A sticky situation

Getting up this morning was easy because I knew there was a home-baked brioche in the breadbox calling out my name. While I was waiting for the toaster to do its work I came to the sudden realisation that we were out of jam. Another frantic rummage in the fridge yielded one of those little pots of jam you get in fancy hotels. Yippeee!
Now that breakfast has been saved, I'm thinking about where that pot of jam came from...did I bring it home from a holiday somewhere? Am I turning into my grandma? Arrrgghhhhh!!

Today I baked...

...a brioche.
So goddamn delicious!

Oink oink

If you're in town tomorrow between 12-6pm head over to Brick Lane for the annual Art Car Boot Fair and grab yourself one of these cute little swine flu piggies made by Guy. Mmmm, pinky, lemony goodness...

Yellow raspberries

Do these exist in nature or is it some weird genetic experiment? These yellow raspberries were surprisingly sweeter than their red counterpart - their yellowness made my brain think they would be super sour. We enjoyed them with some vanilla ice cream but they were also lovely on their own.

An anniversary lasagne

Yesterday we celebrated our first year of marriage by making a lasagne and watching Flight of the Conchords while Jasmine slept. A good test for any relationship is how long you can last in a small hot kitchen together and I think after living together for a few years we may have finally mastered it, sort of.

I haven't attempted a lasagne since I dropped the one Adam and I made about a year ago, so this time I was VERY careful when taking it out of the oven.

Anniversary lasagne

What you need
1 jar of good quality tomato pasta sauce
1 eggplant, sliced 5mm thin
2 red capsicums
2 courgettes, sliced 5mm thin
1 bunch chopped, cooked and drained spinach
1 bunch asparagus
Adam's homemade pasta dough (we used 500g of '00' flour and 5 medium eggs)
1 mozzarella ball
mature cheddar cheese
handful of pine nuts

The do
Heat up a griddle pan until super hot, and grill the veg - if you don't have a griddle pan a fry pan will also do the trick. Set aside.
Roll out the pasta into sheets with the pasta machine until you get to the number 4 setting. Cut the sheets to size and cook two at a time for a few minutes in a big pot of salted boiling water. Fish out with tongs and throw into a big bowl of cold water.
In a 30cmx20cm baking dish, pressing each layer down firmly as you go:
- spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce
- then a layer of pasta
- courgette and half of the spinach
- layer of pasta
- tomato sauce
- eggplant
- layer of pasta
- capsicum and the rest of the spinach
- layer of pasta
- asparagus
then cover with grated mature cheddar cheese and mozzarella. Sprinkle pine nuts on top. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Dollop on some of the tomato sauce.
Bake in oven for about 45 minutes or until heated through and brown on top. Serve with rocket leaves dressed with a little balsamic and olive oil.

1.30pm Procrastination + Green & Black's almond chocolate

Fasta pasta

With all the projectile vomit and poo in our house these days, there hasn't been much time or inclination for cooking. Sadly our frozen food supply has run out and the novelty of take-out has worn off - so I've ventured into the kitchen and whipped this up in about 10 minutes, which is almost as quick as picking up the phone and ordering a margarita pizza - and it's much healthier too.

What you need
2 portions of thin spaghetti (I used Barilla no 3 spaghetti)
200g ricotta
Half a lemon
2 handfuls of cooked lentils
1 big bunch of spinach
2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
olive oil

The do
Put the pasta on the boil as per instructions. Chop the spinach. In a large shallow pan on medium/high heat , stir-fry the spinach, lentils and the garlic until the spinach wilts, then take off the heat. By now the pasta should be done. Drain and add pasta to the spinach mixture, toss and add a few good lugs of olive oil. Crumble ricotta over the top and squeeze lemon juice over the whole mixture. Season with a little lemon zest, salt and pepper.

9.45pm Cuppa and a green tea McVitie's

Getting clucky

In the spirit of the recession and all, I only tend to cook things these days which also make a tasty lunch the next day. One of my favourite leftover lunches is Spanish tortilla, which really is just as good cold as it is freshly cooked - and better reason to whip one up than being given a box of freshly laid eggs by my workmate Mike, who has a collection of chickens in his yard which he is extremely fond of – the leader of the pack is called Jasmine.

The eggs were from a variety of different types of chicken and as a result were really unique shapes and colours – some had two pointy ends and others were almost round – and they all had amazing bright yellow yolks. You really can tell the difference between a home-laid egg from a pampered chicken and a free range supermarket one…

I’ve made this tortilla based on a bbc good food recipe – but as per usual, couldn’t resist making a few little tweaks here and there.



SPANISH TORTILLA

The do

You’ll need about 6 eggs, broken into a bowl and mixed together with a fork

Cook the potatoes – I par boiled mine, pre-sliced, because I’m impatient. Excellent tip: when cooking potatoes in cubes or slices, add a drop or two of vinegar to the water and the potatoes won’t crumble or break once their cooked, they’ll go firm on the outside and keep their shape perfectly.

Grill the red peppers – I grilled them whole for a few minutes until the skin had gone black. Once they’ve cooled down you can peel the skin off really easily and chopped them into strips.

Throw the peppers and potatoes and some parsley in a frying pan along with a fistful of chopped parsley and pour over the eggs. I like putting some halved cherry tomatoes on the top as well.

Cook for 5-10 minutes on the hob, then crumble some feta on the top and place the whole pan under the grill. Grill for 5-10 minutes or until the top is golden and the middle is no longer wobbly.

Serve with a pile of rocket, and look forward to a couple of delicious slices for lunch the next day…

Bottom of the food chain