More inspiration

I was originally going to make this, from the Amuse Your Bouche blog (I'm not, as readers will have gathered, vegetarian, but we do eat quite a lot of vegetarian meals).  But we had far more cherry tomatoes that needed using, and I do like a bit of onion in my supper, and she didn't say what, if anything, she served it with.... plus I only had feta, not halloumi, which was going to make it a bit different anyway.  So I ended up with this, and very good it was, too.  Serves 2.

½ aubergine
 1 onion
1 pack cherry tomatoes, plus any you might have over from another pack
½ pack feta cheese
100g pasta - I used coquillettes, but use whatever you have.

 Chop the aubergine and onion, and place them in a lidded pan with a tablespoonful of cooking oil - well, all right, maybe a bit more than that.  Pierce the cherry tomatoes and add these.  Cover, and cook for about 20 minutes on a lowish heat, stirring occasionally, and turn down the heat if it looks like catching.  Season with salt, pepper, and what else you like - I used pomegranate molasses and za'atar:

Chop the cheese into cubes about the size of the cubes of aubergine.

Meanwhile boil the pasta for the length of time specified on the packet, drain it, and add it to what's in the pan, together with the chopped feta.

Cook for another minute or so, stirring constantly, until everything is mixed together and the cheese is hotted through - it doesn't really melt.  Serve immediately.

Banana pancakes

You will have seen these online everywhere, I shouldn't wonder, with massive great headlines: she made these wonderful pancakes with just two ingredients, or similar.

But the point is, they are delicious, and they are easy, and you can make them for afternoon snack with your five-year-old grandson in a very few minutes.

You simply whisk 1 egg per small, or 2 eggs per large ripe banana together until everything is smooth - my daughter, at whose house I was making these, had small bananas, so we mashed them first and then whisked them until they were more-or-less smooth.  Then I heated some oil in a frying pan - not a lot, only about a tablespoonful, if that, and when it was hot we ladled tablespoonfuls into the pan.  You cook them like drop scones or Scotch pancakes, nice and thick.  It looked disgusting in the frying pan.  The Boy said it looked like custard, but actually, it looked like puke (it was not as smooth as it could be, and the bananas were somewhat over-ripe).  Anyway, once they are dry-ish on top, you turn them over and cook the other side until golden, and serve immediately.  A professional cook would probably dust these with icing sugar, but they are actually sweet enough as it is, and really don't need anything with them.  And of course they tick all the boxes by being gluten-free, low carb and no added sugar!  And vegetarian....

Well worth doing.  Even my grandsons, who don't like eggs much, like these.

Fusion Trout

The Swan Whisperer wanted trout for his supper yesterday (Sunday), and I was wondering how to serve it, as there are so very many ways of cooking and serving trout.  So yesterday and today (it was a large trout) we had it, first with a Chinese-style stir-fry and then with a Moroccan-style couscous.  And I cooked the trout "à la Meunière", which is French..... 
1) The Trout

1 large trout, defrosted if frozen
A little milk
2 tbs flour, seasoned to taste

Dip the trout in milk, and then in the flour.  Fry in butter in a covered pan for about 7-8 minutes each side, or until cooked through.

2. The Stir-fry

 ½ cup (125 ml by volume) rice
1 cup (250 ml) boiling water, possibly with a Stock Pot.  I wanted to use a fish one, but found I had none, so used a vegetable one instead.
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 courgette, chopped
1/3 pack beansprouts (which I happened to have)
(You can use whatever vegetables you like here - peas and broad beans work well.  The onion is pretty much mandatory, but apart from that....)
1 egg
Soya sauce

Chinese stir-fries traditionally contain crushed ginger and garlic, and chopped chillis, and are seasoned with 5-spice, but I didn't what to overwhelm the trout, so left out the ginger and chillis, and didn't fancy the 5-spice, so used Lidl's "Stir-fry seasoning", which I'm not sure what it contains but is very nice.

Put the rice in the boiling water or stock, bring back to the boil, cover, turn the heat down to the bare minimum, and leave undisturbed for 15 minutes (40-45 minutes if it's brown rice).  Meanwhile prepare the vegetables (and cook the trout), and stir-fry them for about 5 minutes.  Add the cooked rice and soya sauce to taste, and then make a gap in the middle of the rice and add the egg, which you stir and stir through the rice until it's cooked.  Serve with the trout on top.

3. The couscous

I actually had some of the vegetable stew left over from last week, which had spent the weekend in the freezer, but I make it like this:

1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 leek (optional)
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large or 2 small courgettes, chopped
Either 1 tin chick peas, drained and rinsed, or 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight then boiled for about 30 minutes, drained.
About 12 dried apricots, cut in half
1 tin tomatoes, chopped or pureed.

Put all this in a frying pan or saucepan with some oil, and cook on a low heat until all the vegetables are cooked, probably about 30-35 minutes.  Season with ras-el-hanout, if you have any, and/or Moroccan seasoning, and then make a hot sauce with some harissa paste diluted with the juices from the pan, or with boiling water if you haven't quite enough juices.

Meanwhile, put ½ cup (125 ml by volume) of couscous in a bowl or jug with some salt and 1 cup (250 ml) boiling water and allow to sit for 10 minutes; then stir with a fork to break up any lumps.

Serve the couscous at the bottom, the stew in the middle, and the trout (as this was leftover, I hotted it up in the microwave) on the top, and pour over the hot sauce to taste.

Sorry there aren't any photos. 

Halloumi with chickpeas, mushrooms, tomatoes and noodles

On Monday, the Swan Whisperer and I went into Brixton to explore the new Pop Brixton that has opened where the ice-rink used to be, but as it was Monday, everything was firmly closed.  So we got our lunch from a street stall called Pots of Brixton, which was a jacket potato place.  The SW had a meat filling, but I chose the veggie one, which was halloumi, chickpeas, mushrooms and tomatoes.  So, of course, I had to try to recreate it at home, only with noodles instead of potatoes.

½ packet halloumi cheese, sliced, and each slice cut in half.
½ punnet mushrooms, sliced
4-5 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or the equivalent amount of dried chickpeas, soaked and cooked (which is what I used, as they are nicer)
Seasonings to taste
100 g rice noodles (this was too much - 75g would have been better)

Place the vegetables in a lidded pan with a little oil, and allow to cook in their own steam for about 10-15 minutes.  Do NOT do what I did and leave the heat too high so that it dries out - this would have been a lot nicer if I hadn't!

 Add the cooked chickpeas, and heat through.  Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet.

Meanwhile fry the halloumi on both sides (it doesn't need any oil) until golden.  

Mix everything together and serve.... as I said, it was lovely, but would have been nicer if it hadn't dried out a bit, and we really didn't need so many noodles.

Not-bubble-and-squeak

Traditionally, of course, bubble and squeak is made with left over mashed potatoes and cabbage, maybe seasoned with onion, and fried.  But I didn't have any left-over vegetables - well, I do, actually, but neither potatoes nor cabbage - and I wanted this particularly to eat with Nurnberg sausages, which I thought it would complement nicely.  It did.

2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
3 medium potatoes, cut into small pieces
1/2 green cabbage (or less - the amount you would prepare for two of you, basically)
1 tbs cooking oil
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
Salt and pepper

Put everything into a large frying-pan and stir.  Cover, and reduce the heat.  Allow to cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Serve with sausages or bacon and eggs or something delicious like that.....

Quick tomato and red pepper soup

1 onion
1 sweet red pepper
1 400g tin tomatoes
A few cherry tomatoes, if you have spare ones
1 small tin sweetcorn (optional)

Sweat the chopped onion, pepper and cherry tomatoes in a little cooking oil.  Add the tin of tomatoes and a full tin of water.  Season - I used salt, pepper, herbs, chilli sherry and a vegetable "stock pot".  Bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes.

 

 Blend to the desired consistency and then, if liked, add a tin of sweetcorn.

This is nicest with a dollop of creme fraiche in it, but I didn't have any.... Tomorrow, perhaps....

 

Gran's extra-special macaroni cheese

My Boy ended up coming to tea today, so a quick change of plans - I had been going to make a butternut squash and mushroom risotto, but I know his favourite food ever is macaroni cheese.  So I thought I would introduce him to the version that his mother adored when she was a little girl, as I could make enough for 3 and then just pop his share under the grill while the cheese melted.  His verdict?  "I do like it, but it's not my absolute favourite.  That's the one they make at school!"

