Wednesday 30 May - First Garden Produce of The Season

Just been down to water the veg plot at the bottom of the garden, and came back with these two beauties - ants rinsed out, and they are simmering away to be eaten cold later on.

I've also got a garlic and rosemary focaccia rising on the top of the stove, and am going to make Georges favourite summer snack meal - saganaki - basically feta, baby tomatoes, olives, capers and fresh oregano drizzled with oil and baked until bubbly - to be served so it takes the skin off the top of your mouth - delicious!

 

Saturday26 May - Osso Bucco

I had a meat delivery this week from Farmers Choice.

I'd noticed that they have started selling some more unusual stuff, so my order included some stewing goat, and these wonderful pieces of veal shin.

The obvious thing to make with these was Osso Bucco, and I used a recipe from Sophie Grigsons Meat. Very simple, just some tinned tomatoes, white wine and some chicken stock, and a long slow stewing.

For starters some Bruschetta with the lovely tomatoes that Lidl are selling just now

The stew was topped with gremolata and served over soft polenta (which no one apart from me really liked)

In keeping with the Italian theme we made Pannacotta for afters, but served this with some rhubarb I baked with orange and some stem ginger.

I've not really got the hang of leaf gelatine yet, and the panacottas were rather like breasts, but tasted ok and the rhubarb was a lovely  sharp contrast with the cream.

Sunday 20 May - Italian Roast Chicken

I started a chicken off in brine yesterday to do some Heston chicken, but we got a bit busy in the garden today, so it turned into italian roast chicken - which I've not made for ages - the chicken was stuffed with lemon, garlic, sage, rosemary and a big splash of brandy, then wrapped in parma ham and roasted wrapped in foil - smelling good so far

To serve with this some lightly smashed jersey royals (well that's what the pack said they were, they just look like new potatoes to me) roasted with olive oil, fresh garlic which I found on the market yesterday, and some onion wedges

We are also having some asparagus as we are still trying to eat as much as possible while it's in season, and a salad made with these fabulous tomatoes we found in Lidl - the best dressing I have found for tomato salad is this balsamic and olive dipping oil which I bought to put in Georges stocking at Christmas

We found some rhubarb ready to eat when sorting out the bottom garden today, so an invented desert I'm rather proud of. Rhubarb in a tin spread with a bit of butter and sugar, and some chopped stem ginger sprinkled over

Topped with a normal sponge mix - but some ground ginger and chopped stem ginger was added.

Then much to my amazement it actually turned out! Smells great, and looking forward to seeing if it tastes ok too

Friday 18 May - Omelette Tourangelle

This is without a doubt my favourite veggie meal ever. The chickens despite being low in number and 4 and 5 years old have been very obliging on the egg front this week so this was an ideal time to get this old favourite out again. Not surprisingly this is a Sophie Grigson recipe, and I've seen no need to tweak it at all apart from the plateful served up to George

Bread also required, and tried an experiment by making the dough at 7am, and leaving it to rise all day in the fridge, and then topping with olive oil, garlic, rosemary and maldon salt before bringing up to room temperature and baking. Not sure it affected the flavour or texture, but saved a lot of last minute effort!



The omelette is made in the normal way but with loads of herbs added - the important one is tarragon, but I also added chives, dill and parsley. When nearly cooked the cheese is added - goat for the adults and emmental for George.

This is served with a roasted tomato sauce - plum tomatoes roasted with rosemary, olive oil thyme and seasonsings and a touch of sugar - then blended and sieved. It was a bit pale with spring tomatoes so I added a squeeze of tomato puree to brighten it up.



This was served with some new potatoes, the bread and a dressed green salad on the side

The left over roasted tomato sauce is being saved for pasta later in the week.

Tuesday 15 May - Chicken for Two

Is it only Tuesday? Feels like it should be Thursday, and not very inspired to cook, but for once have preplanned so at least I don't have the hardest bit of deciding what to eat....

Tonight was another Skinny Meals in High Heels, but with the usual tweaks that a fat bird in
Converse would make. I was dubious that breadcrumbs would stick to mustard, I had no shallots and no fresh tarragon, so a large spoonful of mustard was whisked into a lovely bantam egg, with some dried tarragon, and then the chicken steaks were dipped in this, and then panko  breadcrumbs and then popped in the fridge.

 

These were sprayed with olive oil, and baked, along with some vine tomatoes and garlic slices also drizzled in oil.

Rather than plain spuds, I crushed some new potatoes with some fresh herbs, onions, garlic and chilli which I sauteed in some olive oil,  and lots of lemon juice.

One to be repeated again for sure  - the mustard was a lovely addition and gave the chicken a lot of flavour, and my new favourite thing in the world is roasted vine tomatoes - roll on our home grown ones!!

Friday 11 May - Another go at Fish

A place where I spend quite a lot of time is here

http://www.carta.co.uk/foodforum/index.php

a lovely poster called hungryhousewife recommended a recipe book that I wouldn't have given a second glance under normal circumstances - but having recieved an amazon voucher from my coffee machine trial I spent it, and this week the book arrived

Bob was sent off to the fish shop for Hake, but they had run out, so he came back with some lovely cod fillets, and version of the fish traybake with fennel was made.

I say a version, as my oven is not fixed after last  weekends oven cleaning/breaking episode so I was only able to use the top oven. I roasted the potatoes and fennel, but seperately so as to be able to avoid serving fennel to children, and the fish was 'pan fried'. I also adjusted the dressing slightly, using red onion in the absence of shallots, and adding some basil and parsley.



We also added some asparagus as it's in season, and needs to be eaten at every possible opportunity.

I felt the cod was not that flavoursome, but perhaps it was just very fresh - the texture was nice, roasted fennel was superb and the dressing certainly brought it all together.

I can see that this book will be a big favourite, although feel a bit of a fraud as I certainly will never wear, let alone cook in heels!!!

Sunday 6 May - Nut Roast

Request from George for Nut Roast when given the choice of meats for tonight.
This is a recipe that I make up as I go along, but the constants in it are some sort of cereal base, some grated veg to stop it being too dry, and the usual onion, garlic base - I usually add chopped mushrooms if I have some too. Today I used brown basmati rice, carrots and some pistachios and walnuts that were lurking in the cupboard along with a few pine nuts chucked in at the end.

The vegetables were fried and then added to the cooked rice, breadcrumbs and chopped nuts, and bound together with some grated low fat cheese and an egg.

Packed into a loaf tin, which is lined with a cake tin liner - best invention ever for people who hate all that business with fitting greaseproof in, and also people who hate washing up!



This was cooked for around an hour, and then turned out of the tin and popped back in the oven as the crusty edges are the best bit. We served this with roast potatoes, yorkshires and vegetables as well as some apple sauce and redcurrant jelly.







Saturay 5 May - Chicken and Brownies

Bank Holiday weekend here, and as I've been dreadful on the diet front for the last few weeks, I see no reason to eat low fat today. Planning to try and be good again as of next week.....

For Saturday night, chicken breasts stuffed with feta, sundried tomatoe and pine nuts - I bashed the breasts out, and made one big roll out of them, and wrapped this in pancetta and roasted it.
Served with some asparagus, some crushed new potatoes, and some roasted vine tomatoes

For pudding, we made some vanilla icecream using the vanilla pods I found in Lidl at Christmas and stocked up on then forgot about. Served with warm chocolate brownies - I made the batter earlier and kept in the fridge until we were ready to eat. I use an Anton Mossiman recipe, but added some chocolate chips in with the pecans, as if you are going to be a pig you might as well do it properly!



Plenty of brownies left over for the next few days too!!!