Well, here I am, someone who would never have thought about having my own blog but has been encouraged by a few people to start writing one in place of the regular updates that I post on Facebook or Twitter.

I'm going to post all sorts of things on here; from my nightly dinner recipes, to recommendations about food writing, to worrying facts about diet and nutrition, to the occassional restaurant review and anything else that tickles my fancy.

I'll start with Monday night's dinner - "Veal Escalope with Porcini & Asparagus Risotto". We picked up a nice slice of veal from the local butcher (Smith's in Haywards Heath) at the weekend and knocked this little number up to finish off the Bank Holiday weekend. I'm afraid that I am not Delia when it comes to quantities / measurements, I have much more of a Floyd 'throw some in' approach.

Veal with Asparagus and Porcini Risotto - a rich dish of comfort food!
Serves 2 hungry people.

Ingredients:

• Nice slice of Veal, about 1cm thick, enough for 2 people.
• Packet of dried Porcini mushroom.
• 1 small brown onion.
• A couple of garlic cloves.
• Bunch of ENGLISH asparagus.
• Arborio rice.
• Beef Stock (made using Knorr's stock pots) - about 1 litre.
• Splash of red wine.
• Olive Oil.
• Butter.
• Cream cheese.
• Dijon / English mustard.
• Parmesan cheese.
• Chopped flat leaf parsley.

Instructions:

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water for at least 30 minutes.
2. Finely chop the onion and garlic.
3. Chop the asparagus - spears to about 7cm, the rest in about 3cm pieces.
4. Heat a coupe of tablespoons of oil and a knob of butter in a saucepan and add the chopped onions and garlic.
5. Heat the stock on the hob, keep it on a low heat.
6. Cook on a low heat for about 12 minutes until the onions and garlic are soft. Do not let them colour.
7. Add the rice (amount depends on you but about 150g per person should be ok).
8. Stir the rice to coat it in the oil and cook for a few minutes.
9. Turn up the heat and add about a third of a glass of wine.
10. Stir the rice until the wine had evaporated. Turn the heat down to medium.
11. Remove the mushrooms from the water and drain well. Keep the soaking liquid and add that to the stock.
12. Add a couple of ladels of stock to the rice, stirring it until the liquid soaks into the rice. Keep this going, adding stock and continue to cook like any other risotto.
13. Heat a large knob of butter in a frying pan and fry the porcini mushrooms for about 6 minutes until they colour slightly. Turn off the heat.
14. When you have been cooking the rosotto for about 10 minutes, add the porcini and stir them through.
15. Add the asparagus stalks, saving the spears for now.
16. Cook for a further 3-5 minutes. Remembering to keep adding stock as required and testing the rice to see if it is cooked.
17. Add a desert spoon of the cream cheese and stir.
18. Wipe out the frying pan that you used for the mushrooms, add a little oil and get it nice and hot.
19. When the rice is cooked, place the asparagus spears on the top. Put a lid on the pad and turn off the heat. Leave it for 5 minutes.
20. Turn up the heat under the stock to reduce it, add a teaspoon of mustard and keep stirring it until it has reduced to a few spoonfulls of stickyness.
21. Season the veal all over then flash fry it. I cooked it for about 2 minutes on each side and then let it sit to rest for a few minutes in a vaguely warm oven.
22. Serve the risotto in a middle of a plate with a sprinkle of grated parmesan and chopped parsley. Place the aspargus spears to one side.
23. Place the veal on top of the risotto and drizzle a bit of the reduced stock on top.
24. Enjoy!

So here is my first effort at posting a recipe. I hope you've enjoyed reading it and maybe it's provided some inspiration.

Until next time ....