Red Cabbage with Cranberries

I'd had it in the back of my mind that it would be interesting to work with cranberries a little, over this Christmas period.  I had never tussled with the little lovelies before, yet I know for sure that Cranberry Juice is one of the family favourites (as and when we can find some that's affordable or not sweetened with Aspartame), so there was no reason to believe we wouldn't like them.


Hence, when I spotted the recipe for "Red cabbage with balsamic vinegar & cranberries" (ridiculously long name!) in the Christmas edition of Good Food Magazine, it was a definite "cut out and keep" moment.

I'm not sure which thought came first, the "I should make Corned Beef Pie" or the "I should make the Red Cabbage & Cranberries - Corned Beef Pie will go well with it" thought.  I suspect that they happened around the same time, as I seem to have been pairing them up in my mind since that moment.

As red cabbage and cranberries are both good from an anti-inflammatory point of view, I was even keener to make this dish.

It really is simplicity personified to make.  It's a one-pot, on the hob, no fuss series of ingredients being included and stirred.  I will admit to tinkering about with it slightly, in that I completely abhor the flavour of cloves for some reason, so I included caraway seeds instead.  Caraway is a perfectly compatible flavour, but if you prefer cloves, then by all means swap it back!

I loved the end result.  It did indeed go extremely well with the Corned Beef Pie, in that the sweetness from the fruit and balsamic was a perfect foil for the chilli heat involved with the pie.  I've got to say that, even when I ate the remainder for lunch the following day - cold, with the remains of the Corned Beef Pie - it was just as lovely.  I'm thinking that, cold, it would make a gorgeous barbecue side dish for those balmy evenings we're supposed to get, come summer!

RED CABBAGE WITH CRANBERRIES  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp caraway seeds (or ground cloves, if you prefer)
Half a red cabbage, quartered cored and thinly sliced
100ml vegetable stock
1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
50g brown sugar
100g fresh cranberries.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large pan.  Add the onions and fry on a low to medium heat, stirring every now and then for around 10 minutes or until they start to caramelise.

2.  Stir in the caraway seeds (or cloves) then add the cabbage and continue cooking, stirring more frequently to distribute the cabbage evenly across the pan and prevent burning, until the cabbage has started to soften.

3.  Pour in the stock, add the vinegar and sugar, then cover and cook for 10 minutes.  You may need to give it all a stir or two around the end of the cooking time, just to check how the liquid levels are doing.

4.  Stir in the cranberries and cook for another 10 minutes.  You may need to add a little more water, if the pan appears to be going dry.

5.  Once the cranberries are softened and beginning to burst, remove from the heat and season to taste.

6.  Serve.

Corned Beef Pie - plain storecupboard food!

This recipe was another exercise in recreating a flavour from my past.

Before I owned my own horse, my best friend and I went on a riding holiday in the New Forest.  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.  Everyone was intrigued by this pie and much discussion was had, back and forth across the table, about its ingredients while its creator (the housekeeper) sat with an enigmatic smile, enjoying the banter.  The pie's filling was soft, like lamb, but tomatoey like baked beans, quite dense, fried onions, quite peppery, 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 was quite confident about getting it right, this time.

I felt that the key to the pie was to keep the ingredients for the filling simple.  After all, it stood to reason that something billed as "corned beef pie" was unlikely to have a great long ingredients list.  I can remember going down the tinned tomatoes route and failing miserably, as that made the tomato aspect too tart.  It needed to be softly tomatoey.  Having just made the Green Couscous, which involves frying an onion until it is caramelised, then adding a touch of cumin and some salt, got me to thinking about the worth of doing something similar for the Corned Beef Pie.  The tiny touch of cumin was sufficient to provide a background warmth that just brought the couscous a hidden depth - and so it did for the pie.

Served with beef gravy - you've got to have gravy!

I really enjoyed the end result, as did Son & heir (which tells you that it's child-friendly, depending on how much chilli you include!).  Hubby wasn't so enraptured as we were and reported that the chilli made the pie a little bit hard work to get through for him.  Which is fine - it just means that I'll reduce the amount of chilli in the next one and hopefully it will hit the spot for him.  I may even ditch the chilli flakes and go for a shake or two of cayenne pepper, which will provide a quiet warmth rather than the more frisky heat of the chilli flakes.

