leeks and pasta

We decided last night that, come what may, we should make an inroad into the remaining Christmas pud, so a  light supper was called for. I made it to the greengrocer yesterday, so we were stocked with veg.

So, trimmed a leek and cut it lengthways, then cut into thin slices. Set to cook off in some olive oil, and added three finely chopped cloves of garlic.  Put some pasta on to cook.

Towards the end of the pasta cooking time, added to the leek mix some black pepper, the end of a tub of cream that was just going over, and the juice of half a lemon that was lying about. Dumped in lots of parmesan and stirred everything together with the pasta. Nice, light, tasty.

The pudding was good too! (Luxury one from Aldi, with candied orange slices on the sides. I love Aldi).

goose pudding etc

We’ve had a weekend of “using up bits”. Saturday brunch was bacon, black pudding and the last of the flat mushrooms, and supper was Indian mushrooms with spinach (except we forgot to add the spinach so that’s still in the fridge – spinach frittata during the week, I think). That was to use up half the pack of button mushrooms that was left.

Sunday morning was potato scones, made with some cold mashed spuds that was in the fridge, and a pack of baby sossidges, to which we are addicted.

Today we ate the last of the M&S party food individual pies, which really are surprisingly nice. Just parmesan and basil twists to go there! I have cracked today and been to the greengrocer, as one leek, half a pepper and a wizened swede is not an inspiring collection of veg.

For Sunday supper, I made a goose pudding, thus:

Diced carrot, onion, garlic and celery, and sauted off. Did about three times as much as needed, and dumped the balance into the soup pot, which was a tad lacklustre. Discovered that Pete had, in fact, used all the mushrooms on Saturday night, so despatched him up to Jacksons for some more. Sliced them (not him) and added to the pot. Dumped in a 1/2 glass of red wine, and some vegetable stock, and the very, very last of Johnny Goose. Added some thyme. and a little cornflour mixed in cold water to thicken the mix, and left it for about 20 minutes, while I made a suet pastry.

Combined filling and pastry in a bowl, covered with foil secured with an elastic band, and dumped in the slow cooker on “high” for about seven hours. It was lovely, and we ate it with green beans and mashed potato. The rest will do for supper tonight, with a few roasties (more cold spud in the fridge), and some cabbage.

festive fare, and the remnants …

We did the usual stuff for Christmas food that we usually do … a goose with red cabbage and sprouts on the day, a slow cooked gammon for snacks, a cake. But somehow, this year, we have heaps of stuff left, so we’ll be eating leftovers for a while!

After 13 years with small, rubbish gas cookers, I am now the proud possessor of a Neff built-in full size oven. So, inevitably, the goose was too long to fit in, and Pete had to take a hacksaw to its legs. I roasted them off separately, and they’ve gone in the freezer for later use. There is still a bowlful of cold goose meat left, which will be stirfried or possibly en-pied, the remains of the cabbage went in the freezer and was part of our New Year’s Eve dinner party. More on that story later.

So, left in the fridge is:

• one bowl of goose bits
• about 1/3 pack of smoked salmon (will probably go for a quick pasta lunch)
• about half a dozen small sausages, which are only there because I didn’t see them until this afternoon – we are addicted to small sausages
• one box of Marks and Spencer mini pies, from their party food range, and some mozzarella and  basil twists, ditto. These will do for weekday lunches; in fact, we had some M&S vol-au-vents for lunch today
• 1/4 of the gammon (half is already in the freezer)
• 2 boxes of cranberries

The 1.5 litres of goose stock was dumped into the slow cooker this morning with a pack of green split peas, and a venison bone, to make soup. Sadly, I did this too late for today’s lunch, but it will be lovely for tomorrow.

In the freezer is also a small lump of venison (reasons to follow), and a huge piece of pork shoulder, which Pete bought in error instead of gammon, never mind about all the other stuff. I doubt we need to buy anything but milk and veg for a month!

pea and ham soup

Not terribly Reactive, I know, but still …

I had a ham shank in the freezer – they are ridiculously cheap, really; this one was £1.69, I think. And yesterday, our Morris side, Rackaback, was due to dance out in Bridlington, a seaside town on the East Yorkshire coast, where the wind blows straight from the Russian steppes, with nothing in the way to divert it.

So, I sautéd a finely chopped onion in olive oil, dumped the ham shank in the slow cooker with 500g of dried split peas, added the onions, a couple of teaspoons of Marigold bouillon stock, and enough water to cover the lot, switched it on, and went out.

And came home seven hours later, after a cold and rainy afternoon, to a glorious smell. Fished out the hock, and let it cool, then stripped the meat off it, We ate the meat separately (not all of it in one sitting!), accompanied by the soup and some ciabatta. Just wonderful. We shall be doing that again.

a bit of brisket

Every now and again, when I’m in Morrisons, I peruse their butchery section, which is surprisingly good, and if there’s a special offer, and I have room in the freezer (hollow laugh) I buy it. Having been quite unwell this week with a flu-ey thing, I fancied something both easy and nice today, so  last night I fetched out a piece of rolled brisket that I bought last June, so it could defrost overnight.

If I’m doing a pot roast, I like to put lots of veg in – you get lovely gravy and veg then, which can go in the soup pot, or go to make stovies, which will be featuring on a plate near here later in the week.

So I cut four carrots into batons, and peeled about nine shallots, and chopped up some garlic cloves (I think it was about six, but you might like to tone that down a bit – we like garlic).

