28.12.08: Turkey and sweet leek pie with peas

Back to the '70s: He made sure Our Christmas turkey takings were put into something special, namely Jamie Oliver's turkey and sweet leek pie. A dig thru the freezer produced enough peas to round off the plate, and a salad of rocket, radish and carrot rocked on.

SHE SAYS: Comfort food at its best. The perfectly crunchy, buttery puff pastry is such a treat, and the masses of leeks cooked down into the turkey sweetened the deal. The pancetta didn't hurt either, but per usual didn't play a large role in flavour performance. The peas were a little hard, possibly a tad frostbitten, but helped the salad out with the fiber provision.

HE SAYS: Having spotted this one on the telly the other night I was very intrigued to test it out. I thought while cookin' it that it was a little overkill on the leek quantities, but hey, they boiled down by at least half before I mixed them in with the turkey. The whole pie was a little like a turkey pasty but I'm not complaining, the filling was not too soupy and it glistened with goodness. I think we'll get a few more dinners out of this one yet.

10.12.08: Lamb tagine with carrot, avo and preserved lemon salad

He rolled up His sleeves and set to work creating this winter fave of lamb tagine served over couscous. A chopped half of a preserved lemon made a special appearance in the salad along with its friends the avo and friendly carrot.

SHE SAYS: What a huge treat to come home to on a Wed. nite. I sank into my bowl like a bath. The deep mingling of spice and tomato and honey on my tongue was somehow soothing and exciting at the same time, while the lamb fell apart the minute We looked at it, let alone approached with fork. Given all this savoury bliss, I was slightly wary about the added intensity of preserved lemon lurking among the leaves and shreds, but the appropriately small bits of translucent whole lemon resulted in tastebud intrigue, not overkill. Even so, I do think my near-year-old lemon that's left is approaching ammonia level...must find new applications for the remains and start another batch.

HE SAYS: I was very pleased with the outcome of this tonight. I went strictly by the recipe for the spice quantities and, gasp, it worked out well. The lamb was so very tender and butter-like in consistency and all the dried fruit, moist and flavoursome. It's a bit of a to-do getting this one to the table but definitely worth the prep. It tastes like you should feel guilty but fear not, this is a very healthy dish. Dried fruit, tomato juice, naked couscous, no butter, just olive oil and lean lamb chunks make for an indulgent tasting, satisfying bowl.

And wow, the preserved lemons were still okay after about 9 months or so (though slightly more grey then yellow), in fact more intense tasting and so extremely salty. They were like a vegetarian anchovy addition to the salad.

01.12.08: Pollo alla Cacciatora and cucumber salad

They both craved it, and He made it so. Tonight's Cacciatora episode included a special guest appearance of sliced carrot, and, instead of rice, pearled spelt. The cucumber salad was in reruns from last night and, because of its popularity, destined for syndication.

HE SAYS: Apart from the added carrot which gave it a little more depth of flava and the spelt, which lightened up the bowl, things were consistent from the previous outings. Those outings were great and so was this one. The salad scored high marks too, the dressing having marinated the cucumbers a little more from last night.

SHE SAYS: The mere mention of this dish perks me up; it's positively Pavlovian. I thought the carrot a fine addition for bulk, but could easily do without. The spelt added a smooth barley-like texture to the saucy bowl of goodness. I did find myself sneaking more capers from the jar for a touch of vinegary contrast, but I always do that, just don't always mention it. The salad held up well overnight; I thought the coriander might have sogged out, but it didn't.

Top Tip: pour off the dressing into a separate bowl before storing for laters.

Top Tip Deux: there is no way this dressing needs 2 Tbs of poppy seeds, they just sink to the bottom of lots of liquid. What a waste, esp in a land where they are the devil to find. Would do one teaspoon next time.

28.11.08: Re-run of risotto and lasagne episodes

Does what it says on the tin: He had yesterday's risotto while She heated up Wednesday's lamb lasagne. Good plan for a Friday nite, yes?

SHE SAYS: Same as Wednesday, though I don't think it improved in the fridge as some casserole-type-things do. Although it's a shame He didn't enjoy it, I'm quite pleased to have all the leftovers to myself (the rest will play a lunchtime role, Methinks).

HE SAYS: Unlike Her meal, I think this risotto benefited from a night out in the fridge with its food friends and seemed to mature a bit in flava and gooey loveliness. I remembered to sprinkle some parmesan to top it off nicely. A salad of sweetfire beetroot, avo, pear, carrot and mixed leaves left me fulfilled and extremely satisfied.

