Thai grilled prawns, hot sour prawn stock, sticky rice, mango, lime, coriander, toasted coconut and crispy prawn heads

This was a bit of a pain to prepare and cook.  But we did a lot of it together especially the final stage of getting everything assembled.  Not something I'd rush to do again for the hassle factor but delicious non the less.

I made a hot sour stock with prawn shells and a couple of the heads along with the usual suspects - tamarind, lime zest and juice, kaffir leaf, ginger, garlic, coriander roots, fish sauce etc to have with the dish served separately so we could either sip it or pour it on.  Yum.

I steamed sticky rice (I love Thai sticky rice, the flavour and texture are just divine in my opinion).

I shelled the prawns and kept most of the heads aside for crispy cooking.  Tossing them in flour, drizzling in oil and putting them in a hot oven till they were crunchy.  Yum.

I marinated the actual prawns with a red thai paste and we cooked them last minute.  Yum.

I made a mango, lime zest and juice, coriander and roasted chilli salsa as an accompaniment.  Yum.

I toasted some fresh grated coconut in a pan as another accompaniment.  Yum.

Served with extra lime wedges and coriander along with the aforementioned hot sour prawn broth.  A very decadent Thai dish of flavour and texture.  Yum.

The ultimate flat white

We've been into good coffee since it first hit Auckland back in the late 80s.  It started off for us at Millars, a cafe in the city where the guy (uh yeap, Millar) roasted his own beans, made great coffee and baked biscuits and cakes which were brought out fresh from the oven out the back sporadically during the day.  We migrated on to Kerouac founded by Chris Priestly in the early 90s and then followed him like drooling pups on to Atomic Cafe in Ponsonby Road.

It was a burgeoning scene and one that was to change the face of Auckland city - now packed full of incredible places to eat, drink and .... yes have that wonderful Kiwi creation - the flat white (no matter what the Aussies say, it all started in NZ).

Moving to HK in the later part of the 90s we had to give up on our daily coffee ritual and there was certainly no good coffee to be found there.  Then moving to Dubai, again there's no good coffee here either and by then being away from the good stuff for over 15 years we though stuff this.  Lets get a decent machine and do our own.

So we spent heaps on a Rocket.  We bought it online and had it delivered from Europe (and subsequently bought another one for our place in France, we love it too much).  It's an expensive habit this coffee stuff.

Andy went about perfecting the flat white and he did so very quickly I'm pleased to say.  But recently we've changed things slightly but using full fat milk.  I KNOW.  Anyone who knows me would find the idea of me drinking full fat milk bemusing.  However we started with the higher fat milk you get in France.  The coffee tasted so rich, so mouthfullingly delicious and so creamy.  Heaven.  Our coffee now was seriously in a league of it's own.  We started buying full fat milk here in Dubai too.  Yes, same result. Absolutely and utterly, addictively delicious.  We will never turn back.  No skinny flat whites for us thank you very much.  Give me the full fat delicious version please.

Andy's ultimate flat white

Our Rocket R58 dual boiler - we have one in France too.

Brick pastry parcel with runny egg, smoked chicken and caramelised onion

Brick pastry again, I know, BORING.  But it's just so utterly yummy.  The oven needs to be at a high temperature, preheat the baking tray, to get the pastry cooked, the inside hot but keep the egg runny.  A very very easy dinner but one that is so absolutely scrum I'd eat them until I felt sick.  

This brick parcel is with smoked chicken, caramelised onion (which I add white miso paste to give it an extra bump of umami), a little sour cream and that aforementioned egg.  

The puree is pea and stock from the smoked chicken bones (yum).  And a little finely chopped charred brussel sprouts on the side (also yum).  

Plenty of salt and pepper, a touch of tarragon and viola.  

Pork fillet with lardon of sorts

Lardon, pancetta, whatever you like to call it.  Pressed (and smoked occasionally) pork belly.  It's bacon but sold in the square form rather than the rasher slices I grew up with.  Well, give me a square of 'bacon' anytime. Dry cured please.

