Midweek braised pork steaks with mushrooms

In days gone by (more days than I care to consider), I used to write a blog on another platform.  When that closed, I saved all my recipes and pictures and although I have cherry picked from them over the years, I have been meaning to get back to them in some kind of structured way.

So I shall be including them as I go along and these posts are going to be fairly brief (blessedly so, you may say) but they all represent a recipe that I think is worth passing on. 

The first of which is this, my midweek braised pork steaks with mushrooms.  

Firstly, I just happened to have some home made pork stock in the freezer.  However, if you don't have that and need to use a stock cube, you may want to include a finely chopped carrot in with the onion, celery & garlic.  This will give the sweetness and a further depth to the flavour of the sauce/gravy.

Secondly, the pork steaks I have used here are loin steaks.  As such they don't need a lot of cooking to become tender, unlike a leg or shoulder steak.  Hence you might need to adjust the braising time to suit whichever cut you have at the time.

Lastly, the Bisto Best gravy granules aren't essential if you're ethically opposed to them for some reason, just use whichever thickener you prefer - cornflour, or plain flour, or some other proprietary brand.  I use Bisto Best because a) they provide the best flavour of all the gravy products available and b) they mix in really easily, without leaving great sticky clumps of goo.  Goo is definitely not essential to the success of your pork dinner. 

MIDWEEK BRAISED PORK STEAKS WITH MUSHROOMS    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3 pork steaks (I used 2 each as they were very thin, so 6 in all)
1 onion, chopped finely
2 sticks celery, chopped finely
(1 carrot, chopped finely - optional)
1 large clove of garlic, roughly chopped
sea salt and black pepper
750ml home made pork stock (or chicken - or at a pinch, use 1.5 good low salt stock cubes)
125g chestnut mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
1 tbsp Bisto Best pork gravy granules.

Method :

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or wok until smoking hot, then add the pork steaks (three at a time, if necessary, so as not to overcrowd the pan) and brown them lightly on both sides.  Remove to keep warm on a plate.

Once all the steaks are browned, reduce the heat and add a little more oil if necessary, then add the onion, celery and garlic (plus the carrot, if you're using it).  Stir fry gently until softened and just beginning to colour.

Replace the pork back into the pan and add the stock and mushrooms.  Stir to combine.

Bring up to a lively simmer and taste for seasoning.  Adjust if necessary.  Place a lid onto the pan and cook for 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until the pork is tender.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the gravy granules, stirring quickly to prevent any lumps.

Serve with steamed new potatoes and an assortment of in season vegetables.

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Catalan Butifarra sausage pasta with chestnuts - thank you, Quiet Waters Farm

Wow.  These are by far and away the best sausages I have ever had the very great pleasure of sampling.  However, having said that, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.  As my Dad would say, "start at the beginning".

My lovely friend Marcus Bawdon, he of "Country Woodsmoke" blogging fame and a mean old barbecuing pal (if you've not been to his blog, do go - but be ready to salivate a LOT), has been singing the praises of Quiet Waters Farm and their produce, particularly the sausages, a fair amount just recently.  So when I spotted - on the Quiet Waters Farm Facebook page - a competition to win some of their sausages, I was quick to slip a late entry in and crossed my fingers.

Lo and behold - and much to my surprise - I trotted in as one of the runners up and won three packs of sausages!  Yay!  I even had a choice as to which sausages I would like and went for the Catalan Butifarra (a delicate balance of black pepper and sea salt in a pork sausage), the Toulouse (garlic and white wine) and the Siciliano (fennel, garlic and lemon).

Now because of Marcus' bigging them up on his blog, they had an awful lot to live up to.  However, I trust Marcus and know that if he says something is great - it's probably a little bit better than great.  So I was super excited to receive and try these sausages.

They arrived on the day they were supposed to, tightly packaged and still frozen inside a polystyrene box that made it very easy to put them straight into the freezer.  Because we'd arranged the day of delivery, I had been able to include them in this week's menu plan and had opted to try the Catalan Butifarra ones first.  Now I had also done a little research about the Butifarra/Botifarra sausage in general and discovered that there are a number of different kinds of Butifarra sausage that originate from different areas of the world - hence the slight difference in the spelling.  Having the "Catalan" bit there in the name enabled me to pinpoint the research and establish what the primary flavours were likely to be and what, generally, people put with them.  Of course, it goes without saying that whatever the general method of cooking and serving was, I would wind up doing something different.  However, I learned that these sausages are often eaten with broad (or fava) beans - so earthy type flavours - and did not necessarily require pan frying, as they were often simply placed into a stew type of dish and allowed to cook gently for a long time.

So, "earthy flavours" eh?  Immediately - and that'll be because of the time of year - my thoughts flew to chestnuts.  I adore chestnuts and so do piggies, so chestnuts were a definite.  Naturally, chestnut mushrooms were hot on their heels and would be just perfect, but I needed something that would give colour and sweetness whilst retaining that "close to the earth" theme.  Peas were no good, sweet yes but earthy?  No.  Butternut squash was the answer, but because it can be slightly bland I thought I'd roast it to gain that lovely intensity of flavour that roasting a butternut can bring.

So I'd got my main ingredients, but as of yet no sauce.  Pasta has to have sauce.  I also had no input from any herbs - and I love herbs.  The obvious choice for herbs was a pesto - and I debated red pesto versus green pesto versus home made herb pesto but with a nod towards the fact that I'd quite like you to be able to reproduce the recipe, I went with a common or garden basil and pine nut, green pesto.  The pesto would give the background herb flavour that I had in my imagination, whilst saucing the pasta - but I wanted more than just a potentially greasy pesto.

