109 posts from 2007

What was the best blog post you wrote this year?  What was the best post or blog you read?

I don't think I have written anything striking so I am leaving myself out. 

Looking back at what I have in Google reader, many of the posts earmarked for special praise have been about food.

 Sardines Confites (Les Cuisines de Garance)
 A recipe for Japanese curry (Eat Drink One Woman)
 Sweet and sour cucumber and wakame pickles (Just Hungry)
 Cornish Piscie's little experiment with sigost (Cornish Piscie's blog)

The blog that attracted the most stars and therefore is my blog of the year: (drum rolls...) Tasca da Elvira

What was the best movie you saw this year?

The Science of Sleep.  I know... I know... Not a 2007 film but it is the best film I saw in 2007 ;-)
Quirky and very very funny. I loved it.

A good change from the typical rabbit and mustard dish we usually cook. A simple dish but very tasty. The vinegar makes a delicious sauce and for a very tender meat.

Ingredients:

• One rabbit
• 175ml of white white vinegar
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 4-5 sprigs of thyme
• 175g of butter
• 1 slurp of olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves
• 40g of capers
• ~100g of green olives
• Salt and pepper

• Cut the rabbit in 6 pieces
• Season with salt and black pepper
  
• slice the herbs very finely
• crush the garlic
• heat the butter and olive oil in a deep pan
• add the herbs and garlic. Season with black pepper.
  
• cook for a couple of minutes on medium heat but don't burn the garlic!
• add  the rabbit. turn it frequently. cook until nicely browned.
  
• add 3-4 tablespoons of  water to the vinegar, mix and add to the dish.
• cover and cook for 50'
• add the olives and capers
• cook for 10 further minutes

It's our first christmas in Lancaster. Here is what we have planned for two of the most important meals of the year.

Christmas Eve

• Potted shrimps with crusty white bread and salad

Potted shrimps

• Rabbit stew with green olives with roast potatoes

Rabbit in vinegar

• Mashed potatoes spiked with grain mustard and double cream.
  
• Simple Panacotta with Raspberry coulis

Panacotta with a raspberry coulis

• A glass of sherry
  

Christmas Lunch

• Salad
• Roasted partridge on a bed of Flageolet beans.
• Ice cream
  

Blimey. this blog is becoming quieter and quieter. Let's revive it with some dates for next year. There are a few sportives I am planning to ride. I wish the Audax calendar was published for non members but to no avail. I prefer the relaxed nature of Audax, cheaper entry fees, testing my poor orientieering skills...

Anyhow... here is the masterplan:

• fred whitton challenge - 11th May - Lake District
  
• white rose classic - 8th June - Yorkshire Dales. 133k or 185k.
  
• Ardechoise - 19-21 June.  not a sportive but 600k over three days. Nice!  Don't think I can do it this year. Funds are likely to be too tight.
  
• devil's ride - 10th August - Wales.
  
• cumberland challenge - 31st August
• autumn epic - 5th October
  

I am sad to say that I am parting company with two of my lovely bikes ("Thorn" and "Fixie"). A combination of needing the space in the shed for our tandem and the needs for funds to part finance the replacement of our car is pushing me to say bye to them :-(

Interested? Here are the links to the 2 auctions: On-one Il Pompino Fixed Gear bike 51cm (medium) and Thorn Brevet audax / light touring bike 56cm

"Thorn"

"Fixie"

A good roast

Inspired by a post on one of my favorite blogs assembling some of my favorite ingredients into one dish (lemon, garlic, anchovy, lemon zest, lamb and rosemary), I embarked on cooking a roast for us and our guests of the week (My Bro and my mum).

Ingredients

• Lamb shoulder
• 3 bulbs of garlic 
• A nice bunch of rossemary
• Olive oil
• 5 tomatoes
• 2 cans of anchovies
• A slosh of balsamic vinegar
• Black pepper

How? Pop over to chocolate and zuchini ;-)

My mother and brother are at home for 10 days and we took the opprtunity to make a Lancashire hotpot at home. They have had fish and chips, an english breakfast so I thought "let's expand their british culinary knowledge with something wholesome, tasty and comforting".

I only hoped it would be better than what the Sun inn had on offer last Sunday (not impressed...).

A cursory glance around the internet I found out there is more than one way to cook a Lancashire hotpot. Lamb, Beef, liver, nips, carrots... a lot of variants. So here is a Lancashire hotpot made by a frenchman living in Lancaster with a spike of East Anglia in the form of Adnams Boardside Ale.

Ingredients

• 1.5 Lbs of Leg of lamb
• one onion (medium)
• 2 carrots
  
• 1.5 lb of potatoes
• half a pint of Adnams Broadside
• 1 Tablespoon of flour
• A slosh of olive oil
• Bay leaf
• Thyme
• Vegetable stock

• Preheat the oven at 170 degrees C.
  
• Dice the lamb
• Slice the onion
• Slice the carrots
• Slice the potatoes
  
• Heat some olive oil in a  pan (I use a Le Creuset oven dish)
  
• Mix the flour and lamb together, season with salt / pepper and add to the pan a little bit a time to color the meat nicely and avoid steaming it.
• Remove the meat, add the onions and carrots. Stir until the onion is almost translucent.
• Add the beer, reduce it for 3'
• Add the meat back to the pan
• Add the thyme and bay leaf
• Add vegetable stock to cover  the meat
• Add slices of potatoes on top
• Cook for about 45'
  

A very morish, addictive and spicy Korean condiment / pickle. Fabulous on rice, in soups, stir fries or eaten raw. Wonderfull stuff for a lunch box when served with rice.
Recipe adopted and adapted from http://www.recipezaar.com/130619

Warning: This is my first attempt at making it at home. ;-)

Overnight rest

• Take the leaves of a Chinese cabbage
• Place them in a large dish salting them as you go along,
  
• Put some heavy serving  plate / lid on to of the cabbage leave
• Pour some cold water until the cabbage is submerged
• Leave to rest overnight in the fridge

• Crush 8 cloves of Garlic
• Grate "half a hand" of ginger
• Pour 3 tablespoon of fish sauce (I had some "Squid brand" fish sauce)
  
• Pour 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• Add 50g of chili powder (I had some medium chinese chilli powder)
• 1 tablesppon of sugar
• One third of a daikon (mooli) sliced thinly (it should give the kimchi some nice crunch)
• 100ml of boiling Water

• Remove the salted water from the cabbage
• Mix the cabbage and hot spicy tasty mixture in a large bowl.
• Cover with cling film and refrigerate
• Mix whenever you open the fridge

Update 2: It is ready. We had some for breakfast on top of some rice. Painfully hot but very nice. Pleasure and pain in a bowl.

Update 3: Kimchi has been canned. Hotter than ever. Ouch.

I love pannacotta and its rich, sikly, smooth texture. Here is one from earlier that when it was still settling. Delicious and so simple to make.

Lavender Pannacotta

Ingredients:

• 100ml of milk
• 500ml of double cream
• two/three tablespoons of honey
• freshly cut lavender
• Gelatine (I used the powdered form)

• Warm the milk up in a saucepan - don't let it boil.
• Pour a little bag of gealtine. Stir
• In another pan, mix cream, honey. Heat up gently. Stir
• Slice the lavender finely. Transfer to the hot milk.
• put milk and cream / honey together in the same pan
• Mix
• Transfer to a cake tine
• Let it cool
• Refrigerate for a 1 hour or two until set