First lessons of the year

As well as continuing to feed myself and Neil this year, we decided that some small critters otherwise left hungry should also be fed. One feeder full of peanuts hanging from a balcony yields pretty good results. Here, 15 bushtits are enjoying a communal lunch together, having already taken a leisurely breakfast together at Casa Ambler and no doubt will be back later to partake in some supper, as well as all the other bird feeders they visit across the city (shameless little free-loaders that they are)! We also get 4 black capped chickadees visiting to feed and yesterday one of the little blighters decided it was now his territory and frightened all the tiny bushtits away. They came back today though and hopefully will continue to come back. What are the lyrics of that Blur song....It gives me a sense of enormous well being...

Lessons learned from lunch

Sometimes when I go shopping for some lunch items, I think about what would be good together in a salad that would make a good blog post. I consider the pictures and imagine them looking like something from 101 cookbooks or smitten kitchen, all atmospheric and appetizing. Rarely, however, can this be achieved so deliberately, (or at all if I'm honest)! More often than not, I find myself trying to emanate something else instead of concentrating on what I actually want to eat. So, having found a bag of cooked chicken at half price, I set about looking for some greens to pair with it. A box of baby arugula (rocket) and some rapini looked healthy and picture worthy, so I trotted home to make my blog lunch.

Lesson number 1: Rapini is deceitful. It looks like that delicious revered variety of broccoli known as purple sprouting or even broccolini, but it is not, it is an impostor. Bitter beyond reason, even when liberally smothered in butter or a sweet raspberry dressing, it is puckeringly offensive. Who buys this stuff? Am I cooking it incorrectly? Ugh!

Lesson number 2: It is not a good idea to use arugula solely as your main salad leaf. It is just too peppery. Mixing it with some other milder leaves would be a better idea to tame the peppery-ness. This is probably truer when paired with something bitter, like rapini.

I didn't eat my greens, sorry, I really couldn't. 

Lesson number 3: Capers are gorgeous. It takes a lot of acquired taste experiences to realise this, like olives and wine, but once the taste has been acquired, it is true. Their piquancy, saltiness and tang are addictive and work so well to freshen and brighten almost anything. They almost saved my salad, the arugula, raspberry dressing and capers eating well together, peppery, salty, sweet and tangy, but there was just no room for bitter with that little lot.

So, what did I really learn?

Rapini is not a variety of broccoli, it is most closely related to turnips. To mellow the bitter taste, blanching in salted water before sauteeing or stir-frying can help or pairing it with other strong flavours with which it has to compete, (tried that, didn't really like the results.) I will try the blanching method and see what happens. Watch this space.