Stuffed Courgettes

24th March, 2015

This recipe looked both easy and tricky to get right. So why not have a go!

First I friend the onion, and once browned added the rice, sultanas (in place of currants) and pumpkin seeds (in the absence of pine nuts), along with the lemon juice, herbs and spices. This was fried for a further few minutes while I prepped the courgettes.

This step was the tricky part - "scooping" out some of the courgette flesh without cutting all the way through and leaving enough courgette-y goodness. Additionally, raw courgette is quite hard so using just a spoon was hard.

The filling was divided between the courgette boats and placed in a shallow pan which was filled with boiling water, salt, sugar and lemon juice to just below the filling. This was left to simmer for 30 minutes while I knocked together a salad and toasted some potato waffles.

The rice was still a little underdone when I plated up, but it was still a novel and tasty dinner. With two portions remaining, I'm sure a quick blast in a microwave will sort out the remaining rice that isn't quite al dente.

Floury Baps (Cobs)

22nd March, 2015

On my one day off work this week I decided to get up early and make bread. (Madness, I know!) I'm determined to master bread because fresh homemade bread is so much nicer than shop bought loaves.

Bread dough is surprisingly easy to make: strong bread flour, fast action yeast and salt into the mixer. Beat lightly on minimum speed whilst adding lukewarm water gradually. I freaked out a bit here at how quickly it balled up around the dough hook and worried about it being dry and added a little bit more water. This, as it turned out, was not needed. The dough remained a bit too wet and sticky for the remainder of the baking process. But I left this to prove over an hour and a half (while I gymmed and did the laundry) and came back to it more than double the size! This amazes me every time.

Next I knocked the dough back in the mixer for a couple of minutes and tipped it out onto a floured surface to knead and fold a little more. This was really difficult due to how sticky I'd made the dough and I didn't want to add too much extra flour to my hands and the surface incase it changed the dough before baking. I remember the Great British Bake Off telling me to use minimal flour. I think. It was only here I decided on making cobs instead of a loaf as I figured it would cook more evenly if I really had screwed up the mixture.

I cut up the dough into eight pieces and used the Paul Hollywood technique to roll into balls under cupped hands. It works extremely well! These were left on a tray for another hour to rise (and became huge!) before baking for 20 minutes.

It smelt amazing while they baked and when I took them out of the oven they felt firm on top, but soft when squeezed a little. Once they had cooled I obviously made a sandwich! It tasted amazing. I like making bread!

Homemade Vegetable Lasagne

20th March, 2015

One from my own personal recipes here. I've been told I make one mean lasagne so I tend to make one every now and then. This one was a bit different from the usual formula so I thought I'd share. Its incredibly easy!

I used the leftover ingredients from making the stock for mushroom ragout: onion, celery and carrot. I fried these just to reduce the moisture content from them and added some freshly chopped mushrooms I had leftover. In went a tomato and mascarpone sauce (shop bought; who has time to make their own??) and simmered for 5-10 minutes.

Next: layering! A couple of spoonfuls of the sauce, enough pasta sheets to cover and a dollop of cheesy white sauce (shop bought again) to spread over. And repeat. Three times. Finally, grated cheese tops off this dish before being baked in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Or until it looks like its going to explode over the top of the dish as mine always does. Simple!

Mushroom Ragout

17th March, 2015

Working my way through Plenty now, we've done some root veg, onions and now its mushrooms. My favourite.

While the dried mushrooms were soaking, I started making the croutons with bread garlic and oil baked them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then I chopped what felt like a mountain of mushrooms and fried them in batches, because we should never ever crowd the mushrooms!

Next I fried the onion, carrot and celery for a few minutes and then added water, stock from the dried mushrooms, salt and mixed herbs to simmer for 20 minutes to create a mushroom stock. At the same time I begun to fry the tofu. The recipe was supposed to have poached eggs but as someone who's not a fan of eggs I decided to use a substitute. I'm not an expert in using tofu in cooking and its always a lot better from restaurants, so who was I to know it would disintegrate a bit when stirred in the pan... 

I sieved the stock liquid off the veg and poured the mushrooms back into the pan to heat up with a small amount of the stock and stir in the soured cream. Serve on a bed of garlic croutons for delicious creamy garlicky mushroom goodness!

