Saturday 6 November 2010

Feast your eyes 2

So many photos of gluttonous moments, so little time to write about them all properly - so feast your eyes on this lot:

The best 'pan con tomate' I have ever eaten, at London's Barrafina tapas restaurant in Soho. Had anyone attempted to share this with me, I might have stabbed them with a fork:

 
DSC00024

Mini tomatoes grown in my windowbox - I liked how they were all misshapen:

IMG_5734

Apple and damson crumble with almond topping:

IMG_5976

Sourdough bread live yeast starter - bejesus, it's alive:

IMG_6154

The offspring of the sourdough starter – a craggy loaf made with spelt flour:

IMG_6004

The best rice pudding I have ever eaten – recipe from St John’s:

IMG_6186

Go away, I’m busy eating my rice pudding, and no, I’m not sharing…

IMG_6187

Stroud farmer’s market veg, fruit and bread:

IMG_6175

IMG_6173 IMG_6174

Stroud farmer’s market alternative to Starbuck’s – much better!

 IMG_6179 IMG_6181

Superb ploughman’s and ale at The Woolpack pub, Slad, Gloucestershire – the pub where poet Laurie Lee used to drink:

DSC00150

DSC00148

DSC00151

DSC00153

Making fresh pasta sheets, using a chair as a drying rack:

 IMG_6126

Making porcini and mascarpone ravioli from Theo Randall’s book ‘Pasta’:

 IMG_6127

IMG_6129

The finished dish – smoky, woody porcini mushrooms and mascarpone make a robust and deliciously punchy filling:

IMG_6134

Till next time…

9 comments:

  1. Your pan con tomate looks much nicer than any I had in Barcelona where you just get yesterday's bread rubbed with a tomato. In fact the food is much better at Barrafina, Fino etc than most places in Spain. The tortilla in Fino is a work of art.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The recipe for rice pudding, please!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. WARNING: Quinces are bastards. They look all charming and rustic but DON'T BE FOOLED!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ziupsnelis - soon, I promise! :o)

    Pip - what has a poor harmless quince ever done to you, eh, lady?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I once made quince paste/membrillo and it took FOR. EVER. I was still standing there, stirring the bastard sludge about 36 hours after I started stirring it.

    And yeah, sure, it came out okay but all that time for a little square of sweet pink putty that would be inedible if it weren't for cheese? Hmph.

    A few years later I wondered if it was time to give quinces another go. So I embarked on making quince jelly. Quince jelly also takes bloody ages, and involves straining fruit through hessian, dangling the hesian all over the kitchen, burning your hands with molten sugar etc etc.

    Anyway, the recipe didn't tell me that unless I included the pips, the damn stuff wouldn't set. That's where the pectin is, innit.

    So after hours and hours of boiling, straining, sterilising and bottling I was left with about 10 jars of super sweet pink.... syrup. What the hell do you do with pink syrup?

    All I can say is don't get too excited about your Christmas present this year.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank feck you told me, Pip! Hessian? Good God...

    Perhaps it would make a great base for cocktails...

    Every cloud, eh? heheh

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thoughtful blog thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete