Pig-on-pig with brocolli and caponata

Wow, this dish inspired me to get blogging again - it just looked so appetising I couldn't resist photographing it. (And now we've found our usb/camera lead, I can actually upload pictures again which makes blogging seem work it.) Fortunately this meal tasted just as good as it looked - a great Sunday night dinner. I wrapped a pork fillet in streaky bacon which had been layered and spread with grainy french mustard and roasted it for about an hour at somewhere around 180/200 degrees centigrade. We served it with tenderstem broccoli and a sort-of caponata (which I rustled up with aubergine, red onion, capers, tomatoes and some herbs). The caponata was delicious the today for lunch with a wholemeal pitta. Yum. I'm so happy I bought another pork fillet which is sitting in our freezer waiting for a suitable occasion, which for us piggies will probably be next weekend...

Sainsbury's tomato and basil soup

It's really nice. A powerful tomato flavour with big chunks of tomato and and bits of onion, and you can see the basil, which I like. I'm not a big fan of thick, smooth soup that kind of coats your teeth and this isn't and doesn't. I don't understand why people like soup to have no bits - it's just boring. Anyway, I sometimes have half a pot but today I had a whole. And I grated lots of parmesan on the top - living dangerously!

Boxing Day Turkey Curry

And here is the Boxing Day turkey curry, made by my brother to a secret recipe - I'll get it out of him soon. We had it with daal (lentil curry - pulses aren't my favourite food, but I'll try most things), a delicious onion salad (made with white onions, tomatoes, cucumber, cumin and lemon juice, I think), yoghurt and tortillas and pittas instead of rice. I was too full to appreciate it really, but it was good.

Delectables Fine Foods tomato and beer chutney

We bought this chutney at BBC Good Food Fair. The Fair was dreadful but thankfully the chutney is delicious. It's got very few raisins in it, which is a blessing, and it has a perfect balance of sweet to spice - a lot of both, in fact. It's a good tomato chutney colour (dark, orangey red and unctuous-looking); the texture is slightly sticky in a great way - almost jelly-like (redcurrant rather than Rowntree); the spices give it a wintery flavour (it smells of cumin and allspice) and, reliably, it tastes of spicy beer with a bit of tomato, onions and cider thrown in.

It says on the label 'for cheddar' but I can happily say it's splendid with a range of hard cheeses. (I'm currently nibbling it with some hard, crumbly English sheep's cheese - when I find out what the cheese is called I'll let you know.) It also says 'One of Rick Stein's Food Heroes' - it's a bit tacky having that displayed so prominently on the label, but I'm sure it gets the punters buying it so I can't really blame them.