Vegetarian black pudding and polenta layer

Lots of interesting things from Todmorden's market - polenta and olive oil from The Mediterranean Pantry (that's me), vegan black pudding from Chris outside, veg from Garry outside - and really good Cambozola from the Crumbly cheese.  This was dead easy, and quick.

Onions
Vegan black pudding
Olive oil
Tomatoes
Cambozola
Polenta

1.  Fry chopped onion in olive oil, when a little soft crumble in the black pudding.
2.  Slice polenta and fry on each side until slightly golden.
3.  Turn oven on.
4.  Layer ingredients in a oven dish - black pudding, tomatoes, cheese, polenta.
5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes to allow the cheese to melt.
6.  Scoff

Courgette frittata with polenta chips, roast asparagus and a tomato and olive "sauce"

 Another mediterranean feast sourced from Todmorden market.  Absolutely delicious flavours of sun and holidays.

All ingredients can be found within feet of each other, from ....

The Mediterranean Pantry
The Crumbly Cheese
Garry outside, for the veg
Local eggs from various stalls (ours were from our own bantams)

Olive oil
Polenta
Parmesan
Fennel seeds
Chili flakes
Onions
Garlic
Courgette
Eggs
Asparagus
Mixed herbs
Cherry tomatoes
Olives
Oregano
Basil
Mixed salad leaves
Balsamic vinegar

1.  Cut the polenta into chip sizes.  Drizzle some olive oil in on a baking tray, and put it in a hot oven to heat up.
2.  Grate the parmesan and add fennel seeds and chili flakes, mix them together.
3.  Toss the polenta chips in the cheese mixture until every one is coated.
4.  Put the chips onto the hot tray, and drizzle with a little more olive oil.  Bake for about 40 minutes, until golden - turn once in the middle.
5.  While they are baking bung the asparagus in an ove dish, drizzle with oil, season and bung that on the bottom shelf of the oven.
6.  Start the frittata by sauteeing onion and garlic in olive oil.  Add sliced courgette and fry gently.
7.  Gently whisk eggs and add a pinch of mixed herbs.  Pour into the pan with the courgettes.  Transfer the pan to the oven and let bake while everything else finishes.
8.  Fry sliced onion and garlic in another pan, add halved cherry tomatoes, oregano and roughly chopped olives.  This will only take a few minutes.  When it's "done" you can turn off the heat - it's nice warm as well as hot.
9.  45(ish) minutes from starting you should be ready to pull everything out of the oven and serve with salad leaves, lightly dressed with olive oil and balsamic glaze.
10.  Receive rapturous applause.

Spicy, crunchy fish with new potatoes and peas and stuff

A neighbour, very generously, gave us some home grown new crop potatoes.  She was very proud of them - and quite justifiably so, they were DELICIOUS.  I just boiled them simply and sprinkled them with sea salt.  To accompany them I did spicy crunchy fish and lovely spring vegetables.

Fish

Pollock (or other white fish) fillets, cut into 2 inch(ish) piece

Polenta

Malaysian fish curry spice mix

Olive oil

1.  Toss polenta and spice together,  then toss fish pieces in the mix.

2.  Fry (in batches) in olive oil, drain on kitchen paper, and keep warm until veg and potatoes are ready.

Vegetables

1 onion, finely chopped

Olive oil

Clove garlic, crushed

Petit pois

White wine

Little gem lettuce, cut into 6-8 wedges

Radishes, finely sliced

1.  Soften onion in olive oil, add crushed garlic.

2.  Add petit pois and wine, heat through, about 3-4 minutes

3.  Add lettuce and radich, toss through until lettuce has wilted a little - about 2 minutes.

Serve - scoff - have seconds

 
 
 

Whitebait! chips and cabbage

Well, with one thing and another its been an odd couple of days - and the absolute end of the veg box (there is a butternut squash in the fridge, don't tell anyone) and a raid on the freezer - look - we're in the '70s again!

Dishes in the order they were started.



Oven chips

Remove from packet, spread onto non-stick oven tray, put into pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes.

Cabbage .... thing..

Olive oil
Onion
Celery
garlic
spring greens

1.  Chop and sautee onion and celery in olive oil.
2.  When a bit soft add garlic and seasoning - add a little water to simmer down.
3.  Five minutes before ready to serve add shredded greens.

Whitebait

Polenta
Seasoning
White bait
Olive oil

1.  Toss whitebait in seasoned polenta.
2.  Fry, in batches, in hot oil for 2ish minutes, lift out and drain on litchen paper.
3.  Keep warm in oven until ready to serve.

Sing something from Abba and scoff.  Hurray for the '70s!

Tofu nuggets, pasta salad - to make lettuce boats

So, I understand, tofu is very good for you - and it's also very reasonably priced (from the right place).  But, it can be so bland ...really so,so, so bland.  So I had a scout about on the interweb - and a look at what was in the fridge, and this is what I came up with.  They were very nice - but I say "nice" because with the flavours behind them, without the tofu the mixture would have been hugely flavoured (over flavoured realy) - the tofu pulls it all down several notches.  So what you get is a crunchy "nugget" with a silky velvety, pleasant mouthful inside.  Served with (gluten free) pasta salad, home made mayonnaise (http://kitchenfairies.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/veggie-paella-and-salad.html) and gem lettuce "boats" to scoop it all into.

Tofu nuggets

1 red onion
1 leek
Garlic
1 red pepper
mushrooms
sun dried tomatoes
chili flakes
cashew nuts
herbs
firm tofu
polenta
olive oil

1.  Saute onion and leek in olive oil until a bit soft.
2.  Add red pepper, mushrooms, crushed garlic, tomatoes and chili flakes and cook for a few minutes.  Leave to cool.
3.  In a food processor blitz tofu, vegetable mixture, a handful of cashew nuts and a fistful of herbs (parsley, oregano, marjoram).
4.  When blitzed, put in the fridge to solidify a bit (it wont change much unless you stick an egg in).
5. Take spoons of mixture and coat in polenta.
6.  Fry for 1-2 minutes on each side (I am sure deep frying for 2 minutes would be great).
7.  Drain on kitchen roll.

Pasta Salad

1 red onion
sweet corn
olive oil
pasta (gluten free pasta twists)
cherry tomatoes
gherkins

1.  Chop red onion and chuck in sweetcorn and good glug of oil.
2.  Meanwhile cook pasta according to packet instructions.
3.  Drain pasta and throw into onion, sweetcorn and oil - toss about so that all pasta has a film of oil on it.
4.  When cold add cherry tomatoes, shopped into halves/quarters - and chopped gherkins.

Serve with gem lettuce leaves.

Scoff.