My friend Vicky texted me from the pub the other day to say that she'd brought in some home-grown veg for me - she's been promising me all sorts of delights from her garden for several weeks now! Some cherry tomatoes, on the vine, lasted about 2 minutes before I'd scoffed the lot! The baby aubergines had been grown in the open and she was concerned they might be a bit hard; the shape of the courgette might not have satisfied the supermarket purchasing polizei but looked excellent to me!
My roast vegetables included carrot, for a change from the mundane: a little olive oil to moisten, a sprinkle of S+P (I've never held with pre-salting and draining aubergines) on the carrot and aubergine and into a hot oven for 20-25 minutes; add the courgette batons and the red onions, mix well and bake for a further 20-25 minutes.
I had earlier poured myself a glass of cider but decided after a couple of sips that it was too flat to drink......The pork loin steaks I had were too small to have just one so I augmented with 3 rashers of bacon (rather than being REALLY greedy and gorging on 2 steaks!). Into a casserole dish with a cup of cider, half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1 tsp chopped chives and 2 quartered mushrooms. Bake @ Gas Mk 6 for 30 mins, pour off the cider into a pan (keeping meat warm) and bubble vigorously to reduce to about a kitchen spoonful (approx 50ml). Check seasoning - I added a little S+P and half a tsp sugar to get the flavour I wanted.
New potatoes slathered with real butter to complete - what a trumph!
