Instant Pot Risotto - updated 16 March 2021

 Some years ago now, I experimented with a slow cooker risotto, which didn't really go anywhere.  However, recently I have been learning how to make risotto in the Instant Pot, which is a very different technique to a normal risotto.  It is also a lot quicker - I don't really mind a risotto taking a long time to cook when I'm in the motor home (where it is a staple), but at home, it's nice not to be stuck in the kitchen!

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup risotto rice

About 125 ml white wine (cooking wine is fine)

Extra vegetables, as liked (I used mushrooms and a courgette, of which more anon)

Up to 250 ml stock (chicken is nicest, but vegetable is fine if you're vegetarian), ideally hot

Seasoning, as liked

1 tbs cooking oil

1 knob of butter 

1/2 packet shaved parmesan, or vegetarian equivalent

Put the Instant Pot on to sauté (I always do this on medium, as I find it gets too hot on high), and add the cooking oil; after a few minutes, add the onion, garlic, and extra vegetables, if using.  Stir vigorously and then add the rice, stir again.  Add the wine, and stir until it is almost all absorbed.

Then add the stock and seasoning, and put the lid on.  Turn to manual and high pressure, and set for 6 minutes.  When it beeps, reduce the pressure manually at once, to stop it overcooking.  Then add the butter and cheese, and stir vigorously so it all comes together in the lovely gloop that is risotto.

I made a bit of a nonsense of tonight's, if I'm honest - it didn't occur to me that the courgettes would add a good 50 ml of fluid to the mix, and so it was too wet, and not the nicest I've ever made.  But it was still edible.  But I shouldn't have added so much stock.

UPDATED 16 March 2021  I decided to make this with a courgette and half a punnet of mushrooms, and, given the amount of liquid those vegetables are apt to render, I reduced the amount of stock to 150 ml.  I was a bit nervous lest it prove too little, but, in fact, it was absolutely perfect!  I think, had I used butternut squash instead of courgette, I would use 200 ml stock, as it doesn't render so much.  But for a courgette and mushroom risotto, 150 ml is perfect!

Caribbean-style bean stew

I have too many Caribbean friends, and there are too many great Caribbean restaurants/take-aways round here, to want to do much in the way of Caribbean-style cooking, but I came across this video on YouTube yesterday, and decided to create my own version of it.  I'm very glad I did; on the other hand, there should probably have been more beans in it!  

• About 3/4 cup dried red kidney beans
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 small carrots
• 1 small leek
• 1 red chilli
• 3 peppardew peppers (which I just happened to have - optional!)
• 1 chunk butternut
• 1 sloosh tomato paste
• 2 tbs cooking oil
• 1 tbs soft brown sugar
• 2 tbs dried coconut milk
• 2 tsp bouillon powder
• Salt, pepper, 1 tsp each dried thyme and dried parsley, Dunn's River ginger/garlic/pimento and everyday seasoning

Soak the beans and bicarbonate in plenty of boiling water for a couple of hours.  Drain and rinse, then put the beans in a pressure cooker with enough water to come about 1-2 cm above them, and cook on high pressure for about 15 minutes, allowing pressure to reduce at room temperature.

Put 1 tbs of the cooking oil into a sauté pan and add the vegetables which you have peeled/chopped/crushed/whatever, as appropriate.  Stir thoroughly, cover, and allow to cook for 5-10 minutes.  Then place the remaining tbs of oil in a heavy-based pan and add the sugar.  Heat this and allow to caramelise, but not burn, and then add the beans with their cooking liquid.  This will froth up, so be very, very careful and only add a bit of the water at first, until it gets under control.  Stir thoroughly, then add the part-cooked vegetables and the rest of the ingredients, and a bit more water if you think it needs it.  Bring to the boil, stir thoroughly, and reduce to a simmer.  Allow to cook, covered, for about 15 minutes while you cook rice to go with it.

Another vegan recipe for the collection!

Breakfast tart

This was presented on Facebook in a heart-shaped mould, as suitable for a Valentine's Day breakfast.  I thought it would be a bit of a faff to make for breakfast, but might be rather nice as a midweek supper - as, indeed, it proved!

