Vegetable Curry

This started out as a take on David Lebovitz' root vegetable salad, and sort of evolved!

2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs curry powder (or to taste)
Asafoetida, garam marsala, turmeric, to taste
1 onion
Several cloves of garlic
Chunk of swede
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1/2 red pepper
Chunk butternut squash
1/2 punnet mushrooms
3 tomatoes
Seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, soya sauce, maybe hot pepper sauce)
2 tbs hummus

Fry the first lot of spices very gently in the oil, while you peel and dice the first 5 vegetables (down to and including the parsnips).  Add these, cover, and allow to cook gently for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Now add the rest of the vegetable (also diced), stir again, and cook for about 15 minutes.  Season, and stir the hummus through it.  Serve with rice.

Gran's strawberry ice-cream

I haven't made this in years, and had forgotten all about it until I reread Clothilde's coconut ice-cream recipe, which is what I have made this week (substituting creme de framboise for the rum and adding some frozen rasps to make it a raspberry-coconut ice-cream).  So when I was buying the evaporated milk for this recipe, I bought a second tin, and a tin of strawberries, too, and this will be made very soon:

1 tin evaporated milk
1 tin strawberries

Whisk together (no need to puree too hard, it's rather nice with bits of strawberry in it) and freeze.  Couldn't be easier.

Although when I make it, I'll probably add 2 tbs creme de fraise (this is how you use all those fruit liqueurs you buy in France and seldom, if ever, drink when back in the UK!) as alcohol does seem to make ice-creams freeze better.

Edit: I did make this and it was horrible!  Tasted of evaporated milk!  Greek yoghurt is a much better idea!

Peach and butterscotch ice-cream

This didn't quite come out how I intended, but I don't actually care, it is very, very good!  Quantities for the peach bit are approximate - depends on how many peaches/how much yoghurt/etc, you have.

5 ripe peaches
3 tbs white sugar
About the same amount, or a little more, Greek yoghurt (depends how much you have!)
About 150 ml whipping cream
2 tbs peach liqueur (optional)

1 quantity butterscotch sauce using David Lebovitz' wonderful recipe (Please note that "heavy cream" is apparently whipping cream, not double).

Soak the peaches in boiling water for c 1 minute until the skins slip off easily.  Remove them, the put the flesh in a large bowl.  Blitz with a stick blender (or use a food processor) until you have a smooth puree.  Now add the sugar, yoghurt, cream and liqueur, if using, and continue to blitz until well mixed.  Chill thoroughly in the fridge, and freeze in ice-cream maker.

I meant to make the butterscotch sauce go through the ice-cream as a ripple, but either it wasn't quite cold enough, or the peach ice-cream wasn't quite as frozen as I'd thought, as it went a bit liquid, plus there was rather too much for the ice-cream maker. So I emptied most of the frozen peach into a freezer-proof bowl, and continued to work the ice-cream maker with the liquid remains; it didn't really freeze solid, but enough so I could add it in to the rest of the stuff. Of course we had quite a lot of tastes that night - but really, next day when I came to try it, it had turned into a sort of marbled-effect ice-cream, and was (and still is) seriously delicious!  Not quite sure if it's reproducible, though!

Lemon chocolate sorbet

I do own an ice-cream maker, but the bowl tends to sit in the freezer taking up space and the other bits do likewise on top of the fridge.  So when we got a new fridge-freezer recently the Swan Whisperer more or less said "Use it or lose it".

So I was half planning to make Clothilde's wonderful dark chocolate sorbet anyway, but yesterday a friend said that for her, one scoop of chocolate ice-cream and one scoop of lemon sorbet was a match made in heaven.

So I thought, well, why not lemon chocolate sorbet?  I cut back the water a bit from Clothilde's recipe, and upped the sugar in order to add the lemons.

