Baked Turkey & Carrot Meatballs with Garlic Roast Potatoes

I seem to be having a bit of a meatball moment, right now.

I suppose, thinking about it for a moment or two, it is because (it seems) that whatever appears in meatball shape, son & heir will eat without demur.  Quite apart from that being good for his health, it is also good for ours - as not having a sulky teenager picking disconsolately at his food, means that we can relax and enjoy our meal.

I note that I've got a meatball recipe coming up in the next week, too - so I'll have to back off on them a wee bit, or we'll all be suffering with meatball exhaustion soon.

This meatball recipe, however, was a bit different in that a) the meatballs contain grated carrot (see health comment, above) and b) they are cooked in the oven.

I was a tiny bit dubious as to the success of this recipe because of those two points and in the knowledge that I'd have to pep up the tomato sauce, to make it flavoursome enough to satisfy the family's taste buds.  The original recipe stated to just cover the meatballs with a tin of tomatoes and that was it.  I couldn't see how that would equate to a "tomato sauce" - it certainly didn't in my opinion!  Now ordinarily, I'd fry off meatballs before making the sauce - then dunk the meatballs back in and the whole thing would be done on the hob.

With this recipe (the original of which can be found here on the BBC Good Food website and is created by Lucy Netherton), the meatballs are rolled, then placed into a baking tray and baked, then the tomatoes are added to the tray with some Parmesan cheese, baked a little more and served.  Now I like this kind of dish.  Cooking it in the oven in this way is fairly easy on the cook in that you don't need to stand (sit, in my case) over the cooker, watching and stirring.  Instead I can spend some time doing the dishes (and reduce the amount that will need doing after the meal) or tidying up the kitchen (which often falls to hubby to do), or just plain go and have a sit down for 20 minutes or so.  So I was intrigued to discover how the meatballs would fare, cooked in this way.

The other point is that, as you've got the oven on anyway, you might as well make the most of it and cook some of the accompaniments that way.  Hence the Garlic Roast Potatoes.  (I also included a lost and lonely parsnip.  Well, it gave it a job to do!).  These potatoes are billed as "crispy potatoes", but I fail to see how potatoes can get crispy, when you've got a pot of bubbling tomatoes in the same oven, which is filling it with steam.  Mine certainly didn't.  However, they were very tasty - and very moreish.

I used the Jelly potatoes that Greenvale Farmfresh had sent and very delicious they were, too.  I am sure they would have crisped up, had it not have been for the steamy tomatoes, as they were demonstrating a degree of crispness, even so.  The flavour of the potato stood up remarkably well to being mixed with the garlic and rosemary - both of which are very strong flavours that could easily have swamped out the natural potato.  I'll definitely be looking for these spuds again in future.  I just hope that they manage to get them into Asda supermarkets, as I hate our local Tesco!

Anyway, getting back to the meatballs - in order to pep up the tomato sauce, before mixing with the meatballs, I tipped the tomatoes into a bowl and added some tomato ketchup, a splosh of mushroom ketchup, a pinch of dried parsley, some salt & pepper and a teaspoon of paprika and gave it all a good mix.  It certainly did the trick, as the tomato sauce was rich, tasty and did a good job replacing gravy where the vegetables were concerned.  As a side point, the colour - enhanced by the paprika, no doubt - particularly, the red of the sauce against the green of the broccoli, was amazing!

This meal was quite ridiculously healthy and exceptionally low in fat.  Any fat that might come from the Turkey is drained off prior to adding the tomatoes, so really the only fat you are ingesting is coming from the tablespoonful of olive oil used to cook the potatoes.  Dividing that between three people and whatever was left on the baking tray, amounts to not a lot of fat!

The best bit of all, though, was that it was a tasty and satisfying meal.  So many of these extraordinarily healthy dinners are just that - but don't last.  Within an hour or so you're beginning to wonder what to put on some toast - and that's not the idea at all.

Everyone enjoyed this meal - and I'll bet not one of my chaps realised that there was a grated carrot in those meatballs.

BAKED TURKEY & CARROT MEATBALLS WITH GARLIC ROAST POTATOES  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

1 onion, grated
1 large carrot, grated
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp rosemary leaves, chopped finely
450g turkey mince
4 large potatoes, skin on and cut into small cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
400g can cherry or chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire Sauce)
a pinch of dried parsley
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp grated Parmesan.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 220degC (200degC fan)/425deg F/Gas 7.

2.  In a large bowl, combine the onion, carrot, half the garlic, half the rosemary, some seasoning and the turkey mince.  Give everything a good squidge around until it is evenly mixed.

3.  Shape into 15 meatballs and place into a deep sided baking tray or oven proof dish.

4.  In another bowl, toss the potato pieces with the remaining garlic, rosemary, more seasoning and the oil.  Turn them out onto a shallow sided baking tray and give it a little shake to settle everything and ensure every little spud has a space around it.

