I was hoping to make it look as good as some of the Masterchef stuff, it didn’t go THAT well, but it was a lovely, tasty dinner. I’d really like all the mess in the kitchen to clean itself now, but somehow doubt it will happen.

First, I roasted off some lovely winter veggies in the oven, I used a parsnip, some butternut squash, a beetroot and a few shallots, which I finished off with some truffle oil. It made a lovely side dish. Boneless chicken thighs I flattened and stuffed with chopped, cooked porcini mushrooms, rolled, seasoned and placed in the pot with my lovely sauce in the making. The sauce I made by frying some chopped shallots, adding mushroom stock and chicken stock cube. When the chicken cooked through, I finished the sauce by thickening it with some flour and cream, seasoned well and topped with fresh thyme. Served with creamy mustard mash.

Random thing I made this evening, I came across the recipe somewhere, but had to Olutafy it a bit, as the original called for bacon, raclette cheese and so on. I thought, no bacon is better for this dish than pancetta, instead of onion, leeks will do a much better job flavour wise, and as for the cheese, I think raclette belongs with raclette, I used Gruyere.

I peeled and chopped the spuds into small chunks, quick boiled them for about 5 minutes, then mixed with fried pancetta lardons and fried leeks, some double cream, a splash of Chablis, grated Gruyere and seasoned all to taste nicely. I baked it for about 30 mins under the foil, then removed it to crisp the top up a touch. Worked a treat. It wouldn’t be amazing on its own, so I made a nice green bean salad to go with it, but it would make  an evil side dish, I think. To a roast, for instance.

I went shopping today not knowing what I wanted to cook. But they had lovely fresh scallops, I couldn’t say no to, so I bought them. For the mash I roasted some butternut squash and a couple of parsnips, shallots and a chilli, then blitzed it nicely and seasoned to taste. Quickly panfried  them and served on that mash, along a nice bunch of asparagus wrapped in crispy pancetta. Quick, tasty, yummy.

…followed by a simple vanilla pannacotta with blueberries. Usual recipe.

The recipe inspired by the one from Good Food, but with my touch, as always. It’s a bit too thick, I said at the table, to which Florian responded by showing me his nearly empty bowl, clearly disagreeing, then went for the seconds. I used some good chicken stock, to which I added 2 boneless chicken thigs, some fresh chopped garlic and ginger and left to simmer for 20 minutes. When the chicken was cooked, I took it out and chopped to pieces, added some shitake mushrooms, pak choi, sweetcorn and too much noodles. I decided it was not flavoursome enough, so I seasoned it with soy sauce and a drop of sesame oil. It was filling and tasty, but not as nice as, for example in Wagamama.

My tempura this evening however was very good.According to Florian- best yet. I used  around 100 g of plain flour, a tbsp of cornflour, a pinch of salt and mixed it with 200ml of very cold water, with 2 ice cubes to be sure. I fried shitake ( in the restaurant this is my favorite tempura ), courgettes and sweet potatoes. It was crunchy and delicious. For the dipping sauce I improvised a bit and mixed soy sauce with brown rice vinegar, chicken stock and brown sugar. It was not astounding, but tasty enough. Overall, pleased. Tomorrow I’m baking a lemon custard tart nr 2 and taking it to work, to see if I can make a better one than Cathal’s.

Wednesday evening off, dinner must be on the table. And it’s got to be a nice dinner, after a few staff meals at work, not all of them amazing.

I had a piece of nice St. Agur in the fridge, so I bought some nice pasta, some pancetta lardons, fresh rocket, some courgettes. Oh, and I went to Selfridges as well. Their Food Hall is my favourite place in the whole of London. I walk around there, a bit intimidated by the tons of money the people who shop there have. Among other few treats I got a small of piece of parmesan, nearly 6 quid, when I grated it this evening it smelt like heaven. Excellent purchase, I need to make something on Sunday that will go with that cheese equally well.

I fried my pancetta, a shallot, a chopped courgette, half a chilli, a few cherry tomatoes, then threw cooked pasta in and tossed it with cubed St.Agur. Right before serving I added the rocket and parmigiano. It was really simple, but the cheese melted quickly and made it all creamy and lovely.

This was a spontaneous starter for this evening’s dinner, I invited Shirley over, as we needed to discuss a few things over a glass of wine. For the main I made golabki, for dessert I made the souffles, that I fucked up and they haven’t risen and for the starter I thought- the soup, as there was a squash in the fridge. I roasted it off with a couple of shallots, 2 red chillies, threw it onto hot chicken stock with an extra potato, the n blitzed and finally added the rest of my mushroom stock, that I used for golabki. What a  great idea that was! The soup was beautifully creamy, with a hint of chilli after 2 seconds, finished with fresh thyme. Yum.