Burns Day Food Ideas

Em... better late than never?  I half wrote this and it got lost in my brain for a while and I just don't want to waste it... So!  Burns day food ideas.  I'm going to keep this simple, things to do with haggis and how to make shortbread.


Haggis is still on offer in the shops up here in Scotland so it's still fair game to eat far too much of it in my book!  Haggis is a funny beast that lots of folk don't like because they've only ever eaten it with horrid mash and wet turnip, and then there are the folk who just don't like the idea of it.  I am not one of them - I love the stuff.

Shortbread is not hard to make, I promise.  It doesn't have to be hard anyway.  This is one of those things that my Gran Betty can just make happen like magic and my Mum has he same skill.  Maybe one day I'll get there, but I promise it's not hard!  I also think this is the only recipie that I have committed to momory in ounces as it's so easy to remember!

Ingredients:

2oz (55g)  room temperature butter
4oz (125g) butter
6oz (180g) plain flour

And the rest is pretty easy too!

Preheat the oven to 190 deg C and beat the butter and sugar toegther till smooth.  Make sure it's really smooth, no short cuts here!  Stir in the flour little by little and you will end up with a smooth paste. Roll out on a floured board till it's about 1cm thick.  Now shape it however you want to!  Cut it into fingers, cut it into shapes with a cutter, keep it whole in a round and press it with a shortbread brand... use your imagination!  Bake it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes (if you do a round it will need more time).  When it is baked and golden brown remove from the oven, place on a cooking rack and dust with castor sugar immediately.  Leave till it's cook and enjoy.  Or share.  But mainly enjoy.

And there we are, better late than never!  Yeah?  I promise the next Celebration will be up in time for planning (as I'm away to write it very soon indeed!).

Menu Planning and Produce Box Three

Menu planning has become on of my Monday tasks and I am really starting to enjoy it!  I wait for my Produce box to come and then I make a list of all of the things I have been sent - then I sit down with my folder, with my books and with coloured paper and pens... and get cracking!  

This is my though process for this week... starting with this weeks Produce Box contents.

a small-ish bag of kale,

a head of broccoli, 

400g mange tout,

a box of grapes,

2 bananas,

a massive courgette,

a parsnip,

3 pears,

yellow bell pepper,

2 fat, dirty, winter carrots,

a sweet potato,

3 round fat tomatoes,

a leek,

a red onion,

a white onion,

3 massive tatties,

3 oranges,

2 apples, and,

2 nectarines. 

So now I have my list I work out what I will do with what.  This isn't a science, but the way that is working for me is to pick out the things that I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with and purpose them first then I can work with the rest.  The fruit I do not worry about as I eat it for breakfast and Brian eats it for lunch, and any left over will go in smoothies and in custard for pudding!  I also make a list of what I have left over from last week, what's in the fridge and what I have procured from the Mother and the Mother in Law (I got this and it was buy one free, would you use one? - the answer is almost always yes!).  

The existing, use it up list looked like this:

a white onion,

two lemons,

two small courgettes,

a head of celery,

a leek,

half a cucumber,

new potatoes, and

sugar snap peas.

These become the priorities to use before they are past their best.  

From the produce box list of mystery I picked out:

a small-ish bag of kale,

a massive courgette,

a parsnip,

a sweet potato,

a leek, and,

3 massive tatties. 

Now I think about what we are doing in the evenings each day of the week, and this week looks like this:

Monday - 

Tuesday - 

Wednesday - Silly busy day.  Needs to be an easy meal. 

Thursday - to the in laws for dinner.

Friday - 

Saturday - Lunch - 

Saturday - Dinner - Geekfest night.  No dinner needed as take out is happening at us! Whooo!

Sunday - Lunch - 

Sunday - Dinner - 

So now we finally look at meals!  I don't really plan lunches during the week but I do make sure that there is pleasant enough and planned out lunch at the weekend.  Brian almost always has a flat bread with meat, salad, cream cheese and some form of spicy condiment for the main element of his lunch so he's easily pleased.  I live on eggs, left overs, meat, soup and cheese.  Especially cheese.  

Please note that I was going into the stationary I use to plan all of this madness out, but I will do that separately as this post is turning into quite a thing!  

Ok!  Meal ideas.  I steel my self with a cuppa and grab my books that I refer to most (currently Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstalls River Cottage Veg and the Innocent Hungry?  Book) and we get cracking.  

Hit one - kale.  I am not a big fan of kale but it is excellent in soup, so soup it is.  My plan for this bag of kale is cannellini bean, barley and kale soup (recipe coming soon!) - so that's Saturday lunch sorted.  

