Curried Vegetable Soup - a lovely winter warmer

We decided, quite recently, to try and have a vegetarian night every so often.  Not so often as weekly, but fairly regularly all the same.  When a vegetarian recipe strikes me as being right for our tastes - that sort of thing.

So, when I saw the recipe for this Curried Vegetable Soup as I was looking for a main course soup, I didn't immediately consider whether to put some chicken in it!

Any vegetarian recipe has to have some kind of "oomph!" for me to consider it for the family.  We are all such confirmed meat eaters that some of the lighter bites that seem to be on offer as vegetarian fare just aren't man enough for us.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of point in having dinner, then finding the menfolk scouring the kitchen cupboards for something to eat just half an hour later.  Seems a poor use of resources, to me!

This is one of the reasons why some of the salad recipes just aren't any good for us.  I'd have to put a whacking great jacket potato with it, just to stop the snacking that would go on later in the evening.  Not that there's anything wrong with a jacket potato per se, it's just that it would probably kill the delicacy of a tender young salad with scallops, for instance.

Yes, we're definitely in the market for manly, hearty vegetarian food.

Food like this Curried Vegetable Soup, for instance.  With its use of butternut squash, carrots and celeriac, you have all your vegetable goodness along with protein from the lentils, warm curry spices to keep the palate interested and lovely coconut milk to give the impression of dairy creaminess.  I also used some of the lovely vegetable stock powder from Essential Cuisine, as their stocks are not only beautifully flavoured but low in salt, too.

I was surprised, when it came to making the soup, that the instructions didn't start with "put the onion pieces into the pan".  For once, especially where a recipe involving curry spices is concerned, there is no onion involved!  It makes a pleasant change.

Now hubby is a man who very definitely - in the ordinary course of events - does not like lentils.  However, this is one of the very few ways in which he will accept red lentils - much like cauliflower.  In this instance, the lentils just melt away as they cook and give the soup some great substance.  With the final go round from the blender, even though I kept some of the vegetables back for added texture, he was perfectly happy to accept lentils.

There's just something about curry spices and red lentils that go so well.  They really are a match made in heaven - and I was pretty sure I'd get away with using them.

I served the soup with some ready made flatbreads from our local Asda.  These flatbreads are "Coronation" flavour, so think Coronation Chicken.  They have some gentle curry flavours, along with coconut and sultanas - and are just perfect for dipping into this soup.

To be honest, I think just about anything (except maybe a marshmallow - euk!) would be great to eat alongside this soup.  You could go down the Indian route and serve onion bhajees, or hunks of warm crusty farmhouse bread and butter for the more traditional route.  Either way, I know the cockles of your heart will be thoroughly warmed.  You can't ask for more than that!

CURRIED VEGETABLE SOUP   (serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and diced small
200g carrots, peeled and diced small
a quarter of a celeriac, peeled and diced small
1 tbsp curry powder
half a tsp turmeric
100g red lentils
700ml vegetable stock (I used Essential Cuisine Vegetable Stock powder)
400ml tin coconut milk
a handful of green peas, defrosted if frozen
2-3 sprigs of fresh coriander, chopped plus some for garnish.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the squash, carrots and celeriac.  Cook until the vegetables are beginning to brown and soften a little, then stir in the curry powder and cook for 1 minute more.

2.  Add the turmeric, lentils, stock and coconut milk and bring up to a low boil.

3.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are cooked.

4.  Remove a few ladlefuls of the vegetables to a jug.  Add the chopped coriander to the remainder of the soup and using a hand blender, blitz the soup to your preferred consistency.  Add the vegetables back in and include the peas.

5.  Bring back up to heat and continue to simmer until the peas are cooked - around 2-3 minutes.

Serve.

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Loot from the Dorset Smokery!

We're just back from our latest visit to the Dorset Smokery, where everyone is just so nice!

We met Marcus and Pippa - along with the lovely Georgie - today, so we're gradually getting to know all the Smokery family, which is great.

Marcus had been making Venison & Red Wine sausages, which was just as well, as they were what we'd had in mind.  Apparently, they'd been at the Kingston Maurward food fair at the weekend and had sold out of just about everything, so were busy stocking up again.

Inevitably, we didn't leave there with just the sausages - oh no.  We also came away with a bottle of alcohol-free Ginger Wine and a little jar of Gooseberry Cheese, which is just begging for me to find it some Farmhouse Cheddar to be eaten with.

Hubby is currently cooking off some of the sausages for the sausage casserole tonight - and they smell a-mazing.

I'll also be using a couple of them in the Turkey Pithivier tomorrow, which will make it a little bit more special than it was beforehand.

