Florek put this idea in my head this morning, recalling fantastic pasta we once had in Florence- with shaved truffles. I had a £25 voucher for Waitrose and I thought it would be a good way of spending it- on some truffles. I ended up getting 2 different kinds of truffle paste, a cheapish one from Sacla, containing a smear of black truffles which helped to make us a lovely lunch.  The other one, porcini mushroom paste with white truffles will go into a sauce this evening.  For lunch meanwhile we had a simple pizza, dough made to usual recipe, but with less flour, as it’s lunch, not dinner. I skipped tomato sauce entirely and smeared the paste on the dough, then grated some gruyere on that, some cherry tomatoes, shallot rings and after it baked, some shredded iberico ham.  Finished with some black pepper and a drizzle of truffle oil. Yummmmm.

More truffles tonight. 🙂

I can’t say I’m a big fan of fireworks in general, especially having a small kiddo, who normally sleeps at the time when all this nonsense banging and smoke starts. But I am now a fan of baked potatoes, especially with Swiss cheese and bacon. I came across it on GF website and Florian got excited, so we had them last night. A few spuds first pricked with a fork, drizzled with olive oil and lightly seasoned, baked for about 1,5 hour in 200 degrees. In the meantime, a chunk of Gruyere was grated, some smoky bacon and shallot fried. When the spuds baked, I scooped the soft flesh out into the bowl, added the bacon and shallots, cheese, a touch more of seasoning and some chopped coriander ( I had no parsley) , filled the skins again and put back in the oven for 12 minutes.  Ultimate comfort food, eaten when the fire was burning, the joy only disturbed by Izzie, who refused to have any dinner at all. Lovely baked spuds for us, corn flakes for her. :-/

This time John Torode’s recipe. I still adore confit duck leg, everytime Florek suggests we eat out, I vote for Wine and Sausage, as theirs is superb. The only issue is they cock up their side dishes, dauphinoise are normally well undercooked and the whole plate costs almost £17. Two duck legs in Ocado are £4, a jar of duck fat is £3.65, the spices were waiting in the cupboard, the herbs in the garden, I therefore got busy. The day before I rubbed the legs with a marinade made of rock salt, toasted coriander and cumin seeds, thinly sliced garlic pieces, some rosemary and thyme. And left in the fridge till next day.

Rubbed off the marinade, did not wash it off as some recipes suggest. Covered the legs with duck fat, added 3 bay leaves and some peppercorns and cooked in the oven for over 2 hours, 140 degrees.  The smell from the oven was superb. Delia’s red cabbage alongside it, as well as Oluta’s dauphinoise- rich, garlicky, creamy, unhealthy and delicious. Massive way forward in cooking duck legs for me. 🙂

A few weeks ago Ewa served quesadillas to us as a starter on Sunday lunch, they were lovely and enjoyable, but left me thinking- they can be even better. I thought bbq pulled chicken would be a winner in  a nice, warm tortilla wrap, with melted cheese oozing out. And I wasn’t wrong. A meal like this is easy to make when one’s at home in the afternoon and can simply throw a couple of chicken thighs in a marinade to the oven, alongside 2 sweet potatoes and go give Izzie a bath, while they roast. After about 1-1,5 it’s just a matter of making chunky guacamole, then assembling the quesadillas. I used jalapeno flavoured tortilla wraps, filled them with  shredded chicken and sauce,  mashed sweet potato,grated cheese and some sweetcorn to finish, then folded in half and gently fried on a dry pan. The crappy photo does not do justice to the dish, we loved it.

This is a good opportunity to mention some difficulties we experience as parents of a toddler, who says “no” a lot, especially at meal times. I read an excellent article recently on Italian methods of teaching kids to eat exactly what the adults do. No such thing in Italian restaurants as “children’s menu”, they say. Kids are supposed to eat what ever there is on the table and should they chose not to, they skip a meal and several hours later there are no complaints. It does appeal to me, as I remember being forced to eat when I was a kid. It took me years to get over the dread of cold, yukky soft boiled eggs that were staring at me, as I could not leave a table before I ate them. So we agreed long time ago, there will be no forced feeding, but also, no shit will be taken from  a 2,5 year old picking what she will and won’t eat.

This beautiful soup was made for lunch, while the said toddler was napping. A banana shallot fried, a couple of rashers of bacon finely chopped and fried too. The whole butternut squash peeled, chopped, added, alongside a single potato. Chicken stock onto that. It all boiled for about 30 mins under cover, then blitzed into a lovely, orange smoothness. A splash of cream. Finished off with crispy bacon bits and sunflower seeds and…a drizzle of maple syrup. Beautiful, autumnal soup.

Needless to say, Izzie decided she won’t be having it and threw  a teary fit at the table.  We returned to this subject 2 hours later, after a bit of shopping therapy. Soup was reheated and eaten within 10 minutes with no single complaint. Thumbs up.