15.11.08: Pesto pasta with carrot and pumpkin seed salad

He remembered to defrost the fresh sundried tomato pesto He'd made a few weeks ago and She came up with tonight's dinner plan as well as cookin' and stirrin' the pesto, some spelt penna pasta, grilled portobello mushrooms, grilled butternut squash and parmesan shavings. The salad was a concise affair: julienned carrots and roasted pumpkin seeds on a bed of mixed leaves. The rest of the wasabi dressing stood by to help out.

HE SAYS: She added some white wine to the mix and it helped add a more rounded, intense flavour to the ever so rich and satisfying milieu. The mushrooms were meaty and the squash was an inspired choice with its sweet syrupy deliciousness shining thru. The pesto was a pretty good batch; it freezes well and defrosts in seconds (okay, a few hours). It's miles above the oily stuff available in stores. Roasted pumpkin seeds make any salad better but especially this one. (Paired with its orange cousin, the humble but brilliant carrot, it seemed to try a little harder to impress).

SHE SAYS: I was slightly afraid the butternut would be a bit too heavy with the pasta, but it simply added a nice Thanksgiving-like note to the proceedings. I only salt 'n' peppered the squash this time before roasting, and it was still amazingly sweet, proving the perfect foil for the soy-sauce drizzled mushrooms and mmmworthy tangy, garlicky pesto. (This sounds like too high a pile of flava-flavs, but it all balanced in an autumal savoury way). Would def. pair butternut and mushrooms again. Salad offered a similarly sweet, roasty flavours, but added crunch and bite.

12.11.08: White bnz, chorizo and greens with carrot and pomegranite salad

She made the white bnz tonight with canellini bnz, chorizo, curly kale and onions, then got out the KTOTY, julienned a carrot and added it to the slightly familiar spinach and pomegranate salad.

SHE SAYS: Good but not as good as some previous incarnations; I think the kale blanded it out a bit, and possibly stole most of the brothy and chorizo flavours, b/c when tasted alone the kale was fab. We keep noticing how nice the onions are in beany dishes, they add a lot more texture than you'd think. Nope, not tired of pome-spinach salad yet, esp when guest star j. carrot is in the house - made it extra juicy and injected some sly sweetness.

HE SAYS: This was another big bowl of steaming goodness. The kale was a little heavy as greens go and added little flava to the broth but the onions and bnz more then made up for it. The carrot helped pep things up in the salad bowl and succeded in making the pomegranate (wow that exotic fruit does yield a lot, but then again it's a pain to harvest their seeds) seem less of a tired old rerun, like Bill Murray in Groundhog day.

11.09.08: Faux pho part deux, and Willie's BBQ

Play it again, ma'am: She took the easy option after a somewhat aggravating day and heated up some of Tuesday's shrimpy broth with rice noodles, then tarted up the leftover salad with some more leaves and eggy avo - not to mention the wasabi-lime dressing in its cute li'l lunchbag bottle, originally a tiny soy sauce container that came with some packged sushi. Don't you wish you had one?

SHE SAYS: Good enough, but this was not the kind of soup that improves in the fridge. It wasn't any worse either, just remarkably, exactly the same: light, in need of copious spritzes of fish sauce, and filling. I'd like it a lot if I had a cold, b/c it's so innocuous but with just enough floral/grassy lime-leaf flavour to make it mildly interesting. The avo was particularly good tonite, and with slicks of wasabi-lime it was a treat of smooth near-decadence.

HE SAYS: Went off the beaten path and got me some ribs at Willie's bbq joint here in Austin, A tiny little down home place I found at the bottom of this link. I felt a little intimidated to take any actual food shots (this shot taken in the safety of my car) but the grub was great; the meat on the ribs was falling apart tender with little fat and smothered in a spicy, not too shweet sauce.

This was not the most healthy dining option, especially compared to Hers (then again, I only got the half rack) but oo-weee, it was fine dining. The ice-cream scoop of potato-mustard salad with sliced pickles and smokey baked beans had me salivating before I proceeded to devour everything in my path, including the two slices of plastic "sealed for freshness" bunny bread (which did incredible mopping up duties), and not forgetting dem crackers. All washed down with a glass bottle of A&W. Burrrp.

09.09.08: Faux pho and NY home cookin'

First, an announcement for all two of Our Gentle Readers: He's travelling on family-related biz for a bit and so will have to update with His own good eats from the road, while She does the cooking AND the washing up all lonesome-like.

