First home made sushi in a long, long time. 2 years, or maybe more. There was no need to make any, with the best sushi possible available to me as a weekly take out from Dinings, but now, with no Dinings as a workplace I had to make it myself. I did, with a decent result. I made my usual salmon and avocado rolls, spicy tuna ones, some shrimp, chive and creamy spicy sauce ones. We ate nearly everything. To accompany the sushi, we had a bottle of a brilliant Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc, that I first discovered in The Lion. Majestic store it, I found this afternoon and enthusiastically purchased 2 bottles.

I just loved the presentation of a similar tart that we serve in The Lion. So I used it as a second course on Florek’s birthday dinner menu( primi- my cream of celeriac and pancetta soup, secondi- the tart, dolci- vanilla creme brulee, still to be had).

I simply baked off a ring of puff pastry, which I topped with some red onion rings and cup mushrooms, all nicely fried with lots of black pepper. With some roasted vine tomatoes and then, after baked, with dressed rocket and parmesan salad and some chopped fried, pancetta, left from the soup. By the time I finished taking the photos of it, Florek, 33 today, was finishing it. 🙂

It went great with Amarone, a bottle of which I purchased from work as well.

Lots of budget cooking in my new Winchcombe kitchen these days, as I’m not earning, must cook tasty food, but not expensive. I made golabki this evening, but I had no pork, so I came up with a filling made of porcini mushrooms, rice, some chopped and fried shallots, carrots and celery, all well seasoned and flavoured with sesame oil. Everything wrapped in savoy cabbage leaves and slowly cooked. The sauce was a simple one, but based on mushroom stock from the porcini used in the filling, altogether a lovely combination. Florian said, the best golabki to date. 🙂

I felt like doing this one for a while. Never been massive on celeriac, but I think I just got converted.

First, I chopped and fried some pancetta, removed it from the pan and fried some chopped shallot on the same fat, with  abay leaf and some thyme for flavour. Then in went cubed celeriac, slightly sweated, some chicken stock on it and that cooked nicely for about 20 minutes. Then I storred in some double cream, not much, just a touch for the colour, brought back to the boil, fished out the bay leaves and stalks and pureed the soup until smooth and velvety. With only a touch of seasoning needed, I topped it with crispy pancetta, some fresh thyme and a drop of truffle oil. Absolutely loved it!

The last cottage pie in Staines. The packing is in full swing, we’re off to lovely Wiiiiiiinchcooooombe in 4 days!!!!!

My base; chopped shallots, leeks and carrots quickly  sweated, minced beef in, some chicken stock, a couple of bay leaves and my secret ingredient- a handful of dried porcinis. To season, a touch of ketchup and lots of worcestershire and black pepper. All this left to simmer and thicken, with a generous amount of frozen peas thrown towards the end.

The mash- half and half of parsnips and spuds, all squeezed through the ricer, seasoned well with salt, pepper and nutmeg, a knob of butter and all nicely applied onto the meat, a sprinkle of parmesan on top and into the oven for half an hour.

It was excellent, as shown on the second photo- we pigged it all. 10 out of 10.

Last night I cocked up a perfectly good lemon sole. I wanted to make it all buttery and lovely, but I didn’t do the poor fish justice, I was disappointed and needed to make something really good today. So I made gyoza, in an effort to clean up the freezer before we move out in about 2 weeks.

Today I made my filling out of chicken thigh, shrimps, fresh chilli, coriander, a shallot and a fried leek, all well seasoned and blitzed .Stuffed in gyoza skins, lovingly stuck together and pan fried. The sauce, as last time, the mix of sweet chilli, soy sauce, coriander and lime juice.

Was enjoyed. A lot.

…or kushiyaki, as we used to have them in Ubon 17 years ago.

I was so pleased with my teriyaki sauce last time that I made it again, following exactly the same recipe as in the one with chicken meatballs, only this time I cut my boneless chicken thigs into small pieces and put them on skewers, seasoned simply with salt, pepper and sesame oil and grilled. Served with rice flavoured with turmeric, ground coriander and fresh coriander as well as green beans. I ate the lot, loved the sauce and the juicy chicken. Might try with beef next time.

Some great comfort food was much needed after a day effectively ruined by estate agents making sure they make our last weeks in Staines suck as much as possible. I felt harassed today, nasty.

I didn’t make the gnocchi myself, the ones from Waitrose are very good, but pesto is always mine. Good bunch of basil blitzed  with freshly toasted pine nuts, a clove of garlic, lots of fresh parmesan, olive oil and seasoning.

Enjoyed with ice cold pinot gris.