Seriously, it makes such a difference. Last night I blagged a lift off my parents so I could get heavy stuff from the supermarkets that I couldn't carry myself. I needed things like big bottles of soft drinks and bog roll as well as the rest of my shopping. I had a few ideas of what I wanted for dinner. Pretty good ideas in my opinion. It was a choice between
- Calves liver with port and sage served with tagliatelle.
- A non-cheat version of this
- Chicken livers with a walnut and raspberry vinegar dressing, new potatoes and a nice salad
Dad didn't want to go to the big 24hr Tesco. That's fair enough. It's a horrendous place to drive to even if you do know the way. So we tried the relatively small Sainsbury's in Fulham.
What a mistake! There was nothing there! They were out of pretty much everything except chicken breast and various types of beef steak. There wasn't even any smoked haddock. I left with fillet steak and lambs liver, the only two things worth getting. I really wished we'd gone to the 24hr Tesco. This happens every time we go to smaller stores.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm definitely not knocking Sainsburys. Just pointing out the superiority of really big stores. The 24hr Sainsbury in Kensington is great for speciality items and the nearby Tesco is a bargain hunter's dream. Even if they run out of a couple of items, there's always lots of things to substitute and often suprising things to try out, like the oxtail I found the other week.
So I was stuck with lamb liver and not much else. I tried lambs liver with tomatoes and pasta recipe out again using the absorption pasta technique.
I know I said I probably wouldn't use the absorption method on a regular basis but I've changed my mind. The pasta, this time cooked in tomato juices and red wine, was amazing! It tasted so strongly of tomato, wine and garlic. The velvety texture of the absorption pasta is also growing on me.
There's one less pan to wash up too! 
One thing I've noticed since getting into food blogging is how much you learn from cooking everyday! Last night's liver was pretty bad. The pasta was lovely but the liver was really bitter. Some foodies inform me that this is because liversometimes gets contaminated by bile. So, if you see your liver looking slightly yellow, green or irridescent, trim that bit off because it'll be bitter. Apparently also soaking it in seasoned milk helps.
Unfortunately my lamb liver tasted like all of it had a good soak in bile. Never mind. We live and learn.
Seriously, it makes such a difference. Last night I blagged a lift off my parents so I could get heavy stuff from the supermarkets that I couldn't carry myself. I needed things like big bottles of soft drinks and bog roll as well as the rest of my shopping. I had a few ideas of what I wanted for dinner. Pretty good ideas in my opinion. It was a choice between
- Calves liver with port and sage served with tagliatelle.
- A non-cheat version of this
- Chicken livers with a walnut and raspberry vinegar dressing, new potatoes and a nice salad
Dad didn't want to go to the big 24hr Tesco. That's fair enough. It's a horrendous place to drive to even if you do know the way. So we tried the relatively small Sainsbury's in Fulham.
What a mistake! There was nothing there! They were out of pretty much everything except chicken breast and various types of beef steak. There wasn't even any smoked haddock. I left with fillet steak and lambs liver, the only two things worth getting. I really wished we'd gone to the 24hr Tesco. This happens every time we go to smaller stores.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm definitely not knocking Sainsburys. Just pointing out the superiority of really big stores. The 24hr Sainsbury in Kensington is great for speciality items and the nearby Tesco is a bargain hunter's dream. Even if they run out of a couple of items, there's always lots of things to substitute and often suprising things to try out, like the oxtail I found the other week.
So I was stuck with lamb liver and not much else. I tried lambs liver with tomatoes and pasta recipe out again using the absorption pasta technique.
I know I said I probably wouldn't use the absorption method on a regular basis but I've changed my mind. The pasta, this time cooked in tomato juices and red wine, was amazing! It tasted so strongly of tomato, wine and garlic. The velvety texture of the absorption pasta is also growing on me.
There's one less pan to wash up too!
One thing I've noticed since getting into food blogging is how much you learn from cooking everyday! Last night's liver was pretty bad. The pasta was lovely but the liver was really bitter. Some foodies inform me that this is because liversometimes gets contaminated by bile. So, if you see your liver looking slightly yellow, green or irridescent, trim that bit off because it'll be bitter. Apparently also soaking it in seasoned milk helps.
Unfortunately my lamb liver tasted like all of it had a good soak in bile. Never mind. We live and learn.