Do, please, go and visit The Dorset Smokery if you're in the area.  Or even make a special trip there if you find yourself with a free day!  They are literally just beside Bournemouth Airport and there's a huge green sign at the end of their road - so not difficult to find.

In fact - why not go along to one of their Christmas Open Days - Saturday 24th November or Saturday 8th December, from 10am - 4pm?  You'll get a glass of mulled wine if you do - and there'll be tasters of just about everything - plus I guarantee you'll leave with some wonderful booty to keep your tastebuds interested over the Christmas period.

Oh and no - they haven't paid me in any way to say these things, I just think it's very worthwhile shouting about it, when you find somewhere that the people are lovely and the produce is even better!
 

This week, I shall mostly be .... roasting!

Which would be okay, if I were talking about the weather.  Unfortunately, as we are now deep into late autumn/early winter, I can't see we'll be roasting under the sun any time soon.

No, this week's menu plan seems to have brought with it at least three instalments of roasting - vegetables, goat and chicken - but not all at the same time.

Now, before we get into all that, let's have a little look back at last week.  We actually made 90% of the dinners I'd planned - only opting out on Sunday's Osso Bucco, which got moved on to Monday.  The planned crunchy fish & slavering mice (*giggle*), have been moved on to this coming Monday.  So, nothing goes to waste.

Osso Bucco & Risotto Milanese - will be blogged very soon!

We had a sudden attack of the "right, I'm fed up with this bedroom being such a dump!" and had a serious re-shuffle (well, hubby did all the shuffling and re-shuffling, I just observed and offered my opinion when it was required) on Sunday, which meant that I just didn't have time to put the Osso Bucco together.  So we had a kebab instead - which, as it turns out, is a whole lot healthier than Osso Bucco!  After all, with a Shish Kebab, the lamb is cooked over the fire on skewers and is as lean as can be - then placed into a pitta bread and accompanied by salad.  I reckon that's got to be the healthiest takeaway meal you can get!

So what's for dinner this week?  Well, I have a couple of blog-worthy meals - but I am trying not to make any more that will require blogging for the next week or so.  I have such a backlog of bloggable meals already photographed, that I think I need to work my way through some of those before I forget what they are!  Here's what's on the menu :

Tues : Scampi, salad, potato salad & coleslaw with garlic bread

Weds : Sausage casserole & rice

Thurs : Turkey Pithivier, roast potatoes & parsnips, brussels sprouts, peas & pigs in blankets

Fri: Nasi Goreng

Sat : Roast leg of goat, sweet potato jackets, mushroom & courgette cream and broccoli

Sun : Roast chicken, roast potatoes & parsnips, brussels sprouts, carrots, stuffing & Yorkshire puddings

Mon : Crunchy fish & slavering mice.

You see what I mean about the prevalence of roasting going on this week?

I like to think of Tuesday's meal as being something of a punctuation point for the week.  It's when we do the shopping, so fresh food like salad is perfect for Tuesday.  However, we're generally pretty bushed on the day we go shopping - and making a big production dinner (even if it's a salad!) isn't my preference.

So I think that Scampi fits very nicely into that "something different - but not tricky to make" bracket.  Yes, it is pre-breadcrumbed and no, I'm not preparing them from scratch, for that very reason.  The potato salad and coleslaw are shop bought too.  I'm having a day off, okay?

We're off to the Dorset Smokery again on Wednesday, to find some lovely bangers to have in our Sausage Casserole that night - hubby's in charge of that one - and also to find some special sausages to use in the Turkey Pithivier the following day.

The Turkey Pithivier idea is part of the "Lean on Turkey" campaign, with Christmas in mind of course!  This year, the challenge is to find something interesting to use your turkey dinner leftovers for - and our idea is to make a lovely Pithivier, with a view to using it on New Year's Day.

Currently, the Pithivier will be full of turkey meat, chestnuts, cranberries, stuffing and sausage meat.  I can imagine what I'm after making, but whether or not it appears how I imagined it, remains to be seen.  Either way, it can't be bad - not with those ingredients!

Friday's Nasi Goreng has finally found a place, having been moved on from last week!  All the ingredients are in the house, so it should be a relatively simple matter to put it all together.  I just need to remember to pre-cook some rice during the day!  I'm looking forward to this one, as I've been yearning for it ever since I saw a photograph of someone's pilau rice they made for their dinner!  See - told you I was susceptible to suggestion!

Who put this picture here?  Nooo, don't let them look!

