Weeks 8 & 9 – a week of welsh cooking

img_5752.jpgAfter finally catching up on my weekly blog posts, life and work got in the way and I ended up falling behind again … but I am back now with a brief overview of some of the highlights of the last two weeks, and my plans for some St David’s Day celebrations for the coming week.

First up was a trip to the German Gymnasium with Jo, which was my kind of gym! Located in Kings Cross, this restaurant is styled like a European bling brasserie, and although it offered a range of food we opted for German smoked sausages with mashed potato and sauerkraut.

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Then I couldn’t resist a portion of Black Forest Gateaux for pudding:

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I read some online reviews after visiting the German Gymnasium, and some were quite negative, most notably Jay Rayner’s review in the Observer. However, he visited the restaurant rather than the cafe we experienced in our visit, so I think it’s worth going for the cafe instead (and it’s cheaper!).

Now my kitchen is almost complete, I have been getting back into my cooking vibe. One of my favourite meals recently was smoked haddock on a bed of homemade potato rosti, with spinach, poached egg and hollandaise. Totally delicious:

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After a tiring trip to Paris for work, I rushed back on the Eurostar to prepare a meal for our Canadian friends who were visiting. I’d decided to make prawn cakes followed by salmon with salsa verde, and apple tart tatin for pudding.

Although it sounds ambitious, the three course meal was actually quite easy to make, except Andrew was building our new dining table in the middle of the kitchen whilst I was trying to cook:

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I got the apples caramelising whilst I laid out the tomatoes for the salmon dish:

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Then made a salsa verde (chopped capers, gherkins, mint, parsley, garlic and anchovies):

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Which I sandwiched between the chunks of salmon:

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Then I forgot to take any pictures until Andrew reminded me when I was dishing up the salmon:

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And then one of the lovely tart tatin:

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Over the weekend I fortified myself with some homemade peanut cookies with jam, whilst I planned my week’s menu:

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So on offer this week is:

  • Monday – leftover turkey and ham pie
  • Tuesday – lamb for St David’s Day, followed by crempogs
  • Wednesday – Anglesey eggs with Welsh gammon
  • Thursday – salmon steaks with laverbread
  • Friday – we’ll be out so nothing to cook tonight
  • Saturday – sausages with welsh potato and onion cake
  • Sunday – lamb stew with pearl barley (Andrew will be making this in my KitchenAid cook processor)

Do you have any plans, and will you be celebrating St David’s Day?

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