Unfortunately I ate this too quick to take a final shot. But trust me, it was good :D

Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodles

16th March, 2015

The easiest things to make on a whim (or to make your home smell a little nicer after 3 days away) are snickerdoodles. I always have the core ingredients lying around and usually some leftover cinnamon sugar from the last time.

The recipe I have uses "mugs" as an arbitrary measurement. I think I've tried it with two different sized mugs now and ended up with a drier and a wetter dough. This time was drier and slightly easier to make into little balls at the end.

But first: butter and sugar are creamed together and a beaten egg with some vanilla extract is mixed in. You can basically add any flavouring you like here. I've used white chocolate, pumpkin, but this time was a mix of dark and milk chocolate chips! Then add the flour and nutmeg and beat into a smooth dough consistency. Roll into even balls (I usually use my tablespoon measure to make them about the right size) and roll each one into the plate of sugar and cinnamon mix. Bake for 10-15 mins until golden brown and voila!

Most of these were eaten before they had cooled. And not just by me ;)

Two Potato Vindaloo

6th March, 2015

Time for a curry and a good way to use up some fridge ingredients in one big pot.

To start, I made the spice mix roasting the cardamom pods and cumin seeds until they began to pop (they really do pop!). I only had ground coriander rather than seeds so I added this to the pestle and mortar rather than roasting them also. Turmeric, paprika and cinnamon also went into the pestle and mortar (I also forgot to get cloves) and ground them all into a very fragrant powder. 

Next I friend an onion with fenugreek and mustard seeds for about 10 minutes until they went golden brown and then stirred in the ginger, chilli, bay leaves and the spice mix to fry for a few minutes and become coated in spice. I also read two lines together and threw in the tomatoes here but that was no biggy. I didn't peel them because I rather like tomato skins and I really couldn't be bothered with the faff.

Next went in the water, cider vinegar (Aspalls mmmm) and a tablespoon of caster sugar to be simmered for 20 minutes. Meanwhile I chopped the potatoes and peppers. This is where I realised I'd missed the whole point of the recipe: I only had one kind of potato and completely forgot to get sweet potatoes! Idiot. So I added a whole load of mushrooms and courgette to bulk it out and I do quite like lots of veg in my curry. These went in to simmer for another 20 minutes.

As I had no sweet potato to add for the last stage, it was simply time to serve it up. I quickly made some couscous to have with it and settled in for the evening. Thoroughly warming and very tasty. This is will make for some warming lunches at work in the next few days!

Stuffed Mushrooms with Melting Cheese

2nd March, 2015

I'd had the ingredients for these lying around all week, but with all the leftovers I've only just got round to making them! Stuffed mushrooms are one of my favourite things to make for dinner, and melting cheese on top of mushrooms is basically the best thing in the world!

I started by chopping the stems off the mushrooms (my least favourite part) and drizzling with oil, salt and pepper and baking for 15 minutes in the oven. Meanwhile, I chopped the shallots and celery (with extremely teary eyes) and fried them until brown and crisp. In went the sundried tomatoes and garlic for a few minutes before taking off the heat. I grated a bit of goats cheese and a bit of cheddar instead of parmesan - parmesan isn't vegetarian after all and its annoying when its included in vegetarian recipes, and veggie parmesan is hard to find sometimes - and mixed this with the cooked veg.

The mixture was piled on top of the mushrooms and topped off with slices of mozzarella. I decided this was easier than hunting out the taleggio cheese, which is likely a bit dodgy for vegetarians anyway. Stick to soft cheeses! And ones you know you like!

Another 10 minutes in the oven and voila! Yet again, served with a green salad. Trying to be healthy with my meals, but it always goes south with dessert. And snacks. And more snacks...

Goats Cheese Puffs

1st March, 2015

This is just a little something I made with my leftovers from the previous week.

I rerolled out the remaining puff pastry and used a cutter to make little pastry cases, which I put into cup cake cases to hold their shape and prevent them from sticking to the tin. I cut up the remaining goats cheese and divided it among the pastry cases and topped them all off with slices of cherry tomatoes. These I baked for 10-15 minutes until the pastry looked golden brown.

They were pretty small, but served with a salad made for a nice Sunday evening tea time treat!