phd meals

Solo meals are, in my head, referred to as 'phd meals'. The gent has been immersed in his study pretty intensively recently, digging in his spurs as he nears the home run. Which, necessarily, is uphill, in the rain and the horse has a wall eye and a gammy leg. So seems to be the consensus amongst those who have passed the finish line.

I envisaged cooking up a storm whilst he wrote his thesis, he pausing only to refresh his senses on the delicious stews and lightly spiced curries before heading back into the slough of despond (Pilgrim's Progress is providing me with some choice phrases at the moment). In reality this just turned into another distraction for him, so he is banished to eternal pasta 'n' pesto, and I am re-living some of my favourite single-girl meals.

You wouldn't really match that phrase with the meals though. Tonight I have a chorizo-less version of the chicken and chorizo stew I often make*, and I reckon it could modestly feed 4 or 6 people, if served with couscous or rice.

The long daylight, though delightful, tricked me into missing the butchers on my way home, but I stubbornly felt that there was still some joy to be had of this dish, even without chorizo. It retains the smoky paprika base with onion and garlic, (and some unnecessary fresh green chilli that I just can't leave alone) but is then ratatouille-ed up with courgette, carrot and lots of tomato. As the clock neared 10pm two cans of chickpeas went into the pot, to save me pulling another pan out of the cupboard for cooking potatoes or similar.

The result? Well, it is much fresher-tasting than than its predecessor, making it unintentionally, but appropriately, summery. And having just chickpeas makes it light on the stomach, much better for eating late, although I hadn't thought of that. Altogether, it was one of the many happy culinary results I am sure everyone has, where you can't quite decide if it was coincidence or some subconscious instinct that pulled the right things together.

I think John Bunyan would think it was, if not Celestial city, then certainly something like the Delectable mountains.



*type 'chorizo' in the search box at the top left of this page to see the various mentions...