More notes from Naples: Villa Rosa di Nonna Rosa

As you may have gathered from my last post, our trip to Naples was an absolute foodie delight.

It's a very...frenetic city, and I wasn't sure when we first arrived how much I would actually like it. The taxi drive from the airport, for example, was somewhat terrifying. Actually, every time we got in a taxi it was frankly terrifying. The narrow streets are teeming with people (and the odd rogue moped) and shop spill their wares outside onto the already narrow pavements meaning you can never actually walk in a straight line. Which is good for the old step count.

The longer we stayed though, the more we fell into the city's rhythm. And the fact that around every corner there was a new venue wherein one could enjoy an Aperol spritz helps as well - the edge gets taken off pretty quickly.

We also ventured outside of Naples itself - including a trip to Sorrento and a visit to a wonderful restaurant up in the hills outside the city. Villa Rosa di Nonna Rosa is a mission to reach but, sitting on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean and eating the most glorious, rustic Italian food, one can almost forget the fact that so many taxi drivers refused to take us (their vehicles being too large for the narrow, winding mountain roads) that we almost didn't make it.

How's this for a lunchtime view:

It is a set menu - you get what you're given. And their is no wine list, just a choice of house red or house white - however, they do let you bring your own and do not charge corkage.

We started with something called "aria fritta" which was a sort of fried, upside down pizza. 

It was gorgeous, albeit rich - one would comfortably have served two people. Then they started bringing the antipasti out and we began to suspect that the kitchen was trying to kill us.

This is just a sample of the spread they provided! There was nothing really fancy or cheffy going on here, just amazing produce that tasted of sunshine and had been treated with the utmost respect. But, if I had to make a (very mild) criticism. there was a LOT of food and we still had pasta, a main course and a dessert to go (all of which were similarly delicious).

I just loved how unpretentious this was. The main course was, literally, pork and chips. And it was heaven! The meat was tender, the potatoes salty and the sauce was the most delicious, savoury gravy.

And all good meals should end with doughnuts.

I can't imagine that this is an experience we will ever have again but I am incredibly glad we got the opportunity to go while we were there and, if you find yourself in Sorrento, can locate a friendly taxi driver and are willing to screw your courage to the sticking point, then I would most certainly recommend.

Happy meals - nature's bounty

We've been lucky this week; a good friend gifted D some of the produce from his lovely garden, which meant we had a huge tub of tomatoes that were just on the verge of overripe and some lovely plums and greengages. Although we meal plan to the point of almost obsession, the original plan was jettisoned to ensure that this got used.

And what a lovely supper it was too! I cut the tomatoes in half and placed them, cut side up, in an oven proof dish, seasoned liberally with not only salt and pepper but onion granules, garlic granules and a few chilli flakes too. Drizzled with balsamic glaze and added a few thick slices of butter. Then roasted for 50 minutes until the tomatoes were collapsing into themselves and the buttery juices. Stirred through 4 finely chopped anchovies, a small handful of capers and a flurry of Parmesan before adding pasta and some starchy pasta water to create a clinging sauce. More Parmesan and, voila. 

This was followed by a greengage dessert cake, made from this recipe, warmed through in the microwave and served with a good splodge of cream. We don't often have pudding midweek, but this seemed warranted. I liked the texture of this cake very much, a good, dense, buttery crumb with a sweet crust, and the sharp greengages contrasted well. 

The remainder of the fruit has been transformed, by the very talented D, into a spiced compote which will be delicious with yogurt in the coming weeks. I am very tempted to do some homemade granola as well - Nigella has a couple of recipes that look interesting, including one with olive oil.

Recipe corner: slow cooked sausage sauce (ideal for penne)

I hope that I'm not the only person out there that has an absolutely ridiculous amount of recipe bookmarks. I mean, more dishes than I could ever make in a lifetime if you count them up across all the different platforms. And still, they continue to accumulate.

There are some, though, that just lodge themselves in your head. And the fact that I recently cooked a recipe from a blog post that was originally written in 2010 just goes to show that...er, it may take 14 odd years but you might get there eventually. And, when you do, it will be splendifiourous! For this was a truly fantastic dish that I'm glad I finally roused myself to make, and will appear on our food plan again.

I believe that this is originally a River Cafe recipe, via Essex Eating, to ensure that the full credit is here in the post. It is rich and meaty and creamy and the absolute perfect pasta sauce to carry you through the autumn months. 

Ingredients

4 decent pork sausages

tbsp olive oil

Red onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

Bay leaf

150ml red wine

400g tin tomatoes

Pinch of sugar

1/4 nutmeg

60g Parmesan, finely grated (plus the rind if you have it)

75ml double cream

Serves 2-3 with 75g pasta pp (depending on level of greed)

Over a medium heat, warm the oil and then crumble in the sausage meat, removed from its skins. Cook gently, until more fat starts to render from the sausages.

Now add the onion, garlic and dried spices and, keeping the heat relatively low, cook for 30 mins or so until the onion is golden and soft.

Add the wine, whack the heat up a notch or two, and cook briskly until all the liquid has evaporated. Then add the tomatoes, seasoning with a pinch of sugar to take off the acidity, and add the Parmesan rind as well if you happen to have it. Turn down the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

Season with the nutmeg, plus salt and pepper as required (you won't need much of either), and then stir through the grated cheese and the cream.

Serve with pasta (although I actually also think this would be lovely with a cloud of mash).

When in Rome (eat as the Romans do)

Pretty much every main meal we ate in Rome, we tried to seek out restaurants doing Roman food - sometimes traditional and sometimes a more modern spin but always rooted in the rich culinary tradition of the city.

