I have never felt less like cooking than right now

379. Loin of pork with bay leaves
380. Rhubarb custard

These two recipes are from the first menu in the Dinner chapter. There is supposed to be a Casesar salad as a starter, but I was tired and it was cold, and I couldn't be bothered going out to buy fresh free-range eggs for the dressing (they're supposed to be eaten almost raw, so really fresh eggs are necessary).

I cooked this all after I returned home from work.

The pork loin is rubbed with a mixture of olive oil, bay leaves, peppercorns and garlic. (Mum, thankfully, went out to buy the pork for me during the day - I am so grateful.)


marinated pork

Then you place thinly sliced onions around the pork, and bake it at 200C until done.

While it was baking, I made the rhubarb custard - the final of How to Eat's many rhubarb recipes. The recipe says to stew some fresh rhubarb, but I had a bag of frozen pulp in the freezer, which I defrosted for the recipe. To make it, you whisk up eggs, egg yolks and sugar, then add pour over warmed milk and the rhubarb pulp. Pour it into a dish, and it needs to be baked in a waterbath at 160C for 1 hour (or until set). I did this in our rickety old microwave convection oven (which lives in the pantry and is hardly ever used for the oven purpose).


raw custard

So this is the cooked pork... mmm... golden and crunchy.


cooked pork

As it was resting, I made the side dish - tinned butter beans (Nigella says to soak and cook pulses from dried, but I was seriously not in the mood), warmed through with oil and garlic. Then I made the sauce by deglazing the pan with white wine and water.

You serve the pork slices with sauce drizzled over and surrounded by bay leaves.


pork slices


butter beans

Dessert time. This is what the rhubarb custard looks like when cooked.


cooked custard

Now, although it seemed quite set and not-liquid when I shook the dish, when we cut into it, most of the inside was still liquid.


mmm soupy

The edges, however, were set, and the liquid centre was warm and tasted like ordinary pouring custard (i.e. DELICIOUS), with the soft fragrance of rhubarb permeating through. It was quite lovely indeed.

Pig’s bum and tuna

For lunch today, we had a lovely low-fat griddled tuna dish. Followed by a steamed pudding with lashings of custard. Ooh yeah.

364. Tataki of Tuna (Low Fat)
365. Quick Foolproof Custard (Basics etc)

I chose to reprise the pig's bum because I needed a pudding to go with the second custard recipe in the Basics etc. chapter, and I seem to have already completed all the other puddings and crumbles. The pig's bum is without a doubt my favourite pudding from the whole book.

Just in case you forgot…

The mixture for this steamed sponge is equal parts butter, sugar and flour, with 2 eggs, some baking powder, vanilla extract and milk (so just a normal sponge-cake mixture), with a rhubarb puree mixed through. And apart from the cooking of the rhubarb (which takes a scant 5 minutes), it’s all done in the processor.


pig's bum mixture


pudding in basin


Steamer

You have to put the lid on the pudding basin, and let it steam for 2.5 hours. And in the meantime, I made the custard.

The quick foolproof custard is good for the custard-o-phobes among us (aah.. I remember when I used to be one of them!) because it dispenses with that whole nerve-wracking “stirring over low heat” stage. What you do is whisk some egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl. In a pan, you heat cream with a vanilla pod, and “allow the cream to rise in the pan”, before pouring it over the eggs, and whisking for a good 10 minutes until thick. I had no idea what allowing “the cream to rise in the pan” meant, so I just let it bubble a teensy weensy bit before adding it to the eggs. The custard took about 10 minutes with a KitchenAid mixer on medium heat.

Upon reflection, I don’t know why I didn’t try this custard back in the days when I couldn’t make custard, as it would have saved a lot of bother. But in the end, I guess it’s good that I forced myself to learn how to make custard with old fashioned stirring. Because even though this custard tasted fab, it did have a lot of tiny little air bubbles in it from the whisking, so it didn’t have that lovely voluptuous gloop of real custard.

