Bacon, lettuce and cannellini stew

A few months ago, I found a really lovely blog that's become really quite famous, Loveaudrey. With hindsight, finding it in the middle of exams was perhaps not the best as it meant that when I really should've been revising the history of the French language, I was reading back through her posts and feeling... Well, feeling like a massive underachiever, if truth be told.

I'm pretty sure that Loveaudrey is actually a superhero in disguise. She managed to juggle two degrees, with all the stress and essays they entail, with being a wife and a mother to two kids - and she always leaves the house with really lovely lipstick on. To say she's become something of an idol to me is putting it mildly.

As I read through her posts, I realised that I really don't have the excuse of being too busy to make a decent meal every day. If she can do it, then I definitely can.

I'd copied down one of her recipes because it had really appealed to me, and last night, with the house (read: the kitchen) to myself, I decided to give it a bash.

Here's the recipe as written up on Loveaudrey's blog:

6 rashers of bacon (or a generous handful of chopped black olives if you're craving something vegetarian)

2cloves of garlic

4 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

200ml chicken stock

1 x 400g tin of canellini beans (I also used a small tin of pinto beans and a drop more stock)

150g lettuce (the recipe calls for cos but I used 2 little gems)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Chop the bacon and garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and add the bacon. Cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic and fennel seeds.

2.Pour in the tinned tomatoes and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes.

3. Add the stock and the drained beans, and cook for a further 5 minutes.

4. Season well, add the chopped lettuce, and allow to wilt before serving.

5. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with lots of black pepper.

I made a couple of adjustments - firstly I halved(ish) the quantities as I was only making it for me and I still had some left over for lunch the next day. I also added a spring onion as we had a few that were languishing in the vegetable drawer of the fridge, looking very sad indeed. We didn't have any tinned chopped tomatoes either, so instead I just cut up a big beef tomato and added some water. The final change I made was to throw in a glug of white wine.

I've really become a convert to adding lettuce to hot dishes and just letting it wilt down, but I think the trick is to pick a variety that won't just go totally soggy. Cos lettuce or baby gems have quite a rigid 'spine' (anybody know what that thing is actually called??), which means that the leafy bits go soft but there's still enough crunch for it not to just turn into mush.

It was really delicious and felt very virtuous - the fact that there was plenty left over for lunch the next day is always a bonus; and it's the kind of dish that would be perfect in the middle of winter when you're really craving something warming. It was still delicious even at the height (ha!) of summer because it's not too heavy. I cooked the sauce down so it was quite thick and resembled a stew, but it'd be easy to let it stay quite clear so it's more like a soup.

I can highly recommend giving Loveaudrey's blog a look - as long as you've got plenty of time to waste going back through all of her posts! 

Loveaudrey| loveaudrey-loveaudrey.blogspot.co.uk

New Year's resolutions

I’m not usually one for New Years’ resolutions, but this year I’ve broken the habit and have made a promise to myself to start eating properly. And by properly, I mean making a real effort to have one filling yet healthy meal a day. To be honest, I don’t really have much excuse not to. I enjoy cooking, I can cook, and I’m well past that childish attitude of “ugh, vegetables”. It’s incredible how easy it is to eat healthily and inexpensively.

This bright Saturday morning, as I had no real plans until the evening,  I was enjoying a good lie-in, watching cooking programmes on the iPlayer and drinking a cup of real coffee – none of the instant stuff that I rely on to get myself moving in the morning. In “Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers”, he made a sausage and bean soup. It really couldn’t have been simpler. Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, tomato, cannellini beans, chorizo sausage and some herbs (if you’re feeling fancy). None of that needs to be particularly expensive, but it’s a full, flavoursome meal that is actually quite good for you. Plus, it’s just as easy to make enough for four meals as it is to make enough for one, so it’s easily frozen and then just needs to be warmed the next time you fancy some and bingo – instant meal.

However, I had a meal plan and I fully intended to use it, so this recipe was set aside for next week as today was down for “cassoulesque” – which seems appropriate as cassoulet is a mainstay of the cuisine down here in the Languedoc. My student budget-friendly version is one of those dinners that feels so much more luxurious than it actually is. I cut two sausages into rounds and threw that into a saucepan with a diced chicken breast, some bacon lardons, about half a red pepper and a bit of butter. I cooked that for about 5 minutes, then added some (store bought, the horror!) tomato sauce and left that to simmer for another 5 minutes. Then, I added around about half a tin of drained and rinsed cannellini beans (saving the rest for a meal I’ve got planned later) and left that to simmer for around about five minutes with a lid covering it. I came back in and turned the heat up, gave it a final two minutes then took it back to my room, lid still on so that it could continue cooking a bit and keep warm. Finally I added a teaspoon of Boursin, gave it one last stir for luck, plated up half and put the other half into a container and into the freezer to prevent myself from snacking on it. I’m sure there’s a healthier way of thickening an overly-runny tomato sauce but I’m not particularly fussed about finding it!

Simple, filling and tasty – plus I now have a bonus meal for a day when I can’t be bothered to cook something from scratch. Perfect!

Po-ta-toes

I have my father to thank for many of my traits. The ability to burn in cloudy weather. The gift of the gab and with it, the ability to talk myself out of or into seemingly any situation. And finally, my insistence that "if a meal doesn't have potato in it, it's not a meal."

My father's from Ireland, can you tell?

All of the people I've lived with have found my deep-seated belief that potatoes a meal make amusing. The Spanish people I was fortunate enough to have shared my kitchen with back in first year seemed pretty impressed by how many different ways of eating potato I could find in the ten months we lived together. Speaking of which...

As you can probably imagine, being a student and part-time potato fiend has its drawbacks. They take a long time to boil, it's not easy to make mash for one person and they're never as good as your mum/dad's. So discovering gnocci was something of a revelation for me.


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Look at them! Beautiful, potato-y pillows of goodness. The French seem really keen on frying them so they turn into mini-roasties, but I prefer to cook them the more traditional way. I think what I love the most about gnocci is the fact that they are so insanely quick to cook. About five minutes in a pan of boiling, salted water and they all start to congregate together (they're very sociable) and float to the top. And that's it, they're ready.

What I've been doing recently is then draining them, but keeping them in the pan, then adding some bacon lardons and tomato sauce. Once the bacon's cooked, I take them off the hob and - I really do think this is the secret - I add a bit of Boursin. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it just adds even more depth to the flavour of the sauce and makes it beautifully creamy. Best served in a bowl with a slice of fresh bread to mop up all that yummy sauce. Or just to enjoy the bread. Well, when in France.

It's so filling and warm and is just perfect comfort food. I made this last night, after I came home from my lecture. I was tired but I didn't want to eat straight away, so I decided to wait a bit. About an hour after I got in  I was hungry, but I wanted something quick so I wouldn't be eating dinner too late. And good old gnocci saved the day again.

Plus, it was a meal with potato which meant it was an actual meal.