"Normal" menu planning is resumed.

Pork Ballotine expressed as a Kaleidoscope.  :-)

If you can call it that - normal - anyway!

I suppose it's a whole lot more normal (or should it be "usual"?) than Ballotine of Pork was.

As much as I enjoyed making the Ballotines, I have to admit that it is nice to get back to planning "ordinary" meals again.  In fact, this year, I'm going to have a go at a bit more planning in advance.  Some kind soul on Twitter posted up a link to a "Food Events" calendar, which has enabled me to have some prior warning of times like "Farmhouse Breakfast Week" or "Sausage Week".  In the past, these dates have appeared as if out of the ether and I've always been woefully behindhand with them.  Now I guarantee nothing, but I'm hoping that I'll remember to consult the calendar regularly in order that I can plan some relevant blog posts.  I think that'll make life fun for us - and make for some interesting reading.  Hopefully!

It has already alerted me to the oncoming Burns Night, which has cheered me up no end as it means I get to have Haggis again!  Yay!  Now, what recommendations has anyone as regards a good haggis?  My boss at the Hotel Piccadilly was going to get me one when they ordered theirs in from Scotland, but as I'm not working there now, that's scuppered that idea and I need to find a reliable source. 


So, what's on the menu for this week then?  Well, it looks like this :

Tues : Turkey meatballs in fennel & tomato sauce with corn pasta

Wed : Stuffed marrow with garlic mushroom couscous & mash for son & heir

Thur : Chicken filo pie with carrots, peas & broccoli

Fri : Chicken & chorizo jambalaya

Sat : Maple & black pepper pork steaks with roast parsnips, carrots & savoy cabbage

Sun : Slow Cooker Beef Stew with cheesy dumplings

Mon : Tuna Pasta Bake.

Add caption

Well we had the Turkey meatballs last night and although I found them a bit on the garlicky side, the chaps all loved them.  It was the first time (for ages) that we'd tried gluten free corn pasta (as opposed to the usual wheat pasta) and, although it took for ever to cook (way longer than suggested on the pack), it was really perfectly acceptable.

Pin It I won't witter on for ever about them here, as I will be posting separately the recipe for them.  It is very similar (sauce-wise) to the usual Fennel sauce recipe, but I made the meatballs with different ingredients and very nice they were, too.

Veggie marrow as opposed to marrow bone!

I'm really looking forward to tonight's Stuffed Marrow.

I haven't made a stuffed marrow in years, largely because I think I overdid it and served it a bit too often, in the past.  However, we were watching a Hairy Bikers' programme just recently and they were making stuffed marrow.  Hubby was making appreciative noises and it encouraged me to put a marrow on the menu for this week.  I'll be adopting the Bikers' method of using a thick cheese sauce, rather than simply sprinkling cheese on the top of the marrow, as it appears to make the whole dish more unctuous (such a lovely word!) and rich, as opposed to just having a hard casing of baked cheese over it.

I thought I'd venture out into a couscous dish to accompany the marrow, so rather than go down the normal route of mediterranean vegetables, or herbs, I thought I'd experiment with mushrooms.  Of course, this rules son & heir out of the equation for the dish, so I've invested in some pre-made mashed potato just for him - which he's already got his eye on!  He is the self-styled "mashed potato tester" in the house, which might tell you a bit about his love for the stuff.  Sadly, prior to this anti-inflammatory diet, I was exactly the same - which flags up a few warning signals as regards son & heir's health in the future!

The Chicken Filo Pie is a recipe from Hollowlegs' Blog, which I've had tucked away just waiting for the right moment.  This appears to be it - and I'm looking forward to it.  Everyone likes Filo pastry and so long as I make the pie filling with lovely thick flavoursome gravy, we should be home and hosed!

Photo c/o BBC Good Food website

Friday's Chicken & Chorizo Jambalaya is the one recipe this week that I'm feeling a bit dubious towards.  We've tried a recipe for Jambalaya in the past, which was a singular failure that was verging on the disgusting.  I'm hoping that it was one of two things, either the recipe was at fault or the spice mix that I used was a bit old (very likely!).  So, with a change of recipe (Good Food Magazine again!) and a new spice mix (just bought yesterday), I'm crossing my fingers.  We shall see!  I can't believe that so many people can like this dish so much, for our last attempt to be representative of it.  I'm hoping that's true, anyway!

