An Italian Christmas Eve

I feel rather in vogue during Christmas Eve as it is a meat-free day and we are all about the freetarianism here. One refrains from eating breakfast and lunch in order to stuff one's gob at an "early" dinner of 7pm, with no less than five fully fledged courses - yes the irony of abstinence vs indulgence is rather lost on this wonderful peninsula. 

We started with five different types of fish starters; smoked salmon, white bait, sardines, marinated salmon and marinated swordfish, eloquently acceded by fat homemade "scialatielli" al zucchini e vongole (fat spaghetti like pasta with courgette and clams - no pasta for freetarians or course). This was followed by the arrival of some closely located relatives (whom must have a hidden camera overlooking the dining room as no meal is complete without an inter-course (now, now, it's a holy day after all) sharp rap on the door...) and a "first second plate" of sea bass baked in salt and herbs. It is of course important to stress that the fish was caught at sea and not farmed, which no matter how gently bred, would never quite live up to the status of being "free and wild", quite depressingly opposite to the lives of human beings. The bass was served with oven baked potatoes and a (un)healthy amount of noise and general confusion amidst the grand filleting, deboning and de-skinning of the fish by one's butler (the other half) and the exchange of presents with inter-course visitors, the obligatory oooohs and aaaaahs of wonder and fascination that such feats as cooking fish and buying gifts can be accomplished by mere mortals.

The "second, second plate" was squid cooked in tomato sauce and paprika. By then, the five of us were all in food and wine induced misery as the 1.7kg bass was completely devoured and the second, second plate was scandalously ignored. Then of course, there was the fruit and nut course, which was followed by dessert and dessert wine - try as I might I cannot remember what dessert was, perhaps this is better in order to preserve my sanity.

And so, the scene for the next few days is set - chatting, laughing, shouting, door and bells a ringing, and epic eating feats. My recovery is set back a couple of months as I've never had to fill the dish washer quite so many times in such a short period of time (five courses requires a minimum of five plates per person excluding serving dishes!). Most importantly, we forgot, or we might have run out of plates, to serve the "second, first plate" on Christmas Eve dinner - baby razor clams cooked in white wine, parsley, garlic and pepper - consumed with renewed vigour immediately pre-Christmas lunch:

Sugo al salsiccia, freetarian style

Sausages are the pride of Brits - a great Cumberland sausage beats any other fresh sausage in the world hands down (as of the day of publishing). However, gluten, dairy and egg sausages are as rare as a sunny day in London - an urbane, or mundane if wished, Londoner like myself is often restricted to the charms of supermarket chains, as good butchers are far and few in between. Nevertheless, good sausages are worth any trip, and my personal favourite is minced with rosemary and peppercorn*.

In our home, ragu al salciccia or sausage-meat raguot is a firm addiction which is fed once a month apart from during the summer ones. Sausage meat (the meat removed from it's casing) is browned in olive oil and mirepoix and put through a proper seasoning - salt, pepper, a dash or more of cayenne, freefriendly dark chocolate, fresh rosemary and thyme, tomato paste, dried Greek oregano and always a generous dash of acid like balsamic vinegar - then cooked low and slow over the stove with San Marzano canned tomatoes (this is absolutely essential but if Whole Foods is not around the corner, one should protest, or otherwise use only Mutti canned tomatoes) and half a bottle of good red wine (it is non negotiable to use bottles with corks and I favour a Burgundy for this recipe - don't tell the Italian). It needs to be stirred especially after it's 3rd hour of cooking so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Cooking time would depend on the quality of the sausagemeat, in any case north of 4 hours at least. When serving, it is important to preserve pasta cooking liquid to ensure the ragu clings to the pasta in a smooth luxuriously velvety marriage...

The result - heaven:

Note for freetarians, I discovered a tagliatelle from waitrose, Le Veneziane, made with corn and without rice (for once!). Hopeless as it sounds, it tastes pretty corny.

*we will also be making our own sausages in the new year so be sure to keep reading...

