Borough market / Baked eggs italian style / Baked escargots with truffle butter

Was dragged out of bed, early in the morning by M to go for a Reiss warehouse sale at Brick lane. Aside from having to navigate through lanes of a dubious nature, we could not find anything to buy even though the the prices were low. I was understandably cranky. But things got better subsequently after we went over to Marylebone high street to do some window shopping. According to M, she likes the place more than Angel as its quieter. It is after all a posh part of town, full of shops with articles I can't afford. It is good just to look around especially the kitchenware stores. After that, to get rid of her KFC craving as she puts it, (keep eating KFC until she's sick of it) we decided to go to KFC yet again just eight days after our last trip. Thankfully, she seems to have gotten sick of it. She had, on her own, 2 pieces of chicken, 1 hot wing and 1 crispy strip. Hopefully, I don't have to have it for a long long time.

After lunch, we went to Borough Market at London Bridge, a gourmet food market where as you can see in the picture, we bought quite a bit of stuff for the fridge and larder.



a) Melon
b) Cherry tomatoes
c) Red and yellow peppers
d) Ciabatta and foccacia (Buy one get one free!)
e) White truffle cake and Plum cake (25% off!)
f) A jar of escargots in truffle butter
g) eggs



So with our purchases, I made baked eggs italian style, a recipe from the cooking for one cookbook. Just crack an egg into a ramekin dish, mix chopped and deseeded tomatoes, basil, chives, olive and place the mixture on top of the egg. Cover it with cheese and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.



In addition, we baked the escargots and ate it with the ciabatta which M used to make garlic bread. Its pretty good value, 27 snails (M counted it)in that jar for just 5 quid and yes, it tasted really good. And yes, the snails do look like they are in an assembly and its thanks to M that they look as such.

Chicken braised with red wine (coq au vin)

M didn't think that this dish is nice initially as it didn't look good. I have to agree that the dish's appearance isn't that colourful like some of my other cooking and that it just looks brown and bland. Can't really do anything about it as the dish is essentially braising the chicken and vegetables with red wine such that everything just looks brown. But thankfully, the taste of it was alright. M said that if she closed her eyes when she ate it, it would taste good. She also commented that the colour of the sauce looked like that of red bean soup and she hates that soup. Well, I loved this dish, L and J have had it and they have said they liked it as well. To cook it, brown the chicken portions on both sides and set aside. Fry whole shallots for 2 minutes and add flour to it. Mix well and add red wine. Bring to the boil and add chicken stock, the chicken, mushrooms and bouquet garni. Simmer for 45-50 minutes. Remove the meat and vegetables and boil to reduce the sauce by 1/3. Return the chicken and vegetables to the pot and reheat. Season and serve with either rice or pasta.

M, at the end of the meal, has declared that she likes the dish now and that she has overcome her initial aversion to the colour.

Chicken, bacon and leek casserole

The first time I cooked this, I made the mistake of adding salt to the casserole and it turned out really really salty. So this time, I wised up, the salt from the bacon was sufficient. So to cook this, brown chicken pieces on both sides and remove from the pan. Fry bacon till brown and add in the leeks, cook till the leeks turn brown as well. Place leeks and bacon into casserole dish and place the chicken on top. Add a bit of chicken stock, cover tightly and bake in the oven for 1 and a half hours. The leeks should have the consistency of cooked cabbage and melt right into the sauce. The meat should fall off the bone easily. Serve with pasta

Spaghetti with garlic, chilli and mushrooms

A quick and simple pasta lunch. Just fry some garlic in olive oil, add in diced mushrooms and chilli and mix in the cooked spaghetti. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle some good quality olive oil. Add some parsley on top and its done. I ate this with some smoked mackerel. Yums

Tortellini with sundried tomatoes

With M on leave, its been meal after meal outside. KFC, Ubon, La Tasca. Yesterday, M wanted to go to some designer sampler sale and so we had to wake up early in the morning and go all the way to the city so that the best of the stock would not be lost in the span of an hour. She went on her merry way, into the sale, I went my tired way into Cafe Nero where I had a strong cafe mocha, a almond and blueberry tart. I read half of Eragon there. We watched Wicked the Musical after that. Its not too bad but not fantastic. The songs were not memorable but the storyline was brillant, funny and subversive, the way I like my fairy tales. Its essentially the backstory to the Wizard of Oz. I am going to get my hands on a copy of that book.

So today, we decided to spend it on mundane chores, grocery shopping, ironing (her, mwhahah she's going to be stuck in front of the ironing board for the whole board, leaving me free to do my own stuff mwhahahah). For lunch, I cooked tortellini (Asda: I obviously can't make stuffed pasta yet, maybe one day, in the distant future) with sundried tomatoes. So to cook it, fry carrots and onions for 5 minutes and add chicken stock, can of chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic and tomato puree. Simmer for 10 minutes till the carrots are soft.Add in the chopped sundried tomatoes and basil and mix well with the tortellini. Serve with grated cheese and black pepper.



For dinner, we decided to have something light so its just tomato soup with orzo pasta and garlic bread with cheese. M made the bread!