All posts by Ola

I love eating. Even more than I love cooking. My Mum got this thing into me, being a working woman with two kids and still managing to put a two course dinner on the table for us every day. My meals are a lot simpler, I cook for two, with Florian being my most devoted fan and audience. There is nothing more rewarding than a nicely turned out meal. There is nothing more enjoyable that a great plate of food in a decent restaurant with a glass of great red in a nice company. Hence this blog, to share ideas and joy of good food. Bon Appetit.
Good Food

Monkfish curry.

Leave a comment

Ocado brought me 2 small monkfish fillets and I decided to cook them in a curry. It was the first time ever I cooked monkfish and I must say, it wasn’t a bad attempt. Good fish is never bad!

It’s been a while since I made curry last time, due to being pregnant, but when I make it, I still use Kamal’s recipe, plus a few of my personal touches. I like to finely chop a sweet potato and throw it in, I had none today, also, I had to do without coriander ( abomination!!!!!) .But I made the paste with 2 shallots, 3 garlic cloves and some fresh ginger, fried it quickly, added equal amounts of curry powder, ground cumin, ground cardamon, some chilli. Threw a few chopped tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, some mange tout and green peas. And monkfish, at the end. Served with basmati rice topped with fried shallots. Shame about the lack of coriander. ;-/

Dessert

The ultimate creme brulee.

Leave a comment

Dare I say, I finally mastered it. Took lots of attempts, dozens of eggs, litres of cream and plenty of- however cholesterol is measured- but the ones I made today are perfect. I made 6, 4 for tomorrow( Ewa’s bringing her new chap over for dinner) and 2 for us for today, to make sure they’re ok to serve to people.

The recipe’s Michel Roux’s. For 6 of my small ramekins I used 5 egg yolks, creamed with 4 tbsps of sugar. 300 ml of double cream heated up with 90 ml of milk and generous tsp of vanilla paste.  The flavoured, hot cream gently poured into the eggs, the froth discarded, then into the bain marie for 35 minutes in 140 degrees. After 35 minutes I switched off the heat and left them inside the oven for another 10 minutes.  Finally, finally pleased with the texture. Yeah!! 🙂

The photo rather unconventional today, those are the 4 ones in the fridge awaiting Ewa and the chap tomorrow.

Oh, and a smile from Izzie, who is yet to discover lovely things like creme brulee.

x

DSC_5726

 

 

 

Baking

Cinnamon & strawberry cake.

Leave a comment

We visited Over Farm Market outside Gloucester yesterday, I was hoping for some lovely strawberries and asparagus, they had both. We had Eton mess last night, today I baked the cake and there’s still lots left, I need to use them in something good, not just strawberry/banana smoothies, lovely as they are.

The cake, recipe from GF, simple and very decent indeed( there’s a quarter of that cake left). 90 g each of ground almonds, self raising flour, sugar and soft butter, 2 eggs and a touch of cream all mixed together with an electric whisk that struggled, as the mixture was quite thick. The recipe asked for a tsp of cinnamon, I added 2, big cinnamon fan that I am. Half of that thick mixture went on the bottom of my small round baking tin, on it cleaned and sliced strawberries, around 250 g. The rest of the cake mix on top and into the oven for about 50 minutes, in  180 degrees. Finished off with icing sugar, served with cream. The remaining slice will be enjoyed after spaghetti bolognese this evening, but with vanilla ice cream. 🙂

 

Good Food

Kluski drozdzowe na parze.

Leave a comment

One of my favourite things to eat at Mum’s. She’s here this week, babysitting, so she made these on my request.

250 ml of warm milk mixed with 4 g of fresh yeast and 3 tbsps sugar, 35-40 g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, 50 g of butter.  Yeast, 1 tbps of sugar, 2 tbsp of flour and some milk make the base to look like double cream. Leave to prove.

Cream 2 egg yolks with the remaining sugar. Add to the proven dough, add the remaining milk, ad the flour, the salt, knead well in the glass bowl for about 15 minutes, if by hand. Add the melted, NOT HOT butter and continue kneading for another 5 minutes. Leave to prove again, for about 20-30 minutes.