At this stage, I was still envisaging the contents of the sausage pan being mixed into the pasta prior to serving.  Right up until I had a flash of inspiration and considered saucing both the sausages and the pasta, but with different sauces that would combine sympathetically in the bowl.  Aha!  We're onto something now.  It was a simple matter of adding a small amount of quite intensely flavoured vegetable stock to the sausage mixture, which would deglaze the pan and gather all those lovely sausagey, savoury flavours that would otherwise be lost.  Then, serve the pesto pasta into the warm bowl and add the sausage component next, with its light sauce that would trickle through the pasta just perfectly.  A small sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley over the top to underline the freshness of the herb flavours and a light grating of parmesan for its umami and salt and I was there.

All this just totally relied upon the sausages being ace for pork flavour and not exceptionally fatty.  Now flavour is a subjective thing and all I could do was hope, however the fat content of the sausages I knew about, as in talking to Quiet Waters Farm on their Facebook page, I'd established that the fat ratio ran at around 75/25 percent lean to fat.  Well that sounded okay to me - I'd just keep an eye on the fat that was accumulating in the pan and use as little as possible to begin with, then prior to adding the stock, if there was too much I could easily remove some by spooning it off.  Perfect.

You see, I had thought about this recipe before attempting it.  Just a little bit.  *chuckle*

Oh my goodness - or ERMAGHERD! - it worked and it worked absolutely beautifully.

These Catalan Butifarra sausages are incredible.  There is a claim on the website that "we know you will not have tasted anything quite like them before" and they are absolutely right.  After I had tasted a piece during the cooking, I described them to hubby as having a porky flavour that is more roast pork than sausage pork and that they are quite intensely porky.  He got a bit concerned at that, as he hates (with a passion) sausages that taste of "old pork".  You know how pork can sometimes taste really "piggy" more than porky.  Well not these babies.  Having tasted their succulent gorgeousness, he declared himself both surprised and relieved at the cleanness of the flavour.  The black pepper is slow to rise to the surface, behind the gorgeous richness of the intense pork that is subtly supported by the sea salt.  However, when it does, the flavours just dance across your tongue.  The robustness of the sausage is everything you would hope it could be - even without their natural casings to contain them (which I removed), there's no falling apart, no mushiness (that'll be the lack of cereal, then!), just firm, succulent, tasty sausage.  Oh happy days.  Hubby even went so far as to declare that they were the best sausages he had ever sampled (and he's a sausage connoisseur, let me tell you) - and I agree.

Having done "the fancy thing" with the Catalan Butifarra, we both then had a terrible hankering for a couple of them, pan fried, in between two slabs of doorstep Farmhouse bread, with lashings of real butter, HP sauce and a huge mug of builders' tea.  Which, at some point, just HAS to be done. 

Now, having got all the superlatives out of the way, let's have a think about any "Cooks Notes" I might have for you.

Firstly, if you should invest in some of these wonderful sausages (whoops, another superlative slipped in), which I heartily recommend, then you can follow the recipe as written.  However, if you're intending on using another type of sausage, go for as high a percentage pork as you can afford.

Secondly, when cooking the shallots it is important not to think "the pan is a bit dry, I'll add more oil".  No, add a splash or two of water, so that the shallots steam for a while before returning to frying.  You can do this several times, without any fear of loss of flavour.  The most important thing is to keep the oil to a minimum.

Thirdly, as with the oil, you need to keep the salt to a minimum.  The sausages have a natural saltiness in their recipe and you have the potential to make the whole thing over salted if you take into account the stock, the salt in the pasta water, the salty pesto and lastly the saltiness of the grated parmesan - so you definitely don't need any additional salt.  Tie your hands behind your back of you think you're likely to over season!

If you fancy it, to up the gorgeousness, you could add some porcini mushrooms along with the chestnut mushrooms - and use their soaking water to make the vegetable stock mixture.  They would add another layer of earthy flavour along with making the recipe a little bit more special.

So there you have it!  I cannot recommend these sausages enough - do, please, to go the Quiet Waters Farm website (just click on the name) and check out their Farm Shop where you'll find the hundreds of different type of sausages that are on offer.  The next ones to cross my cooker will be the Toulouse - and I can't wait!

CATALAN BUTIFARRA SAUSAGE PASTA WITH CHESTNUTS   (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil, split into 3 tsp
half a butternut squash (the thin end is best)
2 banana shallots, finely chopped
200ml warm water and 300ml warm water
1 pack of 6 Quiet Waters Farm Catalan Butifarra sausages, skinned and broken into small pieces
5 chestnut mushrooms
1 tsp vegetable stock base
250g pasta (spirali is good)
2 tbsp basil and pine nut pesto
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
parmesan cheese, for grating
sea salt and black pepper.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 220degC/425degF/Gas 7.

2.  Cut and peel the butternut squash, then slice into small bite sized cubes.  Put one tsp of olive oil into a bowl with the butternut pieces, add a touch of seasoning and stir until the pieces are all coated in the seasoned oil.

