Saturday 20 December - Tartiflette

A busy day redecorating the dining room, and we hadn't really given a thought to food - I rather fancied a fondue, but then we couldn't remember where the fondue set had ended up after the kitchen refit, and didn't want to start looking. I then remembered about Tartiflette - and fancied trying this out. This meant a trip out to find reblochon - and once we'd found some in Waitrose bought it despite the price!

The dish started with some waxy potatoes which were then cubed and fried

Then onions and bacon were fried, before adding wine, and then some cream

Then it was all layered up, potatoes, then the bacon and onion mix, followed by half the reblochon - then the layers were repeated.

This was then baked, and finished under the grill for a crisp top.

Possibly one of the nicest, but richest and most filling things I've ever cooked.

Saturday 13 December - Duck Ragu

This recipe had been shared by Neill on the Facebook Dinner group, and sounded rather intriguing. I followed this recipe but did cut down on the cinnamon to about half a teaspoon

 http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/venetian-duck-ragu

First stage was to brown the ducklegs - I didn't add any fat at this stage.

The recipe then proceeded a bit like a normal ragu, frying onions and garlic, adding tomatoes and wine and some herbs, with the duck legs popped back in to simmer for a couple of hours. I skimmed off the fat that was released as it cooked.

Once the meat was tender it was shredded from the bones, and added back to the sauce along with some milk.

I had planned to make pasta, but had a very stroppy moment when I realised that my machine doesn't fit on the new kitchen table. ( A reason to get a pasta attachment for the Kitchen Aid I reckon) so we cut up slices of fresh Lasagne.

I used half the ragu, and froze the other half.

For dessert, I made individual tiramisu in some chefs 'rings' I'd found in Lidl recently. I was extremely pleased when they actually came out of the rings with the help of a chefs blow torch.

Monday 8 December - Potato and Mushroom Paprikas

I'm trying to meal plan at the moment - this seems to be saving quite a lot of money as well as preventing me from overloading the cupboards with duplicate tins of things, and ingredients that I've bought on a whim.

Decided to revisit an old favourite this week, from a book that I used regularly back in the 80s when I was a vegetarian - Potato and Mushroom stew or Paprikas

A very simple dish with very few ingredients - potatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic, paprika (the sweet sort) a bit of flour and some stock, and a bit of soured cream to finish off with

Started off by frying the onions and garlic, and then in went the potatoes before adding the paprika and then the stock.

When the potatoes were tender, in went the chopped raw mushrooms.

Finally, in with the soured cream, and it was all warmed through.

I served this in bowls, with a freshly baked bread roll on the side, and some hardboiled eggs for garnish.

Saturday 6 December - Tomato Consomme and Chicken Ballotines

Little heritage tomatoes were spotted in Lidl today, so decided to make Tom Kitchens delicious tomato consomme.

The first stage is the long winded bit - tomatoes, cucumber and garlic were pulverised in the liquidiser along with some basil, a dash of wine vinegar and a dash of Worcester Sauce.

The pulp was left to drain in muslin for 6 hours and then chilled.

The resulting clear liquid was poured over the selection of tomatoes, along with some sliced radish and fennel, and topped with a spoonful of salty tapenade made from black olives and capers.

For main course we decided make a chicken dish, and I found a recipe for chicken stuffed with belly pork mince. The chicken was bashed out, and the stuffing was made by mincing the pork and adding lemon rind, fennel seeds and chopped tarragon.

The breasts were rolled up tightly, wrapped in clingfilm and then poached.

They were then finished off by browning in a pan.

To serve with this, an amazing cabbage side dish with added bacon pieces and chopped chestnuts, and some creamy potato puree.

The sauce was made from red wine and madeira reduced until thick.

Dessert was an individual pear, butterscotch and frangipan tart. Started with blind baking a basic shortcrust made with all butter.

The butterscotch was made with sugar, butter, golden syrup and a spoonful of cream.

A layer of this went into the pastry base, and it was topped with a mix of butter, sugar almonds and egg.

Finally, in went half a tiny pear that had been sliced so it fanned out slightly.

This was served with some extra sauce and a spoonful of clotted cream.

Enjoyed all three of these dishes so much that we never got to the cheese and homemade cheese biscuits!

Saturday 22 November - Chocolate and Salted Caramel

Masterchef is on at the moment, and it always makes me want to make 'trios' of desserts. Today I decided to have a play wish some recipes I've used before separately, but try to serve them all on the one plaate.

I made some shortbread, by chucking butter, flour, vanilla paste and some icing sugar into the mixer, then chilling for an hour before rolling out and cutting and baking.

