BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, CRASH!!! Plus Chutney, Scone and Aubergine tray bake recipes

What a week? A week of two halves. Fantastic from Monday to Wednesday and a complete wipe out from Thursday!  Oh well, such is life.

Monday was full on out and about with Osteopath, Aldi shop and son's trampoline lesson. Needless to say I was a tad wiped out by the evening as it had been 6 weeks rather than my normal 4 weeks since my last osteo appointment and I cracked and creaked like a good 'un, but I felt taller. It does get everything moving though, so I do find that I feel a bit 'dead' afterwards.

Luckily Tuesday I felt pretty good apart from a late start and managed to do everything on my kitchen list plus extra.  Ached like hell afterwards, but felt it was worth it as I made:

Apple Cake - Thanks to the excellent North Wild Kitchen and her excellent book.

I also made 8 jars of green tomato and orange chutney: recipe below. You will need a food processor or plenty of muscle to chop it all up.

A batch of cheese, olive and onion scones: recipe also below.

Soaked my fruits for a chocolate and orange Christmas cake and made a batch of lemon and pesto falafels from the bag of soaked chickpeas and half a jar of pesto I had left in the fridge.

No wonder I was knackered 😂😂 All that standing about (four and a half hours to be exact) played havoc with my tilted pelvis.

Wednesday was a day with my daughter with a trip to B&M to get some bits of furniture for her office and a nose at the Christmas bits and bobs. Needless to say I spent/bought far too much, but I have completed my granddaughter's present.

Now to the crash!!  I literally couldn't get out of bed on Thursday!!  I couldn't keep my eyes open and I ached everywhere.  I literally spent the day dozing, drinking tea, eating chocolate and watching Netflix as I just couldn't do much else.  Still don't know what causes it, but I have since found out that endometriosis can cause fatigue and as mine is fourth stage and I now have a 'stuck' womb, it probably is that that causes it.  Either that or I do suffer from CFS. Friday wasn't much better but I did, at least manage to cook dinner.

Aubergine and potato with feta cheese tray bake

It was quick and easy and pretty damn tasty.  Recipe also below.  This week is a long one. Sorry!

The weekend is now here and I intend to catch up on some bits and bobs; got my Halloween candle holders out and my autumn scented candles. His Nibs has repainted the kitchen ceiling and I'm hoping to get some seeds planted, depending on weather, which will be good for Spring. It's currently blowing a gale and raining.

Anyway, here we go:

GREEN TOMATO AND ORANGE (CLEMENTINE) MARMALADE

4 large sweet oranges or 8-10 clementines (I used 8)

2 lemons

1kg green tomatoes

750ml water

1kg granulated sugar

Cut the oranges and lemons into slices and remove the pips and place the pips into a muslin bag. I didn't have any pips in either so couldn't do this and mine set fine, so I don't think it's absolutely necessary.

Then put the tomatoes, lemons and oranges into a food processor, in batches, and chop into small pieces.  Think small chunks.

Put this into a large preserving pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 45 mins until the orange and lemon peel is soft.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Bring back to the boil and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick and a wooden spoon leaves a clear trail when drawn through the mixture.  It will reduce a lot!! This stage can take anything from 40 mins to an hour and a half depending on how juicy your fruits are. Keep an eye on it, you don't want it to burn or turn into toffee.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly so you can skim off any yucky bits from the top and then ladle into clean, sterilised jars *

Allow to go cold, label and store for up to a year.

* I wash my jars in hot water and detergent, rinse and then place upside down in an oven preheated to 100C/225F/Gas 1/4 and leave them there for a minimum of 10 minutes.

CHEESE, ONION AND OLIVE SCONES - GLUTEN FREE*

175g self raising flour (I use Freee From flour)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1tbsp olive oil

large pinch of salt and black pepper

1/2tsp English mustard powder

25g butter/marg

40g parmesan cheese, finely grated (I use the bags where it's already done for you)

40g cheddar cheese, grated

2-3tbsp milk

1 egg

6-8 pitted black olives, chopped

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas6

Fry the chopped onion in the olive oil until soft and slightly browned.  Set aside to cool.