Hit two - courgette.  I have been keen to make courgette fritters for a wee while but I'm not sure how I was going to fit them in to a menu that doesn't involve a roast chicken where I can serve them with left overs and new potatoes.  So I shall save that idea and for now the courgettes will go in a pasta bake.  This use of courgette is a good replacement for pasta (cut down the amount of pasta you use) to keep the calorie count lower.  

Hit three - sweet potato.  After last weeks soup incident I am not using this is soup... so what am I going to do with it?  It's getting roasted and we are eating it for Sunday lunch with... er... something.

Hit four - leeks. I have two of these now as I did't use last weeks one (bad Karen!) but I will use this up in my chicken parcels as they go so soft, so sweet and just yummy.  

So now we can fill in the week plan:

Monday - Roast gammon, new potatoes, and, sugar snap peas.

Tuesday - Baked risotto with left over gammon, mange tout, celery, onion, carrot and anything else I fancy!

Wednesday - Pasta bake, left over gammon, peppers, onions, home made tomato sauce. 

Thursday - to the in laws for dinner.

Friday - Mince and tatties, carrots, peas, broccoli.

Saturday - Lunch - Cannellini bean, barley and kale soup and bread. 

Saturday - Dinner - Geekfest night.  No dinner needed as take out is happening at us! Whooo!

Sunday - Lunch - Haggis toasties with cheese, onion and tomato.  

Sunday - Dinner - Chicken Parcels with roasted sweet potato, roasted white potato and mange tout.

And that's us done!  I know it looks complex but I can do this in about twenty minutes now and I actually enjoy doing it.  I do love a bit of a read and a plan.  So there we go... all planned out!  I'm not saying it always works which is why there is one more meal to plan... the emergency back up! This is almost always macaroni cheese, as we both love it, it's easy to make and it can be made in advance - so if I'm having a bad day I can make it early, if we get in later then it can be thrown together easily.  Done!  

I promise.  

Exploding Soup

Soup.  I love soup.  This weekend I decided that I was going to make soup as a reward to Brian and I for being such good humans and painting our hall.  We have been putting it off for two years...

So, I chopped up a butternut squash, a sweet potato and two carrots.  I put them in a pan with enough veg stock to cover them and then let them boil till they were soft.  

Then I let it cool, put it in the blender, and this happened...

I could have cried.  The bottom of my blender unscrews so that it can go in the dish washer and either I didn't screw it back in tight enough or it worked it's way loose in the blending process.  How unimpressed can one Karen be... fucks sake I was angry!  Almost a whole roll of kitchen roll later, a clean t shirt and a lot of swearing we had tinned soup for lunch, and the kitchen was tidy again.

And do you want to know what the worst bit is?  It was really, really tasty! I ate some from my hand before I cleaned it all up to see if it was worth making again some day.  It was, but if this ever happens again I will not be a happy bunny!

Easy Peasy Quick 'Baked' Potatoes

 I love baked potatoes but they take so long to cook that I can never be bothered baking them when I'm at home.  I never have them when I'm out to eat because it feels like a waste of 'eating out'.  So, imagine my joy when I saw a magic way to bake potatoes in forty minutes...  I had to do it, cover it in butter, salt and cheese and put it in my face.

This is so easy that I feel a fool for typing it...  Take a potato and cut down into it but not all the way to the bottom, it should fan open a bit.  If you do manage to cut all the way down it (like I did) then stab it back together with cocktail sticks.  Cover it in oil and then put it in the oven at at least 220 degrees C for forty minutes.  The skin will go all crispyand the flesh will bake but in a whole new way!

Take them out of the oven and remove the cocktail sticks, season and cover in butter.  Then just treat it like a baked potato.  Brian had his with mixed baked beans and cheese and I just stuck to my favourite, cheese and butter.  Delicious.  

This is Brian's review...

So I'm taking that as a ringing endorsement (what can I say, the boy loves baked beans) and I will be making these again, for sure.  There are three pre-baked baked potatoes in our freezer and I'm not sure if I can bring myself to eat them now!  The produce box is doing good things for my soul...

Veg Box Number One

I have tried a veg box before and to be honest it was a bit of a fail.  It was from a local-ish farm shop and for weeks on end I got bunches of kale and pumpkins that I could do little with.  So, I stopped for ages and recently signed up with my local green grocers to recieve one of their boxes.  

The deal is £10 of vegetables and £5 of fruit and it's delivered to the house on a Monday, just after lunch time.  It has come from Clementine of Broughty Ferrywhich is a lovely shop that I could spend a lot of time and a lot of money in.  One day I might find the courage to go in with the camera and ask if I can take photos... Maybe.