Saturday's roast leg of Goat relies on a delivery from Farmers Choice Free Range Ltd on Thursday.  They've always been as good as their word, so I see no reason to worry on this instance.  The lovely Jason has offered to send me a leg of Goat to roast, as we had so much trouble with the fat involved in the stew pack.  I'm really looking forward to this, as I've got an inkling that it is going to be luscious.  I intend to roast it hard and fast, in a hot oven, much in the same way as you would spring lamb and try to keep it a little pink in the middle.

I didn't want to make the traditional roast dinner accompaniments, as we're having roast chicken the following day (yes, I could have moved it - but there's a reason why we're eating it then!), so pondered on what would be tasty, yet not such a big flavour that it might swamp the delicate goat meat.  Also, bearing in mind the oven is already on for the goat, it made sense to use that.  Hence, sweet potatoes in their jackets.  I'll probably dream up some kind of topping for the sweet potatoes by the time we get there, but at the moment I'm not doing so well for ideas!  So, we'll have the sweet goat meat, sweet potatoes (with hopefully some kind of savoury topping), the very savoury mushroom/courgette cream and broccoli to mop it all up with.  Sounds very acceptable, to me!

Now the reason why we're eating the roast chicken on Sunday, is entirely down to our local butcher having a remarkable special offer on legs of lamb.  We are intent on getting one for our Christmas dinner - but need the space in the freezer to keep it.  Hence, the chicken has to go!

No - not THAT kind of mice ..

Monday's dinner will also make a bit of room in the freezer, as we'll be able to get rid of the big box of crunchy (breadcrumbed) fish!  The slavering mice have been slavering away in the larder in their little packets and could easily continue to do so for quite some time - but savoury rice goes so well with crunchy fish (especially when you're trying to avoid the high fat chips!).

..... this kind of rice!

So there you have it - this week is a bit of a chess game, all designed to create room in the freezer for Christmas.  No, don't tell me now many weeks away it is - I've got to make the Christmas Puddings yet and I don't want to get all panicky!

One last word - congratulations to Caroline from All That I'm Eating, who won the Boeuf Bourguignon box - and commiserations to all who missed out.  Son & heir picked the winning number - although he had no idea why he was choosing a number between 1 and 20.  He dryly commented afterwards "oh, I feel so .. involved".  LOL  Thank you all for trying - and here's wishing you all better luck next time!

Coffee & Walnut Loaf - a perfect tea-time cake

One dismal and dreary Saturday, when I was sitting here neatening up photographs for upcoming blog posts, I was made aware of some clatterings and drawer-scrufflings that were undoubtedly coming from the kitchen.

I could hear the baking larder door being opened and closed, the pyrex bowls being got out, the hand whisk's "whiskerators" (our name) being extracted from the mad puzzle that is the utensil drawer and the unmistakable sound of the oven buzzing into life.

All this meant just one thing - hubby had decided to bake a cake.

We had avidly watched the whole series of "Great British Bake Off", without either of us running keenly to the kitchen to follow up on inspiration gained.  We had even watched the Mary Berry/Paul Hollywood baking masterclass spin-off programmes without being moved to recreate any of the recipes.  (Although I do have a number of "would like to makes" on the back burner).

Hubby, however, had been harbouring a secret desire for a Coffee & Walnut cake for a while.

Too many decorations? Does not compute!

We do try to ride out these sorts of desires.  Wait to see whether it's a real yearning, or whether it's just a passing fancy.  For instance, I've been harbouring a want to make a fish curry for oh, probably some four to five months now.  It's just waiting for a time when the right fish is affordable and the dish will fit into the remainder of the week's menu.  I'll get there, one day!

This fancy quite obviously wasn't going to go away though - so he was acting upon it.

Now, how easy would it be, to go off to the local supermarket and buy a Coffee & Walnut cake, eh?  It would be the work of minutes as Sainsbury's is literally just down the road.  But no - there he was up to his neck in flour and walnuts, making the object of his desire.  You've got to admire him for that!

This was a very particular Coffee & Walnut cake though.  It wasn't to be one of your traditional round cake - oh no.  What he was hankering after was a loaf shaped version, filled with chopped walnuts and ripe with the flavour of coffee.  It was to have oodles of coffee buttercream on top, instead of sandwiched in between the two layers.  Oh - and loads of chocolate decoration.  Nothing else would do.


So, for those moments when you desire an outrageously decorated Coffee & Walnut Loaf that is light as a feather, deliciously nutty and rich with coffee flavours - here's hubby's recipe.

COFFEE & WALNUT LOAF

Ingredients :

150g of self raising flour
125ml full cream milk
110g caster sugar
75g unsalted butter cut into cubes
3 tsp instant coffee granules
60g of crushed walnuts plus 16 walnut halves to decorate
1 beaten egg.

