march

Lunch: red lentils with tomato, peppadew, chilli; spring greens with fried peanuts, garlic chilli, avocado oil, quinoa

this was nice

Dinner: WR lobster bisque

venison steak, red wine horseradish cream sauce, mushrooms, fried potatoes

WR piri piri chicken, peas with saffron chilli cumin coriander, rice

bananas fried in butter with sultanas, gingercubes, cream, rum

WR sausage and fennel ravioli, tomato chilli sauce

Borscht, soured cream

Dhal, cabbage and onions, fried masala potatoes

Apricots in Moscatel with couscous in the syrup and pistachios

Sardines with lemon, chilli, croutons

Sausages, green lentils, sauerkraut, mash

Ate out

Lunch: Spag with red pesto

Dinner:John

Beetroot Tarte Tatin, chevre, watercress with fried walnuts

Slow roast pork belly (black pepper, fennel, coriander), saucisson, red wine, chestnuts, spelt; chard, baby red potatoes

I soaked the spelt for 24 hours then boiled it for 30 mins, then it went in with the pork for the last few hours. This renders it edible. I did the potatoes as a back up. Chestnuts were from the freezer.

Fig and pecan cake with cream/yoghurt and Lapang sauce

I had soaked the figs in Lapsang Souchon and a little Caol Ila. I made a sauce with the liquid, some dried orange peel, sugar, reduced it then added cream

Oxford Isis and something Farmhouse

Lunch: cabbage with onion, walnuts, caraway; bulghar; cream and yoghurt

Dinner: marinated anchovies on toast

Meatballs, tomatoes; chard; fried potatoes

Dhal, WR aubergine and pea curry, rice

Pineapple and banana with chilli and lime

WR scallap and cauli soup

Haricots with cooking chorizo and garlic, RWS salad, baguette

Red pepper, harissa, chevre on toast

Squash with yoghurt, dried lime, chilli; pumpkin seeds, quinoa, salad

I used a whole dried lime and maybe that's a bit much. It was ok but I'll try half the amount next time if I can actually manage to cut one of the buggers in half.

Pork belly and spelt, with pearl barley; small leeks sort of fried a bit then cooked more slowly

Christmas pud and rum sauce

... both courses from the freezer

Chickpea fritters, scrambled eggs. couscous with roasted peppers, tomatoes, peppadews

The peppers were from a jar, which is a lot easier than roasting and peeling them yourself, but they're a little briny. The chickpea stuff - I cooked chickpeas, pureed them roughly with spices, shallot etc and added a little semolina and sesame seeds (well, lots of sesame seeds), then fried. The mixture is a bit fragile so maybe something like egg would make them better, but I'm trying to make something felafel-like without needing a deep fryer. In any case I was doing eggs separately. They were to be fried eggs but the first yolk broke.

We're not eating out this week for reasons obvious to anyone else who lives in the same town as us.

Fig and pecan cake, yoghurt and cream

Lunch:

Chicken livers with Australian pepperberries; chard, rosti

Lunch: Ate out

Thai curry with crab and baby corn, rice

Raspberries, amaretti, cream

Pasta with onions, cabbage, caraway, sausage, cream

Squash cooked in cream and milk with cardamom, caramelised pumpkin seeds

Colin ate out

YP beetroot soup

Gratin of potatoes, celeriac, gorgonzola; green beans

Salad of avocado, chilli, tomato, quinoa

Fennel, olives, confit tomatoes, feta, potatoes

Sausages, cabbage and onions with juniper, potato and celeriac mash

We had the Battledown brewery's Cheltenham S.P.A which has a delicate floral nose, I reckoned like gorse flowers

Figs in raspberry vinegar, almonds, cream and yoghurt

Lunch: Ate out

A fab day so we rode to the Far East ie Charlbury which was a bit further than we intended and we finished up slogging along the A40 to save time.

Dinner: lentil, lime, cilantro soup

I used about 1/4 dried lime, with cumin and coriander

Pigeons in yoghurt and spice marinade, fried; walnut and pomegranate sauce; peas; saffron pilaf rice

Rosewater halva with pistachios

Nowruz baraka! We celebrate the Iranian new year because Iranian food is nice.

Lunch: spag and stuff

we ate separately because I'd been for a team ride with this crowd I'd been roped into riding the mountain mayhem with.

Dinner: avocado, tomatoes, chilli, cilantro and baby corn

Duck breasts, boozy cherry sauce, green beans, rosti

WR pork and chorizo cassoulet, cos lettuce, Village Bakery pain au levain

WR lemon tarts

WR lobster bisque

Celeriac, chevre, red pepper towers; fried potato

Spag and chicken liver and cream sauce, cos lettuce salad

Quince and cream

Lemon sardines, lentils, lettuce

Gorgonzola and cauli risotto, steamed PSB with fried breadcrumbs

Ate out

Ate out

Aubergine, chickpea, green pea curry, rice

we'd been away for the w/e and I'd planned ahead and made a delicious curry to pile into when we got back home

Lambs kidneys with green peppercorns and dried orange peel, braised chicory, mash

Rhubarb and cream fool

Cauli and parmesan soup

Pork cheeks braised in stock and wine, butter beans, savoy cabbage, potato