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

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

delia smith's roasted vegetable cous cous salad with harrissa and valli little's courgette spaghetti with pesto

After yesterday's love-in, we're back to marital strife today, although luckily it's dinner/lunch-based rather than anything more tragic.

To be honest we can't hate each other too much as we spent most of the day ignoring the sun, sat on the sofa watching back-to-back Tour de France. It's only when food is required that it all goes slightly awry, firstly with a late-ish lunch. It being summer, the fridge is full of courgettes, and I know Ana loves a courgette, so a Valli Little experimental pretend pasta dish of courgette 'spaghetti' is obviously going to be a winner, particularly off the back of last night's experimental winner, also care of Valli's rainbow rhythms healthy meals:

I could not be more wrong, and not even an extra big glass of lunchtime white can offset her disgust. In fact she only has one mouthful before giving it the widest of berths, and she's more annoyed when I nick off to pick Milo up without making her a replacement lunch. Having eaten two bowls, I think she had a small point - certainly you need to make sure you strip the mint properly, otherwise your pesto ends up 'woody' - but otherwise I think this amazing. It's fresh, lemony and filling - perfect for the Yummington. Still, 1-0 to Ana.

By the time it gets to dinner she's clearly wary, and there is some extended low-level bickering about having Delia's roasted vegetable cous cous salad: She's never had it, it won't taste nice, it looks horrible etc

Luckily I know a blog that will not only prove we've had it before, it'll also indicate that Lady Barnes was pleasantly surprised how tasty it was. Luckily it's even better this time around, mainly because I didn't burn the veg, making it feel lighter than previously, and I also swapped the goat's cheese for the infinitely more Ana-friendly feta. It's a total winner, and means we end the evening with an honorable draw, 1-1.

sources
courgette spaghetti with mint and basil pesto - Valli Little, August 2013, Delicious, p110
roasted vegetable cous cous salad with harissa-style dressing - Delia Smith, Delia Smith's Summer Collection, p106

bill granger's goats curd and lentil salad with roasted beetroot

Holy shit - look at this:

I think I may have mentioned it at some point previously, but one of the many many benefits of helping out the K-Kats is the weekly chance to pore through her collection of cookery books, before getting all experimental on her time, with one eye on trying stuff out for home. Brucie bonus!

Today she gets to enjoy my very-own made-up mushroom risotto, handily using up her petrified fridge fungi in the process, enlivened with a wee nip of vermouth to help Rafe sleep. Tonight I get to enjoy this experimental salad culled from her copy of Bill Granger's Sydney Food, whilst Ana is lording up her literature knowledge at Book Club.

There's so much to love about this: the earthy lentils, sweet roast beetroot, asparagus, balsamic vinegar and creamy curd cheese. I think it's officially my favourite salad. Of 2013. It's also super, super easy, taking less than 10 minutes, if you discount the roasting time.

Now for message from our sponsors: Usually my balsamic needs are taken care of by Waitrose Essentials and/or the bottle that looks like a mini-jug, you know the one. Anyway, on offer recently was Belazu's Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Total. Game. Changer.

You think you know balsamic, but I've now discovered the Holy Grail of Modena, Plato's Perfect Form of vinegar if you will. It's thicker than usual, unctuous and honeyed, with a lovely rounded finish from being aged in oak barrels. I promise you, you will not go back once you've tried it.

In other sponsorship news, you will not believe how cheap curd cheese is. According to the lady on the cheese counter, I was the first person she can remember ever buying some. At 60p per 100g, I will be back, if only because I need something to go with the rest of the bunch of beetroot I've roasted.

Wine Time
There are a couple of the red herrings lurking in this recipe: asparagus and lentils. Usually these would be front and centre on the palate, dominating everything around them, but here they only provide background notes to the sweetness of beetroots and balsamic (did I mention you should get some Belazu Balsamic?) and the creamy curd cheese.

With this in mind I reckon what would go down a treat here are either a lovely New World Pinot Noir, which has low tannins and lots of lovely dark fruit flavours OR a good quality Alsatian Riesling, which again has the acidity to balance the claggy qualities of the cheese/lentils, and the necessary residual sugar for the beets/vinegar.

Two of my favourites there, so go wild and crazy.

sources
goats curd and lentil salad with roasted beetroot - Bill Granger, Bill's Sydney Food, p83

PS Asparagus AND Beetroot - I look forward to reporting back on the colour of my wee tomorrow.