Now, speaking of dishes that I'm looking forward to cooking - the Maple & Black Pepper Pork Steaks (or chops) is one of them.  The photograph in Good Food Magazine looked To.Die.For - and I just hope that the end result comes out looking just as mouthwatering.  I'll be using a combination of chop (for me) and steaks (for the chaps), but I don't think that should matter.

I just love the idea of Maple Syrup and Black Pepper together in a savoury dish.  Of course, I have to be careful of the degree of Maple Syrup that's used - from a diabetes point of view - but if you divide 150ml between three people, that's only 50ml per serving.  If I'm sparing about how much of the cooking juices I pour over hubby's portion, that will reduce it still further and I think it should be fine.

I'll be serving it with some roast parsnips (to represent the carbohydrate aspect) and carrots with savoy cabbage, which will also go well with the maple syrup flavours.  Yum!

I'm back to opting for an "easy" dish for Sunday.  It certainly doesn't get a lot easier than a lovely beef stew made with shin of beef, done in the slow cooker.  A bit of chopping and frying, then into the slow cooker and enjoy the cooking smells until dinner time.  I'll also be putting together some of those lovely cheesy dumplings that I made for a chicken casserole fairly recently, to cope with the carbohydrate issue for the chaps.

So that brings us to Monday, when we'll be making use of the store cupboard and indulging in the best that Homepride can put into a jar - their Tuna Pasta Bake.  For me, this stuff is very akin to Macdonalds coffee, in that I'm sure they put something terribly addictive in it.  I have never found - even home-made - a Tuna Pasta Bake recipe to beat it.  Considering that, at one time, I really disliked Tuna Pasta Bake - this is really going some, for me.  Plus, it's so easy - open the jar, mix with the pasta, add some water, add some tuna, add some cheese, bake - eat.  Doesn't get a lot easier than that.  So, in culinary terms, we'll be slumming it on Monday.  *grin*  As they say in America, "so bite me". 

As for "extra" cooking and baking, I've been nursing a James Martin recipe for an Orange and Ground Almond cake for the last week or more, which I'm hoping to get made this week.  It's a very different type of recipe in both ingredients and method, so it has caught my interest for those reasons alone.  If you factor in that oranges and almonds are both incredibly good in an anti-inflammatory way, it's only a wonder I haven't made it already!

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Meal planning the week away ..

Right then!  Enough of this being distracted by birthdays and Christmas - let's get back to the important job of telling you all what we're due to be eating this week.

Ahem!  Pay attention at the back!

I have to tell you, though, that I don't have a great deal of confidence in this week's meals turning out how I've planned them - especially as the first one, Tuesday, has already gone awry owing to the exhausting process that is Christmas shopping.

Anyway, here's what I hope we'll be having this week :

Mon : was to be Pear, chestnut & stilton risotto, but was pizza

Wed : Pork in cider with carrot & swede mash, broccoli & peas

Thur : Chilli beans with chorizo and ciabatta

Fri : Caribbean Curry and rice

Sat : Lamb & Apricot Stew with Green Couscous

Sun : Salmon Filo Parcels with carrots, broccoli, peas & parsley sauce

Mon : Corned beef pie, red cabbage & apple with peas.

I was really quite disappointed not to be having the pear, chestnut & stilton risotto last night.  However, because poor hubby (the Champion Risotto Maker) had been out trawling the doom-laden shops of Poole - doing his Christmas shopping - the risotto was just one step too far.  I don't blame him, as I used to find Christmas shopping exhausting in the extreme.  All that looking at stuff, I always came home feeling as though I'd bought far more than I actually had.  Then, when you look at what you've brought home, you feel vaguely disappointed.  Online shopping rules, so far as I'm concerned.  Even though I can't now walk around the shops, I don't really think I would do it now anyway.  To buy online and have stuff delivered to your door seems a very civilised way of going about it.