Healthy fear of starvation

In life, we are usually divided into two camps, those who feed, and those who are fed. I sit firmly in the far reaching side of the feeder camp. Unsurprisingly, when we have friends over for dinner, lunch and whatever else, a three course meal is quotidien, with cheeses, chocolates, fruit, nuts and nibbles thrown in for good measure. My biggest fear thus is that there is not enough food to feed everyone. That, and the possibility of there not being enough variety to keep one and all sated. So our tiny kitchen is usually filled to brimming, all hobs fired up and on the go, every shelf in the oven on conveyor belt duty, fridge rammed full, every plate - and I mean every plate - piled with food.

Determined to turn over a new leaf, I made a promise to myself (and to those I feed) to prepare just the right amount, and minimal dishes with maximum flavour to keep my feeder addiction in check. So why did the scene in my kitchen look exactly on repeat? Why was there enough food left over (an entire chicken, I kid you not) my fridge refuses point blank to house? I only cooked 900gms of pasta with 600gms of tuna, two 2kgs chicken galantine (http://duckandthyme.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/my-humble-chicken-tragically-tarted-up.html?m=1), 2kg hasselback potatoes (a la Barefoot), spinach and cheddar soufflé (Barefoot, again), a halloumi salad and Creme a la Coeur (her again, and a dairy free version http://duckandthyme.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/dairy-free-homemade-ricotta-cheese-with.html?m=1) for dessert...to feed 9.

I blame our shrinking appetites - have you seen how little people eat now in the quest to be thintastic?!? Unbelievable. Oh, that or, despite the polite "yummies", just poor cooking... 

and the aftermath (courtesy of a dear friend):

Re-post: my humble chicken made right

I recently blogged about chicken http://duckandthyme.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/my-humble-chicken-tragically-tarted-up.html?m=1.

Excitedly, or sadly depending on which way you want to view it, I have an "after" post: We just had our chicken as left overs, heated up in the oven under fan and grill for 20 minutes at 200C and it was crispy and succulent! 

Top tip: cook the day before and reheat for effortless party planning and even more effortless hosting - same goes for the tats. This notched me up closer to my "usual" standard hence I could not resist the re-post. My humble chicken reinstated to glory:

I'd still forego the truffle oil spread though; just drizzle on before serving..

Taking the fruit biscuit out of Christmas

Fruitcake "cookies" a La Barefoot Contessa was served at an engagement party we threw in spring just gone. I made both the non-free friendly version and the free friendly ones (taste control, if you will). Yes, quite diligent. It turned out to be a hit, or rather, my polite friends gushed over them as is required manners in modern society, but I'm easily affirmed by such gushings whether they be sincere or otherwise. Quite unsurprisingly, I cannot remember where I put the free friendly recipe - I think we are beginning to get the hang of my life in recovery mode here, and I am challenging myself to come up with an equal or superior batch. Quite handy presents for Christmas with all that cranberry, nuts, apricots etc, one would hope. If it works.

I'm also adding ground almonds instead of only flour - so here we go again twisting recipes. The bright side of the egg free, wheat free pavlava (ha!) is that there is no risk of salmonella or of over mixing, and therefore you can lick mixing utensils, bowls, kitchen aids and surfaces to your heart's content. Avoid at all costs if you are on a diet as whilst licking that paddle doesn't appear to be that sinful, it has been known that paddles are left deliberately unscraped to falsely provide a I-stuck-to-diet security. However, diets are not made for Christmas, one should go right ahead and lick with abandonment. The paddle that is.

By the by, did you know that if your weighing machine runs out of battery, heating the battery between your hands (or any other warm parts of your body with which you so prefer) gives it that one last boost? Interesting what you can learn from mindlessly watching badly made movies.

Back to verdict on biscuits: this recipe turns out different shaped biscuits than the ones we made for the engagement party largely because of the addition of ground almond. Consistency is therefore different too. I will try to recreate the original recipe. Taste wise, I loved it but then again I'm easily pleased...

