Parsnips and pears!

First parsnips of the season in the veggie box this week! I love parsnips. A definite sign winter is coming though.

I've not done so well on the blog posts but have been trying some new recipes. Last week I was inspired by watching Masterchef: the Professionals to try and create something with a few more interesting flavours. I had a recipe I'd cut out of the paper last year for a warm salad of beetroots roasted with olive oil, garlic and rosemary (thyme too but didn't have any), served with pear and blue cheese, drizzled with honey. That was gorgeous. My favourite salad ingredients right now are pears - salad leaves, pears, walnuts and blue cheese is a quick and easy one. And it goes well with a dressing made of wholegrain mustard, olive oil and cider vinegar.

But tonight it's got to be roast parsnips!

Cavolo Nero and Cannellini beans

I realise I've not done so well at my resolution to cook a new recipe each week - as promised in 25th July post! I have cooked a few new dishes but certainly not once a week and I've failed to document any in the blog! Well, I'm going to have another go. I'm inspired partly by the new film Julie & Julia (though I've not actually seen it yet) and by my boyfriend complaining that I keep on cutting out recipes from the paper but have a stack of recipe books in the cupboard that I don't use enough!

So, last night, I had a look to see what we had from this week's veggie box and consulted the cookbooks for a new recipe. We had some Cavolo Nero (black cabbage) a bunch of dark and bumpy leaves I've had before but didn't really know how to cook. I went first for Giorgio Locatelli's Made in Italy mega- hardback and found a recipe for Pork fillet with black cabbage and cannellini beans. It gave great advice on how to cook the cabbage - with onion and for 40 minutes to bring out the flavour and reduce the bitterness, whereas my first reaction would be to cook it fast like spinach. My boyfriend cooked the pork as instructed (while I had a quorn substitute) and I cheated on the beans by using a can but cooked them with garlic and olive oil as in the recipe. We didn't have any sage so used rosemary with the beans, and no pancetta for the pork, but our Locatelli-ish dinner was fantastic. The beans were good with the garlic and rosemary, and the cabbage was really tasty. Definitely one I'd cook again. And leftover beans made a great spread for snacking today!

Asparagus season

My first blog posting! Another first for today .... first local asparagus of the season. Ate it steamed with lots of butter, salt and pepper. All you need!