More Cottage Pie

Yes. It's still good 2 days later...

Nando's, Cambridge

I haven't often been to Nando's (this is my third time ever and I have a medium quarter of chicken with spicy rice, side salad and a beer) and it got me thinking back to when I was a kid and on the occasion that the family would go on Saturday shopping trips to Peterborough. Shopping would take place in the morning followed by a treat for my sis and I at lunchtime by going to a fast food outlet, pretty much always the KFC opposite the London Road Stadium, the reasoning behind this is that you could tell what animal the food came here was from. I should take Mum and Dad to Nando's sometime where here too, the animal of origin is very obvious. And reasonably tasty.

Cottage Pie

Lovely; we're really into winter now that the Cottage Pie has come out! And She has made absolutely loads of it to her own recipe including baked beans, gravy, grated nutmeg and melted cheese to the usual ingredients of minced beef, potato mash and onion. Despite our best efforts there's half left for another tasty day.

Cottage pie

Chicken Pizza

I was looking forward to making a comforting chicken risotto today, so took the time to buy a rottiserie chicken, parmesan cheese and rocket, only to get home, open the cupboard and find that I have no risotto rice. Damn. I do however have a fresh margherita pizza which I shred some of the chicken over before baking to make a basic Chicken Pizza. Risotto will have to wait.

Chicken pizza

Bean & Bacon Soup

Yet more pork! Yes, I don't mind if I do, as I have a warming bowl of New Covent Garden Soup Company's Bean & Bacon Soup with warmed pitta bread before heading to the pub.

Bean & bacon soup

Pork, Apple, Potatoes

Plenty of pork this week, I must have missed it in the Islamic Republic of Tunisia and more of it today with the classic flavour pairings: Pork, Apple and Potatoes. My thanks to HFW.
Little roast potatoes with softened apple wedges and pan fried pork loin steaks. I serve these with sautéed leeks using the pan juices from the cooking of the pork. Tasty. There are also sage leaves in this which I've decided that I don't like. They're kind of mothbally.

Pork, apple, potatoes

Burger King

With it having gone dark and my stomach rumbling, I unfortunately find myself far from home without any food on me, so I treat myself to a Burger King, the London Kings Cross branch. Brilliant. A Bacon Double Cheeseburger XL meal which I wolf down with some enjoyment. It's only afterwards that the pangs of regret come on.

Gammon, Pineapple & Chips

Gammon & Pineapple. A retro pub classic, quite untrendy now but the sweet, almost sharp, pineapple counteracts the saltiness of the pork very nicely in a number of dishes, the other obvious one being Hawaiian pizza. It wouldn't be a pub classic if it wasn't served with chips would it? And I see no reason here to defy tradition.

Gammon, pineapple & chips

Tuna and Mushroom Spaghetti

Her turn to cook today and a quick, but tasty dinner is what she makes, which is some kind of Tuna and Mushroom stirred into Spaghetti with peas, creme fraiche and dried chilli flakes. About 3 quarters of the way through cooking, I hear cursing from the kitchen and and warning not to come in as asthetically the dish doesn't measure up to her standards. Indeed a peek over her shoulder reveals a mess of spaghetti, tinned tuna flakes and crème fraiche - but once on the tongue it tastes just fine.

Tuna and mushroom spaghetti

Chicken Stir Fry

A change of tact after the past week of stews with a Chicken Stir Fry. I still can't do these properly as my wok cannot get hot enough, but it still makes a nice change; the hotness and spice of fresh cut chilli and ginger complementing nicely the fresh pak choi and chicken.

Chicken stir fry

Tunisian Food

From my research I see that Tunisian food is not the greatest in the world, so it's a good thing that my holiday is in an all inclusive hotel in Hammamet. Or maybe not. Actually the food is good enough and everyday comes in a buffet format with fresh bread, a salad bar...

A selection from the salad bar

...mains counter and a desserts area. The mains are an approximation of Tunisian food, typically a tasty beef stew most nights with rice or couscous, some kind of baked chicken and roasted vegetables, usually peppers or aubergine. Tunisian food, I'd imagine would be a lot more spicy.

