Sunday, 6 November 2011

Pumpkin Soup

This is my first attempt at pumpkin soup, and I'm only halfway through so no news yet on how it's going. I've started with spices, cumin, corriander and cinnamon, salt & pepper, and a bay leaf. I warmed these in some oil and added two chopped onions. I sweated these until the onion was soft and translucent, and then added peeled and copped pumplkin. Once mixed and warmed through, I added chicken stock, to which I had also added the juice from half an orance. It is bubbling away and smelling delicious, but only time will tell....

It's a success. Once pumpkin very soft and squashable, I turned the heat off. Then I broke up the chunks of pumpkin with the back of a spoon and took out the bay leaves. Then, I added a good slurp of milk and blitzed it till smooth and creamy. Then, back on the heat for a final warm through, and it's ready to serve.

Meanwhile, I've made a basic biscuit dough, split it in half, and made two types of biscuit - lemon drops and jam swirls.

For the lemon drops I made a sausage out of the dough, about 1 1/2 inches accross. Then, sliced it into 1cm rounds. Then, I placed these on a baking tray, they need to be well spaced as they spread a little. Then, I made  well in the centre of each with my finger, and put a little drop on lemon curd in each one. These went into the oven for 15 minutes, they are still soft when they come out, and harden as they cool. Mr Me has eaten two already....


For the jam swirls, I rolled the pastry into a rectangle, keeping it at least half a cm thick. Then with the longest side towards me, I spread the dough with jam - I used gooseberry, but you could use just about anything (I have mincemeat in mind for christmas..). And then roll... Start by gently rolling the closest edge, and gradually roll until then end, don't push down too hard as you roll, or you'll squash the jam out! Again, slice the biscuits into rounds and place, well spaced on the baking tray. You'll have to wipe the knife with each slice or it'll all get very sticky.

Yum!








Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Everybody loves lasagne

Well, I love it anyway, and my other half does too. This time, I tried it with pork mince instead of beef and it worked really well, was much lighter somehow, and lovely and tasty. So here's my way....

Start with the meat mix. Finely chop a red onion and fry gently in a little oil - lid on works best as it makes the onion sweat. Add some salt too as it helps to draw the water out of the onion. While it's cooking squash in a couple of cloves of garlic, grind in some pepper, and sprinkle in some dried herbs. When all soft, add the mince - as I said I used pork, but you can use, beef or a mix of the two works really well. Stir it around and mash it up until it is well combined with the onions, garlic and herbs. Let it cook through, stirring frequently to stop meatballs forming. When all cooked through, add diced pepper and courgette - not too much as you don't want it to becomes a ratatouille - but I think a few spots of veg colour are always nice. Can omit them completely if you like. Again, mix them up together and pop the lid on, giving the veg and mince a chance to really get cooking.

After 10 minutes add chopped tomatoes, and puree. Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper and sugar and once again mix well so that it is all combined. Give the mixture a 10-20 minutes to cook - the longer it has the better, but remember it is going to get some more time in the oven.

Make a white sauce. I use the roux method, but you could use cornflour, it is completely up to you. For a roux, melt a knob of butter until it's bubbling and add a table spoon of flour. Mix it into paste and let it cook - leaving it for a little then stirring it round and leaving again. Repeat until you start to notice a slight change in colour, it should be getting lighter. Then add cold milk a little at a time - literally a splash at time, mixing well to avoid lumps, until you have a creamy mixture, and then you can add milk in larger quantities. I'm sure there are other, and probably better ways of making this, so use whichever suits.

When the sauce is ready you can build up the lasagne layers, go sparingly as I always seem to runout... Meat, white sauce, pasta, meat, white sauce pasta, white sauce, grated cheese - is the order I go for. If you can get another layer in there, great!

 It will need about 30-40 minutes in a hot oven, and you can take it out when the cheese is hot, golden and bubbling.


Smokey Sausage Chowder

This smokey, chunky, milky broth is perfect for chilly autumn lunchtimes.