Method :
1.  Butter and line (I used a loaf tin liner) an 8 by 3 inch loaf tin.

2.  In a large saucepan, place the milk, butter and coffee granules and warm until the butter is melted and the granules have dissolved.

3.  Remove the pan from the heat and then add the sugar and crushed walnuts.  Stir until the sugar has dissolved before folding in the beaten egg.

4.  Finally, add the flour in stages, stirring gently and continuously until all of the flour has been incorporated

5.  Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and then place into an oven, preheated to 325degF/160degC/gas3.  Bake for 45 minutes before testing with a skewer - which should come out clean, if the cake is done. 

6.  Remove the loaf tin from the oven and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire cooling rack.  Once fully cooled, decorate the cake with coffee frosting and halved walnuts.

For the Frosting

Ingredients :

120g butter, room temperature
160g icing sugar
15ml (or more to taste) strong coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract.

7.  Whisk the butter until it becomes pale before incorporating the sugar in stages.  Whisk together until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.  Finally, whisk in the coffee and vanilla until well incorporated.  If the mixture becomes too stiff, simply add a splash of milk.   For a bit of variation, other trusted coffee additions such as cinnamon or hazelnut syrup can be added.

All that remains is to make a cup of tea, get out your best crockery and indulge yourself!

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Introducing ... Hampshire Hash!

Many years ago - longer than I care to remember - my friend Linda Hessell and I went on a Western Horse Riding weekend at Burley in the New Forest.  I was in my teens and it was my first holiday away without my parents.

When I think about it, we were babes in the wood really - but we took care of each other and managed to emerge unscathed at the end of the weekend, having had a great time.

Funny how sometimes your world turns in ways that return you back across tracks you've already travelled.  Some thirty five years (oh darn, there, I've remembered!) and eight house moves later, I find myself living within a twenty minute drive of Burley and have been past the same riding stables several times.

There are many reasons for remembering this holiday fondly, not least being the food - which was fabulous.  They had a housekeeper/cook who fed us all really well at the end of each day, with lashings of comfort food when we were all starving after riding across the New Forest and trying to look like we knew what we were doing.

Two recipes stand out from the weekend, firstly the Corned Beef Pie that I blogged back in December 2011 and this Hampshire Hash.

Now it is very probable that the affection with which I remember the holiday, may have something to do with where these two recipes stand in my memory.  My liking for Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie are well known - and Hampshire Hash fits very neatly into that category.

Before going into the oven ...

However, it had been some while since I last made Hampshire Hash as it had evolved into something which wound up being rather greasy - and occasionally, with semi-cooked potato cubes on top.  You can just imagine how much Hubby enjoyed that combination!

I'd been hankering after having another go at Hampshire Hash for some time and had been pondering on how to ensure a) it wasn't greasy and b) the potato was cooked.  I thought I had a plan and hubby agreed to give it a try, so we were set.

.... and after.  Mmmmnn!

Now previously, I will admit to not skimming the fat from the minced beef once it was browned - which obviously contributed a lot to the grease.  So that was an easy change - to fry the mince to the point where all the water had evaporated, the fat was rendered down and the mince was caramelising - then skim off the fat.  Sorted.

Now the potato aspect to the dish also had some input into the grease element.  Basically, you toss the potato pieces in a combination of full fat mayonnaise (low fat is just disgusting once cooked) and tomato ketchup.  Sounds a bit odd, but it works.  However, too much mayonnaise and you'll find it releases a lot of grease once it warms up.

So I decided to split the par-boiled potato pieces into two groups.  One which sits on top of the mince and absorbs the gravy - and the remainder which gets the mayonnaise/ketchup treatment and goes on the top.  That way, you still get the lovely flavours, with much less mayonnaise involved.

Well, it worked up to a point.  Interestingly, even though I put the minced beef in the casserole dish at a high temperature and added the plain potato pieces immediately, the ones with the mayonnaise on them cooked far more quickly.  I suspect this is because a) they were on top and b) the oil in the mayonnaise helped to "fry" them - and at a higher temperature than the ones underneath.  So we wound up - still - with some pieces of potato being noticeably harder than others.

So my cunning plan - reflected in the recipe below - is to leave one half of the potato pieces to cook for longer at the par-boiling stage.  I figure that if you start off with them slightly ahead of their mayo-coated brethren, everything should finish at the same level.  Also, make sure you give them the full three-quarters of an hour in the oven, to get that lovely caramelised edge to the potato pieces.

