Tuesday again and the new week's menu is up!

Oh, I had such a job organising this week's menu list!  I had two dishes that I really wanted to do, but after that .. nothing.

In a "usual" week, I cook on a Tues/Fri/Sat/Sun and hubby cooks on a Wed/Thurs/Mon.

This routine has come about because I ordinarily work on the days when hubby cooks - he's good enough to relieve me of the task of setting to after what can, some days, be a somewhat brain boggling day (well, 4 hours) at work.  For those of you reading this who are thinking "four hours?  She's got it made!", can I just say that I've done my time of working from 8.30am through to 8.30pm and it darned near killed me at the time and having very nearly been given my honorary harp and cloud again, some two years ago, four hours three days a week is plenty for me thankyou.

Anyway, I digress.

So there I was with five day left to fill, two of which were "my" days.  I immediately consulted my "Recipes I haven't tried yet, but want to" folder and found one candidate.  That left my "Tried and Tested Recipes" folder, where I found another admirable candidate.  Next stop was hubby, to see what he fancied cooking.  Unfortunately, he had even less idea than I did (which is odd, because normally we've each got at least two recipes hovering on the background).  One day was easily filled owing to our local Supermarket having meatballs on special offer.  The next was a stroke of brilliance on hubby's part.  Having suggested the age-old Chilli Con Carne (*groan*), he had the bright idea of making some Cornbread to go along with it instead of the rice.  What a cracking idea!  I used to make Cornbread a few years ago and I loved it, especially with Chilli.  So that was a definite.  That just left one day to fill.  We pondered on what we'd got lurking in the cupboards, what was on special offer at the supermarket - trying desperately to find something other than the ubiquitous Spaghetti Bolognese, which is our usual fallback position.  After much deliberation as to the relative merits of home-made -v- shop bought, (price -v- quality, the usual story), we opted for the price argument and decided to have shop bought Cornish Pasties.  Hey ho!

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

Tues : (today) Smoked Haddock Chowder.  This is just a bowl full of gorgeousness, which I'll blog about during the week.

Wed : Cornish Pasties, potato waffles and beans.  Ah well, at least hubby and son like them!

Thurs : Chilli and Cornbread.  Yay!

Fri : Prawn & Peanut noodles.  I've a few reservations over this one, but I've put my trust in BBC Good Food and hopefully it'll be lovely.  If nothing else, it'll soothe my desire for a noodle stir fry!

Sat : Honey & Lemon Chicken, carrots, peas & broccoli.  Oooh, now this is a really delicious meal, which uses two lemons together with chicken portions and potatoes.  Everything comes out all caramelised and sticky.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

Sun : Pot Roast Chicken, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots and peas.  I've never done a pot roast chicken, so now's my chance!

Mon : Meatballs and Spirali Pasta.  It's a meatball, tomato and cheesefest.  Who wouldn't like it?

Pirozhki, Sweet Potato Wedges with Red Cabbage & Apple

I had been looking forward to this dinner ever since we'd decided to include it on the Menu list.  Hubby - who was cooking it - was losing faith in it the closer he got to the day.

However, for me, it turned out to be a complete triumph and I would be very happy to see any one of the three recipes he used, trotted out for another go.  I think Hubby would agree that, for him, the Pirozhki's were a bit disappointing as he'd expected the pastry to be lighter and more flaky than it was, plus the filling was a tad on the bland side for him.  Mind you - I had the leftover filling on toast for breakfast this morning after we'd been shopping.  With a teensy bit of Ancona Chilli Sauce, it was gorgeous!  Son loved the Pirozhki's, liked the Sweet Potato Wedges and hated the Cabbage.  That's not altogether surprising though, as son has a marked sensitivity to anything (that's not a pickled onion) that involves vinegar.

I don't think hubby would be too keen on reproducing the three recipes all in one go again - as he needed a lie down in a darkened room by the end of it.  However, he'd be keen enough to make the Pirozhki's again for a buffet supper, the Cabbage dish would be divine with sausages or gammon ham and the Sweet Potato wedges would go with just about anything and were decreed to be streets ahead of a normal potato wedge.  All in all, pretty darned successful.

If you don't find the recipe you're looking for straight away, keep on scrolling down, as all three are in this post.

PIROZHKI (could make from 15-30, depending on how big you make them)

This is an adaptation of one of Silvena Rowe's recipes, taken from her book "Feasts".

