Hello!!

And so, it begins! (Not the battle of Helm’s Deep – thankfully that’s not a battle for me to fight. *Side note (the first of the year!) Who’s up for a Lord of the Rings re-watch?*) First menu of 2022! Whoop whoop! Welcome back! And also welcome to my new readers! I do so hope that you order. It’s been a bit of a weird week. I overslept yesterday which meant I felt like I’d already failed at my day even though I hadn’t even started it yet. Thankfully I am in a much better headspace today. I got some paperwork done, I decided on a menu and I’m sitting down to write to you all at 10pm. So, without much further delay let’s get to the food.

Vol.01 Menu:

Disclaimer – it’s the first menu of the year, so no new dishes yet. I’ll begin my second “cook-through-the-book” series in the near future. Spoiler alert! Its another Ottolenghi cookbook – not the newest one but one from a few years back – Plenty More. Technically it’s the second in the trilogy of his “Vegetable cookbooks”. The first being Plenty, then Plenty More and of course Flavour – last year’s cook-through-book. So get ready for more explorations of vegetables in all their brightly coloured glory! Who’s excited? Me! It’s ME! I’m excited!

I digress, let’s get back to these meals. They’re all dishes that have been on the menu before. But for anyone who has no idea what Mee Goreng is, here’s some dish descriptions.

Spicy mushroom lasagna – It’s one of Ottolenghi’s recipes so it’s a little fiddly – but that’s for my enjoyment. What you get is layers of fresh egg pasta, cream and pecorino cheese and then the most gorgeous mushroom ragu. The ragu is made by sweating down finely chopped onion, carrots and garlic. Then you add some tomatoes and tomato paste and roasted mushrooms. It gets fried until it’s all a little crispy and brown – ie. EXTRA flavour. To make it more of a sauce you then add some vegetable stock and dried porcini stock and a dash of cream. Once the lasagna is assembled and baked the flavour of the ragu is just multiplied by 1000 – seriously, you have to try this lasagna. 👌

Stout-braised beef short rib with horseradish & carrot pie – So this pie has only had one appearance so far and was as a result of my dad talking about someone else’s pie! The indignity! Anyway, here’s the description: The short rib is browned first and then slowly braised in a stock of onion, celery, some herbs, horseradish cream (hello new ingredient!) and stout. After an hour in go the carrots and then it’s back into the oven to continue braising for another 2 hours. After all that time the meat will be meltingly tender. Top it with a golden puff pastry lid and its sure to be a winner of a dinner! (Gotta love a random rhyme)

Smokey white bean & pepper quesadilla – Home-made tortillas encase a filling of mashed cannellini beans (the least heavy of the tinned beans), roast red pepper, fresh parsley, smoked paprika fried spring onion and a little lemon. Oh, and the cheddar cheese. How could I forget the cheese! It melts as you dry-fry the tortilla sandwich and it’s not stringy (like what you get with a pizza slice) but rather melds into the bean mixture and makes the whole thing creamy and oozy and just really, really nice. These are great to have in the freezer as they cook directly from frozen and are done in about 15 minutes. I can’t wait to have a couple in my freezer for impromptu fancy lunch.

And on to the fresh. I decided to keep it simple for this week. I really love this dish. My fridge is the emptiest it’s been in about two years which has had me thinking about the quick and easy dishes I have in my repertoire. It’s an umami revelation!

Mee Goreng with red cabbage, carrot & sliced tofu/beef – Stir-fry spring onion, garlic and chilli, add carrots and red cabbage, in goes the sliced tofu (or sliced rib eye – which does not go chewy – guaranteed) and then the glorious sauce. Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet sauce sauce), dark soy sauce (never confuse this with light soy sauce, it packs way more of a punch) and tomato paste. Continue stirring, and frying, and add the soba noodles (thin buckwheat noodles), mix mix mix and it’s done! Top with crispy fried onions and a squeeze of lime and you’re having an umami party in your mouth. U-ma-mi-par-ty 🎶 There’s a song in there somewhere.

And for this week’s sweet treat I went with lamingtons. These were such a delight to make and even more of a delight to eat. I actually started making some yesterday but then I realised I didn’t have any eggs. The neighbour didn’t have any eggs either. So, the creamed butter and sugar went into the fridge until eggs were obtained. They’ve been obtained. So, lamingtons will be made. In case you need a reminder of what they are:

Lamingtons – Little squares of vanilla sponge are dipped in a chocolate coating and then rolled in coconut. Sounds easy, right? Well, there’s some technique involved – including freezing the cake so that it doesn’t crumble as you dip it in the chocolate. You’ll be getting four squares per serving. Two to eat before your afternoon cup of tea and two afterwards.

And there we have it. First menu of the year done. The food offering will be evolving this year. Currently floating an idea of having a repeat order sign up – so that you automatically get your favourites every time they appear on the menu. Let me know what you think.