Another two weeks have gone by

It has been a while again since I wrote last, but we now have internet in the house (at last!!) so from now I will be able to update my little blog more regularly. Even though I have not been writing here recently, I haven’t forgotten about this blog, and its readers…so I’ve carried on taking pictures of the food I, and my husband at times, have prepared (and enjoyed of course!!).
Now I look back at the pictures I’ve taken, I’ll have, for the future, to take pictures of the ingredients and the preparation as well as the finish product…(this was a shared mental note).
I’ve been quite busy at work, but living so close to the office (a ten minutes ride, allow me to remind you for my own pleasure) allows me to cook more or less every night, which is something I really missed when we lived in Los Almagros. When we go shopping, whether it’s in shopping centres, flea markets, car boot sales…I normally end up buy a cook book, or at least spending half an hour going through them and pinching a cheeky recipe (in my head of course, not physically!!)
The other night me and my husband both felt like something easy to prepare, but delicious and quick at the same time…we went for the stuffed chicken breasts, rolled in parma ham (or bacon), with roasted tomatoes and herbs.
To prepare it, you have to take your wrapping slices (parma ham, bacon…whatever you feel like) and place them down in a way that they will slighting overlap each other. To add a bit of flavour, I have spooned some whole grain mustard on the ham, which when it cooks get into both the ham and the moist chicken…you can add any other kind of mustard, rub or spicy sauce, but this is not compulsory. Butterfly the chicken breast (cut it open in half but do not cut all the way down), season it once opened, had your stuffing (we used manchego cheese and herbs, but you can use any cheese you want really) Put the prepared chicken onto the ham and gently roll the chicken with the ham. Place it end of the rolled slices down onto a slightly greased baking dish (I always use olive oil, but if you prefer sunflower oil, on any other king of cooking oil, feel free to change…). I cut in half some little tomatoes we got from the local market (quaint I know, but we have started going to the market and have to say that we enjoy it very much) seasoned them with some herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil) salt and pepper, and scattered them in the dish around the chicken.
In the oven for 25 minutes, and that’s it! The chicken will be moist from the fat of the ham and cheese, but also from the juices of the tomatoes, and will have the flavours of the bacon, cheese, tomatoes, herbs and mustard…it makes my mouth water…
Another day, still during the week (this to emphasise on the fact that these dishes do not need hours of fiddly preparation), I made a dish which was one of my favourite a couple of years ago. And, I suppose, by having made it so many times I got bored of it and stopped making it altogether, until now! This is a dish which, I probably can’t say I’m the creator of because I’m sure many people make it as well, in their own may, but I never found a proper recipe for it, so I made my own. It’s a honey and mustard sausages bake, with roasted onions and potatoes and sweet potato mash. In a bowl, I mix some honey and whole grain mustard. Cut the sausages in bite size (or slightly bigger) and rub them in the gooey mix. Scatter them on a greased over tray and pour some of the honey and mustard over it, once all the pieces coated. In the meantime, prepare your roasted potatoes: Peel and cut the potatoes so they’re all the same size more or less. Parboil (A ten minute boil will suffice). While the spuds are in their Jacuzzi, take a baking dish and add some oil (enough to roast the potatoes), put the dish in a hot oven. This way, the oil will start cooking before the potatoes, and once you will chuck them in, they will get crispier on the outside than your average roasted potatoes. If you want them extra fluffy inside and crusty outside, coat them lightly with seasoned flour before putting them in the oven.
Put everything in the oven, medium heat, for 25 minutes…DONE!
The sweet potato mash is so easy to make as well...peel them and cut them into small chuncks so they cook quicker. Boil them, and one ready, mash them! Season to taste; I always add a bit of the honey and mustard mix to the mash to give it this extra sweetness…yummmmm