Ingredients for sour-cream pastry
225g plain flour
half a tsp salt
half a tsp baking powder
100g butter, chilled and cubed
2 large egg yolks, beaten
125ml sour cream

Ingredients for filling
200g minced cooked chicken (we used the other half of a roast chicken)
your choice of vegetables like onion, celery, swede - whatever you want, but diced finely
or - and this is what we used - some leftover Spicy Red Lentils.
Salt & Pepper.

To make up the filling, saute your vegetables until soft and add any herbs or spices you might want.  Chop the chicken until it is in fine dice, but not a paste, to retain some texture.  Combine the chicken with your vegetables, season to taste and leave to cool.

To make the pastry, place the flour, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.  Add the butter cubes and, using your fingers, mix it all together rubbing the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the beaten egg yolks and sour cream to the pastry a little at a time, working it all together to achieve a smooth and elastic pastry.  Knead for 2-3 minutes then wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190deg C/375deg F/gas mark 5.

When ready to make the pirozhki, roll out half the dough to abut 3-4mm thick.  Using a pastry cutter or a glass about 8cm (3 inches) in diameter, stamp out as many rounds as you can.

Brush the edges of the pastry rounds with beaten egg yolk, and place a spoonful of filling in the middle of each.  Press the edges gently together to make a half-moon shape.  Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.

Place the pirozhki on a baking sheet, brush the tops with egg yolk and bake for 25 minutes.

SWEET POTATO WEDGES

Ingredients :

Sweet potato, enough for your purposes
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Seasonings of your choice, such as garlic & herb, cajun spices or cumin & coriander.

Method :

Peel the sweet potato and cut into wedge shapes of around 1 cm at their widest part.  Place into a bowl.

Add 2 tbsp or so of oil, sufficient to coat each wedge.

Add your seasonings of choice and thoroughly mix to ensure every wedge has a good coating.

Tip onto a roasting tray and roast at min. 190degC, max 200deg C, for 25-30 mins or until the potato feels tender to the knife tip and the edges appear caramelised.

BRAISED RED CABBAGE WITH APPLES & CARAWAY SEEDS

Recipe is adapted from Orangette blog.

Ingredients :

2 tbs olive oil
3 tbs finely chopped red onion
1 small head red cabbage (about two pounds), quartered, cored, and very thinly sliced
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
3 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs honey
1 tsp salt
1/8 to ¼ tsp caraway seeds

Method :

Heat oil in a large, nonreactive saucepan over a medium-low heat.

Add onions and cook until translucent and slightly golden.

Add cabbage, apple, vinegar, honey, salt, and caraway seeds; then cover pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is very soft but not falling apart, about an hour.

Serves roughly 4. Delicious warm, at room temperature, or cold, straight from the fridge.
Oh - and I can verify the "cold, straight from the fridge" thing, as I had the leftovers for my lunch today.  Delicious!

Spice Rubbed Chicken with Spiced Red Lentils

Now this meal was brought about by the need to do something other than just plain old roast a chicken for dinner on a Sunday.  Not that I've got anything against just plain old roast chicken, it's one of my favourite meals.  It's just that you can have too much of a good thing and I was looking for a bit of variation.

As you know, I have had my head inside the two Ottolenghi recipe books quite a bit recently (you're probably fed up with hearing about them!) and had noted a recipe for Spiced Red Lentils.  So somewhere in my subconscious, the idea of doing a spice rub on the chicken and marrying that with the spiced lentils was born.  Having swum to the surface, the idea took shape and with the addition of a vegetable rice, became our Sunday meal.

The spice rub for the chicken was a fairly simple thing which left the bird looking very dramatic.  I simply added together in a small bowl 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, half a tsp ground cinnamon and half a tsp of allspice with salt & pepper and enough olive oil to make it mobile.  This got rubbed all over the chicken before putting it into the oven to roast for an hour and a half.  I always give my roast chickens around a half hour to rest, which gave me two hours to prepare the vegetables.  Even for me, that was achievable.

The vegetable rice took the form of one chopped onion, four slices of courgette (left over from the curry on Friday) which I'd diced finely, a mushroom (left over from the Stuffed Peppers) also diced finely and some chopped fresh coriander.  I fried off the first three things, added some washed rice and enough water to cover, brought it to the boil and put a lid on it and let it rest for some 7-9 minutes.  Once the rice was cooked and all the water had been soaked up, I added the coriander, seasoned and fluffed the whole thing up with a fork.

