The latest meal plan - making the most of what is in already!

October is a month of great import in the Jenny Eatwell household, for it harbors the birthday of son & heir.  He is in the interesting position of having been born on Halloween - 31st October.  Well, we've never been at a loss for party themes, if nothing else.

It's funny how these things work, as having been born on Halloween, we got to take the little chap home from the hospital on Guy Fawkes night.  We always thought he'd turn out to be some kind of scientist, but it appears that he's dead set (see what I did there?) on being a Bass guitarist.

As he's grown older, the expense of his birthday hasn't lessened in any way at all.  At one time, he wanted to entertain large groups of friends at the local soft play area, then we moved on to parties at home and from there to rather more select gatherings of friends who attended cinema viewings.  For instance, one year, he went with a friend to the local cinema's premiere of Quantum of Solace, which just happened to be on the very day.  He's currently on course to see Skyfall very soon after its release date.  So, for all that the parties have got more affordable, the days of being able to buy him a Nerf gun and knowing he'll be bowled over by it, are long gone.

Oh to be so young, so good looking and to have such a view!

All of which might go a little way towards explaining why hubby and I were taking inventory of what we had in the cupboards and freezer, before doing this week's meal plan!


I think it's good to have a bit of a stock take from time to time, as there are inevitably single chicken legs that get pushed to the back of the freezer and half packs of pasta that end up crammed beside the cans in the cupboards.

So, here's what we're planning on having, this week :

Tues : Bacon, cheddar & sundried tomato risotto

Wed : Smoked Brie & asparagus tart with watercress salad and mini roast potatoes

Thurs : Bacon & onion pudding, carrot & swede mash, green beans and peas

Fri : Pork & Apple Sausage Rolls with baked beans & hash browns.

Sat : Veal Marsala with carrots, broccoli, beans and mashed potatoes

Sun : Pulled pork with roast potatoes & parsnips, creamed courgette & mushrooms, peas, carrots and Yorkshire Puddings

Mon : Beef mince & stuff.

Shallots - check!

In order to make Tuesday's risotto, the only thing we needed to buy were some shallots.  We already had the bacon, cheddar and sundried tomatoes, risotto rice, stock and herbs in the kitchen.

Wednesday's Smoked Brie & Asparagus tart is born of a trip to The Dorset Smokery last Saturday - fantastic little gem of a place, do go if you're in the area (Hurn, in Dorset).  We picked up a piece of their lovely smoked Brie and it was just asking to be used in a more interesting way than simply on crackers.  I also had the Filo pastry in the fridge, left over from last week's Goats cheese, leek & hazelnut tart.  I've still got an avocado for the salad and of course, the potatoes are always in the cupboard.

The Bacon & Onion Pudding I sampled at Harvey's Restaurant, Poole

Thursday's Bacon & onion pudding is one which perhaps we shouldn't shout about too loudly, as it is about as good for us as a large Devon Cream tea.  However, it is something that we've been wanting to make for a very long time - and hubby has finally caved and volunteered to the task.  We'll have to buy in the bacon and vegetables to go with it, but everything else is in the cupboards.

This is going to be an exciting one, as neither of us has made a steamed suet-style pudding in the past.  We're planning on using the slow cooker to steam it - which is how my Mum cooks her Christmas Puddings, so should work perfectly.

Oh dear, I've just reminded myself that I've volunteered to cook the family's Christmas Puddings this year.  I must have been mad.

Anyway - that brings us on to Friday's Pork & Apple Sausage Rolls, which will consist of the leftovers from the Pulled Pork that I made for last Sunday's dinner, with some additional sausagemeat and apple from our fruit stocks in the fridge.  We've always got baked beans in the cupboard and might have to buy in some Hash Browns, depending on how many are left in the freezer and whether I decide I want one, or not!

Saturday's Veal Marsala, is just a simple matter of providing the vegetables to go with it - which will be a combination of newly bought in and leftovers from the week.  We have got the veal in the freezer already and we finally managed to lay our hands on a bottle of Marsala the other week.  Everything else I might require for the veal, I've already got.

Just like this - but with different veggies!

Sunday's Pulled Pork roast dinner is using up the other half of the 2kg Pork Shoulder joint that we bought at a marked down price a couple of weeks ago.  Once the meat had cooled, I separated it into three roast dinner portions in one bag and the remainder went into another bag that I'm using for the sausage rolls, above.  Again, we'll just need to provide the vegetables to go with this - I've even frozen a portion of the stock that I used for the gravy.

Not a million miles from this - but with more colour!

Monday's Mince & Stuff (its official title) is a family favourite.  Basically, it is a pack of beef mince that gets browned to the point of caramelisation, together with cooked rice and any old thing that you might happen across in the way of additional ingredients.  So any bits of leftover vegetables will get used up here (particularly the mushrooms and courgettes) and the only thing we've bought in for it will be a yellow capsicum pepper.  Onion is a definite ingredient, as is garlic, along with some denomination of spicing (cumin and coriander, or paprika maybe - we've three types of paprika to choose from).  Mince & stuff is one of the pilaff-type dishes that is very forgiving and accepts just about anything and everything you want to throw at it.

With a little dollop of my spiced rhubarb chutney alongside, it just can't go wrong.

Well, I'm looking forward to this week - I dunno about anyone else!  Just don't remind me about those Christmas Puddings ....

One for Halloween & Bonfire Night - Cream of Tomato Soup with Bacon & Cheese Muffins

Now this is just perfect food for watching fireworks, or for cold and hungry Trick or Treaters (assuming they aren't stuffed to the gills with sugar, that is!).

I didn't set out to make a Halloween or Bonfire Night
meal, I just liked the recipe for the Creamy Tomato Soup and had a sudden brainwave that my Bacon & Cheese Muffins would go really well with it.  I wasn't wrong either.

