This Insatiable dish is basically what it says on the packet, but with all the French-ified accoutrements that we’ve learnt to love from our Peta. As I’m writing this up, I’m looking over the recipe again and realise that the recipe also owes a lot to fusion cuisine, the dark time to which I’ve referred earlier. However, this is defo on the lighter end – essentially it is a French-style dish with a couple of Asian herbs thrown in for good measure.
How is it done?
The chicken: bresticles marinated in lots of Dijon mustard, lots of white wine, cumin and Vietnamese mint (in my case: regular mint because of the enormous mint tree at the back of the flat). Peta recommends at least two hours.
The marinade is reduced to make a sauce and the chicken is cooked in a fry pan, just a few minutes on each side. I seem to recall reading that, in terms of food poisoning, using the chicken marinade as a sauce is a terrible idea, so I was a bit hesitant to do this (as in, didn’t want to give my family salmonella).
Suffice to say, my trust in Peta was well rewarded. Not only did we all escape with our bottoms unscathed, but also OMG THE MOST DELICIOUS SAUCE EVER. The sauce was the highlight of the whole thing, as was agreed by Dad and Tom.
The lentils are cooked in a stock similar to the Smoked Fish and Puy Lentils dish that I made earlier: however, you can see that Peta has chilled out a bit with the ingredients, because the stock for these lentils is Kaffir lime leaves and spices (as oppose to umpteen vegetables that are later given the biff). I love lentils so hard, and I love that there are so many recipes of Peta’s where she makes ample use of lentils.
Peta also notes that the French eat a lot of grains and pulses, and that Puy lentils are the créme de la créme. Shannon would agree.
In a fit of enthusiasm I also decided that there was nothing to be done but to follow Peta’s mashed potato recipe. This is very different to how I would make mashed potatoes. Essentially, it’s backwards – the potato is mashed and beaten into a pan of warm milk and olive oil. This makes a fairly liquid mashed potatoes which I wasn’t that impressed by, although my lack of a ricer or a mouli meant that it was a bit more lumpy than was ideal.
Conclusion:
I made this for my menfolk, and both Dad and Tom commented on how delicious it was – they don’t usually gush but they definitely made a point of commenting on how good it was. I ate spoonfuls of the sauce while I was cooking and keep thinking about making it again. Maybe this weekend?
A++ for this one Peta!
(No pass mark for my food photography though. Does not do it justice.)
Aging disgracefully over the last month has involved a lot of early nights and being cosily domesticated, and possibly drinking a little too much for me than is strictly necessary. Probably not quite enough though to qualify the adverb disgracefully: I have had no throw-backs to university days of drunken karaoke yodelling or Thursday night drinking sessions. Peta of course recommends consumption of red wine and dark chocolate in fair quantities, but I have been mostly consuming cider, white wine and cheese. (In Can We Help it if we’re Fabulous, Peta comes down fairly hard on white wine (she loves her sweeping statements) and declares that it’s only good for removing stains. Oh dear; I suspect that she’d be less than impressed by my quaffing of gallons of Sauvignon Plonk.)
Truthfully, my disgrace has more frequently included falling asleep on the couch with a book spread over my chest. Shannon has taken photographs of this every time it’s happened. So much disgrace.
From memory, this was a particularly enjoyable snooze
The highlight of the month was the 30th birthday party – fabulous people, I was spoilt rotten, and I had a super awesome time. There were no photographs taken at all at the party, which was an inadvertently beneficial oversight. There are already too many photos extant of my drunken self and I’d like to start limiting those. I’ve never seen a photograph of myself boozed that I’ve thought was flattering in any way shape or form.
I intended to cook my little socks off, Peta-style, but in the end limited my experiments to my booze choices: I made the World’s most punchy Punch, recipe from Insatiable:
- 3 bottles of rosé
- 500ml of cognac
- Some fruit and a vanilla pod
Feed to party-goers and watch as Shit Gets Weird.