5.  Place both trays into the oven - potatoes on top, meatballs underneath - for 20 minutes.

6.  In the meantime, you can prepare the tomato sauce by taking another bowl (I used one bowl and just washed it up in between times!) and adding to it the tomatoes, tomato ketchup, mushroom ketchup, parsley, seasoning and paprika.  Give everything a good mix to ensure it's combined.  If you can cope with cold tinned tomatoes, you can taste to check the seasoning.

7.  At the end of the 20 minutes, remove the meatballs and drain the juices into the nearest dog's bowl.  Add the tomato sauce mixture and turn the meatballs in it, to ensure everything is evenly coated.

8.  Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top and replace into the oven to continue baking for another 20 minutes.

9.  Turn the potatoes, to ensure even baking, and replace for the prescribed 20 minutes.

10.  What you are aiming for, is lovely browned and (hopefully) crispy roast potatoes, and to have the tomato sauce bubbling well in the meatball tray.

11.  Serve with some steamed broccoli, as a good combination and for awesome colour.

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Is it too early to be planning salad in the week's menu?

Goodness, but I hope it's not!  Although, having said that, it'll probably snow on every day that I've booked even slightly salad-like meals.

I don't know about you, but my taste buds are yearning for something fresh (and by "fresh", I mean uncooked!) in my diet.  Yes, we've had the occasional little bit of side salad with various dishes, but I'm definitely yearning for a complete full-blown salad that contains rather more than just lettuce, cucumber and tomato.

I haven't gone so far as to be planning a full-blown salad (yet!), but I think you'll agree that this week's menu is definitely headed that way.  Hopefully it'll be enough to satisfy the need.

So what are we (theoretically - it could change and very often does) going to be eating?

Tues : Trinidadian Prawn Curry with chapatis and rice

Wed : Spicy Pork Steaks, baked sweet potatoes and peas

Thur : Smoked Mackerel with winter couscous & mushrooms

Fri : Tomato & Brie Tart with mixed salad and marinated beetroot

Sat : Mexican meatballs with rice

Sun : Roast bacon with creamed leeks, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots & peas

Mon : Turkey & bean enchiladas with potato wedges.

Pic c/o www.dragonchillies.co.uk

No, we STILL haven't managed to have the Trinidadian Prawn Curry - but I am completely determined to have it tomorrow evening.  I'm armed and dangerous, having bought the Scotch Bonnet chilli peppers, so I won't be thwarted - bad back or no bad back.  (I think I must have torn some muscles in my back, dragging the darned stool around the kitchen after me so that I can sit down and cook.  Either way, it hurt - and continues to hurt!).

The Spicy Pork Steaks are going to be along the lines of Galton Blackiston's Spiced Chicken Legs, except with pork.  I thought it would be interesting to see how the marinade translates to pork, particularly with half an eye towards barbecuing in the summer.  I've also got some sweet potatoes waiting to be used for something, so this seemed like the perfect match.

Pic c/o www.freshfishdaily.co.uk

Now, the Smoked Mackerel with Winter Couscous and mushrooms was sparked off by a recipe I saw in a magazine, ages ago (so long ago in fact, that I've forgotten which magazine - oops!).  Anyway, it involved flaking the mackerel into the couscous and included orange and watercress.

In my fevered imagination, that turned into a dish of mackerel fillets beside a luscious looking pile of couscous that contained the watercress, but also cherry tomatoes, red onion, some griddled strips of courgette, some squares of griddled red pepper, together with some sort of herb - probably parsley.  I'm also toying with what dressing to put on the couscous.  I'm tempted by a red wine vinegar/capers/olive oil combination.  The mushrooms will be upturned onto a baking tray, dressed with a teaspoonful of garlic and parsley butter and oven baked.  Mmmmn - in my imagination, it's fabulous!

Pic c/o www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk

Friday's dinner requires rather less imagination and rather more careful preparation.  The tart is simplicity itself, as it is purely and simply cherry tomatoes in an egg/cream base with cubes of Brie cheese.  However, it sounded absolutely lovely and just had to be done.  This recipe originated from Delicious magazine and can be found here, if you're curious.

The Mexican Meatballs is a recipe that came from a Good Food Magazine (can you tell, I've been going through the file marked "Recipes cropped from magazines") and the recipe is available on their website here.  Hopefully it'll make a nice change from a straight chilli - and be teenager friendly, as several of this week's recipes are a bit of a challenge for son & heir.

Not me - too cool, calm and collected!

Sunday's meal will be as close to a Sunday Roast as I can get, without killing myself and/or my back.  A piece of bacon is one of the easiest things to roast, the potatoes and parsnips will be happy in the oven, the creamed leeks are dead simple to make and the carrots & peas almost cook themselves.  Fingers crossed for a nice, fairly relaxed, Sunday dinner - instead of winding up limping, gasping and red faced, into the living room to eat when I feel more like laying down for a half an hour.

