Saitake sell excellent, toasted sesame seeds. Last Sunday when I made sushi I promised myself  I’d give them 5 star review in Ocado, where I get it from. I didn’t, in the end, but used them this evening when making a light supper of tuna tartar. We had a roast for lunch, so not much was needed. Tuna tartar made the same way as always, Michel’s way- chopped and mixed with chopped ginger, spring onion, chilli and coriander, dressed with soy, sesame oil, lime juice and honey. Sesame seeds added, generously. Toasted ciabatta from the griddle pan tastes so good tonight, that tuna long gone, we’re still toasting more bread. I would be very happy to eat this kind of food every day. I would. 🙂

Proper.  🙂

I followed Jose Pizarro’s recipe from recent GF, hoping for a dish similar to those we used to enjoy in La Tasca, Spanish restaurant in Canary Wharf,  back in Ubon times.  I do make nice roast chicken croquetas, Michel Roux’s recipe, but these are proper, with very thick bechamel type of sauce and serrano ham.  We both loved them and when I asked Florek this morning, ahead of ordering Ocado delivery for next week, if there’s anything he fancies, he asked for croquetas again, exactly the same.

So to start with I fried finely chopped leek on some olive oil, then added about 100 g of serrano ham, finely chopped too, a bit of salted butter. Then 60 g of plain flour mixed in and cooked for a couple of minutes. 300 ml of milk plus 100 ml of chicken stock, all seasoned generously with nutmeg, heated up, I added bit by bit to the ham and leek mixture. Once all the liquid was used, I cooked the whole thing on a small heat for about 10 minutes, till nice and thick. Seasoned with pepper a bit, no salt was needed. Then transferred the mixture to the baking dish, cooled, covered with cling film and chilled in the fridge for over an hour. It thickened nicely, so I was able to shape small croquetas with a spoon. Afterwards it’s the usual trick- flour, egg and panko breadcrumbs. Prepared this way, croquetas chilled in the fridge again for about 30 minutes. Deep fried, served with asparagus from Over Farm near Gloucester. Yum.

One watches Masterchef, one gets ideas. One happens to have an excellent butcher down the road, so having seen beef cheeks cooked again, one went in and asked the butcher for the beef cheeks.  Nice, encouraging price of £3.70 per cheek,  I got excited and went home to cook. I googled a few recipes, one called for Madeira, I had none, so I went with my instinct and just braised them like I would good lamb.  Browned them first, did not trim anything off, as Toby said it would all render off nicely while cooking. When browned all over I threw in 2 chopped shallots, a carrot, some celery, some crushed garlic, bay leaves, thyme. A slosh of white wine- I had none red opened, but I’ll make sure I will have it on Sunday, when I cook them again for Izzie’s birthday.  Also, used chicken stock, on Sunday it will be beef. A few porcini mushrooms, a few whole peppercorns. And slowly on the stove for 3 hours they braised.  I finished the sauce with a bit of flour and water, it needed no extra seasoning. Served with green beans, carrots and a leeky mash.

I have to say, I loved the meat. But the opinions were different on this occasion, Florian wasn’t sold on texture ( that was the best thing about it!), but thought the sauce was great.  I found my sauce the weakest part of the plate, but hey, things will be perfected on Sunday.

Pleased. 🙂

Not exactly a height of sophistication, I know, but tasty and enjoyable. The reason it’s here again is the sauce I’ve made this evening, following the recipe from my GF folder.  I normally infuse my milk with garlic, peppercorns and bay leaf, but today I threw half a chopped leek too and I was astounded at how aromatic and tasty it made the sauce. Also, when making the roux, added a tsp of mustard powder. The sauce itself tasted great, with generous addition of grated cheddar, nutmeg and more pepper, as well as some chopped spring onions,but will add more mustard next time, as the cooked pasta washed it down a bit. Also new- crunchy topping made of a handful of panko and parmesan.

Lovely supper with green beans.

Yup, I did it again. Better.  I baked my spuds slowly, while we went for a lovely, sunny walk to Stanton and Toddington.  Once cooled enough to handle, I pushed them through the ricer, it does make the difference to the consistency.  I ended up with about 470 g of potatoes, I added 120 g of 00 flour and 1 egg. The amount of dumplings was perfect for the 2 of us, not a piggy amount, but we’re not craving a dessert either.

They cooked a lot faster than the shop bought ones, as soon as they floated to the surface I removed them, drained them and placed in the lovely, tomato-chili sauce waiting on the hob. A sprinkle of parmesan and to the gob. 🙂

Quite common on our table, not great when it comes to portion control, as neither of us can resist seconds, when it comes to pierogi.

