Thai red curry; pomegranate and spinach salad; christmas cake in the making.
First day of summer calls for a picnic. Homemade fish and chips.
Baby spinach, several handfuls
Tomato, diced
Garlic aioli, lots of
Tofu, cubed
Cracked pepper
90 seconds preparation time. Not too much longer to consume.
Crumbed eggplant, roast tomato and baby spinach salad.
A fantastical blog by the name of Hungry and Frozen has had me intrigued for some time (credit to Jeremy for introducing me to it). Tonight I finally got around to making the ricotta. Lack of a large enough pot and some furiously bubbling milk / cream resulted in a small overflowing mishap. However the end result was worth it -
Spinach & Ricotta lasagne
Heat a decent slab of butter in a large frypan with a lug or two of olive oil. Let it bubble up then add 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic and several generous pinches of nutmeg. Stand over pan and allow the scent to fill your nostrils. Don’t let it burn. Crispy garlic is hardly rescuable. At this point, you have two options: for those poor student types comme moi, add a bag of defrosted spinach bundles (two 30-second blasts in the microwave, squeeze the water out); alternatively 8 handfuls of fresh spinach can be used. Heat through then tip it onto a chopping board. Chop. Then add your ricotta. Lots of cracked pepper. Grated parmesan. Oregano is always welcome. This part of the recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni which asks for 400g of ricotta, I used the full batch that I made (supposedly 500g), minus the bits I’d been nibbling on… Make up your own mind.
Simultaneously I had a tomato sauce on the go -
Olive oil, 1 clove of garlic finely chopped, half a red onion roughly diced, dried rosemary. Simmer for 5 or so, add a petite handful of soft brown sugar. Allow it to soften. Add a tin of diced tomatoes and lots and lots of finely chopped parsley. This is essential. Bring it to the boil so it bubbles and your kitchen becomes a blissful foggy mess. Then turn it down. Like garlic, tomato sauce serves no purpose when burnt. Then again, does anything serve a purpose when burnt? Something to ponder.
Ricotta/spinach - lasagne sheets - tomato sauce - lasagne sheets - ricotta/spinach - grated cheese - cracked pepper. That was my Great Layering System. Experiment as you please.
Bake at 180 celsius for 25 minutes.
Followed up with a treacle tart (thanks to Emma Molly for the recipe - charming birthday cookbooks!) and an apple & peach crumble. Dumped a 2L vanilla icecream tub on the table (this is where my hostess skills saw their downfall). Everyone was very happy.
Am now lying on the couch feeling satisfied. And chubby. Might go for thirds soon.