Nigella says to have cold custard with the pudding, so I set the custard aside while I made the main.

Tataki of tuna is ideally, a long round tail piece of tuna, seared on all sides, and sliced thinly. I had to substitute tuna steaks, as they were all I could find, but the result was still good. I dusted the sides with wasabi powder, and cooked them briefly on a high heat in a cast-iron frypan.

Nigella says to serve with thin slivers of spring onions and a sprinkling of coriander, as well as a side salad of cucumber slices. As for sauces, she suggests a paste made of wasabi powder mixed with soy, or a mixture of soy, sugar and lime juice. I made both, just to try each one.

I also served it with cold soba noodles, dressed with a mixture of all the Japanesey sauces from my pantry – mirin, soy, rice vinegar, and honey.


tuna and cucumber salad


Table


wasabi powder mixed with soy


one bowl

It was a fabulous lunch. The noodles, the tuna, the cucumber, the sauces – all lovely. After plowing through so much of the rich, meat-and-potato heavy food that Nigella favours, this was a refreshing contrast. Goodness, how I love soba noodles! It was so healthy and delicious, and not in that resignedly virtuous way – it actually tasted good, irrespective of its being low-fat.

Mmm… now check out the dessert. I think words are superfluous in this instance; just check out the photos…


Pudding


Custard


one delicious plate

Pig’s bum is totally the best.

Calming Winter Lunch

I think everyone in my house was in need of a bit of calm today, so I pulled out Nigella's CALMING WINTER LUNCH.

352. Roast Loin of Pork
353. Roast Leeks
354. Clapshot with Burnt Onions
355. Custard Tart

Mum and Dad went out in the morning to buy all the ingredients, and I got to cooking when they came back. The first thing to make was the custard tart - it needs to sit, out of the oven, for a couple of hours to reach "tepid heaven".

So the pastry is Nigella's sweet pastry (see the Basics etc.) chapter, which is simple to make in a processor. It needs to be blind baked (using my fab ceramic pie weights!), then brushed with egg white, and baked for another 5 minutes to set the glaze.


cooked pastry

The "custard" part of the custard tart contains eggs, an egg yolk and vanilla sugar, into which you beat some warmed cream and milk. Then you pour this custard mixture into the baked pie case (being careful not to fill it too high, lest it spill), and bake it for 45 minutes.


pastry with custard

I had HEAPS of custard leftover, so I took Nigella's suggestion of making some mini baked custards, putting them in the oven on the shelf above the pie.


teacups with custard

While they were in the oven, I got on with the pork. Dad bought this lovely piece of meat at Rendinas this morning - they boned the loin, removed the rind, rolled it and tied it... "like an artist", said my dad.


Porrrrk

You can season the loin (Nigella gives 3 options), or leave it au naturel... I chose the ginger & garlic option, as I already had jars of minced garlic and ginger in the fridge, thus making it the easy option.


with ginger and garlic

If you choose the garlic and ginger option, Nigella says to sprinkle the rind with ground ginger before cooking it, for "hot crackling".


Crackling

I stashed the leeks in the oven as well. For Nigella's roast leeks, you slice some leeks into squat logs, cover with olive oil and sea salt, and cook for 30 minutes in the same oven as the pork.

While they were all slowly sizzling away in the oven, I made the clapshot. This is basically equal quantities of swede and potato, which you boil and then mash. To make the burnt onion topping, you slowly cook a thinly sliced onion until soft and brown and slightly crispy (about 20 minutes), before adding a teaspoon of sugar, turning up the heat and cooking for 3 minutes until very dark and crispy.


clapshot with burnt onions


roast leeks


roast pork

The pork was delicious! And it was perfect for a cold Saturday afternoon. This lunch is, indeed, very calming.

Here's the custard tart.


custard tart

And the baked custards...


baked custards


slice of pie

The pie was lovely - just slightly sweet, light and delicate. It wasn't too heavy following the pork, thank goodness. And the baked custards were good too, even though I definitely prefer the pie. Mmm... I hadn't had pie in ages! I didn't realise how much I missed it!

