Potato, brie and other veg bake

 

The veg box is still full of sweet potatoes and carrots, but also a couple of good sized spuds this week.  There was brie in the fridge, and apples in the fruit bowl - so ... ta dah ...

olive oil

potatoes (2 large)

onions (2 medium)

carrots (3 medium)

sweet potato (1 large)

apples (2 medium)

Brie

garlic

vegetables stock

salt and pepper

1.  Slice all veg in to thin slices - as thin as you can manage.

2.  Drizzle olive oil into a baking dish.

3.  Layer the veg etc - potatoes, onion, carrot, sweet potato, onion, apple, brie, potato.

4.  Mix garlic into veg stock and pour onto the layers.

5.  Season well with salt and pepper.

6.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for at least an hour at 180.

7.  Steam vegetables as a side.

8. Serve, scoff, show off.

Delicious

Root vegetable and butter bean hot pot

The veg box was full of root vegetables, and there was a nip in the air after a beautiful autumnal walk - so a lovely, slightly spicy veggie hot pot with chapatis fitted the bill for us.  I also had some kale left over, so shredded it quite finely, so that it was soft and not challenging - that's a bonus veg, and no complaints.

Onion

Olive oil

Garlic

Piri piri spices

Swede

Carrot

Parsnip

Sweet potato

Kale

Dijon mustard

Italian herbs

Tin of tomatoes

Tin of butter beans

Salt and pepper

Flatbreads or crusty bread to serve - we happened to have chapatis.

1.  Chop onion and sweat down in olive oil.

2.  Add peeled and diced root vegetables, stir into the onion mixture.

3.  Add minced garlic and a good pinch of piri piri spice.

4.  Finely shred kale and add to the mixture, stir in.

5.  Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin full of water, a teaspoon of mustard and a pinch of herbs,  simmer for at least 30 minutes.

6.  Drain the butter beans and stir in, simmer again.

7.  When the veg are tooth soft it's ready to eat.

8.  Serve, scoff, be soothed.

 

Gammon in a mustard and cider sauce, with purple mash and cumin cabbage and carrots

It messes with your head a little bit does purple mash, but it's just purple potatoes, mashed ... and it's delicious.

The gammon is organic and came with the veg box - and was really good.

So, ...

Potatoes (they don't have to be purple!)
Olive oil
Onion
Grainy mustard
Cider
Cumin
Carrots
Cabbage
Bouillon powder (well, stock of any sort really)
Gammon
Butter

1.  Peel potatoes, chop into chunks and boil in salted water.
2.  Peel and chop onion, sautee in olive oil.
3.  Add a spoon of mustard to the onions, and about 1/2 pint cider.  Simmer.
4.  In another pan, heat a little olive oil and add a teaspoon of cumin seeds.
5.  Peel and slice carrots, shred cabbage.  Add to cumin and oil, and mix around.  Add half a cup of water, put a lid on and cook on a medium heat for about 12 minutes.
6.  When the potatoes are done, drain, add a good knob on butter and mash.  Put in a hottish oven to keep warm and/or if you have long enough get a crunchy crust on top.
7.  Add the gammon to the cider sauce, lid on simmer for about 5 minutes, turn over, and do the other side for 5 minutes or so.

Should all be done ... serve and scoff.

The veggie option was grilled haloumi with the onion sauce - removed before the meat was added.  Also delicious.

Roast chicken dinner

Meat and 8 veg, and potatoes.  Takes about an hour and 40 minutes ... do things in this order.

Parboil chunks of potato, then stick em in a hot oven in olive oil.

Stuff garlic and halves of lime/lemon into cavity of chicken.  Roast for about an hour and twenty minutes - start it on its chest, and then turn after 30 minutes.

Thinly slice aubergine, courgette and red onion, latyer in a casserole dish with oilve oil and lots of black pepper between the layers.  Cover with foil - bake for an hour or so.

Boil peeled and chunked parsnip and swede, steaming peeled carrot battons on top.  When veg are soft, drain - add carrots to the others and cut through with a sharp knife until it's nearly mash - add olive oil and seasoning - again plenty of black pepper.  Stick in oven dish and keep warm.