I served the pie with a Red Cabbage & Cranberry dish, which was completely gorgeous.  The two went together so well, I suspect I'll be repeating the exercise.  In addition, I served some carrot & parsnip mash which almost made a suitable exchange for mashed potato, but I did miss the texture of mashed potato.  The carrot/parsnip mash came up a little wetter than I would have liked, but I suspect that a greater degree of parsnip to carrot would have helped that along a bit.  The flavour of the carrot/parsnip mash was delightful - especially with some freshly ground black pepper mixed in.

So, with all those Christmas Hampers winging their way around the country, if you find yourself with a can of Corned Beef that you don't know what to do with - try Corned Beef Pie!  I'm sure you won't regret it.  I even ate the remaining piece for lunch the next day, when it was just as nice cold as it had been hot - which makes me think "picnic!".

CORNED BEEF PIE  (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped finely

½ tsp ground cumin

1 x 415g can Heinz baked beans

a pinch of chilli flakes if you like a chilli kick, or a couple of shakes of cayenne pepper, if not.

1 x 340g can good quality Corned Beef, fat deposits removed

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

Plus : shortcrust pastry, enough for top and bottom of your 8" pie dish and a little milk.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4.

2.  In a frying pan, heat the oil and add the chopped onions.  Fry gently until the onions have begun to caramelise and are softly golden brown.  Add the cumin and stir well.

3.  Add the baked beans and heat through, adding the chilli or cayenne and the tomato ketchup.  Stir to combine.

4.  Once the mixture is heated through, add the cubed Corned Beef.  From this point on, it is undesirable to stir the mixture very much, or the cubes of corned beef will dissolve into a mush.  What you want, is to retain the individual pieces as much as possible.

5.  Taste to determine whether any more seasoning is required and season to taste as necessary.

6.  Leave to cool slightly, while you roll out your pastry and line the pie dish with the first piece.

7.  Add the filling mixture to the pie dish and spread out evenly, ideally with a peak at the middle.

8.  Brush a little milk around the edges of the bottom pastry and lay the second piece of pastry over the top of the pie, completely covering it.  Press down around the edges and crimp to seal.  Cut off the extra pastry, to neaten the edges.  Remember to make three small cuts to the surface of the pie, to allow steam to escape, then glaze by brushing on the remaining milk.

9.  Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

10.  Serve.

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Food bloggers unplugged!

I was very excited to learn today that I've been tagged by Anne at Anne's Kitchen, to take part in the Food Bloggers Unplugged series that's going on at the moment.

Apparently the whole thing was started by Susan at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate and it's just a bit of fun that will colour in a little of each blogger's character.  (Although if you haven't worked my character out by now, I've not been trying hard enough!).  So here you have my ten questions, duly answered - and the five bloggers who I've tagged in return.  Do go and have a look at their blogs if you don't know them already, as they're all well worth the visit.


What, or who, inspired you to start a blog? 

I was writing an "everyday" kind of blog over on Multiply and as a matter of course, recipes that worked well for me I just wanted to pass on so that others could enjoy them too.  So I began including them.  Fairly soon, the majority of the blog was beginning to be recipes and I began to consider putting them all together somewhere that they'd be easier to retrieve, and somewhere that they'd be able to be more widely publicised.  Hence, Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger was born!

Who is your foodie inspiration?

Now this is an incredibly difficult one for me to answer.  Well, to give one name, anyway!  You see, my Mum has always been known as a great cook and of course, I did the usual thing of learning at my Mum's knee - as she had done with her Mum (who was known for her shortcrust pastry, which has yet to be bettered in the family).  However, I spent a number of years being totally sidetracked from food, when I dedicated my every waking hour to my horses.  Since my last horse died and I became a Mum (which was all within 3 years) I moved - of necessity, at first - back towards food as I was required to feed the family.  Since I've been cooking more seriously, I have absorbed every inspiration at every turn.  

Your greasiest, batter - splattered food/drink book is? 

There are two, which I have to say are too precious to become greasy or food stained, but are the two to which I turn most frequently when looking for inspiration.  They are "The Cook Book" and "Plenty" both by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.

Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?  

