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

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

CHRISTMAS WEEK!

I had a lovely Christmas weekend of not cooking as Xmas Eve was Saturday and partner cooks anyway and Xmas Day the man feels like it’s his job and always takes over the kitchen. Woo hoo!! 

So, slow cooked haunch of venison (I put money in the local butchers Xmas fund every month so we can have a decent bit of game as no-one likes turkey in this household) along with roast potatoes, parmesan parsnips ala Delia Smith, Brussel sprouts cooked with bacon, mashed potato, carrots, homemade gravy, Yorkshire puddings (normal and gluten free for me) and gluten free chipolatas (courtesy of the butcher).  He also insisted on steaming the Xmas pudding we’d made and defrosting a pavlova even though I knew none of it would be eaten as we’d all be stuffed with the main course; which we were.

Barmbrack

Boxing Day was cold cooked ham, leftover venison, cheese, salad and pickles; traditional I know, but rather lovely and I actually prefer it to the big event day’s food as I do like to pick.  Barmbrack was also served up, but very little was eaten as, once again, we were all stuffed.

Tuesday I decided to check out what was left in the fridge; plenty of cheese, mushrooms, leftover meat (still!!!), salad stuff and the remaining cooked veg from the big day, so I decided to blitz the veg and some cooked bacon and make, sort of, bubble and squeak patties which I froze flat on a tray ready for removing individually as and when we need them.  As I was off out early, I left them to fend for themselves as there were still plenty of leftovers.

'Bubble & Squeak' Patties

Wednesday, son had a mate round so I thought pasta would probably go down well all round. Fried off some chopped mushrooms, a courgette, one onion and some garlic in butter, stirred in half a glass of flat champers and then whisked 2 egg yolks into rest of tub of the cream and topped up with milk before pouring into the pan to make a creamy sauce.  I then added the last of the ham which I’d chopped up into smaller strips.  Once pasta was cooked I strained off the majority of the water and stirred in the cream sauce.  As it was still hot and only just cooked the pasta soaked up the sauce pretty well and was promptly devoured by all.

Didn’t feel too great on Thursday so knew it was going to be a chuck it together dinner again.  Veg tray contained a ton of veg still including carrots, celeriac, red onions, celery and red cabbage.  Also still had quarter of a sack of spuds, so used up the last of the carrots, half of the celery and celeriac, 3 red onions, garlic, potatoes.  Chopped up into cubes and shoved into a roasting tray with chopped rosemary and oil and roasted off for 40mins before lightly crushing and roasting for a further 10mins.  Served this with the last of the venison in which I stirred half the remaining gravy and a huge dollop of hips and haws jelly.  Wasn’t the most complicated of dinners, but was rather tasty. Froze the remaining gravy as it won’t get used up otherwise and I hate waste.  It’ll get put into a pie at some point in the future.

So I still have half a celeriac, a red cabbage, onions, mushrooms, salad leaves, tomatoes, half a red pepper, leeks and celery left!  Also cheese, nuts, cake and half a Xmas pud!  Hmmm, nut roast I think is required and probably a couple of pots of soup! As I have plenty of chocolate in the baking part of the cupboard I can see Xmas pud truffles being made if no-one eats it up soon.

Have a great new year people!!

BIT LATE! KITCHEN DAY ON 19TH DECEMBER

Well the week started better than last week that’s for sure.  Woke up after a proper night’s sleep; first one since last Tuesday, and didn’t have a headache!!!!  So an afternoon in the kitchen was called for.

Barmbrack needed to be finished so mixed the dry ingredients into a bowl, added the egg, mixed as best as possible and poured the now well soaked fruit into the mix and stirred it all together with a wooden spoon.  Transferred to loaf tins and baked for an hour and fifteen minutes until knife came out clean.  Smelt beautiful and I much prefer this to a Christmas cake.

Barmbrack recipe (this makes one loaf tin, I doubled to make two):

375g dried mixed fruit

50ml whiskey

250ml cold tea

225g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

125g soft light brown sugar (although I use Sainsbury normal caster sugar as it’s sugar beet and not sugar cane and therefore grass free)

½ - 1tsp of mixed spice

1 large egg

Mix the cold tea and the whiskey in a jug and pour over the dried fruit in a large bowl.  Leave overnight to soak.  The following day mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and mixed spice into another large bowl, beat in the egg and the liquid from the soaked fruit a little at a time to form a soft dough consistency, then stir in the fruit.  Because of the type of flour I use, I tend to just tip the fruit and the liquid all in at the same time as the flours do absorb quite a bit.  Turn into a loaf tin, I think mine is a 2lb one but you’ll know what size tin it will fit into, and bake in the oven at 170C for 1hour or until knife/skewer comes out clean.

This should be kept for at least 1-2 days before eating and can be sliced and eaten as it is or spread with butter.  I love it and you may have noticed that there is no fat used in it.

I wrapped one in foil and put in tin for Christmas and the other was wrapped and frozen for later.

