74: Roast pork with lemon and potatoes, p171

Not a radical one this, pretty much what it says on the tin - pork, with chunks of lemon and halved new potatoes around the meat, roasted. Unusual addition was fennel seeds added to the lemon and potatoes. Not entirely sure I liked it, fennel has an aniseedy taste which I don't really like, and, although there was only a small amount included, I think pork needs some strong flavours added to it to cut through the sweet, fattiness of the meat, and this wasn't enough. So it was just a little bit meh. The potatoes roasted up nicely though!

72: Mustard chops, p129, and 73: Lamb chops with lemon and mint and potatoes crushed into the pan juices, p155

Doubled up this one - five lamb chops in the pack, so did three with the mustard, and two with the lemon and mint. Efficient me! The mustard recipe makes a very simple marinade, whereas the other makes an oil in which the chops are pan fried, and I took the decision to pan fry the mustard chops instead of grilling in order to save on using everything in the kitchen at once... Unfortunately this meant the pan juices mixed a little, but I think we got the idea. The mustard recipe was nice but, much like the roast squash, not really anything that wasn't fairly intuitive... The lemon and mint was definitely the more subtle of the two, and the zing of the lemon juice and zest cut through that soft, sweet, fatty taste that lamb has very pleasantly. Served with the crushed potatoes of the second recipe, and steamed baby spinach, as suggested by the first recipe. Happy hubbie, and happy tummies all round.

** I definitely took a pic of these - but it's vanished from my phone! Disaster! **

71: Pumpkin and tomato laksa, p333

Scrummy stuff, this! Full of flavour, quite hot (!), creamy, and zingy with the lemongrass and ginger, and the squash and tomato cooked just right - still a bit firm and fresh tasting, al dente. Annoyingly, I found I'd run out of lime leaves, so had to miss them out... and where on earth can I get coriander root in West London?? The specialist oriental supermarket in Richmond doesn't have it... The 'only' other substitution was some very ripe, tasty vine tomatoes instead of the cherry tomatoes specified - in the interests of me actually managing to complete this challenge, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be a little less strict about following everything to the letter... :)

70: Roast squash with thyme, p330

This isn't a recipe!! Bake a squash, cut in half, with some bits and bobs on top. That's it! It is yummy though (according to me, not according to the hubbie who was conveniently out yesterday evening when I made this...).

69: Asparagus and lemon risotto, p176

Haha, a masterstroke!

A friend from work needed a place to stay overnight last night and I had already decided to make this recipe. That afternoon I asked him if this would be okay, and turns out he cannot eat either gluten or dairy - so a veggie risotto is just perfect (provided the Parmesan was only added to my serving, and I made a minor substitution using olive oil instead of butter to soften the onion).

Love risotto. Why do people always says it's so difficult? It only takes half an hour or so, and if you're pottering in the kitchen anyway, it's easy to keep stirring...

This was incredibly lemony though - and my rule to use the quantities Nigel states in the recipe (unless he specifically says to vary quantities/ingredients in the text) might have needed abandoning, had either of us had mouth ulcers... The zest and juice of two lemons, for a dish serving two people, jeepers! Although I didn't use a litre of stock, only 500ml, as the rice was cooked by the time I'd added this much, so that quantity seems a bit off.

I was worried that the asparagus, which gets popped in the pan fairly early on, might overcook and lose it's flavour, not to mention it's structural integrity, but surprisingly it didn't and it was lovely and tender when the rice was ready. Yum. And very pleasantly accompanied by a couple of glasses of prosecco, supplied by aforementioned chum.

68: My very good chocolate brownie recipe, p325

Oooooh, these were, and still are, very good indeed. Incredibly rich, dense, fudgey brownies, without any interloping ingredients like chopped nuts, just chocolatey cocoay goodness. This is supposed to serve 12, but I cut it into 24, and having tried a half a piece, this is definitely the sort of brownie one can only eat one small piece of at a time...And then need a bit of a lie-down...

Wasn't the easiest of instructions, to fold the flour and cocoa in to the butter/egg/sugar/chocolate mix in the bowl of the food processor, but managed, nonetheless, and soon the flat was full of chocolatey baking smells, making for happy hubby.

Only real problem was that for some reason, inspite of greasing the tin and lining the base with baking parchment, it was a bugger to turn out and I ended up cutting it in the tin and prising out the first few pieces. A few bits crumbled in the process, so it's not a neat brownie, but it was worth it...

Apart from a few pieces, sequestered for T, these are destined to accompany me to work on Monday as it's my birthday, and one must bring cake for morning tea if it's one's birthday.

**Aha, and I've done more recipes in the last week than I did in the whole of April - oh dear!!**

67: Taleggio and parsley cakes, p366

This seemed like a good idea at the time... leftover rice vs leftover risotto? Well, I had the former, not the latter, but hoped it wouldn't make tooo much difference. I think it probably did. For one thing, the little balls refused to hold together, so in desperation I mixed in a lightly beaten egg to try to bind the ingredients together. I'm not sure how much better risotto would have worked, but the resulting sloppy mess was unceremoniously dolloped in the frying pan, with a cube of Taleggio (Tescos sells Tallegio, in their Finest range, who knew??) inside each dollop, and fried until golden on each side. Bit of a mess, and nothing like the pic in the book, but made they were, and served to hubby as a pre-dinner snacklet (out to dinner with the in-laws tonight). In his words... 'Hmm. Quite nice', then 'Not bad', and then 'Definitely not inedible' - which weren't the best bits of praise I thought... It's true, they weren't bad, and the cheese was lovely, and interesting creamy, almost smoky, squeakiness like one gets with halloumi, but they weren't overwhelming. And they probably weren't meant to be. Perhaps a dollop of chilli sauce would jazz them up? This is a leftover recipe, after all, and no matter what people say about leftovers, I haven't yet found a leftover recipe that transcends the original, day before, recipe, I'm afraid... Finally word from T? 'I suppose they are a bit 'meh' really....'.

