28 May - chicken in cider

We had the rest of the vegetable tart for lunch with a few sauted new potatoes and a big dollop of mayonnaise - yum!

The recipe for dinner is based on another Nigel Slater, from an old Observer Food Monthly. I browned some chicken thighs in a pan with some oil and butter, until golden then removed them. I fried a handful of button mushrooms in the same pan, then added about 250ml of dry cider, returned the chicken and brought it to the boil. I turned it down, covered the pan and simmered for 30-40 mins. Then at the end, I added about 75ml of cream and a big handful of chopped tarragon. Served with a big pile of spinach cooked with some wet garlic and some asparagus. Really tasty!

26 May - spring vegetable tart

When I've been away from the kitchen for a while, I often get the urge to cook something a bit more involved and time-consuming. I'd clearly still got a bit of a thing about eggs going on, so I went for a quiche/tart.

• Roll out some ready-made shortcrust pastry and line a flan tin (mine's a smallish 18cm tin). Scrunch up a piece of greaseproof paper, then roughly flatten it back out to line the pastry case - the scrunching makes it sit better - and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for about 15 mins at 180C and remove.
• Meanwhile blanch some fresh peas and asparagus for a few minutes in boiling water and leave to drain. And gently caramelise a sliced onion in a little olive oil.
• Put the onion and the vegetables into the flan case and pour over a mixture of two beaten eggs, about 75ml single cream, a few chopped fresh herbs (I used mint and chives today) and some grated goat's cheese (I used Parlick Fell).
• Sprinkle a bit of grated parmesan over the top and bake for about 30 mins until it's risen and golden on the top.

Breaking my usual rule about green leafy salad, we had lamb's lettuce and pea shoots with some cucumber, cherry tomatoes and roasted red pepper on the side. Really tasty and summery and even better because the whole place smelled of baking.