making good use …

… of the oven. I’m trying to cook in a different style - more on the hob, and less lighting of the big oven unless I can use it for more than one thing. I have a decent oven in the microwave, so I use that more now as well.

We were supposed to be going out last night, but one of the cats is unwell, and we didn’t want to leave her. Of course, we had nothing planned for supper, so we pulled the last tub of chilli from the freezer (must make some more!), and as it was frozen solid, I set it in a small cast iron casserole in a low oven to thaw.

I took advantage of the time needed to do this to make brown rice to accompany it - brown takes a lot longer than basmati, and we are rarely organised enough, or unhungry enough, to wait for it! I cooked it with shallot and cumin seeds, and it was very nice, although a little crunchier than I’d have liked.

As the oven was on, I took the black bananas and turned them into a couple of banana cakes - this time with chocolate buttons, rather than sultanas. Then Pete rolled out the last of the pastry from our impulse mince pie frenzy earlier this week (I didn’t tell you about that - I took the organic mincemeat from the jar and mixed it up with some bourbon :) … and we made jam tarts! I don’t think I’ve ever made jam tarts before. We used lingonberry jam, and gooseberry - sadly, and shamefully, the morello cherry, and greengage and almond, had gone furry. I shan’t let that happen again, particularly as the jam tarts were so yummy. Not, I’ll grant, the most elegant of presentations, but still delicious.

So that was a good haul for the oven. It’s going on again today to roast and glaze a lump of cooked gammon that came out of the freezer - that’ll do for lunch this week - and a slow roast belly pork with sweet potato mash and poached fennel for tonight’s dinner.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

duck soup

photo by Eberman @ Flickr

I boiled up the duck carcass - Pete was a hero and stripped it down afterwards; it’s a job I hate. A surprising amount of meat came off it.  And there was, of course, a lot of duck stock.

I had deliberately cooked extra veg with the duck on Monday (carrot and leek in vegetable bouillon, since you ask) and had saved that in a box in the fridge.  I put that, the rest of the fresh carrots (they needed using up) and a leek in the Magimix and whizzed them up.  I sautéd this veg mix gently in my big soup pot for about 15 minutes, then poured the stock on top and left it overnight.  I added a little of the remaining duck meat, shredded very fine.

Put some butter beans to soak in water overnight, and then put them in the stock pot this morning, set it over a very low light, and it was ready for lunch.

We had it with some rye bread, which was utterly gorgeous. Just as well, as the stuff took three days to make … (not full time, obviously, but toing and froing with starters and stuff).

Powered by Bookmarkify™

a brace of banana cakes

Using up: bananas

We had a lot of bananas, so I decided to make some banana cake.  And then I realised we had even more bananas than that, so I thought I’d make two, and freeze one.  Better than letting the bananas go to waste, I thought.

So I duly made two - it really is no more work than making one, except you have to peel more bananas.  And as I took them out of the oven (they smelled heavenly) I thought of my new next door neighbour, who has had about as bad a year as one can have.  So when they’d cooled a little, I wrapped one in a tea towel, and took it round for her and her two boys (she has a baby daughter too, but she might be a bit small for banana cake!)

Recipe (for one cake):

4oz butter or margarine
8oz self raising flour
6oz golden caster sugar, plus a little more if you like
2 eggs
1 generous tsp vanilla extract
2 medium, or 3 small bananas

Peel the bananas, and mash them with a fork.  An old plate is best for this, I find.

Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy, then add the eggs and vanilla extract.  Add the banana gloop and stir in.  Add the flour and stir in.  This is the most ridiculously easy cake recipe I ever saw!

Put into a greased* 2lb loaf tin.  Sprinkle, if you like, with some golden caster sugar, to give a nice glaze.

Bake for 40 minutes at gas 4, then turn the oven down to gas 2 for 30 minutes.

It probably does freeze well, but I can’t say for sure, as I gave away the spare :)

*I always use the precut liners from Lakeland - I’m a lousy baker, so I like every little bit of help going.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

let them eat cake

Using up: half a lemon, dried cherries

I fancied a cake - both making one, and consuming it.  We don’t have them often, but last night I decided I would.  And it would use up the half a lemon that was in the fridge :)

This is based on a Nigella recipe, and works really well.

Cream 250g marge or butter, then beat in 200g golden caster sugar.  You really do need a food mixer for this - or a very strong arm.

Sift 210g of self raising flour, and 90g of plain (or just use plain with 3tsp baking powder - less faff).

Add three eggs to the butter/sugar mix, one at a time, following each with a tablespoon of flour (does that make sense?).  Then fold in the rest of the flour.  Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

The recipe says 4 tablespoons of milk at this stage, but I don’t bother measuring - just pour it in slowly until you get a soft, dropping consistency.  Then I added a handful of dried sour cherries (I bought a big bag full in Costco, and forgot about them), and the juice of the aforementioned half lemon.

Put in a loaf tin, and ust the top with more caster sugar if you like - it gives a nice shiny sugary finish. Bake at gas 3 / 170° for an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Tip: I buy loaf tin liners from Lakeland - I’m not very good at cake, and this means the beasts emerge from the tin with no hassle.  Well worth it, IMV.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

carrot muffins

Using up: some extremely tired carrots.

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess, and I will type it up for you when I get a moment (ho ho).  She adds a frosting made of Phildelphia cream cheese, icing sugar and lime juice, but we never bother - far too sweet for us.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

nutty brown bread

Soda type breads are a great way to use up old milk, and don’t need yeast.

