Yesterdays dinner was so nice I have to write it down so I don't forget to do it more often. It's quick and easy ( if you buy ready made dough for the flammkuchen).

Beetroot soup with thyme and creme fraiche.

Flammkuchen with creme fraiche, goats cheese, thyme, onions and honey.

Small recommendation for a nice and easy winter dinner: Spinach and cheddar muffins (which I wanted to make ever since I saw them on foodbeam)
and a simple broth with a poached egg - bon appétit!

It's not that we have not been eating or cooking during the last 3 months, it's just that I have been tremendously busy in my job, no time for big cooking and first and foremost no inspiration. I have tried to make brownies twice and failed completely. Two different recipes  same result - almost liquid brownies after good 25 minutes of baking .... must be the oven no?
Here some highlights from the last month:

this lovely filet of pork was marinated with a self-made meat reduction, then wrapped with herbs and smoked ham... delicious! It was served with potatoes "au gratin" and a morel-sauce

Thanks to a recipe by Christophe Champagnac of the Restaurant Les Arums I realized how beautifully anise goes with chestnuts. The original recipe was ' cappucino of chestnuts with star aniseed, pan fired foie gras, balsamic caramel ' (...). Now I don't eat meat and I had no star aniseed in the house, so I went about the recipe as follows:

• Sweat finely chopped onions in butter, quench with Pernod/Pastis
• Throw in 300g cooked chestnuts
• Add 2dl of vegetable stock, - preferably yesterdays home made vegetable soup, simmer for 25 minutes
• Add 100ml fresh cream, salt (if needed) and freshly ground black pepper

Heat 50g sugar in a pan until it turns brown, add 100ml balsamico vinegar, add this to your ready dish (drizzle on top or stir in lightly).

Serve with potato mash, some bitter veg like warm treviso (with pernot, garlic, lemon juice) or whatever suits you.

In a bowl put green olives, fresh wild fennel seeds, Noilly Prat, olive oil, black pepper, a pinch of sea salt, some nutmeg. Rest for an hour.

Grill sardines with garlic inside, salt, black pepper, olive oil on the outside.

Chop one or two shallots, heat olive oil in a pan, throw in the shallots, quench with the fennel / Noilly Prat / olive mixture - simmer for five minutes on low heat.

Serve the sardines straight from the grill adding the fennel "sauce" straight from the pan as quick as possible - best directly at the table.

Serving suggestion: with grilled vegetables.

A simple yet very nice dinner this was. Oysters, lentil soup, artichokes and focaccia bread.

A lot of different  california roll, sashimi, seared sashimi, nigiri and tamago.