We were there in the springtime, so it was the season of the carciofi (artichoke); a troublesome vegetable that I've never really bothered with at home. But, partly due to the variety grown over there, and partly due to the time, trouble and copious amounts of oil employed in cooking them, these were a genuine delight, rendered almost creamy in flavour and texture. They seem to like to put them in a lot of things: sandwiches, pasta and even tossed through a plate of simply cut and shredded meat to make a surprisingly rich main course.

The classic pasta dishes of Rome, the mainstays of every menu, appear to be carbonara (cheese, guanciale, egg), cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper) and gricia (cheese and guanciale). The pasta that we ate was definitely firmer than we tend to have it in Britain - not crunchy but definitely exhibiting that classic, if elusive, description of "al dente". And the dishes were a bit saucier than I tend to cook them which was interesting to note. 

Offal also plays a big part in Roman cuisine. Oxtail popped up on most menus - including the most beautiful, rich, sticky bowl of oxtail risotto which is definitely one to recreate at home. On our final evening, we tried the local delicaies of Roman style tripe and pork tendons. I try not to be squeamish about food but, I must admit, I had struggled with the idea of trip when our good friend A had proposed it earlier in the trip, but when it turned up on a tasting menu it was only right to try it. And reader, although it probably won't make my top ten dishes of the year, it was very tasty indeed (although I think that is mainly down to the delicious sauce it was tossed through; that quiveringly pallid Yorkshire dish of tripe and onions still carries no appeal whatsoever). The tendons, to the right of the picture, were lightly pickled and, although the texture was slightly odd, were very interesting to eat.

Meal planning from the bunker

Well, first full week of working from home completed. At the moment, I have set up shop on the dining room table while D is up in the study. This has proved to be an ill thought out plan on my part since it means that I tend to get landed with all the tea-runs.

The cat remains delighted with the situation and divides her time between sunbathing and jumping up onto my keyboard to take part in the many, interminable calls that are taking place at the moment. I have learned to mute the microphone so other people are spared her contributions to the conversation or the inevitable commotion caused by me attempting to scoop her down.

And we, we are ok. Our families and friends remain ok and for that I am extremely grateful. I woke up from a dream early this morning with a song in my head and I realised that it was the one that Rosemary Clooney sings to Bing Crosby in “White Christmas” about counting blessings instead of sheep. So my subconscious is obviously trying to encourage me to focus on the positives. It is never easy, especially when one is naturally of an anxious, pessimistic frame of mind, but those of us who are not on the frontline at the moment should be doing our very tiny bit by keeping calm and carrying on.

Those of you who know this blog will know that I have always been a meal planner. In fact, meal planning is one of the highlights of the weekend, often taking place over an end of week pint. It has become a slightly different beast at the moment as we are trying, in accordance with guidelines, to avoid shopping as far as we can, so it is all about looking at what we have rather than what we want. We already had a shopping delivery slot booked in for early next week (it’s our practice to do one big shop at the start of the month) but it looks like we won’t be able to get one after that since neither of us (very thankfully) fall into the vulnerable category and it also looks like many of the items we order a matter of course are unavailable. We’ve got a fruit and veg box coming Monday from a local firm and I’m hoping to make that a weekly, or at least fortnightly thing, so that we are not entirely reliant on the small Sainsbury’s Local for fresh produce and can avoid venturing out as far as humanly possible.

Anyway, we’ve just done a full inventory of the garage freezer so meals for the next few days are done:

Sausages, mash and onion gravy - every time I have been forced to break cover and go to Sainsbury’s, there have been sausages in the otherwise denuded chilled produce section so I’ve grabbed a pack. We batch cooked some sausage and bean stew this week (also throwing in some chopped cherry toms that were on the way out, harissa for a touch of fire and a handful of red lentils to thicken the whole) and there are a few left to produce a comfort food classic for tea.

Chicken breast, sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes, honey roast carrots, peas. We always have a stock of chicken breasts in the freezer so we’re going to have a Sunday lunch. I’ve got plenty of root veg with more coming in the veg box, so am prioritising using these before it turns. I’ll probably do more potatoes and carrots than we need and freeze at the parboiled stage.

Turkey curry with rice and flatbreads - the curry has been in the freezer since Christmas so needs using up. I’ve got a cauliflower stalk that I’ve set aside and will blitz up and combine with the rice to up the veg content here (but don’t tell D!)

Ottolenghi’s dirty rice - well, sort of. The original recipe is here and it is DELICIOUS. We had some chicken livers in the freezer that we had earmarked to make a batch. We don’t have any pork mince but I am going to experiment with using some red lentils cooked nice and soft (for bulk and texture) with some finely chopped, rehydrated Shittake mushrooms (for a meaty flavour).

Tortellini soup - chilled, filled pasta is one of my favourite things and we discovered half a pack of prosciutto cappelletti which is not enough for a meal for two but I’ll use some butternut squash and carrots to make a light, creamy soup then throw the cappelletti into that to stretch it out. Garlic bread on the side - if we’ve cracked and eaten the last remaining garlic baguette by then I can make garlic flatbreads easily enough.

So, that’s five days worth of nice meals out of a quick freezer trawl which is quite gratifying and means I have five days where I don’t have to venture out. Hurrah.

Thoughts and prayers to all of you - hope you and yours are staying safe, well and nourished in these trying times.

Meat, then seven veg

Greetings Earthlings! The year is disappearing so fast and it has been the quietest ever on my little blog so my end of year report is likely to say must do better. Sigh.

