Spicy chicken & bacon pasties .. or tarts, in this case.

Why "tarts", you may ask?

Well, it's because the art of pleating a pasty completely deserted me.  Four times over.

Exhibit A

Normally, I'm pretty good at pleating a pasty - although I usually do sideways pleats, as opposed to "straight across the top" pleats.  I think, next time I make these pasties - and there will be a next time - I'll stick to what I know and go for sideways pleating.  Oh, and I might very well remember to cut my fingernails next time too.  How anyone with long fingernails ever gets pastry to stay together without their fingernails cutting half moon shapes into the pastry, is beyond me.  I certainly can't!

As a consequence, my pasties burst asunder in the oven and turned themselves into boat-shaped tarts.  See Exhibit A, alongside.  Fortunately, it didn't matter overly much (perhaps a little dry in places) as the contents began life fairly moist and the risen edges of the pasties obviously protected the contents from over cooking.

The original recipe (which you can see here) called for a ready cooked chicken breast, but I didn't have one of those.  I did, however, have a raw chicken breast so I pan-fried it and left it to cool before doing anything else.  Personally, I think that this approach saved the chicken component from being over dry, as I stopped cooking the chicken just slightly before I would ordinarily have done.  This left the meat still slightly pink, which was obviously cooked out by the baking that the pastry received.  Ingenious, eh?

Well they didn't look too bad ...

In addition, I also tinkered about with the original recipe in that instead of using three spring onions, I used half a sliced leek and one small shallot.  I suspect that doing this gave a lot more moistness to the mixture (from the leek) and boosted the gentle onion flavour (care of the shallot).  Sometimes I find spring onions to be a bit harsh.

I also put way more bacon in than the recipe said.  After all, two rashers of streaky bacon rather depends on how big your rashers are, doesn't it.  Mine were teensy wee little things (supermarket bacon, in this instance), so I wound up using half a pack.

As a consequence, I suspect I had rather more "middle" to my pasties than was originally intended.  However, I reckon that the next time I make them, I can easily make five out of the same ingredients, so that's the way to go.

I served ours, as you can see, with a salad.  I'm not entirely convinced that a salad was the right thing for them, as they seemed to need something more robust.  I might try them, next time, with baked beans and something like Nigella's Rapid Roastini's or maybe hash browns or sweet potato wedges.  They do need something juicy (which the baked beans would provide), but because of the complex nature of their contents, need something fairly bland beside that.

So that's a work in progress - and if you try this recipe, perhaps you could report back on what you served them with and how well you feel they went together.  I'd be interested to know, as this is definitely one of those recipes that doesn't suit what immediately comes to mind!

As for the flavours, well they're very acceptable indeed.  Hubby wasn't too keen on his to begin with, but the flavour develops as you eat your way through the pasty and, by the end, he was ready to demolish the leftover one.  Now, if I tell you that he didn't get to eat it all on his own, but son & heir had the other half, that will indicate just how nice these are.  I suspect they'd be perfect picnic food and will behave in exactly the same way that a Cornish Pasty does - except with more chilli!

SPICY CHICKEN & BACON PASTIES  (serves 4, with one each)

Ingredients :

1 skinless & boneless chicken breast

1 tbsp olive oil

125g streaky bacon, chopped

1 large potato (about 250g total weight), peeled and sliced on the mandolin

1 small red chilli, deseeded if necessary and finely chopped

a small, or half a, leek - sliced

a small shallot, sliced

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

375g pack ready-rolled puff pastry

2 tbsp milk or 1 beaten egg.

Method :

1.  Heat oven to 200deg C (fan).

2.  Place the chicken breast in between two pieces of cling film and bash it with something heavy (a rolling pin, for ease!) until it is thin and flat.

3.  Take a large frying pan, add the olive oil and fry the chicken breast, seasoning each side as you go.  Remove from the pan when there is still a little pinkness left in the middle of the meat.  Set aside to cool.

4.  Fry the bacon over a medium heat until it starts to release its fat.

3.  Add the potato, turn up the heat and fry, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crisp and the potato just underdone.

4.  Add the chilli, leeks and shallot and cook and stir until the leeks are softened and the shallot transparent.

5.  Season with pepper and add a pinch of salt, then set aside to cool.

6.  Take the chicken and shred it into long thin strips.  Once the bacon mixture is cool, add to the chicken and stir to combine.

7.  Roll out the pastry until you can cut 5 tea plate size rounds from it.

8.  Lift circles onto a baking tray.

9.  Spoon the filling into the middle of each circle.  Brush the edges of the pastry with the milk or egg, then bring the sides up to the middle (or one side to the other, if you prefer your pasties laid on their sides), pinching the pastry together to make a pasty.

10.  Brush with a little more milk or egg and bake for 15 minutes until golden.

Serve.

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Sweet and Sour Pork

I made this recipe for our Tuesday evening meal because son & heir hath decreed that he "doesn't really like that sort of vegetable thing".   He also doesn't really like anything with vinegar in it - he's definitely not keen on sour flavours (unless they're involving something made by Haribo, of course).