Mains

The most genuinely Tunisian dish we had on our travels was some kind of egg fried so the yolk is still runny, inside a thin fried pastry. A bit strange and I can't say I'm overly enamoured with it.

Pie & Chips

I'm going to Tunisia tomorrow, so I look for something as far away from Tunisian food as possible, so a shop bought Pie & Chips it is. With plenty of gravy. And some token boiled carrots as a nod to healthiness.

Pie & Chips

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Indeed the Bolognaise is better second time around. The flavours have melded together better and the watery-ness has been simmered off. Classically I have spaghetti with it today.

Spaghetti bolognaise

Bolognaise

This is the first time I've dared cook Italian since returning from Rome; how can my cooking match up to the true professional dining we ate in the Italian capital?
I can't, but it doesn't mean I don't care, so treating it like a stew I make a Bolognaise which I have with wholewheat tubey-type pasta and a generous grating of parmesan cheese. It's edible but a tad watery, however it will be better after an overnight rest.

Bolognaise

Sausages, Greens, Pasta

Actually, Hugh F-W is a fraud. How can you include chopped sausages and shredded greens tossed together with pasta and call it a recipe? Sausages, Greens, Pasta may not be a recipe of immense difficulty but it's a suitable quick dinner.

Sausages, greens, pasta

Sausages, Parsnips, Onions

Buoyed by yesterday's 3 Good Things success, I leaf through the book again and come across the exceedingly simple - Sausages, Parsnips, Onions. This essentially amounts to roasting the whole lot together with some sage leaves (though I can't taste where they are in here) and garam masala. Now I don't have any garam masala so I substitute curry powder, which probably explains the flavours not quite matching. Still edible though.

Sausages, parsnips, onions

Chicken, Plums, Soy

The only books I tend to buy are cookery books and this weekend it was Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Three Good Things... on a plate that catches my eye with it's content and half price-ness and finds it's way into my house.
I love the idea of simple effective dishes so I leaf through the book to find a recipe that aligns with the ingredients I have to hand of which Chicken, Plums, Soy fits the bill.
Essentially this consists of roasting chicken thighs of half an hour, before adding some aromatics and then after a further ten minutes adding plum halves and soy sauce and returning to the oven until the plums are soft.
It's a rare thing to have plums in a main meal and I'd wondered how it would work, especially as the plums I had were quite hard. However, no worries are required as the plums have a soft sweetness after being in the oven that complements the salty soy sauce soaked up by rice and shredded steamed greens. Definitely one I'll do again.

Chicken, plums, soy

Mamma's Cooking

It's a cliché but doesn't everyone love their Mamma's Cooking? So reminiscent of childhood and home comforts? I like it as much as the next person and I have the benefit of mine being a damn good cook!
She starts with tempura fried vegetables, admittedly I never had this as a kid but I've had Mum's version previously which was a bit soggy, but it's crisp today, the translucent batter holding tender courgette and asparagus. I dipped mine in sweet chilli sauce.

Tempura vegetables

She then followed up with stir fried broccoli, chinese style beef and spring onions and her chicken curry that she is renown for amongst her friends - rightly so - it's very tasty. Mum says that the beef was a little overdone and a bit too salty, the latter I agreed with but it didn't stop me wolfing it down and enjoying seconds! There was plenty of rice to counteract this anyway.
 

Chicken curry, beef & spring onions and stir fried broccoli

Ham & Mushroom Omelette

I think I need a new frying pan. I'm making an Omelette, so after slicing and frying some mushrooms before setting aside, I add the beaten eggs to the pan after some oil only for it to stick, no weld, to the pan! The horror! I still go on and add the shredded Ham and Mushroom. After some (hopefully scratchless) scraping I manage to free my dinner and roll it out onto the plate.

Ham & mushroom omelette

Salmon Fillet

In the supermarket today I put in my basket a couple of Salmon Fillets costing £3 and then just I was walking away spotted a couple of salmon fillets by the Saucy Fish Co, also for £3. So what's the difference? Well the second pair of fillets were on offer and included a lime and jalapeño glaze, so I give it a try while on offer.
Back home I bake the fillets in the oven before heating and adding the glaze together with some shredded steamed greens. It's okay; the sauce is a bit too sweet and there's not enough kick from the jalapeño. Would I buy it at normal price? Probably not.

