Food: recent eats

praline meringue cupcakes

It's safe to say that it has been a very greedy week so far. I've tried to balance it slightly with gym visits and yoga, but not sure I've cancelled out all the food. I just thought I'd share some pics of what I've been munching on.

Food: Ottolenghi meringue recipe

praline topped Ottolenghi giant meringues

So today has not been a healthy day. I can't stop making meringues ever since I bought my stand mixer which I discussed here first. Today's attempt, was an Ottolenghi recipe which, if followed accurately, should create huge show stopping, fluffy cloud meringues. I chose to follow the rose water and pistachio recipe, but being typically me I didn't have any pistachios so I topped them with some praline I'd made instead:

Food: Ottolenghi's divine broccoli with garlic and chilli

Yum yum yum. If like me you struggle to create interesting vegetable accompaniments to meat, try this. It's very easy and transforms broccoli from being a pretty boring vegetable to something quite delightful. Make sure you follow the recipe precisely - the few instructions are key to an excellent end result.

Serves 6

2 broccoli heads
3 garlic cloves, very finely slices
1 chilli, finely sliced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Prepare the broccoli by breaking it into florets. Make sure they're pretty much the same size to allow even cooking. Don't trim the stems too short - keep them longer than you usually would.
2. Add the broccoli to a large pan of boiling water. Don't over crowd the pan, do more than one batch if necessary. Cook for 2 minutes ONLY.
3. Drain the broccoli and cool immediately in a large bowl of iced water. This will keep the broccoli nice and crunchy and maintain its vibrant green colour.
4. Drain and place the broccoli in a bowl. Dress with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper.
5. Place a griddle pan on a high heat for 5 minutes. You want it really hot. Char the broccoli florets in small batches on the griddle, until they get nice char lines - a few minutes on each side.
6. Add 50ml of oil to a pan with the garlic and chili, heat on low for around 5 minutes, just long enough for the garlic and chilli to infuse the oil, but not long enough for any discolouration to take place.
7. Dress the broccoli with the infused oil and serve at room temperature.

Food: Ottolenghi's oxtail stew with butternut squash and cinnamon

Here's the first offering from Ottolenghi's cookbook with a few adjustments I made to the recipe. I was cooking for my friends, Jonny and Ernie, and decided to make a hearty oxtail and butternut squash stew. Don't be afraid to use oxtail, it's really yummy and rich and it's great value for money. As with so many meat dishes, including the bone adds a huge amount of flavour. I served it with cous cous and broccoli chargrilled with garlic and chili. Make sure you make the effort to make the gremolata - it really lifts and freshens this hearty meal.

Serves 6

olive oil for frying
2 Kg oxtail
200g shallots, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
400ml red wine
650g canned chopped tomatoes
10 sprigs thyme
5 sprigs rosemary
zest of 1 orange
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 star anise
salt and pepper
500g butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into 2.5cm cubes
300ml water

For the gremolata:
2 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
grated zest of 1 large lemon
2 garlic cloves, crushed

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
2.  Add the oxtail pieces to a large casserole dish and allow to brown for 15 minutes. Tip the oxtail into a colander to drain off any fat. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees celsius.
3. In a large frying pan, saute the shallots, carrots and garlic in a little oil for 10 minutes until softened but not coloured.
4. Add wine to the pan and bring up to boil, leave until most of the wine is evaporated. Add the tomatoes and thyme, rosemary, star anise, cinnamon, salt and pepper, orange zest and bay leaves. Allow to simmer for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the sauce to the casserole dish, place the oxtail pieces on top and cover first with greaseproof paper and then a tight fitting lid.
6. Place in the oven for approximately 3 hours or until the oxtail meat begins to fall off the bone.
7. 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time add the butternut squash and water to the casserole.
8. To make the gremolata, simply combine all the gremolata ingredients. Serve the stew with cous cous and sprinkle the gremolata on top.

Life: My Greedy Weekend

This weekend was busy busy where food was concerned.

It was our three year anniversary so we treated ourselves to the Michelin starred L'autre Pied in Marylebone. We had a 7 course tasting menu which was very reasonable £49 each. Unfortunately I felt a bit unwell so couldn't manage the matching wines (I asked for a peppermint tea which perplexed the waiter somewhat), but luckily L'autre Pied's food is so fresh and balanced that I was still able to appreciate the excellent cooking. The Tokyo parsnips were a revelation and i've never tasted a better sorbet. If I had to mention any negatives, I would say that, as with many fine restaurants, salt was used a little too liberally and the petit fours didn't match the other courses in terms of enjoyment. All in all, however, it was an incredible experience and we can't wait to return.

Martin gave me Ottolenghi's cookbook as an anniversary gift at the restaurant. I can't explain how pleased I am with it. I was very poor company on the way home and insisted on reading it the whole way back on the tube. I love Ottolenghi's in Angel - it's proprietors come from Israel and therefore cook book is full of vibrant, healthy, super tasty salads and accompaniments. It's giving me so much inspiration on how to liven up my salads and vegetables. Take their french bean, mangetout, orange and hazelnut accompaniment for example. So simple, yet so exciting to eat. I also love the fact that they serve it at room temperature - I think it's a really brave decision and keeps the taste fresh and flavoursome. I was also very excited by the meringue recipe (mine don't always work perfectly) and I like testing out new recipes. However, I see that their recipe insists upon using a freestanding mixer. :( Until I move into a place with a kitchen larger than a cupboard this can never happen. I'll be sharing nuggets of inspiration from this cookbook in later posts.

Saturday afternoon was spent making macarons with my friend. She had spent some time researching recipes online and found a chocolate macaron recipe written by Felicity Cloake featured in the Guardian. Felicity had tested many macaron recipes and then, using her findings, had written her own fail-safe recipe. It was so lovely baking together and we were really pleased with the results. The macarons had a lovely, toffee chewy texture and would please any chocolate lovers. My biggest advice re making macarons would be to use electronic weighing scales to measure the egg white (75g). Making macrons is like chemistry - every quantity has to be absolutely precise.

Check out the recipe we used:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/may/17/how-to-cook-perfect-chocolate-macarons

Later in the evening we went for dinner with our friends Sharenja and Ben. We ate some yummy goats cheese stuffed peppers for starter and then Sharenja had made a chicken and chorizo bean stew. It was very tasty and the chorizo was the best I have ever tasted. Apparently Ben's parents had brought it back with them from Bordeaux so it was the real deal. We finished the meal with vanilla ice cream and Sharenja's signature raspberry coulis.