Asparagus and green bean pasta salad with pine nuts

Yay!  Asparagus in the veg box! Yay!   oh, were you watching? How very embarassing!  But, frankly, I don't care - I was very very pleased to see the new season asparagus in the organic veg box - it's a late spring, and it's been a while coming.  I wondered whether to showcase the asparagus, as often happens, as a starter and then have our main dish - but I decided to go with our usual one dish dinner and to have asparagus as a delicious ingredient amongst others.

So, ...

Rape seed oil
Lemon
Chinese leaf
Lettuce
Watercress
Green beans
asparagus
Farfalle pasta
Pine nuts
basil
Parmesan (to serve)

1. Put water on to boil in a pan big enough to take the pasta, and hold steamers for the vegetables.
2. Remove the woody ends from the asparagus, chop the stems into 1 inch pieces, reserving the delicate spears.
3. Top and tail the beans and cut into bite sized pieces.
4.  Boil the pasta in water, after a minute or so put the veg pieces on to steam (not the spears, put them in 5 minutes later.
5.  Drizzle oil onto a serving plate, squirt on lemon juice and add some seasoning.  Chuck on the salad leaves .. whichever you are using.
6.  Lightly fry the pine nuts until golden brown - watch them, they WILL burn if you take your eyes off them.
7. Drain the pasta and veg, drizzle on oil and squirt with lemon, toss and add to presentation plate.
8. Liberally sprinkle on toasted pine nuts, shave on parmesan to date.

Scoff.  Bring on summer.

Mustard mash, cavolo nero and kale with pine nuts - and a bit of a vegtable ragu

Quite (!) a busy week, and  need to chill at the weekend - but also some teenage student fetching and carrying (not that I mind, actually) - so by Sunday teatime, some comfort food was in order.  BUT, this isn't just comfort food - this is comfort food with bells on - it is incredibly nutritious and delicious.  There is some butter in the mustard mash - but otherwise - gluten free and without anything processed.

Start with the potatoes, then chop the onion, then the greens.  If you get the onions softening before the potatoes have boiled, you are really on it.  Keep working on the ragu, put the shredded greens on top of the boiling potatoes when they have been boiling for a couple of minutes.

Keep the ragu cooking, adding stock if it gets too dry.

When potatoes are boiled and mashed, stick them under a hot grill to crisp up the top for 5 minutes.  Keep the greens warm and roast the pine nuts at the last minute.

Mustard mash

potatoes, peeled
butter
whole grain mustard

1.  Boil potatoes - chopped into even chunks - in salted water,
2.  When done, drain, and mash with a good knob of butter (olive oil or soya spread for vegans).
3.  Beat in a splodge of wholegrain mustard.

Cavolo nero, kale and pine nuts

1.  Shred cavolo nero and kale, steam on top of boiling potatoes.
2.  Roast pine nuts in dry frying pan.
3.  Toss pine nuts onto steamed leaves

Vegetable ragu

onion
garlic
olive oil
mixed herbs
yellow pepper
mushrooms
courgette
vegetable stock

1.  Sweat chopped onion in olive oil until a bit soft.
2. Add chopped pepper, mushrooms, courgette and herbs and continue to soften.
3. Add a cup of stock and simmer until vegetables are all soft and tasty.

delicious.  Really!  Try it!

Pasta bake with spinach and pine nut salad

Assorted veg in the fridge, lovely curry last night - wanted something to ring the changes a bit tonight.  It, in all honesty, wasn't as nice as I had hoped - I am trying to keep cheese to quite a low level - if there was cheese sauce instead of yogurt it would have been much richer and nicer ... having said that - it was low fat, tasty and full of good stuff.

olive oil
onion
celery
mushrooms
green beans
fennel bulb (1/2)
italian herbs
macaroni (gluten free for us)
white wine
gram flour
parmesan
natural yogurt
black pepper

spinach
pine nuts

1. Sweat chopped onions, celery and chopped fennel in olive oil.
2. Add, as you chop them the mushrooms and chopped ans and crushed garlic.
3. Sprinkle in italian herbs, season and splosh in white wine.
4.  Simmer for a bit, sprinkle in gram flour to create a bit of a sauce, stir in.
5.  Simmer until veg are at a done-ness where they are nice to eat.
6.  Meanwhile, cook pasta (in our case GF macaroni) to 1 minute before packet instructions.
7.  Turn off heat under veg when there is still a little, but not watery, sauce.
8.  Drain pasta, stir in, also add grated parmesan and enough yogurt to keep it all together.
9.  Stick it in the oven (more cheese on the top if you have it) to bake for 20 minutes.


Meanwhile...

1.   Put washed spinach leaves on a plate.
2.  Toast pine nuts in a hot frying pan - don't walk away from them - just toss them for a little while, and take off the heat before they start burning.
3.  You could make a dressing with oil, vinegar, seasoning and italian herbs ... but it's really not essentail

Serve - scoff - have seconds!  To be brutal I would prefer more soft cheese than yogurt for the bake, cos it was a bit sharp - but I enjoyed it anyway.

