Tom Kerridge’s.

Appealing from the moment he added powdered porcini mushrooms to this shortcrust pastry. It works! It fills the kitchen with a lovely smell, adds to the flavours of the pie.

The fillings’s made of fried chestnut mushrooms, fried red onion, chopped, good quality ham, all this brought together by a thick white sauce flavoured with chicken stock and dijon mustard. Filling cooled before assembling with the pastry.  Baked in 190 degrees for about 40 minutes, served with green salad.  Very good indeed.

By far my most favourite of all taco fillings, since my Mexican craze began.  Chicken tinga tacos were the first dish brought to the table when we dined in Wahaca and it blew me away. I made it 4-5 times since, but tonight I think I hit the spot. Previously I used the mixture of recipes from foodnetwork.com and others, I consulted Tommi’s book of course too.  I once poached the chicken breasts and used the stock to make the sauce, which is apparently The Right Tinga Way, I cooked the thigs in the sauce too, but today I used a shop bought roasted chicken thighs, made the sauce the way I like it and I thought it rocked. Chicken breasts don’t excite me, I love thighs, but I never roast the whole chicken, as my husband-to-be hates meat on the bone(!!!!!!!!!).  Luckily Waitrose and Co-Op sell very tasty roast chicken thighs and that’s what I’ll be sticking with from now on. Dustin too is a dog for roast bird, he will approve!

For the sauce I gently fry a shallot or a red onion, 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic, a chili, then chuck a can of plum tomatoes in, some chicken stock, season well with salt, pepper, brown sugar, 2-3 tsps of chipotle paste, some liquid smoke, fresh oregano and simmer for up to 20 minutes to reduce and thicken it.  Chopped roast chicken goes in, lots of coriander in the end. This evening I stood by the pan and licked the spoon. What I love about it is the combination with good red wine, the palate just goes nuts!

Good chunky guacamole would be grand here, but my avos are slightly, ekhm, crunchy, so tonight it was tomato salsa with lots of lime juice- another one that enjoys a renaissance in my cooking.

Fab. 🙂

“Dry soup”, from “Mexican Food at Home”, Florek bought for me. When Tommi made it on telly it looked very appealing, so I had to try. It didn’t wow us though. I really liked the idea of frying my vermicelli before placing them in the sauce to rehydrate.

That was fun. The recipe didn’t specify whether the final texture should be slightly crunchy or should the pasta be left in the sauce until completely soft. I left mine a bit crunchy and rather liked it that way.

The rich tomato sauce ; a shallot, a garlic clove and 1 birds eye chili were gently fried. A can of plum tomatoes added, salt, pepper, allspice, brown sugar, a sprig of thyme and 2 bay leaves, gently cooked down for 20 minutes. Then a mug of chicken stock added and 2 tsps of capers- new for me too, I never use capers in my cooking, but absolutely adore them in the steak tartare they serve in Brasserie Blanc. The last thing- the sauce got blitzed into smoothness, the vermicelly nests placed in to take all the flavours in.  There should be dollop of sour cream on top, which I forgot to buy, my shaved cheese was Grana Padano, not Pecorino, but I was generous with coriander. It tasted nice, nothing wrong with the flavours, but not astounding.

Back to the book, which, by the way is one of the best cook books on my shelf, it’s a good read alongside the recipes.

I’m still into Mexican food big time. Every now and then I manage to catch Thomasina Miers of Food Network doing something exciting and that was the case with these empanadas.  I’ve never tasted an authentic Mexican empanada, but what I made this evening tasted a bit British, apart from a slight chili kick.  The filling was simple, but delicious. Chopped ham, grated cheddar, some spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, salt and pepper, a small red chili. Wrapped in all – butter puff pastry, brushed with egg yolk and baked till dark golden brown.  Enjoyed with green salad and tenderstem broccoli.  Excellent, filling, simple.

Saturday Kitchen gave me this idea for a Sunday evening meal, plus I happened to have some venison in the freezer. My neighbour Dave gave me some, as he hunts and fishes, but doesn’t seem to have an idea about cooking meat or fish, I think he simply chucks it at his wife and that’s that.  The venison he gave me must have come from some ancient animal, cause although I cooked it for nearly 2 hours in small pieces it was still rather tough- the weakest link in the whole meal, which is a shame, it should have been a star of it.  But the reason this plate of food is being written about is my naan. I forgot to buy it, never made it before, so I thought, it is time to have a go at it.  And it was brilliant. I’m pretty confident I will not be buying naan again, when there’s curry, there will be proper naan from now on.

Easy to make; 50 g of Greek style  yoghurt( grams, not ml), 90 ml of milk, 250 g of plain flour, 0,5 tsp of baking powder and 2 tbps of oil. All this kitchen aided until combined, then left to rest for an hour. After an hour 2 minced garlic cloves and lots of fresh coriander worked in, then rolled out and cut into  about 5 medium size breads. I have no special naan pan, but pancake pan did the great job. About 3-4 minutes on each side, dry pan, medium heat. They were lovely, even Izzie had some.  Will play with more flavours, cumin seeds next, methinks.

