Ciabatta

This is a bread I've been wanting to try for a long time but hadn't had time to schedule in making the ferment (or 'biga') before making the bread, and I wanted to do it using bricks in the oven, to give good lift on such a wet dough.

But I had a couple of days where this was going to  be possible, and so set off for homebase and bagged some paving bricks (flat on top) for 79p each, and then lined the oven floor with them.

Unfortunately they were millimetres out from being able to cover the oven floor - which then led to some interesting mis-shapings as I tried to get the bread in to a small area. And some bread slightly fell over the edges of the bricks, giving some interesting 'hooks' :)
So comedy ciabatta. Which tasted great :)

Vanilla ice-cream, Tarte tatin

Vanilla ice-cream was made using the Roux Brother's Patisserie book - I thought it was slightly sweet before icing it down, but afterwards, it was very good. Although I still think I'd take a bit of the sugar out.
Tarte tatin was good - tho' not great. I need to make my puff pastry thinner and lighter - I didn't judge it well enough.
It was meant to go with the blood orange prosecco, roast chicken, hoummus and pitta breads yesterday - but I was ordered not to cook any more. The guests were happy - and we tucked into lemon drizzle cake with tea instead ;)

Hoummus, Pitta, Roast Chicken, Green Salad

After the Blood Orange Prosecco aperitif - for dinner with our guest we had homemade hoummus, pitta bread, and roast chicken - with a green salad. It was lovely. Homely, tasty, moreish - an easy informal meal which was just what we felt like eating.

Blood orange prosecco

 The shop round the corner had blood oranges. Having had blood orange processo at River Cafe some weeks ago - I immediately wanted to copy.
And with a guest for dinner, perfect.
I juiced 8 oranges for 1 bottle of prosecco - and it was absolutely delicious.
The taste of blood oranges is hard to describe - its less acidic than normal oranges and feels more fragrant as a result.

Pitta breads

I didn't really know what made pitta breads, pitta breads - not rolls. So I found a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey. And to be fair, they were quite bread-y - but cooking them on a hot skillet in the oven gives them so much lift - they hollow out more than rolls.
The dough is pretty normal - usual hydration, yeast, salt - with some olive oil added.
I loved cooking these on the skillet - they puffed up within seconds and were only cooked for a couple of minutes each :) then they were grilled to give them colour. They were soft and the definition of 'pillowy' :) Great fun.

Lemon drizzle: iced

I watched Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets and he did this lovely thing with Lemon Drizzle loaf: brushed it with apricot glaze and water icing once cooked and cooled.

So we have a delicious light light 3 egg sponge with zest of three lemons, baked in the oven at 180C for about 50 minutes. Then make sugar and lemon juice glaze, and pour it over the cake whilst hot. Allow to cool. Make apricot glaze (heat apricot jam, let down with a little water. Strain, ready to use). Brush cake with apricot. Make water icing - add a little lemon juice to icing sugar. Brush cake with icing - all over.
The apricot glaze keeps the cake very moist and allows the icing to set softly. Its beautiful!!

Anchovy tomato rosemary penne

This is indeed a repeat post - this dish is just so good that I can't stop making it.
The mixture of anchovy rosemary garlic, with rich tomato and then loads of parmesan and a dash of cream...!

Its just perfect: deeply savoury and interesting and comforting.

Farmer's market produce!

Matt heroically went to the Farmer's Market while I went to work. This is his haul :)
Shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, purple sprouting, leeks, shallots, tomatoes (that actually taste!!!), figs (from shop. not market).

I go on about it all the time - but - the market is fantastic:
1) you can buy in quantities that you need - not prepacked amounts - so there is much less waste.
2) You don't need so much packaging, full stop.
3) The produce is interesting, varied and tastes great.
4) And most of all - it allows for spontaneity, the most magic of feelings that means you can decide what you want to cook from what's there and what's good.

Its inspiring. You don't get that from Sainsburys.

Heston's steak, parmesan, rocket

One night, two pints down, in Waitrose - it seemed a good idea to do the Heston recipe suggestion: Steak with rocket and parmesan. It was dressed with meat juices and lemon and olive oil.
We infused the olive oil with the lemon as instructed - and it was really really strong. But - all in all - a great combination - its another variant on my hot salad fixation.

Sardine, fennel, linguine

River Cafe recipe that uses fennel, parsely, garlic with the sardines. These sardines cost merely 80p. They were fat Cornish sardines, and tasted lovely.
The recipe cooks the finely sliced fennel with the pasta, which is good - but would be great if you griddled it alongside the rest of the dish and served it all at once.

I found gutting and filleting the sardines a cinch, and would definitely get them again, they are juicy, tasty and very satisfying to eat.