Salmon fillet

Roasted Vegetables

It's generally good practice to eat at least one non-meat meal per week, you should probably eat more but I guess it would be a job to encourage that - rather like the 5-a-day campaign. I try my best - Roasted Vegetables for dinner. Onions, garlic and carrots roasted in oil with thyme and sprinkled with cheese. I though slicing the carrots at funky angles would make them more fun. It doesn't.

Roasted vegetables

Lamb, Lime and Lentils

Home cooked food is great and today's is quite unusual: Lamb, Lime and Lentils. Her and I were at an Iranian friend of hers this evening where she cooked this wonderful spicy stewed tender lamb, cooked with lentils and about a dozen and a half whole limes, which is something I had not seen before. The limes had turned jet black and look quite alien amongst the orangy-brown hue of the stew served on white rice. Beautiful flavours; the outer skin of the limes were soft enough to be separated with a fork and spoon to reveal insides blackened and hollow, but for the pithe and mellow tart juice. Very unusual but quite excellent. Dessert was the complete opposite to sour - a berry loaded Eton Mess. Yum!

Curried Rice with Greens

I'm a big fan of one pot cooking, which means, not that I'm lazy, but that I like washing up as much as anyone else. Also it's wet today and I needed gloves today for the first time. Something hot and tasty is in order. Something simple is in order for a Monday night.
I finely chop and soften an onion and a clove of garlic before adding a tablespoon of curry powder, turning up the heat and stirring for a couple of minutes. Next I add a moderately overflowing handful of rice and add stock while stirring, followed by bringing it to the boil and simmering. At the same time I chop a handful of spring greens which I throw in a sieve and steam it above the rice. I put a lid on the whole lot.
I cook by sound here. When the pip pip pip of simmering stock gives way to the gentle continuous sizzle of flicked water on hot surface, some 10 minutes or so, I turn the heat off and let it steam for 3 minutes. I turn the rice out and stir through the cooked greens and a handful of pine nuts before scoffing from a bowl in front of the telly. Curried Rice with Greens.

Curried rice with greens

Chinese Stewed Pork & Stir Fried Veg

It wasn't intentional but I have managed to go through a whole weekend without cooking dinner myself and I'm not on holiday! A success!
I only intended to have a bit of a chat when I pop in to see my folks, but they persuade me to stay for dinner. My Mum does this beautiful Chinese Stewed Pork in a dark sauce flavoured with ginger, star anise and soy sauce among other things that she serves with Stir Fried Veg and white rice. The pork is beautifully tender and with the rice soaking up the flavoured sauce, I have to have seconds. And steal a last piece of pork from the serving bowl while I think no one is looking... Tasty.

Fish Pie

I have dinner with Her Mum and Dad (and Her obviously) tonight and it's a filling Fish Pie, that Her Mum brings 3 and half hours in the car to dinner and finishes off in Her oven with a topping of cheddar cheese. It's a bit stodgy, but I appreciate it as it's something I rarely make myself, the fog creamy mashed potato occasionally clearing to reveal prawns, chunks of salmon and what I presume is cod. Filled, I slump on the sofa afterwards and watch in horror as Michael Vaughan undoes his Ashes winning legend...

Another Quick Tart - Leek & Gorgonzola

Pre-pub. My wallet has no desire to eat out and I have no desire to wake up with a raging hangover tomorrow (that's your 30s for you...) so eating in before going out is the order of the day. A Leek & Gorgonzola Tart in this case.
You know the drill. Sweat a member of the onion family to softness with a herb of choice (thyme perhaps) and bake it on a sheet of puff pastry with lumps of cheese. Eat and go to the pub safe in the knowledge that you have ballast onboard.

Leek and gorgonzola tart

 

Hot & Sour Salmon Noodle Soup

While I grill salmon fillets under a medium grill, I simmer stock with chopped garlic and ginger as well as some bashed lemongrass. A few minutes before the salmon has nicely browned, I chop a pak choi and add it to the stock at the same time as cooking a nest of noodles. Once cooked, I sit the drained noodles in the bottom of a bowl adding the stock on top of it, before flaking on the salmon. I spot the bowl with chilli sauce for that extra kick for Hot & Sour Salmon Noodle Soup.

