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Monday 31st March
I could develop quite a taste for these extravagantly egged sauces. A bit
of eager whisking produced sauce béarnaise - an emulsion
of white wine and vinegar infused with tarragon and shallots, and egg
yolks. It is one of the classic things to serve with steak. I served it
with fish, which was lovely, but I can see why it is best with something
more robust to counter its richness. On the other hand, steak would have
meant chips, if not goose-fat-sautéed potatoes, and the lemony
cannelloni bean purée we had instead was a good earthy balance.
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Friday 28th March
Instant polenta is such a great invention. It's just so...
instant. (This does mean that you need to be a little bit prepared.
It's no good trying to grate parmesan into it once it's done and is
volcanoing at you.) Similarly, if you leave it to cool for a minute, it
will solidify - which isn't disastrous at all, if you have spread it out
on a baking sheet, because you can crisp it up under the grill and use it
as a bread substitute: to pave the roof of a pie, hold bruschetta
toppings, or as pizza base. Mmmmm, pizza - red onions, portabello
mushrooms (big flat steaky ones, fried until they cry) and some
gorgeous spring-fresh goat's cheese - does that make it sound like room
freshener? Trust me, it's not like room freshener. It's like sitting on
the grass watching wispy little clouds. It's baby-soft goat's
cheese.
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Wednesday 26th March
Yesterday I fried some little strips of beef with garlic, chilli, cumin,
cocoa powder, cinnamon, and probably other stuff, as I was pretty much
throwing in whatever fell out of the cupboard... There was tomato puree in
there, and orange juice (from an orange, that is) - anyway, the main thing
was the chilli. I also fried some onion rings, strips of red pepper and
slices of mushroom, with some oregano. Then we we had one of those nice
DIY suppers with a plate of meat, a bowl of vegetables, a bag of salad, a
tub of guacomole, a carton of sour cream, and a packet of
tortillas.
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Monday 24th March
When we were very young, one of the things our parents wouldn't even try
to make us eat, but would save for grown-up suppers à deux,
was chicory. Baked chicory in cheese sauce. So I thought it would
be worth trying, and I tried it (wrapped the chicory in bacon, braised in
white wine, made cheese sauce with gruyère), and what do you know,
I'm obviously not ready for grown-up food, because yuk. And C said
so too, so it's not just my unsophisticated English taste buds. Frankly, a
vegetable that can't be redeemed by cheese sauce is no friend of mine.
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Friday 21st March
This is a bit similar to the smoked salmon pasta last week, but it had the
same advantage of being quick to throw together when got in - ok, maybe
just a wee bit tipsy. It was tagliatelle (but I wish I'd had some
linguine, much sexier) with prawns, lemon, cherry tomatoes,
crème fraîche, and lots and lots of flat leaf parsley. I
think this really is the best of all possible worlds. Seafood is light and
springlike (oooo, good point, a tray of mixed - with some mussels and
scallops and things - would have been even nicer than the prawns), and
cooking a few halved cherry tomatoes, instead of opening a tin, even more
so: but pasta is comforting enough to eat in front of the (increasingly
depressing) TV. Don't you know there's a war on?
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Thursday 20th March
I made parsnip and parmesan soup yesterday, making, I might add,
rather a rushed job of it. I wanted to roast the parsnips, because it
makes them so sweet and nutty, but I also wanted the whole thing to be
basically ready before I went out at 7:15 - well, I should have gone at
7:05, but there's the Archers to consider, and who ever heard of a choir
concert starting on time? They were roasted for a bit, but not really long
enough. So I put some honey in to compensate, a squeeze of orange juice,
two potatoes for bulk, the chicken stock, and an old parmesan rind. That
was as far as I could get before I had to run, so it still needed to
simmer for about half an hour when I got back in. After that I rescued the
rind (mmmm, chewing gum), stripped a stalk of rosemary in, and whizzed
laboriously until smooth and thick. Finally I grated in a good sized chunk
of parmigiano and served with plenty of black pepper. And that, I think,
is the last of that! No more thick, hot, root vegetable comfort
soups - I'm ready for summer now, please.