1 small onion, chopped
1 packet lardons
1 small tin sweet corn
1 tin tomatoes
1 heaped tsp flour
Pepper to taste
A little dry mustard powder, to taste (about ¼ tsp)
About 100 g Cheddar cheese, grated.
100-125 g macaroni-type pasta (depending on how many are eating it)

Put the onions and lardons into a pan, and allow to cook until the onion has softened.  Meanwhile, put the pasta on to boil according to the instructions on the packet.  Place the tin of tomatoes, the flour and the seasonings into a jug, and whizz with a stick blender until smooth (or use a regular blender).  Pour this mixture on to the top of the onions and lardons, and bring to the boil, stirring all the time, until it thickens.  Add the sweetcorn at some stage.  When it is boiling, turn off the heat and add half the grated cheese*, stirring until it melts.  Stir in the cooked pasta, top with the remaining grated cheese, and either put under the grill until the cheese bubbles, or, if you have let it sit for any length of time, shove it in a moderate oven for half an hour.

* My daughter's absolute favourite was if I topped it with a slice of bread made into breadcrumbs and mixed with the grated cheese, but the Boy is on record as saying he didn't think he'd like that.  And anyway, that really does need to be cooked in the oven, and time was slightly of the essence here!

Salmon Fried Rice

I forgot to take a photo of this before eating it, and I don't think a photo of my empty plate would quite have the same effect!  It was excellent.

2 salmon fillets
½ cup uncooked white or brown rice (125 ml by volume)
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 block frozen ginger (or similar amount of grated, fresh ginger, or even ½ tsp dried powder)
1 piece turmeric root (optional, but I had some to use up)
1 fresh chilli (if you don't have one, use dried or powder)
A large amount (I can't be more specific - a soup mugful?) of frozen peas, sweetcorn and broad beans.  You could, of course, substitute other vegetables - broccoli would be nice, or mangetout, or whatever you fancy.
2 eggs
Chinese seasonings of your choice (soya sauce, 5-spice powder, whatever else)

Cook your rice as you usually do. Meanwhile, stir-fry the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and turmeric root, if using, fresh vegetables if you're using them, and the frozen veg.  You can either fry the salmon in a separate pan, or cut it into chunks and stir-fry it with everything else, up to you.

Beat up the eggs with the seasoning, and add the cooked rice (you can cook this in advance, if you like - isn't it supposed to reduce the carb content? - but if you do, make very, very, very sure you chill it thoroughly and quickly) and eggs.  Stir until the eggs are cooked and everything is piping hot.  Serve at once, with chopsticks.

Inspired by......

For me, part of the point of recipes is that they can be a jumping-off point for your own dishes.  Unless I am seriously trying to re-create a dish, I tend not to follow recipes too slavishly, especially when it's something like stew or a curry that can, and should, be modified to suit your own tastes. 

So, anyway, the other day I read this recipe, for leek and feta croquettes.  I thought they sounded lovely, but I know from past, bitter experience, that if I try to roll things in breadcrumbs and fry them, they go all over the place and seriously don't look like what they are supposed to look like.  Probably because I rush them, but anyway.

And I had some butternut squash that wanted using up, and one of my favourite things to do with butternut squash is to mix it with feta and couscous in a tomato sauce.   And I had far too many leeks.... and found a packet of udon noodles in the cupboard.  And this was the result:

½ butternut squash, cut into chunks.
1 large leek, finely chopped
1 400 g tin tomatoes
2 tsp plain flour
1 tbs cooking oil
1 oz butter
½ packet feta cheese, crumbled
1 packed udon noodles

Put the squash, the leeks and the cooking oil into a frying-pan with a lid, and cook on a low heat, stirring fairly frequently, until the squash is soft and beginning to caramelise around the edges.  Whizz the tomatoes with the flour with a stick blender until smooth; season to taste.  In a separate saucepan, melt the butter, then add the tomato mixture and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.  Stir in the crumbled feta and pour over the leeks and squash.  Adjust seasoning.   Serve with the noodles which you have prepared according to the instructions on the packet (you can, of course, use another sort of noodles, or pasta, or whatever).

Seville Orange Marmalade

You can scale this up, as you wish.  Each batch makes about 2½ kg, c. 5lbs of marmalade.  There are a couple of different ways of doing it, both a hassle, but worth it in the end.

Ingredients:

1 1kg bag Seville oranges
1 kg preserving or granulated sugar
1 lemon
1 litre water (or less, depending which method you use).

First Method:

Place the whole fruit and the water in a pressure cooker, bring to pressure and cook for 20 minutes at high pressure.  Allow to cool.  When fruit is cool enough to handle (you can leave it overnight, of course), cut each piece in half, scoop out the insides and return them to the pan, and chop the peels very finely.  Boil the insides in the pan for 5 minutes, then strain to remove the pips.  Add the chopped peel and sugar, and proceed as below.

Second Method:

Cut fruit in half and juice it.  Measure the juice, and make up to 1 litre with water.  Boil the pips with some of this liquid (about 150 ml) for 5 minutes, and make up the jug to 1 litre again.  Strain the pips.  Meanwhile, you have been chopping the peels, which is a lot harder when they are not cooked, but you save time by not having to wait for it to cool once the pressure cooker has lost pressure.  Boil the chopped peel in the juice at high pressure for 20 minutes, allow to cool at room temperature, and then proceed.

Both Methods:

Put the sugar into a large pan and add the cooked fruit/water/juice mix.  Stirring all the time, heat gently until it comes to the boil, then allow to boil, stirring frequently, until setting point is reached, which you test on a plate you had previously put in the freezer.  "When it gels, it's jam" to quote Elizabeth Goudge.  Allow to sit for ten minutes, then stir, pot in glass jars which you have sterilised in a warm oven while all this has been going on, and seal.

This is two batches.  I'm wondering if it would be a best or worst of both worlds to cook the oranges after halving and juicing them, but before chopping.  One would still have to wait until they were cool enough to handle, though, which is a nuisance unless you cook them before you go to bed and finish off next day.  Still undecided about which method I prefer.....

For Susan Gerules.

Oh bum, just discovered I already posted this recipe back in 2012.... oh well.  I could delete this, I suppose, but I've written it now....

Crayfish curry

I don't like prawns, and have been made sick by them in the past, so I don't eat them.  But I do like crayfish, and Lidl sells crayfish tails alongside prawns.  So use whichever you like. 

And what was left of the curry/rice mixture was even nicer next day!

1 tbs cooking oil
1 tsp each coriander seeds, cumin seeds (crushed in a pestle and mortar if necessary), black mustard seeds, turmeric, garam marsala, and dried crushed chillis
1 lump frozen ginger (or grate your own - I'm lazy!)
2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 onion
1 smallish sweet potato
1/3 vegetable marrow (or 1 smallish courgette)
1 tin tomatoes
Tinful of water (fill the unrinsed tin, to get the most juice)
1 tbs coconut milk  powder (or use a tin of coconut milk instead of the water)
1 fish Stockpot (or stock cube, whatever)
1/2 cup (125 ml by volume) long grain rice

Packet cooked prawn or crayfish

Fry all the spices, the garlic and the ginger in the oil, stirring all the time.  Then add the vegetables which you have peeled and chopped (and removed the seeds if you use a chunk of marrow).  Cook these with the lid on over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the tomatoes, water, coconut powder and rice.  Bring to the boil, stirring frequently, then lower the heat, cover, and leave to cook for 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked.

Divide the crayfish or prawns into two plates and spoon the curry over the top.

As I said, there was a little bit much for two, so we had the rest of it next day and it was even nicer!

Cheesy Eggy Bread

Warning: do not read this if you are being healthy for January.  I was in need of comfort food today, and this was it!

Eggy Bread was a staple of school breakfasts, and very good it was, too.  It wasn't quite the same as French toast, as I understand the latter to be sweet and served with fruit, while this was definitely savoury and could well be served with bacon.

So I decided to make an American-style "grilled cheese sandwich", but to soak the bread in beaten egg first.... yes, I know, heart attack on a plate, but there are times....

