Due to a beer festival and then a very lazy Sunday, on which we consumed mainly cheese and wine, my blondies were the only cooking I did over the weekend (besides making my morning porridge). It was something of a novelty therefore to return home after work and actually cook something for a change, and so I made Crispy Fillet of Salmon with Cherry Tomato and Anchovy Sauce from Fantastico! I can’t consciously ever remember crumbing salmon before but the suitably glossy photo beside the recipe looked ever so inviting so I couldn’t resist trying it. All the components of the dish were straightforward to prepare and really didn’t take too long to bring together, then I gently fried the salmon to give it a lovely crunchy coating. I was a little worried about over cooking the salmon as I generally bake/grill it in the oven but I needn’t have worried, the crispy outside gave way to perfectly cooked fish that melted in your mouth. The slight acidity from the tomatoes rounded the dish off nicely along with the lightly dressed green salad that accompanied it.
Next up was Sour Cream Potato Bake with Aubergines & Taleggio, another dish from Fantastico! This recipe was a bit more involved as it meant cooking potatoes, aubergines and onions separately and then layering them up to be cooked once again in the oven. That said however none of the processes were particularly difficult, maybe just a bit time consuming for a midweek meal – luckily for me hubby was slightly late home so I had time to tidy up the mess I’d made, and obviously he came home to the smell of a delicious dinner waiting for him. The potatoes were lovely and tender and worked wonderfully with the caramelised onions and golden aubergine, and the taleggio cheese gave a wonderful flavour that really boosted the dish. As this dish was fairly substantial I served it simply with a lightly dressed green salad (possibly the last we see of salad now that the weather has turned cold).
In a hat-trick of new recipes, the following night I made Cauliflower Risotto with Chilli Pangrattato from Jamie’s Italy. Again this one was a little more involved as I had to make the pangrattato and then start cooking the cauliflower before I even thought about starting the risotto but, as with most risottos, it was a labour of love. By the time the risotto was cooking down nicely the cauliflower was lovely and soft and could be added to break down into the rice, adding to the creaminess of the dish. I’m not a huge fan of cauliflower by itself, I find it fairly bland, but I do love its ability to soak up the flavours of a dish (that’s why it’s so good in curries), or in this case to be soaked up by the dish. I was pleased when I dished it up to see that it looked exactly like the picture in the book, my pangrattato adding a brilliant splash of colour on the top and, upon tasting it provided a wonderful crunch against the softness of the risotto underneath.
Recipe Count: 133
New Target: 156
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