This one’s for Kerys, sorry I’ve been so slack!
We get a vegetable box on a weekly basis and it’s a bit of good and a bit of bad. This week we had a butternut squash so I thought I’d make one of my favourite soups. I cut the squash into chunks, coated it olive oil and soy sauce then sprinkled taragon and black pepper on top. I chopped up about six carrots and then roasted them and the squash in the oven together for about an hour on a lowish heat. I fried a chopped up leek, a large onion, 4 garlic cloves, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a big squirt of tomato puree. Next I added added the roasted veg and the fried stuff into a pressure cooker, covered with cold water, added a couple of veg stock cubes and brought to the boil with lid on. When the cooker  started to whistle I dropped the heat and simmered for 20 mins. I then took it off the heat and blended it all together. It makes a very lovely, wholesome soup and it looks like this:

Joseph didn’t eat his but the rest of us ate ours which proves it was nice!

This was a dish I made the other day and liked a lot. I took the photo but didn’t upload it….anyway, very easy to make.
I browned off some beef cubes in olive oil and fried onions.I then added some chili sauce, some mushrooms, some tomato puree and cooked in a pressure cooking for 19 mins – this made the beef nice and tender (I used casserole beef cubes).
I then simmered on a low heat for about a further 15 mins.
For the salad I simply podded some broadbeans and mixed in with sugar snap peas, parmesan and a light balsamic/olive oil dressing. I had an odd bit of bread to use for some reason so ate that with it. It made me happy eating this meal.

I think this is a favourite for Nick and me, a lovely spicey soup that’s a doddle or a doodle to make.

The obligatory onion is fried in spicy rapeseed oil with garlic, ginger and a splash of soy sauce. Mushrooms are stirred in next with a chopped up red chilli pepper. I then added some king prawns, corn pieces, sweet snap peas and some medium ‘straight to wok’ noodles. Covered with water, added in a stock cube, some fresh corriander and simmer away for 20 mins or so. There are loads of variants of this, a splash of fish sauce works well but I didn’t have any….

One thing I didn’t eat from my evil lunch the other day was a large piece of Turkish bread that came with the kebab and chips. I put it in my bag and took it home. Today at lunch I thought I’d use it as a pizza base and that’s what I did. I looked for a tin of chopped tomatoes in the cupboard but we didn’t have any so I covered one side of the Turkish bread with a very thin layer of tomato ketchup. I know this sounds bad but Joe and Lola were around and I thought the sweet taste may appeal to them. I then ripped up some ham and mozzarella and put them on top, added a few capers, some basil leaves and covered with a sprinkling of black pepper and olive oil.

It looked nice as it was but it’s a pizza and pizza’s go in the oven. I put this in at 180 C for about 12 mins. Took it out and it looked like this:

I chopped it up and we had it with lots of other random bits and bobs. We had a disco for Grace’s birthday afterwards and had bought pizza as part of her birthday tea – the Turkish bread one at lunch was better!

I had an evil lunch today at work, was going to go to tesco for sushi and some other bits and bobs but Qamar asked me if I fancied a kebab from the local Turkish restaurant. I went for a lamb kebab, chips and salad, was very nice but it felt very wrong.
When I got home I still had some left over lentils from the other night (see below again) and I had some halloumi in the fridge. I think everyone loves halloumi don’t they? I fried the halloumi in some rapeseed oils, heated the lentils and added a few chunks of mozzarella to them. I had two wrap and simply added the lentils, halloumi, lettuce, a bit of beetroot and some chilli sauce. Very cheesy and very delicious.

Doesn’t look too appetising from the picture but was very nice!