So he had a pizza (which made him happy) and I made the sweet and sour pork for hubby and I - and it was gorgeous.

I found the recipe on the terrific Adora's Box blog, which has been the source of two or three really successful recipes, now.  I love it when you find a blog which contains recipes that you know are going to be tried and tested and, from the write-up, you know are likely to taste this way, or that way.  Makes meal planning so much easier!

Our local butcher supplies six pork steaks for £2.99, which is amazingly good value, especially considering that they are cut from a loin and not from the shoulder.  I used four of these steaks for the two of us as they are cut quite thinly.  Even so, I should really have beaten them out a wee bit thinner as I'm sure they'd have been more tender if I had have done so.  Being loin steaks, they are easy to remove the fat from as well.  Often, I'll include the fat in the pan as I cook the steaks as the fat lends so much flavour, removing it at serving to keep for the dogs.  However, this time I didn't use it as I didn't want to lose the pieces of fat in the general melange of vegetables.  That wouldn't have gone down terribly well at all, if hubby had've found a big old globby piece of fat in his dinner!

The flavour is very definitely sweet and sour.  However, it is a gentler, more rounded flavour combination than one very often finds in these sorts of dishes.  I suspect it is a combination of the velveting of the pork to begin with (coating in soy, sesame oil and cornflour) and the small amount - 1 tablespoon - of white wine or cider vinegar used.  It is enough to create the sour flavour, but not enough to catch at the back of your throat.

Of course, the peppers are lovely in this and I included four or five chestnut mushrooms too - which were a complete joy.  I'm quite sure you could up the vegetable quantity by including carrot, baby corn, baby courgettes, water chestnuts and pak choi, if you wanted.  Certainly the quantity of meat versus the quantity of vegetable matter was weighing heavily in the meat's direction.  Not saying this is a bad thing, just putting the idea out there.

I served ours with plain white rice which was perfectly acceptable, but I'm sure that if you didn't want to include the pak choi in the main dish, some steamed pak choi would be very welcome by the side.

The next time I make this - and there will be a next time (see below!), as I love sweet and sour pork - I shall include son & heir in on the deal.  I can't see that there was anything about the dish that he could have disliked, other than the fact that it included some sort of vegetable matter.  But then, he'll be hard pressed if he thinks he's going to get away with eating no vegetable for the rest of his life!  As they say on LOLCats "aisodon'tthinkso".

18 April 2013 : I made the sweet and sour pork again last night - and this time fed it to son & heir too.  He wasn't overly impressed (and asked, in the preparation, whether "it would contain those stir fry vegetables and stuff") but he did eat it.  Well, everything except the small pieces of broccoli and he wasn't alone in that as his Dad picked those out and left them too.  According to hubby, "broccoli has no place in a sweet and sour".  Well I enjoyed my bits of broccoli, as I really like the way the fluffy head gathers up the sauce!  Tasted yummy in my opinion.  But there we are, we're all different.  Hubby did declare the remainder to be "really good", so I'm not arguing.

I didn't have any mushrooms this time, but I did have a tin of water chestnuts, which were really really good in it.  The butcher had gone mad and gave us a full kilogram of pork steaks, so I had enough left for lunch today.  With the addition of a little Mic's Chilli El Loco BBQ sauce and a few of the leftover water chestnuts, it was a perfectly delicious lunch treat.

SWEET & SOUR PORK  (serves 2)

Ingredients :

400 gm. pork, thinly sliced
3 tbsps. light soy sauce
1 tbsps. brown sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsps. corn flour
1 medium onion
2 stalks of spring onions
1/4 cup each of sweet green and red pepper, cut into squares
1/2 cup tinned pineapple tidbits or chunks
1/4 cup syrup from the tinned pineapple
1 tbsp. white wine or cider vinegar
2 tbsps. tomato ketchup
3 tbsps. honey
3 tbsps. cooking oil

Method :

1.  In a bowl, mix the pork with the light soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and the corn flour.  Mix very well then set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2.  Heat up a wok until very hot. Add 2 tbsps. of the cooking oil and swirl around to coat the wok.

3.  Add the pork and stir fry on a high heat for about 5 minutes or until the liquid that comes out of the pork is re-absorbed.

4.  If necessary, add the last tbsp. of oil (I didn't need to) and stir fry until the pork is glossy and dry. Add the vinegar, ketchup, pineapple syrup, honey, onions and peppers.

5.  Keep stirring until the mixture comes to a boil. Keep the heat high. When the peppers and onions are half done (about 3 minutes), add 1/2 cup of water around the pork to deglaze the pan (again, I didn't need to do this as my pan is a new non-stick and there was nothing to deglaze).

6.  Add the spring onions and the pineapple pieces. Simmer for 2 minutes then turn the heat off.

Serve.

Printable version

Two days into the new week : meal planning w/b 11.10.11

Yes, I know, I should have done this blog post by now.  Oh, but you do nag!  *chuckle*

Don't ask me what I've been doing in the meantime, but I seem to have been sat at the computer without anything useful coming of it, except I have collected quite a few new recipes and ideas for menu planning in future.  I consider this to be a good thing.