This is box number one and what I received in it:

three apples

two pears

two plumbs

two oranges

three bananas

a pomegranate

a courgette

half a cuecumber

a beetroot

1kg potatoes

a cauliflower

300g mushrooms

one red onion

one white onion

100g fine green beans

one massive sweet potato

one leel

a quarter turnip

3 massive dirty carrots

one red bell pepper

10 cherry tomatoes on the vine

one yellow bell pepper

If I had bought this all in my local supermarket it would have cost me £17.50.  Actually, I say if I had bought it all, I couldn't if I'd tried as my local shop doesn't sell pomegranates, raw beetroot or plumbs.  So paying £15 for all of it was not only cheaper but I got some lovely things that I wouldn't have been able to get my hands on otherwise.  

Everything smells and looks delicious - what we have eaten so far has been lovely and Brian loved the look of one of the apples so much de adopted it as his very own.  This box worth won't keep up going for a week, we will need more apples, oranges and bananas but other than that vive la veg box!  More next week with produce box number two!  

Lemon Hummus, Wraps and Carrot Sticks

Yes, it's hummus in a tea cup - what else does one serve hummus in?  Hummus is one of those things that I really enjoy to eat but had never made.  I have thought about it, but not actually done it.  Well... I have now!  

This was such an easy lunch to serve and pull together come lunch time, but making the hummous was not quick.  I used dried chick peas, in the name of trying to do things properly, but I shall not be doing that again.  By the time the peas have boiled and simmered for the time needed I think I used enough gas to justify buying tinned chickpeas!  So I have stocked up. I also found getting my hands on tahini a bit of a challenge and had to try three separate supermarkets, so don't give up hope if you can't find it!  Health food shops also stock it (well, most of 

I served this with, as you can see, carrot sticks and some wraps that had gone a bit past fresh, cut into bits and toasted under the grill.  These turned into the perfect hummus boats!

To make the hummus:

125g dried chick peas,

3 tablespoons of tahini,

2 tablespoons of olive oil,

one garlic clove,

the juice of two lemons,

a bay leaf and, 

water.

The night before you're wanting to make the hummus soak the chick peas in enough water to cover them, and leave them overnight.  

The next day drain them and rinse them well.  Put the chick peas and the bay leaf in a pan and bring to the boil.  Then reduce to a simmer for up to three hours - until you can push a fork happily through the peas.  Now drain the peas and keep the water.  

Into a blender place half of the peas, the tahini, the oil, the lemon juice and the mashed garlic.  Add the cooking liquor slowly till the mixture is quite smooth.  Now add the rest of the chickpeas and more of the liquid till you reach the consistency you like.  I made mine quite fine, but I think next time I will blend it less to get more bite.  

And that's what I did... but next time I think I shall add more lemon juice and maybe some chilli for Brian.  Maybe.  There are hundreds of variations to the recipe and I do fully intend to play with it! 

Magic Bread Dough

Since I embarked upon my quest to make better food bread has been a big focus.  I started looking at ingredients in shop bought bread and before I had done much research at all I decided action was needed.  This is the second bread recipie I have tried so far and I love it... but this one is magic.

As much as I love making sourdough it takes it's own precious time and I know that finding the time to do all that's needed to make it can be a challenge.  To this end I decided to stretch my skills and this felt like a sensible way to stretch them.

This is Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's Magic Bread Dough recipe and I bloody love it.  I am experimenting with different things to do to it and I will keep you updated.

This dough can be used for:

pizza bases,
flat breads,
rolls, (see below)
bread,  (see below)
bread sticks,
stuffed bread sticks (work in progress here), and,
pitta breads.

You can also freeze it (according to Hugh), I have some in the freezer at the moment so I will report back...

Enough waffle, let's make bread.  These are the shortest instructions ever...

Take 250g of plain flour, 250g of string white flour, 10g of salt, 5g of fast action yeast and 325ml of warm water.  Put all of these things in a bowl and combine them together.  Then knead till it comes together, it will be stciky but try not to add too much flour, just stick with it.  Once it's come together and you have put 10 or so minutes kneading into it leave it to prove in a warm, dry place for up to two hours, till it's doubled in size.  Knock it back and it's ready do do stuff to!  How easy was that?

For a loaf or rolls shape it now and leave to prove again till it's doubled in size and then bake.  For rolls take a squash ball sized lump and round it off, it will be a tennis ball size when it's proved.  Then bake them in the oven at 220 degrees C for up to 12 minutes till they sound hollow.  For a loaf shape it and prove it, then tip it onto a hot floured oven tray and put it in the 220 degrees Celsius oven for 25 minutes to start, and bake for longer if needed till it sounds hollow.

This is my new quick bread recipe.  You could make up the mixture at the start of the day, prove all day and then knock back and bake in the evening.  Easy!  Coming later on this week I will have an even quicker bread recipe for emergency eatings (but I need to decided which recipe I prefer, oh no!  I need to make more bread!) so keep your eyes peeled for that!  Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza

We love pizza in this house, we like lovely fat, unhealthy take away pizza, we like crispy, slightly healthier oven pizza and we adore the pizza from the kebab shop in the village.  We have never made pizza at home however... till this weekend.  

