Tomato salad for one

Tomatoes

Mozzarella

Pesto

- -

Prego!

Homemade Mayo

What other day than the 1. January would be the perfect day to try and make home made mayo for the first time?!
Oh yeah Lobster and Mayo on the first day of 2013, how can it become anything but a fantastic year??

The Gourmand - New issue out!

The new issue of The Gourmand is out now. 

The Gourmand, you ask? Oh only about the most delicious food and culture journal to come out of London...

Get your hands on issue 01 here

Or if you missed issue 00 you can still get your hands on it here

C U R R Y

Our favourite curry stall on Broadway Market has opened a restaurant in Dalston, it's called Gujarati Rasoi, and we want to go!

Urvesh and Lilly Patel serves food is inspired from the Gujarati region in India, and everything on the menu is vegetarian (they do however use  dairy in some of their food).

http://www.gujaratirasoi.com/

Sour Dough - I looooove you

Two weeks ago I got my very first sour dough starter from Stefan. That combined with my new Kitchen Aid mixer is a potent cocktail for a bread addiction...

You can make your own sourdough starter, but if you could get one with a few years on its side from a friend it's a dear present. BUT here's a site which is good for bread novices like us:
http://www.breadtopia.com/sourdough-starter-management/

And remember you sour dough has good days and bad days, just get to know you starter and it will all go like butter on warm bread.

It is always a good idea to feed your dough a day before you plan to bake.

This is the recipe I got from Stefan who also gave me my sourdough starter, I use the version with a bit of yeast so I get to use my kitchen aid (so have no clue about the one without, but D can you master it?)

• 350 g tepid water + 25 g
• 50 g white whole wheat flour (not wholemeal!)
• 450 g strong flour
• 100 g sourdough starter
• 15 g salt

1.
Mix 350g water with the sourdough starter and flour to a sticky thick dough. clean it of your fingers and let it rest for 30-40 min somewhere warm (20-30 degrees)
Add salt and the last bit of water and knead for about a minute and put the wet but firm dough in a sealed big Tupperware. Let it raise for 3-4 hours. The first two hours turn it every half an hour with wet hands.

2.
When the dough has raised 20% and has air bubbles it's ready to be shaped. Sprinkle the tabletop surface with flour and carefully put the dough on the dusted surface. Now pick the dough from etch and stretch it. Fold the stretched edge on top. Repeat this, stretching and folding the dough from all sides. In the end you'll get a few flaps gather on top of the dough. Now turn the dough over and place it flaps down in a raising basket. Alternatively dust a clean tea towel liberally with flour and place the dough in the middle gather the edges of the towel and place on top of the ball of dough to cover it completely. Transfer the parcel to a bowl large enough to support it's sides and leave to rise for a few hours or cold over night.

ALTERNATIVELY WITH A KITCHEN AID:
Mix all the ingredients including 10g fresh yeast (or 5g dried) dissolved in the water and let the machine mix on speed 4 for 15 min until you have a shiny dough. Put the dough in a sealed big Tupperware. Let it raise overnight in the fridge. Then proceed from point 2, but you only need to let it raise for 1/2-1 hour before baking.

3.
Put a big pot with lid on into the middle of the oven, now heat the oven to 250 degrees (if you have a crap oven like me, just put it on full whack, but don't use the fan...). Take out the hot pot, and carefully place the dough (folded flaps down) in the pot, score the dough with a knife, and spray a bit of water on it. Lid back on pot. Pot back in the oven. Bake for 20 min, then remove the lid and bake for another 10 min. Take your bread out and let it cool on a baking rack - Now eat it with lots of cold butter. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Winter salad

This is a recipe from Rachel Khoo's first English cook book "The Little Paris Kitchen" a side project to the BBC series by the same name aired earlier this year.
She makes this winter salad as a starter for four, but it can work just as well as a main for two. Her recipes are a great inside to traditional French cooking with a twist of English'ness and a contemporary "let's make it a bit easier or lighter". I have to say though that some of her quantities doesn't always add up, f.ex. in this recipes the goats cheese mousse is such a large portion it would be enough for 10-12 people! So we have adjusted the recipe down a bit and added a our own tips and tricks. I do know that it's hard to make super small portions so this one also leaves you a bit of left over mousse. No harm, it will last in the fridge for a couple of days.

Warning! It might look light but for two this is a nice filling meal, as you get the earthy heavy taste from the roasted vegetables and the mousse is not on the light side either.

For two for dinner you will need (or four as a starter):
4 carrots (if you can get multicoloured once it always enhances the visual experience)
2 parsnips
1/2 a beetroot
2 dessert apples
2 tbsp sunflower oil
salt
100 g lardons or thickly cut smoked bacon
2 handful of frisee salad, or any salad but frisee is nice crunchy and has a slight bitter taste that goes well with the sweetness of this dish

For the mousse:
100g Selles-sur-Cher cheese (goats cheese coated in edible ash, but any soft goats cheese could work)
4 tbsp milk
125 ml whipping cream

Vinaigrette:
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

--

Cut the vegetables into bite size chunks, wait with the apple, toss the cut vegetable in a roasting tin with the sunflower oil and a generous pinch or two of salt (it can be a good idea to cut the beetroot sepearately and toss with a little oil and salt and lay on top of the rest of the vegs to avoid it couring everything pink). Roast for 25 min in a 200 degree hot oven after the 25 min add the cored and quartered apples to the tin and roast for another 20 min until tender and golden.

