The dumpling stuff!

Vegetarian suet is a truly wonderful product and dumplings are really easy to make.

100g/4oz of self-raising flour

50g/2oz of vegetable suet

large pinch of salt

80ml cold water

Mix the flour, suet and salt with the water

Divide and shape into four for large or eight for smaller versions

Drop into simmering soup and cook for 20 minutes

Here's the thing … traditionally dumplings are placed on top of a casserole with a tightly fitting lid. Casseroles have a thicker consistency than soup and obviously, usually, slow cooked in the oven. Soup simmers on top of the hob and saucepan lids “sit” on top of the pan and are not what I'd describe as “tightly fitting”. Here's my tip - tear off a sheet of foil large enough to overlap the pan, push down slightly and then secure with the lid. Make sure your soup is simmering gently before you add the dumplings and seal with foil. 20 minutes later you'll have dumplings the size of which you wouldn't believe!

A bowl of soup with dumplings – what's not to love and it can be veggie or not!

Radio Information

As promised here are the labels to be found on the blog and recipes and the bits and pieces mentioned too during my chat with Bernie Keith, on his Radio Show, The Bernie Keith Show, BBC Radio Northampton on Thursday 2^nd April, 2020 at 11.45am

Veggie label

Dressings and home-made mayo

Halloumi

Bazzin' Beetroot relish using

Vac pack beetroot

A roast or a pie?

Jack Fruit

A raw slaw

Pasta

Fettuccine Alfredo – the ultimate

pasta and sauce

Orzotto – fast risotto – no rice involved!

Comfort Food

Rummage Pie

Champ or Colcannon?

Soup

Chowder

Cream of Chicken

Carrot, Coriander and Chickpea

Pastry

Where has all that flour gone? If you have some :

Wholemeal pastry

Fast Flaky pastry

Pasty Pastry

Bread

Beer bread

Soda bread

Cheese & Onion Muffin Loaf

Fish

Fish Mornay

Fish Pie

Fish Cakes – the best ever!

Asian Spiced Salmon

Smoked mackerel paté

Beef label

Posh Chilli – doesn't have to be steak, mince

will do!

Posh Cottage Pie

Steak pie filling – slow cooker style

Stew and dumplings

Burgers and meatballs

Desserts

Where would life be without a sweet treat?!

No-churn ice creams – check out the Ice Cream label too

Cakes

Compotes

Chocolate stuff – Bark and Rocky Road

Sticky Toffee Sauce

A Muddle or a Hodgepodge (aka a Mess)

Tiramisu – NOT coffee

Microwave Lemon Curd

There are Labels for Meal Planning and Hints and Tips too.

None of the above is exhaustive, it's just to give you ideas.

Time on your hands – roasted garlic photo guide

I had a larger foil tray so roasted three bulbs -

it never gets wasted

consider it therapy

I love saving time!

I filled eight pots which I bagged in Bacofoil SafeLock bags – four pots in each. Handy to stash in that small freezer tray that never gets used because you never have anything small enough - another problem solved.

The best garlic - no bitterness - sweet and ready to use. Just think how easy it is to make your own garlic butter with a sprinkle of celery salt - don't forget to add a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley too - ready to bake with mushrooms and/or to spread on a French stick, wrap in foil and bake for your own garlic bread … just another thought or two!

How about a recipe for leftovers?

Time on your hands … roasted garlic recipe

You might think this recipe is a faff in itself since you have to “pop” the garlic cloves from the bulb and box in your tiny pots – messy I know - I can only say it's worth it.

Roasted Garlic

2 bulbs of garlic

olive oil/rapeseed oil for drizzling

2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme - optional

salt and black pepper

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

Slice the tops off the bulbs or not, as you wish and place in a small ovenproof dish, garlic roaster or foil dish so that they fit snugly. Drizzle with oil and season with thyme, salt and black pepper.

Roast in the oven for about an hour – until the garlic has softened.

Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the bulb. It's a good idea to wear gloves and to have a compostable bag ready for disposal. To store in the fridge, add a little more oil and keep in a screw top jar.

You can use the paste in the same way as you'd use fresh garlic – the difference is that the roasted version is sweeter and ready to use!

The paste will keep in your fridge for one to two weeks or you can freeze in the baby pots mentioned.

If, like me, you forget to take stuff out of the freezer another plus here is that because the pots are so tiny they don't take long at all to defrost!

Next up ... the photo guide

Time on your hands?

We're all in the midst of “Corona virus” and lets hope that we all keep well.