Pizza base, with home made tomato sauce, mozzarella,cheddar cheese, green olives, Parma ham and sun dried tomatoes.  Brian added some Franks Hot Sauce because he's a spice monkey. The bases are an odd shape, but we tried!

Pizza Base:

This mix makes 6 bases of this size (and is freeze-able) and it has many other uses.  It is Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's Magic Bread Dough.  Once you have made the dough as in the link above and it has been knocked back  flour your surface, hands and rolling pin and take a sixth of the dough and roll it into a... erm... a shape.    Brian's one, above, was 'inspired' buy the Millennium Falcon.  Let it rest while you do the rest of the preparation so it has time to form into a stable structure and doesn't behave like a jellyfish.

Pizza Sauce:

This is an improvised 'what do we have in the fridge, Babe' recipe.  Take a big-ish handful of tomoatos (I had cherry ones needing used so that's what went in) and put them in a pan with a chopped onion and some chopped celery.  Add a little oil and let the tomatoes pop.  I imagine if you were using salad tomatoes chopping them might be an idea.  Once the tomatoes were soft and happy add a tin of tomatoes and let this simmer.  Season it with salt, pepper and mixed herbs, or some oregano.  Once it has all come to the bubble and reduced transfer it to a blender and whizz till smooth.  The put it back in the pan and let reduce till it's a spreadable consistency.  This made far too much sauce for just two pizzas so we had the remainders on pasta for dinner the next night.

Toppings:

This bit is easy!  Grab what you want and throw it on but don't over do it, or your base won't cook in the middle.  When I was a student I worked in a kitchen making pizzas and I learned that less is for sure more when it comes to all toppings (except cheese, in my book).  Throw on what you want and enjoy!  It would suggest making the pizza up on the pizza tray, Brian topped his first and then the pizza tray went in the oven so I thought I'd try and make mine on the board and transfer it... fail.  I had a calzone.

The final stage, the bake:

Now that you have your sauce, your base, and your toppings you need to preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcuis.  If you are using a pizza stone then make sure you heat this in the oven and if not then make sure your tray is hot to start. This means you need to work quickly, but that's part of the fun... Put on the sauce, the cheese, and the toppings and get it in the oven quickly!  Ours took eight minutes to cook, but keep an eye on them and do not let your toppings catch, if the base does it will be fine (or better).

When you're happy with the bake take it out of the oven and let it rest.  For goodness sake let it rest for a couple of minutes and it will cut much better and be easier to eat.  And now the wait will be worth it, enjoy!

Veggie Risotto (with bacon)

Don't panic now but... risotto.  What if I could tell you that I can make risotto in about 20 minutes, with little to no effort and with my 25 minutes to relax at the same time.  Doesn't sound like risotto does it?  I am more than slightly fed up of reading that risotto is a 'special occasion food' or 'takes a long time to make' or even worse 'needs patience'.  Risotto is easy, it is quick, tasty and nutritious, look at it, don't you want to eat it?

So, it's so easy to make that it won't take me long to get you started.  First you need to assemble some ingredients.  75g of risotto rice per person, a stick of celery or two, an onion per person, bacon lardons (or bits of bacon), a pint of stock (chicken, veg, whatever suits) and any more vegetables and/or meat that you'd like to include.  I have made it here with peas and leeks, but I normally add some chicken too. Before you start preheat the oven to 200 deg C and put a large oven proof dish in there to warm up.

For the basic risotto pan sautee the onion, celery and any other veg you're adding (except anything frozen or quick cook like peas) in a little oil and butter.  Then add the bacon and cook that through.  Stir in the rice until all of the rice grains are covered in butter and everything is nicely combined. Now pour in the stock and stir for a couple of minutes till it has reduced a little.  Hopefully by now your oven should be hot, so carefully take your dish out and pour the contents of the pan in to the dish (be careful!  It will spit and hiss and fuss at you), don't cover it and put it back in the oven.  Now leave it for 20 minutes - no stirring, no messing.  Go do whatever you need to do, or if you haven't already prepare anything else you want to put it.  I normally use left over chicken or ham so it's already cooked, but if you need to cook it now is the time.  After 20 minutes take i out of the oven add any frozen veg (peas, beans, sweetcorn, anything you fancy and the meat.  Put it back in the oven till it is of the consistency you desire - this varies from person to person, but I find it takes about 7 minutes.  

Once time is up, take it out of the oven, season with black pepper and parmesan (or hard cheese of your choice) and sereve immedicately.  This is a happy meal in it's self, but it's also lovely with salad, bread or more veg if you desire.  It's quick, easy and tasty - and it doesn't need any patience or much stirring at all! 

