IT'S THE WEEKEND - HOORAH! (Recipe included)

So how did my pre-planned meals go?  Well the mixed bean chilli was ok, but wasn't chilli enough for me!  I need to remember that my slow cooker is a big one and so I need to put more in than I think; in fact when I think I've put enough in, put in at least an extra teaspoon.

I ended up discovering a half chorizo sausage in the fridge on Wednesday so I finely chopped that and fried it off before adding the pre-cooked tomato/pepper mixture that I'd prepped on Monday and then once heated through, added two tins of tuna, mixed in cooked pasta and covered in grated cheese before shoving in the oven to make a pasta bake.  That disappeared pretty quick!

Thursday I fancied a curry; too be honest I often fancy curry! Managed to get a 800g deboned leg of lamb from Aldi which didn't cost that much and put that, whole, into the slow cooker on a bed of peppers and onions.  Mixed a load of spices together (see below's recipe) and rubbed that into the top of the meat and around the side and poured on a tin of coconut milk and left it to cook on low for 8 hours! Unfortunately, I was at work when it was ready and it had been pretty much devoured by the time I got home meaning I only have the below 'before' photo and not an 'after' one.  Those large white chunks are coconut milk solids and not, as they look, huge lumps of feta cheese 😄

However, this is what it should and partially did look like; courtesy of the cookbook that I based the recipe on although our meat was shredded and not in chunks:

One thing I did do this week was spend a happy 45mins in front of Netflix grating fresh ginger into a jar!  I then covered with sunflower oil, so that I now have a jar in the fridge all ready to go for whenever a recipe requires it.  I also want to do this with the ton of garlic I currently have.

Freshly grated Ginger in Sunflower Oil ready for use

And I've recently discovered fresh turmeric!  It's a root not dissimilar in looks to ginger and I use it in exactly the same way except I don't peel it, I just grate it straight in.  The first time I used it I did peel it and then walked around for a few days with fingers that looked like I had a severe nicotine addition, so have now learnt my lesson and will never peel again! The flavour is far better and less earthy than dried turmeric.  It also means that I have a dish free in my indian spice tin; bonus!

Turmeric!!

No cooking on Friday as partner takes over for weekend and I was working anyway doing an extra shift.  Shamelessly treated myself to chinese takeaway chicken curry and chips on way home and snuggled on the sofa by myself to munch my way through it in peace.

Today me and son were at local Comic and Screen Festival and as partner got called into work today we've been really naughty and had pizza tonight!  So I have not exactly eaten that healthily over past couple of days.  Hey ho!  Back to proper food tomorrow.

What do you call a group of Ghostbusters?  A Gaggle?

BEST SLOW COOKER CURRY EVER!
3 red peppers (or any colour you prefer except green) cut into chunks
2 onions, cut into chunks
800g lamb (I used whole, but you could use ready diced)
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1.5 teaspoon turmeric powder (or 2in 'finger' grated fresh)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1.5inch thumb of fresh ginger, grated
1 level teaspoon of chilli flakes (change up or down depending on heat required)
1 400ml can of coconut milk

Place the onions and peppers into the bottom of the slow cooker and sprinkle the chopped garlic, grated ginger and grated turmeric, if using, on top.
Then place the lamb on top of the veg.
Mix the powdered spices and the dried chilli together in a bowl and rub into the top of the meat or sprinkle on top if using diced meat.
Pour on the coconut milk.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours depending on the size/type of meat; stir half way through to incorporate the melted coconut solids.
If you have it, chop up some fresh coriander and stir in once cooked.
Serve with rice!

BUSY WEEK AND A TON OF BOXES AND TOMATOES

Oooops!  I missed a week.  Sorry about that but it was a pretty uneventful week on all fronts anyway.

This week a lovely pile of boxes arrived from my veggie delivery although as you can see from the contains I probably didn’t need that many boxes just as you never need the amount of carrier bags that they put things into when you get a supermarket delivery unless you shop with one that gives you the option to be carrier bag free.  Bonus for my delivery is that all the boxes and 90% of the packaging can be returned and reused, even the string.  Must admit I tend to keep the string as it’s handy for tying up plants in the garden and some of the plastic trays are useful as seed trays or pot holders, haha.

A pile of boxes and their contains

It’s been an odd week of ‘in and out’ the house, so dinners have been as quick and as simple as they can be with the exception of Monday when I felt like doing a full on curry using left over chicken from Sunday to make a korma and the left over pumpkin to make a dahl.  I still marinated the cooked chicken in the spices and yogurt and I replaced the lentils in the recipe for the smashed up pumpkin.  No-one died of food poisoning and there were clean plates all round.  And before you ask; no I did not make the poppadums!  They were bought and are gluten and grass free; I checked. 

Chicken Korma, Pumpkin Dahl and Poppadums

Tuesday’s slow cooker recipe was a huge tomato sauce as I appear to receive a ton of tomatoes this week and still had some left from last.  Red onion, courgettes (yes Abel & Cole had some), the last of last week’s mushrooms, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper, oregano and thyme were added and set on high for about 5 hours.  Then served with pasta and grated cheese on top!

Weds I went all Asian again and did stir fry fish with lime, leek, remaining cooked carrot and green beans from Sunday, Aldi mangetout and baby sweetcorn.  I sloshed in some fish sauce, rice wine, spattering of sugar, ground cloves, fennel, coriander and sesame seeds, then served with mushroom, egg fried rice.