Now, not going into so many details, I can also confess having made this week a real fish pie (with salmon, haddock and prawns), some spaghetti Bolognese with my home made sauce (tomato, herbs, balsamic vinegar…), home made pizzas, and I have also used the fruit of the autumn…the figs. I’ve used it in two different ways, both delicious if you want my opinion.
I fist made them with some goat cheese. This is a lovely combination, like apple and cinnamon, pear and chocolate, or tomato and basil…I took a piece of brown bread, put some whole grain mustard (my obsession of the moment as you’ll have noticed by now) and cut slices of the goat cheese. I took some figs, opened them (you cut open in a cross shape but not all the way to the bottom, enough to have them opened and able to stand by themselves) and stuffed some more goat cheese. I them drizzled some honey on both the cheesy bread and the figs, five minutes under the grill and Voilà!!
The second time I used figs this week was for my breakfast. I took a piece of pound cake I made earlier in the week, took a few figs and ate them with said cake and a Greek yogurt…so easy but yet so scrumptious!
Last Sunday John and I went to spend the day in Cartagena (city at about 10 minutes from our place) with Adriana (my boss now turned great friend) and her husband José. They took us to this place which was so authentic it was unreal! It’s a little restaurant / tapas bar on the port (litteraly ON the port as the tables are set at about 2 meter from the water) really old and manky. We first thought “Where are they taking us!!”, but once the food was ordered and started flying out of the kitchen (it was one of the busiest restaurant I’d ever seen…people queued for like 2 hours to get a table), I realised it was a place to remember! The food was FAN-TAS-TIC! Really authentic, fish from the morning, razor clams, squids, mussels, boquerones (small sardines), prawns…a real fest for the eyes and the taste buds! Unfortunately I did not have my camera, or my phone with me (on week ends I tend to leave my phone and forget its existence…) but I am pretty sure we will go back there fairly soon, so I will definitely take some pictures then to share this incredible place with you. It’s the sort of place you think has disappeared with the time…but some have resisted through the modernisation and are still standing!!
I have to go to the market now, but I will come here more often now that we are connected to the outside world! Nonetheless, next week I will not update the blog because we’ll leaving Friday to Marrakech until the following Tuesday…I will update you and share my Moroccan experience on my return…and the big news is that two weeks after our return, my two BFF, yes the two together, are visiting us in Spain for five wonderful days! How happy I am!!As happy as a kid (or myself for that matter) in a candy shop!

Just a quickie...

As per my previous post, we have now moved! The new house is lovely and I will take some pictures of the kitchen (and the views which I have to admit is pretty lovely!) this week end. Unfortunately, we still do not have internet access in our new home (yes it does still exists, houses with no phone or internet...) therefore I cannot update my blog as ofter as I want...Being a naughty girl, I'm updating it quickly now from work.

This week, I have been able to cook almost every day, due to the fact than I'm only work 10 minutes away! I'm home much quicker and can jump in my apron and start tackling new recipes...Last week end, as a breakfast treat and indulgence, I made some canadian pancakes (Canadian for the maple sirup...)...it was like being 12 again, and oh boy were they nice! I made enough batter to have it for two days for brekkie.

On Sunday, I was still in my batter mood, so I tried a new recipe, Corn Fritters. This is so easy to make and it was really nice, along with a tomato and chilli sauce (homemade of course!) and a salad. The fritters are made with a batter similar to a pancake one, although more baking power (or self raising flour) is used. I then added sweetcorn (one of my fav'), onion (scallions are better but I didn't have any), chives and cheese. You do have to season well to make sure it is not bland. Cook it like a pancake and...done! I followed the recipe and had enough batter to make a few extra for work the following day, everybody loved them.

This week I have also cooked some authentic carbonara pasta (I took the recipe from the Jamie Oliver on Italian recipes cookbook...I love this book, easy recipes, lovely pictures...). I made the meatballs with sausages, and the sauce was made out of egg yolks, cream, pancetta and cheese...my husband did not complain!

I'll have to work on some more recipes for this week end and, due to a bank holidays, I will be off work from Friday afternnnon until next wednesday, so I'll have plenty of time to experience new tastes, recipes, which i will of course share next week!

At long last...

You must have thought that I had completely abandonned this blog...and you would have been partly right! The last month has been so hectic, I did not get one minute to seat with my laptop and relate you my ongoing culinary adventures.I have taken a few pictures though, so all is not lost! John and I are moving next Friday, and although I absolutely adore my current kitchen, I am pretty excited about this new challenge. We are moving for work commitments, but only 60km from our house (I could not face the 130km round trip commute any longer...an John has found some more work there). The new house has sea views, and I hope this will help my cooking inspirations (prawns, cod, sole...here I come). In my last post I was telling you about these pasties I was to make and bake...unfortunately, it did not go according to plan, and I had to improvise (I suppose improvising is a part of the cooking element...although it has to be used with small quantities or anything could go extremely wrong!). I started off really well, with all my ingredients chopped and ready, to make the actual assembling of the pasties much easier and quicker. I had anticipated that the heat in the kitchen (and generally in the air as, being in Spain in August, the heat IS going to be a problem at some point) was going to be tricky for the pastry but candidly imagined it was going to be OK...and it turned out differently! The dough became extremely sticky and I was only able to shape a few before I had to surrender myself! I then decided to make a huge pasty, I figured out that if it was to work for a tiny one, it would work for a family sized one! And it did! It did not look gorgeous, but it was pretty good (even if I say so myself)...nobody complained anyway!

