Braised Mince lives again - Chilli

Here it is again - remember that braised mince I was telling you about. So far it's turned up as lasagne and cottage pie in the last few weeks, and here it is again, this time as chilli.

This is a hottish version - if the kids were going to eat it, I'd use plain old smoked paprika, and probably a little less of it.

As well as your portion of braised mince (see the link above), you will need:

1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, ditto
2 tsp hot smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 cinammon stick
2 glasses of red wine
1 can chopped tomatoes
splash of mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
250g chestnut mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
1 400g can of kidney beans
250ml stock

First, heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and fry the onions and garlic till softened. Stir in the smoked paprika, cumin, coriander and cinammon stick and cook for a minute or 2 before tipping in the red wine. Bring to the boil and simmer till the wine has reduced by about half.

Add the chopped tomatoes and mushroom ketchup, and simmer for a couple more minutes, then add the braised mince, mushrooms, kidney beans and stock, and then simmer it all gently for about 45 mins till it's thick and rich.

Serve as you like - tortillas, chopped avocado, grated cheese, soured cream all go down well as accompaniments . Or, if, like me, you'd forgotten that you were going to have chilli, some rice, salad and creme fraiche that was left over from the weekend's pudding will do. And the rest of the wine.

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Crema Catalana - and a review

Time seems to be racing ahead again. I have been stomping round thinking that it's very cold for the time of year - the time that I'm thinking of being early October perhaps - but no, actually, it's December. With all that brings with it. I am not ready. Time to bury my head a little further in the sand, safe in the knowledge that I may not have any presents ready, but I have a Christmas Cake in the tin, some mincemeat in a jar and a turkey on order. I've also now turned some cranberries that I found at the bottom of the freezer into cranberry and orange sauce.That'll do nicely.

My friends at Baytree Cookware on the other hand, seem to be much more geared up for Christmas. They asked me if I'd care to test drive this pretty little French porcelain dish by Pillivuyt, and I was happy to oblige. 

In an attempt to dispel the cold, and thoughts of that for which I am not prepared, I wanted to capture something with a little warmth in it, with a nod to sunnier climes, so I put together a crema catalana, a version of creme brulee from Northern Spain. Orange and cinnamon scented custard under a crisp sugar top. For a moment, I was transported to a Catalan restaurant in the French town of Perpignan where I celebrated my 21st birthday with a similar dish... 

We had this for pudding after roasted duck breasts and plums . 

Now, an exercise in 'fessing up. I've never made this before, and I was a little rushed, and didn't leave the custard long enough in the fridge - a bare 4 hours - before scorching the sugar for the topping, and so the custard wasn't as solid as it should have been. My sugar topping was crisp, and cracked satisfyingly, but as you can see from the picture, not all of it melted, so it didn't give the clear brown stained glass effect. That said, it was totally delicious - and the combination of the shards of the burnt sugar against the soft, slightly warm fragrant custard was divine. Definitely something I need to practise again - and indeed the Husband reckoned it was worth getting a kitchen blowtorch for. Any excuse for a new gadget.

This little dish is perfect for a double serving of this gorgeous dessert.

Creme Catalana

serves 2

300ml double cream
1/2 cinammon stick
zest of an orange
2 large egg yolks
40g caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour

demerara sugar for the crunchy topping (or perhaps caster sugar...)

Pour the cream into a pan, add the cinammon stick and the orange zest, bring the boil then take off the heat and leave to infuse for an hour or so.

 Separate the eggs and do something clever with the whites like freeze them, clearly labelled of course, for another time. Beat the yolks with the sugar till pale and thick, then sift in the cornflour and beat till there are no lumps. If the cream mixture is still warm, strain it into another bowl. If it's been infusing a bit longer than an hour and is quite cool, warm it up again before straining. Beat a couple of tablespoons' worth of the cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture, followed by the rest of the cream, then return to the pan and cook over as low a heat as possible, stirring all the time, till it thickens and coats the back of a spoon, and you can leave a finger trace through it.

of course, then you'll just have to lick the orangey custard off your finger...

When the custard has thickened, pour it into your dish (or individual ramekins) cool and then chill in the fridge, overnight if possible. When it's time to serve, and if you don't have a blowtorch, pre-heat your grill as hot as possible. Sprinkle the top of the custard with a thin layer of sugar, and blast under the grill till the sugar has melted and caramelised. You have to watch it like a hawk. Remove from the grill and allow to cool so that the sugar top hardens.

Share graciously with your dining partner

Baytree stock a wide range of Pillivuyt, including this rather lovely cow cream jug, 

... and a 'fat and lean sauceboat' which looks pretty cool and incredibly useful.

