Sea bass, minted peas and the aspirational lentil

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the aspirational lentil. The tyranny of branding demands that these crappy lentils are 'repositioned' as 'beluga' in order to turn them into a 'luxury item' that supermarkets can overcharge for.

Beluga lentils

rocket (UK)

tomatoes (UK)

Sea bass (North Atlantic)

Lime (unknown)

Stuffed Peppers yet again

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noted by now that this meal has become bog standard in the HMT household. This is actually the same picture as July 11th but I forgot to take a new one. I must do something to get the creative juices flowing.

Broccoli Bake

Broccoli (UK)
Potatoes (home grown)
Mozarella (Italy)
Pine nuts ('product of more than one country)

Aubergine and Mozzarella Timbale

Aubergine (unknown)

Mozzarella (Italy)

Flour (UK)

Olive oil (Spain)

2 eggs (UK)

black pepper

New potatoes (home grown)

Parmesan (Italy)

Potato Salad

Sadly this meal was something of a rarity this year in terms of its home grown bent. The weather has been so miserable that most of our crops have failed.

Potatoes (home grown)

Onions (home grown)

broad beans (home grown)

Mint (home grown)

Garlic (home grown)

Chilli (unknown)

Supersonic Supper

Dipped out the endless avant-garde heavy metal of the Supersonic festival to grab some food. Unfortunately, I picked a swine amongst the undoubted pearls of Birmingham South Asian food. This pakora/samosa double whammy would have been inedible if hadn't been for the Red Stripe/ Real Ale aperitif that preceded it.

Stir-fry noodles

See, it's possible to make an entirely UK grown stir-fry so why the bloody onions from New Zealand?

Fresh noodles ('Produced in the UK')

Pepper (England)

Garlic (home grown)

Pak choi (Kent, England)

Spring onions (Kent, England)

Black bean sauce ('Produced in the UK')

Stuffed aubergine and sweetcorn

Feel guilty about food miles now - we have onions growing on the plot but as we had already started cooking and I just nipped to the local Tesco metro to buy some only discovering they were from New Zealand afterwards. What's happening to the world if a UK supermarket has to source onions from New Zealand in July?

Sweetcorn (Spain)
Cheese (England)
Aubergine (unknown)
Onion (New Zealand)
Parsley (UK)
Garlic (home grown)
Fresh tomatoes (England)
Paprika
Salad leaves
Tinned tomatoes (Italy)

Curry from 'the Tesco'

Tesco is taking over the world apparently. Well it's clearly not on account of this insipid 'authentic takeaway selection'. I bought a veggie curry, a sag alloo and bombay potatoes in a vain attempt to replicate the variation of a Thali but they were all clearly cooked in the same rather unpleasant sauce.

Slow cooked peppers

A new comfort food favourite- Jamie Oliver's slow roasted peppers in half a pint of olive oil.

Peppers (UK)

Olive oil (Greece)

Garlic (home grown)

Onion (home grown)

Ciabattta UK)

Pitted black olives ('origin of more than one country')

Parmesan (Italy)

Fresh pea risotto

All this rain is really depressing so here's some comfort food. These Jaguar peas were picked about an hour before and were incredibly sweet.

Arborio rice (Italy)

Jaguar peas (home grown)

Garlic (home grown)

Onion (home grown)

Stock (from a cube)

Parmesan (Italy)

Unwaxed lemon

Mediterranean Stuff

Decided to cook an entire mezze from scratch here. The filo pastry parcels were tricky but worth it.

Filo Pastry Parcels

Filo (Greece)

Olives (Greece)

Wendsleydale Cheese (UK)

Taboulleh

Cracked wheat (Unkown origin)

Parsley (Unknown)

Green Bean Salad

Green beans (UK)

Tomatoes (UK)

Mint (home-grown)

Aubergine Salad

Aubergine (unkown)

Garlic (unknown)

Pittas

Flour (UK)

Water (UK)

Salt (unknown)

Falafel

Chick peas (uknown)

Corriander (unknown)

Tahini (unknown)

Garlic (unknown)

Roast Char

No other freshwater fish is found as far North, the arctic char is usually found in alpine lakes and coastal waters in the arctic and sub-arctic. Unusually, this one's been reared on an Icelandic farm, frozen and shipped south and sold to Tesco.

Artic Char (Iceland)

Potatoes (UK)

Brocolli (UK)

Broad bean rissotto

These broad beans and peas were less than an hour from plot to plate- the broad beans were fantastic- just melted in the mouth. It's food like this that makes growing your own veg worthwhile.

Broad beans (home grown)

Leek (UK)

Peas (home grown)

Arborio Rice (Italy)

Garlic (unkown origin)

Mint (home grown)

Parmesan (Italy)

Pie and Spuds

This looks really horrible but the Gruyere and leek filo thingy was actually pretty nice. It was from the M&S 'Gastropub' range- which is somewhat underselling it as it wasn't an overpriced and tasteless 'reinvention of a British classic' and I didn't have to eat it surrounded by tossers. Result.

New potatoes (UK)

Lettuce (UK)

Tomatoes (UK)

Pie (M&S...and erm, somewhere else)

Monk fish and 'chocolate with passion'

This was from an amazing looking restaurant in El Raval, Barcelona. The place looked like a meal should cost a fortune but surprisingly it didn't. The cod carpaccio was like eating a slightly salty spiders web doused in olive oil (which is a good thing I think). I had monk fish for a main course which was a little dissapointing but it was made up for by the chocolate pudding with a passion fruit centre.

Gnocci

Fresh gnocci (Italy)

Cherry Tomatoes (Italy)

Peas (home grown)

Wet garlic (home grown)

Sage (home grown)

Butter (Denmark)

Arrabbiata Mezzelune

'Italian pasta parcells filled with red peppers, Grand Padano cheese, tomato and a hint of chili' (Italy via Tesco)

This wasn't bad at all really as a quick afterwork 'meal solution'

Supersweet Sweetcorn (Morocco)

Fish & Chips

Bank holiday monday was spent walking on Formby Beach in the rain so these fish and chips were really welcome. They were from a very old school place on Penny Lane which looks like it hasn't changed since the 1950s- all wooden counters and old steel fryers made in Rochdale. Lovely.

Roast vegetables and watercress salad

Sweet potatoes (US)

Red onion (UK)

Watercress (Spain)

Oranges (Spain)

Walnuts (France)

Vegetarian sausages