mike[space] dot net

Last night I decided that I really wanted to cook something for dinner, but really couldn't decide what. My Sainsbury's Local was low on supplies and I was even lower on inspiration (I am new to this game after all). I wandered the store somewhat aimlessly, and slowly veered between fresh food and the packaged stuff toward the back of the store. Looking at a healthy option, a chicken, broccoli and pasta microwave meal caught my eye, and it occurred to me that I could simply replicate it with fresh ingredients. Of course this was based on the assumption that I could get hold of some broccoli, which sadly they were out of, asides from a plastic bag of winter vegetables they had languishing amongst the bags of prepared veg that seem so horribly environmentally unfriendly to me (the weirdest things bother me ... I'll happily fly 3000 miles on a semi-regular basis, but individually bagged veg seems wrong somehow).

Anyway, it all got me thinking, and eventually I hit on aubergine, cherry tomatoes and chicken with pasta in green pesto. Naturally the green pesto jar hit the deck as soon as I got home, but my new flatmate Steve had recently acquired some, so all was not lost. I had never actually cooked aubergine before, and had no idea what I was supposed to do with the bloody thing. Fortunately Claire is much more aware of these things and instructed me to set the pan high, and fry the aubergine first. Apparently it can act something like a sponge, and this is a good way of avoiding oily aubergine. So I sliced it up, chucked most of it in a hot pan, and when things looked like they were making good progress, I dumped in the slices of chicken and the halved cherry tomatoes. The pasta wound up slightly overcooked, and whilst not paying full attention I accidentally stuck the pesto in with the meat and veg rather than the pasta. This meant that the pasta didn't really get much of the pesto flavour but the chicken did, but other than that, it all worked out quite nicely; it was certainly edible, which for a completely random (if simple) experiment, I was quite pleased about.