The best cheese on toast snack thing ever

When you fancy something ..... hmmmm .... tasty ....

Nice bread
Red onion
Celery
Cheese
Pecans

1.  Toast the bread.
2.  Finely chop onion, celery and apple.
3.  Chop, or grate, cheese - mix into the fruit and veg.
4.  Chop nuts and add those too.
5.  Squish onto toast, place back under the grill for long enough for the cheese to melt a bit.
6. Scoff

Smoked mackerel and a medley of salads

A sunny day in Todmorden - miracles never cease!  So, a medly of salads for tea tonight.  There is no real recipe for this - boil the pasta, chop vegetables, open a tin and flake smoked mackerel - remember to squeeze lemon onto the avocado, or it will go brown.  I added garlic mayonnaise to my celery, apple and almond salad, but it's not universally liked, so I left it off the main serving.

Tomato and avocado salad

Cherry tomatoes
Finely chopped red onion
Radish
Avocado
Squeeze of lemon juice

Celery and apple salad

Celery
Apple
Almonds
Garlic mayonnaise (optional)

Pasta and mackerel salad

Pasta (random odds and ends of GF today)
Chopped red onion
Sweetcorn
Smoked mackerel

Green leaves
Olive oil
Sherry vinegar

Rice'n'dhal, with curried veg

Twas a cold and drizzly Sunday afternoon, and I didn't have so much inspiration, but I did have a fridge full of vegetables, which needed using before the next batch are delivered on Tuesday.  Also, some garlic and turmeric will help send the lurgy into the ether, finally.

Rice - cook using your chosen method - I bring to the boil in a cast iron pot and then transfer to a low oven to absorb the water.

Dhal

Red lentils
Olive oil
curry leaves
mustard seeds
coriander seeds
cumin seeds
chili flakes

1.  Boil the lentils until they are done.
2.  Make the tarka by heating the spices in oil - throw onto the cooked lentils - done....

Curried vegetables

Leeks
Garlic
Celery
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
turmeric
garam masala
vegetable stock
cabbage

1.  Sautee chopped leek and crushed garlic, add spices of your choice.
2.  Add chopped celery, continue to sautee until softenned a bit - then add veg stock and simmer.
3.  Add garam masala and shredded cabbage.  Simmer until veg is done.

Serve, scoff - delicious, comforting and very good for you.

Sea bass, braised celery and fennel and asparagus

Upmarket fish and chips for Good Friday - thank you Paul the fish from Todmorden market for excellent fish - as usual.

This takes about an hour and a half - start to finish.

Potatoes
Olive oil
Leeks
Fennel
Celery
Garlic
White wine
Sea bass
butter
Asparagus

1.  Cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces, and put them on to boil.
2.  Chop leeks, fennel and celery, crush garlic - sautee in olive oil for a few minutes, splash in a glass of white wine and simmer briefly.
3.  Transfer veg to an oven proof dish, with a lid and put it in the bottom of a medium hot oven (180 C).  At the same time cover the bottom of quite a bit roasting dish with olive oil, and put it in the oven to heat up.
4.  Drain the potatoes, and add to the hot oil.
5.  Sit about chatting for about an hour, turn the potatoes over once in the middle.
6.  Heat olive oil and butter in a  frying pan, and put some water on to boil, to steam the asparagus.
7.  Prepare asparagus by removing the woody end.
8.  Season the fish and fry the fish fillets, skin down first in the hot oil - put the asparagus in the steamer.
9.  The asparagus should be ready when the fish is fried.  This should be about 5-6 minutes on the skin side - and a minute or two once turned over.
10.  Serve, scoff and receive fulsome praise.

Baked trouts with almonds

Welcome back to the 70s!  I seem to be on a roll with this fish baking malarky at the moment, tonight's was trout circa 1973 with the addition of flaked almonds!

Still simple as .....

Olive oil
Potatoes
Celery
Carrots
Courgette
White wine
Garlic
Trout
Flaked almonds

1.  Wash and chop potatoes, par boil and then roast in olive oil, in a hot oven.  The potatoes will take about an hour - the fish 30 minutes tops.
2.  As the potatoes are roasting prepare the veg - peel and chop and toss in crushed garlic and olive oil.  Place in the bottom of another roasting pan.
3.  Lay the fish on top of the veg and drizzle with olive oil, splash a little white wine on the veg so that it helps create some steam.
4.  Bake fish for about 15 minutes, fling on flaked almonds and bake for 15 more minutes.