The Spiced Red Lentils, however, were a rather different matter and I felt a teeny bit how Chefs must feel when they're under pressure to turn out a dish for a particular time, doing it.  Here's the recipe - taken from Ottolenghi's book "Plenty" - and you'll probably see why!

SPICED RED LENTILS with CUCUMBER YOGHURT (feeds 5-6)

Ingredients :

200g split red lentils

350ml water

50g bunch of coriander, plus extra leaves to garnish

1 small onion, peeled

40g peeled root ginger

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 mild green chilli

1½ black mustard seeds

4 tbsp sunflower oil

1½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp sweet paprika

10 curry leaves

300g tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp caster sugar

70g unsalted butter

1½ tbps lime juice

150g Greek yoghurt

75g cucumber, finely diced

1½ tbsp olive oil

salt

Method :

Wash the lentils under plenty of cold running water, then soak in the 350ml of water for 30 minutes.

Cut the coriander bunch somewhere around its centre to get a leafy top half and a stalk and root half.  Chop up the leaves roughly and side aside.  Place the stalk ends in a food processor and add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli, all roughly broken.  Pulse a few times to chop everything up, without turning them into a paste.

Put the mustard seeds in a heavy-based pot and set on a medium heat.  When they begin to pop add the chopped onion mix and the sunflower oil.  Cook and stir on a low heat for about 10mins.

Add the ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, paprika and curry leaves and continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes.

Next add the lentils and their soaking water, the tomatoes, sugar and some salt.  Cover and simmer for around 30 minutes, or until the lentils are fully cooked.

Meanwhile, whisk together the yoghurt, cucumber, olive oil and some salt.

Stir the butter, lime juice and chopped coriander into the lentils, taste and season generously with salt.

Serve with the yoghurt on top and garnished with coriander leaves.

The end result is a highly flavoured Dahl-type dish, which - for my taste - I would leave the lime juice out of, the next time I try it.  We all felt that the lime tipped the balance between sweet -v- acidic a little too much in favour of the acidic.  The dish had been tasting so gorgeous without the lime juice, it was a shame to spoil the velvety thing it had going on.  It didn't detract from our enjoyment of the dish, in fact son liked it so much he was quite prepared to take some to school for his breaktime snack until he realised there wasn't any way of a) keeping it warm or b) warming it up.  (Note to self : get a small vacuum flask with a wide neck!).  Ultimately, a percentage of the lentils got used in the Pierozhki dish we made the following day and the remainder formed part of a lovely lunch for me on Tuesday.  Nothing ever goes to waste around here!  Even the yoghurt, which I made and completely forgot about, I ate instead of dessert.  Jolly nice it was too.

I'm Back! New blog post on "Taste" with the Bournemouth Echo.

I'm back!

New blog post on the Bournemouth Echo

If the link won't take you there : http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/blogs/taste/8623725.Jenny_s_Week__I_m_back_/

Stuffed Peppers

I'm not quite sure which came first in my mind, the stuffed peppers or the Ottolenghi Fennel gratin, but they seemed to be compatible, so that's what we had.

I have tried making stuffed peppers in the past - a long, long, time ago, so long in fact that it could well have been in another life.  These attempts weren't terribly successful, as they involved a Bolognese-type mince mixture stuffing which turned out to be quite one-dimensional.  I'd since given the idea up as lost, however just recently the germ of an idea had been growing in my mind.  This time, I'd go for a relatively dry stuffing mixture - one involving rice, still with beef mince however this time mince which had been caramelised to promote that lovely beefy flavour.  Beyond that, I ran out of definite ideas.  All I had was an impression of how I wanted the flavours to be.

So, I reached for my computer keyboard and consulted t'internet.  Various stuffing mixes floated past, each one had its merits but wasn't the one I was looking for.  I liked the goat's cheese versions, but that didn't help with my desire to include beef.  Then, I lit upon a recipe for stuffed butternut squash - which didn't include beef but sounded so wacky, it had definite potential.  So thankyou, Foodista, for the original idea - here's what it turned into.

I recommend you do all the chopping and vegetable preparation before you get cooking, as everything happens fairly quickly.  Oh, and many apologies - like the Ottolenghi Fennel dish, we were too keen to get tucked in and completely forgot to take a photograph.  Next time!