PPS Asparagus now from Chile. What is this country coming to?

angela boggiano's tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad and peter gordon's fried halloumi topped with chilli, spinach, water chestnut, hazelnut, orange and sun-blushed tomato salad

Nothing to see here. The usual Saturday round of Lego, TV, shopping and chores is only enlivened by yet another triumphant installment of Lions Club. This is partly because Ana's still in recovery from her welcome back to the crease 6k-er yesterday, but more because we're battening down the hatches ahead of some hot BBQ-action chez Barnes tomorrow.

So whilst several sorts of burger are prepped, and the house is scrubbed to within an inch of its life, we have a couple of classic Yummington salads, viz:

Angela Boggiano's tuna and cannellini bean salad:

Followed by a close-ish approximation of Peter Gordon's halloumi salad:

As I say, there's nothing new here, we've seen it all before. Please move along...

sources
tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad on tomato bread - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, May 2008, p95
fried halloumi topped with chilli, spinach, water chestnut, hazelnut, orange and sun-blushed tomato salad - Peter Gordon, Salads: The New Main Course, p65

Emptying the cupboards before camping

With one day to go before we head off with the McPartlins and Connollys, we're in cupboard-emptying mode. This sounds terribly Blitz-spirit and thrifty, and there are huge great wodges of both elements involved, particularly as work seems harder to come by than an Aussie prop who can scrummage without falling over.

However, the sun is shining and having pulled out some haddock from the freezer, cueing us up nicely for Nigella's Keralan Fish Curry for dinner, we look for inspiration by digging out previous May editions of Delicious.

Now, in the good old, pre-Karen 'let's have a campaign or talk about my kitchen' Barnes days Delicious' May editions were Italian specials, and they were blinking brilliant: All of them well-thumbed favourites, and all of them stuffed to the branchie with fab, tasty yet easy recipes, including our new favourite Yummington lunch - Angela Boggiano's Tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad on tomato bread.

Who doesn't have cans of tuna and beans lurking in their cupboards? And this simplicity is it's genius. This time we had the sun-dried tomato paste, but simple tomato puree or pesto works just as well.

Finally, and seeing how I mentioned it early, here's dinner: Nigella's curry for all.  I think it's the best way of using frozen fish, which tends to be quite fishy in flavour, but this is tamed by the turmeric and ginger.

All I need to do now is find the tent, the sleeping bags, and torches, pack the car and talk Milo down from the skyscraper of over-excitement he's currently stood on top of.

sources

tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad on tomato bread - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, May 2008, p95

keralan fish curry - nigella lawson, Delicious, February 2009, p83

jill dupleix's broad bean crostini with parmesan

After a cheeky 5k run around the park in the sun this morning with Mrs B, we get an unexpected health boost with dinner this evening. Well 'boost' might be pushing it. It might be better to say "an unexpected reduction in calories" as tonight's fab-looking experimental Jilly D dinner turns out to be about a quarter of the size I thought it'd be.

Admittedly she does say it's a 'light supper', but 40 minutes of podding a tiny hillock of broad beans later, and 'light' seems a bit of an exaggeration. Health eh, it's great!

Oddly enough though, it's surprisingly filling. Okay, so we doubled up on the eggs, but pfaffy podding aside, this turns out to be utterly marvelous, albeit teeny tiny, and another candidate for the Yummington Mummington.

Wine Time
We used some left-over olive oil from the roasted peppers we had on Monday, so this has a more intense flavour than I imagine was planned, but it's not a particularly acidic meal; The egg and beans are quite creamy, as is the parmesan I suppose but with some salty piquancy.

Chardonnay would be a great friend for this but not I think, a woody one. You want fruit and buttery creaminess, so go New World and think South Africa and Australia or, if you want to show off your vino chops, I've had a delicious unoaked chard from Piemonte before. Boom.

sources
broad bean crostini with parmesan - Jill Dupleix, Delicious, May 2008, p82

angela boggiano's tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad on tomato bread

Mini-update today because rather than cooking tonight, we've got the mighty Mani-Itchers and McPartsons coming over for a take-away this evening.

Instead I'm going to wow you all (hopefully) with a lunch thingy: Consider it a tangential benefit of redundancy as lunch is getting big in the SW14, mainly because I've really got nothing better to do than cook and go running...

Anyhoo, idly flicking through some back issues of Delicious I came across this Angela Boggiano doozy from the 2008 Italian issue. Even better, we've got everything in the cupboard - apart from the Tomato Bread of course, because who the flock ever has tomato bread.

