Tuna Tartare & Guacamole

The variations are endless. Love this one too, this time provided by the gentle Frenchman at Barrafina. This Asian-style tartare breaks with the otherwise traditionalist Spanish tapas on their menu.

best quality tuna, chopped into small cubes
EVOO
chives (?? gotta check)
sesame seeds
sesame oil
coriander, chopped
soy sauce

guacamole:
avocados
coriander, chopped
lime

1. mix tuna with other ingredients to taste
2. put guacamole ingredients in a blender and mix until very smooth
3. serve tartare out of a small mold, and put a quenelle of guacamole on the side
4. best that both tuna and guacamole served fairly chilled

Steinwenden Quark Spread

I love this stuff, spread on a slice of baguette. It always appears first on the table at Raisch, my favorite local gasthaus near parents' place.

quark

red bell pepper, minced

onion & garlic minced

chives

S&P

tad of vinegar

1. mince only a tiny bit of garlic, some onion to taste, add some vinegar and allow to sit a quarter hour
2. once latter done, mix into quark with other ingredients

Things to Make (Updated Regularly)

Dishes I want to make....

• roasted whole guinea fowl (hereford)
• scallops & gremolata (boca di lupo)
  
• walnut & rocket pesto crostini (polpo)
  
• salt cured pollack, white beans, watercress (hereford)
• roast guinea hen with chicory & caper salad, mayo (hereford)
  
• gourmet beef & marrow burgers (lindsey house)
• beef stroganoff (combination of stein, oliver recipes)
• pulled pork butties sandwich (marcus waering)
• sticky ribs (marcus waering)
• eel and foie gras terrine (Robuchon's Tokyo resto)
• cauliflower risotto (Heston Blumenthal cookbook)
• grilled spareribs with yoghurt and lemon (A16 cookbook)
• braised pork shoulder with chestnuts, olives and herbs (A16 cookbook)
• short ribs alla genovese with red wine, carrot, celery, anchovy, garlic, rosemary (A16 cookbook)
• cucumber salad, ricotta, almonds, bottarga (A16 cookbook)
• mackerel & cucumber tartare (Polpo)
• pork belly, dressed raddicchio, toasted hazelnuts (Polpo)
• the perfect cobb salad
• the perfect waldorf salad
• the perfect rice salad (reminiscent of Parisian traiteurs)
• snail, sausage & chickpeas (St John)
• lemon & ricotta tortelloni (River Cafe)
• beef tartare (Gavroche style)
• rhubarb tatin (Masterchef finalist recipe)
• coda alla vaccinara (The Hereford)
• acili ezme (Mangerie/Bebek)
• home-made peanut butter (Mangerie/Bebek)
• steamed mussels in burrow hill cider (Hix)
• bbq Galloway beef ribs (Hix)
• welsh rarebit (Hix)
• home-made saucisson sec, saucisson a l'ail, tete de fromage (Andre Soltner, formerly of Lutece, NYC)
• tartare of seabass & smoked salmon, flavored with lemon and basil (Robuchon)
• parmesan cappuccino with port (Robuchon)
• cauliflower jelly and tomato coulis (Robuchon)
• mackerel on thin tart with parmesan shavings and olives (Robuchon)
• salt beef & celeri remoulade with hot English mustard (Browns Hotel/Albemarle)
• braised raddichio & fried taleggio (Boca di Lupo)
• salt beef salad (Princi)

Cast Iron Rice Pudding

Inspired by a rice pudding at Hereford Road last weekend, made memorable by the skin that formed over the top of the pudding (rather than your typical stewed version). Flipping through the Arbutus cookbook shortly thereafter, I came across this recipe by chance, which looked and tasted very much like the one at the The Hereford. The only thing I've added is some vanilla seed. Eat lukewarm or even cold--fabulous with some blackcurrent jelly.

100 gr unsalted butter
180 gr short grain rice
120 gr unrefined golden caster sugar
1 liter full fat jersey milk (if not avail, add 150 ml whipping cream)

vanilla seed

1. preheat oven to 130 c
2. in cast iron pan about 5 cm deep, melt the butter; add the rice, sugar, milk and vanilla, bring to the boil and take off the heat; with a fork, evenly distribute the rice over the base of the pan
3. bake in the preheated oven for about 1.5 hrs; at no point should you disturb the pudding otherwise you sacrifice the formation of the skin
4. after this time, open the oven and without removing the pudding gently wobble the pan but be careful not to break the skin; there should be a bit of movement under the skin, as if the pudding is not set; if too much movement, leave in the oven a while; when happy, remove from oven; residual heat will finish off the cooking--this can take a half hour at which point you will have a delicious creamy pudding
5. can cheat by grilling if skin not quite there!!