It's bizarely difficult to find a good quality slab of pork belly properly dry cured outside of Europe.  So I bring it back with me.  Always vac packed and there's no piggy smell going on.  I haven't had a problem with customs (to date).

There's nothing like beautiful pork fillet cooked medium rare.  I know that is rather unconventional for my home country however it's the way it comes in Spain and France.  And what a beautiful thing it is too.  Soft and sweet.  And exceptional value given quality of these prime cuts (and it's so blah...I'm not a free range type.  However when it comes to pork it has to be free range.  Like chicken,  those over fattened over hormoned massive pieces of whatever are utterly repulsive to me).

So I served a square of dry cured 'bacon' cooked again to get the skin crisp chewy, the pork fillet was perfection in protein, I made a little apple disk dusted in star anise and wrapped in brick pastry, with celeriac puree.   Very seriously delicious.

Our plans for France

We have had various ideas about what to do with our little house.  We thought initially we might build a small extension to create a doorway into the cave ... see the mock up below.

 We ultimately decided against this idea.  Too much work/money for too little gain.  We instead are going for a new cave door done in the traditional way.

Over to the barn and very old house.....it currently looks like this with no windows

We have been contemplating the driveway area and tidying that up.  Currently we are getting a devis (quote) for the work to flatten and gravel.  Create some planted areas and tidy up the old house by putting windows and shutters .... see mock up below

Here is another idea for the shutters on the old house.  This is a very old building dating back to the 17th century.  We do not think it is worth renovating but we do love the look of it and if we put shutters and glass in the windows along with a proper door we will get the benefit of a finished looking very old place from the outside at least!  The verandah awning is rather prized too as it is so very old.  It's in good nick and the whole area (we hope) will end out looking smart and part of the property and landscaping without spending extraordinary amounts of euro.

Our little house has a south facing terrace which is a wonderful area.  But we are looking into changing it slightly.  The image below is as it appears now from the dining room.  The bottom image is what we are looking at doing.  By opening it out and creating a staircase we'd be able to see down our flat section to the field below.  We can also then pave an area at the bottom and create a landscaped space.  It would serve a few purposes.

The image below is just a photo from the dining room to the outside terrace....

This image below is a mock up of what we are thinking of doing.   We'll see what the price comes to but it's fun thinking of our various options.

We are of course mindful not to overspend.  It's a balancing act and it'll be neat looking back to these plans in the future and see where we end out!

Brick pastry with egg, mushrooms, celeriac, lardon and apple

We are on a brick pastry roll.  It’s the most incredible stuff.  Far more delicious than the ubiquitous filo and easier to handle. 

It is called feuilles de brick in French, Tunisian in origin and the French have adopted it with resounding aplomb.  So having French supermarkets ever present in Dubai we are able to buy said brick and ….

We thought about a gorgeous combination with this amazing pastry that you can actually tie off without it breaking.  The result ?   Sauted mushrooms, crème fraîche and an egg.  Served it with a cube of cooked lardon sitting on a little bed of celeriac puree with dried apple pieces.

Oh my gosh, how the heck yummy was this???  My tummy is rumbling even thinking of it because I want to eat it again right now. It is fun cooking together.  When the results are this delicious? Even more so!

Damn good idea Andy.

Yummy yummy egg yolk chicken dinner

Andy had this idea.  Egg yolk ravioli, caramalised onion with white miso paste for umami, pea puree, smoked chicken plus stock from the bones.  We cooked crispy chicken skin bits from the smoked chicken, we drizzled the (dreaded ?? - shame on you Ray McVinnie – it has it’s place) truffle oil.  Yumety scrum. 

Future note:

Saute mushrooms, cook them with plenty of butter until there’s no moisture left and use that in place of the pea. 

By gosh what a divine dish and the fact the pasta dough made by Andy was highly salted was a sensation in itself,  it resulted in the most sublime balance.  The pasta alone stood out.  I know it sounds gross but I could have eaten that pasta dough raw.  Yum!!!