Stuffing Stew.

Yesterday morning the house inadvertantly smelled like Christmas as I decided my one mission for the day was to use up some of the store cupboard stuff to make a soupy stew for the quick meals for the next few weeks whilst J went to the Allotment Society AGM.

So pearl barley from the store cupboard has joined leeks and parsnips from the freezer, and lots of sage and thyme to make a soupy stew that I think will work on it's own or with a veggie sausage or similar as a more substantial meal.

Just be aware that my post-chemo taste-buds seem to only be responding to super-herby flavours at the moment that you might need a bit less flavouring than me if you play with this one but trust me it makes the house smell glorious.

Leek, Parsnip and Barley stew

• c. 1 tablespoon oil
• c. 250g leeks
• c. 250g part-boiled parsnips
• c, 100g pearl barley
• 3 tablespoons dried sage
• 2 tablespoons stock powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• black pepper to taste
• c. 2 litres of boiling water

In large saucepan - makes at least 5 portions

• Put oil parsnips and leeks and lightly fry until the veg softens and takes on a little bit of colour.
• Add herbs, stock and enough water to cover to about 2 cms below the pan rim, bring to the boil.
• Add the barley and simmer for c. 30mins. The barley will absorb the water so you need to keep a bit of an eye on it to make sure it doesn't catch. Top the pan back up with boiling stock to same level as previous and simmer until barley soft.
• The final result is a thick brothy type soup that looks a bit beige but tastes great. I might add some peas or something else with a bit of colour to it when I warm up the portions.

All ready for freezing

Getting things done

Yesterday, despite the soggy start to the day, we had an excursion before our trip to the hospital for chemo. We had been building up a list of bits and pieces we wanted to pick up in town and I needed a non-medical trip out even if it did mean starting at B&Q. The main purpose was to have a peek at the new Hobbycraft that has opened this week .so we got  dropped off at the shopping centre late morning and then J wheeled me round working our way through our list of things until we got to Hobbycraft itself- the shopping centre is a nice level outdoor one and is just on the edges of the town close to the hospital so once we were done we popped into the Marks food place on site and picked up a picnic lunch. Now a picnic in a hospital waiting room isn't everyone's idea of a good time but it made sense for us not to go home and come back out again and the Chemo suite at the hospital is lovely and modern with comfy chairs and free wi-fi and all very relaxed so no-one minded that we turned up an hour or so early (they were momentarily puzzled but they didn't mind!) and it gave me a chance to rest before the treatment began. We picked up some bits for me and bits to put aside for friend's children and family here and overseas ready for the C-word as well as giving me a chance to see what sort of paints and the like the shop stocks before the chaos that today's grand opening would not doubt have produced.
Chemo went ok and whilst tired last night the evening passed smoothly and I even went back to sleep for an extra hour or so after my usual early wake up so a gentler start to today.

When I eventually got up I put a double batch of dough on for lunchtime pizza and a stock of flat-breads for the freezer - reheating them frozen has worked well this week, the breads had a lot of flavour and it's definitely something I will be doing regularly from now on. When J made the lunchtime pizza he also made the flat-breads themselves so a good bit of team-work.

Then on to the next job on the "it's really bugging me and I must sort it list". After several weeks of working our way through the freezer stocks of veggies, sauces and bought in stuff that we'd accumulated earlier in the year I shuffled the remaining pots, packets and boxes around making sure that everything that needs using up in the next month is in the drawers that I can easily get to and revised the lists that tell me what we have and which freezer it's in. The food shop arrived this afternoon so now we're fully stocked for my brother's visit next week and the rest of November and should only need  to pick up the odd bit of fresh fruit and mushroomy type foodstuffs.

Really happy to have got the chores done but starting to flag a bit as the afternoon goes on so methinks more seed crackers and seedling potting on are going to have to wait. My feet are now firmly up watching an interesting Dr. Janina Ramirez documentary on Julian of Norwich on i-player whilst J plants the autumn onion sets into modules in the kitchen and yes, it's still raining...

verbena cuttings need pricking out but will just have to wait...

