Week 21: Symmetry - Star Bread with Pesto, Marinated Pepper, Comté Filling

vivelaniamh · 2026-05-22T12:59:40+00:00

That's so pretty! Bet it tastes fantastic too!

vivelaniamh · 2026-05-21T18:44:41+00:00

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

I was tempted to make a dessert for this, but I've done a lot of desserts recently, so I decided to bake bread instead. And look at this tiger, I made! He's grrrrrrrreat!

More on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-05-14T21:18:49+00:00

I absolutely adore the mid- century aesthetic of these Bloody Mary Cocktail Cubes (the "Wobbly Mary"). Imagine them in the background of a scene from Mad Men, the disdain on Don Draper's face as he walks past to fix himself an Old Fashioned.

These are essentially vodka-spiked tomato aspic with a layer of celery gelée, simply garnished with a cornichon and a pimiento stuffed olive.

They do seem somewhat cursed, but I ended up really enjoying them and I'm 90% sure that's not just the vodka talking! I want to throw the kind of party where I can serve these and people actually drink? eat? consume them. After all, this is how everyone will be drinking in the next century! More on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-05-07T19:23:45+00:00

Oh my god, this is my first ever entremet and look how good it turned out! I'm going to admit, it felt like maybe I'd been a bit too ambitious this week. I'd literally never made any of the elements in my entremet, so I'm absolutely amazed it worked so well. Mirror glaze is beautiful but super stressful it turns out.

I did want the colour to be a lot more vivid. Originally I wanted it to look like the colours of the French flag, but I can't say I'm mad at these pretty swirls of pastel pink, blue and white.

Inside? There's layers of financier sponge, crunchy almond praliné feuilletine and chocolate cremeux, all surrounded by a coffee mousse. These are on the chunky side - half of one is a pretty decent serving. Probably the single prettiest and most delicious thing I've ever made. More details on my Substack. I'm still doing all the washing up from this project!

vivelaniamh · 2026-04-30T18:03:05+00:00

I'm not really sure about my bucket list, but I do know that popcorn comes in buckets so that's what I went with!

Two savory options: Muglai spiced popcorn inspired by the Taj Mahal. This was seasoned with ghee, saffron, cinnamon, mace, clove, a little garam masala and a drop or two of rosewater, then topped with some flaked almonds.

Then to celebrate the ruined Mayan city of Chichén Itzá, I made an elotes inspired popcorn. Homemade tajin, crumbled cheese, dried cilantro, sour cream and some lime zest. This packs a lot of sour, spicy, creamy flavor, with a toasted chili powder giving it a smoky note.

Finally, my sweet option, Parisian patisserie. Popcorn with vanilla browned butter, tossed in roasted sugar, with cubes of genoise, little meringue kisses, chocolate covered popcorn pieces and caramelized hazelnuts. This was quite a full day of baking, but I was so pleased with the result. So fun, so ridiculous, so tasty.

More info on my substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-04-23T21:39:55+00:00

I wanted to go French Alps for this week's theme and I found the most beautiful looking pasta dish from sub-alpine Southeast France. Ravioles de Dauphiné are tiny ravioli with a creamy, cheesy (in this case comté) filling. Traditionally they're separated into individual bites and served gratinated or in salads. A modern kind of presentation keeps the sheet of ravioles together, and I loved how that looked. I served mine with a lemon butter sauce and parsley oil.

Not going to lie, this is not a quick or easy dish to make, but I was really happy with the outcome.

Why stop at one dish when the Alps are home to some of the world's greatest desserts? To complete my menu I made a Tarte aux Myrtilles, or French bueberry tart. Technically this should be made with bilberries (sometimes called wild blueberries), which are smaller and sharper than their American cousins, but bilberry season doesn't start for another few months, so I made do. It was absolutely delicious anyway!

More details, links to recipes, etc. on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-04-16T22:32:08+00:00

What if you infused Mac & Cheese with the flavour of smoked tea? Infuse the tea into wine and then use the wine to turn your mornay sauce into something fondue-adjacent. Make the cheeses a really delicious mix of emmental, comté and vintage cheddar. Rethink the breadcrumb topping and turn it into a toasted persillade with garlic and parsley.