Hot & sour salmon noodle soup

Lamb Bake

She's invited me for dinner tonight. Some kind of Lamb Bake it is, supposedly Greek, baked with sliced carrot, potato, onions and herbs. Not entirely sure what makes this Greek, more like some kind of Lancashire hotpot and unfortunately the lamb steaks are a bit tough, but there are some tasty flavours in there.

Lamb bake

Chicken Fajitas

I feel slightly guilty for using a 'kit', I mean how difficult can it be to throw together sliced chicken, peppers and onion with some spices into a hot frying pan for a few minutes, before serving in tortillas with soured cream?
Answer: It's not difficult - I'm just lazy. Just the way I like my Chicken Fajitas today.

Chicken fajita filling

Same as yesterday

Stews whether sweet or savoury are always better the next day aren't they?
I'll stop you there - yes they are. I lose some of the excess water from the savoury and thoroughly enjoy the more fully fused flavours of the sweet.

Beef Paprikash

 

 

 

 

 

Blackberry, fig and ginger crumble

Beef Paprikash & Blackberry, Fig & Ginger Crumble

I usually hate tomatoes, the only way I tolerate the shiny, scarlet buggers is through a long, slow cooking process so that the aspect of them I really hate - the texture - is completely obliterated. None more so than in a Beef Paprikash, where cubes of stewing beef are quickly browned and removed from a casserole dish, then onion and garlic softened slowly in the same dish, before returning all the ingredients to the dish with paprika, chopped tomatoes and beef stock, before leaving to simmer for nigh on 3 hours, adding rings of red pepper halfway through cooking.

Beef Paprikash

I dish up with rice and apply a half dozen blobs of soured cream. Tasty, but disappointingly the paprikash is still a bit too watery as can be seen by the water underneath the rice. The flavours were there, but just a bit too watery.
Since it's Sunday, a pudding is in order: Blackberry, Fig and Ginger Crumble. Her and I spent a few hours yesterday in the dappled afternoon sunlight beneath the trees by the lake in Milton Country Park, stretching into the brambles to collect hundreds of shiny blackberries, enough to fill a cake tin in anticipation of today dish. We fill a large glass dish with our washed catch before nestling in a few quarters of fig and finely chopped ginger as well as sprinkling with sugar. To the usual crumble topping we add flaked almond and slide it into the oven for half an hour until golden on top with bubbles from the blackberries, now a deep shade of red, visibly pipping through the glass. It was seriously worth the wait too. Subtly fragrant figs matching with the blackberry fruitiness with hints of ginger and almond punctuating the sweetness on the tongue - beautiful.

Blackberry, fig and ginger crumble

Chicken and Leek Tart

Having bought a rotisserie chicken for lunch from the supermarket earlier I have plenty of leftovers so I decide to make Chicken and Leek Tart. Chicken and leek are well known flavour pairing, see chicken and leek pie and cock-a-leekie soup, but more often for a heavy winter dish rather than a light tart.
Similar to the other night, I finely slice and soften a couple of leeks together with a scattering of thyme leaves and pile it on a sheet of puff pastry with some shreds of chicken and chunks of Gorgonzola cheese, before oven baking until puffed up and browned. On this occasion I remember to prick the area of the pastry onto which I pile the ingredients to prevent it rising, so that only the scored out boundary rises, which works beautifully. Tasty.

Chicken and leek tart

 While chopping out the cheese I note on the packaging that this goes well with figs and honey. Hmmm... I have figs and though I don't have honey I have maple syrup - which will do. The savoury blue cheesiness contrasts the fragrant figs sweetness and rather less subtle maple syrup sweetness beautifully - a dessert reminiscent of Rome.

Fig, Gorgonzola & maple syrup

Roast Pork Chops with Potato & Fennel

One pot crackers - who doesn't love them? Stick all your ingredients in a casserole dish and bake with minimal washing up. For my one pot Roast Pork Chops with Potato & Fennel, I chop a fennel bulb and a red pepper each into 8 pieces and add it to a large casserole dish with a handful of new potatoes. Amongst these I scatter some thyme stalks and pour in 300ml of chicken stock with a teaspoon of tomato puree stirred in, before covering and baking in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.
Once that time has elapsed, I uncover the dish, jack up the heat by 20 degrees and nestle 4 seasoned pork chops amongst the vegetables and return the dish to the oven for 20 minutes. After that time, a wonderfully scented cloud puffs out as I open the oven door, before I remove the chops to serving plates, surrounding with the veg and pouring over the pan juices. The chops are disappointingly tough, though the flavours were very good, especially the fennel which had mellowed to subtle aniseed flavours.

