This Week I Wanted...I Bought...I Made

Have decided to approach this regular weekly post in a slightly different fashion and post a menu list Thursday for the rest of the week - I do the main food shop Fridays, and keep track of what food bought and eaten when to see how the food evolves both weekly and over time. Will add in pricing as well just so I know where it's going and also where the idea for the food comes from to try and develop that into a broader or better thought through meal plan.

Friday there is smoked salmon in the fridge and eggs not eaten so that's dinner right there with a green salad and the rest of the soda bread toasted
Breakfast was muesli for the man who left very early and coffee and a slice of thickly buttered soda bread for me
Went to Borough in the morning and blow me down but the sun was shining - what a delight after all the rain. I swear everyone was cheerier than usual
I started at Neals Yard and bought 2 litres of milk, a large tub of yoghurt and a reduced price tub of clotted cream - £6.80
Then to Ginger Pig thinking I'd only get eggs but oooooh, temptation! they had 4 big thick gammon steaks for £10 and I could not resist - £13 with the dozen eggs
From Gastronomica I bought a thick slice of Pecorino and a bag of dried penne £12.80
At the place that sells the Comte I bought instead a tub of rillette for snacking - £5.50
Borough Olives have petit luque in, could not resist, £3.50 for a medium tub
Prosciutto di Parma from the parma ham and mozzarella stand £6.80
A warm scotch egg - something of a guilty pleasure for me - £3 from Roast takeaway - my lunch, the man took the rest of last night's leek and potato soup to be pinged in the microwave and eaten with a slice of soda bread
A most enormous cucumber from the used to be Booths and enquired about the price of the rhubarb - £5 a kilo, hmm I said, tell you what 4 quid'll do, okay I said and he pulled down all the rhubarb that was there - close to 2 kgs - and said have the lot, £3.50. Cheers - so £4.40 with the cucumber
Spent  £55.80

Snacks with a drink both green and black olives with a little rillette on a buttered cracker before dinner of smoked salmon, eggs, salad and very thin slices of hot toasted soda bread

Saturday porridge to bolster us against the rain, then sandwich for lunch as we are out in the evening to see Midsummer Night's Dream and so shall have an early supper at Comptoir Gascon
Almost none of that came true- had toasted soda bread with the man's mothers' fabulous marmalade with lashings of  fresh coffee at breakfast then rillette and olives, Hungarian salami from when we were in Budapest, cucumber and cheeses to snack on for a light lunch and a slightly under par tea at Comptoir Gascon - disappointing as I have eaten here on and off for years and it is generally really good - but not this time. Good production though - best Bottom ever!

Sunday a roast perhaps, some time since I made one
More soda bread toast and marmalade to start the day then, after Dallas Buyers Club at the Ritzy we mistimed arrival at The Canton and  waited a very long time indeed until we finally got a seat and had a seriously gorgeous roast  beef with potatoes and creamed leeks - perfect lunch
Back to snacks for supper after such a late lunch - the last of the rillettes with crackers, some parma ham and olives and cheese and cucumber

Monday tofu and noodles
Juice of carrots, peppers, pears, ginger and clementine with muesli for the man and coffee for me as breakfast

For lunch the man went out and I bought a couple of rolls from Di Lieto - 60p - and had the last of the parma ham
Went to Brixton Market and bought peppers and bananas - £1.70 and made a batch of coconut cookies from ingredients I already had in so practically free!
Dinner was creamy bowls of penne with fennel after a snack of macadamia nuts - I had fennel from last week that needed using and a tub of creme fraiche in the freezer that needed using

Tuesday carbonara as there is guincale in the freezer
Juice this morning from peppers, carrots, pears, a stick of celery, ginger and lime then a breakfast of yoghurt with stewed rhubarb and coffee for me, lunch was leftover pasta and the tin of coconut biscuits and a banana for the man, I bought salami from Camisa £2.80 and a couple of rolls from Di Lieto - 60p great combination
From Waitrose I bought butter - I love the French butter that is unsalted and then large crystals are added to give grainy little explosions of salt but it is not widely available. Often I buy waitrose own brand but it seems to have altered recently and has less salt so I was on a mission to find the real French version. Did so at John Lewis foodhall - the poshest of posh waitrose but still a supermarket - and bought 3 blocks of Buerre d'Isigny and a couple of blocks of President unsalted which was £8.77. A lot to pay just for butter but it will last the month so worth it for the pleasure of weekend eating. Also went to Brixton for veg - carrots, beetroot, parsley and pears - a much more reasonable £2.59
Dinner - after a beer and a few macadamia nuts - did indeed start from the freezer but it was a litre of stock and some leftover ham hock that went with wild mushrooms and lashings of butter and cheese for a very fine rich risotto