Having not been abroad for years, this answer takes me back to childhood and memories of travelling from either Munster or Berlin in Germany back to the U.K. for holidays, during the period my Dad was in the Army.  We would always aim to stop overnight at Aachen in order to break up the journey and I can vividly recall looking forward to my dinner that night of Bockwurst und Kartoffelsalat.  Simply put, it's just a German sausage with potato salad - but I've not been able to reproduce either of them satisfactorily, in this country.  I'll just have to go back to Germany, I suppose! 

Another food bloggers table you'd like to eat at is? 

Oh heck, now you're asking an impossible question!  There are so many!  There's Anne's Kitchen (of course!), Thibeault's Table, Food Urchin, The WW Foodie, Adora's Box, Sudden Lunch! and far too many that I've not mentioned here.  However, if you were to tie me down and threaten to never let me have a boiled egg and soldiers ever again if I didn't come up with one name, I'd probably have to cough up and say Karen's "Lavender and Lovage".

 

What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)? 

That's easy.  A dishwasher - to save my poor hubby's hands!

Who taught you how to cook? 

Well, I learned the basics at my Mum's knee as I said previously.  I also did Home Economics at school, although it didn't do me much good - as I can clearly recall making a hideous Greek Lemon Soup and also blowing up the oven with a militant Gingerbread recipe.  In later years, I'd say I've taught myself through the trial and error method.  It's only a wonder that the family are still here, when I think back to some of my earlier efforts!
 
I'm coming to you for dinner what's your signature dish? 

Hmmmn, well that's a tricky one too - as an awful lot of the recipes I make I've only done the once, so as to keep the blog ticking over.  However, if I think back to the dish that I've made the most over the years - right from when I left home, up to nowadays - it has to be Kedgeree.  Although, having said that, hubby would reckon the Ottolenghi Fennel, Cherry Tomato & Crumble Gratin or the Beetroot & Chocolate Cake might take the honours!


What is your guilty food pleasure?

Anything involving lashings of farmhouse butter on fresh white bread.  Oh, now you've done it - I'd been trying not to think about things like that!

15 yrs ago in my office at Hampton Court!

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn? 

I used to live on a Houseboat, moored at Kingston Upon Thames - and got deeply involved in the appeal to keep the houseboats in Kingston.

Or maybe that I used to show my ponies to County level, our best result being with Kellie of Whitefield when she took the reserve Champion Mountain & Moorland Pony at the South of England Show.

Or maybe that I used to ride a motorbike for years, right up until my 250cc Kawasaki was stolen and I made the transition to cars.

Or perhaps that I used to work as a Personal Assistant for the Commercial Director of Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court Palace & The Tower of London.

I don't know - there are so many to choose from!


Okay, so here's the five I've tagged to respond (although it's perfectly fine if you don't want to join in - I know it's a busy time of year!) :

Karen at Lavender & Lovage : http://lavenderandlovage.blogspot.com/
Paula at Sweethart's Cakes and Bakes : http://www.sweethartscakesandbakes.com/
Seren at The WW Foodie : http://thewwfoodie.blogspot.com/
Jo at Comfort Bites : http://comfortbites.blogspot.com/
Working London Mummy : http://www.workinglondonmummy.com/



         

Cobbler, Bobotie, Wraps, Curry, Stew & Pasties - meal planning!

Gosh, I must be getting better at this - it's only Wednesday and here's me telling you about this week's meal plans.

Last week finished up okay, with the Corned Beef Pie which I've yet to blog about.  I'm happy that I managed to recreate it as per my memories of the flavours involved - but for me, the real star of that show was the Red Cabbage and Cranberries.  I'll also blog about those, as the recipe could come in very handy for Christmas!

We've finally managed to settle upon what meat we're having as our Christmas dinner.  Thanks to Knorr, we've already done the Turkey - and as we're very unlikely to have cause to invest in such a glorious bird, thought we'd go sideways from the many fowls that are available at Christmas time.  Hence, this year we'll be having Roast Beef.  In fact we've just been and ordered our 1kg of Sirloin, which was the best compromise we could come up with where a piece of Beef was concerned.  You see, hubby would always have a piece of Silverside or Topside because of its lack of fat whereas I would always have a Rib roast because of its marbling of fat.  So, to compromise, we settled on Sirloin as it has a layer of fat which is restricted to one side of the meat.  So now I'll be happy because the fat is there to baste the meat and provide flavour, whereas hubby will be happy because it's easily removed.  Job done.