STUFFED PEPPERS (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

3-4 big fat red or yellow peppers, top removed and bottom levelled

400g beef mince

2 celery stalks, chopped fine

1 medium leek, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 mushrooms, diced

2 cups cooked white rice

2 cups crisp breadcrumbs

handful of raisins or cherries or cranberries

1-2  tsp Worcester sauce

1 full to heaped tsp dried sage

olive oil

 Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven at 190deg C.

2. Put the mince on to brown in a deep frying pan, using a teaspoon of vegetable oil, to prevent sticking.

3. Meanwhile, rub some olive oil inside and out of the peppers, season and place in a roasting dish.  Bake for as long as it takes to prepare the stuffing mix.

4. Sauté celery and leek until soft.

5. Add garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking for some 5 minutes.

6. Add rice, breadcrumbs, raisins, Worcester sauce and sage and mix to combine.

7. Stuff and bake for 30 mins turning once or twice to ensure even baking.

Ottolenghi's Fennel, Cherry Tomato & Crumble Gratin

All cooked and gloriously lovely

"Ottolenghi" seems to be taking up pole position for the word which gets bandied about in conversations the most here, at the moment.

You know how some styles of cuisine just hit you right between the eyes as being just beyond brilliant and totally in accord with the way you'd like to be able to cook?  Well that's Ottolenghi for me.

I had spotted this recipe when I first browsed through "The Cookbook" as it seemed a) achievable financially and b) achievable where the cooking was concerned.  I have to be careful which recipes I choose, as I just don't have the stamina in my legs for recipes that have you galloping all over the kitchen for hours.  Hence, I particularly like recipes that demand input at the beginning, then you get a rest while they're in the oven, with a final burst of activity prior to plating up - which hubby gets to do, while I give my back a rest and compose myself.  Otherwise I'm just too stressed, what with the pain, finishing the dish and making sure the plating up happens neatly, to eat comfortably.

Aaaanyway, all that aside, this is by far and away the most delicious fennel dish I have ever had the good fortune to encounter.  The juxtaposition of the savoury fennel with its creaminess and hints of garlic and thyme, set against the sweet but cheesy crumble, is just amazing.  Hubby really really liked this dish and would be very happy to see it appear on the menu list again really quite soon.  Son was rather less committed to it, but then he doesn't like cooked tomatoes, which were integral to the character of the dish.  However, to give him his due, he did eat it all - which says quite a bit about it's acceptability.

Halfway through cooking : just added crumble and tomatoes

I have tweaked the recipe's quantities, as the original recipe was designed to feed 6.  Also, the fennel bulbs we managed to find didn't, unfortunately, have any of their fluffy fennel tops left on or I would have sprinkled a little of that, chopped, onto the top of the gratin instead of parsley, before serving.

FENNEL, CHERRY TOMATO & CRUMBLE GRATIN (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

2 Fennel bulbs, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves or 1 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 garlic cloves, crushed

coarse sea salt

black pepper
200ml double cream

enough crumble to cover

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

150g cherry tomatoes – on the vine if possible

1 tsp chopped parsley to garnish

Method :

1.  Preheat oven to 200degC/Gas mark 6.   Trim off the fennel stalks and cut each bulb lengthways in half.  Cut each half into slices.  Place in a large bowl with the olive oil, thyme leaves, garlic, salt & pepper and toss together.

2.  Transfer to an ovenproof dish and pour the cream over the fennel.

3.  Mix the crumble with the grated parmesan and scatter evenly on top.

4.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and arrange the tomatoes on top.  Scatter a few fresh thyme springs on top and return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.

5.  Fennel should feel soft when poked with a knife & gratin should have a golden colour.

6.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes then sprinkle with chopped parsley prior to serving.

Book Review : "My Kitchen : Real Food From Near And Far" by Stevie Parle

I was sent this book to review by the lovely people at Quadrille Publishing Ltd.  I am quite sure that, given some cash in my pocket and finding myself in a bookshop, I wouldn't pick this one up to bring it home.

However, if I were to trip over it at the Library, I'd definitely take it home to have a read of - not necessarily to cook anything from though.  I can't help but think that if a recipe book doesn't motivate the reader to cook anything from it, then it's a definite fail as a recipe book.

There are flickers of gold in the book with interesting new pieces of information to tuck behind one's ear for later - like the fact that small British Quinces are just as useable as the big plump ones that come in from abroad and what the heck Banh Mi is (a Vietnamese sandwich, apparently).