3.  Tip the butternut pieces out onto a baking tray and roast for 20-25 minutes.

4.  Fill a large saucepan two-thirds full with water, add a pinch of salt and place on to boil.

5.  In a large frying pan, add the last two tsp of olive oil and the finely chopped shallots.  Do not add any salt, as between the butternut and the sausages, you already have a fair amount of salt there.  Sweat the shallots down for 5-10 minutes or so, if you find the pan is a little dry, add 100ml of warm water to add a little steam which will hurry them along a bit, without the threat of excessive colour.

6.  Once the shallots are softened, but not coloured, add the broken sausage pieces.  Increase the heat to keep the pan going, otherwise the cold sausage pieces will reduce the heat in the pan and everything will just boil instead of fry.  

7.  Once the sausage pieces have started to colour, add the mushrooms to cook alongside.  Cook everything until the sausage pieces have changed colour and are just cooked through.

8.  Once the water in the saucepan has boiled, add the pasta and cook to manufacturer's instructions.

9.  Back to the sausages.  Add 300ml of warm water and the vegetable stock base.  Stir to combine and cover the pan.  Reduce the heat and simmer for as long as it takes for the pasta to cook, then remove the lid and stir.  If the contents are particularly wet, leave the lid off to evaporate some of the liquid while you deal with the pasta.  If there is just enough liquid to form a glossy sauce, replace the lid - you're ready to go.

10.  Once the pasta is cooked, drain it well and add the pesto.  Stir through.

11.  Serve the pasta into warmed bowls, then add the sausage mixture on top.  Then sprinkle on a tsp of chopped parsley and grate a little parmesan over the top.

12.  Sit, eat and enjoy.

Printable version

Lamb & fennel meatballs with rag pasta

Well this one is hot off the press!  We had this for dinner this evening and it was so good, I had to commit the recipe to the blog before I forgot what I'd done.  Yes, it's a Jenny Eatwell original, so mind you remember that when you're telling all your friends.   *wink*

In actual fact, the germ of inspiration came from a news article regarding an Italian restaurant.  I forget where the restaurant was, but in the article they showed a dish of meatballs with "rag" pasta.  This one was completely new to me and required some further investigation - and it turns out that recipes involving "rag" pasta are all over the internet.  It is only a wonder that I haven't tripped over one before!

So what is "rag" pasta?  It's such a simple thing!  You take a fresh lasagne sheet (egg pasta preferably) and cut it into random shapes.  Tadaaaaa!  Rag pasta.  Now I do remember seeing Gennaro Contaldo making something with randomly shaped flat pasta in the past, but hadn't connected it with "rag" pasta.  I decided to cut mine into triangles, but you can be as random as you like, so long as the shapes are roughly the same size so that they cook at the same speed.

I will admit, however, that once I combined the pasta with the sauce it looked rather flat and uninviting.  Hubby was looking at it most dubiously and I suddenly lost all confidence in my lovely tasty sauce that I'd been quietly rhapsodising over only minutes before.

I made the mistake of serving it on flat plates - it would have looked so much better in a bowl with a little sprinkle of some herb or another - parsley probably - to give a brighter green.  Everything looks inviting with some parsley sprinkled over it!

Having dashed off the three photographs (why didn't I take more?) I ventured into the sitting room where hubby and son were tucking in.  Well?  How was it eating?  "Do you know," said hubby, in amazement, "this is actually really very good!".

Really?  I mean, there, I told you it would be lovely.  ~Koff~  He was right, as well.  It ate very nicely indeed.  The pasta wasn't chewy, or flabby, the meatballs were just right size wise and yes, you could taste the fennel seed.  The sauce was just the right consistency and perfect amounts of it.  Gosh!  I'd only gone and conjured up a family favourite.

So here I am, dashing off a quick blog post so that you, too, can enjoy some "rag" pasta with your families.

Now, for the cook's notes, I've a couple :

-  firstly, make sure to use full fat creme fraiche.  Low fat just won't work and will split once you bring it up to the boil.

-  Secondly, any old stock will do (other than fish, of course!), so don't worry if you don't have any lamb stock cubes or powder in the cupboard.

-  It is very worth crushing the fennel seed before adding it to the meatballs, as getting a seed stuck between your teeth can ruin the best of meals.

For those who might be counting calories, this amounts to roughly 1,161 calories per portion (which is the entire amount divided between three people).  However, it is an entire meal on the one plate, so long as you make sure to have a light breakfast and lunch.  Of course, you could always serve it with a salad and split it between four people, which would reduce the calories a bit!

Happy munching!


LAMB & FENNEL MEATBALLS WITH RAG PASTA    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

500g minced lamb
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp sumac
half a tsp garlic granules
1 large banana shallot, one half chopped finely, the other sliced finely
1 tbsp olive oil
200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
200ml lamb (or veal, or chicken) stock
300ml full fat creme fraiche
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
half a tsp dried thyme
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
300g fresh egg lasagne pasta sheets, cut into 2" triangles
50g tenderstem broccoli
20g peas.

Method :

1.  With a pestle and mortar, crush the fennel seed with a pinch of salt.  Then into a large bowl, mix together the minced lamb, crushed fennel seed, sumac, pepper, garlic granules and the finely chopped half of banana shallot.

2.  Wet your hands and shape the mixture into small meatballs - about the size of a cherry tomato.

3.  Heat a deep frying pan and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the meatballs and fry on a high heat until lightly browned, but just cooked through. Remove from the pan and reserve. Tip away all but 1 tablespoonful of the oil.