My recipe: 

Now I do not know exactly quite how much this recipe makes as quite a lot of the batter was eaten before it was even rolled into 50p batons. Dice 110gms dried figs, 55gms dried cranberries, 30gms dried apricots, 90gms pistachios and mix together with 1 tbsp honey, 2tbsp Marsala 1tbsp lemon juice and leave to sit overnight at room temperature. Cream room temperature sunflower spread (I use pure) and 1/2 cup brown sugar on high speed until smooth then add 1/4 cup oil on low speed. Add 1 and 1/3 cups almond flour and 1/2 cup free-flour and salt of course.  If you want add 1tsp xanthum gum but I didn't because I don't mind my biscuits crumbly. Roll into batons of 1 1/2 inch diameter and wrap in parchment or cling film. Refrigerate /freeze for at least a few hours. When in need of a biscuit fix, cut into 1cm tall coins and bake at 175C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool (if you can, but we ate half of it straight from the oven) and it should resemble Florentines and be crumbly and cute.

My humble chicken, tragically tarted up

With food intolerances (the lack of friendly carbs) and health concerns (being advised to say "not tonight" to my long term affair with red meat), chicken has taken a rather central place in my life of late, as it is usually easily available, even free range organic ones. I must shamefully admit though that there are times we can't have it, as we have become so precious about our chicken that we would only buy from an approved providers list - nothing quite matches a moist whole roasted or steamed chicken, just a little pink (gasp) but sinfully juicy, sweet and tender.

In my quest to take the humble chicken to the next level, I came upon chicken galantine. However, deboning and stuffing a whole chicken only feels like an accomplishment the first time you do it (my debut was only a couple of months ago); after that all the initial sense of excitement and novelty wears of, as with other things in life. To recreate that feeling of initiation, I decided to tart up my chick by dry brining it, deboning it, stuffing it, tying it and then stuffing homemade white truffle spread under the skin - basically about every technique I have learnt about preparing roast chicken. Not surprisingly, this was staged over a three day period as it is christmas season and we are unnecessarily more busy than usual.

The verdict: two chicks brined for 24 hours then deboned the day before serving. Day of serving, stuff with stuffing (genius) then stuff truffle spread under skin, tie then roast. But the skin was not crispy and the truffle did not come through, and worse of all it was declared "good but not quite up to the usual standards". Perhaps it was the limelight and pressure of hosting. Or simply perhaps my chickens preferred to stay humble...

For those wanting to make homemade truffle oil spread, mix room temperature 100g sunflower spread with 3 tbsp truffle oil and some grated truffles..to be used for another recipe as the high water content prevents skin from crisping up.

An English Christmas Game plan

Christmas is almost upon us and hard as I try to be a proper grouch, the ice crystals in the heart stands no chance against elegantly decorated Christmas trees and lavishly frosted homes. I was rather adamant that I shan't enjoy christmas this year - what with us shipping off to Italy for two full weeks; my English temperament is quite unaccustomed to all that Italian passion and public display of every emotion and thought. But the battle of the European countries were not won and I would be having no turkey, no cranberries, no stuffing, no christmas pud this year, just a lot of exuberant shouts and laughter accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures. Oh, the sacrifice.

All is not lost as I will still be hosting a small intimate Christmas lunch this Sunday; in England, no less. And so in planning the menu, I decided to take Barefoot Contessa's tips on having a "game plan" which entails writing down a task list by timeline. I do know a few close friends who would snigger at the mere thought of "game plan" but as I think it is rather clever, I had a ball of a time writing down when I would set the table, prepare the roux, string up the bird, etc. I even had a task plan for the day before. And the day before that. Such is my life.

Alas, it is the day before the day before and execution has failed idea! Top tip: preparing a game plan requires one having read the recipes and having, albeit a rough, but nevertheless somewhat of, an understanding of the preparation involved - soak fruit and nut mixture overnight, would certainly throw off any game plan which did not include overnight time...

