Hot and sticky roast quail

Woah, these little fellas packed a punch! I'm low on taste buds today as I have a cold and so this is exactly what was required to make me happy. Quail is hard to find round here - my local butcher offered me teal as an alternative but I really did want to stay faithful to the recipe until all my options had been exhausted. Found the little beauties in Sainsbury's Salford - aforementioned due to lack of macaroni, which really did make me think are the people of Salford really filling up on quail rather than pasta? I would make this spice mixture again possibly for a whole roast chicken as it did hit the spot. I'm going to confidently say I've never had quail before but I wouldn't rule it out in future as it was tasty, if a bit fiddly to eat.

Coffee and walnut cake

A perfect day to make a cake as its cold and wet outside. It's quite a large, rich cake and the coffee flavour isn't overpowering. However, Nigel has spoiled me for cake making now as I don't think I'm going to like any cake as much as the frosted marmalade cake from the other week.

Stilton, onion and potato pie

Comfort food of the highest order is how Nigel begins the description of the recipe and he's not wrong - this was so moreish that although I made enough to serve 3 people I could easily have eaten it all. The Stilton flavour is surprisingly subtle with the sweetness of the onions contrasting beautifully. Served with the aforementioned red cabbage.

Cabbage with orange and juniper

Tonight I have galloped ahead to Christmas Day mainly because my friend Michelle has presented me with a wonderful looking red cabbage from her allotment. I was incredibly sceptical about this recipe prior to making it for a couple of reasons: one being that I already have a favourite red cabbage recipe and the second that this one isn't slow cooked - in fact it is positively fast cooked! However, put your trust in Nigel and he will deliver is my new mantra and man, this cabbage is good!

Lemon ice-cream tart with gingernut crust

And to follow, this delight! I have again jumped ahead, to the 12th December this time. I love this type of thing. It wasn't cloyingly sweet but the topping was just perfect with the base and you could pick out the lemon and orange zest flavours. We had this with a dessert wine.

Mushroom lasagne with basil and cream

There were 5 of us for dinner last night, 3 of whom were non meat eaters, so this totally fitted the bill. There was nothing difficult about this meal, but it did take over 2 hours from start to finish to make so if I did make it again (it was delicious) it would have to be a weekend offering rather than after a working day. We had it with the walnut and Roquefort salad that I made in October and it went with that really well. It didn't look as perfect as Nigel's did though but who cares?

Slow cooked duck with star anise and ginger

I went a bit off piste with this one in that I did it in the slow cooker for 8 hours rather than 1 hour 15 mins in the oven - part experiment, part convenience. I'm not sure Nigel wanted it this way as it was definitely falling off the bone after so long in the slow cooker which he doesn't want in the original recipe but I've got to say Nigel - most of us love falling off the boneness! It was just what I needed after a few post work pints, followed by some of that lovely cake from the other night. Photo doesn't do it justice by the way.

A frosted marmalade cake

Eagle eyed/pedantic/devoted Nigel Slater fans will know that I have jumped ahead to January to make this cake - 7th January to be precise. There are 2 good reasons for this: 1. In the book Nigel is in New York between 10th and 19th November and I wanted to make something to take to a friend's house later for after our meal. 2. I'm going to be on holiday (Vietnam for the curious) between 27th December and 18th January and don't want to get massively behind with this project so am going to try and slip January dishes in in November and December where possible, and maybe get a little ahead in the coming fortnight too.

Anyway, wow on this cake! I would go as far as to say that this is the best cake I've ever made! It was so moist and you could really pick out the orange flavours. My friend loved it too and said it was perfectly spongey and delicious. The icing was also lovely with just the right amount of sweetness.

Blackberry and apple pie

Baking is normally the thing I'm really good at, so I'm not sure what went wrong today. Don't get me wrong, the pastry tasted really nice and the filling was fine, but this is definitely the ugliest pie I've ever made. Basically, my pastry wouldn't roll - it just kept breaking up so in the end I had to assemble it, jigsaw fashion, in little pieces. Not ideal! I would definitely have been kicked off the Great British Bake Off with this effort. Ah well, you win some etc.

Pumpkin and tomato laksa

This is one of those classic Nigel dishes which look completely unappealing for 28 minutes cooking time but then comes together in the last 2! I even thought to myself as I was eating it that it looked nothing like the photo in the book and then turned the page to find that it looked exactly like the photo in the book. It was really nice but could have been just a little spicier for my taste.

A crisp salad for a cold day

Using yesterday's chicken this was a really good lunch - I used spinach to Nigel's mixed salad leaves and grated my carrot rather than cutting into matchsticks, mainly because the only way I can handle raw carrot is by hiding it in grated form.

A fantastic Sunday dinner

Today I've put together two separate days from the book and omg what a combination. So, we had 'roast chicken with cheese mash and garlic gravy' and 'baked onions with Parmesan and cream'. The onions were kind of an onion dauphinois and in my opinion a million times better than their potato counterpart. This will become a regular dish for me particularly with a roast piece of meat and not much else. Fantastic dinner! (Gravy not pictured, but was made)

Raspberry ricotta pancakes

Sunday brunch. These were insanely good! I think I've eaten too many though!

Poached pears with ice-cream and chocolate sauce

Plus the worst food photo I've ever taken! The pears were not as enormous as they look. Last night there were four of us for dinner (main course was made by my daughter - cuban black beans with pulled pork) and we had this for pudding. This is a good dinner party pud and was filling but when I make this next I'll use milk chocolate instead of dark for the sauce as it was jut that little bit too bitter for my taste.

Pan-fried sausages with cream and mustard mash

Broke my no repeat rule again tonight as I really fancied bangers and mash and this was much nicer than I remembered. Mind you my sausages were outstanding today - pork and leek from my local posh butcher - just look at the size of them!

I have now completed October - yay! Highlights for me have been the two fish dishes which were wonderful.