There are things I love to eat, but don’t often cook, as I’m the only fan of them in our family. I’ve made a lovely shepherd’s pie with ready lamb shanks bought from M&S, hoping I will succeed in convincing them that lamb can be delicious. Iz finished her portion, but only because she was promised a ride on the front seat of Tesla model S we have for a week. Florek struggled, but managed most of it. I won’t be doing it again, I think. Duck is another one of those things that I adore, he doesn’t. Cabbage, as well.

But cabbage was made this time to accompany my confit duck legs and I enjoyed it, but needed to call mum for a method, as I have never prepared cabbage this way and have not eaten it in donkey’s years.

I bought a pointed, sweet, small cabbage, chopped it quite roughly, chucked into the pan with a splash of water, salt and sugar. Mum suggested cumin as well, I opted out. Covered it and cooked for about 10 minutes, during which I got on with my roux, made with some leftover back fat from last night’s pierogi. Flavour like no other, I always have some in the freezer. My roux also contained some chopped and fried shallots, once the cabbage was tender, but still held its shape nicely I added the roux, stirred it all well and adjusted seasoning. It made a wonderful extra along the duck and the new potatoes. It’s a yes from me!

I was really excited about making these( from mojewypieki.com). The colour looked spectacular and it seemed like a good way of getting some spinach into the child. I was even hoping she could help me make them on this rainy afternoon. But no, the child not in the mood for cooking and asked if she could have regular pancakes instead. Nope, spinach ones were the only ones on the menu.

I started with blitzing 90 g of spinach with a tall glass of milk into a nice, creamy, place green liquid. To that I added 1,5 tall glass of plain flour, 3 beaten eggs, a tall glass of sparkling water, about 1 tbsp of melted butter and some salt. The batter rested for 15 minutes and then I fried the pancakes on 2 pans to speed up the process.

I filled them with a nice mixture of fried bacon, shallot, mushrooms, courgettes and tomatoes, added some grated cheddar and warmed up in the oven for a few minutes before serving. A splash of ketchup works for me, I must say, no excitement from the child. At all. We are yet to find out what the Man of the House thinks.

From Good Food, Jeremy Pang’s idea. Caught my attention straight away, especially as the buns were not done in 5 hours, but were advertised as “quick”. And indeed, from start to finish, in no particular rush I made us a nice dinner and the buns were declared “the best ever” by Iz. They were made with 200g of self raising flour plus 1,1/2 tsp of baking powder, 2 tbsps caster sugar, a good pinch of salt, all this into the bowl of kitchen aid. To this I added 100 ml of milk mixed with 1 tbsp of sunflower oil and 1tbsp of white wine vinegar, added to the dry ingredients and let the mixer do the work. Within 5-6 minutes there was a lovely, elastic dough ready to cut into 6 balls, which were then flattened into ovals and rolled until something like 0,5 cm thick. A bit of sunflower oil brushed all over the top of each, then folded in half and into the steamer for about 8 minutes, 3 buns at a time.

Now, the sticky chicken was tasty, but it was not a revelation. I thought it needed at least twice as much of the sticky sauce, I would also give it more heat next time. 4 boneless chicken thighs, lightly marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, baked in the oven, but if they were bbq’d, that would have made a world of difference. That sticky sauce was a mixture of 3 tbsps of soy, 1 tbsp of harissa paste, 1 tsp of white wine vinegar and some sesame oil. It needed more flavour, far too tame!

Once all cooked and ready the buns were assembled with sliced japaneno, coriander, spring onions and sesame seeds, I had to used some hoisin sauce in mine to make it more moist.

4 out of 5, but buns were awesome.

It took me half a day to decide what to feed my family with this evening. There was a nice selection of veggies in the fridge, mostly spinach, that was going to end up in a spinach and ricotta lasagne. But I didn’t really fancy it, so I looked through internet quickly for ideas. And green gnocchi seemed like a smashing idea, we all love gnocchi in this house. I found a couple of recipes and ended up following my gut and experience. The result was a lovely supper, all finished, flushed down with some cab sav (yes, it is only Wednesday, but I wasn’t working hard in the kitchen for nearly 2 hours to have my gnocchi with water, right?!) and now kitchen’s all tidy, I have Girls Aloud on fairly loud and actually feel like dancing for the first time in ages. It must be the cab sav. 🙂

I loosely followed the recipe, so ended up with too much food. 800 g of potatoes is a bit too much. 300 g of flour is too much. 200 g of spinach is ok. I boiled the spuds in skins till soft, peeled them when still fairly hot, squeezed them through the ricer. Added spinach puree ( cooked down on butter with some mashed garlic and salt), then added flour, but kept checking the texture, I’m glad I did not whack the whole 300g in. Quickly shaped them, the water was on stand by. As soon as the gnocchi came to the surface, onto the sauce they went, then served with freshly grated parmesan and a drop of olive oil.

