Food explosion

Well, thank you for your comments yesterday, I'll have to keep my eye out for a little wooden frame then! No cushion cover for me though, I guess I forgot to include a scale in my photo, it's only about 10cm2!!!

Anyway, had the most emotionally draining day yesterday. Thought I'd wait until today to mention it, because I was all over the place and it wouldn't have been a pretty sight! Basically, we're off on holiday on Saturday. We'd booked this lovely b&b but yesterday, the owner called to say her husband had been rushed off to hospital and our stay was cancelled. CANCELLED!!! 2 days before?!!! Now I know her husband must be in quite a serious state, and I'm sorry about that, but that's not what I was thinking about yesterday. More along the lines of oh-my-goodness-we're-meant-to-leave-in-2-days-and-have-nowhere-to-go!!!!!! That + really boring work + ever expanding waistline = crying at lunch on the phone to Boyfriend. Not. Good. Anyway, Boyfriend did a really good job at finding us a replacement, albeit a little more expensive, but we didn't have much choice at such short notice. Phew!!!!!!!!!! So all is good in the land of Petit Filoux today! Well apart from the waistline which is still inflating day after day... hum must do something about this. Soon.

Talking about waistline, lets talk about food now!! Ha!!! I titled this post Food Explosion. No literal explosion as such, but it really was an explosion in the sense that so much came out of my little kitchen last weekend. It all started with some bread. As mentionned last Friday, I tried my hand at making this bread.

Only I didn't get Black Sheep Riggwelter Ale, just Black Sheep Ale. Yes yes I know, did I not stop to wonder why 'Riggwelter' was not written anywhere on the bottle? Well no, I don't know much about ale and it didn't bother me in the slightest! And to be honest, it didn't stop the bread from coming out fantastic. I haven't made bread by hand for a while now (tend to use the bread machine these days), but I have to admit, I really enjoyed the kneading part. And the shaping and the slashing. Oh yes did I enjoy the slashing part!!

And the dough came out really nice, not too airy, but not too compact either. Just how I like it :-)

I also tried another recipe from the Madhur Jaffrey curry book, but I'm afraid I have no photo to show for it. It was just tooooooo good, and I couldn't wait to try it out!! I made the Singapore-style chicken curry with some plain basmati rice, and a potato and cauliflower side dish. Yum yum yum!!!! That was Saturday nigtht's dinner. For Sunday dinner, I made another lush meal, but slightly less labour intensive. Actually, it was a lot easier to make than the curry! We had a nearly 100% French dinner: rabbit in a mustard sauce with gratin dauphinois and french green beans. Another yum yum yum all round!!! We got the rabbit from our local butcher a few weeks ago (it's been in the freezer since). You just can't get it in the supermarket here, it's dreadful! Anyway, we were told it was being caught locally by ferrets, not shotguns, during the corn harvest (that's where they like to hide) and it was only £4 for a whole rabbit. What a bargain! So if you want to make the following dish:

here's what you have to do:

1. peel a couple of very large potatoes and slice (no more than 0.5cm thick) - you need enough to fill whatever oven dish you're planning on using
2. prepare the gratin by pouring single cream in the bottom of your oven dish, followed by a layer of potatoes, some chopped garlic and a good grind of pepper and salt. Carry on alternating cream/ potatoes/ garlic until you run out of potatoes. Finish by pouring some cream over the top.
3. place the gratin in a preheated oven (190C) for 55min. After 15min or so, cover with foil to stop it from burning on the top.
4. now prepare your rabbit. Place the various bits and rub with two large tablespoons of Dijon mustard. Place a couple of knobs of butter in the dish. Cover in foil and place in the oven with the potatoes (give the potatoes 15min on their own first) for 40min.
5. 10min before the gratin and rabbit are meant to come out of the oven, steam some green beans.
6. 10min later, it's all ready!!!! Take the foil off the rabbit, place the rabbit on plates and pour some single cream in the dish you cooked it in. It makes the most delicious creamy mustard sauce. Enjoy!!