3 unwaxed lemons
140 g granulated sugar
250 ml water
40 g unsweetened cocoa powder
80 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% at a bare minimum)
2 tbs limoncello

Either peel the lemons very finely (don't get any of the white pith) with a potato peeler or grate the rind on a lemon zester or equvalent.  Place into heatproof jug with the sugar, and pour the boiling water over this.  Stir well and leave to stand while you squeeze the lemons and chop the chocolate into as small pieces as you can be bothered.

Put the cocoa powder into a saucepan and strain the lemon water on to it.  Whisking and stirring all the time, bring to the boil, and, as soon as it boils up (don't let it boil over!), pour it on to the chopped chocolate (which you have, of course, transferred to the jug you originally used to steep the lemon peel).  Stir vigorously until the chocolate dissolves and you have a smooth fluid.  Now add the lemon juice and limoncello (you can leave this out if you don't have any, or if children are going to eat this, but all sorbets and ice creams are improved with a little alcohol in them), stir again, and leave to cool.  When cool, chill thoroughly in fridge.

Freeze in your ice-cream maker (or in a shallow tray, stirring every hour to break up the crystals) and enjoy!  I served with a peach-and-raspberry sauce (home-made) and some thick cream with limoncello which I'd happened to see in Tesco's earlier.

VERDICT:  Tastes absolutely lovely, but a little watery.  Not sure quite how to deal with that - perhaps make sure there is no more than 275 ml total of liquid, whether lemon juice or water, and then bring it all to the boil together, and strain out the lemon peel before adding the solid chocolate?  Or boil for longer?

It would be greedy to have a second helping, wouldn't it?


EDITED: Made this again last week (10 November) and altered it to about 250 g sugar to 200 ml water/lemon juice, which I brought to the boil, boiled hard for one minute, then added the cocoa powder, brought it back just to the boil (this was my grandmother's chocolate sauce recipe: 6 oz sugar, 1/4 pint water, 2 oz cocoa powder),  then added the chopped chocolate.  Much better - thicker, and less watery.  And rather too much limoncello so it didn't freeze quite properly, but was none the worse for that!

Mushroom Risotto

It feels like ages since I made risotto!  But it is so good, and easy (although time-consuming).  This was a mushroom risotto, but of course the variations are infinite.

About 5-10 g dried mushrooms
500 ml boiling water
1 Knorr (or Own Brand) vegetable Stock Pot
20g butter
1 tbs olive oil
5 small "pickling" onions (what I had - an ordinary medium-sized onion would have been fine)
2 large cloves garlic
2/3 punnet mushrooms
1/2 cup risotto-type rice (arborio or the one that begins with c whose name escapes me and I cba to look up!)
125 ml white wine
Seasoning to taste
About 60g Parmesan cheese, grated

Pour the boiling water over the dried mushrooms, add the Stock Pot (or stock cube - or make your own stock from scratch if you feel that way inclined), and leave to stand.

Peel and chop the onion(s), peel and crush the garlic cloves, slice the fresh mushrooms.  Put the fats into a large saucepan and add the vegetables.  Let them begin to cook for about 5-10 minutes.  Then add the rice, and stir until all the grains are coated with oil.  Now add the white wine and stir vigorously.  Leave to cook for about 5 minutes.  Add 1/2 the stock (let the dried onions, now reconstituting themselves, go in too - chop them if they are too big), stir, and letcook for about 10 minutes.  Add the remaining stock, and let cook for a further ten minutes - if it seems very liquid, leave the lid off, and it really is nicer if you can be bothered to stir it during this stage. 

When most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked, stir in the grated Parmesan and serve.  With or without a green vegetable, as you prefer. 

Bean casserole

My friend P is married to a Greek man and produced the authentic version of this wonderful dish at a party recently.  My version is less authentic, as I used cannellini beans, but if you can get proper Greek Giant beans (I haven't seen them dried here, only butter beans, which are not the same thing at all!), then so much the better.  I think this would have been even nicer had the ratio of beans to passata been higher, but I'm certainly not complaining!