From this I learnt a valuable lesson: Peta does not pull any punches when it comes to booze (thanks, I’ll be here all week!).
Looking over my Peta list, I can say that I have at least thought about walking more, and have actually taken evening walks a little more frequently than I have in the past. I try to take a passeggiata at lunch time involving Stairs and Hills. I have not been as committed to vegetables as perhaps I might, but over Easter weekend I ate so much white carbohydrate cheesy stodge that I have been craving vegetables for the last three days.
This month I have marked down for Making Music.
I think that when I began this project I imagined myself joining a choir and learning to play the ukelele. The first is easiest enough – beginning next Wednesday I’ll commit myself to going along to the Wellington Community Choir in Taranaki Street. Fascinated to know what it will be like; I imagine a little fruity?The ukelele is a little more difficult, but I’m hoping that the lovely Hayley will lend me one of hers and that I can learn to play at least one little song before the end of the month! Perhaps I can make a horrible video for you all.
Also: singing more around the house, and perhaps dragging some unsuspecting people along to karaoke.
Music! Fun!
Peta is a little over 60. I know this because I saw it splashed across the covers of the New Zealand edition of the Australian Women’s Weekly.
March is the month in which I turn 30. I am half of Peta in age – which is fitting, given that I am still but a disciple.
One of the things that I’ve always loved about Peta is that she is unashamedly herself when dressing, when doing her hair, when wearing her makeup – there’s no playing up to the idea that older women should dress demurely et al. In saying that, she also comes across as not afraid of the fact that she’s getting older – there’s no freaky stretched-out facelifts here, or completely immoveable botox masks. I think her ability to accept her age without becoming a slave to it is testament to her chutzpah and general awesomeness. Big balls!
And how do I feel about approaching the 30 mark? To be honest, I’m looking forward to it! My twenties were perfectly acceptable, but it wasn’t until I was about 26 that I learnt to accept and love myself and as a result, the last four years or so have been AWESOME. I’m looking forward to a decade where I’m sure of myself, am earning enough to live something approximating my ideal lifestyle, and am able to deal with most of what the world throws at me without becoming an anxious mess.
Quotes from Peta to take into this month:
You can deny your age a little bit, but by violently denying your age, you are denying a part of yourself. You are not going to become your fulfilled self, your most fabulous self, if you are ashamed of the most ordinary and inevitable of human conditions – that we all get older.
The ageing process eases us toward our certain end, forcing us to place value on our inner journey rather than on our outer selves.
You’re only young once but you can be immature forever.
Wrinkles merely indicate where smiles have been – look after your body and it will look after you.
All from Chapter 6, Health, hormones and beauty: Nature is your enemy in Can we help if if we’re fabulous.
Apart from writing these quotes across my mirror in lipstick, how else will I celebrate Peta-ness this month? Well, as Peta says:
The true secret to staying young, beautiful and healthy forever is boringly simple – diet. Fruit and vegetables, fruit and vegetables, fruit and vegetables … It’s also a good idea to drink one or two glasses of red wine daily… eat at least two squares of dark chocolate a day; drink as much coffee as you like; have as much sex as you can; and eat lots of fish for your brain.
Can we help if if we’re fabulous, p. 152.
To break it down we have:
- Fruit and veggies
- Two glasses of red wine (kein Problem!)
- At least two squares of dark chocolate (bitchin’)
- As much coffee as I like (never an issue)
- As much sex as I can – Peta says “If you can’t have sex with someone, have it with yourself – it keeps you young and happy. Use it or lose it.” (Can we help it if we’re fabulous, p. 156-7)
- Lots of fish
She also notes that the thing with exercise – which she notes is important – is to make it incidental. Walk all the stairs! Walk around the block! Keep walking! Please add “walking” to the above list.
- walking
This month I’m also having my birthday party – which I plan to cater completely from Peta’s books. In fact, she’s bound to have some awesome party tips somewhere. Must research.
