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.

St Patrick's Day tea - colcannon and bacon

A nod in the direction of the green isle for St Paddy's Day.  We don't (often) drink guiness (other stouts are available), and I wasn't in the mood to start on the soda bread - but I did think a great big plate of steaming mash and cabbage, with loads of butter - good bacon, and our own eggs would be an appropriate recognition.  It was good, and I am full.  (Haloumi was fried for the veggie version).

Spuds
Cabbage
Butter
Olive oil
Bacon
eggs
Haloumi

1.  Peel and cut potatoes into chunks, boil.
2.  Shred  cabbage and steam over the potatoes.
3.  When the potatoes are nearly done, start the frying process - cheese, and bacon, then eggs.
4.  Mash potatoes with loads of butter and seasoning, and beat in cabbage.  Keep warm until the rest is ready.
5.  Scoff.

Mediterranean hot salad, haloumi and baby baked potatoes

What, officially, is a salad?  You get leaf salads, tossed salads, cold salads, salads with meat, salads with cooked things .... etc etc .  I have decided, for the purposes of today's recipe, that "salad" means a bunch of ingredients prepared separately, and then served together, with a dressing.

Today - we had mediterranean hot salad with some baby baked potatoes.

For the baked potatoes - wash, prick with a fork, and coat with olive oil (pour a tiny blob of oil into your hand, and then cuddle each potato until it has a coating of oil...) ... put into an oven proof dish - microwave for 10 minutes, then transfer to a hot oven to finish baking.

Hot salad, with haloumi

olive oil
red pepper
aubergine
courgette
tomato
black olives
garlic
italian herbs
grainy mustard
spinach
black pepper

1.  Prepare, and then griddle in a hot griddle pan each of ... red pepper, aubergine and courgette.
2.  Place, as they are griddled, into an oven proof dish.
3.  Slice tomatoes, and add them ... probably in the middle of the layers of griddled veg - just add them in as you are ready.
4.  Bung the lot in the oven.
5.  Prepare the dressing:  Crush the garlic, mix with olive oil, mixed herbs and mustard (add chilli or anything else you fancy) ...
6.  Throw the dressing over the veg and griddle the cheese.
7.  Put the cheese on the salad - return to the oven.
8.  Add 3 tablespoons of water to the hot griddle pan, sizzle, add spinach and toss - it'll wilt in no time.
9.  Serve and scoff.

We had thirds!

Autumnal lentil and bean casserole with haloumi

chopped onion
garlic
olive oil
bay leaf
rosemary
carrots
green beans
white wine
tin of green lentils
grainy mustard
tomatoes

anya potatoes

Halloumi

Felt like something quite autumnal, and this really fit the bill.  It was delicious.

As to recipe - usual stuff, soften oniond in olive oil,  Add garlic, a bayleaf and a teaspoon of dried rosemary,  Add chopped veg and white wine, simmer until a bit cooked.  Tip in tin of green lentils and stir in a big spoonful of grainy mustard and some chopped fresh tomatoes.  Simmer again, seasoning as you go and adding water if it gets a bit dry.  It's ready when the veg is soft but lentils still hold their shape.

Boil/steam potatoes.

Fry haloumi in hot dry pan until coloured on both sides.

Scoff.  This was really, really delicious.

Haloumi hash

A day of marking - comfort food is required!  Open fridge - red pepper and 3 mushrooms (and some carrots, and some cabbage, left them there for now).  However had some onions, new potatoes and frozen peas, and some haloumi in the back of the fridge, so I came up with this - and it was really tasty.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced into half moons
1 red pepper
about 10 new potatoes
3 mushrooms
water
Haloumi (half a pack, diced)
Frozen peas
seasoning

1.  Sautee onion in olive oil.
2.  After a couple of minutes add in other diced veg including diced potatoes, sizzle until slightly "caught", then add about a pint of water.  Stir, scrape up bit from the bottom of the pan.  Cover and allow to simmer for 10 ish minutes.  Check on it - you want the veg to be cooked, and most of the water absorbed, but nothing burnt.
3.  When veg is about done, and most of the water absorbed - chuck in about another 1 tbsp oil, so that you get a bit of frying, and crisping up of the edges going on.
4.  After a couple of minutes add diced haloumi and frozen peas - stir/toss, cover - after 2 minutes, taste, season. turn off heat and let cook through in residual heat

Scoff. You could "big up" the flavours by using stock instead of water - adding garlic/chili/curry etc - but the haloumi adds savouriness and the veg are all fresh, so I don't think it needs much.