Sausage casserole with cheesy dumplings

 

Oh my word.  It's been a few days of cold rain and biting winds.  And, we have no potatoes ... so today - sausage casserole with cheesy dumplings!  Gorgeously comforting - but it gets some veg into the veg dodger too.

olive oil

red onion

garlic

Sausages

Carrots

Swede

Stock

Butter beans

Tin of tomatoes

SR flour

Butter

paprika

mixed herbs

baking powder

Cheese

Yogurt

1.  Chop red onion in slices, sautee in olive oil.

2.  Add sausages and brown on most sides (ie... keep moving them around to get a bit of colour, but don't get neurotic, there is plenty of time for them to cook.)

3.  Peel carrots and swede, chop into bit sized pieces and chuck into the pot.  Add crushed garlic.

4.  Add about a pint of stock and simmer for a few minutes.

5.  Add butter beans, a tin of tomatoes and some water, keep simmering.

6.  Let it simmer for an hour - add more water/stock if it's getting dry.

7.  Make the dumplings.  Rub butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, sprinkle on a teaspoon of baking powder to help the dumplings lift.  Season and add mixed herbs and a good pinch of paprika.

8.    When the casserole is 20 minutes from finished shape the dumplings by adding the grated cheese and a spoonful of yogurt - flour your hands and roll the mix into balls and drop onto the top of the casserole.

9.  Simmer for 20 more minutes.

10.  Serve, scoff

Lemon sole with mediterranean vegetables.

We had it with baby roast potatoes, but you could have rice or bread instead. 

Olive oil

Red onion

Red pepper 

Courgette

Fish seasoning

Lemon sole

Lemon pepper

1.  Prep vegetables and toss in olive oil in a baking dish.  Sprinkle on fish seasoning, toss gently and roast for about 20 minutes.

2.  Pop the fish fillets on top, drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of lemon pepper.

3.  Roast for a further 15-20 minutes.

4.  Serve, scoff,

so easy, so delicious, so healthy.

A scottish feast

 

Film night at Kitchen Fairies HQ, Macbeth.  

Venison casserole, neeps and tatties with spring greens seemed appropriate.  The venison, however was much more Yorkshire than Scotland - from Bracewell's in Todmorden Market Hall.

Onion

Olive oil

Garlic

Bay leaves

Venison

Flour

Carrots

Mushrooms

Red wine

Stock

Worcestershire sauce

Tinned tomatoes

Potatoes

Swede

Butter

Cabbage

1.  Gently fry chopped onion in olive oil, add bay leaves and crushed garlic.

2.  Add venison, brown slightly.  Sprinkle with flour and fry for a minute or so.

3.  Add chopped carrots and mushrooms, then half a bottle of red wine.  Simmer for a few minutes to let the alcohol evaporate.

4.  Add stock and a tin of chopped tomatoes, and a splash of worcestershire sauce.

5.  Simmer for about 2 hours, adding more stock/water if necessary.

6.  Peel potatoes and swede, and boil.

7.  Mash potatoes and swede with butter, and plenty of black pepper.  If there is time pop into the oven to brown the top.

8.  Steam the cabbage.

9.  Serve, scoff.

Squib pie

 

Film night at KitchenFairies HQ again - which means firing up the imagination (and Google).  The film was Official Secrets, and the whistleblower was employed by GCHQ - so I found some traditional Gloucestershire recipes.  Well one (and adapted it a bit) - and we had double gloucester and crackers for "pudding".

The traditional squib pie would have been made with mutton, onions and apples - flavoured with nutmeg - and baked for 2 hours.

We don't like pudding with dinner so omitted nutmeg, but I did include the apple - bulked it out a bit with swede and potato.  It worked very well!

Onions

Olive oil

Diced lamb

Swede

Potato

Apple

Flour

Stock

Flour

Butter

Plain yogurt

1.  Sweat off chopped onion in olive oil.

2.  Add diced lamb and brown a bit.

3.  Chop swede, potato and apples into small dice, add to the meat mixture.  Season.

4.  Stir and cook a bit, then add a spoonful of flour and sir in - to help thicken the gravy.  Pour in a pint or so of stock and simmer until its cooked.

5.  Meanwhile make the pastry, rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs, add a spoonful of plain yogurt and work into a paste.  Chill for at least 30 mins.

6.  Keep stirring the meat mixture.  When it's reduced down transfer to a pie dish, cover with foil, and put in a medium oven to keep cooking gently.

