Lamb involtini

A quick break from the holiday recaps - I am back in Australia, but have a few holiday related posts to come.  In the meantime, I have been doing some cooking!

The other night I made one of the most delicious dinners that I think I have ever made (a big call, I know).

Please excuse the messy plating, the red wine reduction ran everywhere! I used feta (instead of mozzarella and anchovies) and asparagus.  The feta worked really well - it held its shape, but was lovely and all melted to bite into.

The preparation was pretty simple, cut the lamb, pound the lamb so it is really thin and then roll with the stuffing.

A gratuitous shot of the cross section of the involtini. 

Baked by Melissa

Baked by Melissa - 3 for $1, and yes they are absolutely tiny, but awesome, because you can definitely eat several in one sitting!

mmm tapas

G and I threw ourselves into the Spanish lifestyle (that is, eating tapas, drinking sangria and partaking in daily siestas)!

Mercat de la Boqueria

I'm sure that many of you are familiar with Mercat de la Boqueria in Barcelona, and perhaps some of you have been lucky enough to go for a visit.

G and I enjoyed a morning wandering around the market, tasting some of the Spanish delights.

Fresh raspberry juice

G's fave - the jamon

All kinds of shellfish

A decent chilli selection

Not exactly sure what this is - definitely shellfish though

So much seafood

G enjoying a skewer of jamon

Not so delicious tripe!

A seafood dinner by the sea

After a lovely day on the beach in the riviera, G and I headed to an amazing looking seafood restaurant, and had to start with the oysters!

I enjoyed linguine with scampi - although getting the meat out of the scampi was a tad messy.

G loved his spaghetti with lobster - and the men at the table next to us pointed at his dinner and asked for the same.

Finally we ordered dessert - the waiter did not warn us that one dessert would be sufficient for both of us.  I ended up with a platter of creme brulee and G ordered what turned out to be a very large chocolate cake!

Slow Food Festival in Nice

G and I were lucky enough to be in Nice to enjoy a Slow Food festival, featuring chefs from Nice and Monaco. 

It was a very controlled event - there were french street food vendors (fries, mussels and crepes) all along the marina, and then there was a section of the marina that was limited to a certain number of people at a time - and that area was where the slow food stalls were.

G and I made it in after only a 20 minute wait and perused some of the stalls.  Each plate was 5 euros and below you can see the scampi and a dessert platter.

We also drank some good french wine (2 glasses for 5 euros) and met a lovely Italian-Swiss couple with whom we shared a table. 

Aside from the food there were some cool stilt walkers, floats and fireworks.  Aside from the slow food aspect we're not entirely sure what the festival was celebrating - but we sure had fun.

Cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris

So I know Le Cordon Bleu has cooking schools all over the world, but the one in Paris feels like its the right place to take a class!

We made a delicious quiche - using goat cheese as a significant part of the filling, with eggs and confit tomatoes.

Me whisking eggs for the quiche

The beautiful quiches

We also did a wonderful roasted sea bream, served with zucchini flan

Fish slice and stuffed - please note my knife skills.  I also did a good job of deboning and scaling - according to our Chef teacher (Fredo - not sure of his French name)

We didn't eat any of the food on the day (aside from necessary "quality control") so took home bags of food to enjoy.  Luckily our apartment in Paris came with a fridge, so we ate it over a couple of days.

G and I with our bounty

Me bruleeing up a storm