June 11th, 2008

Okay we have finally had some lovely weather here so that means salads and BBQs. I have posted before about how to do the corn on the BBQ, so I won't do that again, although my friend Fiona at Cottage Small holder has come up with a yummy idea I want to try for my next BBQ. She posted on her blog about doing some stuffed vegetables and I don't see why you couldn't do them and then cover in foil and put on the BBQ. So going to give that a go next BBQ we have.
Quinoa
I have seen this ingredient here and there in different cooking magazines and food blogs so I had to try it. It is a grain that you cook very similar to cous cous and Bulghar wheat. Only this one has a neat curlyque.

First you need to rinse it well in cold water. Now this isn't very easy as the grains are really small.

I have adapted this recipe from Fine Cooking magazine.
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed well. Place into a sauce pan along with 3 cups water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium low once it comes to the boil. and simmer until the water is absorbed about 10 to 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and then spread onto a shallow plate or baking sheet to cool.
When cool, fluff again and transfer to a large bowl.
To make the salad:
1 1/2 cups finely diced tomato, you can deseed if you like, but personally I prefer the seeds.
1 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 cup finely diced cucumber
1/2 cup thinly sliced spring onions or chopped onion
Mix well with the Quinoa in the bowl.
To make the dressing:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, juice of 1 whole lemon or more to taste(I would include the zest next time too and maybe some lime zest and juice), 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and toss with the salad. Let the flavours mingle for 2 hours before serving or over night. Adjust seasoings to taste. I also added a bit of dried oregano.
This was nice and refreshing for a change to a lettuce salad. I will be trying different recipes using this grain again.

Here I served it with Pork medallions cooked in a creamy onion mustard sauce with Butterbean mash and steamed asparagus and some cherry tomatoes. Very filling! But very Yummy!!!
I also made a plum ginger cake but we were too stuffed to even have a piece of it.
But here is how I did the cake.
Plum Ginger Cake
Makes one 9 inch square cake.
Preheat ove to 160C. Prepare your cake pan, by greasing with butter and dusting with flour.
Take 100 g softened butter and mix with 100 g caster sugar. Beat in 2 eggs one at a time. Mix together 100 g self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder. Sift the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. I also added about a teaspoon or so of chopped fresh peeled ginger. Mix well and then place in baking tin. Bake for 10 minutes and then top with this mixture....
4 small plums sliced, 1 tablespoon of flour, 3 tablespoons of brow sugar and about 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger. Mix together and then drop onto the part bake cake. Back into the oven for about 20 minutes or so until the cake tests done with a toothpick. I made a quick little icing to drizzle over the cooled cake. Melt about a teaspoon or so of butter in a jug mix well with some icing sugar and then thin with some milk to desired consistency. Drizzle over cake.
This is lovely served with vanilla ice cream.

Grilled Goats Cheese Stuffed Peppers

Take two long red peppers and slice a bit open so you can take out the seeds and membrane. Leave the stem on. Rub with olive oil and place some goats cheese slices inside. Drizzle with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar and place under the grill. Grill till cheese is bubbly and peppers are al dente. Sprinkle with some pine nuts and drizzle with some pesto. Serve with some grilled ciabatta and fresh salad leaves.

Like I said we have been having quick salad types of meals. Hope you enjoy!!!

January 11th, 2007

Winter seems to be well and truely here as I am suffering from the winter blues at the moment. Hate getting those. Must make sure to get one of those special daylight bulbs for the computer or the craft room to help combat that blue mood.
The holidays were a bit rushed so I didn't get the chance to take alot of photos while I was cooking. I did however manage this one of my Poached pears using David Hall's recipe from Book The Cook. They came out really lovely and spicy and not too heavy for a refreshing dessert that Brian and I had the next day. We were just too stuffed to eat another bite on Boxing day.

I do wish to apologise as I have no idea whose blog I got this recipe from. I forgot to put the url down with the recipe. It is for Prawn Cigars with a Honey Mustard Apricot dipping sauce.
I did alter the recipe the second time I made these over the holidays. Just slightly and think I may have to do a little more, but they were really yummy!!!