The Turkey & Bean Enchiladas is another Good Food recipe that I've adapted.  The original recipe says to include leftover roast chicken, but I see no reason why good old Turkey mince won't do as good a job.  I've done a bit of research into the spices required for a home-made fajita seasoning and there's nothing there that we haven't got individually in the herbs & spices collection (that now takes up a shelf of its own).  I'll just have to concentrate a bit when I'm mixing up the seasoning, to get the right balance of everything, but I'm fairly confident I can reproduce something acceptable.

Son & heir will usually eat anything contained in a wrap, whilst hubby usually will eat anything that has enough chilli involved with it - so I'm hopefully onto a winner here.  I'll either make some potato wedges or cop out in a big way with a bag of frozen wedges.  It all depends how knackered I am by Monday!

Throughout these meals, I've had half an eye to trying to provide a balance between everyone's likes and dislikes versus what they need to eat for either dietary reasons or health reasons.  Like most teenagers, son & heir would be very happy if he never saw another vegetable or green leaf appear on his plate again (as would hubby, in lots of cases!), but I can't just close my eyes to the degree of vitamins, minerals etc. etc. that he's missing out on.  Especially at a time of such growth - he's beginning to tower over me! - when he needs his body and brain to be supported in every way possible.

Damn! He got there first!

This is one of the great strengths of meal planning.  You can see what you're proposing to feed everyone, in context with what they will have had the day prior and what they're going to have on the day after.  Put into context like that, a fairly vegetable free day (Meatballs) can be offset against a vegetable heavy day (Mackerel and couscous).  A dairy heavy day (Tomato and Brie tart) can be offset against a lighter fish day (Prawn curry).  As for me, well, I just have to watch the fat, sugar and carbohydrates.  A lick of the pan should do for me ....

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Sainsbury's Bank Family Blogger Network

You might have noticed a new badge appearing on Rhubarb & Ginger recently - that of the Sainsbury's Bank Family Blogger Network.

Now, if you write a blog of your own, this is your chance to also be considered as one of the Family Blogger Network.  Just go along to the link above and drop a mail to the lovely Suzy.

The "Money Matters" section of the Sainsbury's website is a useful place to keep an eye on.  Currently, there is more than one article there that is pertinent to these times in which we live - and I particularly enjoyed the one regarding "The Perfect Balance".  I think it is one of the most difficult parts of planning meals for the week, to find a balance between everyone's likes and dislikes versus what you know they should be eating, for health.  Obviously, being such a short article, it doesn't go into things such as the sugar involved in eating fruit, or the hidden salt involved in bread - but it's a useful refresher for if your good intentions have slipped!


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Bacon & Asparagus Risotto

This lovely risotto isn't the risotto it should have been - although as it worked out, it was fairly exceptional in its own right.

You see, we had invited my parents over for lunch last week.  It seemed like a good moment, as son & heir was on holiday and we hadn't had them over to our place for quite some time.

However, we hadn't banked (and neither had he) on son & heir going down with what appeared to be a nasty cold, just two days before they were due to come.  Poor chap, he wasn't very well at all, and as my Dad is isn't in his first flush of youth, we figured that he could do without contracting such nastiness.  So, it was regrettably all called off - the day after we'd done all the shopping for the meal.

We had planned for hubby to make a Prosciutto, Asparagus & Petit Pois Risotto.  Problem number one came when the supermarket didn't have any Prosciutto.  We bought some bacon as a fall-back position and crossed our fingers that we'd be able to find some elsewhere.  In the circumstances we didn't need to - and the bacon got press ganged into use.

The Petits Pois got abandoned when we realised that we had double the quantity of (Moroccan - it'd be absolutely fabulous with English) Asparagus necessary to feed three people - and the Bacon & Asparagus Risotto was born.

Like a lot of recipes, this simple to make, comforting and very satisfying taste of Italian indulgence came out of necessity rather than via a recipe book.  I like it when that happens!

BACON & ASPARAGUS RISOTTO  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

500g asparagus, cut into pieces

250g streaky bacon, grilled and liquid fat reserved

25g butter

1 tbsp olive oil

2 banana shallots, diced finely

1 clove garlic, minced

320g arborio or carnaroli rice

half a glass of white wine

2 ham stock cubes in 1.2L of water

1 tsp dried basil

50g grated parmesan.

Method :

1.  Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil and, while you are waiting for it to boil, prepare a bowl of cold water with a tray of icecubes in it.

2.  Once the water is boiling, add the asparagus pieces and cook for 3 minutes.  Retaining the water, remove the asparagus and place into the iced water to stop the cooking process and retain the bright colour.

3.  Grill the bacon until the fat has rendered out of it.  Reserve the fat and slice all but 2 rashers into small pieces and reserve.

4.  Chop the remaining two rashers until finely minced and set aside.

5.  Now we get on with the risotto itself.  Using the cooking water from the asparagus, prepare the stock with the dried basil and have this simmering in a saucepan next to the risotto pan.