Good Crumble

I spent the last 2 days up in St. Leonards at my friend Sandy’s holiday house with some workmates. I wanted to cook something up there, something universally pleasing, but not too difficult. You see, there were 11 of us up there, including some guys with very cutting senses of humour, one of whom is a qualified chef (!), and the idea of slaving in a foreign kitchen all night, only to be derided (even jokingly) by them simply did not appeal. Plus, I wanted to make something cheap.

268. Apple Crumble (Basics etc.)

Apple crumble is delicious, easy, and seems to be something that everyone will eat. I have previously made the rhubarb crumble and the apple and walnut crumble, and loved them, but in this instance, I thought that the basic, ur-recipe would be the best. Also, this is the easiest crumble in How to Eat, and making it enabled me to cross yet another recipe off my list.

I aired the idea to the gang on the first day of our holiday, and they all seemed up for it. I bought some apples and butter at the supermarket on our way up there, and made the crumble in the afternoon, while the others were playing Uno, drinking, and watching TV. There were no scales up there, or a food processor, so I had to do it by eye and hand.

I got 1 block of butter, cut it into cubes, and piled on an appropriate-looking amount of flour, before rubbing it in with my fingers, and adding a bit more flour as I went along. Then I stirred in some white sugar (Sandy had no brown sugar at her house), and popped it in the fridge.

Then I peeled the apples (with a knife!) and cut them into wedge-shaped chunks. Bizarrely, Wes & Brad, who were sitting at the kitchen bench playing Uno whilst I was doing this, really love eating apple peel, and kept taking pieces out of my detritus bowl.


raw apples, crumble mix

Then I cooked the apples in a pan with some butter and sugar and a bit of lime juice, (fresh oranges were sadly also lacking), and let them sit aside while we ate dinner.


stewed apples

For dinner, we ate some packet lasagne and delish roast potatoes that Sandy made, and after that, I put the crumble together.

Me: Is apple crumble ok with everyone?
Everyone: Yes… yeah… yup etc
Me: So Wes, you like apple crumble?
Wes: Yes. The crumble part is better. Can my piece have more crumble and less apple? In fact, just give me a bowl of crumble.

I myself much prefer the crumble, (as does everybody, apparently) and it seemed that the dimensions of the pans and quantities of fruit and crumble available to me meant that we were going to end up with a very high crumble-to-fruit ratio. It was basically one thin layer of apple pieces, with heaps of crumble dumped straight on top.


raw crumble

This took about 30 minutes to cook in the oven, and in the meantime I made the custard. (Just to prove that I wasn’t lying when I said in the Q&A with Sarah, that I can make custard without a recipe now). It thickened easily without any problems. However, I did feel the need to get the OK from Brad, (our resident qualified chef), before I was sure it was thick enough.

Me: Brad, check this custard out, is it thick enough?
Brad: ...peering into the pot… yeah that’s heaps thick! That’s perfect for an anglaise… how did you make it?
Me: I mixed eggs and sugar, then poured in hot cream and stirred the whole lot over the heat.
Brad: Good girl! But, it’s an anglaise, not a custard.
Me: It’s a custard.
Brad: It’s an anglaise… custard is made with custard powder.
Me: Whatever! Go back to Uno!

Then we divvied up the crumble and custard.


crumble, custard

I do realise that most people aren’t as obsessed with custard as I am, and only drizzled a sane amount onto their servings. But for my bowl, I totally drowned it in custard.


mmm custard

Thank goodness, everyone liked it! And they all said the same thing about it... "Good crumble, Sarah". People were also appreciative of the good smells while it was baking.