Tom Kerridge made them on telly. I normally get ours from Waitrose, but might now stop buying them, as what came out of the oven this evening was the moistest chicken dish I’ve ever made.  And easy too! Two nice breasts cut on the thick side to make a pocket for the butter, I must have done a decent job as none of the butter got out while cooking. Garlic butter- 2 crushed cloves, parsley, cayenne pepper( not a mind blowing addition for me), salt, all blitzed. When stuffed, I seasoned the breasts, tossed in flour, egg and panko, quickly panfried and cooked in 200 degrees for 15 minutes.  Like I said- super moist. Served with mixed greens and cold San Miguel beer. Destroyed the lot.

This kind of cooking makes me really happy. I woke up at 7 am this morning, as usual, to the sounds of Iz playing in her room, stole a few more minutes and while postponing the moment I had to leave lovely warm bed, I thought of the sauce I’d make later on today.  And when I did make it and then served it with a glass of my absolute favourite Catena cab sav from Argentina( closely followed by second  glass), I thought- I am happy. This is my food heaven. And best of all- I made it myself.

Sunday, rainy, homey, apple strudel baked by lunch, nice, but not sensational.

While the oven was hot I put in a tray of 4 chopped peppers, some shallots, a few garlic cloves, a tomato( tasting of nothing in particular, it could only be roasted), olive oil and some seasoning. 190 degrees, about an hour. Once cooled I removed the skins from garlic, shallots and tomato and blitzed it all into a thick paste.

While Paul and Izzie were splashing in the bath upstairs a few hours later, I got cracking with my sauce. Fried up a shallot, some celery, 2 cup mushrooms, 2 rashers of bacon. Added my pepper  paste. Then, a bit of genius kicked in, I had no fresh chili, but I had gochujang, Korean hot pepper paste.  Added a generous teaspoon. Chicken stock. A splash of double cream.

For me that sauce served with tagliatelle was 10 out of 10. And if I had some fresh basil it would have been 10,5. Cab sav made it all sing in my mouth. Florek said he found it a touch too thick, so for him next time- and there will be lots of next times- a splash of starchy water from the pasta with that sauce, that will do it.

I’m genuinely proud of myself!!! 🙂

The mood for truffles continued tonight. For supper I served us a dish that all 3 of us loved. It’s one of the greatest joys of being a mum, when Izzie, aged 2,5 sticks her fork into a bowl of tagliatelle, finishes it within 10 minutes and looks into mine, for seconds.  She tried a mince pie this afternoon too, initially didn’t like it, but a few moments later went back and finished it. Great feeling when she’s eager to try things. Even greater when she enjoys the food her parents love.  Truffles???? For a toddler?? Yup. 🙂

Tagliatelle were provided by Waitrose, the sauce was a compilation of my experience and my taste. Finely chopped and fried shallot with a couple of chestnut mushrooms, a splash of Pinot Gris in( I happened to have a bottle open) , a chicken stock bulionette, some water, reduced. A good spoonfull of ricotta to thicken it up, a splash of double cream, lots of black pepper and a couple of teaspoons of that porcini and truffle paste. No salt needed, the stock did the job. Finished with a bit of water and flour mix, pasta in, all nicely covered, lots of fresh parmesan on top and a drizzle of truffle oil. 10 out of 10.

Florek put this idea in my head this morning, recalling fantastic pasta we once had in Florence- with shaved truffles. I had a £25 voucher for Waitrose and I thought it would be a good way of spending it- on some truffles. I ended up getting 2 different kinds of truffle paste, a cheapish one from Sacla, containing a smear of black truffles which helped to make us a lovely lunch.  The other one, porcini mushroom paste with white truffles will go into a sauce this evening.  For lunch meanwhile we had a simple pizza, dough made to usual recipe, but with less flour, as it’s lunch, not dinner. I skipped tomato sauce entirely and smeared the paste on the dough, then grated some gruyere on that, some cherry tomatoes, shallot rings and after it baked, some shredded iberico ham.  Finished with some black pepper and a drizzle of truffle oil. Yummmmm.

More truffles tonight. 🙂

I can’t say I’m a big fan of fireworks in general, especially having a small kiddo, who normally sleeps at the time when all this nonsense banging and smoke starts. But I am now a fan of baked potatoes, especially with Swiss cheese and bacon. I came across it on GF website and Florian got excited, so we had them last night. A few spuds first pricked with a fork, drizzled with olive oil and lightly seasoned, baked for about 1,5 hour in 200 degrees. In the meantime, a chunk of Gruyere was grated, some smoky bacon and shallot fried. When the spuds baked, I scooped the soft flesh out into the bowl, added the bacon and shallots, cheese, a touch more of seasoning and some chopped coriander ( I had no parsley) , filled the skins again and put back in the oven for 12 minutes.  Ultimate comfort food, eaten when the fire was burning, the joy only disturbed by Izzie, who refused to have any dinner at all. Lovely baked spuds for us, corn flakes for her. :-/