Seasonal Specials - January

January.  Not my favourite month, but one that we must get out of the way in order to crack properly into my favourite season - spring.  Technically January is only the second month of winter, how can this be so?  It feels like winter gets longer every year and the other seasons have to shrink to compensate. But this does mean good things for food on our tables.  Thank goodness for the silver lining!

So here are my January fruit and veg favourites and some ideas I have for them...

Brussels Sprouts - Sprouts for me demand to be steamed, severed with bacon, black pepper and butter.  Don't over cook them, don't boil them, don't be mean to them!  And don't make anyone who really hates the taste eat them , it's not their fault that they are genetically predispose

Brussels Tops - these are a new addition to my list of tasty things, but I have found them so hard to come across.  Once you get them they're lovely simply pan sautéed with onions and a little butter.

Cabbages - I love cabbage.  I can eat it raw and it's exceptionally marvellous with onions, and carrots in a slaw of sorts.  Grate it in the food processor and give it a happy dose of mayonnaise, salad cream, black pepper and lemon juice and I'm yours.

Celery - you might have noticed, but I sneak this into everything.  It goes in stews, in sauces, in soup, in anything you can think of really!  I do not however like it raw, not at all.  No thank you.

Leeks - This is another food that I love and I think I love it most done simply, wither roasted in with my chicken parcels, in risotto or in a good old fashioned leek and potato soup.  Delicious and warming - perfect for this weather!

Onions - I'm not sure what I'd do without onions.  I am very glad that they are abundant all year around!  The uses for an onion are limiltess - there will be a Top Five coming on them in the near future.

Parsnips - Tasty, but slightly odd in texture parsnips make a lovely addition to mask if you take the woody stalk out, and they are delicious roast in the oven with honey and parmesan cheese (par boil them first so the cheese doesn't burn away to nothing in the time they take to roast).

Pears - A fruit!  Finally!  I am not the biggest fan of pears as they can be so inconvenient.  If bought from the supermarket I find that they are rock solid for days then all of a sudden they are perfect for one single day. This is good argument to buy them on a more one by one basis in the green grocers, or to peel and cook them all and eat them with rice pudding.  Immediately.

Potatoes - Tatties are one of those vegetables that keep so well there is no reason not to have good ones all year round, and to that effect I think they also merit their own Top Five.  Keep your (potato) eyes peeled.

Rhubarb -  Here we have one of my favourite things.  I love it.  Stewed with ginger and brown sugar and served in porridge, rice pudding, custard, yoghurt or a spoon and all is well with the world.  It's also an easy way to make a crumble happen, or a cobbler, or a pie..

Turnips - Neeps.  Another thing I love but unlike celery I prefer neeps raw.  Peeled, mashed and added in with other root vegetables to make a 'companion mash' (there's an old phrase for you) it makes a few potatoes go a lot further, and if you're looking to cut down on your calories then reducing the potato to other veg ratio does your waist line a lot of favours.

And there we go, tasty things to do with tasty things!  I will add more as I come across amazing ideas, or things crawl out of by brain  - you never know!  Enjoy your January, if at all possible.

Mince and Tatties

We are in really old fashioned ground with today's dinner recipe, especially as I make this exactly the same way my Gran does and apparently it's very similar to how Brian's Gran made it too!  I'm proud of this, I am an old soul at heart and I like being able to do things the way they have been done for years previous... except I don't imagine that our Grans would have blogged about cooking...

Again, like with my Chicken Parcels I am a little shamed to share this recipe... it's just too easy!  I have gone a bit carrot mad in this meal for a couple of reasons.  We love carrots, there were some in the fridge and this is perfect winter carrot season.  Delicious!  Despite this carrot fetish you really can do this with any veg to have to hand, but this is my classic mince and tatties foursome.  

Take two sticks of celery, two onions, a carrot and chop them all up into small relatively uniform bits.  Add this to a hot oiled pan and let them sweat away.  Meanwhile peel more carrots and chop them as you desire, put them in the top layer of a steamer pan and prepare the new potatoes as you require.  As I am using local new potatoes so I am merely trimming off any offensive looking bits and cutting the larger ones in half.  These then went in the bottom layer of the steamer in cold salted water.  By now I imagine your veggies are softened, so they can be tipped out of the pan and into a bowl for a short rest.  Now into the pan add your mince and brown it, don't cook it for long or it will go chew-ish.  Blergh.  Add the veggies back to the mince and then add enough boiling water to cover the meat and veg and then add some gravy powder but only when it's really hot or it won't thicken correctly. Stir stir stir! Let this to simmer and put on the steamer pan. Now you have about 20 to 25 minutes to please yourself either to make pudding, or go and watch Star Trek.  

