u/agmanning

It’s nice and sunny here so i threw together a quick classic to eat outside.

Started building the sauce with two cloves of garlic and some pepper flakes.

Cooked the Di Martino Linguine in salted water with a handful of semolina until just before al dente.

Transferred over to the sauce and finished cooking and thickening.
Added parsley, capers and lemon zest, plated and finished with a drizzle of Puglian olive oil.

Cheap and flavourful.
Served with a glass of Marsala, which was a bit sweet, but was offset by the dish.

Old faithful skirt steak marinated in thick balsamic vinegar and roasted on the BBQ.
I was really happy with the cook on it.
Served with some pistachio salsa verde/chimichurri.

On the side I served some french fries (not pictured), and some nice tomatoes in a mustard and shallot vinaigrette, with caper leaves from Paros, inspired by a dish at Manári Taverna in Athens.

Served with a Syrah/ Mourvèdre from Domaine de Chamans; Sir John Hegarty’s 15ha estate in Minervois. Crunchy red fruit and a spicy finish. Great by the glass Bistro wine, and an all day smasher.

Absolutely nil points for looks, but thankfully many points for flavour:
Last night I finished work at around midnight but was granted today off in lieu so I stayed up a little later to cook a more involved pasta dish than I might usually do.
It was inspired by a raft of pasta dishes I had in Sicily rather than being one set recipe.

Started with a shallot and garlic clove, and two anchovies.
Sweat those down before adding some tinned sardines and golden raisins and cooking on low whilst the pasta cooked.

Added capers, parsley and pinenuts at the end.

Finished with more parsley, some lemon zest and breadcrumbs.

This was super savoury and filling despite the pasta portion itself being smaller than I’d usually have.

Finished off a bottle of light red as didn’t want to open anything specific.

Tonight I made a take on Ragu inspired by a dish seen on Jim’s Table, an Instagram account.
We have lots of wild garlic butter in the freezer and the recipe called for finishing the sauce with wild garlic, and I dobbed some on top too. Jim’s recipe called for broad beans which would have been so much better than this, but it a bit early in the season so I used some Edamame from the freezer. The soy didn’t really add much except some texture and colour, but didn’t detract either.

All in all, a pretty delicious take on a familiar concept.

Served with a fruity Barbera from Northern Italy.

Tonight I made a take on Ragu inspired by a dish seen on Jim’s Table, an Instagram account.
We have lots of wild garlic butter in the freezer and the recipe called for finishing the sauce with wild garlic, so I dobbed some on top too. Jim’s recipe called for broad beans, but it a bit early in the season so I used some Edamame from the freezer.

All in all, a pretty delicious take on a familiar concept.

Served with a fruity Barbera from Northern Italy.

Tonight I made a take on Ragu inspired by a dish seen on Jim’s Table, an Instagram account.
We have lots of wild garlic butter in the freezer and the recipe called for finishing the sauce with wild garlic, so I dobbed some on top too. Jim’s recipe called for broad beans, but it a bit early in the season so I used some Edamame from the freezer.

All in all, a pretty delicious take on a familiar concept.

Served with a fruity Barbera from Northern Italy.

Cooked the duck overnight and finished under the grill.

The salad is oblique cuts of white chicory, with apple matchsticks, supremes of blood orange and shaved red cabbage, dressed in a Dijon vinaigrette.

The sauce is a peppercorn style sauce, but based on chicken stock with capers, and wild garlic and garlic capers.

Served with a natural Grenache Côtes du Rhône from the Ardeche.

Trying to bridge the gap between winter and spring with this one.

I was hoping it would be more sunny today, but having my own garden is lovely regardless: I don’t make lots or cocktails at home because all my spirits are in my shed, but I have been dying for a Mai Tai recently.

Because I come from a “craft cocktail” world, i always shake my Mai Tai, and serve it on block ice, despite having a drinks mixer. I reserve that and pebble ice for pretty much all other tiki drinks; however something about Simon Difford calling the Mai Tai “a Margarita with rum and almond” has always resonated with me, and being that block ice is how I like my Margs, that extends to the Mai Tai.

This is pretty much my go-to
mai tai spec now, splitting the run between an aged rum, and something more funky and molasses driven.

30ml Appleton 8

30ml Worthy Park 109

30ml Lime juice strained.

30ml “Mai Tai Liqueur” comprising of three parts Grand Marnier, two parts Orgeat, one part 2:1 unrefined sugar syrup, and a dash each of Angostura and Regan’s Orange Bitters per full 30ml serving

5 Drops 20% Saline.

Shake hard in cobbler shaker and pour over a large block.

Garnish with Mint, lime shell and orange, if available.

I was hoping it would be more sunny today, but having my own garden is lovely regardless: I don’t make lots or cocktails at home because all my spirits are in my shed, but I have been dying for a Mai Tai recently.

Because I come from a “craft cocktail” world, i always shake my Mai Tai, and serve it on block ice, despite having a drinks mixer. I reserve that and pebble ice for pretty much all other tiki drinks; however something about Simon Difford calling the Mai Tai “a Margarita with rum and almond” has always resonated with me, and being that block ice is how I like my Margs, that extends to the Mai Tai.