Make gravy with juices from the chicken and some white wine.

Steam shredded green and red cabbage, mix together before serving.

Veg box fritters with new potatoes - from the allotment.

The photo makes it all look a bit dark - I blame my photographic skills, not my cooking.  These fritters are NOT burnt, they were browned to perfection.

The new potatoes are our first crop from the allotment - very proud!  And, very delicious.

The fritters:

Corn on the cob
Carrot
Courgette
Red onion
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
Turmeric
Chili flakes
Salt
Gram flour
Bicarbonate of soda
Rape seed oil

1.  Scrape kernels from sweetcorn (or use tinned/frozen).
2.  Grate peeled carrots, onion and courgette.
3.  Mix all veg together and add salt, let sit for at least 10 minutes to draw out some of the moisture (not to drain off, to activate the bicarb).
4.  Add in spices, mix well.
5.  Add gram flour, bicarb, and mix well.
6.  Fry, gently, in rape seed oil.
7.  Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm.

Yogurt sauce

Natural yogurt
Crushed garlic
Lemon juice
Olive oil

1.  Mix ingredient together, and season to taste.

Tomato and basil salad ... yup. tomato, basil and salt.

I would have added a green salad, but no leaves left from the veg box.  However, this was all delish and the yogurt sauce went spectacularly with the fritters.

Smoked trout salad

The summer seems to have deserted the north - but the lettuces in the trug have still clung on, so despite thunder and lightening, it was time to have sunshine in the kitchen.

New potatoes
Hot smoked trout

Little gem lettuce
Parsley
Sorrel
Olive oil
Lemon juice

Tomatoes
Spring onions
Radishes
Salt
Olive oil
Basil

Carrots
Sesame seeds

So 4 salads ...

1.  start by washing and boiling new potatoes.
2.  Wash and spin lettuce leaves, add fresh parsley leaves and sorrel leaves (not chopped up as a garnish, but as salad leaves).
3.  Drizzle on olive oil and squeeze on the juice of 1/2 a lemon.  Toss gently as you serve.
4.  Chop the tomatoes, radishes and spring onions, drizzle with a little olive oil, tear in a few basil leaves and grind on rock salt.
5.  Peel and grate carrots, mix in a spoonful of sesame seeds,
6.  Flake smoked trout into the potatoes,
7.  Scoff

(Turn the heating up and pretend that summer is here)

Stuffed mushrooms with steamed veg and watercress sauce

This was delicious, the photo does not do it justice at all... I will be working on my presentation!

Anyway, I started with the rice and lentils, and got them on the way,  then I chopped the veg for steaming.  Then I prepped the mushrooms.  Then I made the watercress sauce.

When all that had happened -the rice was cooking gently in the oven, the lentils were 2/3rds cooked ... so I started off the mushrooms in the oven.

Brown rice
Lentils
Leek
Carrot
Green beans
Field mushrooms
basil
Rape seed oil
Crushed garlic
lemon juice
Watercress
Zatar spice
Spring cabbage
sesame seeds.

1.  Cook the brown rice, follow your favourite method - I do ... put in heavy pot, cover with water to 1 inch over the surface.  Bring to the boil.  Cover and leave in a medium oven for at least 20 minutes
2.  Boil lentils in loads of water for 20+ minutes.
3.  Chop veg (leeks, carrot, beans) and steam over boiling water for about 20 minutes.
4.  Drizzle rape seed oil in a baking tray, add mushrooms, stem side down, drizzle over a little more oil, grind over black pepper and bake for about 20 minutes.
5.  Chop an onion, and fry gently until golden brown, add garlic and zatar spice - stir in drained lentils and rice.
6.  Turn mushrooms over, layer in basil leaves and spoon rice mixture onto the top.  Pop back into the oven for 5 minutes.  At this point add the shredded cabbage to the steaming vegetables.
7.  Zizz together 1 small gherkin, large handful of watercress, 2 chopped garlic cloves, juice of half a lemon and good splosh of oil.
8. Serve ... sprinkling the vegetables with sesame seeds.