I also indulged in a rather extravagant game pie recipe that was in my Farmhouse Cookery book.  I made one large one for us to freeze for later and a smaller one to give as a present to someone who has been dropping hints ever since I mentioned I’d made a game pie a few weeks ago.

Also made Brownies using Chilli Chocolate so I had something to give to a couple of people and some left for us.

SINUS, HEADACHES AND A DAY IN THE KITCHEN

Well, we are still getting kale, parsnips, cabbage, swede, leeks, chillis and turnips from the garden although it is all beginning to look a little bedraggled as we’ve had some early morning frosts and a fair amount of fog this week.  There is also fresh mint, thyme, oregano and marjoram, sage, bay and rosemary.  Rest of garden needs a good tidy which might have to wait until after Christmas now as I have to get on in the kitchen.

This week hasn’t been too brilliant as I ended up with sinus problems which made me feel like I’d been punched in the face and the headaches were awful.  Also not sleeping too good; combine the two and you’re not looking at a very productive week.

So Monday’s leftovers were turned into a pasta dish with the remaining roots in the cupboard.  Tuesday’s slow cooker dish was a white fish chowder using up the oddments of frozen fish, some green beans, potatoes, onions, leftover cream and veg stock with a bit of mashed potato added to help thicken. Wednesday was a fry up of bacon, gf sausages, eggs, beans and mushrooms and Thursday’s slow cooker meal was a Sumatran Lamb Curry which I found in my new Farmhouse Cookery book.  Used my spice grinder for the first time on this and I think it is now my favourite piece of kitchen equipment along with the zest grater.

Started feeling a little more with it by the weekend and after a lovely woodland walk with a mate on the Friday to clear the cobwebs I made Chilli Chocolate Brownies and soaked the fruit for Barmbrack on the Saturday.  Partner was out most of the day and all of the evening which meant a free kitchen.

Started on the Xmas decs at the weekend too; we have a real tree and I don’t like my decs up too early, so it’s normally the weekend before Christmas that they all go up.

Anyway, as promised, I can now list the flour combination that I use.  So if you are gluten free and/or have a problem with rice (as I do) this is it:

1 cup of potato flour

1 cup of gram (chickpea) flour

1 cup of soya flour

1 cup of buckwheat flour

½ cup of coconut flour

I’m sure that you could replace the coconut flour with ground almonds (need to experiment), but I would definitely include some sort of nut flour (unless you are allergic) as it seems to keep the moisture so I can now, eventually, make a decent shortcrust pasty.  If you are worried about using soya or can’t use, up the ratios of the other flours; as long as the potato, gram and buckwheat are of equal quantities you could miss out the soya.  I make this up as I need it and this quantity gives at least 8oz-10oz of plain flour (depending on size of the cup).  I have a large Kilner jar that I measure it all into and shake the crap out of it to mix it up.  I then top up as and when I need it, so if having a baking day that could be several times.  Most of these flours are of reasonable cost.  You could replace the soya with quinoa flour, but that is rather expensive in comparison to the others.

Cya next week

KITCHEN BLITZ AND PLANNING

Hi all,

This week has been clearing out the fridge and freezer of any bits and bobs and frozen 'half' dinners so that I have a fresh freezer to fill with baking and all the final leftovers have been used. I try and do this at the beginning of most months, but definitely at the beginning of December as there will be cakes, extra bread, Christmas Day meat, pastry, biscuit dough and all the other extras that will be needed over the festive season, although I'm sure that some of it will be still there in January.  Also the kitchen itself gets a winter clean with cupboards and drawers cleared out of 'stuff' and washed down along with double checking on cleaning tiles and those hard to reach corners.  Why I do a winter clean I don't know, but it's become traditional for me to do a pre-Christmas blitz.

So after a mega blitz, Monday's dinner was a big moroccan spiced 'stew' made from a fairly large, already moroccan spiced, veg dish I found in the freezer, last week's sweet potatoes, tomatoes and carrots, quorn pieces, lambs lettuce (in place of spinach) and more spice.  This was basically shoved in the slow cooker all afternoon whilst I cleaned the kitchen.

Stores cupboard (left side)

Stores cupboard (right side)

Tuesday was breakfast with a friend I hadn't seen for a while, bit of shopping, posting a parcel and some Xmas cards and then work in the evening.  I have to admit that after a very large breakfast I wasn't that hungry before work, so I passed the responsibility of dinner onto my partner and requested he bunged a pizza in the oven for me for when I got home.  Sainsbury do a rather good gluten free pizza and I do tend to keep a couple in the freezer for those days when either I really fancy one or when the boys are having them themselves; normally a Saturday when it's partner's turn to 'cook'.