First start out by toasting a 1/4 cup sesame seeds in a frying pan. Be careful and don't let them burn. Take some cleaned peeled cooked prawns and place in a food processor. I used a bag of frozen prawns. Add the sesame seeds, and here is where I made some changes as I like things with a bit more umph and flavour. Add 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger, 2 cloves garlic, zest and juice of 1 lime, 3 chopped green(spring) onions, 1 tablespoon each Sesame oil, and soy sauce and a tablespoon of cornstarch. I added some finely chopped red chilli too. Blitz all together in the processor till it makes a nice paste like mixture. It may well be similar to how you make prawn toasts. I will add a whole chilli chopped next time and maybe even more ginger.
Then with your phyllo dough under a damp cloth work with three sheets at a time. Brush each with either melted butter or olive oil. I brushed the top sheet then flipped and brushed the next sheet and finally the bottom sheet. Cut these in half lengthwise. So you have two rather long sheets... Now place the prawn mixture down the side of the sheets in a long narrow strip. Brush the pastry with a beaten egg wash and roll up to form cigar shapes. Cut each into half and then half again. Brush with egg wash and dip in sesame seeds. Place on a baking tray.

Bake these at 200 C for about 15 minutes. It makes alot!!! These can be made a day ahead and kept covered before baking.
The dipping sauce I changed slightly too as by the second time I made them I had ran out of Apricot preserves and just used a tin of drained apricots.
Put either 1/2 cup apricot preserves or drained tin of apricots into a blender (here again I think you might also add a few chopped dried apricots if you have them about)
1 tablespoon water, if using the tinned ones, omit this
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced fresh peeled ginger
Again you can add some chilli's chopped fine to the sauce.
Blend until smooth.
These were so easy to make and made a great starter on both occasions that I made them. I will be playing around with the phyllo pastry more making canapes. Maybe mini spring rolls or how about pizza rolls.... Hmmmm definately like this recipe. Again I want to apologize to the person whose site I got it from I did desperately try to search for it again to give you credit. So if anyone runs across it please let me know so I can edit this post. Thanks!!!

Well the holidays are all about feasting and friends. My family and friends know I am a bit of a foodie and usually I end up with foodie type presents. My dear friend Marc, sent us a fab Christmas present of Stilton and port. I have never had a piece of stilton that large before in my life!!!! It was and is (yes we are still eating it) lovely!!!! Boxing day we had Ham, and it was a gorgeous ham!!! One that I won't forget the flavour of for some time. (I still have the bone out in the freezer waiting for a nice pot of soup.) So I decided to create a lovely dish using both gorgeous ingredients together and one that my husband would love for me to forget to use. But this has been the year of the Sprout in our household. I am determined to like them since they are supposed to be very very good for you. So here is my dish....


First take and put on a pan of boiling salt water and cook some pasta. I am also one of those that puts a bit of oil in the water. Not necessarily to stop the pasta from sticking, but to keep the pan from boiling over. The oil seems to keep the starch bubbles from forming. (Test it!!) You will still need to turn it down once it starts boiling. But you don't get the white foaming that sometimes occurs with pasta.
Okay back to the recipe.
Clean a couple of handfulls of sprouts and cut into thin slices. Chop one onion and if you have some mushrooms slice those too. Now stir fry for a few minutes in a large wok or frying pan. Toss in some chopped ham and the cooked pasta. Now add a couple tablespoons of either double cream or cream fraiche and some crumbled stilton. Once heated through serve up with some tomato wedges and more stilton crumbled over the top. YUM!!!!

I think I need to start working on my presentation skills.

So if anyone has any tips or hints I could sure use them. This dish may look a bit sloppy, but the flavours were out of this world!!!
First I started off braising some red cabbage with a chopped apple and some chopped onion. Bit of red wine, cider vinegar, brown sugar and some left over cranberries. Simmered for about 1 hour.
While that cooked I then cut in half and cleaned a butter nut squash. Using the bowl and about an inch of the squash neck (the rest of the squash I will use in another recipe). Clean out seeds and prick the skin all over with a knife. Now place in a baking tin cut side down with about 1/2 inch of water in the tin and bake for about 1/2 hour at 190C. Once baked take out of the oven and turn over. So the cavatiy is upwards. Now in this you put 1/2 chopped apple per half, some chopped pecans, some sultanas, sprinkle over some cinnamon and brown sugar. Dot with butter and pop back into the oven for another 1/2 hour. Making sure there is water in the tin. The last 10 minutes take out and top with some mature cheddar, red leichester or as I used some goats cheese. (this was a mild firm goats cheese not the soft one with the rind). It is finished when the squash is tender and the cheese has melted. I will use the goats cheese more often as this complimented the flavour of the other ingredients.
And to finish off the meal I pan fried two pork chops with some onions and mushrooms. Once cooked I added a bit of cider to reduce down to make a quick sauce. All of these went well together and complimented each other....Now if I could just make it look a bit better...

Also this month I fixed a Beef and Beer stew. I was wanting the rest of the beer to make some sourdough beer rolls with. So here is the stew....Which was quite yummy!!!!


