The tastiest thing I’ve made in a long time. My fingers still smell of coriander, the last thing on the palate are those wonderful garlic chips.

The recipe comes from Marion’s Kitchen, the same Marion who was a favourite to win Aussie Masterchef in season 1, she didn’t win, but she did very much alright for herself, not only selling a range of Thai sauces and condiments, but running that fantastic youtube channel first of all.

So first job was a garlic clove, roughly chopped and fried till golden, left to cool. A dressing- made with chili, coriander- stalks and all, garlic, salt and lime juice, I also added a dash of sesame oil.

And the dumplings, the beauties! A bag of those lovely Iceland shimps, most of them finely chopped, the rest roughly chopped, for texture. Seasoned with white pepper, salt, sugar, chicken stock and mixed with some cornflour. Gyoza wrappers were defrosting since breakfast, filled them with the prawn mixture and gently poached them. Added my remaining chicken stock to the poaching water, never too much flavour!

Once cooked, that lovely vibrant dressing went on top, alongside garlic chips and fresh coriander. What a lovely plate of food that was.

Florek, not a prawn fan tried 2-3 dumplings and asked for a plate next time I make them. Florek liked my prawn dish, Donald Trump has corona virus, the world is coming to an end!!!

The world has come to an end. Husband said- you’ve found me a lamb dish that I like. I know, right? 🙂

It’s been a good day. Lots of visible work around the house got done, a cake with plums got baked, 3 productive hours in the garden were spent too. And then, having washed the dirt off my fingernails I got cracking with dinner. Recipe comes from Waitrose magazine, I’ve bought all I needed there yesterday and ended up with a lovely dinner this evening.

First I trimmed and roughly chopped 2 lamb leg steaks, seasoned with salt and herb pepper and browned off on olive oil. Large chopped onion and 2 mashed garlic cloves in. Some green beans, not in the recipe. A small amount of fresh rosemary, 2 bay leaves, 2 fresh tomatoes and a good splash of passata, a tsp of honey, some salt, 200 ml of chicken stock. All this left simmering under the lid while orzo cooked to the packet instructions. Once the lamb was soft, orzo went into the casserole, shortly before serving a good handful of fresh spinach, just to wilt.

We had it with crusty bread and a half bottle of French rose. Eaten to the last grain of orzo. Delicious. And will be made again.

Carbonara is Florek’s favourite pasta, alongside pesto. I’ve made it many times, sometimes with pancetta, sometimes with smoked streaky bacon. Never came across guanciale in the UK, so could not test this one.

Marco Pierre White was a guest chef in Masterchef Australia, that I’m still binging on, he made his version of carbonara and I tested it last night. the crowd was divided; we both liked it, finished the lot, agreed it was on the lighter side and very tasty, but if it was better than the bacony one with garlic that I normally make? Not sure. I bought some of that mega thin, sliced pancetta and roasted it in the oven, while the pasta was cooking. Risky business that, as pancetta was so thin it needed to be watched in order not to be burnt. Right before assembling the dish, I finished it off on the pan with 2 crushed garlic cloves.

3 egg yolks gently whipped with a splash of double cream- if Marco Pierre White uses cream- clearly that is a legal thing to do. Well seasoned, some grated parmesan chucked in. This was my first ever carbonara with virtually raw egg yolks. Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I added the yolk/cream/parmesan mix to it and tossed it well, away from the heat. It certainly was much lighter and creamier than my usual one. Only then pancetta was added, more parmesan and that was that. Still not sure if this is the way I’ll be doing it next time, but it had to be tested.

Last week we decided it was time to join the club of The People Who BBQ. We rather enjoy membership of the Tesla Owners Club, where drivers greet each other on the road just because they also drive one. Not everywhere, mind, Cheltenham area, Cotswolds, further down the A40 the greetings don’t work anymore.

Lidl had these little beauties on offer from Thursday morning. At £80 a piece. Today, on Sunday there were none left!

But we’ve got one. We’ve tried it a couple of times already, there were great sausages, burgers and also chicken skewers- mind blowing ones! The smoky flavour is just unbeatable!

This afternoon some lovely prawns made a debut. They sat in the marinade of garlic, chili flakes, salt, parsley, coriander, lime zest and juice and olive oil since early lunch time and later on they got grilled and were devoured with some lovely French rose. So much of that rose , in fact, that I’m having trouble spelling!!! But they were some of the best shrimps I’ve eaten in a long time. Next weekend Mariusz is coming over, there will be steaks and more grilling. It’s going to be epic! 🙂

It will be a very productive day in the kitchen. We just had this lovely soup for lunch, nothing was left, thoroughly enjoyable. The idea came from Tom Kerridge’s book, but I thickened it with 2 small potatoes, not split beans, as in the recipe. Also replaced the veggie stock with chicken stock and chucked in a small piece of chicken breast.