So, I'm looking forward to tonight's dinner of Pork in cider sauce.  I'm using a different cider, as we couldn't get any of the usual type from Asda.  I don't suppose it will be all that different, but if it is, hopefully it will be for the better.  Also, because I'm keeping off of carbohydrates, we'll be having carrot & swede mash instead of mashed potato.  Don't tell son & heir, or he might cry.  He's definitely inherited my love for the humble spud!

Thursday's Chilli beans with Chorizo is one of Antony Worrall Thompson's slow cooker recipes.  Son & heir has the day off school that day (teacher training), so it'll be nice to get the dinner organised early and then just make some ciabatta toast for the lads and dish it up.  Easy peasy!

Bless it, I'm still determinedly trying to get the Caribbean Curry to feature on the menu list.  I just hope it's worth all this commitment!  It'd be too bad if, after three weeks of trying to make it happen, it turned out to be disgusting.  Mind you, I can't see it happening.  With all those lovely curry flavours along with bay and allspice, I'm quite convinced it'll be yummy.

No, that's a stew pond, not a lamb stew!

The lamb & apricot stew is a new addition to the BBC Good Food's repertoire.  I've always liked tagine-type dishes, but hubby has been a bit lukewarm in the past.  I hope this one will be a hit, as that would open the door to others.  Needless to say, I can't remember the last time I saw "stewing lamb" in any shops and I'm sure as heck not about to buy a shoulder of lamb (have you seen the price?) so we're going to be having minced lamb.  To create the textural effect of having "lumps" of lamb, I will include some cubes of sweet potato which will also increase the anti-inflammatory factor for the dish.

OMG, that makes me hungry!

I'll be serving it with Ottolenghi's Green Couscous, which has such a great deal of herbs, garlic, onion and chilli included with it, that they are very likely to almost negate the inflammatory effect of the couscous itself.  Not only that, but it is truly gorgeous, so fingers crossed!

Now then, Sunday's Salmon Filo Parcels is my "dish of the week".  I am SO looking forward to having these again.  I first made them over a year ago - before I was writing Rhubarb & Ginger - and blogged them on my general blog.  Since then, I've been looking at the price of salmon going through the roof and wondering when I'll ever get the opportunity to make them again.

Well, as the price of fresh salmon hasn't got anywhere near affordable yet, I'm experimenting with some frozen salmon fillets.  I just so hope that they aren't waterlogged and will do the job required of them.  This is the first dish I made that hubby turned to me and said "this is as good as you'd find in a top restaurant" - which is high praise indeed.  Hence they have a lot to live up to and I so hope that they do, because they were completely gorgeous.

The first time I made them, I paired them with some salad.  Salad days are now pretty much gone and this time, I'm pairing them with some carrots, broccoli, peas and a parsley sauce.  Parsley sauce is something that makes everything taste better - much like bacon and cheese - so fingers crossed, it'll be good.

Sadly this is what Corned Beef looks like, here

Monday's Corned Beef Pie is a blast from the past and having tried to find a photograph of one very much like it, I think it may be something of a one-off.

Many, no really - many, years ago (before I owned my own horse) I went on a week's riding holiday with a girl friend.  The very first night we were there, after an afternoon of gallivanting about the countryside on horseback, we settled down to a completely gorgeous pie of unknown parentage.  Everyone was intrigued by this pie and much discussion was had, back and forth across the table, about its ingredients.  It was soft, like lamb, but tomatoey like baked beans, quite dense, fried onions, shortcrust pastry and a deliciously savoury thick sauce.  Well, it turned out to be corned beef pie.

Now, in the past, I've had one or two goes at recreating the pie - none of which have been the least bit successful.  However, with my (relatively) new found culinary experience and several very successful attempts at recreating flavours from our youth (the Nasi Goreng and Kentish Pie, for instance), I'm quite hopeful I can get it right, this time.

I thought it would be nice (plus seasonal and cheap!) to pair it up with some red cabbage and apple.  Son & heir has been very dubious about that in the past, so it will be interesting to see whether he's any happier about it now.

So there we are!

I'll also be cooking some batches of Lunchtime soup out of any leftover vegetables and thinking about making the profusion of plums that seems to be blocking the light in the fridge, into a light and healthy dessert.

Of course, planning for Christmas dinner needs to become a whole lot more focused than "maybe a whole salmon?" or "perhaps a nice piece of beef?", plus I'll be petitioning my parents to allow me to prepare a dessert to bring with me on Boxing Day, when we will be visiting.