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry 

2 tbs creme fraiche or cream cheese

1 large Portabello mushrooms, cut in pieces (this was supposed to be baby button mushrooms, but Someone Who Shall Be Namelss bought Portabello instead).

About 8 cherry tomatoes, halved.

1/2 packet lardons (I prefer unsmoked, but use smoked if you like that)

4-6 Peppadew pappers, halved

4-6 Basil leaves, torn

2 eggs

Preheat the oven to mark 6 (200 C; 400F).

Unroll the pastry into a greased baking tray. 

Spread it with the cream cheese or creme fraiche; add the rest of the toppings except the eggs. 

 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, then remove from heat, break the eggs on top and return to the oven for 8-10 minutes.  

Serves 2.

Marmalade steamed pudding

 This wasn't totally successful - the sponge wasn't quite cooked in the middle, but nothing a few moments in the microwave couldn't cure.   But it was warm, lovely comfort food!

2 eggs
Weigh the eggs and measure out the same weight of butter, sugar and self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
Large tablespoonful of marmalade, jam, golden syrup or similar.  Stewed apple is very good, too.

Grease a pudding basin (think mine is 3 pints, but wouldn't swear to it) and put the marmalade in the bottom.  Use either the creaming or the all-in-one method to mix the remaining ingredients into a cake batter, which you then place on top of the marmalade.  

Cover the bowl with either a plastic lid or with greaseproof paper or similar.

  Place on the trivet in an Instant Pot.  Add about 400 ml boiling water to the pot.  I cooked this on steam at high pressure for 40 minutes,

but, as I said above, it turned out not to be quite cooked, even with mostly reducing the pressure at room temperature.  Many recipes say to steam without sealing for 15 minutes, and then sealed for 20, but I'm not sure whether that would have worked any better.  Maybe 45 minutes next time?  Anyway, it was delicious, served with custard.

UPDATE: Although it was very good, I think next time it will be a baked sponge pudding - you make exactly the same way, but cook in the oven (arguably in a cake tin) instead of steaming.  Moderate oven, 20-25 minutes.....

Chicken stock

A friend of mine said that she couldn't use stock cubes because the chemicals didn't agree with her, so I told her how I make chicken stock. And as I was making some today, having had a roast chicken for supper yesterday, I thought I would do an illustrated post. It is an awful waste of a chicken not to make stock from the bones!

1 cooked chicken carcase

1 large onion

Several cloves garlic (optional)

1 leek (use the green end as well as the white bits)

Several carrots

1 stick celery, if you like cooked celery, which we don't so I didn't use one, but it's traditional

1 stock cube (obviously omit this if you are making stock because you can't tolerate cubes!)

2 litres water (about 1/2 American gallon, I believe)

Seasonings - salt, pepper, herbs, whatever....

Pick all the meat off the bones of the chicken and use elsewhere (sorry, my photo of the carcase didn't come out).

Peel the onion and chop into quarters, also peel the garlic

Cut the leek and carrots, and celery if using, into slightly smaller pieces.

and put everything into an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, if you have one.  If you don't have one, but do have a slow cooker (crock pot) then use that, and if you have neither, use a very large saucepan!  

In an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, you will want to cook it for about 20 minutes, and let it reduce pressure at room temperature, if possible, and certainly for at least 10-15 minutes after cooking has finished.  In a slow cooker, it's nicest left overnight, for about 12 hours or even 15.  And in an ordinary saucepan, you'll probably want a little more water and to simmer it for at least two hours, if not 3.

When it is ready, strain it and discard the solids, and you will be left with a large bowlful of stock to use as a basis for soups, risottos, etc - or you could even boil another chicken in it!  

Seasonal squash

 I didn't take a photo of this - if I'm honest, it wasn't particularly photogenic, but it was very delicious!  The photo below is of squashes in a supermarket in Germany.

