Sunday 29 September 2013

The Poor Relative!

The Star of the Show

What a week - again! Haven't settled in since Ofsted (outstanding, by the way!) and now there's movement afoot with my job and it's unnerving. Carry on with the job I'm doing now or move on and see what may happen. Scary. So this has led to a meltdown of organisation, which isn't brilliant, to be honest. Food hasn't been what was planned and chocolate has taken on integral roll in my nutritional week (alongside the addition of a glass or two on a mid-week evening!).

So the week started well with leftover Galette au chou for lunch on Monday and fish finger subs for tea. I love fish of all types and never under-estimate the beauty of a finger in a sub-roll with mayo, ketchup, roquette, tomatoes (still home grown!), red onion and gerkins. Never.

The week then melted down into a mix of shop bought cous-cous (a staple and easy to put into my workbag) followed by a large takeaway and three glasses of rouge on a Tuesday. And chocolate. The next night was Wednesday and this is the only night during the week that my beauties, Biggie and Booboo eat with us. I try to be adventurous but also aim to make it a meal ALL will enjoy - Booboo can be a little contrary at times. So this week I went for the absolute favourite of pesto pasta with crunchy (to Biggie) or seared (to normal humans) fish. It was a triumph, marred only marginally by the speed-consumption of an over-sized bag of Revels before Husband#1 and the girls walked in through the door. It's hard to say hi after a long hard day whilst trying to swallow two maltesers, an orange cream, three raisons, four toffees and a coffee, all-the-while hoping no one would smell it on your breath. It mattered not later on when I also downed an oversized Dairy Milk.

Sensing a theme for the week? If not, let me tell you, it's oversized.

So Thursday improved in that there was no takeaway or chocolate. I had fruit for lunch as we had a delicious tea of tomatoes on toast (with crushed roasted garlic that I'd made at the weekend) and a drizzle of olive oil. I'd also pan-fried a little chorizo and then, unbelievably, this was joined by French bread and Chevre all bought that morning in France! How exciting! Followed by wasabi nuts. Not oversize in portion alone , but certainly when added to everything else, and in taste!

Pizza Friday didn't let us down and there was the invention of the Tapas Pizza. Not wanting to waste the mass of tomatoes ripening outside and the rest of the chorizo, I changed the base sauce (which is usually just tomato puree and lots of crushed garlic) by adding a teaspoon of smoked paprika and then put chorizo, tomatoes and a yellow pepper on top. It may have just done enough to join the list of regulars! It was really good, even if I say so myself! Then there was the white Toblerone...
Tapas Pizza
 

 
And Saturday. It started with banana pancakes: take 270g of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, two eggs, two tablespoons of butter (melted before adding) and milk to make it into a fairly thick batter before adding crushed bananas - I used four smallish ones, but do it to taste. Cook on a non-stick frying pan, no need for extra oil. Serve with maple syrup, of course. Then, for tea, who'd have thought that the delicious monkfish wrapped in Serano ham would be considered a poor relative to the humble patatas bravas? Well, read on - it was! I followed my usual patatas bravas recipe, which is basically onion, sautéed with garlic and chili (except I use a chipotle chili) and then I add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a tablespoon of sherry vinegar before adding a tin of tomatoes and letting cook. This time I added about 500g of my own home grown (come on, they needed using!) tomatoes, instead of the tin, chopped and cooked for about 20 minutes covered and another ten with the lid off. I deep fried cubed potato and then made an aioli with a clove of garlic, a tablespoon of  sherry vinegar and olive oil. Well, the monkfish was lovely, as you'd expect monkfish to be, but my goodness, the patatas bravas and aioli were something else. Thanks my lovely tomatoes! We also had some langoustines and roasted courgettes (home grown) to start and finished with a shop-bought chocolate fondant which we had with plum puree (home grown again) and ice cream. A lovely meal with three different home grown items - we were impressed!

 

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