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.

The sauce, not from Good Food, not from internet, not eaten out, MINE. My idea that came to my head in the car yesterday, on the way to Winchcombe, where we later found our new home.

I fried a couple of chopped shallots on butter,  threw in some chopped pork, a red pepper, a few dried mushrooms and after a few minutes of quick cooking I poured some red wine onto it, added a chicken boulionette, 2 bay leaves, half a chopped chilli and some water and left to cook covered for about 30 minutes, until the pork was lovely and soft. When it was, I added a mug of passata mixed with some flour and a drop of water, which nicely thickened the sauce, seasoned to taste and that was that.

Cooked the fresh tagliatelle from Waitrose, tossed it all nicely in the sauce, finished with fresh basil and parmigiano. Served with a glass of Pinot Noir.

This evening I tried my newly acquired ceramic pizza plate.

For the dough I used the recipe from some dude on the net, who went on for 10 minutes on how awesome stone baked pizza is. Mmmm. ;-/

For a small pizza for 2 I used 200 g of strong white flour, a pinch of salt, tbsp of olive oil, all this in the bowl of my beautiful Kitchen Aid. Then, in 130ml of luke warm water, sweetened with a tsp of muscovado sugar I dissolved half a sachet of instant yeast. The hook of the mixer was going all the work, while I stood there, added the liquid and admired. 🙂

The dough was left close to the radiator to rise, while the ceramic plate went to the oven, upwarming simultaneously, otherwise, I was warned,the plate would crack if put into a hot oven.

It was a joy to assemble, I must say, as the plate was hot, the rolled dough started to puff up slightly, as I topped it with tomato sauce, mushrooms, tomatoes, red onions, blue cheese and after 12 minutes in the oven- parma ham and rocket. Nice one!

For dessert little lemon pots, recipe from GF with very enthusiastic reviews, a bit too enthusiastic, I thought it wasn’t very special. Pleasant, but a dessert a 5 year old would make. Just a whipped cream, with some lemon curd added and lemon zest, frozen for 40 minutes and then topped with lemon biscuits. Maybe if the biscuits were a lemon shortbread of some sorts, home made, then maybe it would wow me. This was just ok.