march

The main course is a version of the classic Welsh breakfast and I suppose we should have had it on the Wednesday. It is a beautiful combination to look at, as well as utterly delicious

The cheesecake recipe is adapted from the Sainsbury's desserts book cinnamon cheesecake, using soft goats cheese.

Sirloin steak; purple sprouting with hazlenuts, pickled walnut, onion, garlic, stock, balsamic, cream; sauteed potato
Ginger pudding, cream

The pickled walnuts are home-made; this is a long process and the results not as good as the bought ones. The board that the walnuts sat on while “sun”-drying still has the marks

Dinner: at David’s.

Dinner: Waitrose celeriac and parmesan soup;

Guinea fowl breasts chasseur (roasted, with a sauce of crimini mushrooms, shallots, white wine, tarragon, a little tomato purée, cream), baked potato, sugar snap peas.

Potato and chorizo tapas.

I sauté’d the potatoes, then put them in terracotta ramekins with some tinned tomato, choricitos, and garlic and chilli which I’d softened in oil. I covered the dishes with foil and baked. It would have been better to have stewed the tomatoes first and baked them for less time.

Aubergine parmeggiana; salad; ciabatta.

The recipe comes from Antonio Carluccio’s Invitation to Italian Cooking, omitting the salting and the fontina.

Broad beans with Parma ham and cream

Pasta with chicken strips, red pepper, tomatoes; courgettes.

Lemon risotto, artichokes (tin), crimini mushrooms, fried almonds

Pear with cream and dulce de leche

Carrot and tarragon soup, with cream

Salmon fillets marinaded in miso paste; shitake mushrooms and pak choi (mirin, onion-garlic-chill), soba noodles

This is very good. I fried the salmon skinside to crisp the skin, then cooked in the oven 15-20 mins. They were thick slices. The flavours go well, especially with the sweet-tasting mushrooms. Looks good too – pink salmon, brown and green veg, red flecks of chilli.

Duck livers; spinach and garlic; rösti potatoes

Cooked some onian slowly, dusted livers with flour, seared them, then cooked for total of about 15 minutes (the Waitrose packet says 7 minutes, but I used a low temperature after the first searing), adding nutmeg, cream and a cube of stock. Spinach: stew garlic in butter, then wilt the spinach. Rosti: grate potatoes and cook, in butter or oil in a large saucepan for 15-20 minutes, then make into 2 pancakes and brown on an over tray for 15 minutes.

Orange and pomegranate, honey, yoghurt, cream

Tasted mainly of the honey. Not sure if I’m all that taken with pomegranate, but they look nice.

Lunch. Duck livers, mushrooms, cream, tomato puree, tagliatelle.

Dinner. Aloo parantha, onion and whole spices, yoghurt, pickle.

Continuing the series of great breakfasts of the world, this is the Garhwal classic. Boiled a 3oz potato, crushed it. Made a dough with 2oz plain flour and 1oz strong flour, kneaded until smooth. Make 2 balls and roll them out 4-5in. Plonk the potato in the centres, bunch the dough around it like a bag. Then squash and roll flat to about 5mm thick. Then fry; eat hot. Onion: I used 1 onion. Toasted spices: cumin coriander kalonji etc then added the sliced onion, garlic, chilli; stew for ages.

Oxtail parcels, cauliflower cheese, peas

This was really good. Colin thought it might have been the best thing so far this year. Something like this. 4-5 big pieces of oxtail. Brown well, then braise for ages in stout and water, with onion, carrot, garlic, bay, peppercorns, possibly juniper, probably a slug of oyster sauce. Take meat off the bone. Cool sauce, take off fat, reduce till really thick. I did this ages ago and put it in the freezer. Divided meat into 4 piles then wrap in large spring roll wrappers (should have added a bit of the sauce to the meat). Then fry till crisp; put in oven to heat through. Cauli cheese – used just over half a cauli. Made a small amount of white sauce (1 tbs flour, butter?) and added about 5mm piece of parmesan, grated. Peas were frozen.

Lunch: Simon, Helen and Amelia

Twice-cooked goats cheese soufflés, roast beetroot with balsamic, watercress

Soufflés: the Delia Smith recipe.

