Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘no wine’

Our friend, Sonia, called by with husband John yesterday to buy an extra cook book autographed for a friend.

She’s a green-fingered gardener and a generous spirit–seldom arriving without something seasonal from her vegetable patch. Yesterday she brought us two HUGE tomatoes, and a round courgette.

How on earth did she know about our new resolve!?

She also brought enough basil to make pesto (recipe from the cook book)–a favorite with Meredith–which was delicious, drizzled lightly over the grilled aubergine and courgettes for supper:

No wine! We kept the pledge--but it was hard.

Now–what to do with the two red beauties…?

One weighed in at a pound and a half (700 grams)! A sauce, perhaps…?

A sliced tomato salad and pesto again, with the other (a puny pound or 450gms)?

Some of the left-over Parma ham, lightly grilled, and Sonia’s courgette–cut into thick rounds, lightly salted and left to drain for half an hour, dried and brushed with olive oil, then roasted for 20 minutes at a high heat (turn them over after 10 minutes) with a spoonful of tapinade spread over it this time–will see us through to supper.

A merry mess!

Post lunch, I notice that there’s enough tomato sauce left over to make a small courgette tian for supper.

We’ll be not be wanting courgettes for a couple of days!

But there are plenty of other summer choices and I’ll never tire of red ripe tomatoes….must go check the tomato patch!

Read Full Post »

…of the cook book!

"Salade Niçoise"--prét à manger!

Can we have a week of eating lightly and no wine?

The guests have flown, the book is launched, the sun has come out–seems a perfect time.

We’ll start today.

Lunch: A modest Salade Niçoise for two….

Cherry tomatoes–halved; a couple of anchovy fillets–halved; a hard boiled egg–halved; sprinkling of green beans–cooked to tender; black olives (niçoise if possible); half a cucumber seeded and diced; a spring onion thinly sliced and a tin of good tuna packed in olive oil–drained–all arranged on a small bed of salad leaves (heresy to some natives of Nice, who claim the authentic version has no salad leaves!)

Salade niçoise--lunch today.

Dressing: a few torn basil leaves and a couple of fat cloves of garlic, crushed to a pulp with a pinch of salt and whisked into three tablespoons of good olive oil. 

Dinner: a salmon fillet each–cooked in a pan on the lowest heat, skin side down and with no oil.

When they start to change  colour at the base, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and cover the pan.

They are done when little beads of white juice emerges from the top.

A simply cooked seasonal vegetable (Green beans? Grilled/roast halved tomatoes? Grilled courgettes/zucchini?) would go well plus a quartered lemon.

(Both these recipes from Delicious Dishes for Diabetics–a Mediterranean Way Eating.)

Bon appetit!

Read Full Post »