A Plate of Good Food

My adventures in the kitchen and other things

A Great Weekend Dinner

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Last weekend was a blur of rain, sun, cooking and catching up with friends. We had two very good friends over for dinner on Sunday. The one thing that both Peter and I knew we wanted on the table was a nice roast leg of lamb. We’d made this for the first time as part of the main course for our Christmas dinner last year and have fallen in love with it ever since. Making a roast at the start of spring may sound a little odd but believe me, slowly roasted, meltingly tender meat can be had anywhere, anytime. And, isn’t roast lamb a part of Easter tradition? 😉

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Inspired by MasterChefs

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The BBC ‘MasterChef‘ series is one of my favourite tv shows. It’s a competition for both amateur cooks and professional chefs (in mutually exclusive series of course) and a new winner is crowned the MasterChef Champion each year. I really enjoy the witty banter of hosts/judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode while the contestants are scurrying around trying to create master pieces in the middle of utter chaos. It makes for some exciting, nerve-wracking, awe-inspiring moments that makes you want to get into the kitchen and whip up a MasterChef-worthy recipe immediately!

So, you can imagine my joy when we were in a bookstore recently and I found ‘MasterChef at Home’. The book brings together some of the best recipes from winners and participants of the 2010 competition. It also has recipes by Michel Roux Jr, the renowned chef, who’s a judge on the MasterChef Professional series and some handy kitchen skill masterclasses from his trusted aide, Monica Galetti. [Read more…]

Celebrating the World Cup with Samosas & Tea

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April 2nd, 2011 will go down as a momentous day in the history of Indian cricket. On this day, the Indian cricket team trounced the Sri Lankans to bring home the cricket World Cup once again after 28 long years.

And how did we witness this great event unfold? Unfortunately, not a single sports channel on our Irish cable network was showing the match. We watched it via online streaming which wasn’t the best experience but we savoured the various heartbeat-stopping, nail-biting moments along with some hot samosas and cups of steaming hot Indian tea. Whoever said cricket is a boring, long and slow game! [Read more…]

Baked Ricotta Cheesecake with Strawberries in a Balsamic Vinegar Syrup

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Trying to decide on a topic for your first post is not an easy task. One of the ideas I had for this post was to write about my recent week-long visit to San Francisco where I had a blast exploring the city and trying out different places to eat.  I’d even meticulously put together a list of cafes and restaurants to visit in the city. Eventually,  jet lag combined with general fatigue meant that I didn’t end up visiting all of those places.

However, one of the highlights of our visit was the dinner we had with a good friend at the highly recommended Cheesecake Factory in Union Square. The cheesecake we had in addition to other ginormous (just love this word!) quantities of food was heavenly! Luscious and silky smooth, it was like no other cheesecake I’d ever tasted before.  So when one of my friends suggested that maybe I should start off with a cheesecake recipe, I thought why not! The taste of that cherry cheesecake still lingers on in my memory and I thought I could attempt to evoke it by trying out a nice one myself if I could find an interesting recipe.

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