Sam's First Macarons....Dutch style!

OK, so strictly speaking, these aren't Sam's first macaroons, but he only had one at Christmas, so this was his first chance to really savour them. I'd previously made macaroons at Christmas from the fabulous Lorraine Pascale. I'd tried a few macaroon recipes before, but this one is the only one I've found that properly works:

So, when I was invited to bring something along to a birthday party of a Dutch friend, I decided to give these a go again, but this time, with a twist!

Ok, so I couldn't get the colours quite right, but, I'm sure you'll agree, there is some semblance to the Dutch flag! Unfortunately, the red sides didn't turn out quite as well as the blue ones, so after finding an excess of blue macaroons, I decided to pay homage to Argentina too:

They seem to go down really well at the party, and by the time it was drawing to a close, every single one had gone!

Sam's First Chicken Cacciatore

Hello everyone, it's time for another entry, and Sam is back in the driving seat again! On this occasion he chose to make Pollo alla Cacciatore - this time, surprisingly by none other than the domestic goddess herself - Nigella! Initially, I was sceptical, since normally, chicken cacciatore has a reputation for requiring considerable time cooking/stewing. However, Sam had picked out this quick version from "Nigella Express", it was supposed to take much less time, and the recipe did in fact live up to its name! We were done in no time at all, which is a blessing on a week-night. Not only was it quick, but the flavours were really so delicious, we were fighting over who would have the leftovers for lunch the next day (In the end, I thought Sam deserved it, since he'd created the lovely dish in the first place)

We only slightly changed the recipe by adding some boiled potatoes for carbs, and I cheekily added a small portion of sauerkraut on my plate (You can take the girl out of Hungary, but...) 9/10

Sam's comments: It was so tasty my toes tingled! 9/10

Sam's First Easter Bread

So, since Easter is traditionally a time for the breaking of Lent, lavish celebrationary feasts and chocolate indulgence, of course we could not pass it without at least one notable mention of our culinary experiences. The most delicious of which was a modern take on the classic European Easter bread, bursting with butter and littered with tasty chunks of nuts and dried fruit, and hence widely popular especially around Eastern European countries, from Poland to Bulgaria and Greece.
This version was mainly based upon Olive's recipe for the Pecan Twist, which has a slightly different variation on the shape of the bread and uses pecans instead of more traditional European nuts. For added taste, we also threw in some chopped dried apricots and chocolate chunks. For the basic dough recipe, I used Dad's trusty old Beigli recipe - rich, sweet, yet springy enough to even make doughnuts from! So after leaving the dough to rise, I rolled it out, added the filling ingredients and proceeded to twist it in the method outlined in the magazine. It was a bit fiddly, but I think the result was worth it!
Within half an hour of cooking, the kitchen began to fill with the most delicious smells, which I later found out had percolated into the corridors and lead my neighbours to enquiry about what exactly was cooking, and by the time the day was drawing to a close, more than half of it was gone. Definitely a wonderful dish prepared fresh, it can be simply devoured in large chunks and is even better drizzled in honey or maple syrup depending on your choice.
Sam's verdict: Deliciously chewy 7/10

Sam's First Paella

A wonderful take on the classic chicken and chorizo paella!

Sam's verdict: Wonderful! 9/10. I like how the taste of Spain is expressed in this dish. I wish we could have had more. Can we have this every night?

Sam's First Beef Stew

Sorry guys for being a bit quiet of late, we seem to have let things on the food blog front dwindle recently. But don't worry, we are back on top of things, and will be updating you with more new dishes, particularly since it is the Easter break, one of the best times of the year for cooking.
But first, let me start with one of Sam's last creations, traditional English beef stew (would you believe it, it's Jamie Oliver again). This particular dish was taking new risks and heading into unknown territory, since it involves preparation of all of the ingredients earlier in the day, and popping them all into the oven in a casserole dish for a good 3 or 4 hours. Since I was busy during the day, I was unable to be on hand and supervise all the preparation (or in Sam's terms "nag the whole time"), and so I could not be sure if all of the steps would be done correctly, and according to health and safety rules (Sam - "But that's the point of cooking, surely, to kill all the bacteria anyway?").
Nevertheless, after a few instructions via the internet mainly to inform about the location of specific ingredients or equipment, Sam was on his way, and the dish was cooking before I even got home.

After much trepidation, at 7:00pm, we tested the meat to see if it was cooked. The meat was very soft and tender, and broke apart with a fork as expected, and surprisingly it was every bit as delicious as expected, and more! All of the flavours blended in really well together and the meat was cooked to perfection. This dish was so successful, we have now cooked it twice, and the only downside we've managed to find so far is that there never seems to be enough of it! We'll have to make the full amount for 4 (or just 2 hungry) people next time.
The picture doesn't really do it much justice - this isn't a dish to look at, rather give you a warm fuzzy feeling on a cold day :) 8/10