SUNDAY LUNCH DESSERT

Had a wonderful lunch, Ian's Mum, Beryl, was visiting from England. Julia was hosting in the kitchen we all covet! Julia cooked wonderful side of salmon, smothered with creme fraiche, lemon and a herb. I did Blueberry Buckle, a Cooks Illustrated recipe I had spotted a while back and finally tried. I was pretty pleased with it, it is very light and very fruity.
Shame you cannot get recipes from C I without a subscription, hoping they will get this figured out soon, in the meantime I hope the link works.
NOTE: I have made this a couple of times since, my tip is to err on the side of fewer blueberries. The cake has a lot of berries, which is one of the things that makes it great, but did not take much to tip it over the edge, does not make it better. Not a huge deal, just a little tip. Also, only did the whole pan prep the first time, subsequent times just sprayed the pan with 'Pan for baking' and it was fine, no need for all the lining the pan with parchment etc.

FATHER'S DAY BREAKFAST

OK, I know I am way behind!
Alan loves kippers and I have to make sure we have some for Father's day, I order them from Mackenzie .

Fry a couple of eggs, some good grainy bread, fruit (to make me feel better!), juice, coffee. Mmmmmmmm. It's only one a year and luckily we all enjoy kippers as the smell does linger.

GUEST CHEF RETURNS!

OK, before I get into this I have to acknowledge that I have been very lax with this blog - after all - what is a blog exactly? Don't want to spend the time I have to be updating this on looking for the definition but I am pretty sure you are supposed to post stuff regularly! Details would be boring - suffice to say it's been a busy couple of months. AND I am still planning on improving all sorts of things about my blog - in the meantime - here are some meals we have enjoyed in the last couple of months.
I love to have Dave in my kitchen, we decide on a menu, go to the market, change it because of what looks good and then he is SO QUICK at prep. Oh well, if I did nothing else but cook for a few years I'm sure I would get there too! (Meant to be a compliment Dave, not sure it sounds like one.)
We had Jerk chicken, shrimp and vegetables, served with a saffron rice. The chicken was boneless thighs, cut and skewered, shrimp were alternated with cherry tomatoes on skewers. We bought a jar of 'Jerk spice' which Dave smelled and added some ginger to. Also did some summer squash and onions in same spices. Dave knocked up a salsa (took him 5 mins, would have been half an hour for me!) of red onion, jalapeño, red pepper, lime and cilantro, if my memory serves me well. He then made the delicious rice dish: fried a little finely chopped onion with a finely chopped red chile, added the basmati rice, saffron and some shucked corn, got it all coated in the oil then added the water, put the lid on the pan and turned the heat down and magically it was ready at the same time as everything else! Grilled the chicken, shrimp and veggies, seemed effortless but of course fantastic!
I made the dessert, and it was pretty good: Strawberry mascarpone tart with Port glaze. It was on the front cover of the current Gourmet magazine and had been winking at me! Again, great to have Dave at the market with me because our fabulous Wilton Village Market was out of mascarpone that day. I asked Dave if I could use Creme fraiche, he said it would be too runny. He suggested one tub of creme fraiche mixed with one tub of whipped cream cheese and if worked a dream. I have made it again since, and in the heat of a fabulous weekend at a friend's lake house, I forgot to add the sugar to the cream mixture. Texture suffered but I must say I preferred the taste - have to figure out how to get the best of both worlds next time!

SATURDAY EVENING STEAK

Had a busy day, needed something quick for dinner. Decided on steak and, as usual, flipped through latest Bon Appetit for some inspiration. Did Heirloom Tomatoes with Shell Beans Vinaigrette. Could not find any of the peas called for in the recipe so I used Baby Lima beans. It was delicious, didn't cook for as long as in the recipe, maybe because the beans I used. Also thought it could do with a little more basil. I made the amount for 8 even though there were only 3 of us as I thought it would be great as leftovers and it was. Had some for lunch next day and it had improved! Not much to say about the steak, did our usual rib-eye on the BBQ and it was pretty perfect.

SUMMER VERSION OF SUNDAY ROAST CHICKEN

Finally some warm weather so we decided to dust off the rotisserie for our weber. Made a rosemary and garlic butter to put under the skin on the breast of the chicken. Julia taught me how to do this, just melt some butter and add whatever chopped herb you would like and some garlic. Then let set in fridge or freezer, depending on how much time you have. You loosen the skin over the breast of the chicken and put pats of the butter all over the breast. I also put a medium, halved onion in the cavity, with some more garlic and rosemary sprigs. Chicken takes just over an hour, but varies of course depending on the weight and heat of your coals. It was pretty good. Oh yes, and Alan has a pretty interesting way of trussing the chicken, but, hey, it works!

Just the two of us....

Saturday night dinner after a busy day so not a lot of time. As has become a habit, grabbed the latest Gourmet mag to browse while watching Joseph's soccer game. We had decided it was going to be a fish night and found Greek Style Mahimahi, 'active time 15min start to finish 30min', perfect! Could not get Mahimahi but Striped Sea Bass proved a great substitute. It was delicious and I will definitely do it again, little different from most fish dishes I usually do. Suggested accompaniment was an Orzo and fennel dish Did not want to do orzo but it reminded me of a dish Charlotte had suggested a while ago which is oven roasted Fennel, potato and onion. Very simple, you cut all three into about half inch slices, toss with some oil, add a herb if you fancy and have some around and roast for about half an hour in a 425 ish oven. It is a great combination, I like to use thin skinned potatoes that do not need peeling, like yukon golds. I always like to have something green on the plate so I added some baby courgettes for the last 10 minutes. A basic tomato salad was included with the fish recipe and that was it for us - yum!

Memorial Day with friends

This tradition has been going for a few years now, as we have no family in the US (well, we sort of do but that should be the subject of another blog!), some of our lovely American friends join us at key holidays. It is often the first BBQ of the season but this year the weather forecast was not good. Decided to do meat in the oven but salads alongside, and leave the decision to eat inside or out to the last minute. As it turned out it was the right choice, we started outside for cocktails but rain sent us running inside within 15 minutes! Charlotte brought a wonderful shrimp with dill dip for appetiser and I made a Herb Roasted Pork Loin (from a recent Gourmet magazine) accompanied by Delia's corn salsa, a green salad and crusty bread. The Pork loin was disappointing, I have to say. Could have been that I misread the amount of herbs required and I did not have enough, or that it was ordinary pork which, we all know, has been bread to be so lean that it ends up dry all too easily and really doesn't have much flavour. It was not dry at all and luckily the sauce was delicious, and it did smell great while it was cooking! My guests were complimentary but I think they were just being polite! The corn salsa was as good as ever and the green salad was great. I had been given some white balsamic vinegar last Christmas and a green lemon oil which I used for the dressing, so felt good about those at least!
We finished the meal with a Baked raspberry tart which was excellent so I think my reputation is not entirely blown! Sadly that recipe was from Cooks Illustrated and you cannot get the recipes for free, will put it up once I get it figured out. Also did some Key Lime bars as I was feeding 12 people. Also pretty good but another Cooks Illustrated recipe so can't post a link right now.