January Blues

Yesterday snowflakes were swirling in the air like ice-clad ballerinas and this evening, as I look out of the window I see a thick layer of ice coating the cars and pavement like fondant icing.
At this time of year, many people  embark on diets, eschewing carbohydrates, sugar and other comforts that make the dreary days and long, dark nights bearable. In this cold weather we need warming, comfort food. Why not make a delicious stew.  It takes very little effort, you can go and do something else while it is cooking in the oven.  My New Year's resolution is to dance more, so while my stew is cooking, I shall be dancing around my kitchen.

LAMB STEW

Serves 4

Ingredients   

500g middle neck of lamb or stewing lamb                                                          

4 medium potatoes

4 carrots

1 onion
Pearl barley

salt and pepper

Equipment

Large ovenproof casserole dish, approximately 1.5 litre, with lid

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooking: 2 1/2 hours

1.   Cut meat into cubes, approximately 2cm.

2.    Peel and thinly slice the potatoes and put them in a bowl of cold water

      to remove some of the starch, then drain them off. 

3.   Peel and slice the onion and carrots.

4.   Put layers of meat, potatoes, onions and carrots, seasoning with pepper

      and finishing with a layer of potatoes. Pour in water to come halfway up

      the casserole dish and add 1 tablespoon of pearl barley.

5.  Put the lid on the dish and put stew into the oven at gas mark 3/170 for 2 hours.

6.  After 2 hours, remove the lid of the casserole and turn up the heat to

     gas 4/180 for 30 minutes to allow the top layer or potatoes to turn golden.

7.  Serve with some additional green vegetables.

Top tip

To save time, cook a double quantity and freeze half so you have a lovely homemade stew in your freezer.

New Year

Happy New Year!   Some of you may be feeling jaded after all the recent festive feasting and you may have some food leftover.  Here is a simple recipe that uses leftover turkey, chicken or ham and makes a delicious and filling pie.


LEFTOVER CHICKEN PIE

Ingredients

500g  cooked chicken, turkey and/or ham

1 onion, finely chopped

250g mushrooms

1 tbsp plain flour

250 ml chicken stock or milk

400g pack puff pastry

1 egg and/or milk, beaten lightly (egg wash)

Equipment

Frying pan

Wooden spoon

Marble board

Rolling pin

Pie dish

Pastry brush

1.  Fry the onion and mushrooms in vegetable oil until lightly browned and

     Add the cooked meat.

2.  Sprinkle  the flour over the meat and gradually add the stock or milk,

     stirring all the time. If you have any leftover cream add 1 tablespoon for a

    more  creamy sauce. Season to taste.

3.   Flour a rolling pin and board and roll out half the  puff pastry  until it is larger   than the pie dish and use that to line the base and up the sides of the dish .  Brush  around the edge of the pie dish with milk/egg wash.

4.  Pour the filling into the pie.

5. Roll the other piece of pastry  out to make the pie lid and roll it carefully around the rolling pin and gently drape it  over the pie. Crimp the edges of the pastry together and trim off any excess. Use the trimmings to make leaves to decorate the pie and cut a small hole in the top of the pastry to allow the steam to escape.

7.  Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash and bake in the oven for  30

     minutes or until golden brown at 200c/400F/Gas 6.

8.  Serve with boiled or mashed potatoes and green vegetables. 

Christmas

A wonderful accompaniment to roast turkey at Christmas, or roast chicken at any time of the year is a really tasty stuffing and I like to roll mine into balls as they cook quicker and you can make them a bit crunchy.


Stuffing Balls

Ingredients
200g  sausagemeat
breadcrumbs
oatbran
herbs
dried/ fresh fruit

Put the sausagemeat into a large bowl.
Add about 4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and 1-2 tablespoons of oatbran if you have it.
Finely chop some fresh parsley or sage and add it to the mixture.
If you wish, you can add some fresh apple or dried apricots.
At Christmas it is good to add chopped chestnuts or fresh cranberries.

Squish the mixture together with your hands and roll into balls.
Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180.

Christmas truffles

Christmas Truffles

Ingredients;
100g dark chocolate
100g cake or biscuits
50g white chocolate
holly decorations


1.  Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
2.  Crush the cake or biscuits into crumbs, then mix into the melted chocolate.
3.  Take a walnut sized piece of the mixture and shape into a ball. continue until all the mixture is used.
4.  Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
5.  Drizzle a teaspoonful on each truffle and decorate with sugar holly berries and leaves.

Christmas Ham

The Christmas tree is decorated and hung with baubles and trinkets.  Christmas is getting ever closer and the excitement in the air is palpable.

At this time of year it is good to get a piece of gammon and cook it.  It is delicious hot with mashed potato, carrots, pease pudding and parsley sauce and it is scrumptious cold with salad, pickles and bread.

Baked Ham

Ingredients

1 boneless joint of unsmoked gammon

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cloves   
1 tin of pineapple pieces in juice

Equipment

Large saucepan

Roasting tin

Carving knife

Tablespoon

1.   Put the gammon is a large saucepan, cover with water and then drain off the water.  Cover with water again, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Drain off the water, cover with fresh water again and bring to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours.

