Le Gourmand's life has been completed by the acquisition of a dishwasher

Although said dishwasher has not yet been "seasoned", Le Gourmand has great hopes that it will lessen the burden of a wife madly cooking from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

A complicating issue with many of the weeknight Julia meals is the unpredictability of when Le Gourmand will arrive. Julia's suggestions for preparing ahead are extremely useful but there is a limit to their usefulness, particularly with more delicate dishes like asparagus. I guess this is what life was like for a 1950s housewife!

Menu
Cotes de Porc Robert
Pointes D'Asperges Au Beurre
Petit Pois (variation with green onions)

The pork was lightly browned and then braised in the oven in a tomato sauce of onions, garlic, white wine, beef stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme and salt and pepper. Last time the pork had been a little dry so I was careful not to cook it for as long as Julia indicated in the oven but I think the braising sauce would have protected it in any event. I also made the full amount of sauce but reduced the amount of white wine and substituted more beef stock so that we weren't consuming excessive amounts of wine.

Note for future pork dishes - Le Gourmand prefers his pork marinated. Obviously he is not as big a fan of the other white meat as me.

The peas were lovely - similar to last time with a little butter, sugar, salt and pepper but the addition of sliced green onions was fantastic.

The lightly boiled asparagus had the tips cut off and the then remaining stalks diced before being drizzled with butter and baked under cover of baking paper. So tasty! Obviously the butter was a little naughty but they were well balanced by the tomato sauce and the peas.

Last night the only Julia was her recipe for rice which Le Gourmand suggested might but our rice cooker out of business - Riz À La Vapeur - it was an absorption method but only involved cooking the rice for 12 minutes once it had been brought to the boil (I usually follow a 20 minute absorption method). Tasted good with our defrosted chicken curry, one of Le Gourmand's specialities.