august 2010

Lunch: BBQ for the branch and families: Peter, Michael, Mark M, Mary, Dan R, Lucy, Beth, Jason, Jacob, Edward, Andrew R

Dolmades, hummus, pitta, olives

Adey's merguez; Bulghar with sesame, sumac, barberries, thyme; courgettes with preserved lemon; roasted tomatoes; fuul mesdames

Tea bread (Mark and Mary) and chocolate roulade (Dan and Lucy)

Cheese (Peter)

Good fun. The success of a party is measured by amount of damage inflicted: I blew up the toaster, swirled wine until it went all over me and somehow sustained a large multicoloured bruise under my toe. This "lunch" lasted till about 8pm, which is what happens if you have friends without wristwatches

Dinner: leftovers..

Dolmades, cucumber and radish with yoghurt

Green peppers stuffed with merguez, lentils, tomato puree; potatoes, harissa and yoghurt

Pea soup (from freezer)

Couscous with merguez, chickpeas, pumpkin, courgette, fried seeds

Gazpacho

Pork in vine leaves, chickpeas and spinach with slowly cooked onion, new potatoes

Linguine with porkballs, chorizo, paprika, cream, pepper, mushrooms, tomato; green beans

Cherries in Kirsch, cream, morbid amaretti

Ate out

Thai Brasserie, with John

Lunch: Spag with cream, garlic, tomato, basil

Dinner: Beetroot, chevre, hazlenut, spinach salad

Duck breast with sour cherry sauce, green beans, fried potatoes

Cherries from our tree

Lunch: Navah and Mark

We took Navah and Mark out mountainbiking, but made up for torturing them by making a nice lunch. we hope.

Salad (WR "strong salad") with pigeon in Chinese marinade; fried then sliced thinly; salad of spring onion, radish, cucumber

Plum, honey, sloe gin ice cream; roated plums; amaretti

custard made with 2 eggs and not all a 10floz of double cream, honey, then added some roasted plum puree and some sloe gin. Custard was very thick, and didn't set in the glacier. Very nice. The plums were a small cooking type, almost like damsons, a good flavour

Epoisses

you can imagine what this is like on a warm summer lunchtime. mmm.

Dinner: risotto of mushrooms, porcini ; broad beans

WR raspberry custard tarlets

WR Borek, dolmades, spinach

Red peppers, artichokes, pinoli, parmesan; fried courgettes; rocket, ciabatta

At Simon and Dinah's

Tomato and basil, toasted ciabatta

Gratin of squash, yoghurt, kalonji; confit onions in olive oil, potatoes

Squash, ginger,lemon and seed soup

About 3/4 of a summer squash (watery round courgette). fried, then add 1 about 1" of ginger, garlic; toast some sesame/pumkin/sunflower seeds, grind. then blend the lot. Felt it needed lemon so zest of about 1/4 went in. Good, very gingery. Squash tastes of nowt but makes a nice thick soup.

Salad of braised beef, pak choi, daikon spring onion, soba noodles

Beef was from the freezer

Ate out

Storyteller

Lunch: spag with onion sauce

Dinner with Diana and Martin

Diana and Martin have Tomasina Miers' book, and we'd been planning a joint dinner for ages

Tortilla soup

Chilli con carne, rice, tomato salsa

Chocolate sorbet

Very, very chocolatey

Cheeses: Ossau Iraty, Pont l'Eveque, Red Leicester, Petit Basque, Epoisses

Lunch: Pak choi, spring onions, Thai curry sauce, rice

Dinner: artichokes, croutons, rocket

Mushrooms and tomotoes, port sauce; polenta amd gorgonzola cakes; spinach

Avocado, tomatoes and chilli

Catalan sausages, split peas, broad beans, fried potatoes, chutney

Spag with olives, tomatoes, caperberries

Pears sliced and fried in butter, morello cherries, amaretti, cream

Cherries from our tree

Ate out

Le Champignon Sauvage

Dolmades

Fried squash, potatoes, beetroot with yogurt-cream-chilli-cinnamon, RWS salad, fried Halloumi

Toulouse sausages, flageolets with caramelised and pureed garlic, rws salad, mashed potatoes

Grilled apricots, caramelised apricot kernels

Lunch: linguine with lambs kidney, chorizo, tomato

Dinner: Pork ossobuco with red wine, tomato puree, herbs; saffron risotto

Beetroot ice cream, chocolate sauce

1 egg, 1/2 tub cream, 1 tbs sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, a 6oz cooked beetroot. Make custard, liquidize with beetroot. Made about 10floz. It's very good and goes well with the choc sauce (made like the sorbet recipe, some cocoa and 4 squares (16g) of 85% choc. Very dark. We could have done with more sauce)

Lunch: bulghar pilaff (onions, spices) with fried Padron peppers, yog-tomato-chili sauce

Dinner: Fillet steak with olive crust, fried potatoes, tomatoes, pea shoot salad

WR choc mousse with (our) sour cherries, kirsch, cream

WR pheasant pate, toast, chutney

Gnocchi, gorgonzola and walnut sauce, green beans

Ate out

Pirandello, with Andrew R, Chris F, Peter, Mark and Mary M

Pate and toast

Fish stew (haddock, mussels, prawns, tomato, saffron) ; bread, spinach

polenta and lentil cakes with pistachios and barberries, sauce of ginger garlic dried orange, leeks stewed and some fried

I'm experimenting trying to make nice vegan stuff. The polenta/lentil cakes were a bit dry, maybe I need more of the nuts/berries in them or maybe incorporate onions or leeks

German plum cake,cream

Ate out

Ty Mawr, Brechfa. We'd planned to take mtbs but since it had rained all week we wimped out and kept to the roads instead. Ty Mawr is a nice place.

Ate out

Lunch at the Harbourmaster in Aberaeron - fantastic place, very much the real thing. Crab spaghetti served in a huge crab shell.

Ate out

Lunch at the Angel, Llansawel. Friendly local pub with simple food - veg tikka with chips and rice.

Lunch was noodles at the Red Dragon in Brecon, good cyclists' grub

Dinner: caramelised chicory, cream, pasta

Mackerel escabeche (raspberry vinegar, shallot, chilli); confit fennel; new poatoes

Squash fool

About 5oz squash, boiled and pureeed, some sugar, 4 squares white choc cooked in a little water, 2 floz cream, whipped, a dash of lime juice