Apple caramel rice pudding

Played it safe after some experimental errors. Just wanted the lovely apple, caramel rice pudding. Beautiful.
The method used of bringing the rice to the boil, in water, then boiling for 4 mins then draining, and cooking in milk, produces incredibly white rice. It looks pristine. Its very beautiful.
And I still think the caramel tastes smoky. Like wood smoke - deep rich, sappy even. Just gorgeous. Those people at French Laundry know what they're up to.

Taste jumble

I think you can definitely tell that I've been ill and banned from the kitchen, as this recovery effort was really odd.
I made hummous - which was nice. Beetroot with the horseradish cream, slightly odd, but ok.
Then we had lovely focaccia, sourdough bread, parma ham, cheeses.

But none of these things remotely went together.

Each was nice in their own way - but I've never eaten such a taste jumbled meal. This hasn't been my finest week.

Horseradish

I got him in the farmer's market - all covered in soil. Its my first horseradish. I mixed it up with some sour cream - for horseradish cream no less.

Puff mince pies

Made these in college - with pre-made puff pastry ;)
The filling was delicious - mincemeat supplemented with orange zest and juice, and brandy.
Was reading The Making of a Pastry Chef  by Andrew MacLauchlan and there is a wonderful piece from Gale Gand who says of flavours - moving specifically to orange:
"When I first started as a pastry chef, everyone was pushing compounds and using liqueurs for flavouring. I did that a little bit at the beginning of my career; for example, using Grand Marnier to get orange flavour. Later I thought, why not just use an orange? I started out with things that were easy, like orange zest, but went on to grinding up oranges, reducing them over a low heat, and sieving them and using the actual fruit."
That's how to do flavour :)

Rough puff pastry tatin

This is my first attempt at rough puff pastry. It was nice on first eating, but didn't keep at all well the following day.
I didn't integrate the butter well enough. Also, the colouring on the apples isn't uniform enough - i needed to move them around much more in the pan (whilst keeping them in formation). I think tiredness was beginning to set in, and was followed up with illness, which has kiboshed me all this week.
A good mistake in a way - puff pastry is not considered easy, and the lamination needed to stop the fat just leaking out is good to understand and see it go a bit wrong.
Be good to try again when feeling better.

Mushroom, leek and thyme quiche

So this one turned out better. Still raggedy around the top, but no holes in the pastry so the filling didn't leak, and the taste and texture were sound.
The flavour of the filling was very nice - paris brown mushrooms, leeks - sweated in some butter, and some thyme to give aroma and lightness.
The recipe called for only double cream and eggs for the custard, but I thought this was too heavy and lightened it with some milk, and adjusted the cooking times accordingly. A lot of guess work and just waiting and seeing with this - as I was using different diameter and different ingredients for the custard.
Worked well tho'. Can hold my head up for this quiche :)

Quiche Lorraine, Chickpeas and Swiss Chard

There are many things wrong with this dish, but many things right :)

first -  you'll notice that the quiche is only half full. That's because a) i did the amounts a bit slap-dash in the re-reckoning from the recipe and b) some of the filling escaped.

second - there is no tomato sauce in the chickpeas. nor parsley. The fridge wasn't giving up any.

But - the taste was really divine!!! The recipe was from Roux again, and the pastry was light light light and salty and gorgeous. The filling was light again, despite being full of cream, cheese and pancetta. Delicious.

The chickpea/chard dish is always superbly tasty (River Cafe, Book 1). Reducing white wine over gently cooked onions and carrots, and following with more olive oil and lemon, bit of chilli - is amazing. Just amazing.

A feast of a meal, if a bit wonky :)