I found the recipe for the soup in the BBC Good Food Magazine and liked the sound of it immediately.  I can't seem to find the same recipe online - so you've got it reproduced below, albeit with the numbers scaled down a bit, just in case you want to try it too.

The recipe really couldn't be easier - it all happens in the one pot, with a little bit of blender action from a hand blender.  The soup also keeps happily in the fridge, as I was eating leftovers for the next couple of days, it made that much!

I was particularly attracted to the concept of there being celery, carrots and potatoes in the soup along with the tomato.  Any excuse to get a bit of vegetable matter into my menfolk and I'm there.

Son & heir really liked the soup - and enjoyed dunking his muffins in.  Hubby wasn't so keen, in that all he could taste was tinned tomatoes (which was odd, as there was rather more than just tinned tomatoes in there!) and found it too acidic for his palate.  I really, really liked it - and would make it again for just such an occasion as Halloween.

The soup comes up - after blitzing - as very nicely thickened and wholesome, but without degenerating into babyfood.  I liked the tomato flavour and didn't find it acidic at all.

I suppose all you can do is try it - and let me know if you think it comes up acidic, as we just can't agree, here!

If you are interested in the recipe for the muffins - scroll on down!

CREAMY TOMATO SOUP   (serves 5-6)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, chopped finely
2 celery sticks, chopped finely
150g carrots, peeled and chopped finely
250g potatoes, diced finely
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp tomato puree (Tarantella is my favourite)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
400g tin chopped tomatoes (Tarantella, again)
250g passata (and again, Tarantella is my favourite)
1-2 vegetable stock cubes (I used Essential Cuisine's vegetable stock powder)
500ml boiling water
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
100ml full fat milk
100ml single cream.

Method :

1.  In a deep, large saucepan, heat the oil and add the onion.  Cook gently until it has begun to turn golden brown, then add the celery, carrots, potatoes and bay leaves.

2.  Fry gently, stirring from time to time to prevent the potatoes sticking to the bottom of the pan, until the vegetables have softened slightly.

3.  Stir in the tomato puree, sugar, vinegar, chopped tomatoes and passata, then add the stock cubes or powder.  Add the boiling water and stir well.

4.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until the carrot and potato are tender.

5.  Remove the bay leaves, then blitz with a hand blender until smooth.

6.  Season to taste (the amount of salt will depend entirely upon the salt contained in the stock cubes), you can afford to be generous with the black pepper.  You may need to add a pinch or two of sugar, depending on which brand of tomatoes you used.

(If freezing, this is the stage at which you would cool the soup for the freezer).

7.  Stir in the milk and cream, check for seasoning and don't let the soup boil from here on in.  Bring up to a simmer and serve.

Printable version

Now, the perfect accompaniment to the above soup, are my Bacon & Cheese Muffins.  The best part about these two combined, is that you don't need to see what you are doing, in order to eat them.  Hence, being out in the dark with a mug of soup and a muffin in your hand, is no problem.  You can keep your eyes on the fireworks without worrying about nibbling around a bone, or whether you've got the best bits on your spoon.  Just dip and slurp - what could be easier?

These Bacon & Cheese Muffins have to be the single most requested recipe in my entire repertoire.  I think of anyone was asking me for my signature recipe, it'd have to be these chaps.

I have made them so often in the past, that the recipe can be utterly trusted to deliver a gorgeously light and fluffy muffin, redolent of cheddar cheese and smoky bacon.  Whether you're eating these for breakfast, lunch or with soup for dinner - they hit the spot.

I have big problems keeping these muffins in the house long enough to take photographs of them, to be honest!  No sooner are they out of the oven than there's a queue of hungry menfolk licking their lips and clutching their woefully empty plates, with hopeful looks on their faces.  It's not just the menfolk either!  While the muffins are cooling, I have to barricade them behind tea caddies, fruit squash bottles and cereal boxes, plus make it very difficult for the Secret Paw (also known an Jonty, the Saluki dog) to get his paws up onto the worktop - or they'd be gone.  All he can do is patrol the area with his nose in the air!

The kitchen suddenly becomes a very busy place, when these muffins are out of the oven!

By the way, it might be worth your while to not let on how easy these are to make - or you'll be being petitioned for more baking before you know it, too!

You'll find the recipe for the Bacon & Cheese Muffins here.




 

One for Halloween - Witches' Broomsticks!

Well I couldn't let Halloween go by without at least a cursory nod towards it, now could I?

These clever little biscuits are loved by children of all ages, not least because they contain peanut butter.  They are a little bit fiddly to create, but if you've got a garlic press, making the brush part becomes a whole lot easier.  Oh, and I'd definitely use a hand whisk!

With thanks to DesertWind in the USA, who introduced me to the recipe.

WITCHES' BROOMSTICKS (biscuits)  makes approx 16

Ingredients :

1 cup self-raising flour
a quarter tsp baking powder
1 cup smooth peanut butter
a quarter cup butter or baking margarine
a half cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
16 pretzel rods

Method :

1.  Preheat oven to 190 deg C (fan).

2.  Combine flour and baking powder in a medium bowl.

3.  In a separate bowl, beat peanut butter, butter and brown sugar until creamy.  Add the egg and egg yolk.

4.  Gradually add flour mixture, beating until blended.

5.  Separate small balls of dough and pass each ball through a garlic press, to make the bristles of the broom.

6.  Gather enough "bristles" together, carefully so as to not disturb the "bristle" effect, and press together one end around a pretzel stick.

7.  Make each broom directly on the baking sheet, then bake for 12 minutes or until brown.  Do not disturb them until cool, then very gently tease them from the baking sheet.

You can either ice them, or leave them natural.

Be prepared for them to disappear very quickly.