Heat a large dutch oven with a bit of oil and fry off some braising steak that is cut into cubes. Fry about 5 minutes and then add a chopped onion and some chopped red pepper, sliced carrots, sliced mushrooms and sliced celery and fry for another 5 minutes. Just till softened. Sprinkle on some flour about 1 tablespoon, salt and pepper to taste. Chopped herbs of choice I used thyme and herbs de Provence add 1 cup beef broth and 1 cup Newcastle Brown ale. ( I think any ale or beer would work). Heat to boiling. Now I added about 4 to 5 rather thickly sliced potatoes to the top and then popped the lid on and into the oven for about 1 hour at 180C. Take lid off and let potatoes brown for about 20 minutes at 200C.

I served with a side salad of round lettuce leaves, chopped apples, pecans and crumbled stilton with a ceasar dressing.

We have been trying hard to have more fish in our diet here. And on the way home on Wednesday I stopped by the farm shop. The Fish monger is there on Wednesday's and Thursdays. So I checked to see what he had on offer. And bought some Haddock and some Cod.
The Haddock was about 1/2 the price of the cod and after the recipe I made we will definately be eatting more Haddock in our diets.

It is a recipe from a very old cook book I have by Robert Carrier
Take and skin and debone the fish. If you like the skin, then leave it on. We don't.
Butter a casserole dish.
Take and chop some onion and mushrooms finely and some chopped parsley about 2 tablespoons. Quickly sautee the onion and mushroom in a bit of butter or olive oil.
Spoon 1/2 of this mixture into the casserole dish and top with the fish. Sprinkle over the parsley salt and pepper. Then the other 1/2 of onion mixture. Top this with some white wine or double cream (I used wine) and pop into the oven till the fish is cooked. 180C for about 20 to 30 minutes. I served this along with some baked potatoes topped with mild goats cheese and a side salad and some microwaved cabbage. Very nice!!!
Another Christmas present this year was a cook book from my step son and partner called Fish by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall. I think this is to help us with our attempt to eat more fish. They also gave me the Auto Biography "RAW" by Anthony Worrall Thompson. And they found me a package of Orzo in a Greek shop in London!!!!!! And my friend Linda gave me another foodie gift...... one of my favs...... Hershey bars!!!!!


Jingles is desperatley trying to see what it is I am cooking now!!! I know he wants to become a chef!!

My dear friend Fiona at Cottage Smallholder has tagged me again with a meme...
8 Random Facts about myself.....
The rules: Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 8 random or weird things about yourself. Tag 8 people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Oh this is gonna be tough.....

1. I am an American living in Britain. I was born in Indiana and lived there most of my life with a few months here or there in Texas and Oklahoma. But technically I am a Hoosier.
2. I am a grandmother!!! My first granddaughter was born last May 8th. And yes I am very very proud of her as I am of both my Twin sons and daughter in-law and my Stepson and his partner too.
3. I have alot of intrests...... Mainly cooking, collecting recipes and cook books (well over 400)and desperately trying to be a foodie, but I also love my crafting as much as my cooking. So much so, that I have commandered the spare bedroom for a craft room and filled it to the ceiling with rubber stamps yarn and paper and even a spinning wheel.
4. I love animals almost more than people sometimes. I have always had an animal in my life and I would feel totally lost without them. Since moving here to Britain I haven't had a dog in my life and I do find that hard, so really enjoy visiting my friends dog Ben. And yes I spoil him rotten just like I spoil my cats. I believe animals have feelings and an intelligence about them like we have.
5. My husband and I are bird watchers. We aren't in the category of twitchers. We don't go rushing off to see a rare bird. If it should happen to be in one of the places we visit all the better, but we don't go to the other end of the country to see it. We enjoy nature and all the things in it.
6. I also enjoy physics. I like reading and studying Einstein and Stephen Hawking who amazes me. And I enjoy having coversations with Brian about things like Schrodinger's cat and what if, all sorts of things like that. Keeps me thinking.
7. And to go along with 6. I am a sci fi nut. I like Star Trek, Star wars, and all those types of movies. And reading Asimov and others too. But I tend to scare myself sometimes thinking about other life on other planets. So try not to watch movies that have alien Abductions in them.
8. I guess I am a hoarder.... Like I said earlier, I collect recipes and cookbooks. I collect craft supplies, clothes, plants, food, animals(when Brian lets me). This may come from when I was a kid. I am not sure. But it is one tough habit to break.

Okay shhhhheesh that was hard. :)
Now I am supposed to tag 8 more people so what I will do instead is the first 8 to visit are tagged. So please leave a comment and let us all know 8 random facts about you on your blog.