This week's meal plan is quite a good'un, I reckon.  It seems to be dominated by bacon in several instances, but three out of seven isn't all bad.

So let's have a look at what I'm planning :

Tues : Pizza for son & heir, Sweet & Sour Pork with rice for us

Wed : Spicy Chicken & Bacon pasties with salad

Thurs : Meatballs and pasta

Fri : Chicken Piccata with mashed potatoes, carrots & broccoli

Sat : Pasta Alla Amatriciana

Sun : Lamb & boulangere potatoes with carrots & garden veg

Mon : Full English Breakfast.

That all sounds really nice, I reckon.  I'm looking forward to all of it!

It's now Thursday as I'm writing this, so we've already had the Sweet & Sour Pork and my goodness what a triumph it was!  Accolades have to be given to the Adora's Box blog which is where the recipe came from.  The next time I make it (and there will be a next time) I shall make sure to include son & heir in, as I'm sure he'd enjoy it.  The flavours are gentle and rounded, not at all rough or acidic as they so often are with sweet and sour recipes.  He particularly hates vinegar-like flavours, and although this recipe contains a tablespoonful of vinegar, you'd be hard pressed to know.

Anyway, it deserves a blog post of its own, so watch out for it!

Last night was the Spicy Chicken & Bacon Pasties and apart from a complete lack of being able to pleat a pasty - my skill at doing so totally deserted me - they were really successful.  This one came from a BBC Good Food "40 Chicken recipes" booklet and you can find the recipe on the BBC Good Food website.

I will be blogging about these separately, too - and will include my recipe for them, as I tinkered about with it quite a lot!

Tonight was to have been Meatballs & Pasta, produced by hubby, but we had one of those "forgetting to take it out of the freezer" moments and so the meatballs are off.  We'll have to stop at Sainsbury's and pick up a bag of salad and some fish in breadcrumbs, I reckon.

Apparently, this is what it will look like!

Tomorrow's recipe, Chicken Piccata, is one from Foodista.  However, the author is anonymous, so I can't give him or her the credit they deserve.  Anyway, it's an interesting recipe where you pan fry the flattened out chicken breasts that have been dunked in seasoned flour with lemon zest.  Then you make a sauce which involves wine, lemon juice and capers.  I'm hugely interested to know how this will turn out, so watch the blog and I'll tell you!

Saturday's Pasta Alla Amatriciana is a bit of an experiment.  I used to have an Amatriciana recipe that son & heir and I really liked, but that didn't agree with hubby and gave him terrible indigestion.  I eventually had to bin that recipe, having tried all ways to make it okay for him to eat, without success.

This one, however, is prepared completely differently and with different ingredients (in some instances) and with no chilli.  Again, I'm intrigued by it.  It comes from Chow.com and is attributed to a Chef called Robert Sietsema.  For all that I can't replicate a lot of his ingredients as they are die-hard Italian, I'll do my best to get good ingredients locally for this and we'll see how I fare!

Sunday sees a repetition of the Lamb & boulangere potatoes that got bounced from last week.  I'm determined to do this recipe as it keeps on making my mouth water!  I'm hoping that some more of the garden vegetables will be ready to use by then.  In fact, looking down the garden from the window here, I can see a Romanescu Cauliflower peeking out the top of some leaves - so we should be okay there!

Now I do think that perhaps we should skip lightly over Monday and not talk about it too much.  *blush*  Why am I so embarrassed?  Well, it's a full English Breakfast for dinner - and I'm supposed to be losing weight!  However, it's a request from son & heir who doesn't often request particular meals - and we'd all been feeling the lack of black pudding in our diets, for ages.  A large part of the meat (bacon & sausage) will be grilled and if I don't have any fried bread and opt for a poached egg instead of fried, I reckon I should be able to get by without doing too much damage!  Ah well, it only happens once in a blue moon.

I also have a conundrum to conjur with, this week.  I have been given a huge bag of apples, which are demanding to be done something creative with.  Having had a long and intense ponder, I'm currently thinking along the lines of an apple cake.  Not so much sponge, as a more robust mix such as the Marmalade cake used.  Also, not sliced apples laid on the top, more chunks of apple throughout the cake - much as you would find cherries in a cherry cake.  Maybe some caramel aspect in there too.  I dunno - I'm still working it out.  However, rest assured that you'll hear about it quick sharp if it works out well - and with rather less speed if it's a complete disaster.

So - lots to look forward to!

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Jack's Mum's Library Book Marmalade Cake

Yep, that's the recipe for today, folks!  (Said she, sounding like the Jimmy Young radio show - which takes me back.  You young folks won't recognise the reference there, so skip straight over it and don't worry a bit).

First, though, let's talk you through the end of last week.

I left you at the Keema Mutter in all its gorgeousness.

We did indeed have the shop-bought pie complete with garden veg., and very nice it was too.

Next came the Bacon & Leek Pasta, which I can't seem to find featured on the blog here.  I feel sure I must have, because it's one of those recipes you fall back upon when nothing else is coming to mind, yet you need a quick and easy dinner.  Do tell if you know it's here somewhere!  (All of which tells me, it's about time I did an index of recipes!).