Start with the sausage. I found a packet in my local cornershop of Polish Small Silesian sausages, I hvaen't bought these before so they were a bit of a gamble. They are small light brown sausages, similar to the Kabanos I've bought before, but half the length and width, and a bit smokier. I used 5 from the pack of 10 and chopped them into small rounds, before frying them gently in a little oil. When the flavour was coming out I added a chopped white onion, some  black pepper and a couple of bay leaves. The temptation is to make things very chunky in a chowder, but I don't think it's ever pleasant to have massive chunks of onion - so I stick to a meduim-small rough chop (if that means anything!).

Fry the onion and sausage together gently, you don't want any colour on the onion. When the onion is soft and translucent add some chopped potatoes. I used charlottes - mainly because that's what I had, but being a waxy spud, they do retain their shape rather than turning to mush and graininess. So, mix them well and give them a few minutes with lid on to get them started before adding enough chicken stock to cover. I've avoided putting salt in as the stock and sausage are already quite salty.

I let the mixture bubble away until the potato is nearly cooked and then add a tin of sweetcorn (I use a tin because I have them, but you could use fresh, or frozen - though I would defrost frozen first so that it doesn't cool the whole mix).

Give the soup another 10 minutes with the occsional stir-about. Then add a good glug of milk and let it heat through again. The milk might not be essential but I like the creaminess it gives the soup.

So, I suppose either serve in great steaming ladlefulls, or like me, allow to cool and dolop into various tupperware vessels for lovely lunches through the week.

 I didn't manage to take a good picture of the soup - you'll have to trust me on its yumminess!

Saturday, 15 October 2011

Basic Chilli

Ok, this is my chilli recipe. I made this on Monday, it is simple and tasty. I'm not claiming to be a chilli expert and I am sure there are better versions out there, but this is so simple and so useful, that I am going to tell you about it!

Start with a couple of finely chopped onions, in a pan with some oil and salt. Add flavours here; a couple of cloves of garlic, pepper, dried herbs, and of course, chilli (how much is of course up to you). Once these are all cooking happily together, and when the onion is soft, you can add the meat. Keep stirring it around and mashing it up until it is all brown and in small pieces (not chunks and lumps or worms!). Cook it for a little while with the lid on so that the juices start coming out of the meat.

After 5 minutes, take the lid off and give it a stirr. Hopefully, you have some juices. Move the meat to make a small well, either in the middle or to one side, and crumble in a beef stock cube. Stir this in the liquid, until it dissolves, and then into the rest of the mix. Then add a diced courgette and a diced pepper - you can leave either of these out but I always like to get a bit of veg in somewhere. Put the lid on and let it have some time for the courgette and pepper to get cooking, about 5-10 minutes.

Then add tomatoes, chopped fresh, or a tin of chopped, or a mix of the two, and also add a good squirt of puree. Remember when you use tinned tomatoes that they can tase 'tinny' so always add some sugar when you add these - a table spoon per tin is quite a good amount. Stir the tomatoes and also add some kidney beans. Let the mixture plop and bubble away happily for half and hour, to fourty minutes (the longer it has the better).

This is great with rice, and a dolop of creme fresh. And I've been taking it to work this week and it does make a lovely lunch.

Sunday night: Steak & Ale Pie followed by Crumble

Gah, thanks to internet failure this is the second time I've written this, but it's worth it. Steak and Ale Pie is a classic, as is crumble, and it is so easy to put together at home. I'm not going to argue that this will surpass a pub pie, but I think you'll be surprised just how good it is, and it is a fantastic alternative to a sunday roast, and doesn't take any more time. So here goes,

As with any meal, this takes some forward planning. The pie is essentially a beef stew covered by pastry, and the stew will need 2-3 hours cooking to make sure it is really lovely and tender. As is cooks, you can get on with the other bits and pieces. To start the stew, shake some flour into a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Toss the beef in the flour until it is all covered and then, in the pan you are going to cook the whole thing in, brown the beef. Just cook it quickly to change the colour, you can do this a little at a time becuase you don't want beef to sweat and start giving out juices. Once all the beef is done, put to one side and, in the same pan, fry off two chopped onions - leave them nice and chunky or they'll get lost. When the onions are starting to turn translucent you can add the meat back in, and pour over the beer. I used a bottle of ale, but you could use a can - giuness works very well here. Stir it all up, bring to the boil and then pop it in a medium oven to simmer away sowly. You can leave it on the hob, but turn the heat right down.