They also, rather helpfully, stock blow torches. Guess what's on my Christmas list...

The views expressed in this review are my own – I was not required to provide a positive review, nor was I paid to write the review.

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Forever Nigella - Cranberry & Orange Sauce

Allow me to be unfashionable and say that I love turkey. I love sprouts (as long as they are properly cooked). Stuffing, bread sauce, roast potatoes and parsnips. And gravy. I could bore you rigid with how much I adore gravy. Especially (controversial) cold, the day after. But I won't.

I'm happy to try different methods of cooking the various elements, and often I'll have to substitute something for something else depending on how organised my shopping has been. We did try goose once (it was fine), and when we've been to my brother in law's, we've had beef as the main event, but if I'm in charge, it will be turkey and all the trimmings gracing the Junkie table, thank you very much. 

Nigella does Christmas in a big way. I don't have her Christmas book, but Feast has a massive chapter devoted to all things Christmas related, and her recipes now form the core of my approach to my Christmas meal - although nothing, I repeat NOTHING is going to convince me that sweet potato and marshmallows is a good idea. Sorry, Nigella.

As part of my 'clear out the freezer to fill it again' campaign that I always end up undertaking in the run up to Christmas, I found a bag of cranberries left over from last year lurking at the bottom of the bottom drawer this morning. In a very quick turnaround, I have knocked up the cranberry sauce that will grace our table, based on the method in Feast. It's hardly challenging, and what I love about making the sundries like this is that you can make them to your taste. I think Nigella has a sweeter tooth than me, and I also often find shop bought sauces too sweet, so I have reduced the sugar and added the zest and some juice of an orange.


300g cranberries
zest of an orange
juice of half and orange
150g caster sugar
50ml water

Put everything in a pan. bring slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Bubble away for 10-15 minutes till you have cranberry sauce. Keep an eye on it, and splash in some more water if needed.

Simples.

It's basically cranberry jam, but rather than storing it as jam, I am putting it in the freezer.

As the Forever Nigella event this month is all things Christmas, I couldn't possibly let this pass without linking up. It's hosted by Laura on her blog lauralovescakes and I'm looking forward to seeing the other posts as they get linked up during the month.

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Meat and fruit? Roast duck breast with plum sauce

My immediate reaction when anyone suggests a recipe combining fruit with meat, without being specific, is a kind of inner grimace. What normally springs to my mind is the Moroccan lamb or chicken and apricot/raisin combination. It's just too sweet for me, and those kind of combinations need to be tempered with other flavours to tone that down. Nigella's African Chicken is a case in point - it's one of the meals I cook most regularly from Kitchen - the children absolutely love it - and involves marinading chicken pieces in a sauce of apricot jam, but the sweetness is offset by mustard, ground ginger, Worcestershire sauce. Without that, I couldn't stomach the apricot-iness of it all. Not that I don't like apricots, you understand, just not with meat.
 
However, that fruit/meat induced grimace is a hugely misplaced over-reaction on my part. I don't really know why it's that which springs to mind, because I can point to any number of meals I cook and eat regularly where meat and fruit do actually work brilliantly together - anything pork with anything apple, for example; lamb with redcurrant jelly. To my mind, and more importantly my palate, it's the sharpness of the fruit cutting through the fattiness of the meat that I love, and that works. Another fantastic dish that highlights how well fruit and meat do work together, is duck and plums - it's just a brilliant celebratory pairing. The classic that everyone thinks of, perhaps, is crispy Peking duck with pancakes, plum sauce and those little strips of cucumber or spring onion - the darling of the Chinese restaurant, but you can also cook plums in a rich sauce spiced with star anise. to go with duck breasts that are pan-fried, then finished off in the oven.

Oven Roasted Duck Breasts & Plums
serves 2
 
2 duck breasts
salt and pepper
couple of sprigs of thyme
knob of butter

olive oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
4 plums, stoned and halved, each half sliced into 3 pieces
300ml beef stock (I used a Kallo organic beef stock cube)
50ml freshly squeezed orange juice (I had already zested an orange for a dessert I was making)
1 star anise
40g soft brown sugar

Heat the oven to 180C. 

Wipe dry the duck breasts with kitchen roll, score the skin with a sharp knife and grind some salt and pepper over the skin. Set aside. 

Heat a lug of olive oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes till softened. Add the plums and sugar and stir till the sugar has dissolved before adding the stock and orange juice, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or so till the plums are soft and the sauce has thickened slightly.




To cook the duck, heat a frying pan, ideally one which you can put in the oven. Lay the duck breasts in, skin side down, and cook for 6-7 minutes. Turn the breasts over, add the thyme sprigs and the butter, and when the butter is melted, baste the meat then pop the pan in the oven. Depending on how well cooked you like your duck, leave it in the oven for 5-6 minutes, for pink, and up to 10 minutes for well done. After the alloted time, remove the pan from the oven, baste the meat with the pan juices again, then cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes or so.