Meanwhile make the mousse. Beat the cheese with the milk until you have a smooth creamy texture. Whip the cream to stiff peaks. Add one quarter of the whipped cream to the cheese mixture and mix together, then carefully fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Transfer the mousse to a piping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle and leave in the fridge. It can be done in advance as it will keep for a couple of days.

Make the Vinaigratte by mixing oil, vinegar and salt to taste.

Just as the vegetables finish cooking toss the lardons/bacon into a hot pan and fry untill crisp.

To serve, arrange the roasted vegetables and apples on two plates, scatter the lardons/bacon on top. In a separate bowl mix the salad leaves with half the vinaigrette, drizzle the other half over the two plates of roasted vegs. Now pipe blobs of the mousse randomly around the plate and place a few salad leaves on top.

Bon Appetit!

EASY PEASY FISH PIE

Oh Jamie you are unavoidable!
This is the easiest fish pie to make for just one or two... In this case I only had some cod available, no prawns, no smoked haddock, no salmon. But it still rocked my world, or well it was damn tasty and really easy to make and gave me just that warm comfort food feeling I was looking for.

Here's Jamie Oliver's easy peasy fish pie adapted to a one person pie:

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
250g potatoes
1/2 carrot
1/2 sticks of celery
70g good Cheddar cheese
1/4 lemon zest and juice
1/4 a fresh red chilli
2 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
200g cod fillets, skin off and bones removed
(luxury versions can also contain raw king prawns peeled, smoked haddock, salmon - you know any good mix of fish)
olive oil

Peel and cut your potatoes into 2 cm cubes, boil them for 15 min (or until soft).
Straight in your pie shape you grate the carrot, the stick of celery, the cheddar, the chilli and the zest of approximate one quarter lemon. Cut your fish into bite size chunks (if making the luxury version, I would leave the prawns whole) and mix the fish into the vegetable and cheese mix with a squeeze of lemon and the finely chopped parsley.
The potatoes should be done by now, drain them in a colander and put them back in the pan. Drizzle with some good olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper, mash the potatoes till you have a smooth mash. Spread the mash evenly on top of the fish and vegetable (if you happen to have some 38% creme fraiche in the fridge as I did that night you can put some small dollops between the fish and the potato, approximately a big tablespoon). Now bake you pie in a 200 degree hot oven for 40 minutes.
Could be shared by two with some steamed vegetables and some salad... Or you can eat the whole thing in front of the telly straight from the tray.

Pasta alla Vongole for two

This dish feels like luxury, but it is actually fairly inexpensive. Pasta alla Vongole origins from Venice but is now a common pasta dish that you can get all over Italy. I got my latest Italian one at a cheap looking like you could only get chips beach bar in Sperlonga and it was super tasty but super simple.

This recipe is for two clam happy people:

200g dried spaghetti
400g fresh scrubbed mussels
1/4 fresh chilli finely chopped
1 handful of flat leafed parsley finely chopped
2 fat garlic cloves finely chopped
150 ml white wine
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

This is a quick everything needs to be ready at the same time dish. So get all your ingredients ready and chopped. Boil a large pot of water with a topped tbsp of salt, when the water is boiling add the spaghetti and cook according to the pack. When there's 5 min left of the pasta's cooking time add 2-3 tbsp of olive oil to a hot pan, add the chopped garlic and chilli to the pan and stir constantly until the garlic starts to colour, add the white wine and clams and give it a good shake and put the lid on. After 3-4 min the clams will start to open, keep shuffling the pan until all of them has opened. Now your spaghetti should be done, add the pasta to the pan and mix in the chopped parsley and about a tbsp pf good olive oil. Serve straight away!

Remember to discard unopened clams...

H A U S F R A U !

It's bought!
Here comes homemade mayonnaise and Italian meringue and bread bonanza...

Kinfolk Magazine

Delicious foodie dreamy world at Kinfolk Magazine, check it out here

Sunday breakfast

Yum essential Sunday breakfast :) very very fluffy pancakes - to be drowned with maple sirup in a sec... I've made these a couple of times and they are super quick and deliciousos:

http://m.jamieoliver.com/recipes/other-recipes/pancakes-usa-stylie

Studio Cook Book II

Fernandez and Wells

Must go more! That's all there is to say about Fernandez and Wells in Lexington street. Wish there was many more places like this...
http://www.fernandezandwells.com/

– Buffalo Mozarella / Parma ham / Red peppers and barrel aged feta –

Pasta a la Fridge Hunger

 

Bit of broccoli, some Cumberland pork chipolatas, small bit of soft goats cheese, the last bit of Parmesan, pasta water, salt, pepper, splash of oil, a basil leave or two and a bit of chopped parsley - All mixed with Spaghetti! That's what the fridge offered today.

A snack at Retour (DK)

 

Best 50 kroner snack ever at Retour restaurant in Tordenskjoldsgade in Copenhagen. Was so good and filling that there was almost no space for the main and for what amounts to five British pounds we think that's a bargain!

On the plate: fois gras, duck rillette, saucisson, Parma ham, quail egg mayo, speck, salted almonds, gerkins ~ yum

Retour in Copenhagen