Burger

Wednesday, 4th December 2013

Dragged out the Teppanyaki grill to do a burger. I should use this thing more often. I crumbled up a half a cracker to mix in with the mince, which seems to help the texture, and added a squeeze of Umami sauce for flavour.
Topped with bacon, onions, stilton and a little barbecue sauce and served between thickly cut, lightly toasted slices of a ciabatta style of bread. Yum yum.

Meatloaf with Blue Cheese

Sunday, 17th March 2013

Based on this adaption of a Joceline Dimbleby recipe.
I used a mix of 1:2 mix of pork and beef, because that seems to have a better flavour, and stilton for the blue cheese. And I made the tomato sauce mentioned in that recipe. (No idea what the camera did to the colour of my tomato sauce, I assure you it didn't look maroon in real life!). Otherwise I followed the recipe pretty closely.
Served with roast potatoes and cabbage braised in a little butter.
This came out really well and the stilton developed a surprisingly mellow, creamy flavour.

Stilton and Fig tart - Creamy Morel Crostini

Saturday, 16th April

Party food! Stilton and Fig Tart (Tea at Fortnum and Mason, p51) and Creamy Morel Crostini.
The fig and stilton tart appealed to me from the first moment I saw the recipe. The filling is onions topped with beaten eggs and cream, then sliced figs and crumbled stilton.
It was pretty good but actually, the flavours didn't come out as strongly as I had hoped and I wish now that I had used more stilton.
The tart was also supposed to have a dressing made from walnut and olive oils, wine vinegar and chopped toasted walnuts. But after making it and tasting it, I decided against using it. I was worried that adding another strong flavour was going to mask the tastes of the fruit and cheese, which was a good decision as it turned out.  I did drizzle some walnut oil over at the last minute though.
While buying the figs and cheese I saw morels in the shop and wanted to make something with those as well. Hunting on the internet turned up a few ideas that sounded way too complicated, so I went for a nice simple option.  I chopped shallots and bärlauch and halved the morels, and then softened these together for a few minuted, then added a small tub of cream and reduced it to a thick sauce. Sliced french bread coated with olive oil and a little salt and toasted in the oven served as the base.  Very good although, again, the flavour of the morels didn't come through as strongly as I would have liked.
This was also, by chance, a vegetarian combination!