I came across a recipe for pierogi dough on mojewypieki.com, found it quite surprising, I always just use plain flour and warm water with a splash of milk, so needing a recipe seemed like needing one for scrambled eggs for instance, or for a cup of tea. But Dorota quoted Maciej Kuron, a Polish celebrity chef. I gave it a go and ended up with an excellent dough and excellent plate of pierogi.  Also, it never occurred to me to make it in Kitchen Aid, another first!

750 g of plain flour, a tall glass of very hot water( makes wonders to gluten), an egg, 3/4 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of oil, all worked in KA till smooth, just a few minutes. I really like the texture, the recipe is a keeper.

Gnocchi from scratch, not for the first time ever, but I seem to recall that my previous attempt a few years ago was not  a great success. Having found a step by step method by Antonio Carluccio in my new Folder Of Good Stuff I had to try again. I baked nearly 1 kg of spuds in the oven, which seems like a lot, but when peeled really not that much is left- I had about 450 g of mash. To that I added 110 g of 00 Italian flour and 1 egg.  Rolled the dough and shaped into gnocchi, cooked in lots of salted water. A super simple sauce was waiting in an adjoining pan- a chunk of St Agur cheese melted with a bit of butter and a splash of milk, a touch of black pepper.

We both liked the end result. Pizia had 1,5 of them too. I liked the texture, but I think what could be improved is maybe that roasted mash, maybe I could put the spuds through the ricer. The sauce will be different next time too. There will be next time, that’s for sure.

I’ve finally got around to do some order in my Good Food mags. I’ve had a massive pile of them, having been subscribed to the magazine for 6 years, I now look through them all, pick what’s good and file it and the rest goes to the recycling bin.  Mainly recipes with kale, quinoa and all the super healthy crap. Not only there is space to be gained, but also lots and lots of good recipes get found. How I missed this one from Jeremy Pang from February last year- I don’t know, having been  a pig for Chinese food. Once found I decided to make it, hoping for similar goodness like a good dim sum.

It is one hell of a weekend project this dish.  First, the pork belly gets marinated and sits in the fridge overnight, then spends half a day in the oven- like I said, a project. That marinade though is a gem, I loved what it did to the pork. I used 4 mashed garlic cloves, thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped, 4 tbsps of tomato ketchup, 4 tbsps of hoi sin sauce, 4 tbsps of of caster sugar, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 2 tbsps of rice vinegar, 2 tbsps of sunflower oil.  Rubbed it in and left to absorb the goodness and then roasted in 140 degrees for almost 3 hours, then increased the temperature to 170 and left for another 30 mins to caramelise the pork. It was falling apart, tender, delicious, dripping with yumminess.

It was accompanied by pickled carrots, a bit uninspired for my taste, so I’ll spare the description and the buns. The buns I don’t count as my life achievement. They were ok, filling, but I hurried them a bit, as got to making them late around 5pm and wanted them for dinner, not for breakfast next day.  250 g of plain flour, half a tbsp of caster sugar, half a tsp of dried yeast- next time fresh!-, 25 ml of milk, 100 ml of water, 1 tsp of rice vinegar and same amount of baking powder.  Kitchen Aid did the hard work, then the dough was supposed to prove for 2 hours, mine only had half that time.  Then knocked  down, shaped into a sausage, cut into 8 balls, shaped into ovals, flattened and brushed with oil.  Then folded in half and left to prove again for 1,5 hour, if one was to follow the recipe. But one was hungry and impatient, so after half that time in they went into a steamer for 8 minutes.

Like I said, the pork was sensational. The buns I’ll do again, but will start earlier and use fresh yeast. Plus will serve with sharper pickle and maybe fresh cucumber. Florek loved it. 🙂

From the latest GF magazine. I loved how it looked on the photo, I love prawns, so I made them, Olutafying stuff as I went. Blitzed about half of a  150 g packet of prawns, roughly chopped the rest. 2 chicken thighs blitzed too, spring onion, half a red chilli, seasoned with soy sauce and pepper. The recipe just called for salt, I used soy sauce. Also chilli gave the whole thing a nice hum. Added a tsp of cornflour too, then tossed in flour, egg and panko, this always works and makes the patty keep its shape nicely while frying. Served on a toasted brioche bun, on the bed of coleslaw( with a dash of yuzu), topped with chili mayo.

We both liked it a lot,  it’s light, tasty and moreish. Yum.

Neither is good butcher.  The lamb I get from him is always fabulous, yesterday I got a piece of pork shoulder. Made a nice, thick, Polish sauce on it, served it with shop bought gnocchi, we ate the lot, but I saved some for Izzie, very curious if she likes it.

My pork is cut into chunks, quickly browned with 2 shallots, then stewed slowly for 1,5-2 hours in chicken stock, liquid topped up every now and then. Some porcini mushrooms enhanced the flavour, chopped carrot a red pepper made it thicker and sweeter. Finished with some flour and more seasoning. Served with French beans. Yum.