About 3/4 cup by volume (c 180 g) of dried cannellini beans.  Or perhaps 250 ml (1 cup by volume) would be even better.
1 large carrot
1 red onion
1 carton passata (sieved tomatoes)
1 tbs olive oil
Seasoning - salt, pepper, garlic flakes (or use fresh garlic, but it's not in season just now and what is available isn't very nice, so I'm on the dried for now!), maybe a dash of soya sauce...

Soak the cannellini beans in water overnight.  Next morning, drain, rinse, and cook with fresh water in a pressure cooker for about 10 minutes.  Drain again, and place in the bowl of a slow cooker.  Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, and leave to cook on auto until dinner time.  Fabulous!   I served this with mushrooms and new potatoes, and left-overs (there are a couple of spoonfuls) will go to pad out tomorrow night's mince.

Mum's mushroom pate

I've been meaning to post this for ages!  It is very good, makes far too much but it freezes well.

375 g mushrooms, sliced
3 tsp finely chopped onions (I used 1 small onion)
250 g butter, softened
50 g fresh breadcrumbs (2 slices!)
Lots of grated nutmeg
1 tbs chopped parsley
200 g reduced-fat cream cheese
2 tsp lemon juice (10 ml)
Scant tbs soya sauce (15 ml)

Melt 225 g of the butter, add onion and soften for about 10 minutes.  Add mushrooms, turn up the heat and fry briefly for a few minutes.  Stir in breadcrumbs and allow to cool.  Puree in food processor and then add the rest of the ingredients and work until smooth.

Fishpaste!

My mother used to get very irate when we called it "fishpaste".  "It is trout paté!" she would say, crossly.  But needless to say, "fishpaste" persisted.

You could use salmon instead of trout, and I think I fancy trying it with kipper or smoked mackerel, too.  This version, I had a slice of smoked salmon that wasn't doing anything, so it went in, too.

The remains of a cooked trout (the sort of amount which isn't enough for another meal, but too much to throw away)
1/2 pack low-fat cream cheese (c 100 g?)
About 75 g butter
Small sloosh tomato puree
Slice smoked salmon (optional)
Seasoning as liked.

Whizz it altogether in the food processor until it's smooth.  It freezes well.

Chicken, ham, leek and mushroom pie

Lots of cooked chicken - basically "Pick" the carcase of a roast chicken and chop the meat.
A similar amount of cooked ham, cubed if possible
1 leek
Small punnet mushrooms
About 20-25 g butter
250 ml milk
1 heaped tsp flour
2-3 potatoes
A little more butter and/or 1 tbs milk

Chop leek and put in saucepan with butter and mushrooms, which also chop if necessary.  Cover and allow to cook on a low heat for 6-7 minutes, until the juices have run.

Meanwhile, peel and steam or boil the potatoes, and mash with the extra butter and milk (and salt and pepper).

Whisk the flour into the milk and pour the result on to the leeks and mushrooms.  Bring to the boil, stirring all the time.  Now add the chopped meat, and transfer the lot into an oven-proof dish.  Top with mashed potato (or you could make your pie with a pastry topping, if you liked), and bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes.

Healthy Egg Muffins

I have a totally shaming taste for Sausage and Egg McMuffins from McDonald's.  Yes, I know.... but every once in awhile I indulge it. 

But because I really can't afford the calories too often, and because it's junk food, I rather love a healthy home-made egg muffin; and this is what I had for breakfast this morning.  If you can't bear microwaved eggs, then either fry your in a ring so they stay circular or poach them, but for me, the rubberiness of the microwaved egg is part of the charm!

1 wholemeal muffin
1 large Portabello mushroom
1 tomato
1 egg
Large pinch of grated cheese (I used pre-grated Emmenthal, but Cheddar works very well, too).
Salt and pepper, as liked.

Split and toast your muffin;  meanwhile peel the mushroom, dot with butter (or spray with olive oil or even Fry Light) and cook in the microwave for 1 minute.  Chop the tomato and put in a ramekin dish with salt and pepper (and the juice from the mushroom, which will have run on to the plate).  Microwave the tomato for 1' or 1'30".  Top with the egg and cheese.  Pierce the yolk of the egg.  Return to microwave for a further minute or so, or until the egg is cooked to your liking.

