Haloumi Salad with Dolmades and Pork Koftas: Getting a Lot off My Plate.

On the 18th November 2011 I wrote a blog.  There is nothing unusual in that, I am after all the owner and writer of five blogs.  Back then however I was a fledgling food blogger and Friday Night Take-Away was my first attempt at writing a blog post.  I had been a keen home cook for years and had been sharing my evening meals on social media with positive feedback.  People seemed interested in what I was cooking so writing about it felt like the right thing to do.

I'll be honest, that post isn't great.  The food was*, but the writing and the photograph leave a lot to be desired.  But I was on a learning curve.  I was primarily using Tonight's Menu as a tool to improve my written English skills and, over time, I think I have succeeded in that.

My original plan was to keep Tonight's Menu as a daily diary of our evening meals.  Not a recipe resource full of weights and measures, no step by step guide to cooking.  I wanted to write the story behind the food, the reason behind the meals we chose to cook.  Within a couple of weeks I found myself in a pub for my evening meal and I decided there and then that TM wasn't going to be a review blog either.  I love food and I'm quite opinionated, but who am I to judge what/how others are cooking.  I also applied this rationale to occasions when I was eating in my friends' and family's houses too, writing about the visit and the meal without feeling the need to rate anything out of 10.

This went well until I was approached to do a review for an American Diner in Leeds.  I was about to turn down the opportunity when the call of the freebie got the better of me.  That post, written in April 2012, is still the most read thing I have ever written and sadly I don't think it will ever be surpassed.  I have since accepted and written a scant hand-full of other freebie reviews, but they are not what I've been happiest writing.

I've been at my happiest when I've been thinking up and running random food challenges.  The Olympic Food Challenge, World Cup Food Challenge, and Everything But the Oink have allowed me to stretch my culinary muscle, try even more new ingredients and, to a lesser extent, boss about a glut** of food bloggers; a group of people I'm happy to call friends.

"But why are you telling us this?" I hear you cry.  Well I've decided to call it a day, give it a rest.  It's time for this old warhorse to be put out to pasture.  Time pressures and other activities mean that I just don't have the time for writing, even though it is still something that I really enjoy.  But I'm not going to drop Tonight's Menu like a hot potato.  I want to leave it as something that I'll feel proud of.

I've said for a long time that I don't have a bucket list of food that I want to eat before I die.  I do however have unfinished business with some of my food challenges and there are some dishes that I'm desperate to share with you.  So from now on every post will be one step closer to the end of Tonight's Menu.  There are going to be more endings than in Return of The King.  And at the end of it all there will be room for a little more...

For the record, Tonight's Menu was a Mediterranean meze including grilled haloumi salad, pork koftas, and dolmades.  Very nice it was too.

*I think, it's been a while.
**or whatever the collective noun for food bloggers is.

World Cup Food Challenge: France - Choucroute Garni

The problem with having drawn France in the World Cup Food Challenge is deciding what to cook.  Some of the countries taking part in the world cup have a limited culinary history.  When looking up dishes for Honduras I came across Carne Asada on four or five separate searches, the decision was made for me.  The French though have more iconic dishes in their culinary canon to lay siege on most of the rest of Europe, never mind the rest of the world.

Choosing Confit de Canard as my first dish was a no brainer.  I'd been looking for an excuse to cook it for ages.  Assuming that France would get out of Group E I had already been looking for inspiration for Tonight's Menu.  I originally thought that tonight would be the night that I knowingly tried horse for the first time.  Since horsegate I have been looking for an excuse to cook an equine supper and as the French love cheval I decided to give it a go.

I asked my butcher if he could source me some horse and sure enough he said that he could.  I'd decided that I wanted to cook Daube de Chevaline, a slow cooked stew that required some shoulder meat.  This was available but once you added on delivery to the butchers it was close to £25 for a couple of pounds of meat.  Horse was off the menu.  Next on my hit list was Blanquette de Veau, but sadly the time consumed in a fruitless horse chase ate up all of my veal ordering time too. 

Having tried and failed to get hold of the ingredients for two classic and refined dishes I decided to go a bit more rustic and cook Choucroute Garni.  This mountain of a meal has a place in the folk lore of Z's family.  Holidays to France weren't complete without a table bursting pile of sauerkraut festooned with various sausages, hams and pork.

