Handmade Venison Ravioli

Venison ravioli

I have made pasta a few times and each time it becomes a little easier with practice. Making fresh egg pasta takes you back to your primary school days and memories of pulling play dough through a machine to make a vaguely monster like model of your mum. This is far more sophisticated, but just as fun! The trick is to allow yourself enough space and perhaps request an extra pair of hands be on standby. Alternatively, why make it difficult! Just split your dough into smaller lumps. Sometimes the best answers are the obvious ones.

Individual Black Forest Gateau

Great British Chefs is a really good website that we often use for inspiration when trying to think of new ideas. Often you can use websites like this to find new flavour combinations and techniques and use them in your own way. However when we came across this recipe for individual Black Forest Gateau which looked so complex and time consuming, we didn't think it needed tampering with at all. There are lots of techniques and components that we have never heard of before so it was a bit of a challenge. It was very time consuming, but the end product was really rich, chocolatey and very tasty.

Stollen Roulade

This is our first post for a while, after a very busy Christmas! This post is probably a little late now as Stollen is usually something eaten at Christmas. But this recipe is good enough that you should give it a try anytime, not just at Christmas. It is a spicy, fruity, bready and sweet treat which is well worth the effort required to make it. The Germans were definitely on to a winner when they came up with this one!

Goan Fish Curry

Goan fish curry

Goan food is a feast for the eyes and the soul as we discovered on our travels to India in 2011. Eating in a restaurant alongside the palm trees and white sand, surrounded by shop fronts where you can select your fish and cooking style, made for a culinary treat difficult to emulate at home.
The warmth of the welcome and the hearty food marry together in a delicious bowl served on a low beach table and help you forget any troubles as you dig into a bowl of coconut, ginger and tamarindy goodness!

Latvian Honey Cake

Latvian Honey Cake

This delightfully different cake recipe was given to me by a lady on my Bettys cookery course. She was Latvian and very forthcoming with her country's recipes and techniques, even bringing a finished cake for us all to sample and a handout. This additional 'bonus' recipe is actually one of the most interesting and delicious recipes to come out of the course and it proves that sometimes it is the unexpected sources which bring us inspiration. This cake is so easy to make and looks spectacular- a leaning tower of honey.

Steak Bearnaise

I have always been a bit dubious about having any kind of sauce with my steak. If I'm going to eat a steak, then I want to be able to taste every last bit of it without it being masked by some other flavourings. To be honest, I'm not sure what changed in my thoughts, but I decided to try steak with a Bearnaise sauce. I think it was more to do with the desire to practice a new technique rather than the actual final dish. Perhaps not the most sensible of ideas but it did come out really well and we both really enjoyed this.

Paris Brest

The Paris Brest is a relatively simple French pastry treat made using a ring of choux pastry filled with a praline flavoured cream. Following the success of our Tarte Tatin, we have continued our education of pastry making by focusing on choux. In some ways this is a more simple kind of pastry because you don't need a delicate touch or certain technique when handling it. But because it is cooked twice, once in a pan and then in the oven, it is a slightly tricky process which relies on a certain level of concentration! Our effort was far from perfect but we think we know where we went wrong, so hopefully next time will be better. For now though, this was very tasty and did look the part.