Sift the flour, salt, mustard powder and black pepper into a large bowl.

Rub the butter/marg into the flour mix until breadcrumby, then stir in the cooked onion, the chopped olives and the grated cheddar cheese.

Beat the egg and pour into the mixture using your hands to bind along with enough milk to make a soft dough that isn't too sticky. Knead on a floured surface/board until smooth.

Roll out the dough until approx 2cm thick.  Then using whatever size cutter you like (obviously the smaller the cutter, the more you get) and transfer to a lightly greased tray. Brush with milk and sprinkle on that parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at the top of your oven until browning.  Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.

*This recipe is based on a Delia Smith recipe from her Christmas book, but I've adapted for gluten free ingredients and my ease.

And finally!!

FETA, POTATO & AUBERGINE BAKE WITH GREEN LENTILS *

1kg potatoes, unpeeled, but washed and cut into chunks

2 aubergines, cut into chunks

1 red onion, chopped in any way you wish

A squirt of garlic puree or 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.

2 tins of green lentils or a large mug of dried.

1tbsp of Ras-el-hanout(Steenbergs is the one I use)

1tbsp of dried oregano (again Steenbergs)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes plus an empty can of water

1 packet of feta cheese

Olive oil

Large pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas7

Boil your potatoes until a knife goes through, but not until they are mushy. Then drain.

Fry the aubergines in a little olive oil until softened and turning brown. This will take about 8-10 minutes.

Tip both the aubergine and potato into a oven proof dish and season with salt, dried oregano and ras-el-hanout. Turning until coated.

Then fry off the onion and garlic if using fresh until soft and add to the other veg. If using puree, just squeeze some in that dish.

Tip in the green lentils (drained if using tinned), the tin of tomatoes and the empty tin of water. Place this in the oven covered either with a lid of tin foil and cook for about 40 minutes or until lentils are cooked if using dried or for about 30 minutes if using tinned.

Break up the feta on top of the dish and return to the oven, uncovered, for approximately another 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

This can be served with crusty bread or a salad or as it is.

*Loosely based on an Abel & Cole recipe that came as a recipe box. I've missed out ingredients I didn't think it needed and changed the quantities of herb and spice and changed the spice itself as the original recipe is just mixed spice so if you don't have Ras-el-anout, just use normal mixed spice.

EASTER TIME OR JUST ANOTHER BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND?

Depending on what you believe in and how you celebrate this could be Easter weekend or it could just be an extended weekend.  In this household it's a bit of both!  We do give out eggs but that's only because it's a bank holiday and family is home; I would have normally given out main eggs on 21st March when Spring began and just done an egg hunt this weekend, but I wasn't really with it at the end of March so it's all been delayed until now.

Last week was back to work after having a semi chilled week at home the week before where cooking became simple fare: quick salads, freezer food and using up bits and bobs in fridge.  Back to slow cooking last week for work days and normal cooking for days at home.

Sausage Casserole (I did partially brown the sausages beforehand and this is before cooking)

Good Friday was a lovely day out with a good friend including a drive through the country, a few foraging stops and a lunchtime drink in a pub followed by some charity shop and antique shop mooching.

A drift of wild ramsons (wild garlic)

Ramson flower

Saturday was dealing with foraged goodies and baking ready for next week and Easter Sunday/Monday.  Had a bit of an issue in the kitchen as the food processor broke so had to go 'old school' chopping up by hand with a large knife and grinding with the pestle and mortar.  Forgot I had those muscles in my arms, haha.

Chopping ramsons, hazelnuts and finely grated cheddar

Finished Pesto in sunflower oil and heat treated jar so should keep longer until opened

 Also had a bit of an experiment with mustard seeds, finely chopped ramson flowers, cuckoo flowers, jack by the hedge, sugar and vinegar.  Took a lot of grinding in the pestle & mortar but it does, at least, look like a mustard and blimey does it blow your head off 😃  Very nice with the mashed potato from Sunday's dinner.