I was on the train home from work last night thinking that I’d add an egg to the remainder of my curried puy lentils (see below) and fry up some lentil burgers. When I got home Alison had already eaten and I’d gone off the idea of the lentils for some reason so I looked in the cupboard and saw some giant couscous.
I’m not sure if this is the same as Israeli couscous (also known as pearl couscous) but it has the same nutty flavour and is just as delicious.
I fried some chopped up red onion in a splash of olive oil and red wine vinegar and then added the giant couscous. I fried this for a couple of minutes more, added some black pepper, veg stock cube and covered with boiling water. I let it simmer down and then added frozen peas. When the giant couscous had a slightly al dente texture I removed from the heat. I transfered to a dish, stirred in a handful of mange tout, some chopped tomatoes and some parmesan cheese. Sprinkled with black pepper and it looked like this:

I had a bought fish curry in the fridge which was just past sell by date so I heated that up and had it with the couscous. Ideally I think the couscous would go with salmon or even sausages but the curry needed eating and it was fine!

I was thinking about a side for the melanzana and fancied lentils. I love lentils, used to hate them as a child but think they’re king now. Puy lentils are my favourite and really easy to make (no soaking required) really easy to add your own bent too.
I fried a large onion in rapeseed oil (has a nice nutty flavour and supposed to be good for you…..) added two cloves of chopped garlic and fried some more. I then added about two cups of puy lentils and a generous squirt of tomato puree and some black pepper. I then covered this mixture with boiling water and added a tin of chopped tomatoes. I simmered for a couple of mins then added about half a jar of Patak’s tikka masala spice paste sauce…..cheating I know. I added two sticks of chopped up celery and a large handful of green beans. Splashed in some soy sauce, added some fresh corriander and left to simmer away. I use soy sauce instead of salt in a lot of dishes, I don’t know why but I do.

The smell is lovely, in truth a salad would probably work better as this is more of a main course but we live and learn….or some of us do.

Okay, I googled the difference between Melanzana and Parmagiana, I’ve been making this dish for years and just called it either of these names…..Eleanor was the person who introduced this dish to me, thanks Eleanor, I’ve made it so many times now!

So I sliced up a large aubergine into thin slices which I then fried in some olive oil and 4 cloves of garlic. It was quite a lot of aubergine so didn’t spend too long frying as I was impatient. I then added a layer of the fried aubergine to the bottom of a casserole dish (the one I used today isn’t my first choice). I then removed the rest of the fried aubergine and put to one side, sliced up a large onion and fried it in the pan with olive oil. I then added black pepper to the onions and some vegetable stock cube. I then took some of the onion and placed it on the aubergine in the dish, I then added some tomato chilli sauce and some soy sauce to the onions and aubergine. I next sliced up a courgette and added that on top of the mixture, added another dash of soy and then added some sliced mozzarella. I then added another layer of aubergine, onions, chilli sauce, black pepper, some tomato passata and some veg stock cube (I have a thing about Oxo veg stock cubes). On goes another layer of mozzarella, more aubergine, onion, a bit more tomato passata, some tabasco, the last bit of mozzarella and then a covering of grated parmesan cheese. A sprinkling of black pepper and the basil leave and quartered cherry tomatoes for the top. 

 I then put it in the oven at 180 C for about 15 mins then covered it and turned down to about 120 C and left for an hour, not sure why, just did. It looks like this now………

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The black bits on top are just the skin of the aubergine so it’s not burnt, smells lovely but there could be too much liquid……sure some brown bread to mop it up will do the trick!

I’ve always enjoyed cooking from a fairly early age. I’m not particularly brilliant at it but presenting a plate of food to someone is something that I get a huge amount of pleasure from (if it’s good). Speaking to Pod as I was putting the finishing touches to a parmagiana he said that I should write a blog, or I said to him that I should write a blog, so I took a picture of the parmagiana, put it in the oven then started the blog.

I’ve decided I’m just going to write about as many meals as I can and see where it goes. I’ll include other bits of random information but I’m not prescribing to any blog methodology, I’m just going freestyle as Pete would have it. I always seem to be concerned about what other people think but I’m going to shelve that as much as I can, people judge, they always do (that’s for you Nick).

I’m going to kick off with the Parmagiana (or is it melanzana?)