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.