Savoury tarte tatin

Half a pack of puff pastry in the fridge, veg from veg box - going away tomorrow, so not that much else... savoury tarte tatin.

olive oil
butter
1 onion
handful green beans
3 carrots
3 largish new potatoes
cumin
chili
rosemary
garlic
apple juice
cider vinegar
pine nuts - toasted
puff pastry

salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olive oil, balsamic vinegar - toss

Heat oven to 180, cook in oven proof frying pan

1.  soften chopped onion in olive oil and butter
2.  Add peeled and chopped carrot, green beans and potatoes.
3.  Chuck in chopped rosemary, season ... then add what you fancy - I had some cumin seeds and some chili, so chucked those in.
4.  When veg are starting to vaguely soften add a glug of cider vinegar and about a glass of apple juice.
5.  Simmer until they are just about soft, add water if the pan goes too dry.
6.  Roll out pastry and plonk on top, tucking edges in in a rustic fashion.  Pierce with a fork to let out steam.
7.  Bake in oven for about 25-30 minutes - turn out and sprinkle toasted pine nuts on top.
8.  Serve, with salad, and chilled wine for adoring praise from gathered victims - well just the one today - but it was so nice we ate enough for 4.

Vegetable crumble

Sauteed onion, added cauliflower (well, romanesco actually, but any old cauli would be fine) and brocolli in small pieces.  Added glass of water and put the lid on for 5 minutes to let them soften a bit.  Then stir in tablespoon of flour and enough soya milk to make a white sauce.  The add unfeasibly large handful of grated cheese - cheddar and parmesan today - but some mozarella would add amusing stringiness, season.  Transfer mixture to baking dish and add topping.  Topping - crush crackers left over from Christmas/ dinner parties, and handful of oats, small handful of pine nuts and some chopped basil.  Stir in a few glugs of olive oil and season.  Bake for 20mins or so.  Meanwhile fry onions with green beans for 5 minutes, add crushed garlic (actually, don't this made it a bit bitter) and cherry tomatoes.  Season well.  Steam some cavolo nero (yum yum - victim doesn't like this - go figure! - but I do, so it makes another appearance).  Serve - observe appearnace is somewhat uninspiring - scoff - tastes significantly better than it looks.  Victim said - where's me dinner?  there's no meat! - but having eaten the lot requested that we have it again soon.

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 :).

First decent dinner of 2012

Really!! .. we have been living out of the freezer, cupboards and phoned for a takeaway... However, "decent" - may be an over statement, but at least it was homemade, fresh and generally wholesome - the potatoes and gratin were both over done - and the presentation is limited.  I put it down to sluggish brain combined with indecision after the lurgy.  Anyway - it was - chicken in white wine and mushroom sauce with cauliflower and brussel sprout gratin, roast new potatoes, grandma's carrots.  "Recipes" - par boil halved new potatoes, then roast in hot olive oil; for the gratin used this recipe (almost - much less rich.., had no sage  - used some thyme, and used broken up crackers - cos they were left over - for the crust - from here) http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2008/11/cauliflower_and_brussels_sprout_gratin, carrots boiled and drained, and chopped furiously with a sharp knife with butter and lots of black pepper.  Saute onion and garlic, turn up heat, brown chicken strips on all sides chuck in big handful of mushrooms and good splosh of white wine.  Cook chicken through - remove - stir cream into wine mixture for sauce - pour over chicken.  Serve all bits and pieces and scoff.  Victim said some rude things about overcooked potatoes, but actually we both enjoyed vegetable gratin, and all the elements together.  (Victim had seconds of moaned about potatoes).

Aubergine stuffed with ostrich (or other mince)

Lovely glossy aubergines waiting for a destination, and some ostrich mince bought after the promise of ultimate low fat healthiness, prompted the combination.  I don't like aubergines, so this seemed a very obvious treatment which would be horrid - BUT - as long as you scrape the aubergine flesh out with the spicy filling, and leave the skin this is actually officially DELISH.
Cut 2 (or however many - adjust the recipe to about three quarters of an aubergine per person) aubergines in half longways - keeping stalk on.  Fairly liberally drizzle olive oil on a baking pan (enough to moisten, but not enough to completely counterat the fat free-ness of the ostrich mince - add halves of aubergine, drizzle oil over the top - roast in hottish oven turn over after about 20 mins.  Meanwhile saute ostrich (or whichever) mince with onion, garlic and chili - add sprinkles of cumin, coriander, mixed herbs and whichever mediterranean herbs you have to hand  - we had some mint and marjoram - add these flavourings to taste.  Chuck in small handful of pinenuts and the same of sultanas.  Make a pocket in baked aubergines by scooping out a little of the flesh - chop the extra and add to the mince mixture - this helps the final dish retain some moisture.  Spoon the mince mix into the aubergine halves, top with tomato slices and return to the oven for 20 mins ish.  Serve with garlic yogurt sauce (tzatziki would be nice).  We had chard and beans, as they were in the veg box.  Victim scoffed spicy mince, sauce and pitta but only picked at the other veg - but I will keep trying.  I reckon this could be at least 3, if not 4, of your 5  a day.

Chicken salad, with avocado, pine nuts and red pepper

Mix 1 tablespoon light mayonnaise, 1 tbsp natural yogurt, 1 tsp dijon mustard, splash of balsamic and grinding of black pepper.  Chuck in 2 chopped spring onions, 1 chopped roasted red pepper (from a jar), 1 chopped avocado and 2 chopped, poached, cold chicken breasts, handful of herbs from garden - mix.  Shred chosen lettuce, add chicken mixture and sprinkle on roasted pine nuts.  It's not even a recipe it's so easy.  Delicious.  Veg 3. Dinner - left over BBQ casserole with rice and brocolli so veg at least 7.  Eggs 3.