Thursday, 26 December 2024

A veggie version …

You won't need your slow cooker – you can use a large frying pan or a casserole.

Following the recipe, substitute the braising steak with Quorn pieces – you won't need to seal the Quorn pieces.


Gently fry your onion and garlic in a generous drop of rapeseed oil. Add the spices and cook together so that the spices are able to release their deliciousness!

Add the passata and the chilli sauce and bring to the boil.

Add the Quorn pieces and simmer for 12 minutes if frozen – 9 minutes if not - set aside until you're ready to roll.

The optional extras are the same – even the chorizo! Try M&S Plant Kitchen “No chorizo puppies” - they are freezable. Made with red pepper, smoked paprika and roasted garlic, mushroom and caramelised onion to name but a few ingredients!

Slice the chorizo and fry with a little oil, turning frequently. If you're adding sweet baby peppers sauté them in the chorizo oil.

When you're ready to serve add the chorizo and peppers and the residual oil with the kidney beans to your chilli and re-heat gently until piping hot!

Serve with whatever takes your fancy – rice, good bread or wraps.


Yum!

Happy New Year

Method - Posh Chilli

Seal the diced steak in batches in a large frying pan using a drop of rapeseed oil then set aside in your slow cooker.

Gently fry your onion and garlic, using another drop of rapeseed oil if necessary. Add the spices and cook together so that the spices are able to release their deliciousness!

Add the passata and the chilli sauce and bring to the boil. Add to the sealed diced steak and then slow cook for 4 hours. Turn off and then leave to cool. Freeze in boxes to suit your needs – remember – you can pull out two boxes if you need to, rather than have to throw away from a larger quantity.

Defrost thoroughly in your fridge. Re-heat gently on the stove adding your kidney beans, sweet baby peppers or chorizo.


For the optional extras :


Use a large frying pan and fry the chorizo gently so that it releases its oil. Set the chorizo aside, leaving the oil in the pan.


Sauté the sliced, sweet baby peppers in the chorizo oil.


If you enjoy a spicy hit you can use mixed beans in a chilli sauce instead of ordinary red kidney beans.


Serve with rice if you like but I think it's fab in a bowl with a blob of sour cream served with some rustic bread of your choice on the side or with wraps with bowls of relish of your choice – mango would work well.


Freezing serves dishes like chilli or curry very well – the freezing process allows the spices to develop. Here's a thought – you could double the recipe and serve as a supper or as part of a larger supper buffet.

Hot food seems to go down so well and it's easier to cook and serve.

A veggie version ...


How about a change …

and a well deserved break for the cook!

Use your trusted slow cooker and make a chilli but not any old chilli. What makes this chilli special, nay posh, is it uses diced steak and slow cooks it. The only remaining task is to add the red kidney beans and any garnishes. A word of warning – just in case you've forgotten – do not slow cook the kidney beans.


Posh Chilli

Serves 4


500g diced braising steak


A glug of rapeseed oil


1 medium onion, finely chopped


2 cloves of roasted garlic paste or 2 cloves crushed


tsp = teaspoon


half tsp ground cumin


half tsp ground coriander


half tsp ground cinnamon


quarter to half tsp chilli powder (to taste, depends how much of a kick you like – I used a quarter tsp)


500g jar of passata


60ml sweet chilli sauce


390g can of red kidney beans, rinsed


optional extras :


150g small dice or sliced chorizo


sweet baby peppers, de-seeded and

finely sliced


Method up next …

Saturday, 21 December 2024

The veggie roast!

This dish ticks two boxes – it's for those who love “stuffing” with their roast and with the extra ingredients it becomes a vegetarian roast in its own right.

It's tried and tested, here it is :


Chestnut and Apple roast


170g/6oz of dried breadcrumbs

2 tsps dried sage

100ml/3fluid oz boiling water

or

1 packet of sage and onion stuffing mix – 170g/6oz


1 packet – 180g/7oz of vac packed chestnuts, blitzed to a

crumb – not dust!

Vac packed chestnuts are available all year in

larger supermarkets


300g of chunky apple sauce – preferably Bramley apple

OR

Portion of apple sauce – 225-350g/8-12 oz

1 medium onion, finely chopped

Drop of rapeseed oil and knob of butter.