I really like this dish.  As a change from your regular Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie, it fits the bill well.  Especially as the minced beef part to it is flavoured differently - with curry powder and cinnamon - to add to the interest.

Oh and one other point - take care not to over-salt the dish.  The addition of curry powder can give a similar effect to salt, so you can afford to be sparing.

Hubby gave this version the thumbs up as regards grease and overall flavour, so I think I've probably succeeded where that is concerned.  Son and heir polished off his plateful, having been somewhat doubtful about how hungry he was to begin with - so that's another vote of approval.

I served ours with steamed carrots, butternut squash, peas and sweetcorn - but it would go with just about any vegetable of your choice.

HAMPSHIRE HASH   (feeds 4-5)

Ingredients :

3 or 4 large Maris Piper potatoes, peeled
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped finely
500g lean minced beef
3 chestnut mushrooms, chopped finely
1 large celery stalk, de-stringed and chopped finely
1 heaped tsp Madras curry powder
half a tsp ground cinnamon
200g tin of Heinz baked beans
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot (or a low salt beef stock cube)
200ml hot water
a good pinch of ground black pepper
1 dessertspoonful of mayonnaise (don't use low fat - it's horrid!)
1 dessertspoonful of tomato ketchup.

Method :

1.  Put a large saucepan half filled with water and a little salt added, on to boil.

2.  Cut the potatoes into dice of approximately 1cm - and try to get them evenly sized, so that they cook evenly.

3.  When the water boils, put all the potato dice into the water and cook for 3 minutes.

4.  Remove half the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl - allow to cool.

5.  Cook the remaining half for another minute or so.  Drain and replace in the saucepan.  Allow to cool.

6.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onions.  Fry gently until softened and golden.  Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and put onto a plate.  No need to keep them warm, as they'll be back in the pan in a moment.

7.   Place the minced beet into the pan and turn up the heat to maximum.  Fry the beef until all the water has boiled off and the fat has reduced.  The beef should be beginning to caramelise.

8.  Reduce the heat to moderate and push the beef to one side.  Spoon off a good nine tenths of the fat - and discard (or give to the dog!).

9.  Return the onions to the pan, together with the mushrooms and celery.  Cook until the mushrooms have taken on the remaining oil and the celery is softening.

10.  Add the curry powder and cinnamon.  Stir through and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes.

11.  Add the ketchup, baked beans, stock pot (or stock cube) and water, along with the pepper and stir through.  Allow to simmer - stirring occasionally - until the ingredients have all combined nicely and a good gravy has formed.

12.  Decant the meat mixture into a casserole dish.

13.  Sprinkle the extra-cooked potatoes from the saucepan, on top of the meat mixture.  Don't mix them in - just allow them to sit on the surface in a single layer.

14.  Add the mayonnaise and ketchup to the potatoes in the bowl, and stir through taking care not to break up the potato cubes.  The potatoes should be well covered.

15.  Sprinkle these potatoes over the top of the plain ones and settle them into an even layer.

16.  Bake at 180degC/340degF/Gas 4 for 35-45 minutes or until the potatoes are beginning to become browned and crispy.

Serve with your choice of vegetables.

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Kid Goat done in the Slow Cooker - Seco de Chivo

I was chatting on Twitter with Jason at Farmer's Choice, talking about the British Rose veal dish I was making - Veal Marsala, which I'll blog about very soon - and the problem of the waste of veal calves that are shot at birth (or thereabouts) through there being very little call for the meat.

Much to my surprise - and only because I hadn't thought about it, but it made sense once I knew - they mentioned that there is a similar problem in the goat milk industry, with male kid goats being killed at birth.  Obviously, female kid goats can go back into the industry and provide milk - but there is very little call for goat meat and so the male goats are just disposed of as being surplus to requirements.

Now I'm sure you all know (by now) how I feel about the veal calves - and there is really no difference with regard to kid goats.  If we're going to keep on producing male kid goats, then surely we need to develop a liking for the meat and so provide these little fellows at least with a short, but happy, life.

Pre-trimming - see what I mean about the fat?

Because he's lovely like that, Jason immediately offered to send me a pack of Farmer's Choice stewing goat meat, to sample.

Well, that sent me into a bit of a spin, as never having cooked with goat before I had no reference as to how to deal with it.  The first question that arose was how old the goat was, as that made a huge difference to how it was cooked.  A lot of the advice I was being given was with regard to "grown-up" goat meat, which can be tough.  It turned out that this goat meat is just 3-4 months old - so still very much kid goat.  "Treat it like spring lamb" was the advice.