4.  Add the remaining finely sliced half of banana shallot and sliced mushrooms and fry gently until softened.

5.  Return the meatballs to the pan and add the lamb stock, creme fraiche, Worcestershire sauce plus thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil and reduce until you have a thickened sauce (around 10-15 minutes).

6.  In the meantime, bring a deep pot of water to the boil and once boiling, add the pasta pieces. Cook until tender - approx. 3-4 minutes.

7.  Add the tenderstem broccoli to the sauce, making sure to submerge it so that it cooks evenly. Cook for around 7-8 minutes, then add the petits pois and cook until heated through and tender.

8.  When the pasta is done, drain and add the pasta to the sauce. Toss in the sauce to coat - and serve into warmed bowls.

Printable version

Bacon & Pesto Gnocchi - suspending disbelief

I've been going through a bit of a purple patch with my cooking lately again, in that I had lost my way a bit - well, a lot in fact.  It happens that way sometimes.  Eating is something that we HAVE to do, to keep operating and to stay as well as possible - but sometimes it can be just the most dull, time consuming and tedious thing imaginable.  Add to that it being more than a little bit painful to complete and you have all the ingredients for a purple patch.

However, I hadn't lost my interest in all things culinary or my curiosity for new ingredients - so I knew I'd be back to it, if I just wound things back a bit and swung with the tide for a while.  So here I am, quietly getting back into the swing of things.  I didn't stop cooking, either - we just went through a few weeks of some fairly dull meals, incredibly unhealthy meals and some stellar and spectacularly gorgeous Sunday roasts.  Well, it had to come out in some way or another - and I saved it all for Sundays.  LOL

I will do a couple of posts detailing some of the Sunday meals we've had - as they deserve to spend some time in the spotlight.

Now don't go thinking that I'm back with dishes of Lark's tongue in aspic, or a new take on Lobster thermidor, far from it.  For this week's menu plan (yes, I'm still doing those!) I've tried to come out of my default "meat and two veg" and venture into things - like today's Gnocchi - that I haven't cooked for ages because of lack of inspiration and enthusiasm.

So, all that aside, this evening's meal of Bacon & Pesto Gnocchi was a great start.  We all love gnocchi and I had simply forgotten about it.  After all, there are so many different ingredients out there, it is impossible to remember them all.  Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  Like a hot gnocchi to an aluminium pan.  *wink*

I can't claim this recipe as all my own work, the inspiration and basic idea came from a recipe on the U.K. & Ireland All Recipes site - which you can see here if you fancy having a look.  I simply added a couple of extra ingredients - mushrooms and onion - to the recipe, to pad it out a little further and to increase the veggie quota.

I'm currently trying to eat mushrooms whenever I can, having read that folk who eat mushrooms and drink green tea (not necessarily together at the same time, but whatever floats your boat) stand considerably less chance of contracting cancer - of all sorts of types.  Now it's not hard work to eat mushrooms and fairly easy to add a cup of green tea to my day, so that's what I've been doing.

This recipe really is simplicity itself.  Now I approve of that, because not every recipe needs to take an aeon, involve every pan you possess and take you an hour to get over cooking.  Far from it.  It sounded easy - it's one of those "put stuff in the pan in order and cook on various heats, boil other stuff, combine the two" recipes.  They get a big thumbs up from me.

The peppers do need chargrilling earlier in the day, but if you don't have the time or inclination to do this (it is well worth it though, as the flavour is so much better), you can use them ready done, out of a jar.

There are two odd things about the recipe, however.  One is that it involves Philadelphia cream cheese - which isn't odd on its own, it's just that it uses Sweet Chilli Philadelphia.  In a dish which is ostensibly Italian.  ~scratches head~  Demands the suspension of disbelief to do it, but it's worth it!  If it is any consolation, the Sweet Chilli version is one of the low fat types of Philadelphia, so it could be worse!

The second odd thing is the end colour - which, thanks to the green Pesto, is eccentric at best.  Don't panic when you see it all combined in the pan before you add it to the gnocchi - the addition of the gnocchi helps to lighten the colour and if served with a green salad alongside, it kind of makes sense.

My menfolk liked it a lot - well, cheese and bacon?  It'd have to go a long way to shake off a man's love for bacon.  I was a little bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough for everyone, whereas the reality was that it was absolutely perfect.  No leftovers and everyone was satisfied.  Works for me!

So, having said all that, let's get on and make it shall we?

BACON & PESTO GNOCCHI   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 red and 1 green pepper
1 onion, chopped finely
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
300g smoked back bacon, chunkily chopped
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
500g potato gnocchi
3 heaped tsp green pesto (to taste)
3 dessertspoonfuls sweet chilli Philadelphia
1 generous handful of grated cheddar cheese.

Method :

1.  If you are using your own home chargrilled peppers, some hours before you begin to make the dish, heat your grill to high and place the whole peppers under the grill.  Leave them there for their skins to turn black and blister, turning them until they are completely charred.  Cool for a moment, then pop into a freezer bag and seal the top.  Condensation will form, which will enable their skins to be removed really easily - and they have such a gorgeous smokey taste.

2.  So, place a large pan of salted water on to boil for the gnocchi.

3.  While the water is heating, add the oil and the onion to a frying pan and cook gently until softened and just beginning to caramelise.

4.  Add the bacon, which will cool the pan - so increase the temperature to cook the bacon until all the water has dispersed, then add the mushrooms and cook on until they have softened.

5.  Add the peppers and heat them through - by which time the water should have boiled for the gnocchi, so in they go for their three minutes, or whatever the pack demands.

