This is one of my favourite items on the menu in The Oak at the moment. And luckily I can have it for lunch whenever I work long shifts. As staff meal, free of charge. One of many good things about The Oak.
It it deliciously soft, nicely flavoured, has some kind of barbecue sauce with it, I have extra cheese as well. Served in a burger bun with salad or fries on the side. Truly scrumptious.
Made as per certain request on my kitchen black board, that read “Jeden ciasto czekoladowe prosze”. It’s been there for a good few weeks and then an arrow was added, pointing at the word “Prosze”. After the applicant’s recent OUTSTANDING performance at work I had to get baking.
The recipe comes from my little Chocolate Cakes booklet. For the sponge I melted 150 g of dark chocolate with a splash of water and a touch of butter, while beating up 150 g of butter with 110 g of caster sugar. Slowly added 3 egg yolks to the butter, then 150 g of plain flour and to finish, the remaining 3 egg whites whipped with 2 tbsp of sugar, nicely folded in. It baked for 30 minutes in about 180 degrees.
When cooled, I sliced the beauty in half and generously spread some apricot jam. The icing’s made of equal amount (125 g) of dark chocolate and butter with my own addition of a good splash of Frangelico. The icing nicely thickens when left alone for a couple of hours.
What’s really nice about this cake is that it’s chocolatey and scrummy, but not not too rich and sickly. Pat, pat. 🙂
“Breaking Bad” is our current number 1 series, it’s a common sight in the evening- us having dinner accompanied by Walt White The Meth Man.
For the pizza today I made the dough by Gordon R. 250 g of strong flour, 2 tbsp of olive oil, a touch of salt, all this mixed in with 7 g of yeast mixed in like warm water with a bit of sugar and worked nicely, left to rise and when doubled in size made into a base.
The tomato sauce- a clove of garlic gently fried, passata, oregano, a touch of sugar.
My half this evening- fresh pineapple from Whole Foods, so good that I normally stick my fingers in it as soon as we leave the store, plus ham. And shallots, cheese, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and oregano. Florek opted for simplicity and had peppers, chilli and cheese. Basil on top.
Very enjoyable.
A truly historic event. I have made my first ever curry from scratch. Bought my spices, made my paste, made it all. The inspiration came from the curry I had the opportunity to taste last week, at my now former work ( I am Lion Free, yessss!!). Kamal, a chef from Sri Lanka has made a curry that made me speechless. I was standing there, licking the spoon and thinking I’ve never eaten curry that good. It took some persuasion to get the recipe out of Kamal, as he claimed there is no recipe, there is throwing stuff together and it’s done. I’m sure in Sri Lanka that’s how it’s done.
I did follow Kamal’s recipe, as it was my first time. The amount of onion and garlic for the paste ( 2 onions, the whole bulb of garlic and a small ginger root) seemed like an insane amount, but I went along with it. He also said- 5 curry leaves, but that was the only thing I wasn’t able to obtain either in Whole Foods or in Sainsbury’s. For the next time I will. So, the paste that I blitzed went onto the oil to fry alongside a selection of spices, the amount was roughly 50 of each – curry powder, cumin powder, ground coriander, ground cinnamon, all fresh and fragrant from The Whole Foods. When all that fried a little making the kitchen smell like a curry house, I added some chopped tomatoes, 3 cloves, a pinch of cardamom, coconut cream and a tbsp of Greek yoghurt. That cooked slowly, while I was tasting and adjusting the taste with salt, pepper and sugar. When I was relatively pleased with it ( but it wasn’t mind blowing like Kamal’s), I added the prawns and finished the whole thing with fresh coriander.
Kamal’s rice was outstanding too. It was flavoured with curry leaves again, cumin and, which I found surprising and lovely and will be copying from now on- thinly chopped fried shallot.
I don’t think I will ever buy a ready made paste again, but I will definitely be experimenting with curry. Very rewarding. 🙂
Inspiration- Masterchef. I bought my wabbit from Colin’s, of course, as advertised. I bought it on Friday afternoon and was thinking for 2 days what to do with it, I was thinking ravioli, I was thinking roulade, but ended up cooking it like my Mom. Plus I’m feeling kinda sickish today, my morning sickness normally kicks in around after lunch time, so I decided to keep it simple. I had 2 legs and some other parts of the wabbit, all the messy and boney bits went to the bin. I seasoned it and dusted with flour, lightly browned on butter, threw in a chopped shallot, carrot, a bay leaf, a handful of mushrooms, some peppercorns, some stock and let it cook slowly. When the meat was tender I took it out, took everything off the bone ( otherwise Florian would hardly touch it) and finished the sauce with flour and a touch of seasoning.
Served with kluseczki slaskie made with help from Florek and, as a side, an absolute height of sophistication- picked cucumbers bought today in Polish shop. I couldn’t get enough of them and told Bozena about it, which made her jump to the conclusion, ze Izunia might turn out to be Adam. 🙂 Anticipation…..
Frustrated. Lots of work, passing the pears through a fine sieve, same with raspberries, decorating the plate like Janet Street-Porter in Masterchef, cooling and it hasn’t set. Grrrrr.
I used 2 ripe pears, chopped and cooked off with Poire William liquour, passed, like I mentioned, reheated and mixed with 3/4 of a gelatine leaf. DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF GELATINE NEXT TIME. Mixed it with cream, lovingly whipped with icing sugar and lemon juice. Made a raspberry coulis which took that remaining quarter of a gelatine leaf and held beautifully on top.
While preparing the plate I used the same coulis, it worked great and looked great. Grrrrrr!!! Will be done again.
Just finished eating it.
In the current circumstances I have quite an appetite, lots of different cravings ( rib eye steak at 11pm, cauliflower this morning…), so when making a risotto I put on the plates some extras, plus that cauliflower topped with melted cheddar, that I craved. We popped out to Whole Foods this morning, mainly to buy some good bread for all the good stuff we had in the fridge. Bought some lovely parmesan too, some veggies and a bag of frozen peas, for which I paid £2.50. I was wondering if it would be any different at that price. Well, it was. I made the usual risotto, simple, good chicken stock, good white wine, chopped fresh tomato, basil and the peas, that tasted as if frozen yesterday. On the side I served some antipasti, a drop of truffle oil, freshly grated parmesan and basil. It was thoroughly enjoyed.
My folks and I went to London today. Had a good time, the best however was the return home, to lovely, green Winchcombe.
I took them to Dinings, wanted them to taste the most awesome sushi and sashimi there was. I ordered all my favourites, but the yellowtail sushi with tosazu jelly and fresh truffles was heavenly. Shame it all cost a kidney. 😉
We spent a lovely day in Wales today. Not quite sure where we were, somewhere where the road ended, according to the GPS. Close to a stunning Rhossily Beach, close to a rock called Worm’s Head. We walked along the coast, breathing in all the goodness and acquired quite some appetite, so we went for lunch to one of the places directly on the cliff. Friendly Polish staff, excellent beer, tasty fish in a great batter, the chips not as awesome as in Broadway. Stunning views, lovely company. What more to ask for.
After a nice long walk round Sudeley Castle, I took my guests today to The White Hart Inn for lunch. I took them, is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, Darek insisted on paying. I love their mash, gravy today could have been a touch thicker maybe, the sausages, especially the local pork ones are excellent. Washed down with a pint of Otter.