Petits Haricots Verts & Cheddar

Green beans and hard cheese are a winning combo. A spontaneous combo whipped up tonight. Very basic but so packed with flavor, especially the bottom of the bowl when the green beans are gone but the dressed cheese remains.

best quality petits haricots verts

mild white cheddar cheese

EVOO

squeeze of lemon juice

maldon sea salt

fresh ground pepper

piment d'espelette

chopped chives

chopped chervil

chopped parsley

1. steam green beans until just cooked (not crunchy), let cool a few minutes
2. chop the cheese into tiny cubes (to fit four on a thumbnail); the proportion of cheese to beans should be almost 1:2
3. add all ingredients to taste; be very generous with the chives and chervil
4. toss well, let marinate for 10 mins or so

Portobello Salad

A good way to use leftover portobello mushrooms, or any mushroom for that matter. Really nice accompanying some gruyere, cheddar or caerphilly.

portobello mushrooms

EVOO

maldon sea salt

fresh ground pepper

squeeze of lemon

chopped chives

chopped chervil

piment d'espelette

garlic, halved

1. slice up mushrooms
2. put in bowl with all ingredients
3. let sit for half hour, stirring from time to time
4. remove garlic before serving

White Wine Cake

A simple, moist and delicious little cake from Anne-Emmanuelle. Merci.

4 eggs

1 glass of sugar

1 glass of corn oil

1 glass of white wine

3 glasses of flour

1 pack of yeast (15 gr)

1. mix all well
2. put in oven that has been preset at 180 degrees C
3. cook for about 30 mins

Tonight's Dinner

Tasty, but overcooked the rice pudding. Need to increase the wasabi dosage in the ice cream too.

tuna tartare & wasabi ice cream
mousclade curry
grilled mackerel, rhubarb, horseradish creme fraiche
michelle's oatcakes, manou's chutney, caerphilly
baked rice pudding, black current jam

Chicken Coconut Salad

I think this is the best thing I've had at E&O, except for maybe the Miang?

500 ml chicken stock
2 sticks lemongrass
4 cm piece galangal, peeled and roughly chopped
4 chick breasts, skin on
1 cup coconut cream
1 tsp palm sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
juice half lime
handful coriander leaves
handful mint leaves
handful thai sweet basil leaves
2 thai shallots
1 birds eye chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

Spice paste
clove garlic
12 white peppercorn
2 green birdseye chilli

Garnish
2 tblsp dessicated coconut
1 tblsp deep-fried fried shallot (store-bought fine)
1 lime leaf, finely shredded

1. make paste-pound everything together in a mortar
2. in saucepan, combine chicken stock, lemongrass, galangal and bring to boil; lower heat to simmer and add chicken breasts; poach gently for 15-20 mins; turn off heat and let chicken cool in stock; drain chicken and pat dry before shredding very finely and discarding the skin
3. when ready to serve, bring coconut cream to boil, stir in fish sauce and sugar; allow to cool slightly then add spice paste and shredded chicken and gently warm through; remove from heat and add squeeze of lime juice
4. pan fry dry coconut until brown
5. in large serving bowl, toss herbs with shallots and chili; spoon chicken onto salad leaves and sprinkle with coconut, the fried shallots and lime leaf

Sauteed Eel with Persillade

It's eel-hunting season, baby! Of course it helps to get your fish monger to skin the eel alive....

450g skinned eel on the bone

25g plain flour, for dusting

persillade

10g peeled garlic

handful/15g flatleaf parsley leaves

1 tbsp sunflower oil

S&P

50g unsalted butter

1. cut the eel across into 5 cm pieces, then dust them with the flour and knock off excess
2. for the persillade, chop up garlic very finely, add parsley leaves and continue chopping them together
3. heat oil in large frying pan, add the eel pieces and saute on one side over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, seasoning them lightly with S&P as they cook
4. turn eels over, season once more and fry a further 2-3 minutes until cooked through
5. when eel is almost cooked, take a second frying pan, add the butter and melt it over a medium heat. Add the persillade and cook very gently for 15 seconds to take away the raw taste of the garlic
6. tip the fried eel pieces into the second pan and toss everything together well
7. transfer to a warmed serving plate, garnish with the lemon wedges and serve with plenty of good quality crusty bread

Lousana's Chili

I haven't tried this, but I want to! Lousana my sister-in-law gave us this recipe. Yummy!

shredded cooked chicken, roasted at 350F for 1/2 hour

onions

garlic

red bell pepper

carrots

jalapeno pepper

chipotle peppers in adobo

cumin

chili pepper

dried oregano

brown sugar

fresh tomatoes or tinned

tomato paste

various canned beans (or fresh if you have the time)

frozen corn

good quality broth

cheddar cheese

scallions/red onions

cilantro

sour cream

lime

1. shred chicken
2. sautee onions until softened, add one garlic clove minced
3. add chopped red bell peppers, carrots, jalapeno pepper
4. add chipotle peppers, sautee for a few minutes
5. add some cumin and chili pepper, cocoa, and dried oregano, brown sugar to taste
6. put chicken in pot
7. add chopped tomatoes (or 28 oz can good quality tinned tomatoes) and tomato paste
8. add beans (black, kidney, cannelini)
9. add corn
10. add broth, enough to cover and let simmer until thickens to your liking (can cover it first for a while--maybe half hour--then uncover and let it reduce/thicken for another 15 minutes; tastier if slow cooked for an hour or more)
11. serve it with brown rice, garnish with cheddar cheese, scallions or chopped red onions, cilantro, lime and sour cream (!).