Vegetable-y goodness

Our first organic vegebox arrived today. It was very exciting! What's going to be in it? What exotic foodstuffs are going to challenge me culinarily this week? Hmm, cauliflower, potatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms ... not much of a challenge so far, although they did contribute to a good veggie soup at lunch. But wait? What's this hiding in a paper bag? Beetroot. OK. Not so keen on the beetroot, but I have found a rather nice recipe on Orangette for a beetroot and feta tart, along with some recipes for a chocolate beet cake. No, it's not chocolate cake sandwiched together with slabs of the foul pickled stuff, but pureed beetroot mixed in with the cake batter -- a bit like carrot cake, which I adore. I will keep you posted on this one. I am, though, very pleased with my vegebox. The quality looks great and it will motivate me to try new dishes and ingredients.


Tonight, however, we had salad, the potatoes that I cheekily asked to be doggy-bagged from a restaurant on the South Bank last night, and Moroccan fish from my Mediterranean Street Food book. You marinade chunks of white fish in a mixture of onion, garlic, oil, parsley, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, and chilli peppers for 2 hours, toss lightly in flour, and deep-fry till brown. It was very good. And relatively healthy -- other than the deep-frying, and we almost offset that with our run. Fat offsetting: the culinary equivalent of minimizing your carbon footprint, only with fewer organizations letting you pay them to assuage your guilt.