My choucroute has a base of cabbage braised in white wine with onions, bacon, celery, caraway, mustard seeds, and juniper berries.  This was served with a Toulouse style sausage, belly pork and a joint of cured pork collar that were cooked separately and then added to the choucroute to warm through before serving.  I also cooked a load of new potatoes but there wasn't enough space on the serving plate to include them in the photograph.

I'll be honest, as meals for two people go this was excessive.  We managed to eat half of the collar, one of the belly pork slices and a third of the sausage.  There is plenty of cabbage and potatoes left too.  The collar will be part of some pea and ham soup.  The sausage will appear on sandwiches and pizza later on this week.  The rest will become soup-croute.

In case you are wondering, the stork garnish is one of Z's strongest memories of the holidays.  She and her brother used to collect them.  She now thinks that they were just put on every kids meal not just the choucroute, but we couldn't resist having one for old times sake.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

I know, I know. You hang around for ages waiting for a blog post and two come along at once.  Well I'm sorry for the delay, I really am, but circumstances at work and at home have changed so I haven't really had the head space or time to write.  On the odd occasion that I have had a window of opportunity to write I haven't been doing the cooking, and writing about food that you haven't cooked yourself isn't as easy as it seems.

I have tried to write, I really have. I have draft posts for Indian inspired Fish and Chips, Green Cauliflour Cheese, Chocolate Turkey Fajitas, Seafood Pancakes, and Rabbit Stew and Dumplings.  There are also a couple of posts relating to our experience of giving up Supermarkets for Lent.  But these things will remain in draft until such time as we cook the dishes again*.

On top of work I have also been training for my first half marathon.  Getting home from work and going out for anything between a 6k and a 10k run before even contemplating food, really reduces the amount of free time in the evenings, before going to bed and starting the whole thing again in the morning.  But with the half marathon behind me** we're settling into a new routine, which should see me at the stove more often.

Apart from anything else, I have instigated yet another food challenge.  You may have noticed that there's the small matter of the World Cup looming on the horizon.  Whether England win the tournament, make it out of their group, or capitulate and lose all of their opening matches is neither here nor there.  A group of us will be eating dishes representing all 32 of countries taking part in Brazil.  You can follow our progress here.

In the mean time, we have tried to be very organised on the food front.  Our weekly meal planning has gone from strength to strength.  We either plan after a veg box delivery from Market Delivered, or before we do our big shop for the week.  This is the only way we have found of making sure we always use the food we have and limit food waste.

Tonight we had planned to have spaghetti with a beef ragu using some braising steak that was lurking in the freezer, however, in the interests of a happy house, we have allowed a change of plan to suit the mood of our youngest and fussiest family member.  Rather than defrosting the steak we acquiesced and took some pork mince out of the freezer to make meatballs.  It really wasn't such a big change as the sauce for both dishes contain the same ingredients.

Fried onions and fennel seeds were added to the mince before it was rolled into ping-pong ball sized spheres.  These were then poached in the tomato and vegetable sauce before being piled onto the pasta and served with garlic bread.  Everybody was happy and cleared their plates so it was a worthwhile change of plan.  I don't have Italy in my group for the World Cup Food Challenge so I'll not need to cook any pasta dishes during the tournament.  What to cook for Ecuador is another matter all together.

*Hopefully won't be too long as they were all very good.
**I'm still running, just not as far.

Savoury Duck

There is no way that I can claim that I was always an adventurous eater.  I had never eaten a curry before I went to university and I only knew what a butternut squash was because of my Saturday job at Sainsbury's.  It's the enthusiasm and adventurous nature of some of our TV chefs that has opened my eyes to the endless culinary possibilities that are waiting to be found.  People like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Stephan Gates made me think about eating more than what most shops choose to sell us.

One of the things that changed was my attitude to food.  No longer did I accept that I didn't like something until I had tried it.  I had a new outlook, if people were eating it, it had to be good enough to eat.  One food that epitomised this view is tripe.  It is eaten the world over and has only recently fallen from the menus of Britain.  I was unconvinced, but once I get an idea into my thick head it sticks.  How bad could it be?

I didn't go out of my way to buy and cook tripe but I did start looking out for it on restaurant menus.  The first time I found it was on honeymoon, in Mexico.  For the first and only time in our lives we had booked an all inclusive beach holiday, the idea being that it would force us to unwind after the chaos of the previous couple of months wedding planning. 