I have to say that I hate the unfinished feel of the cover.  I can't imagine the state it would get into in the kitchen, although the thought of handing on a dog-eared, oil-stained, half pickled recipe book to one's progeny does have an attractive air about it.  Much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I don't think this book has got the longevity factor required to become anyone's family heirloom.

The illustrations throughout are beautifully drawn by Ros Shiers, such as the fish for May, although the crabs depicted for April put me in mind of one of Giger's sketches for the Alien.

Having sat down and read through this book from cover to cover, I understand the layout of it - being a "cooking year" with recipes and anecdotes taken from all areas of the author's life.  However I do agree with my hubby in that the recipes do appear to be confusingly random.  Although there's no reason why recipes should appear all together under the heading "Pasta" or "Eggs" etc. as in a classic recipe book and I'm all for a bit of free-thinking, it seems to me to be extraordinarily difficult to refer back to the book once you've left it for a few days.  If you'd not looked at it for a few months and then tried to re-find a recipe that caught your eye, I suspect you might find yourself turning to alternative recipes via the internet, rather than have to trawl through the book looking - Index or no Index.

I have a slight issue with the ingredients used, too.  Although I can appreciate that bringing new ingredients to the forefront of people's minds is no bad thing - and we're all looking for variety - I have to take issue with Stevie's comment that "the truly delicious things are not always those that cost a lot", which could lead you to thinking that most of his recipes would be affordable.  I guess my "affordable" isn't his "affordable".  However, I do thank him for introducing me to a Nespole (aka Nefles or Loquats).  I have seen these in the ethnic shops locally and now I know what they are and what potential they have for cooking.

So you see, it's not all bad.  At a price of £14.99 I think I'd rather find a book which contains more appeal.  Having said that, however, I do think that the book is pitched at a bohemian audience which doesn't include me - even though I did spend 9 years living on a houseboat!

Home made Pizza

The final articles

In days gone by, when we still lived in Kent, I would make pizza from scratch on a regular basis.  However, with the advent of frozen pizza becoming £3.00 for 3 in Asda, I just couldn't compete with that kind of price and home made pizza became too expensive to produce.

Recently though, the frozen pizzas have become sickly and more than a little bit yuk, which has put us off from buying them and leaving us pizza-less.  With a 12 year old boy in the house, this is something of a critical situation to be in.

So, hubby decided to have another go at making them from scratch.

Three pizza bases, ready for action
They look alright to me!

I won't go into the pizza bread base, as I know that hubby wasn't terribly pleased with it, although both son and myself had no problem with it and declared the whole thing just gorgeous.  However, I know there's no point in giving you the recipe until he's completely happy with it.

Ooooh, you saucy things!

He made the tomato sauce himself, comprising a tin of tomatoes to which he added a teensy bit, like a quarter of a teaspoon, of dried mixed herbs, dried oregano, salt & pepper to season, a teaspoon of tomato ketchup and a couple of drops of Worcestershire Sauce.  He then simmered it until it had reduced to the consistency of a thick passata and allowed it to cool.

Of course, everyone had different ideas about what they wanted on their pizzas.  Son was the easy one, as he just wanted pepperoni, plus mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.  However to make it a bit more meaty, we'd bought a Pepperami which hubby had sliced up for adding to the pizzas.

Mine (left) and hubby's (right)
all ready for the oven.

Hubby had pepperoni, pepperami, green pepper, mushroom, green olive, mozzarella and cheddar.  I had all that, plus a leetle bit of black pudding, sprinkled here and there.

Gosh, but they were good.  :)

I don't mind having Pizza more often, if they're going to wind up being THIS good.

Chilli Chicken Curry with Courgettes

The recipe for this curry has changed quite a bit since I first decided to include it on the menu list for this week.  The first big change came when I reviewed the recipe and noticed that it included potato.  This is a big no-no, as hubby has decreed that potato is the no-legged spawn of the devil and if he eats another one, it will be far too soon.  So, I try to avoid the little chaps - which is tricky as I'm a complete potatophile.  So that explains why they keep on appearing!

So anyway, the potato was out and I wanted to find something that would be nice to include in a curry, but wouldn't cost the earth.  Enter one courgette (zucchini).  So that was change no. 1.

Change no. 2 came about in the supermarket today when we discovered that a huge pack of fresh curry leaves were less than a pound in price.  Because the recipe I'm using on Sunday - the Spicy Lentils - include curry leaves we got them.  This, of course, meant that I could play with them for the first time ever, in tonight's curry before committing them to the Ottolenghi recipe on Sunday.

