Wednesday's gratin

We had ended up with another high veg situation in the fridge. This included:

• Courgettes – bargain in the shop the other day.
• Mushrooms – seemed like a good idea at the time but I haven't had a chance to use them yet and they were almost getting to that horrible slimy stage.
• Spinach – I have no recollection of acquiring this. On questioning Matt said he picked this up some time ago when I was away and he didn't think there was enough green stuff in the house. On further questioning he didn't have any particular plan for it.
• Broccoli – because broccoli is really good.

We were talking about what we might have for tea whilst in the changing rooms at the swimming pool. But in terms of other useful ingredients we were somewhat depleted. When I say other useful ingredients I mean cheese – the last 60g having gone into some scones at the weekend. We did have some branded cheese triangles but these have limited culinary application. I suggested that with a bit of cheese I could do anything. Fortunately Matt had to take a trip out to the sorting office so was able to tag on a trip to the shop.

In the meantime I got on with cutting up the courgettes. I still had no idea what I was going to cook. A pasta dish would have been the obvious choice but I didn't really fancy pasta.

I put the courgettes in a large oven proof dish (I actually chopped up more courgette than needed to line the bottom of the dish – the rest will keep in the fridge for another day).

And then in a moment of inspiration decided to cook some sort of gratin. This not only provided the potential to use a lot of the vegetables but also:

• sour cream – purchased as a bargain at the same time as the mushrooms and surely not going to last in a healthy manner much longer
• bread crumbs – finally a use for the vast quantity we have in the freezer following the purchase some months ago of some extremely cut price sliced bread.

The question mark remaining over the meal now was protein. It would be quite acceptable to have some fish fingers or veggie sausages on the side but I didn't really fancy that. I decided to integrate some butter beans into the gratin. We have lots of tins of beans and pulses in our cupboards, most commonly they go in casseroles or curries and I was rather excited about using them for something different.

I narrowly avoided making a significant omission. Fortunately Matt called to ask if we needed onions. We didn't, but this did remind me to chop an onion up and put that in. I used a red onion, which I have subsequently learnt contain more quercetin than other types of onion (although how scientific this fact is I'm not sure and what the benefit of quercetin is I'm not sure). And for good measure I added some cloves of garlic too.

By the time I had layered up all the veggies (and beans and sour cream, intermittently adorned with black pepper and herbs from the new herb grinder that Matt's mum had brought us back from her holiday), Matt returned with the cheese. I grated a generous amount and mixed it up with the bread crumbs (and some more black pepper) and then poured this over the top of everything else.

I had no idea what temperature to cook this at, so I went for the default of 180ºC. I had no idea how long it would take, but long enough at least that I could hang up pretty much our whole household's worth of underwear and socks. I decided it was done after about an hour when it the top was starting to look a bit crispy (I love crispy things) and then put the broccoli on (I decided that would be better as a side than in the main dish).

I was a bit worried that it would be a bit soggy (I had poured over just a little bit of hot stock before it went in the oven) so got bowls out just in case. But it held together remarkably well. It tasted great, although I'm not sure what the sour cream added, but then I don't know what it would have been like without the sour cream. Maybe it would even have benefited from more sour cream. I had cooked vastly more than was needed to feed the two of us – probably more like enough for 6. So we both had some for lunch today (leaving it in a lunch box in a hot car is actually a rather effective (and free) re-heating method) and there's some more for picnic tomorrow.

Sunday's Thai experiment

The mange tout peas are proving to be one of my most productive crops. Very nice straight off the plant, or stir fry would be my usual default cook but I wanted to try something different.

Somehow I got it in my head that I would do a Thai curry. I have never done a Thai curry before and to be quite honest I don't really know how it differs from a non-Thai curry, except that I think it should have lemongrass in it. So I picked up some lemongrass at the supermarket the other day, as well as some spring onions which I thought would be appropriate, and hoped that I be able to cobble the rest of the ingredients together from the fridge/freezer/cupboards.

I thought that it would be a good idea at least get some sort of recipe to work to. I found one about how to make a Thai curry paste but had barely any of the components, and another for Thai vegetables with coconut milk. As it was I basically ended up making something up. We are trying to clear a bit of space in the freezer for more ice-cream so I decided to use up some of the white fish that we have stored away from various bargain purchases. Matt kindly helped out by defrosting.

The curry also had in it (in addition to the mange tout, lemongrass, fish and spring onions):

• Groundnut oil – in preference to olive oil, I thought it would be more authentically Thai (or at least more Thai than olives)
• Red pepper – I sliced this thinly and put it in to fry off before anything else. Red pepper never seems to cook enough so I wanted to give it a fighting chance
• Celery – the recipe had this in. I wouldn't usually put it in curry but didn't see that it could do too much harm
• Chilli – I put a whole one in (chopped) and just had to hope that this wouldn't make it too hot. Following my most recent chilli incident I am being most wary of touching my eyes / lips etc
• Cumin – Matt's favourite spice
• Ginger – my favourite spice
• Sweet potato – grated. The recipe suggested one and a half cups
  
  of grated pumpkin. I didn't have any pumpkin but was intrigued by this kind of thing so used a sweet potato instead. I don't like using “cups” as a measurement because it is not specific as to what size cup it should be or how densely packed the ingredient should be in it. So I used one medium sweet potato. It looked just like grated carrot and I am contemplating its possible role in a cake.
• Coconut milk, lime juice and vegetable stock – added as it was all looking rather dry.
• Broccoli – probably not very Thai but I love it. I put this in right towards the end so it steamed in all the vapour.

Due to my inability to reliably cook rice I would have been quite happy to eat the curry without any accompanying carbohydrate, but Matt volunteered to do some rice for us. As usual his rice came out perfectly. When I try to replicate his method I still fail.

We were a bit unsure as to how edible this would be – Matt suggested that it would be somewhere on the spectrum between average and excellent (it did smell good). I had barely followed any recipe and all the quantities were guesstimated. With the lemongrass I had used an ingredient that has never before graced my kitchen shelves, I sliced it up a little bit and crushed it a little bit before putting it in the pan; we decided that we wouldn't eat it and pulled the little woody bits out as we went along. But now I'm kind of curious to know what it would have tasted like.

The verdict on the whole thing was that it was towards the excellent end of the spectrum, but that it could have taken a little more spicing. Matt may regret saying that as next time I'll put two chillies in.