October Saturday food

Mushrooms on toast for a late breakfast:
I know they don't look particularly appetising, but they tasted great. I gently fried a small onion, halved and sliced, in a pan with a clove of garlic, then added sliced chestnut mushrooms, a tiny sprinkling of mixed herbs, a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce, lots of freshly ground black pepper and, to give some creaminess, a spoonful of natural yoghurt. Served on wholemeal toast, with heinz tomato ketchup - perfect.

I ate a stack of sesame ryvitas with Sainsbury's fresh tomato salsa in front of the telly, which I suppose counted as lunch, then in the evening I fancied doing some proper cooking, so made salmon, semi-poached in a foil parcel, potato dauphinoise, roasted veg and green beans. And, for those who might be interested, here is the recipe: for the potatoes, peel some big ones and slice as thinly as possible (no thicker than a coin). Wipe a halved garlic clove around an oven-proofed dish, then finely chop or crush the rest. Finely slice a white onion (optional) . Layer the potatoes, garlic and onion, and some seasoning, starting and ending with potatoes. Pour milk into the dish until it is level with the top of the potatoes. If you have cream (sadly I didn't - and this was another 'make what you can with what you've got in the fridge/freezer/cupboard meal) use half cream, half milk, mixed in a jug. Cover and shove in an oven at about 200 degrees centigrade, for at least an hour and a half and preferably longer, or until the potato is cooked through when tested with a knife. Take the lid off for the last 20 mins or half an hour of cooking so the top browns.

As I'd decided to cook dauphinoise, I thought I may as well use the oven as it was on, so I prepared chunks of veg to roast (organic carrots, a yellow pepper, a couple of small onions) and added them in a pan with a couple of whole garlic cloves, unpeeled, drizzled with oil and seasoned with black pepper. They went in for about 45 mins to an hour - about half an hour before serving I added cherry tomatoes, scored at the stalk end so they wouldn't burst.

And the salmon - I shoved two fillets in a foil parcel with a bit of milk, to give moisture, and some seasoning - cooked in the oven for about half an hour. Perfect.

Oh and I simmered some green beans too, for just a few minutes so they still had some bite.

And for pudding, would you believe it, but I still had a couple of plums left over from my fruit basket which, inexplicably, weren't mouldy yet. They had such tough skins I peeled them, then stoned and chopped them quite small. I put these in a pan with a couple of apples, also peeled and chopped into small pieces, a load of sugar (probably a bit too much) and splashed some water in, then simmered on a low heat as we ate the main course. The added a dash of bramble whiskey and served over Wall's softscoop ice-cream (cheap, but oh so nice).