Us Monday to Friday workers take a collective sigh of relief as the weekend arrives!
Last night we were lucky enough to have a good friend cook an incredible feast as an early welcome to the Chinese New Year! We were spoiled with tender poached then roasted Salt & Pepper chicken, glazed ribs (I may have slipped, fell and nearly swallowed an entire rack myself), sticky chickeny rice, hand made spring rolls, crispy seaweed, spiked but sweet chilli dipping sauce and a spectacular finish with a plate that resembled a mini croquembouche of freshly fried banana fritters, dipped in sticky dark syrup and liberally sprinkled with sesame! What amazing friends, and what a round belly I now have! Being looked after in someone else's home was an ideal start to the weekended, I should have taken pictures I know! But we were in beautiful twinkly candle/ Chinese lantern lighting so they wouldn't have done justice to how good the food looked, and I'll be honest, my hands were full...yeah, of food.
So, I wanted to write a little this morning pre- weekend greediness (although I think that we have established above that the weekend started last night). This is just a bit of a note really about mid-week dinners that I thought might be useful/ vaguely interesting? I've been working reasonably late at the office all this week, but alas my belly's need to be fuelled and my brains need to unwind by cooking has not suffered, which if your following me on twitter you may have noticed. I wanted to share some of the recipes that I have been using. I know that everyone knows that we can knock up fresh food quickly- we hear it all the time on tv and in magazines. But I thought that I would share some of my favourites that happen to be quick to prepare, rather than being written with time saving rather than flavour in mind. I won't link to the recipes here, but will direct you to the page numbers (old school right?) so that you can look in your own books, or get them out from the library. I'm happy to read novels on the kindle or iPad, but cooking- ah, for me it has to be a book, covered in splashes and notes.
Last night we were lucky enough to have a good friend cook an incredible feast as an early welcome to the Chinese New Year! We were spoiled with tender poached then roasted Salt & Pepper chicken, glazed ribs (I may have slipped, fell and nearly swallowed an entire rack myself), sticky chickeny rice, hand made spring rolls, crispy seaweed, spiked but sweet chilli dipping sauce and a spectacular finish with a plate that resembled a mini croquembouche of freshly fried banana fritters, dipped in sticky dark syrup and liberally sprinkled with sesame! What amazing friends, and what a round belly I now have! Being looked after in someone else's home was an ideal start to the weekended, I should have taken pictures I know! But we were in beautiful twinkly candle/ Chinese lantern lighting so they wouldn't have done justice to how good the food looked, and I'll be honest, my hands were full...yeah, of food.
So, I wanted to write a little this morning pre- weekend greediness (although I think that we have established above that the weekend started last night). This is just a bit of a note really about mid-week dinners that I thought might be useful/ vaguely interesting? I've been working reasonably late at the office all this week, but alas my belly's need to be fuelled and my brains need to unwind by cooking has not suffered, which if your following me on twitter you may have noticed. I wanted to share some of the recipes that I have been using. I know that everyone knows that we can knock up fresh food quickly- we hear it all the time on tv and in magazines. But I thought that I would share some of my favourites that happen to be quick to prepare, rather than being written with time saving rather than flavour in mind. I won't link to the recipes here, but will direct you to the page numbers (old school right?) so that you can look in your own books, or get them out from the library. I'm happy to read novels on the kindle or iPad, but cooking- ah, for me it has to be a book, covered in splashes and notes.
Monday saw Mr Valentine Warner at my Good Table (do you see what I did there?), with his Pork chop with apple and crispy sage (p30), I used rosemary as that is what I had. The way that the herbs flavour your drop of cooking butter adds a welcome depth to the apples and pork. I used the loin chops purchased in Pattersons, it was on the table in less that 15 mins. I served with sautéed garlic mushrooms, and some left over Sour Dough to wipe up the juices. It's the herbs and apple that really transform the humble chop.
Tuesday I added an extra seats and welcomed Nigella, Yottam and Sami to the table. I had some barley in the cupboard, peppers in the fridge and fancied Mr Ottelenghi and Tamimi's Parsley and Barley salad (p80), however I lacked fresh parsley- a slight draw back as the title indicates. So I prepared the pepper and barley bit of it, and instead used some frozen basil (10p Waitrose reduced fresh herbs!) and whizzed up Nigella's pistachio pesto (p103) which is incredibly moreish. The barley takes 30 mins to become soft, which is the perfect time to knock up the other elements of the dish.
Wednesday we came over all nostalgic for our Oaxacan travels and thoroughly enjoyed preparing and eating, Thomasina Miers (I'm giving up on this table metaphor) Mexican black pud (p170). I can't tell you how authentically Mexican this simple, rich dark and deeply smoky dish tastes. It honestly only takes 10-15 mins to prepare/cook and is a totally different way of using black pudding, turning quite a small amount of meat into a hearty meal. The smoky chipotle makes this dish- you can buy it dried in Wally's or canned in a purée from Waitrose.
And then we get to Thursday with Charmaine Solomon, who you may not of heard of- but who holds Regal status in my family. I will be soon writing a full blog about Sri Lankan cookery and the wonderful Charmaine, but for now it's enough to say that Thursday night involved working pretty late, and arriving home blearily eyed and ravenous, craving spicy comfort and this lady saved me! I made her Sri Lankan scrambled eggs (p174) in under 5 mins, and served it up with plain boiled rice and left over Mexican black pud. Perfect comfort food.
Right, I've got carried away writing about food when I should be painting the spare room. So I shall go and get on with that now.
I'll just add one last thing, check out the breakfast in bed that Mr B bought me whilst writing this. Hot chocolate (mugs and chocolate bought in
Have a brilliant weekend, thanks for reading.
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