Aubergine with bacon and garlic

Sounds a very good recipe and tasted OK but somehow it ended up lacking. The problem may have been making the cuts for the bacon and garlic too small. Worth considering an different approach of making one large slit and then layering in the garlic and bacon. Also, need to think about the heat in which to roast.

Ingredients

• Aubergines
• Bacon
• Garlic
• Olive oil

Method

Cut small incisions in the aubergine and then insert alternating small pieces of garlic and bacon. Place in the oven, cover with a little olive oil (to help stop burning?) and bake slowly.

Good for using up....

Aubergines, garlic

Tips for next time

1. Using brown mushrooms seems to impart a brown or darkish colour to the dish. Using white mushrooms is probably worth a try to help keep the colour of the other vegetables more appealing.

Courgette and tomato salad with cheese

Very simple salad, fresh ingredients as well.

Ingredients

• Courgette sliced very thinly using a mandolin or into strips
• Tomato sliced thinly
• Olive oil
• lemon - juicy one
• grated parmesan cheese

Method

Slice the courgette up with a mandolin and layer on the plate, then slice up the tomato and put on top. Poor over some olive oil and then squeeze over the lemon.

One key point is to use the lemon juice. The lemon can be made more juicy by pouring over boiling water on the whole lemon in advance.

Good for using up...

Old lemons!

Mushrooms and bacon with wine

Very simple way to make a tasty mushroom side dish to use up spare mushrooms.

Ingredients

• Mushrooms sliced
• bacon block, cut up into small cubes etc
• olive oil
• glass of wine, red or white
• seasonings
• garlic
• parsley

Method

Slice up the mushrooms and add to pan with olive oil and saute

Add the garlic in slivers and the bacon cut into squares and let cook a few minutes.

Add a glass of wine and then cook fiercely for one minute to reduce the wine, then turn the flame low and simmer for five more minutes.

Mushrooms cooked in this way can be served as a separate course, a garnish for scrambled eggs or omelettes, added to stews or eaten cold

Good for using up...

Old wine

Lentil and sausage stew

Very easy bacon and lentil stew with onion and carrot. Tastes nice with the bacon and sausage flavour while being high fibre and limited amount of meat. Also very easy to make and you can't really go wrong on the quantities etc.

Ingredients

• Half a large onion/a small onion
• Half a large carrot or a medium whole carrot - does't matter too much
• A block of bacon - decent sized lump depending on how many people
• Sausages - a few, larger better depending on number of people; fatty is better as this adds to the flavor
• lard - this would be good to cook the onion at the start, but so far never used and still a very decent taste
• parsley
• lentils - pretty free again on how many to use 200g? 300g?
• salt, pepper - add at the end

Method

Cut up the onion and fry in the lard or oil until translucent

Cut up the carrot roughly, big chunks if preferred; wash the lentils and put in with the onion

Prepare the sausages by pricking to prevent splitting and let out the fat to flavor the lentils. Add to the pot with a lump of bacon, add water and then cook covered on a high heat until boiling.

Turn to a low heat, add some more water, stew for ten minutes or so, then add some more water and stew some more. Seems pretty free to carry on balancing adding the water and stewing until the lentils are cooked without too much trouble.

Once the lentils are cooked add pepper and salt. Serve with parsley and mustard (don't forget the mustard - you always tend to do so.

Good for using up...

Parsley, spare bacon block or sausages

Salad Lyonnaise

Truly one of my favourite salads. Key points are that the salad leaves should be endive or similar slightly harder salad leaves and that the dressing should include mustard. Some recipes talk about warm dressing - this looks worth looking at in more detail. Also, don't under do the amount of bacon or pancetta. Use two fresh eggs and have as a main course.

Ingredients

• Bacon or pancetta
• Two poached eggs
• Vinagrette with mustard

Good for using up...

Bacon or pancetta block - i.e. a salad, so a healthy way of using up.

Fennel with parmesan cheese

First time to try fennel and it was very nice. Also very healthy, so well worth trying to get some more recipes. Very expensive in Japan, although seems to be on special offer at National Azabu.

Fennel can also be eaten raw in salads, normally after slicing thinly. An excellent blog page on fennel is here and the wikipedia page here.

Ingredients

One head of fennel Butter Parmesan cheese (apparently no other type will do)

Method

Cut fennel head in quarters. Boil in salted water until a little more tender but not floppy. Place in well buttered dish, add grated parmesan and then bake until brown and tender.

Tips for next time

Boiling was for around eight minutes. On reflection perhaps this could have been longer - certainly try this time. Also could have added more butter to the dish and dabbed a little on the outside of the fennel to keep it moist. The dish as a little large as well - having the fennel more closely together could have prevented some of the parmesan just burning on the bottom. The outer leaves were a little tough - not sure if this was due to how this was cooked or is simply common.

Good for using up...

Not much, except fennel.