Good Food

Braised beef cheeks.

Leave a comment

One watches Masterchef, one gets ideas. One happens to have an excellent butcher down the road, so having seen beef cheeks cooked again, one went in and asked the butcher for the beef cheeks.  Nice, encouraging price of £3.70 per cheek,  I got excited and went home to cook. I googled a few recipes, one called for Madeira, I had none, so I went with my instinct and just braised them like I would good lamb.  Browned them first, did not trim anything off, as Toby said it would all render off nicely while cooking. When browned all over I threw in 2 chopped shallots, a carrot, some celery, some crushed garlic, bay leaves, thyme. A slosh of white wine- I had none red opened, but I’ll make sure I will have it on Sunday, when I cook them again for Izzie’s birthday.  Also, used chicken stock, on Sunday it will be beef. A few porcini mushrooms, a few whole peppercorns. And slowly on the stove for 3 hours they braised.  I finished the sauce with a bit of flour and water, it needed no extra seasoning. Served with green beans, carrots and a leeky mash.

I have to say, I loved the meat. But the opinions were different on this occasion, Florian wasn’t sold on texture ( that was the best thing about it!), but thought the sauce was great.  I found my sauce the weakest part of the plate, but hey, things will be perfected on Sunday.

Pleased. 🙂

Dessert

Grand Marnier soufflet.

Leave a comment

Gregg Wallace’s. I had plans to make these for a while, then I promised Florek I’d make them, if he fixed the floor boards in the bathroom. He did, so off I went and made the creme pat ready for the evening. I had to adjust Gregg’s recipe, as his was for one big soufflet, I wanted 2, max 3 ones in my small ramekins. Actually, this amount makes 5 easily.  For the creme pat I used 2 egg yolks whipped with 50 g of sugar,  20 g of flour folded in,125 ml of nearly boiling milk slowly added. Then back in the pan on a small heat and stirred till thick and lovely. When off the heat, 2 tbsps of Grand Marnier went in ( will add 3 next time, I’d have liked it a touch more boozy), and, as a slightly disappointing substitute of a finely grated zest of 1 orange- I didn’t have a single one!-I added finely chopped candied orange peel. The zest would have been great, next time!

After dinner I warmed up the oven to 200 degrees, whipped 2 egg whites with 50 g of sugar, then folded in  the creme pat bit by bit. Ramekins were ready, buttered and sprinkled with sugar. They baked for 12 minutes.  Light as a cloud, could have done with more orange flavour.

 

Baking

Berry macaroons.

Leave a comment

More macaroons. Red food colouring this time and inside a mixture of mixed berry coulis mixed with a touch of cornstarch, cooled and combined with mascarpone and a slosh of cassis.  The shells turned out so good, that I saved and froze 10 and decided to decorate Izzie’s birthday cake with them next weekend. Is the plan. 🙂

Baking

Very chocolatey chocolate cake.

Leave a comment

An only and obvious choice for Florek’s birthday. We’ve just tasted it, as the recipe said best the next day, but I must say it didn’t benefit from a night in the fridge. We’ll leave it outside in the room temperature till the evening and I’m sure the texture will improve big time.

Small round cake was made out of 100 g of dark chocolate and butter, melted together plus a single espresso and a splash of water( that’s my replacement for a tsp of instant coffee, which I don’t use, so didn’t have any), half a tall glass of plain flour mixed in a bowl together with a touch of soda, 0,5 tsp of baking powder,  2 tsps of cocoa,3/4 glass of muscovado. 2 whole eggs beaten with 35 ml of buttermilk.  All this stirred in together with a spatula, plus a tbps of hazelnut vodka- replacement for rum, either way couldn’t taste any.  Finally about 60 g of raspberries.

It baked in a lined tin for about 50 minutes, 140 degrees.

When baked, glazed with a double cream/milk chocolate mixture, plus extra fresh raspberries.

Happy birthday Florek! 🙂

Good Food

Mac ‘n’ cheese improved.

Leave a comment

Not exactly a height of sophistication, I know, but tasty and enjoyable. The reason it’s here again is the sauce I’ve made this evening, following the recipe from my GF folder.  I normally infuse my milk with garlic, peppercorns and bay leaf, but today I threw half a chopped leek too and I was astounded at how aromatic and tasty it made the sauce. Also, when making the roux, added a tsp of mustard powder. The sauce itself tasted great, with generous addition of grated cheddar, nutmeg and more pepper, as well as some chopped spring onions,but will add more mustard next time, as the cooked pasta washed it down a bit. Also new- crunchy topping made of a handful of panko and parmesan.

Lovely supper with green beans.

Baking

“Nutella cake”.

