Sam's First Peppadew Dish

This brings me on to last weeks wonderful creation, which was a little bit straying from the original recipe, but nonetheless incorporated unusual new flavours to excite the taste buds. This week Sam picked Olive's wonderful, yet simple, Pork with peppadew & white wine sauce, but we decided to forgo the expense and effort of the pork loin steaks, and stuck to the traditional chicken breast Sam knows and loves.

The dish worked just as well, and even though we could not lay our hands on fregola at the time, we were able to satisfactorily replace it with gnocchi. The only ingredient I simply wasn't willing to cede was the white wine in the sauce - as we didn't have a bottle in the house, I had to nip out briefly, simply in order to stop Sam from replacing it with his special bottle of Champagne received as a graduation present! ("Oh, we can't use it because it's sparkling? Why don't we just open it, leave it to go flat, and then use it in the sauce?"!!!)
After I returned with the wine, the rest of the recipe went pretty smoothly, and we were both very satisfied by the interesting combination of the warmth of the peppadews complementing the meat and the soft gnocchi. The speedyness of the dish only added to its appeal, and I can safely say that this dish will be returning to our dinner table on a regular basis in future. 8.5/10

Sam's First Carbonara

Guess what people? Things are progressing really fast at le Bistro Sam. He has cooked not one, but two dishes since I last posted online, and I am struggling to find the time to keep the posts updated with his progress! Hence it will just be a quick entry for Sam's creation two weeks ago, a simple, but beautiful courgette carbonara, once more á la Jamie. Although this dish sounds simple enough, it did involve Sam bracing the sensitive subject of eggs (he hasn't ever had a fried or scrambled egg, and winced at an eggy bread and butter pudding recently), once it was explained to him that separating the eggs didn't involve putting them into two separate rooms, he bravely created and consumed the delicious eggy sauce. Albeit, without the grated parmesan, which I added to my dish later.

Nevertheless, he competently prepared all the rest of the ingredients and even sliced and removed the fat from the pancetta slices, so credit has to be given where it's due.
All in all, a perfectly satisfactory rendition of this italian staple. 7/10

Sam's First Attempt at Cooking

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, but boy have we got news for you! Sam has now transgressed from trying real foods many people eat, to becoming an incipient foodie, and now, he has made the step to actually following recipes and cooking a meal himself. É voila! Here is his first attempt:

You are looking at Jamie Oliver's Hot and Sour Rhubarb and Crispy Pork with noodles! And yes, I can vouch as a witness that Sam did in fact collect all the ingredients on this list himself, and made the entire dish from scratch. I thought the combination was a little brave for a first dish, but it actually tasted really delicious!

Can you believe it? (Although not sure why Sam is wearing Kevlar oven gloves for this part of the cooking. Looks like he was more scared of cooking than I was of eating it!)
Sam's comments: This was a terrific dish that I made, and anyone would have loved it. I was a bit nervous about cooking with rhubarb, but it all seems to have gone well, and we're still alive now, so that's all that matters

Sam's First Ice cream Bombe

This was the last of my Christmas creations, which I made for New Year's eve and which we've been nibbling on since. Using a special Christmas twist on an traditional dish, I got this recipe from a Christmas entertaining book from my mum. It involves a creamy outer layer of ice cream I made in "jaffaholic" flavour (Jaffa caked soaked in cointreau, or in this case, Pimm's) with a deliciously rich, tart sorbet centre made from cranberries, which I spiced up with a bit of raspberries and rhubarb. Cheeky, I know, since they are not in season, but they came from my freezer, so it's not so bad.
Don't let it's unassuming appearance fool you, this was every bit as delicious as it sounds, it merely looks a bit rustic after my attempts to free it from the bowl in which it was frozen. Overall, I think it was a reasonable success, and with some refinements, could be improved to a top class stand-by dessert.

Sam: The cranberry sorbet was really delicious, although the outer ice cream layer was a bit too strongly alcoholic. But I really loved the sorbet, it was tangy and flavourful, and I wanted more! 6/10 for the outer layer and 9/10 for the sorbet!

Sam's First Smoked Salmon Risotto

Of course, it has not all been plain sailing, and it would be unfair to give a biased representation of Sam's responses as successful. We all know Sam is picky when it comes to food. Therefore, mention must be made some failures encountered so far, that started with the smoked salmon risotto with courgettes and dill. Although the scent of a gently bubbling risotto with the oak smokeyness of a wonderfully juicy cured salmon is enough to entice many to dinner, it was not so for Sam. After bravely promising to try the dish for dinner one night, after much prodding and poking and only a few mouthfuls, only half of his plate was eaten, the other half being forlornly left on the side of the plate like some unattended baggage. This is despite knowing it's rich nutritional value, the lean protein, high omega-3 content linked to reduction in heart disease.
So safe to say, risotto has not gone down too well, and as such, there is no photo as the suffering of this dish was just too much for poor Sam.
Sam's comments:
Didn't like it. Salmon is foul! 3/10

The attempts to get Sam to try quiche did not even reach the eating stage, which is some what of a disappointment, given that I'd prepared Jamie's italian ham and spinach quiche including the cheesy seasoned pastry. Oh well, I guess Sam will never be a quiche-eater!