Mexican-style salmon, more greek salad and thoughts on this week

Another magazine recipe with some small changes.

Salmon fillets
tomatoes
red onion
avocado
green chilli
fresh coriander
lime
paprika
olive oil
aubergine
yellow pepper
garlic

slice the aubergine and pepper and add whole garlic cloves. Coat in olive oil and paprika, and roast for 10 mins.

add the salmon and continue to bake until everything is cooked.

meanwhile cut the tomatoes, red onion, chili, coriander and avocado, and mix with lime juice to make a chunky salsa. Season with salt and pepper.

More Greek Salad and some thoughts

This is actually just to show that I'm USING UP ALL MY VEG!

I didn't get a box this week, I went out with some recipes in mind and bought ingredients. I am pretty proud of the fact that at the end of the week I'm left with two (still unripe) avocado and a tiny amount of lettuce and that's pretty much it. I don't normally eat salad, but it was actually really nice to have a burst of fresh, summery food this week.

My favourite was probably the roast veg with mozzarella. I made enough for two meals and ended up eating it all. Mixing the bread in with the vegetables was something I wouldn't have thought to do and it worked really well.

Although the three main meals I made (greek lamb, mexican salmon and roasted veg) shared most of the same ingredients, they were really varied and I liked that.

On the downside though, doing it this way was more expensive. I spent about £5 more on vegetables than I do on the box and the box normally lasts me a fortnight - this lot lasted a week.

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables with Mozzarella

mmmhh mmmm more summery food. This one was inspired by a recipe in a magazine.

Aubergine
Red Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell pepper
Red Onion
Garlic
White wine vinegar
mini plum tomatoes
ciabatta bread
olive oil
mixed dried italian herbs
fresh basil
mozzarella cheese

Cut the peppers, onion and aubergine and mix with olive oil, whole cloves of garlic and the dried herbs. Put in a roasting tin and roast in the oven.

Remove from oven, add the vinegar, tomatoes (halved longways) and the bread torn into pieces. Leave to cool a little until warm.

Add the mozzarella and basil leaves.

Greek Lamb kebabs, salad and tzaziki

Now that the days are getting warmer and we've had some sunshine, I get into the mood for summery food. Salads, Mediterranean dishes etc.

Both the lamb and the tzaziki are better with time to marinade/chill, but actually this meal is so fast and easy and yet so delicious.

Lamb Kebabs

diced lamb (lean is better)
garlic
coarse sea salt
lemon zest & juice
olive oil
fresh herbs (I used mint and coriander. Dill also works apparently, but I'm not a fan of dill.)

chop the garlic finely, or grate it and mix with the sea salt, then add the rest, mix well and coat the meat. Leave to marinate.

Once the salad and tzaziki is ready, skewer the meat and grill or barbeque, turning to brown all sides.

Tzaziki

Greek yoghurt
cucumber
fresh mint
white wine vinegar
garlic
coarse sea salt

peel, chop and grate the cucumber. Mix in with the yoghurt and season to taste, then chill in fridge.

Greek Salad

Tomatoes
cucumber
red onion
black olives
feta cheese
dried oregano
lettuce
a little olive oil


I ate this with wholemeal pitta bread, toasted lightly. Guaranteed to induce a summery mood ;)

Landshare update & Grilled Mediterranean Salad

A Landshare update

Back in January, I posted about Landshare, and how I had decided to offer part of my garden to be turned into an 'allotment' for someone to grow vegetables. I thought I would give you an update on how the process has been going!

Once the snow had melted away and the ground was less frozen, the couple who have adopted part of my garden, J and K, came over and dug out the patch, de-turfing, de-stoning and generally putting in a LOT of hard work in not particularly nice weather. I felt a little guilty that I couldn't do much more than provide lots of cups of tea! Once they'd edged the patch and dug over the soil, they still had to wait a little while for the weather to warm a bit, but then finally they were able to put in some potatoes, then a week later some carrots.

And then I waited. And for ages nothing happened except a few weeds and bits of grass sprung up which J&K came occasionally to remove (more tea-making and cheerleading on my part). The last few weeks though, we've had some very warm days, alternating with wet weather, and the plants have just started to spring up.

Last Sunday J&K came over and added some onion plants to the patch and a polytunnel which I believe is for leeks. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures to show off their hard work!

