Steve made dinner tonight

My lovely husband decided he'd make dinner tonight. He doesn't like cooking much, so he went to his favourite place - the Pontyclun Deli. Beth recommended a meal that'd make me happy, Glamorgan Sausages made by Jayne, deli made coleslaw, and Wheelie designed salad of rocket, red onion and sun-blushed tomatoes. 


Here's the result, it was amazing, and he bought me flowers too, thank you Wheelie!

A vegetarian feast fit for a king

Tonight the ultimate vegetarian feast: a visit to my favourite restaurant in the world - the Vegetarian Food Studio on Penarth Road in Cardiff. We practically live there, it's such a brilliant place to eat. If we have friends visiting us it's always our first choice of places to take them, and we have lots of requests from them to go back! It's such a friendly laid back place.


The restaurant specialises in South Indian and Gujarati food, which is also vegetarian. The food is so good, and it's such good value - their thali (a complete meal with starter, breads, rice, daal, curry of the day and a sweet is only £6). 


There were six of us eating there tonight, and we had lots of dishes and shared them. Here are some photos: 

Starters: Daal katchori, Paneer pakoras and Hara Bhara kebab

Main courses: Aloo Paratha (potato bread), daal and Masala mushroom Nu Saak

My favourite thing to eat at VFS - their daal. It's amazing! 

The thali

When we got home we went for a little walk round the block, followed closely behind by Seren and her new friend, the neighbour's cat Yogi who looks exactly the same as her, they're so cute together, they run about and touch noses!


We also put the Christmas tree out to be recycled - it's so sad to take all the decorations down.

Nigel's Mackerel with cumin and lemon

Another stormy night so we stayed in the warm and I cooked mackerel with cumin and lemon from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries. I bought two mackerel from the Cardiff market fishmongers, though they were quite big and one would have been plenty for both of us. It was tasty, the lemony cayenne peppery sauce that it cooked in was lovely. Steve didn't really enjoy picking the bones out of the fish, but Seren was very happy when I gave her some leftovers. 


A friend of mine in 2010 blogged every meal in The Kitchen Diaries, it's great, here's the entry for this meal. 

Dinner tonight: Hugh's Kale and Mushroom Lasagne

I'm annoyed. It was very stormy last night, and even though I checked the greenhouse several times (including the middle of the night) another panel was broken when I checked it this evening. Very upsetting. I've taped it all up with strong cardboard, but this panel is a specially shaped one so will be harder to get from the local glass merchant. Sigh.


I decided to make Hugh's Kale and Mushroom lasagne this evening. I went to Cardiff market to get the ingredients and was rather disappointed in their goods - when I asked one grocer whether he had any kale he seemed to think it was totally the wrong season. No kale to be found, even though it is exactly the time they should be selling it! 


So in the recipe I used spinach instead. It took ages to make, but the result was really satisfying, I was especially pleased with my bechamel sauce. Steve's review is: it's lovely, it doesn't try to imitate meat lasagne, it's just a nice lasagne in it's own right.  

Homemade Christmas presents

Here are some photos of the Christmas presents I made for 2011.


Preserved lemons: 

Miskin sloe gin:

Knitted heart necklaces, made from 100% Welsh wool and vintage buttons and old earring jewels: 

Tonight: Hugh's Chachouka

Strange weather today, beautiful clear sky, then suddenly black and hail... in between the storms I managed to get out to plant out the Acer tree I've had in a pot for about a year, and put my new rhododendron plant into the pot. I also spotted the tips of the snowdrops. 


This evening I cooked Chachouka from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Everyday book. I really liked the TV series and this book, it's not preachy, and is marketed as a sort of veggie book for meat eaters. If you don't have the book it's similar to this recipe though the one in the book doesn't mention duck eggs.

It was easy to make, and is tasty, but not that exciting - quite a simple supper. I served it with some cous-cous and lemon juice. There's enough for tomorrow's lunch too. 

Happy New Year! We're going veggie

I hope you had a lovely Christmas.


I got lots of gardening related pressies, including a wonderful red Haws watering can, new gardening gloves, lots of seeds, and a red rhododendron plant. 

Sadly a couple of days ago I went into the garden to discover one of the panels on my greenhouse smashed, it had blown out in the winds as I'd left the door slightly open. Should have read the 'how to avoid storm damage' advice on the Greenhouse People's website...Ah well, will order a new panel tomorrow, in the meantime it's carefully blocked up with a piece of old carpet.

For January Steve and I have decided to go veggie and we're off the alcohol. I'm going to try to blog about most of the food we eat this month.


New Year's Day was celebrated with a trip to the fantastic old pub Plough and Harrow in Monknash for veggie meals (Moroccan Stew, and Glamorgan sausages [thanks PC :) ] ), and a wet and muddy walk to the sea.