Scoff.  Absolutely delicious - check the fish after 20 minutes, you don't want it over cooked - the veg being al dente is no bad thing.

Leek and fennel risotto

Quite late home.  Cold again, but mostly salady things in the veg box - but you can do all sorts of things with a risotto.

Olive oil
Leek
1/2 fennel
Celery
Garlic
White rice
White wine
Stock
Frozen peas
Grated parmesan
Salt and black pepper
Roccolo

1.  Sautee chopped leek, fennel and celery in olive oil.
2.  After a couple of minutes add crushed garlic, and continue to sautee gently.
3.  Add a mugful of white rice, and turn over in the oil.
4.  Chuck in white wine and some stock.  Simmer, add more until the risotto is nearly done.
5.  Add frozen peas and cheese.  Simmer gently.

Season and top with roccolo.

Chicory, celery and kholrabi pasta bake

Interesting selection of veg in the veg box this week - but they don't lend themselves immediately to hearty winter warmers.  I could've made several delicious salads ... but, what with snow and everything ... just didn't fancy that.  So, a bit of a think, a few staples and condiments from the cupboard - and dah-dah

It would have been lasagne, but I had no gluten free lasagna, so I used what I had which was gf fusilli - mixed it with the veg sauce - topped with tomatoes and grated cheese.

Olive oil
Onion, diced
Celery, about a cupful, diced
Kholrabi,  (half) peeled and diced
Mushrooms, diced
Chicory (endive), chopped
Garlic
Oregano
Mustard
stock
soya milk

Pasta shapes (GF fusilli today... but you knwo, whatever... )

Tomatoes, sliced

Cheddar, grated

1.  Gently sautee diced onion and celery in olive oil.
2.  When a bit soft add kholrabi and mushrooms, keep softening for a bit, add garlic and oregano.
3.  Cook pasta in boiling water.
4.  When veg are softenning a bit, add some stock (and/or white wine) and a teaspoon of mustard, simmer for a bit.
5.  Add chopped chicory, simmer.  I let the sauce down with a little soya milk because it was looking a bit dry, and I thought it would add a little "creaminess" - it worked.
6.  When the pasta is nearly done, drain it and mix it with the veg mix and put into an oven dish.
7.  Top the pasta mix with sliced tomatoes, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Bung in the oven at 180 C.
8.  Grate cheese and sprinkle on top of bake after 10 minutes.  Bake for a further 20 minutes until bubbling and lovely.

Serve, scoff.

Red pepper risotto

Veg box victory once again.  We bought Friday's fish, some extra potatoes and onions, and had one dinner out, but otherwise ... all organic veg and cupboard dinners ... hurrah.  Tomorrow's veg box arrives with special offer fish, so I am looking forward to those opportunities too.

Anyway, tonight - red pepper risottto ..

Olive oil
1 leek, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
Celery, chopped
Garlic, crushed
Risotto rice
White wine
Stock
5 tomatoes, grated (this removes the skins really easily and lets the pulp be integrated into the sauce)
Salt and pepper

1.  Sautee chopped, washed leek in olive oil.  (I had my oil a little too hot, which resulted in the few caremalised specs of black, which actually added to the taste, in my humble opinion.)
2.  Chuck in diced red pepper and celery, soften a little.  Add crushed garlic. stir in.
3.  Add a small handful of risotto rice, turn over so every grain is coated with a film of oil and veg juices.
4.  Add a splosh of dry white wine and stir in.
5.  Add stock a ladle at a time, simmer, stir.
6.  After about 10 minutes, add grated tomatoes and seasoning.
7.  Stir and taste, adding stock when it goes a bit dry.
8.  When rice is just  nearly ready, turn off the heat and let the last of the liquid be sucked up into the rice.

Serve the lovely, smooth, tasty mixture with parmesan grated on top. (Vegan if you don't sprinkle parmesan on top).

So, these are vegetables... and a happy new dinner

Get home late - open fridge - make dinner.  OK.  So, no veg box yet - and no onions ... ???

