Napa cabbage au gratin

Years ago, I asked Husband-then-Boyfriend to pick up a head of cabbage on the way home from work. I thought this would be fairly straightforward for an Irish lad. He came home with cabbage alright, but rather than the green or white variety that's commonly found in Ireland, he presented me with a head of napa cabbage. When I asked him how come he picked this 'exotic' variety, he said, rather logically, that he assumed I'd want it as I was Asian ...

So years later, whenever I see napa cabbage in the shops, I'm reminded of the incident and would enjoy an inner chuckle.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a beautiful head of napa cabbage and smokey cubed pancetta. For dinner, I made a dish that my mum used to make when I was a kid -- napa cabbage au gratin, complete with homemade, wheat-free Bechamel.

Napa cabbage au gratin

Honey sriracha chicken

Watched how sriracha sauce was made on 'Food Factory USA', and it inspired me to make honey sriracha chicken legs for dinner.

Honey sriracha chicken

Pan-roasted cod topped with pesto

Pan-roasted cod, topped with pesto, roasted cherry tomatoes on the vine, spicy Maris Piper wedges roasted in duck fat, blanched broccolini

Pan fried cod with salsa cruda

Pan fried cod with salsa cruda, served with sautéed broccolini & green beans 

Good Friday dinner: grilled salmon with cream cheese sauce

I got some gorgeous fresh organic salmon fillets and grilled one fillet on Thursday. Husband was working late and had to skip dinner that night. But it actually worked out as the next day was Good Friday and being a (semi-practising) Catholic, he had to eat fish.

Grilling salmon is nothing new to me and I am pretty confident that I can get crispy skin each time. But I wanted to try something new with it so I opted to make a cream cheese sauce to accompany the fillets. I also roasted some baby potatoes in duck fat and blanched a handful of runner beans.

Grilled salmon with cream cheese sauce, roasted baby potatoes, blanched runner beans

Grilled pork chop with mushroom mustard sauce

Grilled pork chop with mushroom mustard sauce, served with baby potato & courgette hash and steamed mange-tout

Duck with cranberry sauce and potato hash

Duck with cranberry, orange & coconut sauce
served with sweet potato, baby potato & Brussel sprout hash

Cranberry orange coconut sauce

Cranberry, orange, coconut sauce

35th birthday dinner

organic strip loin, rosemary potatoes roasted in goose fat, sugar snaps, cheesy garlic biscuit, salsa pepolata

dark chocolate chai cake

Salsa pepolata