empty cupboard cooking

Today's delicious meals in all their glory!

Lunch was bok choy cooked in coconut milk with lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves, plus as much chilli as I could find. I have pretty much run out of anything interesting in the cupboard, so this was desperation cooking. But not bad, and pretty easy. Oh, it had some frozen peas in it too, as I was lacking anything else. If I had been paying more attention (rather than listening to the Archers) it would have had at least an onion and a carrot or two. It was done in a bit of a hurry. I had it with pitta bread (low GI) because I don't eat noodles or white rice and was too hungry to wait for brown rice to cook. Also I am not wildly keen on carbs, I prefer masses of vegetables, but have to try and get my 5 portions of wholegrains in every day. I get most of it from my breakfast muesli, but have to force something else down too.

When I am out and about I have no problem with this. I snack on oatcakes and sometimes a peanut butter (pure wholenuts, no salt or sugar) and jam (St Dalfour sugar-free) sandwich (on rye!). Somehow when i am working at home I eat less, because I am so busy. Unless I am really bored and have been food shopping in which case I will just stand by the fridge snacking on fresh carrots, gherkins, olives, cheese, ready cooked tofu chunks, anything edible.



My organic box arrived nice and early today so I made a hearty salad. There wasn't actually much in it for a salad. One large green cabbage dominated, so i will have to be inventive with that. The bits on top of this salad aren't meaty, they are croutons - chunks of rye sourdough cooked wickedly in olive oil and garlic. I've not had croutons in years and it was a nice treat. The basis of this salad was tomato and egg - a combination I love. I have a serious weak spot for Pret's egg and tomato sandwiches which are on light rye with caraway and are delicious. I allow myself that treat about once a month at most.

By the way, the plate is very small, it's not that giant a portion! The rest of the salad was sliced carrot and courgette, gherkins, toasted pine nuts and a sharp dressing made with red wine vinegar. I fancied a change after years of balsamic. It was a bit boring, but makes a refreshing summery change.
I had some more of the lovely Spanish rose wine with this. Delicious!


The cookbook in the pics is the one I mentioned the other day. I'm planning a food shopping trip so I can try some of the recipes soon.

Summer soup

Now, this may seem like a bad idea - hot soup in summer, but this week has been distinctly autumnal. I was browsing a River Cafe cookbook in a library the other day and saw (and tried to memorise) a recipe for pea, potato and broad bean soup. I have a bit of an aversion to broad beans, and they keep coming in my organic box, so I have had to be inventive. I actually don't mind them at all if they are out of their bitter little skins, so bean eating is time consuming. I made up this soup from memory - fried onions and garlic, added chopped new potatoes and when nearly cooked added broad beans and frozen peas and as much basil as I could manage from my elderly and unloved basil plant. It was very subtle. I think my basil has passed it's useful life. I'll buy some more to reheat this soup with.

The other day I tried a potato salad with tapenade, based on an idea from somewhere of boiled potatoes dipped in tapenade. It wasn't the most successful salad - potatoes need some creamyness to make them into a salad. I'll post the recipe for my favourite potato salad soon. It's fab. I love being able to eat potatoes in the summer. I don't eat them the rest of the year as winter potatoes are too hi GI for my blood sugar to cope with. Cold boiled new potatoes are reasonable.

Got a book from the library to give me some new ideas. Nadine Abensur is probably my favourite cookery writer. Lots of delicious-sounding combinations in this one, which is going to be inspirational. I might even follow a recipe or two - which is almost unheard of for me! In the adding of the links to the above, I have found Nadine's own website, which I am looking forward to exploring.

Tomorrow I am going to my cousin's wedding, so I await with interest to see if the vegetarian option is more edible than the general reputation! A veggie friend promises to serve at her wedding fabulous vegetarian food with the meat eaters getting cold Findus Crispy Pancake after everyone else. Divine! This wedding is in a posh place, so fingers crossed for something delicious - and no doubt wickedly high GI. I have asked for fruit instead of pudding, so it wont be too bad!

Onion omlette

This is an old favourite which I often forget about - hence posting it here so it will remind me. Useful for onion and egg-gluts which often happen when I am not around often enough to cook.
Fry 4 onions slowly in olive oil - really slowly so they don't go crispy. Make omlette mix with 4 eggs, some milk, pepper and liquid aminos which I use instead of salt or soy sauce. Sometimes I throw in basil if I have it.
Cook slowly and gently. Scoff rapidly.

Yellow courgettes

I was really excited to find yellow courgettes and ruby chard at the farmers market on Saturday, so invented this to make the most of both of them.


I cooked two onions and two large cloves of garlic in the oil from a jar of sundried tomatoes and then added 3 or 4 chunky sliced yellow courgettes and fried gently for a little while. Then added stock powder and some water and cooked it with a lid on for a few mins. Chard went in at the end, so it was lightly cooked, along with some butter beans. A dollop of sun-dried tomato paste was the final touch and I ate it while the courgettes were still slightly crunchy. yum. Reheated it today - 2 days later- in the oven, which dried it out just perfectly and crisped the butter beans up. Fab.
Served with quinoa the other day and with rye toast and tapenade today. Waitrose green olive tapenade is lovely and has no evil anchovies.