There’s one thing that my favourite food store in Cheltenham could improve on, that’s fresh mushrooms. Restaurants can obtain UK grown girolles, chanterrelles or hedgehogs, the most exotic I could find in Whole Foods this afternoon were shiitake and chestnuts. Had to make do with dried porcinis from Mum, which I cooked for the stock as well. I fried all my ‘shrooms with a shallot, then added the arborio and got on with the usual procedure of wine, stock ( I sexed it up with extra chicken bulionette) and stirred until the rice cooked. Finished with some butter, grated parmesan, fresh thyme and truffle oil. Excellent with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

For dessert some grapes and a couple of excellent cheeses. Comte has been on out Top List ever since Moka introduced  it to us years ago, the other one we couldn’t remember the name of, but we knew we liked it last time and that it was great with the beer. Even without it it’s got deep, buttery flavour that makes one go mmmmmmmm. No wine to accompany it, as one is allowed a small glass a week due to a baby in one’s belly.

“Breaking Bad” is our current number 1 series, it’s a common sight in the evening- us having dinner accompanied by Walt White The Meth Man.

For the pizza today I made the dough by Gordon R. 250 g of strong flour, 2 tbsp of olive oil, a touch of salt, all this mixed in with 7 g of yeast mixed in like warm water with a bit of sugar and worked nicely, left to rise and when doubled in size made into a base.

The tomato sauce- a clove of garlic gently fried, passata, oregano, a touch of sugar.

My half this evening- fresh pineapple from Whole Foods, so good that I normally stick my fingers in it as soon as we leave the store, plus ham. And shallots, cheese, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and oregano. Florek opted for simplicity and had peppers, chilli and cheese. Basil on top.

Very enjoyable.

A truly historic event. I have made my first ever curry from scratch. Bought my spices, made my paste, made it all. The inspiration came from the curry I had the opportunity to taste last week, at my now former work ( I am Lion Free, yessss!!). Kamal, a chef from Sri Lanka has made a curry that made me speechless. I was standing there, licking the spoon and thinking I’ve never eaten curry that good. It took some persuasion to get the recipe out of Kamal, as he claimed there is no recipe, there is throwing stuff together and it’s done. I’m sure in Sri Lanka that’s how it’s done.

I did follow Kamal’s recipe, as it was my first time. The amount of onion and garlic for the paste ( 2 onions, the whole bulb of garlic and a small ginger root) seemed like an insane amount, but I went along with it. He also said- 5 curry leaves, but that was the only thing I wasn’t able to obtain either in Whole Foods or in Sainsbury’s. For the next time I will. So, the paste that I blitzed went onto the oil to fry alongside a selection of spices, the amount was roughly 50 of each – curry powder, cumin powder, ground coriander, ground cinnamon, all fresh and fragrant from The Whole Foods. When all that fried a little making the kitchen smell like a curry house, I added some chopped tomatoes, 3 cloves, a pinch of cardamom, coconut cream and a tbsp of Greek yoghurt. That cooked slowly, while I was tasting and adjusting the taste with salt, pepper and sugar.  When I was relatively pleased with it ( but it wasn’t mind blowing like Kamal’s), I added the prawns and finished the whole thing with fresh coriander.

Kamal’s rice was outstanding too. It was flavoured with curry leaves again, cumin and, which I found surprising and lovely and will be copying from now on- thinly chopped fried shallot.

I don’t think I will ever buy a ready made paste again, but I will definitely be experimenting with curry. Very rewarding.

Inspiration- Masterchef.  I bought my wabbit from Colin’s, of course, as advertised. I bought it on Friday afternoon and was thinking for 2 days what to do with it, I was thinking ravioli, I was thinking roulade, but ended up cooking it like my Mom. Plus I’m feeling kinda sickish today, my morning sickness normally kicks in around after lunch time, so I decided to keep it simple. I had 2 legs and some other parts of the wabbit, all the messy and boney bits went to the bin. I seasoned it and dusted with flour, lightly browned on butter, threw in a chopped shallot, carrot, a bay leaf, a handful of mushrooms, some peppercorns, some stock and let it cook slowly. When the meat was tender I took it out, took everything off the bone ( otherwise Florian would hardly touch it) and finished the sauce with flour and a touch of seasoning.

Served with kluseczki slaskie made with help from Florek and, as a side, an absolute height of sophistication- picked cucumbers bought today in Polish shop. I couldn’t get enough of them and told Bozena about it, which made her jump to the conclusion, ze Izunia might turn out to be Adam. Anticipation…..

Just finished eating it.

In the current circumstances I have quite an appetite, lots of different cravings ( rib eye steak at 11pm, cauliflower this morning…), so when making a risotto I put on the plates some extras, plus that cauliflower topped with melted cheddar, that I craved. We popped out to Whole Foods this morning, mainly to buy some good bread for all the good stuff we had in the fridge. Bought some lovely parmesan too, some veggies and a bag of frozen peas, for which I paid £2.50. I was wondering if it would be any different at that price. Well, it was. I made the usual risotto, simple, good chicken stock, good white wine, chopped fresh tomato, basil and  the peas, that tasted as if frozen yesterday. On the side I served some antipasti, a drop of truffle oil, freshly grated parmesan and basil. It was thoroughly enjoyed.

After a weekend of slaving in the kitchen, I wanted something super quick for dinner. I had a packet of green tagliatelle, so pesto was an obvious choice. I had no basil though, but what I had was lots of coriander, so I whizzed it  along with all the pesto ingredients, toasted pine nuts, grated parmesan, garlic, olive oil and seasoning, plus half a red chilli.

What I got was a nice pesto, but not as awesome, mouth smacking pesto, as the one made with basil.

Ewa and Jedrus came over this weekend. We spent quality time drinking cheap wine, eating rubbish, having nothing to talk about and we were sad most of the time.

To kick off our banquet I made some lovely scallops from Whole Foods, served them on celeriac puree, which tasted good, but the texture could have been smoother. Scallops got fried on butter, of course, topped with crispy pancetta and fresh thyme. I. Love. Scallops.

I had some lasagne sheets sitting in the fridge. But I didn’t fancy the traditional, meaty lasagne, wanted something different. I looked up a few ideas on food.network. co.uk, and came up with a green lasagne, not quite a veggie one, as pancetta is involved. I fried it first, then threw a good few chopped tomatoes, seasoned it well and then put the asparagus on top and covered the pan, just to cook it very,very lightly. Not that it needed it, I decided later.  I made the bechamel usual way and a little layer of whizzed basil and sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts, as suggested in one of the posts.  It didn’t contribute massively to the flavour overall, but must have been tried.

It was more filling than I expected, we have half of it for lunch tomorrow, but quite pleasant overall. Nothing beats lasagne bolognese though.

And it’s difficult to make it  look pretty on the plate!

We’re enjoying a heat wave for the last few days, lovely. I spent a few delightful hours this afternoon sipping Sangria and frying me very front and reading.

Dinner must have been eaten in the garden. Just simple chilli garlic marinated shrimps( soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli garlic paste and brown sugar in random quantities) with loadsa coriander, served on pea rice. Yum.