This evening Oluta made quiche. Nothing amazing about it, apart from the fact that there was no shortcrust pastry at Waitrose. I wasn’t bothered, I did a quick research and opted out for Fucking Gordon’s recipe. And it was fantastic. 200 g of plain flour, 100 g of butter, 100ml of water is all it takes. I blitzed flour with cold butter until the texture was breadcrumbs-like, then added the water and worked it into a lovely pastry within a couple of minutes. It was then left in the fridge to rest. Afterwards, the usual story, blind baked, then filled with some red onion chutney on the bottom, fried pancetta with leeks and some peas, topped with a runny mixture of double cream, 2 eggs, grated cheese, nicely seasoned featuring nutmeg in large amount. And baked for about 25 minutes. It was a brilliant quiche, served with a green salad.

Next time I’ll buy shortcrust pastry, I’ll give myself a smack right afterwards.

First thought this morning when I woke up- Sunday at work, tick. Done. I convinced Florian to stay at home this morning as well and decided to make the one recipe from the most recent GF magazine, that really caught my attention. I did. The state of the kitchen says it all.

For banana pancakes I used 140 g of self raising flour, a tsp of baking powder, 3 tbsps of brown sugar, 120m l of milk, 25 g of melted butter, 2 eggs and a large mashed banana. The recipe recommends frying them on butter, I did  it with first 3, then switched to olive oil, as butter burns quickly. I grilled some bacon in the meantime, the nice, thin, American style bacon, that I can only get in Sainsbury’s, made us coffee and was ready to serve. With some maple syrup for a glossy finish.

I was hoping to make it look as good as some of the Masterchef stuff, it didn’t go THAT well, but it was a lovely, tasty dinner. I’d really like all the mess in the kitchen to clean itself now, but somehow doubt it will happen.

First, I roasted off some lovely winter veggies in the oven, I used a parsnip, some butternut squash, a beetroot and a few shallots, which I finished off with some truffle oil. It made a lovely side dish. Boneless chicken thighs I flattened and stuffed with chopped, cooked porcini mushrooms, rolled, seasoned and placed in the pot with my lovely sauce in the making. The sauce I made by frying some chopped shallots, adding mushroom stock and chicken stock cube. When the chicken cooked through, I finished the sauce by thickening it with some flour and cream, seasoned well and topped with fresh thyme. Served with creamy mustard mash.

Random thing I made this evening, I came across the recipe somewhere, but had to Olutafy it a bit, as the original called for bacon, raclette cheese and so on. I thought, no bacon is better for this dish than pancetta, instead of onion, leeks will do a much better job flavour wise, and as for the cheese, I think raclette belongs with raclette, I used Gruyere.

I peeled and chopped the spuds into small chunks, quick boiled them for about 5 minutes, then mixed with fried pancetta lardons and fried leeks, some double cream, a splash of Chablis, grated Gruyere and seasoned all to taste nicely. I baked it for about 30 mins under the foil, then removed it to crisp the top up a touch. Worked a treat. It wouldn’t be amazing on its own, so I made a nice green bean salad to go with it, but it would make  an evil side dish, I think. To a roast, for instance.

I went shopping today not knowing what I wanted to cook. But they had lovely fresh scallops, I couldn’t say no to, so I bought them. For the mash I roasted some butternut squash and a couple of parsnips, shallots and a chilli, then blitzed it nicely and seasoned to taste. Quickly panfried  them and served on that mash, along a nice bunch of asparagus wrapped in crispy pancetta. Quick, tasty, yummy.

…followed by a simple vanilla pannacotta with blueberries. Usual recipe.

The recipe inspired by the one from Good Food, but with my touch, as always. It’s a bit too thick, I said at the table, to which Florian responded by showing me his nearly empty bowl, clearly disagreeing, then went for the seconds. I used some good chicken stock, to which I added 2 boneless chicken thigs, some fresh chopped garlic and ginger and left to simmer for 20 minutes. When the chicken was cooked, I took it out and chopped to pieces, added some shitake mushrooms, pak choi, sweetcorn and too much noodles. I decided it was not flavoursome enough, so I seasoned it with soy sauce and a drop of sesame oil. It was filling and tasty, but not as nice as, for example in Wagamama.

