Things to do with Cabbage & Gourmet Garden Herbs 1: Red Cabbage Winter Salad

A couple of last minute entries here in the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off competition - 2 recipes for cabbage (of all things!).

Red Cabbage Winter Salad

for the dressing:

1tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Gourmet Garden Garlic
pinch of caster sugar
salt & pepper

for the salad:

1/2 red cabbage, finely sliced/shredded
2 big carrots, coarsley grated
5 spring onions, halved and finely sliced lengthways
1tbsp lemon juice
 2 apples
75g cashew nuts

Make up the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl, or putting them all in a jam jar, securing the lid and shaking.

Make up the salad - in a large bowl, mix together the cabbage, carrots and spring onions. Slice the apples finely, and toss in the lemon juice before adding to the salad (this will stop them turning brown). Add any left over lemon juice to the dressing, mix the apples and cashews into the salad, then pour of the dressing and gently combine.

The other cabbage recipe - stir fried savoy cabbage with chilli and garlic - is here

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Leftovers Strike back - Roast Root Veg Fritatta with cauli & chorizo

You know those days when you stare into the wardrobe and think "I have nothing to wear?" - when quite clearly you have lots of things to wear, just nothing that seems right? It happens to me a lot. I usually end up getting all annoyed, and cobbling some outfit together that is totally wrong. Let's say that I am not renowned for my sense of style.

I had the same feeling looking in the fridge the other night. I wasn't short of things to actually cook, I just couldn't for the life of me decide what I should get out of the fridge and put together. I also had a dish of left over roast parsnip and celeriac (from the garden - but of course) looking reproachfully at me.

I started off getting excited about a chorizo/cauliflower combo. Roasting cauliflower is my new favourite thing. This wasn't helping with the leftovers, of course, but I needed to start somewhere,for goodness sake. "If I roast these together then may be..." I thought.

So I did - a small cauliflower and 120g of cooking chorizo, cut into small florets/sliced and into the oven at about 220 for 10 mins or so then turned down to 180 for another 15 minutes. It looked delicious, but then I couldn't work out what to do with it. May be I should have just served it as it was. I'd have eaten it, but I couldn't help thinking that the Husband might feel a little short-changed.

And the left overs kept catching my eye - but not necessarily in a good way.

I mentally discarded risotto, pasta and potatoes - but how to combine the leftovers and the cauli/chorizo in to meal that I actually wanted to eat, and that would do for the Husband's supper too.

Eventually, after scanning the shelves - although not actually looking in any of the cookery books - inspiration. Something that I remembered vaguely from Veg Everyday. 

I chopped up the left over roast veg quite small into a roasting dish, plus 4 spring onions that were lying limply at the bottom of the fridge, then added in the cauli/chorizo. 

Beat together 5 eggs with about half a tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary and poured it on top. I grated some cheese on top - because cheese is always good in these sorts of situations, and bingo - in the oven for 20 minutes of so: fritatta.

Not perhaps beautiful to look at, but damn tasty, all things considered! I am clearly better at fridge foraging than wardrobe foraging. 


Linking up with Simple and in Season hosted this month by Karen at Lavender & Lovage, and this month's Herbs on Saturday - also hosted by Karen - because this thrown together supper was definitely lifted with the lovely rosemary - one ot he only herbs surviving in the garden after the recent cold snap.

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Thai noodle soup with pork patties

Another speedy entry in the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off competition. You don't want to know about my day anyway - it started off with me smashing a jar of (beautiful, homemade) marmalade all over the kitchen floor then cutting my thumb on the glass, and has got worse. Putting Optrex drops into the (very reluctant) dog's eyes to try and avoid another vet bill has been a high point, I tell you.

So, without further ado, I bring you, hot on the heels of the Coriander & Chilli Eggs:

Thai Noodle Soup with Pork Patties

serves 4

450g minced pork
2 tsp Gourmet Garden Chopped Coriander
1 tsp Gourmet Garden Crushed Garlic
1 medium egg, beaten (you may not need all of it)
good grind of salt and pepper

2 strips of noodles
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 or 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
6 spring onion, halved then finely sliced lengthways
4 chestnut mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
3 tsp Gourmet Garden Crushed Thai Spices
500ml chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
salt & pepper




First make the patties.Put the pork, Coriander and Garlic into a bowl with a good grind of salt and pepper, and mix together with a fork, adding the egg to bind as necessary. Form into small meatballs/patties - you should get about 12. Put on a plate, cover and put in the fridge to firm up until you need them..

