The Secret Stash – Savoury Stuff

Creativity is a secret stash or if you like, “necessity is the mother of invention” – either way it means having certain ingredients in your fridge or your pantry/cupboards that enable you to create a dish in a nano-second – ok may be a smidge longer.

If anyone went hunting looking for a snack a particular ingredient on its own wouldn't be attractive to the rummager and so your stash will remain safe from harm.

Let me give you a few examples :

Part-baked rolls and baguettes.  Ensure that the use by date is a good one.  These products don't need freezing but you can freeze if you've room.  They can be stashed in your cupboard/pantry.  Note to self – if you open the packet to use half the contents, clip and store correctly – fridge short term, freeze if you can

Check out Wright's packet bread mixes, there are loads

to choose from and a great addition to your stash -

they have good “use by” dates too

Parmesan cheese

Large double cream for savoury emergencies

roasted garlic paste

If these ingredients sound vaguely familiar that's because they are - it's Alfredo Sauce.  Essential for every person's survival over the holidays.  With or without pasta – you could use poured over leftover meat/poultry and vegetables.

Pantry/cupboard

dried pasta

risotto rice – risotto or arancini

self raising flour

plain flour

baking powder

white miso paste – for the Miso Maple Glazed Chicken

Dijon mustard

creamed horseradish

Vermouth – recipe coming soon!

Fridge

eggs

mature cheddar cheese

unsalted butter

double cream 

chorizo

Freezer

Puff pastry sheet(s)

There will be further additions to the list – it's not meant to be complete - these are just a few ideas  - I'm sure you'll have your own.

The Sides

Roast potatoes

I first came across Nigella's roast potato recipe in “How to Eat” - page 281 and I've never cooked roast potatoes any other way - which is a little strange when you consider I have this aversion to wet and sloppy and semolina is up there with sago (posh for frog spawn) and rice pudding for me – anyway I digress, sorry.

Here's her recipe :

To serve 6

1¾kg medium to large potatoes, peeled

cut into three

From cold, par boil for 4/5 minutes in salted water

Drain the potatoes, back into saucepan, lid on

and shake – CAREFULLY

Add 1 tbsp of semolina and shake again -

CAREFULLY

Pre-heat your oven – very hot – 220fan/240c/Gas 9.  Add 2 tbsps of goose fat or beef dripping or, rapeseed or vegetable oil to your oven tray.  It's important that the fat/dripping/oil is hot before the potatoes are added.  They will take an hour – serve straight from oven.

Whatever I cook for family, I always cook roast potatoes and double what I think I need – there are never any leftovers – by that I mean should there be any, they take them home.

Maple Roasted Beetroot

Balsamic vinegar – 2 tsp

Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Maple syrup – 2 tbsp

Cooked beetroot – 500g

Salt and black pepper

Chopped fresh thyme – 2tsp or a sprinkle

of dried if you can't get fresh

You can use the vac packs you can get in the supermarket when out of season - as an indicator I choose beetroot that is approximately the same size – a 300g vac pack gives you 8 small to medium beetroots, which I will then cut in half. 

If fresh beetroot is in season, choose beets of a similar size and roast in foil until tender - @ 180f/200c/Gas 6 for an hour and test – they may need another 30 minutes - leave to cool and then peel.

Pre-heat your oven to 220c/200fan/Gas7.

Mix together the thyme, vinegar, olive oil and Maple syrup in a bowl until well combined.

Cut the beetroot in half and place into the bowl with the syrup mixture and season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.

Place the beetroot into a deep roasting tray and roast in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the beetroot is sticky and glazed.

This recipe adapts the Honey Roasted Beetroot version.

Stir fried sprouts

250g sprouts, peeled and sliced

(the smaller the sprout, the sweeter)

2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped

2 tsps garlic paste

50g unsalted butter

grated fresh nutmeg

salt and black pepper

1 tbsp redcurrant jelly – melted in microwave

on medium for 1 minute to loosen

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the shallots and garlic and soften for 2/3 minutes.  Add the sprouts and mix well, season with salt and pepper - cook on a high heat for 2/3 minutes so that the edges of the sprouts begin to caramelise, add 3-4 rasps of grated nutmeg  Add the redcurrant jelly, mix well and serve.

If you like gravy and I must confess I do, then I'd make double the quantity of onion sauce – for a richer sauce use half milk and half double cream – it's Christmas after all!

