16 June - broad bean salad and miso salmon with noodles

Lunch today was both beautiful and tasty - a whole supermarket bag of broad beans, podded, briefly boiled then slipped out of their skins, with some chopped tomato, then some chorizo briefly fried with some sliced garlic and parsley, all mixed together with a bit of oil and vinegar. Great colours and a really good lunch with a few new potatoes on the side.

I've had a pot of leftover sweet white miso paste in the fridge since almost the start of this blog. So I did a bit of online searching and came up with a recipe for salmon marinated in miso paste on the BBC Food website. I'd put a couple of salmon fillets in to marinate in the miso paste (I had about 150g left), c. 100g sugar, 100ml sake and 100ml mirin yesterday evening. You take the fish out and wipe off the marinade (which seems a terrible waste, but it's done its job). Then you simply place it on an oiled baking tray and pop it in the oven (180C) for about 10 mins, turning it over halfway through.

When it comes out, it looks fairly unexciting, but the flavours have definitely worked their way in and make a really tasty, but not overwhelming dish. I served it with some udon noodles, a pile of fresh peas and asparagus and a slice of lime, which worked really well squeezed over the salmon and noodles.

11 April - asparagus & miso chicken

Today saw a classic combination for lunch and a new recipe for dinner. With the arrival of English asparagus in the shops, I couldn't resist a Spring lunch favourite; asparagus with parma ham and a handful of new potatoes. On a busy working day, I didn't really have the time or patience to make any fresh garlic mayonnaise to dip in or hollandaise to pour over, so I went for a simple poached egg on the top instead. Trouble is I was so busy arranging the ham and asparagus on the plate ready for a photo call, I slightly overcooked the egg and the yolk didn't quite ooze as it should. Note to self, don't let keeping a record get in the way of the cooking or eating!

For dinner, I was tempted to go for another old favourite, but prompted by what I said in the intro to this blog about trying new things, I opted for a recipe I'd spotted in Saturday's Guardian magazine for dinner - Yotam Ottolenghi's miso chicken. I was a bit surprised to find the key ingredient, sweet white miso paste in my local Sainsbury's and the whole thing was pretty easy to make - just mixing up the marinade mid-afternoon and then leaving the chicken until the evening and bunging it in the oven. I didn't go for the accompanying Asian slaw, because I'm not really a fan of raw cabbage, so we had it instead with a few boiled new potatoes and some wilted spinach.

The verdict - well, as someone who doesn't eat chicken skin, I rather missed out on some of the miso coating, but what I managed to scrap off was very tasty and Tris gave it a thumbs up. So it might be one to go for again, perhaps with a variation on the Asian slaw next time to add a bit more punch. Now I've just got the rest of the packet of sweet white miso paste to use up in something else ...