Now then!  What about this week, I hear you ask?  Here's what's on the menu :

Tue : Pizza

Wed : Sausage & Leek Cobbler with carrots & cabbage

Thur : Bobotie with carrot & parsnip mash and cabbage

Fri : Spicy Chicken Wraps with Salsa & Sour Cream

Sat : Chicken Dopiaza with white rice & puppodums

Sun : Carmargue Beef Daube with Parsnip apple mash & peas

Mon : Ham, cheese & celeriac pasties, baked beans & hash browns.

Well, owing to my having forgotten to do the banking required, we didn't go shopping on Tuesday as normal.  Hence, we all indulged in pizza on "pizza night".

Having corrected the bank account, we set off for the shops today and came back with two packs of Debbie & Andrew's "Perfect Pork" sausages that were at half price.  I think they'll be lovely in the Sausage & Leek Cobbler that's on the menu for this evening.

The Cobbler is another recipe that I made in the days before writing Rhubarb & Ginger, so we've had it before and liked it very much then.  Fingers crossed, we'll like it as much again!

My earlier batch of Bobotie

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Bobotie.  I have made this before, using Rachel Allen's recipe, but this time I'm using a recipe from Kevin Dundon.  It doesn't differ by a lot, but seems a little easier to put together - particularly for a mid-week meal.  The combination of mildly curried lamb mince together with the eggy topping is really moreish.


Friday is son & heir's last day of term, so to celebrate we're having one of his favourite meals - Spicy chicken wraps.  This doesn't involve a whole heap of cooking - just some baking of some breadcrumbed shop-bought spicy chicken pieces which are then sliced and put in a wrap with salsa and soured cream.  I might be able to sneak a little lettuce in there, but only if he's not looking!


I'm going to have a go at creating a Chicken Dopiaza on Saturday.  I've been quizzing both Bipin at Bipin's Curry Pots and Dan from GreatCurryRecipes.net for ideas, so we'll see what I wind up with!


Sunday's Carmargue Beef Daube is a recipe from Trish Deseine that looks gorgeous.  We've been ready for a lovely beef casserole/stew for the last couple of weeks, so the slow cooker will be back in use, while we all gather around it and sniff the delicious aromas.

I'm serving it with a parsnip & apple mash which came from "Affairs of Living" - a wonderful blog site that deals with gluten free and allergen-friendly food.  As you know, I'm supposed to be steering clear of the carbohydrates as much as possible (and have lost 10lbs in weight, owing to this anti-inflammatory style of eating), which is why you won't be finding too many potato or pasta recipes here for a while!  This recipe is intriguing owing to the method, as you are required to roast the ingredients so as to reduce their water content prior to mashing.  Otherwise, as you can probably imagine, mashing parsnips and apples together could get extremely messy.  I am hoping the mash will go very well with the Daube of beef - again, fingers crossed!

Poor ugly celeriac!

So now we're back to Monday.  I found a little recipe (one of the little "afterthought" recipes) in the latest Good Food magazine for Ham & Cheese pasties.  The ingredients (apart from ham & cheese, of course) included potato.  Now, a little potato wouldn't have been an altogether bad thing - but coupled with the pastry, just made it a double felony.  What could I use instead?  Well, you can't make a pasty without pastry - so that had to stay and I needed to find an alternative to the potato.  What flavours go well with ham and cheese, that might also take the form of a carbohydrate replacement?  Why, celeriac of course!  Thinking back to my Cheesy Celeriac Slice, I don't see any reason why these pasties shouldn't wind up being totally delicious.


Apart from all that lot, I'm still pondering on light fruity desserts made with apples, cranberries and plums.  I've got one such in mind that I'm hoping to experiment with tonight, if I get time.  The Cinnamon Plums with Cranberries was so gorgeous and easy to prepare, there has got to be all sorts of different variations on that theme!


I've also got a lot of caraway seeds left over after the Red Cabbage & Cranberries.  I love a good old-fashioned Seed Cake and have been pondering over the combination of an American style pound cake, made with the caraway seeds.  I can't see any reason why it won't work - all I need is the time to give it a go!


