Quickfire Friday

Friday already! The days have really run away from me this week.

An exciting weekend coming up for us; we’re off down to London to indulge in some Michelin starred pub grub, some very interesting vegetarian food and some near-the-knuckle humour courtesy of Mr Frankie Boyle. Hopefully photos and details will follow – although probably not so many of Frankie since this is, nominally, a food blog. If he makes any food or diet related jokes I’ll try and note them down. Unless he is rude about fatties in which case I’ll throw Minstrels at him.

We’ve been doing some improvising foodwise this week – it’s the end of the month and we didn’t want to burden the credit card with a big food shop. But nevertheless, we’ve done pretty well with the spoils of the freezer. Last Friday we found that an entire head of garlic, roasted slowly at a medium heat and then crushed into a paste will give a fantastically sweet, mellow garlicky-ness to mashed potatoes which then makes a fabulous side dish for pan fried fillet steak or slow roasted, crispy skinned pork belly. The soft roasted garlic cloves are also gorgeous squeezed from their skins and squished into crusty bread – no butter required.

If you fancy a curry this weekend, I would recommend popping over to the Good Food channel website and trying this Kashmiri lamb with fennel seeds by Anjum Anand. I find her terribly smug to watch, but this dish was absolutely gorgeous – and with low fat yoghurt and skimmed milk adding creaminess to the sauce, it works out as pretty low in points. D’s only criticism was the portion size – he says he could have eaten double what I gave him (and actually, I secretly agree).

Oh, and in a fit of domestic goddessdom I made these Nigella chocolate banana muffins, which at 4 points a pop are less than a Starbucks skinny effort, and very moist and tasty. Next time, I’d be tempted to stir a handful of chocolate chips through the mixture for a bit of extra interest and take the points hit.

Have a lovely weekend!