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. 🙂

Jason Atherton was making a similar thing on Saturday Kitchen recently, that brought back memories of a Nobu signature dish.  People pay £22 for a portion of  Black Cod with Miso, which is quite something, stunning on the plate, silky smooth and unusually sweet. I found a recipe online that was supposed to be a simplified version of that Nobu recipe, I bought a bottle of sake, as the recipe called for it and made a marinade on Friday, as soon as Ocado delivered the fish.

I used 1/4 cup of sake and same of mirin, 4 tbsps of white miso paste and 3 tbsps of sugar and cooked the whole thing off quite quickly, then cooled and drowned my cod in it. It enjoyed it for 2 days and this evening it went to the oven, 200 degrees for about 13 minutes, then a quick treatment of a blow torch to add the colour. The most exciting was the smell of sake coming out of the oven, it brought Ubon back to mind. The taste, I must say did not. Ok, it was a nice plate of food, but it lacked a wow factor. It lacked the sauce to carry it, something vivid, maybe a salad with sharp dressing. I felt like I was eating a healthy, light, good for you thing, that is all ok, but I know I’ll be hungry in 2 hours. There’s got to be a way to improve it.

I’ve been thinking of making the duck this way since having it in Wine and Sausage, local pub in W’combe a few weeks ago. It was surprisingly good for pub food. The reason it took me so long is that I’m the only fan of duck in our house, Iz is too small to appreciate it and Florian just doesn’t like it- frustrating. Ocado sells 2 duck legs per packet, decently priced unlike the breasts, so I bought some and made it today, for myself, Florian’s had a chicken kiev.

Lots of recipes are available for a confit beginner, I went with Raymond Blanc, who would know if not a Frenchman. So last night the legs got a nice rubbing of salt, pepper, garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves and spent the night in the fridge, covered, marinating away. Now, the recipe says the marinade should be washed off and the legs patted dry. I didn’t stick them until the running water, I thought the amount of salt I used is not that great. So I brushed it all off and placed in the casserole dish, then covered with melted duck fat, at the temperature of 85 degrees, as Raymond recommends. It would have worked better if I had more of that fat, as they should have been submerged in it, but they weren’t, so I kept on turning them every now and then, within nearly 3 hours they were in the oven, uncovered in 150 degrees.

With the duck I fancied some braised cabbage. Delia’s recipe appealed to me most and what’s really awesome, my own Florian, much against cabbage in general, has had his kiev, dauphinoise and cabbage and he loved it. Creamy, he said, flavoursome, great combination. Delia’s cabbage is a keeper, maybe a bit weird to smell in the kitchen in summer, but I’ll happily make it around Christmas. Finely shredded, alongside an apple a shallot and a  garlic clove. Nicely spiced up with cinnamon, nutmeg, lots of brown sugar, salt and pepper.  A good splash of white wine vinegar, all this tossed together well , a know of butter on the top and into the oven, covered,150 degrees, for 2 hours.  It’s superb. 🙂

Obviously, with dauphinoise on the side, it is not the lightest and healthiest meal ever, mint tea to follow, but every now and then it is flavour above the calories. Amen.

One more from Waitrose magazine.  British asparagus still available, still crisp and delicious.  New thing is thyme and lemon butter, that the monkfish was baptised in- fresh thyme leaves from the garden, a clove of garlic, some lemon zest all mashed into a know of butter.  Risotto done usual way, but with no wine this time, just good chicken stock, asparagus in pieces thrown towards the end of adding the stock. Lots and lots of freshly grated parmigiano.

Monkfish panfried separately with that lovely butter  crowned the risotto beautifully. Not a grain of rice left on our plates. 🙂

From Waitrose magazine. I like croquetas a lot, so this combination of ingredients appealed to me immediately. And I had everything in the fridge, so it was an easy choice for supper tonight.

First, 250 ml of milk got warmed up and infused with peppercorns, nutmeg and – bay leaf- which I didn’t use, due to torrential rain and unwillingness to get wet. A shallot and a garlic clove chopped and fried on butter, a splash of milk added and all cooked down for a few minutes. In another pan finely chopped pancetta was happily sizzling away, about 50 g of it. Then a bit of butter in, to make it all lighter and healthier, 40 g of plain flour and a lovely golden roux happened. In goes the infused milk bit by bit and at the end the peas mixture, roughly blitzed, but  not too finely, it’s nice to taste the whole pea too. Seasoned, a handful of  chopped coriander added( parsley in the recipe, but I hardly ever buy parsley), then chilled for 2 hours.  Afterwards it’s as always- flour, egg, panko and into the oil.

Dipping sauce this evening was truffle mayo, which might be sensational when made from scratch, also with the use of white truffle paste. I used jarred mayo, soaked porcini mushrooms and a splash of truffle oil, plus salt and pepper, and blitzed into smoothness.

Loved it. It made 8 croquetas and we ate them all. To be made again. 🙂

From “The Art of Pastry” book, that I pick up every now and then and discover things I feel like doing immediately. Especially nice pastry, I have to say, great idea to add ground walnuts.

For a small tart for 2 I used 90 g of plain flour, 1 tsp of brown sugar, 25 g of cold butter, 40 g of ground walnuts, a splash of lemon juice and some cold water to bind it together, Kitchen Aid turned it into dark, unattractive looking dough, that chilled in the fridge for about an hour.

I then blind baked it in 190 degrees for about 20 minutes, which  turned out to be too long, the pastry was a bit too dry when sliced.

The whole leek, chopped and fried up on a bit of smoky bacon( bacon was idea, I just love leek and bacon combo), added to the pastry case, generous amount of lovely roquefort crumbled onto it. Then a mixture of about 130 ml of double cream and one beaten egg, all seasoned.  After about 25 minutes in the oven I pulled out a very posh quiche.  Served with a simple tomato salad.