Fennel, pork chops, pear

What did I have for lunch? Who knows, I forgot by the time I actually got around to writing this post. Probably leftover broccoli cheese soup. That seemed to last forever.

Dinner was another story.



The vegetable is from a lovely Dutch book called Carpaccio! by Thea Spierings. I had masses of fennel, so I tried her Fennel Carpaccio with Orange. The carpaccio part is briefly poached in water and orange juice, and the dressing is raw fennel, orange juice, orange and a vinaigrette. It was a little bland; next time I'll try adding a lot more orange. Maybe into the carpaccio part as well.


Then we had a pork chop with green beans. The pork chop was simply spiced and grilled. The beans were steam-fried and then I added a little olive oil.



Needed to add fruit, so I did a pear with blue cheese and walnuts, also from the Carpaccio! book. Though it's not as flat as a normal carpaccio.

It's very easy. Slice a pear in half and remove the core. Cut slices but keep the pear joined at the top, and fan it out on a plate. Sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese and walnuts and then sprinkle with dressing. The dressing I used was 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of crema balsamica (you could use red wine vinegar instead, but then add a teaspoon of mustard too), 2 tablespoons of port and a tablespoon of chicken stock that I had handy. I just whizzed that up with my hand blender, used about half, and kept the rest for tomorrow.