But tonite, She may make him a little jealous with Her pho-like interpretation of Jamie's fusion broth from last week, subsing prawns for chicken, cheating a bit with some M&S readymade fish broth, peppering the pot with some dried lime leaves and adding several spritzes of stinky fish sauce. Meanwhile, carrot prepared with the KTOTY, some cherry toms, toasted sunflower seeds, and mixed leaves conveyed a fresh batch of wasabi-lime dressing from plate to palate.

SHE SAYS: I was craving something simple and nourishing to keep up me strength while the mister's away, and this proved mighty fine for the purpose. It desperately needed the fish sauce, though - the M&S broth, while authentically shrimpy even before the prawns went in, proved far too delicate to carry a soup. Top tip: dry-grilling prawns is only a good idea if you prefer vigorous grill-pan scrubbing to reading, websurfing, watching telly, and various other enjoyable evening pastimes. Overall, the chicken version of the soup is more impressive, but this one's worth repeating with sturdier stock. Prettily piquant wasabi-lime dressing paired up with the deeply toasty seeds to make plain salad unusually mmm-worthy.

HE SAYS: Wow, She does make me jealous but I still had me some good nosh. After a long journey to NYC, I sat down with the family to a hearty roast chicken and vegetable plate which definitely surpassed all the airline crap I was offered on the plane. The salad was a simple crunchy lettuce affair with a balsamic dressing, not a carrot or beetroot in sight unfortunately, but still good. Ended the meal with a nice palate cleanser of mixed raspberries and blueberries. Lots of red wine was consumed and I collapsed into bed, tired but content. [Photo to come.]

KTOTY - kitchen tool of the year, aka julienne peeler

27.08.08: Lemon chicken nite

He brought home the chicken...baked it up in a pan...and never, ever let me forget he's the man...'70s commercial lyrics tribute aside, folks, it's lemon chicken nite! With special guest, salad. Featuring: carrot, avo, pear and a choice of leftover wasbi lime dressing or mustard dressing (courtesy of Sunday's green bnz).

SHE SAYS: It's like your favourite chair or pjs - you don't know how much you love it til you need it. Lemon chicken was as good as it ever is, with the lemon and the garlic fighting it out for tastebud domination - and neither overwhelming. I plumped for the tingly citrusy wasabi lime dressing and ate more salad just to have more dressing.

HE SAYS: We sure like our lemon chicken but consistency is a good thing, huh? Discuss. I believe it allows you to tweak and tune a dish until it's perfect; others might say we are boring and lazy. Who cares? It's delishimo, all that lemony goodness over some crispy chicken and roasty-toasty 'taters and green bnz. What's not to like? the salad was pepped up by, once again, the carrot and pear combo and I reveled in the twin dressing offering, sampling both varieties one after the other in quick succession.

26.08.08: Chickpeas with cumin and sherry and salad with balsamic rose dressing

She fired up the wok for Nigella's chickpeas with cumin and sherry, served o'er brown and wild rice with a stir-thru of chili flakes. Not so unusual, is it? But the thought of orange blossom balsamic dressing for the pear, carrot, and toasted pine nut salad proved an itch She had to scratch. Unfortunately, Her supply of orange blossom water proved oddly insipid, with little actual orange flavour (it is set to expire in November...a clue?). Nonplussed but not defeated in the quest for a fun floral note, she reached for the rosewater, swirled it thru the vinegar, and took a pinky taste. Results below...

HE SAYS: This was a good batch of chickpeas, not too dry or chalky. I missed the harissa a bit but the chilli flakes nearly made up for it (although I added some more heat and vinegary goodness by a shake or two of hot sauce). The pear/carrot combo reappeared and again offered up a delicious sweet note offset by the tartness of the dressing (which I enjoyed but felt the rosewater seemed a little lost in the acidic balsamic vinegar).

SHE SAYS: Balsamic rose is not quite the new wasabi lime, but it is exotic and bright on the tongue, and the floral mustiness immediately rises up after the acidity to balance it surprisingly well. Balsamic rose would complement a mild goat cheese like chevre superbly. Tonite, it added sweet complexity to a low-key salad and played nicely with the sugary pear.

Chickpeas were good and velvety, but I fear they will now always suffer in comparison to the harissa-dolloped or pomegranate-peppered versions. This near-naked variety was perfectly good filler, but I craved that sweet-tart juice popping and/or garlic-chili-mint stimulus.