1 small squash or pumpkin - you could use butternut, and I probably will, but this was one of those green-and-white striped jobs.  

about 1/4 pack sage, 

A little olive oil

2 eggs

Salt and pepper

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Finely chop the sage (if it's fresh), and sprinkle in the cavity.  Spread olive oil all over the cut surfaces, season, and then place, hollow upwards, in a hot oven (mark 6) for 40 minutes.  Then take it out of the oven, break an egg into each hollow (where the seeds are) and return to the oven for a further 8 minutes.  If the egg overflows the hollows, tough - you can scrape it up when you take it out of the oven!  I served this with a tray of ready-to-bake vegetables from Lidl, and it was absolutely delicious!  

Bean casserole with halloumi

 One thing about lockdown - I'm posting more recipes!  I didn't during the first lockdown because I was ill myself and not eating or cooking, but we did - and still do - order a takeaway most weeks to support local businesses, and that has inspired several recipes.  This one, however, came from several sources, including the BBC Good Food site (I do recommend this if you're looking for recipes) and Easy Cheesy Vegetarian (whom I also recommend, even though I'm not veggie!).

1/4 cup white cannellini beans

1/4 cup red kidney beans

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks

1 courgette, chopped

1 leek, chopped

1 sweet pepper, seeds removed, chopped

1 tin tomatoes

1 sloosh harissa or tomato paste

A little cooking oil

1 small pack spinach

1 pack halloumi cheese.

Seasoning, as liked

Soak the beans either overnight in cold water or for at least an hour in boiling water to which you have added a pinch of bicarbonate of soda.

Turn your Instant Pot on to sauté and add the oil, then when it has heated, add the chopped onion and garlic, and cook for a few minutes until they are beginning to become translucent.  Then add the rest of the vegetables, and allow to cook for awhile (in an ideal world, put a lid on and let them cook in their own steam for a bit, but....

Then add the paste (if you don't like spicy, use tomato paste, otherwise us harissa paste - just a spoonful), the tin of tomatoes and about half the tinful of water, and the drained, rinsed beans.  Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile put the spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over it to wilt it.  When it's cool enough to handle, chop it roughly.

When the Instant Pot beeps, slice the halloumi and dry fry it (detailed instructions here). 

After about 10 minutes, release the remaining pressure and stir the wilted spinach through the stew.  Serve in bowls, topped with the fried halloumi.  I found there was enough stew to do twice, so I may serve the rest either with more halloumi or with sausages or something similar.  We shall see....

I should add that this is one of those recipes you can adapt to suit your own personal tastes and whatever veg you have in the fridge!  I think really only the tomatoes, beans, onions and garlic are compulsory - the rest is up to you!

ETA: In fact, the stew did 3 times; I topped what was left of it with a layer of grated cheese and then some crispy garlic breadcrumbs, and we made that do us twice, although it was a tad mere....

Red pepper sauce

 I am absolutely sure that, back in the day, I had a recipe for red pepper sauce which involved a red pepper (well, duh!) and lemon juice, but couldn't find it until this minute.  So I googled a bit and made up this one, which was delicious with sea bass earlier this evening.  I'll post the original recipe below, for comparison purposes.  The sauce is, of course, vegan, so you can use it in all sorts of ways if you don't eat meat or fish.  It would be very good on roasted vegetables, for instance.

1 sweet red pepper

1 small head garlic

1 tbs lemon juice

Seasoning, as liked.

Pre-heat the oven to Mark 6, 200C. Remove the stalk from the pepper, and place it on a baking tray.  Remove the papery outside from the garlic, and, using a very sharp knife, cut through the top of the head, exposing all the cloves.  Spray with a little cooking oil, and wrap with foil.  Bake both pepper and garlic in the oven for 40 minutes.  Then put the pepper in a plastic bag to "sweat" so that you can easily remove the skin after ten minutes or so.  

Put the pepper into a food processor along with the garlic, which you have squeezed out from its skin, lemon juice and seasoning, and process until smooth.

This, now that I have found it, was my original recipe.

1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 large or 2 small red sweet (bell) pepper(s)
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Chop onion and garlic and microwave for 5 minutes, or dry-fry*. Flame pepper(s) or toast under grill until skin blackens. Place in plastic bag for ten minutes, then peel skin. Remove pips and white veins, and chop roughly.