Scoff

Roast cauliflower, jersey royals and vegetable medley

Once again the photo doesn't do it justice ... but this was lovely.  The cauliflower was roasted whole, the jersey royals were par boiled and roasted (yes, yes, I know ... should be boiled/steamed and served with butter .. but they were absolutely sweet and delicious roasted).

So, what did I do....?

1.  Take the big floppy leaves from the outside of the cauliflower.  Leave the nice cuddly soft leaves, they are delicious.  Drizzle with oil oil and sprinkle with salt, sumin seeds and sumac.  Squeeze on juice of half a lemon.
2,  Stick the cauliflower in a hottish oven - for an hour(ish)
3.  Boil the jersey royals, for 5 mins, and then stick in hot olive oil, in a roasting tray, in the oven.
4.  The veg ... in olive oil gently fry 1 chopped and washed leek, 1 celery stick, a small handful of green beans, a peeled and chopped carrot and some crushed garlic.
5.  Add some water to the frying veg and simmer until al dente ... add shredded spring greens.

Twas delish innit.

Lentil spaghetti

Some days you need comfort food!  Today was one of those days.

Quick search in the fridge and cupboard - and knew this would be tasty and filling.

Spaghetti sauce

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
Celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1-2 courgettes chopped
Italian herbs
chili flakes
crushed garlic
2 handfuls of red lentils
about a glass of red wine
6 tomatoes, chopped
mustard (american hotdog mustard, or hot mustard and a tsp of sugar)
salt and pepper
grated parmesan to taste

spaghetti (gluten free for us)
salted water

So ...

1.  Sweat chopped onion in olive oil.  After a minute or so add chopped carrot and celery.
2.  When cooking has started add herbs, garlic and lentils.  Stir
3.  Add a glass of red wine and some water/stock.  Simmer.
4.  Add chopped courgette.  Simmer some more.
5.  When lentils are swollen and getting soft (10-15 mins) - add chopped tomatoes and seasoning.
6.  Put spaghetti into boiling water.
7. Simmer sauce and cook spaghetti.

... when done serve with (or without) grated parmesan

Roast root vegetables, lentil casserole and cumin cabbage

End of veg box again - but this was really good.  Instructions are brief because I'm tired - but this was actually Sunday's dinner - tonight's was the leftovers made into a delicious shephard's pie thingamebob.

Roast root vegetables

Parboil prepped carrots, turnip and potatoes.  Put into oven proof dish, pour over vegetable stock with a teaspoon of grainy mustard.  Bake for 45+ minutes.

Lentil casserole

Sautee onions in olive oil, add chopped mushrooms and courgette.  Add crushed garlic and mixed herbs.  Add some lentils and some stock - simmer.  Then add some red wine, simmer.  Then add passata and lots of black pepper - simmer.

Cumin cabbage

When other stuff is about 20 minutes off simmer shredded cabbage and a teaspoon of cumin in a centimetre of water and a tablespoon of olive oil.

potato, turnip and leek bake, steamed carrots and spring greens with grilled haloumi

A beautiful day today, and a quick ready steady cook rifle through the fridge - and ta dah!

Potato, turnip and leek bake

4 potatoes
2 turnips
1 leek
olive oil
garlic
stock

1.  Slice potatoes and turnips and par boil for about 7 minutes.
2.  Slice and soften leek in olive oil - add crushed garlic.
3.  Splosh a little olive oil in an oven dish - layer in a third of the potato and turnip, add half the leeks, the next turnip and potato, drizzle of olive oil, black pepper, the last of the leeks and the rest of the potato and turnip.  Drizzle with olive oil, pour in about a pint of stock and bake for 40 minutes or so.

Steamed vegetables

1.  Peel carrots and cut into batons, steam.
2.  Add shredded cabbage after about 8 minutes, steam for a further 5.

Halloumi

Grill halloumi in a dry frying pan from 1-2 minutes on each side.