The beef will take a while so this is a good time to prepare any veggies that you are going to have, ready to be cooked later. We had roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips.

While the beef is cooking you can make the pastry. The rule is half fat to flour, so I used 8oz flour and 4oz butter. Rub them together until the mixture resebles breadcrumbs, I use a pastry blender just to try and stop the mixture getting too warm. Add a couple of table spoons of butter and stir with one hand to bring the mixture together. Work it just enough to bring it into a dough, wrap it in cling and leave it to cool in the fridge.

I think a crumble is best if you start the fruit off first. So, peel, core and chop the apples into chunks. I used bramleys because they dissolve to leave a lovely sauce, but braeburn are also nice and tend to stay chunkier. Put  them in the dish and sprinkle over some sugar and cinnamon, and also add some nobs of butter. Cover with foil on the top and pop them into the oven for about 40 minutes.

I don't have a cast-iron recipe for the topping and tend to make it up as I go. At a guess, I'd use 4oz butter with 6oz dry (flour on it's own, or mixed with oats), mix until like breadcrumbs but don't be too fussy this - I think a rough mix with a few larges lumps is best. Then stir through with a fork, cinnamon or mixed spice, sugar (demarara or caster), and you can always add a bit of coconut. Put this to one side.

When the beef has been in for about 2 hours take it out and turn the oven up, it needs to be nice and hot to cook the pastry. Tip the beef into the pie dish and just wiggle the dish so that the stew flattens out.

Roll the pastry on a floured surface making sure that it is big enough to cover the dish. Pick it up, using the rolling pin to help and drape it over the stew, resing it on the edges of the dish. Trim the pastry around the edges of the dish, but make sure there is enough there, so that when it shrinks with cooking, it's not going to uncover the beef. Make some small slits in the top with the knife and pop it back into the oven for about 40 minues - till golden brown.

While this is in, take the apples out, and shake over the crumble mixture. This can cook while you eat the main course, and will be ready by the time you've finished, cleared, and whipped up some custard.

Delish.

Saturday, 3 September 2011

Moroccan-style meatballs

I've called these Moroccan-style meatballs because I've tried to use Moroccan style spicing - not because they are in any way authentically Moroccan! It is a very simple process and I made it in about 40 minutes last night. We had the meatballs with plain basmati rice, which I started cooking before beginning the meatballs and sauce, but I think this would also be good with couscous.

Start with lamb mince - I used a medium size pack of mince and had enough for four people. Put the mince in a bowl and add salt, pepper, ground cumin, ground corriander and cinnamon (not too much as it can take over). If you want them spicy you can add chili or paprika here too. Also add some tomato puree. Squish the mixture together until it is all well mixed, put to one side.

Start the sauce. Add oil to a pan, I used a mix of sunflower and olive. Then add crushed garlic, and onion. I used two spring onions because I had some, but I would usually use a medium onion. Get this cooking on a low heat and add salt, pepper, chili, paprika, cumin seed, and corriander - you can also add ground cumin if you want a stronger flovour. Allow them to cook together unitl the onion is floppy and transparent, don't brown. Then add chopped pepper (I used yellow) and a chopped courgette. Allow these to get halfway through being cooked before adding a tin of tomatoes and tomato puree (sugar will help the tomatoes to taste less tinny).

While the sauce is bubbling away you can make the meatballs. Add oil to a frying pan but don't turn the heat on yet. Take small pieces of mince and roll them into a ball in your hands. Make them as big or small as you like, I make lots and lots of little ones as they take a short time to cook and everyone gets lots, instead of two or three big ones. Put the meatballs straight into the pan, and when all the meat is in the pan turn on the heat - if you put the heat on first then the meatballs will all cook at different times. Let the meatballs cook until you can see the change of colour creeping up the sides. Then give them a shake in the pan to turn them over. You might find that lots of water comes out of the meat, but just keep moving them around every 2-3 minutes and this will go quite quickly.

