08.09.08: Pollo alla Cacciatora

Yep, We did it again - already. She had a hankering to try the delish tomatoey-chicken dish over brown/wild rice, with a stir-thru of capers, and She made it so. The rest of the St Agur blue cheese graced a salad of sweetfire beetroot, radishes, and avocado with mixed leaves.

HE SAYS: We like this dish, we really, really like it. She cooked this one up good, a little less soupy then my try but still mighty fine. The capers added a certain tasty tang to the tomato-based sauce, me lapped it up and went back fo' more. I luvved the salad too, sweetfire beetroot and radishes! They be my bestest friends.

SHE SAYS: This is quite a mystery: even before I let the cacciatora cook with the pot lid on, it contained far less liquid than His version. So it's not the rice soaking up the gravy that's making it appear less souplike. We're using the same recipe, so it's a head-scratcher for now. Still wonderfully satisfying with that touch of woody aroma from the celery salt and the tender thigh meat. Capers def. add a little sumpin' sumpin' in the pickeldy weirdness department. Of course, We had no trouble polishing off the rest of the intensely creamy, mildly flavoursome blue cheese in an otherwise virtuous salad episode. I'm thinking St Agur is the kind of blue you could give to people wary of blue cheese intensity.

06.08.09: Magic lentils

She settled on the easiest Saturday nite comfort food possible after a long browse in town: the coconut dal with spinach, plus a salad of sweetfire beetroot, radishes, and special guest star, St Agur blue cheese.

SHE SAYS: Extra ginger and addition of garlic oil for the initial saute didn't quite intensify this one as much as I expected, but then the quantity was nearly doubled, and it still went down a treat: creamy and mildly savoury, with the bits of transparent, sweet onion offering unusually pleasurable texture variation. I mean, chopped onion is usually a workhorse, not a standout element, innit? Many, many thanks to the round-the-corner store for being open to provide said root veg when the few other shops open had none. The speshy blue cheese compensated somewhat for the week's early loss: it's creamier and less intense than last Sunday's find, but v nearly as aaah-worthy.

HE SAYS: The magic element of these lentils is the fact that we've eaten them so may times this year without becoming bored, disillusioned and going right off 'em. It's hard to tire of or question such velvety, creamy goodness week after week, so we don't bother trying. The salad weren't too shabby neither with the sweetfire returning to the fold after a few days off with it's best mate the carrot.