Place peppers, onions, and garlic in a food processor, and blend, adding lemon juice until mixture resembles a thick cream in texture. Season to taste. This is glorious with fish - salmon, trout, white fish.....

* These days I'd probably cook them gently in a little oil until translucent.

Moroccan-seasoned chickpea, spinach and quinoa stew

 I knew I wanted chickpeas, and wasn't quite sure what else to do with them.  I was tempted by the thought of a not quite Buddha bowl, but then it was a horrible day so I decided I fancied some comfort food.  And this was dead easy!  Serves 4.

1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked and then cooked for 12 minutes in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot (or use 1x400 g tin, drained and rinsed.  Your call!)

2 small red onions, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 chunk butternut, peeled and diced

1 tin chopped tomatoes, plus 1 tinful water

1/2 cup quinoa

Salt

1/2 teaspoon harissa spices

1 tsp Moroccan seasoning

1 tsp ras el hanout

(or 2 tsp of whichever one of those you prefer)

1/2 tsp all-purpose seasoning

A few sprays of cooking oil

1/2 packet of spinach, wilted under boiling water and roughly chopped.

Put the onion and garlic into a heavy-based pan with the cooking oil, and allow to cook for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to the boil, and allow to simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Add the spinach and stir until it wilts, then serve at once.

Sag Paneer

 I keep on experimenting with curries, and I don't suppose this is authentic, but it is very good!  Serves 2

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1 chunk root ginger (I use frozen cubes, but if you use whole ginger, then peeled and grated)

2 large tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

1/2 packet paneer, cubed

1-2 tbs cooking oil

1-2 tsp curry powder, either proprietary or a blend of cumin, cardamom, mustard seeds, fenugreek, turmeric, garam masala and chilli powder (I blend this up in advance)

1/2 package baby spinach leaves.

Put the spices and oil in a pan and fry for a moment or two, then add the paneer and fry, stirring frequently, until the cheese is brown on all sides.  Lift this out and put aside.

Blend the onion, garlic, ginger and tomatoes into a puree and then put this in the pan where the paneer just was, and fry this off gently for about 10-15 minutes, again stirring frequently (I cooked rice to go with this while I was at it).  Wilt the spinach by putting it into a colander and pouring boiling water over it, then when it has cooled a little, roughly chop it.  When the puree is cooked - it will have thickened up nicely and stopped looking raw - add in the spinach and the paneer, with a splash of boiling water if necessary, and bring back to the boil.  Serve with rice or naan or similar. 

I might try making this - or a similar curry - with a tin of tomatoes, pureeing the onion, ginger and garlic separately (perhaps with a drop of water).... we shall see.  I like experimenting, and I like curry!  

Very Nearly Vegan Lasagne

 This would be quite vegan if you didn't put cheese on it, or if you substituted a vegan "cheese" for the real stuff.

Sauce the first (mock bechamel)

1 large leek, green parts removed

1/2 medium cauliflower

Chunk butternut squash

3/4 cup unsalted cashew nuts

Sprig of rosemary (if you have some)

Salt, pepper and dry mustard powder.

Enough water to come up to the minimum level in your soup maker, if you have one, or just to cover.

Chop the leek, peel and chop the butternut, render the cauliflower into florets

If you have a soup maker, put everything in there and cook on pureed soup.  If you don't, put it all in a saucepan and simmer for about 20 minutes, until soft.  Blend until smooth.

Sauce the second (mock ragu)

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 punnet mushrooms

2 slices bread

About 1/3-1/2 cup walnuts

1 tin chopped tomatoes

Salt, pepper, herbs, mushroom ketchup

Peel and chop the onion, peel and crush the garlic.  Put them into a saucepan with a little cooking oil and allow to sweat for several minutes.  Add the chopped mushrooms and cook until their juices run. 

 

Meanwhile, use a food processor (or mini food processor, which is what I used) to turn the bread and walnut into crumbs.

Put the breadcrumb mix into the vegetable mix and add the tin of tomatoes.  Season to taste.

To assemble:

6-8 sheets lasagne

1/2 packet grated cheese (if using)

Layer the mock ragu, pasta sheets and mock bechamel in a lasagne dish in that order, finishing with a layer of mock bechamel.

