In Aussie Masterchef they were making pannacotta with tonka bean, which made me want to do something with 2 pots of double cream in the fridge. There was also a jar of lovely pistachio paste bought in Tuscany last summer, waiting patiently to be turned into something spectacular. I used my usual pannacotta recipe, 300 ml of double cream, 100 ml of whole milk, 1,5 soaked gelatine leaves and sugar, which I was adjusting as I went along- the pistachio paste is super sweet. I started by heating up the cream and milk, added about 1,5 tbsp of vanilla sugar and a touch of vanilla paste, then, when it was getting nice and hot I started adding the paste. I ended up using about 4 tbsps of it, which might seem like a lot, but I wanted a dessert with a character, not something that resembled pistachio. And I managed to do just that. What would be fantastic in terms of looks and texture would be a nice pistachio crumb on top, but annoyingly I had not a single nut in the pantry, so instead melted a little dark chocolate to drizzle on top. Beautiful dessert. Florek loved it, Iz loved it, I did and Dusty was licking the plate until there was nothing left to lick. 5 stars. 🙂
Salad Nicoise.
Florek has been a fan, since he discovered it in Cote last year. Last night I was making 3 different courses for 3 of us, but as it was Sunday, storm Ciara was going mental outside, I had time and I felt like being in the kitchen. So having defrosted 2 lovely tuna fillets I looked up the salad, trying to do it justice, which was fairly tricky, as I myself am not a big fan of it. Gordon Ramsay’s recipe appealed to me for a few reasons, I went with it and Florek announced the dish was excellent, all but the cooking of tuna on my crappy griddle pan let it down a bit.
Started with the dressing; pestle and mortar was used to mash a couple of fresh olives, 2 anchovy fillets, a garlic clove and olive oil together into a paste, then lemon juice and a splash of balsamic vinegar. This was a surprisingly nice outcome. I cooked a few potatoes and French beans, cooled them, same with 2 fresh eggs. Gordon’s suggestion that I particularly liked was browning off the spuds before serving and same with cherry tomatoes- just a few minutes on until they blistered. I skipped the capers, dressed the green salad, arranged the hard boiled eggs and spuds on the plate and finally the tuna. Florek’s enthusiastic and asking for more. 🙂
Tortellini with tomato sauce.
Having watched all the Aussie Masterchef I felt we needed to make some fresh pasta again, as we don’t use our pasta machine often enough. I started shortly after breakfast yesterday, by roasting off some chopped butternut squash, carrot, a piece of sweet potato, red onion, a couple of cloves of garlic. Seasoned, drizzled with olive oil, it burnt black, while I was busy giving Tesla a clean. 🙂
Chucked the first batch and roasted off the second one. Once roasted and cooled, I blitzed the veggies with some toasted pine nuts and parmesan, it needed just a touch of seasoning and that was that.
Florek made fresh pasta with the help of very eager Izzie, I stuffed it and made into tortellini. Once cooked for a couple of minutes, the pasta went straight into the simple tomato and basil sauce waiting on the stove. We enjoyed it with some garlic baguette and wine. You can’t beat home made pasta! 🙂
Mash to die for.
I binge watch the first edition of Australian Masterchef on Amazon Prime. Much fresher edition than the one on the BBC, nicer format, funnier, more interesting. No Gregg Wallace. Yesterday the contestants watched a masterclass on how to make a fabulous mashed potatoes. I had time, I had potatoes, I had dinner to make for my family, I thought- alwite, let’s see if it’s worth the effort. First of all, the potatoes were baked in the oven, not boiled, the way I do it. Once baked,still hot, they were mashed through a drum sieve, which is not a gadget I own at the moment, I do have a nice ricer though, which makes a great job too. Which doesn’t mean I won’t ever get myself a sieve like that. 🙂 Also, new to me, but very effective is the use of balloon whisk. So the baked spuds once squeezed through the ricer go into a sauce pan, some hot milk on the side added bit by bit, alongside salted butter. Lots of salted butter. And whisked!!! Hard work that, but boy, once well seasoned that mash was top dollar. For me, a good mash is the sort that makes me stand by the stove and munch on it, while everything else can wait. And I just have one more taste. And one more. And then just a lick.
I had some meatballs from Ikea, which I baked on a bed of mixed roasted veggies. Plus Aussie mash. The child raised both her thumbs up. 🙂
Scones. From Hollywood.
Santa brought me Paul Hollywood’s book “How to bake”. The chap might not be my favourite man on the tv, but he certainly knows his baking and the book is packed with useful information. The first recipe I tried from it were scones. Kitchen aid sat this one out, as I actually did as I was told and used my fingers to mix the flour and butter and then the rest of the ingredients and made sure I’m not overworking the dough. I ended up with a plate of scones much lighter than the shop bought ones, a few too many though, maybe 500 g of flour will not be needed next time, unless there will be more than 2 people eager to eat them.
450g of strong white bread flour was used, rubbed with 80 g of unsalted, soft butter ( I might use salted next time), 80 g of caster sugar, 2 beaten eggs, 5 tsps of baking powder and a bit less than 250 ml of milk. The remaining 50 g of flour was to be used for dusting and adjusting the runny batter as required, but I ended up putting most of it back into the bag and not using all of the milk. As above, it is important not to overwork the dough, which I was careful not to do, when ready, I cut out the scones with round cookie cutter, placed on the baking parchment, gently washed the tops with beaten egg and baked for about 12 minutes in 220 degrees.