Now assemble the mushroom on top of half the muffin, run a knife round the edge of the ramekin and turn the egg/cheese/tomato out on to the mushroom, and top with the rest of the muffin.  You'll probably need a knife and fork to eat this with.

Okay, it's not McDonald's.  But it is very nice!

Red Pork

I had some belly pork in the freezer, and didn't really know what to do with it, but this seemed to be the way forward.  I borrowed from several different recipes, I'm afraid, and can't remember who to credit.

I quantity belly pork (I had two thick pieces, no idea how much they weighed), cut into cubes. 
1 tbs each sesame oil and stir-fry oil
2 tbs white sugar
3 tbs soya sauce (I used 2 tbs light and 1 of dark, it was only meant to be 2 tbs but I forgot I had the dark stuff)
1 tbs rice wine or cheap sherry (you could probably use rice vinegar but I had none)
A large clove of garlic, crushed
A chunk of ginger - I use those frozen cubes of, which are brilliant
Chinese seasoning - 5-spice, star anise if you have any, general Chinese seasonings....

Mix the soya sauces and sherry/wine/vinegar together and stir in the seasonings.  Crush the garlic, and if using whole ginger, crush that, too.

Heat the oil and add the sugar, and then cook until the sugar caramelises.  The smoke alarm will probably go off.  Add the meat, stirring fiercely, and the ginger and garlic, and when the meat is coated with the caramelly oil, add the liquids.  It will boil hard, so keep stirring. 

Then turn down the heat, and transfer to an oven-proof dish if it isn't already in one.  Turn the oven on low - Mark 2 at the highest - and put the casserole in there for at least 2-3 hours, if not longer.  Slow cooking is far and away the best for this dish.

It's rather rich, so serve with plain boiled rice and a boiled or steamed green vegetable.

Seville Orange Marmalade

Strange, I could have sworn I posted my recipe last year!  Well, perhaps not.

2 kg Seville oranges
2 kg sugar
2 lemons
2 litres water

(Do you see what I'm doing here - so it makes it easy to scale your recipe up or down, depending on time, energy, etc).

Place whole oranges, halved lemons and water in a pressure cooker, and cook at HIGH pressure for 20 minutes.  Let cool at room temperature, and wait until cool enough to handle (overnight is good).  I've always used a pressure cooker - I believe if you don't you need about 3 times as much water and you need to boil the fruit for about 2 hours, but I've not tried it so can't guarantee it.

Scoop out the insides of the fruit and, if possible, separate out the pips.  Chop the rinds into tiny pieces.  Put the pips into a small saucepan with some of the water and boil hard for 5 minutes.  Strain into the large pan into which you have placed the chopped rinds, the remainder of the water, and the sugar.  Heat gently while sugar dissolves, stirring frequently, then bring to boil and boil until setting-point is reached (somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes).  Test by dripping on to a cold plate.

Pot into sterilised jars, seal, and keep in a dark place until you eat it. 

Pasta and veg

This first week of the new year one often wants fairly plain food to make up for the excesses of the festive season.  This also had the merit of being easy!  Substitute vegetables as you choose....  Serves 2.

1 tbs olive oil
20 g butter
1/2 aubergine, finely chopped
1/2 punnet mushrooms, sliced
About 16 Brussels sprouts, peeled and sliced
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tbs low-fat cream cheese
1 tbs caramelised onion humus

Put the fats and vegetables into a wide-based frying-pan with a lid and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, then leave to sit, covered, on as low a heat as possible for a further 10-20 minutes (it is very forgiving!).  Just before serving, stir in the cream cheese and/or hummus and then your choice of cooked pasta (or noodles!). 

Galettes au sarrasin (buckwheat pancakes)

Buckwheat pancakes are what you get for your main course in a French creperie - usually filled with things like grated Emmenthal, ham and a fried egg (galette complete). I absolutely adore them, and although I have just discovered that we have a creperie called Brick Box in Brixton market, I have never been there. We did go to a creperie in Lille last weekend, though.

