I rarely take pictures while I'm cooking (so kudos to all those bloggers who do step-by-step tutorials), mostly because I'm up to my elbows and don't want to make more of a mess than I'm already making. But I happened to have these photo pairs and glancing back at them made me so happy.
This first pair is a lovely lemony meatball from Ottolenghi. I loved how orange that egg looked with the meat and seasonings. These were really delicious -- very light and juicy. I made a quick substitution of frozen edamame for the fava beans called for, and that made this a very simple weeknight dish. However, it ended up only somewhere on the mid-level of the Lucas Thumb Scale. I did much better subsequently with an adaptation of a kofte dish that was served with a tahini-yogurt sauce and a sauce of roasted peppers and pomegranate molasses over pita with caramelized onions.
The set below is a fabulous slow-roasted pork shoulder I did after reading a very enjoyable romantic comedy called Out to Lunch by Stacey Ballis. The novel is about a caterer who is mourning the death of her best friend and business partner while trying to pursue a romantic life, and it's peppered with delicious-sounding food. I was pleased when I reached the end of the book to find a collection of recipes for the dishes described. This pork sounded so good, and it was. After cooking it over all those vegetables, including fennel, the vegetables and pan juices are blended to make a delicious sauce. I served it with another dish from the book, a fennel-green apple-green cabbage slaw with a ginger soy dressing. This one got unanimous thumbs up. I wish I'd gone for an even bigger pork shoulder, because I could have eaten those leftovers for a week straight if I'd had them.
