Mince Pies

I know it's not even December yet but mince pies have been in the shops since August and I gave in and bought some the week before last.

There were jars of mincemeat on special offer when I went shopping last week and I gave in and bought some and made my first batch of pies at the weekend.

I used the following pastry recipe:

50g icing sugar
125g butter
1 egg yolk
175g plain flour

You cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg yolk and mix it in and then add the flour.

Unfortunately I baked them for a little bit too long and the Tesco Finest mincemeat is a little sweet for my taste but they're still OK.

Tagliatelle bolognese

I tend to make my bolognese with linguine but there was some tagliatelle left in the cupboard so I used that instead


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Carrot, parsnip and cumin soup

My first semi-original recipe! This is a variation on my friend's Carrot and Garlic Soup recipe. It's soooooo creamy and smooth, a perfect Winter warmer.

500g carrots
500g parsnips
4 large cloves garlic, crushed
120g butter
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 litre swiss bouillon vegetable stock

1. Boil or steam the carrots and parsnips until just tender and drain well (remembering that the parsnips only need about half the boiling/steaming time of the carrots).

2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook for one minute with the garlic and cumin.

3. Add the carrots and parsnips and cook over a medium heat for five minutes.

4. Add stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes

5. Blend together and serve.

Veggie curry

I'm sure I heard recently that people eat the same eight meals over again. I think we to tend to come back to certain meals and this curry is one of them. So easy to make, filling, light on calories and tasty too. The original recipe came from this one-pot mushroom and potato curry. I now make it with whatever vegetables are left in the fridge, tonight's were aubergine, mushrooms, sweet potato, courgette and peppers and I put some Quorn chicken style pieces in there too. I'm making it with korma curry paste at the moment but the rogan josh is much better.

Vegetarians as guests....

Do you dread having vegetarians as guests? Whenever I have guests with special dietary requirements I usually enjoy the challenge of being out of my comfort zone cooking-wise. When Mr VST's coeliac cousin came to stay I served Dahl (which seems to be every diet proof) and made this gluten-free lemon drizzle cake with mashed potato, yes MASHED POTATO, warm for pudding with cream, it was absolutely delicious.

This weekend we were the dreaded vegetarian guests but our hosts did their usual wonderful job. Mr VST was doing the hell runner at Longmoor and we went to stay with our friends in Somerset so that we were (a bit) closer to Longmoor. Friday night's carbo-load was pasta and sauce with chunky roasted veggies and goat's cheese - delicious.

We got up to have the breakfast of champions (baked beans on toast) at an un-Godly hour for a Saturday and then made our way through the Winter wonderland to Longmoor. When we got there the ground was frozen as was the water in the bog of doom! Being the supportive wife I carried bags, cheered on when Mr VST started, got out of the bog and finished and provided him with a hot chocolate to warm up.

Here are some of the Hell Runners coming out of the Bog of Doom.

We had a couple of cheese and pickle sandwiches and delicious sticky toffee cake and chocolate brownie with thick chocolate butter icing on top to get us back to our friends' house.

When we got back we had pizza and chips and then later in the evening as we all were collapsed in a heap we nibbled on cheese and biscuits.

I also extensively sampled out hosts tea collection. Mr Host had bought himself the kind of tea box that is usually seen only in hotels and filled it with every kind of herbal tea imaginable. I was very jealous of his box. I think it may be going on my Christmas list!

Spelt bread - third time lucky

This is the third time I've made this spelt bread. I've made it slightly differently each time and each time it has tasted better. Today I put all the seeds in that are in the recipe (I'd only made plain spelt bread before), I also allowed it to rise for a couple of hours before baking and this definitely made it lighter. It is a real tasty, nutty loaf. It was very light to eat but very doughy when I cut it open. I'll see what its like tomorrow.

Any one had any experience with spelt bread? Any tips?

***It certainly did cut better this morning, still quite sticky though

Veggie stew and dumplings

I've finally managed to get my dumpling making right. It was completely accidental of course. When I made this last time I put it in the oven to keep warm while we went for a walk and when I came back there were light fluffy dumplings in the pan not the usual stodgy ones I manage to create. I did the same thing this time, letting the dumplings cook on the hob for about ten minutes and then another 15 in the oven and heavenly dumplings were created. They were even better this time as the suet was not out of date!

Dahl with Naan Breads

Tonight's delight was good old dahl with naan breads. Simple but delicious and plenty left for lunch tomorrow.

Quorn cottage pie with peas and broccoli

Made this before setting off for a chilly walk down the river. It's a great winter warmer. The Quorn recipe book recommends putting peas and carrots in it but I've always made it with just carrots, I prefer my peas on the side!

Veggie Mexican

Veggie Mexican tonight. So quick and easy to make after my run and delicious and filling too.

Mushroom and rice one-pot

Mr VST made us this mushroom and rice one pot for dinner this evening. I was on duty today and got very hungry during my call out even though I took a cheese and pickle sandwich and some jaffa cakes with me. Last time we had this I posted the photo from the BBC Good Food website but here is our version all ready for tomorrow's lunch:

I'm also really enjoying my mince pies already this year. I bought some over the last few weeks but got some jars of mincemeat so the next ones should be at least half home made.