We are not (that) long back from Berlin and we had a wonderful time - there’s definitely a post in that. And WW have, apparently, changed their plan again and I sort of want to find out how and then do a post on THAT but then...I suspect the WW ship has long since sailed for me. Perhaps I need to rename the blog - any bright ideas? Cooking with Cats quite appeals; then I would have a legitimate reason to stick up pictures of my beloved Minx for no particular reason. But as a name it doesn’t make any sense. Why would someone be cooking with cats? Are the cats actually helping out in the kitchen or just looking on reproachfully and bemoaning the lack of attention? Is it possible that the name would be open to misinterpretation and people would assume that I was making dishes out of cats? I mean, the Internet has its Dark Corners and I would hate to attract someone who would make that kind of assumption but...

Anyway, the meat in the blog post title refers to the food we ate in Berlin. Which was fab - I loved it! But wow, not a cuisine for vegetarians. To make up for it, we have just planned out seven days of entirely vegetarian meals. At this time of year, some of the veggie dishes that I am drawn towards are certainly too full of cheese and butter to count as strictly health food but that isn’t really the point of the exercise. I adore vegetarian food (although, for me, vegan will always be a bit too far) but I want to eat food that isn’t trying to pretend it’s something that it’s not if you see what I mean? Dishes that are glorious in their own right. Here’s what we’re doing:

Monday: roast root veg and pearl barley soup

Tuesday: pasta alla Norma - a gorgeous dish which combines a rich tomato sauce with aubergine, roasted until it just starts to melt through with a smoky flourish

Wednesday: “Arabbiata” pizza - basically, cheese and tomato but the tomato element is spicy with chilli as garlic. I’ll be topping this with lightly wilted rocket

Thursday: Ottolenghi’s ultimate winter couscous. Well, there had to be an Ottolenghi dish on there. And this is one of our favourites. The recipe is here if you don’t have a copy of “Plenty” on your bookshelves

Friday: Vegetarian dirty rice (another Ottolenghi dish) with corn maque choux (basically, sweet corn cooked in cream and spice).

Saturday: Mushroom curry, creamy chickpea and spinach curry, pilau rice, flatbread and Strictly on the telly. Bliss.

Sunday: Cauli cheese pie with mashed potatoes and Parmesan roasted parsnips. A cheese fest to end the week!

Back soon with...well, an account of Berlin (alternatively titled Pictures of Pork).

Recipe corner: cacio e pepe

You may recognise this dish as having been particularly trendy - oooh, a good year ago, maybe more. Now, obviously, the cool kids have moved on but I still think it is worth posting this methodology for posterity. This is the sort of simple, quick pasta dish that I can imagine will remain on our regular meal rotation for many years to come.

This recipe comes, with a few tiny tweaks for personal taste, from the wonderful Smitten Kitchen blog. I must admit, I follow very few American food blogs and cook from them seldom. The reasons for this are neither sinister nor snobbish; when I first started really getting in to blogs, and bookmarking recipes, I soon found myself with a “to make” list that would never get made if I lived to be 500 and cooked something different every day. In order to get things to more manageable levels, I decided to restrict myself to UK sites. I recognise that I’ve probably missed out on a lot. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Smitten Kitchen somehow survived the cull I would never have learned about this fabulous foolproof method for cacio e pepe.

I would recommend warming the plates or bowls before serving. The pasta will start to cool while you’re tossing it in the sauce and if you don’t want it to be cold within a minute or so of starting to eat, a warm plate is a necessity.

Ingredients

200g dried spaghetti

90g pecorino cheese, finely grated
Half a teaspoon black peppercorns

You will also need to have some water to hand, and a small processor / chopper

Serves 2

Put a large pan of salted water on and bring to the boil.

In a pestle and mortar, grind the peppercorns. How fine you take them is up to you - I want a good flavour without crunchy bits being caught in my teeth, so I take it quite fine.

Set aside a small amount of the cheese for garnish. Then, put half the remainder into the mini processor along with a tablespoon of water and blitz - it will start to come together and clump. Add the other half of the cheese in with another tablespoon of water and half of the pepper. Blitz again. Continue to add water, a tablespoon at a time, until you have a paste roughly the consistency of cream cheese. This was about four tablespoons for me last time I did it. Add the pepper to taste (note: I would probably always end up using the full quantity but I like it peppery).

Cook the spaghetti in the boiling salted water for around 8 minutes, or until al dente. Use a mug to scoop out some of the pasta water before draining and returning to the pan.

Add about half of the cheese and pepper paste along with a couple of teaspoons of pasta water and toss vigorously (I must admit, I tend to stir vigorously rather than tossing - I am messy by nature and don’t want to end up splattered in sauce). Continue to add the paste - a generous tablespoon at a time alongside a teaspoon of pasta water, stirring again each time, until the pasta is coated in a light, silky sauce. If you add it too quickly, you will end up with gummy lumps of cheese stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Plate up and garnish with the reserved cheese and another grind or two of pepper.

MPM: 12th August 2019

For the first time in a long time, last week we cooked, and ate, all seven meals as planned. It felt good to be in control to be honest.  All to often, if we deviate, it is because we have "accidentally" gone to the pub after work and ended up ordering a takeaway or eating toast in lieu of an actual meal OR it is because we have been infected with a generous dose of ennui and ended up not eating a proper meal at all but grazing.  To make a plan, stick to a plan and actually enjoy eating all meals on said plan was really nice.

Oh, and Beth - chickpea mash?  The recipe is here.  A pleasant twist on the classic bangers and mash although I found that the chickpeas did need a judicious whack of seasoning and lemon juice to perk them up and the inclusion of a scattering of caramelised onion was a welcome note.

Onto this week, and the plan is to be in every night again and eat as follows:

Monday: carrot, tomato and feta soup (the other half of the batch we started last week.)

