I switched to a paid plan at my host recently. I hope everything was transferred smoothly and that all things still work as expected. Should you ever run into any problems, be sure to let me know. You can use the form under Contact Us or send an email to: webmaster[at]annas-playground[dot]info.
Within the next few days I hope that I will relaunch this blog with a new and updated theme, it’s long overdue already.
I’ve been exploring the use of dried fennel seeds lately, it’s a licorice flavor spice so it is rather hard to find a good use for it. Unless you wanna make something taste licorice that is 🙂 It has to be used with caution to just give that little vague extra touch that is hard to pin down.
So far I think I’ve been a little too cautious though, but I will get it right eventually.
Today I made whole sirloin (that’s what I think the part is called in English at least). I used black pepper, salt, fennel seeds and dried chervil to season the meat before putting it in the oven on low temperature (125 degrees Celsius).
When the inner temperature of the meat reached a little over 85 degrees Celsius it was done. Turned out lovely, and the “stock” that had formed in the bottom of the pan was full of flavour, perfect as a base for sauce, or to be used as is. I served it with potatoes au gratin, but I guess other variations of potato dishes will work well also.
I guess you’d like to know what amounts of spices I used as well 🙂 I used about 15 whole black peppers, roughly half a teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of chervil and around 10 fennel seeds. I crushed all the spices in a mortar to a rather fine powder and covered the meat with the spice mix. It won’t be a thick layer, just enough to rub it around the meat. The measurements aren’t exact as I didn’t check the amounts while doing it, they are just estimations.
Pannacotta is a dessert made of cream flavored with different things. The most traditional flavor is vanilla. Here is an alternative flavoring, together with the vanilla flavor.
To make a two layered pannacotta you need to think ahead and do the first part at least 10 hours before the planned serving time. This is because it needs 3-5 hours in the fridge to stiffen before you can poor on the next layer.
You can of course chose to serve any of them as a single layer, they are then enough to serve 4. The vanilla flavored can basically be served with any fruit you like.
For New Years eve we had a couple friends over for some dinner. We’ve done this a couple years now with them, this year we decided to try some ostrich. It was a very good choice, turned out very nice. The ostrich was served with potatoes au gratin and a couple variants of salads: cucumber salad and tomato and onion salad with mozzarella cheese.
We also had dessert, in the form of a pannacotta (an Italian dessert) with orange salad. The orange salad was flavoured with cinnamon and star anise. The recipe for the pannacotta and orange salad will come soon The recipe for the pannacotta can be found here 🙂 Read the rest of this entry »
I just want to wish you all
