What to do with leftover egg whites? Make amaretti biscuits. Very easy recipe from Ottolenghi cookbook.

Decadence is…going to Waitrose with the car. No holds barred food shopping. Yum.

Dinner is to be smoked mackerel dauphinoise, made with this fine fish and lashings of cream from Farm Direct.

Pasta with broccoli & salad from the garden. Would have been even better if I could’ve found those anchovies I swear I had stashed in the cupboard. (Taken with instagram)

Another post-feast frugal meal. I raided the fridge for odds & ends and came up with this soup: shredded onions & white cabbage, fried up with caraway seeds. Added ham stock & pearl barley plus a couple of slices of lemon. Simmered for half an hour or so and served with a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of chopped dill. Feels really virtuous but tastes surprisingly rich & delicious.

After the carnivorous feasting of the festive season it’s a relief to go a bit vegetarian. This tart is from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. I never ate a recipe from this book that I didn’t like. And unlike many cookbooks I’ve tried lots of them. Really hoping there will be a book to follow his fab programme about Jerusalem food that was on BBC4 over Christmas.

Found hiding on the garden (Taken with instagram)

It’s a shame I forgot to take a picture of my lunch as it looked pretty as well as tasting good.  But I was too busy scoffing it.  I got the idea from a Nigel Slater recipe for a winter slaw of red cabbage, blue cheese and nuts.  

I do have half a red cabbage knocking about, and was about to use that, but then I realised I also had leftover cooked red cabbage, sweet and sticky (the recipe is from Trine Hahnemann’s Scandinavian Cookbook).  I reheated it in the microwave and then drizzled it with a dressing made of mustard, cider vinegar and creme fraiche, plus a pinch of sugar. I finished up with roughly chopped pecans and cubes of Shropshire Blue cheese.  Yummy.

Now all that’s left is the washing up (Taken with instagram)

@mikepearson has put on his Christmas jumper specially to carve the roast beef. Nom! (Taken with instagram)