I went to bed relatively early, and it happened that yet more friends arrived while I was sleeping. You see, I got up the next morning, groggily walked to the kitchen, and found everyone milling about the living area/kitchen, including some new faces. At this point, my friend Michael grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me in front of some dude I'd never met before (one of his friends who'd arrived during the night), and shouted, "Hey! This is Sarah! She's the one who made that crumble you devoured last night!". The mystery-friend then said to me,"That was good crumble". Awesome! He was hot, too. And he made me a pancake for breakfast, which I ate in addition to the very few remains of the crumble, drowned in cold and deliciously thick leftover custard.


breakfast

Oh hey! I just got a message from Sandy…

“thankyou sooo much for coming up hun! We must do this again! I’m craving your apple crumble BIG time xoxo”

Rocking.

That is a ludicrous number of recipes to have made

I went out for lunch with my friend Paul today, who I hadn’t seen in about 6 months. He asked me how my cooking project was going. I replied that it was going well, and duly whipped out a copy of the Australian Gourmet Traveller article for him to have a look at. He was rather impressed, and said, “I can’t believe you’re in a magazine! That’s so cool! So, how far into the book are you?”

I replied, “Um… including the crème caramel I made this morning, I think 265”.

To this, Paul replied, “That is a ludicrous number of recipes to have made”.

Quite true.

BOLSTERING SATURDAY LUNCH FOR 6

265. Chicken Stew with Couscous
266. Coconut Crème Caramel

This menu comes from the Weekend Lunch chapter, and was our dinner tonight. Both of these dishes technically should be started a day in advance, but as I can attest, they don’t need to be. I started this morning by making the crème caramel. I’ve tried crème caramels before, all spectacular failures, but with 264 recipes behind me, it appears I’ve picked up the skills to knock off a crème caramel without too much fuss.

The caramel part is just sugar and water, which you let boil (without stirring), until a deep colour. Then you pour it (carefully!) into the baking dish, which has been preheating in the oven, and tilt it around to coat the base and sides. By warming the dish beforehand, the caramel doesn’t come into contact with a cold surface and solidify on impact.


Caramel

I should note that I had no appropriately sized dish which would be suitable for unmoulding, so I resorted to my much-loved 250ml ramekins again.


caramel-lined ramekins

Then you let the caramel harden while you get on with the custard part. The custard is egg yolks, eggs and sugar, beaten together, with warmed coconut milk whisked in. Once that’s all mixed up, you strain it into the dishes and bake them in a water bath at 160C. After 20 minutes of them being in the oven, I had to leave for my aforementioned lunch with Paul, but they hadn’t cooked through yet. I asked my mum to keep an eye on them, and to remove them when they seemed ready. I was afraid she might have forgotten about it, but when I came home 4 hours later, she’d taken the caramels out of the oven, perfectly cooked, and they were sitting safely on the bench. Phew!


Baked

I started on the stew after I got home. For this, you’re meant to soak dried chickpeas and cook them yourself, but Nigella does say you can used tinned. Which I did. Although this chicken stew is suggested as an alternative to the root vegetable couscous , it has more in common with the chicken and chickpea tagine of Cooking in Advance. It is a bit easier to make, however. For this one, all you have to do is brown some sliced onions in oil and spices, add chicken pieces, cover with water, and then add vegetables and harissa, and let simmer for 1 and a half hours. Serve it with steamed couscous (steamed over the pot in which the stew is bubbling) and you're done. Boom boom.


Stew

I did enjoy this, although I have to say it was different from what I expected. I thought it would be a thick and hearty chicken stew, but it was more like a clear broth. It was tasty, but I definitely preferred the other chicken tagine and the root vegetable couscous.

Now, I have to admit, another reason why I chose the individual ramekins for the dessert was because I thought small ones would be much easier to unmould than a large plonker. And luckily, these ones came out quite easily.


brighter!


3 pots… Mmm, sugar!

