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.

7: Chicken salad with watercress, almonds and orange, p85, and 8: Bulghur wheat with aubergines and mint, p19

Dinner tonight is going to finish off the roast chicken in a meaty, wintery salad, with one of the veggie recipes as an accompaniment, as T's going to be home from work late, with lots of snow still around and bulghur wheat and aubergine alone wouldn't exactly be likely to enthrall :) I'm off to pilates beforehand so looking forward to something a bit lighter and refreshing for dinner.

Why is Nigel Slater not fat??? Leaving aside the number of cake recipes in the book, the quantities, the quantities!!! Both recipes today are down as serving two (albeit with seconds for the bulghur wheat with aubergines...) - you'd have to eat huge portions to eat either of these in one sitting, but hey! They went together well, as T said, although the almonds in the salad seemed a bit pointless (and enormous) what with pumpkin seeds in there already adding crunch.

The bulghur wheat recipe will make a good lunchbox meal in the future, and the salad will definitely be one to make again in the summer with leftover roast chicken...