Wednesday lamb curry from the freezer with rice and some interesting sides
Juice today was deepest red - beetroot, carrots, celery stick, pears, ginger and a couple of red peppers then breakfast again was yoghurt and rhubarb, coffee. The man took the rest of the risotto and a banana for lunch, I had scrambled eggs
Dinner was chargrilled gammon steaks - technically from the freezer but only because that's where I put them Friday - with egg and chips. Bliss on a cold wet windy night

Thursday out to see Superior Donuts at Southwark Playhouse - it's a new play by Tracy Letts who wrote August: Osage County which I liked a lot in the cinema, unlike most reviewers!
Breakfast was juice same as yesterday's but no celery and less peppers, still gorgeous then yoghurt with rhubarb + coffee for me Lunch for the man was the rest of the risotto and the biscuit tin came home empty so made a fruit tea loaf for tomorrow and the weekend

Bought peppers, carrots, coriander, spinach, chillies, beetroot, celery, spring onions and an orange at Nour stores in Brixton - £5.44 - a mix of stuff to juice and make salad, the orange is for the tea loaf. Bought focaccia from Wild Caper - ~£2 and ham from Di Lieto - £2.50 for decadent lunch for me
 Quick early supper at home - spiced roasted chicken pieces with a quinoa salad - chicken from freezer with garlic, ginger, chilli rub - not a lot on offer round Elephant

Roast Tomato Pasta

You know it's summer when the sight of deep red tomatoes brings a smile to your face. Bright and shiny they are harbingers of joy - for me at least. The man won't eat them raw but has a liking for them cooked. I found this recipe on the Splendid Table email last week and it was so easy to imagine how good it would be. I had the last of the sourdough bread to use up, there is always pasta and Parmesan round ours, so all I needed to pick up mid week was a bunch of basil. I have started some in the garden but while summer appears to be in retreat it has stopped growing. Just like pretty much everything else.

Roast Tomato Pasta

The prep for this takes less than ten minutes, it is a really easy quick mid week delight.



500g ripe cherry or plum tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil 300g penne, fusilli or farfarallini pasta
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil

Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180 C/400F.

Place the tomato halves in a baking tray. In a small bowl, combine garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese and salt and pepper. Spoon it evenly over the tomatoes and then drizzle with the olive oil.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the mixture is bubbly, browned and slightly thickened.

While the tomatoes cook bring a large pan of salted water to the boil then cook the pasta till al dente. Drain well.

Add the pasta to the tomatoes (I added the tomatoes to the pasta but you could serve it all in the baking dish). Add the basil and toss to combine.





Dinner is ready!

Asparagus Lasagne

It is spring and the sun is shining practically daily and that is strange and wonderful after such a long cold winter as we've had. It is asparagus season and we have been eating it joyfully and mostly simply, just lightly steamed with a little melted butter and some cracked black pepper for a few weeks. I could happily continute to eat it like this for months.

Then I came across this recipe for lasagne and was instantly smitten. Not just because matching crisp asparagus with silky pasta is a kind of genius when you add cheese sauce, but because the sauce was made with chicken stock rather than milk and so has both greater depth of flavour and is lighter and more delicate at the same time. I used rocchetta for it's balanced rich creaminess but any spring like cheese would work a treat.

You could serve a salad after but it needs no accompaniment at all apart from a little crusty bread to guarantee that you mop up every skerrick of sauce.

The recipe comes from Jane Lear's blog and is an adaptation of an earlier version on Gourmet. She uses goat's cheese which would also be great, though not round ours as the man is not a fan.

Asparagus Lasagne

Serves 4

1kg asparagus, trimmed

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse salt

60g unsalted butter

2 tbspns plain flour

400ml chicken or vegetable stock

½ cup water

200g rocchetta or other soft cheese, softened to room temperature and crumbled

About 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest

About 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Gruyère, plus a handful for topping

1 box no-boil lasagne sheets, the best quality you can find

200ml double cream

1. Preheat the oven to Gas6/500ºF. Cut off the tips of the asparagus spears and set them aside. In a large bowl toss the asparagus spears with the olive oil, and spread them onto a rimmed baking sheet. Roast them 5 to 10 minutes (depending on thickness), stirring them around halfway through, until they are crisp-tender. Season the roasted asparagus with salt, and, when cool enough to deal with, cut the spears into fork-friendly lengths, about ½ inch or so.