Saturday's special feature was the Nasi Goreng of much deliciousness.  For some reason, I couldn't fancy the chicken in it - and donated all of mine to hubby (who wasn't arguing!).  I couldn't get enough of the prawns, mind you, so maybe I was just having a seafood day.

As before, the flavour instantly woke up memories of eating it in more authentic situations in the past, so I know I'd got it about as right as my memory will allow.

There was even a bowlful of it left for lunch the next day, which I ate with a dollop of mango chutney beside.  I swear, the flavours were even better the following day - which makes me wonder if perhaps I shouldn't make it a day in advance in future!

Now Sunday's dinner all fell apart, after we got fed up being indoors and went out for a drive around the Blackmore Vale.  It truly is beautiful out there.  We found Hambledon Hill - the site of a Neolithic (Iron Age) Hill Fort - which is pretty darned awesome when viewed from the road and considerably below the rise of the hill.

We stopped off at a Supermarket on the way home and bought some salad and a couple of bags of Scampi in breadcrumbs.  As an easy dinner you can't really beat it.  Just add lemon wedges and you're away.  A scrummy end to a lovely day.

Now then, I must explain about Jack's Mum's Library Book Marmalade Cake.

On Thursday, we had a visit from my lovely friend Jenny Chubb.  Jenny and I go back to the "old days" of working at Hampton Court Palace, before it was taken over by Historic Royal Palaces and before they became a charity.  In the "old days", the Palace was run by a handful of managers, rather than the huge organisation that runs it (and the other unoccupied Royal Palaces) today.

However, in those days, Jenny and I worked in the same office - which got a tad confusing, being both named Jenny.  Because Jenny was there before I got there, she became Jenny 1 and I became Jenny 2 - which worked.  We would enjoy some deep discussions on theology, belief and psychology, interspersed with lots of silliness and quite a bit of giggling.  So much so, we were quite often chastised by the Palace Director, who worked two offices down the hall, for making too much noise.  Good times!

All this was around 20-odd years ago.  I worked at the Palace for 9 years, eventually leaving there before Jenny did.  We have seen each other briefly over the ensuing years but have mostly kept in touch via birthday cards and latterly email and Facebook.  So, when I heard she would be popping in, I just had to make her a cake.  After all, you can't write a food blog and another blog column in your local newspaper and claim "I haven't anything in the cupboard!".


Now, by coincidence, I'd just been having a discussion via Twitter with @JackKnightCooks about his family cook books that have been handed down to him.  In one of these tomes was the recipe for his Mum's Marmalade Cake which she, in turn, had found the recipe for in the back of a library book.  Successive members of his family have since made the cake and it forms part of his childhood.  He writes about it on his blog The Knight of the Round Table and you'd undoubtedly find it interesting to read, so why not look him up?

I sat down to make the cake and, having got half-way through discovered that the jar of marmalade that I remembered being in the cupboard wasn't there any more!  However, there was a jar of Rose's Lemon & Lime marmalade which got subbed pretty darned quick.  To boost the lemony flavour, I also included the zest from a lemon - as I felt the orange zest wouldn't do a great deal without any orange marmalade to boost it.  I then crossed my fingers firmly and put it in the oven.


The cake that came out was completely gorgeous.  Buttery, fruity and with a close crumb yet it was light and airy with it.  The top baked to a lovely brown finish and the sugar that I'd sprinkled over helped with a welcome crunch.  Perfect with a cup of tea, it also served to make Jenny feel a little bit special - which was nice!


I've detailed the recipe below, not because I want to claim it as mine, but because it differs somewhat from Jack's recipe and it's always worth keeping a recipe that works!

JACK’S MUM’S LIBRARY BOOK MARMALADE CAKE

Ingredients :

225g plain flour
pinch of salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
110g butter
50g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange

finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs beaten
3 tablespoons lemon & lime marmalade

3 tablespoons milk.

Method :

1.  Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180c, 160c fan. Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin, or use a loaf tin liner.

2.  Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl.  Rub in the butter or use a food processor to do it for you, as I did.

3.  Add the sugar and rind and stir to combine.

4.  Mix in the beaten eggs, marmalade and milk, to a soft batter.

5.  Pour into the tin, and bake for 1 hour and fifteen minutes to 1 hour and thirty minutes on the centre shelf. 

6.  Leave in the tin for fifteen minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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A little bit of a lamby week, this week! Meal plan w/b 4.10.11

As ever, before I get onto this week (which has turned out to be a little bit lamby), let me just tell you about last Sunday's dinner.  Well, it was very exciting, you see!

I had bought a piece of roasting bacon (as opposed to a rasher of bacon, which wouldn't roast at all well) which I put into the slow cooker with some lovely stock vegetables and a covering of water.  Some 4-5 hours later, it was beautifully tender, sweet and juicy.  Now you may remember that I was hedging my bets where the accompanying vegetables were concerned, owing to the weather.  Ultimately, we went with a seasonal compromise.  We had some new potatoes in the cupboard and so had these steamed with ... drum roll ... green beans and brussels sprouts ... from the garden!  Ta daaaa!  (Oh, and some carrots and swede from the supermarket).  Match that lot up with a lovely parsley sauce made with fresh parsley and you've got a very successful Sunday dinner.

