728. Baked Apple

I thought that I would try out making baked apples as a healthy weekend breakfast. I followed a recipe, cored the apple, stuffed it with raisins and pecans and a little brown sugar and then put it in the oven. I go to check on it when it hasn’t even been in the oven for the full time and it had exploded and I just had this dish full of gooey, fruity mess. I won’t be using that recipe again. Luckily it tasted much better than it looked.

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727. Coddled Eggs

This was my second attempt at making coddled eggs. On my first attempt I followed directions from wikipedia (admittedly that was probably a stupid idea). I put the eggs in a bowl, poured boiling water over them and left them for ten minutes.I ended up with slightly warm raw eggs. Not quite what I was going for. So I tried again, this time putting the eggs in a pan, pouring boiling water over them and keeping it on a very low heat on stove, just enough so that the water stayed hot. That time I ended up with these, which I’m sure you’ll agree is much better. The result was like a very lightly poached egg (I think that poached eggs are technically a specific type of coddled egg in fact).

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726. Crostini

This was yet another thing I ate on my birthday weekend; I had it at the bar where I had the pilsner. I wasnt too hungry so I thought by ordering a starter I would have a smaller portion. I was wrong because this was huge, but it was delicious so I ate most of it anyway. I loved that you got 4 different toppings - tomato bruschetta, goats cheese, parma ham, and smoked salmon and cream cheese; and it was all topped off with rocket and pesto and parmesan. The bread itself was rubbed with garlic and olive oil and was perfectly crunchy. Basically everything about it was really good. Yum.

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725.Mititei

Ages ago I was watching The Hairy Bikers, back when they had their original first series where they travelled around Europe on their bikes and cooked food from all the different countries, rather than now where they have 47 different shows and don’t ride motorbikes in any of them. They were in Hungary and they made these little meaty, sausagey, pattie type things called mititei and they looked pretty delicious and I wanted to try them and then I forgot all about it. Fastforward a few years and I realised they were on the list, so I searched out their recipe and gave them a go for dinner. The only difference I made was using all pork rather than half pork and half beef. They were really nice - just subtly spicy and juicy, a little like a burger without a bun. I served them with some mustard mayonnaise to dunk them in.

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724. Endive

On the side of my plate there is some mixed green salad which included endive. It tasted like salad. That’s basically all I have to say about it. I’m not really sure why some of these leaves are really even on the list. Ok, endive is a semi-decent salad vegetable, but a food you have to try before you die? Not even close.

The meal on the other hand was pretty damn good. I had some assorted leftovers of ground turkey and potato and veggies and I threw them all together and made a kind of shepherd’s pie type thing but with sliced potatoes not mash, and with baked beans in it. It’s suddenly reminded me of this meal my mum used to make me as a kid with beans and hotdogs and cubed potatoes. Damn that was good. I should find the recipe.

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723. Quiche Lorraine

Little story for you. When I was in high school, one day we had to make a quiche. It wasn’t a quiche lorraine, it was a vegetable quiche of some sort. I got all the bits ready, put all the ingredients in the pastry case and put it in the oven. Some time later I realised I had forgotten to add the cheese and my quiche was just a bland eggy, vegetably mess. Long story short it tasted like crap and I haven’t made a quiche since. I probably should though, as ditzy as I can be I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t make the same stupid mistake again. I think.

Anyway, this quiche was therefore bought from the store. I got the ‘finest’ type range as standard supermarket brand quiche is usually rubbish. This was not rubbish; it was tasty and crispy, and they had not forgotten the cheese.

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720. Greek Monastery Olive Oil, 721. Greek Oregano and 722. Kourabiedes

You remember how I went to Athens in July last year? Well it’s taken me until now to realise that I completely forgot to post the picture of the various food goodies I brought home with me. D’oh. Also, forgive the weird creased background. I’d bought one of those fabric boxes you use to take product shots, and totally ignored the advice to iron the cloth before you take any pictures. Double d’oh.

The olive oil and oregano have been put to good use in all kinds of general cooking, and the kourabiedes just got eaten because they’re biscuits and biscuits don’t tend to stick around that long in my house. They’re a crumbly sort of biscuit, with almonds, and they’re covered in powdered sugar so you have to be careful or else you end up in a giant mess.

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719. Hunza Apricots

Hunza apricots are a specific variety of apricot grown in Afghanistan and dried. They’re smaller and paler than regular dried apricots, and they come fully dried so you have to soak them in water for a couple of hours before you can use them. They’re recommended as being good for using in tagines and stews, but on this occasion I decided to make a compote out of them to eat for breakfast.

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717. Kabanos

In the past few years British supermarkets have started stocking a lot more authentic Polish foods as a result of Polish people emigrating here. I have no complaints about this as all the foods I’ve tried so far have been great quality and good value too and it’s awesome to have all the new choices. Kabanos are great for lunch as you can just chop them up into chunks, put them in a sandwich or a salad, dip them in stuff, or just snack on them by themself.

718. Smetana

On this occasion, I dunked them into a tzatziki-like dip I made, along with some cucumber and celery. For the dip I used a ready-made tzatziki seasoning I got in Greece (which I think is mostly garlic powder and dried mint), and mixed in into smetana. Smetana is an Eastern European version of sour cream but I found that it was slightly more creamy and slightly less sour than regular sour cream which made it perfect for the dip.

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