The masterplan was to make ravioli, fill them with a selection of lovely, fresh mushrooms from Whole Foods and drizzle with truffle oil.  But having spent most of the day DYI’ing, like good christians that we are, we couldn’t be bothered with making pasta, so I made pizza dough instead. Chopped and fried the mushrooms and pan fried them with lots of pepper and salt. Less is more, when it comes to pizza, so all I put on it was tomato sauce, grated cheese, some cherry tomatoes, the said mushrooms and baked it. When ready, some fresh thyme from the garden added lovely aroma, parmesan shavings and that truffle oil sealed the deal. Sooooooo good! 🙂

Sometimes on Saturday mornings I finish my coffee and turn on “Saturday Kitchen live”.  In it I saw Tom Kerridge’s recipe for proper beans on toast. Tom said that once one tries it, there’s no way back to the canned alternative.  Well, there is a way back, I’d say, as canned alternative doesn’t take 12 hours of soaking the beans and then over 2 hours cooking. But it’s worth it. Super rich flavour and I still went easy on vinegar.

So, about 150 g of haricot beans were cosily soaking over night and most of the day. Then drained and boiled for nearly an hour.

Some bacon, chopped and fried on rapeseed oil, chopped onion and a crushed clove of garlic, then 200 g of passata, a splosh of ketchup, 4 tbsps of brown sugar, about 70 ml of white wine vinegar ( recipe called for red, I had none) and about 250 ml of water- all this went in and was brought to the boil. Then the beans went in and it all cooked down slowly for over an hour.

Tom also baked the soda bread to go with his beans, I served mine with rustic French baguette.  One thing can make it better- the marriage with some grilled chipolatas. Next week. 🙂

Yum. I’m writing and trying to put out the fire in my mouth with some lovely Rioja left from last night’s steaks.  I meant to cook a pasta with spicy chorizo, rocket on top kinda thing, but having seen Jamie Oliver on tv earlier this evening making spaghetti with prawns, I reconsidered. I took my prawns out of the freezer, they’ve only been there for 2 hours- I decided it wasn’t enough for 2- and made a sauce out of red onion, the whole red chilli, a clove of garlic, a handful of cherry tomatoes, some cooking chorizo, thinly sliced, a few green beans for colour, passata, Knorr chicken bulionette and pretty much no seasoning at all. Florek told me on the phone on the way home, that he’d rather not have prawns on his pasta, so I divided the sauce in half, threw prawns in mine, added a touch of double cream to turn down the heat a touch and then mixed with spaghetti. Finished with some basil and fresh rocket leaves.  I loved it, can’t remember when I enjoyed my prawns so much, they were perfect. Rioja de la Concordia with it- money. 🙂

From the latest GF, one of the meals that are supposed to be enjoyed by children. Well, mine wouldn’t be, as I seriously spiced up my satay sauce. 🙂

First I made a marinade out of 5 tbsps of smooth peanut butter, 160 ml can of coconut cream, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 2 tbps of mango chutney and zest of 1 lime. Chicken breast cut into chunks went in, only for 2 hours, next time I’ll leave it overnight.

I grilled the chicken in the marinade together with chunks of mango, which was the most disappointing bit of an otherwise delicious dish. It wasn’t ripe enough. While waiting for Florek I tasted some chicken and loved how tender and flavoursome it was. I served it with a simple rocket salad, lots of fresh coriander and a satay sauce- same like the marinade, but nicely fired up with gochujang- Korean pepper paste, a little tip from Judy Joo. Lovely stuff.

Wrapped into warm and cosy tortillas, it’s filling and delicious. Will be made again,  but ripe mango or without it altogether. 🙂

I feel like it’s the beginning of the new and exciting road for me and the noodles in general. This dish was super simple and really tasty, I’d have another bowl straight away, but must leave it for a certain Florian, who’s late for dinner yet again.

GF has run a nice little article about noodles in general, about ramen, udon and other noodles and I thought it’s time to broaden the horizons, as all the noodles I ever cook are the egg ones in a stir fry. Ocado brought all the goods today, including shiitake mushrooms and the udon noodles. Next time I’ll try dry or frozen udon,  the ready- to-wok one was yummy though.

Simple sauce made of 4 tbsps of mirin, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 1 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce got made first, chopped 2 shallots, some chinese cabbage ( instead of the white one, I like the delicacy of it), about 10 shiitake mushrooms, good handful of spring onions,fried it up on sesame oil, added the noodles, when cooked, then the sauce and let it cook until sticky and piping hot.  A final garnish of more spring onions and ready to eat.

Loved it, the only thing I’ll definitely be changing is the size of the portion, the author reckons 250 g of udon noodles feeds 2 people. I used 300 g and I’m thinking- popcorn and soon, for the new episode of “The Walking Dead”. 🙂