Tuesday: a freezer dive - chilli con carne with rice and a decent dollop of cooling sour cream.

Wednesday: pasta with nduja pesto and roasted cherry tomatoes.  Now, this pesto is part of the Sacla range which tend to be pretty good for a weekday meal.  But I'm not clear on how nduja pesto is different from just plain old nduja.  I guess I am soon to find out!

Thursday: a red wine and mushroom risotto, from The Silver Spoon.

Friday: and diving once more into the recipe book library, tonight we will be cooking Gung Bao chicken from Fuschia Dunlop's fantastic "Every Grain of Rice".  If you are a fan of Chinese food then I would highly recommend this tome.

Saturday: lamb seekh kebabs - sides tbc.

Sunday: Pollock (or whatever white fish looks good at the fishmongers) with chickpeas and chorizo, courtesy of Mr Tom Kerridge.

Have a good week one and all!

Meal planning and catching up

*Slinks back in with a new post.  Torn between starting with abject apology for absence (which always feels slightly self-aggrandising since it pre-supposes that anyone actually missed self in the first place) and just acting like it never happened.  Wrestles with dilemma.  Deletes and rewrites and deletes same chunk of text multiple times.*

Anyway (in lieu of any excuses, I’ll opt for an aggressive stance), in this day and age how many people still read blogs?  Especially little backwater blogs like this one where the writer still uses their original Blogger template and eschews any sort of decent photography preferring to stick with everything look like primordial sludge.  The blogging scene ain’t what it was all those years ago. Feel free to shoot me down if I’m being an unreasonable cowbag but I reckon that it used to be about sharing personal experiences with like-minded people in a nice, low-key manner and creating a little virtual community of kindred spirits.  Now, you get people who actually put the career of Influencer on their passport (or would do if you still had to list your career on your passport).  So everyone who has a blog wants it to be the biggest, shiniest, shoutiest blog in the world in order to attract attention and, thus, money.  Oh, not to mention the bloggers have to have a presence all across social meeeeeja.  Which kind of puts paid to the fact of anonymity.

I think that it’s a little bit sad.  But then, I suppose if someone had Discovered me and offered me ludicrous sums of money / amounts of free stuff to write about what I love, thus saving me from a life of Desk Bound Drudgery, I would probably have taken them up on it.  So maybe it’s just envy talking.

ANYWAY.  What’s going on with me?  Work – busy, busy, busy.  But good.  Food – we’ve cooked some really lovely stuff lately that I hope to get round to posting, but there may not be pictures because I think I have to really give up on the whole pictures thing.  I’ll just illustrate everything with a photo of my cat.  Weight – well, still there.  At this stage of the game I think it’s going to take a serious bout of novo virus to kick-start things on a downwards trajectory again. 

And as for meal planning this week…

Monday: as long term friends will know, we often have ready-made soup on a Monday night.  This is partly a hangover from our 5:2 days, ensuring a relatively low calorie start to the week.  It also means that after getting through Monday we don’t have to worry about any elaborate cooking.  But D finally cracked and said what we were both thinking – soup can be a bit dull.  So now, Monday is going to be soup-and-bread-and-cheese night. We’ve got some chicken and vegetable broth along with a lovely looking piece of Caerphilly to enjoy.  I’ve had some baguette dough defrosting in the fridge since this morning – I’ve not tried freezing it before, so not sure how it will turn out but am hopeful it will work well.

Tuesday: currently, spiced monkfish with chutney and flatbreads, but this may end up bumped to the weekend.

Wednesday: spaghetti carbonara – D is out for a couple of pints after work but I should be able to whip this up quickly when he comes home starving.

Thursday: roasted vegetables with couscous and feta.  We used to cook a stove-top version of this on a regular basis when I was a student.  It was the go-to “We’ve been eating rubbish for several days and require some proper nutrients” meal. 

Friday: we’re both out for a leaving do, so no current plans in place.

Saturday: might end up being the monkfish.  Otherwise, we have steak in the freezer all ready to be turned into steak sandwiches.

Sunday: D has a yen for chicken Kiev.  So he’s going to make that.  He has done a homemade version before and it worked out very well, so I have high hopes for this.  What could be nicer than crispy chicken drenched in garlic butter?

And that takes us nicely back round to Monday.  Quite a meaty weekend, so might need to balance that out with a few more veggie based meals next week (never a major hardship).  Hope whatever you find yourself cooking and eating is lovely. A bientot! 

MPM: 24th June 2019

It's a brand new week and a typically grey, muggy day here in Leeds.  I am not a fan of heat at the best of times, but this particular brand of damp stickiness is particularly unpleasant.  Either we need to get on and have a bit of a summer or admit defeat and lurch straight into the cool, crisp days of Autumn.  Sort it out, weather.

Today also marks the start of my fourth week in my new role which has been full on and busy from the get-go but which is all going well so far.  I feel a little bit like a hamster on a wheel, and I don't think that I will ever see the bottom of my inbox again, but at the moment that still feels OK.  A few months down the line, if I am tearing my hair out in fistfuls, please feel free to refer me back to this.

Meal planning this week - I'm going to a bottomless brunch on Saturday, so it is unlikely I will still be upright come tea time.  The planned curry is going to be made in the slow cooker in advance so will be there if I need it.  Otherwise, a quiet week (well, it is the end of the month).

Monday: soup, as per often.  Crusty bread on the side.

Tuesday: spaghetti in tomato butter sauce and with turkey meatballs.  These meatballs are not, to my shame, homemade, but have been lurking in the freezer for a while and need using. 

Wednesday: trout fillets, minted hollandaise (again, the hollandaise is not homemade!  My foodie credentials are taking a battering today), potato salad, asparagus.

