The dinner party

Day 6  

Then: 220 pounds (15 stone 10 pounds)
Now: 212 pounds (15 stone 2 pounds)
Lost: 8 pounds 

That's ludicrous: 8 pounds lost in just 5 days. My tiredness has gone, my jaw is coming back.  I actually feel rather good.

However, we've encountered a big problem: last night we were invited to a dinner party. There's no way we could say we're on an alcohol-free, wheat and pasta-free low fat diet. That would be far too rude, and our hosts were really lovely people who will have made a big effort. 

 


However, to ensure we wouldn't be tempted to ask for seconds, I knocked up a substantial lunch of pan-fried (with almost no olive oil, put onto the skin, and not into the pan), and a sliced red onion, 2 sliced garlic cloves, sprig of rosemary and some baby plum tomatoes, roasted slowly in the oven. I served this on a bed of spinach, wilted with a tiny amount of olive oil and a clove of garlic. 

Very adequate. 





We had a delightful evening. Several glasses of champagne, white wine, brandy, thick winter vegetable soup and fish pie followed by fruit tart with cream. Everything forbidden. Surely one meal can't undo all the good of the last five days? I'm rather fearful of the weigh-in tomorrow morning...

The Sweet and Spicy Salmon

Day 2


Then: 220 lbs (15st 10lbs) 
Now: 218 lbs (15st 8lbs) 
Lost: 2lbs 

Result. After just one day, two pounds have disappeared. 

Well, I know, that doesn't really mean anything. It just means my body is quickly burning up or discarding whatever excess fluids (mostly alcoholic) I forced into it on Easter Day. 

But the scales did make me quite cheerful this morning. 

Breakfast was a fruyo yoghurt, without the nuts. Then, for lunch, as I was at work, I had cold chicken on a dry salad. It wasn't worth photographing. 

But dinner certainly was: 

Tom's salmon with sweet and spicy Pernod cabbage and wilted baby gem

I was in charge this time. 

I fried up two sliced shallots in some olive oil, added chilli flakes, four sliced garlic, one and a half thinly sliced fennel bulbs, and added one thinly sliced red pepper. 

I then sliced some white cabbage really thinly, and added this, with a squirt of Pernod (around 30ml). I put the lid on, then shook it around, until the Pernod and the vegetable juices had combined into the sweetest, most delicious jus. 

Meanwhile I seared the seasoned salmon, skin side down, quickly but thoroughly in a very hot frying pan, then turned it over and baked it in a hot oven for a few minutes. This gave the top of the salmon (which was now on the bottom) a very thin orange crust. 

After 4 or 5 minutes, I took the pan out of the oven and the salmon out of the pan, and threw in two halves of a red baby gem lettuce (cut down the middle), and caramelised them rapidly. The lettuce was bitter, which is what I needed against the sweetness of the vegetables. I poured some of the vegetable jus over it before I deskinned and put the fish, orange-side up on top. Sweet and spicy, orange, pink green, red and white. Perfect.