Award winning marmalade

The certificates came through today, showing I won Gold and first prize in the Manmade marmalade category! Click through to http://www.marmaladefestival.com/ for all the details.

Back in early February, making the marmalade

Full marks in all categories!

Moro paella

A new recipe for paella, and a new paella pan

Started by browning some pork fillet, then added chorizo, pepper and onions

Softend the 'soffrito' for about 20 minutes before adding the rice, smoked paprika and chicken stock

Finished with spinach, and the pork

Served with a lemon wedge and a tomato salad

Chocolate and raspberry terrine

Making a feuilletine base for a chocolate and raspberry terrine - crushed wafers, homemade praline and milk chocolate

Trimmed, then layered with raspberries and a chocolate and hazelnut sauce

Looked very pretty when finished

Tricky to cut, but the slices looked great and tasted even better

Steak salad

Any salad for which the main ingredient is steak sounds good to me

Sirloin was marinaded in ginger, oyster sauce, soy and dry sherry, then briefly griddled. Served with avocado, mango, coriander, rocket and a soy and fish sauce dressing

Duck and venison terrine

Slicing lean venison and duck breast for a terrine

Served with cornichons and red wine

Tartiflette

Reblochon, potatoes, onions and pancetta, served bubbling hot with some cornichons

Lunch for one

Stilton, cheddar, grapes and some chutney

I'm getting very addicted to the homemade 'hot hedgerow chutney' I was given for Christmas, and starting to panic as my supplies run lower

Monday night treat

Some double smoked gammon with a fried egg, potato wedges and broccoli

Plenty of pork

Sixteen for lunch, so challenged myself to do a roast

This required starting with a piece of pork so large that the bathroom scales were pressed into service

A nervous moment, as it just squeezed into the oven

Cooked at a very low heat for about 14 hours . . .

. . . until it was meltingly tender, and could be 'carved' with a fork

A great recipe, which I'd definitely do again. Crisp crackling, tender pork, and the stuff at the bottom was confit-ed almost like rillettes

Lemon linguine

Simple, tasty, and with admirably few ingredients, a lemon linguine a la Nigella

Duck

Roast duck breast with potatoes, green beans and a redcurrent and Seville orange sauce

Marmalade making

Thinly slicing two kilos of seville oranges

Ho hum

Adding sugar, after cooking the sliced peel, juice and water for a few hours

Decanting after setting

Half way there . . .