6.  In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and add the olive oil.

7.  Add the shallots and cook until softened, but not browned.  You want to keep the colour of the rice as pure and white as possible.  If you allow the shallots to brown, which will affect the colour of the end risotto.

8.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, then add the rice and half the bacon.  Cook and stir on as hot a heat as you dare, until the rice is completely coated in the buttery juices.

9.  Add the wine and continue to cook until it has sizzled all the alcohol out - a mere 30 seconds to a minute.  Stir continuously.

10.  Add a ladleful of stock and stir until the rice has absorbed the stock, then add another ladleful and stir.  Continue in this fashion until half the stock has been absorbed, then add the remainder of the bacon.

11.  Continue with the ladleful of stock and stirring, until the rice has become tender to the bite.

12.  Drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto, along with the Parmesan cheese.  Give everything a good stir and then leave, with a lid on, to rest for 5 minutes.

13.  Serve onto warmed plates and garnish with an asparagus point and the minced bacon.  A bowl of additional grated parmesan can also be served, for diners to help themselves.

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Huddersfield Hash - comfort food to rival a Cottage Pie

Huddersfield Hash.

Now there's a new one for me!  Have you ever heard of it?  I hadn't - but I'm jolly glad I found out about it - as it's all set to become one of our new family favourites.

I found it on www.cookitsimply.com (follow the link to the original recipe) when I was searching for minced beef recipes and was a tad sceptical to begin with.  That is, until I read the recipe and imagined the flavours together.  Hmmmn, yes - now that looked promising.

I could see that I'd need to increase the spicing a little, as hubby likes to be able to taste the spices that went into a meal - and at "a pinch", the likelihood of his being able to do so was minimal.  I didn't increase them much, however, just to a level teaspoonful.  I didn't want them to dominate all the other flavours.

In order to reduce the fat content of the dish, I also turned the cooking process around a little bit in order to drain the fat from the meat, without losing any of the other flavours.  I do think that it is well worth doing this, as most supermarket purchased minced beef will have a percentage of fat involved with it - and there's no need to be eating it.

I will also admit to including a tablespoonful of that fabulous secret ingredient that cheers up most tomato-based sauces, which is - of course - tomato ketchup.  Aaah, where would we be without tomato ketchup.  I find it far better to add a tablespoonful of tomato ketchup, than to add the same amount of tomato puree.  There is just such a lovely combination of spices in ketchup - and sugar - that it can't help but cheer up a lonely tomato sauce.  Very often - and particularly if I've used Tarantella organic tinned tomatoes (yes, that's a plug and no, I'm not being sponsored by them!) - I find that I don't need to add additional sugar, if I've used tomato ketchup.  (Which illustrates how much sugar you're throwing down your neck, when attached to your chips!).

I made the cheese sauce earlier on in the day, which meant that it was stone cold by the time I was assembling the dish.  I think it is very well worth doing that, as it not only makes "making dinner" a little bit easier, but helps the texture of the sauce once you've added the egg.

I served mine with plain boiled carrots, parsnips and broccoli, along with a new variety of potato that I had been sent to try out by the lovely people at Greenvale Farm Fresh - the "Jelly" potato.  With its rich yellow flesh, distinctive buttery taste and creamy texture, this is a potato worth taking note of!

This first try-out was a simple test of a potato, but it showcased the flavour - which was surprisingly very nice indeed!  I say "surprisingly" because I find that potatoes fall into two camps - the very "earthy" tasting ones and the rest (which don't taste of much at all).  These Jelly potatoes are blazing the trail for a third type of potato - one which doesn't taste "earthy", but does taste of potato!  Even hubby - who would happily see all potatoes loaded into a space rocket and fired into the face of the sun - was happily tucking into his! 

Another point of note for the Jelly potato is the ease with which they can be peeled.  As a disabled person with limited sensation in her hands, I found peeling these potatoes to be an absolute pleasure.  I can see how they have got the name "Jelly", as although they aren't in the least bit jellified, their close texture has a smoothness that means the peeler just glides through.  I'm looking forward to trying them out in different incarnations!

If you're a Shepherd's or Cottage pie devotee, as I am, I reckon you'll really enjoy this Huddersfield Hash.  Give it a try - it's the perfect weather for it, at the moment!


HUDDERSFIELD HASH  (feeds 4)


Ingredients :


For the sauce :

20g butter
2 heaped tbsp plain flour
milk, from 1 pint (although you probably won't need the full pint)
half a tsp English mustard powder
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of cayenne pepper
150g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten.


For the meat mixture :
500g minced beef
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small courgettes, sliced
1 large Spanish onion, finely chopped (I used a red onion)
1 bay leaf
half a tsp of paprika
half a tsp of ground cumin
half a tsp of ground coriander
1 garlic clove, chopped fine or grated
500g minced beef
400g canned tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato ketchup.