23.08.08: Imposter saag paneer

She made Saturday nite at home awfully cosy with Our fave saag paneer, starring halloumi as paneer, with Geeta's papaya orange chutney quietly shining in its supporting role. A soopah salad of radishes, avo, toasty pumpkinseeds, carrot, and lamb's lettuce drizzled with Nigella's wasabi lime dressing made for a pretty, well-balanced plate.

SHE SAYS: There's something about piling a spicy, rich curry on the fork with lots of crunchy salad that makes everything seem right for a little while. I suspected the M&S halloumi would be best for this dish, and it did indeed keep its firm texture, release perfect saltiness, and add the merest hint of mint to the proceedings.

HE SAYS: This dish has a lot going for it. The halloumi is so saltastic and moreish and the spinach, mild and creamy without the cream, so the overall effect is so satisfying. With a big dollop of chutney on top adding a little shweet spice to the plate, I was one happy camper. I am so enjoying our current craze of julienne carrots and delish toasted pumpkin seeds smothered by the always tasty dressing, which manages to intensify all that it covers - including some rice, which didn't mind a bit. In fact it made for some interesting unexpected mouthfuls.

15.08.08: Magic lentils

She was so ready for some easy comfort food after some truly pressurised workdays; hence the return of the coconut dal. The salad with radish, lime-zested beetroot, cherry toms, and grated carrot rmade a complementary colour sensation.

SHE SAYS: That familiar feeling of 'ahhh' enveloped me as I took the first creamy bite, and hypnotised me into having seconds - it was Friday nite, after all. I might have done better to save some, and had I but savoured the tart cool crunch of the salad before refilling my bowl, I might have done.

HE SAYS: Nice to have this supreme red lentil dish back on the schedule. This dish is so creamy and delish it's a wonder why we don't eat it every day. Oh yeah, I forgot, it gives you a bit of a gas problem if consumed in mass quantities but what's a little flatulence between friends and lovers? The day-glo orange stringy carrots and ruby red beetroot provided the rainbow coloured spectacle of the evening, mmm-mmm-good.

29.07.08: Big Salad

Yep, it's the return of the Big Salad, in a more manageable format, with the bacon of cheese, boiled prawns, panfried leftover polenta, radishes, celery, avo, julienned carrot, chives, gem lettuce and an inspired last-minute add-on: capers. Nigella's nose-whooshing wasabi dressing finished the plate.

HE SAYS: The halloumi was the star of this salad, not to insinuate that the rest of the ingredients were below par, but come on, grilled haloumi is the supreme cheese. Second to the cheese was the shrimp which were boiled enough but not too much and the grilled polenta a close third, it was crunchy and light, whatz not to like? I really enjoyed this meal, will have to do again sooner rather then later. Mmm halloumi, damn you, I can't get you outta my mind.

SHE SAYS: Well, I still complicated things a bit more than I intended to by frying up the polenta, but I hated to see it go to waste - and it was worth it, turning the cold gel-like mush into hot, irregular corn fries to give us a tasty little starch filler. I savoured the salty, toasty halloumi slowly - honestly, I think halloumi would be on my death-row last meal menu (glad we sorted that out already). Plenty of crunch, with avo adding a touch of creaminess, plus the refined je ne sais quoi of the capers - this was a salad I would gladly have anytime, anywhere.

26.07.08: Indian pork vindaloo and crunchy salad

She dug out the pork vindaloo recipe, adding chunks of aubergine and an extra bottle of sauce to the pan of pork loin, plus more cinnamon and some star anise to the rice, to see us thru a lackadaisacal Saturday nite movie. Wielding the KTOTY*, she stripped a carrot for extra crunch in a salad of pear, leaves, beetroot, and toasted pumpkin seeds, all doused with an improvised dressing of juice d'orange, olive oil, fresh coriander, ginger, one mashed garlic clove, white wine vinegar, and salt-n-pepa.

HE SAYS: Pork and Indian are not two words that normally get along but this recipe brings them harmoniously together on one plate. The extra jar o' sauce helped make it a joy to mix in with the fragrant rice and with the new chutney atop of the curry mountain it was another Saturday nite taste sensation. The salad was also a hit with lots of sweet, tart, crunchy things going on, I was almost in Nirvana but stopped short to watch the movie.

SHE SAYS: Dressing was a dee-lite; would add more ginger but this time I only had a tiny stump in the fridge. Don't think I can get enough of shredded carrot this summer - juicy, sweet, and not too much work for the molars. Vindaloo def. benefits from extra sauce, but man, you need to cook it nearly three times as long as the recipe states.

*KTOTY = kitchen tool of the year