Doing the chicken gallotine/balotine thing again tonight. Deboned the chicken already, maybe not as pretty as pepins but looks ok, using the carcass and wings to make a stock for the sauce. Going to be good I hope!
I had an idea yesterday that worked out really well; Fried sea bass fillets (seasoned on the skin side) served on a bed of sliced leeks gently, slowly fried in butter and olive oil to soften and avoid adding colour, accompanied by steamed sprouting purple broccoli and skin-on boiled potatoes.
The leeks are mature but baby-sized because they're homegrown, likewise the potatoes (approaching the end of last year's crop, time to get the new ones in!).
Some people say steak's supposed to be served barely above room temperature.
They're wrong, obviously.
We put a plate next to the hob while we cook to warm it, and rest the steak on it while finishing everything else off. There's generally so much cooking action going on, and our kitchen's small enough, that there's plenty of heat knocking around.
Especially as I put the skillet on the giganto-hob set to full, which on lowest can boil a couple of litres of water in a few minutes.
Goat's cheese, red onion balsamic reduction, pearl mozzarella, sun-dried tomato and spinach pizza last night. 24 hour cold fermented (extra yeasty) dough, and a garlic/basil/oregano sauce. It was spectacular.
And also much easier than I remember making pizza to be. Few ingredients = good.
Edit: Though a minimal pizza is a good idea for next time Hel's out and I'm drinking beer and watching movies, especially as there are two more doughs in the freezer.
This was entirely because Danielle fell in love with an obscure goat's cheese called Wigmore at L'Enclume, so we had to order some from http://www.melburyandappleton.co.uk/ (as we couldn't find a local dealer), and that place was so stuffed with great things I ended up spending north of £60 on random goods. One of which was a slab of pancetta.
Why is it impossible to buy crab meat in supermarkets? I can never get any whenever I look. Wanted to make a chilli crab linguine. Had to settle for fucking tinned stuff. Urgh.
So the linguine was nice, but tinned crab meat is shite. There wasn't a bit of meat in there larger than a grain of rice. Totally the scrapings off the fishmonger's floor.
Does anyone else consistently burn their tongue when cooking? I always taste what I'm cooking and burn my tongue. Then when it comes to sitting down and eating the meal, I can't taste it because my tongue is all burnt off.