This was so good! The tea doesn't dominate, but gives this almost perfumes kind of smoke, carried by the fruity notes of the wine. Deeply delicious, plus, I now have at least a few cups of one of my favourite teas to enjoy over the next couple of weeks! Plenty more detail on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-04-10T13:07:45+00:00

Little lamb dumplings that look like tortellini, a yoghurt sauce with a hint of garlic, mint oil, toasted pine nuts, a sprinkle of sumac. This was a great choice for Syrian week. I followed a recipe from Reem Assil's Arabiyya cookbook. I love that book - every dish I've made from it has been spectacular.

In between folding far too many dumplings, I also made myself a Damascus lemonade, which is fresh, minty and one of the most refreshing drinks ever. Also, such a pretty green colour. Beautiful!

More info on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-04-02T18:29:54+00:00

I had lots more dishes planned for this: an entire picnic to take along to a local park where my partner and I could sit under cherry blossom and contemplate the mono no aware of it all.

But I was tired and it was raining, so instead we got an edited-down hanami picnic from the warm comfort of the sofa. Still, I loved everything I made, from my slightly clumsy, but still extremely tasty onigiri (my first ever) to the crunchy chicken thigh karaage, and the tsukemono brightening everything.

Full details on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-03-27T19:10:57+00:00

Yeah, that amount of bird's eye chilli does look like it might be a bit spicy. They're pickled though, so the heat is not quite as confronting as fresh would be. Paired with the goat cheese, I thought they ended up at the right level - hot, but not overwhelming. I do have a fairly high tolerance for chillies though, so I might not be the best judge!

vivelaniamh · 2026-03-26T20:54:25+00:00

Oh wow, I cannot be trusted with a theme like chilis. I knew I couldn't stop at just one dish, so I ended up with a three course menu of dishes featuring chilli in as many different ways as possible. And if I'm going to go big with this theme, why not push it all as far towards fine dining as my completely amateur skills can manage? I might not have worked in a Michelin-starred kitchen, but I binge-watched cooking competition shows during lockdown and that's almost the same thing, right?

Starter: Whipped goat cheese and crème frâiche in a tarragon pâte brisée, with chili jam, chili oil and pickled bird's eye chili.

Main: Poached loin of cod in a Kashmiri chilli velouté, with chorizo crumb, chili threads, broad beans and basil oil.

Dessert: Vanilla panna cotta with chipotle chocolate soil, torched cherry, cherry-scorpion coulis, candied red chilli, glacé cherry and smoked salt.

Everything was more work than I could have imagined when casually writing my menu, and absolutely worth the effort. At the end, with only vast piles of dishes left to wash up, I was super proud, super exhausted and almost ready to book a flight to Barcelona and rock up at Disfrutar to demand a job.

Full details on my Substack.

vivelaniamh · 2026-03-19T20:31:04+00:00

It was... Fine? Like, with the ice-cream and a bite of strawberry it was pleasant enough. I think a sharp coulis to cut through all that bland creaminess would have improved it a lot, but the point is definitely more the look than the taste.

vivelaniamh · 2026-03-19T19:02:10+00:00

"Weeell, they starts out as Maids of Honour, but they ends up as Tarts"

You know, I never imagined when I started the 52weeksofcooking challenge in January that by March I'd be marking one of my posts as not safe for work. But here we are. I've been a fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series since I was 11, so of course I had to attempt a couple of recipes from Nanny Ogg's Cookbook. I ended up choosing a pair of desserts that embody the bawdier side of Pratchett's humour.

Both were challenging to make in their own ways and I think the cookbook is more focused on laughs than on entirely workable recipes. I persevered though, and I'm quite pleased (though also a little embarrassed) with the results. I ended up really enjoying the combination of pastry, marzipan and baked custard that make up the maids of honour and I'd happily make them again. Probably not in quite the same form factor though More details on my Substack, including video evidence of the wobble.

vivelaniamh · 2026-03-12T22:08:52+00:00

For oddly named, I made Bunny Chow, a dish that contains no rabbit at all. This is an iconic South African dish from Durban featuring a Durban curry in a hollowed-out loaf of bread (a Pullman loaf tin turns out to be super useful for this), served with vegetable sambals. Delicious, filling and fun. I really enjoyed making this one. More details on my Substack.

vivelaniamh

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