METHOD :

1.  Begin, earlier in the day, by making the cheese sauce.  In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour.  Mix until the flour has absorbed all the butter and cook out for a minute or so on a medium heat.


2.  Slowly, and whisking all the time, add the milk until the sauce reaches a gorgeously thick and gloopy consistency.


3.  Add the mustard powder, cayenne and nutmeg and whisk through until properly combined, then remove from the heat and add the cheese.


4.  Stir the cheese through and it will melt in the residual heat of the sauce.  You can adjust the texture of the sauce by adding a little more milk now if it is too thick, but don't boil the sauce (to reduce it if it's too thin) now it has the cheese in it, or it might split.  It is far better for it to be too thick!


5.  Set the sauce aside to cool.

6.  The next stage is the meat mixture.  Pre heat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.   In a large frying pan, dry fry the mince until it is beginning to caramelise where it touches the pan and has given up all its fat.

7.  Remove the meat to a warmed dish and reserve.  Drain the fat (into the dog's bowl, is always a good idea!).

8.  Add the olive oil to the pan and the sliced courgettes.  Cook until beginning to brown - on both sides - and reserve in an oven proof dish.

9.  Add the onion to the pan and cook on a medium heat until softened.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

10.  Return the meat to the pan and stir to combine.

11.  Stir in the bay leaf and spices and make sure they are well distributed through the mixture.

12.  Add the tomatoes and ketchup.  Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon, but leave them fairly chunky.  Simmer for some 15 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.  Season to taste.
13. Turn the meat mixture into the baking dish and level the top.

14.  Take the egg and whisk it into the cheese sauce, then cover the meat mixture with the sauce.

15. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

16. Serve. 

Printable version
 

Swiss Eggs - a naughty, but utterly irresistible, lunch

Swiss Eggs.  Aaaah, how just those two little words can carry me back in time to when I was a teenager living with my parents & brother near Epsom.

I can remember some "lunches of note" such as bacon & tomatoes on toast, cold roast chicken & sweetcorn relish sandwiches and cheese on pickle on toast.  However none of them has the sheer power of a food memory that the Swiss Eggs do.

My memory fails me where the first taste of this lunchtime paragon is concerned, but I can well remember grating the cheese and filling the little dishes as my Mum breaks the eggs to go in them.  Then she would add the little splosh of milk and I would do the sprinkling of Worcestershire sauce and pop the little knobs of butter on top.

Into the oven they went, while we toasted and buttered some bread and sat waiting for the oven to work its magic.  As the twenty minutes passed, the smells of hot Worcestershire sauce were replaced by melting, baking cheese.  Oooooh, the anticipation!

I went through all that again today, except in a different order as I was the Mum and son & heir was the progeny I was making them for.  There is something beautifully cyclic about these types of cooking moments - moments that I can only hope that son & heir will carry forward to his family, as and when.

It has to have been some ten years or more since I last had Swiss Eggs.  Hubby is egg sensitive, so I don't make them for him - and it seemed too much to fire up the oven just for me.  Owing to the thermo nuclear temperature that the ramekins achieve, it has taken this long for me to trust son & heir's tender fingertips - and not least, his tongue - with the correct handling of one.

Today was the day - and, almost in celebration, I pushed the boat out a bit and substituted some cream for the milk.  The cheddar was lovely Lake District Cheddar and the eggs free range.  The anticipation was the same, as I sat in the kitchen appreciating the fragrances issuing from the oven, but even that was eclipsed by that first spoonful.

Oh dear god.  Let it not be ten years before I make these again.  They are, truly, divine.

SWISS EGGS  (makes 1)

Ingredients :

Enough grated cheddar to half fill a good sized ramekin
2 fresh eggs
a tablespoonful of cream (milk would do)
four spots of Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180degC(fan)/350degF/Gas4.

2.  Place half the grated cheese into the bottom of a ramekin.

3.  Crack the two eggs into the ramekin, on top of the cheese.

4.  Cover the eggs with the remaining cheese.

5.  Pour the cream (or milk) over and season with the pepper and four spots of Worcestershire sauce.

6.  Place into the oven for 20 minutes, or until the eggs have risen and the cheese is bubbling.

7.  Serve with buttered toast, in a quiet place, where you can be alone with your lunch - because you're not going to want to share it!

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Tandoori Chicken (without a Tandoori Oven) from The Curry Guy

The most important thing to say about this Tandoori Chicken recipe - and so this is why I'm saying it now, right at the start - is that, red food colouring or no red food colouring, the flavour is absolutely to-die-for.

Thank you, that is all.

Or - not quite all.  *chuckle*  Well, you wouldn't expect me not to rabbit on a bit about such a terrific recipe, now would you?

The thing is, that I've tried a number of recipes for oven-baked Tandoori Chicken and everything prior to this has left me with egg on my face, wishing I'd not have bothered.