The following week end we were a few having dinner and as I was feeling a bit poorly, I decided to be a bit lazy and to do something quick, easy but still scrumptious...home made pizzas! I first made the dought with flour, yeast, water, EVOO and a pinch of salt. My faithful Kenwood did the rest of the work until the dought was elastic and smooth. In the meantime I prepared the ingredients to put on the pizzas (whatever you have in the fridge really...and whatever rocks your boat...) and rolled the dought, stuck a few ingredients and it was done! With 500g of flour I did five huge pizzas (I mean, one pizza could feed a normal family of 3!!). I'm lucky enough to have a pretty big oven which could cook all the pizzas in one go! Once again, everything went with nothing esle but praise (how modest of me to specify...).

You will realise that during the week end, when I can actually cook, there are always a lot of people at home an I have to prepare food in large quantity which people will enjoy, without feeling that it is too posh and feeling uncomfortable...this is the reason why I do this sort of recipes, easy going friend grub! This lead to my other signature week end recipe, chicken curry samosas. It can sound scary as for the samosas you need the "feuille de brick" a kind of filo sheets which isn't commonly used in everyday cooking, and a bit of practice for the shaping of the whole thing. I first marinated my chicken and thinly chopped onions with curry and cumin powder. I fried it, set it aside and added some English cheddar. I prepared the sheets, cut them in half, adding a bit of my now cooled chicken curry stuffing and started folding carefully into triangles. Once all folded, I heated sunflower oil in a pan and fried the samosas for around a minute a side. I let them rest on a kitchen towel to drain the excess of fat and this was that! The first time I made these samosas was with my now known to you BFF1 Cloé. We did them with feta cheese and corn salad (or mâche in French) if my memory's right. She discovered the trick to folding them quickly and efficiently (just like her!!) and she tought me (obviously really well). These samosas are always a success and once the folding skills managed, you will be able to make them with any flavours you want, to experiment and impress your guests, or just to treat yourself!

During the week my husband did a homemade improved version of the classic mac & cheese; we all love this recipe, but by adding fresh tomatoes, fresh herbs an lots of love, it was extra special and delicious. I cannot share the meal with you, but I did take a picture...

And, before I rush off to my kitchen for more week end cooking delights, I need to share the birthday cake I made, just last night. Indeed, yestderday it was one of John's son's birthday and I had been thinking for a long time of making a football themed cake. Unfortunately, between my work commitments and the fact that Spain is not big in cake decorating and other products to make cakes colorful and funny, I was unable to do what I really wanted. Instead I had to do what I could with what I had (not much...) in two hours (the time between my arrival from work and the actual cake face stuffing! I coulf not find any fondant, which I had plan to colour and use as the grass for the pitch. I therefore used icing sugar with a mix on lemon juice and water (a good balance for having it with a bit of flavour but not too sharpe), tinted it green, used the rolled out white fondant my husband had miraculously found (mind you, it took us a few days to find it, bless him) to do the sides and goal posts...and it was all I could do! I made a sponfe cake with layers of fresh whipped cream and strawberry jam, covered it in marzipan to have a more or less level surface and started decorating. My husband, as wonderful as usual; helped when all went wrong (the icing ran down the side of the cake, it was too hot in the kitchen, it did not set...) and, with our teamwork effort, we ended up with a cake which was reasonably good for a first attempt.

As I said at the beginning of my post, we will be moving next Friday, so I suppose my next culinary adventure I will be sharing will be from my new kitchen...I will of course introduce you to my new environment and tools...and will share my new cravings an crazy ideas!

Felt like a sarnie (not litteraly...) but it's now the week-end!

This week has been tough tough tough...first week back at work after two weeks off in the South of France...it takes some time reajusting to "normal" life...Work is frantic and I have to thank God for having such a lovely husband who prepares such lovely meals every nights (being his own boss and a house husband means that he can come home before me...and treats me to the most amazing food). This week I only worked half day (until 3 pm) at the office and I could work from home during the afternoon. On Tuesday I would have killed for a saussage sandwich for some unknown reason (it happens around once a year...). But fortunately, I didn't have to kill anybody...John cooked me a little beauty exactly as I imagined it on my way back from work. Grilled tomatoes, melted cheese, fresh sliced bread...my deam of the day on a plate...And yesterday I enjoyed a Fresh baguette with simple ham, lettuce and cheese filling...sometimes, the simplest things are the nicest...

Went food shopping today, and the thing I love from our local supermarket, is that we can find almost anything we want, from German coffee, beans from South America, local hams (of course, a Spanish supermarket would not be labeled as such without hams hanging in there!) , or proper British sweets...But today, I have found one of the weirdest recipe I could have though of in the shop...I have discovered italian fresh pasta...chocolate flavoured! I promised myself to try some, some day...but first I will need to figure out what it could go well with...and maybe surprise some guests!!

