Day 25

Well it seems that I wasn't the only one ill. There must have been about 15 people off sick today. God I hope it wasn't food poisoning.

After missing out yesterday by not making my Chocolate and Pear tart, I came in today and found out that I was to make a Salmon and Fennel Pate, Irish Stew, Cucumber Pickle and Buttered Cabbage. So a pretty full day, but nothing there that really was going to break me in to a sweat.

Irish Stew is lovely, the Pate was loveley, although certainly very rich, so not something I was going to be eating too much of, and the cucmber pickle, well my god, it was nice, but I never realised how much cusgar went in to it. And I've finally found out how to cook cabbage properly. It so easy and not too far removed from cooking spinach, just use the barest minumum of water and chuck some butter in there and stir for a bit.

Right it's Recipe time now....

MARK'S RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Piperonata

I love this dish, it's a really basic tomatoe sauce that really can be used with loads of food. Fish, Chicken or just with pasta. I'd say it's probably not robust enough for red meats though. But hey, try it and have a go.

About 20ml of Extra Virgin Oilve Oil
2 Red Peppers
2 Yellow Peppers
2 Medium sized Onions
Basil
1 tin of tomoatoes (or the equivalent of fresh, but for the love of god don't use them at this time of year as they taste like dog food)
Salt and Pepper

Right, this is what you need to do. And you really must follow this exactly to get the very best results.

Slice the onions. That's SLICE, not dice. Cut the onion in half first though, we're not using onion rings here.

Heat the oil on the lowest heat in a heavy saucepan, or a Le Creuseut if you have one, and add the onions. Cover the onions with grease proof paper, and put the lid on And leave to sweat for about 10 mins. Check them every few minutes to make sure they're not burning. And stir them too. After about 10 minutes, they should be really soft and really clear. If you're not sure they're clear, have a look at a stray piece of onion that maybe didn't make it in to the pan so you can compare.

While this is happening, you can slice the peppers, try to cut them at an angle, it just makes the final product a little bit more interesting. When you're happy that the onions have fully sweated, add the pepppers to the pan, and then do the same as you did with the onions. It should take about 10 - 15 minutes for them to get very soft.

When the peppers are soft, add the tomoatoes, with the juice. Turn the heat up a little, and allow them to simmer for about 20 minutes. Leave the lid on the pan. Then remove the lid for about 10 minutes, you should have a stew with a nice consitstency now.

Hopefully if my method is good, you'll have a weet fruity tasting dish, if it's not, post a comment and I'll see where I can help.