Butternut squash, mushroom, onion and mozzarella tarte tatin, tiny roast potatoes and steamed vegetables.

 

I'm trying to use the autumnal vegetables, and not just make soups and stews (not that there is anything wrong with that), so a savoury tarte tatin with Sunday dinner veggies.  It was delicious.

Onions
Olive oil

Garlic

Butternut squash

Mixed herbs - sage, rosemary a bit of chilli

Leftover (?) wine!  rosé today

Mushrooms

Potatoes

Green beans 

Savoy cabbage

Mozzarella

Puff pastry

Soya milk

1.  Sautee chopped onion in olive oil, with a pinch of salt, in a tarte tatin pan - or heavy frying pan which can go in the oven..

2.  When quite soft add crushed garlic.

3.  Peel and chop butternut squash and add to the onion, fry off for a minute or so, then add a splash of wine and water, simmer for 10 minutes.

4.  Stir and add herbs of your choice - sage, rosemary and chilli work well.

5.  Simmer until squash is nearly soft, and most of the liquid has disappeared, add chopped mushrooms and continue cooking.

6.  Peel and cube potatoes, roast in olive oil at about 180.

7.  Prepared extra vegetables for steaming - I used green beans and cabbage - could be almost anything.

8.  When the mushrooms have cooked enough to release their moisture and the mixture has become quite dry again - turn off the heat.

9.  Sprinkle grated cheese onto the squash and mushroom mixture, cover with puff pastry.

10.  Tuck the pastry into the pan to form a rustic seal, stab the top a few times to let out steam, and brush the top with soya milk.

11.  Put the pie in to bake for 25-20 minutes.  Steam the vegetables.

12.  Chat, set the table, faff.

13.  Turn the pie out, serve the potatoes and veggies.

14.  Serve, gloat, scoff.  

Stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers with a potato and green bean salad, with a bit of green salad too.

Easy peasy ... made a tiny bit harder because of the current dietary requirements at Kitchen Fairies HQ ... 1 veggie ...easy red peppers stuffed with mushrooms and onions, then mozarella, tomatoes and basil.  1 meat eater, but cheese and tomato dodger.  1 meat eater and tomato dodger.  1 eats pretty much anything, but shouldn't eat cheese.

So, basically, we all had stuffed peppers, but there was some variety in the fillings.

Potato and green bean salad dressed with garlicky vinaigrette.

Red peppers

Olive oil
Onion
Garlic
Musihrooms

Minced steak
Chili flakes
Cinnamon

Tomatoes
Mozzarella
Basil

1.  Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil, add mushrooms.
2.  Prepare peppers by cutting in half and scooping out seeds and connective bits.
3.  Boil potatoes, steam green beans.
4.  remove veggie portion of onions mix and stuff into veggie's peppers.
5.  Add steak mince, and a tiny pinch of cinnamon and chili flakes to onion and mushrooms, fry off.
6.  Slice mozzarella and tomatoes, add to veggie's peppers, with a few leaves of fresh basil.
7.  Stuff other peppers with appropriate collections of steak mince, mozarella, tomatoes ... Drizzle them all with olive oil, and put int the oven for 20 minutes or so.
8.  Make dressing for potatoes, add crushed garlic to olive oil and balsamic - drain potatoes, add wo dressing, with beans when still warm.
9.  Serve, scoff

Stuffed roast peppers

Sunny day - that's more like it!  So something more summery, using what was in the fridge and poly tunnel.  Halve peppers and drizzle with olive oil - roast for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile cook some rice.  Steam some veg - in this case green beans.  When rice is cooked stir in chopped spring onions, the steamed veg, frozen peas, shredded mange tout, finely chopped red chili, chopped parsley, mint and basil.  Season well.  Chopped and added mozzarella and a handful of pine nuts. Spoon some of the ricey mixture into the pepper halves and return to the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are heated through again.  Yum.  Victim suggested replacing mozzarella with blue cheese, which would work - but make sure that you season well, and drizzle olive oil, so that they are not dry.  We had them on their own - I think a dressed rocket/spinach salad would be a great accompaniment.

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.

aubergine ragu with penne

No fancy picture as I couldn't hold the victims back.  This was a lovely rich mince and veg sauce with mozzarella, cheddar and parmensan with penne... yums.  Usual start to the ragu, onions, garlic, celery, red pepper, mushrooms chopped and sauteed - then added minced beef, probably about 250 grams for 6 people, add some mixed herbs.  Meanwhile sliced 2 aubergines and 2 courgettes into 1 cm slices - sprinkle with salt - pat dry after 10 minutes - drizzle on olive oil and griddle slices for a couple of minutes each side.  Chop and add to meat mixture, add 2 tins tomatoes and  and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Boil pasta.  About 3 minutes shorter than packet instructions, drain and add to sauce.  Tear in mozzarella, add cheddar and parmesan - save half of each type of cheese for the top.  Stir mixture up, add cheese to top, grate on black pepper - bake for about 30 minutes until cheese has melted and its all rich and steamy.  Victims had seconds.