Back to basics

For various reasons over the last couple of months my trusty breadmaker has been decidedly unloved and the basic ingredients that we always keep in haven't been used as much as normal. Instead I've been buying in pitta bread and tortilla/wrap style breads which means not only spending money that I don't really need to spend but also bringing extra non-recyclable, non-reusable plastic wrappings in to the house that just end up in the bin. Lots of reasons for this, some days I'm just not very hungry or the taste buds are playing tricks but I know I need to eat so a single pitta straight out of the freezer and in the toaster plus some soup is perfect, other days my mouth is a bit sore or swallowing a bit difficult and that lovely loaf of crusty bread becomes a bit of a minefield. Just part and parcel of the cancer treatment and no doubt the same thing for lots of people living with other long term conditions too.

So time for an experiment - can I make a batch of my own flatbreads using what I have in the house without tiring myself out and still have the convenience of being able to just have a single piece if that's all my appetite demands...

well-thumbed but hopefully legible!

My usual meander around blog-land came up with various make your own tortilla type recipes and I soon twigged that our regular weekend pizza dough recipe was very similar - low yeast, oil based and easily adapted to whatever flavourings you have to hand. Time for a play.



So this morning into the bread machine went:
about 100g of mixed grain bread flour (tail end of the bag)
about 200g of white bread flour
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1.5 tablespoon of onion powder
about 1 tablespoon of dried mixed herbs (last of the jar)
1 teaspoon of salt
170ml of water


And out came 550g dough ball which then got divided into eight.








I popped a couple of raw dough balls in individual cases to see how well they freeze and cook later. These are just reusable silicon muffin cases - once frozen I'll take them out and leave them in the tub.

Next I rolled out a couple of the pieces as large tortilla-style breads and popped them in a hot dry pan to cook. 

I divided a couple of the other pieces into 2 to make small pitta type breads - a hot fry pan with a little water - may use a little oil next time as pan started to smell a bit as it got very hot.

So now we have a few cooked for my tea and J's supper then a few smaller ones that are in the freezer to see how they re-heat over the week.



So far the results look promising, just need to see what they are like out of the freezer and then that's another step back from pre-packed foods.

And the wet weekend continued...

Judging by the blogs I've peeked at this morning a lot of us have let the weather inspire us to play in the kitchen this week! The weekend pretty much followed Friday's pattern as it was pretty darn wet underfoot and grey throughout Saturday. This meant I ended up doing some more "let's use stuff up" cooking - this time with some of the veg in the freezer - Cauliflower & Pine-nut Macaroni Bake - before putting my feet up with my book and some music and a couple of episodes of Made in Bolton on the I-player whilst making some more cracker innards and J popped into town to run some errands. 

Sunday also ended up being a kitchen morning as I played with making some spicy apple muffins using the food processor. They worked out well so that's one more thing I can manage on good days. Lunch was easy as we had leftovers from Saturday's bake with some veggie sausages and of course, the muffins had to be taste tested too! The rest of Sunday has passed quietly watching TV and reading again. The sun did eventually break through mid-afternoon but by that time I was back in low power mode so no more chores for me.

So, for today's post another recipe and this one is even a vegan one - although you can grate a bit of cheese on top if you really want!

Cauliflower and pine-nut macaroni bake

Makes between 4 and 6 portions in a 2 pint casserole



Put
About 250-300g cauliflower
4-6 mushrooms chopped
1 cup of wholemeal macaroni or other small pasta - cooked until just tender.
Approx. 500ml tomato sauce - made with passata or tin tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 2 dessertspoons mixed herbs, 1 dessertspoon sage and ground garlic and pepper to taste
100g bag of pine nuts - toasted dry in a fry pan.

Into a 2 pint casserole dish 
Stir all the veg, cooked pasta and pine-nuts together in the dish.
Pour the tomato sauce over the top making sure it gets all around all the veg
and pasta

Bake Gas 5 for about 30-40 minutes until piping hot and bubbling well.

