minced turkey with thai basil

Busy busy tonight. We're off to the Taylors country estate in Worcestershire for the weekend, which means tonight's culinary feast will have to be swifter than hell so we can pack and make a swift exit in the morning.

However things are even harder than predicted, mainly because I manage to lock Magda out, so there's no cleaning done this week - much to ana's chagrin - and I've got a small spot of bike maintenance to complete so Daviss can have his iron horse back in one piece.

Luckily we've got a super-quick thai minced turkey and lettuce leaf 'bowls'. Tonight they are presented ala buttercup:



Small eh? Sadly we've suffered a fatal-ish corruption of the memory card and no matter what recovery software I've used, it's still a bit wonky. Sorry

Takes about 10 minutes to make, which gives me plenty of time to finally make the custard for the rhubarb fool. It could've done with being a bit thicker, but for a first time (if you discount the time I tried making it with custard powder when I was about nine) it's ver-ry tasty. It's debatable whether ana will let me make a pudding consisting of double cream and full fat milk any time soon though...



Food of the Milos
Despite my original plan for ana to make a mini-portion of giovanni's sausages for tea, she decides to go off menu and he has sausage meatballs and pasta sauce. Given the B Granger takes 40 minutes, it's probably a good call.

sources
minced turkey with thai basil - Delicious, October 2009, p126

tomato, red onion and creme fraiche tart & plum salad with cranberry jelly

It being the weekend, we're entertaining tonight - woo! Actually it's a good "woo", because I haven't seen Jenni for ages and Kate and Rob(in) are always good company.

As it's almost summer, hearty stews are ruled out which is a bugger as they're usually excellent for feeding more than one guest, but but but - and a recent experimental tomato, red onion and crem fraiche tart might just do the job. Especially if I throw in a dessert and don't cock about with baking beads and shrinking pastry.

Luckily practice makes perfect, and this time it's aces - behold its baked, thyme-y genius!


For dessert (because it's fruit-based - thanks la Mitfords!), we have experimental Jilly Dupliex plum salad with homemade cranberry jelly, sprinkled with blueberries.


It's okay-ish. The plums, care of my mother, are brilliant but the jelly is only 99% set and three bottles of wine in, it's a little on the delicate side. People seemed to like it though, even if Kate looks like she's passing out:


Food of the Milos
The usual panoply of snacks, cheese, avocado, babyccinos and cake aside, today's highlight is dinner - an experimental polenta-based pineapple and salami pizza. He eats most of his portion, but to be honest daddy eats the majority ably assisted by the anas.


As it handily used-up the packet of polenta in the cupboard, I don't think we'll be having it again. Until I get a pizza stone that is, because that will guarantee it crisping.

sources
tomato, red onion and creme fraiche tart - Delicious, 2005 or 2006
plum salad with cranberry jelly - Jill Dupliex, Delicious, October 2007, p138
polenta pizza, I think I looked it up on the Delicious website?