It was nice! Crème caramel is my dad’s favourite dessert, so I thought he might get weirded out by the coconut flavour, but it was very, very subtle. Undetectable even. I thought that adding a splash of Malibu to the batter, or some toasted coconut flakes as garnish would help this… and can you imagine? It sounds like something you’d get at an upmarket Malaysian restaurant. A Malibu-infused coconut crème caramel, decorated with shavings of toasted coconut, served with a confit of rambutans and pineapples. I was pondering all this out loud as we ate, only to be dragged down to earth by my father. “No! This tastes good like this! I like it smooth! No toasted coconut!”

Ok then!

Sexiest Dessert Ever

I sincerely believe that the dessert we ate tonight lives up to that title. But before I get onto the dessert, you will notice that (this meal included), I have had 3 puddings in less than 24 hours. Ew! But for the greater good (i.e. getting through as many recipes as quickly as possible), I persevere. And for dinner tonight, I managed to choose a relatively non-stodgy dessert.

264. Baked Sauternes Custard (Weekend Lunch)

This one's pretty much the same as the sauternes ice-cream, with slightly different egg-sugar-cream-wine ratios. You heat up (in separate pans) cream and sauternes, and then whisk them successively into an egg-and-sugar mixture, before baking in a waterbath. Nigella says that you shouldn't bake it too firm - it should be "soft and voluptuous, like an eighteenth-century courtesan's inner thigh". I halved quantities and cooking time, but the custard still set slightly too firm, more like a pneumatically-breasted 21st century porn starlet than a courtesan of days gone by. Oh well, it still tasted good to me.


baked sauternes custard

While the custard was cooling, I poached some white peaches in sauternes syrup leftover from the last time I poached peaches. Then I cooked dinner while they were both cooling.

About tonight's choice for dinner - all the fat-and-meat-loaded meals that Nigella seems to adore have left me feeling, well, fat-and-meat-loaded too. Right this second, I don't think I could face another roast, meatball, or sausage.

But today, I remembered those magical words at the end of the Weekend Lunch chapter...

"Of course I don't expect anyone to eat this sort of food every Sunday without fail - no one's telling you can't have pasta, for God's sake"

It's not that I feel I need Nigella's permission to deviate from meat every now and then; this quote was more a useful reminder of the options available.

But I realised, as I flicked through How to Eat, that I have indeed already made all the pasta recipes! So I created my own, based on my desire for something summery and vegetarian, and on the fact that we had a huge bunch of basil and 5 zucchinis at home.

I cooked up some penne, and sautéed up the sliced zucchinis in olive oil, then tossed them together, adding torn basil leaves, parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts and ricotta cheese. (Kind of like a souped up version of pasta with unpestoed pesto). It needed quite a bit of salt, but was very satisfying and tasty.


pasta eaten al fresco

And continuing on the light and fresh theme...


poached peaches and baked sauternes custard

I absolutely adored the dessert! Not only did it look beautiful, the pink-blushed peach halves glistening in syrup against the sombre yellow of the custard, but it tasted wonderful too. The peaches I used were much larger than those from last time, so they were a bit firmer than expected, but not unpleasantly so. The custard was fragrant with sauternes and seductively smooth.

Speaking of which, this, dear readers, is the dessert you must make for your beloved if you are planning a seduction dinner. (In smaller quantities, in candlelight, and without your parents sitting at the table, to be sure). There is absolutely nothing unsexy about this dish. And any potential lover who doesn't fall for your charms after eating this, doesn't deserve your loving at all.

Lemon Curd II

***Don't forget to post any questions you may have for me regarding the project here***

This morning I decanted my lemon curd into jars. Nigella was right, the whole mixture only filled two jars (even though I thought it looked like a much vaster quantity in the bowl).



And for breakfast, I had some lemon curd spread thickly on fresh crusty sourdough bread. (Which I mentioned here in response to my friend, la guapa Frances).

Brilliant.

