August to December 2013

John

arancini, rocket, tomato and chilli chutney.

I cooked 6oz risotto on fri, cooled. pack of little mozzarella. made 12 arancini, it was quite easy really, the rice does stick together. Then roll in beaten egg and panko bread crumbs and I fried them 10 mins. I did 9 - we had the other 3 for lunch the next day

Pork ossobuco (wine, garlic, black pepper, a small amount of star anise and fennel seed); split peas 6 oz, a little cumin, fried potato, spinach with oil and lemon

Tahini ice cream.

based on Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe. 5 floz double cream, 3 floz milk, 1 egg, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tbs maple syrup, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 tbs tahini. 1/2 a slab of halva. Make custard, stir in tahini and vanilla extract; churn, then stir in halva cubed. Sauce, 3floz cream, 4 squares 85% chic, 1 tbs brandy. And peanuts (unsalted but we did add a bit of salt even John) This was v good. I made the ice cream about 6pm, had it about 2 hours later? texture was right.

Cheese- garlic Yarg, goat gouda, epoisses, a DrWho monster mature goat cheese.

wine - John brought a nice Minervois - we had La Gioia, a Tuscan which wasn't that impressive.

we weren't terribly organised. Colin was sorting photos with 10 mins to go and I got out the dyson hintingly; it got put away 30 seconds before John turned up.

Diana and Martin

I did steak and kidney.

Can't remember quantities, quite generous I think but it all got eaten. Cooked for about 4 hours, with some red wine, thyme, black pepper. Did mashed potatoes and cabbage with juniper.

Diana had got some salami to start and a cherry frangipane for dessert. and lots of cheese.

I think it was today that I finally got the knack of getting both wheels off the ground on my road bike.

Just us - wild rabbit.

Lanes had 2 small ones; we had the saddles this time. Browned then 10-15 mins in the oven. Made stock from the remains of the carcases - very pongy. Made a hazelnut sauce for pappardelle - browned hazelnuts, softened garlic, pureed with some of the stock. This was good. Greens were collard greens with mustard.

Dessert - wattle seed pannacotta.

8floz single cream 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp wattle seed, 1 tbs sugar, 1 leaf gelatine. Boiled up some of the cream with the wattle seed then strained it. The set was just right. Served with maple syrup. The vanilla was a little dominant but the combination overall is balanced.

lamb cutlets, babaganouch sauce, olives (green beans and potatoes)

Martin

Salad of fried fennel, fennel seed, orange, dill, watercress.

the rabbit legs, (boned), braised with tarragon, sherry vinegar, with pappardelle

Michael

I had a vague idea of what to cook but hadn't really thought it through; i went for a 2 hour ride (sapperton) to give myself time to think..

Scallops, split pea puree with sumac, samphire, bacon

Roast partridge, savoy cabbage, an attempt at game chips, mashed potato, gravy with raspberry vinegar and juniper.

somewhat chaotic esp when colin helped with the cabbage.

game chips - 2 small parsnips, 2 beetroot, slide thin then roasted on high heat; some of then got a bit burnt but enough survived

The gravy was good - I thought at first too sharp but it mellowed on cooking.

Orange tiramisu

I made this up. Orange curd: 2 eggs 2oz butter, zest 1 orange juice, 1.5 oranges, dash of angostura, 1 tbs sugar Mascarpone: 250g mascarpone,1 tbs honey, 2 tsp orange flower water; 1/2 sheet gel, 1tbs curd, dash of lemon. Whisk up mascarpone, honey, OFW; soften gelatine and melt gently into a slug of the mascarpone and 1tbs curd. Then stir this into the rest. Left in fridge for a half hour, then turn into 3 pudding moulds. Later, having thought it all through on the way back from Sapperton, I crumbled 6 small soft amaretti with 1 tbs Cointreau and squashed this into the tops of the moulds.

Serving, turn out in usual way - it was only just set enough, but we got away with it. And the base worked. Pour curd over the top. This was brilliant. cheese - petit langres, the wr goat, berkeswell ewes.

Had the sorel Hermitage, v old and syrah-y (and gamey), Michael brought a nice white burgundy

Martin

paella, then WR lemon cake with mascarpone and curd

Martin

hare pate, toast

crown prince and beetroot walnut yoghurt tart, salad

Cooked the beetroot 8 mins in micro, squash about 3 mins. Base was 6oz flour 3 oz butter 2.5 tbs water- only just holds but comes out nice and light when cooked. Filling 2 eggs 1/2 big tub greek yog, 2 tbs flour, maybe could have done a bit more of this filling. 40 mins in gas 5.

Mum

mushroom risotto (mum said i don't like risotto, but she did like it), rocket

lemon cake, yoghurt

We lost track of where we ate in August, except going to the Champignon Sauvage with Michael.

September-October we went to Spice Lodge (with Colins branch), Marinades, grille (angora seems to have closed, a shame) bras blanc, thai bras, zizzi, bistrot coco with John and Paula

Jerusalem artichoke bread

One WR pack Jerusalems (400g??) - roasted these. Then made bread dough with 6oz flour, made it quite wet. Baked in the biggest loaf tin - dough in then quartered Jerusalems stuck in the top. Looks strange, Colin eyes it suspiciously.