And there we are, once the potatoes and carrots are cooked strain, butter and season them, then serve up with the mince.  Easy!  My Mum would insist on serving this with brown sauce or Lea and Perrins sauce, some would choose tomato ketchup...but I am a purist.  Gravy or GTFO.  

Chicken Parcels

Never having been one to have much patience when I'm done with the day (at work, in hospital, whatever the day throws at me) I like to have a bank of quick, healthy dinner options up my sleeve and this is one of them.  When I lived on my own I used to make this a lot and somehow I got out of the habit... I am officially back in the habit now!  My favourite thing about this recipe is that is is quick, you can make it with any fresh veg you have lying around and you can use almost any meat you choose.  It's also easy to serve with any carb based side you choose - potatoes, rice. cous cous, bread - it's easily pleased.  

This is so easy to make that I feel a little shame in trying to impart the knowledge upon you, but let me try.   First ensure that you have some meat, I prefer white fish (pollock is my favourite, but I also love coley - how right on am I?) or chicken. Then raid the fridge for whatever veggies you have that need using up, in this photo I have used cherry tomatoes, leeks, tiny little onions and mushrooms - all lovely, local and seasonal except the cheery tomatoes!

Turn the oven on to 200 deg C and let it heat up.  Meanwhile take a baking tray per person (it makes them easier to man handle) and put on it a sheet of baking foil that looks like it will happily make a kind of foil pastie shape around your ingredients.  On to this place your veggies making sure they are heaped more to the middle so that when you add your meat it's not touching the foil. If it is touching the foil nothing bad will happen but it might get a bit stuck. If the fillets of meat are particularly thick then butterfly them by running a knife down the middle to make them spread their wings - this will make them cook quicker.  Place the meat on top, then scatter over some herbs of your choice (I have used dried mixed herbs here, but as soon as spring comes along and my herb castle in the garden us usable again  I will be lemon-balming this up!) add a glug of olive oil and if you fancy it some white wine.  

Now comes the fun part.  Pull the foil up to make your pastie shape but don't compress it too much - there needs to be space in there for steam to build up and circulate and put it in the oven.

Leave it happily in the oven for around 30 minutes or until the meat is cooked through  Please be very careful when you open the parcel as scalds are no fun and slow down the cooking process no end!   This half an hour gives you time to sort out our carbohydrate side, put your comfy clothes on, take your make up off (if you are so inclined) and make sure that there is some suitable 'no brain required' music or TV available to enjoy too.  

Then it is ready.  The oil means that no sauce is required and as all of your veggies are in there you don't need to mess about with any other sides unless you're so inclined. This is also something to keep in mind for BBQ season as it works just as well on a closed BBQ (i.e. with the hood of the gril down to keep the heat in) as it does in the oven - just skip the oven trays.  The you have the perfect excuse to serve it with corn on the cob!

And there we are.  This is very loosely based on an idea from a Jamie Olive book (I'm guessing The Naked Chef as it's the one of his books I've had the longest and I am sure I used to make this for Mum and Dad when I lived at home - so about ten years ago) but is is very open to experimentation so the notion that anyone could take credit for it is beyond me.    Anyway!  Enjoy it, adapt it and let me know what combinations you put in yours!  The only thing  I'd say is essential is onion, and be sure that if you've got any root veggies going in there that you cut them relatively small so they cook quickly.  I predict our next one will be more leeks, onions, carrots and maybe some fennel.  Delicious!

Bread Porn

I love bread.  Who in their right mind doesn't?  I love toast, I love cheese on toast.  I love tomato toast. I love sandwiches.  I love the taste, the smell, the texture...  I love all of it.  Together. At once. Not exactly healthy but I have made an exciting discovery.

I can make bread. 

If I make it I value it more and I don't just throw it in my face like a child with a tube of smarties and it it is so much easier to make than I had ever dreamed.  I have a favourite kind of bread too... Sour-dough.  It also turns out that sour-dough is one of the easiest breads to make a good job of, with little effort and it is cheap -it costs me around 30p to make a loaf!  If you have water (from the tap), some fast action yeast (£1 for 100g in your local supermarket) 10g of salt (not even 1p!) and some strong bread flour (around 85p for 1.5kg)  then you have no excuse not to make some bread porn for yourself.  

But I need a starter I hear you cry!  Well, you sort of do, but you also sort of don't.  I am planning to embark on starting a starter in the near future so I shall report back on it's lovely bubbly, smelly, glorious-ness in due course.  However if you don't have access to a starter you can still make sour-dough that looks like this:

Please excuse the tattiest breadboard in the whole of the bloody universe but it's what I have. 

So, on to the fun bit.  How do I make this glorious lump of happiness?  This is based on a recipe from River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (which has fast become my favourite kitchen book, but more about that later) and although it takes time it takes it's own time, not yours.  What I mean by that is that you can start it and let it do it's thing while you do yours.  By evening it's ready to go in your face with dinner and by the morning it is perfect to toast, or to eggy up and millions of other options... then the rest is ready for bread crumbs, for sandwiches, for anything you take your mind to.  