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Fabulous Salmon & Leek Filo Parcels

Salmon, creamed leeks and filo pastry - is that not a match made in heaven?  Oh yes, I think so.

Simple to both prepare and cook, these little beauties only haven't appeared on Rhubarb & Ginger before because of the horrendous price of fresh salmon.  So what's changed?  Not the price of salmon, but the discovery of an affordable pack of frozen salmon pieces in our local supermarket.

I was so worried that the fish would let the dish down.  Frozen fish, in my experience, is generally pappy, wet and disgusting.  The salmon fillet pieces looked reasonable enough when they were frozen - and once defrosted, still looked reasonable except for being somewhat waterlogged.  To combat this, I took two pieces of kitchen paper (which has come in so useful for all kinds of uses, this weekend) per piece of fish and pressed each between them.  This effectively squeezed the excess water from the fish (and probably some of the flavour, but it had to be done).  I was left with pieces that were a good shape and no longer waterlogged.

If you can afford to use fresh salmon for this recipe - by all means do.  It can only improve what is already a fabulous dish.

The original recipe (from my favourite, BBC Good Food) states to use four leeks for two parcels - which seems to be a ridiculous amount of leek.  In this instance, I used three leeks for three parcels - and again, wound up with too much leek!  I know it all depends upon the size of your leeks, which is why I don't specify a quantity - you just have to be sensible when deciding how much leek you want!

Another sneaky tip is that once you've cooked your leeks, if you're in a bit of a hurry to have them cool down, fill the sink to just a couple of inches and put the pan into the cold water - making sure the pan won't tip over.  Give the leeks a couple of stirs over the course of the next 5-10 minutes and you'll find they're cool enough to mix the creme fraiche into and proceed with making the parcels.

I've used both a mixture of creme fraiche and cream cheese, plus solely creme fraiche, in making the creamed leeks and haven't found a great deal of difference in both mixtures.  One thing I will stress though, is not to use low fat.  The mixture needs the richness.

 

These little beauties are perfect for a weekend dinner, coupled with vegetables and a parsley sauce, or a supper party when coupled with a green salad.  I served mine with tenderstem broccoli, carrots, peas and a few cauliflower florets - all moistened with a lovely parsley sauce.  Having had the parcels both ways - with vegetables and with salad - I can't say I preferred them either way - both ways were as good as each other.

Do give these a go - they'd be perfect for after the Christmas indulgences!

UPDATE!

1 June 2014  Well, it's now just over three years later - three years! Where has the time gone! - and I've made these parcels at least once before today.

Having just made them again, I was struck by how simple the recipe is and how absolutely brilliantly it works.  I'm still using the frozen salmon and it's still working perfectly.

The recipe is an absolute doddle to prepare and it cooks while your veggies are chuckling on the stove top.  Once again, I served them with veggies and a parsley sauce.  The sauce goes so well with the salmon and leeks, I think it is pretty much an integral part of the recipe unless you're serving with salad.

I also remembered to take a photograph of the cut parcel, so that you could see what is going on inside.

SALMON & LEEK FILO PARCELS  (serves 3) 

Ingredients :

Sufficient leek (2 large or 3 small) for three parcels, sliced finely
10g butter
120g creme fraiche or cream cheese
6 sheets filo pastry
olive oil
3 skinless salmon fillets.

Method : 

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4.

2.  Put the leeks, together with the butter and 3 tbsp of water into a saucepan and cover.  Cook on a medium to low heat for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are softened and tender.  Season to taste and set aside to cool.

3.  Once cool, mix with the creme fraiche (or cream cheese).

4.  Next, take two sheets of filo pastry and brush each with olive oil (or melted butter, if you prefer).  Place a piece of salmon into the middle of the sheet, season lightly and spoon a third of the leeks on top.

5.  Fold up the sides of the pastry and scrunch the gathered top to form a "moneybag" shape.  This will give some lovely crisp flakes of pastry, that give a welcome crunch to the meal.

6.  Brush each parcel with oil (or butter) and place into the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes.

7.  Serve.

Printable version

Ras-al-hanout Minced Lamb with Ottolenghi's Green Couscous

This recipe was originally one from that old favourite, BBC Good Food.  However, I can't justify paying for stewing lamb, or for a lamb shoulder for everyday meals so it required some adjustment and tinkering about, in order to make it suitable for using lamb mince.