2 additional knobs of butter


I used an oval cast iron oven proof dish measuring 25x17x5 cms – 10”x7”x2” in old money.

For your dried breadcrumbs, remove the crusts and tear up into chunks – weigh to achieve 170g/6oz. Pre-heat oven 150fan/170c/Gas 3. Blitz the bread in a food processor until you get an even crumb. Spread the crumbs onto a baking tray and bake for 6 minutes until they are golden. You can make a finer crumb by blitzing again when cooled. Add dried sage to taste – I'd suggest 2 tsps.

You don't have to make your own breadcrumbs, you can buy them dried.

Alternatively if you're short of time, use a sage and onion stuffing mix.

To assemble … have a look at these photos :




Hey presto!

Merry Christmas everyone



Festive fotos!

I was able to get preserving sugar, which was

a surprise


dice the red onion as finely as you can manage

it makes for a more refined texture – if that makes

any sort of sense!


I used good quality cranberries – the American variety

if you can get them – plumptious



Here are the jars I'd stashed in my garage


Here's the finished relish – delish


A choice of jars – those mentioned above

and a small kilner jar


Perfect with the cheese scones or with Christmas turkey, ham or a little of the veggie roast for a fab sandwich later in the day or Christmas supper – if you've any room left! Personally I always prefer the sandwich and there's very little washing up.

Enjoy!

Cranberry and red onion relish

I think I prefer a relish to a chutney – I like the combination of fruit and a vegetable, letting the remainder of the ingredients do their thing. The other huge plus is that it doesn't take long. A chutney is fruit with additional spices and aromatics – usually taking at least an hour to cook and you have to live with the aroma in your kitchen for quite a while.

Here goes :


Cranberry and red onion relish


300g dried cranberries

3 medium red onions, finely diced

3 tbsp olive oil

7 fl oz of Balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp of preserving sugar

celery salt and black pepper


6 jars – my discovered stash, they

are 7 sided and measure 5cms/1¾” in diameter

x 7cms/2¾” high


Sweat the onion in the olive oil. Add the cranberries, vinegar and sugar and simmer gently for 25/30 minutes until sticky and reduced, season with celery salt and black pepper.

This recipe will give you 780g of relish – I filled seven jars as per the photos that follow.

If you can't get hold the preserving sugar you can use granulated.


Easy peasy!

Here come the festive fotos ...

Now for some festive savoury stuff!

It might seem an odd contribution to the Christmas menu - all I can say is that if ever I'm asked to cook or bake for a gathering cheese scones are top of the list. However I must be getting something right when the range of M&S Party Food includes “Extra Mature Barber's Cheese & Ham Scones”!

This recipe works for me and my family and friends :


Cheese Scones


500g plain flour (1lb 2oz)

1 tsp salt

2 tsps bicarb

4½ tsps cream of tartar

125g (5oz) unsalted butter

75g (3oz) mature Cheddar cheese, grated

300ml milk

1 large egg, beaten

6.5cms/2½” fluted cutter

flour on the side to dip the cutter


Pre-heat oven 200fan/220c/Gas 7

Sift the flour, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until you've got breadcrumbs, add the grated cheese then add the milk – all of it – mix with a round bladed knife, roughly and then tip onto a floured surface and knead lightly so that you have a dough. It should be 3cms/1¼” thick. Remember to dip your cutter into the flour before cutting.

How many scones you get depends on the size of the cutter you use – using a 6.5cms/2½” fluted cutter you'll get 12 – they are huge. If you're intending to use as part of a Christmas Box/Brown paper package then you might want to consider using a smaller cutter – scaled down they'll look neater when bagged and tagged to go in your Box! 5/2” or 6cms/2¼” approx would be perfect.

Place on a baking sheet, dusted with flour, then brush with beaten egg. Bake for 10 minutes – risen and golden brown.


Give your family and friends what they love - not what the season dictates - a person can only suffer so many boxes of dates or the orange and lemon slices from yesteryear.

Hmm, perhaps a little festive relish to go with?

