Saturday,

Breakfast : Yoghurt & Oats

Lunch : Shared two dishes at “Munchies” on Aldeburgh high street.

1) Cheeseburger in a Suffolk bap (£5.95).  Juicy.

2) Beef hot pot. (£4.95)

(Lashings) of ginger beer to wash it all down.

Over to the in-laws to pick up some furniture; Mother-in-law was cooking a simple tasty looking Sausage dish for supper.

Food:

• onion
• apple (any kind)
• sausage
• mustard

Method:

Slice onions & apples into rings (or whatever) and place in the sort of dish you would cook lasagna in.  Place sausages on top.  Spread a little mustard onto the sausages.

Cook in oven (med/high) for C. 1hr.

The onions and apples will caramelise and you will be left with a delicious “goo” along with your sausages.  Serve with mashed potatoes and savoy cabbage.  Or whatever….

Then it’s off to the badlands of Norfolk for a Christmas drinks party.  Details are a little hazy but I remember it being very wet.  Tasty snack food at the party (sausages, bread and cheese, sausage rolls, etc…) .  Late drive home.

Friday, Drive up to Suffolk – Late supper

Good drive, but late start means we don’t arrive until 11pm.  Quick supper of butternut squash ravioli in a tomato sauce with crumbled feta on top.

Glass of wine in front of the fire.

Perhaps it’s age? Spicy Chicken Pasta

We have a (semi) regular boys night. Meet at a pub, have a few ales, go for a curry. Some gossip’s exchanged, but mostly like most blokes we just talk a load of nonsense.

However we’re getting old, and one of our number has a baby to look after so this time round it turned into an impromptu gentleman’s dinner party.

Sweet Potato Laksa

Laksa – lak.sa (plural lak.sas) noun. Noodles in a coconut-based gravy. See also “yummy”.

This has become something of a recent favorite “round our way” almost competing with the spicy sausage pasta dish a couple of years ago for winter popularity. Very quick to prepare…

NB this is a Nigel Slater recipe from “Kitchen Diaries”

Peel and cut up into 2cm chunks 2-3 sweet potatoes or pumpkin or squash – or mix of the three. Steam until cooked. This will take about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile make the base of the sauce with: (all fresh ingredients)

• Lemon grass (2 stalks – or good 1 tsp of the jar stuff)
• Red chili (up to 5 birdseye ones – with or without all the seeds – for you to make the judgement)
• Ginger (1/2 a thumbsize chunk)
• Garlic (1-3 cloves – again, one is plenty but you can go all out if you want to)
• Coriander (couple of fist fulls) stalks as well as leaves (they are the most flavourful bit of the plant)

Blitz all the above – except for handful of the coriander leaves – into a paste using a blender otherwise get busy with the chopping board then pestle and mortar.

Gently fry the paste in some groundnut oil (or similar) for about 2 minutes. Then add 1/2 pint of vegetable stock and gently bring to simmer stirring gently for about 5-10 mins for the flavours to cook and blend. Then add in halved cherry tomatoes – about 20 – and gently simmer and stir for another 5 mins. Meanwhile cook some noodles as instructed on the packet. Then add in can of coconut milk to your main laksa and simmer for about 2 mins. Finally add in your cooked sweet potato or other vegetable. To serve, put some noodles in each bowl and ladle the laksa over the top. MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm.

Beans on Toast, it must be Tuesday.

Simple, fast and underrated, the underdog of the snack supper world it must be time “beans on toast” made a comeback. As simple or effete as you care to make it it’s always quick and always great.

Pub Grub for supper

Wife is in the countryside for the evening. Cupboard is empty so the local pub (Fentiman Arms, Vaxhall) will be providing my supper. Kitchen opens in about 1/2 hour so i’m just refreshing myself with a Pint of Bombardier.This is not pronounced like the French (?) Trains to Airplanes manufacturing behemoth, but rather takes its name (and pronunciation one presumes) from the military role. The member of a bomber crew responsible for using the bombsight and releasing bombs on the target. Fine stuff, or “whatever”, depending on what sort of person you are.tick tick tick 7pm rolls by and the kitchen deigns to accept the supper order.1 x Glass Rioja Crianza 2004 Marques de la Concordia. Well we’ll start with just the one…1 x rump of lamb with dauphinoise potatoes.

