Tonight, chicken breasts wrapped in parma ham and cooked on a bed of roasted vegetables, followed by a raspberry frangipane tart. Glass of Flint Dry (our favourite English white wine) wine with. Gloomy old weekend here - no sun and overcast, when not raining, so need some comfort food and drink for cheering up.
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Burgers ready for the grill tonight. Making a tomato jam which has been simmering on the stove for the last several hours
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WFD: Roast Chicken with Orange Slices and Colorful Carrots. Bone-in chicken thighs, very thin skin-on slices of oranges, and some of TJ’s “bag of colorful carrots” will be marinated for a few hours in a mixture of Ouzo, olive oil, orange and lemon juices, grainy Dijon, brown sugar, S & P, thyme leaves, fennel seeds. The whole lot is then roasted, chicken skin side up, till golden brown. Remaining liquid is reduced to a thickened sauce that is poured over the chicken. The garnish will be a small handful of small basil leaves.
We’ll serve this with Basmati cooked in chicken stock.
I feel the need for something green as well so I’ll steam some haricot verts in a bit of chicken stock. I like the sound of this, it’s similar to Jacques Pepin’s method for cooking asparagus and other such vegetables. Simple, easy, delicious:
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Good gig. Mediocre poker. Wah.
Our host had a nice little snacklet buffet including whitefish salad, TJ’s pastrami-style lox, a nice gouda and a wonderful creamy herb brie. I hoovered quite a bit up, yet still managed to eat 7 or 8 wings and a few bites from the Thai food that was also ordered. Som tam, drunken noodles, pad thai, and scallops with green beans. So much for eating reasonably in prep for my trip to SF next week to meet up with @mariacarmen and alanbarnes. Stoked.
Anywhos. As for WFD tonight, baked salmon with a TBD rub, German-style cuke salad & some peas for my man b/c he loves them so and isn’t really a fan of cukes 
Maybe we’ll head over to the weekly blues jam after dinner – there’s a band from CA to perform a set.
Enjoy your Sunday, y’al…
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hotoynoodle taught me some years ago that an appetizer is to whet, not kill, one’s appetite. That’s held me in good stead since then.
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Last night’s dinner for guests was a success! I did a flank steak roulade sous vide for the first time and I HIGHLY recommend the technique - I set the waterbath to 122, let the steak it in the bath for 3 hours, then took it out for a quick sear before serving. Perfectly rare from edge to edge. I might bump the temp up to 124 next time, just because flank can be a little chewy when it’s that rare.
Anyway, I was in the kitchen most of the day yesterday so we’re going to keep it simple for dinner tonight. I’m considering a Fauxlognese sauce with mushrooms, served either over a sauteed vegetable or just in a bowl. Or, if I’m feeling REALLY lazy, eggs.
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Dinner tonight on this cold rainy day was roast pork loin wrapped in bacon with carrots, brussels sprouts and garlic, green salad with sun gold sherry vinegar dressing. Boulevardiers before, Je suis Paris. 
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That tomato jam you posted on the last burger was delicious 
Care to share the recipe?
Dinner’s a heating up job, rather than real cooking.
A cheese & apple pie (farmers market purchase) and a tin of celery hearts.
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The tomato jam was made with about 1 lb of tomatoes diced.
Started with a small onion diced fine and sautéed in oil, I used olive. Once soft I added tomatoes and about half its weight in sugar, salt to taste and slowly cooked it down and added acid to balance the sweetness. About 4 Key limes and red wine vinegar to taste. Herbs used were a pinch of ground bay leave, oregano and thyme. For a kick I added a couple of pinches of morita powder. I make this from dried morita peppers and simply grind to a powder
Cook down until thickened
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Quite interesting. It is to eat alongside the pie and cheese?
Next time in the UK I shall look out for the tin.
It was a miserable weekend, weather-wise. The storm over the UK moved across the water to me here in no time and it didn’t stop.
Jack of all trades, master of none yes that is me. I just chucked everything in. Made a gingery garlicky broth for the comb tooth mushroom soup. For the maitake I just used some sherry, tamari and ginger to braise. Finished with sesame oil. The prawns were a no-brainer, I used tom yum paste. Lots of minced lemongrass and tamarind taste (and fish sauce) on the prawn shell which will be made into a tom yum soup next time.
Love maitake in very way!
The sign at mushroom stall states “coral mushroom” but I looked it up and it was not coral, my friend! In fact, it is comb tooth. Very meaty, like eating noodles.
Tom yum paste is good for other things, too, like prawns.
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Yep. Celery is a classic accompaniment to cheese (as is the apple) so it seems right with a cheese pie.
The tins used to be easily available in the supermarkets but they seemed just stop selling them 3 or 4 years back. Since then we’ve seen them in the Calais Carrefour but we were in a Booths supermarket which has just opened near to home and they had them in stock. By the by, it’s worth any foody searching out a Booths in the UK. They’re a small company in northwest England and have quite a good selection of regional stuff that you wouldnt find in the national supermarkets.
I ended up making a blackening rub, which worked really well with the salmon (and I plan on making more of it, b/c it’s mighty tasty and will likely work on many other things). My man was busy watching the Jyints break his heart again, so I’d pretty much already finished up the cuke/avocado/radish salad I’d made by the time the game was over.
The band at the jam was fab (https://campfirecassettes.bandcamp.com/), and another funk combo following after was groovola as well.
My man’s taking a guest speaker out to dinner, so Ima meet my bitches and we’ll get our drank on.
Hamachi cheek will be what’s for dinner – hopefully, it’s available tonight 
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Thanks! I will definitely make this.
Upcoming…mutton curry. I’m using a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s “Curry Easy” which she calls Rajasthani Red Meat. Reading through the recipe, I think it’s a simplified version of laal maas.
Cinnamon, cloves & cardamom get a fry foir a few seconds, followed by red onion. Then in goes ginger, garlic & ground coriander for a minute, followed by the mutton, cayenne & paprika. That gets another few minutes frying then water goes in. It simmers - the recipe is for lamb and its suggested that 70 minutes simmer should be enough. With mutton, I reckon I’ll check it at 90 and probably will need another 30. Daal makhani (bought) and flatbreads to accompany.
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Thanks, lingua. I will just have to do that!
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Harters, thank you. I have never heard of or seen tinned celery hearts. Can’t recall seeing Booths supermarkets but seems like a nice chain. I shall remember that next time.
Yesterday’s dinner. Too knackered to post piccies on the same day. Now I have to run off to make today’s dindin 
I made a simple miso sauce with sherry, sugar, sesame oil etc for both the soba and fish.
Huge flakes. Cod that is. Nice smokey chili flakes I brought back from Greece.
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Seriously, Pregunto - your meals are restaurant-worthy!
This HO got lucky last night in many ways. My lady friends were numerous, the libations tasty (a star cocktail, a matador & bluecoat martini), AND the hamachi cheek - which really is more like a collar - was available for eats. This might be my new favorite dish at the CBDTR.
There’s a good amount of “meat” on the bone… but apparently not enough to soak up three drinks 
: got home, ordered 7 Cajun blackened wings from wingsover & made myself a quick side salad of iceberg & blue cheese crumbles with buttermilk dressing.
Tonight is our Sichuan jour fixe, and tomorrow we’re off to SF! YAY!!!
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