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.

FFS!!! SLEEPY HEAD AND THEN FEELING ROUGH

A bit higgledy-piggledy this week as shifts swapped at work so worked Wednesday and Thursday instead of Tuesday and Thursday and ended up feeling rough towards the end of the week.  Was rather nice to have a couple of days off at the beginning of the week and the plan was to spend some time in the kitchen getting ahead, but that didn’t happen as I’ve gone into hibernation mode and am struggling with sleep and then not waking up and then was ill from Thursday with stupid viral thingy which made me freezing cold and headachy.  Hopefully within the next few weeks this will all rectify itself and I’ll be full of the joys of Spring, haha.

Forgot to mention last week that we had snow!  Well, a few centimetres of snow anyway, but it did make everything sparkly and pretty for an evening and half a day.  Brought everything to a standstill as usual although have no idea why as it was hardly anything and other places manage to keep going through masses of it on a daily basis.  Come to the conclusion that we South Englanders are pretty naff when it comes to snow.

Snow in Gillingham. Picture: Alan Spoore

Kent Online

This week I had two boxes delivered as they had an offer on ‘pick me up’ foods (quite funny considering I had no ‘up’ to be ‘picked’ by Thursday) so took a nosey in the cupboard and what was available and did a little order which included my blood oranges (yay), watercress (mmmm, soup!), venison mince and pigeon breasts (both now in freezer) and yogurt (I get through rather a lot as have it with my gluten free oats for breakfast instead of milk/water).  The veg box was quite standard as it would be at this time of year but I was able to double up on the broccoli meaning we had a decent amount.

Menu plan for the week is as follows:

Monday – broccoli and butterbean bake.  Was a lot better than I was expecting as I’d chucked it all together and laid slices of emmental on top; got eaten though and there was enough left over for me to have at the weekend instead of chips.

Before the slices of Emmental were added

Tuesday – Game pie with mash potato, the remaining broccoli, Brussel sprouts and carrots. Luckily pie was already made and in the freezer, so just an easy job of removal and allow to defrost before ensuring heated through in the oven.

Luxury Game Pie

Wednesday – Teriyaki quorn chunks in the slow cooker.  Hmmm, must use less Tamari next time.  Used the same amount as the note said for soy sauce, but the tamari was quite strong, so probably will halve it next time.  They all ate it though, so can’t have been that bad.

Thursday – After shoving flour, oil, water, yeast, sugar and salt in the bread maker before going off to son’s trampolining class, I made pizza.  Dough was good and I covered it in tomato sauce (ketchup), chopped onions, sliced mushroom, pepperoni, ham and cheese.  Made two of the paninis in the fridge into garlic breads for them and a bowl of salad to go with it.  Unfortunately I was starting to feel pretty crap by the time I got back from work, so the couple of slices of pizza they had left me were enough.

Pizza before cooking

Spent Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday wrapped up in layers of clothing and a blanket whilst drinking plenty of tea, water and vitamin C drinks and reading a book.  Partner cooked for them and I ate sarnies and the broccoli bake as really wasn’t that hungry.  Luckily Sunday morning I woke up feeling rather a lot better.

RECIPE:
Mixed Game Pie with Sausage meat-stuffing balls
Serves 4 or 3 if you're piglets, which we are.

Sunflower oil
knob of butter
approx 600g mixed game (mine was venison, pheasant and partridge)
about 4 rashers of smoked bacon cut into chunky strips
1 medium onion, chopped
thyme springs (I used 4, but this is to preference)
400ml of stock (I used veg)
A good glass of port
1 tbsp of redcurrant jelly (although I used my Hips and Haws jelly so you could use cranberry or any other jelly to be honest)
3 bay leaves
couple of carrots, diced
couple of celery stalks, sliced
heaped tbsp of flour for thickening

Brown the meat in batches in the oil and butter and set aside, then brown off the bacon and set that aside.
Cook the onions, added a glug more oil if needed, with the thyme until soft and lightly browned. Stir in the flour and gradually add the stock, port, jelly and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and return the meat and the bacon and allow to simmer, covered, for about an hour.
Gently sweat off the carrots and the celery in another glug of oil and butter and when browned add to the meat dish and simmer, again covered, for another 15 mins until veg is soft.

Meanwhile make the sausage meat balls:
150g sausage meat (mine was, of course, gluten free)
2 rashers of bacon, finely chopped
Approx 50g of nuts (could be walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts; I used hazelnuts), chopped
grated zest of a lemon
20g of breadcrumbs (mine obviously gluten free)
chopped thyme to taste
salt and pepper.
Squidge all of the ingredients together and form into walnut sized balls.
Fry them off until brown all over and set aside.

You will also need 250g of shortcrust pastry (either bought of homemade.  You could use puff if you can make it or find it gluten free or use normal if you aren't gluten free)

Transfer the meat and veg from the game mix into a pie dish and reduce the cooking liquid to approx 350ml or slightly under.  Pour this back over the meat and arrange the sausage meat balls on top and leave the whole thing to cool.

Roll out your pastry and cover your pie and if you have a pie funnel use it, but I don't and just made a couple of holes in the pastry top.  Cook this 30-35mins in an oven of 220C/Gas 7 until pastry brown and filling it bubbling.

NB: It's a long winded recipe and I've tweaked the original a fair bit. This isn't something I would do on a weekly basis, but would use for special occasions.