Coffee and Cake

Popped into Starbucks to do some work (Still here). £3.95 buys you…

1 x Small/Tall Mocha

1 x Carrot Cake

All in all a combination of sugary goodness that’s hard to complain about. Sure the cake’s not quite as good as great aunt Maude used to make, and the coffee could be a bit hotter but quit your moaning. You can sit down in comfort and do your work, a far cry from granddad having to work down the pit 20 hours a day for an handful of old buttons and a case of emphysema.

 

So….. I’d better get on with that work then…

Scrambled eggs for Breakfast, good way to start the week.

I’ve just thought about it for a few moments and, along with mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs are the only things that i’ve recieved unprompted praise for from other people. This surprises me as I really don’t do anything special. Can everybody else be so bad at cooking eggs?

So in the interest of open disclosure here’s my technique…

Ingredients:
Eggs x 2 (or more)
Butter x 15g (this is a large ish knob, salted or unsalted)

Water (optional)
Milk (optional)
Pepper (optional)

Tools:
Stove/Hob
Non stick pan (any shape is fine)
Spatula, wooden spoon, etc…
Fork
Bowl/Jug/Mug (Optional)

Technique…
Crack eggs into a bowl/jug/mug and beat lightly. (If bowl is not available then break eggs directly into pan when butter is melting.) A dash of milk or water can be added at this stage. You can add sald and pepper now or at any stage before serving. Or indeed after serving. Or not at all.

Place pan on low to medium heat and add knob of butter. When butter is melted pour in the all the egg. Cook and stir until done. Serve.

Two points I feel are important.

Point 1 – Stiring
Continuous stiring will form a pretty much uniform consistantly that I consider undesirable. I like to leave the egg to cook for a few moments and then give a gentle push with the spatula as if scraping ice of a car windscreen. It gives a pleasingly ruffled texture to the egg.

Point 2 – Stop cooking at the point where you think that the egg could do with “just a little bit longer”. The egg will continue cooking in the pan before you serve and also on the plate. Cook it for too long and your egg will be too firm.

Final point, stiring in a small knob of butter at the end gives a lovely buttery sheen to the whole thing.

Postscript on Eggs. You can make pretty good scrambled eggs with any old egg, even the “Value” or “Essential” range from your supermarket (You are using Butter and Salt, anything can be made to taste good), however the more you spend on your egg…

PPS – The picture behind door number 3 on my Advent Calendar is a Titian Detail from “The Aldobrandini Madonna” about 1532. Can be seen at the National Gallery.

Sunday, my day of rest.

Tea and Muesli start the day in a healthy enough way, Radio 3 in the background. Rain and wind lashing outside. Heating on all is warm and cosy.

We brave the elements to go and get Christmas cards from the charity place under St. Martin in the Fields, then a quick trip to the National where Wife buys me an Advent calender.

Back home for an impromptu lunch of Pasta with a bacon and cream cheese sauce cooked up by Wife while I fix the car.

Now time to do a bit of research on some Christmas cooking that we have to do.

Cooked ham.

Mincemeat

Figgy Pudding

Christmas Carols Bread and Beef

On the basis that I’d rather include things even if they are brief and poorly written (how will people tell I hear you ask?)…

Afternoon carols at St. Martin in the fields witht the Parents. Wife goes off to further rehersals I Parents and Sister (who missed the concert) head off for a bite to eat.

Charing Cross hotel looks after us for the evening. Dreadful service by staff that appear to be totally unaware of what they are serving. Sister joins later and doesnakt eat. Between the remaining three of us we order a large glass of water, a pot of earl grey, a bottle of New Zeland chenin blanc (in honor of Parents trip there after Christmas) and two glasses.

By way of a nod to supper tradition we also order some food. Croque M., Steak sandwich and some sort of Fish/egg/spinach tart. All good enough in it’s own way but nothing to write home about. Hmmmmm…..

11pm and we are in “The International” at 116 St. Martins Lane. If you have ever walked past and thought that the place looks full of pikey scum then I can confirm your fears [update 0045: On reflection i think I've been a little harsh.  They're all just younger than I am]. That said I’m pretty sure that I’ve had many an evening in this place over the years under it’s various names and ownerships.

Have just asked Wife what her frive favorite foods are “right now”:

Beans
Yogurt
Butternut squash
Feta cheese
Tomato

Laxca (sp?)