Lots of garlic though, and some green beans, and some mushrooms .... ideas began to form, and door to table - just under an hour, including proper crispy crust on potatoes.... yum

Olive oil
Potatoes, sliced
Celery, chopped
Green beans, chopped
Garlic
Mushrooms (button and chestnut)
White wine
Stock (cube in water)
Frozen peas
Little gem lettuce, cut into wedges

1.  Turn oven up to full whack.
2.  Slice potatoes into 1/2 cm slices and arrange in microwavable/ovenproof dish, with olive oil splished into the bottom.  Drizzle a little more over the potatoes.  Nuke for about 8 minutes - until the potato slices are nearly cooked.
3.  Meanwhile ... chop celery and green beans, and simmer gently in white wine and stock, with a clove of crushed garlic.
4.  Transfer potatoes to hot oven, to cook fully, and crisp up the tops.
5.  Chop mushrooms, cook gently in olive oil, over a low heat in a saucepan until they have released their liquid and concentrated down again.  Season with black pepper.
6.   Let everything tick over for 20 minutes or so ... making sure that nothing gets too dry.  If the mushrooms are all done - transfer to an oven dish and put in under the potatoes.
7.  Add frozen peas and lettuce to the green veg, allow to cook to 5 minutes.

Serve, scoff.... squeeze on lemon juice if you like it.  Honestly, this was brilliant.

Root veg and squash mash with lentils, shallots braised in red wine

This is very close to a Yotam Ottalenghi recipe - but we didn't have celeriac, puy lentils or ground cumin - so we used celery with the shallots, some little green lentils and a little biryani curry mix instead - and it was delicious.

Start with the shallots, then the lentils, then the root vegetables.

Shallots braised in red wine

Olive oil
Shallots, peeled and chopped if necessary
Celery, chopped
Bay leaves
Mixed herbs
Vegetable stock
Red wine
salt and black pepper

1. Sweat off shallots and celery in olive oil.
2.  Add bay leaves and herbs, chuck in wine and stock.
3.  Simmer for about an hour until veg are soft.  Add more wine/stock if it is going dry.
4.  At the end turn heat up, to thicken sauce into sticky yumminess.
(You could pull out the veg, and stir in a knob of butter, to make more luxurious)

Lentils

Boil in plenty of water until soft - about 30 minutes. Drain.

Root vegetable mash

2 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 sweet potatoes, chopped into chunks
1 squash (festival in our case) peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
salt
black pepper
butter
curry powder (or some other spice eg. cumin)

1.  Boil carrots for about 10 minutes
2.  Then add other veg and boil until all yield to a sharp knife.
3.  Drain, add a good knob of butter and seasonings.  Mash.
4.  Stir in lentils.

Serve mash and lentils with shallot, red wine sauce on top.

Extremely healthy comfort food.  DELICIOUS.

Peanut spicy vegetable casserole with cheesy noodles

Years ago I was cooked something similar to this by a Nigerian friend.  It had chicken in it, and it was very very hot - and it was served with rice.  A few years later (and still some years ago) I was served a veggie version (green beans, tomatoes and peanut butter with chili) with the added cheesy noodles.  It is now a real "go to" comfort food - the lovely silky mild noodles with the spicy and sweet peanutty sauce/casserole (with or without chicken).

olive oil
chopped onion
chopped celery
chopped mushrooms
chopped green beans
chili flakes
peanut butter
garlic
chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper
lime juice

noodles
grated cheese
butter

Sweat off onions and celery, in olive oil, until a bit soft.   Then add other veg, chili flakes, peanut butter and garlic.  Add some water and cover.  Simmer until softish, then add tomatoes.  Stew until soft and delish (you could steam the green beans and toss them in the sauce later, for a different texture).

Cook noodles.  When cooked stir in grated cheese and butter until noodles are all coated.

Serve, and squirt with lime juice.

Veg gratin, roast tomatoes and groats

The veg box came today, and was full of lovely stuff. So lovely gratin, roast tomatoes and some groats.  Ta da.







Veg gratin

1 leek, chopped and washed
Celery
carrots
turnips
cabbage
garlic
white wine
grainy mustard
herbs
Stock
cornflour
cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Cherry tomatoes
olive oil

Groats.

The tomatoes and groats are easy - stick tomatoes in oven dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast for 45 minutes-ish.  Groats - boil in the bag for 15 minutes - is. the last thing you do.

Gratin

1.  Sautee leek and celery in olive oil.
2.  When a bit soft add garlic, herbs and mustard.
3.  Add diced carrot, turnip and potato - and white wine and stock.
4.  Simmer for about 20 minutes until veg goes a bit soft.
5.  Add shredded cabbage, and soften.
6.  Add water to cornflour, and mix to form a paste - add to veg mix and stir in to thicken.
7.  Add grated cheese and transfer to an oven dish.
8.  Top with the rest of the cheese and bake for 40 minutes or so.

