NEW WEEK! RAIN! SPRING MAYBE SPRINGING (includes recipe)

Weekly posts are getting too long and as I don't tend to cook at weekends anyway it does seem a bit pointless to wait a week.  Plus if I do a quick daily, I can include a recipe if I think it deserves one.

So today; weather is awful!  Raining, dull, miserable and not really making me want to go out and about.  So I stayed in and did the housework instead; catching up with washing, dusting and sweeping.  Oh and writing up this of course and last week's, haha.

This week's box delivery

I have tried to be a bit more organised this week by going through some recipe books and ordering just what I needed to get me through the week, so ordered individual items rather than a random box. I still have a couple of beetroots, half a red cabbage, a celery, some mushrooms and some tomatoes leftover from last week so will use those up somewhere along the line.

Planning on using up the slow cooked boar with veggies from yesterday and turning it into a shepherd's pie type dish tonight so all I need to do is some mashed potato and I'll serve it with the kale from the box.

First bulb of the season

Spring may seem a long way off with regard to the weather but this little beauty popped it's head out over the weekend and another one looks like it's on its way so, hopefully, it isn't that far off.


SON'S FAVOURITE BANANA BREAD

200g plain flour (obviously I use my grass free mix, but you can use anything you like)
2 heaped tsp baking powder (gluten free of course)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (although I tend not to measure this out and you could replace with mixed spice)
75g butter/marg
115g caster sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed (I tend to wait until they are beginning to go black and aren't really suitable for eating as is)
2 eggs, beaten.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4
Grease and flour an 8.5 x 4.5inch (21 x 11cm) loaf tin.

Mash the bananas in one bowl.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into another bowl then add the butter/marg and eggs; beat until combined.

Fold in the bananas and spoon into the loaf tin.

Bake for 50mins or until skewer/knife comes out clean.  Cool for 5 mins and turn out onto a wire rack to completely cool before eating.

This is rather nice slightly warm with butter :-)

WHERE IS MY BRAIN? BRING ON SPRING! (includes recipe)

The non-plastic plastic bags my veg come in

Well that was an odd week.  I was a week behind in my head.  Both my partner's and daughter's birthdays are this week and I was convinced they were next week (or as I'm late with this post; this week).  Confused yet?

Anyway kitchen duties weren't too bad but I'm still suffering from non inspiration.  Been thinking that maybe I'm awaiting Spring and am getting a bit fed up with Winter food.  Looking forward to asparagus and spring greens.

Had a few bananas left over and as we had run out of apples and my son loves his bit of fruit in the evening, I made a banana bread.  Not that healthy I hear you say; why not just give him a banana? However, my son doesn't like bananas as bananas; as he says "the only way to eat bananas is in banana bread".  So I cooked one and he was delighted and snatched a slice before I could photograph it, haha.

Son's favourite Banana Bread

This wasn't the only cake made this week as partner likes a coffee cake so a coffee and walnut cake was made for his birthday.  Luckily I found some chocolate butter cream in the freezer which I must have put in there over Xmas; I don't waste anything if I think it might be worth keeping and butter cream freezes beautifully.

Partner's Coffee and Walnut Cake

Whilst rummaging around in the freezer I came across one last batch of frozen pastry so thought a roast vegetable and bacon pie was in order to use up the leftover Sunday veg.

Roast Veg and Bacon Pie with mashed potato and greens

Rest of the week wasn't as inspirational and my shift of dinners ended with a rather quick and easy storecupboard dinner of tinned hotdogs, tinned beans, scrambled eggs and toast!

Am hoping next week will be a bit more exciting.

This week's box delivery

COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE - you will need a food processor or something similar

140g walnuts
150g caster sugar
5 eggs, separated
55g flour
1 tbsp instant expresso powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp boiling water
pinch of salt

Butter cream and some sort of jelly/jam to fill.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line a 9in x 2in (25 x 5cm) cake tin.

Grind the walnuts with 3 tablespoons of the sugar and when ground blend in the flour (hence the need for a food processor or something similar).

Beat the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until thick and pale yellow in colour.

Sift the cocoa powder with the coffee powder and dissolve to a fairly runny paste (not too runny though).

Fold the walnut mixture and coffee/cocoa mixture into the egg yolks.

In a clean bowl and with clean whisk(s), beat the egg whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks and then carefully fold this into the yolk mixture with a spatula.  You can always slake the mixture by folding in 1 tbsp egg whites first and then folding in the rest.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for approx 45mins (check after 40mins to see if cooked).

Leave to cool for 5 mins before slicing in half horizontally and filling with the jam/jelly and butter cream.

Tah Dah!

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

SUNNY DAYS AND "WHERE'S THE COCOA GONE"?

Hiya

Before I start I would like you to note that I cook Monday - Thursday each week for myself (obviously), my partner and my teenage son; both of whom are strapping lads of nearly 6ft or over and, therefore, have huge appetites.  I often feel like I'm feeding 6 rather than 3, haha.  Fridays my partner always does something and chips and Sundays he always does a roast (no matter the weather!).  Saturdays he tends to 'wing it' with whatever is in the freezer so could be anything from ready made pizza to home made fish pie (something he is making tonight, by the way).  I normally cook for myself on Fridays as I don't want chips every week and, depending on what he is doing on a Saturday, I might cook for myself again.

I love cooking, but trying to think up something that everyone will eat can be difficult and I know many household cooks will agree with me on that.  It often isn't the cooking itself that is a problem, it's the idea in the first place.  And anyway, as we tend to share household chores, cooking became something else we share.  There is, of course, the added issue that I'm gluten free (trying a 'grass' free diet at the moment) and no-one else is. Also I'm not a huge meat eater, neither is my son, but my partner is.  He is pretty much a meat and two veg man whereas I like Asian, Indian and European foods; in fact I like to experiment with all sorts of food.