I have long wanted to try making my own, and even bought some buckwheat flour when I was in France in May, but somehow never got round to it. I find making pancakes difficult, and never do except on Shrove Tuesday. But I decided it was feeble not to use the flour I'd bought, and we had a friend staying, so I gritted my teeth and googled for recipes. This one was the easiest and simplest of them all. I adapted it for 3 people, as follows:

200 g buckwheat flour (you can buy this at Wholefoods Market, I believe, and maybe even in Sainsbury's or Waitrose)
1/2 teaspoonful salt
500 ml cold water
1 egg

Whisk all this together and let it stand for up to 2 hours (frankly, I only let it stand 10 minutes). You think at first that it's going to be far too thin, but it isn't. I suspect that my vegan friends could leave the egg out without too many problems.

Heat a large frying-pan and grease it very lightly. Pour a ladleful of batter and juggle the pan so it covers the whole surface. Let it cook until it's nearly set on the top, then flip it over with a spatula to cook the other side. The smoke alarm will probably go off, but don't let that worry you! Put the galette on a plate or something in a low oven to keep warm, and repeat until all the batter is used up. I made 3 pancakes that were probably slightly thicker than is ideal, but they were very good.

I didn't dare try the traditional filling with an egg, plus it would have taken too long for the 3 of us, so instead I fried up some lardons, then added some vegetables and tomato sauce left over from the previous evening's meal. Smeared this mixture over the pancakes, added some goats' cheese, and folded them in half, then served with a very simple lettuce-cucumber-tomato salad. Delicious!

Pizza

I don't believe I've ever posted my pizza recipe - it may have been on my web page, come to think of it, but I don't think I've posted it here. Although I do buy pizza sometimes, I really like a home-made one.

250 g bread mix - in an ideal world something like Wright's sundried tomato and parmesan bread mix, although I didn't see that in Waitrose today so have settled for their oat and linseed one, to which I have added a teaspoonful of mixed herbs and a few chopped, sundried tomatoes.

1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
A little olive oil
Sloosh of tomato paste
1 tin chopped tomatoes

Toppings, as liked: sliced red onions, chopped chillis, sweetcorn, sliced tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, pepperoni, ham..... and don't forget sliced or grated Mozzarella.

Make the bread up according to the instructions on the packet, and allow to rise (I use a bread maker on the "dough" setting). Meanwhile, start the onion in the microwave, or fry in the olive oil until golden. Add the crushed garlic and tomato paste and stir well, then add the tin of tomatoes. Season to taste - I like my pizzas fairly spicy so added some chilli/garlic salt as well as herbs and pepper. Bring to the boil, and allow to simmer for up to an hour to reduce.

When the dough is well-risen, knead it again, then roll it out to a square or circle or whatever is easiest. Place on a pizza stone or baking tray or one of those things with holes in it. Spread the tomato sauce on the top, then add your choice of toppings. Cook in a fairly hot oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Lemon Marmalade

Our jam cupboard was looking like Old Mother Hubbard's, so I have had a jam-making session. And we are rather low on marmalade, and my daughter has run out, so, following up on a conversation with her, I decided to try making lemon marmalade. You can't make proper marmalade at this time of year, of course, as the Seville oranges aren't available, and 3-fruit (sweet orange, lemon and grapefruit) can be fearfully over-sweet and tasteless. The only alternative is to buy a tin of Ma Made and make it up from that, which is one step up from buying it, but.....

So I made lemon marmalade, like this:

3-4 lemons. Weigh them, and take an equal amount of sugar, and an approximately equal amount of water. My lemons weighed 570 g, so I took that amount of sugar, and 600 ml water.

Put the whole lemons and water into a pressure cooker, bring up to high pressure and cook for 20 minutes. Allow pressure to reduce at room temperature. Fish out the lemons with a slotted spoon and let them cool. When cool enough to handle, chop them up such that the peel is in marmalade-sized chunks (I found slicing them lengthwise then crosswards worked best. Remove any pips.