Change no. 3 came about when I realised that the curry recipe I had dealt in chilli powder, rather than fresh chillis - which are always my preferred route.  So chilli powder was out and fresh chilli was in.

Change no. 4 came about when I realised that we had no brown sugar in the house with which to sweeten the tomatoes.  Rather than use the relatively flavourless granulated sugar, I opted for honey instead.

Change no. 5 came about when, after tasting the sauce, I realised that it was a little "light" and needed something to give it a richness and depth.  After a bit of pondering, I opted for two tablespoons of double cream.

So hence, the recipe we wound up eating bore very little resemblance to the one I intended to start out cooking.  Still, the end result was worth it.  Chillibob declared that it was very, very close to "the perfect curry" - and that is quite some accolade from him!

CHILLI CHICKEN CURRY (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

To make the paste :

2 medium onion , quartered

1 cm root ginger, quartered

2 garlic cloves, halved and green shoot removed

1 red chilli, quartered and seeds removed.

A knob of butter

a tbsp olive oil

a courgette or 2 baby aubergines

1 tsp cumin seeds

14 curry leaves

½ tsp turmeric

230g can chopped tomatoes

500g boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3cm chunks

½ tsp garam masala

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

2 tbsp double cream

2 tsp runny honey

METHOD : 

Slice the courgette into fairly chunky slices, melt the butter in a deep frying pan and add the oil, heat until the courgettes sizzle when you put them in and fry until browned, then set aside.

Meanwhile, make the paste by blitzing in a food processor the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli to a fine paste.

Fry the cumin seeds and curry leaves in the leftover oil from the courgettes for a few seconds.

Add the onion paste and brown over a medium heat.

Add the chicken and brown (or “white”) for a few minutes.

Sprinkle in the turmeric and garam masala.

Add the tomatoes and fry for 5 minutes. Add a little water to promote the creation of the sauce.

Season and allow to simmer for 30 mins or so.  Add the honey to taste and the double cream, continue to simmer for as long as it takes for the sauce to reduce to your liking.

Finally, and at the very last minute, add the courgettes and the coriander and stir through.

Serve with white rice.

Birthday Tea item no. 3 : Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine, prior to having its crust trimmed.

As I had already got a fish-based tart (innuendo alert!) in mind, I was thinking along the bacon lines for my second tart before the word "Lorraine" (we're back to the tart again) came into my mind.

Now I'd made Quiches before and had become something of a dab hand at the supposedly "Impossible" quiche, so when the phrase "Quiche Lorraine" hoved into view, I immediately felt quite confident.  Which didn't last long, as I recalled that I'd always shied away from making that one because I understood it to be "complicated" or "tricky".

Ha!  Well, so much for that.  After a bit of self-education care of the internet (i.e. I looked up "Quiche Lorraine" and realised it was nothing short of a doddle), I got cracking.  Ha ha!  See what I did there?  "Cracking" .... *sigh* .... oh alright then, before I get my coat, I'll tell you the recipe I used.

QUICHE LORRAINE (feeds 6 for a buffet or 4 if you're hungry!)

Ingredients :

1 x 8" shortcrust pastry case, part-baked
3 eggs
a pack of streaky bacon
50ml of double cream
salt and pepper to taste
mature cheddar cheese, to add to the filling and some to sprinkle on top
a teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C (fan).

2.  Dice the streaky bacon and fry it on a medium/high heat until it starts to brown, then put aside to cool slightly.

3.  Grate the amount of cheese you want to use.  We used a goodly amount, probably around 2-3 handfuls, as we're all deeply committed cheesehounds.

4.  Crack the three eggs into a bowl, add the cream and mustard and whisk together.

5.  Add the cooled bacon, grated cheese and some seasoning and mix together until combined.

6.  Decant into the pastry case, leaving the final filling until the pastry case is in the oven - this prevents spillage en route to the oven.

7.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and add a grind or two of pepper if you like.

8.  Bake for some 30 minutes or longer.  When the filling appears solid to the touch, it's done.

Serve as part of a buffet, or with a jacket potato or potato salad and a leafy green salad.

Birthday High Tea No. 2 : Tuna & cheese tart

The tart, prior to having its pastry crust trimmed

I have been after, since time immemorial, my Mum's recipe for her Salmon Tartlets.