The Pie

Continuing with our alternative lunch, here's The Pie – you don't have to use the same veggies, I chose what I liked – the world is your rutabaga! (the vegetarian equivalent to “the world is your oyster or lobster”).

Christmas Vegetarian Pie

3 medium carrots

3 medium parsnips

3 shallots

1 bulb Fennel

6 large Charlotte potatoes

2 x garlic cloves (leave as is – don't peel)

or 2 tsps of garlic paste

salt and black pepper

glug of Rapeseed oil

Quick Onion Sauce (with star anise powder)

250g vac-pack of chestnuts, chopped

150g dried cranberries

puff pastry sheet

1 egg, beaten

Top, tail and peel the vegetables and dice to a similar size

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

Tip the vegetables and garlic cloves into a roasting pan (or foil dish) season and drizzle with a glug of rapeseed oil. Bake and check after 20 minutes – you want your vegetables firm when you test with a knife.

Whilst your vegetables are roasting make a “Quick Onion Sauce” - I'm going to substitute the nutmeg with a tsp of star anise powder for a change – entirely optional.

When your vegetables have cooled, fish out the garlic cloves and “pop” the purée into the vegetables and mix.

Add the onion sauce, chestnuts and cranberries to the vegetables and taste to ensure the seasoning is good – add more salt and black pepper to your own taste - tip into your pie dish (or in my case a foil tray!!!). Add your pastry lid and brush with beaten egg – bake for 30 minutes, check after 20, until golden brown.

This pie will serve 4-6 as a main course – depending on appetites – if you want to use the pie as an accompaniment then it will serve 8.

Quick Onion Sauce

3 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped

Good glug of rapeseed oil and generous knob of butter

30g plain flour

500ml milk

salt and white pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

Soften the onion in the oil and butter, sprinkle over the flour and mix.

Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously. Use and spatula to stir, you'll cover the base of the saucepan and stop the sauce from going lumpy.

Let the sauce boil when you've added all the milk, then remove from heat and season with the salt and pepper and nutmeg if you wish.

You can prep the vegetables and the onion sauce whenever you have time and freeze them – if you are cooking a roast on a Sunday you could prep extra veg and roast them at the same time – you know how I like to use all the oven and multi-task too.

You could prep the pie filling, pop into a dish and freeze it, adding your pastry lid when you want to serve.

If you are catering for gluten free guests, you could do worse than to use the shortcrust pastry recipe mentioned in “Next up … techniques for your Smoked Fish Pie”.

If you struggle with what to serve to any vegetarian and/or gluten free guests then this recipe is really easy, especially if vegetarian cookery isn't your bag. This is a pie that I've served and has been demolished by meat eaters – if you need any more convincing.

If you collect useless pieces of information you might like to know that a rutabaga is a North American swede – I just love the word – great quiz question! 

The alternative lunch

As with most of my posts, nothing is set in stone - if I trigger an idea of your own or inspire you to tweak, then my work here is done. The following menu could be taken as a vegetarian alternative or, give you choices that you may like to include as part of your own lunch.

Bread and Butter or

Cheese & Pecan Loaf with Butter

The Pie

Roasties

Maple glazed beetroot

Stir fried sprouts

Judy's Jars

I promised in the post The Method in my Madness – The Creaking Table that the Cheese & Pecan Loaf was on its way, here it is – have a glance at the photos – scrummy. Who doesn't like bread and butter – if you wanted to you could serve the bread and butter with the winter coleslaw – add cheesey, nutty and crunchy to the scrummy – you could even kid yourself it's healthy – NOT!

The Pie ticks the vegetarian box if you need to cater, alternatively you could serve it as part of your turkey roast – just add a sprout or six!

The roasties can be made ahead and frozen. I've always used Nigella's roast potato recipe and on the basis if it ain't broke I have no intention of fixing it.

Maple glazed beetroot – sweet and colourful.

Stir fried sprouts – sprouts are like Marmite you either love 'em or hate 'em. This suggestion would firmly squash the idea that contrary to popular belief they do not need to be cooking on the hob in October to serve on Christmas Day!

Judy's Jars is my bit of fun – created for my friend's birthday in December, it's a sharing pud – there's nothing quite like a fight to get to the last crumb!