Lemon Curd

***Don't forget to post any questions you may have for me regarding the project here***

Today’s shift at work involved running around after 350 screaming children who were in for a party for some kid’s club. They came in to see a special screening of Chicken Little. They were pepped up on coke and popcorn and chocolate, and most of them were in chicken outfits. Getting them into the cinema was difficult enough, but getting them out and getting the cinema clean was a nightmare. We had to clean up all their feathers, food scraps, spilled drinks, and other disgusting liquids. It was insane, and I was buggered. I came home around 7:30pm, to find all members of my family out.

So do you know what I ate for dinner? I’m ashamed to admit it (Mark practically disowned me when I told him), but I was too tired to think of anything, and I had… a Lean Cuisine and a corona beer. Shh!

The point of that story is not to incite pity, but simply to illustrate that, sometimes, even the most die-hard wannabe domestic goddesses need a bit of time out.

My time out lasted for about 2 hours, and then I got straight back into it.

I started by making part of the dessert for tomorrow’s lunch (check back tomorrow to find out what it is), and then made some lemon curd.

256. Lemon Curd (Basics etc.)

Lemon curd is similar to the Seville orange curd I made to fill a Seville Orange Curd Tart a while back. It’s not too difficult.

You put lemon zest, juice, butter, sugar, whole eggs and egg yolks in a heavy based pan, and stir over low heat until thickened. (Much like custard).

The recipe calls for 8 eggs and 4 lemons…


detritus

In the recipe, Nigella writes that the curd has a possibility of curdling and splitting (again, much like custard). This freaked me out so much (remember my custard problem?) that I was extremely timorous, and took it off the heat as soon as it started to thicken.


Gloopy

I left the kitchen, and went back to MSN chatting with DG. Upon telling her about my curd, she told me to stop being such a wuss and put it back on the heat until it was proper curd. I was still unsure, so I went back to the kitchen, and re-heated a half at a time. This way, if it curdled, I’d still have half the mixture to work with, and it wouldn’t all be ruined.

Anyway, she was right. It thickened easily and didn’t curdle at all.


half thick half thin

Then I finished cooking the remaining curd. Easy peasy.


Big bowl of sunny lemon

FYI, lemon curd tastes great on water crackers.

I’m going to let it cool down before putting them into dishwasher-cleaned jars.

DINNER PARTY

Now this really is the “look at me I’m so fabulous post”. Excuse me while I wallow in my own crapulence. During my exams, (which I passed!), I took a break from cooking and blogging. To this entry, the lovely Ilana posted a wonderful comment of encouragement…

awww, sarah, i'm going to miss your posts... but school comes first, girlie! best of luck and you will do GREAT!!!!!! don't worry about catching up; you are a trooper and you could knock off six recipes in one dinner party!
ilana xoxo

I wouldn’t say I did “GREAT” in my exams, but she was right about the dinner party. Last night, I did SEVEN recipes. On reflection, I actually have no idea how I pulled it off, but somehow it all came together. I suppose some things just work out better when you don’t think about them too much.

When I got my roster for work last week, I noticed that I was working seven nights straight! Like, hello? I mean, yay for pay but what how bad would this be for my recipe count? But wait, on closer inspection, I noticed that I was working on Saturday during the day, not at night. Could I perhaps arrange a dinner party for that night? It was tenuous; Saturday’s a busy night, but there was a chance…

I emailed my friends Georgina, Mark and Tim, on Tuesday, inviting them for dinner at my place on Saturday. George told me yes Wednesday, and Mark and Tim told me the same on Thursday. Yay! I’ve wanted to cook for Mark ever since his birthday in September, and I knew the perfect menu.

SUMMER DINNER, WITH WINTER POSSIBILITIES, FOR 6

196. Chicken Liver Crostini
197. Grilled Pepper Salad
198. Marinated, Butterflied Leg of Lamb
199. Garlic Potatoes
200. Watercress & Raw Mushroom Salad
201. Poached Peaches
202. Sauternes Custard

I slightly scaled down quantities for 5 of us (Me, Mark, Tim, George and Mum).