Did it with feta and watercress and hazelnuts. nice actually.

ate out - Lumiere

Mark Os party, with Dr Who themed cakes

Ate out Kibou Sushi with Michael

Walnut and feta bread

I made a small loaf with 8oz flour, 1 medium potato, handful of walnuts and some feta - this was very good, worth trying again. Can't remember what I served with it - perhaps lentils, spinach, herbs.

Apple and blackberry cake

same weekend, Made a cake with apple and blackberry. Delia Smith greek almond cake recipe but a medium apple and same amount of blackberries instead of orange juice - this was very good.

Ate out Champignon Sauvage.

Colin had sea bass with roast lemon - I had lamb chump with goat curd, orange reduction, sweetbreads. Had the Maranges - this was very good.

Diana cooked for us at Martin's : chicken liver pate, ossobuco, chocolate rosemary pots, yum

Sweet potato pancakes with black eye beans, chipotle sauce.

This was good. The beans were a tin I had brought back from Princeton last year - I think. The chipotles were from the previous trip to Princeton

Ate out Mayflower, with John

Beetroot tart

Colin cooked a tart based on the one in Annie Bells book but beetroot not asparagus. half of 375g puff pastry rolled out to base + a bit up the side of the 7" square tin. 4 beetroot. filling was 1 egg some cream 50g goat cheese. works and was v nice

fillet steak with black olive crust. Colin's recipe.

Ate out - 81 the Prom with Tracey's branch

Christmas!

Tracey rode part way to Trowbridge while Colin was left with a list of food to pack, and somehow to cram a bike and 2 santa sacks (La Poste sort of Santa) as well into the car. Tracey made it all the way to the top of Swainswick hill before Colin appeared, but thus was deprived of a well-earned descent.

When we got to Batheaston, we found the road to Bradford was flooded. We found another way to Bradford but Bradford was flooded totally. We did not have a map with us and relied on half-remembered roads. It did not help that we did not know the geography - we now know where exactly this Avon goes. We made it to just outside Melksham where the road was uncertainly labelled as closed (the sign was on the verge to the right) - there was indeed a flood but we followed other cars through.

Cod in Parma ham, braised lettuce, mash with garlic. then pave

Then we drove to Worcester and cooked a duck according to Hugh F-W's instructions, which worked. Mum was concerned the duck would splatter her pristine oven, we assured her this was a special non splattering duck.The duck was from the NGS, Otter valley. It was very flavoursome.

M4 and M5 signs said boring things like dont drink and drive and 8 mins to Junction 7, they should wish all their customers a Happy Christmas.

Roast duck, raspberry vinegar gravy, roast potatoes, red cabbage, peas.

Trifle of gingerbread, orange syrup, clementines, passion fruit curd stirred into cream, and more cream.

Boxing Day

Stayed at Mum's, went for a ride in the fog. Climbed camp lane and out above the fog, and the foggy Teme valley was very beautiful from here. the light was particularly clear, colour of the grass very fresh, white houses sparkling white. we got to the B-road and both came off on black ice. Fortunately I'd suspected the ice as we were pulling out so we weren't doing 30mph down the hill. We just turned back.

Lunch - pappardelle and smoked salmon.

Dinner back home - salad with pomegranate, duck, duck liver, potatoes. This was really pretty.

tagliatelle with duck

Michael

Crab arancini.

Did 4.5oz rice, made stock with the crab shell, also saffron. cooked 20-25 mins. Did this the day before. Made 9 balls. A bit more fiddly than with the little mozzarellas, there's slightly too much crab to go in, so some of it ends up mixed in the rice. Used half an egg to roll, this is plenty. Fried 15 mins and they are hot through and golden. Did a garlic and chilli mayo (ok I bought the mayo) and rocket

Venison steaks, sloe gin sauce, potato and celeriac rosti, peas and lettuce

Rosti was a bit of a fail, tried to oven bake it but it stuck to the dish also mostly seemed to vanish - but we'd had plenty of starch in the first course.

White chocolate and peanut bread pudding, chestnut honey ice cream.

More or less the recipe in The Ch-S Dessert book. I made ice cream with 9floz cream, 1 floz milk, 2 eggs, 2 tbs sugar, 2 tbs chestnut honey. Didn't set in the maker, but after 3 hours in the freezer it was perfect. Bread pudding was less creamy than the recipe - I used about 150g white bread, 10floz cream, 1.5 eggs, 100g+20g white choc, 2 bananas, baked 50 mins. This was really good.

Cheese - wr nottingham blue, rosary goat cheese (Michael brought this it was lovely and lemony sharp) Yarg that Jonathan got us.

Wine - Michael brought Chablis, we got the Massi Amarone that Sonya got us some years ago. both yum.

John

Tartiflette

Bread pudding

We went for a walk from crickley hill, one John made up, it was a lovely but cold frosty day. I made a tartiflette with 3 7-8oz potatoes, some raclette, 200ml cream at least, some parma ham. Left in oven at Gas 1 (I heated it up to 2 first) covered with foil and we went for the walk above, so it was in the over 3 hours. wow it was perfect, if very creamy and fattening. Then we had the rest of the bread pudding and most of the ice cream.

John brought a nice beer round

pumpkin ravioli (ok we bought them)

oxtail, white beans, pointy cabbage, fried potatoes

Cooked oxtail day before, star anise and black pepper, took off the bone, reduced sauce. Fried potatoes in dripping yum!!!