Oeufs in pots with polenta soldiers

I wish I had taken a photo of this one - because it looked delish. Bright yellow polenta soldiers, white eggs with a smattering of grey pepper, their sunny yolks just peeking out, and some bright green cabbage - because I am convinced of it's vitamin content and it's liking for the humble egg.

Inspired by the BBCs latest TV cook - Rachel Khoo - I attempted her 'Eggs in Pots' - though as usual I had to bodge the recipe as I don't often have creme fraiche to hand. I swapped this for some cream cheese, and carried on as instructed. The nutmeg and pepper works wonderfully, and the oeuf in a pot was lovely. Though, I wasn't sure when it was done as the white didn't seem to set due to the presence of the cream cheese, also, half the yolk was overdone due to it's proximity to the edge of the ramekin. So in future, I'll try to keep it away from the edge, and nudge it towards the middle. I need to practice, but it is a lovely recipe for a quiet night in, or a treat breakfast.

For the polenta chips, and I did impress myself with these I have to confess, I made polenta as usual by tipping 50g into 200ml of boiling water and whisking away until smooth and thick. Once it had 'plopped' or 'burped' - which I know sounds delicious! - I turned off the heat, tipped it into an old takeaway container, and put it outside the window, on the sill, to cool.

So, when it was coolish (I don't have the patience to wait long - plus, I was hungry!), I turned it out onto a board, and chopped into thick chips (about 1cm, by 1cm, by 9cm or so). In a frying pan, I heated half oil, and half butter, and laid the chips in when hot. I gave them a good time on each side, so that each side is nice and crispy. Polenta doesn't seem to brown easily - I'm still working out how the chefs do it.

And this meal was delish - crunchy polenta chips dipped in soft egg yolk, soft egg white, mixed with cream cheese, nutmeg and pepper tipped over soft green savoy cabbage! Yum.

Roast Chicken, Provencale Potatoes and Melting Moments

Ah, what a long day. I bought three pairs of shoes, two nail varnishes, and took part in some filming. And all before baking and cooking! What fun.

Came home from successful shopping trip to find husband and friends heading out for the £4 all day breakfast that the cafe opposite does so well. Alas, they were back in 5 minutes - the breakfast not being as all day as they had hoped. So, I scrambled together a tortilla/omlette affair and toast. And when I offered a round of toast and jam for pud - it went down very well! Am concerned that my culinary reputation has been lost by showcasing this classic dessert!                 

 Back to the day's baking! Whipped up some Melting Moments, chosed by the husband from a book recently sent to me by my new mother-in-law.  A lovely easy mixture, similar to a rock bun, rolled into balls, and rolled in coconut and oats - before popping a bit of cherry on the top and baking. They have a nice little crunch on the outside and are soft, sweet and buttery on the inside. Just right with a cup of tea!

During my first week at a new job, I was taken to The Fox, (near Old St), and had a whopping meal, consisting of a black pudding starter, and then 1/2 a chicken with the yummiest of potatoes. So, thought I would try and recreate the dish for Sunday supper. Large chicken legs are just right for two, and the potatoes make a great alternative to roast, or dauphinoise - and are nice and healthy!

First I set the oven to 200. This was probably a bit high for the potatoes - which would be best having a long, slow cook at a lower temp - but I wanted the heat for the chicken.

Next, in a bowl I mixed, olive oil (a good few glugs), salt, pepper, a good shake of dried herbs, 3 crushed cloves of garlic, an onion (chopped roughly but quite small), and a large tomato (again, chopped into a rough, large dice).

Having mixed this up together, I chopped 5/6 potatoes, into thick (1cm ish) slices. Skin on. These go into the bowl with the tomato mixture and shake around to get a good coating on all the potoato slices of the oil and herbs and garlic. Shake the whole mixture into a roasting dish, so that the potatoes can spread out (a rough layer of 2 thick should be fine). Cover with foil and put in the oven.

I gave them an hour or so in a hot oven, but they would be good cooking slowly underneath a whole chicken.

With the chicken, I rubbed some butter, salt, herbs and pepper under the skin and some more salt on top. These had half and hour in the oven with foil on the top, then half an hour without it.


When I took the chicken out, I let it rest covered with the foil and made gravy from the juice. And we had a little kale too - just for greenery.

2012: Biscuits galore!

Happy New Year! A new rolling pin, spatula, citrus juicer, hand electric mixer, book of baking treats, and ceramic baking beans for Christmas heralds a lovely year of baking and cooking. During my two weeks off over the festive period I did hardly any baking, as I was just enjoying doing nothing. I did host a party over New Year and made a dinner of Steak and Ale Pie, Pork and Cider Cobbler, Mash and Carrots, followed by a gooseberry cheesecake - which were a steaming success, and the recipes may follow - if I can one day remember what I did.

But back to today, have tried again with Jamie Oliver's Ginger biscuits, which have come out beautifully, recipe here. However, I forgot the bicarb, and used 1tbs golden syrup and 1tbs treacle, as it is far too much faff to measure the sticky stuff. I also added some crystallised ginger. They are sill cooling but I am excited about the results!

Also on the menu, is Cottage Pie - no recipe yet as I haven't pefected the recipe....

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!

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!

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.