I spent three days or more, looking at goat recipes and trying to avoid making the famed Caribbean Curry Goat.  It just seemed such an obvious thing to do - and you can find recipes all over the internet for Curry Goat.  I wanted to find something tasty and different to do with my goat.

The recipe I wound up with - "Seco de Chivo", translates as "Dry Goat".  However, the way I cooked it, meant it wound up being anything but dry - both in the texture of the meat and the quantity of the sauce.  I may not have carried out the recipe in its true character - but looking at various photographs of the same dish online, I think I came pretty darned close.

Upon unpacking the goat meat, I discovered that with 1kg, I had rather more meat than I was anticipating.  I had imagined that, because the goat was so young, it would be scrawny and more bone than meat.  In fact, what I had in front of me was a very decent quantity of meat, some bone (which is always good for flavour in a stewing pack) and rather more fat than I had expected.  I suppose it just goes to show how well the kid goats were looked after, that they managed to build up such a good fat covering in just 3-4 months!  Now this fat immediately presented itself as something of a challenge.  You'll remember how fat phobic my menfolk are - which is why we never cook pork belly, for instance.  Lamb shanks are also out for the very same reason.  However, not all of the pieces of goat were fatty - there were three large shoulder chop shaped pieces that looked very good.  So after some judicious trimming (which the three waggy-tailed dustbins were very happy to help with - and Jonty, the Saluki, would have it be known that originating from the Middle East as they do, he was put on this earth to eat goat) I was left with a pretty decent amount of usable meat - probably around 600g or so.

All ready for 4 hours' thinking about life

Now, at £7 for the 1kg pack, the price doesn't seem so bad until you realise that you're going to have to use the entire pack for your one dinner.  I have to admit that I was anticipating using half - as 500g of meat usually does us for one dinner for 3.  Because of the bone and fat that's involved in the weight - and is inedible at the end of the process - it just goes to show that kid goat meat isn't going to be mainstream fare just yet!  Well, not unless we all get behind it and cook it regularly - so causing the price to reduce.

As I had never tasted goat in anything but milk & cheese before, when browning the meat, I had cut off a sliver to try in its plain fried format.  My goodness, but I was so surprised at both the texture and the flavour!

Now anyone who has ever succumbed to the gorgeous smells that browning steak gives off and cut a slice for "cutter's tasters" (as my Dad refers to it), will know that sometimes what smells gorgeous is often fairly tough and indigestible without resting.  Not with this kid goat.  The piece of meat just melted in the mouth and the flavour was so sweet!  I was just blown away by its sweetness - way, way sweeter than lamb would have been.  I was expecting a certain goaty mustiness to the flavour, but no - it was absolutely divine.  I wondered then about the wisdom of putting it with big flavours in the cooker, but bowing to popular goaty recipes - and my recipe was specifically for kid goat - continued on.

I was also prepared to be slightly challenged by the smell of the kid goat meat cooking in the frying pan - as I was when I browned off some wild rabbit pieces once.  There was none of that, though, as the smell was very slightly lamby but with an indefinable quality that was obviously goat - but being new to me, I found it hard to put a finger on it.  Not at all unpleasant.

The flavours that accompanied the browned goat meat into the slow cooker were amazing in their combination.  Red onion, garlic, green peppers, cumin, chilli, tomato, pale ale (I know!), oregano, honey, celery and allspice all combined to make a really surprising and interesting sauce.

Should I ever be called upon to make this dish again - and it would be fabulous with lamb, if you don't fancy or can't find goat - I will definitely pour off the sauce at the end of the cooking period and reduce it in a saucepan so as to intensify the flavours, instead of just plain old thickening it.  I think we may have lost some of the complexity of the sauce by omitting that process - but it is one of the hazards of converting a casserole into the slow cooker.  I've reflected this change in the recipe below.

So what did we think of the finished dish?

Well, I liked it - and would have liked it more, with the sauce having been reduced instead of thickened.  I have no compunction in picking meat off of bones and a certain degree of fattiness doesn't bother me.  For instance, I'd be perfectly prepared to eat pork belly.  However, if the idea of pork belly fills you with revulsion - then the goat stew pack isn't for you.  The delicate flavour of the meat became somewhat lost in amongst the big flavours involved in the sauce and the meat lost a lot of its character.  I can't imagine it ever succeeding as curry goat, as it would be utterly tasteless in amongst the fiery curry spices.  For such a tender, gently flavoured meat as young kid goat, it needs to be accompanied by subtle flavourings.

Hubby absolutely hated the degree of fattiness involved in the stew pack meat, but liked the meat itself.  As he said, it has a character all of its own.  You can't say "oh, it's like young veal" or "spring lamb" as it just isn't.  It is kid goat - and until you've tasted it, you won't recognise it.  However, we did agree that anyone who likes lamb and pork would definitely like kid goat.

