A production line

What a glorious afternoon I had in the kitchen yesterday! For some reason I went into overdrive at about 4pm and cooked constantly til about 7. It was quite exhilarating actually and although there was one disaster - see next post - I was pretty happy with the results!

Firstly I made lemon meringue cupcakes - again! These are lovely little mouthfuls and fun to make. If only I had that bruleé torch! I promise I will get one of those utensils one of these days...next paycheck I promise! ;-)

Pre colouring

I was dead happy with the meringue on this lot. For some reason the kitchen gods were with me and I whipped me up a mean meringue. It sat beautifully on top of the cakes and although I couldn't have too many cute little peaks - going under the grill remember not hand colouring with a bruleé torch - the ones I did make, stayed put and didn't flop over! Woo Hoo! A success!

I haven't tasted one in it's entirety yet, and am waiting for the verdict from the neighbours B & M, and mum who all got a sampler last night!

While these were cooling I whipped up a batch of sausage rolls for brunch tomorrow. A slight hiccup when I added some grated carrot and forgot to squeeze all the juice out of said carrot. Made for some wetter rolls than I am used to, but with a few minutes more in the oven, I think they crisped up OK. This did lead to another issue I've never had before though. I usually use some pork mince in my sausage rolls, but for some reason I only got beef mince - and very lean mince at that. As a result, with the extra cooking time needed for the carrot issue, and no fat in the meat mince, the rolls are a little drier than ideal. However as we all know... there is nothing a little tomato sauce won't fix!

To the extra pastry sheet left after the sausage rolls were made, I added some apple, pear and raspberries. Folded the pastry up over the top of the fruit and created a rustic pie! Sprinkled with some demarara sugar, it baked up a treat! 

Forgot to take a photo though ;-)

I found some Roma tomatoes I bought last week in the fridge drawer too, so I cut them up and roasted them with some olive oil and basil. While the oven was hot - you know ;-) We'll have them next week on a pizza or pasta I think. I'll definitely come up with a use for them sometime soon!

Then, well it was 6:45 and time to think about dinner. Earlier in the day, I had bought some fish for dinner while I was buying the clams at the fish monger. After some discussion with the bloke there, I had a fillet of Atlantic salmon and a fillet of Kingfish! Both looking particularly fresh and fine! A beautiful fish stew was in the offing. Perfect for a cold wintry night!

Recently I had come across a fish stew in the recipe file on my gorgeous little laptop. Heaven knows where it originally came from, but it's mine now. 

It has all sorts of yummy things in the tomato base ... chilli, bay leaves, anchovies, herbs ... and then with a handful or so of mini pasta shapes ( I used fusilli last night) and some fresh fish, it is particularly flavoursome.

On the side I blanched some 'fresh from the garden at the farm' swiss chard, and some broccoli! I think I covered all the food groups there!