  If you are using cheese, pile it on the top. 

Bake in a moderate oven for about 30-45 minutes.

Fish'n'rice

 I expect there are almost as many variations on fish and rice as there are on chicken and rice.  My current favourite is called Samak Meshweh, from a local Lebanese restaurant, which we have had delivered several times during lockdown - it's basically sea bass, marinated in lemon and garlic, served on a bed of rice with garlic sauce.  Very yummy.  But one can't always eat takeaway, nor, indeed, sea bass (not at £4 for 2 tiny fillets, you can't), and I love things-in-rice, so this was an Interesting Dish of my Own Invention. 

2 frozen haddock fillets (or cod, or any other white fish that takes your fancy)

knob of butter, for frying

1 red onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 red pepper

1/2 cauliflower

1/2 punnet mushrooms

4-5 sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 cup rice

1 1/4 cups boiling water with seasoning added (see method)

1 tbs cream cheese - optional.  I used a new Philly with smoked salmon that was on special offer in Tesco.

Peel and chop the onion, peel and crush the garlic, chop the pepper, cauliflower, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Put in a heavy-bottomed casserole with a little cooking oil, and sauté for a few minutes.  Now add the rice and stir thoroughly, then add the water, which you have seasoned with - well,  your choice of seasoning.  1 used 1 tsp of a lemon/garlic/herb mix I just bought from Tesco, 1 tsp sumac, 1/2 tsp  all-purpose seasoning (Dunn's river) and 2 teaspoons of "fumet de poisson", which is a French fish stock powder, although it sounds as though it's fish manure... Also sea salt with oregano and sorrel, and black pepper. 

But use what you fancy - chicken or vegetable stock would probably work if you have no fish stock.  Bring back to the boil, stir thoroughly, cover and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes.  

Just before the rice finishes cooking, fry the fish fillets in the butter on both sides for about 5 minutes - they'll take a bit longer if they are frozen, but not much.  If you are using cream cheese, stir it through the rice, and then serve with the fish on the top.

Vegan (well, almost) pasta bake

I had long been wanting to try the pasta sauce you make from cashew nuts, and, as I had bought a cauliflower, I thought I would make a cauliflower cheese using it.  Only things got a bit away from me, as they are apt to do.  And I didn't measure anything much, except to make sure it reached the "minimum" level of my soup maker.  If you don't have a soup maker, simmer everything on top of the stove for 15-20 minutes and then blend it.

Handful unsalted cashew nuts (I started by soaking 1/3 cup of them in boiling water, but then decided to add some more at the last minute, so probably 1/2-3/4 cup)
The outside leaves of a cauliflower, roughly chopped
A large-ish chunk of butternut squash, peeled and chopped
An onion, peeled and quartered, and a peeled clove of garlic
Seasoning:| salt, pepper, mustard, rosemary (I have some fresh rosemary at the moment!)
Enough water to make sure it reaches the minimum level of your soup maker.

Your choice of pasta in the amount you like.

Put everything except the pasta into the soup maker (or saucepan) and cook on "pureed soup".  Cook the pasta separately.  I found I had far too much sauce for the amount of pasta, so have saved some to live to fight another day, perhaps with a jacket potato and hard-boiled egg.  

I sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top, which rendered it vegetarian (arguably not that if you don't consider Parmesan vegetarian) rather than vegan, but you don't have to.  Bake in a moderately hot oven for about 30 minutes.  It was delicious!

Not quite a Buddha bowl

This is an adaptation of a meal I used to make some years ago.  Had it been cold, with perhaps some asparagus or avocado added, I could have put it in a bowl and called it a Buddha bowl.  As it is.... not quite! Serves 2

1/2 cup dried chickpeas (125 ml by volume)

1/2 cup quinoa (125 ml by volume)

1/2 head broccoli

1 tomato

1 clove garlic

1 tbs tahini

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs olive oil

Hot water as needed (see recipe).

