Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 15

Maybe it was the tiny glimpse of spring we experienced this week or maybe I just felt we deserved some warmth at long last but I just fancied something Mediterranean and summery. It may seem an odd choice given I had to remove all the shellfish from it (due to hubby’s allergies) but I chose Mediterranean Fish Stew from BBC Good Food, and simply added in a lot more fish to compensate. I served it with lightly grilled ciabatta which I rubbed with a garlic clove while they were still hot; the combination was absolutely wonderful – and so simple to do. Come the (actual) summer I look forward to doing this dish again!

 

Given the success of the last slow-cooked meal I wanted to keep the momentum going so I chose Beery Barley Beef from The Complete Slow Cooker as our Sunday lunch, and I duly took myself off into the kitchen first thing, in my pyjamas, to get everything ready. I really could get used to cooking at breakfast time and then making no effort whatsoever come dinner time – it’s awesome! Although given I spent the day ironing, and my husband did the gardening, I think we both deserved some rest come the evening. The beef was very tender and all the veg and barley meant I didn’t even have to cook any accompaniments to go with it, that and the lack of washing up gives this dish a very enthusiastic thumbs-up! (NB: I’m not sure if pearl barley can give you a migraine, but it’s funny how the last time I ate it I suffered for a while afterwards too…anyone else experienced this or is it just me?! I’m not sure I feel brave enough to eat it again just to find out, it's really painful!)

A recipe I have wanted to try for a while is Lemon & Aubergine Risotto from Ottolenghi’s Plenty, and this week I thought why not – I think what put me off for a while is that the recipe is hard to halve as it includes roasting a whole aubergine and then dicing and frying a second. But I figured with aubergines being so tiny at the moment that I’d give it a whirl anyway (you can never really have too much aubergine after all!). The prep work took a little bit of time, but it’s all very easy to do and the resulting dish was so creamy and meaty that any extra effort was well worth it. I really liked the fried aubergine mixed through right at the end, it was a gorgeous risotto.

Recipe Count: 48
Target: 52