tea towel chicken

Thanks to the boys in the restaurant for teaching me so much about cooking.

Roasted plum cake (remnants)

What's left of the roasted plum cake.

Linguine with pancetta and broad beans

Very simple dish. Very good dish. Pancetta excellently cured from Bristol deli, via the farmer's market. Broan beans are late for the season, but still tasty. Bit of parmesan. Done.

Lamb loin chops, bulgar wheat salad, roast plum and almond cake

At home:

Lamb loin chops. Seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil. That's it. Moderate grill to get the fat nicely cooked, and pink but not raw in the middle. Amazingly tasty.

Bulgar wheat salad: bulgar wheat is so fragrant i don't understand why anyone uses couscous for this kind of thing. Add -
 - copious amounts chopped parsley
 - spinach
 - rocket
 - tomatoes
 - avocados
 - lemon juice
 - plenty seasoning

Serve with juicy salty lamb.

Cake:
Got some English green-fleshed plums. Tart and fragrant. Nicely in season.
Roast plums with a little butter, brown sugar.
Mix up sponge with mostly ground almond in place of flour.
Add cooled roasted plums. Bake.
Sumptuous. Fruit still retains some acidity alongside smooth cake texture and sweetness, accentuated by gentle crust on top.

Happy with that for a Thursday night.

White chocolate mousse

In college:

18 portions - white chocolate mousse, tuille biscuit.

Getting better at not burning the tuille biscuit. Mousse still needs attention not to a) turn into scrambled egg, b) gelatine lump mess.

Sourdough starter

Right. We're cooking up the yeasts now. This is the starter day 1. I made it yesterday afternoon. Plan is to leave it in the dark for 2 days. Stir it. Leave for another day. Then feed it some more water and leave for another 2 days. It'll be ready Tuesday night.
Slightly concerned it looks too solid. We'll see how it looks later on.

wild mushrooms, cupcakes, papardelle, pannacotta

Sunday 03 Oct
At home:
Wild mushrooms, ham ends, hand-made linguine
Very exciting mushrooms - from farmers' market. Shiitake, King Oyster, Pied Blue. Absolutely delicious. Also picked up the hand-made linguine which is lovely. Would like an attachment to my pasta maker to make linguine.
The ham ends are a bargain. 45p from waitrose of thick lumps of ham. Great value.

Panacotta.
Double cream, lemon, vanilla, gelatine. Then, more double cream with icing sugar.
Still cooling down. Will see if it sets. Not sure - looks pretty liquid. And tastes very sweet. Was supposed to include grappa, maybe that would have cut the sweetness. Raspberries will have to do.

 update: 8th Oct - pannacotta set very well, and the texture was brilliant. Deeply cushiony creamy, with enough bounce, but not like jelly. Great!

Papardelle pasta.
No semolina flour, so only tipo 00. Went cautious with the flour as the eggs were small. Resulted in soft dough, needed plenty of flour when putting through the pasta maker to stop it sticking together. Also more difficult to cut when soft. All done, 4 portions, ready for tomorrow.


Saturday 02 Oct.
At work:
Prep tomatoes, onions for salads. Prep carrots, fine green beans for mains.
- Tuna fish cake, scallop, pea & chilli puree
- Leek and potato soup
- Crostini - goats cheese, caramelised onions and cannelini bean & red pepper pate
- Waldorf salad - salad, apple, celery, walnuts. Yoghurt dressing
- Chicken salad - waldorf plus roast chicken breast. Yoghurt dressing
- Spring roll with salad
- Duck pate with warm crusty bread
- Grilled peach salad, with feta and mint

Marzipan, apricot and almond cake.
Roll out marzipan onto 20cm cake tin. Chop up apricots, spread over marzipan. Make cake mix - sugar, butter, flour, baking powder, eggs, almonds, almond essence. Spread over top of apricots - bake in low oven for 1hr.


At home:
Delicious simple bolognese. Onion, garlic, 10% fat mince, tomato puree, tomatoes. cooked long and low. Beautiful and simple.

Roast pork shoulder with sage, onion, apple.
Cut onion, place on roasting tray with sage. Place shoulder joint on top. Roast for 2 hours. Keep the onions and sage under the meat to stop them over-cooking/burning.
Cut up apple and place in roasting tray with 40 ish minutes to go.

Bertinet sourdough bread.
Ridiculously good. Chewy, tasty, sweet. Beautiful bread. Benchmark.


Friday 01 Oct

In College:
White chocolate and orange cupcakes (x48)
With buttercream & white chocolate icing.
With white chocolate squares.

Cupcakes = 3x sponge mix (weigh 3 eggs, add same weight sugar, flour, butter). Add 150g white chocolate chips. Zest 2 oranges, add to mix. Pipe into cupcake paper cases in muffin trays.

Buttercream = 1kg icing sugar, 600g butter. whip up butter in electric mixer, gradually add icing sugar, covering machine with tea towel to keep the powder down.
melt chocolate (under the hotplate) add half to buttercream. mix.

pipe icing onto cupcakes.

Spread remaining white chocolate onto silicon paper. Shape into a rectangle. Put on tray in the freezer.

Score across in 1.5" lines, to make squares. Take squares off with small palette - avoid touching with fingers. Place on cupcakes.
Get leftover ganache - pipe into small paper bag, pipe small dark chocolate spot at base of white chocolate square.