The buffet counter was really set up for American families on Spring Break.  Past the burger bar, beyond the rotisserie chicken, hidden by the tex mex build-your-own-burrito bar, was a small counter with some traditional Mexican food.  It was possibly the safest way to try a new food.  It was an eat as much as you can buffet counter, so if it was a disaster and I didn't like the tripe stew that I had chosen, I could just go back and get something else.  That is exactly what I did.

I wasn't defeated though. I have had tripe several times since and am happy to say that I found a really good plate of tripe and beans in a small tapas bar in Barcelona.  Knowing that it is edible, tasty and has a good texture, if cooked well, means that I no longer feel the need to eat tripe.  I certainly still have no desire to cook it for myself.  Apart from one thing.

The Tripe Shop, Unit 145, Row B, 1976 Market Hall in Leeds Kirkgate Market, has been flirting with me since I moved to Leeds.  Hidden away from the rest of the butchers, it would be very easy to walk through the market and never see the small counter.  Malt vinegar bottles and white pepper pots stand guard over the cuts of meat that most people probably feel should be thrown away.  I realised that I had been telling people about it without ever shopping there.  Last weekend I decided to rectify this situation.

Rather than tripe or esophagus, I decided to buy a couple of the more appetising sounding Savoury Ducks.  To the uninitiated, savoury ducks, or faggots, are large meatballs made of pork and offal, covered in caul fat and baked.  I can't tell you exactly what is in the Tripe Shop's ducks but I can tell you that the stall owner thinks that old recipes used to contain dock leaves, hence the name.

That pearl of wisdom was all that I got, no ingredients list and no serving suggestion.  I decided to re-heat the ducks in a rich beef gravy and serve them with a pile of mashed potatoes and steamed leeks, it is autumn after all.  Having now tucked into my first savoury duck I'm happy to say that they are very nice.  Somewhere between sausages and burgers, very rich and as you would expect, savoury.  At £1 per duck they aren't expensive, but if we do go back for more we'll probably share one between the two of us.

Chilli Jam: Kebabs & Cake

A couple of weeks a go I was offered a FREE jar of jam made by The Chilli Jam Man.  All I had to do to receive the jam was to promise to eat it and write about the experience.  The first part of the deal was a cinch.  I went to Millies, who had made the offer of the jam, and picked up a jar.  I chose a jar of Ginger Chilli Jam and made sure that it was included in our meal plans for the week.  The second part of the deal was equally successful with the jam featuring only a couple of days after I had picked it up.  However, I found myself at a loss for words when it came to putting together this blog post.

The quality of the product wasn't the problem, neither was my cooking.  Yet for some reason I just couldn't get the words out.  I had decided to use the jam as a marinade of pork kebabs.  I found a couple of loin chops in the freezer, roughly chopped them and coated them in half of the jar for a few hours.  I threaded the meat, along with onions and peppers, on to bamboo skewers and grilled them.  Served with wild rice they made a great midweek meal.

The kebabs were really nice.  The ginger really shone through the sweetness of the jam.  I would have preferred a more fiery kick but Z thought it was spot on.  I then sat down to write about them but I got stuck in a loop.  I found myself writing the kind of gushing blog post that I don't like, so I parked the blog and moved on.

What I needed to do was to use the jam again.  We had mused about other uses while we were tucking into the kebabs and the idea that had stuck in my mind was to use it in a sweet dish instead of a savoury one, it is jam after all.  Chocolate and chilli are such a good combination I decided to break with tradition for Tonight's Menu and bake a cake.

Z is the baker in our house*.  Other than a massive batch of cupcakes a couple of years ago for charity I am a cake novice.  I have seen Great British Bake Off on the telly and I know that baking is more of a science than my usual cooking style so I needed a fool proof recipe.  I was about to trawl the internet but the first chocolate cake recipe that popped up was one of Mary Berry's.  As Mary is the queen of cake, I assumed that nothing could go wrong.  I followed the recipe to the letter, I even managed to find two matching cake tins which were the specified size.  However, it's fair to say my cakes' uneven rise and almost burnt sides lead me to believe that I wouldn't be master baker of the week.

That said, this cake was baked for flavour and not looks.  By the time I had sandwiched the two cakes together, using the rest of the chilli jam as the filling, we had a glorious chocolate cake.  This time around the heat levels were perfect against the sweet richness of the cake.  I was going to take the cake into work to share with my colleagues as I don't have a sweet tooth, but I couldn't part with it. 