I was so excited to be eating our first brussels sprouts!  They were gorgeous, because they're so new - just babies really - they hadn't grown into those big old hoary sprouts that you sometimes find in the supermarket.  They were crisp from being just picked, mild and crunchy.  Now that sort of excitement is why so many people grow their own veg., I'm sure of it.

We're hoping that the Romanescu cauliflowers come to something too - but they're looking a bit random at the moment.  Not sure what they're supposed to look like at this stage - does anybody know?

I won't worry if all we get are these little fellows - I'm sure they still taste nice, even if they're not quite what they're supposed to be!


So, that excitement over, let's turn our attention to what you might find appearing in Rhubarb & Ginger this week.

Tues : Pizza all round

Weds : Keema Mutter, Vegetable Curry & white rice

Thurs : Shop-bought steak & kidney pie with home grown veg.

Fri : Bacon & Leek Pasta

Sat : Nasi Goreng

Sun : Lamb & boulangere potatoes, home grown veg.

Mon : Tortellini in sauce, with garlic bread.

Hubby and I didn't get to have anything special on Tuesday, because I had an appointment right at the time I should have been cooking.  Hence we opted for the easy avenue and hubby took care of dinner, which was pizza-shaped.  Mind you, I was pleased to find a "sensibly sized" (i.e. smaller than an entire dinner plate) pizza in the supermarket.  I find these gigantic pizzas that overflow your plate just too much food.  Hubby always took care of the leftovers for breakfast the following day, but that's not recommended practice on a regular basis.

Now, Wednesday's dinner I was really looking forward to making.  I'd found a recipe for Keema Mutter (which translates as lamb mince with peas) which looked not only easy to make, but really tasty.  I intended to serve it just with white rice, but then had a bright idea.  Looking at the recipe, I thought that it sounded like it could be a bit lively in the chilli department - in which case, we'd probably (well, those of us who don't go by the nickname of ChilliBob, that is) be requiring something to balance that with.  So I decided to make a plain old vegetable curry, which I hoped would do that job, along with the white rice.

I won't witter on about it now, as I've promised it its own blog posting - it was that good.  If you like curries, make sure to come back and take a look!

Hubby's in charge of dinner on Thursday evening, when we're indulging in a shop-bought Steak & Kidney pie, for ease.  Fingers crossed, we'll be able to have some more of those home-grown veggies with the pie!

We had an unexpected visitor today (Thursday), in that my lovely friend and ex-colleague Jenny (yes, another Jenny!) was in the area and popped in for a cuppa and to say hello.  Well, I couldn't let her go away without a bite of something - so made Jack Knight's Mum's Library Book Marmalade Cake.

Again, this was such an unbridled success that I shall be blogging the results.  However, if you're curious about the recipe, why not go along to Jack's Blog and see!

We've an extra mouth to feed on Friday, as one of son & heir's friends from school will be in for dinner that day.  They are working on a homework project to build a mini moonbuggy (in my day, it was a papier mache volcano - how times have changed!) so will be consulting with hubby over the electronics for same.

It's just as well, therefore, that I was already planning a simple dish like Bacon & Leek Pasta.  The friend is notoriously difficult to feed (his Mum sent a message that "he only likes sausages"), but I'm hoping that the extreme yumminess of this pasta dish will win him over.  It's bacon - what could go wrong?  Everyone likes bacon!

I've had a sudden fancy for Nasi Goreng.  It's funny how it happens like that.  The last sudden fancy I had, was for "something in a cheese sauce" - and so the Cauliflower Cheese happened.

I've loved Nasi Goreng for as long as I've known about it, I think.  I suspect that my earliest memories of it are when my parents would buy it in huge tins from the NAAFI shop in Germany (when my Dad was stationed there with the Army).  We'd have it for tea - I suspect it was just a simple heating up job, probably in a frying pan, and I absolutely loved it.  I wonder if you can get it nowadays?  Considering that was around forty-mumble years ago, I doubt it!

Sunday's Lamb & boulangere potatoes is another new dish.  I love lamb, but it's just that bit too pricey to buy anything other than mince at the moment.  However, lamb mince is better than no lamb at all, so it's just a matter of working out different ways of cooking it.

I made a very successful dish of Boulangere potatoes in the recent past and considering that the potatoes that go on the top of a hot pot are along those lines, I figured that if I made some lovely savoury lamb mince and topped it with boulangere-style potatoes, it might work.  I'll let you know - but I can tell you that just the idea of it is making my tummy rumble, right now!

So that brings us to Monday, when hubby is back in charge in the kitchen and has decided to be brave and definitely try the ole filled pasta.  He's not had a very good time with filled pasta in the past, but on my recommendation (I sometimes have some for lunch) on the basis that as time has gone by the quality has improved, said he would give it a go.

This was on a menu plan previously, but he swerved it by enticing me with a Chinese Takeaway - always a good avoidance technique - so we'll see whether we make it this time!  I'm quite looking forward to it, even if it is shop bought.  Hey - it'll give me a night off - and after three nights of cooking, that will be very welcome.

