Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy St Paddy's

To celebrate our favourite Irish holiday, we devised a three course dinner menu that would tempt any leprechaun (or Englishman, as it were). We knew immediately that the main would be steak and Guinness pie but had trouble agreeing the starter and dessert, so we each took one and devised our secret recipes. Adam got the starter and made an amazing chowder with potatoes, leeks, salmon, and a few other bits when I wasn't looking. For dessert, I decided to create a chocolate Guinness lava cake with whiskey-infused cream. As we were buying the ingredients, we voted that we didn't actually need the pie given how filling the other two dishes were (and the Guinness we were drinking was a meal in itself!)

The chowder starter/main turned out amazing thanks to the smoky flavour of the salmon. The chocolate cake was a bit of an adventure...i don't think I added enough flour to compensate for the extra liquid so the dessert was about 70% lava and 40% cake! Coupled with the fact that I baked it in muffin cups vs ramekins, we had to eat it straight out of the baking dish. Luckily this wasn't a problem but note to self for next time. I would definitely eat both of these dishes again!


Friday, March 16, 2012

Edgar Allan Poe in London

Friday night at my house usually involves some sort of pizza making. More often than not, we revert to the traditional toppings which is everything but the kitchen sink. However, this week, I was craving something special. A quick Google check confirmed the ingredients, Adam whipped up the dough, and not long after, we had our very own Edgar Allan Poe pizza. The olives weren't kalamata and fontina cheese doesn't exist at Tesco, but I think we got pretty darn close. It was the perfect blend of salty (olive oil and plain olives) and sweet (roasted garlic and tomatoes). Needless to say, I ate too much. Will need to run it off in the am...