Mushroom, egg fried rice with spring onion

Fish with Lime, Carrots, Green Beans, Mangetout and Baby Sweetcorn

Apologies for photos; it was a bit steamy, haha

Yes I know! I had rice! I only normally eat rice about once a fortnight, if that, as it bloats my stomach and I feel awful, but I needed something a bit more exotic this week and rice just happened to be in the cupboard and I’d run out of my noodles. L

Thursday, as always, was busy backwards and forwarding to trampoline centre with an extra lengthy session in the afternoon as son had group lesson followed straight away by private session.  So time was short and having prepped Tuesday night’s dinner on Monday night and sticking it in the fridge to shove in slow cooker in the morning, I did the same on Weds night by prepping layers of sliced potato, Jerusalem artichoke, celeriac, leek, chopped ham and grated cheese.  In the morning I poured over a combination of cream and milk and switched it on and walked away.  Next time I won’t add equal quantities of milk to cream as it did produce quite a lot of liquid.  However, it tasted fab!

Alfred on the move!

In other news; the bulbs I hastily planted a couple of weeks ago are growing rather well.  The potatoes that The Potato Council sent us are chitting away nicely on the window sill and Alfred, after moving about and deciding to stop on the ceiling right above the kettle and abseiling up and down with the inevitability of eventually landing on someone’s head and thus causing panic and death, was carefully removed into the garden to find a new home.  I’ll miss him, but hopefully he’ll find a comfy spot and a decent mate.

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to you all.  Hope you intend to have a fab 2017 in the kitchen and maybe the garden if you have one, although a few pots on a window sill would suffice :-D

We started the New Year with an old friend coming for dinner so no cooking for me again as it was Sunday!  Roast duck stuffed with clementines and a couple of halved lemons plus a bouquet garni which made the gravy have a hint of citrus to cut through the meat.  Roast tatties, carrots, broccoli from the garden, leeks also from garden in cheese sauce and a red cabbage cooked in apple juice and raisins.  Yum!

To be honest I’m getting rather sick of all the leftovers now and, as I don’t eat much meat normally, I’m also getting a bit sick of meat so beginning to crave fish and veggie food, haha. So Monday was going to be, hopefully, the last whack it all together leftover meal. In this case I added together the remaining mashed potato from Saturday’s fish pie with the leeks in cheese sauce and the odd bits of leftover cooked carrots and broccoli from yesterday and heated it through in the oven until bubbling; this was served with cold cooked ham and the remaining duck and a choice of pickles.  Even after that I’ve still got cold ham left, but, at least, it can be used up in sandwiches.

Tuesday I awoke with a chronic stomach ache and a rash on my elbow which normally indicates I’ve eaten gluten (would also account for stomach ache) but unless the gravy had had flour added or stock granules which partner swears he didn’t do or the so called gluten free crackers weren’t as gluten free as they indicated I can’t think of where the suspicious gluten has come from.  Oh well I suffered for the day and did a much more ‘normal’ dinner of frozen bought pies for them with mashed potato and celeriac with peas on the side and the gravy from Sunday as there is never enough gravy in the pies.  Stomach felt even more swollen afterwards even though I, obviously, didn’t have pie, but I did pour gravy over the mash and peas.  Hmmmm, me thinks partner may be telling a porky which I’m not too happy about, but if he does ever admit to it it’ll be ‘but it was only a tiny bit to thicken it up’.  Not the point mate.  Anyway, son came down and was ecstatic to have a ‘normal’ meal and even stated that it looked yummy!!!  I have to admit, I’m definitely now craving veg and salad and soup even more.

Luckily I’d had the aforethought to order some sustainable trout for Wednesday night and after the past week of rich food and leftover mishmashes I can safely say that the trout was very much appreciated and not just by me. I wrapped it in foil with a bed of onions and a cover of lemon slices and dill seed and then cooked in the oven for about 15mins.  Was rather proud of myself as I managed to debone the fillets of the pin bones so no-one got any; I think I can safely say that my knife skills are obviously improving.  Did a stir fry of mushrooms, courgette, carrot, ginger, red pepper and a handful of salad leaves plus a sorry looking and lonely Little Gem lettuce was finely sliced and whacked in with some lime juice and tamari for flavour; the whole lot was served up with noodles for the boys ( I just had the veg and trout).  Yum!!  And my stomach is now singing songs of light and healthy food again.

Thursday was back to work so slow cooker was back in business with a chickpea and root vegetable curry which served us three nicely and gave me a small bowlful left for Friday so I didn’t pig out on chips which is normal Friday fare as Friday is the first day of partner cooking.  I do have to admit, however, that his chips are homemade and he’s got the crispy chips down to a fine art.  I can never be bothered to do chips from scratch so if I ever feel the need to do them they are frozen oven ones which are nowhere near as nice, but a damn sight easier.

Weekend has been his shepherd’s pie and another roast dinner as he never feels like it’s a Sunday unless there is a roast, even in summer which I hate.

Plus we celebrated Twelfth Night by going to a Wassailing Event at our local fort, so plenty of Morris Dancing to watch, a Mummer’s play, storytelling, cannons being fired and raising of glasses of cider with a shout of ‘Wassail, Drink Hail’ and a bumping into old friends.

'Wassail; Drink Hail'

Mummer's Play with a modern twist

 

Photos courtesy of local Moot member/s