To make the soup, cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, refresh in cold water and set aside. To stop them clumping together, you can stir through a tsp of sesame oil. 

When you're pretty much ready to eat, firstly, brown the pork patties in a non stick frying pan. I am lucky enough to own a pan that didn't need any oil for this - but if you need to use some oil, use as little as possible. Set aside the browned patties and keep warm.

In a large pan, heat the sunflower oil and 1 tsp sesame oil, and add the spring onions and peppers, stir for a minute or 2, then add in the mushrooms, stir, pour in the coconut milk, then the stock, using the stock to clean out the coconut milk tin, then stir through the Thai Spices, grind in some pepper, and bring to a simmer.

Add the patties, and cook, at a simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the pork is cooked. You can fish out one of the patties and slice it in half to check if necessary. They don't take long.

Divide the noodles between soup plates, and top with the spicy soup and the patties.

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River Cottage Christmas Bread Course

In April this year, I was 40.

The Husband took me to Venice, and we had a brilliant party (well, I thought it  was brilliant - it was just what I wanted). I honestly didn't want any presents, but I was very spoiled, and one of the fantastic presents I was lucky enough to be given was a voucher for a River Cottage course. Yes really. Very spoiled.

It will not have escaped the notice of anyone of you lovely people who read this relatively regularly that I am a bit of a fan of Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall and what he stands for. The whole River Cottage thing - even though it's much bigger than it ever was when it was just Hugh and his sports car fresh from London, towing some pigs back to the first River Cottage - I just love it. And while it's surrounded by glorious countryside and is a stone's throw from a wonderful coastline, I'm sure our uncanny ability to end up in the environs of Axminster more often than not when we take off in the camper van has more than a little to do with the presence of River Cottage, a.k.a Park Farm, nestling just outside the town.

Aidan and the fennel top & lemon focaccia

So, anyway a voucher. For a whole day. I won't bore you with the agonies of choice over which course to go for, but a number of factors conspired to find me, yesterday, sleeves rolled up, apron on, making Christmas breads in the company of 17 others, mostly women, a few men, and the brilliantly enthusiastic and passionate Aidan Chapman, proprietor of the Phoenix Bakery in Weymouth. All this after a relaxed cup of coffee and a gorgeous little taster of a salt beef hash bruschetta snackette - just the sort of thing you'd imagine you might get served up at one of the River Cottage parties so beloved of the series'.

The temporary cookery school - a new one is being built

Well, what can I say? It was the most brilliant day.  Despite the bitter cold, even the tractor ride down from the car park to the farm itself was exciting - that first view of the Devon longhouse that I have seen on TV so many times was quite thrilling, and I was almost beside myself to actually get a look inside the farmhouse. That kitchen - wow. The one in all the programmes. Am I sounding star-struck enough yet? 



Despite all this, really, honestly, the best bit was truly the baking. I would say that I am a reasonably competent bread baker, but I've lost a little of my enthusiasm recently - lots of factors conspiring against me. As a result of the day, I am totally fired up again, all my feelings about the value and frankly, the ease of baking amazing bread at home have all been reaffirmed. 

Throughout the day, almost working backwards, Aidan explained the principles of sourdough, used either directly as the raising agent in a loaf, or in a yeasted bread to add structure and depth of flavour. Over the course of the day we made: a cranberry and yoghurt sourdough loaf

 














a yeasted chestnut and walnut loaf

Before...

...and after

foccacia (flavoured respectively with: fennel tops and lemon, roasted elephant garlic, rosemary and sea salt, leeks and blue cheese)

communal foccacia dough making

 flat breads (which were served, again in true River cottage style with some amazing hummus, some utterly divine coriander lamb, some chicken liver parfait and some egg & garlic mayonnaise. I was too busy eating to take pictures. Just imagine typical HF-W party food. Slurp.)

pear, beer and cheddar soda bread

It's not ugly, OK, it's RUSTIC. And bloody lovely.

