Tuesday 8 May 2007

I'd like to thank the academy

It's been a busy few days in the monkey house kitchen. Money is tight (pay day is way too far off) and there's hungry folk to feed, philosophising to get done and it all needs to be wrapped up in apple pie in time for the credits to roll.

So what have we made?

Well on Saturday we went Japanese and had Vegetables wrapped in beef, rice balls served with miso and carrot soup.

If you haven't tried rice balls they are a revelation...OK I haven't figured out how to make them small enough so that eating them is elegant but they were tasty. My top tip to you is to make sure your filling is up to scratch because that is the best bit. The other peice of advice is to expect to get your hands covered in sticky rice...it's part of the fun.

Sunday was a simple Carbonara which for once I resisted my urge to mess with and it simply stood or fell by it's ingredients and it worked, simple food just cooked and served.

Last night we had some mozarella cheese with basil and tomato. Again there's nothing fancy in it but it does taste good. Maybe there's a mention of that dish somewhere in an earlier posting. I wouldn't be surprised it could be argued that it is Italy's crowning contribution to food culture. Wonder who'll pounce on me for being so outspoken??

So tonight we shamelessly used Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and made his May dish of chickpeas, tomato and aubergine salad with a harissa dressing. What can I say it was lovely. However it's my recipe now and it will be developed in new and exciting ways!!

Keep cooking, keep eating and waste nothing.

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