The musings menu …

… if you want a fast, faff free meal from the lockdown menu, here it is :

Kedgeree – the fastest ever

Serves 4

500g rice

400g smoked haddock

50g unsalted butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp coriander

4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half

half a lemon, cut into 4 wedges

small bunch of coriander, chopped for garnish

To serve - part baked French or Sourdough bread

I'm using frozen mixed vegetable rice, microwaved – it took 8 minutes – whenever you've time – set aside cool, cover and fridge ready for use later.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the onion, curry powder and coriander. Fry gently until soft. Add the rice and mix thoroughly.

Cook your smoked haddock – use fresh if you can get it – or frozen - whichever you find most convenient. Bake in the oven straight from the freezer at 170fan/190c/Gas 5 for 30 minutes or poach for 15 minutes in a medium saucepan, covered with equal amounts of milk and water. Set aside to cool and then box and fridge until ready to use. Break the fish into small chunks and fold into the rice.

Place the eggs on top, then add the coriander and lemon wedges.

Serve with bread of your choice.

If you like to prep ahead :

cook the rice, cool and fridge

bake the fish, cool and fridge

chop and bag the onion

hard-boil the eggs – cool, peel, box and fridge

You don't have to prep ahead - except for hard boiling the eggs - it's whatever suits you – either way is quick and produces a mid week supper faster than the speed of light – that may be a slight exaggeration!

If there's one thing that drives me mad it's fantasy timings given in recipes and so to back up my mouth I set my timer, based on all the elements prepped ahead. The bread took 10 minutes to bake - whilst it did its thing, using a large frying pan, I melted the butter, added the onion, curry powder and coriander and cooked for 2 minutes until the onion was softened and the spices “cooked” to release their deliciousness. I added the cooked rice, fish and finished with the eggs.

M&S sell bags of frozen rice with sweetcorn, petit pois and onions – very handy!

With an “optional” drizzle of curry sauce it was delicious. By the way you don't have to make your own Chip Shop Curry Sauce – you can buy it “off the shelf” - if you'd like to have a go check out the Sauce label 15th February 2020 … More treasure for the chest … freezer

Coming next … the Pilates Class!

MiamMiam Musings II

MiamMiam

Musings

… continued and still winging it!

Some days are good, some not so good.

On the days that are not so good it's really difficult to get motivated. This calls for drastic action and I have a cunning plan - give myself a “kick up the backside” or “get a grip” - whatever the phrase, therapy is required.

I'm lucky – I love to cook – which is great normally but producing food every day brings pressure. I'm still sick of food, in fact more so with every passing week.

I hate repeating myself but without doubt planning meals takes some of the pressure off.

Here's my menu for this week :

Kedgeree – the fastest ever

with a side of chip shop curry sauce

Time for another batch cook of Cottage Pie

bases

Frittata using up leftover veggies with a side

of bacon

Slow cooked venison – already in the freezer

lemon glazed carrots

New potatoes

Asian Spiced Salmon with roasted beetroot

and leftover new potatoes - sautéed

Pork loin steaks with apple sauce – slow

cook the steaks and freeze portions for

another day

Sage and onion stuffing with extra onion

Roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots, all in the

same roasting tray

Orzotto with a side of crispy pan fried

diced chorizo – perfect for the meat eaters and

the veggies – the chorizo served on top of the meat

eaters portion drizzled with the oil from the chorizo

That's that sorted and I've decided to make two extras this week – one savoury, one a sweet treat.

I love kedgeree but don't like dry dishes, even if they are well seasoned – I want a “gravy” or “sauce”. It appeals to my sense of symmetry to drizzle curry sauce over kedgeree since both are Indian in origin – a small pot of curry sauce on the side ticks that box so Chip Shop Curry Sauce it is! It's not compulsory to use the curry sauce - it'll never be wasted - I'll freeze what doesn't get used, a perfect savoury extra.

The sweet treat is a batch of hokey pokey. It's easy peasy and very moorish. It'll be cut into squares, bagged and frozen – to pull out whenever I get the urge for a sweet hit or even to serve with ice cream and fresh fruit.

It's rant of the week time … can someone please tell me where the Marmite Smooth Peanut Butter is? I've been trying to buy it since Adam was a lad all I've ever seen is the crunchy version. It's advertised constantly and it's driving me up the wall – I think it's a plot deliberately designed to upset me … it's working!

It may be that it doesn't exist … or … I've just realised, there's someone out there with a Marmite Smooth Peanut Butter mountain – how rude!

The longer lockdown continues the more it appears that none of us know what day it is. I have to check on a daily basis so that I stick to my routine of shopping on a Wednesday. If I'm not careful I'll work every day in some form or another, on the blog, cooking or chores generally – including may I say the worst chore in the world – ironing!

Another part of my routine is running – normally twice a week and in the countryside with my mate - sadly that stopped some while back. I have a small treadmill in my garage – the best money I've ever spent. It's not just about exercise it's about getting my head straight too so a double whammy. If I stick to a routine it helps – this afternoon I'm giving myself a Pilates class and I've invited Rose, our Tibetan Terrier … should be fun!