Enjoy!

Wet Friday in the kitchen

My first Friday without chemo for a month has arrived with a thoroughly autumnal start. It's steely grey and tipping down out there so no outside pottering for us today. Instead, a bit of kitchen time. The weather demands something warm, filling and hopefully tasty for lunch so bring on our Runner bean chilli.

Dried runner beans

Runner beans grow to be big, chunky and prettily speckled purple beans that, when left to form in their pods and dried, make a great base for burgers, bakes and other other tasty dishes as they take on herby and spicy flavours well.

Veggies in

This recipe not only uses our homegrown beans it is also great way of using up any veggies lurking in the fridge or drawer that might be a bit past their best so as usual play with whatever combination you have to hand if you haven't got something on my list. 

If you don't have dried beans any 400g tin of beans will be fine.

How and what - Makes at least 6 portions.

Soak 200g dried runner beans overnight and then cook them for about an hour until tender. Throw away the cooking water for these as you would for kidney beans.

Chop and lightly fry a medium onion plus c.150g mushrooms and a large courgette. Added crushed garlic or garlic powder to taste.

Add a washed and chopped medium carrot or two and a small splash of water if it looks in danger of sticking. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes

Add about 500ml of passata or a 400g can of tomatoes. Then stir in a tablespoon of vegetarian or vegan pesto plus about 2 tablespoons mixed herbs, chilli powder, pepper and salt to taste. Bring to bubble, stirring to mix all the flavours and then add the cooked beans. Cover and simmer for about 40 -45 minutes until everything tender and the flavours have had a chance to mingle.

If you have time it's worth leaving the cooked dish to stand for awhile to let the flavours develop and then bring back to bubbling before serving with wraps, tortillas or rice.

Bubbling away nicely

I quite like a bit of grated strong cheddar on my tortilla too but this is usually flavourful enough not to need it if you prefer to keep it Vegan. 

This is one of those things that works well made in a big batch and portioned out for freezing and using another day. This pot gave us lunch for two today and at least four more portions for the freezer. As with most chilli related things if you can make it the day before you want to eat it then the flavour will be even better. 

I've also made a variation in the slow cooker but you will have to play around a bit with quantities and liquid levels to suit your crockpot.

When our allotment gives us marrows instead of courgettes...

It's time for pie...

I first had a version of this many, many moons ago when I worked in Northern Greece, this is the closest I've been able to get to what I remember eating although a hunt around the internet shows that traditionally grated raw courgette is used. I also use shortcrust rather than filo pastry as it takes five minutes to make and costs pennies whereas filo needs to be bought in. It's also really easy to make a double batch and freeze half for days when life throws you a curve ball but you want real food. Some marrows can end up being quite watery so just bubble off the liquid until you have the desired consistency.

Marrow and cheese pie (works with courgettes that haven't got too big too!)

Shortcrust pastry (a batch made with 8oz flour is plenty for a four serving pie)







Filling 
1 medium brown onion (3 small ones in my case)
About 750g of marrow or courgette peeled and diced
1 dessert spoon dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried Sage
appx 1tsp ground dried garlic (about 1 clove)
200g wensleydale diced (I usually use Feta but didn't have any today)
black pepper & salt to taste ( if using Feta don't usually need salt)
1 beaten egg

In a large saucepan, heat oil and slow fry onions to soften. Add diced marrow and herbs, stir well and cover and cook until soft.  This will take anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes depending on density of marrow and size of pieces. Add salt and pepper and allow to cool a little (about 5/10 minutes) then stir in the cheese. Once cool enough to not scramble the egg stir it in as this will help bind the filling.

Line pie dish with pastry and spoon cooled mixture in. Cover with lid. Seal by pinching the edges and trim away any excess. Make a hole for steam to escape, glaze if wish and bake in oven Gas Mark 6 for approx 30 minutes until golden brown.

I often find this is sufficient as a meal in itself but it can be served with a green salad if you prefer. This is a lovely herby substantial meal that makes great use of sometimes tasteless veg and the chief taste tester approved and of course, went back for seconds!

