I tried out two new recipes yesterday! First was an adaptation of Nigella's lamb salad, and the second was a sweet tomato pasta adapted from Jamie Oliver. They both turned out pretty good! The salad was tangy spicy and sweet, and the pasta a bit strange but creamy and tomato-ey at the same time. Two more for my cookery stash, I will definitely cook these again.

Yesterday was a trip to Cold Storage to hunt for ingredients. I adore that place. All these weird weird things stashed everywhere, cheeses, salads, and all kinds of sausages and marinated olives, there are so many things I am dying to try! But they were all incredibly expensive. In the end, I settled for a tub of ricotta cheese which I have never tried - unfortunately, it tastes too mild to go properly with salad. But perhaps I will try it with macaroni and lasagna, and hopefully it will be fantastic!

Lamb Salad (serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main)
2 teaspoons garlic oil
1 lamb loin/cubes (250g)
1 packet salad leaves
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 teaspoons white sugar
1 lemon's juice
2 red chilli padies, finely sliced
1 spring onion, finely sliced

Heat oil and cook lamb, flipping both sides until medium done. Wrap meat in foil and let it rest for 5 minutes. Mix fish sauce, sugar, lemon juice, chilli padies and spring onion in a bowl. Open foil packet and empty meat juices into bowl. Cut lamb into slices, stir well and soak up dressing from bowl. Pour lamb and dressing over salad leaves and serve.

Sweet Tomato Sauce and Prawn Pasta (serves 4 - 5)
8 plum tomatoes
salt, ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
extra virgin olive oil
12 peeled sliced prawns
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 lemon juice
142ml pot double cream
pasta

Blanch and skin tomatoes, halve and chop into small pieces. Heat olive oil and butter in pan, and fry prawns, garlic and tomatoes for a few minutes. Add 2 shots cognac if desired. Add double cream, simmer gently for a few more minutes, and remove pan from heat. Season sauce with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve pasta with sauce.