This week's confession and guilty pleasure … watching an old film and my absolute favourite, giving my age away – Zulu -1964, yikes. I've watched it so many times I could recite the dialogue, for the uninitiated it's the true story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879 and Michael Caine's “breakthrough role”. Such is my addiction the soundtrack is my ringtone …

uplifting … stratospheric!

Stay safe and well – until next time

Love xxxx

Flourless chocolate cake, the fotos!

Take a look :

Here's the tin, greased and dusted

The filling in the tin, ready for the oven

Out of the oven, leave to cool

A slice of cake, with raspberries

Here are the bits, pieces, hints and tips!

Once the cake has cooled use a round bladed knife and ease around the edge to loosen – take your time – if you don't you'll tear the edges of the cake – that would be a shame since you've achieved a brownie type crusty edge. If the cake won't budge then repeat the edging with the knife. Have a large sheet of foil ready to receive your cake, turn it - with care, then wrap and fridge.

The cake serves 8 – you may think the portion size isn't very generous – take my word for it – it's a rich cake.

Now for the choices – this cake is dense and intense. You can serve the cake cold with ice cream and/or cream or even clotted cream.

If you prefer soft, warm and squidgy then microwave for 20 seconds – take it from one who isn't bothered about chocolate, this is very good indeed.

It freezes well … don't forget to portion and wrap in cling film, then bag together.

You won't be sorry.

Now back to the everyday stuff …

Flourless chocolate cake, the fotos!

Take a look :

Here's the tin, greased and dusted

The filling in the tin, ready for the oven

Out of the oven, leave to cool

A slice of cake, with raspberries

Here are the bits, pieces, hints and tips!

Once the cake has cooled use a round bladed knife and ease around the edge to loosen – take your time – if you don't you'll tear the edges of the cake – that would be a shame since you've achieved a brownie type crusty edge. If the cake won't budge then repeat the edging with the knife. Have a large sheet of foil ready to receive your cake, turn it - with care, then wrap and fridge.

The cake serves 8 – you may think the portion size isn't very generous – take my word for it – it's a rich cake.

Now for the choices – this cake is dense and intense. You can serve the cake cold with ice cream and/or cream or even clotted cream.

If you prefer soft, warm and squidgy then microwave for 20 seconds – take it from one who isn't bothered about chocolate, this is very good indeed.

It freezes well … don't forget to portion and wrap in cling film, then bag together.

You won't be sorry.

My flourless cake mission continues

I said I was on a mission – here's a flourless chocolate cake recipe I found – you want easy – this is it – it does exactly what it says – in the tin!

Here it is :

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Serves 8

120g dark chocolate – choose a cocoa solid

of 50%

120g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

50g cocoa

3 eggs

½ tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla essence

You will need a small sandwich tin -

measuring 20cms/8” x 3cms/1¼”

a butter wrapper for greasing

an extra heaped teaspoon of cocoa

for dusting

a sheet of foil big enough to wrap the cake

Grease the tin with the butter wrapper and then sprinkle cocoa into the tin and carefully tilt the tin until the bottom and the sides of the tin are covered. A small tip – unless you are practised at this art you might want to tilt the tin over the sink!

Pre-heat the oven 130fan/150c/Gas 2.

Set a glass bowl over simmering water and melt the chocolate and butter – when melted, wearing oven gloves and with care, set aside on a heatproof mat or board. Stir in the sugar, cocoa, eggs and vanilla, mix well. Tip into your prepared sandwich tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool, in the tin for 15 minutes.

There's more …

MiamMiam Musings

MiamMiam

Musings

Welcome to MiamMiam Musings, or – I'm fed up with being confined!

Not sure how this will go but for the moment I'm winging it.

I don't mind my own company but, as is always the way, when it's enforced it's a different kettle of fish – you know what I mean – you decide to give up cheese or chocolate and immediately you crave whichever is your guilty pleasure.

Here are my musings to date … I'm sick of food – having to queue to buy it and then to cook it – every day, it's enough to send a person doolally tap (translated - “to lose one's mind from boredom”).

For me it's one shopping trip each week – M&S Food and then Waitrose. M&S is great at 8.30a.m on a Wednesday – Waitrose thereafter sometimes good, sometimes not.

I've gone back to basics and actually it works. I write my menu for the week and then paper clip it to my wall calendar – a glance in passing each morning tells me if I need to pull anything from the freezer or for that matter any prep that's required. The point being it's done, dusted and organised then move on!