Salted caramel ice cream - I always change ice cream recipes as I find using just egg yolks in the custard seems wasteful, so I use whole eggs and whisked with some sugar, and a teaspoon of cornflour.

The rest of the sugar went into a pan dry, and was heated until it turned into a rich caramel.

Then, the milk and cream added so that the caramel dissoloved into it. I then added the milk mixture to the eggs and thickened it over a low heat. Once the custard was made it was cooled down and then churned in my trusty ice cream maker. When it was almost ready I added half a teaspoon full of Malden Salt.

The chocolate mousse was the bog standard one I was taught at school many years ago - 1 egg per ounce of chocolate, melt the chocolate, stir in the yolk, and then fold in the white - although I did add a spoon of sugar to the white when whisking to stabilise it a bit.

Finally, the salted caramel sauce - I made a dark caramel in the same way as for the ice cream, then added water and warmed until it was all dissolved. Then added some salt right at the end ( I added around half a teaspoon as I like quite a salty flavour) and left to chill. This is best poured right over the mousse when eating.

Saturday 15 November - Wild Boar

Found this on offer in Lidl this week. I've never cooked with it, or even tasted it before, but had seen Rick Stein making a dish of wild boar, chorizo and chestnut stew a few weeks ago so decided to give it a try. 

The recipe started the night before, marinating the meat in redwine and various fresh herbs, along with juniper berries.

After 24 hours the meat was drained and the liquid, vegetables and meat were seperated out.

 

The meat was seared, and some sliced chorizo was added to it, and then the vegetables from the marinade were added back in and browned.

Then, in went the liquids - red vermouth, the wine from the marinade and some beef stock, plus a big handful of dried porcini.

After a couple of hours, in went some chestnuts, and it was all finished off with some wild mushrooms fried in butter.  Waitrose came to our rescue here, as wild mushrooms weren't available anywhere that I looked.

This was served with mashed potato

This was delicious, however, it would work just as well using pork shoulder - I wouldn't go to the expense of using the boar again.

As this meal was a special one for Bob, to say thank you for my beautiful new kitchen, I had to use crab in the starter as it's his favourite.

I found a recipe in the Waitrose magazine for a crab, orange and fennel salad. These are not flavours I would automatically assume would work together, but to our surprise it was delicious. The dressing was made of orange juice, olive oil, honey and chopped mint.

An alternative starter was made for George, who isn't keen on crab - cured beef with parmesan shavings.

 

To round the meal off, little lemon and lime meringue pies, served with a fruit compote.

Quite difficult to make the filling and meringue in small enough quantities to fill these tiny cases.

I made a butter pastry and added an egg yolk and some icing sugar,then blind baked the cases.

Once the filling was added, and cooked until set, I piped the meringue topping on, and they went back in the oven to lightly brown the topping.

These were the perfect size after a filling main course.

Monday 10 November - No Cooking

No cooking has taken place for the last couple of weeks as the great Kitchen upgrade has been underway. This has been a huge disruption as it was a massive undertaking, but it's now usable again with just a few little finishing touches that need to happen.
All of this was done by Bob, with our lovely helper Mel. I did a lot of supervising, paint stripping, painting and making more work by thinking of extra bits I would need (and made a good few cups of tea as well)
The biggest job was to completely remove and replace the rotten Victorian floorboards.

These were replaced with boards, then a concrete board overlay, before the tiling could start - we used the same tiles as in the Utility room so they flowed through the back of the house.

Once the flooring was down, another huge task of unit installation, and cutting up the 4 inch beech work surface (which weighed a ton) and then installing the sink and the associated plumbing.

We also added an additional filter tap alongside the normal mixer tap.

Once the base units were in, the tiling could commence - I spent quite a few weeks constantly checking the Wickes website to get these,  as I had fallen in love with these tiles and they were out of stock when I first spotted them.

Pride of place and the heart of the kitchen is the table, and Bob made this out of some more of the beech worktop, and installed a soft close cutlery drawer into one end of it as there are no other drawers in the kitchen.

For the other side, we didn't want to be hemmed in by fitted units, so Bob designed open plan storage shelving, including a length of worktop alongside the cooker.

Alongside this for extra storage some hanging racks for utensils and pans.

There are still some finishing touches to do - we have stripped the doors from the original larder cupboard and glass fronted cabinets, and these need to be finished off and painted, along with little cosmetic jobs such as touching up paint and grouting, and finishing off some electrics. 

Some before and after photos though so the difference can be seen

The Sink

 

Worktop and wall unit

Shelving

 

Will take more photos as it's finished off, but thrilled to bits with it so far!