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.

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!!!! 🙂