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.
Dessert, Room for improvement

Nearly perfect chocolate fondant

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I had promised my chocolate loving Florian, that I will attempt a dessert he used to love in Ubon times, the Chocolate Bento Box. That one was served in a posh little box with green tea ice cream on the side. The first recipe that Google coughed up was Fucking Gordon’s, but I decided to use it, it looked easy and I like the idea of being able to store it in the fridge overnight before cooking. As I’m busy massacrating my lawn, I think it will be handy tomorrow to have a dessert nearly ready.

For 5 fondants I used 100g of good, dark chocolate, same amount of butter, plain flour and sugar, plus 2 egg yolks and 2 eggs. First I prepared the ramekins, brushed them with melted butter in a similar way like for the souffle ( upwards) and dusted with cocoa.

I melted the chocolate and butter in a bowl above boiling water, then chilled while I whisked the eggs with sugar. The flour went in with the eggs and then the chocolate, all of that into the ramekins and in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

I baked them in 200 Celsius for 12 minutes. The smell in the kitchen was fantastic, but tomorrow I will keep them in  for a bit longer. It’s supposed to be runny in the middle, mine today were a bit too runny, but tasted great. Florian finished his. 🙂

Good Food

Bruschetta

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Our favourite Sunday lunch, when the bread gets a bit stale and can be used and still enjoyed. I slice it thickly and spread some shop bought pesto on it, a  drizzle of olive oil and quickly fry it on a dry griddle pan. When crispy on both sides I top it  with a mixture of chopped tomatoes, olives, a shallot, fresh basil and olive oil, well seasoned.

A touch of parmesan on top finishes it off nicely.

Dessert

Apple pie with custard and (an orange) twist.

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Another one from the great pastry book from Nikosia. I’m very pleased with it, though my Mum’s apple pie it isn’t. Different pastry, Mum always makes it kind of shortcrust, but my apples this evening were prepared with a lot of cinnamon and and … a zest of one orange. When the pie is warm, the orange peel comes through beautifully.

For the pastry I used 180g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, 90 g of butter and a bit of cold water to keep it together. Once combined I cooled it in the fridge and got cracking with the apples. I tossed the peeled and thinly sliced apples in  a mixture of flour, sugar, cinnamon  and orange zest. Most of the pastry went for the bottom, then in went the apples, then the rest of the pastry on the top, egg yolk and- which I remembered 40 minutes into the baking- caster sugar on top. I baked it in 200 Celsius for the first 30 minutes and for the remaining 15, in 150.

Served it with Waitrose’s finest vanilla custard.

Good Food

Scallops, Dinings inspired.

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I’ve been feeling like scallops for a while and looking at, serving and tasting all this gorgeous food at work is not helping. Florian is not into scallops, unless as sashimi, with a slice of lime. This is why I hardly ever cook scallops at home, but this week Florek is in China, so I treated myself.

With a little help and instruction from Alex, as well as sample of the sauce he uses to make them at work, I seasoned them with salt, tapped one side in flour and tossed them into a hot pan, where the baby asparagus was being griddled for a few minutes with some olive oil.

I like my scallops just cooked, kind of medium rare, so after a minute of each side I poured Alex’s dressing and finished them off. I served them with some turmeric rice and griddled asparagus. Nice, but not sensational.

Dessert

Banoffee pie.

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Still working on it and dragging on about how good it is.  10 out of 10 today, really!

The pastry cases are lovely and crumbly, I used 75g plain flour, 50g butter and blitzed it. Then added 25g of sugar and pressed together for soft dough. With this amount of butter I didn’t bother buttering the tins, love the way they turned out after 30 minutes in the oven, the temperature was around 160 Celsius.

The toffee filling took 100g of condensed milk, 50 g of butter and the same amount of brown sugar, with a large spoon of golden syrup and simmered it for about 20 minutes.

Filled the pastry cases with it, while still warm and left to cool. Topped it up with sliced banana, squeezed some lemon juice on top, and finally whipped cream and a sprinkle of dark chocolate.

Very sweet and very rich.

Dessert

Baklava.

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As I thought yesterday, I ran to get some nuts and butter today and got cracking.  As usual with the things I’m making for the first time ever, I compared a few recipes online and chose what I liked most of all of them.

And so I went for the nuts I like most- pistachios, pecans , almonds and hazelnuts. Having blitzed them not too finely I added lots of cinnamon and a bit of sugar.

