Cheese on Toast

I'm afraid I can't remember why now but on Tuesday (18th) I had cheese on toast for my tea. Obviously just not that hungry!

Macaroni Cheese

It was a Monday and I knew that there wasn't much in the way of fresh fruit or veg in the fridge and there is no stall on a Monday. I knew I had macaroni in the cupboard and all of the ingredients for cheese sauce. I picked up a leek from a supermarket and when I got home made my comfort food of macaroni with cheese sauce and a leek thrown in for a bit of flavour - lovely!

Pasta Bake

Eeek! Going back to 16th October here. We had a jar of River Cottage tomato purée left over from the tomato risotto that I had made. 

I cooked up some veggies and some veggie sausages and mixed them together with cooked pasta and then popped the lot in the oven with some cheese on top. 

It was a great pasta bake even if I say so myself.

Fifteen, Cornwall, Farmer's Market

Apologies about the lack of bloggage lately, no excuses I'm afraid. This post is an 'extra' one as I did blog about my birthday weekend of pizza and meal at The Heron but on the Saturday we went to the farmer's market at Fifteen in Watergate Bay.

It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a day of nibbling delicious food and sitting on the beach.

There were melt-in-the-mouth cucpcakes made with light buttercream icing by the Fifteen apprentices which we indulged in as well as their very dense, sticky chocolate brownies. 

There were demonstrations by the head chef of Fifteen which were great to watch, especially as we got to taste what they made. 

Mr VST had a lovely mushroom burger with chutney.

We all helped ourselves to the crumble pots that the head chef had made with pear and apple and an oaty crumble topped with clotted cream.

The afternoon ended with the sommelier taking us through some wines and letting us have a little taster too. It was a lovely way to spend a morning.

Aubergine Tarts

I'd seen Nigel Slater's recipe for these aubergine tarts online the previous week and liked the look of them, apart from the anchovies, of course!


I decided to make them last Saturday evening and started by chopping up the aubergine and popping it into the oven to roast. 

While they were roasting away I made the pastry which was very easy to make as I made it in the food processor and not by hand as instructed!

I rolled them out, not into perfect rectangles like Nigel's, but more, well, you can see the shapes below!

Then you whizz three quarters of the aubergine up into a purée with some olive oil and then spread it onto the lovely cheesy pastry bases and top with the remaining aubergine and some capers.

The pastry was delicious, strong and cheesy and it went well with the roasted aubergine flavour and the peppery rocket I served it with. I'll be making these again.

River Cottage: Vegeree

Final River Cottage recipe of the week was 'Vegeree' a vegetarian alternative to kedgeree I guess. 

 The recipe was very easy to follow, you just roast up some onions, aubergine and courgettes with 'one tablespoon of curry powder' and then add some cooked rice and boiled eggs. 

I had some garam masala and cumin which I used instead of curry powder, I think I'd used more than a tablespoon next time because the flavour didn't come through very well. It was a nice meal though. 

River Cottage Veg Everyday: Twice Baked Potatoes

I was home alone on Thursday evening as Mr VST was out bowling drinking with work colleagues. 

 I don't usually bother to make anything special when I'm on my own but this recipe was really just fancy jacket potatoes.

You bake potatoes and then scoop out the middle and mash it up with butter, spring onions and cheese which the 'skins are back in the oven for ten minutes. 

 Then you put the mashed mixture back into the shells and pop them back into the oven.

These were great, really tasty and worth the extra bit of effort compared to just topping jackets with cheese and beans. 

River Cottage Veg Everyday: Tomato and Mozzarella Risotto

Another River Cottage recipe on Wednesday. This time the tomato and mozzarella risotto. 

You first have to make the tomato puree which is made by roasting 1.5 to 2kg of tomatoes with garlic and herbs and then sieve it all. Mr VST helped with this and he put it all through the blender first and then the sieve to get all the pips and skin out. 

While the tomatoes were roasting I cooked up an onion and then added the rice and cooked it in vegetable stock. 

Once the rice is cooked you add the tomato purée and shred the mozzarella and let it melt in. 

It was a tasty risotto, the roasted tomato purée has a lovely flavour and it comes out more the day after. 

Curry with Chickpeas

The usual quick easy curry with chickpeas on Tuesday. Anyone got a good recipe for naan's? There's not one in any of my bread books. 

River Cottage Baked Mushrooms with Dauphinoise Potatoes

My friends and family know me well and I often get food related presents for birthdays and Christmases and I don't mind a bit. I will quite happily take a recipe book to bed for some night time reading! One of my presents from Mr VST was the new River Cottage Veg Everyday recipe book. 

It is packed full of veggie recipes, everything from mezze to mains although some of the 'recipes' are really just ideas. I'm not sure that you can call putting a few large mushrooms in the oven with garlic and butter a recipe exactly. I love that it is bright and colourful with pictures of most of the recipes, it is always nice to know what you food is supposed to look like. 

Anyway, Monday evening I decided to test out a couple of the recipes, one was the baked field mushrooms which I have described above and the other was the potato dauphinoise.