Return the chopped lemons into the water, and add the sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a vigorous boil and cook, stirring continuously, for 5-10 minutes until it gels. Let sit for 10 minutes, then pour into hot, sterile jars, and cover.

Mushrooms and Stilton on toast

We ended up eating lunch at Pizza Express today with family and friends, so didn't want a big dinner. But we wanted a little something, so I made Portabello mushrooms on toast with Stilton:

All you do is peel a large mushroom per person and spray it with oil; microwave for about 1 minute (for 2 mushrooms), then put Stilton (or other cheese, but I like Stilton) on top of the gills and put under the grill until it melts. Serve on buttered toast!

Easy, quick and delicious!

I am neglectful!

I haven't updated this in a million years, but I haven't been cooking all that much that is different, to be honest! For instance, these will be our main meals next week:


Friday (tonight):
Roast butternut squash, couscous, feta cheese and cherry tomato sauce

Saturday:
Sausages, mash, baked beans, leeks (Husband's Saturday-night must-have!)

Sunday:
Bought pie, new potatoes, sprouts, peas.

Monday:
Fish pie, cabbage or sprouts.

Tuesday:
Veggie chilli with rice & grated cheese

Wednesday:
Either left-over fish pie or Chinese take-away

Thursday:
As Tuesday

Friday:
Probably oven fish and chips with battered calamari rings, a green vegetable and mayonnaise!

Looks remarkably unenterprising, but there are only so many meals in the week!

Pasta e fagioli revisited

This version was much nicer!

1/2 cup beans (I used black-eyed peas, as I had a packet open)
1 onion
1 large clove garlic
Sloosh tomato paste
1 leek
1 courgette
1/2 punnet mushrooms
Any other veg you have that want using (I used 1/2 head broccoli)
1 chilli pepper (optional)
1 tin tomatoes
c 400-450 ml vegetable stock (Knorr stock-pot)
100 g chunky pasta (I used those nice shells whose name I can never spell)
To serve: Parmesan cheese

At breakfast-time on the morning you wish to eat this, put the beans to soak in cold water. That evening, rinse them and cook them for 15 minutes in a pressure cooker, or as long as it takes in a conventional saucepan (at least 30 minutes, quite probably longer if the beans are older). Drain, and reserve. Put some olive oil into the pan (save washing up!) and add the chopped onions and garlic. Fry for a few minutes, then add the tomato paste. Stir well. Now add the rest of the vegetables, again, all chopped, and stir. Lastly, add the tin of tomatoes and the stock. Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes, then add the pasta and continue to boil gently until it's cooked. Serve in soup bowls with grated Parmesan.

This was much nicer than the slow-cooked version! Plenty to do the 2 of us twice.

Cheese Spread

Oh dear, is it really almost a month since I last posted? Going back to work is not good for my cooking - I tend to do what is quick and easy, rather than be adventurous I did try to make a cross between risotto and ratatouille in the slow cooker, but it was a Dismal Failure the first time, and mushy the second - I ended up having to add some beans to it to give it some texture!

Anyway, I am also making sandwiches 3 days a week (if I get around to it!), and this recipe is good for using up those odds and ends of cheese that have gone rather hard in the fridge.

30g butter
1 small or 1/2 large onion
2 small or 1 large tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 egg
About 200g cheese of various kinds - grate that which is grateable, and chop or slice the Brie-types.
Seasoning to taste (Worcester sauce really works, if you're not vegetarian so can use it Failing that, try a dash of soya sauce in addition to the usual)

Chop onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes in the microwave (if you don't use microwaves, skip this, and cook it in the butter very gently for about 20-25 minutes, unil soft). Add to saucepan with melted butter and peeled and chopped tomatoes. Cook gently until done, then add the cheese and let it melt. Finally add the egg and seasoning and stir until all is mixed together, the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked. Will keep for a week or so in the fridge, but keep it covered.