Scoff.

beetroot and carrot burgers with crispy, herbed courgette

Veg box surplus of beetroot and carrot - yay!  these burgers are delicious.

No, really, I promise - delicious!

Some beetroot
Some carrots
an onion or more
garlic, crushed
rolled oats
olive oil
herbs
cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

courgette
cornmeal (polenta)
salt and pepper, and herbs

1.  Grate cleaned carrots and beetroot.
2.  Add crushed garlic, herbs, seasoning (chili if you fancy) oats, a good glug of olive olive oil and mix well.
3. slice courgette, toss with polenta - with salt pepper and herbs.
4.  Heat olive oil in 2 frying pans - start frying burgers first, then courgette..
5.  Turn burgers over, put sliced/grated cheese on top.
6.  Start frying courgette slices in hot olive oil - dont keep tossing - turn when done on one side..

when done - scoff - with mayonniase to taste

Don't add the cheese or mayonnaise and it's vegan and lactose free too.

No duck pancakes

Peking duck pancakes, from an Asian supermarket, freezer section
Hoisin sauce
Onion
Carrot
Fennel
Cucmber
Sesame seeds


1.  Steam pancakes for about 10 minutes.
2.  Julienne vegetables
3.  Scoff - by smearing sauce on pancake, topping with veg and sesame seeds - roll up

Delish - quick and healthy

Butternut squash and carrot risotto

The last of the veg box after the holiday weeks - onion, butternut squash, a few carrots and some tomatoes... so here it is - butternut squash and carrot risotto.

olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 butternut squash
4 carrots
arborio rice
cumin seeds
6 tomatoes
balsamic vinegar
turmeric
veg stock
grated parmesan

1. Saute chopped onion until a bit soft.  Add in crushed garlic, finely diced butternut squash and carrots - turn over in the olive oil.  Cook for about 5 minutes.
2.  Add rice and cumin.  Turn over in the oil.
3.  Add grated tomatoes and a splash of balsamic, and a pinch of turmeric (saffron if you have it hanging around).
4.  Keep adding veg stock and turning over, and stirring until rice is cooked - about 15-20 minutes.
5.  Chuck in grated parmesan.

I think this would serve about 5 - and I think it cost about 80p a portion.  We had it the following night, fired as fritters with some cabbage - even more delicious.

Minestrone

Surprise lunch out - and stuffed full of cheese 'n onion pie, so only wanted soup for dinner.  Lovely organic veg left from the box though, so a big steaming bowl of minestrone.

olive oil
onion
garlic
carrots
turnip
tomato puree
vegetable bouillon
water
few chili flakes

1.  Sweat finely chopped onion in olive oil.
2. Add finely diced root veg and garlic.
3.  After turning in the oil for a couple of minutes add a big squirt of tomato puree and stock.
4.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.
5.  Add a few chili flakes and the chopped cavolo nero.
6.  Taste, adjust seasoning if necessary, take a few ladles out and whizz, return to the soup.
7. Scoff

Kholrabi salad with mushroom, spinach and hazelnut pasta

Well, much debate about what to call tonight's dinner - without just listing ingredients!  It is Monday - the veg box arrives on a Tuesday morning.  This is the time when you look at what you have got, and try to find something tasty, which is not just "chuck it in and hope for the best".

So, two dishes, either of which could have stood alone, but actually were delicious together.

Kholrabi, apple and watercress salad

Olive oil
1 lemon
1 kholrabi
2 small apples
2 carrots (mine were yellow, but that's because that was what we got)
1 onion, very finely sliced
cider vinegar
1 small bunch watercress, leaves picked off
salt and pepper

1.  Squeeze half a lemon to catch its juice in a bowl add about as much olive oil - this is to stop the kholrabi and apple oxidising and turning brown - so bear this in mind as you grate the other ingerdients in, and make sure you turn them over in the lemon juice and oil as you prepare the veg.
2.  Grate in kholrabi, apples and carrots.  Finely (as finely as you can) slice onions into half moons. I would have used red onions if I had some, but I didn't so VERY carefully finely sliced a white onion.
3.  Turn over to make sure veg and fruit have a film - you may wish to add more juice/oil - and/or a drop of cider vinegar to make a tangy, tasy mix.
4.  Strip watercress and gently stir in leaves.
5.  Taste, and adjust seasoning.

