From yesterday’s Saturday Kitchen.  Fat boy Antonio caught my attention when he made a brief introduction to the world’s most famous sauce, saying “you’ve probably been doing it wrong all your life”.  I took notes of what he was doing on the telly, Florian demanded this is what we’re having for dinner and we got all we needed in Sainsbury’s this morning.  Half way through making it I researched what I could find on Antonio’s bolognese online and I wished I’d done it before I started.  The recipe on telly called on just onions fried on butter and olive oil, a touch of garlic and then onto that lean minced beef and lean minced pork, half and half. The recipe online stuck to what I’ve always been doing- onion, carrot, celery and garlic.  That’s what I’ll be sticking to, the flavour of the veggies is irreplaceable.

The idea of pork and beef rocks though. The texture of the sauce is lovely. Another thing is the wine, Antonio uses white, he says there is no need for extra colour, as the tomato concentrate provides lots of that. I used about 2 tsps of that and 400 g of passata. As for the wine, nearly half a bottle of very decent chardonnay went in. Antonio insists on using no herbs whatsoever, no oregano, no basil. I didn’t this time, but I had to flavour my sauce, so salt, pepper, sugar and a beef stock thingy from Knorr went in.

It cooked for nearly 2 hours. I served it with tagliatele, again, Antonio insisted this is the pasta to soak in all the flavours of the sauce. Finished with parmigiano. Enjoyed a lot.

Jamie Oliver’s, naturally.  I’ve been waiting for the episode with the recipes for steamed buns, that he puts on the table and says- imagine putting this on the table- boom! They looked wonderful. And I’ve always been a pig for Chinese food. Finally, last Thursday I caught that episode, took notes of all the recipes, ordered a bamboo steamer from Ocado and this evening made the whole thing.  Olutafied, as ever, I had to. Jamie boy makes those meals a bit too healthy  sometimes, so I decided against steaming my chicken, I fried it. 🙂

The buns. Super easy recipe. A 400 ml can of coconut milk and 2 of those cans of self raising flour. Pinch of salt. Kitchen aid.  The dough was very runny, messy and difficult to work with, but I was doing as I was told, as always on the unfamiliar territory.  They steamed in the wok for about 15 minutes using the muffin paper cups and they  looked exactly like on telly.  They tasted ok and were very, very filling, however I couldn’t, for the live of me taste any ducking coconut!!!Maybe coconut cream next time? Some toasted desiccated coconut? We both really liked them though and I’ll be looking at more recipes with steamed buns.  If I could make those super light dim sum things with hot pork inside, I’d be super happy.

The chicken was awesome. And will be done again this way. A quick marinade of hoisin sauce, a juice of half a lime, some salt, sesame seeds. A few chestnut mushrooms.  Quickly pan fried, finished with fresh chili and coriander- from the garden. Loved it! Fresh, exciting, oriental.

Also present were some steamed broccoli and pak choi, a bit overcooked, but eaten nevertheless. And a little cucumber salad that I won’t bother with any more, so average it was.

I’ll definitely be doing more buns, more steaming and more of that yummy chicken.

Majestic delivered today 24 bottles of Asahi, which they had on a nice offer, 24 bottles for £24. There had to be burgers to go with it. I had some from Ocado’s counter, the Aberdeen Angus ones, with them brioche buns buttered and toasted. Green salad, fresh shallot, plus some of the processed cheese that melts so nicely. And fries.

Yum.

The masterplan was to make ravioli, fill them with a selection of lovely, fresh mushrooms from Whole Foods and drizzle with truffle oil.  But having spent most of the day DYI’ing, like good christians that we are, we couldn’t be bothered with making pasta, so I made pizza dough instead. Chopped and fried the mushrooms and pan fried them with lots of pepper and salt. Less is more, when it comes to pizza, so all I put on it was tomato sauce, grated cheese, some cherry tomatoes, the said mushrooms and baked it. When ready, some fresh thyme from the garden added lovely aroma, parmesan shavings and that truffle oil sealed the deal. Sooooooo good! 🙂

Sometimes on Saturday mornings I finish my coffee and turn on “Saturday Kitchen live”.  In it I saw Tom Kerridge’s recipe for proper beans on toast. Tom said that once one tries it, there’s no way back to the canned alternative.  Well, there is a way back, I’d say, as canned alternative doesn’t take 12 hours of soaking the beans and then over 2 hours cooking. But it’s worth it. Super rich flavour and I still went easy on vinegar.

So, about 150 g of haricot beans were cosily soaking over night and most of the day. Then drained and boiled for nearly an hour.

