17 November - fishcakes and lamb with pesto

I used the bits of leftover cod from last night to make a couple of simple fishcakes for my lunch today with the rest of the (out-of-season!) peas on the side. While I was out on the terrace snipping some chives to go in the fishcakes, I was looking at the few carrots I tried to grow back in the summer that never really came to anything. I pulled up what was left and came back in with a handful of the most miniature carrots you've ever seen to add to my peas!

I was totally uninspired about dinner and as I wandered down the veg aisle in Sainsbury's, the only thing that caught my eye was some baby leeks - must be a thing for small veg today! Anyway, they seemed like something to go in a meat and two veg kind of supper, so I went for a favourite standby of lamb steaks with fresh, homemade pesto (I knew there was still some basil in the fridge). I was still a bit unconvinced when it came to supper time, but there is something quite therapeutic about making pesto and as soon as I'd dipped my finger in it, my tastebuds perked up. In the end, lamb and pesto with baby leeks and a blob of mashed parsnip turned out to be spot-on and exactly what I wanted after all!

16 November - a mexican-inspired lunch and cod with roast tomato risotto

Lunch today started off with the packet of corn tortillas I bought earlier in the week. I had a small tin of refried beans in the cupboard, so it was a Mexican-inspired lunch of warm tortilla with the refried beans, a couple of poached eggs and a blob of soured cream.

When I'd asked Tris last night what he fancied for dinner today, he'd said "fish", so I headed to Fishminster this afternoon to see what they'd got. I'd started off thinking of scallops with pea risotto, but they didn't have any, so I went for a big piece of cod instead and changed the accompaniment to roasted tomato risotto - inspired by a HFW recipe I saw a little while ago. I roasted a whole pile of halved tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, some chopped garlic and fresh rosemary for nearly an hour. When they were done I whizzed them up in a blender and stirred about half the resulting sauce into a plain risotto with some whole basil leaves. I trimmed the messy edges off the cod (and cooked them up in a bit of milk to use tomorrow), then popped the two resulting neat pieces in an oven dish with a little drizzle of oil and a squeeze of lemon and popped them in a hot oven for about 15 mins. The final combination was warm and tasty, but still quite light and fresh, definitely one to repeat.

10 October - thai-spiced parsnip soup and cod with chorizo

With the first parsnips in this week's vegbox, it seemed like time for some Thai-spiced parsnip soup; a fabulous recipe from Sophie Grigson's Vegetables. It's a bowl of sweet, tangy, spicy creaminess - although today without quite as much kick as intended as I used one of the chillis from the garden which don't seem to have much heat to them. Still a great lunch nonetheless.

• Sweat together in a pan a couple of chopped parsnips, a chopped onion, some ginger, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, a chopped red chilli and a bashed stick of lemongrass with a glug of oil for about 10 minutes.
• Add around 250-300ml vegetable stock and a tablespoon of Thai fish sauce and simmer for 10-15 mins.
• Take out the lemongrass, add 200-300ml coconut milk and liquidise.
• Gently reheat, add a good squeeze of lime juice and serve with a pile of freshly chopped mint and coriander.

For dinner, there were more root vegetables to eat up, so I started off with the idea of some mixed mash (potato and carrot). I didn't really fancy anything meaty, so I got a couple of chunky bits of cod and cooked them with some chopped chorizo and a few cherry tomatoes that were hanging around. It was quite a nice combination, but the tomatoes were a bit watery, so perhaps a proper rich tomato sauce might have been better. Nice chorizo-y juices though to mop up with the mash.

21 April - cod with Bengali-style mustard sauce

Today was a bit hectic, but I was determined to find the time for some proper cooking with lots of ingredients before we head off tomorrow for another week in a self-catering cottage. I chose a recipe from last Sunday's Observer Food Monthly magazine by Vivek Singh for fish (the recipe used halibut, but my local fishmonger only had cod) with a spicy curry sauce. I'm never 100% about fish curries, but in this one, you cook the fish and the curry sauce separately and just serve them together, which appealed to me. The original recipe includes three parts, the fish, the sauce and an onion garnish, but after a busy day, I gave up and omitted the garnish.

Fish & marinade:
two chunky cod fillets
a few black onion seeds
a few fennel seeds
salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Sauce:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
bay leaf
1/4 tsp black onion seeds
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
small onion finely sliced
1 tsp mixed grated ginger and garlic
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
small tomato finely chopped
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
250ml water
large green chilli slit lengthways
salt
sugar
pinch garam masala
fresh coriander
c. 200ml coconut cream

For the sauce, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the bay leaf, onion seeds and fennel seeds, then the onion. Fry gently, then add the garlic-ginger paste, chilli powder and turmeric. Fry for a couple more minutes, then add the tomato. Cook, stirring and mushing for a couple more minutes. The same with the mustard. Then pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Add the green chilli, a pinch of salt and sugar, the garam masala, coriander and coconut cream and leave to bubble gently.

Mix together the marinade ingredients and rub them over the fish - set aside for 10 mins or so. Then sear the fish on both sides for a couple of minutes in an oven-proof frying pan, before popping it in a hot oven (200C) for just over 5 minutes.

I then quickly wilted some spinach, put this in the middle of a deep dish and surrounded it with the sauce, before putting the seared cod on the top, sprinkling on a little more coriander and serving it with rice in separate bowls.

The verdict? It looked great and although the sauce was quite sharp and seemed a bit overpowering at first taste, it really grew on me. And because the fish isn't cooked in the sauce, you still taste it rather than it being drowned out by the strong sauce. Definitely one to try again, perhaps with the halibut if I can get some next time.