6.  Add the pesto, Philadelphia and grated cheese to the frying pan and stir through until the cheddar has melted and the whole lot has combined.  This is where you'll start getting a little bit worried about the colour.  Do not despair!

7.  As the gnocchi cook, lift them out with a slotted spoon, directly into the bacon mixture.  Once they are all done, fold them through until everything is combined, check for seasoning and adjust if necessary - and serve.

I thoroughly recommend serving the gnocchi with a green side salad, which provides a lovely freshness to counteract the richness of the pesto and cheese.  Perfect!

Printable version

Turkey & Bacon Meatloaf Open Sandwich with cheese!

Think "open sandwich" - and you'll be in the right area.

Hubby and I were pondering over what we had in the fridge that needed using and what we could do with these various things.  Having been blogging for the last three or four years - yes, it's been THAT long - we've got quite good at doing this kind of thing.   When hubby first suggested an open sandwich affair with the bacon, I pricked up my ears.  I've not done too many open sandwiches - and certainly not dinner varieties.

We'd been discussing meatloaves, as I recently made some Forfar Bridies (similar to a Cornish Pasty, except with no vegetables) that failed miserably - but the filling of them would have stood up against a fair amount of competition, as a meatloaf.  However, bacon meatloaf?  Bacon and what, though?  Not sausagemeat - too potentially salty and greasy.  Pork mince was mooted first, but then I remembered some meatballs I'd made with turkey mince and how successful they were.  Turkey mince has an inherent sweetness that would go nicely with the smoked bacon and it also has the ability to stick together, without encouragement such as egg.

I decided to do a little bit of research on what other people have put into their turkey meatloaves and decide from there what alternative ingredients to use.


So when hubby suggested we use the meatloaf on an open sandwich type affair, it sounded very interesting indeed.  We discussed whether to use a cut loaf like soda bread for the bread part, but decided the open texture of a ciabatta would be better suited to the close texture of a meatloaf - and even better, had a sudden brainwave to use a Leerdammer cheese melted on top which would serve to bring the whole sandwich together.  With something tasty under the meatloaf, it sounded like we were onto a winner.

Well, I made it this evening (actually, I started at about 3 o'clock this afternoon) and it was really good.  No, really, really good.

 The meatloaf ingredients were turkey mince, bacon (half minced finely, half chopped roughly), a small amount of breadcrumbs, a small amount of parmesan cheese, a red onion, a clove of garlic, some fresh parsley, some dried thyme, white pepper and four mushrooms.  I didn't use any salt at all, as with the bacon and parmesan cheese, I reckoned (and I was right) that there was already enough salt in the mix.

I used the food processor to finely chop (almost down to a paste), the onion, garlic, parsley, tail end of the smoked bacon rashers, thyme, white pepper and mushrooms.  This then got mixed with the breadcrumbs, roughly chopped bacon (for texture), turkey mince and parmesan cheese.  Packed into a silver foil lined one pound loaf tin and cooked for an hour in a hot oven, it was smelling wonderful.  I then drained the juice from the loaf tin and turned the loaf out into a roasting tin - upside down - and gave it another 20 minutes in the hot oven, just to give the outside edge some colour and dry the loaf out a little.

Hubby had some red onion marmalade on his toasted ciabatta, but son & heir and myself erred on the side of caution and went for a zig zag of tomato ketchup.  With the meatloaf slices laid on top and the cheese melted over, it really was so good.

Hence, the next time you're thinking "meatloaf" and decide against it because it's boring.  Think again and put it on some ciabatta toast with melted cheese.  Awesome.

I served ours with some home made coleslaw and watercress salad.  Beautiful.

The very best bit is that we've just under half the meatloaf left, for lunch tomorrow.  Yum.  The following recipe feeds three people, so remember to grill more ciabatta rolls and provide more Leerdammer cheese if you're making for more, or extra hungry people.  The meatloaf itself would happily make eight open sandwiches.

TURKEY & BACON MEATLOAF OPEN CIABATTA SANDWICH

Ingredients :

1 red onion, cut into chunky pieces
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 small bunch fresh parsley (to make 2 tbsp)
400g smoked bacon rashers
1 tsp dried thyme
4 chestnut mushrooms, cut into quarters
half a tsp white pepper
2 large handfuls white breadcrumbs
20g finely grated parmesan cheese
500g minced turkey
2 ciabatta rolls, each cut into two equal halves
1 tsp red onion marmalade or tomato ketchup
4 slices of Leerdammer cheese.

Method :

1.  Take the bacon and trim away the majority of the fat, which should be discarded.  Separate the tail (streaky) end from the eye (lean) part and finely chop the tail end.  Cut the eye part into three long slices, then chop into decent size squares so that they will provide some texture to the meatloaf.

2.  Into a food processor, place the red onion pieces, chopped garlic, parsley (broken into a manageable size), thyme, the finely chopped tail end of the bacon rashers, mushroom pieces and pepper.  Chop until the mixture begins to resemble a paste, but stop just as that happens.

3.  Tip the paste into a bowl and add the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and turkey mince.  Scrunch the ingredients together with your hands, until thoroughly mixed.

4.  Decant into a one pound loaf tin, previously lined with tin foil to make removing the meatloaf much easier.

5.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200degC/400degF/Gas 6 for one hour.

6.  Once the time is up, gently tip the meatloaf tin and pour off the liquid.  Then gently remove the loaf from the tin - using the silver foil to lift it into a roasting tin.  Flip the meatloaf onto its head and replace into the oven for a further 20 minutes, to brown the outside and dry the loaf out a little.