I wonder what that means for me over the next couple of days...Oh well, as my guests are all Italians, bar one, I'm certain I will be told what they think rather loudly and surely. Cin cin. 

Til tomorrow:

Egg yolk confit

I just could not resist confit-ing egg yolks as it seems all the rage at the moment, being almost as on trend (seen it a few times on MasterChef) as sous vide (did you know even Whole Foods would prepare you turkey crown sous vide for Christmas? Safe safe safe option). Larousse is rather mum about confit egg yolk and I resorted to google research. Most recipes required the yolks to be cooked at 55-60 degrees in the oven for 50 minutes. As I was making one or two yolks, I didn't want to waste oven time so I finally found a recipe to cook it over the stove, low and slow with constant stirring for 15 minutes. I presume constant stirring would be required to ensure the whole yolk is cooked evenly from all sides rather than just bottom up and also so the egg does not stick to the pan.

Going by looks alone I would say that separating the yolk from the white would require the "cradling in your hand" technique as that ensures less white is stuck to the yolk. Taste wise, unfortunately I cannot tell as eggs are off my menu... But an unsuspecting guinea pig is coming for lunch this Saturday and my yolk confit will then be put to test.. I'll report back if all goes well. 

My duck and thyme soufflé

After Friday's "soft opening", we made Larousse's Roeun Duck Soufflé last night. Well, an interpretation of the recipe anyway, what with substitutions for things I can't eat i.e. gluten, diary, eggs etc... But the subs did not just stop there; with no foie gras (Whole Foods does not sell it on principal), white truffles and even one, let alone two, Roeun duck in sight, I had to alter the recipe. I did what I could and picked up two mallard ducks from Whole Foods and white truffle oil (this is a cheat but a good cheat as truffle oil is much cheaper than white truffles). This recipe essentially calls for two small ducks or ducklings, one to be "moussed" and stuffed into the other, served with duck breasts on truffle mushroom tartlets. As the mousseline and short pastry I made was also gluten, dairy and egg free, I have included my recipe for the full meal below. This was not the best short pastry I have made but will do for now as I'm too lazy to dig the other recipe up. In all, this makes a rather long post but the recipe which follows after the picture is quite elaborate and only required reading if you so choose.

The verdict: the duck soufflé was a 9 out of 10 (we ate it all between the two of us but it would have been possible to share it amongst three). We cooked it for longer than instructed as the duck was still bloody. The mousseline was gorgeous and yummy. The tart shells were rather crumbly but hey ho. We also went heavy on freshly ground pepper, which I think enhanced the flavour of the duck as mallards are generally more gamey than Rouens.  

Duck soufflé

Tartlets with mushrooms and duck breasts

Recipe:

Roast the first duck at 200degrees for 10 mins. In the mean time, debone the other duck and purée the meat, season with 4 tsps black pepper and 2 tsps salt, and combine with 100g of duck liver pate (either homemade or ensure gluten and dairy free if bought). If you can find and want to, foie gras is used here instead of pate. Put it through the sieve. Here, we should make a mousseline by adding eggs and chilling the mixture and adding 1.5 litres of double cream. However, given it's egg and dairy free status, I blended it with whipped cold coconut cream until a consistency I was happy with, and hoped for the best.

Remove the first duck from the oven, fillet the breasts and put those aside. Remove the breastbone of the duck - this gets a little tricky, at least for me it did... Season the cavity liberally with salt and pepper and a tablespoon of cognac. Stuff the cavity with the mousseline. After stuffing, the shape of the bird should be the same as before debreasting. Season and drizzle over olive oil. Cover and tuck the duck with parchment paper oiled duck side down. Cook for 35 -40 minutes in an 180 oven and let rest for 15 minutes at least. The fat from the duck left in the pan we used to make a light sauce with some Marsala.

Short crust pastry was made with 2 cups of Bob's Mill GF flour, 50g pure sunflower oil spread and 50g of Trex, diced, and pulsed together in a food processor until the butter was the size of peas. I added 4tbs of cold water and pulsed again until it looked like crumbs - there is no gluten to bind it together so this is expected. Pack into a ball and stick it in the fridge for 30mins before moulding some into 2 tartlet shells and baking for 15 minutes in a 180 oven.

In the mean time, fry up some mushrooms with garlic and lots of thyme (remember not to crowd the pan), season and add two or more dashes of Marsala just before turning off the heat. Pile the mushrooms and (sliced) ducks breasts onto the tart and drizzle liberally with truffle oil. My tarts were much smaller than the breasts (ha!) and I did away with slicing and piling it onto the tart.

Serve together with the duck soufflé. 

To make a simpler version, I would have been happy with stuffing the duck with finely chopped duck doused in pepper and mashed together with duck liver pate and lots of truffle oil. However technically this does not make it a mousseline. The pros though is it is much lighter without cream, and may be better for those who suffer the taste of coconut. I would call it duck stuffed duck, mmmm.

Allergy free chocolate sorbet dream

Pacojet is definitely top of my lust-list for 2015. For those not familiar, this is the specialised fine, in all it's literal sense, food making machine and therefore ideal for making ice cream, mousses, baby food, etc, and perhaps even chocolate - now that's an idea! Anyway, back to ice cream; I have made ice cream and sorbet many a time, however, I do not own an ice cream maker - definitely not one as fascinating as the Paco - and being as forgetful as ever, I often forget to keep whisking/ churning the ice cream when it has gone into the freezer. Not that the dreaded ice crystals stop me from eating the whole thing anyway..but I would rather Pacojetify it, if you know what I mean. But space is rather unforgiving in our kitchen, so perhaps it is timely to do some in depth research into the process of making ice cream without the gadgets. Very established ice cream authorities insist the key to ice cream is the composition of sugar, fat (including nut fat) and solids. Oh, that and the lack of ice crystals, which should be achievable if the mixture were frozen in the shortest time possible, with enough violent whisking in between. Surely that would mean freezing the mixture hot...? Instead, the key is to chill the mixture before freeze/whisk/freeze/whisk..

I'm determined to make at least one successful batch of ice cream / sorbet before advancing to trial-ing my own ideas. This is a grave departure from my usual but one hopes with good reason - whilst we were in Santa Barbara we had the most fantastic chocolate sorbet, from Spoon or something similarly called; for anyone visiting, it is that outfit opposite "Jane", the restaurant. Yes, chocolate sorbet. I've never even heard of chocolate sorbet. And it's dairy and egg free...Ok, so I live a very sheltered life, but not anymore - gluten, dairy and egg free chocolate sorbet, homemade. Paco-me-up.

Recipe from the barefoot, adapted, of course...

1 cup sugar (I usually half the sugar amount but frozen stuff really need that sugar)

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used 100% cocoa blocks instead...)

1 shot espresso

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups water

1 1/2 tbsp coffee liqueur (we used Patron as that's gluten free and what we had at home)

Put everything except the Patron into a saucepan and heat over low heat stirring constantly. Off the heat, add the Patron and chill in the fridge. I left mine for 24 hours (because I forgot about it). Put it into the freezer for 2-3 hours then blend/whisk every hour after until you are happy with it. Then leave to freeze proper for 6 hours minimum.

Personal experience notes : 
1) Scouring the internet and everyone tells me I need to whisk the damn thing more often in the first two hours and that's what I was doing these two years past... But, Julia Child, the other (or the original) goddess, insists instead that the first freeze needs to be for 2-3 hours until it is set, and it worked a treat.
2) add alcohol - panacea, even for ice cream.
3) Julia Child suggests leaving the sorbet in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving - but, like all other things, I like my ice cream / sorbet hard.. other things being bread of course (scroll down for the recipe)
4) do not eat chocolate sorbet for breakfast. not everyday anyway.

Allergy free soda bread, take one

Having lost the original recipe, I should really have taken the time to come up with a replacement, and tested and refined it, before elaborating and adding to it. However, rather impatiently I wanted to use the excess coconut milk collected from making my "hint of coconut ricotta cheese", so I just went ahead and "enriched" an untested recipe. But it doesn't just end there; gram flour has been sitting in my cupboard waiting to be moulded into something divine and so it was added to my as yet unproven (ha!) and loosely enriched bread recipe... For those familiar with gram flour (which is made from chickpeas), there is rather obviously a strong bean taste to it and might not suit all palettes in which case substitution with another type of flour (sorghum and even potato) should work - apparently the more varied the blend of flour, the better the bread.

The outcome? The bread was pretty good - as attested by other non immediate family Italians, so one would hope there is some truth there. I must have been craving carbs as I ate half the loaf on it's own. I would change the cooking time as I was busy blogging and left the bread there for a little too long but I didn't suffer for it as I quite prefer harder breads. I would also add a touch more lemon / vinegar to make the bread rise a little more but that would perhaps also impact cooking time. 

Looks a little third rock from the sun but looks can be deceiving..

My recipe:

1 Nutella cup Bob's mill gluten free flour

1 Nutella cup gram flour (or sorghum/potato)

1 tsp xanthum gum

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp lemon juice

1 1/4 Nutella cup leftover coconut milk from the other recipe (or other free friendly milk, or combination of)

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180degrees. Add lemon juice to milk and let sit for five minutes - dairy free buttermilk! Mix everything together in a bowl and dump onto a floured sheet of baking paper. If desired, shape into a dome and using a spatula, make a cross on the dome. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped - do check as I think different blends of flour and of milk deserves different cooking time. I always think bread for people like me benefit from a 5-10 minute longer cooking time, as it otherwise tastes raw...but let me know what you think.

My "if only" soda bread and hint of coconut cheese

If only I had kept THAT Recipe properly.. I would have been eating my homemade gluten, dairy and egg free soda bread today. But of course, I have not the slightest idea where that recipe is - I remember making it quite a few times last year (the Italian half did declare it was the best bread he'd had, ever...yeah, ok) but haven't made it at all for all of 2014! Yes, I can't remember having had any bread in 2014. Back to the recipe, All I remember is that I used an empty Nutella cup to measure one cup each of something. So I'm back to the drawing board, making it up all over again and quite a little more ruffled than usual. I liked that recipe because I came up with it out of the blue and it worked first time round - that's beginners luck which I don't think I will have this time round!

In the mean time, I did try my coconut ricotta - two ways, at that! I left it for 36 hours and it was about 1/3 the amount that came of of the can. I bunged it into the fridge for about 2 hours (whilst recreating my bread recipe). I split the coconut ricotta /cream cheese into two portions and mixed one with parmigiano flavoured salt (yes, I have about ten different types of salts and I just bought some white truffle salt, I'm sad like that), and my favourite green thing, chives. It was gone in just over a second and I didn't have to share with anyone.

The second way was mixed with icing sugar and raspberry sauce ala my barefoot idol, Ina Garten... I would increase the salt content a little (always more salt) and would say it was a complete triumph and completely polished off! Thank you Ina for homemade ricotta cheese inspiration, but we do blame you for devouring a whole can of coconut cream in 2 minutes.

I'll report back on THAT bread... 

Dairy free homemade ricotta cheese, with more than a hint of coconut

I was watching tv the other day and came across home made ricotta cheese - how fascinating! Of course I wanted to make some straight away, and consulted the culinary gods with not a peep on dairy free versions. Ah well, we will make do with faithful research online and personal experiences of making homemade yoghurt (mum and I used to make it when we were younger), I am sure it cannot be too different a process... Armed with coconut cream, lemon juice, probiotic capsule and salt (yes, salt is the most important thing in food as drilled into me by Dad from a young age) all mixed together then left to strain in a cheese cloth or kitchen towel overnight in a dark place (like my oven)..

Sleep my beauty, sleep.. Fingers crossed that it turns out yum as it will be required for my next recipe!

To be continued...

Dairy and egg free Chocolate chantilly

The copper cauldron came back out today as I could not resist making dairy and egg free chocolate chantilly. I read it in bed last night and could not believe my luck. Not only did it require minimal ingredients, the process also sounded pretty easy with no sight of the usual cross referencing to other recipes/culinary words which often takes a further 20 ingredients and 48 hours to prepare, wrapped up in a single word (yes you, mousseline forcemeat in my inaugural dish (scroll down)) lulling you into a false sense of ability. However, you have got to have strong arms - you would need to be able to hold a copper saucepan over a bowl of ice/cold water in one and an electric whisk in the other. I pared down the recipe as it was 9pm on a Wednesday night - 100ml filter coffee and 112.5gm dairy free dark chocolate of your choice heated gently over the stove until melted and married, then the cauldron is plunged into a bowl of cold icy water and the chocolate is whisked until thick and creates a ribbon when it falls back onto itself. It takes longer than you first expect but it does come together so patience is key here. Chill in the fridge. I licked all the cooking utensils after - after all, I haven't had chocolate chantilly / mousse in about 3 years...

Thank heavens for molecular gastronomy! (And Larousse of course)

Copper and knitting needles duck confit

Duck confit has been on the list of to dos for about a month. With a third duck in less than a week, we finally confit-ed and it was moist and succulent. We only taste tested it as the Larousse instructs us to keep it in a cool place for 5-6 months to achieve an authentic confit...I hope only to be able to tell the taste of authentic from that of off. For maximum authenticity, we even cooked it in a deep copper cauldron - yes, cauldron. Alas, my recovery is not quite there yet and I forgot how long I had it on the stove for and as I wasn't authentic enough to stick a knitting needle in to check for traces of blood, I hope it was for the recommended 2 hours. 

Be prepared with scented candles and anti grease spray for all that duck fat. It will all be worth it, duck confit is after all meatbutter, if there were such a thing.

American style cheddar "biscuits", yum

I like to take my time over breakfast and savour the smell of brewing coffee, luxuriating over the coffee itself rather than pining for the caffeine... Real breakfast is the preserve of the time-rich. Setting the table, putting my almond milk into the machine that turns it into foam (unsuccessfully, but I don't complain), beckoning bacon in the oven, eggs on the stove. And of course, the smell of Ina's cheddar buttermilk biscuits, either freshly baked or defrosted, is a warm comforting hug. 

And I can't even eat it. Not yet, anyway. One day, one day I'll eat you, cheddar biscuits, in true duck&thyme style -gluten, dairy and egg free. In the mean time, I'll enjoy my yummilicious homemade strawberry by itself.

A field of homemade gnocchi

We are big on homemade pasta in this house, being half Italian and all. The Italian half was inspired to make some gnocchi just the weekend gone which in turn inspired the non Italian half, me, to make the gluten, rice and egg free equivalent. Not that I even like gnocchi as it's heavy and full of tats which aren't fried, but just the idea was so novel, one couldn't resist. And also, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a direct comparison of normal vs my own fill-in-the-blanks free pasta! Short recipe to follow after the pictures, if required. I should really consult the Larousse to see if it tells a gnocchi story...hope to report back.

Anyway, looks wise, it was pretty easy to tell which were free friendly and which weren't: it's difficult to roll up dough which does not want to stick to itself but a little gentle primping by each of the fingersmiths within us should do it. Try not to pack it too hard together as it would lose all it's lusted for fluffiness. Which mine did, but the Italian half still gave it a thumbs up... I'm beginning to sense a bit of positive bias here, but hey I'm not complaining.

Bon appetito!

Normal gnocchi:

Free friendly ones

Recipe:

Weigh then boil /roast 1kg waxy potatoes whole (this is important if boiling as not to release too much starch from the tats) until tender. Remove skins and mash; I put mine into the kitchen aid and used the beater as if mixing a cake. Tilt it out and make a well. Add 300gm GF flour, and mix in 1 tablespoon xanthum gum and 1 tablespoon cornflour dissolved in 50ml water. Mix until well combined and form into small balls and try to roll these out into a very fat spaghetti, I would say the diameter of a 20p coin. Cut into 1cm pieces and roll each on the ridges of a fork to create....ridges. If it refuses to cooperate, break off dough the size of your thumb, cup them into your hands (hands at perpendicular angles) and form them into elongated balls. Cook or freeze! Remember to cook for a further ten seconds after the lil pillows float to the top.

Bass vs bream vs duck

Being "duck&thyme" and all, I really should have "inaugurated" with a duck recipe from Larousse / Barefoot, but I only thought of this today and there was already a sea bass defrosting in the fridge. I did look up some duck recipes as consolation, and the duck soufflé looks rather promising, perhaps for a day alla prossima.

Anyway, I looked up both bass and bream which I think (hope) are similar types of fish and found a charming recipe for each. One was bass a la duglere (frenched up, of course) and the other bream stuffed with fennel. To be honest, whilst a rustic cook, the a la duglere recipe looked a little simpler so I decided to try the fennel stuffing, which at least required "butterflying" it. I've done fish this way before and it has always turned out well. What's intriguing is that the stuffing is with a mixture of fennel, breadcrumbs moistened with milk, pastis and lemon juice. I hope milk brings the same flavour to fish as does butter, it's from the same source after all. 

I should note now that my trusty local Waitroses, both little and large, had no kitchen twine, which is required as part of the recipe. This is most peculiar as it was American thanksgiving only yesterday, Canadian thanksgiving only last month and Christmas is round the corner! I'm tying some birds up soon so hopefully they will be stocking it then. Oh well, never mind, my bass won't be in bondage so I'll just have to adjust the cooking time, right?

The verdict: the other half gave it a thumbs up, fish was moist and yummy. The stuffing was good but only when eaten with the fish (perhaps I put too much milk for the adjusted cooking time). I think it would also have been easy enough to make it diary and gluten free. But, already with all the bass vs bream/bondage/time adjustments, one had enough to argue that I hadn't followed the recipe at all! Perhaps I have another chance at inauguration after all...

Larousse and Ina

As part of my recovery and to keep my mind focused on something other than that, I am beginning a two part challenge of cooking my way through Larousse Gastronomique (only because I read somewhere that Marcus Wareing, who has somehow managed this year to be frightfully hot, loves the book) and all of Ina Garten's recipe books. I need to start somewhere so today I purchased the books from Amazon, which are expected to arrive in two days, and that would give me time to convince the family that it would be a good idea to be both sponsor and guinea pig. After all, I read the reviews of the "bible" and apparently there are 3800 recipes within - hopefully, my dishing out skills will also be good enough to meet the French standards i.e. small, in order that my guinea pigs should stay french-fully thin. And if you have cooked a la Barefoot Contessa, where recipes begin and end with a pound of butter, you would understand what I mean.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I am intolerant to, amongst others, wheat, rice, soya, eggs, dairy, yeast, which means my food intake primarily consists of protein, vegetables and potatoes. Hopefully I actually get to try one or two recipes which might turn out to be rather fun! 

I'm off to stock up on butter, mmm!

Larousse has arrived!

It's here! And it's Friday! What more could a girl want?

Except for...I have had it for a full hour and a half so why haven't I even taken the plastic off it? Should I not rip it apart and start devouring it, feeling blessed for every nugget of wisdom it imparts me?

Could it be "Fear, plain old fear" ..?

Perhaps I should start with La barefoot contessa!

Reasons to love America!

"People like me" (I hear this phrase a lot) find breakfast the most difficult meal - no bread, no eggs, no butter....need I say more? Fruit is great, but after about the 3rd day, rather boring..

We were recently in Santa Barbara, California, and I had: Toasted quinoa with raspberry jam, poached pears, toasted almond flakes and pistachios with a giant side of almond cappuccino.

My very own gluten, diary, egg, rice, oat and soya free heaven