Pork Chops
Pork chops stuffed with garlic, bay and rosemary. Served with garlic mushrooms, braised lemony leeks and roasted butternut.
Very simple but very tasty.
Slutty Spaghetti with Asparagus
I couldn’t decide what to eat this evening but after the success of last night’s pasta, I thought I’d try something similar with asparagus. I love asparagus and am determined to eat as much of it as possible while it’s in season. I usually just have it with butter or parma ham so was keen to see what it would be like incorporated into a dish.
Sadly, it didn’t work out. I used similar ingredients to last night: garlic, basil, chilli, anchovies, capers, cherry tomatoes and tomato puree then threw the asparagus in towards the end. They just didn’t cook though and the sauce started to catch.
I think it could work, perhaps if the asparagus was griddled seperately and then added at the very end. I’ve just realised I forgot the parmesan too which probably didn’t help.
I did get to eat from my new green bowl though which I bought purely because I thought it would look nice with the asparagus 🙂
Slutty Spaghetti
Or Tart’s Spaghetti. Or Pasta Puttanesca.
I’ve never made this before, I’ve no idea why as I love pasta and all the ingredients contained within this dish. Stephen was out tonight so I thought I’d give it a try and I am so glad I did. This is officially my New Favourite Thing. It’s so quick to make, uses mostly store-cupboard ingredients and, best of all, is one of the tastiest things I’ve eaten for a very long time.
The anchovies and capers add a real richness which is balanced by the freshness of the basil, the chilli adding a further intensity and heat. It had an almost meaty taste and texture. I absolutely loved it.
I cooked too much pasta (surprise, surprise) but it didn’t matter as there was plenty of delicous sauce to coat it. It was a struggle to stop eating.
Stephen is out again tomorrow night, I may well be eating this again!
Smoked Chicken
Today, we attempted to smoke a chicken on the barbeque. We used woodchips to create a smoky flavour and cooked the whole thing with the lid on. It took much longer to cook than we expected but the flavour was very smoky. So smoky that it reminded me of bacon.
We also had boerewors and Grapetiser:
Fish Braai
Another sunny and warm weekend so another barbeque. Two actually.
On Saturday, we picked up some prawns, a rainbow trout, a red mullet and a sea bream to barbeque.
The prawns were marinated in olive oil, lime, chilli and garlic. The other fishes were brushed with oil and stuffed with rosemary, lemon and bay. It was interesting to eat three different fishes at once because the flavours were all so different. My favourite (other than the prawns) was the trout. Stephen favoured the mullet.
Camargue Red Rice Salad with Feta Cheese
We’ve had this rice in the cupboard for a while but haven’t really known what to do with it so tonight we tried this Delia Smith recipe.
It was tasty but not brilliant; there was a lot of raw onion, shallot and garlic in it which made it quite sharp. The rice itself was highly flavoured, it had an earthy, nutty taste.
I think it would be good as a side dish but on it’s own it didn’t quite hold up.
G
Salmon with Salsa Verde
The warm weather is definitely having an affect on our eating habits. No longer are we craving casserole or pie but instead lighter, fresher food. Tonight we went for salmon with salsa verde and salad. The salsa verde was just mint, parsley, capers, anchovies and garlic all pounded up and spread between the pieces of salmon. Very tasty.
G
Pimms
Another warm day, another barbeque. This time with steaks. And Pimms.
First Barbecue Of The Year
This Easter weekend saw the temperature in London reach 20 degrees. To celebrate, Stephen and I barbecued. To start with, we had prawns marinated in garlic, chilli, oil and lime juice:
We followed this with garlic and rosemary lamb chops, corn on the cob, roasted butternut with spinach and feta and salad:
It was all really good, hopefully the warm weather will continue.
G
Happy Easter!
