A sudden drop in temperature from our balmy summer hot weather saw a return to winter fare. Lucky there were vegetables at the ready including a cauliflower which was found in the depths of the fridge. I had fungating tomatoes last week so I am loathed to admit another repeat of "almost at the point of going off food ". Let's just say the cauli was ready for the eating. Although I do believe that the rotten food experience is known to more than us that we would perhaps admit. We may have cleaned up our act in adulthood but the rotten apple at the bottom of the school bag was a pretty typical childhood experience. My legendary tale (according to my parents) was that they found 16 cheese segments in the bottom of my school bag - this was when chesdale processed chedder cheese was big.
So tonight was a great opportunity to cook up a couple of new vegetable dishes that were warm and comforting. I choose to follow Julia's Carottes Glacees - glazed carrots recipe. This involves boiling the carrots slowly in a covered pot with stock, sugar, pepper and butter for 30 minutes until the liquid has reduced to a syrupy glaze. Slightly got my timing wrong so didn't get to the glaze stage, rather soggy but tasty little numbers.
The cauliflower au gratin with cheese was prepared ahead and was far more relaxing in relation to timing, sitting patiently in the oven ready to go. Accompanying the steak I followed Julia's Champignons sautes au beurre instructions. Here Julia provides the requirements to have successful sauteed mushroom which are lightly browned. The secret is you need to ensure the mushrooms are dry, the butter very hot, and the mushroom must not be crowded in the pan. It was a rather uncomplicated dinner that night, but an opportunity to try a couple of new vegetable dishes. And with the less labour intensive meal meant I could use that time to clean out the fridge (almost as bad as the end of year school bag clean out!)
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| Reduction in progress |
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| Hearty fare |
great recovery food on a "summery" night.
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