Beetroot soup

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Mascarpone with rum and lime cream

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Chicken with spring onion and greek yoghurt

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Beetroot salad

I bought some beetroot the other day, and we are off to france for xmas in a couple of days (assuming the eurostar starts up again!) so i needed to use them up.  This salad was simple, delicious and nutritious - i would highly recommend it - and i don't really like beetroot.  Just tara's kind of food as well - she loved it!

- Process good handfuls of mint and coriander together.
- Add the grating blade to the processor and grate 3-4 peeled beetroots.
- Toss these in a bowl with the herbs and the juice of a lemon.
- Top with greek yoghurt or creme fraiche and toasted mustard seeds.

Hazelnut cake

Clare and some friends of hers came round to the house for tea before going off to Matt, Dan and Ginny's xmas party, so i made this hazelnut cake - although we did already have the remnants of tara's delicious banana cake and our night nanny's homemade mince pies she brought round the other day.  This recipe requires such a lot of egg whites that i would never make it again unless i happened to have loads of egg whites left over.

- Whisk 8 egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon salt until stiff peaks.
- Mix 285g ground hazelnuts with 300g caster sugar and fold this into the egg whites and add zest 1 orange or lemon.
- Gradually sift 85g flour into the mixture, folding it as you go.
- Put the mixture into a 20cm cake tin and bake for 50 mins at 175C or until a skewer comes out clean.

I think i slightly overdid mine, even though i knocked off 10 mins from nigella's 1 hour time.  It did have a lovely chewy texture from all those egg whites, and its nice to use ground hazelnuts which give a much nuttier flavour than almonds.  It's quite a plain cake, so i made a quick raspberry sauce to go with it.



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Steak Mirabeau

I've just cooked this for myself while tara is out buying a winter coat, in a snow storm, and marni is sleeping soundly like the dove she is.  This must be a new fastest record - it took me about 7 mins.  1 min to heat the oil and butter, 2-3 mins each side  for the steak, and 1-2 mins for the sauce.

- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a pan on a high heat.
- When hot and foaming, add 4 fillet or sirloin steaks, and cook for 3 mins either side (for medium-rare done).
- Add black pepper and remove to a plate.
- Criss-cross each steak with 2 anchovy fillets and add halved black olives to the 4 quarters.
- Add 4 anchovy fillets to the pan juices, mash up, then add 1 glass red wine and reduce.
- Add to the steaks and serve.

Nigella seems to love olive and anchovies with her steaks and it does seem to work.
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Quick custard

Nigella has 2 recipes for custard and this is the quick foolproof custard.  Although actually i found the previous method nigella used easier, mainly because i couldn't seem to thicken the custard without putting it back on the heat.

- Heat 600ml double cream with the seeds of a vanilla pod and the empty pod until boiling point.
- Whisk together 5 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon cornflower, and 2 tablespoons sugar.
- As the cream boils, pour onto the egg mixture, whisking continously for about 10 mins until thick.

I gave up whisking after about 10 mins, and just put it back on the hob for a couple of mins, stirring constantly.  It made delicious custard (i think the double cream helps!) which went perfectly with the bakewell tart.

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