Thursday: fishcakes, but I'm thinking of going down a slightly Scandi route.  This Rick Stein recipe for "frikadeller" with remoulade looks nice.  I've got half a fennel bulb in the fridge that needs using, so I'll probably thinly slice that and add it to the remoulade to boost the veg content.

Friday: I'll keep back some of the tomato butter sauce from Tuesday and use that, alongside a batch of frozen dough, to put together a Friday night pizza.

Saturday: cardamom butter chicken

Sunday: a D choice - steak and chips

Hmmm not a bad selection at all, although it would be nice to see a couple more veggie options on there - something to balance out next week.  Have a good one everyone, and happy cooking!

MPM: 27th May 2019

For some reason, I failed to hit Publish on this yesterday so here it is, a day late...

Happy Bank Holiday weekend to all UK readers! And a very happy birthday to my lovely Mum who is twenty one again today.

Meal planning this week - we're both out on Friday night (separately) so nothing planned then and D is popping out for a couple of end-of-the-month pints tomorrow so something quick and easy that can be thrown together when he gets in is required. 

Otherwise (and some of these are uncharacteristically vague):

Monday: salmon and rice bowl with pickled ginger and radishes, spring onion and pea omelette, wasabi and sesame cucumber salad, crispy onions, crushed wasabi peas and Sriracha mayonnaise.  It's suppose to sort of nod towards sushi flavours.  (Edit: we didn't end up cooking this last night as I was suffering from tummy trouble. Apparently, the medication I'm on to counteract my body's total inability to handle food is in short supply which means despite putting my repeat prescription in well over a week ago, I still ran out and had to miss some doses.  Sigh.  I've been in a tremedous sulk over this, since I'm actually in quite a lot of discomfort and spending far more time on the toilet than is ever desirable.  Sigh again. I'm supposed to be cooking it this evening, but I'm still feeling a wee bit delicate so might do something a bit less elaborate and bump this to next week.)

Tuesday:  leek, potato and taleggio tangle pie.  A tangle pie, by the way, is when you use shredded filo sheets on top rather than pastry so it feels slightly healthier than a normal pie.  Making the filling with lots of oozy butter and cheese should successfully counter any health benefits.

Wednesday: spaghetti Carbonara

Thursday: fish (whatever looks nice) with new potatoes and asparagus

Saturday: it's a weekend fakeaway, courtesy of a Teeside Parmo

Sunday: roast pork belly (from the freezer) with, er, two vegetable sides, tbc.  I was thinking this braised fennel recipe might be nice.

Meal planning Monday (sort of): 15th April 2019

Meant to post this yesterday and, er, failed.  But we carry on regardless!  It's just a shame that meal planning Tuesday doesn't have such a pleasingly alliterative quality.

Anyhoo, how are you dearest reader?  I hope this finds you well.  We had a bit of drama at the weekend when the cat decided to either have a midlife crisis or start her bid for the Best Actress statuette at next year's Oscars.  It culminated in her being frogmarched to the vet who announced that she has slightly dodgy kneecaps.  As my mother said, one never thinks about cats having knees.  She now appears thoroughly pissed off with both us and life in general.

Of couse, she can express such emotions by leaving us little turd shaped indications of her displeasure in the hall.  The rest of us have to keep soldiering on despite the fact that a) Brexit, or the lack thereof, is a constant source of stress (modern day politics is NOT good for those of us with higher than normal anxiety levels), b) work is unrelenting and c) no lottery win has yet been forthcoming.  I mean, I'd take the millionaire's raffle, I really would.  I doubt that I could quit work for a million pounds but I could definitely buy a nice handbag and, as we all know, a nice handbag always helps.

In the midst of all this, of course, there are people going through real crises.  Peridot, if you happen to read this - still thinking of you and sending much love to you both through the blogosphere.

So to meal planning!  It was actually our anniversary on Sunday - not our wedding anniversary but 15 years to the day since we first met.  Our first date was in a not-particularly-great pub in York.  This year, we celebrated with steak which has become our go-to treat meal ever since we discovered reverse searing.  About halfway through said steak, we realised that one would comfortably have done both of us.  And so, last night, the rest of it was thinly sliced and served in a sandwich with caramelised onion mayonaise, mustard, and lightly dressed leaves.  Elsewhere this week...

Tuesday: split pea and ham soup

Wednesday: pan roasted chicken breast with sweetcorn puree and a potato and chorizo gratin

Thursday: D (rather than Charles) is in charge and he is undertaking to produce a spring veg risotto

Friday: creamy salmon pasta (opting for fish like the good lapsed Catholics that we are)

Saturday: homemade pizza.  Not sure what form this will take as of yet.

Sunday: a special Easter meal of roasted belly pork, lightly pickled rhubarb, kale with cream and bacon and caraway roasted potatoes.  There may well be pudding.  And even a starter.  And I shall spend the entire day in clean pyjamas.  Hurrah!

Recipe corner: Tomato butter sauce and a creamy Parmesan dressing

Before we get to pizza, I just wanted to post this pasta sauce recipe. It apparently was all the rage among food bloggers in oooh, 2010 or so so I’m either late to the party (likely) or bringing sexy back (less likely). It’s very lovely though. It reminds me of tomato sauces that I’ve eaten in Italy - light and sweet and clinging. Very different from the almost jam like quality you get when starting a tomato sauce from a standard soffrito. It also has the very great advantage of requiring very few ingredients and very little effort. One need never reach for a jar of sauce again.