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Tenderstem Broccoli, sundried tomato & goat's cheese tart

This lovely crisp savoury tart came into life as a suitable accompaniment for the Zesty Beetroot Salad (see previous blog post).

However, because I'm aware of not wanting one item to steal the show, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to put into my tart shell.

Oh now, the tart shell!  Yes, now that's another story too.  You see, because of some Meal Planning malfunctions a few weeks ago, I had a pack of Filo pastry taking up space in our freezer that really didn't need to take up space therein.  It's only a teensy freezer, you see, and well - we've just bought a new ice cream machine.  Need I say more!

I have made Greek style pies that use filo pastry in the past - and most successfully.  So I decided to go down a similar route except not to enclose the contents this time.

I used olive oil instead of melted butter to grease each sheet (with a view to the health aspect) and laid them into the bottom of a spring form tin, in a vaguely star-like shape.  Let me tell you, it was a complete labour of Sisyphus to try and keep the points of the star to stand upright against the wall of the tin, but I sort of got there in the end.  Suffice to say that none of the filling escaped, which was the main thing.

So, getting back to the filling.

I knew I wanted it to go with the Zesty Beetroot Salad, so I knew I wanted flavours that would offset those in the salad.  So we were looking at mild, fresh, creamy, savoury flavours, to accentuate and blend with the powerful, earthy, zesty and sweet flavours of the salad.

Mild and fresh were both catered for with the tenderstem broccoli, and the goat's cheese - which also catered for the creamy and savoury.  Savoury also applied to the sun dried tomato, which added a slight piquancy to a tart which otherwise might have been a bit short on dimensions.

As it turned out, the tart was just gorgeous.  Paired with the beetroot salad, it was transformed into something sublime.  Rarely have I managed to pull off such a virtuoso performance in balanced flavours.  In fact, son & heir (who enjoyed the tart, but couldn't pluck up the courage to try the beetroot) requested that we stop "mmnnn-ing", for fear that we were beginning to resemble contented cows.

Well, if a contented cow enjoys flavours such as those demonstrated in this combination, just by eating grass, I might be convinced to look at the lawn mowings a bit differently.  Somehow, sadly, I don't think it works that way.


TENDERSTEM BROCCOLI, GOAT'S CHEESE & SUNDRIED TOMATO TART  (feeds 5-6)


Ingredients :


150g tenderstem broccoli (or asparagus, when in season), cut into 3 pieces
a pack of filo pastry
olive oil for brushing on
5-6 pieces of sundried tomato, chopped small
3 eggs, beaten
150ml double cream
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
100g creamy goat's cheese
20g cheddar, for grating.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat your oven to 350deg F/180deg C (fan)/gas mark 4.

2.  In a large saucepan, boil some salted water and cook the broccoli for 3-4 minutes depending on stem size.  If the stems are very large, then allow a little longer to cook. Drain and refresh in cold water, to stop the cooking process.  Leave to drain.


3.  Line an 8" spring form tin with each sheet of filo pastry, brushing oil inbetween each layer and using the oil to help stick the corners of the pastry to the tin, until you have a random star shape.


4.  In a bowl, mix the eggs with the cream and season well.  The tart can take a good deal of pepper, but be careful with the salt - remember that the goat's cheese is salty.


5.  Into the pastry case, sprinkle the pieces of sundried tomato, then the broccoli and arrange pleasantly, so that nothing is sticking up and likely to catch and burn in the oven.  Pour over the egg mixture and roll the tin to ensure the egg reaches every nook and cranny.


6.  Crumble the goat's cheese over the top and press down lightly to ensure it melts into the tart's contents.


7.  Sprinkle with a light coating of cheddar, then place into the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and there is no evidence of any wet egg in the centre.


8.  Allow to cool slightly, then remove the outside of the spring form and slide the tart onto your serving plate.


9.  Serve.


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Zesty Beetroot Salad : so good!

Now, I should really be posting about the Tenderstem Broccoli & Goat's Cheese tart that I made at the same time as the Zesty Beetroot Salad, but you'll just have to wait for that one until next time!  You see, the Zesty Beetroot Salad was just so good, it has eclipsed the loveliness of the broccoli and goat's cheese - which takes some doing, let me tell you!

Yes, this is the final official instalment from the "So you think you know beetroot" challenge, which has been spectacularly successful from our point of view.  All three of the new uses for Beetroot will be included on our menu list, and in the case of the Beetroot & Chocolate Cake, I doubt I will ever make any other kind of chocolate cake again!  The Sweetfire® Couscous is very definitely going to become a regular on our list of salads.

This beetroot recipe is quite ridiculously simple, but with the accompaniment of some lovely peppery watercress, just wakes up the sweet and earthy flavours of the beetroot, by providing the zest of orange together with the fiery kick of mustard.

As an accompaniment to the Tenderstem broccoli & goat's cheese tart, it was just perfect.


When your tongue had had about enough of the creaminess of the goat's cheese and the fresh flavour of the broccoli, you could turn to the beetroot and have it act like a palate cleanser in that it danced all over your taste buds in its beautiful purple juiciness, waking them up and providing the perfect foil for the flavours of the tart.


