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. 🙂

Thanks to Alice, who gave me 3 older editions of it, I recently subscribed to Good Food magazine. Love it, every single paper is packed with good ideas I’d never have thought of.It came in handy this evening.

I tried out a side dish  tonight, made of courgettes and rice to go with my chicken kievs- a room for improvement here, I must say.

I fried up a couple of onions, thrown in 2 sliced courgettes and 2 handfulls of rice, topped it all with some hot chicken stock and seasoned well. I cooked it for about 5 minutes, added some grated cheddar and a table spoon of creme fraiche, made it all quite watery with the stock and transferred to the casserole dish. Covered with some more grated cheddar – in it went to the oven for about 40 minutes. When I took it out and tasted it, the rice was beautifully cooked with the flavours of the courgettes and chicken stock with a hint of cheese. Loved it!

I served it with an attempt of totally home made chicken kievs. I used to buy them ready from Waitrose, but having recently seen a BBC programme about  mechanically retrieved meat I don’t think I’ll be buying it any time soon again, though I normally trust Waitrose.

I seasoned 2 chicken breasts well, stuffed with some garlic butter- could have been more generous with it- dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, fried and finished off in the oven.

Really liked the courgette thing as an alternative to roasted potatoes or mash.

It looked like that…

We went to see Jimbo and Louise’s new house yesterday. I promised Louise I’d bring a dessert. It was going to be a blueberry cheesecake, I bought all the ingredients and on Saturday morning I spent 20 minutes looking for that recipe. Couldn’t find it. I have to say I have never succeeded in making a nice cold cheesecake, the image in my head was the passion fruit one that I once tried to make  and it poured out of the tin when I tried to serve it…And I hate cooking with gelatine.

This time I got impatient, I decided to get on with it without the recipe, as I had to leave for work shortly and there would be no time for making desserts later. I thought to myself- I am a confident enough cook to come up with a dessert of some sorts.

So I blitzed the digestive biscuits, mixed it with some melted butter and pressed it all gently against the bottom of the tin. I wanted to avoid making it too hard and ending up with a base that wouldn’t come out.

Next I whipped up some double cream with vanilla sugar, added a tub of Philadelphia cheese NOT MEASURING ANYTHING AT ALL, added a juice of a lime and its zest and  nearly 2 packets of blueberries. Folded it all in, placed on the base, smoothed and topped with lots of grated chocolate.

I chilled it in the fridge and kept my fingers crossed.

We’ve had it after Louise’s pasta with chorizo, it worked nicely, the base was lovely and crunchy, but not too hard, it was a success!!!! I had no camera with me, so couldn’t take a photo of it, but it will be made again. Nice, spontaneous,  improvised and fun to make.

🙂

Not sure, what the Italians would make of it, I think it is pretty good. And quite healthy as well, with all the greens.

I fry  an onion, a carrot,  a celery stick, some garlic, add chicken stock and let it cook slowly. In a separate pan I fry up some pancetta, lovely flavour, like no other bacon, then add it to the soup. Then in go the beans, chopped to the size small enough to fit on the spoon. I use green beans, runner beans and- if I have, broad beans. Some nice spring cabbage adds to the consistency nicely too. I season it all generously and add a handful of tiny pasta and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. The last thing to go in is pesto, doesn’t have to be a homemade one ( however with pesto pasta it is the only option in my kitchen! 🙂  ), a few bits here and there to add to the flavour.

I serve it with lovely crusty bread.

Florian once said  that my cottage pie is the best one he’s ever had. I reckon the one I’ve made tonight was best ever. Someone on telly has given me the idea of a parsnip mash, I’ve done half and half with the potatoes, it made the topping deliciously creamy and… sweet.

My meaty filling varies on whatever I have in the fridge. Today I fried up a red onion, a carrot, a courgette, some cherry tomatoes, green peas,then of course the minced beef ( not from Sainsbury’s, Florian has found a piece of bone in his 🙁  ).I add a generous splash of red wine, some Worcestershire sauce, some beef stock and some ketchup. And I let it all bubble away until the beef is lovely and soft and all has a nice rich texture and colour. Tasting it all the way is essential, it ahs to be nice and rich to be in contrast with the mash.

My mash is a messy one, but well worth the effort. It is all squeezed through the ricer, I add some butter, season with salt and pepper and work it with a wooden spoon until smooth.

All that is left now is transfer the meat mixture into the baking dish, cover with a layer of mash and bake off, until  it begins to brown slightly. You want it slightly crispy on top. I don’t think adding cheese on top is such a good idea, no need, if you make a nice mash.

We’ve managed the whole thing this evening….. 🙂