Seven Vegetable Tagine

Hullo! What a fine day it is today. I even went bare-legged and I can happily say I haven't got hypothermia yet.

On Mothering Sunday (Yes, I know it was ages ago, I've been on holiday, all right?) I actually remembered, for once, and did something. I cooked! Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Gosh, Emily, what a hardship for you. How did you cope?' But really, you know, my mum's terribly fussy so it was quite difficult. She doesn't like meat or fish (apart from the occasional prawn butty) or anything excessively rich or cheesy, or anything vaguely oriental and soy-sauce-y. Now do you see? That's everything I love! How on earth do I cook something under those circumstances?

Handily, I was able to reach a fortuitous conclusion.  She loves curry. BUT. I was not going to cook curry. That would be too obvious. I went Morrocan. I plucked from the recesses of my brain a wonderful recipe I picked up when I was in Marrake -

Oh, all right. I just saw the recipe in Olive and thought 'Yeah. Okay. Cool.'

It worked out perfectly actually because in the end the spices smelled fairly similar to a curry (naturally she wasn't allowed in the kitchen) and so we led her down the wrong track. Do you see? My sister and I enjoyed it very much.

I'm not sure why the sugar's out.  But anyway.

I think the seven vegetables were potato, butternut squash, carrot, courgette, tomato, chickpeas and green beans. I think. I suppose I could just check on the recipe but that would be too easy.

It called for preserved lemon, which I didn't have. I don't think I've even ever seen them in a shop. But anyway, I found something - Oh! that's why the sugar's out! - that says you can sort of make emergency preserved lemon, as it were, by frying some sliced lemon in olive oil, salt and sugar. But I couldn't really taste it in the tagine, so I just shoved some extra lemon in too.

We had it with some couscous and some harissa and yoghurt.

It was a bit runny, but it was really good. And it tasted lovely with the olives in, as well.

It also made a fabulous soup the next day, whizzed up with some cream.

On a scale of one to yummy? A 17.



Spring Snacks

I'm back! Well, I've been back for nearly two weeks, but I've been far too important and busy to update my blog. Honest. Also our internet died.

I have a surprising lack of photos. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps I thought 'Shall I fetch my camera? Nah, I've taken plenty of pictures, and there'll be plenty of more opportunities...' nearly every time I ate. Though obviously I haven't written anything for two weeks so there are quite a lot; I meant relatively.

Anyway, I'll stop waffling now. It wouldn't make sense to sort these chronologically; partly because they're too erratic and partly I can't remember what I did every day. So we'll sort it into meals. Keeping up? (Also despite the title it isn't all snacks. Naturally. I just like alliteration.)

Breakfasts

We ended up eating out a lot for breakfast. Now this is mostly because I love the idea of eating breakfast somewhere else. But it does have some reason behind it: my house is so far away from anywhere that you can't just hop on a bus or walk anywhere. On a weekday, your only hope of getting out of the house is to catch a lift with my mum or stepdad on their way to work. Obviously, they leave pretty early. So me and my friend usually fell out of bed and straight into the car - thus the need for breakfast whenever we got to our destination. Honest!

Breakfast in a box! The novelty of this was almost better than the actual thing, though it was pretty tasty either way.

Eggybread with maple syrup and pancetta. This was delicious and felt very posh, but there wasn't much pancetta. It was good anyway. Iveta had a smoked salmon omelette which was also delicious.

All day breakfast butty from Costa - mm, classy. Good though. Let's face it, when is breakfast bad?

Lunches and snacks

Gosh, I'm enjoying these little subtitles. It's almost like I'm writing something worthwhile.

Smoked salmon and Philly jacket potato: (You may have noticed by now my addiction to smoked salmon and bacon. Get used to it.)

Scampi and chips at Vinegar Jones. Oh yes. I know how to treat my guests.

Now this was silly of me. We went to a lovely little restaurant/café called Fat Olive for lunch and I foolishly ordered a steak sandwich. Now it was nice, and I do love Fat Olive, but I just don't really like beef. I still don't know what possessed me to point and say, 'I'll have the steak sandwich, please.' Oh well, I snuck it into my bag wrapped in a napkin and my stepdad enjoyed it later.
 

This is more like it - onion and goat's cheese quiche with salads. That red cabbage salad is amazing. I've been trying to work out the recipe for years.

Teas

Yes, that does mean an evening meal, not the drink. Nor afternoon tea, I'm afraid, despite my Englishness.

This isn't actually holiday food: this is what I had on our 'clearing out the freezer' supper. Chicken wings, a burger, fishfingers, smiley face, french fries and peas. Mmmmmmm, protien.

My first tea back! Toad in the hole made by my revered mama.

 And again, my mother's cooking - this time chicken tikka. Yummy scrumboes.

Sweet treats

Poached rhubarb and ice-cream. One of the only puddings I like - usually in restaurants I'll go for cheese over sweet things. And while we're on the subject, cheese with fruit in it is a travesty. I'm all for a wedge of Brie with grapes, or Lancashire and a Cox's Orange Pippin, or Stilton and pears; but fruit IN cheese? No. Just... no.

Sarah Nelson's Grasmere Gingerbread! There's nothing quite like it. Though that's not for lack of trying. 

This, too, is back in Glasgow - a student staple, apparently - five-minute chocolate cake. You make it in a mug in the microwave. Can you believe I ate this after our freezer-clearing fandango? I can't.

Well! I think that's enough for now. I'm boring myself, so God knows how you are. There's more but they deserve their own posts. It's been a good holiday so far!

Spring Break!

I'm off on holiday!

Well, no, I'm not. But I am going home for the best part of a month, and my friend is coming with me for the first week, so I'm going to be a tourist with her. Thus, there will be no blog posts for at least a week - I'll be far too busy buying magnets and going on boats. Sorry! Well, I'm not sorry, but you  know. Standards of politeness and all that.