Mushroom, spinach and hazelnut pasta

Pasta (this is a gluten free version, so it was a corn rice mix penne pasta.. but any shortish pasta would be fine)
olive oil
8 (well, 8ish) mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
splosh of brandy (optional really, but does give a depth of flavour)
big handful of spinach leaves
3 tbsps creme fraiche
75g gorgonzola (or other blue cheese)
water
black pepper
a handful of hazelnuts

1.  Cook pasta in boiling water, according to packet instructions - don't over cook, as it will be heated through with the mushroom mixture.  Drain when cooked.  If a little while before needed, drizzle over a tiny hint of olive oil and stir so that it doesn't stick together.
2.  Chop mushrooms and sautee gently in olive oil (and butter, if you like butter).
3.  Chop spinach leaves into ribbons - not tiny pieces, just so that when they wilt they keep some shape but are not stringy.
4.  Add crushed garlic to mushrooms, stir in.
5.  Add a splosh of brandy - flame it (turn pan slightly into gas flame/ a match) to burn off the harshness of the alcohol but retain the flavour (this step is entirely optional, but does add a depth of flavour otherwise un-achievable)
6.  Add ribbons of spinach and stir/toss until wilted.
7.  Meanwhile roast hazelnuts, briefly, in a dry frying pan - about 2 minutes shaking much of the time.  Once roasted  - either pulse in processor or smash a bit in pestle and mortar.
7.  Chuck in pasta, remove from heat.
8.  Let cool for a minute, add crumbled cheese and creme fraiche.  Stir through until cheese is melted.

Serve - I sprinkled the hazelnuts on the pasta, and served with the salad - and we both had seconds... and thirds.

Veg box chowmein

This was delicious.  It is also vegan, gluten free and easy.  Oh, and cheap.

Recipe:  open fridge, take out whatever vegetables are there - chop them up, stir fry/simmer with tasty stuff from cupboard. Scoff.

Oh, OK, this is what I did:-


Vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic crushed
small knob ginger, grated
2 leeks, sliced and washed
1 kholrabi
2 carrots
1 red pepper
Biggish pinch of chili flakes
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp Soy sauce (check GF if GF)
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
splash rice wine vinegar
water
2 tbsp peanut sauce
Handful baby spinach
Rice noodles
Sesame seeds

1.  Prep veg - cut into smallish pieces.
2.  Soften leeks in oil, after a minute or so chuck in other veg, garlic, ginger and chili flakes.  Stir round.
3.  Add about a pint of water and tomato puree, soy sauce, rice wine and rice wine vinegar.
4.  Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, let the sauce thicken up, but don't let it go completely dry - just add more water as you need it until the vegetables are just done.  Add peanut sauce when the vegetables are nearly cooked.
5.  Meanwhile boil the rice noodles.
6.  Drain noodles, add to vegetables with baby spinach.  Take of the heat and stir together until spinach leaves wilt.
7.  Sprinkle on sesame seeds.

Chipati wraps - spicy chicken and salad

Had some lovely victims come for lunch, and set myself the challenge of making something health and tasty without having to go to the shops.  Now, those of you who know me know that this is not much of ask, because I always have so much stuff knocking about.  However, one of the victims is a small sort of victim, so I wanted something which he would find bits to like as well.  So, my inspiration was fajitas/ burritos ... you know the kind of thing.  Trouble was I didn't have any avocado, salsa, cheese or sour cream - or indeed tortillas!  But what I did have was chipatis, chicken, yogurt, carrots, celariac and red pepper.  So, I made these....  I made mexican spicy chicken for bigger victims, and some chicken nuggety ones with breadcrumbs for the tiny victim.