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Tuesday 18th March
I bought some nice fat, shiny mackerel yesterday, and baked them
for half an hour on a layer of thinly sliced onion and lemon, with a
couple of tablespoons of cider vinegar sprinkled over. All those sharp
things cut through the oiliness of the fish and it was very simple and
fine. Admittedly potatoes sautéed in goose fat slightly negate the
omega-whatever healthiness of the fish...
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Monday 17th March
Phew... I fed seven yesterday, and despite a longish post-prandial
walk, I don't think anyone left hungry. These people were C's old
house-mates, so he made the mousse (maybe that's The Mousse...) - so
really, what was I worried about? After all, two courses times seven is
fewer than three courses times five, which I do all the time. Anyway, what
I made was greek salad, with cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta,
and greekish lemon and oregano chicken with avgolemono sauce
(lemon juice and the winey juices from the chicken, with eggs to make a
sort of savoury custard). Then I braised some baby lettuces and glazed
some baby carrots with a little honey and mustard - well, if I can't serve
baby veg in early spring, when can I? The only thing that didn't really
work was the roast potatoes, which I don't really understand because I had
some lovely goose fat which I thought was good and hot - but maybe I was
just trying to do too many in too small a dish. Surely with so many
physicists in the house we could have worked that one out...
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Thursday 13th March
Yes, this was what I had been wanting. A moderate plateful of egg
tagliatelle, with crème fraîche, lemon zest, a little lemon
juice, dill, black pepper and smoked salmon. There are daffodils
everywhere - I've even seen primroses - and there is nothing so
luxuriously springlike as fresh, sharp, no-cooking-required food.
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Tuesday 11th March
More than any other carbohydrate, the purpose of pasta is to stretch meat
when you'd really rather have more meat. And the purpose of pasta
sauce? To hide vegetables. Admittedly I don't actually need to hide
vegetables in my pasta sauce, as I am only cooking for happy,
vegetable-loving adults - but what the hell, Archie, it's all good
practice. (I realise that if I carried this argument to its logical
conclusion, all my meals would feature smiley-faced Annabel
Karmel-type food. Don't worry, I may be broody, but I'm not actually
insane.) And it saves me thinking of sensible things to do with leftover
cabbage if I slice it up small and put it in my sausage/rosemary/red
wine sauce. The trick to sausage sauce for pasta is to slice them
raw, and brown the slices before you start: the round, cut faces get more
caramelised and delicious than the skin-covered edges, IYSWIM.
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Monday 10th March
Sick to death of leftovers, my goodness yes. How much nicer to whip up a
nice gooey tortilla with wild mushrooms and taleggio. Why are
mushrooms so good with eggs? This was good early springtime food, warm and
comforting, but fresh as well, with a salad, the first slice hot and
oozing melted cheese, but the second and third, progressively cooler
slices just as good.
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Thursday 6th March
So in honour of Mardi Gras I think I may have made more excessive amounts
of food than ever before. No, that can't be right. But it felt that way.
We had crêpes - not the 'pancake day' jif-jam-and-tossing sort, but
a concession to the day - as if the other lard-laden courses weren't...
Anyway, crêpes with roasted cherry tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and
chèvre. A little watercress. Main course: cassoulet. So
that's duck confit: tick! I will think of something even more ambitious to
replace it on the 'things I will learn to make one day' list - but not until I've finished eating my
leftover beans in goose fat. Finally and fatally, petits pots au chocolat,
prompted by the suggestion that Shrove Tuesday ought to involve bathing in
chocolate, and of course by my so-cute china cups shaped like crumpled
plastic cups. It is only that I haven't the will power to resist the
cute, the yummy, the french, and the overabundant. I'm not really
fattening you up like foie gras geese, I promise.
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Monday 3rd March
Vietnamese chicken and mint salad - yes, that woman again, I'm
sorry. This is shredded chicken, cabbage, carrot, red onion and mint with
a dressing of lime juice, chilli, fish sauce, etc etc. So, temple food,
but surprisingly yummy and indeed, as she says, you could pick at it very
satisfactorily over an evening of gossip.
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