Well today has been a lovely day! First off, training at CFP! We have a great team at the DWF competition in Wales this weekend; really wish I decided to go! But at the same time, I’m quite glad to have spent this lovely day training and cooking for my lovely family

Tim and I have been having busier and busier weeks as time goes by! By the weekend I specifically make no plans other than to spend time with my family and pursuing hobbies. I’m so lucky to be living where I live, doing what I do and knowing the people I know. Almost every other Saturday, when dad’s home from work, our parents come over to our place for a nice, gourmet (well, as gourmet as I can make it) meal. I really love being able to share something that I’ve created, something that’s a product of my time, energy and enthusiasm, with the people I love. I miss them all the time and just want to attempt to give back things I’ve taken from them over my twenty-three years. Although that’s an impossible task, I’ll do what I can to show them how much they mean to me, and that not once, have I ever taken them for granted. As I’ve grown older, I’ve been able to count my blessings more, and relish in the beauty of life. I’ve definitely found myself “high” on life quite regularly these past few of years!

Anyway! This afternoon, we had a lovely three course meal (if I do say so myself!). For starters, we had a colourful salad with mixed leaves, grated carrot, pecans, dried fruit, pomegranate, various seeds, plum, strawberries, tomatoes, olives, raspberries, onion, toasted coconut, Parma ham… you name it! And the best thing, was that these scallops were so simple to rustle up!

Scallops are one of those things you absolutely can’t walk away from. You have to be watching over it constantly. Do not attempt to do what I do, and just take a couple of seconds to do something else, assuring yourself that you will remember to check back in literally one minute’s time… because trust me, you won’t. You’ll forget, and find yourself munching on chewy, over-cooked scallops. What a waste!

Scallops can indeed be eaten raw, but are definitely tasty hot and toasty! However, it is far better to have a slightly undercooked scallop than an overcooked, overly-firm one.

Also, if you’re lucky enough to get them with the pink sack of goodness (the “roe” or “coral”), eat it! I hear it’s packed with omega-3′s and they are so tasty! I believe in America that it’s extremelt difficult to buy them with the coral still attached. But in Europe, they’re rather a delicacy. I omitted them from my plate for taking the photos, but added them back when I sat down at the table to scoff them with my family. A lovely dish I wanted to try and to share my efforts with some of my most treasured and beautiful people on the planet. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did!

Seared Scallops with Plum and Dill Sauce
Adapted from: Fou de Food
Serves 4

Ingredients
• 1-2 tablespoons (clarified) butter
• 12 x scallops (with or without the coral/roe)
• 4 x plums
• a couple of strawberries and raspberries
• ½ tablespoon dried dill
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• Splash of lemon juice
• Salad (as a side)
• Lemon zest (to garnish)

Preparation
For the sauce:
Cut plums and strawberries, and pop, along with the raspberries, into a saucepan. Heat on medium until all fruit sweats and becomes tender. Do not crisp or blacken. Add the dried dill, lemon juice and cayenne pepper (only a pinch though!). Leave to cool for a bit and then blend everything.

For the scallop dish:
Firstly, prepare the salad on the plates.

Rinse the scallops under cold water and remove the coral and gut. Keep the coral and cook as well if preferred, it’s really tasty, but they don’t take a long to cook as the scallop itself.

Heat the butter in the large non-stick frying pan until hot and almost smoking. Pop the scallops into the pan and sear for 1 minute and 30-45 seconds on each side, depending on the side. Don’t move the scallops, otherwise you’ll hinder the lovely browning process. But if you need to take a peek at one, hey ho, go ahead.

If you’re not sure whether they’re cooked or not, you can perhaps cut your own scallop open to see whether they’ve turned from translucent to opaque throughout. Ideally, you want them to have a slightly translucent centre.

In the meantime, heat up the sauce!

When the scallops are done, pop them on kitchen towel for a moment to drain any excess butter, if any. Arrange the scallops on the plate, top with a little sauce, spoon some on the side and sprinkle zest over the plate. Serve immediately.

Eaten: 03.11.2012 with my lovely family

For Father’s Day, I asked dad what I could cook for him as a ‘gift.’ He asked for Thai Green Curry and Spotted Dick.

This recipe I found called for a strawberry and rhubarb rather than cherries. I was going for blueberries, but there weren’t any in the fridge, even though I swear that there were! So I opted for cherries! It would have been nice to have had more (so I doubled the amount that I used in the recipe below), as mine only just managed to cover the top.

Ours was with a vanilla bean custard, which was extremely good! But I made mine ahead and reheated it later, but unfortunately it was a little lumpy and not too attractive to the eye. However it still tasted delicious.

Here’s a nice image of dad and his mum on Mother’s Day in 2008. And a handsome image of Tim, just thrown into the mix

Spotted Dick with Cherry Compote
Adapted from: There’s A Newf in My Soup
Serves 16

Ingredients
For the cherry compote:
• 300g cherries, pitted
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 x sachet gelatine
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

For the spotted dick:
• butter and flour, for greasing
• 10 tbsp/170g butter or suet
• 1¼ cups/300g sugar
• 4 x eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2¾ cups/340g self-raising flour
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup/150g dried fruit

Preparation
For the cherry compote:
Mix the sugar and gelatine in a bowl. Then add the cherries, lemon juice and brandy, and simmer over low heat until thick and syrupy – about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, butter a cake tin, then dust with flour (knocking the excess out).

Pour the syrup in the bottom of the tin, arranging the cherries (without burning yourself!) in a pretty fashion. Leave to cool at room temp. until set.

For the spotted dick:
Trace a circle on parchment paper slightly larger than the cake tin, and cut out.

Melt the butter in a large bowl, add the sugar, and cream with a wooden spoon until pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Sift the flour into the mixture, and beat until well combined. Then add the milk and beat, also. Dollop the mixture on top of the cherry compote, and flatten out.

Fill a large, shallow pan with water, and put some metal cookie cutters or something in the bottom to create a platform on which to place the cake tin, about 1” above the water. Bring the water to a boil, and then turn the heat down so it simmers.

Put the cake tin on top of the platform, cover the tin with the parchment paper, and put the lod on the pan. Steam for about 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hours. If using little ramekins, it will be about 1 hour.

The spotted dick will puff up a lot. I used a bread knife to even the bottom of mine before I inverted it onto a plate, and sliced it, and served it with homemade vanilla custard.

Vanilla Bean Custard
Adapted from: Bite My Thumb
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
• 3 x egg yolks
• 1 cup/250ml double cream
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (1 tsp vanilla essence)
• 3 tbsp sugar

Preparation
Boil water in a small saucepan.

Whisk the cream and egg yolks in a Pyrex bowl until smooth throughout. Then add the vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla essence) and sugar, and whisk until homogeneous.

Place the bowl over the simmering water (this is known as a bain-marie), and whisk continuously so no lumps form. The mixture should be whisked for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and forms a custard like colour and consistency.

Remove the bowl from the pan and pour over your dessert, and enjoy

Enjoy

Enjoyed: 19.06.2011