The sauce was my usual signature tomato sauce, half and half fresh tomatoes and passata, lovingly reduced. I keep saying to Florek, that the first thing I will cook when we’re back in Castelnuovo in August( Covid allowing) will be some wonderful sugo al pomodoro, with only fresh tomatoes. And fresh herbs. Mmm.

We’re still in lockdown, so the restaurants are closed, but at least all the schools reopen tomorrow. No hope for eating out until mid May though. Restaurants cope in different ways, take aways mostly, some go further than that, like Rick Stein. His places offer some carefully prepared boxes, containing ingredients for a starter, main and a dessert for two, plus simple instructions how to put it together. Florek ordered us one of these boxes and it arrived yesterday, beautifully packed.

For starters there were Cornish mussels, that somebody even cleaned before vacuum packing them, for the main an Indonesian curry, pavlova to finish with. A very pleasant bottle of French vermentino, 60 ml of which was to be used to prepare the mussels, I used more and then we drained it in the evening, all this pleasure for £55 plus DPD delivery.

Mussels were lovely, different to the creamy, garlicky ones I make, those were flavoured with confit onions and no cream was recommended. Nice, but I’m sticking with mariniere next time.

The curry was lovely too. Fish lovely and fresh, especially the seabass.

The bean salad for me could be skipped, especially as the side dressing was made with shrimp paste, a vile ingredient that does not agree with my palate since that awful nasi goreng I made once. Florek tried a little for the science, I smelled it and gave it a tiny taste before downing a glass of wine quickly. Yuk.

2 nice big meringues were provided, all I had to do was to whip the cream and fold it together with some passion fruit. And that was that.

Good stuff altogether, we might be trying a different menu some time soon.

I’ve come across it once or twice before, but having seen it in the Good Food mag recently I felt like doing it again, with all the attention and love it deserves. There’s always passata in my pantry, there’s always a chunk of parmesan, all the other stuff came from Sainsbury’s this morning. So having painted a chunk of my garden fence I’ve made us a chicken parmigiana for dinner. And it was very much enjoyed.

I started with a nice tomato sauce, a shallot, a couple of cup mushrooms, some passata, some dry oregano, lots of seasoning. While that was bubbling away I cut my chicken breasts into smaller pieces, bashed them flattish, seasoned, tossed in flour, then in egg, then in a breadcrumbs and parmesan mixture. Pan fried briefly, without worrying if it’s under- it was en route to the oven. Tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish, chicken, more sauce, some mozzarella and more parmesan, some fresh chopped cherry tomatoes. It baked for 20-25 minutes until the cheese began to brown up.

Served with crusty bread and some chianti, followed by some French cheeses. Austerity. 🙂

January is coming to an end, not fast enough for me. We’re still in lockdown, schools are still closed, we’re stuck at home, so one thing we can do is cook and bake and eat well. Yesterday a roasted cauliflower soup for lunch.

A small cauli, 2 shallots, a couple of garlic cloves, some cumin seeds, olive oil and salt and in the oven for 35-40 minutes, partially covered. I ended up adding more ground cumin later.

Roasted veggies were added into hot chicken stock, cooked for a few minutes, blitzed into a creamy goodness, seasoned and finished with a touch of double cream. On top some toasted sunflower seeds. Lovely, nutritious, wintery soup.

Today, fresh pasta. I wanted to have a go at making agnolotti, youtube videos made it look easy enough, mine were nowhere near as pretty. More practice is needed, the flavour however was there and we ended up with lovely dinner. The stuffing- roasted butternut squash, red onions, pine nuts, walnuts, parmesan. Fresh thyme. Florek made pasta, the sauce was a simple fresh tomato reduction, lots of olive oil and some more of that beautiful fresh thyme. Next time the pasta will be thinner and better looking.

From Rick Stein’s “French Odyssey”.

It was only the second time I attempted a steak tartare at home. Done it a few years ago to Mum’s instructions, but was seriously underwhelmed,then had a few good ones in Brasserie Blanc and in Cote, not to mention that sensational one Florek had in Paris a year ago, but now, in lockdown, with great butcher around the corner there was no excuse but to try again. Especially with a recipe.