The Chilli Jam Man does make a cracking range of versatile jams and chutneys and great pickled onions.  Most of his range can be bought in Millies, who also stock a load of other interesting chilli products including this great looking gift hamper.  Thanks to Millies for the free jam, I'm off to eat some more cake.

*other than bread

Pulled Pig Cheek Hash

Where does inspiration come from? Sometimes a dream, perhaps you have seen something on the telly, read a magazine article or perhaps a book.  These days it's quite possible that inspiration comes from the internet.  I think, subconsciously at least, the inspiration for tonight's menu came from Twitter.

I can't tell you how, when or why I started following Hashcapades on twitter.  All I know is every now and then they pop into my timeline either with a new hash recipe or retweeting somebody else's meals.  It's not a new idea, I was raised on stovies* but to this day I have never cooked them.

So why change the habit of a lifetime tonight?  Insipration was at hand again.  Nestling in the freezer were a couple of pigs cheeks from Swillington Farm and some pork ribs that were leftover from a mexican meal we cooked a few months back.  I had been waiting for the right reason to cook the cheeks.  They are a brilliant cut of pork but two of them just doesn't quite feel like enough meat for a meal for two hungry carnivores.

I decided to use the ribs to bulk out the cheeks and cook them slowly so that they fell apart.  That was when the decision to make a hash came to me.  I cooked the meat in white wine and stock with onions, carrots and celery for around three hours on the lowest heat I could manage.  The shredded meat was then added to sauted potatoes, onions and more carrots to form the hash.  A ladle of the cooking liquor and a handful of rocket were added to finish the dish off.

The idea of pulled pork dishes has been knocking around for some time now so I can't claim to be any kind of revolutionary trend setter, but this dish was so easy and satisfying that I can see quite a few similar dishes on the menu in the future.

*a Scottish version of the hash, traditionally made with leftover beef but more often than not made with sausages in our house.

Pork, Apple and Parsnip Stew

Something has to change.  We almost have two freezers full of delicious leftovers and yet we keep adding to our stocks by continually cooking really nice food.   Once the Olympic Food Challenge is over we will have to try to eat at least one "ready meal" a week.  We'll also have to try even harder to cook just enough food for the three of us and not be so greedy with our portions.

Because of a scheduled gap in my Olympic Food Challenge timetable, we have been able to start the freezer cull tonight and what a way to start.  Hopefully you will recall the pork and apple crumble that I made a few months ago.  As normal I made too much and the remaining filling for the dish was frozen.  When we defrosted the pork it turned out that I hadn't been too generous with my quantities.  We had considered bulking out the sauce with mushrooms but when shopping for them I found some parsnips and knew immediately that they would be a much better addition to the meal.

As well as the parsnips, I also added some light vegetable stock as I remembered that the crumble had been a little bit dry and freezing never improves this.  I served the finished stew with boiled potatoes and steamed broccoli, which coincidently is the same vegetable combination that we had with the crumble.  Having now eaten the filling twice we will definitely be making pork and apple crumble again*.

*Once we have got this wonderful summer out of the way and we can return to nice comforting wintry cooking.

Chicken Tortillas and Mexican Ribs

Today could have gone one of two ways.  We were scheduled to have a trip over the Pennines to Wilmslow for a barbecue at a Uni friend's house.  This was still the plan until last night when good sense and an accurate weather forecast changed our plans.  It was decided that, in the best interests of R, our mates would come over the tops to Leeds and we'd do the cooking.

Pabs has made this trip plenty of times since we moved here from Leicester and each time we manage to squeeze in a bit of a pub crawl.  In the past the Otley Run has been attempted* and we have even braved some of the less welcoming pubs of the city centre**.  Today we showed our age and only had a few cheeky pints before going back home to cook.  I had a couple of pubs/bars that I hadn't been to before, and this visit was the perfect excuse.  We took in The Town Hall Tavern and The Bierkeller before heading to the highlight of the day: Friends of Ham

I very much doubt that I'll be going back to The Bierkeller.  There was nothing intrinsically wrong with it and there was a good choice of draft German beers, but it just didn't feel welcoming.  I can see myself going back to The Town Hall Tavern, if only for the food.  I am a fan of Timothy Taylor's beers and having a choice of their brews made a nice change from seeing Landlord as a guest ale.  The food looked superb, but as we were eating at home we didn't try any of it.

