summer's end

We're in the final weeks of summer over here. Flip flops every day is no longer a sufficient footwear choice, and we've had a few rainy/stormy days lately. Since I'm finished up at my job I'm supposed to be productive; preparing for my studies, 2 proposals, holidays, all that stuff. 

But I've been fairly lazy, if I'm being honest. I've been pottering around at home cleaning, doing laundry, making essential oil with my new lemon balm plant (!), entertaining guests, reading my Paul Krugman book (the closest relation to 'work' right now) cooking, and generally doing things not taxing on the brain. I also spent a good few hours cleaning up the computer, and sorting all 19,000 pictures into appropriate folders. Good grief.

Today is Leaving Cert Results day for all the school leavers in Ireland, and I'm thanking my lucky stars those days are long behind me (7 years!) because boy, was that a stressful experience. All the anxiety, stress and strain of it, just to be told you either get into a course or don't. From there it all starts at a blank page again. Conjugating irregular verbs and solving for x aren't much use for most of us in the real world.

Leo has managed to get his hands on a sourdough starter from a colleague in work, so later today we are making sourdough, blancmange, and some tasty Autumnal dish from the Irish cook book I picked up at the library. Our evenings are filled with swims in the sea, watching a Cold War documentary, and drinking a lot of tea, both breakfast and lemon balm. Life, it's pretty good.

 

Making Leftovers Delicious

I'm an incredibly thrifty person (no, really, you have no idea) and always stretch my ingredients to the very nth. Last week I got a delicious big tuna steak (about 200g) from a fish stall in Christianshavn. After getting a delicious meal out of it, we carefully wrapped the remains in tinfoil and stored them in the fridge. The steak cost 105kr (ouch, hi Denmark) but by the time we got all we could out of it, it had cost only a couple of kr per portion, much better.

The next day I didn't feel like cooking very much, so I got a bag of spinach and cooked noodles and pan-friend garlic and onions. I also wilted some spinach and made a stock quickly using a stock cube (no freezer means no stock stashing opportunities), added the tuna and garlic/onion to the pot and used a lot of seasonings, including liberal amounts of salt, pepper, a mixed seasoning from Leo's mom (cayenne pepper, oregano, and other things, sesame oil (the taste is delicious) and chilli and paprika. We also added a lot of seaweed flakes (I had wanted a miso soup originally, but settled for this addition instead to add some umami taste). It also looks like there is carrot in there, but I honestly have no memory of having carrots in my house that week, so I've no idea what it is! Mystery ingredient.

I actually ended up making so much of this broth that I had to throw out one portion, because, after not eating at home for a few days, I was afraid the tuna hadn't kept. But we got 5 portions out of it! For the 5th portion I just watered it down and boiled it up again, adding more sesame oil for tasting. Just as good for lunch the next day.

It took less than half an hour to make, and most of that was just boiling and waiting time. Delicious and filling.

Good Things To Eat #Past Tense Edition

I'm looking through my Dropbox folder tidying it up, and of course drooling over all the delicious food pictures from yesteryear. So many good foods, so little time to remember them all, so here's some of my favourites.

The best café in Baden Baden, on the edge of the Black Forest

Homemade artichoke pizza

A birthday cake (I am unsure about the origins of this cake)

Cookies

Bread Cake

The best green tea ice cream in London

Tayeb's in Whitechapel

Pizza Love