I enjoyed cooking this evening. Took my time, made the food I love to eat, picked vino I felt like opening on Saturday evening, enjoyed dinner with my favourite people on the planet.

Confit duck legs were taken off the bone today, braised red cabbage made the house smell like winter is coming ( sun sets around 6pm behind our mountanin here) and then there was a potato frittata I found on youtube and peeled the potatoes immediately. La ricetta calabrese, apparently. Peeled potatoes got sliced, not too thinly, tossed in a bowl with some flour, salt and quite a lot of oregano. Olive oil, not a stingy amount at all was heating up, a crushed garlic clove in it, which I removed after a couple of minutes. Potatoes in, fairly neatly, pressed down, then the heat gets lowered, lid on, about 25 minutes. Then, with the help of the lid one removes the olive oil, saving it aside, in order to safely turn the frittata upside down using a plate. Olive oil goes back in. The lid too, another 10 minutes. Olive oil out, frittata onto the serving plate, good to eat. Potato dishes like this I would happily eat on their own, with a spoon and a glass of wine!!

Braised cabbage was my regular Delia Smith’s recipe, plus some raisins, to get Izzie more excited about it.

Florek, not a fan of duck, had a beautiful chicken kiev.

The amount of calories on this plate was probably mind blowing, but I will be looking to reduce them daily from next week. How long will I last this time, we shall see, but with 62kg of me at the moment it is time to sort me out.

Last Saturday we popped out to Lucca to see if I could get my new reading glasses sorted. One gets older, one gets more blind. One had her glasses done about 5 years ago in Specsavers in Cheltenham and one noticed that it’s time for a new eye test. In the wonderful Ottica Bruno, where Florek got sorted a year ago quickly and efficiently- I was seen within minutes, picked new, designer frames that I loved from the first, blind sight, got an eye test and was told to go and come back in an hour.

So we went to Piazza Anfiteatro for a quick, early aperitivo, ended up in Parlascio. Iza fancied prosciutto e melone, I went for bruschetta, but not the tomato one, the gorgonzola, pear and walnut one. It was a revelation. I was also convinced that the bread was not just toasted, I thought it was slightly smoked. Drizzled with honey. Washed down with a bellini was such a treat. I just made one at home with the remaining piece of gorgonzola piccante I had. I flattened some brioche and pan fried it on butter, as you do, for extra flavour. Gorgonzola piccante. Thinly sliced pear. Chopped pecans. Honey. Delicious!

Svedesi are coming on Friday, this might be a little something to start with. They raised the bar really high when they had us over last time, so I have to match this. With an absolute pleasure!

Also placed an order with vinello.it this morning to restock on some Argentinian reds, it was dispatched 2 hours later, so there is a good chance it will be here on Friday. 🙂

Marion’s. Made us all very happy this evening and also quick to make, which is a bonus after a longish wait for Izzie’s vaccination earlier this afternoon. We got home after 6pm, by 7 we were fed and onto the cookies- more of which later.

Thinly sliced chicken breasts were marinated in soy sauce, dark soy sauce ( today substituted by a bit of oyster sauce, but I have an order coming from Oishii Planet), Shaoxing wine, some bicarb of soda and some cornflour.

Basmati rice was steaming away, I prepared the veggies and then the stir fry sauce; a good splash of Hoisin, some soy, some Shao, brown sugar, rice vinegar and black pepper.

Onto a very hot wok went some oil, roughly chopped onions, quickly caramelised, then the chicken, which I left in peace for about 3 minutes to catch some colour. Some chopped garlic, peppers and a handful of edamame, which I found in Esselunga, miraculously. Finally the stir fry sauce, around the edges, a minute or two, spring onions and we were good to eat.

It was very much enjoyed, The Child had seconds. A keeper.

Courtney gave me some Swedish cookies at school, made by Daniel, I’m told they are called kolakakor. And I even obtained the recipe. Very nice indeed, sugar intake for today was quite, erm, significant.

From Marion, who doesn’t seem to put a food wrong. I came across this recipe when looking for inspiration of how to make chicken breasts exciting again. I’ve been trying to feed us more protein lately, there are eggs in the morning even mid week now, also trying to wave sugar goodbye as much as possible, with various results…..

This, however had to be tried, at least for science and research, as I have never marinated meat in mayo before. Eh? Oh yes, it does work.

So, before we went to school I sliced 2 chicken breasts sideways, in order to have 4 pieces and seasoned them with salt, before making a marinade out of some Heinz mayo, soy sauce, 2 grated garlic cloves and some vinegar. It sat in the fridge for nearly 3 hours ( Marion says even overnight would be awesome) . Once back home I got some plain rice ready and made the sauce. I had no dark soy sauce, so I used a tbsp of char siu sauce from the jar, also soy sauce, some brown sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil and more grated garlic.

Onto a very hot pan went the chicken, being turned around a couple of times, until evenly cooked, beautifully browned, it took around 8-10 minutes. Sauce in, quick action and then just to finish, a small piece of butter. The kitchen smelled Asian! Served with fresh chili and cucumber. 2 hours later I would have some more. But no such luck. 🙂

In my 49th year on this planet I have made hummus today, for the first time ever. I became a fan of it fairly recently, but always used to buy it, a Greek one from Esselunga. But a pack of tahini caught my eye while shopping there yesterday, so I grabbed some chickpeas too and followed a recipe found on the web. Very pleasantly surprised, how good it is. The shop bought one had no cumin, this one does and it really makes a difference.