7.  While the meatloaf is finishing cooking, grill the four halves of ciabatta roll and coat with your choice of either red onion marmalade or tomato ketchup.

8.  Once the meatloaf is baked, slice and lay a slice (or more) onto each half of roll.

9.  Cover the meatloaf with a slice of Leerdammer cheese, then place under the hot grill for 2-3 minutes, just enough to melt the cheese.

Serve with a watercress salad and coleslaw.

Printable version

Using up your leftovers - Chicken & Ham Pie

We bought a whopping great big piece of Gammon to do as a pot roast last Sunday - and it was scrummy.  I served it with gnocchi in a Carbonara sauce plus some veggies and it was very acceptable indeed as a different sort of Sunday dinner.

However, we were left with rather a lot of Gammon that needed to be found a job to do.  As I didn't think that using it as a door stop would be much good - not with the dogs around, anyway (joke!) I set my mind to what we could do with it.

Immediately, I found myself liking the idea of a pie.  It would need to be a pot pie sort of pie, with a white sauce holding it all together rather than gravy (didn't fancy a gravy pie) and it occurred to me that I had a perfectly sized piece of pastry left over from the Rhubarb & Ginger Pie (oh dear, I really must blog that!) to make a lid for a pot pie.  It also occurred to me that I had one chicken breast in the freezer, also waiting for a job to do.  Perfect!  There was certainly enough gammon there that the addition of a chicken breast would turn it very much into sufficient for a pie, so long as some veggies came along for the ride.


I knew I had a selection of veggies in the fridge that would do the trick, so there I was rummaging through the vegetable drawer, thinking "what can I use?".

The original use for the gammon - with gnocchi in Carbonara sauce

Onion was a definite, that will start off the flavour base - with some garlic to lend depth.  Then carrot for sweetness - some finely diced with will lend flavour to the sauce and some rather bigger to add interest to each bite.  Celery was a definite - again finely diced to add flavour to the sauce and some sliced bigger to add interest to the pie.  Aha!  Mushrooms - perfect, but I'd have to make sure they were well cooked before putting the pie lid on, or they'd release a heap of water into the pie which would make the sauce thin and watery.

Hmmmn ... it needed something else.  Peas?  Well yes, but I had thought to serve peas alongside and too many peas isn't good (even though I love 'em and can eat dozens of the little green lovelies).  What else is small and sweet?  Aha!  Sweetcorn.  Perfect.

Now then, what herbs to use.  I had fresh parsley and dill.  I pondered long and hard over the dill because I know it goes well with chicken - but I just wasn't convinced about how well it would go with the gammon.  I decided upon just the parsley and the dill went back into the fridge.

Now, to make a white sauce or to "cheat" and use a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup?  Well, the way my knees have been, just lately, the simple act of making the pie will be enough to upset my knees severely.  So perhaps the length of time it takes to make a white sauce would be rather more than my knees could handle, so opted for the condensed cream of chicken soup.

I have no qualms in using ingredients like a tin of soup in recipes, as I am quite sure that there are more people out there who - like me - have reasons to not spend the entire afternoon in the kitchen (nice as that may be) than there are devoted cooks who do!  Things like gravy granules - these days - are perfectly nice ingredients that have a place in everyday home cooking, in my opinion.

To reduce the strain on my knees, I made the filling for the pie during the afternoon - which gave it plenty of time to cool (and for my knees to recover) before putting the lid on and baking it.  The 35 minutes it was baking were perfect timing for preparing and steaming some vegetables and making some mash, too.

Oh and I must have a quick word about the mash!  I peeled a roughly 50/50 combination of potatoes and parsnips and simmered them until they were tender.  After draining and leaving to dry for a moment or two, I put them back into the hot pan along with a good (and I'm talking "good to big") knob of butter and a tablespoon of Creme Fraiche D'Isigny - my favourite creme fraiche.  The D'Isigny type has a lovely savouriness about it that comes from a slight hint of cheesiness - which goes so, so well with savoury dishes.  It was just beautiful in this mash, as once the potatoes were seasoned and mashed together, everyone declared it to be really tasty.  So that was a success!

As a cook's note, once baked the juices from the vegetables and meat had reduced the soup base very slightly - so do be careful to not overdo the water in the first place.  It is far, far better to have your filling - pre-baking -  be on the thicker, more gloopy side than to be a perfect degree of sauciness.  Once baked, you'll find it comes out perfectly.

I made some additional chicken gravy, as we are all gravy hounds and I knew that the sauce in the pie would be insufficient for mopping up with mashed potato - but it is entirely up to you.  If you aren't a gravy hound, then don't make additional gravy!

A note for the more health-conscious amongst us, is that Campbells have brought out a range of low fat condensed "cream of" soups.  Now I've had a peek at the ingredients list and they don't appear to contain anything terrible (such as Aspartame), so they might be worth a look for you.

I can't let the opportunity pass to make another little mention of the fabulous Essential Cuisine stocks.  I'm not joking in that obtaining these stocks has made the thorny question of "is there too much salt" in a recipe, incredibly easy to deal with.  I used the fantastic chicken stock in this recipe and the flexibility of being able to add just a little bit of water, but a lot of stock powder which ups the chicken flavour beautifully without making it too salty, is worth so much to me as a cook.  I couldn't do that with a stock cube - even the low salt stock cubes would be way too much.  The Essential Cuisine range of stock powders are so reasonably priced at £3.95 a tub (which lasts longer than its equivalent in stock cubes, as you can be so much more flexible in how much you use) and delivery is amazingly quick - I can't sing their praises enough. 

