acpgee Member

For the broccoli custard I would try adding veg to chawanmushi (=Japanese savoury custard. Heatwave dinner was fuji apple with serrano ham, air fried store bought chicken meatballs and courgette, berry tart using pastry shells and creme patisserie made on the weekend.

The “too hot to cook” programme continues. Melon and serrano ham followed by “homemade” cappelletti pulled out of the freezer with store bought tomato sauce.

It’s too hot to cook. Last night I pulled out some cheats bouillabaisse base (tomato, onion, dashi flavoured with saffron and citrus peel) out of the freezer, poached some cod fillets in it and served with bread and alioli in the broth.

Another "too hot cook" menu. Cantalope with serrano ham followed by cheat's bouilliabaise. We had some of the soup base in the freezer and just poached some cod in it. We still had leftover rouille from last weekend and I baked a semi-brown focaccia in the air fryer. I constructed a berry tart with some of the tart shells…

Still in "too hot to cook" mode. Cheat's soupe au pistou made with a handful of frozen veg and a dollop of store bought pesto in each bowl. Second course were a few cappelletti from the freezer that I made a few weekends ago. It was made to use up leftover braised beef from a Chinese takeaway with some store bought gyoza…

I also have the OXO Good Grips food scale where the display bar pulls out if you want to use a large plate or cutting board on it. No memory I’m afraid.

Another quick hot weather dinner. Spinach soup augmented with leftover aji verde we had in the fridge. Potato gnocchi from a batch I made last month and pulled out of the freezer. Brown butter and sage as a sauce.

Oh, don’t bother with the piping bag which is a hassle to clean afterwards. Just use a teaspoon to fill the tart shells, smoothing with the back of the spoon.

@missboop23 If you are referring to the berry tarts here’s the recipe with my simplifying steps that shorten prep time to 20 minutes. If you use non stick tartlet tins with removable bottoms there is no need to grease the tins. There is no need to chill the dough. Flatten out 30g-35g dough balls with a tortilla press…

For any flat skin on fillets such as sea bream, or sea bass I pan fry medium to high two minutes skin side down and one minute skin side up. Dry the fish fillets with paper towel, season, then brush a little olive on the fish instead oiling the pan. Serve with a wedge of lemon or any tart sauce.

This is my favourite marinade for roast chicken. If you don't want to turn on the oven (because it is too hot) do chicken thighs or drumsticks in the air fryer. I normally make a bigger batch of the marinade. If you buy chicken pieces in bulk and portion into ziplock bags to freeze, freeze it in the marinade. The…

It's too hot to cook. Avgolemono soup motivated by needing to use up some leftover rice and to clear out some room in the freezer taken up by chicken stock. Greek salad to accompany that, though we didn't have any olives so I diced up some sun dried tomatoes instead.

Leftovers from Saturday. We had nasi inpit, lamb skewers and satay sauce leftover. Made extra air fried corn with leftover marinade for Cambodian street corn. Cucumber and tomato salad were made with with dressings we had in the fridge.

Bouillabaisse from Marseille is not served with cheese but Normandy fish soups with rouille is served with grated gruyere so feel free to add grated cheese if you don’t have to worry about alarming traditionalists.

I make cheat’s bouillabase when we have leftover garlic mayonnaise to use as rouille. You can add saffron and/or chilli flakes to colour your mayo. Spread it on toast to serve in/with the bouillabaisse and stir some into the broth for flavour. To make the soup base, gently fry off an onion and bulb of fennel to soften. If…

Salade Nicoise and cheat's bouillabaise a few days later using up up the leftover garlic/anchovy mayo as rouille.

I seem to do a lot of cheat's versions of classic French dishes. This is cheat's bouillabaise with a side of air fried courgette. Dessert was a blueberry tartlet using up the last of the blueberries.

A girlfriend came over for late lunch/early dinner before heading off to the theatre. Chinese turnip cake was pan fried tonight but made last weekend to start. Main of sous vide lamb satay from the freezer and Cambodian corn grilled in the air fryer. Fresh sides of cucumber salad, and compressed rice. Dessert was thai tea…

Another serving of cheat’s soupe au pistou where a drizzle of garlic/anchovy mayo was tasty but did nothing for looks. We had room for 3 beef cappelletti each in putanesca sauce afterwards. I made the cappelletti a few weekends ago to use up leftover braised beef from a Chinese takeaway with some gyoza wrappers and parked…

It's too hot to cook. Cheat's soupe au pistou is a quick and easy way to make a tasty vegetable soup when you don't have stock on hand. I normally boil up a handful of frozen mixed veg, a tin of white beans and a cubed fresh tomato and then add a big dollop of pesto to each bowl. The version we had tonight also contained a…

It's too hot to cook or eat. Cheat's soupe au pistou. Meant to use frozen vegetables, but the ones we bought at a convenience store had been clearly defrosted, spoiled and refrozen. Had to toss them. Found a carrot and half tomato in the fridge, a tin of chickpeas, and a handful of frozen peas to use instead. We had some…

If you google “Roma Sparita cacio e pepe” and choose images you will get photos from a famous restaurant in Rome that serves their cheese and pepper pasta in a Parmesan bowl.

Salade Nicoise and a blueberry tart using the last tartlet shell I baked on Saturday.

Tuna tartare with tiradito sauce and microwaved pappadoms for scooping. Second course of Nobu's dry miso salad (I bought the dry miso online instead of the faff of dehydrating it myself and used store bought fried shallot instead of deep fried leek) and Chinese turnip cake.

Papardelle aglio olio which the hubby found too spicy with air fryer roasted cherry tomatoes. Chicken saltimboca as a secondo. Dessert was a berry tartlet as we still have a few tart shells left over from the batch baked yesterday.

The girlfriend who cooked for us when I just got out of hospital last month came over for dinner. I made Hainese chicken rice again, because it is such an easy meal to scale up when you do the cheat's version. Use the rice cooker with chicken stock instead of water and cook the chicken at the same time on top of the rice.…

Pea shoot stir fry.

A dinner I liked, but the hubby was not crazy about. Air fryer Pok Pok wings, stir fried pea shoots, smashed cucumber with sesame dressing.

I have extra fresh mozarella leftover from a recipe. Any ideas on what to do with it, besides putting it in a sandwich?

This year I grew four trays of peashoots instead of just one on the balcony. This is the first time I could harvest enough for a Chinese stir fry.