Friday, 13 December 2024

My variation – home-made …

sauces

As I've said the fast option is to use a jar of salted caramel sauce (260g) – easily available at most large supermarkets – fold into the mixture to give a marbled effect.

However if you'd like to make your own salted caramel sauce here's my recipe :


Salted Caramel Sauce


110g/4oz unsalted butter

225g/8oz soft dark brown sugar

275ml/10 fl oz double cream (or whipping cream)

1½ tsp salt


Heat together the butter and sugar. When dissolved add the salt and whisk in the cream.

Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring.

One batch of the recipe produces approximately 539g of the sauce and you can portion and freeze for convenience. Yippee – more for another time!



Alternatively if you don't like salt in your caramel sauce, then here's the alternative :


Sticky Toffee Sauce


4oz unsalted butter

8oz soft brown sugar

2oz chopped stem ginger (optional)

10 fl oz double cream (or whipping cream)



Heat together the butter, sugar and ginger. When dissolved add the cream.

Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring.

The stem ginger in this recipe is optional but it makes a good addition when serving the sauce as an accompaniment to nursery puddings and ice cream.


One batch of either recipe produces approximately 539g of the sauce, or, over two portions to fold through ice cream. It can be frozen for convenience. A shop bought sauce is usually 260g per jar. I think you'll find that making your own sauce it is less sweet and really enhances the flavour of the vanilla ice cream.

Double yum!

Now for some festive savoury stuff ...

Finally, an ice cream!

It would be rude not to include an ice cream and so here's the old faithful :


Vanilla ice cream


Prep – 5 minutes

Total time – 5 minutes


plus freezing at least 6-8 hours

or until firm


Gives you 1.6 litres of ice cream is equal

to 18 scoops



1 x 397g tin sweetened condensed milk

1 x 600ml double cream

2tsp vanilla bean paste


  1. Put the condensed milk, cream and vanilla into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until the mixture is quite thick and stiff, like pipeable whipped cream.**


  1. Spoon the mixture into a lidded freezer-proof container and free for at least 6-8 hours or until firm.



** My variation – take a jar of salted caramel sauce (260g) – easily available at most large supermarkets – fold into the mixture to give a marbled effect.


A no-churn ice cream that is delicious and so useful!

Saturday, 7 December 2024

Then there's the crumble ...

to go with the toffee apples!

This is a new version of crumble. Crumble is personal, some like it soggy, others not.

For those who don't like that uncooked line of crumble you always seem to get when baking straight on top of the fruit, then this is for you.

Baked separately, it adds another element to a pud – it freezes well too.


Serves 6-8

depending on portion size!


120g cold unsalted butter, cubed

120g plain flour

60g caster sugar

60g demerara sugar


Pre-heat the oven to 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Using a large mixing bowl, add the flour and butter and rub in until you have fine breadcrumbs, then add the sugar and combine. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet and leave to cool. Box and fridge when cool.

Here it is :


A buttery, biscuity crumble and no uncooked

layer in the middle!


Assembly is easy peasy - sprinkle on top of your warmed toffee apples when you want a sweet hit.

Crunch!

Another idea …

for the Christmas holidays – apples again but with a zhuzh!

Here's a series of separate elements that can be used on their own or put together to suit the occasion – they have one thing in common – they are all easy peasy.


Toffee Apples

but not as you think of them


6-8 large Cox's apples, peeled, quartered and each

quarter sliced into 4

115g/4oz unsalted butter

125g/4½oz soft dark brown sugar

1 medium orange, zest and juice


Place the apples, butter, soft dark brown sugar, orange zest and juice into a large frying pan and cook for 10 minutes until tender.


The recipe given will give you 1.5k/3.3lbs of toffee apples. I box up in smaller quantities – it's more economical and so no waste - you can pull out whatever you need. It's whatever suits you.

The world really is your lobster with the toffee apples :


You can serve hot or cold over ice cream or custard

You can use as a base for crumble

You can serve on top of waffles with ice cream or cream

You can serve as a filling in a crepé


Here's what they look like :




I'm so sorry you can't smell the apples.

Less is definitely more – treacly sugar, fragrant and zesty oranges and the richness of the butter – finally the hero - Cox apples.