Neil’s used these two recipes recently — smoked haddock chowder and quinoa side dish. I helped a bit. By being bossy.
We used 75ml of double cream instead of single cream for the chowder and it was amazing.
We didn’t have parsley or thyme for the quinoa but it was good with a main of seared tuna (yellowfin).
Yum!
We took delivery of our first organic vegetable box this week — in it were cherry tomatoes, carrots, an oddly pointy cabbage, round courgette (at least I hope that’s what it is), broccoli, basil, and some fruit. At £11 it ain’t exactly the cheapest, but I’m of the opinion that the quality of the veg is enough to make up for the price comparison with, say, Asda.
For starters, I’ve never tasted carrots as amazing as these IN MY LIFE. As a child I ate carrots (grudgingly) because I was born in the year of the rabbit — seriously. I tried to take to one of Kristen’s favourite snacks, raw baby carrots, but it just wasn’t happening. But these carrots, oh man, they have just the right amount of sweetness when cooked and it’s so fresh I’m not sure I can look at a supermarket carrot ever again.
I took this photo just in case the dish turned out tasty. We’re big fans of pancetta, even though this one was pretty fatty (I like the fat, Neil hates it).
And that’s how it looked at the end. It’s made up of pancetta, carrots, shallots, sweet orange peppers, pointed cabbage and The Indestructible Chives. We added garlic pepper and dried chilli flakes, too. It was pretty decent.
* As opposed to vagetable.
Thanks to my uncle (Sketchbook), whenever I cook something made up of stuff that’s languishing in the fridge (which, trust me, isn’t often — me cooking, that is), I call it stone soup. While it’s an incorrect use of the phrase to some extent, it’s accurate to my mind in that it’s making something out of (seemingly) nothing. Last night I made bacon-potato-carrot-aubergine-courgette-tomato-garlic stone soup. The leftovers I’m eating for lunch are yummy!
By cheating!
Take Aberdeen Angus sausages and cut them into four. Cube some potatoes, and chop up some peppers and chilli. Put the potatoes in a pot of boiling water and start frying up the vegetables, and set them aside when they start to soften. Start frying the sausages, which will automagically swell and resemble meatballs (w00t!). Throw in the cooked peppers and chilli, then the drained potatoes. Squirt in some tomato puree. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep stir-frying until the sausage-meatballs are cooked through.
And no, I didn’t do it. Neil did — he’s pretty protective over his cooking, he gets damn cranky when I try to help. All shout-y and everything.
No National Men Make Dinner Day™ for him!
Pasta with garlic, red onion, and Cantabrian anchovies. Shall we say it’s slightly, er, pungent.
Totally inspired by Thai Orchid’s minced chicken salad (a wee bit too spicy for me, but otherwise a-fucking-mazing), I needed to be able to reproduce it at home because I cannae go to Glasgow every time I fancy it.
Neil, brutally honest when it comes to my food preparation skills (because I don’t really cook), says this is better than Thai Orchid’s. I rock!
We’ve done this with lamb mince, and I reckon you can also do it with firm tofu (tau kwa) as the main ingredient. And you could probably also use light soy sauce if you want to avoid fish sauce.
A question for you domestic gods and goddesses (who also work full-time jobs) out there:
How the fuck do you find the time?
I get up at 6am and am usually not home till well after 7pm. Then we need to make dinner, our packed lunches for the following day, wash the dishes, and I have a shower. I try to start heading to bed at 10pm on school nights. There is important television that needs to be watched (I’ve gotta get mindless gratification somehow). As a result, we end up eating out more than we planned. And I never get enough sleep.
I am completely aware of the OAMC method (Once A Month Cooking), but our freezer isn’t big enough to hold that amount of food (even if it’s Once A Week Cooking) — Neil and I get to use one shelf in our two-shelf freezer, as Neil’s sister loves her ready meals and ice lollies. Our shelf currently contains two pizzas (in case of emergency), paus, and a small pack of yong tau foo.
These may sound like absolutely imbecilic follow-up questions, but I feel the need to restate the fact that I have no natural talent nor interest in cooking. I only want to eat good food that isn’t likely to cause heart failure or high blood pressure in the immediate future and I get tired of eating the same food all the time.
How far can we go in prepping our dinners so all we need to do when we come home is bung them under the grill or throw them into the saucepan / wok?
By that I mean we shouldn’t even have to think about any further prep beyond maybe cooking rice or pasta. Plus we like chicken and beef. And fish. I like the lamb but the Neil doesn’t.
Can you store pre-chopped herbs (garlic, ginger, onion, mostly) and vegetables (green leafies) and will they last a week in the fridge?
I’m currently assuming all I need to do to protect chopped onions and garlic from going off too soon is to soak them in oil, but then since I know nothing about cooking I’m probably wrong. Would clingfilm work for the others?
I’m obsessed with these wee containers that promise not to leak smells from Ikea and I’d love a reason to buy them.
Are there any good alternatives to tomato-based pasta sauces, besides garlic and olive oil, that don’t go off too quickly?
As a general rule, I hate hot tomatoes, and cream seems to go off really quickly. To keep using olive oil and garlic will wear thin. Not that we’ve started yet, but I anticipate the boredom.
What really is the best way to freeze seafood?
The raw prawns in Asda are in a ‘protective ice glaze’, does that mean we just need to make sure our seafood is damp? WTF?
(The title of this post comes from my favourite line in a book — well, manuscript — I’m reading right now.)