66: Chickpeas with harissa, basil and ham, p153

Mmmmm, another scrummy salad of sorts - again, no leaves! Except the basil, which again, damn, I forgot :( I also only used one tin of chickpeas - the tomatoes and aubergine roasted down to a really small volume and two tins would have made the dish mostly chickpea (one can definitely have an excess of chickpeas...), so took the executive decision to use just the one.

Tasty tasty roasted tomatoes and aubergine, with lovely oily cuminy juices. I think a little more chilli would have been a good idea, maybe roasted with the vegetables, or maybe my pot of harissa paste isn't a very strong one? Definitely too much oil for the amount of vegetables, at least twice as much, but the crispy prosciutto on top - mmmmm!! Lovely jubbly. And enough for lunch tomorrow!

65: Chicken and rice salad, p187

Am on a roll! Today used up some of the roast chicken from the other night in another salad to take to work. This one certainly didn't look very special - predominantly being rice and chicken, it was rather beige, and only a few bits of red chilli to jazz it up - no leaves*! Not even coriander (which I don't have anyway!). The fish sauce and lime went beautifully together, as always, but I would put more chilli in in the future as there wasn't as much kick as I'd have liked. And some coriander :)

*Except the mint, there was a small amount of mint in there... which went rather nicely with the savoury/sweet/zinginess of the other ingredients.

64: Spaghetti with new season's garlic, p137

Garlic-fest!!

Just a quick supper for me only tonight, and since I'd got some new garlic for the roast chicken yesterday, thought I should use some more of it up. Two teeny cloves and boy was this garlicky... I think I'd probably saute the garlic for longer next time to soften the 'effect' a little, but it was v scrummy nonetheless :)

This really isn't a very exciting picture...

63: A chicken roasted with new garlic and a fresh pea pilau to go with it, p184

Yuuuuuum. Can't beat a roast chicken. Especially not on a weeknight, what a treat! I had the cunning idea of chopping the legs/wings off and freezing them to use another day for other recipes, since it was only me and T for dinner - and having the added advantage of meaning the chicken cooked quicker too, about an hour plus 30mins resting. Perfick! Who says a roast is a faff and takes loads of time?

This was a very easy, quick way of roasting the bird, very similar to how I normally do it (upside down to start with, stops the breast meat drying out, and then right way up for last 30mins or so to crisp up on top), but rubbed with oil instead of butter as I usually use. Really super tasty, crisp skin - not sure that's a good thing though, as it means I eat more of it...

The new (green) garlic was amazing. Bit of a faff to parboil it first, and it ended up burning in the pan around the chicken anyway - not sure what I did wrong there, but it was a shame, and meant there wasn't much squidging of soft roasted garlic to be done, but it did manage to massively infuse the chicken and the gravy with incredible garlickiness. Yum! The gravy was amazing - mostly alcohol, and what wasn't alcohol was garlic :) Good times.

The pea pilau was a mini cheat... instead of fresh peas (in May?? Yes, I should be trying to be more seasonal... this recipe is from June in the book...) I used Bird's Eye's finest... but they were petit pois! And they are peas. Honestly, does it really matter that much? Hmm. Maybe it does? Ho hum. Ignorance is bliss. And the pilau was a different, but very good, accompaniment to the chicken. And the gravy. Mmm. Did I mention how good the gravy was?

62: A crisp salad for a cold day, p343

Have been slacking again, I'm afraid - a long family weekend, a conference abroad for much of a week, and returning home to find there's no food in the flat, let alone Nigel-style food, makes for a poor show. Must step things up again! (Ignoring the fact that the next two weekends are chocka too... weeknights it is then!). Order has been restored, with the arrival of half of the contents of Tescos being delivered yesterday, including such goodies as lamb steaks, lamb chops, a chicken, pork spare ribs, chorizo, new (green) garlic, kaffir lime leaves, taleggio cheese, etc, ready for some serious Nige'ing (To Nige: I Nige, You Nige, He/She/It Niges).

This was a bit of a cop-out, but I needed lunch to take in for work... Simple enough salad, crisp as the title would suggest, and cold day provided (where has May gone???) although I felt this could have been optional... It was fine for a lunch but didn't knock my socks off (more chilli needed, I think...), and although the very gingery and shalloty dressing was rather nice I'm sure it hung around a little more than was perhaps welcome...

I must also confess, I had the missing ingredient problem again. Halfway through preparation (more than halfway actually) I found that the coriander plant had died and gone to the compost heap in the sky some weeks ago, and what was masquerading as coriander on the windowsill, tucked behind the flat leaf parsley, was infact... another pot of flat leaf parsley. Why have I got two pots of flat leaf parsley? More importantly, what kind of dufus can't distinguish between flat leaf parsley and coriander?? Me, clearly. Embarrassed. But a quick google made me feel better, apparently they can look VERY similar... :(

So we ditched the coriander and imagined fresh coriander sprinkled on top whilst eating it. I did consider walking into town during lunch to get some coriander... but ditched the idea. Maybe it would have lifted the end result from being a fine lunch to something scrummy. Maybe... but for now it was just a good leftover user-upper.