I'm also pondering on joining in with the "White Christmas" themed recipe challenge that VeryGoodRecipes.com are currently running.  However, I may well ponder so much that I run out of time to make something - time will tell!

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Menu plan : Week 12 - Pizza through Bobotie to Celeriac

The Sunday morning ritual of scratching one's head and juggling with ingredients is over for another week and, with two dinners left to go from last week's Menu Plan, I've placed the order for my online shopping.  Now all that's left to do is cross my fingers that a) it all works out how it's supposed to; b) everyone's in a fit state to eat the dishes and c) I'll be in a fit state to make them.

Point b) became an issue last week when hubby damaged a tooth/gum and it became very difficult for him to chew anything particularly chewy.  Even a cream cheese sandwich was too much on the day after it happened, poor soul.  Having planned out the menus for the week, needing to cater for a sore mouth, or an upset tummy, can be quite tricky.  I think For the future, I'll have to make sure we keep a tin or two of "gentle on the tummy" and "easy eating" soups in the cupboard!

So, Maestro, what's on the menu list this week then?

Well, we'll kick off the week with son & heir's favourite - pizza.  This is largely because I will be in and out during the day and can't guarantee to be here for the online order to be delivered.  I've organised it to arrive after son has come home from school, as I know we'll be here and available then - and the dear chap can help put it all away.  Once we've done all that, I know I won't be in any fit state to cook - so Pizza is the order of the day.

I'm rather looking forward to Wednesday.  I'm going to be doing a Beef & Cauliflower Curry with naan bread, adapted from my curry recipe that I used for hubby's birthday.  It will be utilising my current favourite of beef shin - and using the other half of the cauliflower that I bought in for last Sunday's roast.   Hence, effectively, all I'll be buying to make this one will be the beef shin and some naan bread.  Everything else is in the larder or the fridge!

Thursday is another new recipe, being a Chicken & Chorizo Jambalaya.  We made a Jambalaya shortly after Christmas, but for all that it was tasty and quite nice, it didn't really hit the spot.  So, we're having another go - this time with a different recipe.  I've already got the chicken in the freezer, so that's another one that has worked out to be relatively cheap.

Friday brings one of my favourite meals - Bobotie.  Now I've only ever made this once before (and really enjoyed it then), but I can recall how a seemingly odd collection of ingredients managed to magically amalgamate into a really delicious whole.  Again, I already have the lamb mince in the freezer from a BOGOF offer previously.  I'll be serving this one with savoy cabbage and some carrots.

Saturday, and hubby has promised us a meal of Sausages with red cabbage & apple, together with mustard mash.  Yum!  Once again, I've already got the sausages in the freezer, from this week's trip to Sainsbury's for their sausages - which are streets ahead of Asda's miserable, hard, tasteless efforts.

Sausages always make me think of "The Perishers" and Marlon cooking sausages while Boot looks on

I shall be breaking with tradition this coming Sunday and not indulging in a roast.  I think it does us good every now and again, to kick over the traces and go for something different.  I hate to think I'm getting into a rut along the lines of "fish on Fridays".  So, on this Sunday we shall be travelling to the Orient (oh, I wish!) with Beef & Butternut Squash (using brisket, this time) together with home made fried rice.

Celeriac - looks like an alien!

So that just leaves us Monday, which shall be our meat-free day.  (Sssshhh, don't tell the boys - who are strict carnivores!).  We're having a Celeriac & Cheese Slice - which is basically celeriac mash, mixed with cheese (two types) & spring onions, wrapped in pastry and cooked.  There's only one thing that would go with this, in my opinion - baked beans.


What does that translate as, then?  Three types of bread product, two different cuts of beef, two different rice dishes, one curry dish, one chicken dish, one lamb dish, one pork dish.  Looking at the vegetable side of things, there's five dishes which involve fresh vegetables of one sort or another, plus the baked beans - which are a superfood, you know! I think there's balance in there - somewhere.


If you're looking for inspiration via other people's Menu Plans, then look no further than Mrs M's blog and her "Menu Planning Monday" feature.  I wonder if Menu Planning Sundays qualify? ...


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