SmarterFitter Daily

Stuffing: a mix of pesto, basmati rice, sauteed onion, red pepper, garlic, sweetcorn, kidney beans, fennel seeds.

This was the first Ottolenghi recipe I've made that I've found merely average. But maybe that's my own fault: I didn't know what "escabeche" was all about going into it. I saw saffron and garlic and shallots in the recipe, and though "mm that sounds good", but I seemed to glaze over the wine and vinegar bit that makes the resulting dish almost like a pickle. Very very vinegarry. I thought it needed some sweetness and spice, so had a bit of mango chilli sauce with it (really yummy stuff from the Wiltshire Chilli Farm). 

In addition to mackerel, the salad also had carrot, kidney beans, olives and chillies (yes, I like chilli with my chilli sauce).

Adapted from this recipe: Mackerel escabeche salad

Gosh, this picture is really unappetising. The dish was... OK. Admittedly, the escabeche (an Ottolenghi recipe) was supposed to marinate overnight and I only gave it an hour. I also had never had escabeche before and didn't realise it would be so vinegarry. Not sure if that's what I was up for tonight. It will be interesting to see what I think of the dish after a night of marination. 

Also had a glass of red wine, despite promises to self that I wouldn't. Oh well.

This was the packed lunch I brought to the office today (I've been working in London the past two days). My technique: when I make veggie chilli I freeze a bunch in individual portions. Then when I go on the road, I take one of those portions with me and it doubles as a "cooler" for my other foods. This time, the other items were a baggie of red russian kale, a wedge of lime, half an avocado and a few apples.

To re-heat this, I put the kale in the bowl and the chilli on top. Then I microwaved it - the juices from the chilli steamed the kale. Top it off with avocado (sprinkled with salt) and a squeeze of lime juice. Pretty stellar lunch, and very warming on an autumn day in London.