Good Food

Tuesday night doesn’t get better than that.

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There wasn’t a great deal of cooking and skills involved tonight. I went to Waitrose and when passing by the meat counter I heard a fillet steak calling my name loud and clear and when I looked at them they said- ” We’re here!!!! where have you been? buy us, buy us now!!!” (yes, I did have 3 glasses of wine before turning on my laptop). 🙂

The dinner consisted of roasted potatoes, roasted they way Hugh F- T likes them, quickly boiled for 5 minutes and then thrown on a hot tray with hot olive oil, nicely seasoned and roasted off until nice, brown, lovely and soft inside and crispy outside. The fillets went on a griddle pan to be cooked medium rare and served with béarnaise ( shop bought), the asparagus was guickly steamed and thrown on the pan with the steaks and seasoned while it finished off and finally just a simple rocket salad with pine nuts. And a glass of Shiraz.  One of the nicest meals I can think of.

Good Food

Gnocchi bake.

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Gnocchi have been sitting in the fridge, bought as a meal for a person, whose girlfriend works in the evenings. Girlfriend decided she actually felt like gnocchi, so she made a nice, thick sauce based on fried pancetta lardons, fresh celery, mushrooms, canned tomatoes, a good splash of sweet wine, fresh oregano and basil and thickened it with cream and flour for extra healthiness. 🙂

I preboiled the gnocchi for a minute or so before they went into the sauce, all nicely covered, then placed in individual baking dishes, covered with grated parmesan and baked for about 30 minutes.

Served with rocket, avo and parmesan salad and a nice glass of vino rosso. Yum.

Dessert

Lime pie.

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I just realized I’m being a bit boring here, all there is for the last few weeks are desserts. Should maybe get back to savoury stuff some time soon. Tonight though I went back to  ” The Art of Pastry ” book and made a lime pie. Very pleased with it, I must say, it’s very light and limey, as expected.

The pastry base, baked in the newly purchased tin ( together with a new pair of jeans to cheer myself up ) was made with 225 g of plain flour, 115 g of butter, 2 egg yolks, 30g of sugar and a bit of cold water. Blind baked for 20 minutes.

The filling like this I tried for the first time ever, as I always associated condensed milk with things like toffee sauce and here they told me to whip it up with the egg yolks. And it worked a treat! 4 yolks, a 400g tin of condensed milk, a juice and rind of 3 limes, 2 tbsp of sugar I whipped together bit by bit, then added whipped egg whites and mixed in. I then baked it all for 20 minutes in 160 Celsius. It’s risen, but then sat down when cooled, still ended up with lovely, moist, light and fluffy texture. I finished it off with some whipped cream, bits of lime and mint. Will be making it again! 🙂

Dessert

Green tea raging success!

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It’s Florek’s birthday today. I’ve cooked him a menu he asked for and even pulled off a proper Bento Box!!! The plan for green tea ice cream was far more ambitious, I did ask at work how to make it, I did go to Japan Centre on Picadilly to get the green tea powder, but eventually settled for Alex’s suggestion to simply mix the good quality vanilla ice cream with green tea powder. Yummmmmm!!!!!!! The fondant recipe is the same, today used Valrhona chocolate, picked by Florek in Waitrose.

It looked like this….

Dessert

Blueberry and almond tart(let)

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I love the way it looked in the latest issue of Good Food, so I made it tonight. Two small ones for us for dessert and a large one to take to work tomorrow to see what the Masterchefs of Dinings will make of it.

The pastry base I’m very happy with, it’s thin and crispy, just like it should be. Made with 200g of plain flour, 100g of butter and a bit of cold water, well worked and blind baked for 20 minutes.  The filling is made of 90g of soft butter creamed with 180 g of caster sugar, 2 whole beaten eggs, 180 g of almonds- that’s in the ideal world, but Oluta only had a small packet of ground almonds, so topped it up with ground pecans, worked great! I used about 250g of overpriced blueberries, mixed most of them into the filling, the rest scattered on top and pressed in lightly. It baked in 190 Celsius for about 45 minutes. Finished off with icing sugar. Nutty and sweet.

