I’ve had a boeuf bourguignon in here already, so I won’t be going into details, it was made in my nice new casserole dish – needed a new one, as I’m very good at smashing them, but what was lovely, was the mash. I threw the boiled, mashed spuds into the pan of fried bacon and leeks, added some butter for extra healthiness, plus some seasoning. Loved it. Deep, deep flavours.
Florian suggested something Asian, when I asked what he feels like eating. Books have been looked through, web has been searched, recipes have been compared, Waitrose has been visited ( for the kurwa 47th time this week!!!) .
The best s/s pork I remember having was Alex’s at work, the only problem with it was the quantity, as far as I remember, cause the pan was being scraped, so I attempted to make mine at least that good. I think I succeeded.
I used a small pork fillet, thinly sliced it and fried in the wok. Added 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, a red onion, chopped bell pepper, some mange tout, some cup mushrooms, a carrot and a zucchini. Fried it up, added a chopped pineapple and a handful of beansprouts and then added the s/s sauce-; I used about 150ml of juice from under the pineapple, 3 tbsp of ketchup, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, a tbsp of white wine vinegar, same amount of honey and cornstarch. All this went into the wok and thickened nicely after a couple of minutes. I served it on a nice steamed rice. Very pleased with it, but tomorrow will make some more Chinese I think, lots of stuff in the fridge to be used.
Can’t believe it’s that long since I posted here last time.
Moka came over all the way from Paris this morning and is staying till Saturday, so I made some good food for her tonight, drowned in a bottle of wine. All this resulted in our early departure for bed…
The Chief gave me some Korean spicy sauce that is used at work to serve chargrilled wagyu and pork with, I bought 3 nice beef fillets, some nice greens- beans, baby courgettes and broccoli, steamed them first and then finished off on the pan. Steaks were cooked medium rare, just the way we like them, served with mustard mash, lovely sauce and greens. Yum.
Having posted that link from “Eat. Pray.Love”, I just had to make some lovely spaghetti bolognese and give it a spot, as we love the dish and the good French wine we bought in Paris last time, it was a fantastic supper.
My sauce takes at least 1,5 hour to cook. I first sautee the onions and carrots, some celery, in goes the mince, once it’s browned I add red wine, then the tinned tomatoes, good amount of seasoning, herbs and let it simmer for at least an hour. When it’s ready, will all the flavours sitting nicely together, I cook the pasta and mix it all together, finish off with black pepper and freshly grated parmesan. A glass of good red- a must.
Yum.
Inspired by tar-tar chips from work of course, shop bought though, bigger in size and not so lovely in taste, as the potato ones we serve in Dinings.
I made the filling of steamed shrimps, fresh chopped chilli, lots of fresh coriander, mayo, chopped shallot, tabasco and some seasoning. First, some lovely ripe sliced avo went on the bottom of each taco, then filled them up and topped with some more coriander. Yum, very nice starter before the pesto we had tonight.
As much as I love scallops, I hardly ever cook them, somehow I prefer when somebody does it for me, like The Chief last Wednesday, when we ate at Dinings. My scallops tonight came from Dinings though; Cathal said that buying them in Waitrose is lame and that I should get some from work, at a decent price, the quality however will be out of this world in comparison to the supermarket ones. So I did. Goemon gave me some shells as well to present the dish in a posh way.
I’m busy redecorating the bedroom today, so dinner had to be relatively quick; I marinated the scallops in a mixture of chilli garlic paste, sesame oil and soy sauce, nothing measured, as usual. 🙂 I pan fried them and served on the bed of green salad with some fried rice on the side. Very pleased with the result. Chocolate fondants are in the oven as I write, green tea ice cream ready. Then it’s back to painting for me and washing up for Florek. 🙂
I can still taste it, while I’m typing and can’t decide what I could have done better. Of course the one at work is better, different cod, for sure, done by the professionals, plus I think I overcooked mine a wee bit ( didn’t time it very well, the chips took too long in the oven ).
I bought my cod and marinated it last night, following all the advice from Dinings Kitchen, to make sure it soaked in all the flavours. The marinade was chilli garlic paste, sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar. At work it’s simply grilled, I wrapped mine in the foil and baked it and finished it off under the grill, served with home made oven chips and minted peas. Very pleasant, but there is room for improvement.
That will be my staff meal for everyone tomorrow. A wee bit bigger portion though.
I bought 2 kinds of nice chorizo from Waitrose’s counter this morning, the more spicy it is, the better for this dish, if not spicy, can be played around with using some chilli oil or chilli garlic paste, that I still happened to have had in the fridge. I fried it up with some chopped onions, celery, an aubergine, a few cup mushrooms, added a can of good passata and adjusted the flavours with some seasoning and chilli stuff. Cooked the pasta, tossed it in, a generous amount of lovely fresh rocket on top and parmesan. Yum.
One of my favourites on Dinings menu. Goemon kindly gave me some chilli garlic paste and two other ingredients I always have in my cupboard, so I purchased some lovely shrimpages from Waitrose this morning and got to it. 3 measures of the paste, 2 of soy sauce and 1 of sesame oil, which I followed roughly for my marinade. maybe too roughly, as they turned out to be rather hot. I marinated them for nearly 4 hours, while busy gardening and then fried them on my griddling pan – those at work are char grilled, which makes them phenomenal. I served them with a nice veggie- fried rice, drizzled with sesame oil and finished off with fresh coriander. Florian, who is not massive on shrimps at all said it was a great dish. Thumbs up.
Ps. Those at work are better. 🙂
Ewa and Kris came over today to dine with us, so I slaved in the kitchen for the first time in a while. The weather was nice too, that’s why the dining table was taken outside again. The starter this evening was a cute little onion and cheese tart. I made a quick shortcrust pastry from flour, butter and water, blind baked it and then filled with spicy onion chutney, blue stilton and baked off. Served with rocket and parmesan salad. All the diners enjoyed it and there was nothing left.
The main- lamb shanks, this time done properly in red wine and chicken stock with veggies, in the oven for nearly 3 hours, nicely came off the bone (speaking of which, Ewa’s dog enjoyed all the bones some hours later). I served it with mash mixed up with some fried leeks – Nick’s suggestion.
We finished off with lemon pannacotta. No stress here, but I’m taking the remaining one for The Chief to taste tomorrow. Bit nervous, but looking forward to some constructive criticism.
