542/1038 - Bruschetta

There is a lovely crossover happening in my kitchen life right now, with my a Fork for your Oyster catering clients requesting dishes which can occasionally be found in The Cook's Companion. A client request for bruschetta happened recently and of course I jumped at the chance to knock off one final blog recipe for 2016.

The bruschetta recipe is a basic one (grilled bread with a garlic rub, olive oil and salt) and is designed to be built upon. The topping is chef's choice! 

Of course I made my own lovely little bread sticks using my favourite Jamie Oliver bread recipe. I have always found it amusing that Jamie lists this recipe amount as making one loaf; I always get two good sized loaves out of this recipe or in this case, eight mini loaves. 

My client requested a topping of crumbled feta and I couldn't go past the opportunity to pair it with some gorgeous caramelised onion; one of my all time favourite things to eat. The result was sensational, with the fresh herbs used in the caramelised onions (thyme, rosemary, bay leaf) gently shining through. 

Let's hope 2017 is this tasty! x

541/1038 - Vegetable stock

I have some guilt regarding the number of recipes I have not cooked in recent times. In the first year of this challenge, an average of fourteen recipes were tested and blogged each month and this figure has dwindled to just three this year. I suppose it was inevitable that my energy would wane over time and an increased interest in a certain little catering business* has certainly exacerbated this issue. Given that we are more than five years into the challenge I do take some comfort in the fact that there is yet to be a month that I haven't blogged at least one recipe. 

This month it was all about vegetable stock. There are five stock recipes in The Cook's Companion; chicken, vegetable, fish, veal and rabbit. Reading back through my posts, I am reminded that it took three years for me to make my first stock (chicken) and now another two to whip up my second. Clearly home made stock is not a priority in my house!

This stock was served as a soup with black bean noodles and a medley of lightly steamed vegetables. Such a healthy and incredibly tasty dinner. 

Given my love of cooking, it is generally assumed that I cook everything from scratch. While this is true for most things, I just can't seem to get around to keeping enough homemade stock on hand to satisfy my cooking requirements. Having said that, this vegetable stock was so ridiculously tasty it has almost convinced me to ditch the premade stuff and add stock to the list of things I make myself. 

Almost, but not quite. 

*a Fork for your Oyster is my newish baby for anybody who is wondering! x