If you haven't yet ventured into Friends of Ham then please do yourself a favour and do so.  I am under no obligation to say this.  I am on talking friends with the owners and no more, I have no financial link to the bar, apart from the money that I have spent there on beer and meat.  It is just too good to miss out on.  The ever rotating beer selection means that I am yet to have the same beer twice.  Again, because we were heading home to cook, we didn't have any of the fine salamis or hams that were on offer but that means that I'll just have to go back again.

By the time the mini pub crawl was over Z had already returned home from her shopping trip with R.  She had also knocked up a batch of corn tortillas and poached some chicken as the base for their filling.  The shredded chicken was added to rice, which was cooked in a tin of tomatoes with ground cloves and oregano.

I had decided earlier on that I wanted ribs but, as much as I like gnawing at pork bones, I'm not a fan of BBQ sauce.  A bit of judicious research later threw up Tomasina Miers' Mexican barbecue ribs.  I'll admit to not following the recipe to the letter, mainly because I was fresh out of Ancho and Chipotle chillies.  Instead I used a variety of fresh, dried and powdered chilli for heat and included a roasted red pepper for bulk.  In all honesty I overcooked the ribs, but they still tasted good.  The citrus flavours from Thomasina's marinade still came through and they made a very welcome change from BBQ ribs.

*without the fancy dress.
**Hoagy's and The Vine spring to mind.

Olympic Food Challenge: Lithuania - Braised Pigs Trotters with Sauerkraut

So far the Olympic Food Challenge has been kind to us.  We've eaten and cooked new ingredients and recipes and I've made my own cheese!  Although we have had misgivings about our ingredients, nothing so far has phased us quite the same way as tonight's meal from Lithuania, Kiaulës kojos troðkintos su kopûstais or Braised pigs trotters in sauerkraut.

I like offal generally and I firmly believe in nose to tail eating but this was a hard sell for Z.  I have been taunting her with some of the more squeamish recipes that I have found over the last week or two* but in the interest of continuing my food adventure I insisted that we gave trotters a try.

The recipe I found was simple but vague, so I looked around for more information on trotter cooking.  It seems to me that they require two hours no matter how you cook them so that was the time that I allowed.  The trotters were braised under a blanket of sauerkraut** and served with boiled potatoes.

Plantains were either bland and granular or slimy and mushy.  Breadfruit was quite palatable.  Okra is not as awful as I used to think it was.  Trotters were not great.  They where OK.  The vinegar from the sauerkraut cut through the skin and gristle.  The flesh, what there was of it, was delicious and tender as it should have been after two and a half hours cooking.  I understand why these cuts of meat are eaten, they are abundant and cheap*** and in cold climates they really would provide a lot of your calorific intake for the day.  I just can't see them slipping back into our repertoire.

Thank you Lithuania for broadening my horizons and giving me an excuse to try something new.  Please excuse me if I don't make this a family favourite meal.

*sheep's head soup anybody?
** a family favourite.
***I paid 40p for two trotters!

Pork and Apple Crumble

Isn't it strange where inspiration comes from.  Last week on Twitter I noticed a conversation, which went a little like this;

@PeopleOfUK "What are some of your food must-haves and obsessions?!"

@fflowerstar "Apple Crumble & Pork, obviously not together! If one follows the other though I'm in food heaven!!"

@EwanMitchell "I bet you could do a really nice pork and apple crumble."

The conversation moved on to include pork and apple crumble cook-offs and the promise of home delivery of ramekins of tasty food but the thought stuck in my head.  It must be possible to make a really nice pork and apple crumble.

I think Mum and Z were a bit disappointed at first.  When I announced that I was making Pork and Apple Crumble they must of heard "I'm making Pork, and Apple Crumble."  I started with the pork.  I fried cubes of pork shoulder in batches, after dusting it in seasoned flour.  I then fried onions, bacon and garlic before putting the pork back in the pan and adding a chopped leek.  After frying the mixture for a couple of minutes I added a bottle of cider, brought the pan to the boil and then let it simmer, covered, for around an hour.

The crumble topping was made with flour, butter, mixed herbs and parmesan cheese rubbed together until they resembled bread crumbs, or that's what I thought.  The butter was far too warm, as was I, and the whole lot came together as a big dough ball.  Extra flour was added and a lighter touch used and soon I had what was needed.  The pork was transferred to a baking dish, a layer of thinly sliced bramley apples was laid on top and then the whole lot was covered with the crumble.  This was then baked for around thirty minutes.

