donna hay's rocket pasta with seared tuna

The best laid plans slip twixt lip and a bush tonight as Donna Hay's mooted warm white bean and tuna salad founders on the lack of cannellini beans. For some reason we've got two cans of chick peas, which aren't really interchangeable and suggest I was slightly more asleep on Saturday than I thought at the time.

Anyhoo, a quick flick through Miss Hay's latest tome not only comes up trumps with this alternative recipe (meaning I don't have to bin the tuna), but it also manages to use a bunch of malingering things in the fridge - hurrah!

Even better, for something that is 80% scrounged from the fridge Ana gives it a thumbs up, so definitely one for The Yummington Mummington.

Wine Time
Meaty fish and acidic dressing? Simples, especially for the denizens of the Yummington. Rose, and lashes of it - but not a flabby, cheap one mind, you need one with bags of acidity, bone dry and with plenty of fruitiness. If only I knew where to get one...

sources
rocket pasta with seared tuna - Donna Hay, Fast, Fresh and Simple, p27

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's warm salad of mushrooms and roasted squash

When I own my first Bistro in Barnes, called 'The Yummington Mummington', I will be churning out exactly this sort of fayre to SW14s mummies at lunchtime, 14 quid a pop, along with a large bottle of Rosé or Sauvignon Blanc with a straw in it.

However Queen Yummington Mummington (or Qym as I'm now calling her), says there's too much blue cheese in it, which is a fair point as I doubled the amount on the basis it'll only go off in the fridge. So maybe I'll use some sort of Blue Halloumi - Yummington's love halloumi!

sources
warm salad of mushrooms of roasted squash - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Veg! Everday, p94

fay ripley's miso noodle broth with salmon

No, I still can't believe we're actually eating a Fay Ripley meal either. Twice as well! What'll be next, Natalie Cassidy's giant cream baps? Phil Spencer's spicy sausage? Can celebrities just stop taking everything over?

Anyway, unlike last time, tonight we have it with a fillet of trout, which we decided worked much better than salmon. It's slightly more delicate, with a sweetness that seems to battle less with the otherwise-entirely-worthy other ingredients. Also, an interesting fact I did not know about Ana after 18 years together - she doesn't like broccoli. Who'd have thunk it? Obvs not me because we have it about twice a week...

Word to the wise on this one - this is OFFICIALLY the easiest recipe ever to make. You quite literally lob it all into on pan and let it do it's stuff for five minutes. Of course you have to first get some feckless teenager in Waitrose attempt to skin the trout with completely the wrong knife. 

sources
fay ripley's miso noodle broth with salmon - Delicious, May 2012, p112

anthony worrall thompson's moroccan lamb tagine

I promise you I did not choose this particular recipe for any latent SEO benefits I might reap from people looking up "cheese thief".

In fact it was totally Ana's choice as we've got Mr Peter Magnus Leary coming over for lunch, and I was feeling uninspired. With yet-another "We've got friends coming round, let's bang a roast into the oven" looming, she takes the executive decision and plumps for Le Voleur Fromage's pretty blinking good tagine - and this one gets the full 24 hour marinading!

For once, I think the marinading time does make a difference: the depth of the flavour is really marked, rather than being slightly overpowered by turmeric, and what better way to finish it off than with a large wodge of carrot cake from Carluccio's? I love that other people supply pudding these days...

Certainly it was more successful than our entertaining, (or my posh couscous which was a bit too sloppy) which consisted of making Pete meet us in the park, walk home, play Lego and then slump on the sofa watching Horrible Histories. It turns out we're not very good hosts after all.

Wine Time
There's all sorts of things going on here - spices like cinnamon, dried fruit, acidic tomato and rich, unctuous lamb. Mmm, so what you're probably looking at is an equally complex red, with spice, dried fruit notes, and enough acidity to cut through the fat whilst balancing the fattiness of the lamb: We're talking Rhone. A villages appellation is probably the best place to start, but if you wanted to push the boat out head to one of the premier ACs - I think a ten year old Gigondas or Vacqueyras would nail it. And you'd look classy an all.

sources
moroccan lamb tagine - Anthony Worrall Thompson, BBC Food Site

kay's sausage & guinness casserole

Booze is a fickle mistress, so we're a bit all over the shop today. I have a little work delivery in the morning, and then whilst Ana combats the explosion of toys/old clothes/washing/washing-up me and the Milo get the shopping in.