When assembling the baklava I prepared the tray with baking paper, buttered it, then 5 layers of filo, each buttered, then a layer of nut mixture, 5 layers of filo, buttered thoroughly again, nuts and 5 layers of filo, all the same procedure, except that the last layers I slit slightly, it was supposed to make the slicing easier I think, but also the visual effect, when first peeked into the oven  after 15 minutes made it worth while- it looked great, as the pastry puffed up slightly and started to become golden.

I baked it in about 150 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes and while that was happening, I made the syrup- simmered some water with sugar, about 10 cloves,lemon rind,  at the end added a juice of half a lemon and a small spoon of vanilla paste. The syrup took about 20 minutes.

Having taken the lovely golden beauty out of the oven I pricked it in between the diamonds with a sharp knife and then spooned the syrup all over. I intended to let it all soak in before tasting, but I couldn’t. It’s lovely, nutty, sweet, but not heavy and not sickly like some shop bought baklava.

A good pat on the back. 😉

Good Food, Room for improvement

Spring rolls

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Filo pastry has been bought today and I thought it would be nice to make some spring rolls. The filling was a veggie one, maybe next time I’ll play around with some seafood. This time it was a mix of bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms and leeks, all chopped to look like sprouts.I quickly fried them on the wok and flavoured with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sugar. When it cooled slightly I wrapped it in filo, not tight enough, cause they were a bit too oily- and deep fried them for about 3 minutes. I served them with some Blue Dragon sweet chilli dipping sauce. They were very nice, for a debut.

With the rest of the filo I think I will try to make a baklava tomorrow.

Eaten out, Good Food

First taste of Dinings

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I had a trial shift at Dinings last night.

Dinings is a place that looks like a bunker, it’s tiny, 11 tables downstairs, 6 at the sushi bar, tiny kitchen, everything is tiny. But the food……my God. It felt like coming home, although I  didn’t come for dinner ( damn! ) but for a trial. Surely thanks to the Chefs’ training at Nobu the food looked incredible and smelled just like heaven. Even the smell of  hot sake, of which I’ve never been a fan was pleasant. The smokey kitchen when tobanyaki was getting prepared- down the memory lane. But most of all the sushi. According to Fuku san, whom I’ve known from Ubon, I’ve done a good job last night, so I was pleasantly surprised with  2 small boxes of sushi to take home with me. The smell of this beautifully flavoured rice was killing me on the train back home. There was also a salad, green salad they serve with some chilli dressing with tempura prawns as big as  a small fist, the image of it is still in my head.

Well, whether I’ve done well enough to get the job I will find out when they call me.

Tick, tock..

Good Food

Friday night variety.

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Our tonight’s dinner was very simple, but what we loved about it was a variety of different flavours and textures on the table. So there were home made sausage rolls, raw sausages wrapped up in puff pastry, seasoned with fennel seeds and covered in parmesan and then baked off. There were potato wedges, spicy with cayenne pepper. There were  marinated red peppers, that I stuffed with chunks of cheddar and warmed up until the cheese melted ( next time I will close them with toothpicks, so that the cheese stayed inside), sooooo simple, but surprisingly yummy. And there was a rocket, avo and parmesan salad. And some nice English ale to go with it all. Yum.

Dessert, Room for improvement

Sticky toffee pud.

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First ever, quite well executed, I have to say. Greg Wallace’s recipe, that I have actually followed step by step, as I have never made it before, hoping for an honest opinion from Florek, who loves everything that’s toffee.

For 2 portions I chopped about 40g of dates and simmered them in a little water until nice and mushy. About 40g of butter, 25g of brown sugar, one egg, 80g self raising flour and a touch of baking powder all made a nice, thick mixture, plus the dates. It was all baked in a bain marie for about 35 minutes in 180 Celsius. Mine had a slightly crispy bottom- wrong, apparently, will cover them with foil next time. While they’re baking, I made a nice and simple toffee sauce. 150 ml double cream, 75 g of brown sugar, 25 g of butter went into it. I heated up half of the cream and all the butter and sugar, stirring often, let it bubble for about 5 minutes until glossy and thick, then added the remaining cream. Very nice sauce and bloody simple.

The taste of the  pud itself, I thought can be improved by a bit of cinnamon, maybe even a few chopped hazelnuts, to be done next time.

The photo does it justice today, does it not?