Served warm with French butter and blackcurrant conserve.
The best lunch in years!
And the person responsible for it is Moka, who cooked us moules mariniere, but without cream, her way, just wine and seafood juice. Before she cooked we visited a very well supplied fish shop, which made me want to eat nearly everything.
We’ve bought a massive bag of moules and some prawns for Orson, then visited a cheese shop. Exceptionally good service and a cheese selection we can only dream of in the UK.
Moka cooked the moules in 2 pans, lots of shallots, lots of parsley, we had a bottle of champagne with them and the baguette and it took us quite a while to finish the lot, but we battled on and succeeded.
And then Moka brought the cheeses out, including this super light and creamy number with truffles (she a trufflefile too, which is very promising for the times I get to cook for her!), a bottle of red was had alongside. We sat by the table for over 2 hours, eating, drinking, talking, laughing and having the best time, while the kids played on the floor with a train set.
I loved every minute of it and returned the next day to the cheese shop to take some home.
11 out of 10. And a standing ovation.
Paris 2019, a capital of food heaven.
Right after Christmas we boarded Tesla and headed for the Eurotunnel to see Moka, Ivan and Viktor in Paris after 5 years. I’m very sure we will not be waiting another 5 years to do it again, as it was the most enjoyable couple of days since, I think, Italy?….
We drank lots of wine within those 3 days, we’ve eaten very, very well. I had to visit Laduree, but I think I might skip it next time and spend 25 euro on the cheese or wine instead! It was the first time ever that I tasted a macaroon I disliked- rose flavoured one. It was like biting a bar of soap. Yuk. I have not managed to tasted the real Opera cake, but I’m sure they’ll have some next time when we’re there.
On Saturday night Moka took us to La Petite Perigourdine, where superb meat dishes were eaten. Ivan had steak, Moka liver, Florek one of the most delicious beef tartars I’ve ever tasted.
I had my beloved confit duck leg with a side that I’ve not tried before or ever heard of, Tomme d’Aligot; potato puree with cheese, brought to the table in the pan and served straight onto the plate, pouring! Very creamy, very delicious and super filling, Ivan and Viktor had to help me manage it.
For dessert we shared a creme brulee, a grand marnier soufflet, which I found eggy and heavy and some vanilla ice cream. We’ve left after 10 pm and spent a few enjoyable minutes by The Pantheon, where Izzie and Viktor ran around the Christmas trees. Lovely evening.
Christmassy apple parfait.
From Good Food magazine. I thought it would be a great dessert after Beef Wellington, my main course on Christmas table this year. Turned out quite well and the bits we have not managed, Ewa took for Macy to enjoy.
The good thing about the parfait was that I was able to make it a week before Christmas and it sat in the freezer until it was needed. All I had to do on the day was the apple sauce and the caramelised apples.
So, I started with 5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, chopped and cooked down with 150 g of demerara sugar, then cooled and pureed. 3 eggs, sepapated. The yolks were beaten in the kitchen aid, while 100 g of caster sugar was brought to the boil with 120 ml of water. Once the syrup reached 120 degrees, I added it slowly to the egg yolks and continued whisking for about 4 minutes. Egg whites whipped stiff with 25 g of caster sugar. And finally 150 ml double cream whipped till stiff as well. The apple puree, the cream, the egg whites all went into the egg yolks and got combined gently and lovingly. A long tin was waiting with cling film overhanging and the whole thing went into the freezer.
Toffee sauce- 100 g of brown sugar, 25 g of butter, 50 ml double cream and a splash of apple juice, a sprinkle of cinnamon. Gently bubbled away till a scrumptious sauce emerged. A few caramelised apples were waiting and when we were ready for it, the parfait was sliced, topped with some crumbled digestive biscuits, the apples and finished with the sauce. Nobody had any complaints whatsover. 🙂
Cherry macaroons.
When browsing Amazon lately I came across some cherry curd, but also a passion fruit curd, promptly purchased both and I don’t regret it! Cherry macaroons were made yesterday, shells done the usual way with the colour nothing like I wanted it, the filling- half and half cherry curd and mascarpone, plus a bonus of a cherry in kirch in the middle. Just had one of them with a quick espresso on Saturday morning, love it. Next week I’ll make some mega yellow ones with passion fruit.
cauliflower “steaks”.
As a carnivore I had to use quotation marks, in order not to insult the proper steaks. I tried one of those in Brasserie Blanc recently; theirs was served with some kind of crumble with traces of truffle and a walnut pesto. That pesto was so finely blitzed it resembled baby food, leaning towards unpleasant, no texture to it at all. I thought the dish would shine under some kind of sauce, creamy, rich sauce. This evening I’ve made it my way and really enjoyed it.
Sliced 2 thick pieces from the middle of the cauli, seasoned with salt and pepper and gently panfried on olive oil and some butter, before transferring to the oven for about 30 minutes in 190 degrees ( kept pricking it to make sure it was still a little crunchy, but cooked).
Last night I saved some of my bechamel, which went with mushroom tortelloni, bechamel heavily spiked with white truffle paste. I covered the cauli with it for the last 4 minutes of the cooking, finished with a sprinkling of parsley and enjoyed with a fresh baguette. Loved it!