I was conscious that the texture would appear very different from how it should do, as mince has a very different "look" to cubed lamb.  Hence, to provide the "cubes" that would be lacking otherwise, I added some small cubes of sweet potato.  The sweet potato added to the sweetness of the dish and also worked perfectly where giving the whole mixture some additional texture.  It didn't look like a panful of slop - which I was a tad nervous about!  One thing to note, though, is the degree of fattiness that appears if you don't drain the fat from the mince to begin with (which is difficult, considering the order of cooking).  I was left with pools of oil on the surface of the mince - which were very quickly and successfully dealt with by laying a piece of kitchen paper on top.  The oil was absorbed into the kitchen paper and the gravy was left behind.  Perfect!

The recipe said to serve with cooked couscous, mint or coriander leaves and lemon wedges - all of which immediately brought Ottolenghi's Green Couscous to mind.  We absolutely love this couscous - which is saying something, as couscous has often been something of a *heavy sigh* where carbohydrates are concerned.

Bearing in mind the anti-inflammatory thing, the lamb dish was spot on (especially with the addition of sweet potato), but the addition of a carb. wasn't in keeping with the spirit of the thing at all.  However, if you consider that in total you're using just 150g of couscous, divide that by three diners and at 50g, you're not doing as much damage as you first thought.  Add to that the ingredients of olive oil, onion, cumin, spring onion, chilli, parsley, coriander, tarragon, dill and mint - and you're immediately into plus points.

The two dishes - the lamb mince and the couscous - went together perfectly.  I was so pleased, although following a spoonful of the couscous I could easily have forgotten about the lamb and just eaten couscous until I couldn't have stuffed another morsel in - but that's probably just me.

I am always vaguely disappointed by Ras-al-hanout.  I think it is a combination of two factors.  Firstly, Ras-al-hanout spice mix has, as one of its ingredients, rose petals.  I have an issue with the smell of rose petals when they aren't attached to a rose bush.  Make no mistake, I have no issue whatsoever with the flavour - love Turkish Delight!  However, I blame the entire thing on a work colleague from when I was a Legal Secretary back in Epsom.  I shared an office with a wonderfully intelligent and mischievously quirky girl called Liz, who had adopted an intensely rose fragranced perfume.  Sitting in a centrally heated office with her, was like being in the middle of Hampton Court Palace's Rose Garden on an 80 degree summer's day.  Now where the Rose Garden is concerned, it's wonderful because you walk into it - breathe deeply - and walk back out again.  Having to live with it for 8 hours a day, was hard, hard work.  When it reached the stage that I was leaving work with a migraine each day, I had to stop her from practising her breast-stroke on her typing chair (yes, she used to!) and ask if she would mind toning down the perfume.  I'm pleased to say that because she was so lovely, she did.


However, since then I've had issues with any kind of rose perfume - which obviously includes Ras-al-hanout.


The second element to this disappointment, is I think because the spice mix doesn't contain any chilli heat at all.  Now the whole reason I was attracted to it in the first place, was because it was novel to find a spice mix that didn't contain chilli.  Having used it a few times, though, I made the enlightening discovery that the spice just isn't exciting without a little heat.  I still have some left in the packet, so the next time I use it, I'll include some chilli and see how the disappointment factor goes!  Yes, I know it won't - strictly speaking - be Ras-al-hanout then, but isn't that how recipes develop?


RAS-AL-HANOUT MINCED LAMB  (feeds 3)


Ingredients :


1 tbsp olive oil
500g minced lamb
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
3 tsp Ras-al-hanout spice mix
1 tbsp tomato puree
3 or 4 dried apricots, chopped
a sweet potato, peeled and diced
300ml vegetable stock.


Method :


1.  In a deep frying pan, heat the oil and add the onion.  Fry until softened and beginning to caramelise, then add the garlic and ginger and continue to cook for another minute or so.


2.  At this stage, you could remove the contents of the pan (set aside somewhere to keep warm) and brown the mince.  This enables you to drain the fat once browned.  Otherwise, you'll need to skim the surface at the end, to remove the excess fat.  Either way, brown the mince until beginning to caramelise.