My hubby - who is notoriously particular about his pie fillings - really liked this pie.  Now I consider that a total win, without anyone else having given their approval!  However, as it was, son & heir also thoroughly enjoyed his dinner and would happily have it again.  I really liked how no two forkfuls were the same - and you ate all the way to the end of your dinner without getting fed up with eating the same old thing.  A pie that holds your interest, is a thing of beauty!  Another good point is that I ate the last piece of pie for lunch the following day and it had lost none of its flavour or its appeal.  Having been warmed up via microwave, that's quite an accolade for a leftover piece of leftovers pie!

CHICKEN & HAM PIE   (Serves 4)

Ingredients :

1-2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, halved and sliced finely
1 fat donkey carrot, half diced finely, half sliced
2 sticks celery, one diced finely, one sliced small
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
1-200g sweetcorn niblets (defrosted, if frozen)
295g tin of Campbells condensed cream of chicken soup
100ml water
a low salt chicken stock cube or 1 tsp chicken stock powder
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely
300-400g cooked gammon ham, broken into random bite sized pieces
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
300g (approx) short crust pastry
2 tbsp milk.

Method :

1.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil on a moderate heat and add the onion.  Cook, without browning, until transparent.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.

2.  Add the carrot, celery and mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms have softened and given up a certain amount of their moisture.

3.  Add the chicken pieces and cook - still on a moderate heat - until the chicken has turned a uniform white.

4.  Add the sweetcorn, soup, water and chicken stock and stir to mix well.

5.  Once well combined, add the parsley and the gammon.  Stir gently, so as not to break the gammon up.

6.  Taste for seasoning and adjust.  The very least you should need, will be a good shake of pepper.

7.  Set aside to cool.

8.  Once cool, decant into your pie dish and roll out the pastry to fit over the top of the dish.  You are aiming to keep the pastry fairly thick.

9.  Brush some milk onto the edge of the pie dish and place the pastry over the top.  Press down lightly onto the edges to make a seal and then cut off the extra with a sharp knife.

10.  Cut a small hole in the centre of the pastry to allow the steam to escape without blowing the pastry lid off, then crimp around the edges to finally seal the pastry.

11.  Paint the pastry lid with milk and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for 35-40 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes & parsnips and a selection of in season vegetables.

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Pork tenderloin stuffed with sherry soaked prunes and chestnuts, in a mushroom cream sauce.

During our usual weekly board meeting (when we decide what to eat for the coming week), hubby stated that he had a fancy for roast pork for dinner on Sunday.  That caught my attention, as I love a good roast shoulder of pork (locally sourced in England of course) with a little bit of stuffing and apple sauce.

However, that wasn't what he had in mind.  His idea of "roast pork" is to roast a pork tenderloin.

Now you have to salt this preference with the knowledge of both his and son & heir's dislike of fat on meat.  For him, a shoulder of pork is full of (what he describes as) "globby bits" that at best just turn him right off and at worst make him want to heave.  For me, I can wade my way through any amount of said "globby bits" for some pork with lovely roasty flavour.  It's horses for courses - and as I'm in the minority, it is rare we ever have a piece of fatty pork as a Sunday roast.  However, any pork in a storm (see what I did, there?) is better than no pork at all.

During the week, I started to think about how I could make this dull as ditchwater piece of pork interesting.  Oh come on.  I know that a pork tenderloin is lovely and lean with no "globby bits" and a gentle flavour, but you have to agree with me surely - it's a bit incredibly dull as just roast pork.

It took two days (no, seriously - two days!) before I had a sudden brainwave.  Stuff it, I thought.  No, not "stuff it" as in "oh forget about it, I just don't care any more", but "stuff it" as in "put stuffing inside it".  Aha!  I was onto a winner here.

I finally decided (having gone through many permutations of stuffing in my mind) that it would be good to use up some of the ingredients left over from Christmas, plus to capitalise on the pork's tendency to be rather sweet - but without overdoing it.

So I settled on using prunes and chestnuts.  Both would go well with pork and we had both of them in the house already.  Then, though, I had the most brilliant of brainwaves - why not soak the prunes in sherry?  Ho, yes!  I could use the remaining sherry to bolster the flavour of the mushroom sauce (which was also hubby's choice) and it would add another layer of flavour to the stuffing.

The tenderloin, all stuffed and ready for the oven

Quite by accident (and I don't mind admitting it), I discovered that leaving the prunes to soak for 24 hours is by far and away the better option.  I discovered this by running out of the will to live around about the time I should have been making dinner, on the Sunday.  So we ordered in a pizza and dinner got bumped over until Monday - by which time, the prunes were softly unctuous and gorgeous and I'd recovered.  Hence, if you can remember, do put them to soak with plenty of time to spare!  It's worth it, honest.

.... and all roasted, rested, carved and ready to eat!

The other little tip I have for you, is regarding the soaked porcini mushrooms.  When you take them out of their water to chop, try not to disturb the water too much.  That way, when you come to pouring the water into the sauce ingredients, any grit that has come from the mushrooms won't have been stirred up and wind up in your sauce.  Also, leave the very dregs in the bottom of the bowl - don't add them to your sauce, for the very same reason.  I think most people hate getting grit in between their teeth - and dentistry is terribly expensive these days - so it's worth doing.

