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.
Fresh gnocchi, again.
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. 🙂
Chocolate and matcha cake.
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.
Yuzu, raspberry and white chocolate muffins
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! 🙂
Snickers flavoured macaroons
We were supposed to have guests this weekend, but the guests cancelled, so I changed my Ocado shopping list, got rid of some items, added some other and decided to make these, recent from Dorota’s mojewypieki.com. When it comes to macaroons I do prefer the fruity ones, the lemon, blackcurrant flavours of the filling against sweet meringue, but one has to try things.
I had a little help with preparing the nuts- 
The macaroons are made the same way as always, only not with ground almonds, but with finely ground peanuts. They smelled great in the oven and I was also extra careful not to overmix the Italian meringue with the nuts. Experience now shows that makes them spill and crack in the oven- very frustrating to watch.
There are 2 fillings; chocolate ganache, made of 150 ml of double cream, hot, 150 g of dark chocolate melted in it, excellent, I must say. Not too bitter and once cooled, nice and easy to pipe onto the macaroons.
Then the caramel one. I used the Bonne Maman Caramel spread, 130g of it mixed with 250 g packet of mascarpone. This one didn’t make me sing. It took quite some time to cool it, but it still spilled out. And when tasting the ready macaroons I decided I’m not getting much of the caramel, so I nuked a bit of the caramel spread in the microwave and drizzled some over the top.
They are lovely. Decadent. Nutty. Sweet, but not sickly. Happy me. 🙂
Ruskie pierogi.
Quite common on our table, not great when it comes to portion control, as neither of us can resist seconds, when it comes to pierogi.
I came across a recipe for pierogi dough on mojewypieki.com, found it quite surprising, I always just use plain flour and warm water with a splash of milk, so needing a recipe seemed like needing one for scrambled eggs for instance, or for a cup of tea. But Dorota quoted Maciej Kuron, a Polish celebrity chef. I gave it a go and ended up with an excellent dough and excellent plate of pierogi. Also, it never occurred to me to make it in Kitchen Aid, another first!
750 g of plain flour, a tall glass of very hot water( makes wonders to gluten), an egg, 3/4 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of oil, all worked in KA till smooth, just a few minutes. I really like the texture, the recipe is a keeper.
Udon and prawn stir fry.
Last Wednesday Florek took us for lunch to Bar and Wok, a small Chinese restaurant on the dodgy end of High Street, that I wanted to visit in a long time. Pizia and I had random stuff, like calamari and spring rolls, while Florek took a bowl of udon noodles with beef. I had a taste, it was far too hot for me, but the other flavour, sort of smoky, deep one I loved. The chap who served us said it is done by heating up the wok to the very smoky point, which can’t be done at home, but it’s normal in a restaurant. I’d cry my eyes out if I had a bowl of Florek’s noodles, but I left the restaurant inspired and determined to try to make my stir fries better.
I looked up some recipes and made a little sauce, that covered the whole dish. It consisted of a generous of tsp of chili garlic sauce, 2 tbsps of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 2 tbsps of brown sugar, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 tbsp of finely chopped ginger, plus just a splash of teriyaki sauce. My prawns were sitting in soy sauce most of the afternoon and I have to say I got them spot on this evening. They were crunchy and succulent. The veggies I first added to the hot work were a shallot, sping onion, mange tout, bean sprouts, green bell pepper and some cup mushrooms. Noodles- udon, the best I guess. Finishing touch was a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
Easily one of the best stir fries to date.
Apple pie with extras.
There’s got to be something sweet baked for the weekend, so I dug deep into mojewypieki.com again and picked this little gem. Good apple pie is never bad, as written before, provided it’s a real deal. The apples here are covered under a sweet duvet of budyn, only made with a bit less milk than the packet suggests.
Shortcrust pastry; 225 g of plain flour, 125 g of butter, 1 egg, 1 yolk, 4 tbsps of icing sugar, 0,5 tsp of baking powder and 1 tbsp of cream, all mixed into a dough, which divided into 2 went to the fridge and freezer respectively. In the meantime I got my apples ready, not the most awesome apples on earth, just cheapish Co-Op stuff. Lots of sugar, lots of cinnamon, some raisins.
Budyn cooked with 375 ml of milk, not 0.5 litre, as the packet suggests, 2 tbsps of sugar and a touch of vanilla paste added.
The pastry from the fridge went on the bottom of my small, square tray, prebaked for a few minutes, a little sprinkle of breadcrumbs to get the moisture from the apples on the bottom. Apples in, budyn on top. The dough from the freezer onto the budyn, grated on the rough end of the grater. Also added a sprinkle of chopped hazelnuts and baked in 200 degrees for about 35 minutes.
If I were a posh Brit I’d say I rather liked it. 🙂
Mary Berry’s lemon drizzle cake
An intense discussion has been ongoing between friends recently about different approach to healthy eating/fitness/weight loss and stuff. Most of us, good food lovers would benefit from losing a kilo or two, I, for one, have a stomach that is far from flat. Florek could shed a good 10 kg.
Jana, fitness queen among us, who’s always done some sort of sport for most of her life and now enjoys great body and feels great for it, has suggested somebody’s recipe for an apple tart made of millet, instead of flour. The idea Jana found interesting I found revolting. I’m all for health, but I refuse to compromise on taste and flavour, so instead of using freaky ingredients, I make half a portion of cake, but a good cake it is. Full of flavour. Made with butter and flour.
Yesterday Florek treated me to a few pieces of nice baking equipment in Lakeland, including 2 new baking trays. The small square one is perfect for a midweek cake for 3 of us, I tested it today with a lemon drizzle cake, Mary Berry’s. If someone knows how to bake, it’s Mary.
Easy- all the ingredients into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid, worked a couple of minutes- into the oven. The ingredients are; 112 g of butter and caster sugar, 137 ish g of self raising flour, 1 tsp of baking powder, 2 whole eggs, 2 tbsps of milk and a zest of one lemon. That’s all. Into the prepared, lined tin and into the oven for 35 minutes in 180 degrees.
Once baked and slightly cooled, I made lots of little holes with a skewer, so that the lemon syrup went all the way down. The syrup is simply a juice of 1 lemon and about 80 g of sugar- yes, sounds mental, but it tastes great. Citrusy, light, flavoursome.
Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce
Gnocchi from scratch, not for the first time ever, but I seem to recall that my previous attempt a few years ago was not a great success. Having found a step by step method by Antonio Carluccio in my new Folder Of Good Stuff I had to try again. I baked nearly 1 kg of spuds in the oven, which seems like a lot, but when peeled really not that much is left- I had about 450 g of mash. To that I added 110 g of 00 Italian flour and 1 egg. Rolled the dough and shaped into gnocchi, cooked in lots of salted water. A super simple sauce was waiting in an adjoining pan- a chunk of St Agur cheese melted with a bit of butter and a splash of milk, a touch of black pepper.
We both liked the end result. Pizia had 1,5 of them too. I liked the texture, but I think what could be improved is maybe that roasted mash, maybe I could put the spuds through the ricer. The sauce will be different next time too. There will be next time, that’s for sure.