A rainy kitcheny kind of day

I thought my eyes were deceiving me this morning as I stood in the kitchen chatting to my Mum on the phone and a flock of long-tailed tits fluttered through the garden. They scampered around from the giant fir two houses down across our hedge and apple tree and into the cherry two doors across the other side and then back again briefly alighting on the apple. Of course, as I cut my chat with Mum short and grabbed the camera the little blighters disappeared - not sure whether they have camera or rain sensors but they didn't return. I'll just have to keep an eye out but usually they're a winter sight around here not summer.

As the promised rain duly bucketed down all morning I decided to go through the fridge and fruit stores to cook up anything that was looking a bit sad and not likely to keep over the weekend. Now I'm up 2 pots of mixed berry and apple sauce - great for pies, crumbles or for stirring into yoghurt or warmed over ice cream; a pot of peas; a tray of roast tomato and pepper sauce cubes and half a dozen roast courgette and mushroom cubes plus a tub of cooked beet leaves for adding to soups, stews or pie fillings. I'm shattered but at least nothing's going to waste.
The vegetable cubes are really simple to make, use up slightly-less-than-best veggies and provide wonderful little flavour bombs for adding to pie fillings, pasta sauces, soups, stews and bakes throughout the winter. They also make great use of any gluts you might have or even left-over roast veg from a meal.

Quick and Easy Sauce Cubes
Ingredients
Tomato and Pepper
Roast equal quantities red pepper and tomatoes with basil, black pepper and onion powder.

Courgette and Mushroom
Roast equal quantities of mushrooms and courgette with thyme, black pepper and onion powder

Next steps
Allow to cool slightly and then tip into a deep bowl or pyrex jug and blitz with a stick blender ( or tip into a food processor if you prefer but I find stick blenders easier for small quantities).
Once thoroughly blitzed, spoon mixture into an ice cube tray and either cover with lid or with a sheet of foil and freeze.
Once frozen they can be popped into a box or bag to free up the cube trays for future sauces.

Red pepper and tomato

Mushroom and courgette

Blitz

1 tray = 14 flavour bombs

Not as pretty but definitely tasty

Cover tray and freeze -don't forget to label

Green Risotto

Fridays pickings turned into a very tasty Saturday lunch - although next time I might plan for a cooler day before making risotto!

There was enough here for at least 3 and probably 4 people depending how hungry/greedy they are feeling.

What went in:

2 small onions finely chopped and lightly fried

11oz/300g mixed peas and broad beans

c. 3oz/75g chopped washed spinach beet leaves

1 and 1/3 mug of arborio rice

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 teaspoons dried parsley

3 teaspoons leek powder

black pepper to taste

c. 2.5 pints/1.5litres  boiling water 

4oz cubed feta

How I did it:

used all of these

used about half of this

After first liquid get a bubble on!

just add feta!

I tend not to do the traditional stir after each ladle of liquid when making a risotto so I added the peas and beans to the fried onion along with a small handful of chopped leaves and the rice, gave everything a gentle stir to warm them through and then added the herbs and leek powder before topping of with enough liquid to cover to the top of the pan. 

Another stir and set the gas heat to medium to get a good bubble on and then put a lid on for about 10minutes.
I kept checking back in and giving a stir every 5 minutes or so until the rice had absorbed most of the liquid and then topped the pan off again, added more leaves and repeated. I tasted the rice once it had absorbed the second pan full and then added about another half pan full, the rest of the leaves and a good grinding of black pepper - I like my risotto quite soft so the amount of liquid you eventually add may vary - keep testing.

Once the liquid has been absorbed I turned the heat right down and added the feta. A good stir and then off the heat and serve.

Enjoy!

