A change of scene and a change of diet…

After what can best be described as a ‘turbulent’ few weeks, my mother has just returned to her home and was in need of some short term care, whilst we worked out what her longer term needs might be. All well and good and I was lucky that the writer her indoors was willing and able to be with me to help out. Luckily, since coming out of hospital, my mother has made (and continues to make) good progress, but, still relatively immobile, one of our major ‘tasks’ was to keep a regular supply of food (and drinks) going her way. And whilst cooking for three is easy, choosing a range of meals that she would like, whilst bearing in mind our eating habits, posed a few problems. In essence, two of the three of us love fish – I am a little jury’s out about it, in that I eat it happily when given it, but would very rarely choose it an an option. The writer her indoors is pescatarian, so we tend to be pretty vegetarian when we are at home. The mother her on a crutch didn’t want, and I quote directly, ‘any of that vegetarian rubbish’. She is also fairly averse to spicy food and is not a fan of chillies. So what did we eat? How to cope with the above restrictions, whilst preparing meals in a kitchen with an old cooker and limited ‘equipment’?

One of the easiest ‘fixes’ was lunch. Seven plus weeks of hospital food meant that fresh, green salad was top of the daily wishlist. Luckily, she has a fantastic greengrocer’s nearby, so crispy, tasty fresh red pepper added a different texture to a range of leaves, cucumber and tomatoes. I made an onion tart one week and an asparagus tart the next (both from Felicity Cloake’s ‘how to make the perfect…’ series in the Guardian to accompany the salad. Somehow, ‘vegetarian rubbish’ was less of an issue at lunchtime! Suffice it to say that it didn’t take too long, however, before the request came in for fried bacon, eggs and fried bread….

Evening meals required a little more thought and planning. Given that there is also an excellent fishmonger nearby, I often prepared dishes that were easy with both fish and meat. One night, traybakes – a bed of asparagus, red onion, tomato and red pepper with salmon for the fish lovers and pork chop for me. Another night a chicken and mushroom stew for the meat-eaters and a sweet potato and mushroom stew for the vegetarian – dishes that required the same basic starting point and were easy to produce together. Probably the most successful meal was the Ottolenghi whole roast celeriac, served with pork for my mother, who loved the cafe de Paris sauce.

Eating: Sea bass baked with a lemon garlic butter, new potatoes, green beans and a caper/herb dressing. The dressing went down well with my mum, who tends not to use capers. I used herbs from the garden, so mint, chives and parsley, mixed with olive oil, lemon juice and the capers. I had the same meal, but with steak…

Drinking: The above, passed to me by a friend, went down well with my mother, who didn’t fancy a glass of anything too heavy and complemented the strong flavours of the fish and went well with my steak too.

Listening to: London Grammar. Cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, I wanted something comforting and familiar. The band were in my mind as we have just booked tickets to see them in November (fingers crossed). I still love the first album, If you wait, favourite songs being Strong and Shyer, but am looking forward to the imminent release of their third album.