Son & heir was like his Dad in being challenged by the fattiness, but enjoyed what meat he could find.  He very definitely missed the obvious, large lumps of meat that comes with a diced chicken breast, or beef brisket.  He's only just recently got used to accepting sauce or gravy on his meat, so having to sieve out the meat from the sauce wasn't entirely his "thing".  However, he had no qualms over the flavour.

Considering we were all agreed that, in another incarnation, we would all eat kid goat again - I think we can class this experiment as a success.

Now, a quick word about the couscous dish that I served the goat with.

This is after the style of Ottolenghi's "Ultimate Winter Couscous", except made a little less complicated and with a somewhat different finish.  I made up the couscous with some of the lovely Essential Cuisine Vegetable Stock powder, which gave it a lovely flavour and slight saltiness, along with a knob of butter which melted and got mixed in.  I oven roasted small cubes of butternut squash, carrot, parsnip, courgette and quartered mushrooms, that had been tossed in rapeseed oil, hot paprika and ground cumin prior to roasting.  I then mixed those all into the couscous, along with some sliced spring onion, chopped dates, fresh mint leaves and fresh coriander.  Once served, the plate was sprinkled with Sumac and drizzled with my new favourite ingredient, Pomegranate Molasses.  Wowser but that stuff has punch!

Sitting back and looking at the finished plateful, I had to admit, it was certainly different!

SECO DE CHIVO  (Kid goat cooked in the slow cooker)  Feeds 3

Ingredients :

1kg kid goat stew meat (or cubed lamb shoulder)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 green capsicum pepper, cored, de-seeded and cut into chunks
half a tsp of ground cumin
half a tsp of ground black pepper
1 red chilli, seeds removed
2 large vine ripened tomatoes (the tastier the variety, the better)
300ml pale ale
half a tsp oregano
1 tsp honey
1 celery stalk, chopped (include leaves if there are any)
a large pinch of allspice
sea salt
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh coriander, chopped, for sprinkling.

Method :

1.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil until very hot.  Sear the goat meat until lightly browned.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat to the slow cooker and turn it to low.

2.  Reduce the heat under the frying pan and add the onions.  Fry until softened.

3.  Add the garlic and fry for another minute or so, then add the green peppers and continue to cook until beginning to soften.

4.  Add the cumin and black pepper.

5.  Meanwhile, in a food processor or with a hand blender, blend together the chilli, tomatoes and 100ml of the beer.

6.  Add the mixture to the frying pan, along with the honey, oregano, allspice and celery.

7.  Add the remainder of the beer and stir through.

8.  Taste to check the seasoning and add a little sea salt, if necessary.

9.  Decant into the slow cooker and gently stir to distribute the meat amongst the sauce.

10.  Cook on low for 4 hours.

11.  At the end of this period, remove the meat with a slotted spoon and reserve somewhere to keep warm.

12.  Pour the remaining sauce into a saucepan and bring to a high simmer until reduced by half - some 10 minutes or so.

13.   Replace the meat in the sauce and very gently stir to coat the meat.

14.  Serve with a sprinkle of fresh oregano.

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So does starting with a Takeaway, constitute a meal planning fail?

Bacon pea & mint pasta

I suspect it probably does - but it had been an absolute aeon since we'd had an Indian takeaway and, although I'd been lusting after a Chicken Tikka Masala, I eventually plumped for a Lamb Biryani with Vegetable curry, together with a Saag bhajee and Peshwari naan to share amongst the three of us.

I know, it was frivolous and shameful - but boy oh boy, did it taste good!

I've posted the photograph of the meal up on Rhubarb & Ginger's Facebook page, together with a few other Facebook pages and had a mixture of reactions to it.  They range from "you eat that?" to "cor, I would!".  The funniest reaction - for me - was from my lovely friend Jasvinder Singh, who lives in Northern India and who professed that the photograph left him cold!  I keep telling him - it's a whole different world here to where he is!

Takeaway : makes my mouth water - but then I know how it tasted!

Last week got away from me before I could post up the menu plan, but we had some great meals.  Those that will be blogged in due course included a Chicken Paprikash and a Spiced vegetable and lentil soup that I loved but that left hubby feeling distinctly "meh!".

So what's on the menu for this week then?  Well, I think we've got some interesting meals coming up :

Tues : (should have been Bacon pea & mint pasta) Indian takeaway

Weds : (should have been Nasi Goreng) Bacon pea & mint pasta

Thurs : Seco de Chivo (or "Dry Goat") with either rice or couscous

Fri : Hampshire Hash with vegetables

Sat : Fish & Pea Cakes, new potatoes, carrots, asparagus & tartare sauce

Sun : Osso bucco with Risotto Milanese

Mon : Crunchy fish and slavering mice.

