Jamie Oliver's No 1 toasted cheese sandwich

I usually don't watch very much TV, except of course the Great British Bakeoff. But lately I have been stuck in front of the telly quite a bit as I have been knitting again after a long break (the results will be on show on the crafting blog at some point). One evening I happened to sit in front of the telly when Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food was on. When I saw him make this "No 1" toasted cheese sandwich I immediately knew I had to try it. We didn't have any bread at home, so to make my dreams come true I had to start by baking my own bread. I decided to make this oats and honey sandwich bread (although Jamie recommends using a simple white bloomer). 

I assume I don't need to tell you that eating one of these will probably decrease your life expectancy by at least a few months... But this blog is not called InvisiblePinkHealthFood, and bread and cheese are my ultimate cravings so I just had to try it. I won't say it will become a staple in our kitchen, I think I need to give my arteries a decade or so to recover but it was worth trying. I suspect other grilled cheeses will seem a bit plain after making this. I even dare to suggest that I have improved on a Jamie Oliver original recipe as we decided to add some chorizo to the sandwich - you can go plain and do it the Jamie way, or take it up a notch with the added chorizo.

Jamie Oliver's No 1 Toasted Cheese Sandwich (for 1):
2 slices of bread
butter
grated cheese (suggestions cheddar and Red Leicester)
(a few slices of chorizo)

The howto:
Butter the bread slices on both sides. Grate a generous amount of cheese onto one slice, and add the optional chorizo. Place the other slice on top. Toast the sandwich in a pan over medium heat, about 3 minutes per side. This should result in a golden brown sandwich with gooey melted cheese inside. Weigh the sandwich down with a plate or something else similar while it's cooking. Remove from the pan and grate a thin layer of cheese into the pan, making sure you cover the entire surface of the pan. This will make the cheese crown of the sandwich and is the crowning (pun intended) glory of this sarnie. Place the sandwich back into the middle of the pan and let the cheese cook for about a minute, until it has melted and formed a uniform "mat". At this point you can add a pinch of cayenne to the cheese. Then slide a flipper spatula under the sandwich, making sure the whole cheese "mat" is holding together. Gently lift the whole shebang up, so that the cheese "mat" hangs down over the edges of the spatula. Keep it lifted for about half a minute, until the cheese has set, and when you turn the sandwich around, the hardened cheese will form a "crown" for the sandwich. Serve with brown and/or red sauce and/or some chutney.

The verdict:
This is just as good as you would imagine it is. Possibly a tad better. If you are not big on bread and cheese, don't try this. It tastes like bread and cheese. To the umpteenth power. And it's glorious! Like I said, I don't think I will be making it very often as it probably contains a week's allowance of calories, but it's worth every one of those calories. I can imagine this is the ultimate hangover food but it's also great for a decadent weekend brunch. 

This little piggy

Another lazy Saturday after a hectic week at work. I am in such a motivational slump right now, I just keep wishing I didn't have to work. But unfortunately there are bills to pay and all that. At least I'm getting back to the gym routine again, I surprised myself yesterday with surviving a Pump and Attack back to back combo. Today I'll let my poor body have a break, and tomorrow it's Combat and Pump. I am looking forward to getting back into shape, I can't wait to get rid of all this muscle pain after every workout. Also, as soon as I'm back to the gym, I find it a bit easier to motivate myself to eat healthier. Next week hopefully I'll be able to stick to chicken and veg all the way. Maybe with a little cheeky biscuit or chocolate snuck in between at some point. I just need a bit of sugar to get me through the day at work. That's a bit sad, isn't it?

The Culinary Consultant is very fond of big chunks of meat. Any meat, and the bigger the better. For me that means I have had to learn how to cook said huge mountains of meat. Last weekend when we were grocery shopping, this huge chunk of pork shoulder joint somehow made it into our shopping basket. My plan was to cook it in my Le Creuset in the oven. However, turns out I have misplaced my beloved purple friend. I'm sure he is up somewhere in the loft as that is the only place left with some unopened moving boxes. So I had to device a plan B for the pork. Plan B is always google. I happened upon this recipe for 6 hour roasted pork shoulder from Jamie. I thought Jamie probably knows what he is talking about, so I went with this recipe. Unfortunately it was about 5pm before I had a chance to get the piggy into the oven so we had to settle for leftovers from the day before for dinner, and only got a chance to try the pork the next day. Note to self - if you are going to cook slow roast pork, get it going in the morning. Also note to self, if cooking pork, the house will smell disgusting for the next few days. 

Slow roast pork (serves many, or two people for a week...)

Pork shoulder (about 2kg, Jamie's recipe says keep the bone in for added flavour, our chunk of meat was boneless but it still worked quite well)

sea salt

black pepper

The howto:

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C. First you are supposed to make incisions into the skin to have somewhere to rub the salt into. I'm very glad our porky already had some incisions made into the skin, as none of my knifes would cut into the skin. Apparently you need a scalpel or something similar to be able to make the incisions. You can also get your butcher to do it if you buy from a butcher's shop. Rub salt and pepper all over the meat and transfer into a roasting tray. Roast for half an hour to get the skin all crispy, then reduce oven to 190 degrees C, cover the dish with foil and roast for 4.5 hours. At this point, Jamie suggests to add veggies and roast for another hour. I skipped this last bit as it was past 10pm. The pork still turned out very juicy and tender. For the last 15 minutes, I upped the temperature back to 220 degrees C and removed the foil to crisp up the skin a bit more.