Black mustard seed/ramson flower/cuckoo flower and jack by the hedge - HOT!!

Cuckoo flower - tastes like Wasabi!!!

Plus, of course, there has to be cake and as I had a bit of a glut of bananas left I made 2 banana breads (1 for now, 1 for the freezer) so son will be happy for a while and the infamous Barmbrack which has now become my favourite fruit cake ever and it doesn't contain any marg/butter.  Tried something different with the banana bread as I had a kitchen that looked liked a bomb had hit it and I didn't have room to get any more gadgets out, so tried rubbing in the butter to the dry ingredients and then adding the eggs and bananas which I'd mushed by hand (nothing like getting your hands in food, hehe; they were clean!); worked fine and meant a lot less washing up, so will probably continue to do this in future.

Banana Bread, Banana Bread, Barmbrack!

So no more time in the kitchen this weekend as His Nibs will be cooking including tomorrow so I have an extra day off - whoop whoop!  Back to normal on Tuesday.

Cya and hope you've had/are having a very Happy Easter! 🐰

DREARY FEBRUARY AND THE SHORTAGE OF LETTUCE!

Funny old week!  It’s very grey and miserable in the South East of Blighty.  February has arrived!  Although on the bright side bulbs are beginning to push green shoots out above the soil so the promise of colour is there.

Alfred the garden spider has decided to move home and taken himself off to the corner of the kitchen between the above sink cupboard and the wall; maybe he’s thinking of looking for a mate which is rather sad as he won’t find one.  If he lasts long enough and the warm weather finely arrives, I’ll reinstate him into the garden.

As to food and menus; I’m still finding little inspiration but then it is the ‘lean’ time of year.

The garden has a few turnips and leeks left but that’s about it although rosemary, sage, thyme, young mint and a few fronds of fennel are still there for the picking.  Talking of the garden I’ve had a tidy up and cut back a few bits as there is less risk of frost now.  Also found a few bulbs, that I hadn’t got round to planting in November, in the shed which were sprouting so risked planting up a couple of pots to see how they fair.  Next week will be checking over seed packets for dates and ordering new strawberry plants as the old ones have become far too old to produce much crop.

The festival of Imbolg was this week so I decided that Wednesday would be the day that I decorated the house with fresh flowers (supermarket unfortunately), greenery from the garden (eucalyptus needed a cut back), and candles and did a yellow and green themed dinner of smoked haddock, spring onion and pea frittata along with a fresh salad of lettuce (not iceburg I might add; more about that in a min), onion, watercress, apple, walnut and cheese.  I also took half the rhubarb out of the freezer and made an orange and rhubarb ‘cake’ with one of the blood oranges I had left and served this with custard.

Now to the lettuce issue!  Apparently the UK imports more than half its fruit and veg from abroad, which personally I find astonishing and rather worrying, and, as there is currently unusual weather conditions in Southern Europe, it’s affecting their ability to produce veg and this has meant a shortage of foodstuffs like courgettes, spinach, iceberg lettuce and now broccoli reaching our supermarket shelves.  My issue here is that why are we trying to buy courgettes, spinach, iceberg lettuce and broccoli now anyway?  To be honest why would you buy iceberg lettuce at any time of the year; it’s foul! Those are summer veggies! Why? Because we have become so used to buying anything at any time of year that we have become distanced from what we truly should be eating at any specific point. I often wonder if this is why illnesses have increased. Our bodies are attuned to eat certain things at certain times and to eat seasonally has a huge impact on our health and, obviously, the planet. Now I’m not being all evangelical about it; I love my blood oranges from Sicily and, of course, I’m still eating tomatoes in February which is silly unless canned, pickled or dried but I’m trying to eat as seasonally as possible and to grow my own or buy mainly from the UK and preferably local. I wonder how others would fair if they did the same. Perhaps if we did we wouldn’t be panic buying lettuce, yes people really are, with one supermarket rationing them to three per person.  On that point; to whoever is buying three at a time, all I can say is you must be eating a hell of a lot of lettuce as it wouldn’t last in my house and would go off before we could use it up.  Hmmm, more food waste I think.  May I make a suggestion?  Eat cabbage!  Red cabbage is around and that’s lovely and crunchy raw.  Finely shred it, shove in some grated carrot, possibly a chopped onion, maybe a few raisins or grated apple or both, add a light dressing and you have homemade coleslaw; tastes much better than lettuce anyway!

