Pig and pears

The sweetness of pork chops, the glow of translucent pears.  Nigel's title, not mine.  The fussy daughter was out tonight so I took the opportunity to have a massive pork chop with loads of fat on it - and it was amazing!  I love pork chops, I love pears, I love cider so this was perfect.   If I make it again I'd have mashed potatoes with this and the sauce would make a great gravy.

Root vegetable patties with spiced tomato sauce

And this is what we had alongside the poor man's potatoes.  These cooked quickly and were a really lovely lightly spiced flavour along with the lovely lightly spiced tomato sauce.   As a meat lover  with a vegetarian boyfriend I need to keep things interesting for me or I end up making separate meals but this did the job for both of us.  

Poor man's potatoes

My finished product had a thick rich sauce which Nigel's didn't appear to have, but it was no less delicious I'm sure.  In fact, I think the sauce made it - I almost added a bit of Marsala at the end but then lost confidence and we had it as the recipe dictated. I can see this becoming a regular side dish on my table.  

Sautéed chicken, porcini and Marsala

I've recently come to believe that anything cooked in Marsala tastes like a magician has been playing in the kitchen - I can't get enough of it!  Yet again, as with so many of these recipes in Eat, the simplicity of dishes like this belie the huge  flavours that make you desperate to make it again.  Pure deliciousness.  Once again, though, not the greatest of pictures.

A quick gravy

I could have this gravy with every meal and never tire of it. 

An aubergine and feta toad in the hole

The onion and mushroom version of this beauty has become my most often repeated dishes when I'm cooking for my veggie boyf - I love it!  This version didn't disappoint and will enter the repertoire.  As with all dishes from Eat it is so easy to make you could hardly call it cooking.

Mackerel wrapped in bacon

Simple stuff this but tasty nevertheless.  I made it more difficult for myself by buying a whole mackerel and filleting it myself - got to say I was pretty pleased with the result.  I do think my confidence in this kind of thing has increased massively over the last couple of years and would recommend that any under confident cook works their way through a book as a way to improve.

Chickpeas, tomato, spice and spinach; a thick but light chickpea soup-stew

I wanted to stretch this to 3 servings and make it more stew than soup and so added an extra can of chick peas, a good teaspoon of chilli flakes and a little more stock.  This was surprisingly good, so good there were no complaints from my audience - the fussy daughter included!  This will enter my regular repertoire as it is a really easy cheap vegetarian dish. 

Steak sandwich, buttery greens

My greens of choice here were pak choi due to the unavailability of spring greens. I love pak choi anyway so I'm sure that this simply enhanced the experience.  Delightfully simple food but immensely satisfying.

Morcilla burger. Dark blood pudding, white baps

I felt it unnecessary to subtitle this amazing burger at it may put some people off making it, but subtitled it is and so remains here.  Morcilla is the king of black puddings and my go to choice in a tapas bar.  I'm very fortunate in the area I live to have not one, but 2 amazing delis and it was in one of these that I found the genuine Spanish morcilla.  My only criticism of this burger is that I couldn't really taste the pork and if I make it again, which I surely will, I'll reduce the morcilla by half.  

Pork belly, pistachios and figs

This could have been slightly better had I stood the pork up at the outset as I think Nigel intended, but my tray was too big and I thought the stuffing would fall out - so, I laid them on their side, the consequence of this being substandard crackling.  Still delicious though, still delicious.  The stuffing element was superb. 

Chicken breasts with taleggio

What's not to like here?  Flavourful melting cheese, fat organic chicken breasts and beautiful Parma ham.  I skewered my chicken to hold the shape of the breast with the cheese inside.  Actually, I do have a comment on this recipe in that the skin looks decidedly pale, even after 25 minutes in the oven, so when I next make this I will quickly fry the skin side before wrapping the Parma ham round.  Beautiful dish this though nevertheless.  

Chocolate oat crumble

I have a friend, the only regular reader of this blog I suspect, who will be retching at the thought of this pudding because he will not entertain cooked fruit of any kind and hates all berries.  I, on the other hand, love both and so have been looking forward to pudding all day.  Everything in this works - the raspberries are perfect with the apricots and the chocolate came through really well - indeed the oats and chocolate were for us a really interesting alternative to a traditional crumble topping.  I think this would be a fantastic dinner party pud. The fussy daughter loved it (!) saying it was 'bursting with flavour'.  

A whole baked fish with aubergines

The sun is shining, the fussy daughter is at work, so it's time to eat fish!  Sardines are my fish of choice here, greatly helped by finding them on offer this morning.  This lunch was simplicity itself to make and so tasty - it's this kind of dish that made me want to start this blog in the first place i.e make me cook and eat things I wouldn't normally bother with. Having cooked  almost the whole of The Kitchen Diaries and now having embarked, albeit slowly, on Eat my confidence as a cook is at an all time high and I just know that anything I'm going to make will turn out just fine and will be delicious.  Once again, thank you Nigel.

Ricotta burgers

I'm a massive burger fan and will probably complete the burger bit of this book before anything else.  To me this was the perfect burger - the creaminess of the ricotta peeking through and the delicious sun dried tomato relish on top - all the flavours wonderfully complementing each other.  I even managed to sneak the capers in past the fussy daughter as they were such a subtle flavour.  A triumph Nigel, a triumph!

Oat and lemon cookies

Wow! Can't think of anything else to say. Wow! Wow! Wow! Beautiful as reasonably humble oat cookies but elevated to supermodel status with the lemon and mascapone filling. Wow!

