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.
Baking

Truffle ficelles.

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I dusted off my Paul Hollywood’s baking book. Last Tuesday on Bake Off they were excelling at making focaccias and bread sticks, I had a warm up today with these posh little French things. Having tasted a couple, 15 minutes after baking them I think they could have had more flavour in them, so this weekend I’ll try to make Hollywood’s ciabatta bread sticks with cheese and olives, there will be no problem with lack of flavour!

The dough was unbelievably tricky. Super runny, needed a heavy dusting of flour to come anywhere near handling it. I started off with 250 g of strong white bread flour, 5 g of salt, 10 g of fresh yeast, 200ml of tepid water, which kitchen aid worked into a mess barely resembling something one can handle. A drizzle of olive oil was also added towards the end and it was POURED into a well oiled, rectangular container for proving. When tipped out, it looked like that;

I then laboriously shaped it into something resembling sticks, sprinkled with salt, oregano and some of my truffle butter from Italy ( original recipe wanted truffle oil, I don’t buy any anymore as it goes off quickly and I tend it waste it). The shaped dough proved for another 30-40 minutes and went into the oven for about 11 minutes in 230 degrees. More truffle butter on top once baked.

They’re nice and crunchy, in our bread loving family they won’t last beyond this evening, next time however- olives and cheese ones. 🙂

Good Food

Roast chicken.

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A decent cook that I am, I roasted a whole chicken once or twice in my life. Tragic, isn’t it? I love roast chicken, especially thighs with the crunchy skin. Florek doesn’t love roast chicken, most of all the bones are in the way for him, but this week he is on a training course, so Mariusz came over and we roasted a chicken. I bought a medium bird off my butcher’s , Mariusz seasoned it well( salt,pepper, herb pepper, two different kinds of paprika) , placed a few crushed garlic cloves inside and left to sit in the seasoning for about an hour and then we placed it in the oven at about 180 degrees, but kept checking and controlling the temperature, as we wanted it perfect, but also my oven was not dealing well with the steam, fat and the spitting – I am NOT looking forward to scrubbing it!! It roasted for around an hour.

The result of our joint efforts was the most succulent, moist, delicious bird I’ve had in a long time. There were chips on the side and a roasted beetroot salad, and with Izzie’s help we practically destroyed 3/4 of it.

The oven is a massacre, I’ll be at it tomorrow! 🙂

Dessert

Coconut panna cotta.

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This little number finished off our nice get together last Sunday. The Gray’s come over for Sunday lunch, a meaty one ( we had some steaks, some grilled lamb shoulder, some sausages and some burgers, plus a few sides).

6 panna cottas were made out of a 400 ml can of coconut milk, 250ml of double cream and about 120 g of caster sugar all heated up together, then once off the heat 3 soaked gelatine leaves went in. Cooled mixture went into the moulds and set in the fridge. Before serving I grated some lime zest on top, crushed some ginger biscuits for the texture and some freshly sliced mango. It received great reviews! 🙂

Good Food

Pesto, a bit more sexy than usual.

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Every now and then I flip through my recipe folder and find things that excite me. And although shopping was delivered yesterday, I went out this morning to get some bacon( and place order at the butcher’s for an upcoming Vegetarian Feast with the Gray’s on Sunday) and basil.

Normally pesto in my kitchen is freshly made and served with spaghetti or tagliatelle, today it was rigatoni and crispy bacon and fresh cherry tomatoes were added. Excellent idea, we agreed, especially the tomatoes, which, said Florek, made the dish more lively and vibrant. `

Thumbs up. 🙂

Eaten out

Back to Marlborough.

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Steve and Christina were here this weekend, after last night filled with pizza (5 pizzas, to be specific) and wine, today we drove to Marlborough, back to Rick Stein’s. What a treat that was, again. I was actually ready to order early last week, when Steve booked us a table, a sole meuniere on the main menu stood out for me and that’s what I had, but started with some lovely fresh crab. It’s been a long time since I had it that good (Dinings, perhaps?). I even enjoyed the seaweed!

Then the sole, might have been the most expensive item on the menu at £40, sole meuniere, which was taken off the bone for me, yum. Really enjoyed it, it could have done with a touch more salt I thought, as well as maybe more inspired sides- the buttered potatoes were ok, the cabbage they shouldn’t have bothered with.

But the pud was a dream. Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream, which we shared was probably the best I’ve ever had. Trying to find that very recipe online and not having much luck for the moment. Might be the next thing I bake, one way or another. Yum.

This place is a 10 out 10 for me, I have to say. It is expensive, but the service is brilliant, the food inspiring and the ambience just perfect, not overcrowded, beautifully decorated and comfortable. A real treat! 🙂

Eaten out

L’anatra Italiana.