Roasted pork chops with potato & fennel

Spice & Honey Salmon with Couscous

Where at the back end of last week I was eating a few stodgy classics, like pie and chips, I've been after a bit more spice this week, Tom Yum soup and today I have Spice & Honey Salmon with Couscous. I marinade the salmon for around half an hour in lemon juice, it's zest, chopped garlic and spring onions and ras-el-hanout spice mix before baking for 20 minutes. I spoon a teaspoon of maple syrup (I don't have any honey) over the salmon 5 minutes before the end and serve with couscous - sweet and spicy!

Spice & honey salmon with couscous

The Wrestlers, Cambridge

Her and I are in the lucky position of having dinner made for us by one of her friends tonight, though She does warn me that her friend is not the best cook. Sure enough when we turn up, we wake him up, unprepared, by ringing the doorbell. We step inside and briefly laugh about it before a rather sheepish silence descends on the part of our host. Luckily, The Wrestlers is close by so we decamp there for dinner.
This pub has been renown for Thai food in Cambridge for quite a while now, though this is the first time I've been. It's not the cosiest place with it's hard furniture and harsh lighting, but we're not here for that; we look at the menu on the bar. It's a double sided A4 sized sheet of Thai dishes, of which I pick a classic Tom Yum soup - hot and sour with my choice of meat, in this case chicken. After a short wait, a large bowl is placed in front of me with a side plate of rice and I'm glad to report that it is everything a Tom Yum soup should be, hot, fragrant and sourly zingy: perfect for clearing out a cold. Costing around £9, it is not badly priced either for Cambridge.

Fish Finger Rolls & Chips

So with the knowledge that I am to host poker tonight with the flat to sort out before hand, I left work late and went to the supermarket, leaving me next to no time for dinner. Shit. Er... Fish Finger Rolls & Chips will do. I munch the last of the oven chips as the doorbell goes.

Fish finger rolls & chips

Cheese and Onion Tart

A Cheese and Onion Tart is one of my favourite ways to use puff pastry.
The onions - thinly sliced, sweated to transparent, before colouring slightly.
Thyme - leaves stripped from their stalks and scattered into the onion as it colours.
Cheese - French, blue, chunked and sprinkled on the pastry, before tipping on the onion.
Pastry - Place a square on a baking tray, score a boundary, tip the ingredients on and bake for 200 degrees Celsius. Add a few leaves of salad. Nice.

Cheese and onion tart

Roast Chicken

It's been a long, long time since I've had a Roast Chicken, carving the white meat into thick slices and cutting through the joint to take a leg with crispy roast potatoes... mmm! Today's is even better as She cooks it! The meat is beautifully moist with the lemon tucked into the cavity, resting helps too - the best She's cooked a roast chicken and I agree, the accompanying carrots and parsnips are a bit undercooked, but the main event is perfect. Yum!

Roast chicken

Cheese on Toast

She wants to go out for cocktails tonight, so it's another quick dinner tonight, Cheese on Toast but not your typical. After toasting one side of the malt grain bread, I spread the other side with garlic cream cheese and topping with thinly sliced spring onion, strips of ham and blue French cheese, before melting under the grill. Tasty. I brush my teeth before heading out.

Cheese on toast

Chicken & Chips

While it's nice to eat in the pub, I couldn't possibly eat there every week and having given them my cash last week I decide to have Chicken & Chips before going out today.
I simply joint and marinade a couple of chicken legs in lemon, thyme, oil and seasoning before roasting for 40 minutes over some halved new potatoes. I should have quartered these really as they don't come out crispy enough, but no matter. I'll know better next time.

