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. :-/
All posts by Ola
More confit duck.
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. 🙂
Experimental pesto bread.
If I ever publish a cookbook( loud laughter), I might include this bread in it. Mainly due to the fact, that I haven’t copied a recipe here, I just thought this morning- something with pesto would be nice, as pizza went down so well even with Izzie. So I used 300 g of mixed seed posh flour, which was expensive to buy, but I still got it, as there is so much more to learn in my relationship with bread baking. Crumbled in some fresh yeast, didn’t measure it, just a bit more than for our regular pizza. A splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt( it needs more!) and warm water, added slowly while KA worked the dough- I wanted it quite runny, but not too runny. It proved in the oven still slightly warm after lemon macaroons till more than doubled in size. Then I knocked it down, rolled out, spread out some pesto on it, quite generously and rolled tightly for the second proving. After about 20 minutes of it I baked it in 200 degrees for about 35 minutes, then switched off the heat and kept it in for another 10.
Ok, it wouldn’t win awards in competitions, but it does taste great with a chilled glass of wine, while it’s still warm. Salted butter is a must. Will be made again, maybe some salty serrano ham on the side or something.
Chocolate mousse with cherries, lacking the booze.
I was in the mood for some cherries in kirsch and chocolate combo, but I had no cherries in kirsch. Didn’t particularly fancy getting a jar of them from Food Fanatics at a cost of £50 000, so I pulled out the remaining cherries from my freezer and soaked them in cherry vodka over night. Some research’s got to be done about how to do that right, so that they were boozy and intense in flavour, as mine were not. But I still made these little desserts to follow braised ox cheeks this evening.
Base- biscuits and melted butter, pressed into the rings, then the cherries minus the liquid. The mousse, tried and tested recipe. For 5 mousses I used 160 ml of double cream, in half of that amount I melted 65 g of dark chocolate and cooled it. Then whipped one egg white with 4 tsps of vanilla sugar. Loosened the cool chocolate with the remaining cream, then gently combined with the whipped egg white. Filled the rings and to finish the desserts I topped them up with a spoonful of jelly made of that cherry juice, vodka and half a gelatine leaf. Simple, tasty, good looking.
Posh raspberry mousse.
Pink version of the lovely chocolate bombs, from mojewypieki.com. Simplified, as the ones in Dorota’s version had some kind of raspberry jelly inside, I just opted for fresh raspberries, easier and delicious. I made them yesterday, hoping to finish a sushi lunch I was making for Ewa, with a nice, pink accent. Tick! 🙂
Also, Dorota’s Genoise sponge sounds like a massive project, I don’t bother with warming up the eggs and all that. Those from the fridge work just as well. So, the sponge- 2 whole eggs whipped by the KA with 50 g of sugar, then 40 g of plain flour and 16 g of potato starch gently incorporated. Finally 13 g of melted and cooled butter. Baked for about 12 minutes in 170 degrees. Whatever I didn’t use of that sponge, Izzie delt with straight away. 🙂
For the mousse I used 500 g of frozen raspberries, which I quickly heated up with a bit less than 100 g of sugar and a good splash of lemon juice. 3,5 gelatine leaves soaked, while 250ml of cream was being whipped. The gelatine into the hot, sieved berries, cooled outside pretty quickly, then into the cream. That easy. The mousse went into my sophisticated silicone moulds from China, 3 quid, but very nice to handle. A fresh raspberry into each one, then a ring of sponge and into the freezer overnight.
The glaze was a bit of a gamble, as I only had half of white chocolate the recipe asked for, but still went ahead with it. It worked fine, but the taste is not amazing in any way, it complements the mousse nicely, but next time I’ll add a splash of booze maybe. So, ideally 175 g of white chocolate, broken, goes into a pan of 150 g of melted sugar with 75g of water, to that 100 ml of condensed milk, some red food colourant and finally 10 g of powdered gelatine, soaked in a small amount of water. I hardly ever use powdered gelatine, but I keep some for such occasions. Last thing to do, after a good stir of the whole thing it passing it through a sieve. It keeps nicely, sets, obviously, but 30 seconds in the microwave brings it back to the runny state.
