Be Excellent To Each Other

haha, nightmare. Had a similar experience with my local butcher with chicken offcuts. So making stock Craster?

Aye. Bouillabase for lunch tomorrow.

Me and the missus decided that we're going to make an effort between us to cook a good three-course meal once a week, things we might not ordinarily do or that require learning new skills and techniques.

Today was our inaugural dinner, and I must say I think it was a resounding success.

"Tuna Nicoise" - Fried potato-crusted tuna with olives and soft-boiled quail's eggs.



Monkfish and lobster bouillabase with Café de Paris butter.



Ile flottante with almond parfait and caramel sauce

You exist in a different world to me

Mad skills. That looks awesome.

Some of those cooksuck entries are funny, but on the whole that's a ridiculously mean-spirited website. Lots of poor-bashing, etc; the one with the birthday kid is horrible!

Fucking hell craster. I'm sure its just the camera making those look delicious....

I'm feeling wretched but I'd still eat that right now.

For dinner tonight.
Quesidillas with home made tortilla bread and marinated chicken.

Wednesday, as I'm working tuesday.

Tomato and mozzarella bruschetta
Marinated Ox-fillet (not sure what the english cut is), with red wine sauce, chilli potato wedges, haricot verts and a garlic butter.

And Blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake and lemon sorbet.

Cannot wait for the pudding portion of the meal!

We started on our MEAT from alternativemeats - one each of welsh wagyu and Australian wagyu so we could compare properly. Both sirloin, similar thickness, the welsh was bigger and cheaper, the aussie was bloody well marbled. Two minutes each side on a hot skillet, oiled and seasoned, then well rested.

The welsh was... Alright. The Australian was FUCKING AMAZING. Totally worth the extra twenty quid a kilo or whatever
.

Dinner tonight was chicken breast roasted with gruyère and bacon; potatoes fried with herbs; and creamy parsnip purée. Pictures will follow when I plug my camera in.

We did Italian today. Food was good, photography less so.

Arancini - Deep fried mozarella stuffed risotto balls (these were epic).


Gnocchi with duck ragu. First attempt at making gnocchi, it went pretty well, although I underseasoned them.


Cherry and almond tart.

That's virtually what I had for lunch.

OM NOM TO THE MOTHER FUCKING NOM

Dinner tonight: leftover jambalya with fajita chicken in enchiladas.



And some better pictures of my pancake day menu:

Do like the look of those enchiladas. And I like the idea of the fried egg on top of that galette.

I was bored this evening, so made a raspberry flavoured pancake.

Oh man, TK that looks amazing! Beautiful colouring and I love what you've done with the plate.

Best of British, today!

"Fry-up" - Black pudding croquettes, dripping fried toast, grilled mushroom, and quail's egg.


Roast Wing Rib of Beef


Finally, of course, Apple Crumble.

I had a go at the de-boning the chicken pepin style. Nearly worked, didn't have enough meat on the bottom on it when cut, so fell apart a bit. Next time it will be better.

That one's going on the list.

Craster -- looks fantastic, as always.

Nickachu -- I need to try this again, my first one wasn't very good.

Here's last night's dinner; chicken, turkey, ham and leek pie from the Hairy Bikers' pie cookbook. The Egg had a spare copy he generously donated to me. Credit to Danielle for making and decorating the pastry. It'd not look this good if I'd done it.

Dirty.

My new toy.




And I got 15% discount because I work as a chef in the city. Woo!

I roasted fresh beetroot for the first time last night. They were very nice. Uhhh.... they don't half turn your poop a funny colour though, don't they?

Dunno, you should post a pic.

Dinner tonight: Beetroot shit in a piss jus.

I once ate an excess amount of asparagus and beetroot on the same night. I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and couldn't decide whether to call an ambulance or a hazmat unit.

Norris McWirter

Just had this for lunch. Absolutely gorgeous. Cheers, Doc!

Just think, if you had children you'd probably have to shop at Iceland. At least you wouldn't feel lonely and bored with each other, though.

Modernist Cuisine advocates burgers made from mince where the fibres are arranged to go vertically through the meat. Hence bites always go along the grain and the burger feels more tender. It's a lot of work, of course.

Heston Blumenthal has stolen the idea, industrialised it, and started selling them in Waitrose as "Ultimate Burgers" (they come in pairs in a little black box). They're not huge -- 6 oz or so -- or cheap -- a fiver, I think -- but by Odin's beard, they are delicious. Best burgers I've ever had at home, by far.

I thought 'Modernist Cuisine' was written in conjunction with people from The Fat Duck (and El Bulli).

With two guys, one of whom worked in each place. It's in no way an official collaboration with Heston or Ferran Adria.

They did write the intro though, didn't they?

Just saying it doesn't seem like Heston necessarily nicked it.

They did the cooking work, not the science.

I have been given a tupperware container containing a chain-letter sourdough yeast thing called herman with instructions on how to turn him into a cake and then pass the remaining yeast onto 3 other people. It is, frankly, a bit odd.

That's excellent!

Break the chain and You Will Die In Seven Days!

The box ad copy certainly makes it sound like it was all Heston's idea.

We had that chain cake thing in our office a while back. I didn't bother.

Who slices into a burger?

What if you pick the burger up sideways?

I think he means they become burgers upon being sliced from a larger lump of arranged mince.

Also, it's worth noting that in his 'In Search of Perfection' series, which was, what, five years ago, he did the whole fibres in burgers thing. Does that predate the Modernist Cuisine book?

The release of the book? Certainly. Aligning fibres in meat has been a pretty well known concept for a long, long time though. I think it's highly unlikely that either of them nicked the idea off the other. And even if they did, meh.

Well, quite.