Sunday, August 06, 2006
Lots of Work in Salad Weather
The Irish summer is really outdoing itself at the moment. The sun is shining all day every day invoking memories of California in Lofty and me.
Our workload is also contributing to this feeling of being back in L.A. as we are both back on relatively long hours and have so much to do there is barely enough time for coffee breaks. I've finally learned not to take this situation too seriously anymore. It used to be that if we were busy, I not only tried to skip lunch breaks or work endless hours of overtime without having been asked to do so and still get stressed to no end if I couldn't get everything done that I wanted to do. But I am slowly learning that this is in no one's interest. In the end, I'm a nervous wreck keeping it together only with the help of caffeine and TV and making silly mistakes that creating more work for everyone else.At home, my regime of easy to make dinners is
paying off and I am getting much more done in the household without feeling that I do nothing but work after work. We had two lovely salads on Sunday and Monday, one with bits of chopped speck - the last of the Tyrolian hams I brought over from Munich - and another with grilled mackerels from the fishmonger at Temple Bar Market. I bought those to offset the expense of the sea bass, a trick that I recommend to anyone who tends to overspend on food. When you buy pricey fish or an expensive cut of meat, ask your butcher or fishmonger if he can do you a deal on something else. Off cuts, stewing meat and fish scraps for pies and fishcakes are a perfect example, but it can work even on otherwise perfectly sellable items. In my case, the bass came to €8, so I suggested he throw in two mackerels and make it an even €10. In the end I left with 3 mackerels, which was more than decent of him, and shows that it can pay to support small local food merchants as opposed to doing all your shopping in large supermarkets.On Wednesday I decided to treat us to something slightly more complicated, albeit still firmly with the realms of 'simple dinners': Spaghetti with creamy tomato sauce. In fact, the concept is so simple, I'm going to trade the recipe for some instructions here.
enough cooked pasta for 2 people
some olive oil
as much onion and garlic as you like
a can of chopped tomatoes (or, if tomatoes are in season, lots and lots of fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped)
several spoonfuls of your favourite herbs (such as basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley and chives), chopped
chilli powder or fresh chillies for some bite (optional)
a pinch of sugar
a veggie Oxo cube or vegetable stock granules
a dash of cream
salt and pepper to taste
anything else you might find in your fridge that you think would go with spaghetti in tomato sauce (such as ground meat, tinned tuna, capers, dried tomatoes or vegetables)
grated parmesan to serve
Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent add the tomatoes, herbs, chillies and any bits you might want to add, but not leave whole (such as dried tomatoes) and bring to a simmer. Purée the lot until smooth. Add anything that you might want in the sauce, but don't want to purée (such as the ground meat). Return to the heat and season to taste with sugar, stock granules, salt and pepper. Pour in the cream and do not bring back to the boil.
Toss the sauce with the pasta or serve it poured over the top and top the lot with any bits that you don't want drowning in the sauce, such as grilled vegetables. Scatter with grated parmesan.
Christine at 8:56 pm