2 slices Tesco cornbread (which I have a craze on just now, but of course, any other bread will do just fine)
Cheddar cheese (or other melty cheese of your choice)
1 egg
Butter

Butter the bread and make a cheese sandwich with it.  Beat the egg, and season with salt and pepper, then turn the sandwich over in it several times until the bread is soaked.  Fry in butter on both sides, pouring any excess egg over the top of the bread..... Lovely!  But really, not to be eaten too often!

Chocolate-cranberry cake

I think this is only the third birthday cake I've made for the Swan Whisperer in all the years we've been married!  And the other two were fruitcakes.

For the cake:
4 eggs
The same weight (c. 240 g) of butter/baking fat and sugar.
2 tbs cocoa powder, made up to 240 g with self-raising flour and a pinch of salt
2 tbs very strong black coffee

Cream fat and sugar together; add the eggs one at a time and beat in, add the coffee, and finally fold in the flour/cocoa powder mixture.  Divide into 2 21-cm sponge tins and bake in a moderate oven (Mark 4) for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. 

For the cranberry filling:

About 75 g fresh cranberries (you don't need a huge amount)
Juice of 2 oranges (1 if it has made plenty - you want about 4-6 tbs)
2-3 tbs sugar (make it slightly sweeter than if you were making cranberry sauce for the Christmas table)

Put all of the above in a saucepan, put a lid on and cook until all the cranberries have gone "phut" (which is the noise they make as they cook).  Allow to cool.

For the ganache topping:
1 bar Green and Black's Organic dark chocolate
1 large tbs crème fraiche
Any surplus juice from the cranberries

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water (or in a double saucepan, if you have such a thing); stir in cream and juice.

To assemble:

Have the nicer cake, if there is one, on the top.  Spread the other one with the cranberries, then put the second cake on the top, and spread it with the ganache.  Allow to cool thoroughly and keep refrigerated.  Decorate as liked.....

Chicken Hash

I don't quite know what else to call this; I had been going to stir-fry my leftover chicken but then didn't go out so had no stir-fry vegetables (I do like beansprouts and water chestnuts in my stir-fries). So rethink time.....

1 tbs cooking oil
1 tsp curry powder
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 small swede
1 parsnip
1 sweet potato
2 small white potatoes
1/4 butternut squash
1/2 leek
3 cherry tomatoes (obviously you can add more, but this was the end of a punnet) A bit of cabbage 1/2 green pepper
A quantity of cooked chicken
A quantity of left-over gravy

Peel and chop all the vegetables into small pieces, and add the first 7 to a frying pan along with the oil and curry powder. Stir, cover, and allow to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Now add the rest of the vegetables and cook for another 15-20 minutes,

and finally add the chopped chicken and gravy, and cook for 10 minutes or until it's piping hot.  Make sure the pan is covered all the time except when you are stirring it or adding more veg, so that they cook in their own steam.  Adjust seasoning, and serve. 

Of course, you can use whatever vegetables you like, and you don't have to use quite so many!  But it was very good, and there is enough left for another meal later in the week.  Meanwhile, I was making stock in the slow cooker!

Victoria Sandwich

I very seldom make sponge cakes.  My old oven wouldn't, and although my new one does quite beautifully, we have managed for over 35 years without eating sponge cake regularly, and I fail to see why we can't go on doing so, or rather, not doing so.  But when asked to contribute a cake for the ice dance club's post-RIDL buffet, I happily volunteered.

I grew up eating these sponge cakes, and have always known how to make them (although I did have to check with my mother, both about flavouring this particular cake with orange, and about how you make butter icing, although in the end I went with the recipe on the side of the packet of icing sugar, using orange juice instead of milk or cream).  They are actually very easy to make, and it was only that they would not rise in my old oven but came out flat and miserable.

I have 21 cm diameter sponge tins, so made this cake with 4 eggs.  If your sponge tins are smaller, use 3 eggs, or even 2.  My grandmother used to make just one layer, so used only one egg.

Weigh your eggs, and then accumulate the same amount of butter (or baking margarine), sugar and self-raising flour.  For 4 eggs, which is what I used, it was 240g, which meant the last 10g of baking marg got used to grease the tin. 

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (an electric mixer is the easiest thing to use for this).  Add in the eggs one at a time, and continue to whisk until they are incorporated.  Now fold in the flour, into which you have added a tiny pinch of salt.  Divide the mixture among your sponge tins, and bake in a moderately hot oven (c gas 5, or 200 C - 180 in a fan oven) until it is cooked, which will take around 25 minutes or so.  If you bake the sponge in one tin, it will take longer, of course.  When it is cooked - when a skewer or very thin knife inserted into the top comes out clean - remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

That's your basic Victoria sandwich.  Mine - pictured - was an orange cake so I added the zest of an orange to the cake mixture, and substituted orange juice for milk in the icing (according to Tate & Lyle's recipe, which was beat 75 g butter until light and fluffy, slowly incorporate 175 g icing sugar, and then as much milk or cream - or orange or lemon juice - as you need).  You can, of course, substitute unsweetened cocoa powder for 25g or so of the flour, and also for some of the icing sugar to make a chocolate cake.  Or for a delicious cake that can be used as pudding, sandwich it together with jam and whipped cream, or fresh fruit and whipped cream.... and sprinkle a little icing sugar on the top through a tea-strainer if you want to make it look "finished".

You can also use this mixture to make a hot pudding, putting jam or cooked fruit in the bottom of the dish and the cake mixture on top, then turn it out and serve hot with cream or custard.  Or both.  You can cook this in the microwave, as, indeed, you can the cake itself, but the texture is Not the Same.

Udon with butternut squash, tomato and feta

Sorry there aren't any photos - wasn't thinking!  But this was seriously delicious.

2 tbsp oil
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 tsp za'atar or rosemary or something similar
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
1 large clove garlic
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tsp home-made pesto (if you happen to have any!)
1 packet udon noodles
1/2 packet feta cheese

 Put the squash into a lidded frying pan with 1 tbsp of the oil (I used stir-fry oil on this one) and the herbs, and cook gently until really soft and squishy and beginning to caramelise.  This takes up to 45 minutes, so if you're in a hurry, do it in the microwave for 5 minutes before transferring to the frying pan.

Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce by putting the remaining tbsp of oil (I used rapeseed, but olive is also vg), vinegar, crushed garlic and pierced tomatoes into a saucepan, cover, and cook on a low heat for about 5 minutes, until the juices run.  Put this into a food processor with the pesto, if you have any, or some fresh basil or, if all else fails, some dried marjoram or thyme, and work until smooth.

Cube the feta cheese, and prepare the udon according to the instructions on the packet.

Once the squash is cooked, combine everything in the frying-pan and make sure it is all piping hot.  Serve at once - we weren't sure whether to eat it with chopsticks or a spoon and fork!

Bacon and sweetcorn chowder

I had a couple of corns-on-the-cob that wanted eating, and not very much else in the house.  And the Swan Whisperer has a cold, and I'm recovering from one and now have a bad cough, which is leaving me very drained.  So this was rather comfort food!

1 ½ corns-on-the-cob (it was going to be 2, but there was a Nasty on one of them, so I had to throw half of it out)
1 small tin sweetcorn
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 packet lardons
4 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
About 300 ml milk and the same of water (I didn't really measure)
Pepper, and a dash of chilli sherry (use any chilli sauce, or even powdered chilli, but not too much)

Cook the corns-on-the-cob however you usually do - I usually use my microwave steamer.  Let them cool a bit.  Put the lardons in a heavy-based pan, and cook gently.  Add the onions, garlic and potatoes, cover, and let them cook in their own steam for a few minutes.  Meanwhile, put the contents of the tin of sweetcorn into a blender and process with a little milk until smooth.  Cut the corn kernels off the cob with a sharp knife, and add these to the saucepan.  Add the creamed sweetcorn and the rest of the milk.  Top up to a nice amount with water.  Season.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.  I actually did this in two lots, letting it stand for about an hour as I was busy.  This may or may not have improved the flavour!

Minestrone

I have a new cooker! This is a cause for wild excitement, as I have not had one before in all our married life - we started off with a new one (the cooker, the fridge and the bed were the only things we bought new, all those years ago when we were just starting out and money was tight), and had never replaced it. It was still serviceable, although the electronic starter had long since demised, the oven door was difficult to shut and the numbers had all rubbed off the knobs.

