july

Lunch: spag with vongole and tomatoes

Dinner: Roast Guineau fowl; chanterelles and petits pois in cashew milk; squash gnocchi

More theft from Essence. Cashew milk: toasted 1tbs cashews, ground them, made sauce with 1 fat clove fresh garlic, milk, stock, meat juices.

Gnocchi: roasted 1 smallish squash (8oz cooked wt), added half a maris piper, some flour, 2 sage leaves chopped. A bit heavy, but not too bad.

Lemon and pine kernel cheesecakes, pepper and coriander caramel

2-3 floz cream, whipped. 2-3 oz Ricotta, juice and zest of 1 lemon, 1 tbs honey, 6-7 Australian pepperberries, crushed, 1 small leaf gelatine. Dissolved honey in the juice, warmed a bit. Soeked gelatine and dissolved it in that. Let it cool then added to ricotta, with the pepper. Tried to fold in the whipped cream but ended up whipping it all up together. Stirred in 1 tbs toasted pine kernels and decanted into little basins.

Caramel: 3tbs sugar, some crushed black peppercorns and coriander. Make caramel and pour onto greased paper. Should have spread it out a bit then – it was a bit thick.

Haddock, fried, with sauce of cream, white wine, cilantro; broad beans, new potatoes

Red apricots, grilled, with apricot brandy, amaretti, cream

Chilled pea soup

Crab with spring onions, ginger, chilli; pak choi, rice

Salmon done in a sort of ceviche-sushi (con)fusion; salad of beansprouts, carrot, spring onion; rice

Colin was away on a jolly so I had all the weird stuff he doesn't like - such as raw fish.

Strawberries and black pepper, marinated in balsamic vinegar

Guineau fowl legs, Puy lentils with olives, roasted tomato purée; braised Little Gems, bread

Strawberry "cheesecake"

This didn't entirely work, but it was delicious. I marianted some strawberries with rosewater, vanilla sugar, vodka. I puréed half, and cut the rest into 1cm pieces. I got 1 small leaf gelatine and used 2/3 for the puree and 1/3 in some ricotta. Decanted the puree into moulds and left to set. Mixed the strawberry pieces in the ricotta. Decanted this over the puree when it had set. Either I didn't give it enough time to set or didn't use enough gelatine - well, you can imagine the rest. I shall try again.

Pea soup

Lamb chops, tomatoes, grilled aubergine slices, new potatoes

Lunch: Spag with vodka

Dinner: Garlic soup

Duck breasts, sour cherry and Kisrch sauce; peas, rosti potatoes

Lunch: beansprouts, oyster sauce, egg noodles

Dinner: Beefburgers, "persian" sauce (pomegranate, spices), tomatoes, mushrooms, rice

Raspberries in Framboise with cream and Amaretti

Gorgonzola risotto, roasted beetroot, walnuts

Blackcurrants, chevre

Maybe better to make a cheesecake

Simon and Amelia

Roasted red peppers; crab with couscous with saffron and rose harissa

Pork fillet in vine leaves; spinach with cream and roasted garlic; pasta

Pistachio cake and poached strawberries

Gorgonzola and Epoisses

Figs marinated in balsamic and chilli; gorgonzola

Salad of watercress, beetroot, bacon; roast garlic and avocado oil dressing

Cucumber gazpacho

Rump steak; avocado, tomoto, chilli, cilantro; quinoa with sweetcorn, roast garlic, cream

Ate out

Lunch: Thai curry of mushrooms, peas, sweetcorn carrot; thai rice

Dinner: (Tracey) Bread, salad, Epoisses

Dinner:(Colin) steak, rosti potatoes with garlic

Poached pear and gorgonzola

Lunch: Cathy and Jim's party

Dinner: bulghar wheat, tomatoes, mint, sumac

Fennel, tomato salad

Osso buco, fried fennel, saffron risotto

Red pepper, chèvre, rocket

Bighams fish cakes with Thai sauce; broad beans, rice

Veggie couscous

Raspberries, cream, amaretti

(T) Pasta with onions, cream, kalonji (Colin in Sheffield)

(T) Dhal and rice (Colin stranded in Brum)

Lunch (T): spag and Gorgonzola

Dinner: Feta, spinach and lemon, bulghar wheat

Strawberry thing.