Chicken with honey and lime

Oh Nigel, Nigel, Nigel! Just when I start to consider other cookery writers you drag me back under your spell.  Who knew that something as simple as honey and lime juice would transform humble chicken thighs into something so magical?  You even tried to make it difficult for me to come running back to you by not putting quantities in the ingredient.  But here I am - you've got me.

Soy chicken

Oh, this is so up my strasse I could spend the rest of my days here!  I'm not sure why Nigel calls this Soy Chicken when the main ingredient (chicken aside obvs) is oyster sauce but who cares?  This was gorgeous with just the right amount of sweetness, just the right amount of chilli hit and for me just the right amount of sauce - I served this with steamed spinach and thin noodles which were perfect with the sauce.  A triumph.  

Lamb and leeks with tagliatelle

I wanted to use up some Caerphilly cheese from something I'd made earlier in the week and saw this on the same page as the Philly cheese steak.  This was really lovely - the sweated leeks being the star ingredient here.  As my other half is vegetarian I cobbled together a veggie version for him, replacing the lamb with mushrooms and the Caerphilly with Gorgonzola.  Tonight was a rare moment where we all enjoyed our meal (yes, including the fussy lamb hating daughter).

Philly cheese steak with tagliatelle

I've been looking to making this all afternoon.  Whilst it was intensely satisfying for a few mouthfuls, it quickly became far too rich - I think due to the strength of the provolone piccante.  We did enjoy it but I doubt I'd make it again.

Chicken breast with smoked cheese and pancetta

Oh man! Who knew how well these flavours were going to work? Well, Nigel did!  This looked seriously anaemic when it came out of the oven and I was dubious until I took my first forkful, but this delivered! It was big on flavour and we loved it - this will be a regular addition to my repertoire.  Thank you Nigel.

Mozzarella chorizo sandwich

What's not to like here? The juices from the chorizo perfectly moistened the sandwich and the mozzarella balanced out the chorizo - an amazing lunch! The photo is not doing it justice but believe me this was really good.

Leek macaroni cheese

Throwing caution to the wind, I nipped upstairs whilst the leeks were very slowly softening and when I came down not 2 minutes later the leeks had started to colour - which Nigel said I was to avoid! I think I saved it though and as I'd used all the leeks given to me my friend from her allotment I added them anyway.  I'm incapable of having mac n cheese without some bacon so this is my leek and bacon macaroni cheese. 

Chorizo burger

I had a real problem making these - I think that my chorizo sausages were too good in quality, making them very dense and so they didn't break apart when I took the skin off.  I tried whizzing them down in the food processor to no avail and eventually ended up snipping them into small pieces with scissors.   This meant that the chorizo part of the meat was in clumps - this didn't really affect the burgers for me but regular readers will know that my extremely fussy adult daughter would find major fault.  The taste was good I felt and if I could sort out the consistency (possibly by mincing them myself) would make these again.

Pork chop with pear, walnut, shallot, vermouth

Whilst cooking this, and even whilst serving it up, I thought my comment was going to be that I'd obviously messed this one up or it's not for me thanks Nigel.  Taste is a different matter however and yes, this didn't look pretty, but it tasted just fine - even the ever fussy daughter enjoyed it! 

Duck with beans

No vegetarian here tonight and it's payday so my favourite meat is on the menu.  I've been looking forward to this all day but to be honest it hasn't really wowed me the way I expected it to.  I cooked it according to Nigel but found the skin no longer crispy (not that surprising really) so popped it back on its own in the pan to recrisp.  As I say I wasn't wowed but I did eat it, unlike my fussy (adult) daughter who had 3 bites and decided that she doesn't like duck in this form - so there's another thing I can't make for us again!

Onion and mushroom toad in the hole

Oh my, I love this kind of thing.  Anything resembling a giant tasty Yorkshire pud is going to float my boat.  The sharpness of the cheese came through every now and again (i.e it wasn't overwhelming) and it was perfectly in balance with the sweetness of the shallots.  And it was vegetarian which made it a good Sunday dinner offering to my loved one. 

Chorizo and sweet potato mash

One of things I'm loving about Eat is the simplicity of the recipes which have few ingredients delivering big flavours.  As regular readers will know, a dish that makes both me and my daughter very happy is a rare thing indeed but this delivered and we both agreed it was right up our strasse.  This could become a regular.  Not the best of photos but I was desperate to tuck in.

Lentil Bolognaise

Having splashed out large over Christmas and not getting paid until next week, frugality is the order of the day - frugal is specifically mentioned by Nigel as a recommendation for this recipe - so here we are.  My vegetarian boyfriend was dining with me tonight and my meat eating  daughter was out, presenting me with the opportunity to cook veggie.  I watched in wonder as this transformed itself from a pan of what looked like slop into a tasty sauce for pasta - tasty it was, and when frugality is required (and a vegetarian is in the house) this could well be dish of the day for me. 

Chicken burgers with lemon and tarragon

I'm a bit late posting this as I made these little beauties a few days ago. I made them because I got some chicken at a knock down price and Nigel says in the book that this is one of his favourites recipes in the book.  They were delicious and the tarragon and lemon came through beautifully.  

New year, new blog

Having recreated most of The Kitchen Diaries between October 2012 and December 2013 I'm bored again and want a new challenge.  Having gratefully received Nigel's latest book Eat for Christmas  I've decided to tackle that.  This is not a time limited project though so for all I know right now this could take me years!