But we have bought a new one, and transformed our kitchen, as we had room to put the microwave above it, which has made more room than anybody would think possible.

Another cause for wild excitement is that the oven appears to make sponge cakes! My old oven never did - it made wonderful Dundee cakes, but ask it to cook a sponge and it would produce something like a flat biscuit.  I am still experimenting, as it appears that the oven is very cool and sponge cakes take about twice as long to cook as one would expect, but There Will Be Recipes when I am more confident!

Meanwhile, it seems early in the year for soup, but I have a bad cough, legacy of last week's cold, and wanted something comforting, and as I had seen "soup pasta" in Tesco, I reckoned minestrone was the way to go.  So I googled various recipes, mostly from the BBC Good Food website, looked at what was in the fridge, and came up with this:

Just under 1/2 cup cannellini beans
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion
1 leek
1 parsnip
3 small carrots
½ small swede
3-4 small new potatoes (ordinary ones are fine)
The end of a marrow (substitute a medium courgette)
A few mushrooms, sliced
1 chilli pepper
1 large clove garlic
Some basil leaves
Sloosh tomato paste
1 tin chopped tomatoes
About 75 g small pasta
Vegetable "Stock pot"
2 litres water

Soak the beans overnight, then bring to the boil in fresh water to which you may or may not have added a pinch of bicarbonate of soda.  Boil hard for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Or use a tin, but I personally prefer the texture of fresh-cooked ones.

Meanwhile chop the vegetables very finely.  You might want to use your food processor - I blitzed the chilli, garlic and basil together, then used the coarse grater on everything else except the potatoes, which I chipped, and the mushrooms, which I sliced.

Put the result into a heavy-based large casserole dish with 2 tbs olive oil, stir, cover, and leave to "sweat" on a low heat for 10-15 minutes.  Then add the tomato paste, tin of tomatoes, 2 litres of water, stock cube, seasonings of whatever takes your fancy (I had some Lebanese spice mix which wanted finished, so I added that), and finally the beans and pasta.

Bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Serve with loads of grated cheese, ideally Parmesan but whatever....

This makes masses, but it will keep for several days in the fridge.

 

Gluten-free cheese scones

An unexpected - and very, very welcome - visit from my sister-in-law and her husband this evening.  And no cake or anything in the house.  So I thought I'd make cheese scones, which are quick and easy - but just as I was standing on the stool looking for the flour, I remembered that my sister-in-law has coeliac disease and wouldn't be able to eat normal scones.  But, of course, neither gram flour nor buckwheat flour has gluten in it.... this might work....

125 g gram flour (besan, chick pea flour)
125 g buckwheat flour
Pinch dry mustard powder or cayenne pepper
50 g butter
125 g strong Cheddar, grated
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp lemon juice
About 120 ml milk

Rub the butter into the combined flours and baking soda, then stir in the cheese.  Add the lemon juice, and then gradually add the milk until it comes together in a ball (I was using a food processor, as time was off the essence).  Squish it all together, then flatten into a rough disk and bake in a hot oven (Mark 7) for 15 minutes.  Serve at once, with butter.

No, they weren't as good as normal cheese scones would have been, but they were eminently edible!

Mung bean and cauliflower risotto

This was inspired by Clothilde's photo on Facebook from a new restaurant.  I'm sure this wasn't as good as what she was served, but it was nevertheless delicious!

1/2 cup mung beans
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion
About 1/4-1/3 of a large cauliflower
1/2 cup risotto rice
250 ml white wine
500 ml vegetable or chicken stock (if you have home-made chicken stock, use that; if not, use a vegetable Knorr Stock Pot, or Tesco's own brand equivalent which I think is nicer)
About 60g Parmesan cheese

Soak the mung beans for several hours, then change the water,  bring to the boil, and boil hard for 10 minutes.  While this is happening, chop the onion and cauliflower, and sweat in the olive oil.  Add the rice, and stir thoroughly.  Add the drained mung beans, and then the wine.  Season, and bring to the boil, stirring all the time, and then allow to simmer for 7-10 minutes.  Add the stock, bring back to the boil, again stirring all the time, and simmer for a further 10 minutes, perhaps a little longer if it is still very liquid.  Stir in the Parmesan and serve at once.

Sandwich fillings and lunchboxes

This post was inspired by a conversation I was having in a group on Facebook, plus the fact that schools in England and Wales are poised to go back this week.  Mind you, Reception and Year 1 get free school dinners now, so the youngest probably won't be taking their own lunches, but still.  Adults like to take sandwiches and wraps, too - and one's own are so much nicer than bought, even if it's nice to buy them occasionally.  Who has time to make their own BLT of a morning?

So you start with the bread.  I tend to always use bought bread for a sandwich, but if you can slice your home-baked loaves thin enough, go for it!  My personal preference is a seeded wholegrain loaf.  Pitta bread or tortilla wraps are nice for a change, too.  Also, now that Lidl do such delicious rolls, baked fresh each day, I'll often go out and buy one specially (Lidl is all of 50 yards away!).  But then, I tend to make my sandwiches when I want them; for lunchboxes, I would find a roll difficult to manage. 

If whatever you are using for a filling doesn't spread readily, you might want to use a little butter (or equivalent, if you're vegan), but if it's something like cream cheese, it doesn't need it. 

I divide sandwiches into two - the main event, as it were, and the garnish.  The garnish is something vegetable - tomatoes, cucumber, sliced peppers, avocado, lettuce, grapes, any or all of the above!  Even banana can be nice, especially with peanut butter (although that is a combination I prefer in a breakfast sandwich).  If you're making your sandwich to take to work, avoid sliced tomatoes and cucumber, as they can make it soggy; use cherry tomatoes instead, and take a hunk of cucumber to eat separately.  Oh, and don't forget pickle (or chutney) with a strong cheese. 

The main event can be all sorts of things - hummus or peanut butter if you want a vegan sandwich, or all sorts of different kinds of cheese, including cream cheese (with or without Marmite) and cottage cheese.  Or egg mayonnaise - I always put chopped spring onions in mine; my mother uses chives to the same effect.  Grated cheese and carrot, bound with a scrap of mayonnaise, works well, too.

I was thinking in the supermarket that you could sprinkle sunflower seeds into your sandwich for extra crunch - Lidl sells them at the checkouts, which I find far, far more tempting than the sweets they've replaced!  Ah well.

For omnivores, of course, there is pate, there is ham, there are all sorts of proprietary sliced meats, or you could use some cold chicken (for instance) if you have some.  Bacon is good, but nicest when eaten freshly cooked, so we save our bacon and avocado sandwiches for the weekend.  Cold sausages work well, too.  And don't forget smoked salmon, which can be bought very cheaply nowadays - with cream cheese and avocado, it is a feast!  Or, if you like tinned fish, you could always mash some up; not sure how well they would travel, though.

If you get sick of sandwiches, as we all do sometimes, there's plenty of other things to take.  Salad is always good - what works best is to put the "nice bits" (chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, scallions, avocados, sunflower seeds, etc) with the dressing into one container and keep the greenery - lettuce, Chinese leaves, baby spinach, rocket, etc - separate, combining them all at the last minute.  You can buy - or make, if you're that way inclined - all sorts of nice bits for protein: falafel, pork pies, quiches, even a Cornish pasty (nicest hotted up, so I hope work has a microwave - if it does, you can take a mug of soup, too; they sell special mugs to take soup in these days.  And if you have a shaming taste, as I do, for ramen noodles.... sometimes I cook those in the microwave and then poach an egg in them, which is lovely!  Not very good for you, mind, but still lovely!

Then there are all sorts of rice salads or couscous salads you can make or buy to eat.  Home-made is often nicer, but I do rather like bought couscous salad!  And sometimes I like a box of (preferably veggie) sushi as part of my lunch!

All very vague and off the top of my head.

Gran's Peach and Orange Conserve

I was making apricot and nectarine jam the other day - the nectarine was to make up the weight, as Someone (who had better be nameless, but wasn't me) had been eating the apricots - when I remembered that my grandmother had made a very delicious peach and orange conserve.  So I emailed my mother to ask for the recipe.  She says that it was her recipe, not Gran's, but either Gran used to make it, or she took ownership of it (she was that kind of person), as I think of it as Gran's.

