This pretty looking salad is easy, yummy and lovely.

All it takes is some rocket, some parma ham slices, a few cherry tomatoes, 2 hard boiled eggs- boiled for about 6 minutes, no more, some red grapes for sweetness, a nice, ripe avo and some parmesan to finish. And that’s it! The dressing on the salad is the usual and lovely olive oil and balsamic and on the eggs just a tiny bit of mayo.

It always works.

I fancied something light this evening and went to a chestnut mushroom risotto. Not sure if will be using that king of mushrooms for risotto again, wasn’t blown away by the favour. It was a nice meal, though.

I fried a shallot and some sliced mushrooms, added some arborio rice I had left after shopping at Carluccio’s (therefore  £2406  per kg) and coated it all nicely in the oil and shallot stuff. Then gradually added some hot chicken stock and white wine and kept on stirring- risotto has to be looked after all the time, can’t be left alone. The liquid has to be added gradually and not topped up until nearly completely evaporated. Herb wise I went for thyme from my garden and when the rice was nice and cooked after about 20 minutes, I added lots of lovely parmesan and topped it up with fresh rocket. And more parmesan.

As for the mushrooms it might be porcini next time. From the woods of Poland.

First time I had a nice, real quiche was a few years ago  in Paris, when Moka and I had  delightful 5 days to ourselves, sightseeing, chatting, eating, drinking and having a good time with no men around. As far as I remember Moka made it with spinach and feta, or was it roasted peppers?…

Quiche is lovely, quick and easy due to the fact, that a ready made short crust pastry can be bought for a quid and a bit. I pre bake the pastry before the runny filling goes in, otherwise it won’t bake properly and will be soggy.

Mine and Florian’s favourite filling is the bacon and leek one, today I threw in a couple of mushrooms as well. I fry up the pancetta, add the chopped leeks to it, season well and put onto a pre – baked pastry base.

In a bowl I mix 2 eggs, a good hand full of grated cheddar, some single cream, season it well not forgetting a good pinch of nutmeg. It should have a consistency of a thick sour cream. I pour it onto the base topped with bacon and stuff and bake it off for about half an hour.

Serve it green salad or with some lovely broccoli, like I did this evening.

Simple!!! So simple and so delicious! And cheap!

The idea came from Julia Child’s book, what I changed was the chicken stock base rather than water, it’s got to have flavour!

To the boiling stock I add equal amount of roughly chopped, peeled potatoes and chopped leeks and cook it off for about 40 minutes, then blitz, season well, add a touch of cream and parsley and have some lovely crusty bread and butter ready to go with it. Yum!!!! 🙂

Heston Blumenthal and Delia Smith are doing something together for Waitrose, hence lots of interesting recipe leaflets in the shop, that takes a huge chunks of my earnings…. 🙂

This is the first by Heston I ever tried and it worked.

I bought the pastry ( and some baking beans for that occasion) and baked it off to have it ready for my first ever lemon curd. I used 2 whole eggs, an egg yolk, beaten, a juice and zest of 2 whole unwaxed lemons, 110 g of sugar and vanilla sugar and 110 g of butter, put it all in the pan on a small heat and stirred with a whisk for about 15 minutes, not letting it simmer. Then, when it does simmer, after 5 seconds took it off the hear, put it through a fine sieve and covered with cling film, chilled in the fridge.

When my pastry base cooled down I transferred the curd onto it and only then tasted it for the first time- loved it!!!!

As seen on the photo, there is a room for improvement presentation wise, but as I made it from half a portion, there was too much pastry and not enough curd, next time will make it for some more people and it will be beautiful. Served with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.

Ewa told me a while ago, having first seen my blog, there is a film I absolutely have to see. I bumped into it in HMV yesterday, watched it, loved it, cooked from a little cookbook attached to it and made Florian watch it tonight. It’s called ” Julia & Julie”, awesome movie.

Being off today, I had all this time to go to Waitrose, do my shopping and then make the stew as well as the dessert.

First things first, though.I fried a few bacon rashers, put them aside in the casserole. Then I browned a few chunks of beef, not too many, as I cook for two most of the time. Put it in the casserole, seasoned well and dusted with flour. In all those meat and bacon juices I sauteed some roughly chopped onions and carrots, added to the rest, then poured some good red wine and beef stock over,just enough to cover the meat,  added some crushed garlic, tomato paste,thyme,  a bay leaf and stuck in the oven for about 3 hours to let it cook off slowly. Now, in Julia’s recipe there are some fried mushrooms and onions added by the end, I added some of my quality dried mushrooms, known in England as porcini and being damn expensive. I’m a lucky Oluta, who has a big jar of them in my cupboard, thanks to my parents who are keen mushroom pickers and supply me every year with more than I can use. The flavour is magnificent.

