Roux Boy has made it on “Food and Drink” last week and made me excited. He made broccoli pesto, which I’ve never tried before. All the same like the traditional one, only basil replaced with cooked, cooled broccoli and a small chili added.  We both agreed with Florek that it tasted very healthy. 😉

I grilled some asparagus, only slightly moistened with olive oil, it was crunchy and  had lovely  charred taste.  The non veggie accent in this dish was some grilled parma ham on top, salty and delicious. But the best thing on the plate were the pan fried gnocchi. Roux Boy said the shop bought gnocchi were firmer than home made ones, I’d never have thought about pan frying them and they were delightful, like little roasties. All finished off with freshly grated parmesan, excellent. Not sure if I’ll be making broccoli pesto again, but gnocchi from the pan will be made again for sure.

I should definitely cook more fish.  Bought 4 pieces of lemon sole fillets yesterday and before cooking them I checked what I could do.  Sole meuniere came out on google and as a devoted fan of Masterchef I decided that’s what will be cooked. The fillets had the skin on, so all I had to do was to toss them in seasoned flour and quickly pan fry them. Then I wiped the pan with the kitchen towel, threw a good spoonful of butter, melted it and  squeezed half a lemon in. And in went the fillets. I read the reviews and lost of people said the whole lemon was too much, I think I would have liked more lemon flavour though. And need to be more generous with seasoning. Served with boiled new potatoes and blanched asparagus.

Pleased. 🙂

Hard to believe, but this was the first ever duck I cooked myself. I often order duck when eating out, whenever available, but I always thought it was difficult to get right. And not cheap, either.  Ocado had it on offer though, so I bought 2 breasts and decided to see, what I can make of it.  I’ve eaten by myself, as certain people get home around 9pm these days, so certain people will have his duck well rested.

I scored the breasts and seasoned them well with pepper and salt, then fried, skin side down for about 10 minutes, meat side down for about 5, then to the oven for another 10 in 170 degrees. I wanted it medium well and achieved it nicely. The duck rested under the foil for about 10 minutes. I served it on the bed of sauteed potatoes, white cabbage and crispy bacon and the dressing ripped off some duck recipe from GF; just some fat from under the duck, 2 tbsps of olive oil and a tbsp of balsamic vinegar.

I destroyed the lot with a glass of cab sav, will definitely be making duck again, but with some nice greens.

The current series of Masterchef, like I mentioned before is full of so called celebrities, famous for starring in soaps and for being famous. But I still watch it and get ideas and so does Florek- occasionally.  It was his idea to make the American style pancakes and he did, all by himself- I put the bacon in the oven, made us coffee and fed Izzie while watching him work.  I felt really happy this morning, with our awesome kiddo, showering us with smiles, with the smell of coffee and bacon in the oven. 😉

For the pancakes Florek used ROUGH guidance from iPlayer, then adjusted the flour, as the batter was not thick enough. He used about 175 g of plain flour, 1/2 tsp of bicarb soda, 35 g of sugar, 2 eggs, 125 ml buttermilk and 25 g of melted butter. The amount of milk we found is difficult to measure, the batter must be as thick as a good double cream. He fried the pancakes  quite large, so we didn’t manage all of them, but they tasted great with Canadian maple syrup and crispy bacon. I had some strawberries on mine, without which the whole thing would be a touch too sweet for me. Will be done again.

Ocado brought me 2 small monkfish fillets and I decided to cook them in a curry. It was the first time ever I cooked monkfish and I must say, it wasn’t a bad attempt. Good fish is never bad!

It’s been a while since I made curry last time, due to being pregnant, but when I make it, I still use Kamal’s recipe, plus a few of my personal touches. I like to finely chop a sweet potato and throw it in, I had none today, also, I had to do without coriander ( abomination!!!!!) .But I made the paste with 2 shallots, 3 garlic cloves and some fresh ginger, fried it quickly, added equal amounts of curry powder, ground cumin, ground cardamon, some chilli. Threw a few chopped tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, some mange tout and green peas. And monkfish, at the end. Served with basmati rice topped with fried shallots. Shame about the lack of coriander. ;-/

One of my favourite things to eat at Mum’s. She’s here this week, babysitting, so she made these on my request.

250 ml of warm milk mixed with 4 g of fresh yeast and 3 tbsps sugar, 35-40 g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, 50 g of butter.  Yeast, 1 tbps of sugar, 2 tbsp of flour and some milk make the base to look like double cream. Leave to prove.

Cream 2 egg yolks with the remaining sugar. Add to the proven dough, add the remaining milk, ad the flour, the salt, knead well in the glass bowl for about 15 minutes, if by hand. Add the melted, NOT HOT butter and continue kneading for another 5 minutes. Leave to prove again, for about 20-30 minutes.

Shape into small buns, steam for about 7 minutes. Serve with fresh fruit, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries and lightly whipped cream.

Rich, filling, delicious comfort food.

From the latest edition of GF.  Slightly different to the way I normally make it, with wine, no mascarpone, but one has to try new things. One is finally a mum now, by the way, so sometimes one needs to wait with cooking dinner, as there other priorities , as shown below. 🙂

A shallot chopped and fried with a grated courgette, the arborio in for a few minutes to soak in the flavours, the chicken stock, gradually, until the rice is cooked. Towards the end I added a large spoon of mascarpone, lots of parmesan and left in for a few minutes. In the meantime I toasted the pine nuts and fried a few courgette chunks on butter. My addition was parma ham on top, it can’t be too vegetarian!

Pleasant, creamy, filling, but prefer traditional risotto.

I served us some peace of mind in terms of vitamins and nutritional value this evening.  I saw the recipe on GF website, liked it, but I olutafied it up, in order not to have it too healthy…:-)

I fried a chopped shallot, some pancetta, celery, a small carrot and some crushed garlic, added chicken stock and a can of chopped tomatoes and let it boil away for a few minutes. Into that went some lovely chopped French beans and the main ingredient- tortelloni, spinach and ricotta filled. I gave it 3 more minutes, finished off with chopped basil,seasoned well, sprinkled grated parmesan and served. Filling, healthy, tasty as well as quick and easy.