So this was Mummy's recipe, which I have made today (I did think of taking photos, but no matter how careful you are, making jam is a sticky business and I really don't want a sticky phone), and is delicious:

8 peaches
5 oranges
100 g  blanched almonds
3 lbs sugar (1.36 kg) sugar.  I used 1 kg preserving sugar, then made it up with ordinary granulated.

Peel the peaches (the easiest way to do this is to pour boiling water on them and leave for 1 minute, after which the skins should slip off easily) and then cut into chunks, discarding the stones.
Cut the oranges in half and discard any stones; then puree the whole thing (skin, pith, pulp and all) in a food processor.
Roast the almonds (I used a dry frying pan) and cut into smallish pieces (you can do this while the jam is boiling)

Put fruit and sugar into a preserving pan, and stir over a low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Bring to the boil, and allow to boil until setting-point is reached.  Stir in the almonds, pot, seal and enjoy!

(For Dorian E Gray)

Chicken Stock

I always feel it is a fearful waste of a chicken not to make stock from the bones.  And yesterday we had a chicken, so today:

Bones of a roast or otherwise cooked chicken - remove as much of the meat as you can, and save that to eat another time.
1-2 onions, peeled and quartered
1-2 large carrots, ditto
The green parts (the bits you usually discard) of a leek or two
A stick of celery is traditional, but we don't like the flavour of cooked celery, so we don't use that.
Lots of seasoning - salt, pepper, a couple of cloves, some mushroom ketchup, Worcestershire sauce.... whatever.  I usually add a chicken "Stock pot" gel.
Up to 2 litres boiling water

Put everything in either a slow cooker and cook on auto for about 8 hours (which is what I did) or a pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.  Strain the liquid, and discard all the solids.  Use in soups, risottos, etc - or you could poach another chicken in it.....

Nachos

Haven't taken any photos, I'm afraid, but nachos aren't terribly photogenic.  They are, however, delicious.  Quantities are approximate.

1 large packet tortilla chips
60 g cheese - I like the kind with chillies in it for this, but plain is fine, too
1 tbs milk

Melt the cheese and milk together in a saucepan, stirring all the time, and then pour over the chips. 

That's basically it, but to make it a proper meal, serve with any or all of the following:

Guacamole, either bought or home-made*
Sour cream dip
Fresh salsa, again, either bought or home-made.  I made a nectarine/tomato salsa, as follows:

2 large tomatoes
1 red onion
1 nectarine (or peach, of course)
1 chilli pepper 
Bunch of coriander (cilantro)
1 tbs lime juice
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

Peel and chop all the vegetables and mix together with the rest of the ingredients.   This is nicer if you make it an hour or so before the meal, to give the flavours a chance to mix.

* Or you could chop the avocado into the fresh salsa, which is what I was going to do, only my avocados weren't ripe, so I popped out and bought some guacamole.

Simple tomato sauce

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes (or quantity to suit you)
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
1 tbs each olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper, possibly a little oregano or marjoram.

Pierce the cherry tomatoes and put in a saucepan with the other ingredients.

  Cover, and cook gently until the juices run.

Transfer to a blender or food processor and work until smooth.

Bring back to the boil.

Delicious with fresh pasta, and a dollop of pesto on top.

Cucumber Slush

Half fill a blender goblet with ice, add a chunk (about 3 cm) of cucumber, cut slightly smaller, and a sprig of mint if you have it (I didn't).  Cover with chilled water and process until slushy.

 If you don't like cucumber, or don't find this sweet enough, why not try melon?  Or even mango or peach?

Courgette Tart

This has a bit to do with the recipe in the current Tesco magazine, and a bit to do with David Lebovitz' tomato tart recipe, and a bit of my own invention!

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry (or okay, make your own.  Be like that.  See if I care!  Me, I use ready-rolled).
½ quantity pesto (roughly)
½ tub goats' cream cheese
1 egg
½ roll goats' cheese (Lidl's Petit Chebra is what I tend to use)
1-2 courgettes, cut into thin slices.  I used a gourd-shaped one that was on special offer in Sainsbury's as well as ½ an ordinary one

Spread the pastry out into a baking tray.  Put the pesto, cream cheese and egg into a food processor

and blitz until smooth.

Spread this mixture on to the pastry base, then top with the sliced courgettes and bits of goats' cheese from the log.

Bake in a hottish oven - gas mark 6, 200C (180 C fan) - for 25-30 minutes. 

You can, of course, use tomatoes or other roastable vegetables (butternut squash?) in place of courgette.

I do wish I had discovered earlier how easy it is to put photos on my blogs - you can get them straight from your Android phone!  So if I think of adding my recipe while I am making it, I can photo-blog it.

Dundee Cake

I could have sworn I'd posted my version of this famous classic, but obviously not

200 g prunes, no stones.
150 g demerara sugar + extra for sprinkling
3 eggs
45 ml liquid (see note)
500 g mixed dried fruit ("Cake Fruit" in the supermarket), plus nuts if liked
250 g self-raising flour

Pour boiling water over the prunes and leave to soak for at least an hour (longer if they are very dried!).  Drain, reserving 45 ml of the liquid (see note), and place in bowl of food processor with the eggs, sugar and liquid.  Process until smooth.

Now transfer to a bowl, and fold in the flour and fruit (and nuts, if using).  Place in a greased, 7" cake tin.  Decorate the top with blanched almonds, if liked, and sprinkle with the extra demerara sugar.  Bake in a very low oven (Mark 1, 125 C) for 2½ hours.

Note: Although I usually the prune liquid, you can use more or less any liquid you like: milk, beer, cider, cold tea....  And if you use beer, you get to drink the rest of the bottle, which is always a Good Thing.

Aubergine pasta

One cannot, I find, eat asparagus every day at this time of year, although I do my best! I may post some recipes using asparagus later on. But today I decided to have a break, and make aubergine pasta, which is fairly quick, very easy and delicious.

1 aubergine, diced into ¼" chunks
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp coconut oil (or 1 tbs olive or rapeseed oil)
1/2 tub soft goats' cheese or other cream cheese, as liked (cheese and chives very good, too)
100 g small pasta

Put the aubergine, garlic and oil into a frying-pan that has a lid, season it, and cook on a very low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Then turn the heat down even lower, as low as it will go, while you cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet. When the pasta is cooked, stir it into the aubergine, and then mix in the soft cheese. Stir it through until the cheese has melted and coats everything, and then serve. Yum.

Omelettes, part 2

I don't pretend to make authentic Spanish tortillas or Italian frittatas, but they are very much easier than traditional French omelettes.  Quite apart from anything else, you can keep them waiting, and even eat them cold if you would like (if you get it right - and I find mine tend to fall apart - you can take them on picnics).

The idea of these omelettes is that they are stuffed full of vegetables. They have way more vegetables than eggs. Spanish ones must contain potatoes and onions, but may also contain things like peppers, chorizo (okay, that's not a vegetable, but hey?), tomatoes.... whatever.  Italian ones just contain vegetables.  It's probably not a good idea to use too many vegetables that render a great deal of juice when cooked, although one or two.  But choose a selection of vegetables that you like: onions, peas, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes (cherry tomatoes work well), chunks of butternut squash, maybe chopped aubergine or courgette, maybe chunks of carrot or parsnip... maybe a root vegetable omelette would be nice (must try this!).  You might want a green vegetable omelette in the spring - perhaps peas (or mangetout if you can get them that haven't been flown in from Kenya), baby broad beans, broccoli florets, asparagus tips or maybe a green pepper.

Whatever, you chop your vegetables into small pieces, and cook over gentle heat in a lidded frying pan - use cooking oil of some kind.  Stir occasionally, but keep the lid on as much as possible to let the vegetables cook mostly in their own steam.  If you're using frozen vegetables, thaw and slightly cook them in the microwave.  If you're using bacon or chorizo or even mini-sausages, add them and cook them, too.  When the vegetables are cooked, pour on a couple of eggs that you have whisked until they are all one consistency, seasoned, and maybe added some grated cheese to.  Keep the heat low, and keep the lid on the pan.  Cook gently without disturbing it until the eggs are set through.  Cut into wedges and serve - perhaps with bread if you haven't used potatoes (I am incapable of eating anything eggy without some form of carbohydrate, a relic of having grown up in the 1950s!).