Once the meatballs are well coloured on each side you can add them to the sauce. Use a holey spoon to scoop them out of the frying pan (don't add them directly or you'll get all the fat too). Tip the fat out of the frying pan (into a tin can or other rubbish container, not directly into the bin!) and add the sauce and meatballs back into the frying pan. (You don't have to do this last step but I find that you get the flavour from the pan into the sauce).

And that's that!

Ant-O-Meter score: 4 leaves! Brill!



Friday, 19 August 2011

Italian Shepherd's Pie

When my husband goes out and I have the flat to myself there are certain things I do - play music really loud and sing along (Saw Doctors or Opera mainly), make popcorn, watch cookery programmes, and cook. Tonight, as we have pork mince, I'm going to experiment with making an Italian flavoured Shepherds pie - with a bolognaise/ratatouille mix on the bottom and polenta on the top.

Here's what I'm going to do.... or am doing while also writing this...

Grab a pan and pop oil in and a pinch of salt (I use a mix of olive and sunflower). Add one chopped onion (I used red) and a couple of cloves of garlic. When these are in, add some herbs, fresh or dried - alas I have no garden so I use a dried mix (herbs de provence). Let them cook togther over a slow heat until they are soft. I also added a sprinkle of paprika - more if you want it hot, leave out if not. When soft, add the mince.

And here for a bugbear of mine - mix up the mince, mix and mix and squash it with the spoon so that it cooks in tiny minced up pieces, not worms - worms are soooooo unpleasant to eat, for everyone.

With that, while the mince is cooking dice and smallish courgette and a pepper. When the mince is cooked through, and the juices are starting to come out add the veg. Bear in mind that if you bung it all in in one go it's going to make the pan temp very cold, stir in a handful at a time to keep the pan hot.

Let the veg and the mince cook, until the veg is starting to look soft. Then add a tin of tomatoes and a good few squirts of puree. Mix it up and let it bubble quietly away, while you get on wth the polenta.

Polenta is easy and the recipe is on the back of the packet. Basically, get 850ml water boiling in a pan, measure out 175g of polenta. When the water is bubbling get a whisk and shake in the polenta while whisking - if you're not very coordinated get someone else to shake in the polenta while you whisk. Keep whisking unitl the mixture goes thick and startd to plop. Turn the heat down and stir now and again so it doesn't get lumpy.

Stir some olive oil, black pepper and parmesan (or parmesan-type cheese) into the polenta. Give it a relly good whisk.

Then, pour the mince mix into a baking dish, waggle the dish to spread it out. Then, a spoonful at a time, place the polenta on top. You should be able to put it on in small mounds all over the top, don't worry about spreading it out perfectly. sprinkle some more parmesan on top and pop into a hot oven (200 deg C) for about 20 minutes.

With any luck, the results will be fantastic!

Ant-O-Meter score for this recipe...3 leaves! (Someone's not a fan of polenta!)


Tip's tip: season the indvidual things as you put them in, this way as they cook the seasoning will work on them, and the dish should be nicely seasoned at the end - ie add salt and pepper to the mince when you add it, add sugar and salt to the tinned toms etc.




Sunday, 1 May 2011

Chinese style roast belly pork!

Am never quite sure what to do with belly pork as I love the taste and it's nice and cheap, but chewing through the fat does put me off. This recipe seems to have made the fat disappear quite nicely so I think it's a good-un.

First I whacked the oven up nice and hot - to about 200 degrees C. Then I chopped carrots into sticks and layered them on the bottom of a roasting dish, with just a very little bit of oil and some S&P.

Then I made a marinade - oil, chinese 5 spice, crushed garlic, runny (or melted) honey. You will need quite a thick marinade so that the pork is well coated. Then I chopped the pork strips into about 2 or 3 inch pieces and covered them liberally with the marinade. Them I laid each piece of pork fat side up on top of the carrots.This went into the top of the oven for 40 minutes in which time the fat went crispy and caramelised - and the meat stayed juicy, and all the tastiness ran into the carrots!

