Monday’s Menu

Lunch:
Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Salad

I had a mixed leaf salad (including some baby beetroot leaves, as it happens), some cooked beetroot (natural, not the awful vinegar stuff), some lovely multi-seed brown bread and some English goat’s cheese (specifically ‘Kidderton Ash Handmade Goats Cheese’ from Tesco’s Finest range - the ‘Handmade’ bit made me smile, by the by. It doesn’t seem quite necessary or appropriate on a cheese, somehow). Anyway, it claimed to be smooth and creamy, and the description was admirably correct – I hate those soapy tasting, over-strong goats’ cheeses which you often get in France.

So I put the salad on a plate, together with two beetroots. Then I cut a slice of brown bread (removing the slightly dry crusts), cut three slices of cheese and put them on the bread, drizzled some clear honey over the cheese slices and popped it in the oven to grill. I took it out a few minutes later when the cheese was just starting to melt and the bread was browned and perched it artfully on top of the beetroot, at a jaunty little angle. A twist of salt, a twist of pepper, a drizzle of smooth green olive oil and a flourish with a bottle of Balsamic Glaze (sweeter and thicker than plain balsamic vinegar, but if that’s all you have it would do just fine).

I can tell you, it was really tasty and so simple.


Supper:
Monkfish fillets with flageolet beans and chorizo


I have to say, this really came out of the blue. I happened to notice I had a couple of monkfish fillets (courtesy of Waitrose) in the freezer when I was scrabbling around for something else. I also need to open a few tins this week as I need some empty ones to make a ‘Tin Can Alley’ at the girls’ summer party on Sunday. I seem to have a large quantity of tins of flageolet beans, so it was good to use one up. I also happened to have some ready cubed chorizo (something I spotted at Sainsbury’s last week) about my person and I was thinking about the various ways I could use it e.g omelette, with pasta or whatever. Suddenly the unassuming taste of the flageolet beans with the kick in the face taste of the chorizo seemed like a good combo.

I defrosted the fillets in the microwave for a couple of minutes and drained them, then put them in an ovenproof dish with some white wine (decent slug of Pinot Grigio), a little milk, some lemon juice (I squeezed just over half a lemon and poured in most of it, saving just a little back – about a teaspoon or so), salt, black pepper, dried herbs (a fish mix), fresh herbs (I remembered the fennel I have growing in the garden and picked a healthy bunch of its soft, feathery, aniseed-scented fronds together with some lemon balm – which grows like a weed here) and a dollop of garlic butter (Lurpak’s version). I then covered the dish with tin foil and popped it in the middle of the top oven of the Aga (i.e. medium heat) for 10 to 15 minutes. You don’t want the fish to dry out too much, but with all that juice, and covered up, it’s hard to spoil it completely.

Just before the end of the cooking time, I put the diced chorizo into a heavy based, non-stick skillet (or frying pan) and let it cook off for a minute or so. I then opened the tin of flageolet beans, rinsed them and then mixed them in with the chorizo. I then took the remainder of the lemon juice and poured it over the mix and gave it a good stir round.

I then spooned the bean and chorizo mix onto the warmed plates, placed the monkfish fillets on top and poured all the juices over the whole. It tasted fantastic – promise – and again, so easy.