October 5th, 2007

Well we have had a busy past couple of weeks here. We went to the farm shop to get some Lamb for our lunch last Saturday and while we were there I bought some lovely local sausages and so wanted to have them and try out Fiona's(Cottage Smallholder) Yorkshire pudding recipe. The puddings came out really light and airy!!! I was having problems with the recipe my step mom gave me ages ago. They just wouldn't rise... But that wasn't a problem with Fiona's recipe....
Yorkshire Puddings recipe

Thanks Fiona!!!!!

Last Saturday's Lunch
Brian's birthday was last Tuesday, so to celebrate his son and partner came for Saturday lunch. I wanted to do something special and something that I hadn't cooked for them before. I hope they are getting used to my experimenting now. I know Brian is after 10 years of marriage. Anyway I decided to go the Indian route this time. So I bought a leg of Lamb from the farm shop. I had to thaw it out as it was frozen. So on day two I started marinating it. I took and trimmed all the fat from the lamb. This in hindsight I think was the wrong thing to do. As it took away all the moisture from the lamb. I will do better next time.
Here is a recipe a friend gave me for
Raan
A Leg of Lamb about 1.5 to 1.75 kg
The recipe says to remove as much skin and fat fromt he lamb as possible. I think you need to leave a little bit of the fat on for moisture. This is where I was over zealous.
Prick the leg all over with a fork. Mak a pocket around the bone at the thick end of the leg cutting about 2 inches with a sharp knife. Cut 3 or 4 more pockets into the meat to put the spice rub to flavour the meat. I put the lamb onto a roasting tray so that I could collect the marinade in..... Then transfered it to a large plastic bag. So that it could rest in the refrigerator for 24 to 36 hours.

Spice mixture for rubbing into the lamb.Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor...
2 inch piece of ginger that has been peeled and chopped
6 peeled garlic cloves
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp roasted cumin seeds **
Seeds from 6 green cardamon pods
8 whole cloves
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp salt
Blend this altogether and then rub all over the lamb and into the pockets

Now for the Marinade....
In the same blender or food processor place 5 oz. ground almonds and 5 fl oz plain yogurt(I used goats milk yogurt as my step son has a dairy intollerance) and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
Whizz together and then stir in another 5 oz. of yogurt. I think I would now put the lamb into the big plastic bag and cover with the marinade. Twist tie bag closed and then squish the marinade into the lamb. Put into a large bowl and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.
Cooking....
Take the lamb from the fridge and let set at room temperature at least 1 hour before cooking. Pre-heat your oven to 220C. Put the lamb into a roasting tin and sqeeze out any of the remaining marinade out of the plastic bag over the top of the lamb.
Cook uncovered for 45 minutes.
Reduce your heat to 170C and cover with aluminum foil. Cook for 3 hours. (Now this may be a bit long!!!) Remove the foil and cook for another 3o minutes. Put onto a serving dish and keep warm until serving time. Now the recipe goes on to say to make a gravy with the contents of the roasting tray, but there was no way I could make a sauce from what was left it was a chargrilled mass in there.... So not too sure what part of the recipe that they have left out or over did........

The lamb was tender to say the least.... My stepson went to carve it and it just fell to pieces......It was full of flavour but a bit dry..... So I think if I were to make this again I may well cut the cooking time down and not trim all the fat off the leg next time. The leftovers made a really great Sheppards pie!!!
That was the main which I served along with some vegetable curry and a few other Indian recipes. Such as a fruited rice dish and some dahl.

The starters were Vegetable Samosas and Onion Bhajis.

The Samosas are lovely and quite easy to make. I don't make up my own pastry for these I use Phyllo instead. Much quicker and they are a healthier version as I bake mine rather than fry them in oil.
The recipe I use is adapted from The Really Useful Indian Cook Book by Purba Singh
Heat up 2 tsp of vegetable oil or ghee in a large frying pan over medium heat.
Add 1 Tablespoon curry powder, 1 finely chopped onion, 1 Tablespoon black mustard seeds, and 2 teaspoons of roasted cumin seeds** and cook, stirring for 3 minutes. Finely dice 2 medium sized potatoes and add this along with 125 ml of vegetable stock to the pan, cook stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add 1 carrot finely diced and 125 g frozen peas to the pan next and cook for 2 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Preheat oven to 200C. Take one sheet of phyllo (keeping others under a damp tea towel so they don't dry out) and brush it on both sides lightly with some oil. Place about two teaspoonsful of filling onto the dough on one corner. Now fold up into little triangles making sure to cover all the filling with the pastry. Place onto a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining sheets of pastry. If you like more pastry you can always use two sheets per samosa, but I only use one. You will need two lots of phyllo if you do it this way. Bake for abour 10 to 15 minutes until they are hot and a nice golden brown colour. Enjoy!!!