Some strawberries, macerated in vodka and black pepper. One or two cut up small, the rest puréed. The purée was about 6 floz. Some whipped cream. 1 small gelatine leaf.

Lunch: dhal, onions-kalonji-tamarind-coconut, rice

Dinner: John

Salmon in harissa, fried, with broad bean puree and mint leaves.

Broad beans were with cumin, coriander, fennel and preserved lemon, shallot

Pork fillet marinated in sesame oil and garlic, roasted; spring rolls of shitake mushrooms, cabbage, spring onions, pork jelly; pak choi with sauce of cashes, roast garlic, oyster sauce; soba noodles

Ricotta, lemon, pine kernel parfait

Juice and zest of 2 lemons, 2 tbs honey and 1(?) of sugar. 5 floz ricotta. 12 Australian pepperberries, crushed. 2 tbs pine kernels toasted. 3floz double cream, whipped. 1 1/2 small gelatine leaves.

Soaked the gel. leaves, warmed the juice and dissolved the honey, then the gel. Cool, and mix into the ricotta, with the pepperberries. I don't have a good method for this and hack away using sieves and the whisk to blend it together. Then mix with the cream in a similarly inept way. Taste, and find it's way too sharp, so throw in the sugar. Put in fridge. When it seems to be setting, stir in the pine kernels. When it's definitely setting, stir again and decant into 3 little pudding basins.

I did all this some time after lunch and by 7pm they hadn't convincingly set, so they went in the freezer. We ate them I suppose about 8-830pm, by which time they were set just right, slightly frozen, but soft and smooth.

Pecorino Toscano and Lou Perac (both ewes' cheeses, coincidentally)

Friday's massive rainfall has caused extensive, deep flooding to the county, and the water works at Mythe have been taken out. This is our last fancy meal in for a while, as we shall be a little constrained in our washing up.

Sausages (Graig farm "Oxford"), cream and mustard sauce, cabbage, pearl barley

Cranachan (raspberries, toasted oats, cream)

Lunch: couscous, salmon and bean puree fron sunday, courgettes

Dinner: cauliflower risotto with gorgonzola

Raspberries and blackcurrants, amaretti, cream

Lunch: Bacon, kidney beans, tomatoes, mexican spices; quinoa

Dinner: Ratatouille, bread, oil

Pistachio cake and peaches

Hummus and pitta

Confit of duck, green salad, bread

Waitrose chevre and onion tartlets

Lamb chops, cabbage and porcini, potatoes

Lunch: bacon and cabbage with cream juniper horseradish, fried potatoes

Dinner: Pork burgers, tomato, chilli, cream sauce; courgettes, gnocchi

Quince curd tart

This is one of those unreproducible recipes. We had a load of japonica-quince puree that had taken up a long term residence in the freezer. There was about 350-400 ml of it. I reduced it and added some sugar. I made an 8" pastry tart with 4oz flour, 2oz butter and part baked it. I made a curd with the quince puree, 3 eggs, added some ricotta and single cream. About 2-3 floz each. Baked it at gas 2, for 40 mins until set. The texture is perfect.

Lunch: spag with bacon, chilli, tomatoes

Trout fillets with sauce of lemon grass, saffron, chilli, cream, ovendried tomatoes; sugar snaps, potatoes

Elderflower pannacotta, peaches and redcurrants, borage flowers

5 floz each of single cream and milk, cooked down, plus some of Rob's elderflower cordial. 2 small gelatine leaves. It was a bit on the firm side but not too bad.

Aubergine and squash sliced and grilled, grilled hallomi, bulghar

Redcurrant jellies, cream, borage flowers

Caldo verde, sourdough toast

Saffron rice pudding, peaches