To go with it a salad dressing which harks back to the Caesar dressing that I first posted years ago, which utilises a molten egg yolk to create something that tastes far richer than the points would suggest. The Parmesan adds a ton of umami flavour, the mustard a good kick. And this basic dressing recipe would be a good base for any other flavourings you might want to throw in, depending on what your salad is accompanying. This recipe makes enough to properly drench two decent portions of salad which is great when there’s not too much else going on. Alternatively, you could settle for an elegant drizzle and probably get away with counting it at zero points.

Tomato butter sauce - ingredients

200g tin chopped tomatoes

18g butter

One small onion, peeled and sliced in half

Serves 2, 3 Smart Points (WW Flex) a portion

The instructions for this are blessedly easy. Simply stick all the ingredients together in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Set over a low heat and bring to the gentlest of simmers and then turn the heat down as low as possible - a diffuser works well here if you have one - for around 45 minutes. As it cooks, give it the occasional stir, ensuring the tomatoes are lightly crushed into the buttery juices. It is ready when little droplets of fat appear on the surface of the sauce - see picture below.  NOT the most prepossessing looking thing, but getting there. Discard the onion, season with salt if required and then serve over pasta.

A note: I tried making this with a shallot but I don't think it worked quite as well so I would urge you to go for an onion.  It won't give an overtly onion flavour but it is an important constituent part and I think that the shallot was just a little too mild to deliver.

Creamy Parmesan dressing - ingredients

1 egg

2 tbsp 0% fat Greek yoghurt

2 tsp rapeseed oil

Tsp dijon mustard

15g Parmesan cheese finely grated

Scant squeeze of lemon juice

Serves 2 generously, 2 Smart Points (WW Flex) a portion

You'll need a little processor for this.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and then lower in the egg and set a timer for three minutes.  Remove as soon as it is done and immediately stick it under the cold tap to stop the cooking.

Meanwhile, put the yoghurt, oil and mustard into the processor and give them a quick whizz to introduce them to each other.  Grate the Parmesan - you could skip this step and let the processor do the work, but your result won't be as smooth and creamy.

CAREFULLY peel your egg.  Have the processor close at hand so if you accidentally pierce the yolk while you are doing so you can ensure it all gets into the mix.  The white should be just about set but depending on the size of your egg may be a little bit snotty which works beautifully in the dressing but be warned if you're slightly squeamish (as I know some people are when it comes to eggs).

Blend again until the egg is completely incorporated and you have a smooth, pale yellow dressing.  Add the Parmesan, a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and a good whack of pepper and whizz for a final time. Check the seasoning - it may require an extra hit of lemon just at the end.

MPM: 1st October 2018

As I write this on Sunday afternoon, I am full of cold and feeling most grumpy about it. I do not feel ill exactly - certainly not poorly enough to spend tomorrow at home, more’s the pity, but stuffed up and sniffy and sorry for myself. I have spent the majority of the day in bed, in some sort of vague protest against germs, kept company by the cat (when I am not making too much noise sniffing and sneezing) and one of Stephen King’s recent doorstoppers which is very bleak and apocalyptic and exactly suits my mood.

Meal planning then; on Friday D will be out on the first of his many birthday celebrations, so I will probably opt for prick and ping, and on Saturday we are going out for dinner with D’s sister and her husband - probably to The Reliance because my brother in law, who is an absolutely lovely chap, appears to have quite a limited range of food that he will consent to eat and The Reliance serve fish and chips. I must admit I do struggle to deal with the concept of otherwise sensible, intelligent adults who have the palate of toddlers but hey, I like The Reliance so it’s no skin off my nose. Recently we had a delicious bar snack there of roasted peppers with ricotta and capers piled onto crusty bread which is something I must recreate at home at some point.

Elsewhere on the meal plan:

Monday: Spinach, ricotta and roasted tomato gnocchi bake. I have so enjoyed rediscovering some of my older blog recipes in this latest crack at WW - there’s some really lovely stuff in those archives. This is exactly the kind of stodgy deliciousness that I’m going to need if this cold carries on into the beginning of the working week.

Tuesday: Mushroom risotto. D is in charge of this one. He promises that there will not be too much butter and Parmesan, but he may need close supervision...

Wednesday: Potato, bacon and asparagus salad topped with Epoisses. The original recipe called for green beans (which D detests) and Brie (we have Epoisses in the freezer leftover from last Christmas that needs using before we start buying cheese for this Christmas). I do enjoy a substantial warm salad for supper and have high hopes for this one.

Thursday: Salmon with pasta pesto. Haven’t had this in a good six weeks and it is one of our absolute favourite things.

Sunday: Fish pie - perfect Sunday fare.

Have a fabulous week all - stay warm and avoid germs!

MPM: 24th September 2018

Greetings chickadees and I think it is safe to say that summer is well and truly over after a weekend which saw us a) light our fire every night b) turn the heating on and c) get pounded by hailstones.  Suits me just fine - I am not a big fan of the hot weather although I have no intention of giving up the salads that have characterised my lunches for the past couple of months.  I love salad and don't see that it should be confined to when the weather is sunny.

I've been back on track for nearly a whole week now (four and a half days counts as nearly seven, doesn't it?) and although it has had its tricky moments, altogether it is going pretty well.  It helps, I think, that we were SO over indulgent last weekend, my body was definitely ready to embrace a simpler, leaner diet.  But, as I said in my last post and said to my WW coach at the weigh in, I will never be the type of person to count, or even attempt to count, on holiday.  Food and drink are two of life's very great pleasures.

Talking of great pleasures, and another sign that winter is on its way - the new series of Strictly Come Dancing started on Saturday night which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Saturday nights from now will definitely have to feature a special sort of supper to honour the occasion.  Actually, this Saturday's supper was very special indeed - inspired by a photo on Bundobust's Instagram feed, I contrived a saag paneer pizza.  If two of your favourite foods are saag paneer and pizza, this is a dish not to be missed.  I may well post the recipe at some point.

