WIAW #16: Aaron's last week and Wild Garlic Recipes

First off if you have not seen my post from Monday check out it first before reading the below post. If not, beware of spoilers!

I feel so guilty about missing WIAW last week due to Aaron’s visit and a major Sociology paper. So I must make up for it! Today I’ll give you a taste of what I’ve eaten this week. Get it.

  

You got a pretty good look at our trip to Paris and a selection of the 200+ pictures but Aaron was here longer than that! Unfortunately I still had to go to class this week so I had send him off to do the “touristy” things by himself and occasionally with escorts provided by my housemates.

Here are some of his London photos on my camera:

On Thursday we had the chance to go to St. Alban’s and have a lovely dinner with Tony and Gill, my surrogate family here. We had a lovely time to celebrate Tony’s birthday and our engagement. Gill said she is already picking out her hat for the wedding. I love that they wear fancy hats here to special occasions. We had such a great time visiting with them and St. Alban’s is so cute.

On Friday we took an early train down to Hastings to visit my Aunt Janet and Uncle Maurice for the day. We lucked out with the weather and spent the day going around my favorite little town of Rye Royal, and later going to Fairlight where they live.

We met them in Hastings and then drove to Rye for lunch at a place we used to go to when I was last in England 10 years ago. It’s a great little Italian restaurant and they “remembered” me but hey, we got free wine and after meal limoncello out of it so they must of remembered! It was so nice.

Here’s what we ate:

Aaron’s seafood pasta and Maurice’s pasta Carbonara.

I think Janet had sea bass with roasted potatoes and vegetable if I remember properly.

I had mushroom and chicken risotto.

We then went back to their house for a great homemade cream tea. Should have taken a photo.

First we had some sparkling wine to celebrate the engagement of course! Aunt J got the scones from her favorite restaurant and tea shop and since they make them homemade it counted! We have some delicious Jersey Clotted cream and her homemade black currant jam to go along. Yummmm… Not to mention the delicious smoky Earl Gray tea and additional chocolate biscuits. This was one of the best teas I have had so far, I only wish I could have afternoon company with them more often!

And once again I could kick myself for not taking a group photo of the four of us! Well, I have to wait until Easter when I see Janet and Maurice again.  

I’m guessing that was all a part of Janet’s evil plan though…because somehow she got about 15 photos of Aaron and myself! But it's okay because she gave us one of the photos from that day framed as an engagment gift. Thank you Aunt Janet!

Then after a leisurely afternoon we took the train back to London and met my cousin Martin and his friend Andrew for a drink and jazz in Covent Garden. Finally tired and starving, Aaron and I dragged ourselves home to pass out before his flight in the morning.

But wait, what did I what eat this weekend?

Ready for Saturday?

After dropping Aaron out at Heathrow, I rode on the tube an hour to Borough Market so I couldn’t shut myself in my room and wallow. One mango orange juice and a cocoa tea later I still didn’t feel much better. So I grabbed a Mediterranean lunch box to-go and went home to eat it alone. Don’t feel bad, it was delicious. I should have taken photos.

I was practically all by myself as the rest of my housemates were in Wales so I had the house and the telly to myself for once! So I proceeded to rent and watch the entire second series of Downton Abbey along with a dinner I made late Saturday night.

So worth it.

After picking up some red beets and wild garlic leaves at Borough I went to town!

I had never tried wild garlic before but was willing to give it a whirl. It is gaining in popularity here and I found it at many a stand at Borough. I proceeded to add it to every portion of my meal.

White wine sautéed red beets and beet greens with wild garlic and banana shallot

Baked chicken breast stuffed with mushroom pate and wild garlic. Yummmmmmmm….

And Mashed sweet potatoes with wild garlic....

And the wild garlic is green so it totally goes into this month’s WIAW theme!

I’m not sure if wild garlic is readily available in the States, but here is London it is at all the markets. If you can find it, do try it. Wild garlic gives a delicious garlic flavor that’s less bitey than normal garlic but with all the deliciousness and healthiness of the bulb.

I struggled over which recipe to share. I do think everyone should try the beets but since the sweet potatoes are pretty self explanatory and sooooooo delicious I thought this would be a good recipe for WIAW despite my lack of photos.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Wild Garlic: 2 Servings (easily doubled)

Ingredients:

2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled, chopped into small chunks

One banana shallot, cut in half (a small yellow onion works too)

3-5 leaves of wild garlic, roughly chopped (alter depending on your garlic preference)

1 tsp. butter

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

salt for water

Splash of skimmed milk

Directions:

Bring a pot of salted water, banana shallot and cut sweet potatoes to boil, covered.

Once water begins to boil, take off lid and continue boiling for 10-20 minutes depending on how small you cut your potatoes. Check the doneness by piercing a potato chunk with a fork, should be soft enough to slice the potato.

Once potatoes are done drain the water.

In the pot (NOT ON HEAT) mashed the potatoes and shallot so they are well mixed. Add chopped wild garlic, garlic salt, butter. Mix and add milk depending on desired consistency.

Eat while hot with any meal!

Sweet potatoes are so good for you and such an inexpensive treat. Try this recipe to add a little more “sweet” to your life! And make some red beets while you are at it!

Because I haven’t done a Cuisiner Playlist in a while I thought I would recommend checking out Keane’s new single, “Silenced By the Night.” The album doesn’t come out until May 7^th but I am SO EXCITED! I missed Keane. Check it out and buy this album I need more of this band in my life!

http://www.keanemusic.com/

Enjoy!

Love,

The College Cuisiner

 p.s. look for Prague pictures coming soon I promise! I’m going to Barcelona this weekend as well. Can’t wait for the sunshine and good eats!