second cookout

today was battalion anniversary, so i woke up absurdly early in the morning to cook myself french toast for breakfast. and then to lido for an equally absurd movie called tropic thunder.

anyway, the afternoon was supposed to be a baking date with weijie, but it turned into a full-fledged dinner cookout. it's a nigellan feast, because all recipes, save for the fish, were from nigella.

first was my re-make of her pain-au-chocolat pudding, not that i did it her way the first time either. this time, i added some cocoa to the custard mixture, though i think it wasn't quite enough.
now that i've made it the second time, i do think i need to bake it a bit longer than required to get it to set into a firmer pudding.

next was the caesar cleopatra, from forever summer. it's the name she gives for a caesar salad which has chicken in it.
we cooked the chicken first, and then i made the dressing (which contains a raw egg yolk =/). the only problem was that it didn't actually taste like a caesar salad, and there was much much water in the washed lettuce, leading to a liquidy dressing.

the fish was just fish. no recipe, just fried on the pan.
it looked like a muscular stomach, with all the lines etched into the fillet. and full of bones too.

perhaps the crowning glory of the evening was the creamy potato gratin, from nigella bites. this, although a bit too salty, was dream-like; as nigella puts it: margin-blurring softness.
when we were cooking the potatoes in the cream and garlic, there was this constant waft of smell like the creamy pastas from pastamania! i think now we can cook the cream sauce for pasta... it was so exciting to see the cream bubble and boil as the gratin went through the blitz in the oven.

so, the dinner was assembled and served, and ended with dessert. probably have to learn about plating.
happy halloween - the festival of weiyangs! i am looking forward to another cookout that is coming very soon... and then the christmas ones!