Quick and easy hot-pot

I wanted something relatively healthy but that didn't take too much effort for yesterday's tea so reached for the freezer stores to rustle this up. One that can be easily adapted depending on what you have to hand or your preferred flavours

Veggie Sausage Hotpot
What I used:
1 pack of Cauldron's Cumberland veggie sausages
About 300g frozen mixed summer veg (I used a bought ratatouille mix of courgette, aubergine, tomatoes, peppers and onions as we'd used up our own supplies)
c. 6 chestnut mushrooms quartered
c. 250ml mixed passata and water
2 tablespoons mixed herbs,
1 teaspoon onion powder
black pepper & garlic powder to taste
About 250g potatoes sliced very thinly and par-boiled

What I did:
Put about a tablespoon of oil into a square baking dish (about 8inch square 1 inch deep).
Slice each sausage into 4 chunks and put them in the oven at gas mark 6 for about 15 minutes until they start to brown. Add the mushrooms and leave in oven for about another 5-10 minutes.
In a separate pan mix the defrosted and warmed through veg, the passata, herbs and flavourings with enough water or stock to make a pourable sauce that will cover the sausages and fill the baking dish. Pour into the baking dish and level off.
Layer the par-boiled potato slices on top of the sausage and veg until covered  and bake on Gas mark 6 for about 30 minutes with a foil cover on then for about 15 minutes more until the potatoes are golden and crispy.

Put any leftover potato slices into a foil parcel with a little bit of oil, some black pepper and garlic powder. Fold the foil over and pop in the oven with the bake to serve on the side.

Experimenting in the kitchen again

Usually super ripe bananas get made into simple banana cake or bread but this weekend I fancied trying something different and, as I had some little bars of dark chocolate in the larder, I thought I'd play with the recipe a bit. 2 smallish but very ripe fruits and 2 mini bars of Green and Blacks 70% cocoa dark organic chocolate that was a bit past it's best before date became Squidgy Chocolate Banana Cupcakes.

Straight from the oven

Squidgy Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

4oz Self-Raising Flour

2oz Cocoa

5oz sugar

6oz margarine

3 eggs

2 ripe bananas

approx 1.5 -2 oz of chocolate chopped into small pieces (or chocolate chips would work)

Place all ingredients except the chocolate into a food processor and whiz until thoroughly mixed together.

Add in the chipped chocolate and pulse for about 30 seconds - just enough to combine the chips into the mixture without breaking them up anymore.

Spoon the mixture into 12 large cupcake cases - I use and re-use silicone cases to reduce waste - it works out about 1 large tablespoon per case.

Bake on Gas Mark 4 for about 25 minutes but keep an eye on - when skewer comes out clean they are cooked.

Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream or leave to cool for a delicious cake that is almost brownie-like in texture.

Using stuff up cake

After dropping J off at the allotment with all the card and shredded paper my little Zoe could hold I came back to potter around. A quick look at the slightly overripe bananas in the kitchen meant it was time to make cake. I also had some walnuts left over from making carrot cake for J's birthday at the weekend so in they went too. A super quick chuck-it-all-in-the-food-processor cake that has left the house smelling really nice too!

Banana and walnut cake

300g Self-Raising Flour
200g Margarine
200g Sugar
3 ripe bananas roughly broken up
4 eggs
handful of walnuts roughly chopped!

Place everything except the walnuts in the food processor and whiz until thoroughly mixed. Then sprinkle in the walnuts and give it a quick mix.

Pour into a greased and lined tin and bake on Gas Mark 6 for approx. 45 minutes until the skewer comes out clean. I used a square 24cm tin for bar-type slices. A smaller deeper tin will also work of course, just adjust the cooking tie to compensate for deeper batter.
When baked transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool before cutting into slices. Alternatively serve warm with either raspberry sauce or custard for a lovely pud!

Banana and walnut cake straight from the oven

Let it cool for cake or eat warm for pud

Warming the cockles...

Weird phrase that but evidently it's a reference to the Latin for the ventricles in the heart which look like snails hence cochlea - at least that's what it says on the internet  anyway!

ermm more card...