Chicken & chips

Steak & Ale Pie

I wish I had the time to make a Steak & Ale Pie, perhaps I'll get around to it one weekend, but once the stew is made I find it difficult to convince myself to do the extra work to put it in pastry. So this is a supermarket version, Asda's to be precise and it's not half bad, the pastry is crumbly and surprisingly good.

Steak & ale pie

Chilli Con Carne

At Hers for dinner tonight as she's promised to use the slow cooker to make Chilli Con Carne. I'm excited, as in general stews and ragus such as this love the slow cooking, being left to infuse all day over a low heat - brilliant.
She's a slightly unconventional cook is the the missus; she pre-warns me that she's added balsamic vinegar to the dish, but more than she wanted as it came out so quickly! Never heard of balsamic being added to a chilli and sure enough it is it's sweetness that comes through with just a hint of hotness - She likes her food quite mild. We ladle it onto our plates with the classic chilli accompaniments: rice, nachos and soured cream. I went back for seconds.

Chilli con carne

Griddled Chicken Sandwich

I have not a great deal of time for dinner today, but bashing out a chicken breast and griddling it for a Griddled Chicken Sandwich is the least I can do for quick, home cooked food. I have it in half a baguette, griddling the cut sides too before spreading with garlic cream cheese...

Griddled chicken sandwich

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ring the alarm bells and paint a red cross on the door as She is ill! I take pity on Her and make her a dinner of medicinal Chicken Noodle Soup, albeit a very simple version. I poach a chicken breast for 20 minutes in some chicken stock flavoured with lemongrass, ginger, spring onion, mushrooms and garlic, before tearing it into bite sized pieces with 2 forks. While I'm tearing, I cook the noodles before placing into bowls followed by the soup mixture and shredded chicken on top. I then garnish with more chopped spring onion and chilli, for a tasty, hot, subtly sour noodle soup.

Chicken noodle soup

Fillet Steak

Griddled Fillet Steak is definitely a dinner worth filling the flat with smoke for. Fillet is an expensive cut, so it is a very rare occasion when I buy it and knowing that I am careful not to waste it, I get the griddle hot and smoking before meticulously timing for a medium cooked steak. A shake of salt, a grind of pepper and a short rest later, I'm ready to eat.
Traditionally I would have chips with a steak, but instead I opt for mushroom and thyme lentils from Merchant Gourmet and those robust greens that I shred and steam.
The steak is beautifully juicy, almost velvety in a way that only fillet steak can be, which complements the lentils and of course a glass of red wine.

Fillet steak

Mackerel and Greens Pasta

Super! This evening we're going to one of Her friends for dinner, which means no cooking, or at least it would've if it hadn't had been cancelled at the last minute. Aah... with nothing prepared for dinner I have to improvise with ingredients in my fridge.
I put some pasta on to boil and at the same time shred some of the robust greens that are in season at the moment to pan fry. Once these are cooked I add them to a bowl with flaked smoked mackerel fillets (leftover from this morning's kedgeree) and stir it together with seasoning, a couple of tablespoons of Greek yoghurt, a shake of chilli flakes and a handful of pine nuts. Mackerel and Greens Pasta - not bad for a bowl of improvised dinner.

Mackerel and greens pasta

The Burleigh Arms, Cambridge

Friday and I have no desire to cook, so it's a trip to The Burleigh Arms who have now started doing Pieminister Pies, one of which I have. I'm not sure how to feel about this - I like Pieminister pies, which you can buy in the supermarket, but the fact you can means that they are definitely not homemade, which I'd rather they were. Doesn't stop me tucking into a chicken and mushroom pie with chips though with a couple of pints of ale.

Lamb and Mushroom Flatbread

I was supposed to make this last week instead of the Moussaka but today is the day for one of Nigel Slater's beautifully simple and tasty recipes, Lamb and Mushroom Flatbread.
In essence this is pan cooked lamb mince with garlic and chilli with quartered mushrooms, piled onto salad leaves atop a warmed flatbread. The key tastes here are soft, warm bread, hot lamb and cooling mint yoghurt and olives spooned on top. Not a sensation I usually have but a very pleasant one to add to the repertoire.