I served my beef with mashed potatoes, for which I use a potato ricer, lots of butter and some seasoning. We found the very rich sauce against the nearly sweet flavour of the mash very pleasant.

To be done again. 🙂

Sunday is a pasta day. I was thinking about this pasta for the whole morning at work, and ever since I invested 24 quid in a pasta maker, Florian grew fond of playing with it and we come together as a team to produce some gooooood foooood!

I buy the type 00 flour for the pasta, according to Jamie Oliver’s recommendation, only 2 quid in Carluccio’ s , bargain…:-) Florian makes the pasta, entirely, all the credit goes to him, he experiments with whether to use 1 egg and water or 2 eggs and no water and has patience to ” iron ” it through the machine repeatedly. It is worth it though.

We stuffed ravioli with the mixture of ground walnuts, ricotta, garlic, basil and seasoning. The sauce I made was suggested by Good Food mag, single cream, garlic and mixed fresh herbs ( Florian was not happy with the dill ). It was not bad, but I think next time it will be chopped fried pancetta, simple and meaty.

The whole thing looked like that…

This lovely little dish was inspired by the one Steve served on his party last weekend. The way it came out reminded me of Ubon by Nobu and our awesome beef tataki, the food to die for.

It’s simple, a nice chunk of a beef fillet, cooked rare and left to rest for a few minutes. Green salad along with some bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, lots of fresh coriader. The dressing, I must say, I was proud of tonight.  I chopped a shallot, added some sesame oil, some soy, a tiny bit of a miso paste I happened to have, some sesame seeds, a chopped red chilli, a squeeze of lime juice and a bit of brown sugar.

I seasoned the fillet generously and fried it rare, after it rested sliced it thinly and put on the dressed salad, leaving some dressing to pour over the meat as well.

I served with some potato wedges, nice and spicy with cayenne pepper.

Very, very nice little dish. So good, it deserves 2 photos.

Yup, my curry would be considered as primitive by the experts and erm, Indians. 🙂 That’s because I use the ready paste I buy in Waitrose for 2 quid. Maybe one day I’ll make my own curry from scratch, for now however we enjoy a quick and very tasty version, which I made for Janka this time, as she came with a very brief visit.

A large onion gets chopped, fried on olive oil, then I add the paste and fry it briefly just to bring out the flavour. I then add some chopped chicken and whatever veggies I fancy, sweet potato is a must though, some mange tout as well, a courgette might be a good idea, cherry tomatoes. I discovered coconut cream, which gives the dish nicer body than the coconut milk, whether it’s better for you or not, does not exactly deprive me of my sleep at night. 🙂

I let it all simmer for about 40 minutes until the sweet potatoes are well cooked and are nearly falling apart. Then it’s just the generous amount of coriander left to top it all up, love my coriander in every amount, might have mentioned once or twice…

I serve it with nice and simple rice. And love it!!!

If I have a signature dish, this is it.

My lasagne is never done in a rush, the meat sauce bubbles away for about 2 hours and the milk for bechamel always gets infused before it’s used.

The finest lasagne I’ve had in my life was in Tuscany, when Ken took us to the little village not far from Bagni di Luca, not even to a restaurant, there was no menu,  every plate on the table was from a different set, as was the cutlery, but the lasagne  we were served was melting in the mouth, it tasted like heaven.

I make mine starting from the meat sauce. Onion gets chopped and fried up on the olive oil with some chopped carrots and celery, then I add the minced beef, not necessary lean one, brown it up and then pour some red wine, sweet red wine if I have it, it’s looooovely!. When it’s nearly all sunk in the meat I add a can of chopped tomatoes, lots of oregano, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a bit of sugar and let it all simmer slowly for at least 1,5 hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes. I don’t like my meat sauce to be too thick, otherwise the lasagne is a like  a brick afterwards, sometimes I loosen it up with some chicken stock or more wine.

Them onto the bechamel. I infuse my milk with a shallot, some garlic, peppercorns and a bay leaf and heat it up slowly.

I melt some butter, then add the flour, stirring vigorously, cook it up quickly and then start pouring in the infused milk gradually, having disposed of the infusing bits previously, of course. I like my bechamel quite thick, so in goes some grated parmesan, lots of seasoning and nutmeg.

I use fresh pasta from Waitrose, if it’s Sunday and Florian is in the mood, he might make it from scratch, it is sooooo worth it!

The bottom layer is always meat sauce, then some bechamel, pasta, meat sauce, bechamel, pasta and bechamel on top, finished with some more parmesan.

And into the oven for 30-40 minutes until slightly browned up, bubbly and the smell in the house drives us wild. While it’s baking, I open the wine and enjoy it on its own in anticipation of a feast.

I serve it with some good red wine and a crunchy green salad. I can see myself making it for my grandchildren in 40 years time. 🙂