We had a great cooking week this week. With the warm weather
(even in the evenings) we have been using the Weber BBQ to cook as much as
possible.
I think this regular post is helping us raise the bar, we’re
thinking about trying new recipes and making the food we eat more presentable. I’m
very thankful to have a husband who loves to cook for me, and that it’s a
passion we can both share. I have to say that he introduced me to good food,
although I was interested in cooking before I met Rob, he made me think about
making the most of every meal we eat.
Sorry just a little sentimental moment there; back to the food.
After our lunch party last weekend, we enjoyed the left over
cheeses, with a salad for dinner on Monday night.
One of our friends had given us a selection of her chutneys
and relishes on Sunday, and I desperately wanted to eat them with some good
sausages, sadly by the time we got to the butcher, Rob decided to skip the
sausages and buy rib-eye steak. So he cooked it on the Weber, and we ate it
with some cubed potatoes and wilted spinach.
Wednesday night we were home quite late (Rob had been up to
the Tarn Shelf at Mt Field setting up a transect to measure with his students),
so I quickly cooked us puttanesca.
Thursday was our show day holiday, it was a perfectly sunny
day, Rob decided to brush cut the orchard, so I stayed inside to keep the dogs
away, and with the sea breeze I could feel my hay fever symptoms flare up. So I
thought I’d make us a quick Lebanese feast for lunch. I’d made some lavosh for
a work lunch the day before, and we already had some labneh balls in oil in the
fridge, so I rolled them in za’atar. I made a batch of hummous and our
favourite red pepper and walnut dip. Then I put together a green salad with
lots of mint and a sprinkling of sumac. That night it was Rob’s turn, our new
favourite recipe for the BBQ is chicken wings marinated in lemon (juice and
rind), olive oil, garlic, thyme and chilli flakes. We served them with some
grilled Asparagus.
We bought a pizza stone a couple of weeks ago (our oven has
a pizza setting we were yet to try) so we thought we’d give it a whirl. Rob made up a batch of
dough and we used up all the bits and pieces in the fridge, tomato passata,
olives, anchovies, grilled red pepper, labneh cheese, and parsley as a
topping. The first one we tried to move
from a tray onto the hot stone, which was quite unsuccessful, it just stretched
the already thin base out so we rolled up the edges and left it on the tray.
The second one Rob quickly put together on the stone. They
were different, I quite liked the one with the bready edge, but the one baked
on the stone was super crunchy. Maybe we have a new Friday tradition?
We were slightly indulgent on Saturday morning picking out a
selection of cupcakes from Jo and Michelle’s Salamanca stall. Rob had a lemon curd and berry ricotta crumble
cake, whilst I couldn’t go past the vanilla and rhubarb and the chocolate and
honey. They are so good, that neither of us really want to share! We have to
wait and hope that they’re there next week.
We ate a dinner of couscous, Lebanese green beans (cooked in
tomato and onion with allspice), and grilled eggplant, zucchini, fennel,
peppers.
Finally Sunday, the trial run of the chicken wings had gone
so well we ate them with some roasted kipfler potatoes, watercress, a garlic
and rosemary ciabatta. Our friend's children loved the wings (even with the
chilli). Then the cake.
What was on your menu this week?
