Rabbit food

As some of you might know, I've gone vegetarian for Lent. With the possible exception a few of the times I had to eat out (I'm not sure I ever want to see another sweet potato/goat's cheese combo again in my life), it's been easy, fun and has prompted me to cook a lot more inventively than I would do usually.

I'm afraid that all kind of ended in the last couple of days; a boredom with beans culminated in a microwaved mushroom pasta for dinner tonight. This was the last thing I managed to think up before my brain collapsed into a bacon-deprived haze.


Purple Sprouting Broccoli Stir-fry

1 onion
Groundnut or other non-olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
100g purple sprouting broccoli
handful cashew nuts
2 tbs rice wine or dry sherry
2 tbs water
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs toasted sesame oil

Thinly slice the onion; thinly slice the garlic clove; chop the PSB into roughly three bite-size portions, depending on the size of your broccoli and the size of your bite; and roughly chop the cashews.

Heat a tbs or so of oil in a wok, and, once hot, throw in the onion; stir-fry over a high heat until well browned. Lower the heat slightly, then add the garlic, chilli, PSB, and cashews. Stir-fry again for a couple of minutes, until the garlic and PSB are slightly browned.

Tip in the wine, water, and soy, and bubble for a minute or two until reduced to a slightly sticky sauce. Add the sesame oil, then serve.


I had this as it was, but if you wanted to bulk it up with some rice or noodles, I'd suggest adding about twice the amount of all the liquids, so that there's enough sauce for that too.

Heaven is...

Sitting in an english country garden in the last of the late May sunshine, birds tweeting in the breaks between the songs on the Glee soundtrack, getting gently sozzled on gin at your parents' expense, and this for dinner:

Tagliatelle with Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Chorizo

Ingredients
75g tagliatelle
75g chorizo
75g purple sprouting broccoli (the thinner the better)
1 clove garlic, sliced
sherry
parmesan

Method

Stick your pasta on to boil, and, 5 minutes before it's done, put a frying pan on to heat up with a drop of oil in it. Chop the chorizo into very small cubes and fry for 3-4 minutes until it's released its oils and is getting crispy, then turn the heat down low and add the garlic and the PSB. Add a glug or two of sherry and scrape the pan to get any crispy burnt-on bits into the sauce. Drain the pasta, mix with the chorizo and PSB, then serve with a little parmesan grated over the top.


I made this with the very last of the PSB grown in my Mum's garden, but it would equally work well with the very first - you want the thinnest possible stems so that you can coil them round your fork with the tagliatelle.


You should probably also drink some sherry with this, but I'd mixed my second G&T before I thought of that.