The verdict:

I probably should have written this part after having the pork for the first time, not after having eaten nothing but pork for a week. But the pork turned out nice and tender, although I have to admit pork is not my favourite meat because of the flavour of the pork fat. However, if you are a fan of pork, this is a really great way to cook it for juicy and very tender meat. We made some really delicious sandwiches with cole slaw, pickled cucumber and tomatoes. The Culinary Consultant also thoroughly enjoyed the crackle, I had a taste and it was nice and crisp, although a bit too porky for my taste.

Card(s) of the day:

These cards have been around for a while, but I never got around to blogging about them. The idea is based on a card from Darlene Design I found on Pinterest which I think is gorgeous. I was also inspired by many amazing cards using distress ink backgrounds.

For the foreground I used the Kanban clear stamp (Its a set with two floral stamps, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have any name. I bought mine from Hobbycraft) on white cardstock. I stamped using Tim Holtz embossing ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I applied Tim Holtz distress inks for the background using a foam applicator. I then spritzed with PefectPearls mixed in water from a MiniMister. For the background panels I used the Tim Holtz Old Script stamp and repeated it as many times as needed to cover the panels using Black Soot or Walnut Stain distress inks. Again, I used distress inks with a foam applicator to colour the panels, adding some Vintage photo around the edges for an aged look. For matting, I used random scraps of leftover paper, many of the ones you see are actually gift wrapping paper (used) that I recycled for this project. To finish, I used my Fiskars butterfly stamp to add some butterflies, and some rhinestones for a bit of bling. My definite favourite is the blue-pink-green colour combo, I think it turned out nicest. For the card on the separate photo, I made an origami bow using instructions here.

Steak ciabatta

Cooking hasn't been very strongly on the menu lately (if you excuse my pun). I spent last week unemployed. Well, if you can call a week of vacation between jobs unemployment. I spent my week cleaning out my old apartment and then cleaning the Culinary Consultant's bachelor pad. And more often then not, while scrubbing walls/floors/bathtubs/sinks (you get the drift) I felt like moving in together might not have been the best decision. And I'm still worried about the exponential increase in housekeeping and gardening time when we move into the new place. But worrying about it won't help. And this week has been a bit easier as I haven't had any time to either clean or worry. First week at the new job. Immediately on the first day there was so much to do. So much new things to learn. I hardly notice when lunch-time comes around. I was worried that after my last job which was moving at the pace of a snail in glue, I wouldn't be capable of working ever again. But seems like the more there is to do, the more I get done. And I realise it's still early days, and I'm getting away easily working on only one project, I am looking forward to really getting my claws into the work.

Possibly the most monumental change is still coming. I have realised this week there is now way I can keep going to my old gym. I was determined to make it work somehow, but after not getting home before nine pm any night that I have been going to the gym, I have realised that I simply have to give it up. I can't spend several hours a day travelling to or from the gym. I am devastated about having to give up my instructors, they are just the best in the world. It is a bit of a comfort that the new gym will have significantly lower membership fees than my current one. And a really cool spa with different saunas, foot baths and scented showers (yes, I was like 'wooot?' too!). So maybe it will work out (again, sic). 

In the spirit of I have hardly spent any time awake at home this week, this isn't really a recipe. It's more like a quickie dinner idea. It turned out rather delicious so I felt I shouldn't keep it from you. 

Steak and pesto ciabatta (serves 2-3):
1 ciabatta (I used one with olives)
3 tbsp tomato pesto (or any other pesto you happen to have around)
6 cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp mayo (I used 1 tbsp herb and garlic mayo and 1 tbsp regular)
1 gigantic rump steak the size of your ciabatta
butter and olive oil for cooking the steak
salt and pepper for seasoning

The howto:
Heat your frying pan until really hot. Add butter and olive oil onto the pan, and add the steak. Cook for one minute, turn and cook for another minute. Season. Wrap in foil and let rest for five minutes. While the steak is resting, half the ciabatta lengthwise and add pesto and tomatoes to one side and mayo to the other. Add the meat (I poured the cooking juices onto the ciabatta as well). Cut into slices and enjoy immediately.

The verdict:
Well, this isn't exactly haute cuisine. But it's quick, easy and rather tasty. Nothing like a big slab of red meat every once in a while when you drag yourself home exhausted after the gym. And after paying quite a lot for my slab of meat, I was very relieved I managed to cook it to a perfect medium. I don't have the best track record of cooking meat. But this time I had really good advice from the nice gentleman at the meat counter at Waitrose. We got to chatting, and turns out he used to live in Helsinki for a while! It's a small world after all.