Card for no dig gardening

 The weekend has been grey, damp and a bit meh so to stave off the second half of January I-feel-sorry-for-myselfs there's been a far bit of cardboard stash sorting and general tidying around the place with J doing any heavy lifting and popping the hoover round when I'd finished making a mess with the paper shredder! We save big bits of card and boxes to use as mulch for the allotment beds and the small bits and shreddings for lining bean trenches or feeding the compost bins and then there are the egg boxes for chitting seed potatoes in ... Not surprisingly the house was starting to feel a bit overcrowded so now everything is in the storage alley ready for a trip up to the allotment when we next go up. Beans, potatoes and all manner of good things will follow!

Essential egg-boxes for chitting spuds

Of course all this hard-work needs heart-warming food as a reward and this weekend it was J's gorgeous home-made pizza on Saturday - oh the joys of a bread-maker that kneads away while you are doing other stuff - and tofu casserole from the freezer on Sunday. I made the casserole earlier in the week, had a portion for lunch and froze the rest - this meant lunch today was quick to prepare but still really tasty and nutritious. Today we popped a garlic bread in the oven to go with it but it works well with mash, rice or pasta too.

Cockle Warming Casserole
The night before (or an hour if you really have to!!)
Dice 1x 200g packet of firm tofu and coat in a mixture of 2 tbsps tomato purée and 2 tbsps pesto. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

A couple of hours before you want to eat ***see note below
In a medium pan
Sauté 1 chopped onion in about a tablespoon of oil until translucent.
Add in the mushroom and diced parsnips, tofu, mixed herbs, garlic powder, black pepper and a small glug of water to keep from sticking (and avoid adding extra oil). Stir, cover and continue to cook for about 5 minutes.
Put empty 1 litre/ 1.5pint casserole dish onto a strong baking tray (just in case of over-spills and to make it easier to take out of the oven).
Pour veg and tofu mixture into casserole and sprinkle 1tbsp of onion powder, 1 teaspoon of thyme and some more black pepper over the mixture.
Top off with sufficient boiling water to cover to just below the surface of the casserole dish. (I usually leave about 1cm).
 Give it a stir, Cover and Cook
***Now comes the how much time do you have decision.
This will be perfectly good cooked for about 30 minutes on a gas mark 4 until bubbling nicely and the parsnips are slightly soft on the fork but if you have time and can give it longer then try gas mark 3 for at least an hour and the flavours will settle in even more.
Delicious fresh from the oven. Even better frozen and reheated a few days later.

Tofu casserole and mash on Tuesday. It went too quickly to photograph today!

Making use of our dried apple - Apple Pudding

After dropping Mum off at the station on Thursday I had a bit of a play in the kitchen. I've been thinking of different ways to use up our stores of dried apple and the last of our 2018 hazelnuts. As well as being good for nibbling on. it can make tasty apple pies or crumbles and was a really good addition to our Christmas cake this year so I thought I'd re-hydrate some to have a go at a variation on a fruit tea bread. In the end this recipe produced a really tasty but quite doughy loaf which was great as a warm pudding with custard or cream for several meals with the last slice being eaten on Sunday.

Re-hydrated Apple Pudding
I put dried apple slices in a wide 1 litre pyrex jug up to approx 650ml line and covered in boiling water up to c. 1 litre line. Cover and leave for at least 1hour.
Scoop out apple slices into the bowl of a food processor and reserve liquid. Whiz apples into a rough purée.
Add 1.5 tsps of cinnamon and 1tsp nutmeg and approx 2tblsps of roasted hazlenuts. Whiz again. 
Add in 10oz Self-raising flour, 5 oz demerara sugar, 5 tblsps sunflower oil and 2 eggs. Whiz until mixed.
Add in sufficient of reserved apple liquid to make a fairly loose batter (I used approximately 250ml).
Once thoroughly mixed to a loose batter add in about 3oz sultanas. Whiz once or twice to combine then spoon into pre-lined loaf tin.
Bake Gas Mark 4 for approx 1 hr and 15 minutes until skewer comes out clean.

Despite looking the part here more work is needed if I want it as a loaf cake but it's definitely a keeper as a pudding.

