That's entertainment

It's been a while, right? Where have I been?
Forgive me for my absence. I've been working on a lot of different things, and unfortunately I let the blog slide. 

On the bright side I have been baking/cooking, and I have been trying a few new things. 

Over the last couple of months I've had friends over for lunch, and it's been a lot of fun. On each occasion I thought it'd be a great idea to make almost everything from scratch. 

I don't know why I'm such a glutton for punishment, because each time I do this I run myself ragged. Personally, I feel you need to make as much yourself. Why invite someone to your home if you're only going to serve them something bought from the supermarket? 


It's the company? Well yes, of course. On the other hand, I crave foodie adoration. I need people to taste my food and tell me how much they enjoy it. It's a personal demon of mine, I can live with it. 

Recently I had a couple of friends over, who brought their delightful baby daughter with them. It was a brilliant late lunch. Why late? Well partly because I need the time to cook, and partly because my friend is permanently late. It amazes me she runs on 'Indian Standard Time' and she's English. 

What is IST? As a rule of thumb, most Indians will arrive at least 45 minutes after the stated start time. I've been to weddings where guests have arrived just as the reception was about to finish. Everyone expects this, and seemingly accept it. I can't stand it. It's disgustingly rude. Alas...

Back to the lunch. Almost any menu I prepare has to revolve around bread. Baking was the thing that brought me into cooking, and so I like to share bread with people. 

I thought I'd create as much for myself as possible and baked three different breads. As it was their first time at my home I had to bake my favourite loaf, the rosemary and potato boule. It's beautifully moreish. 

You pull off hunks of bread and slather it with hummus or olive oil. In my recipe I add onion seeds to give it that extra crunch and flavour. It's a bread I could eat every single day. 

I wanted something we could nibble on so I also went for a simple French ficelle. It's soft, it's flavoursome, and moist. Everything the dreaded dry breadsticks are not. 

I topped my ficelles with coarse sea salt and oregano. It's fresh, it's simple and it doesn't detract from the rest of the meal. 

I've always enjoyed the challenge of making a fougasse. It's a leaf-shaped French bake, which can be anything you want it to be. Top it with anything you want from herbs, cheese to tomatoes. 

The biggest challenge is to get the shape right. I'm still working on it, and for the sake of time I sacrificed the leaf for a more simple rectangle, with leaf-like slits.

This summer I've been on a bit of a pie kick. I don't know why, but I want to make pies all the time. It's odd considering pies are generally an autumn/winter bite. I tried to keep it all quite light and fresh. 

To that end I put together greek mini-pies, stuffed with spinach, feta, potatoes and pine nuts. Even with the potatoes it's not a heavy pie at all. 

Toasting the pine nuts before adding it the mix gives the pie an almost caramel nutty taste. 

To top it off it was back to baking. For dessert I went with one of my firm favourites, which you don't see much of here, and that's the Swedish kladdkaka chocolate cake. 

The beauty of the kladdkaka is that it's served on the verge of falling apart. It doesn't have the firmness of a cake, and it's even gooeyer than a straight-out-of-the-oven brownie. 

I'm still working on just the right consistency for the kladdkaka, and mine was perhaps a bit too gooey, but it certainly went down well. 

What would be on your lunch menu?