179: A squid in the fryer, p276

I like squid a lot, but this wasn't a success. I don't have much luck when recipes call for ingredients to be tossed in flour - worse still when they are coated in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, turns into a sticky cleggy mess. A Cleggy Mess being nothing to do with the current government, of course. Ahem.

These (not so) little baby squids were fresh from the fishmongers two bus rides away, to whom I dashed away from work early tonight (red mullet tomorrow, hurrah!). Undercooked squid is disconcerting, overcooked is pretty horrid (like eating rubber bands, as Nigel says in the book), and I skillfully managed a bit of both here. The combination of ingredients promised much but sadly my execution of this recipe was a bit of a let down. A lighter touch, no flour, stirfrying, and a good squeeze of lime would have made all the difference. Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

114: Bread and tomato salad, p273

A simple salad jazzed up with the addition of anchovy fillets, olives and red wine vinegar. Not sure if the bread was supposed to be chopped up after baking, as it definitely didn't say in the recipe... I cut the oblong ciabatta into thick rounds so they were c. 2x3inches, mixed them with the salad and dressing, and then placed the bread in the bowls and piled the salad and poured the dressing on top, but I think it might have been better to chop the bread up into more bite-sized crouton pieces so they would soak up more of the juices and be easier to eat (who wants to be trying to cut pieces of crispy bread in a salad?? We used our fingers to eat the bread in the end...). If I did this again I'd also chop the anchovies up and mix them in the dressing and then dress the salad with them, to make the fishy meatiness of the anchovies go that bit further, throughout the whole salad.

106: Vietnamese beef salad, p191

Fiery!! A hot, sweet and sour salad to knock your socks off on a Tuesday evening. Yummy though. Wasn't sure about the choice of cut, sirloin is quite thick, but it did mean it stayed deliciously pink inside when griddled. Not so sure about the lime leaves - I couldn't get fresh leaves, and thought a jar of finely chopped lime leaves in water would do, but they were pretty tough and although they added the right flavour, also added the feeling that somehow lots of bits of dried grass cuttings had got into the salad. Ho hum.

99: Steamed sea bass with ginger and cucumber, p180

Not a whole seabass, as per the recipe, and not for one person - but two seabass fillets for a light lunch for two of us. And it was scrummy! More clean simple asian flavours, with the nam pla, soy, lime and coriander, served with jersey potatoes, very Nigel... And very simple. Never having cooked seabass before, one thing this book is definitely doing is teaching me to cook fish I wouldn't normally cook, which is quite fun. Yummy.

85: A cooling crab salad, p206

Oh dear, another dud for my tastes... It's partly my fault. I trapsed around Richmond looking for crab meat and all I could get was brown, which I thought/hoped would do. Then got home and found the bit in the recipe where Nige says 'I would normally suggest a mixture of both brown and white crab meat but with the melon it is best to stick to white meat'. Damn. Fail. And it didn't work. Maybe it would have worked with white. But I didn't like the other flavours in combination anyway - ginger and watercress and melon? Hmm, didn't work for me. The ripe melon was so sweet, it ended up quite sickly. Ho hum.

Another cake tomorrow, I think...

83: A radish, mint and feta salad, p195

Nope, didn't like this. Glad I only made a quarter of the recipe. Blurgh. Don't like radishes. Wish I did, they are one of the few things I can grow in the garden without fail, everytime, but they aren't for me. T turned his nose up at proferred bowl of salad, declaring that there was nothing of interest to him there... Me neither, even with the use of very cute British 'purple' radishes. So pretty. So radishy. Ick.

79: Lamb chops with oregano and tsatziki, p255

More nice fresh, summery flavours again tonight - not exactly complementing the grey storm clouds and drizzle that's accompanied the rest of the day, but we can try to pretend it's summer. Sitting inside in jumpers.

A simple tsatziki recipe - T surprised me with a revelation when I served this, saying 'I really do like tsatziki'. Which I immediately took as being sarcastic. Bizarre. Turns out he was being serious. Yoghurt? My husband likes a dish made mostly of yoghurt? Wonders may never cease.

The tsatziki of revelation was served with the very simply griddle pan fried lamb steaks, which were quite thick and the packet said '8-12mins', turns out 8mins is more than enough, and pinkness just about lost :( but the fat did go deliciously sticky and crispy. Served with steamed green beans and new potatoes. And a glass of white wine. It IS summer!

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.

56: Bean shoot salad with corianer and mint, p378

Jeepers!! I only used one chilli instead of two, and left it all for 5mins, not 15mins, and this was darned fiery!! Served with garlicky chilli prawn linguine, this made enough for at least four as a side dish. Can't think of an enormous amount to say... crunchy, tasty, but not the most substantial or filling of dishes so don't think I'd make this as a main course on it's own.

52: Five-spice quail, p169, and 53: A hot, sour bean shoot salad, p163

Quails. Possibly the most anthropomorphic little carcasses to cook with - especially when their little legs aren't tucked/trussed up as in a chicken you'd roast, but instead are sticking out in a slightly disturbingly human way - with little knees and calves - making them look like little decapitated bodies...

But oh so yummy when marinated in a garlicky chinesey spicy mix, and then roasted...

Very easy little recipe and surprisingly the meat didn't dry out at all and was deliciously moist, and the coating had quite a kick to it.

Went really well served with another lovely crunchy hot Asian-style salad (we're really liking these salads) with spinach and bean shoots, and a good dollop of chilli and nam pla.