This recipe comes from an old book of mine entitled the Irish Baking Book - no sign of it on Amazon or anywhere else, but it has a lot of recipes from my childhood in it. I have no idea why this is called “nutty”, but it is gorgeous nonetheless.

We had it with scrambled eggs, the last of the mushrooms, and bacon for Sunday brunch, and then used what was left for lunch today - I had it with egg mayo, and Pete did something with cheese and a kabanos sossidge. Lets not go there.

50g oats
175g wholewheat flour
75g strong white (bread) flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaped tsp baking powder
250ml buttermilk (if you don’t have it, just use half and half milk/yogurt)

Put the oatmeal, flours, sugar and baking powder into a bowl and mix together.  Add the buttermilk.  Mix everything with a wooden spoon, and knead slightly (or do what I do - Kitchenaid with a dough hook!)

Place the dough in a small greased loaf tin, and bake at 200C/gas 6 for 30-35 minutes.

The recipe says “eat withiin 24 hours” - you’ll have trouble keeping it that long!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

pan gallego

This is a Spanish bread from Galicia.  I made it to use up an ounce of fresh yeast left over from the weekend’s foccacia …

350g strong white bread flour
115g wholemeal bread flour
2 tsp salt (I think this was a bit too much myself)
2 tbsp olive oil
20g fresh yeast
275ml lukewarm water
2 tbsp each of pumpkin and sunflower seeds
1 tbsp polenta

Sprinkle a baking sheet with the polenta.

Combine flours and salt in a large bowl.

Mix the yeast with the water, add to the flours with the yeast liquid and the olive oil, mix to a firm dough, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.  (hint: food mixer with dough hook.  You know it makes sense).

Place in an oiled bowl, cover with oiled clingfilm, leave to rise for a couple of hours.

Knock back, turn out onto a floured surface, knead in the seeds, and rest the dough (and yourself) for five minutes.

Form it into a round ball, make a twist in the top to form a cap, and place it on the baking tray.  Cover with a large bowl ( I presume this is to constrain the shape) and leave to rise for 45 minutes or so.

Then, in a pre-heated gas 7 oven, place a roasting tray with about 1/2″ of warm water in it, on the bottom of the oven.  Put the bread in above it, cook for ten minutes and then remove the water.  Cook for a further 20-30 minutes (I found 20 was fine). Cool on a wire rack.

The polenta gives it a really nice crunchiness.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

foccacia

I’m rarely organised enough to make bread. We do have a bread machine, but it’s in the loft; I don’t particularly like the bread it makes, and we don’t eat much bread anyway. But I fancied some for lunch yesterday - I have a Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook, there was bread flour in the flour bin, fresh yeast in the freezer, so I consulted the breadmaking books, and the foccacia was born.

In a jug, mix 1oz of fresh yeast with 9.5 fluid oz of warm water, and 2 fluid oz of white wine.

Put 1 1/4lbs of strong white flour in a bowl, and add 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix together, and make a well in the centre. Add the liquid, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Combine, and knead for ten minutes - or use a dough hook for five. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise for an hour or two, until doubled.

Remove from the bowl, knock it back gently, and place in a baking tin, stretching it gently to reach the edges. Cover, and leave for half an hour or so until it’s risen again. Knock holes with your finger tips - carefully, nearly but not quite down to the bottom of the dough, then cover and leave for another half an hour. Then drizzle olive oil into the holes, sprinkle the bread with sea salt, and if you like add some fresh herbs. I used some rosemary from the garden, and some sage that was drying on the pan rack - our herb garden is coming on nicely!

Bake at gas mark 8 for about 25 minutes. We ate it with home made carrot and coriander soup for lunch, and had the remains toasted for breakfast this morning, spread with marmalade.

Herb garden - more in it now.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

drop scones

Having been to Pizza Hut for lunch (first time in many years, and not particularly nice, especially not the (possibly mildly autistic) screaming child at the next table), we didn’t want much for supper.

So we had drop scones.

8oz self raising flour
1/2 generous teaspoon of cream of tartar
ditto of bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 of yogurt and milk mixed (my substitute for buttermilk - I do 2/3 yogurt to 1/3 milk
1 tsp honey

I’m sure this isn’t very authentic, but I just bung it all in the food mixer and beat for a while.

Heat a thick frying pan or similar  (we have a cast iron griddle) until Very Hot.  Grease with a little butter, lard, whatever you like.  Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on the hot surface, watch until they start bubbling, and turn.  You’ll have to do it in batches, so wrap the cooked ones in a tea towel to keep them warm.

We ate ours with maple syrup and, in my case, cream as well - who cares, it was a wet Bank Holiday Monday.

There was some batter left, so we had some more for breakfast.  Yum.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

banana and bran muffins

Who stole the muffin?

We always have a surfeit of bananas here - Riverford deliver them regularly, and I’m not a big fan.  We generally make banana bread or banana muffins, and I found a new recipe on the back of the bran flake box that I tried out yesterday for breakfast.

I suspect they would have risen better had I not left the egg out, but they tasted gorgeous, although they were too sweet.  I cut the sugar down from 225g to 200g, but I think I’ll try with less next time - far too much of a sugar rush for us

Makes 12 muffins

100g softened butter
200g demerara sugar
1 medium egg
3 bananas, peeled
150g natural yoghurt
225g plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
50g bran flakes
3-4 tbsp milk

Cream the butter and sugar in the food processor.

Add the rest of the ingredients, and blitz.

Divid mixture into a muffin tray (I use a silicon one), and bake for 25 minutes at gas 5, 375F/190C

Powered by Bookmarkify™