Halloween cookfest

To celebrate the 31st October this year I decided to buy large orange pumpkin and make a spicy pumpkin soup. The recipe I chose calls for ground coriander, red pepper, paprika and curry powder. To soften the pumpkin, I cut it in half, removed the seeds and roasted for 45 mins at 150 degrees C.
Once cool, I added the flesh to some chopped onions I had softened and spiced earlier. After adding vegetable stock, I blended, then added brown sugar and milk.
For a bit of fun I toasted the fresh pumpkin seeds with some salt and paprika and added as a garnish. At the last minute William made us the most fabulous fresh bread in what must have been record time. His method of using water that has been boiled has done the trick - every loaf is perfect now.

Earlier on that same day I had attempted a Charlotte dell'Abate.
I got this recipe from our new Italian cook book: The Vegiterranean. Ingredients included masala wine, espresso, cream, dark chocolate, amaretti biscuits and sponge fingers. I also had to make a zabaglione (which is like a custard) by slowly heating 3 egg yolks in a double boiler before tranfering to a bowl cooled by icecubes, taking care not to curdle the mixture. The Charlotte then needed 4 hours of freezing followed by 1 hour of thawing before it was ready. I was quite pleased with this attempt, it looked and tasted really good.

Thanks to Nicky's blog, I had a meringue recipe for my left over egg whites. This was SO easy and the result was all gooey inside as promised. Meringues are way too sweet for me, but I still ate 3!


http://sabakersdozen.blogspot.com/
http://www.epiculinary.com/ita_vegetarian.html

The Gun

On Saturday Will and I met up with Bryan, Marti, Natalie and Anthony for lunch at Jamie's Italian in Canary Wharf. I love this place and once again the food was really good. This time I chose very flavourful mushroom ravioli after a shared veggie board with all kinds of italian treats. Delicious! 4 hours and 2 bottles of red wine later we took a walk to "The Gun", a gastropub on the Isle of Dogs with views of the O2.

I started visiting this little gem in 2004 when my brother and I rented an apartment just a few 100 yards away on East Ferry road. And when I moved back to the area with William in 2006, we often spent lazy summer afternoons on the outside deck or cozy winter evenings inside by the fireplace...

Autumn has arrived and
although the forecast said rain, Saturday evening was fine and mild :) so we all sat outside as the sun set and the O2 lights came on across the water. It was great to see everyone again, only a pity that we don't do it more often.

http://www.thegundocklands.com/

The Old Vic

The Old Vic opened for the first time in 1818 as The Royal Coburg Theatre, only to be renamed The Royal Victoria in 1833 in honour of the then Princess Victoria. For over almost 200 years it has played host to pretty much everyone and everything from Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith in Othello and Alec Guinness in Hamlet to Neve Campbell in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues.
Last night, after a fabulous meal at the Waterloo Brasserie, we saw Inherit The Wind with Kevin Spacey and David Troughton. We both LOVED the play. Everyones performance was outstanding, especially Spacey. I saw the 1999 movie with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott years ago and found the story compelling then, so it was great to see this adaption.

The Waterloo Brasserie is a french style restaurant across the road from The Old Vic. I chose a parsnip soup starter and a butternut risotto with sage foam as a main - which was delicious! William had a goats cheese and zucchini starter and sea bass for mains. We then shared 3 smelly cheeses with fruit chutney for afters.
A little expensive but absolutely worth it. We both had to spend a little extra time on the treadmill this morning!

http://www.waterloobrasserie.co.uk/
http://www.oldvictheatre.com/

Le Petite Croissants

William wanted croissants for breakfast on Saturday, so he spent most of Friday afternoon making the pastry from scratch - with almost no butter because he knows I won't eat it if there is too much fat in it :) After chilling in the fridge overnight, he rolled it out, cut them into triangles and rolled them into the croissant shape. 20 minutes in the oven and the yummy petite croissants were ready - topped with "low low fat" cheese (yes it's really called "low low fat cheese"!). They were a little heavy - not quite as puffy as expected. I suspect it's the lack of butter ;)