Scoff - have seconds!

Bring on summer - spicy hake with 3 salads

There was some sun today - hurray! So, I thought I would try to prolong the good sunshiny vibes with a salad dinner.  I had spicy hake, but also chucked a burger in for the victim ... just as well, as spicy fish was properly poo-pooed (silly! was delish).  OK - in order of cooking - beetroot, borlotti bean and mozzarella, coleslaw, waldorf (kind, sorta, ..ish) salads... spicy fish "goujons", green salad.

recipes - such as they are - beetroot, borlotti bean and mozarella salad.  I had beetroot and borlotti beans in the veg box this week, so made it from scratch - vacuum packed beetroot, and tinned beans would be proper tasty, and much less time consuming.  So, starting from the raw state... roast washed (but not peeled) beetroot in a tray with garlic, slosh of olive oil and splash of balsamic until beetroot is soft - I cover tray in foil and test after about an hour, knife should go in with very little resistance.  Meanwhile, pod and then boil borlotti beans - takes about 12 mins from boiling - but depends on beans.  Cool beetroot, cool and drain beans.  Skin beetroot (I always use gloves) and cut into bite sized pieces.  Mix together beetroot pieces, beans, chopped radish, mozarella - torn into bite sized bits, basil leaves, seasoning, olive oil - taste...yum yum - add splash of lemon juice/vinegar if needs a little sharpness.  Sorta waldorf ... well, as kids we hated walnuts, so Mum invented this with almonds... it may have morphed over the years, but it's proper simple, so morph it yourself.. Chop a fair bit of celery into small, but still chunky, chunks, add some chopped onion... chop apple - add - squirt with lemon/lime juice - mix up until all apple has touched acid juice, at this point I added chopped orange and red pepper.  Chuck in handful of almonds, small spoon of mayonnaise, good teaspoon of horseradish and about 2 tbsp of natural yogurt - season - taste, adjust... should be crunchy, savoury and refreshing.  Coleslaw... everyone has their own recipe - but finely shredded red onion, about 3 times as much red cabbage and white cabbage, grated carrot - lemon/lime juice or cider vinegar, and good pinch of rock salt... let sit for 30mins, cabbage will start to soften slightly.  Stir in splodge of mayonnaise and some natural yogurt (adjust proportions depending on whether you are trying to reduce fat (0% mayo lowest fat... all mayo if you are a skinny imp wanting to chunk up).

Spicy fish - was hake (could've been most white fish, tuna or salmon) - cut into strips and tossed in flour and fish curry spices - fried - hot and quick...

Delish.

Lettuce... OK - for completeness - I tossed it in lime juice and a whisper of olive oil.

A very british risotto

Ricey stuff was the plea - so ricey stuff was found.  but I tried to up its ante a bit.  We didn't have anything exotic in the fridge - it's not asparagus season after all - so - "a very british risotto" came to be.  I used olive oil - it could have easily been rape seed oil.  I used italian wine, because it was open - it could have been from the UK, or even cider if you had some.  But, is there any rice grown in the UK?  I don't know of any - I suppose you could use barley to make it totally domestic, but I had rice in the cupboard so used that.  However, the other ingredients - leek, celery, bacon, mushrooms, peas and cheese were all sourced locally. So - sauteed chopped leeks and celery for about 5 minutes in olive oil - stirring to prevent sticking.  When a bit soft add rice and turn until every grain is covered in a film of oil.  Add a glass of white wine.  Then stir in 2 good handfuls of chopped mushrooms and a handful (4 decent rashers) of chopped bacon - add some mixed herbs.  When wine has almost all been incorporated add a cup of chicken stock.  The risotto will probably take about 2 pints of stock in about 5 stages - keep stirring, let it absorb and taste.  Season and taste as you go through - I added a teaspoon or so of mushroom ketchup (available in Sainsbugs and other supermarkets) - but you could add marmite,  and salt and pepper - add good handful of frozen peas.  When the rice is just soft (no chalky bite, but not soggy) take it off the heat and stir in a handful of grated cheddar.  Leave to sit for 5 minutes.  Serve with grated cheddar on top.  Victim gave it 12/10 .. after STEALING mine when I went to get seconds.