This is pretty much my go-to
mai tai spec now, splitting the run between an aged rum, and something more funky and molasses driven.

30ml Appleton 8

30ml Worthy Park 109

30ml Lime juice strained.

30ml “Mai Tai Liqueur” comprising of three parts Grand Marnier, two parts Orgeat, one part 2:1 unrefined sugar syrup, and a dash each of Angostura and Regan’s Orange Bitters per full 30ml serving

5 Drops 20% Saline.

Shake hard in cobbler shaker and pour over a large block.

Garnish with Mint, lime shell and orange, if available.

Not the most photogenic thing I’ve cooked, and the skin caught but overall it was tasty and filling.

Chicken roasted on its skin, rested in the oven that was warming the plates.

Potatoes boiled, and steamed with wild garlic butter and chives.

Asparagus was cooked off in all the chicken fat in the pan when the thighs were resting.

Served with some Vouvray as I love it with asparagus. .

This is a dish I like to make a version of every year.

Roasted off cherry tomatoes in a pan with decent olive oil and garlic and cooked it down until jammy.

Rolled out some egg yolk pasta dough that I’ve had in the freezer. Cut it on the Kitchen Aid because there is no way I’m cutting this by hand.

Brought it together with pasta water olive oil and dressed with some salsa verde that needs using up, and some torn mozzarella.

Any Pizza from a menu of 8 and a pint of any beer for £16, Monte Forte, England.

This is a small group of pizza restaurants headed by two young Brothers.

This was great, with nice dough and well flavoured toppings.

A Marg runs £12.50 there, so more premium offerings (this was with Buffalo Mozzarella) and a pint for £16 was a bargain.

This is a dish I like to make a version of every year.

Roasted off cherry tomatoes in a pan with decent olive oil and garlic and cooked it down until jammy.

Rolled out some egg yolk pasta dough that I’ve had in the freezer. Cut it on the Kitchen Aid because there is no way I’m cutting this by hand.

Brought it together with pasta water olive oil and dressed with some salsa verde that needs using up, and some torn mozzarella.

This is a dish I like to make a version of every year.

Roasted off cherry tomatoes in a pan with decent olive oil and garlic and cooked it down until jammy.

Rolled out some egg yolk pasta dough that I’ve had in the freezer. Cut it on the Kitchen Aid because there is no way I’m cutting this by hand.

Brought it together with pasta water olive oil and dressed with some salsa verde that needs using up, and some torn mozzarella.

My wife saw some short videos of people dumping caesars on breaded chicken and wanted to give it a go.

During the day I bashed out the chicken and seasoned it.
Coated in a mixture of panko and sourdough breadcrumbs.
Unfortunately you can see some of the toasty bits from the previous piece on mine, but it wasn’t too bad.

For the dressing I used Tom Kerridge’s recipe, but added more lemon as ours were small, and I felt it needed more acid.

Then it was just a simple case of bringing it together.

I grated some more 30 month Parmesan on top and added a few more anchovies because they were really nice ones.

Served with an Organic Picpoul from Beauvignac.

https://tomkerridge.com/recipes/caesar-salad-dressing/

Yesterday I posted a picture asking about something that was actually likely to be highly poisonous.

Thanks to the community here for pointing this out to me.

Today I nipped into work to pick up a parcel and I got a few known quantities.
I was able get a modest top up wild garlic (most of it has been cut back, unfortunately) and one of our Chefs was harvesting fig leaves to dry out and use the powder as a garnish, so I got some of those too.

The wild garlic will be used in cooking - I already have lots of compound butter frozen that I made with younger leaves - and the fig leaves will go in the “Summer Gin” that I’m distilling tonight.
I loved the idea of using “wild” botanicals, but it’s too much of a risk to really go off the beaten path and throwing all sorts of unknown things in the still.

Thanks everyone!

That’s the question really.
Theres lots of this growing near my house.
Is it edible or usable in drinks?

We were walking in the Sussex countryside and by the side of the road I spotted this very lime green looking oregano-like herb.
It’s got a lemony citrusy aroma.

I’m looking for botanicals for summer infusions but don’t want to kill myself.

What is it?

Cheers.

Tonight was a completely new one for me.

Roast my first skate on the bone in seasoned flour and finished in the oven.

Made a sauce of the roasting butter, with fresh butter, English Vermouth, a little cream, chicken stock, mussels, capers, samphire, parsley and lemon.

Honestly this was bloody amazing. It felt genuinely “restauranty” no doubt down to the copious amounts of butter used.

Served with a surprisingly excellent dry still Palomino from an estate near Cadiz. I thought the label was I keeping with the dish and for such a neutral grape, this held up amazingly well.

We had some sausages in the freezer.

Roasted them off in foaming butter and served in lentils and beans.

Started pancetta in a pan. Cooked until brown and reserved.

Added diced shallot and garlic, and cubed carrot.

Cooked until soft.

Deglazed with brandy.

Added lentils and chicken stock.

Cooked down with woody herbs.

Added some previously frozen beans at the end.

Finished with butter from the sausage pan, crème fraiche, and parsley.

Had a glass of the orange wine from earlier and it was a much better fit.