Anyway, I'm digressing (as usual) so here we go:
It's been a mixed week weather wise with most days being sunny, but there has been a couple of overcast days and the wind has been particularly chilly towards the end of this week. This meant I was out in the garden a fair bit and managed to plant spring onion, mixed lettuce, spinach and pea seeds in my small salad veg plot.  The peas I'm growing are for pea shoots, peas proper will be grown in one of the bigger veg plots up the garden.  I've also got pots of rosemary, sage, oregano, lemon thyme and ordinary thyme, parsley, fennel, lemon balm and mint near the back door with an additional sage and rosemary in the veg plot for cooking and pest control.

L to R: parsley, sage, fennel and rosemary

L to R: thyme, lemon thyme, lemon balm, oregano

So what did I start with this week?  There is the obligatory sack of potatoes by the kitchen door and a bag of onions hanging on the wall.  Then the veg drawer contained carrots, celery, cabbage, leeks and rhubarb and then the fridge contained asparagus, spring onions, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, little gem lettuce, half a cucumber and 2 red peppers.  There was also left over home made pork gravy, cheddar cheese, feta, olives and gherkins. We buy as much veg as we can from farm shop and use from garden if we have it.

Monday I was out and about, so dinner needed to be quickish and easy which meant jacket spuds.  I know, not exactly cooking, but we all get those days when prep time is virtually impossible.  Tuna was mixed with shop bought mayo (something I need to start making as it contains sugar!), lots of grated cheese, plenty of butter to mash into the potato or, my particular favourite, spread over the empty skins and my son wanted baked beans!!

Tuesday was a lovely day and I spent most of the afternoon in the garden.  Dinner was chopped carrots, leeks, celery, spring onion slowly cooked with fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, a pinch of dried chilli and a touch of olive oil, then I added whole lemon balm leaves (I had no lemons), chopped lemon thyme and parsley and placed frozen salmon fillets on top.  Lid placed over pan and gently cooked so that any liquid from the salmon went into the veg and herbs underneath.  Once cooked, I removed the salmon and strained the veg leaving the liquid.  I added this liquid to cooked and drained mung bean noodles and then served with the veg and flaked salmon on top with buttered, griddled asparagus on the side.

Mung bean noodles

Wednesday I had a lot more time to prepare, so attempted a lasagne-style dish but without the pasta.  I soaked a large mug of red lentils for an hour in cold water.  Then peeled the outer large leaves off the cabbage and blanched them to use as my 'pasta' layer.  Chopped carrots, onion, celery, sliced mushrooms and the remaining chopped cabbage were then fried in a little olive oil and curry powder added (I make my own), then seasoned with salt and pepper.  Once lentils had been soaked I cooked them in the leftover pork gravy and some water until soft and added half a mug of chopped mixed nuts.  A bechamel sauce was made with a pint of milk, 2 tablespoons of gram flour, a large handful of grated cheese and nutmeg.  I tend to make my cheese sauces in a microwave I admit as I find they are less likely to 'boil over' and the glass jug is easier to clean; also it can be done in an all in one method.  Once thick I beat in an egg. Then the whole lot was layered starting with cabbage leaves, mixed veg, lentil mix, cabbage leaves, etc until used up and the cheese sauce poured over the top with extra cheese grated on top of that. It was cooked in the oven for approx 45mins on 190C until sauce was bubbling and I could see bubbles through the glass casserole dish. NOTE: I'd probably omit the nuts next time as didn't like the texture.

Thursday was baking day!  Rhubarb and orange cake and chocolate brownies!  Although I discovered that I didn't have anywhere near enough cocoa powder, so did a combination of 2tbsp cocoa powder (well, I shoved the remaining powder into a sieve, but it was approx 2tbsp) and 2tbsp of espresso coffee powder instead.  Tonight was a help yourself dinner of sausage rolls, chicken strippers, remaining tuna mayo from Monday, green salad of little gems, spring onion, celery and sweetcorn, marinated cucumber in cider vinegar and fresh mint and a warm salad of cooked sliced onions, halved baby tomatoes, sliced red pepper, paprika, chopped olives and crumbled feta cheese plus a tray of potato wedges and jars of gherkins, pickled turnips and more olives if wanted.

Now not much left veg wise except a few carrots and some mushrooms.  Luckily another 'shop' will be done later today or early tomorrow morning.

'Grass' Free Chocolate and Coffee Brownies
Melt 150g of marg in a largish saucepan
Add 250g of granulated sugar beet and stir until melted
Sift together 2tbsp cocoa powder, 2tbsp espresso powder, 75g buckwheat flour, 50g potato flour, 25g gram flour, pinch of salt, 1tsp bicarbonate of soda together in a large bowl and then once sugar has melted tip into saucepan and beat together.  Remove from heat.
Beat together 4 eggs and 1tsp of vanilla extract (I do tend to glug this in rather than measure) and beat this mixture into the chocolate mixture.
Chop 150g of plain chocolate and stir this quickly into the mixture.
Pour into a tin foil square tray (£1 for 3 at Wilkinsons) and bake for 20mins at 190C.  Allow to cool.

This recipe is adapted from a Nigella Lawson Everyday Brownie recipe which, so far has been pretty foolproof when altered.  I've used pre mixed Doves Farm Gluten Free flour before and it's always worked.  The original recipe contains 75g of cocoa powder.