Lo and behold, she turned it up the other day and sent me a copy - right in time for me to be able to make a version of it for Son's birthday High Tea.

You know how some dishes stay in your memory, long after the occasions they were made for have vanished?  Well this is one of those.  I seem to remember our having the Salmon Tartlets at just about every Christmas tea-time, when you're so stuffed from Christmas Dinner that all you can really manage is one leetle tartlet and a wafer-thin mint.  They have resided in my memory, alongside a big sign which says "YUM" for as long as I can remember, so you can imagine how pleased I was to finally get the recipe.

However, needless to say, I couldn't quite run to Salmon on the ole budget but Tuna goes very well with Cheddar cheese in a Tuna Pasta Bake, so I figured that Tuna would be an acceptable replacement, as indeed it was.  Chillibob was surprised at the lack of white sauce, he expected it to come up a lot more "saucy" than it does.  However that was his expectation as opposed to the recipe's results, as my Tuna version actually came up a lot "saucier" than my Mum's remembered Salmon versions!

Apart from the denomination of fish, the tart differs from my Mum's recipe in that the original has you make individual leetle tart cases for filling.  I didn't have a suitable tart tray (mine having died when the boiler began leaking, one day) so I made one big tart and divided it into slices on the day.

TUNA & CHEESE TART (serves 6 for a buffet, or 4 if you're hungry!)

Ingredients :

1 small can of Tuna in spring water
a white sauce mix, including enough milk (or make a sauce from scratch with a Roux)
half a lemon, zested
black pepper, to taste
cheddar cheese, grated, to cover

Method :

This recipe presumes that you have already either made or bought a shortcrust pastry case, approx 8" across.

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C (fan).  Make up the sauce mix, including some generous seasoning as the fish - being in spring water - doesn't have any added salt.  Set aside to cool.

2.  Decant the fish into a bowl and lightly break up the chunks.  Add the lemon zest and a bit more pepper.

3.  Add the sauce spoonful by spoonful until you achieve the desired consistency, which is one where there's just enough sauce to hold everything together, but not so much that it is loose and runny.

4.  Add the fish mixture to the pastry case, smooth until it's level and sprinkle a covering of cheddar cheese over.

5.  Bake in the oven for 30 mins (or more, depending on the thickness of your cheese), then allow to cool before serving.

Serve as part of a buffet, or with a jacket potato or salad (or both!) as a main meal.

From Carbonara to Pirozhki

That's our menu list for this week!

Spaghetti Carbonara
Same recipe, different pasta

We start out with Tagliatelle Carbonara and garlic bread, which is down on the list for tonight.  I don't know about you people, but I always get a bit nervous when it comes to the adding of the egg/cheese/cream bit, as pictures of scrambled egg float past threateningly.  However, some kind of magic always happens and I've never (yet) resulted in scrambled egg, fingers crossed.  I love this recipe, but we don't have it often as it is just too calorific - but versions without the cream just aren't the same.  So, we go for "little and not very often" with this one.

Wednesday's recipe is for Smoked Haddock Risotto.  I'll have to catch a photograph of this one, as it would appear we have always been too keen to eat it, to take photographs of it, in the past.  Risotto is one of Chillibob's specialities and he does a tremendous job with them, the Smoked Haddock version being one of our favourites.  Asda have a special offer on Smoked Haddock at the moment, which made this Risotto change from a Smoked Haddock and Black Pudding experimental risotto, to our old favourite.

Thursday, in honour of National Sausage Week, Chillibob is making us Sausages in Onion Jam glaze with Clapshot and peas.  We pondered on buying the onion jam/chutney, but as we'd just bought an enormous bag of onions for £1, it seemed particularly unadventurous.  Hence, Chillibob will have his first go at onion jam/chutney, which will be fun and I'm sure delicious.

I can't remember ever having Clapshot, although I suspect I probably have made it before - just not with the proper name attached to it.  Still, it'll be interesting and I'm sure I'll like it - Swede and Potato, what's not to like?

Photograph c/o BBC Good Food website

Friday and I'm back in the cooking saddle.  We're down on the list to have "Chilli Chicken curry with rice".  We love our curries and it's been a while since I made one.  This recipe doesn't deal with curry paste, but instead builds the curry flavour by degrees as you add the various spices.  I've done this one before and it was very successful, so fingers crossed!  Maybe I can ask Chillibob to make some of his Naan bread to go with it.

