Saturday 24th Jan '09

This morning I went outside to water my plants. I was going about my usual routine...

...water the zucchini...little zucchini flowers emerging

...water the capsicum...little capsicums budding

...water the tomatoes...two ripening gross lisse tomatoes

...water the eggplants...OH MY GOSH! BABY EGGPLANT!

I don’t know how I have not seen this baby eggplant until today!! I suppose it usually is pretty dark when I get outside in the garden to water the plants, but still...it’s a pretty big size already! It’s about ten centimetres long. I’m so excited!!

I’m having a small dinner tonight – three guests and myself. I knew I was making roast chicken...and that was about it. Anything else will be thought up as I go along.

I marinated chicken maryland pieces in Asian five spice and ground cumin. After about an hour in the fridge, I took them out, rubbed some olive oil into them and placed them onto a baking dish. I chopped up some vegetables – carrots, potato and onion – into small cubes and arranged them around the chicken. The reason for the smaller size is so that they will cook all the way through by the time the chicken is done. I threw on some whole cloves of peel garlic and drizzled some olive oil. Into the oven for about 45 minutes on 180C.


Meanwhile, my guests arrived. Kong first, then Noel and his gorgeous wife Fleurette. I made a jug of Pimms cocktail for us and we snacked on the wasabi peas that Kong brought.


The cocktail was refreshing – sliced orange into the jug on some ice, about 200mL Pimms no.1, 300mL lemonade, then poured into some glasses with ice and a wedge of cucumber. I reckon some fresh mint would have given it a real kick but unfortunately, I didn’t have any in the fridge and we were too lazy to go outside to find some in the rapidly darkening garden.

I served the chicken with a side of couscous. Instant San Remo couscous boiled in a pot of water with a pinch of sea salt. Once cooked, I emptied the couscous into a bowl and added some butter, chopped sundried tomatoes and a handful of chives from my garden. They’d been waiting patiently in the fridge since Tuesday for me to find a use for them. I combined these ingredients with the couscous, fluffing it up with a fork.

Roasted Asian Five Spice & Cumin Chicken
served with roasted vegetables
and Sundried Tomatoes & Chives Couscous

After dinner, I put together a platter and we headed off to the lounge room with the absolutely beautiful bottle of red that Kong brought (2002) and spent the rest of the night singing karaoke.