Tonight's dinner

Someone suggested that because I like cooking I should write about it. Well I suppose the right thing to say is that I like eating. I don't cook elaborate recipes but I like to put together good ingredients with a minimum of preparation. Tonight I thought I would see if I could prepare, photograph and blog about my tea quicker than you can say indigestion. Here are the results.

A trip to the Co-op after work resulted in the following ingredients.

Salad leaves, shallots, toscana tomatoes, shitake mushrooms and from the delicatessen some Feta- like cheese from Greece and some marinated garlic cloves. I like to prepare warm salads, ever since my first experience of a warm goats cheese salad somewhere in darkest France.

I chop the shallots and slice the tomatoes. The mushrooms are small, so I leave them whole.

In one pan I fry the shallots and mushrooms in butter. I want a little bit of colour, but still want them quite fresh, meaty and soft. In another pan I fry the tomatoes lightly in olive oil, I just want to warm them up and release the sweet flavour.

And that's it - all finished in about five minutes. Dish out the leaves on a plate - I like to use a pasta dish for this. Break some bits of cheese along with a few cloves of garlic and the warm mushrooms and tomatoes. Season with fleur-de-sel and dress with a little olive oil.

Wel it wasn't too bad - the tomatoes are sweet, and the cheese is sharp. The mushrooms add a contrasting texture, and shitake have a good flavour.

Oh - not forgetting a nice glass of Chianti. Antinori is very reliable and you can find this stuff everywhere. Changed the denomination from Chianti Classico to Vino Toscana a few years ago in reaction to the stupid Chianti DOCG regulations. (Antinori is also responsable for many other fine Tuscan wines, including flagship Tignanello)