Showing posts with label ciabatta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ciabatta. Show all posts

23 Jun 2013

Tapas Bruschetta, Golden Grilled Sardines

Meal 54 - June 23rd - Tapas Bruschetta, Golden Grilled Sardines

Here in England, we play a game called cricket. Basically, the bowler hurls the ball toward the batter who tries to play away a fine leg. He endeavours to score by dashing between the creases, provided the wicket keeper hasn’t whipped his bails off. Games can last for up to 5 days, so the players break for tea in the mid afternoon, during which they traditionally eat cucumber sandwiches. Today England are competing in a rare final (well they will be if the bloody rain stops!) and so what better occasion to break out this very summery looking DIY type open sandwich thingy? There may not be any cucumber involved but the picnicy element is very cricket friendly.

25 Feb 2013

Mushroom Soup, stilton, apple and walnut croutes

Meal 20 - Feb 24th - Mushroom Soup, stilton, apple and walnut croutes

With poor Lolz feeling under the weather I agreed to make her a Sunday afternoon soup. We weren't able to make our minds up on which one though so Lolz rigged up a basic lottery system involving a hat and three bits of paper with "tomato", "mushroom" and "squash" written on them. And rigged is probably the operative word as, surprise surprise, I picked the dreaded mushroom option. My demand for a recount was ignored, and, with some loud and suggestive coughing on Lolz's part, I was "encouraged" into the kitchen to begin making our lunch.

My problem with mushrooms is not just the taste - they actually offend pretty much all my senses. I can't stand the smell. They look weird. They even feel like they are alive, like a creature that you would expect to find under a rock. Basically wrong on all kind of levels. I was glad to finally get them in the pan and get them cooked. Alongside the soup we made some "croutes" and in doing so established, several times, that our smoke detector was working well. Fortunately, no major damage was done and with the soup successfully handblended, we plated up.

In an attempt to keep calories under control, the recipe uses basmati rice instead of cream. It kind of works, but maybe at the expense of a bit of richness. It was also quite delicate on the mushroom flavour - for me this was great, but mushroom fans may prefer something a bit more powerful. The croutes were really good - mushrooms are obviously not to my tastes, but apple, walnut and stilton is a classic combination which go really nicely with the lightly charred, garlicky ciabatta.

Lolz gave the dish 8/10. She moaned that the soup was underseasoned and wasn't keen on the walnuts or apples. Difficulty rating 2/10 - extremely straightforward.






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