Soak the chickpeas in boiling water to which you have added a little bicarbonate of soda (or not, you don't have to add this).  Cook for 18 minutes in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, or for 45 minutes or so (depends on how fresh they are) on the stovetop.  I cooked them with a vegetable stock cube, but as you wish.

Put the quinoa in a saucepan with some salt and 250 ml boiling water.  Bring back to the boil, then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and allow to sit, covered, for a further 10 minutes while the water  is absorbed.

Cut the broccoli into florets; peel the thick stalk and cut into slices.  Steam until cooked.

Slice the tomato.

For the dressing, crush the garlic and put it, the tahini, lemon juice and olive oil into a dressing shaker (or, perhaps better, a mini food-processor), and thin down if necessary with hot water.

Pile everything on a plate and pour the dressing over.  Delicious!

Stuffed pancakes

This is an awful faff to make, but worth it once in awhile.  Serves 4.

For the pancakes:
110 g buckwheat flour (or gram flour, or even plain wheat flour)
1 egg
250 ml milk
Seasoning

For the stuffing:
1 tbs oil
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 punnet mushrooms
2 large tomatoes
1 slice bread
30 g (approx) walnuts
Seasoning

For the béchamel sauce:
25 g butter
250 ml milk
2 heaped tsp flour
2 large handfuls grated cheese
Seasoning

First make the pancake batter by whisking together the egg, flour and milk, seasoning as liked.  Leave to stand while you make the stuffing: peel and chop the vegetables (probably no need to peel the mushrooms), cook in the oil until soft and juices run; whizz bread and nuts in a food processor until smooth, and then mix into the rest of the stuffing.

Make your pancakes in the usual way - this amount makes about 4 large ones.  It's probably easiest to layer them up with stuffing in between, but I tried to be clever and roll them round the stuffing:

 Melt the butter in a clean saucepan, and whisk together the flour, milk and seasonings.  Pour this on to the melted butter and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.  Remove from the heat and stir in half the cheese.  Pour this mix over the pancakes, and then top with the rest of the grated cheese.

You can easily make this vegan; the stuffing already is.  For the pancakes, use water or beer instead of milk, and a tablespoon of olive oil or tahini instead of the egg.  For the sauce, use a tin of tomatoes instead of the milk, and season more vigorously to make up for the lack of cheese. 

Mushroom, bean and barley slow cooker casserole

I wanted a casserole I could leave in the slow cooker until I got home after grandmother duty yesterday, and this was it!  You could, of course, substitute a tin of cannellini beans for the dried ones I used, but I prefer the texture when made from scratch.

1/2 cup dried cannelini beans
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 tbs cooking oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 carrots
1/2 large sweet pepper
2/3 large punnet mushrooms
1 tin tomatoes
About 200 ml red wine
Seasoning to taste
1 large tbs mascarpone (optional - thicken with cornflour if preferred/vegan).

Soak the beans in boiling water to which you have added a little bicarbonate of soda for at least an hour.  Then drain and rinse, and transfer to a saucepan.  Cover with fresh water, bring to the boil, and allow to cook hard for 10 minutes.  Drain again, and transfer to the slow cooker, together with the barley.

Now in the saucepan in which you cooked the beans (to save washing up), add a sloosh of vegetable oil, then sweat the chopped carrots, onion, garlic and pepper for a few minutes.  Add this to the slow cooker, then put the chopped (not too small - I break them into quarters, and then chop the stalks separately) mushrooms into the saucepan and sweat until the juices run.  Put these in the slow cooker, along with the rest of the ingredients except the mascarpone, and cook on auto until supper time - at least 5 hours, I reckon; mine had about 8.  Then stir in the mascarpone, if using, and serve, ideally with a green vegetable.

It is lush, but not very photogenic.....

Bean burgers

I don't care for fake meat, being perfectly happy to eat the real thing, but bean burgers are a good thing in their own right. And these were so easy and quick to make - and the Swan Whisperer said "Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!"

About 1/2-3/4 cup dried beans, soaked for at least one hour in boiling water and then cooked for 15 minutes in a pressure cooker. Or a 400g tin, drained and rinsed. You can use any sort of beans - kidney, cannelloni, borlotti, pinto, black-eye... I used kidney beans.