Leave a comment

I think it’s fair to say that I now enjoy baking more than I enjoy eating what I bake.  But time comes during the day, when I’m craving something sweet and then I head straingt to mojewypieki.com, have a look through the page and I always find something I want and something I have all the ingredients for. This one was with  hazelnuts, still one of my top ingredients and although I had no dark chocolate, I decided to chop up an Easter bunny from Ewa, made of milk chocolate.  It all worked, I made half a portion and we’re half way through it and Masterchef hasn’t even started yet. 🙂

50 g of butter, melted and cooled. 2 eggs, separated, whites whipped with a pinch of salt and 50 g of sugar.  Yolks added.  In a separate bowl 50 g of ground hazelnuts, 0,5 tsp of baking powder, 4 tbsps of plain flour and 50 g of grated( or, in my case, taken care of by food processor) chocolate, 0,5 tsp of cocoa- all this mixed and added into the egg mixture, folded gently with spatula. Baked in 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Finished with a simple glaze, double cream and milk chocolate. Very moreish. 🙂

Eaten out

Awesome tuna starter.

Leave a comment

Ron’s staying with us for Easter. We went to The Montpellier Chapter this evening, as I wanted to go for a long time, since my hairdresser Rob told me about this place and “the beef that he cut with the fork, so tender it was”. I checked the menu beforehand, as usual and their tuna carpaccio starter appealed to me straight away.  We both had it, Florek and I and we both loved it. I might even try to recreate it one day. On the menu they call it tuna carpaccio, I’d say it’s more tataki than carpaccio,  but it still tasted fabulous. Light miso dressing, some kind of green vinaigrette like in a small amount. Served cold and fantastic. I’d be going back to the Chapter just for that tuna, the steaks that followed were great too, must be said.

Good Food

Fresh gnocchi, again.

Leave a comment

Yup, I did it again. Better.  I baked my spuds slowly, while we went for a lovely, sunny walk to Stanton and Toddington.  Once cooled enough to handle, I pushed them through the ricer, it does make the difference to the consistency.  I ended up with about 470 g of potatoes, I added 120 g of 00 flour and 1 egg. The amount of dumplings was perfect for the 2 of us, not a piggy amount, but we’re not craving a dessert either.

They cooked a lot faster than the shop bought ones, as soon as they floated to the surface I removed them, drained them and placed in the lovely, tomato-chili sauce waiting on the hob. A sprinkle of parmesan and to the gob. 🙂

 

Baking

Chocolate and matcha cake.

Leave a comment

I liked the look of it on Dorota’s blog (where else), chocolate and matcha is always a winning combo, what do people pay for chocolate bento box in Nobu? That reminds me I haven’t made matcha ice cream in a long time, time to do something about it.

My cake this afternoon is made of half a portion, so that it was enjoyed and not wasted, good decision, there is now half left. Florian seems to be starved of chocolate cake, as he destroyed a large chunk of that half. 🙂 But that’s what makes baking so rewarding, we’ll see if Iz likes it tomorrow.

I used 110 g of butter, creamed with half of my tall glass of sugar, 2 egg added one at a time. A glass of plain flour with 1 tbsp of potato flour, less than 1 tsp of baking powder, a touch of vanilla paste- needn’t have bothered, can’t taste it-and about 1/4 a glass of milk. This mix I then divided in two, added 2 tbsps of cocoa to one and 3 tsps of matcha to the other.

Baked in 150 degrees for about 45 minutes, till the skewer came out clean.

Glazed with a simple chocolate ganache, 50 of dark chocolate melted in 20 g of butter. My own personal touch were a few chopped hazelnuts on top. It is going. Quickly.

Baking

Yuzu, raspberry and white chocolate muffins

Leave a comment

Nigella’s.

I came across the recipe when looking for muffins that would be similar to those from M&S I used to buy, the lemon and white chocolate ones.  This recipe appealed to me a lot, the addition of raspberries unplanned, but I had some frozen, so why not indeed.

60 g of melted butter, 200 g of plain flour, 2 tsps of baking powder, 0,5 tsp of baking soda, 130 g of sugar, a pinch of salt.  Nigella’s recipe called for a zest and juice of 1 lemon, I used the zest as asked, but instead of the juice I used 3 tbps of yuzu.  Then about 120 ml of milk, 1 beaten egg. A good handful of chopped white chocolate chips.Dry ingredients mixed with all wet ingredients, only just mixed till combined, I actually used a KA bowl and a spatula.  150 g of frozen raspberries thrown at the end.

Filled the muffin cases, 11 of them, baked in 200 degrees for about 20-22 minutes.  Finished with a little smear of melted white chocolate and yuzu juice. Florian just had 4 and that’s having had pizza for dinner. Therefore good! 🙂

On the joys of cooking and eating