The finished crumble was great but it needs some tweaks for its next outing.  The pork was really well cooked but the sauce had reduced too much so the dish was a little dry.  I also used too much of the crumble mixture which meant it wasn't crumbly and crunchy all the way through.  So, can you make a really nice pork and apple crumble? Yes you can.

Stir fried Pork with Egg Fried Rice

Having roasted a pork joint yesterday and not eating it, due to a large lunch, we are tucking into pork again tonight.  We're keeping with the oriental theme from yesterday too.  To keep yesterday's meal light we had a Japanese pork and miso soup.  Tonight we're having a Chinese inspired pork stir fry.

We are lucky in Leeds to have a couple of decent Chinese supermarkets.  We use them both for basics like soy sauce and noodles but we often go off piste and buy something just because it looks interesting.  This is a method of shopping that can go either way.  We have faced the horror of mystery Chinese sausage and almost lost our taste buds to a Thai curry paste that was so hot it made our tongues sweat.

At the other end of the scale, we have discovered the best black bean sauce known to humanity and we came across the sweet vinegar sauce that we used for tonight's meal.  A couple of tablespoons of the sauce were added to fried pork and vegetables to make a sweet/sour glaze.  I served this on a mountain of the best egg fried rice that I have ever cooked.  If I wasn't so full I could happily have eaten the whole thing again.

Roast Pork Miso Soup

Our attempts at meal planning this week have not been a raring success.  Don't get me wrong, the meals we have cooked have all been great but they have not necessarily been the meals that we had planned to eat.  Today was no exception to this trend and I am happy to take full responsibility for the forced change of plan.

As it's the weekend and the weather wasn't too bad, I thought it would be nice for us to go out for lunch.  We wandered down to the Midnight Bell ready to tuck into some of their delicious sandwiches.  It wasn't until we got there that we remembered that it was Sunday and therefore only the Sunday menu was on offer.  It was a main meal or a dejected walk home so we sat down and ordered more food than we had bargained for.  I had fish and chips, Z had a chicken and mushroom pie and R had everything that was within his reach.  The food was really nice but it put the kibosh on roast pork with all the trimmings.

Unfortunately, we had already defrosted the joint of pork so we had to cook it, but there was no way that we were going to sit down to a second stomach-bursting meal in one day.  Instead we made a light miso broth with fresh vegetables, udon noodles and some of the roasted pork.  One of these days I'll plan a meal and actually cook it, but until then I'll just keep enjoying the food we cook.

Italian Pork Chops with Gnocchi and Broccoli

Well the Mother-in-law has gone and we have the house back to ourselves, just the three of us.  We escorted her off the premises and took her to the train station so that she could say a teary goodbye to Z and R.  Having visitors is very much like going on holiday, the usual routines are knocked out and by the time you get home there is nothing to eat.  All that we had in the house was a head of broccoli so I was dispatched to the shops to stock up.

All weekend I had been hankering for a lump of pork, simply seasoned and grilled, so when I found pork loin steaks on offer at the supermarket I knew what we were having for tea.  Back home I rubbed the pork in garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil and put them into the fridge to marinate.  There was one further consideration for the evening meal, the 2012 Euro final between Spain and Italy.  Kick off was at 7:45pm, R has his bath at 7pm.  It would be touch and go if we could get the meal out in time for the start of the match.

I put the grill on as the bath was running, filled a pan with water and chopped the broccoli so that everything would be ready to cook the second R was in bed.  By the time the chops had been turned once under the grill the water for the gnocchi and broccoli had come up to the boil.  I was originally going to fry the gnocchi and steam the broccoli, but this would have been more time consuming and would have made more washing up so they both ended up in the same pan.  Once cooked I drained the gnocchi and broccoli and tossed the two in warm olive oil seasoned with anchovies and dried chilli flakes.

By the time I had served the meal the match was two minutes old.  I'd missed the anthems and the kick-off, but I managed to watch the rest of the match uninterrupted with one of the tastiest and quickest meals I have cooked in a long time.  Spain may have won the European Championship but Italy won meal of the weekend!

Hoi Sin Pork with Chard

Since I have been covering the evening shift at work, we have tried to plan our weeks meals well in advance.  The theory is that Z won't have to get in from work, deal with R and then try to come up with a delicious meal for the two of us, cook it and then have to deal with a grumpy, tired me, when I finally get home.  The theory is sound but there are always gaps.