Omelettes, part 1

When you think of an omelette, what comes to mind?  For many of us, it's the iconic French omelette, filled, perhaps, with cheese or mushrooms, or ham.... but perhaps it's an Italian frittata or Spanish tortilla that comes to mind.  They are very different animals, and I like - and can cook - both, so I thought I'd do a post on each.  There is also a soufflé omelette, which is as eggy as the French kind, but cooked more slowly, like the Spanish/Italian kinds....

So for a traditional French omelette.  First of all, you prepare your filling - if it needs cooked, like mushrooms or tomatoes, then you cook it; grate your cheese, chop your ham or herbs.... 

One egg is possible, two ideal and three, frankly greedy!  Whichever you choose, choose a pan to suit, and for these purposes, a heavy cast-iron pan, Le Creuset or a clone thereof, is ideal.  It doesn't want to be too big.

Whisk your eggs until they are all one consistency.  Add salt and pepper.  Now heat your pan, and add a knob of butter.  The pan should be very hot, and the butter will sizzle.  Listen carefully, and as soon as it stops sizzling, pour in your egg.  Using a fish slice or spatula, pull the set bits away from the side, allowing more liquid egg to run underneath.  When it is just not quite set on the top, add your filling, fold it in half using the spatula/fish slice, and tip on to a plate.  Serve immediately with bread (and butter, if liked, and perhaps a salad).

Easiest pancakes ever!

I used to struggle dreadfully making pancakes, but these days I tend to make galettes au sarassin and we will have a "galette complete" for supper tonight, with eggs, lardons and cheese, and I shall add some mushrooms because I like them and a side salad. Anyway, they are easy enough, but this is even easier, full of protein and very delicious:

 Per pancake:
 c 50-75 ml water
1 heaped tablespoon gram flour.

 Er, that's it!

You can, of course, season this to taste with salt and pepper, maybe some chilli and garlic.... and if you want to make it really lush, add 1/2 tablespoonful of tahini.

Whisk this together thoroughly. Lightly grease a frying-pan, and cook in the usual way, over a medium-hot heat until the top surface looks dry, and then turn it over and cook for a further minute or so.

This is vegan and gluten-free; I have seen it called a "vegan omelette". You can fill it with things like tomatoes and onion, or sliced avocado, or whatever you fancy, really, but it's very nice on its own.

Edited to add: try spreading it with hummus and rolling it up! That is seriously lush....

Christmas Chocolates

I like making these - they don't have to be just for Christmas, of course.  They do very-nicely-thank-you for Easter, and I made truffles for my father's birthday.


I allow my chocolates to harden off on a silicone baking tray, which is beautifully non-stick.  I expect you could use baking parchment, or those re-usable non-stick liners they sell for cake tins.

You don't absolutely need moulds for the truffles - you can pour them into a shallow plastic dish and allow them to set, and then roll teaspoonsful of the mixture into little balls, perhaps dusting them with cocoa powder or chocolate sprinkles.

So. Makes 72 chocolates and 3 trays-ful of truffles

About 600 grammes really good quality dark cooking chocolate
About 100 grammes less-good quality dark cooking chocolate for the truffles (you can, of course, use the best quality, but it is less necessary)
36 stoned prunes
36 dried apricots
150 ml double cream
30-60 ml spirits of your choice (brandy, Calvados, rum... I used some cranberry-orange gin someone gave me last year)

Break 300 grammes of the fine chocolate into a bowl that you have placed over a panful of simmering water.  Allow these to melt, and stir to ensure they melt smoothly.  Now drop in the prunes, about 9 at a time, fish them out with a long-handled teaspoon, and place them on your baking tray.  Please buy a new packet of both prunes and apricots for this, and don't use the ones you've had drying out in the cupboard since forever!  You can always use them up in stews and couscouses if you're not fond of them as a compote.

When you have done all the prunes, add a further 600 grammes of chocolate, melt it, and repeat with the apricots, which are easier because they are rather more regular in shape, which is why I do them second.

Leave them on the baking tray to harden off. Meanwhile you have some chocolate left over, so dip a couple of prunes and apricots for yourself.  Then add the cream to what's left, and the booze, and stir thoroughly.  It will want more chocolate, so break in another 100 grammes or so (you can use the cheaper chocolate for this, if you prefer).  Once this is all melted and incorporated into itself, spoon into moulds (Lidl occasionally has them, but they are fairly easily obtainable from places like Hobbycraft) or into a shallow plastic box.  Harden off in the fridge. 

Then place each chocolate in a paper case (ubiquitous), and if you want to be grand, make up boxes of a mixture of the chocolates (you can get boxes in Hobbycraft and also on-line, but the postage was eye-watering so I went to Hobbycraft!), seal them and present them to your adoring friends and family!

Of course, if your family like milk chocolate or even white "chocolate" better than plain, no reason you can't use that instead - just make sure it is the best quality you can get.  I've seen all three cooking chocolates in the home baking section of the supermarket.  And you don't have to stick to prunes and apricots - I tried with spoonfuls of sultanas or cranberries, which were lovely although they did tend to come apart a bit.  You could also dip shelled whole nuts - almonds, walnuts, brazils, pecans....  And I expect, although I've not tried, you could dip other home-made sweets - fudge, caramels, even truffles (if you can be bothered to melt yet more chocolate!).

You need to let the chocolates harden about 24 hours, and they're probably best kept very cool, even in the fridge, until you give them away, but they do make a very easy last-minute Christmas present.

You can also dip fresh fruit - sliced bananas, grapes, mandarin orange slices, etc - but these won't keep so you have to eat them pretty much the same day (what a pity!!!).

Orange hash

A friend posted her recipe for sausage and leek hash. I remember loving corned beef hash as a child but, alas, the Swan Whisperer dislikes corned beef, so it doesn't feature on our menus.

However, when I came to make the hash, I found that I had only a few small new potatoes left.  I did have another bag, but it never "does" to mix two batches of potatoes, they always cook unevenly, and these were maincrop anyway.  But I also had some sweet potatoes, and then there was the end of a butternut squash that wanted used.  So.....

4-5 small new potatoes (of course you can use whatever potatoes you have, but about the amount that one person would eat), cut in half (or into bite-size chunks if you are using ordinary potatoes)
1/2 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/4 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1-2 leeks, depending on size, washed and chopped
1/2 packed Nuremburg bratwurst (the small herby jobs from Lidl) or other sausages of your choice, cut into chunks.
1 tbs olive or other cooking oil
Seasoning, as liked  (I used some pork seasoning I have from Tesco)
60-100 grammes grated cheese

Put the oil into a large, lidded frying pan, then add the potatoes and leeks, stir and let cook on a lowish heat for 10-15 minutes, then add the sausages, stir again, and leave for another 10-15 minutes.   Season, and stir the grated cheese through before serving.

This could be made vegetarian quite simply by omitting the sausages, or vegan by using cooked chickpeas instead of sausages and stirring through a tahini dressing, some peanut butter or some hummus (or even baba ganoush).  If you don't like cheese, leave that out but perhaps fry an egg and serve that on top.... all sorts of variations, just as I varied my friend's original recipe!

Cheese Scones

I had forgotten how good these were! My mother's recipe, so Imperial measurements, but have made an approximate translation.

8 oz (250 g) self-raising flour
1 1/2 oz butter (45 g)
4 oz strong Cheddar or other cheese (124 g)
3/4 tsp baking powder.
1/2 tsp each cayenne pepper and dry mustard powder
Pinch salt
Scant 1/4 pint milk (c 125 ml)

Grate cheese. Rub butter into flour and seasonings, mix in cheese and add sufficient milk to make dough. Roll out to about 1 cm thick, put on greased baking sheet, brush with milk and score into 6-8 pieces. Bake in hot oven (Mark 7) for 15-20 minutes. Let cool, split, butter and eat, preferably while still warm.

Butternut squash spread/dip

I first came across this as a meze when lunching at Whole Paycheck Foods Market in Kensington High Street, and thought it delicious.  It belongs to the same "family" of spread/dips as hummus, particularly the kind made with vegetables instead of chickpeas (see, for instance, this delicious courgette "hummus" recipe here and many similar ones, and one of these days I plan to try it with a large tomato instead of courgette), but uses peanut butter instead of tahini.  Of course, you can substitute tahini if you like, or any other nut butter, come to that!

