Weeknight Dinners

I admit it, I am a bit of control freak in the kitchen. I'm terrible at delegation unless I'm pretty darn certain the person I'm delegating to is pretty darn capable. And I'm a harsh critic. It's likely I won't say something is good unless I really think it is. This is probably explains why Stuart has only ever cooked a handful of times for me over the last 6 years. To be fair he does know his way around the kitchen and would cook a great deal more if only I let him. And come up with something really decent too.

He took over the kitchen one night this week and made some scrummy roasted belly of pork, Chinese style - I tasted soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper ... the usual suspects, including my embarassing favourite - ketchup. It has been noted on several occassions by different people that I have not given up my childhood taste for tomato sauce (that is what I grew up calling it - ketchup was a weird word I had to adapt to when I came to London). I would quite happily eat ketchup with anything, almost everything ... With the pork, Stuart made fried rice with peas and corn and just for me, a side of obligatory green - steamed broccoli.

And when one is stressed and tired, there's nothing worse than the thought of cooking. So for another evening it was stir fried veg (Sainsbury's does a a nice bag of mixed veg in their Basics range for a quid - which they happily advertise is heavy on the beansprouts), pre-cooked chicken in a barbeque marinade and steamed rice. Easy stuff for a weeknight .. or any night.