My tempura this evening however was very good.According to Florian- best yet. I used  around 100 g of plain flour, a tbsp of cornflour, a pinch of salt and mixed it with 200ml of very cold water, with 2 ice cubes to be sure. I fried shitake ( in the restaurant this is my favorite tempura ), courgettes and sweet potatoes. It was crunchy and delicious. For the dipping sauce I improvised a bit and mixed soy sauce with brown rice vinegar, chicken stock and brown sugar. It was not astounding, but tasty enough. Overall, pleased. Tomorrow I’m baking a lemon custard tart nr 2 and taking it to work, to see if I can make a better one than Cathal’s.

Wednesday evening off, dinner must be on the table. And it’s got to be a nice dinner, after a few staff meals at work, not all of them amazing.

I had a piece of nice St. Agur in the fridge, so I bought some nice pasta, some pancetta lardons, fresh rocket, some courgettes. Oh, and I went to Selfridges as well. Their Food Hall is my favourite place in the whole of London. I walk around there, a bit intimidated by the tons of money the people who shop there have. Among other few treats I got a small of piece of parmesan, nearly 6 quid, when I grated it this evening it smelt like heaven. Excellent purchase, I need to make something on Sunday that will go with that cheese equally well.

I fried my pancetta, a shallot, a chopped courgette, half a chilli, a few cherry tomatoes, then threw cooked pasta in and tossed it with cubed St.Agur. Right before serving I added the rocket and parmigiano. It was really simple, but the cheese melted quickly and made it all creamy and lovely.

This was a spontaneous starter for this evening’s dinner, I invited Shirley over, as we needed to discuss a few things over a glass of wine. For the main I made golabki, for dessert I made the souffles, that I fucked up and they haven’t risen and for the starter I thought- the soup, as there was a squash in the fridge. I roasted it off with a couple of shallots, 2 red chillies, threw it onto hot chicken stock with an extra potato, the n blitzed and finally added the rest of my mushroom stock, that I used for golabki. What a  great idea that was! The soup was beautifully creamy, with a hint of chilli after 2 seconds, finished with fresh thyme. Yum.

This is my second ever attempt. First time I made it was long time ago, the beef was bloody, it was all mess. Last week, while watching people on “Great British Bake Off” making those gorgeous things I thought- I want one.

First of all, I’ve researched it, before I even went shopping. I chose Ramsay’s recipe and once again I have to admit, the fucker knows what he’s on about. I followed the recipe and I’ve given myself 8 out of 10. 🙂

First, I seared my fillet, well seasoned, the roasted it off in the oven, aiming for something in between medium rare to medium. While the cow was in the oven, I panfried some finely chopped cup mushrooms with a shallot and some porcini, plus some fresh thyme for flavour. Then, following the advice from The Bake Off, I made sure my beef was nicely chilled before I wrapped it in prosciutto, cuddled in the mushrooms and finally wrapped in the puff pastry. I chilled the whole thing while waiting for Florek to come home, then gave it a nice make up of the egg  and baked it in 200 degrees for 25 minutes. Now, important conclusion; the beef must be cooked to one’s liking BEFORE it goes into the pastry, because, as I learned today, even though it’s baked for nearly half an hour, it’s the pastry that cooks, not the beef. Florek said if it had been a bit more cooked, he would have given the dish 9 out of 10. But it was a bit too pink for him, so only 7. I, on the other hand was happy and ate the lot. I was surprised at how beautifully soft the meat was. I served it with some roasted veg. Pleased. 🙂

I fancied scallops. Simple. On the pea puree. Simply pan fried, with crispy bacon. And some sweet chilli sauce for extra flavour. Loved it!