The original sashimi salad I was hoping to come close to is one of Nobu’s signature dishes and is served with tuna.  Sadly, there was no tuna in the fish counter in My Favourite Shop today, so I went for salmon. I tried to prepare it the way the guys in Ubon did, the tataki style- well seasoned and quickly seared on all sides. The method says you should dip the fish in ice water to stop the cooking process, I didn’t and it still worked.

The dressing was my favourite back in Ubon. I found the recipe in the internet-

• 3/4 cup of very finely chopped onion
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tsp water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• pinch sea salt/pinch black pepper
• 1/4 tsp powdered mustard
• 4 tsp grapeseed oil
• 4 tsp sesame oil

All the ingredients are to be combined apart from the oils, which only go in once the salt has dissolved.

The salad itself is just fresh green leaves with some bean sprouts, the sliced fish placed all around and the generous amount of dressing poured all over. I served it with some veggie fried rice on the side. Florian’s plate was clean after a few minutes, which means it was good.  🙂 And pretty, thus 2 photos.

One of our favourites.  A dish that even my spinach hating father ate and liked. Shockin’!!!

For the stuffing I use a bag of fresh spinach, thrown on a melted butter with some crushed garlic, quickly wilted, on that the whole ricotta, one egg, a good handful of parmesan and lots of seasoning, not forgetting the nutmeg.

I never use the ready, dry canelloni to be stuffed, I use lasagne sheets, I find them easier to play with and softer. It’s good to soften the pasta sheets in hot water for a few minutes, they are easier to roll into canelloni. While that’s happening, quickly make the bechamel – as described in Lasagne post, again plenty of nutmeg.

I like to put some easy, basic tomato sauce on the bottom of my baking dish, the dish can be made with bechamel only, but I like the contrast, so extra 5 minutes work pays off. Some passata, a bit of oregano, nothing complicated, as long as there is tomato in there.

Rolled canelloni are placed on the tomato sauce, then baked under bechamel until slightly brown. Excellent dish for any vegetarian friends.

Yummy and damn easy, thanks to the convenient corn fajitas, ready, available to buy, they just have to heated up a little.

The stuffing for mine is normally chicken, thinly chopped, tossed in fajita spices ( normally on the same shelf as all other Mexican stuff) , quickly fried up with some peppers, onions or leeks, depending what’s in the fridge, mushrooms, tomatoes,  sweetcorn and finished off with fresh coriander, well seasoned, it’s got to have a kick.

Fresh guacamole is a must; 2 ripe avos ( if not ripe, don’t bother, they won’t taste of much), a garlic clove, some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika, all blitzed. Takes all 3 minutes. I could never understand why people buy ready guacamole.

Oh, and some freshly grated cheddar is a nice touch ! 🙂

First time I tried this pie was at Ewa’s , the one person who hates cooking, cooks cause she has to, but a person whom I love cooking for!!!

It’s easy and lovely. Some chopped chicken gets fried up with chopped leeks,a small can of sweetcorn in, chicken stock, a touch of cream and seasoning ( easy, as there is stock in it already) and about 15-20 minutes on the stove. There was some lonely, sad looking piece of broccoli left in the fridge from Sunday, so I threw it in, it was great addition actually!

It gets transferred to the small casserole, covered with  a sheet of puff pastry, some egg yolk for the colour and mixed seeds on top, sesame seeds mostly. And in the oven until risen and golden, so roughly about 30 minutes.

Tonight served with freshly squeezed orange juice- good move with those vitamins, as Shirley was coming for a drink in the evening and we damaged 2 bottles of wine…..:-/

I’ve been made redundant nearly a month ago, but I’m still loving every single weekend off, when I can cook and do as  I please, stay in bed till 11 and not give a toss in general.

Sunday is all about nice food. Today it was lamb shanks. Got some nice ones from Waitrose, checked up recipes on the net, got the best out of all of them and got cracking. I browned my shanks first nicely, all over, then put them in the casserole with some fried shallots, celery and carrots – fried in the same pan and meat juices. Added some white wine ( next time it will be red, the gravy is nicer ), rosemary, chicken stock, enough to cover the meat, a bay leaf, some peppercorns and stuffed it all in the oven for 2,5 hours.

The meat was just as I wanted it to be, no knife was needed to get the meat off the bone, it was so soft it came off on a fork. I served it with steamed rice, some nice broccoli and an onion salad, that my Mum invented for lamb specifically- very complicated; chopped shallot or onion with lots of paprika, vegeta and pepper, a touch of olive oil. Done.

We popped in to Majestic and stocked up on wine, only there they have this nice Rioja Marques de la Concordia, the most awesome wine with red meat. We damaged a bottle to dinner tonight.

Next time, red wine and much more space in the stomach!

I felt like some nice fish for a change, I mean, nothing can replace a good steak, but from time to time something different. I looked at what Jamie The Chav Boy suggested and bought 2 sea bass fillets. I pan fried them quickly on a a bed of pancetta lardons, served with broccoli tossed in dressing made with soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, lime juice, sesame seeds and a chopped chilli.

I sat it on a bed of sweet potatoes with lots of coriander, remaining chilli and some soya sauce.

It was very pleasant with those crispy bits of pancetta and soya broccoli.

For the record, the food obsessed waitress is a waitress no more, as Rhubarb was closed down last week by BAA, due to the imminent refurbishment of Terminal 3. The former waitress has therefore a lot more time to spend in the kitchen and going through her cook books, she does not have to work weekends and has a lot more time to cook.

So tonight we thought- it’s been a while since we made some pasta. Florian did all the pasta work, Oluta has baked chopped pumpkin along with some shallots and 2 cloves of garlic and lots of olive oil. She then roughly mixed it with some crushed amaretti biscuits and parmesan, seasoned well and stuffed ravioli with it.

We served it with a simple tomato and basil sauce, which was great with the pasta sweet stuffing. We were truly proud of the results of our messy kitchen tonight.

I realize the presentation was not exactly a Masterchef kinda thing, but we didn’t care, as it tasted fantastic…..

Sushi!!!!!!

Love sushi ever since Ubon times, love it to bits. Don’t love Yo Sushi, don’ t love supermarket sushi. Don’t love industrial cheap sushi, that should be banned. If sushi- either very good, which means expensive, or- homemade. Of course it looks nothing like the professional one, but the one I made today tasted awesome. I used sushi rice, flavoured it with some flavouring I bought a while ago in an Asian supermarket, added some rice vinegar, almost too much! I bought  a nice salmon fillet, a tuna  fillet and 3 tiger shrimps, a nice, ripe avo, nori and got cracking. I fancied spicy tuna rolls, like those we used to have every day in Ubon times. I chopped my tuna and mixed with some mayo, lots of chilli sauce and some chopped scallions. The other rolls were with fresh salmon and avo, with the fried shrimp ( I did not attempt a shrimp tempura roll, not just yet). I made 3 nigiri with tuna, which was so fresh, that it had to be done and one inside out thing with the spicy Japanese thing I found on the Posh Shelf in Waitrose.

We loved the result tonight. I thought I overdone the vinegar, but it was full of flavour and the spicy tuna rolls I’m well proud of.

The thing to master now is presentation.