I have had a request by some friends for my Onion Bhaji recipe... So here goes. It is one of those things I have been trying for ages to perfect and I finally managed it last night.....
This will serve two or one very greedy person. (I know I could have ate the whole lot myself)
First cut onion in half and then into slices.....


Next take 4 Tablespoons of Gram(chickpea)flour and put into a small bowl and to this add the following....1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp chilli powder (I used mild), 1/2 tsp tumeric, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp coriander powder and 1 tsp paprika. Mix it all together...

And then mix into the onions. The moisture from the onions will start already to form the batter. To this add 1 tsp fresh lemon juice..

And start to add a bit of water... a teaspoon at a time and stir.

Keep going till you have a consistency as below.

Some onion will be showing through the batter but it will hold together into a ball it you press it together.

Put a pan of vegetable oil on the heat and making sure it is hot enough for frying.....
Your pan should never be filled over half way with oil. Be very careful when using hot oil and deep frying. You could use one of those deep frying gadgets if you like.

Take a small spoon full or using your fingers form a small ball and drop away from you into the hot oil...

Let it fry a bit before dropping in another. You can possibly cook 3 to 4 together depending on size. Don't let the oil bubble up too high.

Fry for about 3 to 4 minutes each...... Until they are a nice brown colour. Drain on kitchen towel...

Enjoy..... Serve with a wedge of lemon and some shredded lettuce for the true Indian restuarant fare....


** Some tips I have picked up in my adventures of Indian cookery are..... use fresh seeds when possible and dry fry in a frying pan to help release the oils. You just want them to toast a little and not change colour too much. Then using a mortar and pestle grind your own. Cumin seeds are really lovely done this way. Also on the samosas I would heat up the mustard seeds to help release some of the oils.

Another item I read recently is that Chickpea/Gram flour doesn't soak up oil when fried like normal flour does.

Another tip about using Gram flour, don't let it dry on your utensils or pans as this stuff can become like concrete. Wash or rinse straight away.

The same batter as the Bhajis could also be used on other vegetables to make Pakoras. I think I would use a bit more of the flour and more water to get a batter for dipping the vegetables in before frying. Experiment!!! Have fun, Be safe and best of all Enjoy your Adventures too!!!

Plums
The grocery store had plums on sale buy one punnet get another free..... so guess who bought two punnets. Brought them home and they have set for a week without getting soft. Brian kept saying they are still hard...... Okay not wanting to let them go to waste I decided to use them for cooking.... The September 2007 issue of Country Kitchen has some lovely recipes for using plums....
These are adapted from Anna Raymounds article Plump For Plums.

First take some nice plums I used about 2 to 3 and chopped up into a small bowl. Slice up some red onion about 1/2 and 1 green chilli deseeded and sliced. Mixed all together with 2 Tablespoons of sugar and zest of 1 lime and juice of 1/2 lime. Let set in the fridge for 1/2 hour.
Meanwhile cook some plain basmati rice and pan fry or grill two chicken breasts. Serve the chicken on the bed of rice covered with the plum salsa and serve with a side salad. YUM!!! Definately having this again!!!
And last night I did a pud for Brian and I after supper. I again basically followed Anna's instructions but scaled it down for just two puds rather than one giant pud.

Butter two small ramekins and sprinkle with a combination of cinnamon and sugar.

Destone the plum and chop into dices and fill the prepared ramekins. And add some chopped walnuts in and around the plum pieces. Sprinkle a little sugar over and some cinnamon.

Take about 3 tablespoons plain flour and crumble in some butter about 1 tablespoon. Add a tablespoon of dark brown sugar and about two tablespoons of porridge oats.

Bake at 180 C for about 30 to 40 minutes. Serve with Ice cream and enjoy!!!!

I am really glad I bought two punnets now!!!!!!!!

In the same issue was an article on Walnuts and how they are now considered one of the super foods. Full of Omega 3s and the likes. So I came up with a dish last night using some in the sauce. Not too sure how good this is for you, but it tasted nice....

Pan fry some chicken breasts in a little olive oil along with 1 chopped onion and some sliced celery. Until the chicken is cooked. Add in some roasted chopped walnuts and 1/2 pot of double cream. Then I stirred in some gorganzola cheese and two sliced fresh figs.... Serve over cooked pasta along with some crisp tender french beans and some fresh cherry tomatoes...... Nice comfort eating on a cold evening!!!!!! YUM

July 13th 2007

Ohhhhhhh Friday the 13th!!! Hmm didn't realize it until I went to write this blog. Not really supersticious here, but find the number 13 actually lucky for me as that is the day my twin sons were born. I don't think it was on a Friday though.
It has been a bit of a busy week here. Cooking and gardening. The poor Courgettes that I was sooooo counting on have been hit by Mildew from all the weird weather we have been having.