Cheese & Pecan loaf

60g Parmesan cheese, grated

350g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch cayenne pepper

125g mature cheddar cheese, cut

into small cubes

60g chopped pecan nuts (or walnuts

if preferred)

4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped

250ml full fat milk

1 large egg

170ml tub of sour cream

salt and black pepper

900g (2lb) loaf tin, well buttered and

lined

Pre-heat your oven 180c/160fan/Gas 4

Sprinkle half the grated Parmesan cheese into the loaf tin to coat the base and sides.

Mix the flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper, 1 tsp salt and lots of black pepper into a large bowl. Mix in the cheddar cubes, nuts and spring onions.

In a separate bowl whisk the milk, egg and cream together then fold into the dry ingredients.

Spoon in the loaf tin, smooth the top and sprinkle with the remaining grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 50/55 minutes until golden brown – skewer test i.e. insert skewer into loaf, on removal should be clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, turn out and transfer to a rack to cool.

Serve warm with lots of butter.

I shouldn't be blowing my own trumpet but having a savoury tooth rather than a sweet one, this is my kinda food.

You can freeze this – defrost thoroughly before you want to use it – slice thickly, wrap in foil and pop into a warm oven for ten minutes before serving.

It's easy but I would suggest that you do your mise en place – in other words, weigh out all the ingredients, ahead, it's just a bit time consuming so if all the boring stuff is done you don't even notice.

More to follow ….

Klutz – or how to create a table centre for the artistically challenged!

Take my word for it I am an absolute klutz when it comes to anything remotely artistic – sticky back plastic and all things Blue Peter ain't my thing at all so, if I can do it, anyone can.

Here are the results of my valiant efforts.

The vase came from a discount shop and measures 10x10 cms square x 12cms high. I bought circular oasis from Wilko's – it measures 8 cms approximately in diameter. A pack of 4 costs £1.50 – doesn't break the bank.

Glue the oasis to the base of the vase. Gently ease the candy canes into the oasis. Tie a ribbon around the vase – wire edged ribbon is the best, the bow stays where it's put. Finish off by filling any gaps with wrapped chocolates of your choice. Hey presto – one table centre.

I've attached a photo of the finished product, along with one of the vase and the oasis.

And :

Recipe

take one clear glass vase, height doesn't really matter, bear in mind that you'll be filling it with chocolate or sweets of your choice so I suppose it depends how extravagant you feel

arrange candy canes over the top of the vase then fill with chocolate or sweets

who would have thought it could be so easy although I don't think Kirstie Allsopp is in any danger - photo attached.

Meri Kirihimete!

Cast your mind back …

...to the coolers I mentioned in Sweet Surprises for summer – here's another, dressed differently and looking pretty for the festive season.

There are three photographs – the cooler, a small storage box and a hat box. This idea appeals to my sense of thrift and fun too. They are filled with chocolate for everyone but you could fill them with sweets, chocolate money or a mixture of all three and the boxes come in handy afterwards.

You could even use the cooler as a table centre.

The coolers went to the grown-ups, the box went to young grandchildren and the hat box to an older granddaughter so you could tailor the “box” to suit the age and the likes/dislikes of confectionery.

These might give you gift ideas too!

Crossword Clue: 1954 Film & Song – 5 and 9

My Sister-in-Law sent me this recipe and, as you now expect, I've tweaked it.

Before I go any further I should say that whenever I produce any new recipe it gets tasted by someone other than me. Yesterday I took a tub of the latest offering to my friend, who will always tell me the truth, whether its good or bad.

“It's better than Rocky Road!” - so, with feedback like that I felt it only right to share :

500g white chocolate

35g Rice Krispies

160g sultanas

140g pecans, roasted and

chopped coarsely

160g dried apricots

130g dried cranberries

105g pistachios, roasted and

chopped coarsely

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Melt the chocolate in a large bowl over simmering water ensuring the water does not touch the bowl. When the chocolate has melted add the remaining ingredients and tip into a tray bake – size 32 x 9 cms approx. “Fridge” it for 2 hours.

If you want to add an extra level of flavour, before you chop the pecans and pistachios, heat a small knob of butter in a frying pan and, when foaming add them with a large pinch of sea salt flakes. Stir over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until toasted – you'll smell them when they are ready. Tip onto a baking sheet to cool and then chop.

Cut into small squares and serve as a petit four or you could bag it for sweet treats as a place setting.

Here are two photos showing a bowl with the petit four version and bagged as a place setting idea.

Got another call today, my friend with more feedback – she'd passed the treat around the family – huge hit!

I'm sure that you've got the answer to my feeble attempt at a crossword clue – yep, not surprisingly it's White Christmas!