This is the potato end of the patch, a couple of larger, more obvious plants here, but also lots of smaller ones to be spotted if you look hard!

Onions are next to the polytunnel - three kinds, spring onions, red and white, and then next to them is the carrots. Doesn't look like much is happening there but the small grass-like growth in this section is actually baby carrots =)

Tree overhead could do with some cutting back, but on the whole the plot gets good rain and sunshine and is quite sheltered from the wind.

Close up of the potato plants. Quite exciting!

Now that they've shown me what the plants look like and what the weeds look like, I'll be able to help them out by pulling out weeds when I see them come up. I haven't forgotten about the herb garden idea, but surprise surprise haven't done anything yet.

I do have some lovely bluebells in the wilder parts of the garden though:

Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables and Goats Cheese Salad

I had a roasted Mediterranean vegetable salad at Pizza Express a month or so ago and as I had aubergine, peppers and tomatos, I decided to give it a try myself. No pictures, sadly, as I forgot to take any before I wolfed the whole lot down!!

Serves 2 (though I ate it all myself *blush*)

1/2 large aubergine sliced into 1cm / 1/2inch slices
1 sweet red pepper (I used ramiro) cut into sections
1 large field mushroom cut into sections
3 medium sized tomatoes cut into halves.
1 small goats cheese
mix of salad leaves (I had rocket and spinach)
olive oil for brushing

vinaigrette:
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried mint
dried oregano
garlic powder
fresh ground pepper
fresh ground salt

I mixed the dressing up first in a small bowl and left aside so the flavours could absorb.
Sliced all the veg, brushed lightly with olive oil and then grilled.
I was in two minds whether to warm the cheese or not, and in the end I did put it under the grill for just a tiny amount, but I'm not sure that it needed this as I could have just mixed it with the hot veg and warmed it that way.
I arranged the salad on a plate, added some veg and cheese and then some dressing and had with some crusty bread.
It was so, so tasty. I ended up having the second helping too. Ah well, it's mostly good, healthy stuff! =D

-Hannah

box 2

small joint of pork (800g)
beef mince (400g)
diced lamb (400g)

courgettes
swiss chard
ramiro pepper
celery
vine tomatoes

blood oranges
seedless grapes
complimentary lemon

Leftovers: potatoes, 1/4 onion, bananas, 2 cloves garlic
Additional purchases: fresh ginger, onions, garlic, pomegranate, bacon

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Spaghetti Bolognaise (sort of)

1/2 the beef mince, 1 courgette, 2 sticks celery, 1/4 onion, 3 large tomatoes
Worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs, oxo cube, tomato puree

served with spaghetti and parmesan cheese

-I like to put a lot of veg in my spag bol, partly because it stretches the meat out a lot farther and it's also healthier. I normally add bacon too, but don't have any today.

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Banana Bread

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Chinese Roast Pork

pork joint, garlic, fresh ginger
soy sauce, rice wine, chinese five spice, honey, brown sugar

-mixed all the seasonings, completely covered the joint and then put it the oven on a low temp for 2 hours total

served with courgette ribbons, ramiro pepper slices, 2 leaves chard.
with same seasonings as above, stir fried.

and rice.

-chard is less sweet than pak choi, but I treated it the same. It has a more earthy taste, but I don't mind that.
The pork was a wait, but very worth it because it turned out tender and moist and very tasty. I'm not a huge pork lover, but I do love it coupled with chinese flavours, and this was just perfect.

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Moroccan Lamb Tagine

diced lamb, garlic, fresh ginger, onion, courgette, ramiro pepper, fresh lemon juice
dates, apricots, honey, ground ginger, cumin, paprika, turmeric, allspice, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, lemon juice

served with rice and pomegranate seeds

-I love this style of cooking - using a lot of spices and fruits. The result is very rich, but so, so tasty.

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Wastage:

2 bananas
some leftover pork - I had so much of this that I just couldn't get through it all. Next time, I'll either invite someone over to share it, or cut it in half.

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Leftovers:

Half the beef mince - in the freezer
half the chard
half the celery
2 tomatos
3 blood oranges
some garlic
some ginger
2 onions

...so basically lots, but it's all still usable. =)
 
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Favourite meal of the fortnight was the roast pork. It was so, so delicious. The tagine was a close second though.
I had to buy extra stuff for the tagine, but it's actually the first time I've used it and I really wanted to try it out properly.