The main gap today was the lack of noodles in the house.  We needed noodles because we had had rice last night and we don't like to repeat carbs.  So, this morning I headed into Leeds and purchased a bag of my favourite noodles from a little shop on Kirkgate Market.  There is no branding on the bag so I can't tell you what to look out for, other than unmarked bags of yolk yellow noodles.  They keep their texture so much better than any noodles I have bought from any other shop.

For the evening meal, Z sliced and marinated a pork loin steak in hoi sin sauce.  She then sliced an onion, some chard and a few mushrooms.  The whole lot took no time to cook.  The chard cooks the same as pak choi but is sweeter and less mustardy so is added right at the end of cooking.  While I was shopping, I also bought cheese for tomorrow night.  I can't attend Homage2Fromage tomorrow night so I'll be eating along at home.  I'd tell you what I'd bought, but I've been sworn to secrecy.

Pork and Aubergine Satay Kebabs

We had decided yesterday what we were going to cook this evening.  I had something akin to a craving and as Z was going shopping anyway, I dispatched her to Leeds Kirkgate Market to raid the stalls of Fish Row.  Sadly I had completely forgotten that mussels are now out of season* so a rethink was in order.

I had planned to make a Thai style mussel dish and serve some satay vegetables on the side.  It didn't take much to elevate the satay from side dish to main event.  We had already bought the sauce from Taste on Vicar Lane.  We also had onions and a green aubergine in the fridge so all that was needed was some pork.  The kebabs were marinated with lime juice and light soy sauce before grilling.  This was a million miles away from the food I was craving, but it was great.  I'll just have to wait until September before I can have the mussels I wanted.

*Only eat mussels when there is an R in the month.

Weekend Away feat: Tapas and Pulled Pork

As I alluded to on Thursday, we have just returned home from a long weekend away.  Our journey south first took us to Windsor on Friday, to spend the night with Z's Mum and Step-Phil.  We set off after breakfast and broke the journey up with a service station lunch.  Z and R had a brace of sandwiches between them and I, in a fit of gay abandon, had what can only be described as a Double Whopper*.  We made Windsor in good time and Z's mum was able to get a decent grandson fix before we put him to bed.

Once R was safely tucked up in bed, Phil and I cracked on with the the evening meal; Tapas.  Z's Mum had looked out recipes and bought all of the ingredients, all that was left for us to do was follow them to the letter and all would be fine. We cooked; garlic prawns, patatas bravas, garlic chicken, tortillia, albondigas, and of course, chorizo cooked in white wine (only because there was no sherry) and butter beans in tomato sauce.  The meal was finished with a gorgeous and light crema catalana that Z's Mum had cooked in advance.

On Saturday we left Windsor behind and hot-footed it to Poole for my niece's 3rd birthday party.  I used to work in a children's centre and love kids but I will never have the energy, or bottle, to be a children's entertainer.  The woman at the party managed to keep dozens of 3 year olds happy for ages and left them with just enough energy to sit down for a party meal of sandwiches, savouries and cake. 

After the party, my brother and I went to the local to watch the FA Cup final and to have a good catch up.  A few light ales later it was time to go to our hotel and try to settle R in his new surroundings.  Luckily he was so exhausted from the party he went out like a light.  He slept so soundly that Z and I got room service and ate in the room.  We shared a meat platter, a portion of garlic bread and a bottle of red wine.  For the record, I'm definitely not reviewing the hotel or the restaurant.

The 3rd birthday party aside the main event, and the reason behind the mad mileage this weekend, was the Christening of my nephew.  Hatches, matches and dispatches are the events that pull families together regardless of distance.  After the ceremony, at which all of the children were well behaved, we went back to my brother's house for champers and pulled pork baps.  Two pork leg joints had been roasted in a low oven overnight.  The meat fell apart as soon as you looked at it so there was no need for carving.  Crackling, stuffing and apple sauce made for a brilliant celebration lunch.

Today, bank holiday Monday, we have had to brave the traffic.  I normally try to avoid driving whenever a mass-commute is in effect but working on Tuesday meant we had to get home today.  After a bottom numbing 6 hour drive**, we finally made it back to Leeds.  What I really wanted was a huge salad to try and redress the balance of excess that the weekend had delivered. 

Alas, we arrived home after the shops had closed so we were faced with the contents of the store cupboards.  Z worked her magic and soon a tuna and tomato pasta sauce was born.  A glass of wine and some garlic bread accompanied this meal too.

