Variations on a theme

I've decided when lockdown eases to the point that going to a bookshop seems like a plan, I'm going to buy Lateral Cooking, by Niki Segnit. She wrote the Flavour Thesaurus, which several CKers use for inspiration.* This is more about how cooking evolves, so that bread recipes all have something in common etc. Using Kitchen Basics has convinced me that variations on a theme isn't a bad thing, especially when bespoke ingredients are hard to come by. Plus, the idea with Lateral Cooking is you evolve from a thing you know how to do (eg custard) to a thing that looks intimidating (eg panna cotta) or whatever.

I'm not getting it posted because all the bookshops sound stressed, my post has gone terrible, and the damn thing weighs 3lbs. I should have bought it at the British Library, when Liz took me to an interview with Segnit and Felicity Cloake. Would have saved time and effort.

But I am doing my best with variations on a theme. In my case, the repellent-looking but extremely reliable yoghurt marinade for poultry which I have done at least twice already in quarantine. Today I'm in Basics, making 'Persian skewers'. The difference is in the spicing, which is interesting and unexpected: cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg. Plus a grated onion and garlic into the yoghurt - this is one that you'll want a box grater for, unless you have a food processor. I kept expecting to add lemon or ginger, but no. And I didn't miss them. There should have been saffron, but I don't have it and don't much like it, so no loss. I didn't even bother with turmeric, which would have made things prettier...

This is a tiny pestle and mortar, not GIANT CARDAMOM

My only problem with the recipe is it recommends chicken thighs "cut into pieces 4cm square" which suggests the writer has never seen a chicken thigh. But we move on, and they roasted up rather deliciously.

Pleasingly solid choice for today - warm food, cold food, make up your mind weather

I also accidentally did myself an Elsewhere Kitchen for lunch. I had planned a lentil salad with goat's cheese and beetroot (Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen, which is always tempting but rarely leads me to actually make stuff) - but then discovered I had magret on the edge of being usable (Use by: 9 May), plus I do still have some SAVE BRITISH CHEESE cheese. So it was more an accumulation than a recipe, and I did a solid mustard vinaigrette instead of the lighter recipe, and it made me think of the kind of thing I make for myself, in France, when I have a hotel kitchenette and a supermarket shop.

Added some garlic cloves, to smush in the lentils. A Good Idea

Vinaigrette has dill in, which was the recipe, and is very good - add it all to the lentils when warm

 I stayed for a week in Nimes in 2016, about a fortnight after recovering from shingles. Far too knackered to do Proper Touristing in the region as planned, so I lived out of the convenience shop downstairs and occasional dishes from the Halles. Last year about this time I was in Lyon, in a nicer hotel (Staycity), but very much on the edge of the centre, and again I was mostly cooking stuff out of the standard suburban supermarket down the street. I love doing that. I want to be doing that now.

Didn't make enough lentils, really, so spreading it around three meals. But otoh have this excellent bread to use at present hurrah.

Instead, I am doing the bastard washing up AGAIN (I am not a fan of this chore anyway, but without the possibility of even one meal off it, I have rebounded in loathing). I am doing the unfeasibly full bins, and avoiding the eye of my neighbours, as five people pile out of their front door (they are a family of, I think, three, or possibly there are two kids). Oh, lockdown, where did your certainties go?

I am on holiday today, my first leave rather than bank holiday of lockdown. I was woken at 0712 by a text from work saying (I paraphrase): "Don't come in today. No, seriously. We mean it."

They haven't needed to send one of those for a while. So I think it's fair to say that whether we're level 4, level 3, level somewhere in between, we have entered a new phase of Confined.

Good luck, everyone.

*Current lot of stewed rhubarb has fennel seeds in. Intriguing, but not preferable to traditional versions. Still worth a shot.