What led me to have enough faith in this recipe to try it, was a) it came from www.greatcurryrecipes.net - or "Indian Food Recipes - made easy" which is a website written by @TheCurryGuy, Dan Toombs, and b) I've tried several of Dan's recipes - all of which have been brilliant.

I was determined, since I discovered that our butcher is now selling chicken legs as well as breast meat, that I would have a chicken leg - as I felt sure that the flavour would be greater and anyway, I prefer leg meat.  Son & heir likes the flavour of leg meat, but likes the sheer quantity of meat you get from the breast.  Hubby is a confirmed chicken breast devotee, as he hates any hint of fat on his meat.  So, as you can see, there was a very differing set of requirements here!

However, I bought two legs and two breasts of chicken - and we divided them up amongst us.  The legs I jointed into thighs and drumsticks on the reckoning that it would be far easier to handle that way around - and Tandoori Chicken was made to be eaten without knives and forks.

I will admit to going about the recipe all the wrong way - owing largely to an over keenness to get the chicken marinading.  I was so worried that I'd forget to marinade it!

I should have let the chicken sit in salt, food colouring and lemon juice before covering with the marinade, but in fact, I just included the salt and lemon juice in the marinade and let them sit in the lot.  I doubt this made a great deal of difference to the flavour, but it certainly made a difference to the colour, as all traces of food colouring were washed away by the yoghurt.  Still, it didn't make any difference at all to the flavours, which were just out of this world.


The oven roasting took a wee bit longer than I had anticipated - probably because my chicken pieces were massive - but it was worth giving it that extra 10 minutes to allow a little charring to appear.  Under the marinade, the chicken was softly moist and delicious while the marinade made us gasp a tiny bit from the chilli heat - oh boy, but it was good.

Everyone - son & heir included - completely loved this recipe.  The chilli aspect is something that is within your own control, in that if you aren't good with hot spicy food, then just don't use as many chillis.  So there's no need to not enjoy such a cracking recipe - just tone it down to your own taste.


I haven't reproduced the recipe here, as I followed it pretty much as it was written.  Do go to this link and see whether you fancy having a go at it - it honestly, couldn't be much easier - and the results are completely fabulous.


I served my Tandoori Chicken with some Saffron Rice and a little salad of red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and coriander that had been dressed with a little lemon juice.


This was my recipe of the week - and I thoroughly recommend it to you!


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Harveys – a tasty secret that should be better known!

Frank, busy cooking - click to view the menu boards!

Harveys, a small family run café at 292 Ashley Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset is a wonderful secret that deserves to be better known.

I had been aware of the place for years.  Well, you can’t really escape its presence when driving past and they put the enormous ice cream licking bull outside the front door!

Last week, I was parked right outside and had time to browse the menu boards – and I’m not talking two menu boards, I’m talking five or six menu boards!  There was everything from a roast dinner through meatballs and pasta, to a cheeseburger or giant hot dog (three types) – and chips.  In fact, if you count the sandwiches and baps, omelettes and full English breakfasts, I doubt there is much a person could ask for (except fish – I don’t remember seeing any fish on the menu) that Frank & Sue couldn’t supply.  The most amazing thing though, is the price.  Most meals are priced at between £2-£3, with pretty much only the enormous full English breakfast priced at more.

It was then, that I decided I just had to call in there for lunch – and the sooner the better, because that Bacon Pudding just had to be sampled!

So hubby and I took ourselves there a few days later.

Small, but packed with goodies!

Walking through those front swing doors is like stepping back in time to the late 1950’s.  I absolutely loved it – even if we did leave smelling of deep fat fryer!

The space inside is split into two areas – to the left is seating and tables, to the right is a chiller counter, behind which Frank is busy cooking and which enables him and Sue to hold conversations with their patrons.  There were a couple already seated, who looked up and smiled as we came in.  What a difference to the “eyes down, don’t make eye contact” philosophy of diners at one of the modern fast food joints.

We took our seats and began pondering the many menu boards.  I was torn between a Roast Pork dinner, the Barbecue Pork, the Bacon Pudding that had enticed me to begin with and Faggots.  I mean to say – where else would you get Faggots on the menu, these days?  Apparently, they are made by the Butcher just down the road from the café – and as Frank put it, he makes ‘em, I cook ‘em!

I couldn’t resist the Bacon Pudding, however, and opted for mashed potato and vegetables with gravy as accompaniments out of a list of possibilities that Frank reeled off like the seasoned pro that he is.  I absolutely loved the fact that he gave me a rundown on a) the background of the dish - it is apparently a Traveller’s dish that some passing Travellers asked for on one visit and he had made for them by the next time they came; b) what it is made of - suet, bacon, onions and seasoning and c) how it is cooked - packed into a loaf tin and steamed for two hours.

This is – of course – completely outside of what I know I should be eating (low fat) and what my current diet (low carbs) dictates I should be eating.  It just had to be done, however.