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While having lunch in Lucca’s Piazza del Anfiteatro, one of our last lovely meals of this holiday, I went for a duck breast and ended up having one of best meals in a long time. This piece of duck was a little like a duck steak, if there is such a thing! The skin was nearly cremated, but the meat beautifully pink and nicely rested. It came with a pear and ginger sauce, some sad cucumber pickle- wasn’t pickled enough, didn’t really do anything and some fried leeks, tasty, but stringy and difficult to eat. I had a glass of rose to go with the dish and I absolutely loved it. More duck is needed! 🙂

And then there was pistacchio gelato. Some British ice cream makers should be shown this photo just to see, what it should look like, not a bright, radioactive green colour we can sometimes get at home. Like this;

Eaten out

Pizza bianca with mushrooms and truffles.

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While visiting Siena, we had a lovely lunch on Piazza del Campo. Mine was this glorious pizza that I shared with a fellow truffle lover- as seen on the picture. Pizza bianca, so no tomato sauce, but lots of mozarella, some excellent fresh mushrooms and a good smear of black truffle paste. Finished with black pepper. What could make it even better would be some fresh thyme! The Jaye’s are coming over for the last weekend of August, I think I’ll have a go at such a creation, Christina likes truffles too. And I have thyme in the garden! 🙂

Good Food

Olive bread and other quarantine highlights.

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We’ve made it to Italy. Through covid uncertainty, cancelled flights, tests, we’re now in our favourite spot in Castelnuovo, but we need to stay at home for 5 days before taking another set of tests to be released safely to the public. In spite of being fully vaccinated. :-/

So we’ve done a very substantial shopping in Esselunga and I have been busy. Busy baking a lovely, simple olive bread, for instance.

I brought a small packet of instant yeast from home, chucked it into roughly 400g of a random Italian flour, added salt, water, olive oil, combined it all well and gave to Florek to knead for about 10 minutes.

It’s risen beautifully within an hour, outside on the terrace, in those glorious temperatures we’re experiencing and then baked for about 40 minutes in 220 degrees. Good little loaf!

Also made was a lovely tomato sauce, made exclusively of fresh tomatoes, skinless. I took my time with it, until wonderfully rich and tomatoey, went great with gnocchi.

Impatiently awaiting some eating out in Lucca. 🙂

Also worth mentioning is this little invention-one walks in to a supermarket and finds a lovely, fresh, risen pizza dough, ready to use and enjoy, at a modest cost of less than 2 euro.

Must of course mention sensational parma ham with equally sensational melon, Izzie’s favourite. Yum!

Dessert

Rhubarb creme brulee

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I was sorting out my cookbooks the other day, with the intention of taking some of them to the charity shop. There were some that I have not used in more than 10 years, some that were pretty useless – The Cocktail Cook, I’ve not been into cocktails for years, apart from a good mojito every now and then. “Classic Italian Cooking” went too, as my perception of what’s classic and Italian dramatically changed since I got that book 15 or so years ago.

“Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch” was on the pile too, but as I was having lunch I flipped through it and decided to hold on to it, especially as a tweak to my favourite creme brulee came to my attention. I normally make a simple, vanilla one, but the rhubarb idea appealed to me a lot. I took 2 nice pieces from the garden, cleaned them, peeled, chopped and quickly cooked them down with some sugar and butter. Then went on to make my brulees the usual way, 4 egg yolks whipped with about 3 tbsps of sugar and vanilla sugar, while 250 ml of double cream and 75 ml of milk infused with vanilla paste were heating up. Once hot enough, cream and milk mixture went onto the egg yolks slowly, then the foam got discarded.

On the bottom of the ramekins went the rhubarb, then the custard, then into the oven ready at 140 degrees in a bain marie for about 30 minutes. I always take them out when there’s still a bit of a wobble.

The rhubarb seemed to have infused the custard nicely. Good stuff!

Good Food

Linguine alle vongole.

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This is one of my favourite pasta dishes when on holidays in Italy. I can never get enough of the simply delicious, clammy pasta. Having watched a few episodes of a vlog I recently discovered, by a British expat living in Positano, I decided to have a go at this dish myself. I was convinced that clams in Waitrose will be wonderfully cheap, as I don’t remember paying more than 10 euro for a plate of vongole in Lucca, but no, this is Britain and a bag of Dorset clams set me back £14 (!!!). One can sometimes get dover sole cheaper than that, but I went ahead with it.

About 30 minutes before I started cooking I followed Angela Hartnett’s recipe and soaked the clams in some cold, very salty water. Good call, as there was a lots of grit and sand left in the sink, rather than on the bottom of the plate.

I infused slowly my olive oil with 2 cloves of garlic, some fresh chili as well as chili flakes – one can never be sure how strong will the chili be- then threw a handful of cherry tomatoes and cooked it all down. A good splash of white wine and the lid went on. Pasta was cooking, so I could then chuck the clams in, cover them and cook them till they opened. Combined the pasta, clams and juices together, topped with lots of parsley, a bit of extra salt and it was done.

Florek, who can only take a certain amount of seafood without suffering did have a good go at my vongole, but was not blown away and neither was I, if I’m honest. I finished it, but was I transported to Lucca while eating my efforts? Not quite. In a month or so I should be able to have the real thing! 🙂