60 ml of lemon juice and 60 ml of tahini were blended first, until creamy, one garlic clove, a generous splash of olive oil. Ground cumin, smoked paprika, salt. Half of the 250g can of chickpeas in ( weight with the liquid 400g). Before adding the other half, some of the leftover liquid from the chickpeas went it to loosen it and more blending, until creamy and delicious. A touch more salt, another splash of olive oil.

Yet more olive oil to serve. We had it with the Swedish crispy bread from Ikea, discovered thanks to Daniel. Very good pairing, as the bread tastes of nothing, so one appreciates the hummus more. Yum! A keeper!

You Tube introduced me recently to a Silesian cook called Remigiusz Raczka, interesting to watch in the kitchen, pleasant to listen to. His take on placki ziemniaczane caught my attention and I made them his way for lunch today. It is the most miserable day in living memory, weather wise. It rains cats and dogs, it’s cold, grey, the cats have not been outside at all today. Florek is suffering from a back injury and Iza has a day off for that reason. I cook.

I used a different side of the grater, to change the texture of placki a bit, make them more hay-like. Normally I use my mini food processor to turn the potatoes into a pulp, today I did the work. Not sure if it made a huge difference. What did though was an extra ingredient- 3 cloves of garlic. Grated, like the spuds and onion. Then, as always, one egg, 2 tbps of plain flour, salt and pepper and they were ready to fry.

Nice, simple and calorific lunch, that made the house smelling like our small flat in Stronie. Iza and I had them with sugar and sour cream, the way I used to when I was a kid. Yum.

From giallozafferano.it. Surpringly lovely to eat, crunchy little delights, even Florek said he’d have them again. Iza on the other hand announced they were her biggest nightmare, all they needed was an olive on top and it would be an ultimate schifezza! 🙂

I roasted 2 whole aubergines for about an hour in 200 degrees, cooled them slightly, peeled off the skins and then placed on collander to get rid of the excess water. Mashed them with a fork and then added an egg, 2 mashed garlic cloves, a generous amount of both breadcrumbs and grana padano, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. When eating them in the evening I thought a nice, crunchy green chili, not super hot, but flavoursome, will be added next time. Or a raw shallot. Or both!

Once formed in cute little polpette I rolled them in breabcrumbs again and they waited in the fridge for dinner. Deep fried until golden, sprinkled with salt before serving, also a fresh green salad and a dip made of Greek yoghurt, cucumber and mint went well together. I’m thinking they would make a great antipasto, maybe even with guacamole!

It was curry night this evening. The time has changed last night for the winter one, so it started getting dark after 5pm. I thought a nice naan bread with that curry would be appreciated, especially by bread loving Child and curry loving Husband. I flipped through internet hoping to find a decent recipe, settled on one quite quickly and after sifting through thousands of unnecessary words leading up to the actual recipe, as usual, finally got cooking, with Izzie’s help.

We used 280 g pf plain flour, some of which made us a nice starter with 20g of fresh yeast and 120 ml of warm water. After about 10 minutes we added the starter to the remaing flour, plus a tsp of sugar and a tsp of salt, 120 g of youghurt bianco, a splash of oil and got it all working in the Kitchen Aid. I ended up adding some more flour, as the dough was super sticky and runny.

After less than an hour of resting it, we were ready to get on with it. Butter chicken curry from The Spice Tailor kit was nearly ready, today with prawns, rice was ready, melted butter with garlic and coriander was ready to be brushed all over the naans. Izzie rolled out the dough, I was cooking it really quickly on a super hot dry frying pan. It blistered beautifully.

First two were eaten immediately, barely cooled and they were gone. That good!

Definitely a keeper this recipe. Ron is coming to visit us in a month, I asked for some more curry kits, they really are excellent.

Last Saturday we were invited to Leszek and Ewelina’s. There was a lot of good food on their table, 2 types of curry, steamed rice, some chicken for meat lovers, naan bread that made me squeak, as mine is never that good and there were also those beauties. They were already on the table when we arrived, the toothpicks made it easy to pick up and enjoy. They were my favourite thing we have eaten that evening, I asked for a recipe and then also found it on the internet. Just like Leszek said, it is a Georgian dish, veggie, healthy, good for you. Pretty and tasty. I made it last night and ended up scoffing most of it by myself, as husband claimed the texture of aubergines made them ….challenging. Ma che cazzata!! 🙂

Thinly sliced aubergines were first salted and left to sweat for half an hour before being dried off and fried. The stuffing I’ve made a tiny bit differently. The original recipe and the one at Leszek’s used raw walnuts, I simply can’t stop myself from toasting them, there is so much more flavour after 10 minutes of gentle heat! They were then blitzed with a shallot, some garlic ( maybe a bit too much, I decided afterwards), fresh coriander, a pinch of chili and paprika, salt and all this creamed with a good splash of water to make it into a paste. Spread on the aubergine slices, rolled up, stitched with a toothpick and finished off with fresh pomegranate seeds and more fresh coriander. 10 out of 10 for me and I will be making them in a couple of weeks for a planned dinner party. Might play around with a completely different filling.