and would have pigged more if there was more. Fab!
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Eggs benedict with a successful hollandaise.
I tried last weekend, a disaster. The sauce split, I used all the worst words in my vocabulary to let it know what I thought about it and we ended up with poached eggs with ham on a toasted muffin.
This time I did my research. I know that last time I made it too hot and that’s why it took 3 seconds to go to hell. Today- barely simmering water, 2 egg yolks in, a tsp of white wine vinegar whisked gently, making sure the bowl does not touch the water surface. I didn’t bother with clarified butter this time, just about 90 g of it melted, added slowly to the yolks. And it split. And I cursed. And I added another yolk trying to save it- internet’s advice. That did nothing, so I cursed some more, but that also did nothing. So I threw 2 ice cubes in and whisked and….miracle happened, the mixture turned into a lovely, thick, glossy sauce, that just needed seasoning and a splash more vinegar and lemon juice and it was ready to cover my poached eggs. Which I did differently today as well, Jamie Oliver’s way. Skipped the vinegar in the water, had it barely simmering and therefore 3 minutes in. Not bad overall, but more practice needed. 🙂
Dinings SW3.
Last week I got a call from a certain Nicolo Sandrini of Dinings, who asked if I could bring my man and daughter to London on Wednesday the 17th. Dinings team were to open their second location in London and were inviting “friends and family” to join them and have dinner on the house. Just for being considered “friends and family” more than 4 years after leaving the company, I’d have walked to London if I had to. The idea of seeing all the lovely people again was even more appealing than the food, the Jap food heaven that Dinings has been for years. So I didn’t have to beg Florek to take a day off, we went, in pouring rain, back to Scumdon.
Nicolo sent me a video of the restaurant at about 1pm earlier yesterday, still basically a building site, expressed his doubts about the success of the coming evening and also said he wanted to die ( he’s from Verona). 🙂
When we arrived in Knightsbridge, still in pouring rain, the place was still a mess, but there was Nick, my former Chief, the most awesome and knowledgeable man in catering, as well as one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. If he ever asked me to work for him again, I’d shelve my macarons and run back, sadly all the business is either in London or Tel Aviv. There was the other Chief, Masaki, there was Fuku, with his stunning little daughter, I also saw Grace and Alex and Mika, whom I’ve not seen since Ubon.
The food took ages to arrive, but that was understandable. Probably because of the circumstances the food itself was not as mind blowing as I remembered, plus our eel and foie gras sushi roll never materialised( I was dreaming about it for a week). Our wagyu sushi never arrived- that was probably due to the girl who took our order, not sure if she knew what wagyu was. There was lovely fresh and beautifully presented sashimi, shrimps in tempura as light and fab as only these guys can do. Lovely sake.
We had to pass on dessert, as it was getting close to 9.30 pm and Izzie was showing signs of tiredness. Going back would be fantastic, dinner in Dinings is nothing but cheap though. Great evening!
Fraisier, first attempt.
I saw it being made on Creme de la Creme, I saw it in my posh Laduree book, it had to be made. Especially with a jar of pistachio paste sitting in the pantry. Ewa and Co were to come yesterday for the last installment of Izzie’s birthday, so there was a great excuse.
Almond sponge; 3 large eggs whipped with half a glass of caster sugar. 3/4 glass of plain flour and same amount of ground almonds plus a 1/2 tsp of baking powder gently mixed in. All baked for 20-25 minutes in 170 degrees. I’ve made the sponge the day before, the filling and the rest today. 5 egg yolks whipped with half a glass of sugar again, while 130 ml of milk was being heated up on the stove. 4 gelatine leaves soaking in small amount of water as it happens. Half of the milk added to the yolks, the whole thing returned to the pan with the remaining milk, slowly warmed up till slightly thickened. Gelatine added with its liquid. Pistachio paste added, about 2 tbsps. The colour didn’t amaze me, so I added a little green colourant.
Finally 500 ml of double cream, whipped. Combined with cooled pistachio cream.
I sliced the sponge horizontally, soaked with some Grand Marnier, arranged strawberries along the form. There’s got to be a better way of doing it, so that the cream didn’t get in between the strawberries and the form and ended up looking as awesome as on the picture.
All left to set overnight. Before serving some crushed pistachios were added on top and it was ready to be sliced.
Opinions are divided. Florek loved it. Izzie had quite a lot and kept on asking for more. The guests liked it, but they are the guests who like everything. I think it’s pleasant, but I’m not blown away. With better strawberries, not those I had and maybe more pistachio flavour it would have been better. Might have another go at it when strawberries in season properly.
Ps. I must add on Monday evening, this cake does not keep well. Strawberries seem to start fermenting and the whole thing tastes funny. Shame, quite a chunk of it down the bin. 🙁
Squash and blue cheese ravioli.
As pledged ( election in the UK next month), fresh pasta on Sunday evening happened again. This time roasted coquina squash, blue cheese( St Agur), roasted garlic, shallot and pine nuts made into a filling. Served with a simple tomato sauce and basil. Once again, rather excellent. Next fresh pasta will be spaghetti or tagliatelle. 🙂
Mushroom ravioli with Evesham asparagus.
The new pasta machine has arrived. 🙂
We’ve spent a lovely hour in the kitchen, the three of us, Florek making pasta and rolling it out, me stuffing it and cutting out, Izzie playing with flour, making mess and being happy for being included in making our dinner. Good times.
And even better result, I think I should make a 5 star category here, that really was one of the nicest pasta dishes we ever made.
Asparagus is turning up now, British, not Italian or Chilean, ours, from Cotswolds, from Evesham. Fresh, crunchy and fantastically flavoursome. I bought 2 bunches in Hayles Farm, tossed it in olive oil, seasoned lightly and chargrilled for a few minutes. The filling for ravioli was a mixture of finely chopped cup mushrooms and shallots, fried, one large cooked potato, squeezed through the ricer, some grated parmesan and some thyme from the garden, a splash of truffle oil too. Cooked ravioli I still tossed with some bacon lardons, finished with parmesan shavings, more truffle oil. Phenomenal. We might make Sundays pasta days, making it from scratch is so rewarding.
Eggs Benedict, smoked salmon version.
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.
Cookie monster macarons.
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. 🙂
Pistachio creme brulee.
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. :-/
Sicilian cannoli.
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