Of new recipes, old favourites and what the heck shall I do withs...

There's been Pot stirring a plenty over the last few weeks, with Mum and J here to enjoy eating and doing the washing up after me I've really enjoyed making good use of our freezer and store cupboard supplies and those meal plans have really helped make sure we had a nice selection of meals without too much effort and no waste.

Lentil base became tasty stew 

On Thursday one of the tubs of leftover Green Dragon pie filling and a tub of mash were pressed into duty and become lentil stew.

Bean and mushroom Risotto

On Sunday the pre-christmas mushrooms and carrot were getting slightly past their best so joined some broad beans from the freezer and rice from the store cupboard in a tasty risotto.

Leek and potato soup

Yesterday was a simple leek and potato soup using up some of the tubs of pre-cooked potato from the freezer and lots of herbs.Served with a garlic bread I'd bought a while ago and discovered in the freezer!





Today I also tried out a new-to-me pie recipe from the Hairy Bikers on the BBC website that my Mum spotted a month or so ago. Unusually for me it's involved buying in several special ingredients but it's made a lovely treat for New Year's Day lunch and I don't have too many unusual things to use up quickly. I did tweak a little as I'd accidentally used up all my thyme in yesterday's soup and I didn't bother with the Marsala but popped in some extra stock instead, so I give you the really rich and definitely delicious almost entirely like the recipe Mushroom and Chestnut pie. There's none left and we were all too full to eat pudding so that's always a good sign.

New Year's day lunch - delicious with just a few roast veg.

Now what to do with about 3 ounces of pre-prepped chestnuts???

Quick and Easy Vanilla Biscuits

These are super tasty and cook really quickly - the dough can be made in advance and stored in the fridge until you need it and the cooked biscuits keep well for at least a few days. I'm sure they'd probably keep longer but they don't get a chance in this house! I can't remember where I found the original recipe for this but it's been a favourite for some years so I hope the original author will forgive any liberties taken.

Oven 200c /180c fan or Gas Mark 6

You'll need at least 2 flat baking trays and several sheets of baking paper (parchment paper).

Makes c. 40 c.2.5cm round biscuits (your quantities will obviously vary depending on shapes made)


6oz/175g margarine or softened butter
7oz/200g sugar (I use a mix demerara and granulated)
12oz/350g plain flour
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp icing sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon or mixed spice for dusting on top of warm biscuits.

Mix all the ingredients (except the spiced icing sugar) in a food processor. Bring together into a soft dough and divide in 2 lumps.

Roll first lump between 2 pieces of parchment paper (cut to fit  just a bit bigger than your baking trays). Roll to c. 2mm thick and then cut into shapes (I find simple circles work best and use a 2.5 cm diameter cutter). Obviously you can make them thicker and or bigger but will need to keep an eye on them when they cook - play around and you'll soon figure out what timings work best for your shapes and oven.

NOTE: At this point the original recipe said to peel back the excess dough and leave the cut out biscuits on the bottom parchment sheet and then place whole sheet on the baking tray. If this doesn't work for you I've found that putting an additional sheet of parchment paper on the tray and using a palette knife to transfer the cut biscuits on to it works fine if you aren't too bothered about each biscuit being completely uniform in shape!

Roll the next batch between sheets of parchment and repeat. Bring any excess dough together and re-roll between parchment until you have used all the dough up.

Bake for c. 10-12 minutes until gently golden - keep a close eye on them as they turn quickly.

Transfer cooked biscuits to a cooling rack and dust with the icing sugar whilst still warm.

Once cooled store in an airtight container if you can keep them long enough.

December drawing to an end

Today has been Boxing Day, a great day for loafing and leftovers. It's also the kind of day that lends itself to looking back, to reviewing things so here's what I have come up with for today.