Italian Christmas Cookies

a cross between a meringue and a macaroon and utterly gorgeous

and pizza dough which we made our final meal of the day with - wood fired oven pizza - toppings including smoked pheasant, River Cottage cured ham, caramelised onions - are you drooling yet?). Once we'd had our own individually rolled and topped pizzas fired in the oven, it was indoors for warmth ( it was a wee bit chilly outside, despite the temperature of the oven) delicious salads, a Stinger beer, and a chocolate cake to die for (with clotted cream). All in time to stagger back up the hill - well, the tractor staggered up the hill) clutching our bags of bread. The car smelt divine on the way home - and the Husband finished the pizza as we drove back up the A303.
  

The whole day was incredibly relaxed, but we got through a huge amount. It helped that all the ingredients for each loaf came out of the kitchens in smart little bowls, pre-measured - no rummaging around in the depths of the cupboards for that ingredient that you're sure is in there somewhere, but Aidan's passion and enthusiasm for his subject and his openness to questions really inspired a huge amount of confidence in all of us, and as we ate our pizzas, we were all discussing what we would make for Christmas, spurred on by our day.



The best bit of the day for me: I have lost my fear of wet bread dough. I am a convert. No more will I panic and chuck extra flour into the bowl for an easy life. My bread scraper is on order, my starter is up and running again, and my bread is going to be FABULOUS. 

There's a pledge you can hold me to. Watch this space.

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Coriander & Chilli eggs - for lunch or breakfast!

What a time to be thinking about entering a competition? It's madness here. However, seduced by the possibility of fame, fortune and trip to Australia, I thought "Why not?" and emailed off to enter the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off competition.

Next thing I know, a lovely selection of their tubes of fresh herbs arrives in a cute little pouch. While you can't beat fresh herbs, there are loads of opportunities to use these beauties - in fact when they arrived, I'd run out of fresh garlic and chillies anyway, and as fresh coriander often spoils pretty quickly, I can definitely see the advantage of the tube when you need it for flavour rather than as a garnish in particular.

Now, because of one thing and another, I have decided to take the quick and easy approach to my entry (or entries - I have used the tubes quite a lot, but I need to carve out some time to blog them!), so here's the first:

Coriander and Chilli Eggs

Ingredients for 1 (easily doubled)

splash of olive oil
2 tomatoes, deseeded and roughly chopped
1/2 red pepper, deseeded and chopped to similar size
1 tsp Gourmet Garden Coriander
1/2 tsp Gourmet Garden Chilli (or to taste)
1 egg
2 spring onions, sliced
1 tortilla wrap

1 small frying pan
grill proof serving dish (optional if you can put the frying pan under the grill!)




Turn on your grill to medium - high. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the tomatoes and red pepper, cook for a minute or so to start the juices running, then stir in the Coriander and Chilli.

Once the tomatoes and peppers are semi-cooked and the herbs are nicely incorporated, grind in some salt and pepper, stir again, then take off the heat. If you are using the grill proof serving dish, scrape the sauce into the dish, and quickly make a well in the centre of the sauce (or just make the well in the sauce in the frying pan) and crack the egg into it.

Pop the dish/frying pan under the grill, and cook for 8-10 mins until the egg is cooked. This will depend on how hot the frill is and how close your dish/pan is to the element - keep an eye on it!

If you have room under the grill, fold your tortilla in half and pop it under too for a couple of minutes to crisp up.

Serve the eggs with the tortilla and extra salt and pepper as desired.

I ate this for lunch, and it was very tasty. The chilli was sufficiently spicy and the coriander gave a great flavour to the sauce. If you were feeling brave and a little like a taste of Mexico, it would work well as a kind of huevos rancheros style breakfast.

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Espresso Hot Fudge

Looking for the perfect gift for the holidays? Chances are food is something even the pickiest gift receivers on your list will love. Here is a great recipe for homemade espresso hot fudge that will last up until a month in the fridge. A great homemade gift idea would be a "Homemade Ice Cream Party Kit". You could make homemade fudge, salted carmel, edible glitter, and other fun ice cream toppers, put them all in their own containers and give it as a gift!

PS- Instead of espresso you could add cinnamon, cayenne pepper, more salt, coconut or peppermint. Vary the flavor addition to your liking.