Mr VST and I made these together and used Oatly oat 'cream' rather than dairy as I had found some in the new Waitrose last Friday.

Both recipes were very tasty indeed and the recipes worked well although the mushrooms needed a bit longer than suggested. 

More from the River Cottage book later.....

The Riverstation, Bristol

The birthday celebrations continued last Sunday, still in Bristol. I had a lovely meal with my family who had come from Nottingham and Wales just for lunch! 

We went to The Riverstation which, as the name suggests, is on the river in Bristol. We were about ten minutes late sitting down, which seemed to have annoyed our waiter immediately. He was very polite but it was obvious to me that we had annoyed him, eek! Anyway, once we settled in all was fine. There was a choice of two or three courses for £16.50 or £20 which was very reasonable. Mr VST and I shared a goat's curd salad to start with which was lovely. The goat's curd was quite mild and the dressing was delicious. For the main course we both had the butternut squash risotto which was exactly as a risotto should be, very creamy! We shared a chocolate, chestnut and orange terrine which was perfect and just melted in the mouth. 

There are so many places to eat in Bristol and I haven't been to that many of them but this was a lovely venue and the food was of a very high standard for a very reasonable price. 

The Lounge, Bristol

Right! I've finally got the netbook back from Mr VST who has been using it to order himself, well us, a new iMac as his laptop has broken. So back to last Saturday. I met up with some of my school friends in Bristol and we went for a late lunch/early supper at The Lounge in Bristol. There are quite a few 'lounges' around Bristol and I used to live near the Porto Lounge. It was great for breakfasts and brunches. 

As we were there for lunch/dinner I went for the butternut squash curry with rice, naan and raita. It was lovely as was the sticky toffee pudding!

Baked Camembert with Roasted Garlic

A new Waitrose opened in town last Thursday and Mr VST and I went to explore on Friday evening. They had a great cheese selection and Mr VST also fell for the olives. While we were there I suggested to Mr VST that we try out the baked camembert with roasted garlic recipe that we had seen on TV ages ago. 

It was very easy to assemble the ingredients.

I think I may have had the oven on too hot, I don't remember Lorraine Pascal's looking like this.

It tasted great though.

The roasted garlic was mellow and smooth and not harsh at all. It went really well with the gooey camembert.

We fell for the bread in Waitrose, organic it may have been but pappy it still was.

This was a really tasty and easy Friday night meal and one I am sure we will be having again. 

Jacket Potatoes

I was totally disorganised last week. We had been away and I hadn't thought about what we were going to eat or had a chance to go shopping so we were left with what was left in the cupboards. 

These jackets were great though. Really tasty, done properly in the oven. 

Curry

Last Wednesday I had a lovely visit from my sister in law and my baby niece. I made a quick curry before they came.

Chilli and Cornbread

Finally only a week behind now! Last Tuesday saw the return of a hearty Winter favourite, chilli from 'Appetite for Reduction' and delicious cornbread to go with it. We continued with the healthy theme and this didn't disappoint. 

Cheese Pie

My birthday was on the Sunday and after a morning stroll on the beach and a paddle in the sea, which I can not remember doing on any other birthday, we went over to the in-laws for lunch. Mr VST had put in my request for the legendary cheese pie which was fantastic as usual.

The Heron, Malpas, Cornwall & Cupcakes

On Saturday 1st October I went out with about 20 friends, their children and dogs for a lovely walk down the estuary from Maplas and then for dinner at The Heron. The food was lovely, Mr VST and I both went for the vegetarian special which was large field mushrooms baked with chutney and cheese on top and served with a salad and bread. The mushrooms and chutney were absolutely delicious and I can't fault the service either. They were great with our big group. For dessert my friend returned the birthday cupcakes surprise by making me 30 chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing on top. They went down very well indeed!

Real Bread English Muffins

Some things are born out of awfulness and these muffins were one of them. When we were staying at the B & B in Ilfracombe I went for a toasted muffin with beans and scrambled eggs for one of my breakfasts. The muffin was awful. It was white and claggy in the middle and completely tasteless. 

This brought me to the recipe in the River Cottage Bread Handbook for muffins. 

I made the dough using a mix of wholemeal and white flour and then let it rise.

I shaped the muffins as directed in the book and left them to prove until they were double their original size. 

Once they had doubled in size they were very delicate. I didn't want to knock the air out of them while transferring them to the pan but it was very difficult. As a result some of them became quite funny shapes. 

I was a bit worried that they weren't cooked properly but actually they cooked just fine in about 15 minutes in a pan on the hob.

The muffins were put to the ultimate test and were split, toasted and topped with scrambled eggs.

They were great! I was so pleased that the recipe had worked. The muffins were a great texture and actually tasted of something - yipee!

I love making my own bread, it is such a simple yet satisfying thing to do. I'm now taking my bread research into greater depth and have begun reading Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley which is a very detailed book on what exactly goes into your supermarket loaf. It's not pretty reading.