I was cooking butternut squashs, so just cooked extra while I was at it.

1/4 butternut squash (approximately - you want 200-250 gr or so)
1/2 tbs olive oil, salt and pepper

If the bit of butternut you are using  has seeds in it, scoop them out and discard.  Brush the cut surface with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, before roasting, skin side up, in a hot oven for about an hour.  Alternatively, peel and cut into chunks, spray with olive oil, and microwave for a few minutes until cooked, which is a lot quicker if you are cooking it specially.

When cold, peel and roughly cube the flesh, then place in a food processor and add:
1 tablespoonful of smooth peanut butter - ideally whole nut, with no added sugar.  Or tahini, if you prefer.
1 tablespoonful olive oil
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
(Optional) 1 clove garlic, crushed, or a sprinkle of garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
I also added 1 tsp fish sauce, but that does make it non-vegetarian, which might matter to some people; if it matters to you, or if you don't have fish sauce, leave it out or substitute a small amount of soya sauce or Marmite (you don't want a lot, just enough to lift the flavour,  not enough to make it taste!).

Blitz until smooth, and use as you would hummus or a vegetable dip.  Very nice, and an unusual flavour, I find.

Baked Eggs

When I was a little girl, my brother and I would be sent to stay with my paternal grandmother who seemed to like to have us overnight. Quite why, I don't know, because she only lived down the road, and could easily have given us back, but she seemed to enjoy our company without our parents on occasion! 

Unlike my mother, my grandmother had a gas cooker - town gas, in those long-ago days before North Sea Gas was discovered - and therefore felt freer to run her oven more than my mother did, and baked eggs frequently featured on her breakfast menu.  My mother never cooked them, so it was a treat for when we stayed with my grandmother.  Except when we were packed off to spend the night the night before we went on holiday. When she learnt that we were concerned about the quasi-inevitable car-sickness that would probably ensue on the journey, she gave us a breakfast she said was served at the Lord Warden in Dover before a Channel crossing, and nobody could possibly feel sick if they ate that.  It was only plain bread-and-butter and ham, but I seem to remember it did the trick!  (And I rather suspect that at the Lord Warden champagne was served, rather than the weak tea or milk we had!).

Anyway, baked eggs:

Per person:
1 egg
½ slice ham
½ a tomato or 3 cherry tomatoes, sliced or halved as appropriate (optional)
1 tbs milk
Seasoning, as liked

Put the ham and tomatoes into the bottom of a greased ramekin.  Top with the egg, left whole, and add the milk and seasoning. Bake in a moderate oven (gas 4, 180 C) for 15-20 minutes.  Eat out of the ramekin with a teaspoon, accompanied by bread, or toast, and butter.

Chilli Sherry and sauce recommendations

My grandmother used to make this, and use a teaspoonful or so to season soups, stews, etc.  If you have an empty glass bottle with a screw-top lid, do make some!

Fill the bottle about ¼ full with dried chilli peppers, and top up with cheap cream sherry.  Leave to infuse for about 3 weeks before using.  Top up with additional sherry when necessary.

Meanwhile, I should like to recommend Clothilde's magic sauce, which I made yesterday (the version with peanut butter) and found surprisingly good.  And I should also like to recommend this courgette hummus, recommended by Clothilde, which as far as I am concerned could replace mayonnaise very, very easily!

Summer Pudding

An English classic!

1 packet (750 gr) frozen summer fruit or fruits of the forest (or use fresh strawberries/raspberries/redcurrants/cherries in the proportions you prefer)
About 2-3 tablespoonsful of sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour stirred into 1 tablespoonful water
6 slices bread, crusts removed

Put the fruit into a microwaveable container with the sugar and cook, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until the fruit is thawed and the juices have run.   Stir in the cornflour/water.  Taste and adjust the sugar if necessary - remember you can always add some, but you can't take it away, and this pudding is not meant to be too sweet.

Line a 2-pint pudding basin with the bread, saving a slice for the top.  Pour the fruit into the centre, top with the remaining bread.  Place a saucer on top and weigh it down (use a couple of 400-g tins if you haven't any old-fashioned weights); refrigerate for at least 8 hours if you can.  Turn the pudding out on to a plate and serve with cream.

Frozen green orange tea

I ordered this in a coffee shop in Hamburg the other day when I was very hot. Not at all sure what to expect, but it was very good and refreshing, so I tried to recreate it at home:

1 peppermint tea bag
2 large sprigs mint
Several slices of lemon (I freeze 1/4 slices of lemon to go in tea, so just grabbed a handful of those) or lime
As many ice cubes as you can muster
Orange, apple or multi-vitamin juice

Make 1 cup of peppermint tea and add the mint sprigs, too - crush them for a bit of flavour.  Cool it down with the ice-cubes and lemon.  Add fruit juice to taste - and it might, I suspect, be very nice with some sparkling water, too.

Most refreshing.  Please note this is still a work in progress.....

Kate and Sidney

I know this is another two-posts-in-one-day, but there you are - my posts are like buses.  None for ages, and then two come along at once!  This one is specially for DBNY, who wanted a recipe.

1 tbs olive oil
1 large onion
1-2 cloves garlic (optional)
1-2 large carrots
1/2 punnet mushrooms
1 400 g tin tomatoes
1 beef stock cube or Stock Pot
The tomato tin full of water (or red wine)*
400 g stewing steak (or thereabouts)
200 g kidneys (ideally ox, but whatever you can get)
1 tbs flour (I used besan, or gram flour, which added a lovely flavour but didn't do much in the way of thickening)
Salt, pepper, mixed herbs, Worcestershire sauce

Peel and chop the onion, garlic, carrots and mushrooms, and fry in a little oil for several minutes, ideally until the onions are softened.  Meanwhile, mix the seasoning with the flour (not the Worcestershire sauce, of course, but....), and toss the cubed meat in it.  Transfer the vegetables to a slow cooker*, and then fry up the meat, stirring constantly, until it has browned.  Transfer this to the slow cooker, and add the tomatoes and water (and Worcestershire sauce, if using).  Leave cooking on high or auto for the rest of the day, and in any case at least 5-6 hours. Serve with potatoes or a hearty pasta and a green vegetable or two.  Left-overs even better re-heated next day!

* If you don't have a slow cooker, use an ordinary casserole dish and cook it in a slow oven for 2-3 hours.  You may well need more water than I used, though.

Unrepeatable soup!

This was so delicious, but it's very hard to find wild garlic in London which is why it's unrepeatable.  I did buy a bunch at my local farmers' market, but it was eye-wateringly expensive.  I am actually wondering whether spring onions (scallions) would work instead - after all, the French cook their peas with lettuce and baby onions....

1 bunch ramsons (wild garlic, bears' garlic)
Outside leaves from a Little Gem lettuce (or any floppy lettuce, really)
1 litre vegetable stock
About 100g frozen peas
2 tbs creme fraiche
A plank of Chinese noodles (or a large packet of instant noodles and discard the flavour sachet)

Boil the ramsons and lettuce in the stock for about 10-15 minutes.  Blend until smooth.  Add the peas and noodles and cook for a further 4-5 minutes.  Stir in the creme fraiche.

If you try this with spring onions, let me know how it works!  And if I do, I will update.

Carrot salad

AKA carottes rapées.

3-4 medium-to-large carrots, peeled and grated
2 snack pack boxes of raisins (the kind you give children who are low blood-sugar or bored)

The traditional dressing is lemon juice and olive oil, and when I made it this way earlier in the week I also added some honey as it was a little too sharp.  However, my preferred dressing is toasted sesame oil and balsamic vinegar, which doesn't really need anything else.

Put everything in a bowl and mix.  Keep in fridge.

Giant couscous salad

About 1/2 cupful giant couscous.  I got mine in Morrison's but if you can't find it, ordinary couscous is fine.
About 2 tbs cooked chickpeas (tinned is fine, but dried are nicer)
About 2 tbs sunflower seeds
About 1-2 tbs sultanas or dried cranberries
1 tomato, chopped
Chunk of red pepper, chopped
Handful of parsley, chopped.
You could also add a chunk of chopped cucumber, but I've gone off cucumber, so I didn't.
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs olive oil
I also had some tahini dressing that wasn't doing anything, so that went in, too.