The bacon pudding - and real mashed potato!

My plate arrived, bearing two large thick slices of bacon pudding, along with a healthy dollop of mashed potato and some mixed vegetables and a good helping of lovely rich gravy.  The vegetables had come direct from the freezer – but for £3 for the lot, you seriously cannot complain – at least they were cooked to order and not sitting stewing in some bain marie.  Just the sight of the plateful made me smile and immediately took me back to childhood.

Which was nothing, compared to the first mouthful of that Bacon Pudding.  Whoosh – and I was carried straight back to the 1970’s and school dinners.  Not that that was a bad thing, I hasten to add, as our school dinners were immense and delicious!  Seriously!  The Bacon Pudding is absolutely what it promises to be – the kind of thing that would feed a huge family for next to nothing.  The kind of thing that would fill hungry bellies on a cold day and leave them set up for whatever was to come.  No, it’s not Michelin star cooking – but for £3?  You honestly couldn’t produce the same meal for less  at home.  It was completely marvellous.

My only regret was that owing to the fact that I was completely stuffed, I couldn’t sample some of the Ice Cream delights that are offered.  I have been bemoaning the lack of a true Knickerbocker Glory anywhere – and there it was on the Ice Cream menu.

Frank & Sue opened Harveys to fill a gap and not just a hungry gap between your shoulders and your hips, but the gap which meant that many folk would go hungry as food became so expensive and the local meals on wheels service charged more.  I love their ethos of providing good home cooking for a small charge and if I ever become incapable of cooking for myself, I know where I’ll be eating – Harveys!

This place deserves to do well and to be supported by the local populace – so come on, I absolutely know there’s something there for everyone.

Author's note :  We paid full price for our meals there and Harvey's are unaware of this review at the time of publishing.  I just feel, very strongly, that it needs our support.

Cherry Shortbread Hearts

As Valentine's Day has been and gone, I can own up to what I gave my hubby without having to whisper or speak in code.

In fact, it was completely impossible to make these gorgeous Shortbread lovelies (which are a James Martin recipe that I found on BBC Good Food's website) without his knowing - as my spending a good couple of hours in the kitchen is a bit hard to miss.

However, what I did was to make a whole bucket load of the biscuits (which was just as well, as it happens) and pick the best 12 or so to go in a little baggie, just for him.

The theme was along the lines of tea & biscuits, so I also bought him a new tea mug which doesn't sound all that romantic or exciting until you realise that my hubby cannot survive without his tea - and preferably, biscuits.  I'm not altogether sure where the expensive dark chocolate that I also got for him came in to the equation, but he likes it - and Valentine's Day is meant to involve chocolate.

These biscuits were a long time in the creation, as it took me for ever to find a cookie cutter in the shape of a heart - and luckily found some in the supermarket once they'd got their full collection of Valentine's Day goods in.  The next thing to find was the baggie and it is truly amazing that as soon as I started looking for a bag with hearts on, they'd all disappeared.  Hey ho - I got one with sweeties on instead.

The biscuits themselves were quite a long time in the creation too, as I hadn't banked on what appeared to be a recipe for 14-16 biscuits making in the range of 25-30!  They had to go in to the oven, on two baking trays, in three instalments - which meant I had quite a production line going, in the end.  So, if you're considering making these and don't want that many, I'd suggest that it might be an idea to halve the quantities!

Still, they did their job - and if you're interested in a light but rich, crispy and jammy, melt in your mouth Shortbread biscuit, then these are for you!

I would recommend that your cookie cutter (which doesn't HAVE to be a heart shape, by the way!) is quite a large one.  Otherwise, when you come to pressing the bottle top in to them to make the indentation required for the jam, if the biscuit is too small you stand the chance of it fracturing - and nobody wants broken hearts!

Another change to the original recipe is that I would heat the jam slightly in a saucepan to encourage its fluidity, prior to placing onto the biscuit.  I found that my jam had a disconcerting habit of just sitting there in a jammy lump - which wasn't the idea at all.

I found that by far the easier way of cutting out the biscuits was to cut some dough from the ball and roll that out - probably around six or so's biscuits-worth.  Doing this prevented the dough from becoming over-handled through successive re-rollings and ensured the biscuits all stayed light.  It also means you have far less of a great lump to handle!

I have entered these little lovelies in the Very Good Recipes "Be My Valentine" competition, so we'll see how we get on!


Now then, is it tea time?


CHERRY SHORTBREAD HEARTS   (makes hundreds. Oh alright then, between 15-20)


Ingredients :


100g icing sugar
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g cornflour
50g ground almonds
250g pack cold butter, cut into cubes
50g glace cherries, finely chopped
half a tsp of almond extract
cherry jam, sieved.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 and prepare two baking trays with parchment or greaseproof paper.