Roasted butternut squash with roasted veggies and feta

Another Saturday night, another roasted butternut squash with veggies and feta. I still had a butternut squash left over from last week and it needed eating. Yummy. Here it is just before it went into the oven...

Cheese on toast

One post for two 'dinners' today. Yesterday I was on a train from 5.23 to 8.42pm a.k.a. dinner time. I knew that if I could hold out there would be stew and dumplings for me at the other end but I got hungry and ate the very average Ginsters cheese sandwich and McCoys salt and vinegar crisps.

Tonight I repeated the journey in the other direction getting home for 6.30pm. Having had a massive jacket potato with cheese and beans for lunch I wasn't really hungry. It was definitely a day for comfort food. A true November day full of fog and drizzle. Mr VST and I were going to go out for dinner but neither of us was hungry. We decided to go for a walk in the rain and discuss possible food options. We discussed various eateries, some we had vouchers for, good old British chips...this went on for some time.

We agreed to pop into the supermarket and see what took our fancy. There are always certain comfort foods I fall back on and so I went for cheese on toast. Mr VST decided to go for some spinach and ricotta ravioli with tomato and marscapone sauce and I picked up some bread for my cheese on toast. Sticking with the comfort theme we also got a tin of custard and some mince pies for pudding.

I like my cheese on toast pretty plain. Just good brown (or white) sliced bread, mature cheddar cheese and ketchup. Mr VST is partial so a sprinkling of herbs on his, or using the ketchup as a tomato base under the cheese. How do you like yours?



This is not a picture of my cheese on toast but this is how I like it!

Quorn mince linguine bolognese

A quick mid-week supper...





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Creamy cheese and tomato macaroni

This was not my plan for tonight's meal but as I didn't have time to buy any onions today it was my only onion-less option other than heading for the freezer again.

It's another BBC Good Food recipe which can be found here. It's a healthy version of macaroni cheese. Found it while on a health drive earlier this year. It's very quick and easy to make.

Toad in the hole

Surely there isn't anything better than Yorkshire pudding?  I am more of a Jamie than a Delia in the kitchen but I use Delia's Yorkshire pudding recipe and it works every time. To make my mini toad in the holes I make Delia's batter and use her hot oven technique (using olive oil instead of beef dripping), I grill some Linda McCartney sausages and then cut them in half, and put them in with the batter in a Yorkshire tin.

I served them with mashed potato, Anna's onion gravy, some carrots and broccoli.

For pudding this evening it was my Mum's chocolate pudding floating in it's own sauce. I made this over the weekend and we had some of what was left this evening.

Red lentil, chick pea and chilli soup

I made this for lunch today and am still full up so won't be cooking supper tonight. It was a nice soup. I'm never sure about blending lentils, they always seem to go bitty to me. Might not blend it up next time. Second time of making the spelt bread was more successful though. The tin was well greased and the bread came out easily!

Superjack

Mr VST has been off mountain-biking this weekend so I thought I'd make him some high energy snacks to take with him. This super-flap-jack I am naming Superjack for short has the usual oats, golden syrup, sugar and butter but is also packed full of raisins and nuts and topped with melted chocolate.

For a normal amount (i.e. half of what is shown in the photo) you will need:

150g butter
75g golden syrup
75g sugar (light soft brown or demerara)
250g oats
100g mixed nuts
60g raisins/sultanas (this is a guesstimate I'm afraid as I didn't measure)
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate

1. Put butter, golden syrup and sugar in a saucepan and heat until liquid and all the sugar has dissolved.
2. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Mix the oats, nuts and raisins into the liquid (having taken it off the heat).
4. Put the mixture into the baking tin and squash it down with the back of a spoon and then bake at 175°C/gas mark 4 for 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Cut into pieces while still hot and leave to cool.
6. Melt white chocolate over a bain-marie (bowl of hot water), spoon over cool flapjack and then do the same with the milk chocolate and voila - superjack!

Roasted butternut squash with roasted veggies and feta

I've fallen a night behind with my blogging! So last night's supper was another BBC Good Food recipe( found here). A great way of eating delicious butternut squash without having to peel and chop it all up. Very easy to make, it just takes a little bit of time roast everything. I served mine with roasted potatoes. My non-vegetarian guest enjoyed it too (but had had a sausage sandwich for lunch!).

Curry, rice and naan bread

A quick Friday night supper...





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Spinach pie with green beans and tomatoes

I'm a little late blogging last night's meal as we have a friend staying this week.

Mr VST made his delicious spinach and feta pie using filo pastry and I experimented with the side by sauté-ing some green beans with a tin of tomatoes, some sugar and balsamic vinegar. It was a good experiment!











- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sweet potato and chilli soup with home made spelt bread

Two new recipes tonight. The one for spelt bread was printed off ages ago and never got around to making.

