The winter return

 I'm off to the office tomorrow, because life is normal now. I mean, I may not make it back there again till mid February because due to covid infections my current assessment round has been smushed from its usual c6 weeks of interviewing into c3 weeks of interviewing, and I can't do those days in the office. And therefore I really, really can't afford to get covid this coming month. I am FFP2'd up for the Tube. I'm very calm.

I'm so glad other people posted for the last ten days or so as I've been in a tremendous slough. Cooking familiar stuff, and limply so. Or taking genuinely dreadful photos (there were some nice prawn tortillas with what should have been a cabbage slaw but was actually lightly braised cabbage and tomato with lots of lemon; but simply impossible to share in public). So much meh. 

But! It's a new week and almost a new month, and I'm cooking properly, and cooking to my February theme already. I had Eastern Mediterranean down for the month but then realised I'd omitted any other Middle East coverage so it's now Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Iran, Cyprus... and it's basically not so much a theme as a tectonic plate. I have so, so many cookbooks for this, and I suspect it'll be relentless this month rather than just the odd themed dish. But then, it covers a zillion styles. 

As indeed, I am proving today, just picking a chef by nationality can get you any manner of options. I am cooking Ottolenghi. Onna Monday, like a fool. (I've got some aubergines roasting in the oven too, which is Nigel Slater but feels reasonably in keeping, as it's for some garlicky smushed aubergine and that is surely originating from this extremely large region.) 

Lunch was rather good and quick enough I didn't regret doing it for lunch: herby beans with tahini. A can of cannellini beans, warmed with a bit of extra water and salt for 15 minutes while you sort out two things. One is a quickly blended mix of a handful of the beans, with parsley, coriander, chives, garlic, lemon and oil. And the other is a splodge of tahini with lemon. 

Mix the green stuff into the warm drained beans, splodge on tahini sauce, maybe add some za'atar if you a) own it (I do) and b) and can find it (ahaha not so much). This is random dukkah and sumac which are on my spice shelf and seemed a suitable crunchy and sharp alternative. Hopefully the leftovers won't leak into my work bag tomorrow, as this is what's lunching.

 

Dinner? Cauliflower cheese, that famously Mediterranean dish. But it's Ottolenghi cauli cheese, and no white sauce in sight. Steamed cauli. Sweated onion. 

 

Add spices to the onion (mustard, cumin, curry powder), add cream and Cheddar. Warm it for a few minutes to thicken. 

 

Then bung it in the oven for a relatively short time (10 minutes or so), till it's bubbling. Wipe the pan sides so there's no cream or it will burn, said the recipe. Believe the recipe.

Also believe the recipe that saving a bit of cheese for the topping would be better than just breadcrumbs. I knew that.

I did want to add a final proof of the January (Italian) challenge. Which is what happens to polenta when you make it in a pan that you previous stewed mushrooms in, because you're going to eat them together and you still don't have a proper kitchen sink and... well. I regret nothing, much. It's very tasty cheesy polenta with thyme mushrooms and what should be taleggio but is actually morbier. But it is quite grey in parts. 

I am hoping for a more balanced, if busier, February. Still to find my pandemic equilibrium again, I fear.