Oh, and another point is to watch how much salt you use in seasoning.  It is very worthwhile getting to know how much salt is in a stock cube, so that you can allow for it when making your dishes.  I use all kinds of different stocks - home made, cubes, jelly and powder - and it can really affect the end result if there isn't enough - or even worse, there's too much - salt in the food.  In this instance, because it is difficult to find pork stock, I've used a Knorr Pork stock cube, which are fairly salty and don't come in the low salt variety.

So what did it taste like?

The sage & onion roast potatoes - simply scrumptious!

Well, the pork could have been a little more tender, but it was perfectly nice and very edible indeed.  The chestnut & prune stuffing worked perfectly.  The chestnuts gave that earthy nuttiness while the sherry soaked prune delivered a sweet, vaguely spicy edge to a perfect triumvirate of flavours.  With the sage and onion roast potatoes - which were also designed to match up with the pork flavour perfectly - and some fresh steamed vegetables all bathed in the beautifully intense and creamy sauce, it was heaven.

I might begin to alter my opinion of pork tenderloin, if it always tasted that good!

PORK TENDERLOIN, STUFFED WITH SHERRY SOAKED PRUNES & CHESTNUTS, IN A MUSHROOM CREAM SAUCE WITH SAGE & ONION ROAST POTATOES   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

10 or so prunes, halved
Medium sherry, enough to cover the prunes
2 tbsp of dried porcini mushrooms (optional)
4 medium Maris Piper potatoes, peeled, rinsed and cut into chunks of approx 1 inch
150g shallots, peeled, topped and tailed
1-2 tsp dried sage 
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
700g pork tenderloin, in one piece
10 or so chestnuts, sliced finely
a length of butcher's string
250g chestnut mushrooms
a pork stock cube, divided into 2 pieces
a knob of unsalted butter
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
150ml double cream
3 heaped tsp Bisto Best pork gravy granules.

Method :

1.  The day before you are due to make the dish, place the halved prunes into a small bowl and pour in enough Sherry to just cover them.  Cover with a plate (not cling film - you want them to breathe a bit) and leave to absorb the sherry.

2.  Approximately an hour or so before you are due to make the dish, place the dried porcini mushrooms into another small bowl and cover with boiling water.  Cover with cling film and leave to soften.

3.  Place the potato pieces into a large bowl and add 1 tbsp of the oil.  Add all but one of the shallots.  Season well with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper and add the dried sage.  Toss with a spoon to ensure every piece is covered with both oil, herbs and seasoning.

4.  Pour out onto a roasting tray and arrange so that the shallots are in the centre of the tray, where they will be protected from the fiercest heat.

5.  Place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at 200degC/400degF/Gas 6 for 30-35 minutes.  You may need to turn the roasting tray part way through cooking, for an even roast.  If the potatoes are cooking faster than the pork, it is possible to take them out of the oven and keep them warm (under the grill, in my case), then put them back in 10 minutes or so before the pork is due to finish, to crisp up.

6.  So, take the tenderloin and carefully trim away any gristle or fat.

7.  Carefully cut through from the side, so that you can stuff the tenderloin - but making sure not to perforate the other side with the knife.

8.  Lay on a layer of sliced chestnuts, then a layer of soaked prunes, then a final layer of sliced chestnuts.  Sprinkle with a tiny pinch of sea salt & a little black pepper.

9.  Take the piece of butcher's string and, starting at one end, loop it at intervals and pull tight to hold the stuffing in place.  Tie off at the opposite end.

10.  Place the tenderloin into a roasting tin and pour over one of the tbsp of oil.  Pour over the remaining sherry from the prunes.

11.  Take two or three of the chestnut mushrooms and chop into small pieces.  Sprinkle them on either side of the pork.

12.  Place half of the stock cube into 200ml of hot water and once dissolved, pour into the roasting dish, then cover lightly with silver foil and place into the oven on the lower shelf, for 30 minutes.

13.  Whilst the pork and potatoes are cooking, prepare the sauce by adding the knob of unsalted butter to a saucepan.  Melt it on a moderate heat and add the one shallot, which should have been chopped finely.  Cook until soft and transparent, but not in any way coloured.  

14.  Add the remainder of the mushrooms - including the drained porcini (but reserve the liquid).  Cook until the mushrooms are softened.

15.  Add 250ml of boiling water, the mushroom liquid and crumble the remaining half of the stock cube into the pan.  Add the mushroom ketchup and stir until the stock has dissolved and bring to a gentle boil.

16.  When the pork has had its 30 minutes, remove the covering silver foil and spoon the majority of the cooking juices (including the mushrooms) into the pan containing the sauce.

17.  Replace the pork back into the oven for another 10 minutes, to gain a bit of colour.

18.  Remove from the oven and cover with silver foil, to rest.

19.  Continue to cook the sauce until it has reduced by almost half and the flavours have intensified to the point where you're thinking that it is really too intense.  Add the double cream and stir through.  Taste for seasoning - you're more likely to need pepper than salt, as the stock cube will probably have been salty.

20.  Before the sauce has time to heat back up, add the gravy granules and stir to combine.  As the sauce heats through, the granules will cause it to thicken and put a bit of an edge back into the flavour.  Set aside to keep warm while you serve.

Serve the pork sliced, with the sauce, roast potatoes and a selection of steamed vegetables.

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