green beans and pasta

I reviewed the contents of the veg drawer last night - to my shame, there were two small turnips going mouldy, so they had to go.  A wide assortment of carrots was hurled into the slow cooker for carrot and coriander soup for lunch today.  And there were a lot of green beans.

We like green beans, but we tend to do the same sort of stuff with them every time, and I wanted to try something different, so this is what I did.  It was lovely - perfect summer food.

Topped and tailed the beans, and then cut them into chunks of about 2cm.  Set them to simmer for about  seven minutes, I guess.

Put on some pasta quills to boil.

Got Pete to grate a lot of parmesan, rummaged for the tired half lemon in the fridge, and went and cut some fennel fronds from the garden, which I chopped up small.

Combined beans, pasta, parmesan, black pepper, lemon juice, fennel and some cream, and scoffed from bowls.

Followed it with local strawberries and a home made brownie.  Lovely.

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stir-fried belly pork

using up: cooked belly pork

Last Sunday, i.e. a week ago, we had roast belly pork with fennel seeds, and very nice it was too.  I wrapped the remains in some aluminium foil and put it in the fridge for later in the week, and then promptly forgot all about it, to my shame.

I remembered it on Saturday, part way through the fish pie frenzy, checked to make sure it was still ok, and resolve to do something with it on Sunday. I wanted something quick, as we were working yesterday, and were due out at the local pub quiz in the evening.

It was alright, thankfully.  In the morning, I chopped it up and set it to marinade in some cornflour, water, sesame oil and a little dry sherry (we are out of rice wine).  Then, when we were ready to eat, we minced ginger and garlic, chopped a red pepper, some spring onions and the last four mushrooms.

I deep fried the pork in batches until it was crispy, and drained on kitchen paper.  I kept the marinade. Then stir-fried the remaining ingredients with some five spice powder,  while we cooked some noodles.  Tipped in the marinade, added the cooked noodles and some chopped coriander.

Apart from the marinading aspect, 15 minutes start to finish.  And it worked very very well.

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simple food

The other night, Pete and I both had to be out of the house at 7.15. This is early for us - we don’t normally eat until about 8 p.m. And we forgot to get anything out of the freezer, and didn’t stop work till about 6.30.

So, one big pot of penne pasta. When cooked, drained it, ladled in some very good olive oil, stirred in some fresh basil, dished it up, sprinkled it with loads of fresh parmesan.

Gorgeous, and 20 minutes start to finish. I’d forgotten how good it was.

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red pepper and feta pasta

Quick, easy and delicious

Sauté a chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic in some good olive oil.  Add half a jar of grilled red peppers from Lidl (these are utterly gorgeous), sliced up.  When the pasta is done, drain, add some cubes of feta and the vegetable mess.

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