Shape into small buns, steam for about 7 minutes. Serve with fresh fruit, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries and lightly whipped cream.

Rich, filling, delicious comfort food.

DSC_5681

 

 

Dessert

Pear and white chocolate cheesecake.

Leave a comment

A spontaneous creation to finish off the cottage pie dinner. It took me quite a long time to make it, as little Miss Banks was in constant need of attention this afternoon.  Got there in the end.

Simple base, as usual, biscuits and butter, flash baked in the oven. Left to cool. One nice, soft, ripe pear was enough to flavour 4 small cheesecakes, not to overpower them. I cooked it quickly with a splash of water and a gelatine leaf, then blitzed half a container of Philadelphia cheese, some double cream, icing sugar, lemon juice and the pear together.  I should have used a bit more gelatine, maybe another half a leaf, they were not perfectly set.  For the top a strawberry dipped in white chocolate, the remains of which I poured on top of the desserts.  Very pleasant, not too heavy( small amount of cheese). Yum.

 

Baking

Strawberry and almond cheesecake sponge.

Leave a comment

Cover recipe from one of the GF mags.  I have my Mum over so needed something nice for the coffee in the garden. Really nice, a keeper.

For my small 6″ tin I used 100 g of Philadelphia cheese, quickly mixed with half an egg, some icing sugar and vanilla paste. For the cake mix 90 g of soft butter, 125 g self raising flour, 50 g of caster sugar, 2 eggs, 25 g of ground almonds, 2 tsp of fat yoghurt and some more vanilla paste( naturally, if that little jar stands there open it must be abused!). Half of the cake mixture gets on the bottom of the tin, some sliced strawberries  and half of the cheese, then the rest of the cake mixture, carefully, in order not to disturb the cheese, more strawberries, some flaked almonds on top and to the oven for roughly an hour in 180 degrees. Delicious served warm, as we had in the garden, with The Bundle of Love sleeping quietly in the basket. 🙂

DSC_5628

DSC_5631

Good Food

Creamy courgette risotto.

Leave a comment

From the latest edition of GF.  Slightly different to the way I normally make it, with wine, no mascarpone, but one has to try new things. One is finally a mum now, by the way, so sometimes one needs to wait with cooking dinner, as there other priorities , as shown below. 🙂

A shallot chopped and fried with a grated courgette, the arborio in for a few minutes to soak in the flavours, the chicken stock, gradually, until the rice is cooked. Towards the end I added a large spoon of mascarpone, lots of parmesan and left in for a few minutes. In the meantime I toasted the pine nuts and fried a few courgette chunks on butter. My addition was parma ham on top, it can’t be too vegetarian!

Pleasant, creamy, filling, but prefer traditional risotto.

CSC_5538

Baking

Easter Cheesecake.

1 Comment

I’m finding all sorts of ways to pass time, hoping Izzie will stop nudging and get to work of emerging into the world.  It’s Easter tomorrow and though I’m not massive about tradition ( my father would disown me again if he read it), I thought one little eggy thing would be nice.  So I baked a New York Cheesecake according to that very same recipe-

New York Cheesecake.

only I swapped lemon juice for yuzu juice, which Nicolo brought me from Dinings 2 weeks ago. Yuzu flavour is unmistakable, fresh and lovely. Especially the glaze I’m very pleased with. All topped with chocolate eggs it’s now setting in the fridge. Pleased with the way I made it look and I’m wondering, if I ever get brave enough and start doing it for a living- what would I charge for it?

Happy Easter, come on Izzie!!! 🙂

 

 

Baking

Hot (cross) buns, continued.

Leave a comment

Perseverance paid off. What I’ve produced yesterday ended up in the bin, buns went hard when completely cooled  and were rubbish. Kitchen Aid will be fixed, Florek promised, while I took a different recipe, bought some fresh yeast in the bakery and having gotten a new haircut- got back to baking.

