My Pan Bagnat

I've always fancied having a go at doing a pan bagnat but was never keen on the filling that is traditionally used. The two fat ladies do something similar but with steak and onions and call it the shooters sandwich. The thing I was looking forward to the most was wrapping it up and pressing it under a couple of bricks!

I started with a round bread called pain de champagne, I doubt there was any champagne in it but it was the nice round shape I needed. I cut the top off and reserved for later to use as a lid, then hollowed the bread out.

Instead of butter or spread I used pesto to cover the base and lid, then I begin to fill it. Mozzarella went in, followed by salami, this was covered by rocket, then some creamy garlic mushrooms I had made, followed by more salami, topped with the last of the mozzarella, then some sun blushed tomatoes with their oil and finally the lid. I thinrk next time I would buy a bigger loaf of bread I reckon the more you put in it, the better it will be; or maybe I am just greedy!

It was then wrapped it up in greaseproof paper, tied with string and placed it in the fridge where it was pressed under my griddle pan and 2 bricks from the garden.
The much awaited unveiling produced quite a flat sandwich, perhaps 2 bricks was 1 too many! When it was cut into quarters it made for quite a pretty sandwich. We both enjoyed it, me three quarters more than Richard (yes I did eat 3/4s of it but not all at once!) Richard pointed out that he wouldn't put pesto at the bottom again as he felt it was a bit soggy in places.
I think it's something I would certainly do again perhaps trying different fillings, we came up with a list of things we would like to try:

meatballs, tomato sauce and cheese

chicken stroganoff

BLT, but that would take some amount of bacon.

Hestons Tagliata Steak

Richard sent me this recipe the other day and decided it was something we should try, probably because I have this ridiculous love feast going on for rocket and because it included steak topped with cheese. If you top anything with cheese Richard will eat it - including he says shit! This is the man I am marrying, how proud I am!

Following @BigSpud on twitter, I noticed that he too had tried it. Which I thought was a big coincidence but apartly there has been advertisements about it all over the place, which I haven't seen, 1 because we don't have waitrose in Scotland and 2 because I sky plus everything as I hate adverts!

I got 2 lovely sirloins from Andrew Gordons and made Richard do the frying, because I am such a girl and scared of hot oil!

I have to say although the steak and indeed the recipe was delicious I just don't think there is such a big difference from Hestons near deep frying method and my usual oil to meat, meat to dry griddle pan, but hey Heston is a genius is he not?

Richard also commented when eating it that it smelt nice, which prompted me to ask, "does that mean it doesn't taste nice?" He assured me it did, he was just saying is all!

Scallops with black pudding, crispy bacon and rocket

Before we indulged in the fillet steaks from Andrew Gordon, we had a simply starter of scallops served on rocket, with black pudding, crispy bacon and a warm balsamic dressing - need I say more?

Various dinners over the week

Tomatoes and rocket on toast with markies garlic and parsley prawns

Chicken stirfry - which rich made and it was awesome! He's much better at stir fries than me!

Chicken Kiev, markies ultimate mash (which is indeed ultimate) and spaghetti.

Chicken breast stuffed with charles macleod black pudding - the best black pudding in the world!

Markies chicken legs and thighs, washed down with wine - delicious!

Wednesday 7th April - Quiche, Sweetcorn, chips with Rocket and grated cheese

Tonight I had a dinner that had even Richard suffering from food envy! An individual bacon quiche, accompanied with sweetcorn - which I love Rich hates. I had 100g of chips which equaled about 7 chips! Finally finished off with some greens, half a bag of rocket with a little low fat cheese grated over it. It was some plate of food and I really enjoyed it. Something I will have again in the future.

Sunday 4th April - Roast Pork Rolls

Sunday when I was traveling back up from Edinburgh, needing a liver transplant and yet still drinking - well the weekend wasn't actually over - Richard was cooking a lovely leg of pork. Which he shredded up and we had in rolls with the usually bunch of Rocket. Not quite a roast dinner but it hit the spot and we accompanied it with even more wine.

Wednesday 31st March - Markies ready Meal - Canjun Chicken Fettucini Pasta

Tonight was back to be lazy, but in my defense I had to nip down the town late night shopping, to get my eyebrows threaded and visit my friend Babs who is recovering from her operation to have her appendics out!






To be honest the cajun chicken fettucini was rotten, but half a bag of rocket, some cheese and a good grind of salt and pepper manage to make it edible, I won't be buying it again.

Tuesday 30th March - Macaroni and cheese

Tonight you'll be surprised in that I have eventually made our dinner from scratch.





I started off with a white sauce, by melting butter, adding flour and cooking it out. I gradually added milk to make a white sauce, boiling it gently to thicken it, adding a wee bit of mustard (which Rich always moans about but I do it anyway!). Then I added half of the grated cheese, I like to use a really mature white cheddar.



I boiled some pasta and made some breadcrumbs and the dish was ready to assemble and bake. Because it was only for two of us I made it in individual portions, I'm a bit sad like that!



I mixed the pasta with the white - now cheese sauce - topped with bread crumbs and the rest of the grated cheese and popped it into the oven to crisp up. The crispy topping is the best part!



I had rocket with mine to break it up - we all know by now Richard didn't!!

It was delicious!!