What did you have for dinner?

Well, yesterday Mrs C made a lovely bloomer, which gave us a really nice lunch when adorned with some soft cheese and ham

For dinner today, we decided to use the remainder up, made cheats pizza and salad.

4 slices bloomer bread, placed on a dry grill pan to add light char bars, rubbed with garlic when they came off the pan. These were then topped by passata and a mix of finely diced red onion, cubed tomato flesh, finely chopped red basil (fresh from the garden) and finely chopped garlic (post bread rubbing). On top of that, we placed thin slices of Bernard Mathews Smoked Sausage (yes, I know they are processed etc, by TV they are cheap, tasty and I like them), and a small amount of grated cheddar. Popped into the oven for 4 to 5 mins on the pizza setting, before serving with salad.

Mrs C also made some homemade potato salad with spring onions, and we cracked open the last jar of last year's pickled beetroot.

All in all, very tasty

 

Costco KFC and salad tonight - Costco sell frozen chicken 'burgers' which have a coating which is close to KFC (only not as greasy), and is actually 100% breast fillet. More homemade potato salad (love it!), tomato, homemade pickled beetroot, lettuce, a boiled egg and even a couple of wee slices of halloumi which is completely new to me. Clean plates all round again.

 

Yesterday it was roast chicken with goose fat roasties, Yorkshire puddings and homemade gravy with some Sage and thyme from the garden.

Today, we had the leftover chicken to use, and a couple of leeks in the fridge that were starting to look as though they were heading toward being ropey, so we fried 4 rashers of bacon which was cut up into bits, then the leeks were cut into chunks and gently softened in the pan with a few chopped cloves of garlic added after five minutes or so.

Then, the chicken was chopped up into bits and added to the pan with the bacon, and then followed by a carton of creme fraiche, and some finely chopped Sage and thyme, and a good helping of freshly ground black pepper.

This was then transferred to a Pyrex dish, and then topped with mash before going into the oven for half an hour. Served with some lovely curly cabbage which was lightly coated in butter and white pepper.

Clean plates again

 

Mother in law very kindly brought us a rotisserie chicken (she works in M&S and just thought we would enjoy it, bless her heart), which is currently in the oven. We are going to finish it off in the barbecue, then let it cool for later.

We are going to have probably half of it with salad, keeping the rest for tomorrow.

The economy drive continues, so we are making sure we are using up everything and wasting nothing, so have made a potato salad with a lot of differences - it has:

Baby potatoes, boiled then chopped
Spring onions, finely chopped
8 red basil leaves, finely chopped
6 silverskin pickled onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
10 (approx) slices of el cheapo supermarket ham, cut into squares
El cheapo cream cheese (almost a whole tub)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

All mixed together in a big bowl. Hope it works, as it looks like it will do a couple of days too.

We are also going to try chargrilled aubergine, done on the barbecue also - they will be cooked when we are ready to serve the rest. Given that we also have lettuce, tomato, beetroot and coleslaw, it if s unlikely that we will starve this week!

Mentioning coleslaw........ This week is the first time we have ever shopped at Morrison's, and this coleslaw is their big standard offering for a quid for a large tub, and it is one of the nicest coleslaws I have ever had! We got fed up with silly substitutions and short dated stuff with Sainsburys, and fell out with Tesco years ago after loads of issues with their food, so thought we'd try Morrison's as we had never tried them before - so far, very impressed. Their 'wonky' veg is great!

 

We only got back from holiday this week so I'm now back into cooking.

The first thing I did was make a very large chicken soup which should last us almost a week. I bought a large chicken (£4.50), removed the breast and made a Cajun spice marinade for them. Also removed the leg quarters and then used the carcass and a large pack of chicken wings for the soup.

So we have chicken soup each day until it's gone.

Thursday we had grilled Cajun chicken breasts with home made gluten free potato latkes, sliced Bridgwater beans followed by freshly picked golden plums and shop bought nectarines.

Friday was roast chicken leg quarters with roast pots and runner beans and more fresh plums.

Tonight will be grilled trout fillets with new pots and runner beans followed by rhubarb crumble.

Tomorrow I shall be cooking a lamb curry and a chicken curry. Sunday nights, if we're free, we usually go to our favourite Indian as they have a very reasonably priced special meal but it will be too hot in there (no air-con) to want to eat there. So I'm cooking it at home . Lamb Naga for me and chicken Dhansak for Mrs Shiney (she doesn't like lamb).

To accompany the curry I'll make plain boiled Basmati rice and accompany it all with plain popadoms with home made mango and lime pickle and cachumber - fresh onions sliced, sprinkled with salt and left to stand for an hour. Then rinsed and squeezed dry, lemon juice sprinkled on top, chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, chopped coriander leaves and very finely chopped chillies and everything tossed together. Chillies are optional. All accompanied by mango lassi.

 

Well, the potato salad mix was actually really nice, and we have tons left for tomorrow and maybe even Monday. Aubergine - not so much. I tried it, but I am not a fan. Mrs C seemed to enjoy hers.

@silu - as I can no longer drive, we are beholden to online ordering, so no bargain cuts for us sadly; on the bright side, Morrisons give a guaranteed minimum expiry date when you are ordering, which helps you plan your menus accordingly; even the receipt is broken down into categories (fridge, cupboard etc) and then listed in order of expiry date for each - - WAY better than Sainsburys. With Tesco, we had a succession of chickens that were off, and a bag of salad leaves that came with a free bit of fencing wire (a big bit of the 6mm thick stuff!) - close on the back of that, we were in the local big store and someone had burst a bag or two of sugar which was all over the floor, so I mentioned it to one of the assistants who answered me with a "So? Not my problem....." that was it for me; I left the full trolley where it was in the middle of the aisle, and went to Sainsburys, and we haven't bought much more than the odd thing from them ever since. I am disappointed with Sainsburys to be honest, as we have been going to them for years and always been happy, but something has changed and not for the better - I wonder if it is the Asda tie up that has done it.

@pete - get your pan nice and hot, and then wallop some wine in it, that will clean the remnants right off. I have also used a nice strong cider in the absence of wine.

 

@Fat Controller Aubergine can be a bit awkward at times. I'm not keen on it anyway but if you wish to char grill it it's always best to slice it, sprinkle it with salt and leave for about 20-30 minutes. Then blot dry with kitchen paper, put a generous coating of oil on it and then on the grill. If the grill is too hot then you may get too much charring before it is cooked through. So it's best to cook it near the edge of the grill.

Slicing them thinly and, after blotting, coating them in a light batter and pan frying gives a better result.

The best result for cooked aubergine is making Imam bayildi. Plenty of recipes on the net.

 

We cooked them almost exactly as you described @shiney - thinly sliced, salted and left for 45 mins then blotted off with kitchen paper, coated with oil and put on the barbecue - the charring wasn't too bad, and they were cooked through, but it seemed that they went soggy within minutes of coming off the heat and the texture just didn't sit with me. At least I tried it, which is quite an achievement for me - bearing in mind my Scottish '70s & '80s roots meant that a salad consisted of a few slices of ham, a boiled egg, some grated cheese and some chips.... unless it was really hot (over 21º) then the chips would be substituted with crisps (cheese XL being the favourite) - - - and no, I am not joking.

Beetroot was considered something quite special when I first had it - Baxters of course, nothing but the best...... celery, well I only saw celery once I was in my teens.