october 2011

Lunch: spag with vongole sauce

Dinner: aubergines parmigiana, rocket, ciabatta

WR HB choc and rosemary ice cream, biscuits

Lunch: gnocchi, tomato and cream sauce

Dinner: celeriac, potato, gorgonzola gratin; green beans

Figs baked in blackberry vinegar

NCG dhal soup

WR Kerala curry, prawns and mushrooms; corn and asparagus curry

Courgettes stuffed with lentils, bacon; fried potatoes

Poached pear, rest of the choc ice cream

Salad of chard, beetroot, walnuts, lentils, orange and cardamom

Pappardelle with pheasant sauce

Ate out

Brosh

Salad of lentils, carrot, beetroot, radishes, horseradish

Chard gratin, potatoes

Lunch: dhal, with lots of onion, coconut and peanut sauce; fried squash, rice

Dinner: roast partridge, chestnut, cauli and garlic, myrtilles pasta

Quince and cream

Lunch: spag, artichokes and peanut and chilli sauce

Dinner: Fillet steak, cream, mushroom mustard sauce, fried squash, gnocchi

WR cheesecake

WR spinach boreks

Celeriac and sweet potato fried, watercress salad, gorgonzola sauce, broad beans

Aubergines, bacon, avocado, rocket, ciabatta

Mango pineapple passion, ginger in syrup, chilli

halloumi, tomatoes, rocket

artichokes; carmelised onions; green lentils, mint, bulghar; sort of tahina sauce

this was quite successful as a last minute throw things together dinner

Ate Out

The Snooty Fox, Tetbury with Connie and Chas

a sort of tarte flammiche: leeks, cream, bacon on puff pastry; potatoes

apples on toasted waffles

Lunch: pasta with walnut sauce

Dinner: Michael

somehow managed to get all the cooking done as well as a bike ride and 2 literary festival events and go to the cheese shop. oh and tidy the house

crown prince squash roasted in yoghurt, ras; couscous; barberries and caramelised onions, tahina, avocado oil

this style is a bit of a steal from Brosh, it works.

Pork belly slow roasted with apples, chestnuts black pudding; butter beans; cabbage and juniper, bread

The bread was an attempt at ciabatta. I used about 12oz flour and a lot of water, no idea how much, a bit too much at first and I threw in some more later, I mixed it in the bowl but used the spatula to stretch it, then later, hands, but it's too wet to knead. Some olive oil went in too. I left it a couple of hours over the morning. Then turn it into th 7in square tin and left it to rise a bit, then in the oven. It rose pretty well and gave a great texture, the right amount of chewyness and a good flavour. The air holes weren't as big as some shop loaves, but similar to others we have bought.

I had imagined the stuffing inside the pork rolled up but I had way too much so it got parcelled up in foil

we had a fab Hermitage

star anise ice cream, plums, damsons

Sort of Michael's suggestion as he said he'd once had such a thing. I used more of less the same recipe as I did for Ivan: 2 eggs, 8floz cream, 1 anise 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 cinnamon. This time 1.5 tbs caster sugar, 1.5 muscovado, plus 1tsp Pernod. Maybe the machine didn't jam quite as quickly as it did with Ivan, but I had to scrape it out and finish it in the freezer. It was very good, and we scoffed the lot.

Vacherin, Stichelton, Wigmore, Berkswell

Then we came up with this brilliant joke about the greedy algorithm being named after Mr Greedy, like on Peter's tshirt.

Lunch: squash, shallots, tomates, lots of oil, bread

This morning I rode all the way up Greenway Lane, a few stops of my choice, not the rocks.

Dinner: Fillet steak with olive crust, potatoes, broad beans

Raspberries and cream

NCG pumpkin soup

Mushroom and bean gratin, salad, potatoes

Stitchelton, salad, croutons

risotto with Champagne, prawns, mushrooms; peas and onion

black pudding, cabbage, barley, chutney

quince, cream etc

Sweetcorn fritters, chilli jelly

A week or so ago there was a recipe by Nigel Sltaer for these in the paper but we had recycled it. All I could remember was that he used fresh corn, and a whisked egg white. So it this I used the kernels from 2 cobs, batter made from egg yolk a bit of cream and some flour but that didn't hold the corn so I liquidised some of it. Then whisked egg white. This works. It make quite a lot, only trouble is it uses every bowl and pan in the kitchen so poor Colin comes home to an obviously large stack of washing up.

5-spice pork, pak choi, soba noodles

Ate out

Bras. Blanc with John

Lunch: spag with squash

Dinner: Claire

Paella

.. a veggie version with peppers, artichokes, peas, mushrooms

Sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream

I'd suggested ice cream but Claire said she would only turn it back into custard and in any case it is cold and cold means we can have proper pudding (tho Claire also said her Dad thinks any weather suits proper puddings) goody. There is tons in the freezer now. Then we watched the Avengers one about the man eating plant from Mars

Lunch: pak choi, courgettes, tamarind and ginger sauce; rice

I did the nemesis root properly, yeh get my own back on plants

Dinner: lamb chops, baba ganoush and olives, red peppers and chilli, potatoes

squash custards

I did this mainly because I'd cracked an egg when shopping yesterday and had to use it up. Cooked 5.5 oz of the Crown Prince squash, made custard with the egg and about half a thing of single cream whatever the smallest size WR do. 1.5 tbs sugar. 1tbs lime juice. 1 leaf gel to set it, melt in to the custard. Liquidise the lot. I did some caramelised pumpkin seeds with chilli but the chilli hot stuff just vaporises. ow ow ow.

Butter beans, parma ham, cream, truffle oil

Filo parcels of squash, potato, sundried tomatoes-olives-preserved lemon; spinach with lime juice

Spag with red pepper and goats cheese sauce; rocket

Poached figs, ginger, ginger liqueur, ginger biscuits

Halloumi, artichokes, spinach

Lamb and chickpeas, PSB with tahini, bulghar

lamb leftover from Ivan's visit, sitting unlabelled in the freezer

Ate out

The Elms, with mum - 80 today!

salad of beetroot, radishes, fried walnuts

Pearl barley orzotto with mushrooms, porcini and chestnuts; psb and green cauli with oilve oil

this was good

Lunch: couscous with squash and cauli, ras el hanout and tomato sauce

Dinner: split pea soup with squash cream

not entirely sure what I was after. I did . um . 8oz split peas, used half in this soup. Liquidised some of it, with softened onions. For the cream, a slice of Crown Prince, boiled then pureed with fresh rosemary and some cream, and a little water. It was good

Ossobuco with black pepper, sage; baby fennel with tomatoes; polenta

I would not normally cook imported baby veg, but WR had these reduced.

Lunch: Dhal and potato fritters

Dinner: cod in parma ham, boulangere potatoes, peas and shallot

Filo parcels of pears and boozy cherries

Bruschette with beetroot, chevre, hazlenuts; salad

Dell'Ugo crab and langoustine ravioli, salad