I used the Baby Beetroot that had been dipped in vinegar for this recipe, but I'm sure it would be just as good with the naturally cooked beetroot.  The "must have" part, is the orange.  Without that, a very important dimension would be lost.

ZESTY BEETROOT SALAD


Ingredients :


3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
zest of an orange, grated
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
3-4 cooked beetroot, sliced
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.


Method :


1.  Make the dressing by whisking together all the ingredients but for the beetroot.  Season to taste.


2.  Slice the beetroot and slip the slices into the dressing.  Toss gently to coat and leave to marinate for 10-15 minutes.


3.  Just before serving, give another gentle toss to make sure each slice is coated and glistening.


4.  Serve.


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Spicy Chicken in Pitta Bread

Now, I'd love to be able to tell you that we made our own pitta bread to go with this spicy chicken, but alas no.  Maybe one day!

This poor old meal was started - in that I put the chicken into its marinade - quite some time before we actually ate it.  This was because Son & heir decided to offer his services (quite rightly) to his school for an open evening aimed at the parents of the new intake for this year.  As a result, we suddenly became pushed for time that evening, as we had to have him back at school all washed, brushed and presentable in (pretty much) the time it took to turn around.  So, for speed reasons - and only for speed reasons - we dived into Macdonalds and the boys had a burger and I had a sweet chilli wrap.  Those wraps are a bit of a lifesaver for me, as I really don't like burgers!

Then, on the following evening, Son & heir was invited out for a sleepover and wasn't in for dinner.  It seemed daft to be making a whole Broccoli & Goat's Cheese tart just for the two of us (which was previously booked in for that night).   So, instead of eating the pitta breads for lunch (as was the mark 2 plan) we moved them on to dinner time instead (mark 3 plan).

So hence, the chicken had been marinating for some 32 hours by the time I got to cooking it.  I'm a bit scared that, when I decided to do this recipe again, if I marinate the chicken for any less time than 32 hours, it won't be anything like as nice.  I guess we'll have to wait and see!

As a "simple to make" dinner, you'd have to go a long way to beat this one.  Once marinated, the chicken goes into a frying pan to cook.  In the meantime, you warm up some pitta breads, split them and coat the insides with a mixture of hoummus and greek yoghurt.  Then stuff with lettuce and tomato and add the chicken once it's done.  Easy!

The surprising part about the entire recipe was how filling the pittas are!  I made us two each and neither of us could get through the entire second one.  In future, I reckon one each, stuffed to the brim with chicken, accompanied by some chips or a small jacket potato, would be ample.

SPICY CHICKEN in PITTA BREAD (serves 2 hungry people, 3 moderately hungry people or 4 people with accompanying chips or couscous)


Ingredients :


3 chicken breasts, diced into small pieces
2 limes, juiced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
a small bunch of fresh mint, chopped finely
1 tbsp olive oil
sufficient lettuce for the amount of pittas you'll be making
a vine-ripened round tomato, diced small, per pitta
3 tbsp hoummus
3 tbsp greek yoghurt
pitta breads, recommend 1 per person.

Method :

1.  To marinade the chicken, place the lime juice, cumin, coriander, turmeric and mint into a bowl and mix to combine.  Add the chicken pieces and stir to make sure each piece is liberally coated in the marinade.  Cover and place in the fridge until you are ready to proceed.


2.  Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the chicken and marinade plus seasoning.  Cook on a high heat until the chicken has taken on some colour and is cooked through, with no evidence of any pinkness at all.


3.  In a small bowl, combine the hoummus with the greek yoghurt and season to taste.


4.  To assemble, lightly toast the pitta bread then split it down one side.  Coat the inside of each pitta with the hoummus mixture, then stuff with the chicken, lettuce and tomato.


5.  Serve.


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Ice cream maker - hubby's new toy!

Yes, we've finally succumbed to the regular appearance of an ice cream maker on t.v. cooking shows - and bought one.

In our defence, I would say that it was half-price in the local Comet, so it could have been worse.  It's the Kenwood IM200, which can make just over 1 litre at a time.

Hubby, bless his little cotton socks, has wanted one of these since he first realised they existed and, caught in the first flush of exuberance at actually having one, made some Salted Caramel Ice Cream.  Make an easy recipe first go?  Nah - just go for it!

You can find the recipe for this ice cream here : http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/641787

I won't bother with setting out the recipe here, as I doubt it'll get made again.  Not because it's not completely gorgeous, oh no.  But because it had random results when tried on the family.  I absolutely love the stuff and could eat it until either I was very very poorly, or we ran out.  One or the other.  Son & heir liked it to begin with, but has gone off the idea since.  Hubby loves the flavour, but the texture has him fighting a gag reflex.

Hence, if you like a rich cream-based, slightly chewy textured, smooth ice cream - go for it!

Hubby's next venture was a bit more sensible, if you consider that he's diabetic and we're all supposed to be attempting to trim the flab somewhat.