*this is because it was a Double Whopper. I'm not really a fan of BK or McD's but no matter how much work Heston and his cronies put into saving the service station's beleaguered reputation, the food on offer really isn't that great.  We need to start taking packed lunches and having A1 layby picnics.
**including a couple of comfort stops for Z and R.

Italian Pork Loin Steaks with Roasted Peppers

It's been a long day / week at work and one that I don't relish repeating any time soon.  I can hack the hours.  I can field sales calls and pretend that I'm not me or that I am not at my desk.  I can even put up with listening to the strained tunes of the Zumba classes.  But the emotional side of dealing face to face with colleges and customers has really taken its toll.  I could do with a little R'n'R.  Which is lucky because this weekend, tomorrow in fact, we are heading down south to see family.

Our first stop will be Windsor to see Z's parents.  Then we're going deeper south to Poole for a 3rd birthday party on Saturday, followed by a christening on Sunday.  Monday we'll be driving all the way back to Leeds so that I can be back at work on Tuesday.  A nice relaxing weekend indeed.

Tonight we have found time to cook and eat a nice meal of pork loin steaks, from Swillington Farm, baked on a bed of peppers and onions and served with potato wedges.  We have also packed our bags and piled them all in the hall so that we can set off first thing in the morning.  I know Tonight's Menu has been a bit sub-standard* of late, but I will endeavour to remedy this just as soon as I can.

*who knew I had standards?

Chilli Pork with Potato Wedges

I've had a cracking day with my family today.  A leisurely breakfast and church visit for Mothering Sunday, where Z was given a bunch of daffodils.  We then shared a smoked haddock and spinach tart before going up to Golden Acre Park for a lung-busting leg stretch.

We'd bought a backpack style baby carrier at Christmas and so far only used it once, so today was the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl.  At first R wasn't too keen on the carrier, but he soon got into the swing of things and thoroughly enjoyed all of the dogs that were also out for a walk.

But enough of this idyllic family scene I'm painting, what about the evening meal?  Well, on top of everything else we are currently having a freezer clear out due to some immanent DIY, so tonight's menu was inspired by the pack of minced pork that was lurking at the back of the increasingly empty meat drawer.

We haven't had a chilli for a while and we decided to keep tonight's version it a bit lighter than our usual chilli con carne.  We omitted the kidney beans and added extra carrots and celery to the mince, onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes and spices.  After a couple of hours simmering, chopped coriander was added before serving with potato wedges that were roasted in goose fat.  What mother could say no to that lot?

Piri Piri Pork Chops with Savoury Rice

Last week I made piri piri chicken for our Friday Night Take-away.  It was great but it has left me with a jar of marinade sat in the fridge.  Although I could quite happily tuck into spicy chicken on a regular basis, we don't happen to have any more chicken in the house.  What we do have is a couple of pork chops.

To my mind the largest piri piri franchise in Britain are missing a trick.  I've often wondered why the chain in question don't serve free range chicken.  I have even asked this of an employee and the response, straight out of the corporate feed was "we sell too much chicken to use free range."  I pondered at the time why they didn't use other meat, as well as chicken, to ensure that the highest animal welfare was maintained.  The answer was along the lines of "because we do chicken".  I've not been back since.

Our chops were marinated for a couple of hours and then grilled.  This is exactly the same process I would use for chicken.  In an ideal world I be slapping the meat on a barbecue but we don't have the space outside.  Savoury rice is a really simple accompaniment.  Fried vegetables, what ever you have to hand, are stirred through boiled long grain rice.  We had sweet peppers, spring onions, peas and sweetcorn.

Tray baked Italian Pork Loin Steaks

Tonight's menu is based around the pork loin steaks that I removed from the freezer this morning.  When I left the house that was as much as I knew.  By the time I returned home from work, I still didn't know what we were going to eat.

I'd assumed that we would be having the pork grilled, with boiled potatoes and some kind of simple steamed vegetables.  I was dreading writing about that meal.  Then while giving R his bath we started discussing rubbing spices on the pork.  Having had curry last night we didn't fancy an Indian twist.  Nor were we excited by Moorish influences.

The decision boiled down to the potatoes that we both realised needed using.  Roasting the spuds and loin steaks with basil and oregano gave an Italian edge to the meal.  Cooking shredded cabbage with garlic and chilli flakes completed a meal even mama would love.