Monday 27th June - and the weekly round starts again

So far it's Monday afternoon and already three students have rearranged their lessons - one, maybe two changes I can hold in my head, but then ALL the rescheduling bursts out of my brain and I am left without any idea of what I am doing...

So, in other words, a normal week?

I've cooked lunch, it being a Monday (I'm now down to cook on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, as this fits with my normal teaching schedule). I've discovered that I'm not terribly good at buying the ingredients - I am SO out of practice. The chicken Katsu curry is rescheduled for later in the week, as it turns out I thought of buying the chicken but then didn't. I know I have bought sausages, so that should be ok, and I found a couple of bits of salmon in the freezer last night. There was also half a jar of Green Thai Curry Paste, and I had a tin of coconut milk over from last week, so that's what we had for lunch today;

Green Thai Fish Curry,  for 2,  from the Olive website.

2tbsp Green Curry Paste

400g tin coconut milk

200g sugar snap peas (I used french beans, and pre-cooked them) 

400g skinless fish fillet (salmon, trout, white fish,) cut into biggish bits

fish sauce (I haven't got any)

1 red chilli, finely sliced (didn't have one of these)

 a handful of coriander leaves, chopped (I made do with dried coriander, parsley, and spring onions)

rice, to serve. (Warning - the curry bit doesn't take long, so start with getting the rice going!)

Method

Put curry paste and the thick solid top of the coconut milk in a pan, heat gently until sizzling. Add the rest of the coconut milk, bring to a simmer, add the sugar snaps (or beans!) and cook for 1 minute.

Add the fish and cook gently for 3 minutes or until done. Season with a few splashes of fish sauce. Sprinkle on the chopped coriander and serve.

There was loads and loads of liquid, alarmingly so, but in the end the rice took care of it. 

Very good, we shall be having it again!

We've finished the new potatoes I harvested last Thursday. They were utterly, utterly delicious and I am looking forward to emptying the next tub. What is also interesting is that none of them turned grey after cooking, which is a constant problem for me these days with leftover cooked shop bought potatoes.

Our front garden looks respectable again, thanks to Vicky. She set about the chaos of the border with a relentless sense of purpose, leaving order and clean edges and weed-free earth behind. 'Back garden next week,' she said.

Cooking the main meal at lunchtime (as described above).

I am hooked on Donna Leon's 'Inspector Brunetti' series, set in Venice, starting in about the 1990s. I began with the cheapest book, which was on offer for Kindle for 99p, but now have gone to the beginning of the series. I am so lucky - there are about 31 Inspector Brunetti books!

I keep a map of Venice handy (I could do with a magnifying glass as well)

  and have signed up for duolingo Italian - not that there is much Italian in the books. I can now eat an apple (mangia una mela) and drink some water (bevo l'acqua, or would that be beva?).

One of the students who had rescheduled her lesson today re-rescheduled her lesson, so I did teach her after all. I'm not sure whether that has made things easier or even more confusing for the rest of the week.