Friday - Visitors!!

It's always nice to have people visit, and this weekend it's lovely to have Jo's folks around until Sunday. As ever, Jo is never happier when she is cooking for other people and last night we had a really good prawn curry with rice and a naan bread (ahem). I said naan bread is the most loose sense of the word as it did quite work out as Jo planned after leaving it in the oven for a little too long!! It did make a really well spiced crisp bread!!

Later on today we are eating at the Deer Park which I am sure will be really good, but I'll be staying off the booze and eating a load of carbs as I am running the Liversedge Half Marathon tomorrow morning which I am quite looking forward too - I think I am getting to much into this running lark! 

M&S starter treats

Prawn curry

Rice

Crispy naan bread

Diner one - Sheila Mum

Diner 2 - David Dad

Diner 3 - Chef Jo

Diner 4 - Me!!

Wednesday - Safran with Hunter Pig

On Wednesday I went with Hunter Pig for a bite to eat at Safran followed by a couple of cocktails at Wax Bar and Juke Joint which is newly opened on North Street. We had both heard really good things about Safran and it didn't let us down. The restaurant is a little off the beaten track, but it is definitely worth making the effort to find - don't get me wrong, this is no fine dining but a family run Persian restaurant that cooks simple and interesting food really well at a bargain price - at the moment it is had a BYOB policy which is another big plus point, although they are actively looking to get an alcohol license at the moment. The food is very similar to Davish which we reviewed last year, so have a look here for a more detailed run-down of the sort of food to expect - they are both delicious but for me Davish has the edge.

Kaskh Bademjan

Freshly cooked bread

Mixed starter

Chicken wrap - this was outstanding!!

Short and strong cocktails!

Thursday Chilli Treats

My parents are here this weekend for a visit, so on Thursday we had the usual mad panic trying to tidy the flat and remove all evidence of our usual slovenly lives.  I'm sure many people find the same: given only two of us live here, we seem to make some mess!! I don't know what we'll do if/when we have kids...will need to get a live in cleaner or something! 

Anyway, running around cleaning the house means just one thing - left overs!  Lucky for us our left overs are usually pretty good.  This time it was chilli, with salad and pitta bread.  I actually think something like a chilli or a curry benefits from a bit of time letting the flavours come together.  All in, it was a pretty tasty treat.

Chilli

Chilli with salad and jalapenos

Wednesday Jo at Home

On Wednesday, sob sob, I was abandoned at home while Joe lived it up in town.  When I say lived it up, what I mean is he and Hunter Pig (his other wife) went for dinner and cocktails like a couple of girls.

I stayed at home and put stamps on our wedding invites - rock on!  To cheer myself up I indulged in roasted vegetables with Mexican spices and a poached egg.  Woop woop!  For a more exciting blog post, perhaps see Joe's simultaneous post about his dinner - much more fun!

Roasted veg and an oeuf - an action shot!

Tuesday's Faux Italiano Treats

Today Joe Jedi-mind tricked me and somehow I ended up having a pork pie for lunch.  Not just any pork pie (cue Dervla Kirwan voice over...) these were Wilson's Butchers pork pies, aka the best pork pies in the world (as far as we've tasted anyway).  Joe is a little obsessed with pork pies to the extent that he knows the delivery schedule: every Tuesday and Thursday at Brill sandwich shop near the courts in Leeds.

Having scoffed down a fat (and admittedly very, very tasty) pork pie for lunch, I spent the rest of the day in a hot water pastry induced guilt fest.  Ah, the perils of being so food obsessed.  So when I got home all treats were off the menu and lots of vegetables were in: I was going to get my week's worth of vegetables in one day.  This is perhaps a slightly delusional and illogical way of dealing with it, but things worked out fairly well in the end.  Joe got to savour one of @gustoitaliano's pastas, with a rich tomato sauce and tons of roasted Mediterranean vegetables, and I ate, well, tons of vegetables.  And no biscuits.  I might have lost the plot.

Penne pasta

Rich tomato sauce with basil and mozzarella

Roasted Mediterranean vegetables with bacon

And Joe's bowl, which also looks rather healthy!  Perhaps I'm brain washing him too...

Monday - Beef Stir-Fry

Ok, we have stir-frys at least once a week and always with prawn crackers, and not often enough with spring rolls in my opinion!! 9 times out of 10 Jo says a authoritarian NO to spring rolls and on reflection I can see her point - I am a glutton and she is not! Tonight to shake it up a little we had quick fry beef rather than the usual prawns, and even taking into account that it was a little chewy, it was a really good stir-fry with a crunch to the vegetables, some heat from the chillis and well cooked noodles - Bravo!

Sunday Roast Chicken and Risotto

I sometimes think I'll make a terrible wife as I'm really not one for the traditional Sunday roast.  There's nothing wrong with it, I'm just not a huge fan of roast beef, roast lamb, all the trimmings....it doesn't seem very exciting. 

I will make an exception for roast chicken though - I think a properly cooked roast chicken is an absolute delight - juicy, moist, full or flavour.  It also suits a huge range of accompaniments - no soggy carrots and flaccid roast potatoes for me! 

This weekend my roast chicken was done with a paprika, oregano and olive oil marinade, pea and bacon risotto and broccoli.  I cook a chicken for around an hour and a half and rest it for at least 20 minutes - the result is really tender and juicy meat packed with flavour.  As its bloody freezing outside, it seemed only right that it was accompanied by a rich and creamy risotto.  The broccoli was only really there for the 5-a-day thing but you know, no one's perfect.

Roast chicken

Pea and bacon risotto

And a super juicy chicken leg