Anyway, here are some pictures of little snacks and meals that didn't deserve their own posts but ought to be here all the same.

Apple pie:

(Yes, that is a Kuhn Rikon knife. Yes, they are awesome.)

Tomato relish (this was to go with a curry but the curry went a bit wrong. That's why there was no post on Wednesday...):

Prawns, french fries, salad and garlic mayo:

Banoffee ice-cream with caramel sauce (this was amazing):

Lemon "souffle" (It was mousse.) - I didn't like this, but it looks pretty and my friends thought they were good.

Cheesy crumpet - best breakfast/lunch/snack/supper ever:

....Apart from this: a cheese, ham, and fried egg sandwich:

Pastrami and red onion pizza - this was surprisingly delicious:

And finally, a Belgian bun. I've never been sure what it is that's so Belgian about them, but they are delicious.

Have a lovely week!

Picnic food.

Sorry about the silence - I know all three of my readers must be parched from the lack of posts recently. Truth be told, I was going to make up some excuse about being horribly busy what with it being last week of term and things, but honestly it's just been practically tropical and I've been outside all the time.

So what with the lovely weather and everything, I've barely been  near a computer. Today, however, I make an exception. We had a picnic today and (naturally) I provided most of the food - thanks go to my friend Louise for the breadsticks and popcorn.

I made bread and butter and tomatoes:

Nothing's better than a salty tomato. (Nobody agrees with me on this.)

These random smoked salmon parcels that I found at the bottom of my freezer (I hope they were mine...)

And, my pièce de résistance: chicken and bacon salad.

The best thing about picnics in general, I think, is they way you pack everything up. So I had salad in one box, bread in another, a tiny twist of salt in foil, and butter in a little pot. It satisfies my OCD side. Sadly, though we forgot some important things for a picnic (only one of them was my fault) - a rug, a ball, and boiled eggs. Next time!

However, the best thing about this picnic in particular is that it almost completely emptied my fridge/freezer! And tonight, my friends and I are all getting together to finish off what's left. I know there's going to be fish fingers, chicken wings, burgers, and wedges on the menu (so far). So fingers crossed, it'll all be gone by Saturday and I can go home with a clear mind! Yes, I do take food that seriously.

And as an aside (ooh, alliterative) I had a lemon cheesecake milkshake the other day.

I don't know how they made it but I have a suspicion they threw some lemon cheesecake and some milk in a blender and whizzed. Whatever, it worked.

On a scale of one to yummy? The milkshake, a 17. The picnic, due to the lack of boiled eggs, a 16.

Weekend food fun.

And what a fun weekend it has been. This week is my last week of teaching from my first year of university, and I'm determined to enjoy myself, even if I do have to empty my freezer at the same time.

I've been wanting to try these for ages but couldn't really justify the price - I think they're usually about £3. Luckily, this one was on sale for a quid....

It's a bit like a very posh pot noodle. You add some boiling water and give it a stir. That's it. It was nice, though sadly lacking in prawns - I think there was about three in the whole pot. I gave it a sploosh of lime juice and soy and snipped in some sad-looking coriander that was lying in my fridge, and it took it to another level, it really was good.

To celebrate St Patrick's Day (Woo.) I had some friends over and we had sausages and potato salad.

It was wonderfully summery, and it matched with the weather. It was certainly the least Irish and best way to celebrate St Paddy's Day.

My tea on Friday was linguine with onions and parsley and chilli and garlic. It was delicious and simple.

On Saturday we went to Ikea. Before I left home, it was a good two-and-a-half hour drive to Ikea, and everyone hated it. Now, it's a fifteen minute bus journey and it's a fun day out. It's possibly one of the best things about being at uni.

Especially the food:

That's a prawn and egg open sandwich. It was on this really seedy black bread, it was so so so good. I've always known prawn and eggs were a good combination - indeed, Marks and Spencers used to do a sandwich that I was sometimes allowed for a treat when I was little, but they stopped making them years ago - but I have often been pooh-poohed. Now we know, don't we? Yum.

My friend Iveta made me a Lithuanian dish on Saturday - it's a bit like spaghetti Bolognese but with cabbage. Sort of.

Anyway, it was delicious, and it had loads of Worcestershire sauce in it which I find hilarious since I've always imagined it to be strictly English.

Cream slice for pudding. Three words:

Best. Food. Ever.

I was watching umpteen food videos on YouTube on Sunday (There are some seriously bad ones out there. Who needs to know how to make a peanut butter sandwich?) and I saw one for a tuna melt. Now I know how to make a tuna melt, but it got me thinking. I had tuna-cheese-on-toast. I ate it with some pickled jalapenos and it was great.

Tea last night was stirfried cabbage with noodles and some ginger chicken (From the freezer!).

This was good too, though nothing special. And I do have tons of cabbage left.

Told you it was a fun weekend!

Smoked haddock

For a quick tea on Wednesday I poached some smoked haddock - well, I don't know if it was poached as such - I shoved it under the grill, so perhaps it was grilled. But it was in milk... Well, call it what you will, I still cooked it.

Here it is, all golden in its bath of milk and wine and nutmeg (and tons of butter, obviously).

I thickened my pan juices (Gosh, I sound like a right ponce) and put in way too much parsley. Then I wreathed my lovely haddock with broccoli (because I'm just so healthy, man,) and then very artistically smothered the whole lot in parsley sauce.

Yum. I ate it with toast. Heavily buttered, naturally.

It was good, though not all that filling. More toast is called for, I feel. And it would have been nice in a pasta bake, I should try that.

On a scale of one to yummy? About a 15.