Dessert, Room for improvement

Nearly perfect chocolate fondant

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I had promised my chocolate loving Florian, that I will attempt a dessert he used to love in Ubon times, the Chocolate Bento Box. That one was served in a posh little box with green tea ice cream on the side. The first recipe that Google coughed up was Fucking Gordon’s, but I decided to use it, it looked easy and I like the idea of being able to store it in the fridge overnight before cooking. As I’m busy massacrating my lawn, I think it will be handy tomorrow to have a dessert nearly ready.

For 5 fondants I used 100g of good, dark chocolate, same amount of butter, plain flour and sugar, plus 2 egg yolks and 2 eggs. First I prepared the ramekins, brushed them with melted butter in a similar way like for the souffle ( upwards) and dusted with cocoa.

I melted the chocolate and butter in a bowl above boiling water, then chilled while I whisked the eggs with sugar. The flour went in with the eggs and then the chocolate, all of that into the ramekins and in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

I baked them in 200 Celsius for 12 minutes. The smell in the kitchen was fantastic, but tomorrow I will keep them in  for a bit longer. It’s supposed to be runny in the middle, mine today were a bit too runny, but tasted great. Florian finished his. 🙂

Good Food

Bruschetta

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Our favourite Sunday lunch, when the bread gets a bit stale and can be used and still enjoyed. I slice it thickly and spread some shop bought pesto on it, a  drizzle of olive oil and quickly fry it on a dry griddle pan. When crispy on both sides I top it  with a mixture of chopped tomatoes, olives, a shallot, fresh basil and olive oil, well seasoned.

A touch of parmesan on top finishes it off nicely.

Dessert

Apple pie with custard and (an orange) twist.

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Another one from the great pastry book from Nikosia. I’m very pleased with it, though my Mum’s apple pie it isn’t. Different pastry, Mum always makes it kind of shortcrust, but my apples this evening were prepared with a lot of cinnamon and and … a zest of one orange. When the pie is warm, the orange peel comes through beautifully.

For the pastry I used 180g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, 90 g of butter and a bit of cold water to keep it together. Once combined I cooled it in the fridge and got cracking with the apples. I tossed the peeled and thinly sliced apples in  a mixture of flour, sugar, cinnamon  and orange zest. Most of the pastry went for the bottom, then in went the apples, then the rest of the pastry on the top, egg yolk and- which I remembered 40 minutes into the baking- caster sugar on top. I baked it in 200 Celsius for the first 30 minutes and for the remaining 15, in 150.

Served it with Waitrose’s finest vanilla custard.

Good Food

Scallops, Dinings inspired.

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I’ve been feeling like scallops for a while and looking at, serving and tasting all this gorgeous food at work is not helping. Florian is not into scallops, unless as sashimi, with a slice of lime. This is why I hardly ever cook scallops at home, but this week Florek is in China, so I treated myself.

With a little help and instruction from Alex, as well as sample of the sauce he uses to make them at work, I seasoned them with salt, tapped one side in flour and tossed them into a hot pan, where the baby asparagus was being griddled for a few minutes with some olive oil.

I like my scallops just cooked, kind of medium rare, so after a minute of each side I poured Alex’s dressing and finished them off. I served them with some turmeric rice and griddled asparagus. Nice, but not sensational.

Dessert

Banoffee pie.

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Still working on it and dragging on about how good it is.  10 out of 10 today, really!

The pastry cases are lovely and crumbly, I used 75g plain flour, 50g butter and blitzed it. Then added 25g of sugar and pressed together for soft dough. With this amount of butter I didn’t bother buttering the tins, love the way they turned out after 30 minutes in the oven, the temperature was around 160 Celsius.

The toffee filling took 100g of condensed milk, 50 g of butter and the same amount of brown sugar, with a large spoon of golden syrup and simmered it for about 20 minutes.

Filled the pastry cases with it, while still warm and left to cool. Topped it up with sliced banana, squeezed some lemon juice on top, and finally whipped cream and a sprinkle of dark chocolate.

Very sweet and very rich.

On the joys of cooking and eating