Rabbit and venison parpadelle

On Sunday, when the Lodgers where exceptionally hungover, Laura decided to do a J. Oliver (from this book which her sister sent up from London). We like him. And we like the book. No shame.

The dish turned out beautifully, at least in the opinion of yours truly. And here it is:



I wouldn't call this a summer dish, but things like these are needed sometimes, independently of the season.

Season of Risotto

Following a recent acquisition of an outstanding cookbook on risotto, the last few weeks have been a proper season of risotto at the Lodge's outpost in Australia.

A personal favourite is the Strawberry Risotto. Yes, strawberries, I do concur: the very thought seems one reeking of the air of insanity. Yet, despite appearances, this dish is a dark horse.

Other notable dishes of late include: Rocket Risotto ...



Leek and Pancetta Risotto ...



And last but not least, Beetroot Risotto ...



Incidentally, the aforementioned cookbook was bought at Books for Cooks in Melbourne. A further proof to my claim that Melbourne is a fine place for gastronomical adventures.

The Logde Goes 'Down Under'

As a resident of the Gorging Lodge, albeit an absent one, I felt obliged to contribute a share of my gastronomical adventures in exotic places. Let me begin with a short story about breadmaking.

Despite a different sky above, bread-making in Australia is more or less the same as anywhere else. However, two facts are worth relating. First, the supply of fresh yeast is scarce. In fact, so scarce that I have not yet managed to find a monger in Melbourne willing to trade an ounce for any amount of Australian dollars. For that reason, all my breads have been the product of dried yeast, which anyone passionate about their bread knows well to be of lesser merit.

Secondly, my oven is a charming artefact of the early twentieth century. Regrettably, although abundant in aesthetics, our piece of machinery falls short functionally. Yes, not only are its controls foul to master, it also lacks all means of thermometrics. Indeed, my first few baking attempts resembled my tragic efforts to get the better of certain fretless string instruments. However, once I had procured a remarkable little gizmo of oven thermometery, those obstacles became none of consequence whatsoever.

The result, a classic garlic bread ...



The wonderful wee gadget that brought it all about, an oven thermometer ...

Inactivity

Why have we not posted here for a while? A lot of stuff has been going on in the Lodge. It's definitely not the lack of great meals and the like which has caused this lapse. Laura made us a fantastic lamb-dinner for easter, and we've had a lot of good food in general. But I'm sure TGL will be updated soon. 

Guest Cook, Whiskey and Planting Lettuce

A good friend of the Lodge, Paula, had long been committed to visiting us as a guest cook. I for one was really excited, since I knew Paula to be an excellent cook from parties that she has held. Her style is usually mainly Italian; but this time she had decided to do a Scottish menu, since - well, since she's Scottish and we never get to eat this kind of stuff. So, we were treated to cauliflower and blue cheese soup, haggis stuffed chicken breast with pancetta and "rumple dithymps" (basically mashed potatoes and white cabbage), and kranachan for dessert. It was a great meal! The Lodgers ended up drinking whiskey and talking philosophy until 6 am - my own state is documented here.

The next day, I was incapable of doing anything requiring mental activity, so I decided to plant some lettuce outside in these boxes that I bought in Woolworth's for about £1.50 each. Very excited! Today, I saw the first tiny shootings, and I'm convinced that in a month's time, we'll have a load of homegrown lettuce for salads. All in all, last weekend was great!

Baking and raw meat

We're a bit behind in the posting game here, but I really wanted to post these three things before the next round of great stuff still to hit TGL. First, for Andri's farewell dinner, Laura cooked a meat-theme meal, the starter of which was this carpaccio. Elia and me (and I think the rest) agreed that it was almost perfect (except perhaps for a millilitre of too much lemon juice). We had it with the focaccia here as well.

Later that week, I rediscovered baking in tins, which is actually a great thing, although for many years I didn't do it. At this point, I still had some fresh yeast and I used a left-over of yogurt, which I always find makes the bread really nice. Andri taught me a trick of how to fold up the dough in a way so that when it gets baked in the tin it becomes really evenly shaped and gets this line at the top which one knows from the bakery shops. Great stuff, indeed.

Burns Night!

I had bought haggis in Pitlochry (I went there with a freind who was visiting Scotland) because they told us a story of them being the best haggis in Scotland. I bought them for Elia although he had promised to make me try them long time before. So he proposed to make burns night at home. The Haggis preparation in it self is quite easy- just boil them. But Elia made the best mash potatoes ever, though I persistently objected to the long and complicated process he chose. I made some onion gravy to go with it. And some honey roast parsnips. It was great!