Found in Waitrose magazine last night. I flipped through it, as I happened to finish reading my book and ended up showered  and with nothing to read at 9pm.  There were at least 3 good ideas how to use up lovely summer veg, so I rushed to Waitrose this afternoon and stocked up on some luxury items ( vanilla bean paste, thick and sweet Belazu balsamic vinegar, a bottle of Gruner Veltliner, pine nuts) and some raspberries, veggies and stuff.

Risotto that emerged took some more time to make, as tomatoes and courgettes needed to be roasted first, about 30 minutes with olive oil and seasoning, skins taken off the toms and then mixed in with the hot chicken stock. Also, I normally just sweat a shallot, this time apart from it also a carrot went in and a garlic love, I can’t say it made a tremendous difference to the taste. Arborio rice in, then usual story of wine and stock, not too much wine though, as I made The Child eat the risotto too today. Towards the end the roasted courgettes added, parmesan, lime zest ( the last of the Amalfi coast lemon I had) and basil and a few fresh green peas – a nod towards The Child.

One of the best risottos to date, the lime zest is genius.

I still have a slight sting of chili on my palate after destroying 3 of them. I accidentally ordered a piece of smoked cod fillet, it was to be fresh. I had different idea as to what to make with it, but as it turned out to be smoked, I went with fishcakes.

I’ve not cooked anything special from Mary Berry’s cookbook I’ve bought a few weeks ago, but while looking through it I found that Mary recommends poaching fish for fishcakes (I normally pan fried it), in milk, no less, with a couple of bay leaves and peppercorns. I threw some shrimps in too, poached alongside the cod. Cooked and mashed the potatoes, added the flaked fish and chopped prawns, chucked in a good handful of fresh coriander, some chili, thinly sliced shallot and seasoned it all well.  After a few hours in the fridge I shaped the fishcakes, tossed them in flour, egg and then breadcrumbs, panfried and served with spicy mayo, green salad and a glass of cold pinot gris.  To the enjoyment of my meal added the third installment of Helen Fields’ crime thrillers, “Perfect Death”.  Perfect meal. Fab fishcakes, the smoky fish is the way to go.

Florek being away, I dined on what I fancied without looking back at  what his fowl preferences were. 🙂   I shared my roast chicken thighs with Dustin, that was all. The thighs were from Waitrose, the dressing consisted of 2 anchovies fillets mashed with a garlic clove, a splash of olive oil, a good handful of parmesan. A tsp of mayo and half that of mustard, lots of black pepper. A squeeze of lemon juice.

Croutons were made 2 hours before, romaine lettuce roughly chopped. Chicken added, well tossed with the dressing. Extra parmesan on top, shaved.

During my short working period at Ramsay’s Plane Food I served a lot of these, I remember having to ask people how they felt about anchovies. Having made my own dressing this evening I can’t imagine not having them in. So much rich and delicious flavour!

Destroyed the lot with a glass of Chilean cab sav. Splendid. 🙂

I had some leeks in the fridge, so briefly checked goodfood.com for inspiration. Found it quite quickly, but made it mine right away by replacing my least favourite part of the chicken- breast- with 3 roasted thighs, that came from Ocado this morning. The other three will be a part of chicken ceasar’s tomorrow, I’ve been craving it for weeks.

A leek chopped thinly and fried up with a little bacon left from the long weekend. The thighs, chopped, added, a touch of chicken stock, then lots of black pepper, finally some cream+flour to make the sauce. Creamy mash piped on top, baked in 190 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Served with buttered greens.

Success in many ways; my husband Florek, truly awesome in many ways is a fussy and seasonal chicken fan. How can one not like a roasted chicken thigh with crispy skin is beyond me, he is capable of leaving half of the meat on the plate. Today was not the case, he finished the whole thing. So did Izzie. Dustin too got some chicken meat, so everyone was left sated.  More pies to follow. 🙂

There were burgers on the menu this evening, not a single onion ring in the freezer though. Good Food website had a few suggestions. I picked a simple recipe with 2 ingredients, 150 g of self raising flour and 180 ml of sparkling water.  The comments were very useful in this case, somebody suggested using lager instead of water and lots of seasoning. I had the last bottle of Birra Morretti in the fridge from last weekend, which came useful.  Simple recipe that worked a treat. Lovely, crispy rings, I think I’ll cut them thicker next time though.

Jose Pizzaro was a guest in the recent Saturday Kitchen and made a plate of food that made me squeak just looking at it. I played it back on iPlayer, took notes, ordered stuff from Ocado and tried to recreate it this evening. I used a different fish, Jose’ s was rainbow trout, I went for seabass.

First, a simple tomato sauce was made, a clove of garlic, a shallot, canned tomatoes, seasoning, all this bubbled away while I made some parsley oil ( yummy invention!), stuck a bag of Scottish mussels in the microwave, fried up some cooking chorizo slices and finally pan fried my seabass.

The mussels are really quite delicious, especially at Brasserie Blanc, with French fries or crusty bread. I’ve never cooked them at home before, but those were the simple ones and tasted surprisingly well. I have one more bag left, need to do them justice tomorrow.

So, the chorizo went into the tomato sauce, alongside peeled mussels and a touch of their juices. Seabass on top, parsley oil. Crusty bread. Nice, different, but not mind blowing.

Last night we had some pork belly, marinated char siu style, rested, roasted, all as it should be, served with coleslaw and brioche buns. Although the flavours were lovely,  I was pouring mint tea into myself afterwards thinking how heavy and fatty that meal was. And I’m pretty sure it will be a while before I cook it again. So this evening my frozen scallops came out and it couldn’t be more different  to last night. They sat on pea puree, just seasoned and pan fried, topped with chorizo crust and some mash with spring onions on the side. A cold glass of chenin blanc.  Doesn’t get much better than that!

I get the best food ideas when I can’t sleep. That was the case last night, Florian has a nasty cold and snores like crazy.  I knew that Ocado was coming in the morning, bringing a piece of prime salmon loin, the intention  was to wrap it into sushi.  But I thought I could try and bring back a bit of magic of the old days; one of the most awesome plates in Dinings is seabass carpaccio with truffles. I served my salmon quite thickly sliced. Made ponzu ( equal quantities of soy sauce, lemon juice and rice vinegar). Spooned out some of my remaining truffle salsa bought in Lucca. Had no chives, so a little spring onions had to do. A drizzle of truffle oil at the end. I attempted ponzu jelly too,  but added too little gelatine and it didn’t work out. Next time I’ll double it. Might even open the jar with my 2 Lucca truffles, still hidden in the pantry.  It will certainly be done again.

A while ago, while having a glass ( or 2) of wine with Lisa, I munched on some delicious chorizo she quickly panfried and served with bread and cheese.  So when I saw a recipe from GF for a risotto that featured cooking chorizo, I had to try it.  The one I bought at Food Fanatics this afternoon was fairly spicy, but along with  the rice and sweet peas, washed down by French sav blanc and good chicken stock – made us a delicious supper.  Went well with Argentinian Malbec too.  A 4 star bowl of risotto. 🙂