We got some stuff from the garden centre and are trying to save the plants. We are also cutting off any infected leaves and hope that this will work. So far so good...

Recipes from France
Every time we take a coach trip to France or Belgium or visit another country I pick up some cooking magazines. I attempt (sometimes very badly) to translate the recipes. Some you can just about look at and figure out the way it should be cooked or what the ingredients are. I have had one or two successes in the past, but this wasn't one of them.

The recipe is for Cod fillets to be baked on some Courgette strips. You take some courgettes and using a vegetable peeler cut it into long strips. Overlapping the strips as shown. Then place on the piece of cod and some lemon zest, chopped red pepper sprinkle on some salt and pepper and sesame seed. Well I thought hmmmm maybe a little sesame oil would be nice. Nope don't do it!!! It is too harsh for the fish. I think next time I would prefer garlic and some onion, maybe a bit of parmesan....

Any way you wrap up the fish and sprinkle on more sesame seeds and chopped pepper and then a good splash of white wine and lemon juice. Bake in the oven ummm 180 for about 15 to 20 minutes.

I served it with some fried potatoes and mixed veg done in the microwave, some tomato salad and some lemon slices. It wasn't really horrible, but just not as nice as it looks if you see what I mean. I will try it again, but will do a bit of my own thing next time adding the garlic, some oregano and onion to the dish. I am still trying hard to learn to like eating fish so I do try to use strong flavours with my fish.

My next edible failure was a savoury cake recipe. I can read and understand some of the ingredients and measurements okay, but when it comes to some of the actual terms for the cooking techniques. Well this is where I have a bit of a problem. But then again I learn from each and every mistake.

The batter looked good and it is one that uses yeast.
And then here is where the problem came in.... The courgettes, they are supposed to be grated and I know the french term for that is rape, but it was what I was supposed to do once I had grated the Courgettes that the problem started. Courgettes are mostly water..... And what I should have done was grate them and then drain them as they made the cake way too moist after it baked. I will know better next time.


Anyway, you add courgettes, chopped ham and grated swiss(emmental) Cheese to the batter and then bake. Here again I am learning about my new cooker. It seems I have a fan oven that doesn't work like the old fan oven. The old one I would have to take the temperature down by at least 10 degrees and keep an eye on the time as it would cook in a lot shorter time. Nope not this new cooker, the fan assist on it seems to cook very very gently and where I used to turn the temp down I now turn it up. Also for the last 10 minutes I am finding I take it off fan assist and use the normal oven setting to get things to brown.


So it was a bit on the flat and very dense extra extra moist side. It was still edible and I will be trying this again. Once I perfect the end results I will publish my recipe.

Red Currants

Now on the other hand all this rain has been excellent for my red Currant bush. So much so, that I have gone onto the internet in search of recipes for using them. I came across this lovely tart.
Red Currant Tart
It is very quick and a very pretty way to use the little gems!!! Brian ate 3 pieces the first night and it was polished off the next night. So I think it was a hit.

Starters
We are having my Stepson and his lovely lady coming over for lunch in a week or so and I always like to fix something new for them and show off a bit. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I have one limitation and that is no dairy. My step son is dairy intollerant. So I try to find different things I can use instead. He can have goats milk, soya milk and margarines that don't contain dairy, so actually I am not that limited in my cooking. It is a bit of a challenge to come up with something he can have. They both love fish and are the reason I am trying hard to learn to like eating fish. And since I have gotten to know them and the meals we have had together I have learnt to like cod, sword fish, fresh tuna, monk fish, halibut, white crab meat(still not too keen on the brown meat), prawns and langostines. Not bad for someone that wouldn't eat any fish when she first arrived here in Britian almost 11 years ago.
So for our starter I have decided on this recipe that I found in Prue Leith's Cookery Bible. It is for Avacado Mousse with prawns. And as normal I can't leave well enough alone.
I cut the recipe into half for Brian and I to try before I fixed it for my guests. I used goats milk yogurt instead of greek and when the day comes I will be adding some white crab meat to the mousse mixture. The prawns now are my own recipe.

I will give you my version of the recipe and if you want the original let me know and I can email it to you.
Prue 's Avacado Mousse...
8 grams or 1/2 packet of powdered gelatine
1 ripe avacado
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper.
1/2 cup /1/4 pint /145ml goat's milk yogurt.
Ligtly oil two small ramekins. Put 3 Tablespoons of water into a small sauce pan and sprinkle over the gelatine powder. Leave for about 5 minutes until spongy. Peel and mash the avacado until smooth. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to the avacado. (I think this is where I will be adding some white crab meat. I guess you could also used some small prawns or chopped up bigger ones too.) Place the gelatine over a lowish heat until liquid and clear. Then stir into the avacado mix. Fold in the yogurt using a metal spoon. Pour into prepared ramekins and refrigerate till set. Dip the ramekins into very hot water to help unmold. I turned mine out onto a bed of lettuce leaves topped with the prawns and served with some cherry tomato halves.
(These could be made the day ahead.)