Saturday is an interesting one - Stuffed Peppers and Fennel & Tomato Gratin.  This one is completely new to us so once again we don't have a photograph and the stuffed pepper recipe is one I'm adapting from Foodista.  It was intended, originally, for stuffing Squash but I see no reason why it can't be used in a sweet pepper instead.  Watch this space for the final verdict!

As for the Fennel & Tomato Gratin, well that's an Ottolenghi recipe from "The Cookbook".  It sounds completely delicious and has a sweet crumble topping which is interesting.  Hopefully the creaminess of the Gratin will go wth the spiciness of the stuffed Peppers.

Next comes Sunday, where we've decided to have a standard Roast Chicken, with a very non-standard "Spicy Lentil" dish from Ottolenghi's "Plenty".  I am in two minds as to whether to serve some green vegetable or not, I guess it depends on how filling I think the lentils are going to be.

Monday means that Chillibob is back in the kitchen and he's going all out with a wonderfully adventurous meal of Pirozhki (meat filled dumplings) from Silvena Rowe's book "Feasts", except with a filling made from the leftover roast chicken.  To accompany them, we'll be having Baked Red Cabbage and Apple - which I adore - and Spicy Sweet Potato wedges.  I can't wait!

It's good to be able to afford to be a bit more adventurous again!

Tuesday thoughts

Goodness, but this 'ere food blogging malarky is turning out to be even more fun than I anticipated it would be!

Have I told you the latest regarding the Avocado explorations?  I can't remember, but briefly, if you were ever considering making cold Avocado soup involving a fairly expensive piece of blue cheese - don't.  Vile.  Enough said.

The postie delivered my prize from Whimsical Wife's competition to win some Flying Pumpkin Lanterns and I was so excited!  We haven't had a chance to use them yet, between inclement weather and running out of time on Halloween, but I'm sure they'll be fun when we do!

Hubby had a brilliant idea and reminded me that I still had some money from my birthday  vouchers left with Amazon, so why didn't I buy Ottolenghi's "The cookbook", which I'd been renewing religiously ever since I borrowed it from our Library.  An inspired idea! Having had a look on Amazon, it transpired that the price had been significantly lowered on both "The Cookbook" and "Plenty" - so I got the pair of them.  ~hugs them to herself~  Such joy!  Just looking through them at the photography is enough, never mind the fact that simply all the recipes are saliva-inducing.  Rarely have I felt so protective over a pair of books.  I'm cooking a recipe from each this week and, rather than have them spoiled by cooking fallout, I'm going to type and print out the recipes I'm using.  I think I might cry if the books were marked in any way, right now.  Sad, isn't it?  However, thanks go out to Laura for supplying the wherewithall for them.  ~blows kisses~

Now, here's something exciting!  I had an email yesterday from the PR folk who are running the "secret ingredient" campaign for Heinz Tomato Ketchup.  They'd seen my recipes for Sausage Goulash and Spicy Minced Beef both included ketchup and wanted to know whether I'd be interested in having them included on their Tomato Ketchup Facebook site.  Needless to say, I responded that I would very much like them to be included, so long as I could include a link to my Rhubarb & Ginger blog - as it needs all the publicity it can get right now.  Ha!  Fun, eh?

Another exciting thing is that I saw a Tweet from Quadrille Books on Twitter today, asking for food bloggers to review one or more of their new recipe books.  I replied saying I'd love to - and am now expecting "My Kitchen - real food from near & far" by Stevie Parle.  Apparently Stevie spent time living on a houseboat in London, as I did in Kingston, and it sounds as though the recipes in the book could mirror those I like to produce.  So I'm excited about receiving that - and the review will appear on Rhubarb & Ginger very soon.

Last, but a long way from least, is the news that we are having Sparky for a week again.  Sparky is a Parsons Jack Russell terrier - and one of immense character.  Once more, this is down to Facebook and Twitter, as Sparky's owner placed a message asking whether anyone in our area could recommend a holiday kennel for dogs and my friend Laura put her in touch with me.  We had Sparky for a week a few months ago and loved having him here.  We dubbed him the Father Jack of Jack Russells, as for all the world, he appears to have the same propensity for yelling "drink ~ feck ~ gurls!", except in Sparky's case, I suspect it's more "ham ~ biscuit ~ chase!".  We can't wait!

So - all these things have happened as a result of Twitter, Facebook or Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger.  Awesome!



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