7.  Roll out pastry and cover the meat mixture with it.  Wash with soya milk (or dairy milk).

8.  Bake at 180 for 35-40 minutes.

9.  Steam carrots and cabbage.

10.  Serve, scoff ... was delicious.

Bobotie with geelrys

 

It was film night again, at Kitchenfairies HQ.  Mandela - Long Walk to Freedom. So, I thought I would make the South African national dish - Bobotie.  I had never made it before, and have an aversion to "pudding with me dinner" ie. sweet in savoury, so I toned down the fruitiness - but kept some.  I was also a bit wary of savoury custard over the spiced mince, but it works well.  The traditional accompanying geelrys also usually has dried fruit in it - that would have taken me over the edge - so perhaps this was really more of a pilau.  It was delish all the same.

Bobotie

Onion

Garlic

Olive oil

Butternut squash

Minced beef

Curry powder

Grated apple

Mango chutney

Stock

Worcestershire sauce

Frozen peas

Soya milk (or dairy milk, if you're not lactose intolerant)

Bay leaves

4 eggs

Geelry

Onion

Olive oil

Cinnamon

Turmeric

Basmati rice

Stock

1.  Soften chopped onion and garlic in olive oil.

2.  Peel butternut squash and cut into small dice, add to the onion.

3.  Add minced meat to the vegetables and brown.

4.  Add curry powder to taste (I used mild caribbean, with a little black pepper) and keep cooking.  Add stock and simmer for a few minutes.

5.  Heat soya milk with a few bay leaves.

6.  Add grated apple and a couple of big spoons full of mango chutney to the meet.  Simmer again.  When the mince is just about done add a handful of frozen peas and a good splash of worcestershire sauce, stir in.

7.  Transfer to and oven dish and bake at 180 for about 20 minutes.

8.  Start the geelrys by frying finely chopped onion in olive oil.  Add cinnamon and turmeric, then add basmati rice and turn in the spice mixture until every grain is coated.  Add stock to 1 inch about the surface of the and bring to the boil.  Ass soon as it hits the boil, slam on the lid and turn it down as far as it will go.

7.  As soon as the milk hits the boil turn it off, remove the bay leaves, and let it cool a little.  Whip together the eggs.

8.  Pour the milk onto the eggs and whip together quickly (if the milk is too hot it'll just be scrambled eggs, so do let it cool a bit).  Return to the saucepan and keep whisking as it thickens a bit.

9.  Pour the custard over the meat mixture, and bake for a further 20 minutes.

10.  Serve, scoff, with a bit of salad ... have seconds ... no really - it was fab!  Quite astonishing for something which was pudding with yer dinner.

"Tibetan" beef curry with steamed pak choi

So, film night again at Kitchen Fairies HQ.  The chosen film was Seven Years in Tibet, so I looked into Tibetan cuisine.

Apparently the diet is quite calorific, to cope with the climatic conditions, and there is quite a lot of meat included.  There is an absence of yak around these parts, so I made a stew with shin of beef instead.  Also, I was surprised to learn that a lot of root vegetables are used.

Less surprising, possibly, is that there is a real combination of spices used, both from Chinese and Indian influences.  Anyway, this is what I invented, and it was tasty.

coconut oil

onion

garlic

ginger

cumin

shin of beef, cubed

chilli

soy sauce

oyster sauce

rice wine

rice wine vinegar

celeriac

butternut squash

carrots

chicken stock

tomatoes

new potatoes

pak choi

1.  Sautee chopped onion in coconut oil.  Add garlic, ginger and cumin seeds.

2.  Add cubed beef and brown off.

3.  Add soya sauce, oyster sauce, rice, wine, rice wine vinegar and chilli flakes.

4.  Add a little water and simmer for a while.

5.  Prep celeriac, carrots and butternut squash - cut into fairly even sized pieces and add to the meat mixture.

6.  Simmer again, after adding chicken stock and a few chopped tomatoes, for about 2 hours.

7.  Boil new potatoes in a separate pan.  When they are nearly done, strain and add to the stew, simmer for another 20 minutes.

8.  Chop pak choi - steam the soft leaves, and add the white stalk to the stew.

9.  Serve, scoff ... it was very tasty, the beef just melting!

I'm not sure how authentic it was, but it was a decent invention.

Pork chops, in a mustard cream sauce, sauteed new potatoes and carrots, peas parisienne

 

Well , the photo is a disappointment, but the dinner wasn't!  It was film night at KitchenFairies HQ, and I try to theme the dinner with the film.  The film was "Hugo" ... the connection was that the film was set in Gare du Nord, Paris - so it was French Bistro food.

Also, I have no idea if peas parisienne have any authenticity to them - it's just what I have always called leeks, peas and lettuce cooked this way.