The recipe I used this time came from GF, the section when the kids are encouraged to bake, so if that didn’t work I’d feel like an idiot, but it did work.

I used 400 g of strong bread flour, 21 g of fresh yeast, crumbled into it ( a nice hint found online regarding dry yeast vs fresh, it’s all multiplied by 3, so if the recipe calls for 7g of dry yeast, fresh yeast should be 21 g), 60 g of sugar, 1 tbsp each of mixed spice and cinnamon, all mixed in the bowl. Then 250 ml of warm milk, 1 beaten egg, 50 g of melted butter and all that was kneaded for about 10 minutes, had to add quite a lot of flour to keep it together.  Within an hour on a sunny windowsill, under the cloth it more than doubled in size, so I knocked it down a little, added the sultanas and chocolate chips and when formed in 10 perfect buns, left to prove for another 20 minutes. I made the paste with plain flour, sugar and vanilla paste and painted the crosses, but they melted in and can’t be seen. The buns baked in 200 degrees for 20 minutes. When slightly cooled I brushed them with apricot jam, warmed up. Very pleased for a change.

In an hour we’re off to Stratford upon Avon to meet Jimbo and Louise for dinner, Izzie seems to be allowing it. I’m craving some good prawn dish  and in  the place we’re going  to they have gamberetti bruschetta on the a la carte menu. Yum .

 

 

Baking, Room for improvement

Chocolate hot cross buns with a hint of disappointment.

Leave a comment

It has not been a good day in the kitchen.  I’m glad I tried that recipe before Easter, not only there is room for improvement, there is also time for improvement.  The recipe I used comes from The Ultimate Chief, Nick, who knows his food and I’m sure those buns in his hands are amazing, mine are shit.

Also, I’ve done something to my Kitchen Aid, my treasured, most beloved piece of cooking gear. I think that dough might have defeated it, which is annoying, cause it’s an American tank for this kind of jobs, maybe too high gear or something? I’m waiting for my own private engineer to come home and diagnose the problem. If I’ve damaged it, I’ll kill myself.

So here’s Nick’s recipe;

1 (7g sachet) fast action bread yeast

 

180ml warm milk

 

500g plain flour

 

80g butter or Stork margarine

 

pinch of salt

 

60g caster sugar

 

2 teaspoons mixed spice

 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

 

1 egg, beaten

 

1(100g bar) dark chocolate, broken up

 

extra flour for dusting

For the crosses

 

75g plain flour

 

75ml water

 

Few drops of almond extract

 

Add the dried yeast and warm milk to a large bowl. Cover and set aside for 5 or 10 minutes, until it looks frothy.

 

Sift the flour into another bowl and use your fingers to rub in the margarine, until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add salt, sugar, spices and candied mixed peel. Pour in the yeast-milk mixture, and add beaten egg and chocolate pieces. Mix to form a dough (it will be sticky).

 

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 5 – 10 minutes.

 

Rub some cooking oil around the surface of a large mixing bowl and place the dough in it. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Knead again for a few minutes, then cut into 12 even sized buns. Place in a deep-sided, lightly greased or lined 23cm (9 inch) baking tin. Cover with tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise again (about 30 to 40 minutes this time). Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C / Gas mark 6.

For the crosses: mix the flour and water together to form a soft paste. Flavour with almond extract (optional). Spoon into a clear plastic sandwich bag. Seal and snip off one of the corners, then pipe crosses onto each bun.

Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Two things that went wrong with my version – the dough hasn’t risen enough, which makes the end product more like a rock cake than a bun. Also, I think they definitely need more sugar. And a glaze, which Nick’s recipe omits, I used apricot jam.

So, the plan is, I’ll make them again tomorrow, but I’ll use strong bread flour, fresh yeast, to increase the chances of the dough rising nicely, as it should do.  And I’ll use more sugar. I’m looking at another recipe, for the more traditional buns, might give that one a go, but I’m determined, there will be home made hot crossed buns this Easter and I’ll see to it. The only thing that can stop me is Izzie deciding to be born.

To be continued.