Truly Madly Eatly

As my regular readers would be aware, a couple of years ago I quit my job and launched a little catering business. Catering other people's events is fun but I have decided to change things up a bit and host my own event! Guests will be treated to complimentary barefoot bowling and a degustation lunch which will feature items from our finger food menu. 

If you would like to come along (it would be lovely to meet you!) bookings can be made online at Truly Madly Eatly

I hope to see you there!

Kate x

575/1038 - Crumbed trotters with mustard mayonnaise

This is officially my favourite trotter recipe! Of course this is not a sentence you are likely to hear from many people given the squeamish nature of the majority of modern diners. 

I truly don't understand why people are averse to trying new things on their dinner plates. Using up as many parts of an animal just makes sense to me. If an animal needs to die for our dinner table, I believe it is our responsibility to use absolutely every morsel possible from that creature. People are getting better at understanding how we can reduce waste in other areas but I think have a long way to go with regard to the ethical use of animals as food. 

Pontificating aside, we absolutely adored this meal. While I forgot to get it in the picture, the mustard mayo was definitely a fabulous dipping sauce for these crunchy little feet and also for spreading on fresh bread at the end of the meal. I will admit to cheating with the mustard mayo and simply stirring some dijon through store bought mayonnaise. It was still wonderful. 

We actually shared two trotters between four of us which we felt was plenty of meat. The jellied meat was packed with flavour and dinner saw us all gnawing happily on the bones, groaning with delight as we inhaled the very crunchy crumb. 

As always, I will be continuing my war on waste by using the incredible stock in a tasty risotto for dinner tonight. 

How many times have I said this? Definitely another recipe I will be putting on repeat. I could have picked so many recipe books to cook my way through but I am so, so glad I picked this one x

574/1038 - Chocolate and caramel bread puddings

This recipe has been tantalising me for weeks now and having a friend over for dinner last night inspired me to finally put it on the menu. 

Crème caramel is a dish I have made many times and to date have never had an issue with the oozy caramel which covers the dessert as it is turned out of its mould. Sadly, my touch with oozy caramel came to an end last night, with a dig into this lovely little pudding revealing a layer of hard toffee which had hardened and did not want to budge. 

Thankfully the pudding was still lovely and of course my industrious and sugar hungry teenager still managed to eat his caramel, using the microwave and brute force to prise it out of the ramekin. 

I can hardly complain. 574 recipes and only a very small handful which have not turned out as expected. 

Not a bad strike rate x

6 years of fun

I think the image says it all! xx

573/1038 - Jerusalem artichoke tart

Another lot of gorgeous Jerusalem artichokes and another wonderful recipe. 

My cleaning method has definitely improved (enter the plastic scrubbing brush!) but the preparation of this many Jerusalem artichokes still takes up a good amount of time. If you are like me though, and adore the taste of this nutty and sweet vegetable, the effort is definitely a labour of love. 

The recipe instructed peeling and boiling the Jerusalem artichokes and then slicing them once soft. I thought I would be clever and as I cleaned and peeled, I also sliced each piece before putting them in the saucepan to boil. It was genius! Once soft, I simply turned the pot full of pieces out into a colander to drain, ready to be incorporated into the rest of the filling mixture.

It was dark when I got to the herb part of the recipe and I sent my eldest into the backyard with scissors and instructions to bring me some chives, a bay leaf and a good handful of parsley. Amusingly, he came in and handed me about four stems of parsley and had no idea why this didn't constitute a handful!

It goes without saying that the pastry was fabulous and seriously, how can you go wrong when you fill it with cream, herbs and one of your favourite vegetables?

Another happy evening of eating x