Cheese on Toast

I'm afraid I can't remember why now but on Tuesday (18th) I had cheese on toast for my tea. Obviously just not that hungry!

Macaroni Cheese

It was a Monday and I knew that there wasn't much in the way of fresh fruit or veg in the fridge and there is no stall on a Monday. I knew I had macaroni in the cupboard and all of the ingredients for cheese sauce. I picked up a leek from a supermarket and when I got home made my comfort food of macaroni with cheese sauce and a leek thrown in for a bit of flavour - lovely!

Pasta Bake

Eeek! Going back to 16th October here. We had a jar of River Cottage tomato purée left over from the tomato risotto that I had made. 

I cooked up some veggies and some veggie sausages and mixed them together with cooked pasta and then popped the lot in the oven with some cheese on top. 

It was a great pasta bake even if I say so myself.

Fifteen, Cornwall, Farmer's Market

Apologies about the lack of bloggage lately, no excuses I'm afraid. This post is an 'extra' one as I did blog about my birthday weekend of pizza and meal at The Heron but on the Saturday we went to the farmer's market at Fifteen in Watergate Bay.

It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a day of nibbling delicious food and sitting on the beach.

There were melt-in-the-mouth cucpcakes made with light buttercream icing by the Fifteen apprentices which we indulged in as well as their very dense, sticky chocolate brownies. 

There were demonstrations by the head chef of Fifteen which were great to watch, especially as we got to taste what they made. 

Mr VST had a lovely mushroom burger with chutney.

We all helped ourselves to the crumble pots that the head chef had made with pear and apple and an oaty crumble topped with clotted cream.

The afternoon ended with the sommelier taking us through some wines and letting us have a little taster too. It was a lovely way to spend a morning.

Aubergine Tarts

I'd seen Nigel Slater's recipe for these aubergine tarts online the previous week and liked the look of them, apart from the anchovies, of course!


I decided to make them last Saturday evening and started by chopping up the aubergine and popping it into the oven to roast. 

While they were roasting away I made the pastry which was very easy to make as I made it in the food processor and not by hand as instructed!

I rolled them out, not into perfect rectangles like Nigel's, but more, well, you can see the shapes below!

Then you whizz three quarters of the aubergine up into a purée with some olive oil and then spread it onto the lovely cheesy pastry bases and top with the remaining aubergine and some capers.

The pastry was delicious, strong and cheesy and it went well with the roasted aubergine flavour and the peppery rocket I served it with. I'll be making these again.

River Cottage: Vegeree

Final River Cottage recipe of the week was 'Vegeree' a vegetarian alternative to kedgeree I guess. 

 The recipe was very easy to follow, you just roast up some onions, aubergine and courgettes with 'one tablespoon of curry powder' and then add some cooked rice and boiled eggs. 

I had some garam masala and cumin which I used instead of curry powder, I think I'd used more than a tablespoon next time because the flavour didn't come through very well. It was a nice meal though. 

River Cottage Veg Everyday: Twice Baked Potatoes

I was home alone on Thursday evening as Mr VST was out bowling drinking with work colleagues. 

 I don't usually bother to make anything special when I'm on my own but this recipe was really just fancy jacket potatoes.

You bake potatoes and then scoop out the middle and mash it up with butter, spring onions and cheese which the 'skins are back in the oven for ten minutes. 

 Then you put the mashed mixture back into the shells and pop them back into the oven.

These were great, really tasty and worth the extra bit of effort compared to just topping jackets with cheese and beans.