everyday experiments with food
Today I’ve made this lovely looking Orange and Pomegranate cake from Diana Henry.
The recipe is on her website here.
It is supposed to be very moist, like a pudding, so I’m serving it with some home-made lime, ginger and coconut ice cream. I took some inspiration from here, but I added and changed things. We had a bottle of wild lime syrup….
Today I’m slow-roasting a shoulder of lamb.
The lamb was studded with garlic slivers, then seasoned with salt and pepper and covered with tomato paste.
I then sprinkled it with some smoked paprika, and added sliced lemon and cloves in the top.
Oregano all around. Plus onion, white wine and water. Part way through I’m adding some diced white anchovies to the top.
I cooked it covered loosely with foil for about 5 hours then cranked it up to 150 or so for a couple of hours. I took the foil off at a could of points so it could brown.
Before the last couple of hours I added 2 x 400 g cans of crushed tomatoes and some sicilian green olives.
I also made a celeriac and potato puree, baked beetroot and brussels sprouts sauted in bacon fat. Yep.
Here’s the end result. 
Dessert consisted of pears poached in red wine and spices, a crumb of salted candied pecans + toasted coconut + toasted crumbled blueberry muffin, a few blueberries, candied ginger, lemon & honey ice cream, chocolate-dipped orange rind, and the pear syrup.
Last night I made gnocchi, using the tried and tested Philip Johnson recipe.
The sauce was made from
– 2/3 cup white wine, reduced by 2/3
– 2/3 cup cream
– 1/2 cup grana padano or parmesan
– 1/3 cup feta cheese
– 1/4 cup mild blue cheese
– 2 egg yolks to thicken
Cherry tomatoes were halved. Chopped fresh garlic sautéed in oil, cherry tomatoes added, then a few tbsp of sherry vinegar and a couple of teaspoons of sugar.
Each plate had a couple of smoked rainbow trout pieces seared in a pan, then fresh basil on top and a slide of seared lemon.
Very happy with this. It’s going on my cafe menu.
We have a zucchini glut, so we’ve been making “Zoodles” – pasta from zucchinis turned into noodles using a spiralizer. Google it.
The zucchini noodles just need to be warmed in a microwave for 30 seconds, then add the rest of the meal.
Tonight I added crab meat, prawns marinated in pesto and then seared.
Blue swimmer crabs, cooked in salty water. Fiddly but tasty.
I had sautéed some garlic, then added 2/3 cup white wine and reduced, then added halved cherry tomatoes and garlic. I put the prawns into the pan to finish them off and add flavour.
My original plan was to sear the prawns and zucchini flowers on the BBQ, but it was a total fire ban day.
So it was topped with pan-seared zucchini flowers and haloumi.
Fine.