Now for the Prawns. Her recipe calls for prawns in a french dressing. This is my own recipe for the Prawn part of the dish.
Take about 4 or 5 large prawns per person, I used frozen cooked large tiger prawns. Thaw and devein. Then add to a small bowl the prawns some finely chopped red pepper(capsium) about a tablespoon or so, same amount of chopped onion, spring onion would be nice. A dash of dried chili flakes, or finely chopped hot chili pepper, not too much unless you like it hot. Zest and juice of 1 lime. Honey to taste. 1 Tablespoon olive oil or you can use rape seed oil. A splash of white wine, any that happens to be open or that you are drinking at the time. Let this all marinate for about an hour. Serve the prawns over the mousse, drizzling some of the marinade liquid over the lettuce leaves.
Enjoy!!! Serve with some wholegrain crackers or some nice crusty bread.
Brian and I both enjoyed it last night. We found it quite fresh tasting and really yummy!!! Hopefully so will my stepson and his young lady. I can't wait to try it with the crab meat addition.

Leftovers Challenge
Okay I decied on Wednesday to roast a whole chicken. A lovely treat especially mid week. The cats start to hang around when it reaches a certain point in the oven when the aroma of the roasting chicken makes it's way through the whole house. Jingles will almost become aggressive as he waits in the kitchen beside his bowl for his share of the chicken. Cheeky on the other hand sometimes will eat it and sometimes won't. He is a very strange cat at times when it comes to food. Jingles is definately my foodie cat. He will sometimes sit and watch me cook. He does try different things too. Silly cat!!!
Anyway, what I want to know is how others use the leftovers. I sometimes make chicken soup, and definatley have chicken sarnies for a day or two. And Jingles enjoys the occasional tidbit that comes his way. And sometimes I make a chicken casserole like the one below.

So how do you use leftovers???? I would love to know and also would love to try new and different recipes for using leftover chicken. So if you could either post them on the comments, email me or post on your blog I would be ever so grateful!!!

June 28th 2007

I am still in love with my new cooker/stove!!! Still testing it out on all sorts of dishes lately. And some more baking too. Brian has even used it now for the first time to bake his rolls. He does do bread. I think it has something to do with him being a bit of a scientist and he enjoys the experiment of putting the ingredients together like in Chemistry class and then producing something totally different from them. He is very good at baking bread and rolls too!! Now if I could just get him to learn to cook something else occasionally.
I tried to make Pita Bread for the first time and so far they are okay... Must remember to make them a bit thinner. Although they were very nice. And they do have a bit of a pocket. I put the dough in the bread maker and then finished them up by hand and baked in the oven. Still not sure if I should use the fan setting or the traditional setting. Used the fan this time so next time I will try the other one and see what they do. They didn't brown up too much, but then again they don't bake very long at all.


My Friend Linda dropped by last Saturday to see how things were going and to check out the new stove and to try a piece of the lemon cake. She brought me a pressie!!! Some lovely Rhubarb and some broadbeans. Broadbeans are a new vegetable for me as I have never had them before. Didn't grow them back in the US in my vegetable patch so really wasn't too sure what to do with them. So found a recipe in AWT's Weekend cookbook that sounded yummy. Broadbean and Brie salad. The thing I am finding out about broadbeans is there is an extreme amount of waste to them. Too bad I don't live where I can have some chickens or a pig. Then I wouldn't feel so bad. I did price them up at my local grocery store and have found out that fresh are really expensive then the canned ones come in price next and the cheapest is frozen. I still have the canned and frozen ones to try yet.
Well with a prize of fresh broad beans I wanted something that would sort of showcase them, and this salad is a nice recipe for doing just that.


First you must shell your beans out of their pods. Pods went to the compost bin.

Next you pop the beans into boiling water for about a minute or so. Then pop them into cold water to stop the cooking. Now you pop the inside bean out of the leathery skin....

Again the skins went into the compost bin.... And now you have the end result. Some lovely little emerald green tidbits.
To make up the salad.... I put some fresh baby lettuce leaves (from my garden!!!) into a bowl. Then took an advocado and sliced it into chunks, into a separate bowl. Sprinkle in the broadbeans, and in chunks some nice brie... Take juice of 1/2 lemon and squeeze over the bean mixture and some extra virgin olive oil... Salt and pepper to taste.... Put over the salad leaves and sprinkle on some pine nuts. You can toast the pine nuts if you prefer.