Pork loin chops

Olive oil

Meat seasoning (black pepper, garlic, celery salt, paprika)

New potatoes

Carrots

Butter

Leek

white wine

Little gem lettuce

Garlic

Chicken stock

Dijon mustard

Cream

1.  Rub the pork loin chops with the seasoning and olive oil, set aside for an hour.

2.  Peel new potatoes and carrots, cut potatoes in to quarters, length wise, and the carrots into diagonal chunks.

3.  Wash and shred leeks.

4.  In a heavy frying pan with a lid melt butter (lots ... twice as much as you think you need) and add the potatoes, carrots and cup of water.  Put the lid on and simmer for about 10 minutes.

5.  Take the lid off the potatoes and simmer off most of the water.

6.  Sweat the leek off in olive oil, add crushed garlic.

7.  20 minutes to go ... heat butter and olive oil in a frying pan, when hot add the chops and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side.

8.  Stir the potatoes and carrots, put the lid back on and let them crisp up.  Shake about every 3 minutes to stop them catching.

9.  Remove chops from the pan, add white wine to the pan, with a little chicken stock and a teaspoon of dijon mustard, stir and simmer.  Add cream.  Put chops back into the sauce and keep on a low heat.

10.  Add frozen peas and wedges of little gem lettuce to the leeks, add a splash of white wine.  Simmer for 3 minutes.  Add a drop of cream.

11.  Serve, scoff ... it was delicious!  really rich - but fabulous.

Pork and beans with pasta

 An exercise in using up the veg and pasta oddments.

• Onion
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Fajita spice mix
• Mushrooms
• Green beans
• Yellow pepper
• Pork chops
• Tomatoes
• Wholegrain mustard
• BBQ sauce
• Sweetcorn
• Flour
• Cannellini beans
• Pasta
• Grated cheese

1.  Sautee chopped onion in olive oil.

2.  When onion is softening, add garlic, spices and other chopped vegetables.  After a few minutes move them to the edge of the pan.

3.  Chop pork into bite sized pieces and add to the pan, stirring so that they get the heat from the bottom of the pan.

4.  Keep cooking for 10 minutes or so, then add chopped tomatoes, mustard, BBQ sauce and sweetcorn.  Stir in.

5.  Add a spoonful of flour to thicken the sauce, stir in until you can't see it any more, then add water or stock.

6.  Simmer for about 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary.

7.  Cook pasta.

8.  Add tinned beans, stir in and heat through.

9.  When it's ready mix pasta into sauce, serve, with grated cheese an dscoff.

Camping breakfast

 

Left KitchenFairies HQ for a short camping break - so cheese dreams and baked beans for breakfast.  Easy, but delicious.

Olive oil

Butter

Sliced bread

Cheddar cheese

Eggs

Baked beans

1.  Butter bread, make sandwiches with sliced cheese.  Cut into quarters.

2.  Whisk eggs, dunk sandwiches into eggs, seal on all sides.

3.  Fry cheese dreams in olive oil and butter.   Turn over and cook on the other side.

4.  Stack cheese dreams to make room for the beans, add beans and heat through.

5.  Serve, scoff ... don't laugh, it was fab and very welcome.

Stuffed pork chops, chips & beans

 

There's a thing about this home delivery malarky which means you kind of loose the "oh that looks nice, what should I do with that?" Don't get me wrong I also support my local shops and market.

So today, the veg box comes tomorrow - the outside market opens on Wednesday - so it was very much - what have we got?  and trying to do something a tiny bit different ...

So - cheese and mustard stuffed pork chops, coated in breadcrumbs - frozen chips, steamed green beans and baked beans.  Surprisingly, it worked well - and it got some green things into the veg dodger!

Pork chops

Flour

Eggs

Breadcrumbs

Mixed herbs

Whole grain mustard

Sliced cheese (maasadam)

Olive oil

Frozen chips

Green beans

Baked beans

1.  Bash the pork chops out until quite thin (I reckoned on doubled in area, halved in depth)

2.  Match the pork chops up as close as possible to each other.

3.  In the pairs, smear wholegrain mustard on one, top with cheese and plonk the other squished chop on top.

4.  put the chips in the oven.

5.  Squash the pork "sandwich" together, and then pop into flour, dust, and then shake off the excess.

6.  Now add the "glue" - put the porky cheesy thing into whisked eggs, and cover every surface.

7.  Transfer the pork to breadcrumbs seasoned with herbs.  Squish into the breadcrumbs making sure all surfaces are covered.

8.  Chop the green beans, put them over a pan of water to steam, put the baked beans in an oven proof dish in the oven.

9.  Fry the pork in a hot pan - 3 minutes on each side.  Transfer to an oven dish and bake for a further 20 minutes.

10 Serve, scoff ... delish