Some bacon, chopped and fried on rapeseed oil, chopped onion and a crushed clove of garlic, then 200 g of passata, a splosh of ketchup, 4 tbsps of brown sugar, about 70 ml of white wine vinegar ( recipe called for red, I had none) and about 250 ml of water- all this went in and was brought to the boil. Then the beans went in and it all cooked down slowly for over an hour.

Tom also baked the soda bread to go with his beans, I served mine with rustic French baguette.  One thing can make it better- the marriage with some grilled chipolatas. Next week. 🙂

Yum. I’m writing and trying to put out the fire in my mouth with some lovely Rioja left from last night’s steaks.  I meant to cook a pasta with spicy chorizo, rocket on top kinda thing, but having seen Jamie Oliver on tv earlier this evening making spaghetti with prawns, I reconsidered. I took my prawns out of the freezer, they’ve only been there for 2 hours- I decided it wasn’t enough for 2- and made a sauce out of red onion, the whole red chilli, a clove of garlic, a handful of cherry tomatoes, some cooking chorizo, thinly sliced, a few green beans for colour, passata, Knorr chicken bulionette and pretty much no seasoning at all. Florek told me on the phone on the way home, that he’d rather not have prawns on his pasta, so I divided the sauce in half, threw prawns in mine, added a touch of double cream to turn down the heat a touch and then mixed with spaghetti. Finished with some basil and fresh rocket leaves.  I loved it, can’t remember when I enjoyed my prawns so much, they were perfect. Rioja de la Concordia with it- money. 🙂

From the latest GF, one of the meals that are supposed to be enjoyed by children. Well, mine wouldn’t be, as I seriously spiced up my satay sauce. 🙂

First I made a marinade out of 5 tbsps of smooth peanut butter, 160 ml can of coconut cream, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 2 tbps of mango chutney and zest of 1 lime. Chicken breast cut into chunks went in, only for 2 hours, next time I’ll leave it overnight.

I grilled the chicken in the marinade together with chunks of mango, which was the most disappointing bit of an otherwise delicious dish. It wasn’t ripe enough. While waiting for Florek I tasted some chicken and loved how tender and flavoursome it was. I served it with a simple rocket salad, lots of fresh coriander and a satay sauce- same like the marinade, but nicely fired up with gochujang- Korean pepper paste, a little tip from Judy Joo. Lovely stuff.

Wrapped into warm and cosy tortillas, it’s filling and delicious. Will be made again,  but ripe mango or without it altogether. 🙂

I feel like it’s the beginning of the new and exciting road for me and the noodles in general. This dish was super simple and really tasty, I’d have another bowl straight away, but must leave it for a certain Florian, who’s late for dinner yet again.

GF has run a nice little article about noodles in general, about ramen, udon and other noodles and I thought it’s time to broaden the horizons, as all the noodles I ever cook are the egg ones in a stir fry. Ocado brought all the goods today, including shiitake mushrooms and the udon noodles. Next time I’ll try dry or frozen udon,  the ready- to-wok one was yummy though.

Simple sauce made of 4 tbsps of mirin, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 1 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce got made first, chopped 2 shallots, some chinese cabbage ( instead of the white one, I like the delicacy of it), about 10 shiitake mushrooms, good handful of spring onions,fried it up on sesame oil, added the noodles, when cooked, then the sauce and let it cook until sticky and piping hot.  A final garnish of more spring onions and ready to eat.

Loved it, the only thing I’ll definitely be changing is the size of the portion, the author reckons 250 g of udon noodles feeds 2 people. I used 300 g and I’m thinking- popcorn and soon, for the new episode of “The Walking Dead”. 🙂

I made spring rolls once, they were not great, as far as I remember. Greasy and messy, which made them heavy and not great too eat. Before I started today I’ve done some research and the result was much better than last time.

I used chicken thighs, which I blitzed in small pieces as soon as I was able to cut them ( about 1,5 hour into defrosting), seasoned well with soy sauce, sesame oil and mirin, tossed with some cornstarch and left to marinate for about 2 hours. Then quickly fried in the wok.

The veggies recommended in the recipe I used were cabbage and carrots. My remaining cabbage went into coleslaw yesterday, so I used a carrot, juliened, plus some mange tout, alongside crushed garlic, ginger, and a shallot. I fried veggies having removed the chicken from the wok and wiped it, as per the recipe. Once the veggies looked good, chicken went back in and oyster sauce was to be added, sadly I had none.

That was the stuffing, which I left to cool on the colander, so that the excess of oil could be discarded.

I used filo pastry, sliced into squares. Placed about a tbsp of the filling at the top of the diamond, then rolled tightly and neatly, sealed the end with cornstarch and water and kept under the clingfilm, as filo dries very quickly. Right before serving I deep fried them in the wok and then served with a little dip made with sweet chilli sauce, soy and sesame oil. A touch of coriander would have been added in the ideal world.

Very pleased.