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. :-/

This time John Torode’s recipe. I still adore confit duck leg, everytime Florek suggests we eat out, I vote for Wine and Sausage, as theirs is superb. The only issue is they cock up their side dishes, dauphinoise are normally well undercooked and the whole plate costs almost £17. Two duck legs in Ocado are £4, a jar of duck fat is £3.65, the spices were waiting in the cupboard, the herbs in the garden, I therefore got busy. The day before I rubbed the legs with a marinade made of rock salt, toasted coriander and cumin seeds, thinly sliced garlic pieces, some rosemary and thyme. And left in the fridge till next day.

Rubbed off the marinade, did not wash it off as some recipes suggest. Covered the legs with duck fat, added 3 bay leaves and some peppercorns and cooked in the oven for over 2 hours, 140 degrees.  The smell from the oven was superb. Delia’s red cabbage alongside it, as well as Oluta’s dauphinoise- rich, garlicky, creamy, unhealthy and delicious. Massive way forward in cooking duck legs for me. 🙂

A few weeks ago Ewa served quesadillas to us as a starter on Sunday lunch, they were lovely and enjoyable, but left me thinking- they can be even better. I thought bbq pulled chicken would be a winner in  a nice, warm tortilla wrap, with melted cheese oozing out. And I wasn’t wrong. A meal like this is easy to make when one’s at home in the afternoon and can simply throw a couple of chicken thighs in a marinade to the oven, alongside 2 sweet potatoes and go give Izzie a bath, while they roast. After about 1-1,5 it’s just a matter of making chunky guacamole, then assembling the quesadillas. I used jalapeno flavoured tortilla wraps, filled them with  shredded chicken and sauce,  mashed sweet potato,grated cheese and some sweetcorn to finish, then folded in half and gently fried on a dry pan. The crappy photo does not do justice to the dish, we loved it.

This is a good opportunity to mention some difficulties we experience as parents of a toddler, who says “no” a lot, especially at meal times. I read an excellent article recently on Italian methods of teaching kids to eat exactly what the adults do. No such thing in Italian restaurants as “children’s menu”, they say. Kids are supposed to eat what ever there is on the table and should they chose not to, they skip a meal and several hours later there are no complaints. It does appeal to me, as I remember being forced to eat when I was a kid. It took me years to get over the dread of cold, yukky soft boiled eggs that were staring at me, as I could not leave a table before I ate them. So we agreed long time ago, there will be no forced feeding, but also, no shit will be taken from  a 2,5 year old picking what she will and won’t eat.

This beautiful soup was made for lunch, while the said toddler was napping. A banana shallot fried, a couple of rashers of bacon finely chopped and fried too. The whole butternut squash peeled, chopped, added, alongside a single potato. Chicken stock onto that. It all boiled for about 30 mins under cover, then blitzed into a lovely, orange smoothness. A splash of cream. Finished off with crispy bacon bits and sunflower seeds and…a drizzle of maple syrup. Beautiful, autumnal soup.

Needless to say, Izzie decided she won’t be having it and threw  a teary fit at the table.  We returned to this subject 2 hours later, after a bit of shopping therapy. Soup was reheated and eaten within 10 minutes with no single complaint. Thumbs up.

I watched Saturday Kitchen yesterday and saw Gennaro Contaldo making the ragu his way. It seems all the famoso Italian chefs have their own, THE ONLY PROPER way. I tried Antonio Carluccio’s, wasn’t convinced by the white wine, for the science I had to try to Gennaro’s. Ended up with a fantastic ragu, a keeper, most likely, although knowing my cooking style, I will take the best of all worlds and do it my way.

Today it was  chopped red onion, celery and carrot sweated on olive oil with a bit of butter, we’re not scared of flavour in our house. Half and half minced beef and pork added and browned well, before a glass of good cab sav added. Some chopped pancetta was suggested, but I had none, will do next time.  Rich beef stock next, about 300 ml and then the most different of all – goodbye canned tomatoes, hello tomato puree, about 2 tbsps of it.  Gennaro said no herbs, which I can live with, though a bay leaf from the garden is awesome in a ragu, no mushrooms, he also said, but this time I ignored it- a handful of porcini from Poland is a must.

The sauce cooked slowly under cover for about 2,5 hours and needed no seasoning at the end- thank you, good beef stock.  Served with fresh tagliatelle and parmesan.  Very good, dare I say, quite authentic. 🙂