Orange shortbread

I've done them before - but they're so good :) we need more.

Rhubarb - in sauternes, vanilla, orange with Honey Ice-cream

We had rhubarb, but not enough for anything like a pie or crumble. I decided to poach it in Sauternes, with some vanilla and orange zest (and sugar). I kept it cooking until the liquid had reduced to a syrup.
To go with it I made Honey Ice-cream. I'd seen a recipe in the Roux's Patisserie book, and thought it sounded wonderful, especially after the honey madeleines from the same book.

Treacle tart

My god this was good. Absolutely had to be served with creme fraiche - so the sour note hit through the treacle - then the combination was heavenly.
This was another recipe from college, and a really really good one. I used excellent sourdough bread for the breadcrumbs, 3 lemons zested, and just a regular sweet paste. It was light, airy, sweet, slightly zingy, and with the creme fraiche - unbelievably good. Matt and I agreed it was in the favourites list.

Municipal buns

These hot cross buns were made from a recipe from college. They are very nice, but the fruit portion is tiny! There was something 'municipal' feeling about them.

Ginger Pig Sausage Rolls

Forgive the "presentation", I snapped this before I polished off the whole thing, as i realised i wanted a record of it. These are one of my favourite things: a sausage roll from The Ginger Pig butcher in London. The taste is so deeply savoury - quite extraordinary.

Rosbif

A while ago I found a lovely rib of beef on offer, so I grabbed it and put it in the freezer. Now was its time :)
I roasted it rare.
Made roast potatoes with beef dripping.
Made yorkshire pudding.
Carrots.
Gravy, using pan juices.
It was really lovely. I hadn't had roast beef for a very long time, and this was delicious. Deeply savoury, and with yorkshires and crispy/fluffy potatoes and carrots - really sweet, crunchy, sumptuous. What a treat.

Cod parcels, Rocket creme fraiche

Lovely dinner - we found reduced price cod loins and wrapped them in filo with tarragon. Baked and served with saute potatoes, rocket creme fraiche, watercress and mustard salad.

Caramel ice-cream

Oooo - this was a stunner.
Caramel ice-cream from River Cafe recipe. I tasted the magical consistency of this at River Cafe itself on 4th Feb. It was amazingly soft yet icy enough. Just beautiful. So I went to them for the proportions. However - my homemade version was too fatty. I tuned down the smokiness of the caramel, I felt it had cooked too far in the one we had at the restaurant, and that part was brilliant. But I'd prefer a less fatty ice-cream, one that doesn't leave a residue on your spoon! The flavour and iciness of the ice-cream was lovely tho', and kept us feasting for several days :)
From reading Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck book, he has investigated the fat, sugar, ice proportions rigorously. I'll take a small leaf out of his very large book on that. Was also reading Roux brother's Patisserie, and they use much much less cream in their ice-creams. This one is a trial and error candidate. The taste and texture are potentially worth it.

Pizza, Focaccia, Salad

I really do like making homemade pizza. Favourite topping is definitely roasted pepper, chorizo, mozz, tomato sauce, rocket.
I made the tomato sauce this time - nice and garlicky. Sauted some red onion, garlic. Added tinned tomatoes. Seasoned. Blitzed.
The pizza dough was very wet today, and it was harder to get it crispy (at my oven's temperatures). Last time I remember making it drier on purpose and it worked a lot better. River Cafe recommend making it wet, so that it makes it crispier when baked - but maybe that only works with really hot pizza ovens?
Anyway - it was still tasty.
And I made some focaccia - just because its nice. As it turned out, we ate it for a few days following. Very gratefully received.

Gingerbread Modernist House

For Matt's birthday I chose the first option for an architect: a modernist gingerbread house :)
After some research, I settled on the Unite d'Habitation in Marseille. We've been there together, its a great building, and in gingerbread terms -relatively straightforward (a big box. That's architectural heresy).
I made a Modulor Man in gingerbread(man), and stuck it on the front. In other terms, it is somewhat accurate. I took the laptop into the kitchen so I had some pictures. I was seriously regretting being ill on the day when we decorated the gingerbread house at college, but eventually got there with the sticking it together with chocolate.
All in all, a nice visual gag. Laurence Stern would be proud (maybe). Le Corbusier, less so :)

Oh yes, and it has jelly diamond pilotti.

Orange shortbread

I used the Ramsay shortbread recipe, from Desserts for Cumin Shortbread, but added orange zest instead.
The shortbread were lovely, but not as nice as the Lavender shortbread from the other week. Isn't it a little annoying when you get worse at making something?

Blancmange tins

Got these on ebay. I hope to use them for cakes (unless they prove too sticky). Beautiful, no?

Financiers

These were beautiful cakes, but I misread the kind of tin they should be cooked in, and as a result, had problems getting them out in one piece! Hence the cracked tops.
Financiers are made with beurre noisette, almonds and egg whites. A good way to use up egg whites. They are delicious. Very very moreish.
One surprise was that you leave the mixture for 24 hours in the fridge before cooking!
I used the Gordon Ramsay recipe - but only half these quantities:

Makes 18 - 24:
125g lightly salted butter
175g caster sugar
125g ground almonds
25g plain flour
3 medium egg whites, lightly beaten

Make beurre noisette.
Mix the sugar, ground almonds, and flour together in a bowl.
Beat in melted and cooled butter and the egg whites.
Rest in the fridge for 24 hours.
Preheat oven at 200C.
Grease and flour mini-muffin trays.
Spoon into mini-muffin trays.
Bake for 8 - 10 mins.
Serve warm.

YUM.