3.  If appropriate, return the onion mixture to the pan and add the spice mix, tomato puree, apricots, stock and sweet potato and bring to a simmer.


4.  Cover and simmer for around 20 minutes or until the sweet potato is virtually cooked.


5.  Remove the lid and continue to simmer until the sweet potato is tender and the sauce has reduced from a gravy-like consistency, to a dense sauce-like consistency.


6.  Serve.


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Cinnamon Plums with Cranberries - light and delicious!

You might recall that I'd been pondering what to do with the punnet and a half of large purple plums that were roosting malevolently in the fridge.

I'd originally bought these plums for Son & heir to take to school for a break time snack (one at a time - not all at once!), however he'd neatly circumvented this well-intentioned idea by taking a chocolate biscuit instead.  By the time we'd worked out that this was going on, we had a surfeit of plums that were past their best and had to devise a new home for the chocolate biscuits.

As for what to use the plums for, well, that was easy.  There were obvious choices such as plum crumble, or plum pie, or even a plum cobbler.  All very delicious - right up until you remember that I'm supposed to be off carbs as much as is humanly possible.  Now I do try to not be selfish, but I'll be blowed if I'm going to spend my time cooking a lovely dessert and not be able to eat any of it!

Now my Mum had prepared a lovely light dessert for when we visited last weekend.  She'd baked halved nectarines with honey and bay leaves, together with raspberries and blueberries - which was completely gorgeous and perfect for anyone conscious of what they're eating.  It was even suitable for diabetics, so long as the honeyed juices were left in the serving dish.

So that got me to pondering on my plums.  I'd bought a punnet of cranberries to use in Red Cabbage with Cranberries (due for dinner tomorrow, with the Corned Beef Pie) but it was obvious that I had way too many cranberries for just that recipe, so I could afford to use a few with the plums.

Bearing in mind the time of year - just coming up to Christmas, when I considered what flavourings to put with the plums, cinnamon sprang immediately to mind quickly followed by a pinch of mace for that sharper note.  I pondered for a moment or two on using a little spiced rum as well, but in the end, opted for taking a little zest from an orange and using the juice as the moisture base.  I thought that the citrus would match up well with the mace - and indeed I was right.  However, if you don't have any mace but do have some spiced rum - go ahead and use it, because I'm sure it would be fab.

The next problem was what to sweeten the whole with.  Bearing in mind the diabetes, I was loath to use plain old granulated sugar.  Remembering my Mum's recipe, I opted for honey.  Yes, it's all sugar - but honey is (apparently) better for diabetics and considering hubby is only just diabetic, as I say, so long as he keeps the sugary juices in the serving dish, he'd be fine.

Well, what a triumph this was.  Incredibly simple to prepare, lavish to look at and gorgeous on the palate - especially with a spoonful of creme fraiche.  I'll very definitely be making this - and ones like it with different fruit - again.  Better than a pot of (albeit very nice) yoghurt for dessert!

CINNAMON PLUMS WITH CRANBERRIES  (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

6 big fat purple plums
a handful of cranberries
half a tsp of ground cinnamon
a pinch of mace
zest & juice of one orange
3-4 tsp runny honey.

Method :


1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4.


2.  Slice and remove the stone from the plums.  Place the slices, cut side up, into a baking dish.  Add the cranberries randomly around the dish.


3.  Sprinkle the fruit with the cinnamon & mace, then grate the orange zest over.


4.  Juice the orange into the dish - it doesn't matter if it washes some of the spices off - it will all add to the flavours.


5.  Drizzle the lot with the honey, then place into the oven for 30-40 minutes.


6.  When the time is up, check that the plums are soft but whole.  Remove and allow to cool slightly, then serve with a spoonful of creme fraiche.


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Chicken & Cauliflower Tandoori Curry

I'll come right out and say it before I mislead anyone - the only "Tandoori" part of this curry was the label on the front of the spice mix jar!

So, having said that, I have to hang my head in shame and admit that yes, the poor old Caribbean Curry hit the skids again and STILL hasn't been made.  You see, the recipe has been hanging around waiting to be made for so long that I'd quite forgotten that it required to be marinaded for 5-7 hours prior to cooking.  The meat, that is, not the recipe.  ~rolls eyes~

There I was with half an hour to go before I needed to start cooking - and no marinading having taken place.  This sort of situation demands you know what you've got in your cupboards!