Chicken with 50 cloves of garlic, braised lettuce, rosemary foccacia

Roasted chicken for 30 mins to brown. Then in the big pot, with giblets, celery and 50 cloves of garlic, herbs etc. Then 1–1.5 hours at gas 3. Did this well in advance, then separated everything. Pureed the garlic. Cooled the fat/juices enough to separate them, then braised the lettuce in the meat juices. Bread: used 1lb flour. Made the dough the night before and left in the fridge.

Chocolate and prune tart

The Sophie Grigson recipe from WFI a mnth or so back. Only half the quantity, in a shallow 8in tin, but 2 eggs.. so the filling was a bit too much and spilled out a little when cooking

Belton Cheshire – wild garlic Yarg – Ardrahan

Dinner

Chorizo, red pepper, sweet potato, chilli, rocket, remains of the bread

Pork burgers and mushrooms with Thai curry sauce (garlic, chilli, lime leaves, lemongrass, nam pla, coconut milk) ; pak choi and sesame oil ; jasmine rice

Banana cake with Cointreau cream

Whip some cream then add Cointreau and whip again. No idea what the optimum order of operations is, but this will do.

Carrot and tarragon soup, lardons

Goats cheese and vegetable filo parcels (Bighams); rocket, watercress, spinach; ciabatta

Tagliatelle with chicken, garlic, chicket giblets (the leftovers from Sunday) with cream, stock, tomato puree; salad

Prune and chocolate tart (from Sunday)

Risotto with fennel sausage, cauliflower, broad beans, chipotle (undetectable), fennel seed (with parmesan, of course).

Sardines with chilli (tin of sardine piccante), pink peppercorns; puy lentils with lemon and olive oil; roast beetroot

Purple sprouting, leek, mushrooms, ovendried tomatoes, celery, red onion, garlic, potatoes, olive oil, rosemary, parmesan shavings.

Champignons a la Greque

Lamb with black olives, tomatoes, cream; tagliatelle; courgettes

Purple sprouting with chipotle-smoked garlic-tomato puree, fried hallomi

Pork strips in lemon-garlic-black pepper; leeks in cream, stock, parma ham; tagliatelle

Venison steaks with a sauce of field mushrooms, red wine, shallot, fennel seed, cream; pureed potatoes; sauteed carrots

Toasted 1/4 tsp fennel seeds then crushed them

Pears, sliced and fried in butter, with Poire Williams, pistachios, cream

Diana

Red chillies stuffed with spiced lamb; ovendried tomatoes; salmon with preserved lemon, olives, capers; salad of broan beans, feta, mint.

Fried chillies in hot oil, then cooled and skinned them. Lamb with onions, garlic, cumin, coriander, fennel. Fish: used organic salmon, ethical but inauthentic; with 1/8 preserved lemon, 1/2 tbs capers, 3 olives, chopped finely. Broad beans are frozen. Salad dressing: lemon, garlic, dill, oil.

B'stilla; red onions, red peppers, aubergine, courgettes; couscous with argan oil

B'stilla. Authentic would be heavy on the sugar and salmonella; this wasn't authentic. 2 chicken breasts. Cook onion, garlic, saffron, ground ginger, cinnamon then add chicken, stock, water; simmer for an hour. Strain off the liquid and reduce a lot. Slice chicken. Chop and toast or fry some almonds. For the pie, used 8 leaves of filo, 8in foil tin. Line the tin with ends of the sheets, making a sort of star shape. Put in the chicken, then onions, then almonds. Separate an egg, add the yolk to the (warm) sauce. Whisk the white and add fold that in, pour into pie. Fold over the filo, painting it with lots of butter an oil, Bake for about 30 mins at gas 4.

Cooked the veggies like you do for ratatouille, ie separately, and gently. Served warm, not hot. The couscous was the extra-fine stuff we found in France and it’s much nicer than the coarse stuff you get here.

We had a †Val d’Argan’ wine with this and it was delicious.

Apricots with orange, honey, rosewater; yoghurt; pistachios

Vache Qui Rit