Lamb and mushroom flatbread

Roasted Vegetables

I often wonder how vegetarians do without the savoury taste of meat. Maybe one day in the future meat will be too expensive to eat on a regular basis and we'll all be vegetarians, or perhaps the only meat we'll be eating will be synthetic. However until then I'll still be eating meat, which doesn't mean that I don't try to have one vegetarian dinner a week, in fact this is my second this week, this time dinner is Roasted Vegetables. New potatoes, carrots and onions roasted in the oven, how do vegetarians eat this kind of thing everyday? They bury it in grated cheese!

Roasted vegetables with cheese

Veg Stir Fry

Simple, simple, simple... Every now and again it's good to eat cleanly, simply without meat and today's the day. As robust green leaves are in season I slice them and stir fry them with onion, garlic and noodles for a Veg Stir Fry. I add oyster sauce at towards the end of the cooking process and a generous glug of fruity chilli sauce to the plate. Refreshingly clean.

Veg stir fry

Stuffed Peppers

After the gorgeous food in Rome over the last two days, I was quite sad as I ate my miserable cheese sandwich this lunchtime...
I keep dinner pretty basic too stuffing rice cooked with pancetta, mushrooms and onions into peppers before baking for 30 minutes for Baked Stuffed Peppers.

Stuffed peppers

Ristorante Crispi 19, Rome & Feta Cheese, Olive & Rocket Salad

For my last day of a beautiful weekend in Rome I cannot resist having one last great meal, this time at lunch, before returning home. Again I ask the hotel receptionist (a different one) for a recommendation, who points us in the direction of Ristorante Crispi 19 and makes a reservation for us.
As it turns out we didn't need the reservation as we are the only name in the book when we arrive and indeed the only patrons in the restaurant. An empty restaurant at 1pm on a Sunday lunchtime? Hmmm... this doesn't look promising. The friendly front of house man shows us to the corner of an unremarkable room, with a fish tank containing lobsters and a sea bream in the window. Learning the lessons of yesterday, we cut out the appetiser and head straight for the primi piatta, where I have spaghetti with clams, bottarga, shrimps tartare and a hot carrots cream and She has spaghetti alla carbonara.
My pasta was a beautifully cooked, swirl of al dente spaghetti in the carrot and clam sauce with a little pile of prawns at it's summit - this is really tasty and paired up beautifully with the house white wine. I could not help soaking up the sauce left in the dish with the freshly cooked bread we also had.

Seafood spaghetti with carrot cream sauce

It's only at this late stage that I come to the realisation that despite the emptiness of the place, this is a genuinely good, mostly seafood restaurant, which makes my choice of beef fillet medallion steak for the next course a bit foolish;

Beef fillet medallion

She's not much better with her pork tenderloin, but these transgressions pale in comparison to the middle aged American couple who come in, eat a mixed salad, refuse any other courses, refuse to sample the freshly cooked bread, refuse the wine and eat in silence before settling the bill and leaving. Fittingly the staff hit them with a 15% service charge presumably for being such miserable bastards!

Pork tenderloin

But back to the food, both meats were beautifully cooked, Her's probably a tad better than mine. In fact her dish edges mine with the fried almonds and tangy apple, the meat almost falling off the fork. My medium rare cooked beef with it's marvellous pink inside, has a parmesan crisp on top of it and a brittle net of sweet wine(?) reduction. Both our dishes have a mixture of seasonal vegetables and tasty savoury gravy.
Dessert is a shared affair of 3 cold items, orange ice cream covered in dark chocolate, pistachio ice cream and some other kind of cold cake with sultanas and a swirl of burnt cream on top. Some nice touches by the staff here: they beautifully arranged the dessert on a large serving plate and noticing that I am left handed, put my dessert spoon to my left side, you cannot ask for better service than that! All these desserts are very good, my favourite being the in-season pistachio ice cream.

Dessert

We each end with a coffee and consider the bill, which comes to €135 in total including service charge, which equates to under £60 each, very reasonable for the quality of food and friendly service received. We chat with the owners as we leave praising them for the excellent food, shaking them by the hand and leaving them my email address to send me some recipes. We walk happily away up the street.
My actual supper was a hastily thrown together Feta Cheese, Olive and Rocket Salad with garlic flatbread when I got home. This was something of a let down, but Rome lovely Rome, I shall return to you one day!

Feta cheese and olive salad