I also got a bit over-enthusiastic on the sweet potato buying last week as they were on special offer at my local market stall. I found this recipe for sweet potato and chilli soup on the BBC Good Food site to go with my bread.

I made a schoolgirl error with the bread in that I didn't grease the loaf tin well enough. The three minute preparation was very easy. I didn't have all the seeds but made a plain loaf instead. The problems came when I tried to turn the loaf out before putting it back into the oven for the last 5-10 minutes. I destroyed it getting it out of the tin and patched it together before putting it back into the oven. It came out a bit hard on the outside and doughy on the inside but that might be because I didn't make adjustments for my fan assisted oven. It was still tasty though and went well with the soup and mature cheddar.

The soup was really more like a sweet potato purée. Mr VST likes it this way but I think I would add more stock if I made it again to make it a bit thinner. I made it with chilli flakes and it had a nice kick. Good for a chilli Autumn evening.

Linda McCartney sausage rolls

I'm very tired today. Came home went for a 5.5 mile run and the couldn't be bothered to cook. Linda saved us from starvation again! Sausage roll, potato waffle and baked beans.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Vegetable Chilli

This evening's meal was a vegetable chilli with jacket potato for me and rice for Mr VST.










- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sweet potato loaf, braised red cabbage and roast potatoes

A new recipe tonight from the Quorn Kitchen cook book. A non-meat loaf. I'm not really sure why it's called sweet potato loaf, it could equally be called carrot loaf. Anyway it was a success. I'll use the food processor for grating next time though.

The braised cabbage was lovely. Used this Waitrose recipe for the cabbage. It was one I discovered last year. Makes LOADS of cabbage so I will freeze it for later use.

Dustbin lid pizza

Ate out this evening with old friends at On the Waterfront in Exeter. Mr VST and I shared one of their dustbin lid 16inch pizzas. Half vegetariana and half tomato free pesto, cheese and red onion. The vegetariana half was better. The beer battered onion rings were as good as ever.

We couldn't eat it all so brought the rest home for tomorrow's lunch.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chips

Good old British chip shop chips for dinner tonight. On way to Bridgwater Carnival so no time to cook tonight and I was craving a chip butty. Ate it so quickly I forgot to take a photo!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mushroom and rice one-pot

This evening's meal was made by Mr VST. I found it in the Spring on the BBC Good Food website when looking for low calorie, low fat, vegetarian meals so that we could get  in shape for our wedding. It is really easy to make and under 300 calories per serving. Mr VST said that the most difficult thing about making it this evening was finding the recipe. I had helpfully got another mushroom recipe out when I had in fact copied this one into my recipe book!

Our version never looks quite like it does on the website but its tasty just the same.

The recipe is here

Official version:

Cheese sauce recipe

In my first post I said that cauliflower cheese is easy to make once you've got the hang of making cheese sauce. That can take a while!

The recipe I use is as follows:

Ingredients

2oz/100g butter
2oz/100g plain flour
1 pint/600ml milk (of your choice. I have successfully made this with cow's, goat's, soya and oat)
10oz/280g cheddar cheese (depending on the strength of your cheddar you may need less)

1. Put the butter in a saucepan on a low to medium heat to melt.
2. While the butter is melting grate or cut your cheese up into small cubes.
3. Sift the flour into the saucepan with the melted butter and stir in well.
4. Add painfully small amount of milk (about 2 tablespoons) at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Doing this should ensure a smooth sauce.
5. After about 6 painfully small additions of milk add the rest a little at a time, again stirring thoroughly after each addition. If lumps appear start using a whisk!
6. Once all the milk has been added turn the heat up and stir continually while the sauce thickens, this should take around five to ten minutes.
7. Bring the sauce up to the boil, stirring all the while.
8. Once it has reached boiling point, turn the heat back down and add the grated/cubes of cheese a little at a time and stir in until melted.

Veggie casserole and dumplings

Now this really is a winter favourite but despite the month the weather continues to be very mild. It still made a good meal though. This version had onion, celery, sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, peppers, broccoli, courgette and mushrooms in.

I normally struggle to make my dumplings light and fluffy but miraculously they were this time!

Improvised quorn mince cottage pie

In the meaty world Cottage Pie is made with minced beef and Shepherd's Pie with minced lamb. In the veggie world there are numerous options for fillings. There are lots of lentil Shepherd's Pie recipes out there but I make mine with quorn or realeat mince.

When I went to get the mince out of the freezer tonight I realised that there wasn't enough. A quick rummage in the cupboards and I found a can of three bean salad to bulk out the filling. Unfortunately beans don't soak up the gravy as well as the mince does so it wasn't as tasty as usual.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Veggie Mexican

There's a great Billy Connolly sketch where he describes a scene in a Mexican restaurant where the waiter has brought out the wrong meal and upon hearing this he folds the food a different way and presents it again!

My veggie Mexican involves veggies and quorn pieces cooked with cumin, paprika and chilli powder and the wrapped in soft flour tortillas with varying degrees of success.

Easy for a quick Monday night dish.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone