Lousy weather is driving us mad… so I’m trying to raise our spirits …
Today we had gently panfried goat’s cheese, served on a salad: mâche, cherry tomatoes, coleslaw, walnuts, peanuts, cranberries… a swirl of vinigrette and a smattering of black pepper…
Washed down with a glass of Chateau de Pressac 2011 St Emilion… yummy… hic.
(OH is still finding treasures in our cave)
Later, apple cake and creme caramel… both homemade by our nextdoor neighbour and handed over the fence during a brief sunny spell…
Fettuccine with a creamy mushroom sauce. A touch of brandy in the sauce when available… Side salad with lots of rocket and a vinaigrette à la moutarde à l’ancienne.
+1 for tartiflette, every time Winter is also intensive curry-making season and over the years, having surpluses of limes, aubergines etc. I make lots of different pickles and chutneys. This winter I’m going to explore the delights of making various Indian breads, naan, chapattis, dosas etc.
I made jiaozi for supper, very soothing making loads of little Chinese dumplings. I fried them so the bottoms were crunchy then chucked water in the pan and slammed a lid on to steam the tops. @Susannah you might call them potstickers
I have happy memories of eating jiaozi at a little _hutong_hole in the wall during a snowy winter in Beijing. Afterwards, we bought caramel dipped crab apples on a stick from a street stall.
Unfortunately, sometimes the odd one still contained little wrigglers, but I found it was completely acceptable to just spit out everything and jump about the moment you saw some winking back in the apple you had just bitten into. It really made people laugh
We’re enjoying homemade soup more or less every day at the moment…
I throw veg into the pot (potatoes, leeks, courgettes, whatever) with loads of garlic and black pepper etc… then blitz the lot once it’s cooked… adding some delicious “haricot blanc in duck fat” just before serving…
Sitting by the fire, gently dipping crusty bread … fabulous !!
(I remove excess duck fat from the tin and later use that to fry leftover potato chunks… a delicious partner to a couple of fried eggs… )
Lots of soup here as well. Tomato soup from the huge ammount of passata we froze, did a large tuscan bean soup last week and did a chicken and leek soup yesterday using the carcass of a chicken to make a stock. I have a shoulder of lamb for later in the week, so that will make another stock for a beany lamb soup for the weekend and beyond.
Spuds in any form and then nice things added either as accompanyment or like cheese, all over them. I used to adore things like steamed sponge treacle pudding or suet puddings but have not had them in over 20 years now, wonder if they would still be as tasty.
I make a lot of minestrone, vegetable and potato and leek soups as I use the instant pot to cook chicken a lot, so use the stock to make soup, the soup only takes 5 min to cook so quick and easy for lunches.
I love the instant pot for cooking.
Oh my… that is bringing back memories of the “after Christmas” turkey soup… when the stripped carcass delivered up its final tasty secrets… yummy yummy…
we mince our own meat as I hate the fatty mince that we get here.
Winter is also intensive curry-making season and over the years, having surpluses of limes, aubergines etc. I make lots of different pickles and chutneys. This winter I’m going to explore the delights of making various Indian breads, naan, chapattis, dosas etc.