Chicken and Bacon Salad

I am notoriously bad at eating salad. It's usually the first thing to go off in my fridge and I feel guilty as I get lettuce or salad packs in my box and they end up in the bin.

So today I decided to make a mixed salad to try and use up some of the salady bits. =)

Cooked chicken - (from a ready-to-eat packet)
bacon
mixed salad leaves
lettuce
tomatoes
closed cup mushrooms sliced
slices of parmesan
french dressing

Should have been ranch dressing really, I guess, but I didn't have any... and the low-fat french dressing is probably a bit healthier.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Pasta - two ways

I love PSB it's one of my favourites... and when it comes in my box, I always get a LOT of it. Cooking for just me means that it can easily stretch 3 or 4 meals and I hate eating the same thing all the time, so here are two entirely different ways of having PSB and pasta. =)

PSB with pasta in basil and garlic

- cooked pasta
- Purple Sprouting Broccoli - I tend to keep the florets and the leafs and discard most of the stalk because I prefer cooking it very briefly.
- garlic - I used a LOT because I was trying to see off a cold and it ended up a bit strong
- fresh chives
- fresh basil
- parmesan cheese
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- fresh ground pepper and salt

This is, essentially, a quick version of pesto without the nuts. I took a large handful of fresh basil, a handful of fresh chives, a few garlic cloves, a dribble of olive oil and a dribble of lemon juice, pepper and salt, shoved it all into a pestle and mortar and beat it into a paste. Great stress relief.

I gently stir fried the broccoli in a little water until the florets start losing their purple colour, then added the paste, cooked for a short while, mixed with the pasta and served.

This tasted very fresh and healthy, the garlic was pretty strong but that's what I wanted. Yummy!

PSB with pasta in a cheese and bacon sauce

- cooked macaroni
- PSB - again florets and leafs
- garlic
- fresh chives
- fresh tomatoes
- smoked bacon
- red Leicester cheese
- parmesan cheese
- plain flour
- butter
- milk

Often, to save washing up, I cook things in shifts using the same pan, but if you want you could cook all this simultaneously and end up with multiple dirty pans.

First I fried the bacon, then removed from the pan and set aside, wiped the bacon fat out of the pan.

Then I chopped the tomatoes into eighths, roughly chopped the chives and the garlic and put all this and the PSB into the pan with a little water and stir fried until the tomatoes were soft and the PSB green. Then I set this aside too.

In the same pan I melted a large knob of butter, then stirred in a heaped tbsp of plain flour. Stirred this into a smooth paste and removed from the heat. Stirred in milk until I had a smooth single-cream consistency then put back onto a very low heat. I sprinkled in a large handful of grated red Leicester and a little amount of grated Parmesan and stirred in until it all melted and became smooth.

Finally I added in all of the bacon (chopped into strips), pasta and the veg mix and stirred thoroughly to mix.

Muuuch less healthy than yesterday, but very tasty and good comfort food!

Fortnight 3, day 2

Catchup of last fortnight: Pasta bake, shared with my parents, recipe to follow, and I can't really remember what else, but I ended up with one small onion and a tiny bit of cabbage left, so doing well once more!

This fortnight I have:

7 vine tomatoes
5 pears
9 clementines
2 large courgettes
3 red onions
pack spring greens
mushrooms

last night I had an onion, tomato and cheese omelette to finish off last week's remaining onion and used two of the tomatoes. Also already getting through those clementines, mmmm they are so nice. haha.

Fortnight 2, Day 6.

This fortnight I got:

5 nectarines
6 pink apples
4 large tomatoes
5 large salad onions/bunched onions
2 large courgettes
salad pack (mixed leaves)
2 small cabbages

(2 pears, a lettuce and spring greens left over)

Meals so far:

Taramasalata with pitta bread, salad and tomato (x2 days)


Chicken wings with salad and tomato (x2 days)


Steak with onion, courgettes, chips and tomato (for me +guest)

all of the tomato and salad (inc. lettuce) is gone, both pears, nearly all the apples and all the nectarines. I actually had to chuck a couple nectarines out because I blinked and they were mouldy. Next time I get them I'll make sure to eat them very quickly so this doesn't happen again!

It's been nice to have salady things this week for a change, but I'm kind of glad it's all gone now because I'd have got sick of any more!