This was an invention and a bit of a gamble that paid off nicely - we had it with homemade potato wedges.

Ant-O-Meter score: 4 leaves!

It's all about pork! Sticky plum and ginger meatballs! MMM MMMM

Due to a shopping oversight last week my fridge ended up with both pork mince and strips of belly pork in it this week.

The mince had to be eaten first and it just so happened that I needed something quick on Monday night. So sticky plum and ginger meatballs it was! First I put some plain basmati rice on to cook.* I then put the mince in a bowl with a good amount of pepper, salt and ground ginger, and a crushed clove of garlic. Using hands I mashed and squidged this all together. Then put a frying pan on the heat, with some oil, I rolled small pieces of mince into balls and popped them into the pan - you need to do this quite quickly so they don't all cook at differnt times. When these were all in they start cooking quite quickly so keep them moving and let them brown and caramalise a little on each side.

While the meatballs were cooking I started on the sauce. I chopped a clove of garlic and some spring onions, and grated about two inches of fresh ginger. When the meatballs were done on each side I put them in a separate pan using a slotted spoon so that any fat or juice stayed in the pan. Then add all the sauce ingredients to the pan, with a star anise, and let them cook until soft adding extra oil if needed. Once they are soft add some soy sauce - and here I have a cheat - my cousin made some delicious plum sauce (I think stewed and strained plums). I'm not sure what else would work - maybe fresh plums, stoned and chopped? So with the plum sauce I let it all cook together until thick - it got a bit too sticky too quickly so I added a little stock (or use water) to thin it again.

Once the sauce was done I added the meatballs back into it, gave them a good stirr around so that they were all covered and piping hot all the way through. Then served with the rice, and a bit of Mango chutney just for fun!

And the Ant-O-Meter gives this dish......4 leaves! (That's out of five by the way.)


*Having had disasters with rice in the past I am pleased to say I have now perfected this bit of cookery! I tend to use 2/3 of a large ramakin of rice per person and a full ramakin of water per person. Bring to the boil quickly in the pan and turn to a low heat, and keep an eye on it. Another method I'm a big fan of is taking a pyrex dish with a lid and cooking the rice in that in the oven. The oven should be on about 180 degrees C, and I use the same quantities of rice as above - replacing the water with chicken or veg stock. This usually takes about 20 mins and is so handy if the oven is on anyway.

Sunday, 6 February 2011

New Year New Recipies!

With one thing and another I have been completely distracted from this - but now with a new year and new foody books, and a little less work - I can return to Culinary Deliciousness!

For Christmas I was given a Food Thesaurus. It's written by Niki Sergent and is brilliant! All flavours covered, and well written too. Recipes galore and all sorts of combinations to try out. And that's what I've been doing today.

I love cardamom, so I looked it up and saw that it might be combined with coffee - so I've made some muffins.

Coffee and Cardamom Muffins.

For a basic muffin mix make 9oz plain flour, 2tsp of baking powder, and 30z sugar. Then in another bowl whisk an egg and add 9 floz of milk. Add 3floz or 3oz melted butter to the liquid. Mix these together and pop into muffin cases. 200 deg C for about 25 minutes.

I added cardamon and coffee to this mix by making a little very strong coffee (I used a percolator but I'm sure istand or an expresso could be used). I took 6-7 cardamon pods and crushd in a pestle and mortar to get the seeds out. I crushed the seeds to a very fine powder and added them to the dry ingredients mix. Then I put the empty pods in the coffee to stew. When it was cool I added the coffee to the milk mix then went on as usual.

They came out of the oven after 25 minutes risen up and golden brown on top!


I also made triple ginger biccies today! Inspired by a recipe from Jamie Oliver but tweaked by me these come out like crunchy toppped gingerbread biscuits. I took the basic reicpe, flour, sugar, butter, ginger etc - but added treacle, golden syrup, stem ginger (preserved in syrup). Took 15 minutes in the oven and come out gooey and cool to a soft biscuit. Recipe needs some tweaking so watch this space for a recipe!