What are you cooking/eating today?

which I must defrost! thanks for reminding me, Tep.

On deck today: ribs. It's Saturday. Ribs.

huge salad dinner
with sourdough, fresh tomatoes
(mac and cheese for kids)

(I say this having made toad in the hole before, of all things. Why? Because it's frickin called toad in the hole, how could anyone need another reason?)

This is one of my favorite fish to cook, but I haven't done very many things with it because it's so well-suited to my favorite way to cook fish that isn't salmon: simple coating in either crackermeal (breadcrumbs or Panko are substitutes) or sesame seeds, with a little salt and often whatever spices sound good at the moment, searing on both sides in a hot pan with enough oil to coat (they're not very thick, right? Searing will do nearly all the cooking), and then serving them with a squeeze of lemon, greens (collard, kale, mustard, what have you, washed well and dried, either cooked for several hours with beer and soy sauce and tasso, or stir-fried at as high a heat as the oil can stand with a little garlic thrown in at the last minute), and occasionally Teptartar sauce: bit of mayo, bit of chopped up pickled hot peppers, bit of green onion, bit of garlic.

Alternately, you can substitute tilapia for the chicken in my Blackened Chicken With Satsuma Vinaigrette recipe, on the "hit me with your best sauce" thread.

There is an art to cooking sausages however. None of this grilling nonsense unless you want to lose the flavour. They should be fried very gently in a heavy-bottomed pan, turning regularly to ensure even cooking. On no accoutn whatsoever pierce the skins as this reults in a disastrous loss of moisture (this is also why I don't hold with piercing chicken to see if it's done), this is why the cooking needs to be gentle. Cooked in this way the sausages should a ccrue an intensely savoury and sticky gel around their skins. Should take about twenty minutes to half an hour.

Then you put them between two slices of bread.

later I was thinking lamb chops, there's a nice rosemary and salt seasoning down there.

I won't be cooking tonight as I'm out boozing, but tomorrow I'll make some Thai green curry and also I'll marinade some chicken in yoghurt and spices for Wednesday as we picked up a big box of free range chicken pieces at the weekend.

Last night it was a small rack of young lamb, pink in the middle, puy lentils braised with pancetta,garlic and shallots, carrots done in a mixture of (a small amount of) water and butter and a few carraway seeds, and roast beetroot with red onions. It was weird to make a dinner with no rice, couscous or potatoes, but it worked quite well.

So far we have cooked: a potato gratin thing, spinach and potato curry (divine as always), big pasta and tomoato sauce thing, and yesterday an ill-advised risotto with porcini, sage and orange. It had quite a delicate flavour but was really too orangey, and in case I don't want delicacy when it comes to risotto, just nice rough comforting buttery, cheesy, mushroomy bite.

• a pound of small, whole red potatoes
  
• a pound of small, whole boiling onions
  
• very coarsely chopped celery
  
• Baby carrots
  
• Baby corn or canned corn (optional)
  
• A teaspoon of red vinegar (optional)
  
• 1 fresh tomato, coarsely chopped. (optional)

I'm prolly buying: a huge bowl of chili (with shredded cheese and tortilla chips, natch), salad and juice.

No cooking for me, tonight