birthday dinner

Happy birthday, Gregory Martin Finchley Lestrade. I love you, and I'm so lucky to have met you.

Even if you did think I was a serial killer at the time.




And now, what I made for dinner last night, so I don't lose the recipes. Since I've been informed I'll be making it again...

Chicken with anchovy-basil sauce
This one was the hardest. Let me tell you, after three minutes my chicken was nowhere near 'richly browned'.  Same with the shallots. According to this, every bloody thing cooks in three minutes. Liars. And I nearly gripped the hot-from-the-oven handle of the pan about seventeen times doing the sauce. It was also the only recipe with the potential to give everyone food poisoning.

4 boneless, skin-on chicken breast halves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
4 large anchovy fillets, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
60g (1/4 cup) dry white wine
a large handful of slivered basil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in an overproof pan. Add the chicken breasts, skin side down, and cook over high heat until they are richly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn the chicken breasts and transfer the pan to the oven for about 10 minutes, until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to warmed plates.

2. Return the pan to the stove and add the shallots; cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the anchovies and red pepper. Add the white wine and boil for 1 minute, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add 75g (1/3 cup) of water and boil until the liquid is reduced to 3 Tbs, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the basil and lemon juice. Swirl in the butter and season the pan sauce with salt and pepper.

3. Pour the sauce over the roasted chicken breasts, spooning the shallots all around, and serve.

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Tomato tart
This was not that bad. It basically involved slicing things and layering cheese, both of which are really quite difficult to do wrong, even for me. For the case...well, Mrs Hudson stood over me and I did exactly what she told me to.

Pastry case
Get your own Mrs Hudson. (Really, I have no idea. She didn't use a recipe, but if you really want to know I'll get her to write it out. The one that came with the tomato tart recipe was gluten free and used things like xanthan gum so I wasn't about to try that one.)

Filling
1 large onion, peeled and cut into ¼-inch pieces
115g  (4 ounces) grated provolone (or cheddar which is what I actually used)
2 large tomatoes thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt
About three basil leaves
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1. Melt butter in a heavy pan over medium-high heat and add onions. When onions begin to brown, reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring frequently until onions are soft and very brown, about 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 190C (375F). Remove pastry case from freezer and pull off plastic wrap. Bake pastry case until lightly golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove pastry case from oven and place on wire rack. Increase oven temperature to 220C (425F).

3. Place cheese evenly in bottom of pastry case. Spoon cooked onions evenly over cheese and top with tomatoes. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt.

4. Bake until tomatoes soften, about 20 minutes. Place tart on wire rack to cool for about five minutes before cutting. Chop basil and sprinkle over tart. Cut tart into wedges and serve.

And a salad,
which even I don't require a recipe for. It had lettuce and things. Sherlock and Mycroft made the dressing. It had balsamic fig vinegar in it.

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Chocolate-coffee gingerbread cake
I picked it for the coffee, obviously. Mrs Hudson said I could use two loaf pans instead of a bundt pan, which was what the original recipe called for. Which was good because I wasn't entirely sure what a bundt pan was.

250g (2 cups) flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
225g (1 cup) sugar
240g (1 cup) molasses
240g (1 cup) mild-flavored olive oil
3 large eggs
240g (1 cup) freshly brewed coffee
170g (6 ounces) chopped bittersweet chocolate
50g (1/4 cup) chopped crystallised ginger

1. Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Butter your pans and line them with parchment paper. Whisk flour and next 5 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Combine sugar, molasses, olive oil, and eggs in large bowl; whisk until well blended. Add dry ingredients and stir to blend.

2. Add chopped chocolate and ginger and then pour hot coffee on top (most of chocolate will melt). Stir to combine. Transfer batter to prepared pans.

3. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, 55 to 60 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool cake in pan 20 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool at least 1 hour.

Do ahead: Can be made 1 day ahead (if you don't live with Sherlock or the god of cake). Cool completely. Cover with cake dome or wrap in foil and store at room temperature.

Coffee whipped cream
240g (1 cup) chilled whipping cream
3 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until peaks form.
Do ahead: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and chill.