2.   After 2 hours, turn off the heat and remove the meat from the boiling water. Place the meat in a roasting tin and carefully remove the rind with a sharp knife. Leave some of the fat on the meat for flavour. Score the fat with the knife, making a diamond pattern. Push a clove into each diamond. Sprinkle the top liberally with brown sugar, pressing it on with your hands if you think it necessary. Drizzle  a tablespoon or two of pineapple juice over the meat and put it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

3.   Remove from the oven and put the meat on a plate, cover  with foil and leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.  Pour the sweet, sticky sauce into a jug.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated  in the United States of  America  as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and is said to have arisen from a celebration feast in 1621 at Plymouth in Massachusetts that  was prompted by a good harvest.  The pilgrims who began emigrating from England in the 1620s gave thanks for a good harvest that would see them through the harsh New England winter.
Although we do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Britain, there is no reason why we cannot enjoy some of the foods that are traditional Thanksgiving staples and anyone who has been to America will know that it is not Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie, so here is my recipe for this sweet delicacy.    

                         PUMPKIN PIE

Ingredients

Pastry

175g plain flour

90g unsalted butter or half butter and half lard

Approx 2 tbsp cold water

Filling

450g  pumpkin pulp

2 eggs

250 ml double cream

75g soft brown sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp cinnamon

1.       First make the pastry:   Place the flour in a large bowl and cut the butter into small pieces.  Rub the fat into the flour using just your fingertips, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Gradually add the water and mix with your hand until you have a firm dough. Wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for at least half an hour.

2.       Roll out the pastry, turning it regularly on the board, until you have a thin circle slightly larger than the pie dish.  Lift one edge of the pastry and roll it around the rolling pin. Gently lift it over the pie dish then lower it and press gently into the tin.  Prick the pastry with a fork and refrigerate for a further 15 minutes.

3.       Remove the pastry case from the fridge, put a piece of greaseproof paper on the pastry and weight it down with baking beans. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take it out of the oven and carefully remove the baking beans and paper. Return it to the oven for 10 minutes then take it out and put it on a rack to cool.

4.       Put all the filling ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat or stir well. Pour into the cooled pastry case and bake for 30 minutes or until the filling has just set.  It should not be set hard but should have a slight wobble as the filling will firm up as it cools.

4.  Serve warm with cream or “a la mode” with ice cream.

       

 

Sunday Roast

A recent survey has shown that fewer families today are cooking a roast dinner at the weekend.  This seems such a shame as a roast dinner is very easy as you just bung the meat in the oven and leave it to roast.Sitting around a dining table enjoying a roast dinner is a marvellous opportunity to spend time as a family and for children to learn consideration and table manners and communication skills,  and it is a good time for the family members to exchange news about their day.  In March 2013 researchers at Loughborough University published a study showing that regular family mealtimes are associated with fewer eating disorders and a lower incidence of depression in adolescents. It may not be easy, but try to have at least  some meals together as a family and make sure that computers, mobile phones and televisions are switched off then. Sit around a table, not in front of a television.  All family members can eat together. I have never been a fan of feeding the children fishfingers or nuggets and putting them to bed before the adults eat. Have your baby sitting at the table in their high chair and when they see everyone eating they will want to try your family cooking and you will have no trouble getting them to eat vegetables and everything else. 

Roast Chicken

Ingredients
1 chicken
4 potatoes
2 carrots
cabbage, sprouts or broccoli
1 tsp cornflour
sausages wrapped in bacon

Equipment

2 roasting tins

Vegetable knife

Peeler

Saucepan

steamer

1.   Place the chicken  in a roasting tin and  season with salt and pepper and smear with butter. Wash your hands thoroughly.  Put the meat into a hot oven at 200 for 20 minutes than turn the heat down to 180 and roast  for  about an hour.

2.   Peel the potatoes and put in a saucepan of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Put 1 tbsp sunflower oil or goose fat into a roasting tin  and put in the oven to get hot.  Drain the potatoes and put in the roasting tin ensuring that they are coated in fat.

3.   When the meat is cooked remove the meat from the oven and put it on a plate, covered with foil, to rest. Use that tin to make the gravy.

4.   Turn the  oven  heat up to 190 to crisp the potatoes. Pop the sausages in bacon on a baking tray in the oven for 20 minutes.

5.  Peel carrots, cut them into circles or matchsticks  and place in a saucepan of water. Bring it to the boil and cook the carrots for 5 minutes. Shred a cabbage or cut up broccoli or peel sprouts and place in a steamer over the carrots to steam for 5 minutes. Drain the carrots, reserving the cooking water.

6. Using the roasting tin in which the chicken was cooked, skim off any fat and place on the hob. Heat and add a tablespoon of wine or water, scraping up the tasty bits in the pan.   Pour in the water from the carrots and bring to the boil.  Add 1 tsp cornflour mixed to a paste with a little cold water.  Stir well until you have a smooth gravy. Season with salt and pepper.

7.  Place the chicken on a board and using a sharp knife remove the legs.  Then carve the breast meat downwards into thin slices.  Slice the meat off the legs.  Serve with vegetables and gravy.

While you have your oven on, don't waste the opportunity to pop something else in there to cook.  How about some baked apples?

BAKED APPLES

This is a simple way of using apples, particularly when there is a glut in the Autumn and this dish can be popped in the oven while something else is cooking.

Ingredients

4 cooking apples

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon raisins

Golden syrup

Equipment

Sharp knife

Apple corer

Tablespoon

Baking dish

1.   Preheat oven to 180/Gas4.

2.   Wash and dry the apples. Remove the cores with the corer or a sharp knife and score the skin  in a horizontal line around the middle of each apple.

3.  Place the apples in an ovenproof dish and pour 1 tablespoon of water around them.

4.   Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and raisins and stuff this mixture into the cavity of each apple.  Squirt a little syrup over each apple.

5.  Bake for about 30 minutes then remove from the oven and serve with chilled cream, custard or yogurt.