April is complete

And early!  The winner for me, just pipping the meringue, was the Cumberland sausage with cheddar mash - it was amazing.

Rosemary and honey bread for cheese

The bakery round the corner from where I live sold me 40g of fresh yeast for this recipe for a grand total of 8 pence!  I've never used fresh yeast before so was a little apprehensive but obviously needn't have worried.  This bread is lovely - a nice colour, a crisp salty crust and an all round lovely flavour. It's ridiculously easy to make too - what's not to like?

Prune, apricot and chorizo stew

In normal circumstances this would be a dish I'd steer well clear of - normal circumstances being not making myself slavishly follow one man's book - mainly due to it having dried apricots and prunes, which I don't use in everyday cooking.  As this was going in the oven it didn't look at all promising and even coming out I wasn't sure.  But this is one of those dishes where pure magic has happened in the pan over a 45 minute period and every mouthful was a joy to be savoured and even celebrated. So I am going to celebrate it - it's a triumph and will join my repertoire on a regular basis. Eagle eyed readers will see that I've skipped ahead to May tonight, 

Meringues with lime curd and pistachios

I've been looking forward to making this all month and it didn't disappoint. I've never made curd before (I know!) and opinions were mixed on this one in the house tonight - it was pretty sharp in taste but that was fine if you had enough meringue.  My other half however had more positive things to say about this than he generally says about any of my other triumphs.

'Nduja bruschetta

An easy one to start the day and one that appeals to both me and the fussy daughter.  We're both big fans of goats cheese and it does work perfectly here with the underlying spice hit of the 'nduja.   No olives on ours though as I'm allergic (And I used walnut oil instead of olive oil).

Roast chicken,lime and mint

Regular readers will know that I'm not a fan of a salad, so I wasn't particularly looking forward to tonight's offering.  From the first mouthful though I was sold on this.  It reminded me of the tastes of Vietnam - I think it was the mint, lime and fish sauce combo that is absolutely beautiful, the cucumber flavour bringing a lovely freshness cutting through the fish sauce.  I really enjoyed this. For the record I swapped spinach leaves for Nigel's watercress as spinach is and always will be my green leaf of choice.

Salmon with mint and citrus salt

And here's one I made earlier - 24 hours earlier to be precise.  I wouldn't have imagined that leaving fish sitting in a citrus salt mixture would so dramatically change the texture as well as the taste and that I would actually want to eat the result but tis true, I do.  I had this as a tapa starter to my evening meal tonight and will have this again with little toasts tomorrow.  

Coffee mousse

I made this with very little positive expectation as I'm not a lover of coffee flavoured things.  Rather than a dusting of cocoa powder I adorned mine with chocolate and honeycomb bites, which really worked.  There were four of us tasting tonight and all agreed (and this is a good thing) that it tasted like Angel Delight).  The coffee taste was very subtle.  I'd definitely make this again - it'd be a fantastic dinner party dessert due to its make ahead nature.

Lamb chops with cider and apricots

Ooh this was good - I particularly liked the apricots sweetly coming through and complimenting the lamb.  I love lamb chops but rarely eat them due to the extreme fussiness of my nearest and dearest but sometimes you just have to please yourself don't you?  Not the best of pictures, but hey ho.

Roast lamb sandwiches with crushed peas and wasabi

I'm not a horseradish lover and have always found the flavour of wasabi too overpowering.  However, in the spirit of completeness I had to make this but I cut the quantity right down from a tablespoon to about half a teaspoon and this was about right for me.  He was a hint of wasabi and that's enough.  This is one of the most substantial sandwiches I've ever made - it took about 5 minutes to make but 40 minutes to eat.  

Roast shoulder of lamb with young greens

Sometimes I love a take away on a Friday and other times (e.g tonight) I love to come home and relax by cooking for a couple of hours.  This is one of the easiest meals to make in this book and whilst I am a huge lamb lover it isn't just bias telling you that this is amazing.  It is just amazing - beautifully flavoured meat with beautiful and simply cooked greens. Winner winner lamb dinner!

Cumberland sausage, shallot and cheddar roast potato mash

Oh, I could eat this all day long.  It's so far up mine and the fussy daughter's strasse that we're walking back down it again.  Magnificent.  Daughter was worried that we'd need a sauce with the mash but the cheese elevated it to another level.  This will go high up on the make again list. 

Warm rabbit and watercress salad

I've been dreading making this for a while as I've never cooked rabbit before and think I've only eaten it maybe once.  My fussy daughter said not to make it for her as she doesn't like rabbit but said her boyfriend was looking forward to trying it.  I gave them a plateful with 2 forks and she not only tried it but had more than one forkful.  The dressing was beautiful and really made this salad into an exceptional light lunch.  I don't think I would have ever mistaken the rabbit for chicken as Nigel suggested as I feel it had a lightly gamier flavour than chicken but I'm no longer scared of cooking with it which is a bonus.  I have used the remainder of the rabbit to try a slow cooked rabbit bolognese sauce so will have to see how that turns out.

Hot cross bun, toffee and banana pudding

I've skipped ahead of myself a week here, mainly because I've been drooling over the idea of this pudding since the book came out in September.  This was everything I imagined it would be - a little decadent, very comforting and easy as easy can be to make.  

Chicken with soured cream and gherkins

I'm not sure what happened here but despite cooking my (huge) chicken leg for a good 10 minutes longer than Nigel suggests it still wasn't cooked through when I sat down to eat and had to go under the grill to finish off, meaning I mostly ate the sauce with my fried potatoes and Swiss chard.  But, oh the sauce was lovely.  As was the chicken when it was finally done.  I'll definitely make this again but if the fussy daughter is involved it'll be a chicken breast next time.