I dug out my ancient and beloved Le Creuset cast iron casserole, heated some olive oil, and browned the brisket. Transferred the meat to the slow cooker, then tipped the veg and garlic in and cooked them off a bit. I added a slug of Cointreau at this stage – I generally put something sweet in with the veg to caramelise them a bit, and we have stacks of liqueurs here that I used to love, and now find far too sweet (and indeed can’t drink because of diabetes).

The  veg were then transferred to the slow cooker, and I built up a sauce/gravy with a couple of teaspoons of grain mustard, a glass of red wine, some cornflour, peppercorns, juniper berries, sea salt, chopped sage and thyme. Brought that to the boil, and added it to the slow cooker, and switched it on (at about 11.30).

After three hours, I put a piece of foil over the top, to stop the sauce evaporating further, and now we’re supposed to wait until 7 to eat it, with roast potatoes and sprouts. [eyes clock] Not much chance of that …

Remoska to the rescue!

I made brownies last week, for a gathering of friends. I always use this Nigella Lawson recipe, which makes a huge heap – I find a huge heap of brownies generally to be the right amount, as people rarely refuse, and they keep well.

I cooked them in the oven, and baked a couple of banana and coconut cakes as well, so as not to waste the electricity. However, like a fool, I forgot to set the timer for the brownies, and so took them out of the oven just a little bit too early. Once I’d scored them into squares, I discovered that the ones round the edges were fine, but the very middle was still far too raw. Nothing ventured, nothing gained – I dumped them in the big Remoska, still on their baking parchment, and gave them about 12 minutes. And they were absolutely fine, which is something I shall remember for the future.

This weekend I plan to make a batches of shepherd’s pie filling, meatballs, and coriander chicken. That’s the plan, anyway.

a week with the Remoska

Well, we’re dead pleased with it. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

• soup – veg started off, bones roasted
• banana muffins made
• cooked breakfast – bacon, mushrooms, black pudding
• roast pork and roast potatoes
• plum crumble (plums cooked first in the shallow pan, then complete crumble in the big one, in a dish on the rack)
• fruit scones
• potato scones
• soda bread
• baked potatoes

Further cake and biscuit testing are high on my Remoska agenda now.

soup (an ongoing series)

This isn’t quite the first soup of the season, it’s the second. But never mind.

Regular readers will know I’m not a fan of supermarkets, but if I have to use one, the local Morrisons is my favourite. We popped in there yesterday on the way back from picking up my new melodeon (yay!) for some wine, and popped some lamb bones into the trolley for soup. At £0.57, it would be mad not to, and I don’t have anything like that in the freezer right now.

As always, I popped them in the slow cooker with some water when we got back, much to Iggy’s delight; he loves warmz, and likes to sit beside that when it’s on. This morning, I finely chopped leek, swede, carrot and courgette and started them in the Remoska (what a surprise – love it love it) and realised that I should have roasted the bones in that first. So, undeterred, I fished them out of the stock, and bunged them on top of the veg, sprinkled with a bit of olive oil and left it for about 20 minutes, just to kick start everything. Lovely lambish smell ensued, and I shall combined everything with some barley to get the soup ready for tonight’s supper (eating quick and earlyish, as it it is music night).

Also, in Morrisons, I bought a shoulder of pork. Was discussing roasts in the gourmet conference on CIX, and realised that we haven’t had roast pork in absolutely ages. I have a red cabbage to cook up in the slow cooker, and I shall give the Remoska a try for roasting meat.

Remoska Sunday

Started with Sunday breakfast – put a stack of chopped mushrooms, black pudding and bacon in the shallow Remoska pan and turned it on; to be frank, I had little expectation of it working well, but I beat some eggs and cream for scrambly egg and hoped for the best.

And in fifteen minutes, we had … perfectly cooked bacon, black pudding and mushrooms! No grease all over the kitchen, no smell through the house. I quickly scrambled the eggs, and we thought “we’ll do that again!’. And we will.

Flushed with success, I prepared a casserole. I peeled lots and lots of tiny onions (if you’re doing this, soak them in boiling water for a bit – makes the peeling much easier, and gives you oniony water, which I have saved for the soup pot!), chopped some carrots into batons, and hurled them into the breakfast Remoska pan – no need to waste that nice bacon flavour, I thought! They sat in there to start cooking while I cut up the shin of beef, and browned it off in a big wok. Into the big Remoska pan it went, along with some white beans which I soaked and boiled the day before, and I added ginger wine, all spice, juniper berries, seasoning, and two tangerines which were boiled for about 10 minutes then whizzed up in the food processor, skin and all.

Everything was put in the big Remoska pan and set to cook. Oh dear. I don’t quite know what I did wrong, but it started to burn on the top rather too quickly. I put a layer of foil between lid and contents, and I think I should have done that a lot sooner. After about another half hour, I got cold feet, and transferred everything to a big cast iron casserole, and set it on a diffuser over a low gas setting for a couple more hours.

Must do some more reading up on Remoska cooking!

scones in the Remoska

Sorry about this, but while I’m experimenting with the new Remoska, there’s going to be a few posts about it :)  I ordered the shallow pan for it from Lakeland, along with the recipe book, so I plan to get plenty of use from it (they arrived this morning).

We went to Bridlington today – just because we fancied a bit of seaside, and the weather was so gorgeous, and we had lunch out, so didn’t want a lot for supper. So I decided to make some scones. I always use this Nigella Lawson recipe – it’s pretty much foolproof – and I added a handful of sultanas.

My Remoska recipe book said 20-25 minute for scones, but they needed 28 minutes. And they worked really, really well, so that’s another triumph nailed for my little Czech friend.