Tonight I'm going to bake some traditionnal British pasties (but not Cornish as they do not have potatoes, or cabbage and spices...). I make them out of bacon, cheese and onion (everybody's favorite ingredients!) and a nice fresh salad...It's just too hot here (today 44°C) to do anything else...baking in this heat is a sport in itself...ditch the workout, just come and bake at home!

Another day at the office

Before I start, I promised to share John's sweet and sour chicken...It was so yummy, exactly the confort food I needed fr my first day back at work.

This morning it was pretty difficult to get up...the return from the holidays, the excitement, are wearing off to let the exhauction invading evey single part of me! Had to go food shopping for the rest of the week because the frigde reached crisis state. I was not exactly inspired by the little Spanish supermarket we went to but, thankfully, my husband got everything under control!

Tonight he decided to treat me to a homemade burger, with fresh onion and tomato slices...we brought back French Dijon Mustard which will go very well with this.

I am now planning for the recipes I'm going to tackle this week-end and I getting my inspirations from the new cookbooks I got for my B-day. A few recipes are tempting but I have yet to make my mind up!

Well and truly back

In my previous (and first) post, I left sayin that I was gonna make some doughnuts...or donuts depending on where you're coming from.

These delicacies turned out to be a complete disaster!! I had a great recipe from my bible "The cook's book" (Edited by Jill Norman, with the collaboration of the famous Pierre Hermé, Ken Hom and Atul Kochhar, just to name a few) and I had all the nice bits and pieces to decorate the sweet treats... But I soon realised that I did not have enough flour and decide to replace it with Corn flour (Maizena) as it normally can be done in small amounts...

I mixed the dought as per the recipe but the result was not as described. Not to be a defetist (or being plain stupid...the line separating both concepts can be quite thin at times), I carried on regardless and finally ended up with an acceptable dough, which I left rest 20 minutes, once again as per the instructions and the cut into nice rings. I tried to fry them...but it just turned into mush...I then decided to bake them...I thought "lost for lost, I might as well try to cook this dought any possible way". And then, Ô miracle! It worked! The biscuits were nice, soft, not too sweet, and not greasy (for all the dought I only used 25g butter and two table spoons of sugar)...nice result with a homemade strawberry jam...

After this tiny victory (I am easily pleased maybe...) I tackled my addiction by making cupcakes to take to my BF Virginie's the following day. She and her boyfriend just bought a lovely lovenest in the centre of Aix en Provence which is in need of updating and renovation and my husband John and I, along with ten other frineds, volunteered to help getting the place cosy and ready to move in. I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosty top...and even though it was for "builders" I had to add girly decorations...pink and white hearts, coloured pearls...and it went down really well (even if I say so myself!); I used the new "tools" I had for my birthday...silicone cupcake molds, dish, and I did also look for more cupcake recipes from a cookbook I received, also for my quarter of a century celebration.

We are now back home, in Spain, and we are going back into the work routine, which means that, during the week, it is my lovely husband John who cooks for us...I can only satisfy my passion cravings at the week end, when I have enough time to shop for the perfect ingredients, search frantickly for new cook books, utensils or whatever is related to the cooking (and cupcaking...) world!

Tonight is chicken sweet and sour stir fry, one of his signature dish (and one of my favorite...) I owe to share it with you tomorrow!

The first of a long list...

I have always wanted my own blog, but work and family commitments have always meant I did not have the time of day!I just turned 25 this month, am French, working as a jurist in a Law Firm in Spain, married to a Londonner...all these origins, nationalities and placed have helped me develop what now makes me, and my family, feels this happy feeling in our stomach (litteraly!)...food!
When I was studying in Southern France, I was quite frankly a helpless cook, prefering restaurants and readymade meals over a homemade dish with a smell to make you want more and more...
I have since then discovered the joy of cooking, of discovering new tastes, smells, colours, textures...my favorite of all times being sweet things (especially cupcakes)!
We have been in Southern France for the past two weeks, for our summer holidays and I can confess that I have cooked almost non stop! What a bliss!
Last week end one of my two best friends, Cloé, who along with my other BF Virginie will be mentionned quite a lot in theblog I guess, came to visit to celebrate my B-day. We prepared the finger food for the party and our thirty something guests in a bit less than two days. Cloé and I become one in the kitchen, sharing the same passion and tastes. We unfortunately did not take many pictures of the progress not the finished work, but I owe t post the ones we have.

Today is the day before the end of the holidays, and for the first time in the ast fifteen days, the sky is grey and the weather sad...to cheer myself up I have decided to make homemade donuts (a wink to my half canadian mother) and maybe a choolate cake which i will take to my BF Virginie's tomorrow...