Interestingly smoked salmon is back on the shopping list as the other fickle mistress in our house has decided he likes it again, but as long it's not 'cooked'. He's a fool, and a fool and his fish are soon partied.

Anyway, after possibly the longest day in history, complete with Wellington-esque weather, we finally get to relax under with a hearty plate of classic sausage & Guinness casserole, and the latest Skandi Crime Sensation on BBC4, Broen. Is it as good as The Killing? I'm not sure yet, but the quantity of nudity and sexytime ensures next week's viewing...

Back to the point though: Sausage casserole - mmmmmm.

Wine Time
Difficult one to match this, mainly because there's a whole bottle of stout in the mixer, which is quite an overpowering flavour, plus there's all the apple and smokey notes from the sausages and bacon. I'm going to say 'ale' or indeed more stout works well, but if pushed I'm going to go with a big, spicy red - maybe a Syrah/Shiraz? I'm slightly unsure.

sources
sausage and Guinness casserole - It's a Kay McCarthy special, from the Black Book

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's warm salad of mushrooms and roasted squash

So, Ana's out tonight with the laydeez having cocktails (and cote de boef it turns out) in The Depot, and having completely crashed out with Milo after dropping Ana off, I'm keen to put myself back to bed. Only this time using the tried-and-trusted method of two bottles of vino collapso, and a good book.

However, that two hour power nap peps me up slightly more than I had allowed for. So rather than getting an early night I end up, well, updating the blog at 01:16 having first watched the Osprey's put the Dragons to the Sword on BBC Wales (Shane Williams: Legend), slightly drunkenly collecting Ana on the Best Bike Ever, listening to the Horrible Histories soundtrack, and then phoning Dr Robert Peter Manwaring. An Englishman.

Fortunately for the purposes of this blog, I also managed to squeeze in a little experimental creation which despite my drunken fumbling with a very-large-but-mercifully-slightly-blunt knife, was bloody delicious. Behold Saint Hugh's Warm Salad of Mushrooms and Roasted Squash:

I have to say, despite being one bottle of Rioja, one bottle of Vouvray and a cheeky sloe gin down, it really is lovely: Rich and earthy, but offset by the creaminess of the blue cheese, and the peppery-ness of the rocket. Not for nothing is it in the 'Hearty Salad' section, and we'll be having this again, hopefully when I'm not as drunk - although does that matter?

Wine Time
Rioja and Vouvray. And Sloe Gin. Although if you're being sensible, a light red would work really well, so actually a young Rioja, or maybe a Cote du Rhone to offset the pepper of rocket and the seasoning.

sources
warm salad of mushrooms of roasted squash - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Veg! Everday, p94

ottolenghi's roast chicken and three rice salad

It's all go today, particularly as everybody has gone into hiding in the office leaving only two of us to man the phones, sort out logistical spaghetti, write thought-provoking blogs about Rioja, eat large baguettes from our favourite French ladies on Fulham Road, and try premium South African Wines. Who said the wine trade was hard?

By the time I get home, in the pouring rain mind, a newly-accepted-into-school little boy is passed out, and his mother looks like she's about five minutes behind him. She bravely soldiers through though, and from her throne on the sofa she commands wine and chocolate be bought to her during the bits of time I'm not creating possibly her favourite meal: Yottam Ottolenghi's roast chicken and three rice salad. Although we only use one rice of course, but you've all been here long enough to know that!

Though I say it myself, it's a pretty flipping good edition: Zingy, spicy, refreshing and filling. So I was slightly taken aback by Her Maj asking where the Fino chorizo and cherry tomato salad was. Why I oughta, back o' my hand!

Lady Muck's irrational demands aside, I love the fact it's warm enough to start eating this again even if it is turfing it down. It's a lovely dish to make, and delivers spades of flavour for pretty minimal effort. Hopefully this year I might get around to trying another of his recipes, there's a griddled courgette salad I've got my eye, so maybe next week the 'Ottolenghi' tag might make it past one dish...

Wine Time
It's a full-bodied, spicy little number this, bulked out by creamy chicken and carby rice, so if we'd had it in the fridge, an oily, fruity Kiwi Pinot Gris, which has a touch of residual sugar amongst the acidity and tropical fruit, would've been perfect. We had half a bottle of knackered Riesling though, which worked pretty well.

sources
yotam ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad - Delicious, July 2008, p64