Light vegetable and couscous salad. A grumpy family dinner

Yesterday was a day of 25 hours. One of those productive days that you do a thousand things but it seems that the day never ends. 

With a bit of patience, which I am lack of in many things, the jet lag has finished. I am now capable to function early in the mornings. My running is also back to my daily routine and it makes me happy because it is part of who I am (don't ask me to swim, though, I am not fond of the water!) although I don't run too fast or too far.

Even having the two boys sick at home with some gastro problems, I enjoyed the morning with them as well as the time I spent cooking in the kitchen when they had a snooze.

I made ricotta cheese. I had another go last Saturday but the milk boiled so I couldn't use it for the cheese (I made chai tea instead). The only tricky part of making cheese is that you cannot get distracted and disappear from the kitchen until the recipe is finished. Which I did.

The whey collected from the ricotta cheese is unbelievable versatile. I used in three different ways:

• Buttermilk pancakes for the children (and Nick) for breakfast. I make them once every two weeks and packed them in cling film in five so it is easy to defrost when the hunger is calling out or the school bus is 10 minutes away to collect Aurelia. I try alternate the breakfast for my family so the children do not get bored and loose the appetite, specially Aurelia. Sometimes we eat porridge (perfect for this lovely cool weather  that we are enjoying in Manila at the moment), nutty granola, toast or pancakes. We leave the churros or eggs for the weekend, and in very rare occasions to be honest, when I feel melancholic and miss the crispy fried dough or Nick wakes up with the idea of brunch at home.

• Banana bread with wholemeal flour, muscovado sugar and greek yogurt. The buttermilk gives a soft texture. This bread uses very ripe bananas (bananas are very popular in Philippines) so wait until they become sugary with black spots. It is a weekly snack in the lunch box of Aurelia and Gabriel.

• Sandwich bread (recipe in the next post) which is similar to the sourdough but adding buttermilk and egg. I made the dough and placed in the fridge for 24 hours because the cold slow raise will create the fermentation of the starter culture. I am actually tasting a slice right now and it has a good balance of salt which is the most challenging part of making bread at home. Once you have achieved the correct amount of salt in your bread, the rest is easy.

By the time Nick got back from work and the meal was ready on the table for our family dinner,  Aurelia was in a silly mood and Gabriel was more than ready to go to sleep like all of us, to be honest, so we ate a bit too fast. 

I didn't enjoy the 13 minutes we sat down together in our round table in the kitchen, although I usually do and it is something I look forward during my day…

Since when the daily dinner became my everyday goal?..no idea, but it makes me happy. I am a woman of small pleasures in life and that's maybe why Nick fell in love with me (it is what he told me!). My parents raised me without too much high maintenance because first, they didn't have time with six children to feed and second, it is the way their own parents taught them. From generation to generation we transmit values, believes and rules to our family.

So the dinner was too stressful with  grumpy kids and tired parents. Sometimes the family dinners, despite our enthusiasm to make them enjoyable, do NOT work. However, the number of these occasions is small. In general, we like them.

Last night I used the recipe of a couscous salad with vegetables from the cookbook Simple to Sensational of Jun Tanaka that Nick's aunty Helen sent me for Christmas (Helen, thank you so much!). It is a beautiful book with very useful tips and easy to make recipes. 

This salad is a side dish, as the book and Nick suggested, but I felt like having something light for dinner so I made it into our main course and used a bowl of steamed green soy beans with a bit of salt on top (they are funny to peal but tasty and highly nutritious in minerals and protein) the accompaniment.

In the end, I was the only one in my family with an empty plate. Gab didn't touch the couscous or the vegetables (he was sick so I excused him), Aure only ate the carrots of the couscous and Nick had a small serving. I knew he didn't like the dinner very much and I was right. When everybody was in bed, he made a peanut butter sandwich. 

Hummm, I decided then….burgers for tomorrow's night dinner!

Couscous salad with roasted vegetables

Serves 6

• 300g couscous
• 100ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• a sprig of fresh thyme
• 1/2 chicken stock cube
• salt
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 cm 
• 8 asparagus spears, peeled and cut in half
• 1 sweet potato (optional) or 1 zucchini, cut into 2 cm cubes
• 75 ml red wine vinegar
• 1/2 bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
• a handful or rocket leaves and some fresh basil, shredded

1. Place the couscous in a bowl. Measure out 300ml of water, place in a saucepan and add 50 ml of olive oil, the garlic, thyme and stock cube. Season with salt. As soon as the water boils, remove from the heat and pour it over the couscous. Mix well and cover in cling film. Leave to steam for 20 minutes.
2. Place the vegetables in a large bowl. Season, add 50ml of olive oil and cook for 8 -10 minutes on a hot griddle, moving them round occasionally. Do not pile the the vegetables on top of each other. Once all the vegetables are cooked, place back in the bowl. Add the red wine vinegar and true spring onions (I didn't because I didn't have them).
3. Take the cling film off the bowl of couscous, remove the garlic and thyme and fluff the couscous up with a fork. Once all the grains are separated, add the vegetables, rocket and basil. Season and serve.
4. Optional: I added a bit of feta cheese and toasted pine nuts

Buen provecho!