I know it’s not that long considering how long a year is but we feel like it’s going well. We’ve already discovered some great new recipes for quick post-work dinners and have already expanded our collection of kitchen kit! This week it was a ginger grater (way easier than trying to use a regular grater and you don’t lose all the yummy juices!) and a julienne peeler that we’ll no doubt be using to make courgetti (aka. “zoodles” in the US – brilliant name) or whatever the cool kids are making these days 😛 Still no movement on the blender/food processor but we’ll get there in time.

Here’s how we got on this week:

LIZI 08/01/2015: Yankee Doodle Ramen Noodle – United Ramen, Upper Street, London

http://www.unitedramen.com/

I was invited out to dinner by a friend to United Ramen (before heading to Pub Opera…by the way Pub Opera is a thing – who knew?!) but I wasn’t ready to use up my ramen options too soon in the year! United Ramen came to my rescue with this bad boy – ramen noodles in a lighter chicken broth, rather than the usual rich pork broth, with pulled pork, sweetcorn, spinach, and topped with crispy bacon. They’re also doing a weekend special British Bulldog Roast Beef Ramen that even has mini Yorkshire puds in it! Alas, I was there on a Thursday.

So Mark had to fend for himself…

MARK 08/01/2015: Beef and Oyster Sauce Pasta – own recipe

With Lizi out for dinner I decided to make an old classic from my student days. Simple, quick and tasty. I’d highly recommend for a pre-race meal if you’re looking for something safe. For the sauce I used a sachet of ‘Blue Dragon Oyster & Spring Onion Stir-Fry Sauce’ but if you’re being more adventurous then making the sauce from scratch can be fun. Cook the pasta while simultaneously frying a chopped onion with the beef mince. Once all cooked mix the mince and pasta with spinach and the stir-fry sauce for a total prep time of 10 minutes. The bowl filled me up a treat, and there was even enough left over for lunch the next day!

09/01/2015: Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa from The Cookie Rookie blog

http://www.thecookierookie.com/salmon-with-avocado/

This was some SERIOUSLY good fish! The seasoning for the salmon in this recipe was heavenly and the avocado salsa was the perfect accompaniment. We didn’t serve it with anything else so it looked a bit bare on the plate but it was enough. I mean look at it…it even looked beautiful!

10/01/2015: Hunter’s Chicken from The Best-Ever Illustrated Encyclopedia of British Cooking by Annette Yates, Christopher Trotter, and Georgina Campbell

This was a great winter dish with a tomato and red wine sauce that made the house smell so good while it was cooking! 11/01/2015: Jhinga Curry from Vivek Singh’s Curry

We made a cumin raita and a vegetable biryani to go alongside this Pakistani prawn curry. The curry really tasted great and had a good kick to it – I definitely needed the raita! I would probably change up some of the timings for the biryani as the rice was a little over and the potatoes were a little under but otherwise this was a great dish and well worth the effort.
12/01/2015: Cheeseburger Wraps – own recipe

This recipe was inspired by various things I’ve seen on Pinterest and was sooo good. Like seriously – who needs Five Guys or GBK? It couldn’t be easier to make – cook up some mince and chopped onion, pour in some Worcester sauce and…oh look – you’re DONE! Stick some in a wrap with whatever cheese and other burger toppings you like – we used mature cheddar, ketchup, mustard, pickles and lettuce. Then just fold and eat!  13/01/2015: Stir-fried Chicken and Avocado Salad from Reader’s digest’s Fast Healthy Food in 30 Minutes or Less

This recipe uses smoked turkey rashers as a healthier alternative to bacon. I’m not gonna lie – it ain’t bacon by a long way but it does taste good and really worked in this salad. Overall it was really easy to cook and the real trick was keeping the chicken and especially the turkey from drying out. The honey and mustard dressing really made the dish too.

14/01/2015: Colcannon from The Best-Ever Illustrated Encyclopedia of British Cooking by Annette Yates, Christopher Trotter, and Georgina Campbell

So this is a very simple dish made up of 4 ingredients: potato, kale, onion, and butter. We had some issues with the mix being quite wet when you add it to the pan and it was tricky to get the nice brown bits cooked off properly but we got there with a bit of determination! Eating that much kale felt healthy but then deep down I knew how much butter we had put in it… This is a great meal if you have a load of leftover mash (which we didn’t…but we do now…) or as a more snazzy side than regular mash. It’s served here with a knob of butter (yep – more butter) and some salt and pepper.