Royal icing, marzipan and cherries for the top

Things made to share
We were too full yesterday to cut this Christmas Cake so it received it's first cutting today. It had stayed nice and moist despite not having any alcohol in it and the icing hadn't gone rock hard so a definite win.
Dinner yesterday was pine nut-roast and roast veggies and was followed by a leftovers pie and herb and onion nibbles for today, Boxing Day. Tomorrow will be lazy lentil stew - a pot of base and a pot of potato from the freezer with some veggie and store cupboard extras - quick and easy.

Things read
Busy doing other things over the last couple of weeks so still reading Katherine Arden's wonderful book. I'm going to ask for the other two parts of the trilogy for my birthday I think. I've also dipped in and out of a few e-magazines borrowed from my local library's electronic lending service. If you haven't already done so and are looking to save some money in the coming year take a look at your local service and see what they offer.

No spoilers as the picture isn't the same as the box

What were the other things? Well this Christmas Wasgij kept three of us busy for a few days and there are a few more puzzles lined up to take its place.




Things watched
The Paddington Films - I hadn't seen either of these so made the most of my new Amazon Prime subscription and watched them both in the last week. I think I liked the second one even better than the first.
Watership Down - I also enjoyed the new BBC adaptation of Richard Adams' story shown over two nights despite it receiving mixed reviews.
I've also been making the most of the Prime subscription by trying out different series that have been around for some time but I've never seen. So this last week or so I've started the first series' of The man in high castle (interesting concept but very confusing); The 100 (so far so good but a bit Lord of the flies...) and Battlestar Galactica ( ok but you do have to pay attention as it darts around a lot). I've also tried out The Marvellous Mrs Maisel - which is more just about ok than marvellous in my opinion but will fill some time when J goes back to work next month.

Things listened to
Other than favourite Christmas music and Winter songs I sat down this afternoon and actually listened to a radio drama for the first time in ages. 'Twas Neil Gaiman's Norse mythology on Radio 4. Check out on Iplayer/ Sounds here.

So there you have it - hope you have had a chilled out week too.

Green Dragon Pie - comfort food for damp chilly days

Green Dragon Pie fresh from the oven

This one is Vegan by accident as the pesto I happened to have in the cupboard is a dairy free one from Sacla.

Named in tribute to the yummy Red Dragon Pie from Sarah Brown that uses aduki beans. As an aside - if you ever come across one of her vegetarian cookbooks in a charity shop - snap it up - all her recipes are really tasty and great to play with!

This is what I used to make a main meal for 3 hungry people in a 2 pint casserole dish. Oven to Gas Mark 6. 

In a large (c. 20cm) saucepan

Lightly fry to bring out flavours

• half a dozen chopped mushrooms
• 2 medium carrots diced

Stir in

• Approx 200g cooked green lentils
• 1 tablespoon onion powder (if using fresh onion replace this with 1 small one chopped and fried lightly with mushrooms)
• 1 tablespoon (vegan) pesto
• 1 tablespoon mixed herbs
• black pepper
• dried ground garlic (or 1 large clove crushed)
• approx 150ml passata 

Cover, bring to bubbling and then turn heat down and allow to simmer until carrots are just tender.

In another pan cook peeled floury potatoes until tender - you will need at least 200g for a nice deep covering but when I know they are for mash I cut them small and fill the pan to save time and energy (another 20cm pan).  

When the potatoes are cooked (yield to a fork stabbed into one of the larger pieces!), drain and mash adding a little soya milk or margarine for creaminess. 

Put sufficient lentil mix in your casserole dish to cover  2/3 of the depth and then spoon on the mashed potato  - proportions can easily vary according to your tastes but I find 1/3 potato to 2/3 base is right for us!

Bake for approx 30 minutes until the potato is golden brown on the peaks.

Enjoy!

No food waste here!

Leftover lentils cooling for the freezer

Any leftover lentil mixture keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days and can also be frozen very successfully. It makes a great pasty filling, baked potato topping, pasta sauce or basis of a stew or soup.
Any leftover potato can be either mashed and frozen for another day and is great to have on hand for quick meals, soup thickener, rissoles or they can be left whole to use them in a potato omelette or roasted/shallow fried.