He made FroYo - or frozen yoghurt.  It was a simple matter of getting two large tubs (450g) of their Pear, Cinnamon & Sultana yoghurt and freezing it via the ice cream maker.  I can definitely recommend this approach to mid-week ice cream demands.  It's a bit more exciting than replying "yoghurt" when asked what's for pudding.  Son & heir has given the thumbs up to the project, too.

Today, he's back to making proper ice cream and has just cropped Ruby, the rhubarb plant.  I'll be back with the recipe, if it proves to be a goodun!

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Peppered Mackerel with Sweetfire® Beetroot Couscous and horseradish cream

On to my next - and just as successful, but in a very different way - beetroot concoction for the "So you think you know beetroot" challenge.

This time, I wanted to use the Sweetfire® baby beetroot.  These adorable little baby beets have been infused with a chilli marinade and are just the most delectable mouthful.

So I began pondering on what would go with the chilli effect of the beetroot, not to mention the beetroot itself.  Here’s how the thought processes went :

Initially, my thoughts travelled down the “one leaf of Little Gem, filled with chopped beetroot with horseradish cream and with some smoked salmon on top” avenue, only to wonder how that could be translated into a full-size main course dinner.

Financially, smoked salmon for dinner was out, so I went sideways and wound up with peppered smoked mackerel.

In order to make it more of a main course, I jettisoned the lettuce leaves and pondered on carbohydrates.  So many forms of carbohydrate – pasta, potato and bread – just didn’t fit.  Then I remembered couscous.

So, I had couscous, with quartered baby beetroot.  Needs something to cool that chilli – aha!  Cucumber, peeled and de-seeded.  Couscous needs strong flavourings, so what about herbs?  What would go with mackerel and beetroot?  Fish always likes dill, so we’ll have some of that.  What about something else, to balance the earthiness?  Parsley, in this connection, would be a bit dull.  Hmmn .. how about mint?  Yes, mint!  Goes well with fish and cucumber and won’t fight with either the dill or the beetroot.  Maybe some red onion, to provide a sweet savouriness and lemon juice for balance.

One problem – I’ve not included the horseradish.  Hmmn, ponder ponder.  Well, I’ve got smoked fish and couscous but nothing particularly juicy or dressing-like.  Horseradish sauce alone is too strong.  How about if I were to let it down with a little Greek yoghurt?  Yes!  Then it would go not only with the fish, but also as a little dressing for the couscous – but not over the couscous, just by the side with some salad leaves.

Done!

In this way, the Peppered Mackerel with Sweetfire® Couscous and horseradish cream, was born.  We ate it for dinner on Tuesday last and it was utterly scrumptious.  It would work with just ordinary beetroot in natural juice too – just add a pinch of chilli flakes!

Hubby reckons he has never had a nicer accompaniment to Smoked Peppered Mackerel and I think he's got a point, there.

Everything was just perfect.  The oiliness of the mackerel was cut through by the chilli and lemon juice.  The flavours were enhanced by the horseradish.  The herbs provided the depth of flavour and the mint danced across your tongue.  If anything, the cucumber and dill took something of a back seat, however, I'm quite sure that without them the cooling elements of the couscous would be compromised and you'd sure notice that they weren't there - even if you didn't notice particularly, that they were!

Now, I've just got to prepare myself for a visit to Tesco or Waitrose in order to source some more Sweetfire® Beetroot and reproduce the recipe.  Get the blinkers out!

PEPPERED MACKEREL WITH SWEETFIRE® BEETROOT COUSCOUS & HORSERADISH CREAM  (serves 2)

Ingredients :

150g couscous

150ml vegetable stock

3 tbsp low fat greek yoghurt (I used 2% Total)

2 tsp horseradish sauce

210g pack Sweetfire® baby beetroot, cut into quarters or small dice

2 inch piece of cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and diced small

20g fresh dill, chopped

20g fresh mint, sliced gently into small pieces

small red onion, finely chopped

1 lemon, juiced

2 tbsp olive oil

250g pack peppered smoked mackerel fillets.

Method :

1.  Put the couscous into a large bowl, pour over the boiling vegetable stock, give a quick stir and cover with cling film.  Set aside for 10 minutes in a cool place, to encourage it to cool.

2.  Mix the horseradish sauce into the greek yoghurt and taste for seasoning.

3.  When the couscous has absorbed all the stock, uncover, give it a good fluff up with a fork and leave to cool.

4.  Once the couscous is cool, add the cucumber, herbs, onion, lemon juice and oil and toss well to ensure everything is mixed through.

5.  As the last thing, and to prevent the beetroot colouring the entire bowl of couscous, add the chopped beetroot and give a quick stir through.

6.  Serve by placing the couscous onto the plate, followed by the flaked smoked peppered mackerel and a dollop of the horseradish cream.  I also served some salad leaves.

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A Beetroot health fact!

Research has shown that beetroot can help reduce blood pressure as well as its associated risks such as heart attacks and strokes. This is because the high content of nitrates in beetroot produce a gas called nitric oxide in the blood which widens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. A daily dose of 250ml of beetroot juice or 1 to 2 cooked beetroot (approx. 100g) can help dramatically reduce blood pressure and its associated risks.

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