2.  Into a large bowl, sift the icing sugar, flour and cornflour.


3.  Stir in the ground almonds, then rub in the butter until smooth.  You can use a food processor for this bit.


4.  Stir in the chopped glace cherries and almond extract, bringing together to form a dough.


5.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface, then cut out biscuits gently using your cookie cutter.


6.  Carefully place each biscuit onto a baking tray, leaving enough room between each so that they don't touch.


7.  Place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden.


8.  Remove from the oven and, before the biscuits can cool, press a bottle top lightly into the centre of each, making the depression for the jam to go into.


9.  Spoon a little of the jam into each depression and replace into the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until the jam has settled and the biscuits are a rich golden colour.


10.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool further.


11.  Get the kettle on!


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Drunken Spaghetti - deceptive and delicious!

You'll have read the previous blog post about the Barefoot Wine cocktail, Moscato Love, and so won't be surprised to hear that this blog post is all about what we did with the bottle of Merlot that arrived at the same time.

This Valentine's Day has been a bit of a higgledy-piggledy mess of successes and failures.  Success in that we both (hubby and I) managed to find gifts for one another (see "Cherry Shortbread Hearts" post, up next) and thus clawed a tiny bit of romance out of a remarkably unsuccessful day.  The problems with the day all began when I hurt my back and couldn't cook and couldn't sit at the computer for very long.  This meant a bit of a re-hash of the menu listing for the week and hubby had to stand in for me in the kitchen (along with everything else he does) - and all my planned blog postings for Valentines Day have wound up appearing after the event.

Add to that the fact that it is son & heir's half term holiday, so we had one friend of his staying for a sleepover that took us through to Valentines Day morning.  We took that friend home, and had to go shopping - not terribly romantic.  The lovely Asda then let me down severely with their selection (which was, in fact, a non-selection of white fish) so instead of a lovely Valentines' Dinner, we wound up eating pizza.  Not just pizza, but disgusting pizza too.  To add insult to injury, son & heir went swimming and then unexpectedly stayed at his friend's house for tea.  I doubt we'd have gone out if we'd have known, but it would have given us the chance at least!


*sigh*  Oh well, I suppose there's always next year.

To get back to the recipe, the lovely folks at Barefoot Wine had sent us some menu suggestions to play with - and I particularly liked the look of their Drunken Spaghetti.


Hubby sprang into the breach and got busy in the kitchen making the spaghetti, which turned out to be quite deceptively scrumptious!


From looking at the recipe, it appeared to be a standard Bolognese except with the addition of carrot, celery and of course, the Merlot.

Now the "drunken" bit refers to the fact that you cook the spaghetti in a combination of wine and water (you can imagine the tears involved in losing a percentage of the lovely wine to this cause - so perhaps I might advocate the use of a rather lesser denomination of red, if you're going to have a go at this) which brings it up an interesting shade of pink.  I was pleasantly surprised to note that you can actually taste the wine in the spaghetti (so don't use a particularly sour vintage!), as I was anticipating that the flavour would be washed out by the water.  Not so.


The ragu mixture that topped the spaghetti was deliciously flavoursome.  No doubt the quality of the Merlot helped a lot here, as once you'd given the whole ensemble a liberal dusting with Parmesan, the flavours were complete.


In fact, just writing about it is making my tummy rumble - or is that just because it's lunchtime?


Outside of the recipe, the Merlot is an intensely flavoured wine - in fact, I'd go so far as to say it almost explodes on your tongue.  The bouquet is one of freshly cut pine wood, but the flavours are raisins, cherries and a deeper note that sparks the tastebuds into almost frenzied activity.  A really very surprising red wine!


Cheers!  (Again!).


DRUNKEN SPAGHETTI    (serves 3)


Ingredients :


400g dried spaghetti

2½ cups of red wine (Barefoot Merlot)

500g lean minced beef

400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

500g Passata

a good pinch of dried oregano (or to taste)

2 tbsp olive oil

grated Parmesan to serve.

Method :

1.  In a deep frying pan or a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the onion until tender.  Remove and reserve to keep warm.

2.  Add the beef and brown over a high heat until it has rendered its fat.  Drain the beef by moving it to one side of the pan and spooning away the fat.

3.  Re-introduce the onions to the pan, and include the garlic, carrot, celery and tomatoes.  Stir over a medium heat until softened.

4.  Add the passata and a half a cup of the wine.  Stir well to combine and add the oregano and seasoning to taste.

5.  Cook over a medium heat so that the sauce boils gently, so reducing the liquid, for some 15 minutes or so - or until a thick consistency has been reached and the vegetables are all tender.

6.  In the meantime, bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil.  Add the rest of the Merlot (try not to cry - it's worth it, honest!) and the spaghetti.

7.  Cook to the packet instructions (usually around 8-10 minutes) or until al dente.  Drain, then return to the pan and add a drizzle of olive oil and season with freshly ground black pepper.

8.  Serve the meat sauce on top of the spaghetti and garnish with a good covering of finely grated Parmesan cheese.

Lovely!

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