We talked the other day about the venison you had bought - where on earth did you get it? And buying venison liver is pretty brave. I've never cooked venison liver - we used to feed it to Pepper the Wonder Dog and I don't care much for live in general except the fatted variety.
So I said marinate the liver like I would do tuna steaks - seems to me the texture is about right and dry like good tuna.

And you did this: Lightly seasoned flour, high heat, fried the steaks for about 2 mins each side in olive oil. Rare and delicious. Added the liver (marinated for a day in lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary and garlic) about half way through. Very nice. Still quite livery but a nice contrast with the steak.  Deglazed with red wine, beef stock and some redcurrant jelly. Served with oven roasted new potatoes and carrots.

Sounds opulent and your gravy sounds divine - where do you keep all those ingredients in your tiny kitchen??
In the freezer we have some venison burger meat and perhaps some mystery parcels which must be quite old. As long as one of them isn't Guido...
I looked for venison liver images online and most looked quite revolting (and many are for dog food) the most appetizing one was from a slimming journal - really??
I have a project - or a continuation of a project, which is to empty the large freezer.
More later

Mama

Sylvie,

You mentioned making arancini: I made arancini this weekend. Actually not that delicious. Don’t know why. Good risotto, stuffed it with mozzarella and a little Bolognese, seasoned the breadcrumbs, and it came out a little blah. I blame the mozzarella. Next time, goat.

I completely agree about the mozzarella and as you know I rarely use it. Goat cheese would be good. Or sharp cheddar. Also feta.

This is what Wikipedia says:

Wikipedia - Arancini

Arancini or arancine are fried rice balls coated with breadcrumbs, said to have originated in Sicily in the 10th century. Arancini are usually filled with ragù (meat sauce), tomato sauce, mozzarella, and/or peas. There are a number of local variants that differ in fillings and shape. The name derives from the food's shape and colour, which is reminiscent of an orange (the Italian word for orange is arancia, and arancina means "little orange"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arancini



I usually make them from left over risotto - probably too heavy and wet and of course I don't breadcrumb - the ones pictured above look alarmingly perfect. Which means that I tend to make them like cakes instead of balls - so perhaps rissolles (?!)
Apparently classic versions also include arancini con burro (béchamel), or specialty arancini, such as arancini con funghi (mushrooms), con pistacchi (pistachios), or con melanzane (aubergine).
I have some left over rice in the fridge and some stale bread so I'll give it a go the right way.

More later
Mama

Hello lovely daughter,

So, here we are, an ocean apart again - Columbia, South Carolina and Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

My eye was caught by this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi.

We went to his Islington restaurant together when you took me to the Royal Opera house to see the ballet - do you remember which ballet it was? It turned out that I had been there before but wasn't paying attention. I thought the food was wonderful, fresh and inviting and unusual. We ate some kofta and gorgeous salads and a spectacular passion fruit meringue pie. And you waxed lyrical about his cooking. I keep looking at his recipes and thinking about trying one but they often seem to have a lot of ingredients. But then we watched an episode of his BBC show on Moroccan food - piqued my interest again.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/20/black-garlic-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi?CMP=twt_gu




and you said: Num. not sure I can get black garlic though.

So, I did a quick internet search and came up with roughly 30 million results including several dedicated websites - www.blackgarlic.com for one, then there's Wikipedia's article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_garlic_(food) - most informative! But actually you can buy it online from Ottolenghi or http://www.blackgarlic.co.uk/where-to-buy/. I think it will be more of a problem for me but I'm going to go up to Decker Boulevard to see if the Korean stores have it. Slightly scary field trip!
More later

Mama