This is the base of the salad, other nice additions could be cherry tomatoes sliced in half and I like onion in mine too, spring onions would have been lovely.
Linda says she doesn't like Broad beans as they are rather bitter. Maybe it is the skin that makes them that way as these were so sweet and tender and really tasty!!!

Unlike the broad beans the rhubarb yields are high!! And they are going into the freezer until I can come up with a recipe to do it justice. (Actually haven't made my mind up as to what I want to make.... Rhubarb pie... cake.... crumble.... fool..... oh!!!!! So many choices!!!)

Polenta

Something I have been wanting to make for ages was Polenta and this looked like a yummy recipe to try as it had another of my favourite ingredients Courgettes/zucchini.
First you start by frying some grated courgettes in a little olive oil... Now I couldn't leave well enough alone so added 1/2 chopped onion, some chopped garlic and some dried oregano.

Next you boil up some stock.... Chicken stock about 3 cups


Once that starts to boil.... Sprinkle in the polenta stirring all the time. (3/4 cup of instant polenta)

I did get into a bit of a hurry and dumped at the last moment..... don't do this.... it Lumps!!!

Cook for about 3 minutes stirring all the time until it gets really thick and pulls away from the sides of the pan a bit.

Take off the heat and add in your courgette mixture. I added in more oregano as it looked like it needed it.

Then place into a square tin that has been buttered.... sprinkle on some grated parmesan. And let set for about 1 hour or longer if you like. In America we make something rather similar but only using the polenta and water and just a touch of salt. Put into a loaf pan and let set over night. Then slice and fry and serve with maple syrup. This is usually served at breakfast with bacon or sausage patties and eggs and is called Cornmeal Mush. One of my fav breakfast treats when we visited Bob Evans. But easy to make yourself.

Once the polenta is set, you can slice it into triangles and fry in some olive oil or brush with oil and grill it.


I made a quick tomato sauce to serve with it. Take a tin(in my case a box) of chopped tomatoes place in a sauce pan with a teaspoon of sugar, some oregano and some chopped onion. Can also add some dried basil, red peppers and some vinegar if you like a more sweet tasting sauce.

Here it is served with the broad bean salad and sprinkled with more freshly grated parmesan cheese. The other dish is some cod, onion, lemon tomatoes in a foil packet with a dash of red wine and some oregano baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. The plates were totatly clean when we finished!!! Bon Appetit!

Zucchini flowers

I have said that one of my fav veggies of all time is Zucchini/courgettes. Coming from America we call them Zucchini and over here in the UK they are called Courgettes. I have seen some cooking shows such as Antonio Carluccio's where he stuffs the flowers with the most amazing cheesey concoctions and then deep frys them. Now coming from a family that deep fried dandelion flowers and knowing the amazing taste of those I thought.... Hmmmmm I would like to try this sometime. But our grocery store is definately lacking in experimental type of ingredients such as courgette flowers. So with my courgette plants growing so well here I thought I might get to try this recipe. Problem is do I go ahead and pick the little vegetables and then miss the meals ahead that take more of the veg for the recipe or do I go ahead and try it.... I then happened upon a blog that has solved my dilemma....
Cook Almost Anything And Haalo
has a recipe for using the male flowers of the plant!!!! Male flower recipe So problem solved!!!!! I used the batter recipe for coating the flowers and frying them. I think possibly next time I may add some cornmeal(polenta) to the flour combination just to get an added crunch. The night before I made a lovely Chicken and risotto recipe. Using some butternut squash in the rissotto. And as always I made too much rissotto.... I love the leftovers for lunch the next day. But this time decided to use it differently. The chicken by the way is grilled with a coating of honey and smoked paprika..... I love Smoked Paprika!!! Well worth trying if you haven't.

Anyway I wanted to use some of the rissotto for stuffing the flowers... So I took a rather large spoonfull of the leftover rissotto and mixed it well with some chopped up goats cheese and a little cream cheese and freshly grated parmesan. The goats cheese I used isn't the soft kind with the rind. More like a cheddar cheese. Then I proceeded to stuff the flowers. I first wash the flowers and took out the stamen like Haalo suggested and then gently stuffed them. Then I dipped them in the batter and deep fried for just a few minutes.

They came out really lovely and golden brown.

I served them with our roast beef dinner, which was well.... not a complete success. But the flowers were a success and I can't wait for my plants to produce some more male flowers!!!

(Have you ever had a day when no matter what the Yorkshire puddings just wouldn't rise???) Other than that the dinner was yummy!!!