We need to turn a negative into a positive – if we're staying indoors or out of the way generally then lets make the most of the time.

We'll do a series of a sort of back to basics recipes and may even be motivated to do those jobs we've been putting off for ages - mainly because we've never got the time – then we'll move on to a spot of reorganisation.

My first back to basics recipe is roasted garlic.

I hate wasting time and believe in having all the ingredients ready to roll for any recipe. On that note – who doesn't hate faffing with peeling and chopping 1 or 2 cloves of garlic for one recipe?

There is an answer – the obvious being to cheat and buy any of the ready-made versions available in the supermarket. Personally I prefer to roast whole bulbs of garlic at the same time. If you use garlic regularly this paste makes life so easy especially when you've no time.

You can keep it in a screw top jar in the fridge or decant into tiny pots and freeze.

I use the “tiny pots” and freeze option. If you're interested check out the baby aisle in the supermarket/cheap shops for tiny pots – inexpensive and don't take up space in your freezer. If they are safe enough for a baby then they are perfect for other uses too.

Here's a photo of my “baby pot” :

a neat piece of kit

the measurements are 5cms x 4cms x 3cms deep

or 2”x 1½”x 1” in old money

You probably won't be surprised to know that I've had mine for years. If you're interested you can buy Baby Freezer Cube Trays, BPA Free from your favourite on-line grocer!

A hint and a tip – bear in mind you won't be able to use the pots for anything other than garlic. I use hot water and washing up liquid, as hot as I can bear - when you've emptied a pot make it the last item you submerge so that it doesn't taint anything else. Shake the pot when clean and rest, upside down on kitchen roll. I then bag and clip all the pots together, ready for the next garlic roast!

Recipe and photos up next ...

Remember the geographical bread roll?

Before I begin this piece I said at the end of the previous missive that I may have another idea for the chowder. It's not rocket science, just a thought – add a dumpling – probably not what you'd expect in a chowder but the recipe given can be vegetarian or not - so a dumpling vegetarian or not - would lift a bowl of soup to a more substantial – and a speedy idea – for a mid week supper.

Back to the title. The “geographical bread roll” reminded me of another childhood treat that falls into a similar regional difference.

Is it a crumpet or a pikelet - that is the question!

It can be either – both originally from Wales and the regional name, certainly in the Midlands is a pikelet. Most of us know what a crumpet looks like – where I came from a crumpet was posh – a pikelet definitely wasn't! The difference is that a pikelet is thinner than a crumpet.

Back in the day there were portable stalls just outside the entrance to the Market Hall in Derby City Centre selling pikelets from what I can only describe, these days, as a portable ice cream cart. You can still get variations on a theme of a pikelet in that neck of the woods. I visit the market town of Ashbourne in the Derbyshire Dales occasionally and there's a stall where you can buy pikelets or the nearest to them I've seen in recent years but they are called Derbyshire Oatcakes, larger and flatter than the originals but definitely worth a taste!

Here they are :

see what I mean – flatter but still with the “crumpet holes”

Back to the crumpet, widely available everywhere in the UK. It's important that crumpets should be toasted twice if you're using a toaster, well done if under the grill – they have a tendency to be “claggy” (sticky) otherwise.

Whether a pikelet or a crumpet, other than smothering in butter, try adding grated cheese and grill or – a delish weekend breakfast treat – top with a poached egg.

Here's my other suggestion. “Double toast” your crumpet, spread with cream cheese and then drizzle with honey or, my personal favourite, maple syrup.

I don't have a sweet tooth but the balance of the crumpet or pikelet, cream cheese and just a hint of natural sweetness with either honey or maple syrup is wonderful.

There's a thought!

The Chowder ...

… a photo guide from the beginning :

onions, carrot, sweet peppers

and butter in the pan

a ladle from the pan

a bowl of chowder

My final chowder idea is to add smoked haddock – it's a perfect partner and makes the chowder more substantial.

Poach 250g of smoked haddock in the milk, then strain so that your milk is ready to use – set the fish aside, cool, box and fridge until you're ready to use. Continue with the recipe. Flake your fish into small pieces and add to your chowder ten minutes before serving so that you can warm through gently – don't stir or mess with it – you'll break up the haddock and it will look horrible.

Note to self. If you're going to add the smoked haddock be careful how much salt you use at the beginning of the chowder. Taste it at the end and then adjust – you can add – you can't take away!

Garnish your chowder as before with flat leaf parsley and serve with Tabasco and Worcestershire Sauce.

I may have another idea for the chowder ...