bill granger's poached salmon and orzo salad & roasted tomato soup

The New Year is only two weeks-ish old and already I'm fatally behind updating, and Ana's new Bobblehat Blast has only exacerbated the issue. Monday night's used to be my night's to do mass catch ups with the blog whilst she ran around Chiswick, but now she's shifted to the mornings we've hit a laptop stand-off in the evenings.

Given I am so far behind, and it was one of my resolutions to stay-up-to-date with the blog - although you wouldn't know this as I haven't actually written that post yet - tonight I'm going to take a different tack. I'm going to update the newest post first, and then at least one old one until I've caught up with myself without (fingers-crossed) getting any further behind. Well, it might work...

Tonight we're cracking on with the one resolution you do know about, more fish, with a classic Bill Granger salmon and pasta salad. As it's been tipping down today I don't completely refresh the pasta and peas in icy water, and the salmon retains some heat as well, so whilst not warming per se, it's at least nourishing and the heat does impart a modicum of wilting to the spinach:

I think the trick with this dish is to really rack in the black pepper and lemon juice into the dressing, it's a bit bland otherwise.

Whilst the fish is poaching, I also attempt an experimental roasted tomato soup from Delicious. It goes swimmingly, right up until the point I realise I've left the blender in the dishwasher, and I have to wait for an hour to blend it. Pictures tomorrow of that one.

Food of the Milos
After yesterday's Quality Street and Pom Bear-fest on our day trip to see my mum, it's back to reality with a bump for the M Magic although Ana has a surprise up her sleeve for him this afternoon - they make Fairy Cakes!
Breakfast: The usual nibbles, toast and marmelade
Lunch: Giant fish-finger (ask Ana) with alphabetti spaghetti, and two yoghurts
Dinner: Vegetable bolognese with spaghetti

The afternoon was punctured by odd handfuls of apricots, plus strawberries from the fairy cakes and indeed, a couple of fairy cakes. Ana will set up a photoshoot tomorrow so you can see what they made, but essentially they were amazing and a brilliant surprise when I got back home tonight.

sources
poached salmon and orzo salad - Bill Granger, Holiday, p14
roasted tomato soup - Delicious circa 2005/6, now the Parsley Book

sheperd's pie at my mums

No pictures today, but that's more because Milo and I spent a brilliant day at my mum's. And I forgot the camera.

With a whole day of Ana trying to research the Ancient Greeks for school looming (which is odd as we actually met in an Ancient Greek lecture at University...), and after the by-now-traditional pancake breakfast, we head down to the Folkestone for a day's Nannying.

Mum's on top form and Milo has a great time. We spend an hour up the rugby club eating crisps and running around the balcony, have cheese sandwiches for lunch whilst playing with the huge collection of Playmen (a collection consisting of mine and my brother's toys, and Dylan's recent additions) in the attic, before watching Ice Age on TV and eating a Babs Cabs shepherd's pie special.

Even better, I also managed to rescue the presents we managed to leave behind at Christmas, which means I can finally reveal this year's Culinary Christmas Crackers:

A gravy separating jug from my mum, River Cottage Family Cookbook, an apron, a variety of garlic relishes from the Garlic Farm, IoW Tomato Ketchup (which is divine btw) and an amazing garlic chopper (the green thing) from Kay and Mike, as well as a selection of silicon implements from Ana. An excellent haul!

The only downer on the day was by the time we get home, Ana's starving and has to make do with some toast as we'd already eaten at my mums...

atul kochhar's old-fashioned chicken curry

Now I know we're supposed to be trying to vegetarian this month, but we're really forced into breaking the pact to stop the chicken going off.

We'd originally bought it under the illusion one or the other of us was going to make Milo some breaded chicken goujons, but now all it's good for is making one of Atul Kochhar's spectacular curries. Milo's loss is our gain...

I think on this is probably my favourite Atul curry that I've tried so far, and also having potatoes and rice makes it feel a bit lighter than perhaps a big plate of rice would. There's probably the same amount of carbs though.

sources
old-fashioned chicken curry - Atul Kochhar, Observer Food Monthly, February 2009, p24
turmeric-spiced potatoes - Bill Granger, Holiday, p191 

bill granger's porcini and pancetta risotto

It's strange how previously scorned recipe books suddenly start churning out new dishes where before there were none. I've previously scorned Bill Granger's Feed Me Now as it's only been good for carrot soup, but we're suddenly warming to it. We've got our eyes on a miso fish recipe, ginger and soy fish parcels, melts and this earthy risotto:

It's incredibly dense, rich and smokey, and you do not need very much at all to fill you up...

Oh I forgot another recipe from this book - baked salmon, minted peas and sweet potato cakes - which was particularly ace!

sources
porcini and pancetta risotto - Bill Granger, Feed Me Now, p76

cep and potato stew

Can you believe we're only 13 days into the New Year and already Ana has booked a night out? Tonight it's her other book club, which means I can eat one of my favourite stews without having to worry about whether Ana is going to like it this time, or not.

Given I'm only eating for one, I don't bother with a side (I think cauliflower cheese is the best option), and have double portions instead. Well, it is the middle of January after all...

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: Weetos, toast and philadelphia;
Lunch: Boiled egg, tomato soup and yoghurt;
Dinner: Spinach, tomato and chick pea curry. Sadly tonight's curry did not prove a success - he liked the chick peas and tomatoes, but wasn't convinced by the spinach, which was a bit slimy two days in. Oh well.

sources
cep & potato stew - Delicious, November 2009, p81

spinach, tomato and chick pea curry

Needs must tonight as I'm in a hurry to catch the new Midsomer Murders, so we need something quick and, after last night's maximum-diet-minimum-eating effort, something filling. I know it's the second curry of the week, but forward planning for polpettine at the weekend (again) means I've got a monster bag of spinach in the fridge. And anyway, aren't legumes the current food du jour?

Isn't strange how even though some Midsomer's are corny beyond belief, like tonight's for instance, but the very presence of twinkly-eyed John Nettles somehow lifts them to Christie-esque proportions. I wonder what they'll be like when he leaves?

Food of the Milos
He's at Julia's all day today, even for dinner as Ana has a staff meeting.
Breakfast: Cheerios, toast and butter
Lunch: Capelletti pasta, peas and sweetcorn, and custard.
Dinner: Sausages, smiley face potatoes, peas, carrots, beans and a yoghurt.

sources
spinach, tomato and chick pea curry - Waitrose Recipe Cards, Early September 2010

leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts & chilli

Yesterday's hint towards expanding our Nigella repertoire of recipes was strangely apposite because today we've got an experimental dish culled from the other book we spotted at Lucy's: Leon: Naturally Fast Food. This time though we bought a copy, and in it we found this:

If you ignore the salmon - which was a suggested side - that was it. Diet-tastic! Actually it was delish, the salty soy sauce perking up the steamed broccoli and cashews, making it all really flavoursome if teeny-tiny. Next time I'm getting more broccoli, and possibly some bigger (hand dived) salmon fillets.

I love Leon. Their first restaurant is quite close to the office, a little anti-Pret/M&S oasis on Carnaby Street, which isn't exactly short of great places to eat like Mrs Marengos, Thanks for Franks, and Cha Cha Moon. I've been hording some Allegra Mcevedy recipes for ages, and I remember spending the summer of our wedding eating a lot of her power breakfast smoothies, but this is the first Leon recipe to make it to the blog. Looking at the book, it won't be the last.

sources
leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts & chilli - Leon: Naturally Fast Food, p60