To serve, slice the meat and serve on a bed of baby leaves with the plum sauce on the side. 

Not the best presentation, granted, but go with the flavours!

 
Some new potatoes, parboiled then roasted in olive oil with a good sprinkle of sea salt flakes, go really well too.

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Chicken Pie - because real men (and boys) don't eat couscous

Normally, when the Husband is away, I descend pretty quickly to the "can't be bothered" level of cooking. Why his presence or otherwise should matter, and what that says about me is probably something I should spend some time considering, but not here. The kids are happy to eat pasta till it's coming out of their ears, and I'm happy to oblige, supplementing it with various cheap and cheerful vegetable combinations with the occasional bit of left-over meat or, prize of prizes, some bacon. If he's away for a long time, I might offer some mood boosting fajitas mid-week to lift the gloom, but like my housekeeping generally (which is scratchy at the best of times) it can pretty much all go to hell in a handcart, there's so much else to get done when it's just me at the helm. I salute people who do this on a more permanent basis for what ever reason.

Normally he's only away during the week which means there are the easy distractions of school and other activities. However, he snuck off at 6 on Sunday morning this time leaving me with a whole day of them potentially dwelling on his absence. With the help of some friends, we got through most of it, and I headed off the late afternoon melancholy that I was fearing with a DVD session and roast chicken. Desired effect (happy children) achieved, it has also meant I have had superior pickings in the fridge to see us through the beginning of the week.

The kids were out on Monday anyway, and so last night, armed not only with some left over chicken, but also some chorizo, I put together a particularly tasty version of my cold chicken standby. This is basically a one pot meal - dry couscous, cold meat, chopped tomatoes, frozen peas, whatever you have to hand, to which you add stock flavoured with ground coriander, ginger and smoked paprika (because I didn't have any harissa), cover the whole lot with foil and bung in the oven for 30 minutes. I didn't have quite enough couscous, so supplemented the carbs with a can of chick peas. Pink loved it - she can be fickle and picky but I have never seen a plate clear so quickly. Blue, he of the bottomless stomach and hollow legs, picked out the meaty bits then started pushing it around his plate, trying to engage me in ever more spurious conversations. Then we got the 'If I don't finish this, do I get any pudding?' - this when he still had half a plateful left. He ate on, reluctantly, and we eventually compromised at '9 more mouthfuls' (it would have been 8, but he was 9 on Saturday so the number of mouthfuls goes up!).

"Please tell me you will never cook that again" he said.

I was tempted to tell him we were going to have it again this evening, but without the chorizo, but I refrained. Instead, I stripped the chicken carcass, made stock with the bones, and got the little darlings into bed as soon as I could manage...

Anyway, the Husband came back this afternoon, a day early. Instead of rushing round tidying up the house and doing other wifely things, I focussed on the most important issue - how to use up the last of the chicken in a manner that would please everyone. In view of the available ingredients - cold chicken, the stock, a couple of leeks and some lovely thyme in the garden, I  made a chicken pie inspired by a recipe in Jamie's Dinners, a book that I picked up by chance this morning. I get a little annoyed when famous chefs start name-dropping about the tips they've had from other famous chefs/foodies, but in this case, I'm feeling fairly sanguine about it. I mean, if Fay Maschler, the food writer, suggested adding little balls of sausage meat to a chicken pie, who am I to argue?

Jamie uses raw chicken to start with, so I've added my cooked chicken at a later stage in the process and using the lovely stock instead of wine and milk. I've got less chicken than him, so I've added in extra veg, and probably a little more sausage...

Chicken & Sausage Pie

olive oil
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
leaves from a handful of thyme
2-3 tbsps flour
1tsp dijon mustard
approx 1 pint of stock
200g cold cooked chicken
1 small can of sweetcorn
200g frozen peas
4 sausages (300g)
500g pack puff pastry (you may have leftovers)
1 egg

Pre-heat the oven to 220/200 fan

Heat a lug of olive oil in a parge pan or casserole, and add in the leeks, carrots and thyme leaves. Cook, stirring for 10-15 minutes, then increase the heat, stir in the flour and keep stirring for a minute or so. Add about a wine glass or so of the stock, stirring as you slowly pour it in to the pan to incorporate it with the flour and prevent lumps, then stir in the rest of the liquid, the mustard and grind in some salt & pepper. Bring to a simmer then cover and cook for 30 minutes or so, stirring every so often to stop the mixture catching on the bottom of the pan.

