Kitchen Chemist

The Week   Eiffel Tower The week started with a trip to France. Flying, but not quite a flying visit. Time for 2 dinners and 1 lunch, and a quick stroll to the Eiffel Tower. The food was okay, perhaps not the best choice of restaurants to highlight Paris's culinary leadership. The restaurant on the second night was the better venue, and they managed to pull a vegetarian option out of the bag for a colleague. My meal of mushroom and gnocchi, veal steak on the bone, and stuffed brie definitely surpassed his carrot mousse for started and assiette of vegetables (carrots again). An M&S microwave curry for the weary traveller, a particularly weary traveller with no quick meals of his own in the freezer. Note to self, don't bother with M&S microwave curries again. Friday - Or Fishday For the past few years I have tried various methods of getting fresh (or freshly frozen) fish. There is no fishmonger where I live, or where I work. Prior to the arrival of ...

Onion soup hiding beneath giant cheese croutons Flu between Christmas and the return to work robbed me of the culinary fun I had planned. My wife picked up the slack, cooking through until the 5th when I made my return to the chef's role. Sea bass, roasted with garlic and lemon, and served with an uncomplicated tomato pasta. Saturday continued the revival, and a delicious but simple Onion Soup. 6 onions, sliced and sautéed in butter for 30 minutes. A pint of stock and a pint of cider. Slow simmering and reduction for 2 hours. The cheese croutons soak up most of the juice, and boiling hot from the broth and the molten cheese are somewhat tricky to eat first.    Raspberry lemon sauce pudding No weekend would be complete without a roast, and a delicious leg of lamb from Denstone Hall Farm Shop didn't disappoint. Enough left over for a curry. Pudding was the wonderful Raspberry Lemon Sauce Pudding . One of the many in the repertoire of my mother-in-law, ...