This is a recipe I recreated from a simple pasta dish we had in Italy. Phoebe loved it so much that she demanded I make it when we got back home. My version is quick and easy to make but utterly delicious – as is all good Italian food. All you need is some chicken, pasta, garlic, butter, extra virgin olive oil and some parsley (or other herb). For the calorie conscious you can reduce[…]
Gin & Yang
Bacon, Leek & Mushroom Pasta
This must be one of the easiest recipes I can think of, nothing fancy, super quick and really tasty. It’s a perfect mid-week meal when you don’t have time for anything big, easily done in 30 minutes or less. I always make extra, because it is so easy to eat and so good, it’s hard to put the fork down. Any leftovers can be reheated the next day for lunch. Use good quality, smoked streaky bacon.[…]
Chocolate Cremeux with Raspberry Pearls
My first dessert course for my tasting menu was a Dark Chocolate Cremeux with Caramel Mousse and Raspberry pearls, served on a piece of honeycomb. This is meant to be a small and light dessert. The cremeux is the center piece of this dessert, everything else is just in support of it. This entire dessert can be made well in advance, which was handy because by the time we got to this course we were[…]
White Gazpacho Martini
Course three of my tasting menu; a white gazpacho Martini with vanilla oil. This recipe is borrowed from Hubert Keller, I saw him produce this as a dish on Top Chef Masters a year or two ago. I like gazpacho, I did one for a picnic awhile ago and it went down really well. Gazpacho is a summer dish so doing one in Autumn is a bit of a risk. But rather than the typical[…]
Beetroot Jelly
I love beetroot, it’s a wonderful vegetable. Beetroot and stovies, beetroot in stews and beetroot in jelly. Beetroot jelly reminds me of when I was a kid, one of our neighbours discovered I liked beetroot (he grew a lot of his own veg in his garden and would always give me something to take home). He told me about jelly beetroot, it sounded strange to me but the next time he made some, he gave[…]
Candied Rosemary
Candied rosemary is easy to do. It makes for a nice addition to teas and desserts or in my case, my Forest Floor recipe. This particular recipe is more “sugared” than “candied” but it doesn’t make much difference. Ingredients: 16 sprigs Fresh Rosemary 8 sprigs Fresh Thyme 200g Sugar 250ml Water Method: 1. Bring the water to a boil in a small pan. 2. Steep the thyme sprigs in the water for[…]
Smoked Salmon Sashimi with Watermelon & Wasabi Sorbet
This was the first dish from my tasting menu. The key feature of this recipe is the watermelon and wasabi sorbet. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time, ever since having wasabi ice cream a couple of years ago at Whatley Manor (probably the best meal I’ve ever had). With that as my inspiration I felt that this would make for an excellent amuse bouche. I love sashimi but it is[…]
Gluten-Free Stilton and Port Pork Pie (The Portman Pie)
I’ll be honest, I had my doubts that a proper gluten-free pork pie could be done. I don’t really do pies and I’d never used a hotwater crust so the thought of doing a gluten-free one seemed like a step too far. But I was asked to try it out and I figured the worst that could happen is that the crust ends up as little more than a fancy way to hold a pork pie filling. […]
Gluten Free Peanut Butter & White Chocolate Cookies
I decided I needed a new challenge. I’ve got the cookie baking sorted and it is pretty straight forward. I’m still trying to get my head around baking loaves and I’ve got a fairly good standard white bread recipe but it hasn’t quite become second nature yet. I’m not really ready to make the leap into cakes but I’m not a massive fan of cake anyway so I’m not really motivated to try. Instead I[…]
Ribeye Steak with Straw Potatoes and Jim Beam Glaze
I return to one of my favourites, steak. You can read my previous article on how to properly cook a steak here, so I won’t cover it in much detail this time. My initial plan with this recipe was to do steak and eggs but I was reminded of the bottle of Jim Beam (white) which is so bad, I can’t even drink it with coke. It’s like that overly excited aunt or uncle you always see at[…]