From my wall menu I make my weekly shopping list – for once I pay attention – I've no intention of going out more than once so it's worth a few extra minutes and checking the store cupboard. Here's my menu for this week :

Prawn and smoked salmon salad – my “salad” is

a mixed bag of cabbage, carrot, lettuce, pepper and sweetcorn -

baby silverskin onions, beetroot, boiled eggs, grated cheese, tomatoes and

part-baked sourdough bread (and butter of course)

Lamb fillet, already cooked, from the freezer

Parrots – leftover carrots and parsnips, mashed and seasoned

Sautéed cooked, baked potatoes

butter beans

Redcurrant jelly

Ham hock

poached egg

Seasoned potato wedges

The ham hock came from the Waitrose shop this morning – not been able

to get it for ages – one pack for tonight, the other into the freezer!

Sweet and sour chicken

Rice with vegetables – frozen from M&S

Slob night – Croque Monsieur – minus

meat for me with a side of fries

beetroot relish

Chicken pie – made from slow cooked chicken

already in the freezer and a mushroom sauce, again the base

is in the freezer – haven't decided yet whether it'll

be a pastry top or a sliced baked potato version

Prawn curry with

rice and flat breads

At the bottom of my menu for the week I've written three ideas for next week – if I don't write stuff down I'll forget – if I decide to cook something else who cares!

At this moment in time I'd kill for fast food – in particular a veggie burger from McDonald's or, the best, a Mexican Bean Burger from Burger King. At a push I'd even settle for Fish and Chips – it has come to this. Believe me when I say I'll be at one or the other when they re-open. In the meantime I'm treating myself to a pizza – that I haven't had to make!

Now for my “rant of the week”.

I know we've all suffered with “loo roll gate” and “who stole all the tinned food” not to mention “where did all the flour go” - thankfully the Supermarkets have now taken some control, after making a shedload of even more profit – I digress – here comes the rant.

It's confession time - since I was a teenager I've loved salad cream and always put it on chips – once a slob … it was years before I discovered that the Belgians invented it – with posh mayo of course! I had salad cream on my list last week – imagine my surprise, she says light heartedly, to find the entire shelf empty in Waitrose. To say I was “cross” puts it mildly.

All was not lost … I've had deliveries from Derbyshire and Southport – needless to say I have enough salad cream to sink a battle ship with a great lifespan. It gives me great pleasure that I will not be lining Waitrose's pockets any more than I need to since now I have my own personal salad cream supply.

I feel so much better for that!

That's the end of my musing for this week but before I go a reminder – check your store cupboard, your fridge and your freezer – you'll have forgotten what's in your freezer already – then decide on your menu and then make your list! Not forgetting a bottle of your favourite tipple – a person has to have a treat!

I hope my musing has made you smile, stay safe and well.

With love xxx

The nugget and burger sides

The list is endless!

Make your own coleslaw – see the Salad label 15th April 2017 for The coleslaw conundrum – the raw slaw principle.

Make your own mayo – see the Sauce label Matt's mayonnaise - Stick blender mayo recipe 7thSeptember 2019.

Do you like heat – if it's a yes then you might like this onion salad. You can make it as per the recipe below or slice the onion into thin rings, combine the ingredients marked * then coat the rings and leave to marinade.

Here goes :

2 medium onions, finely chopped -

weight 150g per onion approximately

*celery salt and black pepper

*2 tbsp fresh orange juice

*1 tbsp lemon juice

*1 tbsp tomato paste

*pinch of chill powder or chilli flakes

Place the onions in a large mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Place the salad in sealed airtight containers and store in a cool place.

The secret to this side is that you should not serve it for at least a day, preferably two after making it. It's important that the orange and lemon juice and the tomato paste are allowed to “mature” - leaving it to infuse takes away any harshness from the onion and the tomato paste. If you're an onion fan this side is perfect to serve with strong cheddar cheese and cold meats too.

There are the old favourites of course, fresh shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and a burger bun of your choice – in my case brioche, lightly toasted.

Now back to my recent mission – to produce another cake without flour …

The nugget alternatives!

There are other alternatives that spring to mind – for the grown-ups you could have a whole breast per person - prepared in exactly the same way as the nuggets i.e. bashed flat and coated. This version is called an escalope and is traditionally made with veal.

Here's my useless bit of information for the day … the technical culinary term for coating with breadcrumbs is “pané”. If you like extra crunch you can use panko crumbs and blitz them so you have a finer texture and then “double pané” your coating.

If you want extra flavour, try adding a seasoning to your crumb – as a guide – roughly speaking a tablespoon is equivalent to 25g ergo the 4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs mentioned in the original recipe is approximately 100g. Add a tablespoon of seasoning to 100g of breadcrumbs for extra zing. Tip the crumb into a food bag, add the seasoning and shake to combine.

The other alternative is to make chicken burgers, coated in the crumb. They don't have to be a perfect circle, random and rustic is good, think of it as serendipity – a happy accident! Slice a chicken breast in half, place between two sheets of cling film and then bash and turn as you go.

There's another benefit here – all that bashing is a stress buster releasing the lockdown frustrations.

I can't leave this without giving a veggie option and in fact my own weekend treat. Check out the Mushroom label for the Miso Mushroom Burger 9th September 2018 using Portabello mushrooms – yum!

Then there's the sides …