Neely

Roast pork with roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, beans with tomatoes, apple sauce and gravy made by my husband. I do like a more liquid gravy but he seems to like this thicker one which he makes from a roux. I’m actually pleased just to have the help so no complaints from me.

Enjoying cooking for us again. Poached rockling on bed of puréed cauliflower, broccoli, a few chips and a sauce made from green onion, yellow pepper, tomato and some herbs.

@rotuts Yes it does look a bit pale for Guinness but I’m pretty sure we had Guinness at that place. Maybe just the way the light is shining on the glass. At another place I had seafood chowder which was creamy and delicious. By creamy I mean It was made with actual cream. It was served with brown soda bread. I found some of this famous Irish bread to be better than others. Fresh smoked salmon with salad This was a glass of Lucozade for those who remember. Monks at the Pier Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland

Last Saturday I went to children’s football with my older grandsons and after we had breakfast/brunch at a cafe. My Okonomiyaki with cabbage, fried egg and smoked salmon with two sauces. A breakfast bowl with poached egg The children had grilled cheese on toast while also sharing our meals. The 3 year old said ‘“I like Okonomiyaki” pronouncing it perfectly. Proud grandparent story but it is breakfast cooking related.

In Ireland, the food in general was very different to what we had been eating in Provence… naturally!!. Lots of fresh seafood presented in a more ‘normal / ordinary’ way. Salmon and salad with mashed potato! Seafood platter And a Guinness of course

Chicken tray bake.

@TdeV I have been wondering myself about the eggplant sauce and am quite at a loss to replicate. I guess I would try to sauté onion, garlic and eggplant but there was definitely more to it than that. It had something which my taste buds can’t quite identify. Perhaps I’ll try putting in some tarragon, maybe a splash of brandy… it certainly was an exceptional taste. As for the duck leg, I would suspect fried first then cooked in the sauce. I thought it interesting that the chef/owner mentioned about it being a female duck. He sort of scoffed at the thought of a male leg. He spoke very good English having lived and cooked in the UK for sometime. I will have to wait till later in the year to try to cook the garlic green shoots risotto when the shoots are available… and… then they are hard to find. I only know of one market that sells them in my city.

Perhaps my favourite dinner when I was in France, was this duck leg covered with an eggplant sauce. The restaurant owner said it was from a female duck as they are less fatty ?? It was served with gratin potatoes served in a bowl and with a salad that had a thick vinaigrette. All delicious. I seem to have had lots of risotto one way or another and to me the most tasty was the one I had below which was served as a side to the grilled octopus. I asked the waiter why the risotto was so nice and he replied that the main ingredient was fresh garlic shoots or garlic scapes as we call them. Restaurant with the risotto was called Le Bistro in the town of Cotignac

Home cooked dinner, stir fry prawns, spinach and bean sprouts.

Home cooked breakfast and it was good

Some breakfasts I had in Europe Tomatoes and basil on grill toasted baguette below Scrambled egg with French bacon below Croissant with everything below Hotel service for one… includes French bacon, scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of baguette, a croissant and a pain au chocolate… of course couldn’t eat it all.below A selection from the boulangerie Crepe with chocolate and a sneaky pastis Cappuccino French buffet below.

I’ve had no reliable WiFi for a month but hopefully now can post some of the food I’ve been eating in Europe. We had a meal in Harry’s Bar Venice which is on the Grand Canal just around the corner from St Marks Square ( a sentence I don’t use everyday!! Smile ). Harry’s Bar is an iconic restaurant in Venice and has been going for nearly a century with its prime being in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine Hepburn, Truman Capote to name drop a few, eating there. It seems still as exciting and busily high end as it used to be, with superb service. Below…We had drinks to start followed by steak tartare and prawn and calamari tartare below… I had this dish which is quite famous in Venice and to this restaurant in particular… Creamed dried cod with polenta. I liked it very much, salty and creamy… I never liked polenta much but after this one, I now can say I like it Below… my son had this ravioli dish Below… one of the desserts, Below… the actual kitchen is so tiny that the meals are presented onto customers plates in the restaurant by the waiters. Below, very blurred photo but you can just see that there is a little white dog in a ladies handbag in the restaurant. I will post some Breakfast photos under the Breakfast heading The photos aren’t very good at showing off the food because I didn’t like to make a fuss of taking food photos and just quickly snapped where I could.

More food from Venice Ristorante da Ivo Below Interior and complimentary bruschetta to start below Carpaccio with Parmesan and rocket Below scampi in a creamy curry sauce… not spicy at all but delicious below Turbot with spring vegetables below This is the 3rd squid ink spaghetti my son ( with whom I'm travelling atm ) has had. I guess he likes it. This one was with Calamari

Thanks for the encouragement to continue posting @Shelby Had dinner in a little restaurant by one of the many canals I had sea bass with potatoes flavoured with sage. Firstly the waiter presented the fish cooked whole on a large sizzling platter, took it away and came back with it filleted with no bones. Lunch below, was roasted/grilled vegetables with buffalo mozzarella

I’m travelling in Europe at the moment and Food glorious food is glorious. Sampling the food in the Emirates lounge. This was a little 5 star spice duck pie with braised eggplant and broccolini Had to have a little chocolate patisserie below First breakfast in Venice was a small smoked salmon quiche and a cappuccino. Below…Lunch was squid ink spaghetti with what they called a mixed seafood ragu… had flavours of garlic and saffron. This was delicious and not expensive.EUR 35 euros for the two plates.

My son cooked mezze rigatoni with a tuna tomato base sauce. It was delicious. He hadn’t heard of the ‘no cheese with seafood’ Italian rule so he piled the cheddar on which made it even more delicious. Ha!

My dear husband has been cooking most of our meals lately as I am busy organising my trip to Europe which starts this weekend. This meal was his chicken fillet and onions, olives, bacon and red pepper with mashed potato.

Still with the Asian inspired breakfast. Omelette with pork and egg plant.

Faux Congee, I am making it up as I go along. Rice, char siu pork, portions of braised in soy sauce egg plant. Anyway?, it is an enjoyable breakfast for me.

@TdeV Yes that is the Nigella recipe I was referring to. I made the cake as per her recipe but added the passion fruit icing as I had quite a few passion fruits to use up and it was quite nice.

@Paul Bacino sorry but even after an online search I can’t figure out what all the meat means in reference to Pasqua gravy. Can you help me understand? My cultural denseness at play. We had a Sunday lamb roast with all the trimmings ( stuffing, mint sauce, gravy, pumpkin, roast potatoes, peas ) but I forgot to take a photo with all the busyness of little grandson , Freddy (14 months old) I made some raspberry muffins and a passionfruit drizzle apple almond flour cake ( Nigella Lawson ) before guests arrived so I remembered photos for those.

Friday early dinner. After much thought about what fish dish to have I ended up making a simple salmon and dill quiche which we enjoyed. Asian salad with Nuoc Cham dressing as a side salad. Quiche included both fresh salmon and smoked salmon

Not my cooking but still this was a dinner we had Bought fish and chips. There‘s battered flake, a battered potato cake, chips/fries a dollop of sate sauce and a dollop of mixed ketchup and BBQ sauce. The big white ball is a pickled onion traditional for this meal

I had some left over black beans from a soup I had made … so I made black beans fritters with a coriander sauce. Small diced salad to go with.

I’ve got a thing about poached eggs ATM. Breakfast was mushrooms and bacon and a poached egg all on top of a sourdough toast again.