recipes

I’m not very good at following recipes but I like to have them. There are many reasons for this, but the blame comes down most squarely on the shoulders of my mother, who I almost never remember actually cooking from a recipe.

I always start with a recipe mind you, but I look at it and think well I don’t like mushrooms and gorgonzola is too expensive so I either leave out or substitute things. I also tend to gravitate towards whatever is in my fridge. I rarely decide what to have for dinner until I have to start cooking it so I am left with a bunch of disparate ingredients trying to make something wonderful. Usually I’m fairly successful (well, I like my cooking anyway and Andy knows not to complain). Take tonight, for example. I had some salmon fillets and Andy said he wanted a white sauce so I decided to poach the salmon in a mixture of milk and wine (looks and smells seriously gross while cooking but is honestly nice), then use the cooking liquid to make a béchamel style sauce. This served with boiled potatoes. I meant to do something imaginative with vegetables but didn’t get round to it. I didn’t even do anything unimaginative with vegetables to be honest but I might eat some when I come back from yoga tonight. Must confess to not really feeling much like it but I missed it last week because I had a really bad migraine.

Food I make almost always tastes good but it rarely looks particularly presentable. I don’t know why this is. I think it may be because by the time it’s cooked I’m absolutely ravenous (unless of course I have been sneakily eating a piece of cheese or some nuts while cooking) and just want to shovel it onto the plate and into the mouth asap. I must learn to savour my food.