Anyway, on to this week.  I am supposed to be going out on Friday, so it is blank for now, but may try and wriggle out of it for various reasons, not least that it would be nice to have two straight weeks of tracking under my belt as we go into October AKA D's 50th Birthday Month.  Elsewhere:

Monday: Tuna and onion (tonno e cipolla) pizza - we have pizza dough leftover from Saturday night and, well, it would be rude not to.

Tuesday:  Mussel paella

Wednesday:  Vietnamese braised pork with vegetable egg fried rice

Thursday: Chicken breast stuffed with goats' cheese

Saturday:  Lobster truffled macaroni cheese - a dish inspired by our recent trip to the Star Inn the Harbour.

Sunday:  A freezer dive - beef and fennel stew with mashed potatoes.

Have a fabulous week all!

Meal Plans and Mini Goals

A day late for an MPM post but yesterday was a Bank Holiday so I don’t think that it counts as a proper Monday. We had a lovely day here, a nice walk in the morning followed by a lazy afternoon and finally finishing off season 2 of The Good Place which I think is tremendously good.

Anyway, I’ve noticed that I am not quite as focused now as I was back when I first started which is, of course, to be expected but I’d like to ensure a bit of momentum is maintained so I’ve set myself a little mini goal. It’s our wedding anniversary on 17th September and we’re going away for the weekend to Whitby via Darlington – not quite so random as it sounds given that our sole stop off point in Darlington is The Raby Hunt, which bastion of culinary pulchritude we first visited last year. If I can be half a stone further closer to goal by the time we go, then I get a new outfit to wear (and, no doubt, to spill food on).

In general, I am very very anti setting “I must be x weight by y date” goals because we none of us can control the rate at which our bodies choose to shed the lard. We can do everything right but sometimes the scales just don’t budge and I don’t want my sense of achievement tied up with the arbitrations of such a randomly cruel being. However, I am keeping this casual and treating it as a little bit of fun and additional incentive to stay on track, stop allowing the odd day “off” to creep in and keep up with the exercise. If I don’t make it, then I still plan to stick on some glad rags, make my nails all sparkly and have a wonderful, indulgent few days away.

Onto the meal plan and the theme for the first half of the week is on a theme of “It’s pay day on Thursday.” Last night, this led to a slightly random salad and pasta bowl – roasted courgette with watercress, baby spinach and basil in balsamic dressing, pasta and peas tossed in watercress pesto with half a pack of goats’ cheese and red onion fiorelli bunged on top for good measure.

Today – eggs baked in spiced tomato and spinach sauce with toasted pitta for dunking.

Tomorrow – pan fried chicken breast in creamy mushroom and tarragon sauce, mashed potato, honey roast carrots.

Then on Thursday we celebrate the start of the month with a trip out to The Moorcock Inn – the online menu looks intriguingly lovely so I shall look forward to reporting back. And the weekend can be slightly more decadent because, wahey, we have money again.

Friday – trout with beetroot and horseradish (a bump from last week)

Saturday – mussels cooked with white wine, shallots and Bayonne ham, with a crispy pile of oven baked fries on the side

Sunday – still to be decided.

Have a good week all!

MPM: 13th August 2018

I’m so tired this morning. This, despite the fact I had a nap yesterday afternoon and then went to bed at nine o clock, I feel like I could sleep for a week. Thankfully, God invented caffeine and I’m sure that the second cup of strong coffee will be the charm.

Anyway, meal planning. A quiet week ahead with some nice food to look forward to.

Monday: Pan fried salmon with Bois Bourdan sauce and crushed potatoes. A Heston Blumenthal recipe from his “At Home” book.

Tuesday: Creamy butternut squash and red pepper soup, homemade flatbreads brushed with smoked butter

Wednesday: Kale and blue cheese gnocchi

Thursday: D is out, so filled pasta for me.

Friday: Skate wings with black butter and capers. This is one of my all-time favourite things to eat but, dear Teapot, butter is high in points. The recipe I’ve used before suggests 75g butter between two people. That’s 14 points worth of butter a portion! I mean…I’m going to eat it, but I will be licking any excess butter off the plate when I’m done and will probably be whingeing about it a LOT.

Saturday: A homemade fakeaway - Nando’s chicken pitta. Now, we went to Nando’s the other week on a pre cinema jolly and I was SO disappointed. I think they might have changed their recipe, or else we just got a really duff cook because it was not nice at all. Too much chill heat without any rounded flavour, woolly, over cooked chicken and the chargrilled vegetables were not so much chargrilled vegetables as crappy, overcooked mulch. So I’m going to make my own Piri-Piri style chicken at home and it will likely cost a hell of a lot less than the £30 we paid for two of us to eat remarkably mediocre food.

Sunday: roast dinner. Probably chicken. Depending on the weather, I’ll either do roast potatoes and standard trimmings, or we’ll have it with a couple of salads, maybe some bread. It’s distinctly cooler and greyer this morning here in Leeds, perfect roast potato weather, but we’ll see how the week pans out.

MPM: 6th August 2018

There are only so many times that one can write “Monday again” or, “Where did the weekend go?” or, “Can’t believe we’re eight months into the year!” without it becoming ineffably tedious. Suffice to say, please take all the above as read.

If nothing else, my returning to Weight Watchers has refocused our attention on meal planning which is excellent news. We’ve more or less completely stuck to the plan these last few weeks and have been eating extremely well. We’re also getting more of a sense of what works well with the current WW ideal – NB: if you like fish, chicken and pulses and can make them the main constituents of your dish, you’re going to be laughing all the way to the (Smart Points) bank. I also continue in my efforts to stick an egg on top of pretty much everything I eat.

