Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy

Ever since Alex Polizzi did a programme on Heck I have been a fan of them (and Alex). I will always remember that they were told that that more meat does not make a better sausage. They disagreed and so do I.

Tonight they were the star in our simple bangers and mash dinner. I started making inf the onion gravy in the morning so that the flavors had time to develop.

I won't bore you with the making of the mash, but i would like to mention that my favorite way of doing sausages is with minimal greasing in the oven. So here they are befor going in at 180C for 25 minutes:

The result was absolutely delicious

Thank you Heck and Alex!

Hake with fennel, tomatoes and sea vegetables

Well, it's been a while. Sorry,but we have been travelling and of course there was Christmas. There have been many food experiences and I hope I can catch up on some of them.  However, tonight we took some Cape Hake from Reagal Fish out of the freezer and it was delicious, so I thought I share. I wrapped the hake in kitchen foil with some garlic, olive oil, lemon slices & juice and put it in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes. About 20 minutes before I did something similar with a head of fennel. I sliced it, put salt & pepper, olive oil, garlic slices, lemon juice and some cherry tomatoes with it, wrapped it and put it in the same oven. In the end I wilted some samphire and sea beet with a little butter and salt in a frying pan. The result was lovely.

Quick, light, tasty, vegetarian dinner

Last night my wife "threw this one together and it was absolutely delicious. It's basically sweet potato (skin on), butternut squash (also skin on) and red oinion. Mix these with 2 tsp Ras el Hanout, 1 tsp cumin and 1 teaspoon garlic powder. Add stock about a half way up the veg and put in the oven at 180C. When the veg starts to caramelize add slices of (half fat) halloumion top and wait until they are nicely caramelized. For serving sprinkle with chopped up parsley or coriander and pomegranate seeds.

Almost Mozart

I have always loved Mozartkugeln. Little chocolate coated balls with a pistachio marzipan filling with a core of dark nougat. There are two companies battling who produces the "real" Mozartkugel, so mine certainly are not. But we love them nonetheless. My mother found the recipe somewhere in a magazine or on TV - who cares where.

However, there was a small flaw with the recipe. It said "buy some dark nougat". Well, that doesn't work here in Bracknell. So I had to search YouTube to find out how to make it myself. And it is quite simple. You slowly melt 33g sugar to make a caramel and as soon as it got a lovely brown colour, you and 33g of a mix of 50% ground hazelnuts and 50% ground almonds. Once combined you spread the mix onto and an oiled tray and let it harden in the fridge. Once cooled you combine it with 33g of good milk chocolate in a food processor until smooth. You then form a role and let that set in the fridge again.

In the meantime you combine 100g of bought marzipan, 30g of unsalted pistachios, 130g icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of Kirsch (or Rum) in a food processor. You want this to combine to a thick dough consistency. If it's too crumbly then just add a little water (a tablespoon  at a time). Form a role and let it set in the fridge.

When both roles are set split each into 48 segments and role each into a ball. Then flatten the marzipan mix ball to a circle, place the nougat ball in the middle and mould the marzipan round the nougat.

Once all 48 are done, you need to do the chocolate. A tip I picked up from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, is how to cheat on the tampering: grate a third of the chocolate and reserve it. Break the rest up into small pieces and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time. After each time give it a stir and see if the heat is enough to melt the rest. Once you are at that stage through in the reserved grated chocolate and stir it through until everything is dissolved - I use about 120g of good dark chocolate (about 80% cocoa).

You can then roll the 48 balls in the chocolate and place them on baking parchment.

It's quite technical, but definitely worth it,.

Marzipan Potatoes

We just love these you mix a little coco powder and ground cinnamon with caster sugar. Get some nice shop bought marzipan and make little balls. Then roll them in the mix. To me they just make Christmas.

My daughter's idea of food

Admittedly brownies are great for Christmas, but wait until I get going ;-)

Lunch at the L'Ortolan

Two of my colleagues and I went for our Christmas lunch today. It wasn't your usual one neither. We went to the L'Ortolan restaurant in Shinfield/Reading. It was just exceptional. To start with we had drinks in the bar with "nibbles". The nibbles were  tapioca crisps, venison tartar and some deep fried ball, that I couldn't quite get what it was, but all three were amazingly delicious.

We then were asked to our table where we were served a celeriac volute with pickled pear - I know my descriptions are getting boring, but it was exceptional. We then served our individual starters and I had smoked wood pigeon with artichoke and hazelnut.

For main, I had stone bass pan fried with confit potato, pickled chanterelles and a truffle jus

Now, pre-desert was fun. It looked like soft boiled egg with soldiers. Well, the soldiers were coconut shortbread and the egg shells were filled with coconut foam and mango.

The desert was simply called "Cherry":

It was chocolate macaroon, chocolate & cherry ganache, Kirsch cherries, cherry gel and cherry sorbet.

The service was just like the food - flawless. One of us was vegetarian and she was equally blown away. All round probably the best Christmas lunch ever.