So I bought 300 g of fillet steak, which Toby kindly minced for me. To go with it I used 1 tbsp of chopped capers, a finely chopped echalion shallot, ended up adding a bit more, 2 tbsps of chopped parsley, 1 tbsp of olive oil, a large chopped cornichon, some tabasco, a generous seasoning of sea salt and black pepper. What the recipe lacked and I added 2 tsps of was Dijon mustard, a must, in my opinion. Worked it all well, formed 2 portions and placed a fresh egg yolk on top. Seasoning was checked and double checked and still salt and pepper mills, as well as tabasco ended up on the table. With the tartare we had some delicious matchstick fries and polished a bottle of Spanish garnacha. Very good indeed.

I’m amazed I’ve never done this before. I’ve been buying mediocre ham from the shops and butcher’s for years. The best I’ve ever had had to be the stuff Dad used to smoke before Christmas years ago. Yesterday a new Good Food mag came through the door, with a festive, glazed ham on the cover. I showed it to Florek and said- this is a sign from God. 🙂

I looked up a few simple recipes, added a small, unsmoked gammon joint to my Sainsbury’s load due to arrive this morning and I thought, the worst that could happen I would have wasted 4 quid. But I didn’t waste it. The house still smells of cloves, but I think for Christmas I’ll make another one, festive, maybe with orange glaze or something, I’ll research the subject and do more of these, now that I know I can!!!

So the small, 750 g gammon went into the pot of cold water, enough of it to submerge the whole thing, alongside the whole onion, a carrot, 3 bay leaves, some peppercorns, a small rosemary sprig, celery stick and some cloves. When it came to the boil, I covered it and simmered for about 40 minutes. Took it out, glazed with half of the combination of honey( 70g), Dijon mustard, about 1,1/2 tsp and 2 tbsps of dark sugar. Roasted it in 200 degrees for 15 minutes, before reglazing it with the remaining mixture and then 15 minutes again.

What I ended up with is a succulent piece of ham, salty, with sweet glaze, juicy and wonderful. I’m looking forward to making some lunch with it tomorrow. Also, reviews say that the stock from poaching the ham will make a fantastic base for a soup. Mine’s saved and waiting. Good stuff!!

The curry recipe is from December edition of Waitrose magazine, from which I also picked up a dessert I will make for Christmas. I actually already made some to try it out, I’m glad I did, as there will be some corrections made.

Now, the duck curry I simply had to try, especially as there were 2 duck legs sitting in the freezer. Florek promised he would give it a go, although he’s not a duck fan at all. For me the whole dinner tonight was excellent, Florek had it, but was not blown away by the duck, by the naan they both were. My lovely kiddo was finishing her picture after dinner and still chewing on the remaining bread, as it was”the best ever”.

Now, the duck legs, once defrosted received a nice sprinkling of curry powder, salt and turmeric and once we came back from school, got browned off on a little oil. 2 large onions chopped went into the pan, once the thighs were set aside, I cooked these down for nearly 15 minutes. Then a garlic and ginger paste went in, about 5 garlic cloves and a significant chunk of fresh ginger. Cooked for a few minutes with the onions. 1 tsp of chili flakes. 300 ml of chicken stock. Some salt- will leave out next time, the whole thing was salted plenty. The thighs back in, about 45 minutes later I was supposed to uncover them and continue cooking for another 40 minutes, but the meat needed longer, so I kept the lid on. In the meantime I got the rice ready, the fried shallots and the apple salad- that was lovely with a rich curry. 2 dessert apples very thinly sliced, some fresh chili, the dressing on juice of 1 lime, 1 tsp of fish sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil.

The naan! I don’t often make it from scratch, but this recipe I’m keeping. Found it on youtube, by some guy who loves curry. It was quick to make and when taken off the pan and smeared with some butter- I had to keep the child away after letting her try some. I used about 210g of self raising flour, 1tsp each of sugar and baking powder, a pinch of salt, then some Greek yoghurt, a splash of milk and some olive oil and all this quickly became a nice, soft dough. Once kneaded for a few minutes, it was rolled out, some garlic slices and fresh coriander were pressed in with the rolling pin and onto the pan on a medium heat for about 4 minutes on each side. Finished with butter and a tiny sprinkling of sea salt. Delicious!

Link to the naan;