april 2011

 
<< march : food index : may >>
 
Friday 1.4

Ate out

Brosh

 
Saturday 2.4

Lunch: cabbage with szechwan stir fry sauce, rice noodles

sauce was a bit sweet, it's from a packet

Dinner: cauli in peanut sauce (allspice, chilli, tomato), quinoa with red peppers

Sultanas, candied peel in Limnocello with cream and panadoro

Sunday 3.3

Lunch: spag with saucisse and peas and cream

we had been for a nice mtb ride but the weather was colder than we expected. We did lots of tricky things we hadn't been able to do before and we picked some wild garlic for dinner.

Dinner: John

Haricot and onion soup with wild garlic and spring onions

I think about 6-8oz beans? 1 onion and a big bunch of garlic. I put in 2 chicken stock cubes and some of the veg powder. nice

Smoked pork belly, red cabbage, potatoes

At last I got round to using a smoker bag I'd got Mum to give us for xmas years ago. I did the pork for 4-5 hours by which time it is falling apart luciously. This was very good.

Ras caramel ice cream, poached pears

John detected turmeric, one of the lesser ingredients. I don't think he was all that keen but said it wasn't unpleasant.

Cerney goat, Denhay cheddar, WR Duchy cornish brie

 
Monday 4.4

red peppers olives goat cheese, basil; polenta cakes

fried pear, peaches in booze, cream, biscuits

Tuesday 5.4

Thai curry of sweet potatoes, makua puong, peas, funny mushrooms, jasmine rice

Fru cheesecakes

Honestly, why do they have 3 in a packet? This is hardly likely to promote marital harmony. But we are expert at dividing grub accurately.

Wednesday 6.4

asparagus

filo parcels of beetroot, goat cheese; watercress salad, potatoes

Dinner was quite late because it was a fab fab day the first fab day of the year and Colin wanted to go mtb-ing after work. I tried to do a pesky tree root and fell off the hill. But the evening light was fantastic

Thursday 7.4

Celeriac soup

Beef bourgignon, red cabbage coleslaw, potatoes

Friday 8.4

ate out

Zizzi. one of us managed not to have the arancini

 
Saturday 9.4

Lunch: couscous (T) spag (C)

Dinner: Claire, Rachel, Andy

haricot and onion soup with wild garlic

pumpkin and chickpea tagine, courgettes, couscous

caramel ice cream, pecan and date cake

5 tbs sugar, caramelised, about 350-400ml cream, 2 large eggs. good, nice texture. For the cake I used 6oz butter, 6 oz SRflour, 5 oz sugar, turns out a bit dry though

cheeses as last week

Then Rachel and Andy showed us photos of Greenland, utterly otherworldly

Sunday 10.4

Lunch:couscous, red peppers, green salad

we ate outside

pork burgers, tomato red peper chilli goats cheese sauce, spinach, fried potatoes

cake, ice cream, dates

 
Monday 11.4

spag with peppers, courgettes etc; salad

pears, sour cherries in booze, amaretti, cream

Tuesday 12.4

pumpkin tagine, bulghar, harissa

cake, dates, cream, wishky

This has nothing to do with food but my private war with Leckhampton Hill is becoming increasingly vicious. I am slowly mastering the double tree root but the newly stony Cotswold way section caught me out and pitched me backwards onto a tree stump. I now have a lump on my back

Wednesday 13.4

Saucisse and split pea soup

A sort of foccacia with artichokes and peanuts; rocket and dried tomato salad

This almost worked. I made a very wet dough last night, and today tipped it into a foil loaf-like dish, with artichokes etc on top. I used the top oven which I don't think gets to heat and it took 30 mins to get anywhere near cooked. I think i'll keep trying but maybe use a flatter tray and use the lower over, which makes for more like a pizza. I'm not really sure what I'm up to but sometimes this idea gets you a really open texture. Maybe best not to put too much on top. Could even try like a Tatin and do it upside down?

Thursday 14.4

Thai curry of sweet potatoes peas aubergines, rice

WR pineapple, mango, passion; cream

Friday 15.4

Ate Out

Shezan: we had onion bhaji, aloo tikki, jalfrezi and chilli masala lamb. The jalfrezi is hot

Saturday 16.4

Lunch: linguine with artichoke and ham

Dinner Peter O

Asparagus, ham

Osso buco with morels and cream, grilled bably leeks, wild garlic risotto

We picked the wild garlic in Cranham woods, in the course of a cracking mtb ride in which we found some nice steps. We thought we'd give Peter all these English seasonal delicacies that he wouldn't ever get in the USA but no he says they have asparagus there and wild garlic and rhubarb and ice cream.

Rhubarb ice cream

I used 227ml double cream and 1 egg. The custard behaves better with double cream, it doesn't start to go all scrambly before you reach 67 degrees. I did about 7-8 sticks of pink rhubarb, grilled half of them and poached the rest with sugar ginger but no extra water, mixed this in with the custard.

cheeses as before plus some more Cornish brie

Sunday 17.4

Lunch: Ate out

Mount Inn at Stanton yeh more fab climbs to do from here and we rode up some steps

Dinner: Prawns and mushrooms with tamarind chilli coriander, rice

Rhubarb, rhubarb ice cream, panodoro

Monday 18.4

asparagus and ham

fennel, tomtoes, olives, Pernod; ciabatta

Tuesday 19.4

watercress, radish, orange, beetroot

pork ossobuco, lentils, cbbage, mashed potato

Wednesday 20.4

watercress, beetroot, pecans

cabbage and ps-broc in oyster sauce, soba noodles

Thursday 21.4
- Sunday 24.4

Ate out

Rose and Crown Romaldkirk

Monday 25.4

dhal and rice

Tuesday 26.4

Caesar salad

aubergine slices and sweet potato slices in gram batter fried, sauce of 5-spice, chilli, peanuts, onion, soba noodles

Wednesday 27.4

Rocket, tomato, pine, parmesan salad

potato and onion cakes, spinach with sour cherries, sauce of sesame and cashew

This was rather tasty. I used 2/3 of an onion for the potato cakes and caramelised them a little (ie forgot about them) and I used a bit over half an egg to bind it together, left over from yesterday. The potato cakes were light and soft inside.

Thursday 28.4

WR squash-filled pastries, rocket, chutney

Lamb shank in red wine and mustard, pearl barley, Janet's broccoli

Colin put a little more mustard into the sauce, barely detectable as mustard but enough to enhance the taste

Friday 29.4

Lunch: salad of Jersey royals, radish, cos, garlic mayo

Dinner: crab risotto, scallops, asparagus

Strawbs, rosewater, vanilla sugar, panadoro, cream

Saturday 30.4

Lunch: WR ricotta and spinach tortelini

Dinner: ate out

with Connie and Chas, and the Sign of the Angel, Lacock

<< march : food index : may >>