Nice dessert, I like it a lot, next time it will be chocolate again in those moulds. And some booze. Chocolate and Cointreau maybe. To be continued. 
Quesadillas, my way.
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.
Squash and bacon soup.
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.
Cinnamon Buns.
Perfect with a cup of tea on a rainy day like today. After girls night out last night, overflowing with wine. I’m about to get cracking with beef cannelloni for later, which were to go with a good looking Amarone I bought a few weeks ago, but not too sure about the wine at this very moment….. .
I used the recipe from mojewypieki, but should have made half a portion, we might struggle with the amount I made. Should have known better, 540 g of plain flour is a lot. With that 80 g of sugar, a touch of salt, 20 g of fresh yeast, 250 ml of warm milk, 2 eggs, 75 g of melted butter. I made zaczyn first- 3 tbsps of flour, all the yeast, some sugar and most of the milk, 20 minutes later added it to the rest of the ingredients and let Kitchen Aid do the work. It proved for over an hour, then I knocked it down and rolled onto a rectangle. Brushed it with melted butter, then generously sprinkled brown sugar mixed with cinnamon, MUCH less than suggested in the recipe and I still have lots left, I’ll use it for coffee. Rolled it and sliced into 12 buns, very sticky and tricky to handle. Placed into a lined baking tray and left to prove for another 30 minutes. Then baked in 180 degrees for 20 minutes. The house smelled fabulous.
The glaze is ok, not in any way brilliant. Again, could have made half of it and it would have been enough. 60 g of soft butter, 4 tbsps of icing sugar, vanilla paste- whipped. 120 g of Philly added. A splash of milk to make it runny.
Perfect buns for someone who gets up at 6 am and wants to make a family happy with such breakfast. Needless to say- I don’t get up at 6 am to bake. 🙂
Gennaro’s ragu.
I watched Saturday Kitchen yesterday and saw Gennaro Contaldo making the ragu his way. It seems all the famoso Italian chefs have their own, THE ONLY PROPER way. I tried Antonio Carluccio’s, wasn’t convinced by the white wine, for the science I had to try to Gennaro’s. Ended up with a fantastic ragu, a keeper, most likely, although knowing my cooking style, I will take the best of all worlds and do it my way.
Today it was chopped red onion, celery and carrot sweated on olive oil with a bit of butter, we’re not scared of flavour in our house. Half and half minced beef and pork added and browned well, before a glass of good cab sav added. Some chopped pancetta was suggested, but I had none, will do next time. Rich beef stock next, about 300 ml and then the most different of all – goodbye canned tomatoes, hello tomato puree, about 2 tbsps of it. Gennaro said no herbs, which I can live with, though a bay leaf from the garden is awesome in a ragu, no mushrooms, he also said, but this time I ignored it- a handful of porcini from Poland is a must.
The sauce cooked slowly under cover for about 2,5 hours and needed no seasoning at the end- thank you, good beef stock. Served with fresh tagliatelle and parmesan. Very good, dare I say, quite authentic. 🙂
Coconut and lime macaroons.
The flavour combo is Aska’s idea. We’ve been exchanging ideas, as to what would be the best way of making a good coconut macaroon. Aska obtained coconut flour from Whole Foods, but had doubts about quantity, I was of the opinion the macaroon should be made with nuts, not flour, even if it’s a fine, coconut flour. So I toasted some desiccated coconut, ground it and added 100 g of it to 50 of almonds and proceeded with the usual recipe. The filling is made of mascarpone, lime curd( Sainsbury’s own brand, next time I might splash out a bit more, this one did not wow me), fresh lime juice and zest, as usual, adding and tasting until I was happy.
They’re nice. Florian loves them, but he loves anything with lime, for me the texture is a touch chewy. But one must try things, for science. 🙂