To begin another week of culinary adventures the husband and I ventured off to the Cowley Road in Oxford to hit all the wonderfully exotic food shops located there. I had diligently rummaged through all my cupboards and made a list of ingredients to look out for – my recently depleted pasta supplies desperately needed restocking, and my spice levels were running low. Hitting the Asian supermarket first I piled my arms high with all kinds of aromatic spices, and I also stocked up on coconut milk while it was so reasonably priced – hubby took the opportunity to slip a platter of baklava into the basket too. After that we hit the Maroc Deli across the road and I grabbed some cheap harissa and ras-el-hanout, and then it was just a few doors down to the Italian deli, Il Principe, where I loaded myself up with plenty of de cecco pasta – which incidentally was no more expensive in there than it is in the supermarket (when you can get it obviously, my local only sells the spaghetti and linguine varieties). With our bags practically bursting at the seams we ambled over to the pub and made the most of the sunny weather in their beer garden – a very satisfying day all round!
With the sun deciding to hide away again I thought a nice warming dish was in order for our Sunday lunch, and so I made Chicken Cacciatore from Tana’s Kitchen Secrets. Having done the small amount of prep work involved I was able to pop the casserole in the oven and enjoy a nice glass of wine and waiting for the lovely smells to permeate through the house. I served this with some orzo which I had stirred a small amount of olive oil and lemon juice through after cooking – a very pleasant way to end the weekend.
Having received Nigella’s Forever Summer for my birthday I had been waiting for the sun to show its face so that I could whip up some lovely summery dishes, but in the absence of much warm weather I thought I’d actually whip up something that resembles sunshine on a plate. So the recipe for Keralan Fish Curry with Lemon rice looked like just such a dish, and I was not wrong – boy was that a yellow plate of food! Most of the cooking time is creating the curry sauce as you simply add the fish for the last few minutes of cooking – another brilliantly simple recipe for a Monday night. I think the only thing I’d do differently next time is to serve it with plain rice as the lemon rice seemed a little greasy, and obviously just blended in with the colour of the curry – thanks to the powerful staining power of turmeric.
Next up was Penne all’ Emiliana from Gino’s Pasta. Unfortunately on my foray to the Italian deli I had been unable to procure any penne so I substituted rigatoni instead. This was a really lovely dish, I was bit worried that the pork might be slightly overcooked having been bubbling away for a while, considering it was chopped up quite finely, but it wasn’t at all – it was nice and tender.
I’ve wanted to make quesadillas again for a while now but because we have wraps most days for our lunch it always seemed like it would be tortilla overkill, but when I found the recipe for Sweet Potato & Chorizo Quesadillas and remembered I had some chorizo in the freezer, I thought what the hell! With hubby out at cricket I cooked the sweet potatoes and prepared the filling so that I could cook the completed quesadillas on his return. Fortunately when I came to griddle them I discovered that they did actually fit in the pan, phew! I served them with just a side salad as there seemed quite a mountain of quesadillas, but we struggled through them anyway – I think hubby would have eaten twice as many if he could, he seemed very impressed (but then they contained feta so it was only to be expected!).
Recipe Count: 55
New Target: 104
…I’ve had to up my target because beyond all expectations I’ve already exceeded my original one, despite being only a third of the way through the year – go me!!
No comments:
Post a Comment