The first thing that came to mind was I knew that I had a random can of coconut milk that we'd picked up cheaply.  So - chicken & coconut milk sends my head down one of two routes where a curry is concerned - Thai or sweet Indian.

I knew I didn't have the wherewithall to make a Thai curry, but the sweet Indian was immediately showing promise.  I had onion and garlic, plus a selection of curry powders - including a Tandoori mix that I hadn't really had a serious play with.  So, with Chicken Tikka Masala in mind, I set off down that kind of route.

Needless to say, the curry didn't resemble a Chicken Tikka Masala in the slightest - but that was the flavour that I had in mind and that I was aiming at, if not for!

Part way through, I began to think that some other kind of note would be good where the main ingredients were concerned and found myself hankering for some okra.  Then I remembered that I had best part of two thirds of a cauliflower in the fridge - perfect!

Even though the Tandoori spice mix isn't really intended to be used in the way I used it, the curry came out as being very acceptable.  The coconut milk, having been reduced, lent the sauce a slightly odd glossiness and made the whole extremely rich.  I was very glad I'd included the cauliflower, as it provided a lightness that eased the palate against all the rich flavours.

So, as a "spur of the moment" curry, I reckon it worked very well indeed - and I'd happily make it again.

CHICKEN & CAULIFLOWER TANDOORI CURRY  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp vegetable oil
10g butter
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 red chilli, seeds removed, chopped
3 tsp Tandoori curry powder
3 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 can coconut milk (I used the light version)
half a small cauliflower, cut into same sized florets
a handful of fresh coriander, chopped.

Method :

1.  In a deep frying pan, heat the oil and melt the butter, then add the onions and fry on a medium heat until softened and beginning to colour.

2.  Add the garlic and chilli and continue to cook for another minute or so.

3.  Add the curry powder and tomato puree.  Stir to combine and cook on a medium to low heat until the oil is beginning to separate.

4.  Add the chicken and toss well to cover it in the curry mixture.  Cook until the chicken has all changed colour and is beginning to caramelise.

5.  Add the coconut milk and stir gently but well to amalgamate with the curry spices.

6.  Add the cauliflower pieces and simmer until the cauliflower is tender and the sauce has reduced to your preference.  If the sauce appears to be reducing too much, add a little chicken stock to thin it slightly.

7.  Prior to serving, add the chopped coriander and stir through.

Serve with white rice.

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Chilli Chorizo Beans - not exactly a hit!

I found this recipe care of the daily email from One Recipe Daily and knowing that Hubby tends to enjoy dishes cooked with a) chorizo and b) chilli together with beans forming a good part of his diet, thought it had the potential to be a hit.

The recipe is one of Antony Worrall Thompson's and it's amazing how the majority of his recipes that I've tried, we haven't liked for one reason or another.

Now I have to say that I thought that this recipe was okay.  Not earth shattering or delicious, but just okay.  I found it hard to wade my way through because I didn't have any bread to eat it with - which I suspect would have made it easier.

Hubby found it incredibly salty - which surprised me because unless the salt came from the chorizo or the three rashers of bacon, I am mystified where it came from - as I didn't add any and didn't opt to use any stock, so we can't even blame it on that.  He also said that he would have found it easier to eat had it have been accompanied by rice instead of bread, as the rice would have calmed down both the salt and the acidity of the tomatoes.

Son & heir ate all his chorizo pieces & bread, then ate as few of the beans as he thought he could get away with.

I think it comes down to the fact that the dish was unbalanced.  The acidity of the tomatoes isn't controlled by the muscovado sugar and when you add chilli to the mix, it tends to accentuate both acidity and saltiness.  I suspect I could titivate around with the recipe and balance it up so as to be acceptable, but the end result just didn't seem to be worth it.

So, on the whole, I won't be repeating the recipe here.  I have to say, that my end result looked nothing like the photograph of the dish on the recipe.  Either I did something cataclysmically wrong (and having re-read the recipe, I can't see where) or there's something intrinsically not right (for us - not necessarily for everyone) with the recipe.

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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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