Mushroom 'risotto' on Wednesday as I had a tonne of mushrooms in the fridge.  The risotto is in quotation marks as I didn't have risotto rice so used quick cook long grain rice instead.  After frying off some onion and the tonne of mushrooms in some olive oil, adding plenty of fresh thyme from the garden and a twist or two of black pepper and salt, I added this and a large mug of rice to an oven proof casserole dish, then added two mugs of boiling water, gave it all a stir and put in the oven, covered in foil, for 20mins on 180C.  Another stir and more boiling water, about another mugful, and back in the oven for another 10mins whilst I grated a largish piece of parmessan and a big chunk of cheddar.  Out of the oven again, check to see if rice cooked and then stir in all of the cheese.  Check seasoning, add a little more water if dry and back in oven for another five mins to melt the cheese.  Voila!

Thursday was another slow cooker day as it was son's weekly group trampolining lesson and then back to work a couple of hours later.  This time it was an 'anything goes' stew, meaning leftover roast veggies from the weekend, couple of spoonfuls of mashed potato which thicken the stew, sweetcorn, any veggies that were found in the bottom of the fridge, tin of tomatoes, tin of beans and some water.  Plenty of salt and pepper and herbage and I've finally got rid of all the odds and sods.  Hoorah!!

Friday is my first day of not cooking dinner, so after a private lesson in trampolining for my son, it was home to wade through a pile of cookery books with a cuppa and plan out some menus/dishes for the next couple of weeks so that I don't have to think too hard about what to cook whilst I get on with baking, present wrapping, decorating and card writing.  Shopping lists written and I can relax for the weekend. Although I actually did a fair amount of visiting, shopping and a rather lovely amble around a Christmas Fair where I bought a rather ingenious bowl that folds flat when not needed, so not a huge amount of sitting and relaxing, but was a well spent weekend.

Chicken Bowl

Chicken Bowl flat

Do you think this lot will fit in the bowl??

WINTER IS MOST DEFINITELY HERE AND I'M BACK!

Sorry, sorry, sorry.  I've not been posting as the past couple of months have been mentally rather draining and time in the kitchen was limited to quick meals, old favourites and not a lot of baking. Been dealing with family issues, but that is now over (for the time being) and I'm getting my mojo back. Oh and I now work two evenings a week which means I've been getting to grips with the slow cooker.

I have a new friend in the kitchen who I have affectionally called Alfred, after the King who alledgedly burnt the cakes.  He's a garden spider and although I normally hate spiders; huge arachnaphobe, I've become quite attached to him and as he isn't bothering me, I'm not bothering him.

Alfred the Spider

Not a good photo admitedly but hey. :-D

So, Winter is here and the garden is producing leeks, turnips, kale, parsnips and swede.  There is a lot of clearing up to do and some cutting back, although now the frosts have arrived I might have to leave that until Spring.  Ivy and Castor Oil Plant is producing berries and I have robins hiding and popping out for seed in and amongst them. I may also have a wren, but it's so quick I can't ID it properly.  Tiny thing.  Plus there is the usual sparrows, collared doves and pigeons, blue tits, great tits and the occasional magpie and crow.

So what have I been doing in the kitchen for past week or so?  Well, firstly there was Stir Up Sunday! Has become a family tradition over the years to get the kids, and now grandchild, to come over for Sunday dinner (meaning daughter and granddaughter come over as son already here) and we make up the Christmas pudding mixture ready for steaming the following day and everyone in the family gets a stir and a wish.

The mixture made one large and one small pudding.  The large was steamed the following day overnight and the smaller during the day after; both using the slow cooker meaning I don't have to constantly worry about topping up water and Alfred doesn't get steamed along with the puddings. I've got a timer switch attached to the slow cooker and am wondering why I never thought of doing it before; it's been amazing.

Main Christmas pudding getting it's rewrap after cooking

We also seemed to have a glut of vegetables in the rack at the beginning of the week, so a large chutney making session was in order.  As it had celeriac, onions, apples, green toms from garden (the remaining tomatos after pulling up the last of the plants), butternut squash, raisins, carrots and one parsnip I named it Glut Chutney and followed a basic chutney recipe that I found and added a few tweaks.  It has a fair amount of spice and chilli in it and the initial tasting wasn't bad at all and I'm sure it will mature rather well.

Lots of leftover veggies and a spice bag

Glut Chutney

Also did a couple of jars of pickled celeriac with dill, garlic and turmeric as I had two of those and didn't want to overpower the other veg in the chutney.

Pickled Celeriac

The rest of the week has been basic dinner cooking including mixing the last of the fish pie, which partner made over weekend, with chopped leftover roast veggies, leeks in cheese sauce and remaining sauce in fridge to make a fishy, saucy, bubble and squeaky mix up.  I was actually rather surprised how it turned out as it was lovely and was devoured in minutes by the boys.  Never feel afraid of mixing stuff up a little differently and it's a great way of using up cooked food from weekend to make a simple Monday night dinner.

So, a quickish catch up and hopefully I'll be back to normal with a weekly write up.  It'll be more pickling and chutneying probably over next few weeks and, of course, the big Christmas cook ups with baking.

Cya