Started off with a large red onion, chopped and sauteed, 2 garlic cloves, minced, a carrot, for a bit of sweetness, 2 spuds. Stock, 20 minutes, till the veggies cooked, 400 g of frozen peas added, plus a handful of fresh mint from the garden. 5 minutes under the lid, then I blitzed it, added a bit of seasoning and a small piece of butter for silkiness, then just a garnish of parsley and single cream and it was ready to be enjoyed.

Cholla dough is proving, we’ll see what will come out of my first ever cholla, then in the evening we’ll be spiralizing courgettes for a new recipe. To be continued! 🙂

It’s been over 7 years since I left Dinings. Hard work it was, but satisfying and the food we served there was a Premier League. Never will I appreciate a supermarket sushi after what I was fortunate enough to taste and eat regularly back then.

Yesterday I sent a quick message to one of my former bosses, asking him how to make a proper fantastic sushi rice- in terms of flavouring. He was kind enough to send me a nice little formula for 250g of sushi rice, I used it as instructed and last night we had the best home made sushi to date. I flavoured the rice with 55g of rice vinegar, 35 g of caster sugar and 10g of salt, all dissolved and added to cooked and slightly cooled rice. When I tasted it I found it very sweet, but didn’t question Chief’s expertise and proceeded to roll my sushi. We had spicy tuna, as always, salmon avocado, salmon and asparagus, avo and cucumber for Izzie. That slightly sweet rice, when wrapped in nori and combined with the fish and extras was just something else. Both Florek and I were stunned. And we will be doing our rice like this from now onwards.

I also made a little starter with salmon sashimi and ponzu, ponzu however with yuzu juice, not lemon. Fresh, zingy, delicious!!!!

Aussie Masterchef inspired. Really, not much of a recipe there. Good quality shrimps, defrosted, seasoned with salt only, tossed in egg and panko, deep fried in the wok till golden brown. Served on a red veggie rice, with a spectacular dipping sauce- sweet chili sauce, a splash of soy, of sesame oil, yuzu and a bit of fresh coriander. That simple. Crunchy panko, lovely, sweet shrimp inside. Yum.

Last night in Aussie Masterchef someone made Thai beef salad. I thought about how appealing it sounded, looked it up and discovered I actually had everything I needed to make it, including a frozen piece of fillet. And lots of fresh herbs and even beansprouts! Simply had to make it. Best part of this dish for me was the sensational dressing, that I kept on licking while preparing dinner. I started with a juice of half a lime, a piece of fresh ginger, grated, a big clove of garlic, grated, 1 tbsp of brown sugar ( palm sugar in the recipe, don’t think I’ve ever seen it in my life), 1 tbsp of fish sauce, 2 tbsps of sesame oil, 1 tsp of soy sauce. Combined, let the sugar dissolve, then added a bit more lime juice, a bit more soy and fish sauce and a bit more sesame oil. And that did it for me.

Fillet was gently marinated in some fish sauce, soy, black pepper and sesame again, then quickly pan fried, rare, rested and then thinly sliced.

The salad itself was a lovely, crunchy, vibrant combination of beansprouts, cherry tomatoes, cucumber( seedless), shallot, a red chili, toasted peanuts and a good, generous amount of fresh coriander and mint. All this nicely tossed together, served with simple steamed rice. Glass of decent Burgundy. Yyyyyyuuuuuummmmm!!!!!

Finally. Finally I have the recipe I wanted for a while. Some time ago at Steve’s we had chicken skewers with satay sauce that blew me away, but it took forever to get the recipe out of him ( swapped for the blackcurrant cake recipe!). This was the second attempt. The first one, which I followed to the dot, with whole peanuts produced more of a satay paste than a sauce. It tasted good, but it wasn’t what I wanted. Having consulted Steve again and also youtube, I ditched the whole peanuts and went with smooth peanut butter. And I got what I wanted.

I started with the marinade for my chopped, skinless and boneless chicken thighs. Toasted and crushed coriander seeds, about 1 tbsp. 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, which gave the chicken a lovely yellow colour, 2 tsps of sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of sesame oil, juice of 1/2 a lime. There were also fennel seeds and some lemongrass which I left off due to not having any. 🙂

Chicken sat in this lovely marinade for most of the afternoon. The satay was a creative process of adding and tasting, thinking about it and trying to make it the way I liked. It took 2 small, chopped shallots, 1 clove of garlic, mashed, 1 green chili, chopped, but ended up adding more chili flakes later, as the heat was a bit too shy for my liking. 1 tsp of fish sauce, 2 tbsps of tamarind sauce, 100 ml of coconut milk- ended up adding more, twice, as the sauce was splitting slightly. 1 tsp of honey. Peanut butter, 3-4 tbsps, plus a little of the crunchy one for the texture.

Now, Steve’s chicken was far superior, as it was barbequed, so mine, from the oven really could not compete. But it was tasty, juicy and when dipped in that satay, delicious. Fresh coriander completed the picture. Once the lockdown is over and Mariusz comes over, I will be making more, I think it will wow him too.