SmarterFitter Daily

More like a huge pile of veggies on a puddle of cooked egg, but whatever. I am just loving the combination of ricotta and butternut squash lately. I roasted the butternut squash with lots of red onion and garlic, plus sage, chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Added the broccoli to the roasting tin at the end. Then it all went into a non-stick pan - poured in the egg, swirled it around, dotted it with ricotta and stuck it under the grill for a couple minutes. Amazeville.

Vegetable revelation: you can roast butternut squash with the skin on (the skin becomes soft and perfectly edible after roasting). Life just got simpler. 

Nettle and mushroom risotto. This was my second time ever cooking with foraged nettles, and my first time making risotto! I adapted the recipe for nettle risotto from the Vegetarian Cookery School which recommends a garnish of fried morels - I wish.

Instead, I did chestnut mushrooms in the risotto, plus a trickle of white truffle oil and some Cornish yarg to finish. I was pretty happy with this and would definitely try it again. The only thing I might to differently next time is blanch and chop the nettles before adding them to the risotto. Also felt it could use a squeeze of lemon juice, but is that wrong in risotto? I just don't know!

I will say this might be the start of a risotto kick. I've got loads of risotto rice around and it would help my mission to "use up the larder". I can also see risotto working well as a stuffing for other veggies, or as a quick breakfast from leftovers. 

Pretty awesome way to make use of any leftover bean dish: top it with a poached egg. And in this case, these beans - an Italian dish that includes tomato, greens, onion, garlic, sage and lemon zest - are the ultimate egg bed. 

Recipe: Fagioli All Uccelletto

&My new favourite omelet? Maybe. Here's the gist: sauteed red onion, cauliflower, garlic and peas with lemon zest, parsley and mint. Pour in the egg and swirl it around. Top with feta. Put under the broiler / grill for a few minutes. Service with more parsley and mint, rocket, avocado, sourdough toast and a lemon wedge. Rocked my world!

Oh yeah, this omelet is open-faced.

Adapted from my recipe for Cauliflower and Broccoli Omelet with Feta and Parsley.

On this night, i had just a few crumbles of feta and a small glass of red to accompany my veg chilli (a Shaw family fav) and sautéed spring greens and onion (a personal fav, especially with chilli). For garnish: lime, avocado, green chilli and pickled carrots. Now time to make some more veg chilli and restock the freezer.

The egg was from Gloria Nicol's chickens, and the bread is Azelia's sourdough. Doesn't get better than this. On the side: grilled tomato with feta; rocket salad.

Topped with rocket and avocado. Kind of like a frittata pizza.

Side note: I'm digging the combination of feta and avocado lately. That is all.

Had a Sunday pub lunch with friends at The Potting Shed pud in Crudwell (more photos here). I opted for two starters:

• Red mullet with coriander puy lentils and watercress puree
• Grilled portobello mushroom with stilton rarebit and walnut and red onion salad

We all agreed that the food was underseasoned but well prepared. Although it needed salt, I found the red mullet welcomingly simple and nicely cooked. And the mushroom was delicious. I would like to eat there again, maybe for dinner and see how they do with the main dishes.

I also shared a bit of dessert - pressed apple with blackberries and cinnamon ice cream (made on the premises). The apple and cinnamon were superb, but the blackberries were flavoured with orange zest (I think) which didn't really work with the other flavours. On a different dessert (or maybe on my morning porridge!) they would be very nice.