Back to school

 I was a bit bored in August. Everything a bit samey. Taking days off work for a break from screen time, not because it was onerous but because time was dragging. 

Well. That started to shift last week, with some big issues arising. Today? I spent six hours in five meetings, and had to shift a fair amount of work around and between those sessions. That's a proper working day. Oof, I'm tired. And oof, the cooking I had scheduled is very much more on the lines of what would work for a bored, slow day. Not one where I unpeeled myself at quarter to five from a desk I hadn't left since 12.40 and went for a brisk stamp around several blocks to try to get my lower back to click into shape. Then made dinner (to follow) and roasted aubergines for lunches and started module setup for Job #2 where term starts on Monday and we've a whole new VLE to learn and *then* made it to a Richard Osman book launch event at 7.30. Not just Oof. Fwoof. 

If only yesterday's dinner had been today. That was "cut up some tomatoes and add a dressing". A fancy dressing, from New Kitchen Basics, with tamarind and ginger and zing. It's brown and blobbly, but lush, sour and spicy. The most complex part was remembering to get the ginger out of the freezer ten minutes before I needed to grate it. (Well, and buying the tamarind, but that was a Proper Lockdown benefit, when I was getting food delivered occasionally, and found someone selling block tamarind, which I've not had in for ages.)

 

Actually, dinner was almost as simple as this if I hadn't been messing with the aubergines too. Aloo chaat salad, from New Kitchen Basics - again, the hardest thing might be sourcing chaat masala, but it turns out I can get that from Waitrose... I feel a bit as though this is an early lockdown meal (or a Brexit stash reduction meal) but that's good, because it's cheap and repeatable.

Small potatoes, chopped bitesize, cooked until tender.

Cherry tomatoes, halved.

Tin of chickpeas, drained

Onion, chopped (soaked in lemon juice if you're a wimp like me)

More lemon juice

Seasoning

Coriander (plus chervil and sorrel here because my fridge is stuffed with herb ends)

Chaat masala - a couple of tsps for two servings. Be bold! 

Literally just mix and serve, with a topping of random bombay mix and a blob of yoghurt on the side if you like. I was bold with the seasoning and *definitely* wanted the yoghurt. 

This is really, really good, in fact. It's so simple and once you've got the spice mix sorted it'll be easy to repeat. Also, I now have a load of bombay mix spare to eat up. That'll help with tomorrow's hours glued to the screen.