Speedy Gonzales

After Asher went to sleep I indulged in some late night kitchen experiments. I took the recipes from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express, which I had bought at a London streetside booksale. I watched many of her shows while in London, and thought a recipe book with quick fixes would be great for an after-work evening. But now more than ever, with Asher to care for, quick recipes are all I have time for. Hooray Nigella!

What did I make? Mini croissants and Gravlax!

The croissants are not real croissants, but look-a-likes, which still taste great especially when fresh out of the oven. I filled them with dark choc (70%! yum!) and although I was supposed to only put in only one square of chocolate for each croissant, I greedily stuffed in 2 squares...then after making 4 uber-filled croissants realised there really wasn't enough pastry to wrap them up properly, so reluctantly reverted back to just one lonely square of chocolate in each.

The recipe really is speedy, and before you can say Gonzales, Jon and I were chomping on warm pastries while watching TV. Mmmm...

The next morning, bright and early at 6am, I baked another batch, this time stuffing most of them with peach marmalade for a breakfast-y twist. The plan was to make more so that we could distribute to our neighbours and relatives. That was the plan. In reality, Jon and I ate every single one of those 25 croissants all by ourselves!! Oooohhh the indulgence....and ohhhh the waistline...










Gravlax is really just salmon cured in salt and sugar. The one I made had a Jap twist to make it more like sashimi. In addition to salt and sugar I used sake and wasabi, so when you eat it it tastes like sashimi already dipped in wasabi. I wanted to make this dish so that I didn't have to cook lunch but just needed to slice up some fish and eat it together with crackers or rice. A time saver! I like it, though non-fish lovers will find it too fishy (to which I always say..."but fish has to taste fishy!")