Linden's Green Curry Pasta

You know, when I first arrived in England and started cooking with English people, (yeah, English people like my boyfriend) I concluded that there are some really deplorable things about English cooking. I mean, for the older generation, there's the fact that pasta seems foreign. It's potatoes all the way. For the younger one, it's the use of butternut squash in Indian curries, and tuna with tomato sauce on pasta (the latter, I admit, is probably a combination of studential status and terrible cooking skills, which we can't entirely blame on the citizenship, I remember the not-too-distant past when Xan's meal de force was fried eggs).  And then there's the fact that every pub in the country seems to have the same ten things on their menu, maybe with one "asian" dish to set them apart, which tends to be an indian or thai "fusion" curry - which is to say, served with pasta.

And originally I seriously objected to the idea on the grounds that Asia meant its food to be served with rice, and we should eat it the way it was meant to be eaten, but now, I sometimes find myself with leftover curry on hand, and no rice, and leftover pasta, and I think, "maybe just this once, I don't have to tell anyone about it..."

But I have decided to be honest with myself and own up to my non-snooty ways. I really like green curry with bowties. It's also pretty good with spaghetti.

I am not even going to try to justify this.

Linden's quiches, crusty or crustless

Good try, Xan, but you're going to have to wake up earlier than that to fool me! I've watched Ratatouille and No Reservations, so I think I know what happens in a proper chef's kitchen.

A proper chef's kitchen.

Of course these, days, it's just me cooking so I can't put any of that into practice. I know, you're thinking, "maybe she needs a pet!" but we have one, and far from helping me cook, he steals my food. One time, I put a scone out on my desk and went to make tea, and by the time I had, the cat had snuck into my room, a No Cat Zone, and jumped up on my desk and stolen my scone! I caught him walking out of my room with the whole thing hanging out of his mouth. So I'm not taking the risk of a pet, and I'll just keep cooking on my own for a little while longer.

But before I start all my cooking for the day I'm going to try and work through some of my backlog. This one is about quiche, which I know people don't really like for a variety of reasons, but I do, and it is super easy to make, so it happens a lot here.

Alas, the most delicious quiches involve bacon, which is solidly in the no-eat-zone, and while I can justify a little bit of it occassionally, I can't excuse a whole week of constant baconing (it's the nitrates, you can't trust them).

So instead, broccoli, which is much healthier, and vegetablarianer, than bacon. Swap in skim milk for the cream, add lots of cheddar to that, and delicious whole-wheat pie crust and you have a super-delicious weekful of lunches.

Plus, with the leftover pie crust, you can make proper pie! (Mm, look at all that rustic whole-wheat pie crust. (Don't be fooled by it's slightly darker color, that is not overcooking but wheaty goodness!))

If you are feeling lazy, you can leave out the pie crust entirely, and just have the delicious eggy cheesy bit. (This was a more recent go, the result of my lazy weeknightness and a leftover head of broccoli that wanted eating.

Linden's coconut shrimp

I made coconut shrimp.




Because my kitchen is really really not equipped to handle deep frying (and thus, alas, no spring rolls this summer!) I baked them in the oven instead of the traditional deep frying. They were delicious, and they would have been more delicious if England had anything other than dessicated coconut. Nevertheless! Delicious.

You may be thinking, "Linden, this is a sure Xan smackdown! He loves coconut shrimp and has never posted about the on the blog (although who knows, maybe once you post this, he'll dig up five instances of when he did it and have a little maniacal laugh in the corner, because he's not as nice as he fools everyone into thinking, and enjoys crowing like a crow. Why don't you sound more happy?"

It's because I'm going to link the recipe so that he can make them for himself, because I am a loving and devoted little sister.


Also, as requested in the comments, the link to the banana bread cobbler: that's the basic recipe, but I play pretty fast and loose. I think in the filling I subbed in 1/4C rum for 1/4 of milk, and used oil instead of butter. I think I left the topping as it is.

Linden's Linden-sized zucchini galette

So I don't know what other people do with leftover pie crust, but I have this enduring problem where when I make pies and tarts and quiches, there's always a bit of crust left, sometimes lots. So I have to make something to use it up, which is tragic. This time, to use up the edges of my quiche crust, I rolled out the scraps and made an individual-sized zucchini galette:

 Now my camera has forgotten taking a picture of the inside of this, so alas you cannot see its multiple layers. Beneath the zucchini is a layer of basil, beneath which is a layer of cheeeeses. Basically, you combine ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella (adding in lemon, salt, pepper, garlic, and what have you to taste), spread that on a rolled out pie/tart crust, leaving 1-2" empty all around. Then you add fresh basil, if you are feeling extravagant, and shingle zucchini on top. Fold up the edges of the dough. You're supposed to drizzle olive oil and garlic on top of that, and perhaps glaze the dough top, but that's a bit twiddly for a quick lunch.

Linden's Vegetable Lunch

So I'm slowly eating my way through all the vegetables that need consuming, but they're not nearly finished yet! My shelf in the fridge is extremely green. This also means I'm trying out new recipes for green things, which is always good. Yesterday for lunch, I finally finished off the quiche (today, I am going to kill two birds with one lunch and use the remainders of the quiche crust and zucchini to make a small galette), with a salad of roast asparagus, green beans, and homemade croutons.

So this is my lazy cheater's version of fake Panzanella (I think the only thing it has in common with traditional panzanella is the bread, honestly). I think there was supposed to be some parmesan sprinkled on top, but I figured there was enough cheese in the quiche and I didn't need to dehealthify the salad even more than it already was. I believe this salad is supposed to have peas in it, but I don't like having peas in this sort of thing because they are impossible to eat. You end up spending twenty minutes chasing peas around with your spoon, or if you're using fork they might get accidentally catapulted across the table. It just makes for an overall stressful munching experience. So, no peas! It's also supposed to be made with whole wheat bread, but that is not what I had. I had semi-stale sourdough (which is, you know, more delicious anyways.) But the salad on the whole is a good way to mix it up when you're just eating vegetamables.

Also, for dinner, I was ovening a sweet potato, and I added some brown sugar. (Well, demerara sugar, actually. One time, I sent two non-bakers to the store on a quest for brown sugar, and they came back with demerara. I have had a devil of a time using it up, until I realized it went well with sweet potatoes, and serves as a passable substitute for palm sugar.) The result was slightly caramelized sweet potatoes which was a delicious variation on the regular kind.