There hasn’t been too much food on the blog of late. I could say it’s because I’ve been too tired to write, but that’s not really true. I am rarely too tired to write. The thing is, I haven’t been experimenting too much in the kitchen on account of the man of the house still being on a very restricted diet. Although the rest of us are free to eat as we please, then generally I’ve been trying to keep the majority of our meals in the safe zone so that we can all enjoy it together. Now establishing foods that are in the ‘safe zone’ hasn’t been that easy, and it’s a path that we’re only a short way down, but we are progressing down it.
Tonight, we had a small harvest of broad beans from the garden. Young enough not to need popping from their outer skins. Worth a little celebration of sorts.
Ingredients
Sweet potatoes, cut into chunks, and roasted together with several garlic gloves, lashed in olive oil.
Fresh young broad beans, quickly blanched (or use more mature / frozen and pop them from the outer shells)
Handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
Pumpkin and sunflower seeds, toasted in a hot dry pan.
I have a confession to make. I’m a lazy blogger and I don’t plan on changing. I don’t do any of the things you’re supposed to do. I don’t comment on other blogs very often at all. I don’t proof test my recipes. Sometimes I don’t even write the recipes very clearly. My grammar is patchy. I waffle on about random things. I don’t style the food. I don’t style anything actually. I’m not consistent. I don’t index my photos so they can be picked up by search engines. I don’t send witty and original tweets. I don’t link up very often. I am still baffled by widgets (possibly why I don’t link up much). The thing is, that all the ‘blog’ side of the writing feels like a bit too much like work. I really just like messing around with food, and messing around with words.
My mother had (and still has) numerous postcards on the wall of the downstairs loo. They made a big impression on all of us (my two brothers and I). I know this to be true, because we still reference them. One of them said ‘Life’s too short to iron your underpants’. I’ve always vaguely had that in my mind, but the last couple of weeks have really reinforced it. Another one said, ‘Women need men like a fish needs a bicycle’. That one I’m not sold on. I like a man around. In fact I like having five of them around (and I count myself beyond lucky that I have all my boys .. big and small, in my life).
Why am I writing this post? Because a few things have happened recently. Big things. Things that make you realise that every second is precious. That it’s OK to carve your own way. To please yourself. There is no formula. No right or wrong. It’s just putting one foot in front of the other the best way you know how.
Enough waffle for you? Ready for some actual food.
How about some creamy, spicy, roast pumpkin, chicken and corn soup with fresh parsley.
Pop a whole chicken in a pot covered in water and simmer slowly for a couple of hours with some salt and pepper, a little turmeric (why not) and perhaps a stalk of celery, a carrot, and some fresh herbs if you have them to hand.
Roast some small chunks of pumpkin. Take the chicken out and shred it. Strain the stock. Chop some onion and garlic and fry with chilli powder (to taste, I used about 1/4 teaspoon). Add some shredded chicken, the pumpkin and the chicken stock. Throw in some corn and cook for a few minutes. Stir in a couple of spoons of sour cream and chop over fresh parsley. Perfect for an autumn day – It’s spring here of course, but I sometimes find myself eating for the English seasons rather than the NZ ones. I’m a little weird like that.
And now for a salad.
Buttery pan fried sweet potato chunks, raw raddish, pear, raw courgette, a few garden greens (baby spinach and parsley). Dressed with olive oil mixed with pomegranate molasses and a little apple cider vinegar.
The final offering of the day is this. Excellent with simple roast chicken.
A couple of cloves of chopped garlic, a little chili powder and turmeric, 2 fat shaved courgettes, a handful of bean sprouts, a cup of frozen peas, the juice of a lemon and some crumbled feta cheese.
Just before you go, here’s another little ‘thought for the day’. My six year old has a sweater that has ‘think of your own ideas’ printed across the front. I hope he grows up to realise you don’t need to run with the herd. Being your own person is the biggest favour you can do yourself.
I like to roast a piece of meat on a Sunday. Especially during turbulent times. There is something anchoring about roasting meat. Yes? Possibly just me clutching at things to be anchored by.
I made a bed for a leg of lamb of some garlic cloves, rosemary and olive oil, put it in a casserole dish with a tight lid, and cooked it at around 140 for 4 hours. The lamb can then be pulled off the bone and shredded with a fork.
The salad is made with pan fried sweet potato cubes (in butter – my new favourite way to cook sweet potato), blanched green beans, baby spinach, cucumber and feta cheese.
Dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar (and some of the garlic-y, rosemary meat juices)
This salad sounds insanely busy in a very unfashionable way doesn’t it? I believe it’s in vogue these days to go minimal. Short lists of ingredients. Simple. So I’m off trend once again. Never-mind, the salad was rather lovely with big fat sausages.
Ingredients
1 cup – 1 mug of quinoa (depending on how many you’re feeding)
1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes cut into small cubes
1 large aubergine chopped into small cubes and generously salted
Fry the sweet potato and aubergine cubes in a little butter (or ghee or coconut oil) until really soft and caramalised. I think it took about 30 minutes. Meanwhile cook and drain the quinoa. Mix everything together and dress.
Some things in the world are dazzling without adornment. Strawberries for example, or ice crystals, or sunrises. Other things need a little help to push them over the line from being rather dull to rather wonderful. Salad, for example. Some people might enjoy sitting down and tucking into a pile of plain spinach but I like to mix it up a bit. It just makes life a little more exciting.
This salad has raw celery, some left over crumbled manchego cheese, toasted pine nuts, avocado and persimmon. Dressed with oil and balsamic.
The kids didn’t feel they needed that level of excitement in their salad so just stuck with the avocado. I guess life is exciting enough anyway when you’re a kid.
There hasn’t been too much food on the blog of late. I could say it’s because I’ve been too tired to write, but that’s not really true. I am rarely too tired to write. The thing is, I haven’t been experimenting too much in the kitchen on account of the man of the house still being on a very restricted diet. Although the rest of us are free to eat as we please, then generally I’ve been trying to keep the majority of our meals in the safe zone so that we can all enjoy it together. Now establishing foods that are in the ‘safe zone’ hasn’t been that easy, and it’s a path that we’re only a short way down, but we are progressing down it.