So now you know how it fits into my eating day let me tell you what goes into it.

250g and then 250g of strong white bread flour

5g of fast action yeast

325ml of warm water

10g of table salt (or milled, so long as it's fine)

Any time of an evening (for me normally about 2100 when I make Brian's packed lunch): Combine the 250g of the flour, the yeast and the water together to make a firm dough.  Leave it in the bowl, cover it loosely with film and let it sit over night in a warm place (but not hot, we don't not want a dough monster all over anywhere).  

In the morning I put the dough hook in the Kenwood, add the remaining 250g of flour and the 10g of salt and leave the dough to kneed it self while I have my shower, anywhere between 0700 and 0900.  Then I take the hook out and leave it again in your warm place of choice.  

Come elevenses (predictably 1100) I knock the dough back (which is a posh way of saying that one should give it a good thump. I find it helps if you throw it about a bit too... Then leave it again in the warm and lovely place. 

After lunch (anywhere from 1230 to 1330) I knock it back and shape it into a ball.  I am hoping that some kind birthday husband will bring me a bread basket for my birthday, but till then I am using a big old melaware bowl, oiled and floured.  

Threeses (again, predictably 1500) the oven is preheated to 250 deg C, which is as high as my oven goes and I put a small pyrex bowl of water in the oven along with a flat baking sheet. As the water evaporates it makes a lovely steam in the oven, hence the bread crust comes along nicely. Once the oven is up to temperature I flour the baking sheet, put the dough on it and then put it in the oven for 15 minutes at the high heat.  After that I turn the temperature down to about 210 deg C and leave it for anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes.  

Take it out, tap it's bum and make sure it sounds hollow. Then have patience and  let it cool for at least 20 minutes (or you will ruin it, I promise it's worth the wait) and there you have it.  Loaf.  It will be cool in time for dinner at around 1800.  This is how it works in my day, which I am lucky to do as I am at home all day at the moment, how this will translate to the working day I need to figure out... wish me luck on that one!

Plonk it on the table in front of an unsuspecting guest or a hungry house-fellow and you will have a friend for life (and if you're lucky people will ask you for a loaf and if you deliver...).

Glossary

I thought I'd take a moment to make a record of my logic so that it makes sense to all of us, so here we are. I have split my content into three sections so I think it all makes sense. 

The Meals, the backbone of eating and how we structure our eats.  In our house the three main meals generally increase in size as the day wears on, but sometimes the larger meal is eaten around mid-day if we are feeling extravagant with time or I am in an odd mood.  Supper is not a normal meal for us, but sometimes it happens to be snack food that is too posh or joy inducing to be called a snack.  

The Extras are the things that we don't all do every day, but if we could we'd do a lot more of!  Celebration food is things that are made for special occasions - Christmas cake, Sentinel cake and good old fashioned birthday cake.  Cuppa covers anything to serve with a cuppa or an afternoon tea that replaces a shop bought biscuit or fancy.  Treats are just those, I was going to call this 'puddings' but I want them to be special, and although we don't have pudding a lot, we love a treat.  

 The features are the things that will pop up on a regular basis.  Manifesto for any essays or new intentions I have in mind, top five for my favourite things we've eaten, cooked. made, or seen and then seasonal specials, the monthly run down of what we're eating this month, what to look out for and any odd seasonal things I've found that I have no idea what to do with... And finally, hosting - what we've sat down to eat with friends, any menu ideas I've had and maybe even an invite to my fictional dinner parties.  

I solemnly swear that everything will be labelled, everything will be searchable and one day there might even be some form of index...

And that's it, I hope!

The Seasonal Manifesto

The Seasonal Manifesto is my way of introducing you to seasonal eating and my reasons behind it and this project.  It all started when I was looking into getting a veg box from a local farm to cover our festive needs for sprouts, winter carrots are far too many potatoes.  All thought I wasn't blown away by the box I got or the things in it that I couldn't say no to or change it did get me thinking and I think that's more valuable that a wasted parsnip or two.  I think Christmas has become the only time of year that most normal people think about seasonal food, especially vegetables - we all have, or attempt to have, a sprout or two, some fat carrots and maybe even a parsnip or eight at this time of year just because that's what one eats at Christmas dinner with turkey.  There's another thing, turkey!

So this brings me to the point, eating seasonally.  We all do it sometimes and we all fall into common traps with what we perceive to be seasonal - for example lamb is not in season to eat at Easter when it is the most commonly bought joint of meat, a lot of what you find in the shops will be from New Zealand and other exotic climbs or will have been frozen.  I have been making an effort to find out what to look forward to, when it's available and planning in advance what I'll do with it.  I am so excited about this that I cannot wait for May and it's asparagus...  I might even re-name the month in honour of one of my favourite veggies.  

