u/Druyv

After seeing a reel on Instagram for these curd bars I found this recipe and decided that would be my dish for this theme!

I changed a few things; firstly I opted for strawberries instead of blueberries, because I could find nicer ones, and secondly I upped the ratio of poppy seeds in the base shortbread by a lot. The idea was to turn it black, but I couldn't quite grind my poppy seeds fine enough to use as a flour substitute.

These were so delicious! I ate way too much of it before I decided I should bring it into work and feed to my colleagues, who happily gobbled up what was left.

Nobody wanted this theme, so I decided to go off topic and make a dish with each letter from the word!

A is for Aged cheese. There is parmigiano on the bottom of the leeks and aged goat's cheese in the sauce.

L is for leeks, which I roasted with a foil lid for 45 minutes at 220C, and then finished at 200C for half an hour without the foil. Last 5 minutes I added the cheese.

P is for potatoes, which I cut into rounds and then used this recipe to make fondant potatoes.

I is for infused, which is what I did for the sauce. I melted 50gr of butter and added a handful of sage to the butter. Once it smells delicious, remove the sage and replace with minced garlic. I let my garlic get very brown and then added about 1/2 cup of cream. Once that got hot I crumbled in about 120gr of goat's cheese.

N is for nuts. Walnuts. I nearly forgot them, but they are hidden under the sauce. First I got them nice and toasty and chopped though.

E is for the poached egg on top, using Kenji's foolproof method.

I am fully aware that the dish this ended up being fits very nicely as an Alpine dish and uh.. I'm not sure how I feel about that to be honest.. I also drizzled a little bit of lemon juice over the entire thing to brighten it up a little. This was delicious! The potatoes with the sauce would make a killer side for Christmas!