Melanzane al Limone

OK, New Year's resolution - to rekindle my love of cooking by trying some new things and doing a little quiet blogging about them...  So tonight, an Anna del Conte recipe, Melanzane al Limone (lemon-flavoured aubergine).  You cube the aubergine, salt it and leave in a colander for a while, draining off some juice.  You simmer some vegetable stock in a frying pan with a couple of whole, peeled garlic cloves, lemon rind, lemon juice and fresh oregano; then add the aubergine and cook on a moderate heat for 10 minutes or so (mine took 15), adding more stock as needed.

Very good, intense and fresh flavour; we had ours at room temperature as a side dish, with grilled salmon fillets and linguine in a garlic, chilli, olive oil and parsley dressing.

Chinese steamed vegetables

Tonight's dinner was actually pork chops with butter beans and cabbage; disappointing because I overcooked the pork, so that it was quite dry.  But I thought that instead I would show you a picture from a trip I took to China just over a year ago.  I was impressed by this trick, where steamed vegetables were served in a bowl with hot pebbles, so that they kept warm on the table while we worked our way through a table-ful of delicious dishes.  The pebbles looked pretty too.

Egg salad

This is a very typical light weekend lunch at my house; there is always salad, usually toast, and the other ingredients vary.  This salad includes one of my favourite things - chicory - which often seems to be available with a British label on it, presumably 'forced' indoors.  I also included a few handfuls of bean shoots which you can buy in little packets in the supermarket and which add a different texture and a wholesome, clean flavour.  I dressed the salad with lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little red wine vinegar for sweetness; I cooked the egg slightly too long - it is better when the yolk is still just soft.  We had some smelly Swiss cheese afterwards to go with the rest of our toast, and followed up with nice strong coffee while looking out of the window at a cold, steely-grey afternoon.

Miso soup and 'pickles'

I have wanted to go to Japan ever since reading novels by Haruki Murakami; the characters always seem to be meeting in cafes for miso soup and pickles, which sounds so exotic.  After getting back to London full of lovely roast dinners, Marc and I decided to make a Japanese style meal.  This was one of the courses - miso soup powder and dried seaweed bought from a Chinese supermarket and stirred into boiling water (after hydrating the seaweed in cold water).  Marc made a delicious cucumber salad - shaving the cucumber into thin slices and dressing with pickled ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar and salt - which we ate on the side as a substitute for pickles.

Baked tilapia with plantain and spinach

I bought this large fish in our local market for a special pre-Christmas dinner for me and Marc before we head off for a few days to stay with family.  It took an hour and half to cook in a hot oven - half of the time covered with foil - having been marinated in a jerk-type mix of spices and mild olive oil.  Served with spinach doused in lemon juice, and delicious fried plantain! 

Plantain is a real treat; I love the banana-y smell while it's frying, and the sweet/salty taste.  I pour about 1cm depth of ground nut oil, which has no strong taste, into a large, deep frying pan, heat it and then fry the plantain - sliced on a slant - for about 5 minutes on each side, with the oil bubbling away (though not too vigorously) and a spatter guard over the top.  Although I've cooked it quite a few times now, I still find it hard to regulate the temperature of the oil and sometimes it does burn - but still tastes good. 

Spaghetti amatriciana

Bit of a disaster with the fridge today; the light hadn't been working for a couple of days and I had gone to the trouble of buying a 'pygmy' bulb replacement before realising today that I had accidentally switched the fridge off at the wall...amazing how cold it stayed for 2 days!  But the freezer had to be emptied...hence we had to eat up the rest of the tomato ragu I had made for pizza yesterday, and some bacon from a 'buy one get one free' pack we had squirrelled away. 

The result is pictured here (I only remembered to take a photo after I had started eating)...a very tasty amatriciana sauce - all the more so because I had reduced the sauce down a lot yesterday to make sure my pizza wasn't soggy.  I just fried a few chopped up bacon rashers in olive oil and then added the sauce to heat through.  We didn't bother with salad tonight.

Spaghetti is my favourite pasta shape - there is something low key about it: rather than imposing itself, spaghetti just perfectly performs the function of setting off your chosen sauce, and I think it gives the most satisfying balance of pasta and sauce in each mouthful.  It's even more delicious when home made, which is a lovely treat Marc does sometimes.

Pepperoni pizza with watercress salad

Dinner for one while Marc was out with a friend.  Marc made some pizza dough a few weeks ago and I saved half for the freezer.  Once defrosted, the dough rolled out again like new and I topped it with home made tomato ragu, mozzarella, pepperoni and olives.  Cooked for 10 minutes at 200C and served with watercress dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, eaten in front of the telly!