For further information I’ve added a couple of links below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/03/no-three-lettuce-heads-supermarkets-tell-customers-extreme-weather/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38666752

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/aug/12/seasonal-eating-vegetables-uk-does-it-matter

http://eatseasonably.co.uk/

Cya

Menu plan for the week is as follows:

Monday – Roasted veg pasta

Tuesday – Turnip and chickpea casserole with mashed potato

Wednesday – Smoked haddock frittata with salad and rhubarb and orange cake for pud

Thursday – Mushroom curry with rice

AAAAAH! NORMALITY HAS RETURNED!

Sorry, this is a couple of days late.

Well, it was rather satisfying to get back into the rhythm of things today with a clean out of the fridge, veg rack and fruit basket in preparation for the veg box order.  I was pleased to discover that the veg rack is finally empty apart from a half head of celery which was looking decidedly brown and unappetising, so was fed to the worms in the wormery and the rack wiped clean ready for new goodies.  The fridge had been emptied of all its mouldering items as well, so apart from jars of half eaten preserves, a bit of blue cheese and a quarter of an Xmas pudding there is now nothing left to betray that there was a festive season.  Salad trays contained a fresh box of mushrooms, 3 lemons, 2 Little Gem lettuces and about half a dozen baby plum tomatoes; all were ok, so the worms didn’t get any other treats today.

Blood Oranges - Yummy

Box arrived and after giving the fridge a final clean down I could empty the gorgeous fresh stuff into the respective areas.  Firstly, a fine bag of blood oranges; mine, all mine, I might add.  I patiently wait every year for January and the availability of organic blood oranges from Sicily and woe betide anyone who sneakily nicks one.  They are my favourite and only available for such a short time. They were added carefully to the fruit basket along with apples and satsumas.  The bananas were removed swiftly and put aside for banana bread later as they are beyond eating as a snack but will be wonderfully sweet and gooey for a cake. More cherry tomatoes, sweet bite tiny peppers and chestnut mushrooms were put in the fridge and 1 fennel, bag of Brussel sprouts (yeah I know you’re probably all sick of them, but we love them), 4 sweet potatoes, leeks and a bag of Cavolo Nero were housed in the veg rack.  I know that there are still leeks, curly kale, parsnips, swedes and turnips in the garden along with various herbs such as rosemary, sage, bay, thyme, marjoram and mint.

Menu plan for the week is as follows:

Monday – Quorn sausage, tomato, mushroom, pepper, garlic, onion, plenty of dried oregano, splash of gluten free Worcester sauce and big squirt of tomato puree cooked to form a sauce and served with pasta for the boys and buckwheat pasta for me.

Tuesday – slow cooker of quorn mince, mushroom, walnut and rice filled Cavolo leaves (apparently these parcel type things are called Dolmades and I’ve made them before with cabbage leaves).  Stock and lemon juice will be poured over to cook and keep them moist – this didn’t quite go to plan as the Cavolo leaves were so thin I couldn’t stuff them, so layered them with the quorn mince filling like a lasagne.  Clean plates again tonight.

Apologies for the quality of picture; it really did taste better than it looks

Wednesday – chicken and vegetable pie made with the leftover roast chicken & the remaining roasted veg from Sunday and mash potato.

Thursday – a layered potato, sweet potato, fennel and cream concoction with plenty of cheese including the last of the blue cheese; wasn’t as much cream left as I’d hoped so topped it up with milk.  As there was plenty of cheese I knew it wouldn’t matter and the potatoes easily soak up the liquid.  

White Orchard - a touch of beauty in the drabbest month