2. Melt the butter in a medium pot, add the flour, and cook over moderately low heat, whisking, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the stock and water and simmer 5 minutes. Whisk in the crumbled cheese and lemon zest and season with salt to taste; whisk the sauce until it is silky smooth.

3. Skim-coat the bottom of a buttered 20cm square baking dish with a little sauce, then make layers of pasta sheets, sauce, roasted asparagus, and Parmigiano, ending with a layer of pasta. Scatter the uncooked asparagus tips on top. In a bowl beat the cream with a pinch of salt until it holds soft peaks, and spread it over the asparagus tips. Scatter that handful of Parmesan over the whipped cream and bake the lasagne on the middle rack of the oven about 30 minutes, or until it’s bubbling around the edges and golden on top. Let it stand 10 minutes to collect itself, then cut into slices and serve.

Pasta with tart greens and braised garlic

Late last summer I planted a couple of dozen brassicas - not with any real idea of what would happen but just to have something in the garden that didn't look entirely bleak.

Mostly they did nothing.

These plants had been dormant for months, surviving short days, cold nights, heavy snow, on and off frost, and the unwelcome visits of the neighbourhood cats. They simply sat in little dark green bundles, unmoved and unresponsive. Nature's way to cope with winter.

Then, just like in all the best tv gardening shows, they suddenly sprang to life. The days got a little longer, the air a little warmer and kerching! they were reaching for the sky and bulking out sideways, filling the available space. Amazing.

I must confess I did not know which would turn into what. I know there are four varieties - even I can see they are different collections of plants - but the magic of planting unlabelled things six months on is *surprise* and a big grin! The fastest to grow, and the first to be harvested, is curly kale, lovely matt green leaves belying their sturdiness by being all frilled at the edges.

I'm watching the rest. It is becoming apparent which are the cauliflowers - they are starting to have creamy white heads - small yet but growing. I'm fascinated - I have never before seen a cauliflower come into being.

This dinner was a celebration of the arrival of spring, a quirky mix of things from a recipe from the splendid table, another food mail I subscribe to. It's actaually an American radio programme which reads like it sounds amazing.

Pasta with tart greens and braised garlic

Serves 4

Note the recipe says braised garlic - you need nice big fat juicy cloves for this

500g greens, trimmed of thick stems and chopped into 5cm pieces,

Sauté and Pasta:

Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 large garlic cloves, cut into 1cm cubes – big chunks!

500g Orecchiette pasta, or other little ones but the ears are very cute

150g Italian fennel sausage, cut into 1 cm pieces

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Finishing:

2/3 cup pasta water

½ cup toasted pine nuts or coarsely chopped hazelnuts

1 to 1 ½ cups shredded Pecorino Romano, or Ricotta Salata. Lacking either I used Parmesan

Have a large pan of salted water at a full boil, drop in the greens and boil, uncovered, 2 minutes, or until just tender. Lift out with a big strainer (you want to cook the pasta in the same vegetable water), drain, and set the greens aside. Keep the water at a bubble.

In a large sauté pan, pour enough oil to film the bottom. Add the ½ cup water with salt, pepper and the garlic. Heat over medium, cover and cook 8 minutes, or until the garlic is soft. Check that the garlic doesn't brown, adding a little more water if needed. Once the garlic is soft, scoop it out with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Have the pasta water boiling, then drop in the pasta and cook, stirring often, as you finish the sauté.

Have the sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the sausage. Sear it until it starts to colour, then lower the heat to medium. Cover the pan and cook the sausage about 5 minutes, or until it's no longer pink inside. Stir in the tomato paste and hot pepper and cook another minute, uncovered. Add the cooked greens and the garlic. Raise the heat to medium-high and sauté them for a few moments, tasting for seasoning. If necessary, set aside the sauté until the pasta is ready to be drained.

Before draining the pasta, scoop about 2/3 cup of the pasta water from the pot and set aside. Put the greens back on medium-high heat, add the pasta water and simmer a moment or two. You want them moist, but not soupy. Once the pasta is tender but still a little firm to the bite, drain it and add it to the greens mixture. Toss in the pine nuts and the cheese until combined, and taste for seasoning. Serve the pasta hot.

A word of warning - I tend to use lots of salt in the water to cook pasta which resulted in a fairly salty finished dish after I added pasta cooking water to the sauce.

Otherwise this was a great supper - lots of flavour and textures, little nubbles of toasted nuts and prickles of chilli and the garlic in the end is gently mellow. The greens were the best!