This week, we again have no particular plans, other than Tuesday night, when we’re off to the cinema and I am angling to fit in a cheeky Nando’s, having discovered that a double chicken pitta is a mere 8 Smart Points. I have to admit I secretly quite adore Nando’s and yes, I know that I could cook something just as nice at home and not pay ridiculously over the odds for it, but I maintain that it is worth the occasional splurge, especially since there is a branch located very handily for our local multiplex. D is out for lunch on Thursday (probably Nando’s again, the lucky sausage. Fortunately, he is very partial to chicken) so keeping things light on Thursday evening.

Monday: Crab scrambled eggs with pan roasted asparagus.

Wednesday: Prawns with sweet potato mash and chilli vinaigrette

Thursday: Tuna sandwiches

Friday: Twice baked cheese soufflés, roast courgette and spinach salad with balsamic dressing, garlic bread

Saturday: Momofuku chicken wings

Sunday: Butternut squash, sage and amaretti ravioli

Recipe corner: Creamy salmon pasta

Everyone has a dish that they remember, perhaps from childhood or perhaps from a holiday, something that sticks out as being the absolute essence of Delicious. For D, it is a creamy salmon pasta dish that he once had while on a skiing holiday in Italy. He cannot explain what it was that made it so perfect, and, as with so many things, I suspect that it was partly a configuration of particular external circumstances that makes the memory so precious but, nevertheless, I wanted to have a creamy salmon pasta dish in the repertoire to please him.

The thing is, the majority of creamy salmon pasta dishes that I looked at are pretty much salmon, cream and pasta. Maybe a bit of white wine and/or lemon. There never seems to be much to them which I think makes them sound pretty bland.

Here, I’ve upped both the umami and the acidity. The shallots, Parmesan and, importantly, the anchovies, add a savoury note to the cream, while the wine and the lemony cooking dishes add much needed zing. I also really like the mustard here - not so much as to make its presence too obvious but just an underlying hum of warmth. Salmon, mustard and dill is a fantastic combination.

This is simple, quick to cook comfort food of the highest order. It may not quite live up to that one plate of pasta eaten by a young man in the Italian Alps, but the slightly older man who had it for his tea in a living room in Leeds seemed pretty content just the same.

Ingredients

1 large salmon fillet
Half a small lemon, thinly sliced
2 tbsp white wine

2 small or 1 large shallot, finely minced
Generous knob of butter
2 anchovies
50ml white wine
150ml double cream
30g Parmesan, finely grated
Scant tsp of English mustard
Generous tsp freeze dried dill

150g dried pasta

Serves 2, generously 

Preheat the oven to a 180. Put out a large square of tin foil and lay the lemon slices out in the centre of it. Season the salmon fillet well and then sit it, skin side down, on the lemon. Gather up the sides of the square foil, sprinkle over the wine and then bring the edges together to make a parcel. Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins (the timing will depend on the thickness of the fish) until the salmon is almost cooked through but still moist.

Once the salmon is cooked, the sauce can be prepared in the time it takes to do the pasta. So bring a pan of salted water to the boil and set a second, large pan over a low heat.

Tip the pasta into the water and set a ten minute timer.

Melt the butter in the other pan and, just as it starts to foam, bung in the shallot. It should be minced fine enough that it turns soft and translucent pretty quickly - 2-3 minutes. Add the anchovies and cook for a further couple of minutes until they have melted into the shallots.

Pour over the wine and turn up the heat. Reduce until practically all the liquid has disappeared and then pour in the cream, add the mustard and simmer for a couple more minutes. Reduce from the heat and stir through the Parmesan until melted completely.

To finish the sauce, flake through the cooked fish (discarding the soggy skin), ensuring that any fishy, lemony, winey juices also get poured in. Season with salt, pepper and dill.

Drain the pasta, reserving a little bit of cooking water. Stir through the sauce adding a splash or so of the water, if needed, to ensure a clinging texture (particularly pertinent if you prepare the sauce in advance).

MPM: 26th February 2018

I cannot tell a lie, when I weighed in this morning and the scales yielded me a mere 0.4 lbs loss, I was disappointed.  I try to be very, very realistic about what I can expect on 5:2 but less than half a pound still stings.  I'm hoping that now my digestive system seems to be settling down a bit, if I keep on with the old keeping on I will see a better result next week. 

Talking of better results, yesterday saw me dip the very tip of my littlest toe back into the exercise pool.  Long time readers might remember that we have a treadmill in our garage, purchased back in the days when D was a keen(ish) marathon runner.  I've long been using every possible excuse to avoid venturing out there and climbing aboard, but given that it is clear that my 2018 Weight Loss Campaign needs a boost, I've done it.  And by "it", I mean I completed the Couch to 5k week 1, day 1 workout, which is really more walking than anything else.  Let's see if I can manage day 2 and 3 this week and maybe even reach the giddy heights of week 2.

Meal planning - we are out on Wednesday (a quick bite before a trip to the theatre) and on Sunday (lunch with the parentals).  Today and Wednesday are fast days.  There's not an awful lot else to plan.

Tuesday: Beef and fennel stew (from the freezer), mashed potato

Friday: Nigel Slater's fettucine with fennel and prawns - how adorably simple and delicious does this dish look?  Perfect for an end-of-the-week-collapse-on-the-sofa supper.

Saturday:  D is cooking two dishes from The Palomar Cookbook (a recent addition to our collection).  He plans chopped liver followed by a deconstructed kebab.  I shall be contributing homemade pitta breads to the proceedings.