Upside Down Pom Bears = Waving bunnies.

Black Pudding

I bought some last week from the fancy butchers in Highbury, made some for breakfast this morning and made a mental note to go out and buy twenty more and do some experimenting, so watch this space.

This is black pudding a la breakfast, on toast with a poached egg, some wilted spinach and mum’s green tomato chutney (which I really need to do a post about, its so good).

Completely unnecessary, but look at this poached egg.  This makes me so happy, it looks so good! 

Mayonnaise, Guacamole & Le saucisson, les haricots, Pomme Frites de le et la mayonnaise

I’m not embarrassed to say on this blog that last night we had sausage, chips & beans. So very not embarrassed that I wrote it in French.  We had been up at antiques fair at 4am that morning and sometimes when you are tired you need to eat food that your mum cooked when you were 10. It was really good. 

I also debuted the mayonnaise last night, which I still need to perfect.  I know its not that hard. We also had some guacamole with some tortillas when we got in as a pre ‘dinner’ snack.

Gilbey Gilbey Day & The East Indian Firework Company

Today was Gilbey’s birthday.  I didn’t see him until Dinner when he came round for a birthday treat.  Before he did, we went for a little walk to Highbury Barn and bought some wine from Highbury Vinters to go with a blue cheese that Barny had bought the day before from Broadway Market (gorgonzola we think). It was an Argentinean Malbec.

Then I started on Gilbey’s Pavlova, which was easy enough, but I had 3 egg yolks left so decided to make garlic mayonnaise..... WHICH WAS NOT EASY, IT TOOK AN HOUR!  After I finished, I had been holding the electric whisk for so long that I was actually electronically charged and was sparking off anything in the flat that would conduct.

Anyhoo, the mayonnaise tasted ok I think, I’ll make something tomorrow that can be eaten with it.

Then I started on the main, which was Spiced Lamb Cutlets and Saag Aloo. Lamb cutlets are such a treat. Worth the money, I toasted cumin and coriander seeds then mixed with garlic, salt, pepper and oil and rubbed all over the meat. Then made the potato and spinach curry with Garam Masala, onion, tomatoes, cinnamon stick, ginger and garlic.

Gilbey named it The East Indian Firework Company.

Breakast

Courgette, Pancetta and tomato on toast with parmesan and unfortunately no egg. Had already started it when I realised I didn’t have an egg to poach on top.  Still yummy though, I’m a big fan of courgette for breakfast, especially with feta.

Risotto (again).

No time to cook a big meal after returning from Lancaster with my Mum. So (with big hangovers) we nursed a gooey bowl of healing mushroom, squash & pancetta risotto, a glass of wine and watched Masterchef (of course).

Dining alone.

Cooking dinner for one is a pretty lonesome activity.  It means you definitely can't go to town and for me almost definitely means no meat.  I decided to use the good penne I had bought at the Deli in Aldeburgh a few weeks ago.  Always when you make a pasta dish for one, no matter how careful you portion it, you inevitably make too much, tell yourself you’ll have the rest for lunch tomorrow and then eat it around 27 minutes later.  

Which is why I decided to tuck into the penne.  I still had some smoked salmon left so decided to make a Carbonara.  I used 1 egg, a big splash of cream, a handful of parmesan and pepper for the sauce part of the dish.  That all gets stirred in at the end of cooking, when the pasta is off the heat (so the eggs don’t scramble) and while it still retains a small part of cooking water. Courgette was fried with thyme and the smoked salmon got torn and stirred in when the sauce was coming together.

7 minutes after finishing I returned for the second half.

LOVEly day.

We both worked for valentines day. It actually worked out well because it meant we could go out for food the next night without having to share our evening with billions of other couples.  So we celebrated valentines breakfast with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Then in the evening Barny had booked a table at St John Bread & Wine on Commercial Rd.  

It was such a good choice, its kind of like a british Tapas.  Everything was incredible and made from unusual cuts of meat, but cooked to absolute perfection.  I was far too busy enjoying the food to remember to take pictures of it until we'd nearly finished.

The highlight for me was the breaded lamb cheek.  Its was like some kind of Lamb escalope, the meat inside was pink but falling apart like it had been braised, but it was so moist. We also had a perfect slice of pork pie and piccalilli, a cuttlefish stewed with onions and lemon and (mouth melting) mutton chops.  Everything was just perfect. I cannot recommend it more highly.

The only problem was I didn’t want it to end, I could have stayed there eating all night.

Recent Eats

Well I’ve been busy working like a dog lately.  In the shop Tuesday to Sunday and then I’ve picked up a couple of shifts a week at a nice pub in Stokey for extra pocket money too, incidentally the food there looks great.  So there hasn’t been much time for cooking.  The meatballs were the same batch from a previous post I stored in the freezer.  

The second dish was deeelicious.  Roxy came round and we needed to eat comforting but healthy and I was adamant that it had to have an egg on top.  So in a wok I fried off some shallots, garlic, ginger and cavelo nero.  Added a little garam masala. Added cooked balsmati rice and stir fried for a little while.  Then added smoked mackerel, diced tomato flesh, coriander, spring onion, light soy sauce and the juice of a lime. Then seasoned well and fried an egg for the top, which made my day (or week, or possibly year).  So easy and quick I will be doing this again and again.

Lancashire Hotpot

Wild Rice & Halloumi

Went to an amazing deli today in Aldeburgh called Lawsons.  They do great cheese, plus almost everything else you could ever want from a food shop, including Wild Rice.

We had it for dinner with Halloumi and a hot tomato and butternut squash chutney compote type of thing.  You have to cook the rice for a long time. I did it in some chicken stock too, then at the last minute stirred in some greens.  The compote thing was olive oil, sliced shallot, some cumin seeds, tomatoes, garlic, wine and a teeny tiny splash of white wine vinegar.  I put in cubes of squash and then loads of water to cook the squash, then let it reduce down to a jammy consistency and squeezed some lemon juice over it.