Recipe-
1 stick butter, cubed
1/2 cup good quality semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 and 1 tbs. sugar
3/4 teaspoon espresso powder
pinch of sea salt

In a heavy bottom sauce pan melt the butter over low heat. Once the butter is half-way melted add the chocolate and stir constantly, you do not want burnt chocolate! After the chocolate is mostly melted, constantly whisk in the sugar, cocoa and 3/4 cup of heavy cream on medium low heat. Whisk until sauce is thickened and smooth about 2 minutes. Then add the remaining cream and whisk for another minute. Finally, add the vanilla, espresso powder and salt and whisk until incorporated and the alcohol from the extract cooks off. Take off the heat, put into containers and cool. Enjoy!

Happy Eatings

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Almost disastrous Mango and Passion Fruit Roulade

I set myself a challenge to find a low fat (ish) dessert that I could take along to a bring and share supper with some friends. The Good Food website has a brilliant thing at the bottom of the home page - if you ever look that far - where you can use a drop down menu to choose the top 5...... There's a lot of choice, and low and behold, one of the options is 'low fat desserts'. "That's the one for me", I thought. I clicked and the options came up including one that rang a bell. Turns out it was a dessert mum had made a while ago and had raved about.

And so here it is: Mango and Passion Fruit Roulade bookmarked from the Good Food website. A meringue base which you roll up, filled with Greek yoghurt, mango and passion fruit.

There are some nights when I should just stay right out of the kitchen. Last night was one of them, but I knew I would have no time today, so I needed to get the meringue made.

I checked out the recipe. My chosen tin was a little bigger than the one specified and I was potentially feeding more people than the 6 specified. No problem. I decided to add an extra egg white in and increase everything by a third. I already had 2 whites left over from the Crema Catalana I made, and I did actually remember to get them out of the fridge and use them. Not bad going. I separated another egg, added the white to my mixing bowl, then separated the fourth egg. But then I had a crisis. I'd already had one conversation with mum about how well the meringue would make in advance and how to store it. I'd decided to make the meringue bit and keep it separate from the filling until the last minute, but would the meringue keep?

I rang her and had another discussion, which ended rather unsatisfactorily with "Well, Sal, it's such a long time since I made it that I honestly can't remember, but if it's a bit soggy, well, it'll still be delicious."

Hmm.

I decided to make the meringue, roll it in greaseproof paper and store it overnight, rolled, and so I cracked on: whisked the egg whites till frothy, added the sugar (increased by a third), whisked, added the vanilla, vinegar and cornflour, whisked. I spooned my meringue into the tin as instructed, and into the oven it went. 

Then I saw the fourth egg white, sitting, lonely in the ramekin I had separated it into.

Language ensued. Still, there was nothing I could do, and I tried to console myself with the fact that the eggs were particularly large so could may be take the extra sugar, and not be too disgustingly sweet.

Then I wondered what to do with 2 egg yolks and a white. Lemon Curd. Of course: and I can stir it into the Greek yoghurt and offset some of the sweetness caused by there being too much sugar in the meringue...

In the end it was lemon and orange curd, because I had half an orange in the fridge, also left over from the Crema Catalana. If I get round to it, I may well post about the curd, but let me just say that anyone who suggests that it will only take 10 minutes of stirring to produce this ambrosial thing is lying. At the critical point when the meringue needed to come out of the oven and first be covered with a damp piece of greaseproof paper, and then, 10 minutes later, to be rolled up, I was still stirring furiously, keen to avoid lemony scrambled eggs - it has happened to me before. I know what I'm talking about...  

Anyway, the meringue got rolled ...

...and the curd didn't turn into scrambled eggs.

Roll forward to this evening. It's been a busy day and I thought I would take 5 minutes just to share the outcome.

Having had a hectic day, I got home via shops to do some last minute birthday shopping for the Husband who celebrates tomorrow. There was a certain amount to get done - a complicated situation relating to times tables (don't ask), presents to wrap, tea to make for the kids etc, and finally, time to unroll the meringue to fill and re-roll, triumphant.  Or not:

Still, undeterred, there was still a pudding to be made. I used 300g Greek yoghurt and stirred in about 1/2 the curd to spread over the meringue, then scattered over chopped mango and the pulp from 2 passion fruit, then had a go at rolling.

And do you know, it turned out not bad:

 













I'm linking up to Bookmarked Recipes for December on the Tinned Tomatoes blog, although it feels like a bit of a cheat because I've actually got round to making it very quickly after actually bookmarking it - but I have been meaning to look out this recipe for some time, and so hopefully that's OK!

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