The Sacred Art of Eating

(As I began writing this post, wordpress suggested I entitle it ‘An October-ish Picnic Lunch’. Clearly I am not as original as I like to think. I wonder what I was writing about last year? That lovely meal with Ol and Soz and KK, I think)

It was dreich and chill yesterday, and I was working from home for once, so felt D deserved a)a break from cooking and b)a hearty feed befitting the inclement environment. I had a browse around on the internet for an inspiring pasta bake sort of recipe- something that would give me an excuse to put the oven on but with loads of rich flavours.

I didn’t really come up with what I was after, but did pick up on two principles, namely: layering is possible, you don’t just have to dump it all in a pot and MOZZARELLA. Seemingly North Americans put melty cheesy on top of most everything that goes in the oven; seems very sensible.

I went out late morning to buy a text book (Martini’s Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology, £49.99 in blackwells, £44.99 on amazon.co.uk, $196 on amazon.com, no wonder US medical students have so much debt!) and picked up a courgette and aubergine and the all important mozzarella while I was out. Whilst taking a lunch break I griddled the veggies. Time consuming and very smoky but I’d like to think it will have added to the flavours. I left the veg to cool with the window open to clear the smoke and went back to work.

A little before D got in from work, I put some pasta on to cook and whipped up a simple tomato sauce. I was planning on making it vegetarian but at the last minute decided it needed some pancetta just to oomph it up. Good call I feel.

Then I began to layer. First aubergine, then pasta, then courgette…you get the idea!

The finishing touch was the cheese on top- I’d also read of using gruyère so I mixed the two before bunging it in the oven whilst we had chips and dips and a wee glass of vino.

It tasted every bit as scrummy as you might imagine, with a wee leaves and tomato salad on the side, and the really brilliant bit is that we’re having an exact repeat tonight. Yippee for left overs!

Some dishes from Nigella Express have managed to ingratiate themselves into our foody armoury. Thai curry paste + veggies (inc butternut squash and sweet potato) + coconut milk = curry is one of them, hardly rocket science but we would never have done it, pre 2008. The Doughnut French Toast is another. I grew up with Eggy Bread an almost weekly occurrence on the menu- for my brother at least- and yet I would never previously have thought to have it sweet.

This morning I got up, feeling most refreshed, at about 9am, and thought ‘I am going to be super girlfriend, I shall make little pancakes!’…but then I thought on it for a moment, remembered the half loaf of bread in the bread bin, which we wouldn’t be using for at least 24 hours…and hit on a winning idea.

In a bonus inspirational moment I heated up the left over chocolate sauce from last night’s Ice Cream & …, and stuck that in a wee dish on the side for dipping purposed. Big pot of tea on the side. Bingo!

You might well ask, how it is that we came to have left over chocolate sauce? And such a particularly small amount which we could surely have just finished last night. What can I say, we are a pair of abstemious puritans who know when to say ’stop’!!!

Particularly when blogging is at stake.

Yup. It’s been a rubbish day- for both of us- and no tea was planned or even on the horizon. Failure of domestic economy, failure to adjust to new lifestyles, just general failure.

So I threw money at the problem. Not too much money, mind, but it was worth it.

These are not just fishcakes. They came from that shop, and had drizzley tomato stuff on them. The roasted tomatoes and salad were my own making though. And Bath Ales. On a Thursday!

A fortnight ago now (at least; I’m losing track of time) one of Helen’s cousins came up from London with her boyfriend, so we had them round for dinner on Saturday night. Helen spent the day doing medical student stuff so it was largely up to me to prepare the meal.

I pulled out The River Cottage Meat Book and chose Beef in Stout, because it could be made ahead of time, with minimal active involvement, and it is just the kind of dish I’ve always wanted to make.

Up to a certain point, Leith provided everything I needed. Although I was refused the beer at Co-op for looking under-age. I didn’t have any ID because my driving licence was away to get the address changed. This is Murphy’s Law, but I’m not bitter. I just went elsewhere. Helen had to pick up some lardons on her way back from the library but everything else was available locally.

The inclusion of two types of mushrooms — whole button mushrooms and thick slices of open cup mushrooms — really lifted the whole meal for me. I also made some simple mash to go with the stew, and home made bread too. We had beer from Bath Ales, and Helen even got the guilts about not doing any cooking, so did a Nigella sticky chocolate brownie pudding.

I halved nearly all the quantities for the stew recipe (originally for 8 to 10) but it still managed to make about 9 servings. (The recipe in the link has been halved already, and is a fairly accurate picture of what I put in the pot.) We eked the final leftovers out by adding boiling water and noodles, to make a beef and mushroom soup.

I will definitely be doing this dish again, especially if we need to serve a full table of people this winter. Fantastic warming meal.