So, without further ado, I will share with you last night's chocolate soufflé:
This delectable dessert (recipe from Aaron Cooks Italian) was preceded by a delicious vegetable stir fry made mainly by my husband. They're difficult, stir fries, I find. This time, as usual, we didn't get it quite right: there was too much sauce (the temptation to use the lovely lamb stock I'd made a few days before was too great), and the vegetables weren't quite as crunchy as they might have been. But it was still delicious. No photo, I'm afraid - we had too many food photos already!
Previously to this, a couple of nights ago, we had some memorable lamp chops from the organic market at Rudolfplatz, which I marinated overnight in a spice mix (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, coriander, cumin - all the Cs, basically), lemon zest and garlic, then grilled on our griddle pan and served with couscous over which we poured the remains of a rather lovely Moroccan bean soup I'd made the previous night:
We had two chops each: so as to avoid the embarrassment of admitting how greedy we are, I did my usual trick of telling the butcher I wanted enough for three people, but even then he only recommended three chops! I insisted on four - and it was a wise decision!
The night before this (or it could have been after -I lose track), Sam brought home three spankingly fresh mackerel fillets from our favourite fishmonger in Cologne, Fischparadies on Weidengasse. We experimented with cooking them in a Finnish-style vinegary sauce, with onions, 'juniper' (aka gin) and mustard seed (inspired by a recipe in my number one cookbook of all time and the best 8 pounds I ever spent, Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries). Served with sautéed fennel and boiled new potatoes, it wasn't quite authentic, but it was delicious.
Whilst we're on the fish theme, I shouldn't forget the smoked mackerel and potato fishcakes I dreamed up a week or so ago. I was particularly proud of this meal for its effective home economics: although delicious, it was made up entirely of things that badly needed using up. It's probably best to gloss over the vintage of the mackerel and potatoes; to go with them, I made a dipping sauce of crème fraîche with horseradish, chopped fennel fronds, lemon juice, black pepper and a small crushed clove of raw garlic.
And let us not forget the pot roast chicken! This was a real runaway success. We'd both been ill with flu for a week, and wanted something homely, comforting and nourishing. I got out my trusty Le Creuset and made this meal-in-a-pot, with vegetables (celery, onions, carrots, potatoes) and herbs. Sam thought it was one of the best things I'd ever made.
And a day or two before that we had one of those roast pork meals. They are among the culinary glories of our household. This time we decided to photograph each element separately in order to show them in their full majesty. So, there was the Yorkshire pudding that Sam decided to knock up at the last minute (not literally, you understand):
(the leftovers of this were cleverly re-invented, again by Sam, the following night, as a kind of makeshift bacon and vegetable pie:)
There were the roasted vegetables: parsnips, carrots, onions and garlic cloves, in a honey-mustard sauce:
And of course, the majestic pork itself, with its crown of crackling. We did it sitting on a bed of halved onions, the Gary Rhodes way.
For dessert we had lime pie (recipe again from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries), because I'd been in a baking mood.
I could go on (if I did, it would be in a vein of breadcrumbed plaice fillets with curly kale, truffle spaghetti and tomato and fresh anchovy salad), but I think that's enough for now. Right, time to go and make breakfast.