Mark messaged me the day before, asking me what wine he should bring. This was very exciting, a serious dinner party guest! Most friends my age don't even think about wine or dinner party guest ettiquette. They usually just rock up, sometimes with nothing in hand, somtimes with flowers (good move) or chocolates (bad move - it ruins my menu!). Once, one of my friends asked me if I "would be requiring assistance in the kitchen". HRMPH. Needless to say, she hasn't been invited over again. "Requiring assistance", my ass.

But about the wine, I just said "well, it's lamb, so I'd guess red... but in the recipe book they suggest a rich white burgundy or Californian chardonnay.... your call". I'm not really fussy about wine, and actually, this was the first time I even noticed John Armit's Wine Recommendations which accompany each Dinner menu. I'll pay closer attention next time.

So, dinner was scheduled for 8pm on Saturday night, and I was working Friday 5:30 – 10:00pm, and Saturday 9:00 am – 6:00pm. One advantage of this menu was that most things could be done in advance, and everything else could be done on the night itself.

Friday:

After lunch on Friday I made the sauternes ice-cream, which is a runny custard that you can make in the oven (i.e. no stirring on the hob, and less fear of curdling!) Dammit, I wish I'd discovered this back when I couldn't make custard. Because now that I have the ability and confidence to make custard on the stove (as normal), this whole oven thing seems like a bit of a palaver. You warm the cream and sauternes in separate pots, and then whisk them into eggs and sugar. However, at this point, rather than stirring the mixture over a low heat until it thickens, you put it into a bain marie, cover it with foil, and bake it for 1.25 hours. The whole foil-water-dish fandango seems a bit complicated compared to 15 minutes of unenergetic stirring. But, if you are afraid of custards, or have a tendency to curdle them, like I used to, then this method is definitely the way forward.

Whilst the custard was in the oven, I walked up to Rendinas Butchery and bought the lamb leg, which I got the butcher to bone and butterfly. I can't tell whether the butcher likes me or hates me. One one hand, I spend a shitload of money there. On the other hand, I'm always buying weird cuts of meat (lamb neck, lamb shoulder, beef flank, un-minced topside) and asking them questions and making them do things to the meat. Stuff like, "Look, can you bone and cube the lamb shoulder? What's your sausage skin made of? Do you have any bacon with MORE fat on it? Can you score the pork rind, then cut the fat and rind off in one piece and drape it back over the meat?". This time, I asked for "a small lamb leg, and could you please bone it and flatten it out?" He looked at me funny and asked me if I wanted the fat removed from it. Sarky bugger.

Anyway, I brought it home, marinaded it as per the recipe - olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, rosemary and peppercorns - and shunted it in the fridge.

And shortly after it was time for the custard to come out!


Baked runny custard

The ironic thing is, even though this method is supposed to alleviate the fear of splitting and curdling, when I took the thing out of the oven and poured it into a fresh bowl to cool, it had started to split and curdle anyway! This was alleviated by plunging the bowl into a larger bowl of iced water and whisking furiously. Phew, crisis averted.


Custard - cooking it in the oven meant it got thicker than I'd ever dare let it do on the stove. However, because of the fact that it almost curdled, it ended up slightly grainy. At this point, I put it in the fridge to cool completely, and put it in the ice-cream maker when I got home from work on Friday night.

I delegated the task of roasting the peppers to my mum, and marinaded them myself when I got home.


Saturday:

I awoke at the ungodly hour of 7:00am, so that I could get to work in the city by 9:00am. The city is practically deserted at this time - all the normal people of the world are at home, in their nice, comfy beds. Anyway, there weren't very many customers, so my manager said I could leave early - instead of staying until 6:00pm, I left at 3:30. SWEET. This meant I had time to make crostini! I'd defrosted the livers the night before and bought a baguette just in case, but if I hadn't finished work early, I wouldn't have had time to make them.

I sliced up and toasted the baguette, and then worked on the topping...

I chopped up the chicken livers, and cooked them with onion, celery, garlic, parsley, tomato ketchup (I'd run out of tomato purée, and had to improvise, but don't tell anyone!), then whizzed them up in a processor, and cooked the mixture in butter with anchovies and capers.