Of course, "interesting" doesn't always equate to "nice" or "moreish", but we'll wait and see!

To expand a little - well, Tuesday I've explained already.  Wednesday (last night) I made the Bacon pea and mint pasta and very delicious it was too.  The fresh mint in the sauce just lifts the pea flavour - and pea & bacon is a match made in heaven.  With the creamy sauce from the creme fraiche and a good dose of ground black pepper to add a little warmth in the background, it really is very good indeed.  I used conchiglie pasta this time as I had a bag in the cupboard needing using up - and I particularly enjoyed the way that two peas could snuggle up inside each conchiglie.  Add a piece of bacon on top and you were away.

The planned Nasi Goreng will have to wait until next week.  I can do so easily as most of the ingredients are storecupboard stock, plus the chicken and prawns are safely in the freezer, so can't go off.

Goat meat - looks innocent enough!

Tonight's Seco de Chivo (or "dry goat") is my first venture into cooking goat.  The lovely people at Farmer's Choice Free Range sent me the pack of goat meat to play with (along with the British Rose Veal for the Osso Bucco).  Now the obvious thing to make would have been a Curried Goat, but I just wanted to try something else - something not quite so obvious.  So, following exhaustive research - no seriously, I spent about 3 days looking at various recipes - I settled upon the Seco de Chivo.  I have opted to use the slow cooker for the recipe, which uses flavours like red onion, garlic, green peppers, cumin, chilli, tomatoes, oregano, celery, allspice and coriander - along with a light beer.  Now how intriguing does that lot sound?

I'm also exploring the idea of making a couscous to accompany it, using some absolutely out of this worldly huge and succulent dates that I found in the greengrocer just yesterday - and my new bottle of pomegranate molasses.

So, to say that I'm "stepping outside my comfort zone" would be putting it mildly, for today.

Mind you, I'm firmly back in the comfort zone with the Hampshire Hash for tomorrow.  Hampshire Hash is a minced beef and potato dish along the lines of a Cottage Pie, except instead of mashed potato on top, it uses small cubes of potato tossed in a mayonnaise/tomato ketchup mix.  Yes, I know, it sounds gross - but it is one of my real favourites.  I've made this in the past - quite a long time ago now - and haven't been too careful about the degree of grease that is involved.  As a result, I will admit that the dish has become quite atrociously greasy (but I kind of like that!).  This time, as I'm cooking it for the family and with half an eye to making it a lot healthier, it should turn out to be an awful lot lighter in calorific value! I need to ensure that I keep the flavour, whilst reducing the fat.  The minced beef can include some of the warming curry spices, so I'm hoping to wind up with a slightly different, but much more healthy version.

Hubby's in the kitchen on Saturday, when he's intending on pushing his fishcake recipe to another level.  I won't spoil his thunder by expanding on his plans - you'll just have to wait and see whether it works!

The slow cooker is back in work on Sunday, when I'll be making use of the British Rose Veal that Farmers Choice sent.  I've never made Osso Bucco, but over the years have gone from feeling revolted by the very idea (during my brief vegetarian phase), to liking the idea but being put off by the bones (some 20 years ago), until finally I'm keen to make the dish.  I was surprised at how easy it appears to be to make - but then aren't some of the best dishes the easiest?

I gather that the best accompaniment to Osso Bucco is to make a Risotto Milanese (or Saffron risotto).  Now don't be too outraged, but I'm threatening to make the risotto myself - *gasp*!  I know, I know, why make risotto when you've a Risotto Making Maestro in the house?  Well, I figure that it'll be good to know HOW to make a risotto, even if it's the only one I do ever make.

Photo c/o BBC Good Food website - that's what I'm aiming for!

So all these new and interesting meals brings us to Monday, when a dose of reality bites - and we have a day off, involving crunchy fish (haddock or cod portions in batter or breadcrumbs) and slavering mice (a.k.a. savoury rice).  I love savoury rice.  The flavour takes me back to when I owned the horses and a quick dinner of a Chicken Kiev with savoury rice was about all I was capable of, once I'd come back home at about 9 or 10pm!

As for "other news", well Son & heir has managed to win himself a School Scholarship for Bass Guitar lessons - well done him! - and his musical commitments are going to be taking up a lot of time over the next week or so.  Consequently, we won't have a lot of time left for extra makes and bakes - although you never know!

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