If the sauce is too loose for pie, you can mix up a little more flour with some of the sauce in a separate bowl then tip it back into the pan and stir - don't just sprinkle in more flour as it will just lump up.

Mix in your cold chicken, sweetcorn and peas to the sauce, and tip into your pie dish.

Squeeze the sausagemeat out of the skins, and divide up into 12-16 balls. heat some olive oil in a small frying pan, brown off the sausagemeat balls, and scatter over the top of the chicken mixture, then top your pie with the puff pastry. I don't have what I'd call a 'proper' pie dish, so I rub some water round the rim the pyrex dish I use, and put some strips of the rolled pastry on first before laying on the proper sheet of pastry.

Once you've laid the top sheet of pastry on, trim and crimp the edges down so they look pretty, and beat the egg and brush it all over the pastry. Bake the pie for 30-40 minutes when the pastry will be golden brown and flaky and the filling piping hot. There was so much veg in the pie, I only needed to boil some potatoes.

Clean plates all round.

This month's Herbs on a Saturday is hosted on Blue Kitchen Bakes for Karen at Lavender and Lovage and I'm linking up because of all the lovely thyme that went into this pie. 

I'm also linking to the Season of Soups and Stews hosted by Lancashire Food. The requirement is to use stock in your recipe - I made my own chicken stock for this pie.

And last, but not least - This post is part of the #FaveFamilyRecipes Competition with BritMums and Tilda Rice. Every pack sold will provide a meal to an expectant mum in need in support of the World Food Programme’s Mothers Helping Mothers initiative in Bangladesh.

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Random Recipes - Spinach and lentil soup

It's still very much soup weather, isn't it. The grey skies, the rain...

Today is a strange day. Now that the kids are at school (breakfasted and with their packed lunches, I only have to feed myself because the Husband is away and it's my turn NOT to have the kids after school. An ideal day, then to throw myself into the Random Recipe challenge for the first time. This challenge is hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen .

 


I've had my eye on this for a few months. Choose a random recipe book, let it fall open and then cook what ever is on that page. A great way to cook a bit more broadly than I might otherwise, even if it's just once a month. Being as it's just me, I was slightly concerned that I might end up having to cook something extravagant, or scaling down some dinner party extravaganza, but I needn't have worried.



My cook books are scattered round various shelves, and rotate between them, and along them - if you see what I mean - depending on who's in favour at any one time. I chose the shelf that features in the backdrop to my blog, and the book that ended up being the chosen volume based on the 'birthday number selector' set for this month's challenge (use the date of your birthday and count that number of books along from right to left) was my well thumbed copy of Veg Everyday. Surprisingly, it didn't fall open at Macaroni Peas or his magic bread dough, but a soup that I haven't cooked of his yet - Spinach and Lentil.

 

Amazingly, I had everything I needed in the kitchen, onion, carrot and thyme, garlic and tomates, puy lentils and spinach... actually, I didn't have the spinach but as luck would have it, one of the only things that's looking good in the veg patch at the moment is our little crop of spinach, so I squelched off down the garden to pick. I didn't have baby leaves as recommended in the recipe, but I just ripped the leaves off from the stalks of the big leafed stuff I had to hand, and used that instead.





It's what I'd call a very worthy soup. It's tasty without being too tasty - you know it's good for you. Turns out it was a little too worthy for me today. Much as I thought it tasted good, it tasted better with some shredded ham that I had left over in the fridge from a brilliant slow cooker experiment last week (not yet blogged) and some grano padano grated on top...

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Escarole Salad with Bleu Cheese and Apples

This salad is very unique and exciting. Escarole is one of my favorite greens. It is so diverse, extremely healthy and great in salads! Try out this festive side dish for a holiday dinner party or even a weeknight meal. I guarantee your guests will be so impressed that they will start using escarole in their salads more often!

Recipe-

For the salad-
1 head escarole washed, dried and cut into salad sized pieces
1 apple cut in thin slices
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese

 For the dressing-
1 shallot minced
1 tsp. dijion mustard
1 tsp. creme fraiche or sour cream
2 tbs. apple cider vinegar
2-3 tbs. olive oil**
1 tbs. freshly chopped parsley
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Whisk together your dressing and set aside. In another bowl combine all of the salad ingredients. Pour the dressing evenly over the salad, toss and add more olive oil if needed. Enjoy right away so that the apples don't turn brown and the salad won't get soggy!

 **Here is a great tip. In the winter my hair gets very dry so I put about 1-2 tbs. of olive oil in my hair and massage it in. I let it stay in my hair for at least 10 minutes and then shower afterwards. Olive oil leaves hair shiny, healthy and beautiful whether you eat it or apply it!

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