Raw chicken liver - now, I'm not one to be squeamish or precious, but these were pretty bloody gross.

In the meantime, I chopped up the potatoes, tossed them in the marinade that the lamb had been sitting in, chucked them in the oven, and lighted the barbecue for the lamb. You can cook the lamb in the oven if you want, but let's not forget that it is summer, and I am Aussie Sarah, mate. I then assembled the roasted pepper salad and sprinkled it with parsley. (And I should mention that whilst I was cooking, my mum, the doll that she is, cleared up the kitchen and made it presentable for company. This is no mean feat, considering what a grub I am).

Then I assembled the crostini, and just as I was finishing them off, Georgina arrived!


Crostini - soon-to-be-poached peaches in background

She was shortly followed by Mark, with whom came something quite lovely - the wine! Oh yeah, and some bloke named Tim. Hehe. The wine was a delicious Evelyn County Estate "Tierra Negra" 2004 Tempranillo.

Mark: Oh my god, you MADE paté?!

The crostini, despite my fears of gross-out factor, went down very well.

I chucked the lamb on the barbecue outside, and got Mark to chop up the mushrooms for the watercress and mushroom salad. I actually substituted rocket for watercress, because they both taste peppery, and only rocket is available in ready-washed supermarket packets. All it is is the salad leaves with mushrooms, tossed through a dressing. Nigella says you can use the marinade from the lamb, but the idea of eating the oil that raw meat had been sitting in turned me off, frankly. So, I just used oil and lemon.


Mark & I

The lamb was taking longer than expected, so I poached the peaches too - in a mixture of sugar, water and sauternes. I found these cute, cute little mini peaches, which I thought would be perfect, and only needed a bare couple of minutes poaching. You have to let them cool before peeling them, so I decanted them into a bowl...


Poached peaches

... and finally it was time to eat! I brought the lamb in off the barbecue to a round of appreciative oohs and aaahs from my patient friends.


MEAT


Dinner - with a chux cloth to catch delicious drips


MEAT sliced

Me: Oh, I hope these potatoes aren't too hard.
Mark: No! You know chips, the dark, crunchy hard ones are the best! This is like a WHOLE BOWL of them.


George


Mark & Tim

Dinner was so awesome! And by "dinner" I mean the company and the atmosphere, not just the food. You know how sometimes, just preparing the meal is so draining that you have no energy left to talk to your friends? This totally did not happen tonight! It was just very relaxed, with good atmosphere and great conversation. (For some reason, we started talking, in great detail, about mosquitos and other bodily parasites, which was hilarious... and luckily no-one got turned off the food!)

After we finished eating, I got up and peeled the peaches, whose skins slipped away easily, revealing the gorgeously toned pink and white flesh beneath.


peeling peaches

To finish them off, you boil down a ladleful of the syrup until thick and sticky, and pour it over the peaches. I couldn't believe how beautiful they were, just like a stained-glass window.


Peaches


Peaches and sauternes ice-cream

I just loved how lovely and perfect they looked! With their blushing pink colour and peach shape, I thought they looked just like the mythical peaches that Monkey Magic ate in heaven to give him immortality. And the combo of peaches and ice-cream was just wonderful.

After dinner we came into the loungeroom to watch some Futurama (why is it that all the best dinners/lunches end with us watching Futurama?) before calling it a night.

And what a great night it was! It was so awesome just to relax after 6 hard days of work with good food and in good company. I dare say this is the best menu out of How to Eat that I've made so far. All the elements just complement each other so well - the peppery rocket, the sweet and soft capsicums, the crunchy potatoes, the juicy lamb - and it wasn't too heavy. For once, I wasn't left in an uncomfortable "topor of post-prandial bloat"! Furthermore, this menu is perfect for the hot weather, and it's deceptively simple to put together!

Nigella, you rock!