1 pack chapatis
3 chicken breasts
Mexican spices
3 tbsp natural yogurt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
2 tbsp flour, lightly seasoned
1 piece wholemeal bread, blitzed into breadcrumbs
1 tsp mixed herbs
6 carrots
Bunch radishes
1 small onion
1/2 celeriac
sesame seeds
mustard seeds
juice of 1 orange
Lettuce (cos and chinese leaf) shredded
1 red pepper, in strips
4 tbsp light mayonnaise

1.  Cut chicken breasts into strips.
2.  Mix mexican spices and garlic into yogurt and 1 tbsp olive oil, chuck in 2/3 rds of chicken - cover and put in fridge to marinade.
3.  Whisk egg, put seasoned flour on one plate, egg on the next and breadcrumbs mixed with herbs on a third.
4.  Cover the remaining chicken pieces in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs - cover and put in fridge.
5.  Slaw - grate and mix carrots, radish, onion, celeriac - add small handful mustard seeds, some sesame seeds and orange juice.  Chill.
6.  Cut up other salad ingredients.
7.  To make up - fry chicken nuggets in olive oil, and marinated chicken in another pan with a tiny amount of oil.
8.  Wet sheet of greaseproof paper under the tap, scrunch it up, smooth it out, and wrap chipatis in it - microwave for 2 minutes.
9.  When chicken bits are cooked, drain nuggets on kitchen paper, pile everything on table and let victims make their own dinner.

A round of applause from littlest victim for his chicken nuggets, but he wasn't keen on the red pepper.  Bigger victims demolished most of the rest.  The carrot, celeriac slaw was the best bit for me.   Success, I say.

Morrocan lamb and pine nuts

This weekend has been a roller coaster of good food, big challenges and rubbish pics.  We have had - diabetic, coeliac, lactose intolerant, heart conditions and nut allergies - and also.... - elderly and damaged dogs... antisocial cats and chickens wanting to invade the kitchen.  And ... I left the memory card out of the camera, so most of the triumphs (and I was impressed, though I say it myself) ... are unrecorded. But, for the record of no repeat February .. last night we had - pork, apple, celery and green bean casserole, with rice and red cabbage, followed by gluten free waffles with ice cream and fruit (diabetic ice cream specially sourced) - today we had a big breakfast (again - no card in the camera).  And for dinner - morrocan savoury lamb (?) with rice and carrots in orange juice.  (Morrocan lamb mince - sautee onions and some crushed garlic, celery, mushrooms, butternut squash, lamb mince, courgette and green beans,,, (smidge of chili, bigger smidge of cinnamon, and some herbs) .. fry, add stock, simmer for  a bit... serve with extras (carrots, steam... fry gently in olive oil for seconds and add squirt of orange juice).  Victims are all fed - some appreciative, some less so - you have family - you understand :).

Roast lamb dinner

For a greedy person!  Delish.  Season leg of lamb with salt and pepper and rub on olive oil.  Cut bulb of garlic in half and chuck in roasting tray, lie leg of lamb on rosemary on grill in roasting tray - chuck in a glass of white wine.  Stick into hot oven for 30mins, then turn oven down to about 150 - cover in foil, and roast slowly for 2-3 hours.   Drain juices after about an hour, to make the gravy.  After 1 and a half hours parboil potatoes, then roast, in a hot oven in hot olive oil (for about an hour and 10 minutes).  In a little olive oil, chop red onion and half a red cabbage, 2 chopped apples - add apple juice, splash of cider vinegar, black pepper and dried fennel seeds, simmer for at least 40 minutes - or bring to the boil and then stick in the oven with the lamb.  Peel and chope carrots, swede and turnip.  Boil for about 12 minutes then drain and slash vigorously with a sharp knife, adding a knob of butter and just too much black pepper.  At the same time soften sliced leek in a drop of water (or white wine if there is some left), just before soft add shredded green cabbage.  Finish off gravy ... fat from lamb pan, tablespoon of flour add lamb juices and stock.  Scoff (with or without mint sauce/mustard/ horseradish), have seconds, and scoff that as well.  Victims all finished their plates, and visiting victims took some home for tomorrow.