Cook the couscous - if you're using the giant stuff, you boil it for 6-7 minutes like ordinary pasta; the regular stuff you just soak for 10 minutes in twice as much boiling water.  Drain and transfer to a bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients.  Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours for the flavours to develop.  Serve with lettuce, flatbreads, hummus, olives, other salads..... 

Pesto

Have I ever posted my pesto recipe?  I am not sure that I have.  For me, pesto has to contain basil; I know there is such a thing as red pesto, made with sun-dried tomatoes, and people make pesto with all sorts of different green leaves, but for me, it's basil or nothing!  I will happily substitute walnuts or even peanuts for the pine nuts, and use a strong cheddar instead of parmesan, but it has to be basil!

A large quantity of basil - if you have a growing tub, give it a haircut.  A good handful.
1-2 tbs pine nuts, walnuts, or even peanuts
1 clove garlic
Large chunk - about 60 grammes or so - Parmesan, or maybe strong cheddar
1-2 tbs olive oil

Place it all in a food processor and blitz until it gets to the texture you like.  If it's too dry, add a little more olive oil.

Serve with pasta, and we like to save a little to have on bread next day!

Neither Kedgeree nor Kitchari

I had been toying with the idea of a vegetarian kedgeree - I adore kedgeree, but it's expensive and I don't make it often.  Anyway, a bit of research brought me to this recipe, only me being me, I wanted vegetables in and with it, plus we had loads of veg in the bottom of the fridge that wanted using!  Serves 4.  This recipe is vegan and gluten-free.

½ cup mung beans
1 tbsp cooking oil (I used sesame oil)
1 chunk frozen grated ginger (or grate your own!)
1 tsp turmeric
 ½ each asafoetida, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, as liked
1 leek, chopped
1 large courgette, chopped
3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
½ cup basmati or other long-grain rice
500 ml boiling water
1 vegetable "stock pot" (or use 500 ml vegetable stock)
Salt and pepper to taste
Mango chutney to serve

Soak the beans for several hours.   Fry the spices and ginger in the oil for a minute or two, then add the vegetables.  Stir, and allow to cook for a minute or two.  Add the soaked beans and rice, and then stir again.  Finally, add the stock and adjust the seasoning.  Bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat to very low and simmer, covered, for about 20-25 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed.  Serve with chutney.

Leeks and ham au gratin

This is an old favourite.  It is traditionally made with chicory (endives) rather than leeks, but for St David's Day, which it is, one wants something in which leeks are a central feature, rather than an "also-ran". 

4 small or 2 large leeks, trimmed. If large, cut in half widthways.
4 slices ham - the nice kind, without added water
250 ml milk
1 heaped tsp plain flour
A very little salt (only a pinch - the ham will add a great deal)
Black pepper
Dry mustard powder
Knob of butter
c 75g grated cheese (cheddar, emmenthal, Parmesan, one of those bought mixes....)

Boil, or (preferably) steam the leeks until tender. When cool enough to handle, wrap each leek or 1/2 leek in a slice of ham.  Place side-by-side in an oven-proof dish.

Meanwhile, whisk the flour, milk and seasoning together and melt the butter in a saucepan.  Pour the milk mixture on to this and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.  Stir in half the grated cheese, then pour this over the ham and leeks.  Top with the rest of the grated cheese.  Bake in a moderate oven for 30-45 minutes.

This is traditionally served with mashed potato.

Chicken and mushroom curry

Yet another day when two posts come along at once!  I hadn't made a curry quite like this before, but it was very good!

4 chicken breast fillets
1/2 large or 1 small onion
1/2 punnet mushrooms
1 tbs olive oil
1 large tsp curry powder (or more, to taste)
Around 200 ml boiling water
1 Knorr chicken stock-pot
1 tbs coconut milk powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the curry powder in the olive oil for a few minutes; add onions and chicken fillets, allow to cook for a couple of minutes and then turn the fillets over.  Add the sliced mushrooms, reduce the heat, cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes, until the mushrooms are all juicy.  Now add the water, stock and coconut milk powder, stir, bring back to the boil and simmer uncovered for a further 15 minutes.  Adjust seasoning. Serve with rice, and perhaps a vegetable side dish (see previous post).

Broccoli Bhaji

Our Chinese take-away has been closed for a couple of weeks, which meant the weekly take-away came from the local Indian place, which is slightly further away.   We ordered a vegetable thali, which was heaven, and which introduced me to the delicious dish called bhindi bhaji,which is made with okra.  I was going to make that this evening, but my daughter and grandson came to stay unexpectedly while their boiler was being replaced, and my daughter said she didn't care for okra, so I made it with broccoli instead. I thought it just a tad dry, but it tasted good!

1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp each asafoetida, tumeric (I didn't have any and so perforce left this out), garam marsala  and chilli powder (to taste, but that sort of thing)
1/2 large or 1 small onion, chopped
2-3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 large head of broccoli, reduced into florets and the stem chopped small.
1 tbs olive oil
Salt to taste 

Crush the coriander and cumin together in a pestle and mortar, and put them, with the other spices, into the olive oil which you have placed into a frying pan or wok that has a lid.  Allow to cook gently for a few moments, then add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir well, cover, and allow to cook gently for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.  Use as a side dish with curry and rice.

Cheese Pudding

I love this once in awhile; it's the savoury version of bread-and-butter pudding. 

3 slices wholemeal or granary bread
Large lump strong Cheddar cheese (75-100 g)
250 mls milk
2 eggs

Whizz the bread and cheese together in a food processor, as you would for a topping for a savoury dish.  Place in a greased ovenproof dish.  Whisk the eggs and milk together until smooth, seasoning with salt, black pepper and mustard powder.  Pour this mixture over the breadcrumbs and stir.  Leave to sit for a few minutes - 10 or 15 - and then bake in a moderate oven (Gas 4) for about 45 minutes.  I topped this with a sliced tomato, which was lovely, and it would probably have been even nicer if I'd saved some of the cheese to sprinkle on the top. 

Perfect opportunity for roasted veg, which can go in the oven on the shelf above!

Cauliflower cheese bake

½ large or 1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1 small tin sweetcorn (optional)
250 ml milk
1 heaped teaspoon flour
2 tsp olive oil or similar amount of butter
Salt, pepper, 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
A little more butter and milk for the potatoes
c 60-100 g cheese, grated (should be 60 g but I'm greedy!)
If liked, a tomato or several cherry tomatoes, sliced or halved

Steam cauliflower florets and potatoes. Make a whisked or roux sauce, as preferred, with milk, flour, seasonings, oil/butter.  Add the tin of sweetcorn, if using, and half the cheese.

Place the cooked cauliflower florets into an oven-proof dish, and tuck the hard-boiled eggs in beside the handles (so you know where they are!). Top with the sauce, then with the potatoes you have mashed with the extra butter and milk (and seasoned), with the rest of the grated cheese and, if liked, the sliced or halved tomatoes.  Bake in a moderate oven for 30-45 minutes.

Cauliflower recipes

No posts for ages, then two come along at once. Mostly because we have, for the first time for ages, bought a cauliflower, and I have been thinking of my two favourite ways to eat it.  The first is very quick to make:

1 small, or ½ large cauliflower, cut into florets
Large chunk of butternut squash, peeled and diced
Small slab Feta cheese
1/2 cup (125 ml) by volume dry couscous
Olive oil
Rosemary or thyme
1 tin tomatoes      )
1 heaped tsp flour )

OR

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Steam the cauliflower florets; spray the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary or thyme.  Microwave it for 4 minutes (you can roast it if you have time, which is nicer, but this is a quick meal).  Soak the couscous in 250 ml boiling water for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make a tomato sauce by whisking the tin of tomatoes with the flour (seasoning it to taste) and then adding this to a saucepan with c 2 tsp olive oil; bring to the boil, stirring all the time, and ideally simmer for a few minutes.  If you prefer, you can make a fresh tomato sauce with 1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes, pierced, cooked for a few minutes in olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar and then mashed!

Mix the squash, couscous and feta and served topped with the cauliflower and the tomato sauce.