There are a handful of reasons that I have decided to do this but before I get into that I think that it's worth pointing out that I'm not saying we'll go without things, but I do fully intend to cut down on what we don't need - if I want asparagus in January, for example, I know fine well that I will appreciate it so much more if I wait till May...

Seasonal food is full of all the good stuff in food.  If a tomato has come all the way from Morocco in December then it is well travelled before it has even reached us here in the UK, never mind that it's going to take even longer to get to me here in Scotland - over this time it has been loosing nutrients and it will most likely have been picked before it had reached it's full ripeness to make sure it lasts the journey.  Compare this to the tomatoes my neighbour grows in her conservatory every summer and I'm sure you'll agree that the locally grown one will be superior, even if I have to wait to get my hands on it.  Meanwhile I'll use tinned ones thanks all the same.  The fresh local ones will taste better, look better and be even more nutritious and therefore valuable to my body.    

Seasonal food is cheaper.  Our little fictional out of season tomato friend has travelled the same distance that a lot of us consider suitable for a summer holiday before it gets into my hands and it has used up a lot of energy to get here - and that cost has been passed on to the consumer.  Mr Tomato has relatives who have been force matured or force grown completely here in the UK too, and they will have been flooded with light and heat to make it out perform nature - this also costs a small fortune that we have handed on to us.  (I'm excluding forced rhubarb from this, it's a special beast.)   By not buying these expensive foods I am saving up so I can spend it elsewhere - on better meat for example.  

Seasonal food is more likely to be local.  I am really lucky where I live in that I am surrounded in fields of grain, animals and veggies, especially potatoes so there is always somewhere to buy fresh local produce.  Not only does this mean that I am buying food that is tastier and fresher but I am supporting local farmers and producers.  I am also really lucky to have an amazing greengrocers in the next village along from mine and the more shopping I can do there in the next year the better.  I would much rather give my money to local businesses than to supermarkets.  I'm not trying to say that I will not shop in a supermarket - purely because I couldn't avoid it if I tried (but it would help if the 'scoop n save' shop would become a thing again) - but if there's a choice between the butchers, the greengrocers, the fishmongers and the supermarket you can guess where I'll head. 

The final reason is the most important one to me.  I want to get back in touch with the food I eat.  I want to know what will be good at the right moment, what will suit different occasions and push my own boundaries. I need a new challenge and I need to make some big changes in how I eat and fuel my body - so why not make it fun while I'm at it?  

So there we are, my Seasonal Manifesto.  That's what's fuelling all of this food based madness, that

and tea but we shall leave tea for another day.

Tripoline Carbonara

Now, I've made this lunch related but this one could go in Tea, Dinner and even Supper.  I don't think I'd choose carbonara as Breakfast, but you never know!

I have always loved pasta, but spaghetti is a nightmare to eat, I am the messiest eater in the world and spag is my nemesis. My singing teacher as a teen was Italian and her Mum used to make me my tea if my parents were away and she made the only spaghetti that I could eat as it was so sticky and perfect - can I replicate this? No. So I went on a venture down the pasta isle in the supermarket and found Tripoline.  Tripoline is a ribbon pasta with one flared edge and one flat edge, it's easy to cook, easy to eat and found in your supermarket of choice (unless your local supermarket is the size of a large shoe like ours is).  Anyway... this is nothing special of a recipe, it's inspired by my singing teachers tiny little Italian Mama with a meat option borrowed from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  Thanks chaps!

For two people you will need,

200ml double cream,

2 egg yolks,

150g 'long' pasta of choice,

100g grated italian hard cheese of choice,

Pepper,

Olive oil,

bacon or chorizo or similar

Cook your pasta as normal. Meanwhile separate your eggs and throw the yolks in the cream, mix this through and season with pepper.  Now cook your meat of choice, I had some fridge chorizo on hand today, so that's what went in ours (recipe coming soon as I am not 100% happy with it yet).  Once the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat, drain the pasta and leave a little water in the pan - then add your eggy cream mix and stir stir stir.  Once it's all come together and the cream looks less opaque and more 'sticky', the add the meat.  Put the cheese on the top, add more pepper and serve!

This can be served with salad, lovely bread, garlic bread... any number of things but today Brian and I just put it in our faces and ate it with glee and happiness.  It might not look appealing, but it's quick, it's good and it's very satisfying.

So there we go, a classic, tasty meal that I imagine a lot of people could make happen with food you already have in the fridge, it costs less than your average supermarket packet or tub of sauce and you can make it in the time it takes to cook the pasta (and meanwhile you can make the salad or convince your husband that a slice if Christmas cake is an acceptable pudding at any time of day).