Just heard it’s been the warmest day of the year so far.  It’s been lovely, very warm and a slight breeze and we simply could not have lunch inside, when Ewuta came.  Initially I wanted to make the scallops for her with mashed minted peas and parma ham, but Ocado delivered small scallops last night, so I made a nice mushroom risotto to sit the scallops on. Nice it was, made with the remaining Gavi and good mushrom stock, finished with parmesan. Scallops, though small, were fresh and delicious, fried on butter. The whole dish had a nice splash of truffle oil and fresh thyme as well as a few slices of parma. Went down a treat with some Catena chardonnay.

Simples. And so tasty. And filling. The pork sausages came from Colin, the butcher. I first fried them quickly, then chucked some chopped shallots and poured a bit of red wine onto it, some water, bay leaf and left under cover for a few minutes. When the sausages were cooked through, I removed them and finished off the gravy with some flour mixed with water and lots of seasoning. The mash was today flavoured with mustard and some runner beans served as daily veg allowance. Thoroughly enjoyed.

It used to be my least favourite cheese. Every time Moka comes from Paris, she always brings along a little packet full of goods from her local cheese shop, normally one of them is a small goat’s cheese. Never been keen on it. Last Sunday, while visiting Roman Villa in Chedworth, I came across a local cheese maker, a goat’s cheese maker, to be specific. I never pass by these people without interest. The woman asked me, “Do you like goat’s cheese?” “No, I don’t”, I said. “Why won’t you try some of mine then?” she said. “Ok”, I replied. And it was actually surprisingly nice, not too strong, coated in mixed pepper. The woman said the younger the cheese is, the milder the flavour.

This evening I used what was left of it and stuffed some chicken breasts with it, alongside fresh thyme, wrapped the breasts in bacon and roasted them off on a bed of tomatoes and shallots. Served with a nice little idea from GF, roasted potatoes coated in a mixture of flour, grated parmesan and nutmeg. And a pleasant green salad.

Every time I make pizza I use a different recipe for the base. That’s in search for a perfect one. The search continues, as this evening I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe, taking into account some comments of the readers.

For the dough I used 500 g of strong bread flour, sieved with 0,5 tbsp of sugar and a good pinch of salt, 2 tbsp of olive oil and then mixed with 325 ml of  warm water with 7g of dry yeast dissolved. I worked my dough for a few minutes, then , as suggested by one of the readers, I chopped and mixed in some red chilli. I then left it wrapped in the blanket and left it for an hour, while I’ve done my ironing.

Once doubled in size, I’ve spread some tomato ketchup on top on a rolled out base, topped with lovely Oxford Blue cheese( I am going back for more tomorrow, it was so good!), fresh shallot, olives, tomatoes and oregano from the garden. Having baked it, I further topped it with parma ham, rocket, fresh basil and shaved parmesan.

We’ve managed to have pigged most of it, accompanied by some Chilean Cab-Sav.

Very, very good.

The original idea was broad beans on a toasted bread, but broad beans are not yet in season, so I’ll wait, in the meantime though widely accessible garden peas  quickly cooked, then  a touch of garden mint, blitzed, but  not into a paste, I like it a bit chunky, well seasoned and placed on a pan fried French bread. Finished with shaved parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Filling, yummy, will be done again.

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!