1 slice wholemeal bread

Handful walnuts (30g?)

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 chilli pepper, seeds removed 

1/2 packet fresh parsley

2 small or 1 large carrots, grated

1 tbs cooking oil

Seasoning

Put everything except the beans and carrots into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Now add the beans and pulse several times, but not too much - you want them to be recognisably beans!

Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the grated carrots and seasoning, then use your hands to mix everything very thoroughly until it begins to come together. Form into patties, and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle with flour (I used gram flour) and then fry for several minutes on each side. Or bake....

I served this in a bun with avocado and a portobello mushroom with cheese, garnished with sweet chilli sauce, with coleslaw and home-made tzatziki on the side.

And no, I couldn't eat it all, but the Swan Whisperer ate that which I could not! 

Cabbage Casserole

I was really surprised not to find a version of this elsewhere on the blog, as I've been making it on and off since the 1970s, in both a vegetarian and meat version.  It is cheap and easy, and very definitely a one-pot meal.  I'm not giving exact amounts,  because you can adjust them to suit the number of people you're feeding.

Cabbage - the solid kinds work better than the very leafy kinds (white or red, or that extremely nice pointed one), chopped.
Potatoes, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs plain flour
1-2 tbs wine vinegar
1 tbs brown sugar (demerara is best, but any brown will do).
Salt and pepper.
Then your choice of:
Belly pork, diced OR
Lean pork, diced OR
Chicken pieces, diced OR
Roasted nuts (peanuts or cashew) OR
I expect tofu would work, too, if you like it.

Use either the kind of casserole that will go both on top of the stove and in the oven OR a pressure cooker (Instant Pot is best).  In either case, put the oil in the pan, and if you are using meat or tofu, seal them in the hot oil.  You can also cook a teaspoonful of mustard seeds and/or cumin or caraway seeds in the oil.  Now add the cabbage and stir thoroughly until it is coated, and then stir in the flour, vinegar and sugar.  Season to taste. 

If you are using a pressure cooker, add 1/4 cup water at this stage, and if you're using peanuts or cashew nuts, now is the time to add them and stir in.  Flatten off the dish and place the potatoes, flat side down, on the top.  If this is going in the oven, brush the potatoes with a little oil, and bake in a moderate oven for about 90 minutes.  Otherwise, cook in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes at high pressure.  The oven version gives wonderful roast potatoes on the top, but the quick version is equally delicious.

Grain-stuffed marrow

½ large marrow
1 onion
1 clove garlic
½ punnet mushrooms (about 8)
1 tub or tin chopped tomatoes with chilli
1 packet microwaveable mixed grains (I used Middle Eastern)

Peel and chop the onion; peel and crush the garlic.  Add both of these to a saucepan with a little cooking oil, and allow to cook for a few minutes.  While this is happening, cut your marrow into 4 equal slices, then peel each slice and remove the seeds.  Place the rings thus obtained on a baking dish.

Now chop the mushrooms (you can peel them if you wish, but unless they are beginning to be old, life's too short) and add them to the onion mixture, and allow to cook until they are just rendering their juice.  Stir in the tomatoes and the grains, until the grains are separated and the whole lot is heated through.

  Now pile into the mushroom rings, and bake in a moderately hot oven for about 45 minutes.

Midweek mushroom pasta

Yet again I failed to take a photograph....  Very quick, very easy, very delicious.

Vegetarian.  Serves 2

100 g (approx) fettucine or tagliatelle (I never know the difference)
200 g mushrooms, broken into pieces (or sliced)
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 packet parsley, finely chopped (I used a mini food processor)
1/2 tub mascarpone
Knob of butter
Salt, pepper, 1 tsp mushroom ketchup
Sprinkle of grated cheese

Put the pasta on to cook according to the instructions on the packet.  Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the mushrooms.  Cook until they render their liquid, then add the crushed garlic and continue to cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes.  Now add the mascarpone and the cooked, drained pasta, and stir thoroughly until everything is well mixed.  Serve at once, perhaps with a sprinkle of grated cheese (I used Emmenthal, but Parmesan would be nice, too).