ANNA'S FAVOURITE APPETISER

We are lucky enough to be included in the L'Archevesque family Thanksgiving celebration. This year it was hosted by Lee and Anna, who used to do it until Kara took it over a few years ago. Anna was very clear with my task, Savoury Cheese Palmiers with Ham. This is in the Delia Christmas book and I have been making them for years as I like them too, and so does Joseph! They are really a fancy version of cheese straws with the addition of Parma Ham. This year for the first time I did some with black olives too for the vegetarians. I was pretty pleased with them and I could have made more, the carnivores liked both versions! I have not yet found the recipe on Delia's site, I will keep looking or write it out myself, the recipe part is easy. Putting them together is a little fiddly and have to admit, time consuming. But enjoyable for me and satisfying when I get lots of compliments on them!

ANOTHER CHEESECAKE!

So looking forward to dinner at Julia's with the Naults and the Lyons, my course was dessert, just for a change! I had planned to do the cover recipe on the current 'Bon Appetit', it looks so great and is bit of a challenge so would be fun. Luckily, a couple of nights before embarking on this I read through the recipe to figure out my game plan and generate a shopping list. I had a pretty busy weekend, and thought I had it figured out BUT luckily, noticed that you had to refrigerate the cake for 6 hours after making it! This was not going to work for me - I panicked and looked through the rest of the magazine to find something that would fit in with my schedule. There it was, a Maple with Cranberry Compote Cheesecake, looked pretty good, and I have made enough cheesecakes to evaluate the recipe and know it would be good. Anyway, it was very well received and I was pretty pleased with it, will make it again.

DESSERT FOR ELIZABETH

Elizabeth is visiting from Argentina for a week. Julia hosted a dinner, mostly girls but of course Alan was invited! Such a fun evening, the Wilton crowd with some international friends who Elizabeth added into the mix. She is a great collector of interesting people! Julia did a delicious Fish pie and I did a Normandy Apple tart for dessert. This is something I have been cooking for years. The recipe comes from the Observer, a Sunday newspaper in London. There was a section every week to collect - we are talking late 1970s here! I usually do this with pears, it is delicious and it looks so wonderful. However, Joseph and I had been apple picking a few weeks ago, I had a fridge full of apples so had to do the traditional way this time! I actually was not that happy with it - the apples were a bit big so the 'spokes' were not that even but it did taste pretty good - really! I wish the pictures were better but I was distracted...... I really think this is easier to do than it looks and it gets rave reviews, go on, try it!

DESSRT FOR THE GIRLS

Julia and I were invited to dinner at Val's, along with Angela & Lisa who sadly could not make it. I had not seen Val all summer and was really looking forward to the evening, Val is fun to be with and a great cook. I was taking dessert. I had been thinking about Fig tart for a few weeks, wanting to make it but somehow it just had not happened. I was a little concerned that I had left it too late and would be able to find the figs. Decided to check Grand Central Market on Friday evening on my way through and struck lucky! Next had a bit of a hunt for the recipe, had made this a few years ago and it was great. My usually pretty reliable memory was failing me - but eventually found it on BBC Good food and there it was! Thank goodness: Honey Roasted Fig & Almond Tart. I was pretty happy with it, maybe could have cooked for a little less time, not sure what happened, had to convert oven temp from C to F, but that is something I do often. Oh well, maybe this time I made a mistake but I think it came out of the oven in the nick of time! As there were only 3 of us I was able to leave some with Val and bring home a piece for Alan. Able to confirm the next day that it was delicious! Another thought is that I too am getting something out of this blog in that it has a log of recipes I use so would not have to hunt again for it....... YAY, all good!
UPDATE: Did this again for a wonderful country weekend with Iain & Rick, as I feel we have to make the most of the short fig season. Noticed that you are supposed to reduce the oven temp for the main baking of the tart, which I did and the result was better! Julia tasted both tarts and said she did not notice, it was a compliment, they were both good, but I was happy to discover the solution. The other thing is that the recipe calls for bought pastry. Well, maybe in the UK you can buy good short pastry but I have not found it in the USA and it si pretty quick to make so that is what I do. The recipe I used is from Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie's Italy', Crostata di fichi. I cannot find it online, sadly, but found something pretty similar: Only difference I can see is that I added some vanilla (a few seeds scraped from a pod or a drop of essence) and the zest of a lemon. BTW, I did use this recipe once to make the tart and it just did not work for me, unusually as I am Jamie fan!
Enjoy!

GM is back in town! PART 2

(Read below first - this was an experiment.) Anyway, roasting of the shanks was great, as hopefully you can see with the pics below. In fact, every time I do this I think I should just roast & serve them at this stage - maybe one day I will remember and do that! So, have another little sequence here of the layers. My carrots were fairly skinny so cut them large, as I like them not to get mushy. It worked, if anything they were almost too 'al dente' but popular opinion was that they were better that way than overcooked. Don't think the final plated shot does this dish justice; as usual in too much of a rush to eat while it's hot, rather than spend too much time on the photo! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it! Other thing to mention that I was undecided about the potato topping. It is not traditional mash; you bake the potatoes, which seems like a great idea as the oven is hot roasting the shanks. However, scooping the cooked potato out of the skins is more time consuming that peeling them. They were also a touch lumpy when I did the topping and I was rehearsing my excuses. BUT, I was converted once I tasted it. The lumps disappeared during the final baking and doing the potato this way meant it kept its character, did not merge with the creamed spinach. I am now a convert and will do this again. Julia provided a delicious raspberry tart for dessert. Did I mention that I am on a diet??!

GM is back in town! PART ONE

We all miss our dear friends the O'Connells who moved to Argentina about 6 years ago. GM usually visits a few times a year and it is always a good reason to get some friends together. It was supposed to be a chilly and rainy Saturday so I decided on Braised Lamb Shank Shepherds's pie with Creamed Spinach. Have done this a couple of times but not for a while. It is a pretty easy dish but you do spend some time in the kitchen for this dish. Luckily for me it is a welcome break from a busy work life, and so long as I have the time I am never happier than being in my kitchen, listening to BBC radio 4 with the anticipation of a fun evening with friends ahead.

ROAST CHICKEN - AGAIN BUT DIFFERENT

It was a rainy late September day, and Alan requested roast chicken for dinner - shocker! I grabbed a few Gourmets and Bon Appetits when I took Joseph to his riding lesson, hoping to find something vaguely along the lines of roast chicken but that I would be excited to cook. The first issue I flicked through was Bon Appetit from Feb 2009 and it had SPECIAL SUNDAY ROAST CHICKEN. Not that different from my old standby, but different enough. I changed a few things, of course:

Added stuffing, with sage, which the recipe used anyway.

Made a giblet stock which I used for the gravy instead of white wine.

Market did not have mustard greens so used Arugula.

Did not like the idea of putting chicken fat on the Arugula so used my gravy instead.

It was pretty good, not sure I will switch this for the old standby but I love the idea of serving on a bed of arugula, will definitely do this again!