To be honest it's not massively different to some of the other tuna and white bean salads we've had, but the addition of the sour-dough smeared some sun-dried tomato paste actually makes it a pretty good addition to the cannon. Deffo one for the Yummington.

wine time
*Obvs* we're not drinking at lunchtime, but if we were we'd be totally going super-citric and dry as this has got a hefty whack of lemon juice, plus the cherry tomatoes also have a fair dose of acidity. If you're feeling flush, don't rub it in but feel free to get a Sauternes as it'll be divine. Those of us spending the Government's cash, steer clear of the Stella, but seek out a white Bordeaux as the mixture of Sauvignon and Semillon will do the same job at half the price.

sources
tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad on tomato bread - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, May 2008, p95

double fish-whammy

After a week on the glorious(ly wet) Isle of Wight we return home to a slightly-controversial fish double-whammy. I suspect we're still slightly delirious from the sea bream success the other day, so we temper our fishy appetite with two dishes we know we like.

First off, we have a hale and hearty lunch with classic Yummington warm tuna salad with white beans. Sadly no accompanying vino though. Well, it is only lunchtime and we've got an annoying five year-old who would rather watch - and explain whilst it's happening on TV - the storyline of Captain America.

We follow this up with a stab at seasonality with another classic, pancetta-wrapped salmon with griddled asparagus. Here's a question though, given we're supposed to be at the start of British Asparagus Season, how come all the angiosperms in Waitrose come from Chile?

I'm so outraged, I take an out-of-focus picture.

Fuzzy picture aside, I've discovered my newly-fashionable enamel baking tin is perfect for making this dish as it allows the asparagus to bake without drying out, and the salmon can sit on top and crisp up - aces!

sources
warm tuna and white bean salad - Delicious, October 2012, p27
pancetta-wrapped salmon with griddled asparagus and lime creme fraiche - Delicious, June 2010, p23

hot-smoked trout, pea and lemon risotto

It's funny how quickly time goes. A tasting one night, and going out and getting very drunk the following and before you know it, it's Saturday and not only have you got to drag your hungover self shopping, you've got to go via the swimming pool with an extremely loud five year-old. Parenting, don't do it.

Having spent months looking for it, the October 2011 edition of Delicious containing Dhruv Baker's mythical stew is firmly nailed to the shelf, and the latent project manager in me decides to halve the man-hours spent searching by cudgeling another dish out of it. Luckily the weather difference between October and March seems fairly minimal at this point of the year, but with one eye on the slim chance of us actually having a summer this year, we decide to give this healthy-looking risotto a spin.

I have to say I'm a fairly late convert to risottos. For some reason every time I tried to make them in our early Putney years, I never managed to get the rice properly cooked despite ending up with tennis elbow. In the last couple of years I've nailed them, and now I love the whole zen-like process of stirring, and the rich, creamy feast you end up with.

This one is a doozy, with the smokey fish and sweet peas contrasting beautifully with the creamy rice; Serve with a chilled Chablis and it's got Yummington Mummington stamped all over it!

sources
hot-smoked trout, pea and lemon risotto - Delicious, October 2011, p139

ottlenghi's chargrilled asparagus, courgettes and halloumi

This is one of those salad-y dishes I've been desperate to try it every time we make the recipe opposite it, roast chicken and three-rice salad, which as you know we have loads...

So with a fridge full of angiosperms and the inevitable four half-eaten punnets of cherry tomatoes, and without the usual eye-rolling accompaniment from Mrs Barnes, tonight is the night it gets its debut. I don't get Ana's attitude to this - halloumi, courgette, cherry tomatoes, salad - these are all key food groups of the McCarthy. We've also had plenty of amazing Ottolenghi dishes whether we've cooked them or supplied variously by Kendra Kats and Miss Smither, but she's strangely resistant to it's charms:

Two smokey, hellish hours later, I'm firmly in the HATE camp. It's not that it's difficult per se and it's not that it doesn't taste delish, it does. It's the multiple levels of admittedly-easy stages that essentially I'm going to boil down to 'blanch and grill the lot in one go' if, God-forbid I ever make it again. Add to that I simply don't have enough bowls to take various part-boiled, part-grilled marinading veg. It is nice though...

Wine Time
Should The Yummington Mummington ever take shape, and I get a chef to cook it rather than having me weeping in frustration in the kitchen, this has "Lunch" or "Light Bite" all over it, and it also has Sauvignon Blanc. And not just because it's the default fuel of all Yummy Mummies, but because it's perfect for this dish. The thing with Sauvs is there are loads of varieties you can choose from, you can go all classy with a Sancerre with it's mineral bite that'll cleanse your palate of the creamy halloumi, a lemony Bordeaux or Aussie number to match the dressing, or even go wild and crazy with an herbaceous Kiwi wonder to harmonise with the asparagus. You pays your money, you takes your choice.

sources
chargrilled asparagus, courgettes and halloumi - Yotam Ottolenghi, Delicious July 2008, p64, from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

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